Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 64



QUADE AND RACHEL had barely gone an eighth of a mile when Kohler and the other villagers stepped in front of them. Rachel screamed. They tried to run, but Webber and Tieg caught them and tied their hands behind their back.

The villagers led them back along the trampled deer path Quade and Rachel had already walked, and found Lionel sitting alone on a felled tree.

“Where is everyone else?” Kohler demanded.

Lionel looked around. Charlotte was gone. “Dead. Running. I have no idea,” he replied wearily.

“We’ll go after them,” Kohler said, then turned to Sam Black. “Black, take these three back to the village. When we return, we'll teach them what happens to people who run away.”

About halfway back to the village, Quade slipped his thin hands free of the ropes that bound them. He stuck his foot out and tripped Rachel. As Black reached over to pick her up, Quade wrapped an arm around his neck, forearm pressing the carotid artery. He pushed Black’s head and neck forward with his other arm, and slowly lowered him to the ground as he lost consciousness. Quade followed that with one quick snap of Black’s neck, killing him.

Lionel and Rachel stood frozen with shock at the ease with which Quade acted.

“Let’s get out of here!” Quade ordered.

“Which way?” Rachel cried. “It’s not safe anywhere!”

Quade hesitated only a moment. “Back to the pillars.”

o0o

Michael, Jake, Brandi, and Devlin marched single-file along the ridge of the mountain following the tracks of their friends. They stayed above the timber line, the land bare of foliage.

Each time they came to a bend in the trail, Jake worried that they would find their companions' bodies. He hated his own weakness from the gunshot and pushed himself in defiance of his injuries and exhaustion. He hated that he hadn't been there to protect Melisse and the students. Hated that he'd failed. Again.

And Charlotte—he couldn’t let himself think about Charlotte.

They moved fast, but even Brandi kept up. He suspected she didn't dare mouth a single complaint for fear she'd be left behind again.

Before long, they came to a well-trampled spot. Clearly, a confrontation took place here. But they couldn’t tell what happened next. Footsteps seemed to go in all directions.

“Where are they now?” Jake asked, sitting to rest his painful leg.

“At least they weren’t killed.” Devlin said as he sat down. He wasn’t injured, but the constant travel and food shortages had taken their toll on him.

“Let’s hope not,” Michael added. “Sometimes, I wonder if all of us aren't already dead, stuck here forever.”

“Dead?” Jake whispered. “What are you talking about? That's goofy talk. There's a way out. There's always a way out. Don't go defeatist on me.”

Michael's stern expression offered little room for argument. “Unless this is Hell. The Hell. If I understand my theology correctly, if you're bad enough to have been sent there, there's no exit. Even Sartre, an atheist, in his own way believed that.”

“Theology?” Jake looked skeptical. “I didn't think your taste went that way.”

“It doesn't,” Michael said. But perversely, a passage that he read long ago by St. Augustine came to mind: that the restless heart of man could only find rest in God. He wondered why he recalled that here, now. Everything about Augustine’s faith was contrary to his nature. Yet, he remembered how he felt the first time he visited the Gandan monastery in Ulaanbaatar. He had found peace there, despite knowing that particular place was not one he would ever fit into. But it possessed some quality that he welcomed and felt welcomed by. Michael shook his head at the memory, and forced his thoughts back to the surreal world that trapped him and the others. “We should get moving again. We’ve got to assume there is a way out of this place, and concentrate on finding it, and finding our friends.”

Devlin helped Jake struggle to his feet. As Jake despondently looked at the emptiness before them, he muttered, “That’s the spirit,” in desperate hope that his words would encourage them.

Something caught Brandi’s attention and she lifted her gaze. She cried out.

A large, winged creature peered down from a rocky ledge, ready to pounce. Devlin fired. His shot disintegrated its small head. The body tumbled from the precipice to their feet.

