Aquifer: A Novel (32 page)

Arriving at the designated point, they carefully placed the four limp bodies on the ground. Immediately, two of the search and rescue team members retrieved the stretchers from the scuba planes and gently lifted the victims onto them, securely strapping the victims into place. The stretchers had been outfitted with scuba tanks strapped to their sides. The third team member began taking the victim’s temperatures with an ear thermometer. He recorded this along with their blood pressure readings and pulse rate.

Observing the egg sacks on Ellie Jo’s face, Clayton gave instructions to Tina and Larry. “Take your pocket knives and lance the eggs. We’ve got to destroy these things before they do any more harm to her. I’m going to try to scrape a few of the eggs off, keeping them intact so that I can examine them back at the lab.”

Clayton took out his pocket knife and began to lance an egg on the face of Honace Webber. However, just as the point of the knife pricked the egg, the egg ruptured and a wiggling, two-inch hatchling popped out and landed on the floor of the cave. It paused there momentarily as if assessing its situation, then scurried into the water and swam away. Simultaneously, several of the other eggs ruptured, spilling their hatchlings onto the cave floor. Immediately they either raced for the water or scurried off into the darkness of the cave.

Clayton was surprised, but his face was filled with wonderment, not fear. “My, my . . . I’ve read that some types of Amazon frog eggs will rupture like that when threatened by predators, but I’ve never actually seen it happen before. It’s really quite an ingenious defense mechanism.”

“No! It’s creepy,” interjected Larry.

“Well, now that we know what to expect,” Clayton continued with his instructions, “don’t just lance the eggs, be sure to stick your knife blade directly into the developing tadpole.”

Having a minor in zoology, Tina was not the least bit squeamish about such things and immediately joined Clayton and Larry in lancing the eggs.

Meanwhile, the Search and Rescue personnel began fitting the comatose victims with swim masks. Mouthpieces were also placed into the victim’s mouths and taped into place with duct tape securing their lips to the breathing apparatus.

“Be sure to get a tight seal with that tape. We don’t want anyone drowning before we get to the ambulances,” barked the Search and Rescue Captain.

While working to lance the eggs on Ellie Jo’s face, Tina noticed a sticky substance in her hair and on her forehead that was quite different from the mucus that covered much of the bodies of all the victims. “Dr. Clayton, do you know what this sticky stuff is?” she inquired.

“It looks similar to a substance I found at Honace’s hunting site,” replied Clayton. He reached into his pocket and took out a sample vial. “This time I came prepared. Scrape it off and put it in here. We’ll take it back to the lab for a closer look.”

As they continued to work, the Search and Rescue Team Captain picked up his radio and called the ambulance that was waiting at the edge of the spring. “We’ve got four victims; all have weak vital signs, low body temperatures, are experiencing severe shock and are extremely dehydrated. Prepare IVs of normal saline and get lots of warmed blankets. Stand by with 1cc of atropine in case their heart rates have not normalized by the time we get them to you.”

Over the radio the ambulance team responded, “10-4. We’ll be ready for you.”

Then turning to his team members who were working on the victims, the Captain continued his instructions. “That water is going to chill them severely. With their already lowered body temperatures I’m afraid that hypothermia could become a real possibility. Administer 1cc of epinephrine to each victim prior to initiating transport. Hopefully that will stabilize their heart rate and blood pressure and possibly keep them warm enough till we get them to the ambulances.”

One of the team members broke out several EpiPens and administered the epinephrine to each victim.

Tina, who was placing a swim mask on Ellie Jo, spoke to her comfortingly, even though she was quite sure that Ellie Jo could not hear and that she was not even aware of her surroundings. “Don’t worry Ellie Jo. We’re going to get you out of here. You’re going to be okay. We’re going to place a mouthpiece into your mouth and tape it there so that it doesn’t fall out. Then we are going to swim you to safety. Just hang on. It won’t be long now before we have you out of here.”

Once all the preparations were completed the Search and Rescue personnel began lowering the stretchers with the comatose victims onto the scuba planes floating in the water. The stretchers were then secured to the planes and each victim was double checked to insure a water-tight seal around their mouthpieces and face masks.

The Team Captain called the ambulance crew with his handheld radio informing them that the rescuers were on their way out. Then he gave the “OK”signal to his team members. The scuba planes began to submerge, then dove for the exit tunnel.

Tina, Larry and Clayton stayed behind standing on the edge of the lagoon. They watched until the scuba planes descended to the exit tunnel, passed through it and disappeared. Then Clayton pointed upriver, deep into the cave.

“Notice anything unusual about this river, Larry?” asked Clayton.

Larry glanced around, “Uh, no.”

“Well,” said Clayton. “First of all it flows downstream in both directions. The water from the spring’s lagoon flows out of this room in each direction.”

Larry quickly shown his flash light beam onto each of the two river branches that flowed out of the lagoon. “You’re right. I hadn’t noticed that before.”

“The important thing, though, is that judging from the proximity and respective locations of the meteorite crash site and Blue Spring, and the direction and flow of this river, I’d lay odds on this tunnel connecting them.” explained Clayton.

“Then these creatures really are . . . ,” Larry began.

“Yes!” Clayton responded. “Empty out your fanny pack. I want to catch some of these hatchlings alive to take back at the lab for examination.”

Tina looked at the men with a quizzical expression. Their conversation hadn’t made much sense to her, but the men did not volunteer any further information, so she did not ask what they were discussing. She assumed that it must have something to do with their summer ecology project.

The trio returned to the pile of dead fish that was floating in the water and collected a half dozen of the new hatchlings. They carefully placed the captives into Larry’s fanny pack, and zipped it shut. That’s when they realized that they had drawn the attention of a large group of somewhat larger and more aggressive creatures that had congregated around them.

