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"There should be some....some plants....and streams....something at the base of those mountains ahead...
“Optimist,” croaked Fitzhugh, his voice laced with his trademark cynicism. “The streams… will be hot water and the plants—cactus.”
Mark replied with a wry, resigned smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, “I’d settle for that. Cactus fritters… cactus à la mode… cactus steaks, rare…” He didn’t even smile any further as if the absurdity of their situation had permanently etched a bittersweet humor into his tone.
Steve didn't even smile.
The sand now gave way to hardpan, gravel, and rock outcroppings. They stopped to breathe, and Steve raised his eyes to the mountains. Unless he was delirious, they seemed noticeably closer.
“Look!” Barry said, his voice forced and dry but still carrying a spark of youthful enthusiasm.
The seven people faced where the child was pointing and saw a tiny flower. It was not as big as the nail of Barry's little finger, but it was definitely a flower. They stared at it in some wonder.
Steve crouched beside the delicate flower, brushing a layer of dust from its fragile petals. He exhaled slowly, then spoke, his voice carrying a mix of wonder and determination.
"It means something's still fighting to live here," he said. "Maybe life hasn’t given up on this world yet... and neither can we."
Plant life.....means water...." Don added, looking around. "Somewhere, anyway..."
The captain drew a long breath of scorched air into his lungs and said, "Well, let's go find it!"
Gravel rolled beneath their feet, and they saw other flowers now and again, tiny yellow dots on miniscule green stalks. The grit crunched noisily under their boots as they trudged on, but the mountains did grow steadily closer. The sun was slowly moving over the horizon and the shadows stretched long behind them.
Suddenly a flash illuminated the twilit desert around them as brightly as day. Almost at once came the crack of thunder. The seven humans looked up at the cloudless sky in astonishment. Another lightning bolt split the sky as they watched, a white-hot scar across the purpling night.
Another and another followed in a barrage so sudden and unnatural that the three humans cringed. Thunder crashed around them as one continuous, boiling, seething roar.
Lightning now struck all around them, too fast to count, too thunderous to bear, and the seven humans covered their ears, crouching like animals. Another bolt struck dangerously close, then the ground---already quivering from the barrage---began to tremble and shake its jolting throwing the humans apart from each other. As the ground crumbled and began to split, a violent tremor ripped through the earth, sending shockwaves through the weary travelers. Betty was the first to cry out as she lost her footing, landing hard on her side. Barry, clutching at her arm, tumbled with her, his small frame jolted by the impact. Fitzhugh let out a startled yelp as he was thrown backward, landing on his back with a heavy thud, his breath knocked from his lungs. Valerie, already weakened by exhaustion, crumpled to her knees before being thrown sideways into Mark, who barely had time to brace himself before they both went sprawling into the dust.
Steve lurched toward them, but another quake threw him back. As a result, he caught his red jumpsuit on a rock shattered by lightning and still hot and ripped the fabric as he fell. Don tried to crawl toward them as well, but the ground heaved and quivered, then split apart before his eyes. Fissures made terrifying gaps in the surface, spreading and branching swiftly. The gaps finally separated the other five members of the group from the men.
Meanwhile, flashes of lightning continued to strike.
Deafened by thunder, blinded by lightning, and terrified by the earthquake, Steve and Dan were still trying to reach the others when the ground lurched violently beneath them. The cracks, already jagged and deep, were widening faster than they could move, splitting the earth into shifting, unstable plates. Rocks tumbled into the abyss, swallowed by the darkness below.
Suddenly, a scream cut through the chaos—Betty’s. Steve and Dan snapped their heads toward the others just in time to see them moving backward, their bodies sliding away as though dragged by an invisible force. Valerie and Barry clawed at the ground, their fingers scrambling for purchase, but the dirt crumbled beneath them, offering no grip. Fitzhugh let out a strangled cry as he slid uncontrollably, his arms flailing. Mark, gritting his teeth, dug his hands into the shifting soil, but it was useless—the ground was tilting, pulling them toward the widening chasm.
Steve lunged forward, but another violent tremor nearly sent him sprawling. Dan reached out desperately, but the growing void between them and the others yawned wider, threatening to consume them all.
Betty cried out; her voice raw with panic: "Help...! We're being dragged into...!"