Brandi squealed and backed away as Michael ran with Devlin to see the creature. It had an eagle’s wings, but a huge badger’s body. Long, treacherous claws were made of gold.

“We’ve got to get away!” Jake shouted. “The mercs and villagers will know we’re here now.”

They turned to run, only to see Arnie Tieg and Gus Webber strutting toward them, crossbows in hand. “We already know you’re here,” Tieg said. “Drop your weapons! You four can join your friends back at the village. We have a special get-together arranged for you there.”

o0o

Charlotte ran. Earlier, as soon as she heard Rachel scream, she assumed it meant Rachel and Quade had been captured. Whether by the mercs or the villagers, she didn't know, but whoever it was would be looking for her and Lionel next. Allowing herself to be captured would do no one any good.

She turned off the path they had been following to plunge into the low-lying briars and leafless, prickly brush that covered the mountainside. She ran downhill to find shelter, to somehow find Michael and Jake and warn them what lay ahead. Together they might be able to rescue the others. She refused to allow herself to imagine that Michael and Jake had been captured or killed.

Suddenly, the ground turned silty, the rocks loose. The backpack with the book kept shifting, throwing Charlotte off-balance. After several slips she found it necessary to keep one hand on the ground, balancing like a three-legged stool, to avoid rolling down the mountain.

A cold breeze began with small gusts, but soon gathered strength. She stopped and listened. The desolation around her frightened her. The wind made the only sound. No triumphant hawk’s cry, no gentle chirps, not even an owl’s hoot was heard. Something ominous crept near, some essence that held an unknown terror.

She had no weapon. The wind increased, and brush blew like straw.

Something darted before her; a blur. She almost convinced herself that she had imagined it, but then she smelled the creature’s stink, the scent of decay. Of death.

o0o

Lionel slowed down Quade and Rachel as they hurried toward the pillars. Quade was convinced that if any of the others were alive, they would make their way there. The pillars offered, after all, the only gateway out of here, the only logical place to go. Rachel agreed, although Quade scared her. She sensed something about him that felt impure, evil almost. She ached at the loss of her friends. She even missed Brandi, poor silly Brandi, who once confessed that she only came on this field trip because she heard Devlin would be on it. Devlin never gave her a second glance. And he was gone, too. It was all too much.

Lionel fell.

“Please,” Rachel said, trying to help him up.

He shoved her away. “I’m too tired. Get away from me!”

Anger filled her. Her friends died out here, and this hot-shot professor was a fraud and a failure.

Quade stepped up to Lionel and without expression clamped steel-like fingers onto Lionel’s shoulder and lifted. Lionel cried out, but the look on Quade’s face so frightened him, he quieted and began to walk once more without comment or complaint.

o0o

Tieg and Webber brandished their crossbows as they moved toward Michael, Jake, Brandi and Devlin. Gone were the villagers who had given them a shelter and food. These men were killers.

“Jake’s been shot,” Michael said, turning his back on the two and winking at Jake. “He can’t walk, can barely stand. He needs help.”

Jake crumpled to the ground on cue. Michael bent over, acting as if he were trying, but failing, to get Jake to his feet again.

“Leave him!” Tieg ordered, marching forward. “I said, step back!” He reached out to pull Michael away.

Michael kicked the crossbow from Tieg’s hand and as Tieg lunged for it, gave an uppercut to his jaw. He spun and kicked Webber in the stomach. Devlin immediately joined the fight, while Brandi cheered them on, once hitting Webber’s back with a rock when he stumbled too close to her. Webber and Tieg soon lay unconscious.

o0o

Charlotte scrambled back up the hillside, away from the scent of the beasts. As dangerous as the villagers were, the chimeras were worse. They were killing machines without reason. Her heart pounded and her legs quivered as she pushed herself beyond endurance. The rocky slope caused her to slip and fall, bruising her knees and scraping her hands. The wind kicked up, howling now. She felt like it held her back, blowing dust, grit, and her own hair over her eyes, making it hard to see.

