The Traveler Page 39

  “The Iranian power plant tests. From their test records the timing fits. The year the legion vanished was in the time frame of their sixth test. Tell me, Carl, was there any Chinese battle gear found?” Sarah asked, hoping to lay the theory to rest.

  “Not yet, but then again I wasn’t keen on going out and looking for any either.

  “They all vanished through a wormhole not intended for them. They were trapped and went through the same rip in time that I did, only many hundreds of years separate,” Carl said almost sadly.

  “What happened to them?” Anya asked, very much afraid of the answer if he had one.

  Everett looked away momentarily and was about to answer when he heard the movement behind him.

  “Yes, I would very much like to know the same thing.”

  They all turned as one and Virginia dropped the Roman shield when she saw Doshnikov as he and his four men pushed Ryan and Will out in front of them as they left the first enclosure only yards away.

  Everett saw the armed intruders to his inherited domain and then his eyes went to Mendenhall and Ryan. Without any regard to what would happen, the three men stepped forward and shook hands. When that wasn’t enough they hugged and slapped each other on the back. The whole time Sarah, Anya, and Virginia smiled and the Russians didn’t interfere.

  “I should have known you two hard-asses would have already infiltrated the enemy camp and taken hold of the situation,” Carl said with a broad smile.

  “Yeah, we were just getting ready to make our move,” Ryan said as he finally released Everett’s hand. “Besides, I fully expect a royal ass-chewing if we ever get out of this.”

  Carl finally turned his attention to the man Sarah had told him about in their trek back to the stockade. The man was looking far worse than his people and that made him smile at the Russian.

  “What’s your story?” Everett asked as he made Will and Jason step back.

  “I am a man not to be trifled with, as your friends can attest.”

  Carl looked from the Russian’s eyes to the old Colt in his hands. Doshnikov saw this and then lowered the weapon and gestured for his men to follow suit.

  The Russian turned to face the man that looked like one of the old pictures of his countrymen who lived in the wilds of Siberia, or the mountain men of the American West.

  “Yeah, I understand you like to wire explosives up to children.”

  “No, not children, small babies and their mothers to be more precise. And being a businessman I am willing to negotiate a deal. I will say this in absolute assurance, I will kill every one of you if you do not do as I say. You will get us to that valley and that new doorway these rather strange people built and you will get us back home. I can start right now with this one,” he said as he once again cocked the .45 and aimed it at Anya.

  The silence after the threat was palpable even over the rumbling of the erupting volcanoes. Sarah and the others watched as Carl remained silent as he stared straight ahead. They all became concerned when they saw a smile creep across his face. The Russians even became uneasy at the strangeness of this man’s reactions. Then the world once again froze in time. The ash seemed to fall slower and the earth shaking under their feet slowed as did their own heartbeats when Everett spoke.

  “Jack, you have the most outrageous sense for the dramatic. What in the hell took you so long?”

  The automatic fire opened up and tracers stitched the ground in front of Doshnikov and his four men. They jumped back as the glowing red tracers arched into the stockade from somewhere the men couldn’t or didn’t have the time to see as they dove for the soft, hot ash. As the bullets continued to fly, they stood and ran for the far wall of the stockade. A few tracers followed them with no malicious intent other than to scare the fools off.

  Carl waited as the others willed their shock away. Walking toward them after only a minute the outlines of two men took shape. Everett laughed as did Ryan and Mendenhall when they recognized the large silhouette of Colonel Jack Collins.

  “Piss-poor shooting if I may say so,” Carl said as he stepped forward, recognizing Henri Fabrbeaux.

  Collins stopped and took in the surprised faces staring at him and the Frenchman.

  “I was torn between who to shoot, these people or those Russian assholes.”

  Jason, Sarah, Will, Virginia, and Anya looked at one another, not one of them knowing at what point to start the tale of what happened.

  “But since we have a time machine to play with, I can shoot them anytime, I guess. Then go back and do it again, again, and again.”

  The two men, and even Henri Farbeaux, shook hands while the others took a deep religious breath at their sudden reprieve and deliverance from the Russians.

  Now their problems were narrowed down to a few things. Like finding their stolen power coupling and dodging every horror-story creature God could have thought up, until they left here in a reengineered doorway they weren’t quite sure would work.

  Yes, Jack Collins had worries other than his anger at all of the new company in this Lion Country Safari family experience.

  * * *

  An hour later while sitting around a small fire Everett scarfed down some of Jack’s and Henri’s MREs, wishing many times instead that he was eating one of the complex’s masterful corned beef sandwiches from the departmental mess. They had briefed all parties on the predicament they found themselves in. Ryan found it shocking that the colonel didn’t chew his ass off anyway, but only nodded when briefed by Virginia. What that meant, Ryan wasn’t exactly sure.

  “I don’t know which is hardest to believe, the fact that we find ourselves in the biggest jam we have ever been in, or the fact that we have prehistoric, out-of-time Velociraptors trying to outthink and outfight us.”

  “What can you tell us, Carl?” Jack asked, leaning forward after finishing the first meal he had had since arriving two days before.