Betty and the others scrabbled desperately at the crumbling ground, their fingers clawing at loose dirt and stone as gravity pulled them backward. Their eyes widened in terror as the jagged edge rushed up behind them, then—one by one—they slid over, vanishing from sight. Their cries echoed through the storm-ravaged canyon, swallowed by the deafening roar of the earth splitting apart.
Steve and Dan lunged forward, reaching out instinctively, but another crack of thunder rocked the sky, and a barrage of lightning bolts exploded all around them. Blinded by the furious white flashes, they threw themselves to the ground, shielding their faces as energy surged through the air, the smell of ozone thick and suffocating. Their ears rang with the violent symphony of the storm, but through it all, they could still hear the fading screams of their lost companions.
The ground rumbled a bit and then quieted. The lightning and thunder ceased. It was over.
Steve and Dan opened their eyes, shut tight a moment earlier against the glare and the flying sand.
The silence was now as thunderous as the sudden and unexplained earthquake and electrical storm had been. More important, the ground was just as before! It was devoid of any fissures, merely rolling hardpan and rock shelves stretching to the base of the nearby mountains!
"I don't understand," Dan said, looking around, his face twisted in puzzlement. "What's going on?"
Steve pointed down at the spot where, moments before, there had been a fissure too wide to jump across. "Look!"
Dan followed his gaze, then said, "I don't see anything...."
"That's just it. There's nothing to see. And moments ago, the others......"
The pilots looked at each other in shock. Raising their heads, they looked around. The sun was just going over the horizon. It was dusk, and the desert was silent and serene.
"What kind....of place....is this?" Don asked.
Once again, Steve had no answers.
None.
They walked on.
"How can there be fire shooting out of rocks and leave no trace? How can earthquakes come and go just like that?" Steve was puzzling as he and Don climbed up on a rock to get a better view. "And how can lightning come out of a clear sky....?"
Don didn't answer, but inched himself to the top of the rock and reached down to pull up Steve. "Maybe we can spot them from here..."
"Steve, they disappeared into the ground!"
"We've got to find them! Five people don't just 'disappear'!"
The former Spindrift pilot glanced at the intense face of his comrade and shrugged. No use arguing with him, he thought.
Don studied the desert floor in the growing dusk, fear and care draining the life from his face. "It's too dark," he muttered.
Steve, suddenly by the sudden dramatic loss of his passengers, sat down on the rock. "We gotta get ourselves some food and water, Don."
"But the passengers! Betty....."
"We can't help them if we're dead. If they're alive, we'll find them. If not...well, we'll find that out, too."
"It's so damn dark," Don said, slumping down on the rock. "I can't see my---."
"C'mon," Steve said wearily. "Let's get some shut-eye. We'll look for them in the morning."
Don nodded silently, his eyes wet with sadness.
And in the darkness of the alien desert, Steve Burton cried.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBAw0TqbPC
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Before dawn, Steve and Don began the first of several searches around the site where the others had disappeared. When the sun finally came above the eastern horizon, Steve looked at Don and said, "Time to move on, bud."
Don followed silently.
By midday, the two men finally stood in the shadow of the mountains that had seemed so close a few days ago. Weak but still able to move, they trudged into a pass and wearily undertook the climb upward. Here was more evidence of greenery---stunted, gnarled plants clinging desperately to the mountainside---but nothing they thought they could use for food.
Topping the pass, they found themselves at the head of a small valley. It was a dry area, with some scrub trees at the bottom. They started down afraid to feel hope, but maybe beyond....in the next valley....
"Good Lord!" Don's startled voice, croaking out a fearful exclamation, caused Steve to look up.
Above them, along the side of the cliff through which they had just come, flanking the pass like some kind of strange guardians, were huge carved faces, sculpted right out of the living rock. The faces were immense, many stories high, much like those on Mount Rushmore.
Except the faces were simian!
The faces were those of gorillas, chimpanzees, and other apelike creatures.
Chiseled from the rock of the cliff was a double phalanx of beetle brows, protruding lips, shaggy hair, small ears, a hint of vampire teeth.....
Dan and Steve stared, amazed and shocked at this first sign of civilization...or at least life....they had seen.
"What...." Dan's voice, dry and raw, choked on the first words. He swallowed, then spoke again. "What kind....of people would carve the faces....of apes on a mountain?"
Steve stared up at the massive ape faces carved into the mountainside, his breath catching in his throat. He hadn't wanted to say anything to Dan before, but now... now, he couldn't shake the eerie feeling creeping up his spine.