Up ahead, she heard a low rumbling growl. She stopped. A bear-like creature stepped into her line of sight. It, too, stopped and stared at her a long moment before it rose up on its hind legs with an earth-shaking roar.

She had no way to fight it. She slowly backed away, but black, intelligent eyes watched her. At any moment, it would charge. She had seen what such beasts had done to Brian Cutter and Ted Bellows

She refused to pull her gaze from the monster as she slowly backed away, smelling its musty, thick scent, hearing its heavy, raspy breathing as it watched her. It rolled its broad shoulders while its massive head swayed from side to side, readying itself to attack. She wasn’t about to give up. Not while she had hope. She couldn't outrun the beast. The mountain was steep, rocky, and dangerous. Loose rocks, earlier, had given way under her weight, and were even more likely to roll under the weight of the creature if it tried to follow. There was only one way out.

She plunged down the hill, running, but soon lost her footing. She fell, slid and rolled, unable to stop herself.

o0o

Michael, Jake, Brandi and Devlin hurried toward the village because Tieg said the others were held captive there. As they reached the top of the cliff overlooking the village, Michael saw the mercenaries approach it. He motioned to the others to drop down and watch.

o0o

Derek Hammill took in the strange, archaic surroundings. He had learned that the bizarre men of this place were formidable foes. Also, something had gone wrong with the accuracy of their weapons that had his men spooked. “Some of them might be hiding here,” he said to his men. “Check the buildings.”

“No need.” A voice came from back at the gate.

Hammill and his men spun around to see Kohler, Olgerbee and Durham watching them.

“You will find the buildings quite empty,” Kohler added.

The two leaders each took the measure of the other. “It’s time to talk,” Derek Hammill shouted.

“Speak your piece,” Kohler invited.

“The woman, Charlotte Reed, is the best bet to get us, all of us, out of here. She also has, or can get, the book I want. We may need those friends of hers to force her to cooperate once we find her again.” He eyed Kohler. “I know you fellows also want to leave this place. Let’s discuss it. Maybe join forces.”

Kohler shook his head indicating he had no interest in talking.

“Wait, listen to them! Let’s work with them to find the woman and her friends. We need them!” Olgerbee’s voice rang out. “You know we can't do this on our own. We've tried everything over the years. Everything we could think of and then some! Time and again we've walked eastward until the soles of our shoes wore away, and instead of finding a big East coast city, we've only seen more empty land. The Atlantic itself was devoid of shipping. Then, when we turned back, in two days we were at the pillars! The same happened when we went west or south, even north.” He fought his growing fury. “Always, always, we returned to the pillars. The gateway. We couldn't escape them!”

“We’ve tried other means as well, ungodly, demonic means, using the book,” Will Durham said. “But nothing worked.”

“Let Charlotte Reed live, and whoever else she needs to help her,” Olgerbee cried. “Let her continue studying the book. It could mean freedom for all of us!”

“He's right,” Hammill said. “We want the same thing. We don't have to fight.”

“You say that pointing your weapons at us?” Kohler asked. “And look, we are unarmed.” He opened his arms wide.

Hammill and his two men lowered their weapons. At that moment, Kohler shouted, “Now!” as he, Olgerbee, and Durham dove for cover.

Distant arrows flew at the mercenaries from behind them. Three of the villagers had snuck in the back gate while Kohler kept the mercenaries' attention. But this time the mercenaries were ready for the speed and cunning of the villagers. At Kohler's shout, they hurled themselves out of the walkway, using the buildings for shelter and firing back in both directions.

The villagers released their arrows with incredible speed, but arrows were nothing against rifles.

o0o

Michael nodded at the others who had watched the battle with him. All of them felt confident they had seen the last of the village men. Also, they knew the others weren’t captives in the village, but were out in the wilderness somewhere.

They could only think of one place where they might be going.





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