  “Hell, after six months of trying to piece things together, I think I’ve only scratched the surface. I do think with all of us putting our heads together we can at least make some sense of this strange-ass continent.”

  Everett waited as Will and Farbeaux returned from a thorough perimeter patrol. Henri unslung his M-4 and sat, shaking his head vigorously at the offered MRE. Instead he started eating a giant berry he had found on the patrol. Jack shook his head.

  “We believe now that when the continents separated it took the existing animal life with it. This continent developed totally on its own seven hundred million years ago.” Virginia looked at Sarah and she nodded. “Dinosaurs evolved differently and many more of them may have survived extinction by that separation. Maybe not the larger dinosaurs, but the smaller, avian breeds we have come to know from the movies. Left alone they developed rudimentary tool-making capability. In essence they took up where their larger relatives left off, unabated. I suspect that this is a recent development, maybe a hundred thousand to two hundred thousand years. Eventually those small birdlike raptors will learn to make more sophisticated weapons.”

  “I do not know about you, my American friends, but I think the spears alone are pretty damn sophisticated.” Farbeaux tossed the remaining large pit from the fruit away. “And how long did it take humans to think of throwing a rock to defend himself?” Henri said, putting a damper on things as usual. “No, there is more to this than mere evolution.”

  “Perhaps so,” Everett said as he looked deeply into the fire. They all could see that the many months of isolation had taken its toll on their friend. “You asked earlier about humanoid life.” Everett ceased staring into the flames, stood, and turned to look up at the falling ash and then toward the red glow of Erebus three hundred miles distant. “I’ve found fields of bones. Early man, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, even the little species we know as Lucy, at least from what my limited education into those fields can tell me. Thousands upon thousands. Entire species of anything that could threaten those raptors.” He looked at his rescuers. “You also asked about the Rom
ans, the Japanese, and Chinese soldiers. All dead, massacred to the man. Three modern armies, all taken down by those feathery little bastards. They nearly had me more than once until I figured out how to get around them.”

  “Do you know anything about the migratory animals?” Anya asked.

  “A little from my observations. It may be a yearly trek to get at the richer volcanic grasses near Erebus, I’m not sure. But the animal life that lives around the volcanoes permanently have decided it was time to get out of Dodge. Why one set goes one way, why the other goes a different direction has me stumped. I guess the large herds of mammoths and bison just don’t know anything other than that their migration they have been following for thousands and thousands of years is just too hard a habit to break.”

  “That makes sense,” Sarah agreed.

  “But one thing I did notice. There are millions upon millions of bones lining that game trail. I believe the raptors actually herd them, or at least take extreme advantage of the migration to kill and eat. There’s no end to the smarts of those ugly little bastards.”

  Jack’s radio suddenly sprang to life. The sound, though loud, made Carl feel like he was part of the modern world again. It did no harm to the psyche of the others either.

  “Colonel, Jenks here.”

  Jack looked at Virginia and saw the relief in her face when she heard the gruff man’s voice.

  “Collins,” he said into the radio. He had yet to inform the master chief they had found Everett and the others. Jenks wasn’t even aware that Virginia was there. Jack couldn’t wait to tell him and hear the cursing start to fly.

  “Negative on any roost those damn things may have. We searched until we drained the batteries on both drones. We’re recharging now.”

  “Good, Master Chief. Is Charlie close by?”

  “Yeah, he’s right here.”

  “We have Mr. Everett.”

  The radio was silent as the others around the fire smiled at what must be happening in the camp.

  “And a few others that we found picnicking in the woods. One may wish to say hello to you.”

  “Wait, damn it, is Toad all right?” came the hurried voice of the master chief. Sarah got up and joined Jack. All the while Henri watched her as she moved. She saw this and then looked at the Frenchman and her eyes told him that she was appreciative of him, but that was all for the moment. Jack tossed Virginia the radio before she could react.

  “Oh, your precious Toad is just fine, he saved all of our asses. Maybe you should worry about me, you gruff bastard!”

  “Slim, what in the holy Sam hell are you doing out here? I told you to keep your skinny ass out of—”

  Virginia turned down the volume on the radio and smiled at the others. “That will keep him occupied for a while.” She tossed back the radio to Jack and he caught it with a grin.

  Collins held the radio and then looked at Carl. “You see, everyone missed you so much that I bet you can’t wait to get back and deal with your old buddy on a daily basis.”

  “Don’t you dare tell me that,” Carl said as he turned on Collins. “Did everyone lose their damn minds while I was gone?” He paced around the fire. “The director would never allow that man anywhere near his precious collection,” he said in his final defensive denial.

  “When you’re discussing and designing ways of going into hell,” he explained, looking around the horrific world, “you sometimes have to deal with the devil, Swabby, you know that. And without Jenks we would never have had the chance.”

  “I am going to kick everyone’s asses on this deal, let me tell you.” They caught the final threat of the master chief as Jack turned the volume back up.

  “She’s happy to hear your voice, too, Master Chief,” he said with mock seriousness.

  “She’s all right? The others?”

  They heard the belated concern in Jenks’s voice.

  “Everyone’s still breathing.”