"You know, Dan," he said slowly, his voice tight, "back on the Spindrift, when we picked up that weird song on the 2-way… I kept telling myself it was just some backwoods singer with a strange twang to his voice." He exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "But looking at this… at them… I think I know now. Not who that singer was—but what he was."
After a long moment of study, the need for water and food drove them forward again.
"Let's move on," Steve said, "maybe farther along...."
They walked unsteadily down into the dry valley. The farther edge of the little valley was lower, and they reached it quickly and looked down into another valley. This one was rocky, but it had a forest that ran through the middle!
Steve could see the glint of water and started forward at once. But Dan grabbed his shoulder.
Silently he pointed, and Steve narrowed his red-rimmed eyes to look along Dan's arm. A series of dark blotches were the mouths of caves honeycombing the northern side of the valley, he realized. And in front of the caves were moving figures!
"People!" Dan whispered, his voice rough and dry.
Steve squinted, focusing on the small figures. "My God, Dan----they're human!" he said in shock.
"C'mon," Dan said. "Let's get closer. But carefully.
Energized by their discovery, the two pilots came down into the valley quickly. Using the cover of rocks and the growing number of shrubs and trees to hide the approach to the caves, as silently as they could, Steve crept toward the caves. Finally, Steve halted Dan with a raised hand and pointed toward some bushes not far away.
As they watched, crouching, a figure came around the greenery. Steve's eyes widened in surprise. Not only was the figure that of a human being, but a woman---a very good-looking woman at that! She certainly had every indication of being a normal human being.
She was wearing a skimpy garment made of fur skins. Her body was lithe and shapely, her skin tanned smoothly—or perhaps it was her natural color—and her thick black hair was long and untamed, falling in wild waves around her shoulders. There was an almost familiar beauty to her face, with striking dark eyes and full lips, yet there was something raw and unrefined about her, as if she belonged to a world long before civilization had taken root. She was plucking berries and dropping them into a crudely woven basket.
Dan leaned close to Steve and whispered, "Holy cow! She's right out of One Million B.C."
"Well, let's find out what she's like," Steve said and started to rise.
Dan pulled him back roughly. He whispered into Steve's ear, "Not so fast, bud. They might be cannibals, or......"
"We have no choice."
They looked at each other and rose, taking one step toward the girl.
She heard them.
The skin-clad woman whirled, stared at them for a fraction of a second, and began to run. Her basket of berries was thrown to the winds, and she dashed fleetly over the ground in the direction of the caves, her shrill squeals of warning alerting the cavemen.
Dan and Steve followed as fast as they could, but the healthy cavegirl soon outdistanced them. By the time the two astronauts had cleared the trees and were advancing on the caves, they heard sounds of panic everywhere.
Squealing men and women hurried up from the bushes and trees, dropping their fruits and berries, running madly for the shelter or the honeycomb of caves.
"Hey, we meant no harm!" Steve shouted.
For a moment the frantic scurrying of the cave people stopped. They stared at Steve and Dan with open astonishment, frozen in their flight. But one second later, it was even more astonishing. They doubled their efforts to escape and crowded against one another as they forced themselves into the caves.
In moments, nobody was in sight, just Steve and Dan, feeling weak and staggering across the clearing and up to the caves' mouths. Fallen fruit and spilled berries were the only signs of habitation on the rocky ground leading up to the caverns. The two lurched wearily toward the largest of the caves.
"They don't seem hostile," Steve said.
"Cowardly....if you want my opinion."
"Strange....a society as primitive as this....is usually very hostile to strangers."
Weak with thirst, the two men came to the cave entrance and stepped into the gloom, letting their eyes adjust to the darkness. Inside huddled more than a score of dark-skinned cave dwellers, cowering fearfully, their eyes gleaming catching the light coming from the cave opening as they stared in horror and helplessness.
"Hello...." Dan said, his voice rasping.
"We need help!" Steve pleaded, his head starting to whirl. "Help us....Water...."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG92U3MEUmz
The cave blurred and Steve fell.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpxTFpfAeaG
Dan staggered toward him with his final bit of strength, but crashed down, too, helpless on the floor of the cave.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhah0VF2PCZ
The terrified primitives crowded fearfully away from them. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGIuj2klDoM