  “Okay, I’ll deal with her when you people get your asses back here, and that little event better be soon.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because those raptor things are increasing their attacks on the animal herds and they are starting to move far faster than we realized.”

  Collins lowered the radio in wonderment as to their ability to catch a break.

  “We’ll send all nonessential personnel back to you. We have to continue on until we find out what those things do with their spoils of war.”

  “Roger. Get them back so I can bounce some ideas off of Slim’s head.”

  “Watch out for those Russians, they’re loose out there and they’re scared. They may make a move for the doorway.”

  “Let them try it if they want to get their asses sliced in two. The laser system is working just fine. But they or the power won’t hold up to a full-scale onslaught of those rock-and-spear-chuckin’ chicken bastards.”

  “Roger, Collins out.”

  “Jack, what was it you were saying about a nest, or lair?” Carl asked.

  “It may be nothing, but the off chance that the raptors collect things of beauty, shiny objects, just like other birds, we’re hoping, or at least Doc Ellenshaw was hoping, that they took it there, wherever that is.”

  They saw Everett thinking. He pursed his lips and that was when he turned to them. “I may know where that lair is.”

  Collins stood with the faint hope that Everett may have an answer. Then he felt his heart skip when he saw the look on the admiral’s face.

  “It’s close by. About three klicks out. But, Jack, you in particular are not going to like it.”

  “What is it?” he asked as the others came near.

  “First, I have to feed my chickens, we’re going to need them.”

  “Chickens?” Mendenhall asked, not liking the sound of anything that had to do with birds of any kind.

  “Yeah, I like the eggs, and they like being fed without hunting for their meals. It’s a mutual thing. They need me and I them.” He saw the strange looks being directed his way as if he had truly lost his mind. “Hey, you guys try living alone out here and not talk to strange birds.”

  “I do not like the sound of this at all,” Will said as he and Ryan exchanged looks of dread. They all made their way to feed Admiral Everett’s chickens.

  * * *

  Charlie watched the small radar screen that controlled the automatic defense system. The miniscule blobs of light would appear and then vanish just as quickly. It was as if the raptors on the camp’s periphery were testing their defenses.

  “They’re a little leery after getting their asses kicked the last time. They’re just trying to get us to react,” Jenks said as he looked through the lens of his night-vision scope that zoomed in three hundred times power. He chewed on the dead cigar and hissed under his breath.

  “Do you hear yourself?” the crazed white-haired Ellenshaw asked as he kept his eyes on the scope and the surrounding countryside.

  “What?” Jenks asked as he lowered the scope.

  “My God, we’re actually worried that these abominations are merely trying to get us to react to them. Like they are hoping for a desired plan to take shape.”

  The silence coming from the master chief was enough to unnerve Charlie.

  “How many can we get with our limited supply of battery power?”

  “Enough to probably piss off the remaining three or four thousand of the damn things when we’re all done.” Jenks smiled at Charlie, who had finally turned away from the screen in abject fear.

  “Just think Little Big Horn, if that’s easier for you to grasp, Nerdly.”

  * * *

  The seven novice adventurers were stunned at the makeshift pen Everett had set up toward the rear of the stockade where the Romans had stored other animal life in their short tenure as rulers of this horrid land. What was inside the pen was far more shocking to them. Pecking the ground and scratching at its ash-covered surface were about fifteen of the giant rocs. The huge ostrich bodies wer
e well over ten feet, far taller than a horse. The heads were large and the beaks terrifying in hooked deadliness. These rocs looked different to Ryan and Mendenhall. The killers they and the Russians had run into were multicolored with red and gold and black feathers, where these fifteen were white with red highlights. Their small, stubby wings flapped every once in a while when their beaks came into contact with some crawling thing making its way through the accumulated ash. They were calmly scratching for food as the humans watched them.

  Carl went over to a large barrel that looked as if it were a thousand years old. He lifted out a large wooden bowl full of what looked like grain. He walked quickly over to the fence and then he opened the small gate and reattached a rope made of vine twistings. He approached the first roc as the others held their breath.

  “You are one crazy son of a bitch, Skipper,” Ryan said as his blood froze when the roc looked up at Everett’s approach. “Will and I saw one of those tear a man’s head off not five hours ago.”

  Carl turned and smiled. “Yeah, I’ve run across those guys too, they’re not friendly at all. These here? I think they may have been on their way to being domesticated by the Romans, Japanese, and Chinese soldiers before they were wiped out.” He turned and put his hand out to the roc. They were shocked when the giant bird nuzzled at Everett’s hand. The three long gouges in its beak told the newcomers this particular roc had seen trouble and survived. The head of the rooster was colored in bright red feathers that ended in a curlicue at its top. They could also see the obvious affection Carl had for the large, frightening animal.

  “This one is my friend, we each saved the other’s life. His name is Foghorn.”

  “Just when you thought this day could not get any stranger,” Henri said as he leaned on the rickety fence that wouldn’t have kept in a small bunny, much less the five-hundred-pound monstrosities moving toward their handler.

  Everett turned and looked at Henri and his smile widened. With the beard it made the brevet admiral look quite insane, especially in the torchlight.