“I think we’ve worn out our welcome here. Just walk slowly back to the exit,” Clayton instructed.

They cautiously began making their way back to the exit lagoon, keeping their eyes on the gathering crowd of uneasy creatures.

Arriving at their departure point they were immediately confronted with a creature that was larger than the others. Though it was only the size of a small dog, it nevertheless became very aggressive toward the trio. It suddenly stood up on its hind legs and slowly pressed forward.

Clayton bent down and picked up a large nylon tote bag that had been used to transport some of the Search and Rescue team’s supplies. He slowly untied the bag’s draw strings and opened the bag wide, trying to not spook the small creature.

At that moment the young creature unexpectedly lunged for Clayton’s hand. Clayton’s reflexes were quicker. He thrust his arms toward the creature with the mouth of the nylon tote bag open wide. He slipped the open end of the bag over the creature’s head, used his foot to knock the creature off its feet, scooped up the bag and pulled the draw strings tight, securing the creature inside.

“That was some pretty fancy footwork,” admired Larry.

“Yeah, well I just got lucky. Let’s get out of here before any of the really big ones return,” admonished Clayton as he handed the sack with the squirming creature to Larry.

“How do you know they get bigger?” asked Tina.

“I’ve seen their tracks,” he replied quite seriously.

Cautiously, still eyeing the congregating crowd of young creatures, the trio donned their swim fins, masks, and snorkels. Then, just as they were about to lower themselves into the water, the gimp-footed alien surfaced in the lagoon just thirty feet from them and began to climb out onto the dry bank. Fortunately, its back was to the group and therefore the creature was unaware of their presence. The trio froze, partly from fear and partly in amazement at the size of the beast, which from nose to tail measured almost twenty feet in length.

“Why do you have to always be right?” Tina whisperingly implored.

“Just lucky I guess. Now get down on the floor, slowly, and lay very still. I hope their eyes are made to detect motion,” Clayton whispered back.

The trio slowly and quietly dropped to the floor. In one quick but graceful move, Clayton grabbed a nearby two-foot loop of surgical tubing and looped it over his feet. He then grabbed a duffle bag that had been left behind by Search and Rescue and cradled it in the surgical tubing, pulling it up to his chest, and keeping his knees locked. Then he, too, lay very still.

Both Larry and Clayton kept their eyes opened, partly out of fear but mostly out of curiosity. The massive creature lumbered toward them with a profound limp. Arriving at Tina, it sniffed her, then snorted, blowing her wet hair about. Sensing that Tina was an intruder, the alien took a more aggressive posture toward her, baring its teeth and letting out a low growl.

Believing that she was about to become an alien’s
hors d’oeuvre
, Tina's hands began to tremble uncontrollably. Her entire body was racked with fear. The gimpy-footed alien’s attack appeared imminent so Clayton released his hold on the duffle bag. His makeshift slingshot sent the bag hurling across the cavernous room.

The noise of the duffle bag’s release caught the alien’s attention and it followed the bag’s trajectory with its head. When the duffle bag crashed against the cave’s back wall, deep in the darkness, the alien limped off in investigative pursuit.

When the creature was a safe distance away, Clayton whispered to his companions. “Get into the water, quietly! Before
Gimp Foot
comes back.”

The men helped Tina to her feet and made sure that she was all right. Then Clayton grabbed the nylon tote bag containing the captured alien, which kicked and wiggled wildly. Slowly the trio lowered themselves over the lagoon’s bank into the water, dove and swam for the opening in the cave wall.

*

The trio surfaced in the middle of the spring and began swimming for the shore. As they approached the shore, several members of the Search and Rescue department gave them a hand out of the water. Clayton clutched the nylon tote bag containing the captured creature that was still kicking and wiggling wildly.

As they were shedding their diving equipment, Larry commented to Tina, “I’ve never viewed an amphibian from that angle before. Now I know what a butterfly must feel like when it encounters a frog.”

“Yeah, well I was the one playing the part of the butterfly,” she retorted.

“That creature must have come from deep in the cave’s tunnel,” Clayton interrupted. “Fortunately he was more curious than hungry or we probably wouldn’t be standing here discussing it. Let’s get back to the lab and see what we can learn about our friends,” he added, gesturing to the specimen he held and to the ones in Larry’s fanny pack.

*

Sheriff Akers dispatched all the rescued victims to the hospital in Mountain View, about forty-five miles away. Then he got into his squad car and started the drive back to his office to fill out the necessary reports. As he drove, he reviewed in his mind the events of the afternoon and realized that they were in serious trouble. He needed help with their situation but didn’t know exactly where to start.

Arriving at his office, the Sheriff parked in his designated parking spot and walked up the steps to the building’s entrance. He opened the Main Street entrance door and briskly walked past the dispatcher's desk. “Get me the State Office of Emergency Management and patch it through to my phone as soon as you can,” he barked as he slammed the door to his private office behind him.

Jane Chilton had never seen the Sheriff act like that before. His demanding demeanor was so uncharacteristic that she knew something important was happening.

*

In the seclusion of his office, Sheriff Akers was soon deep into a phone conversation discussing the alien situation with the Office of Emergency Management. For the moment he did not want to discuss this with anyone, except for those who were on a strict, need-to-know basis. He did not know exactly what he was dealing with, and until he did, he didn’t want to take a chance on causing panic among his townspeople.

“What do you mean you can't help!” Sheriff Akers thundered into the telephone. “. . . No, its not a chemical spill, earthquake, or terrorist attack. . . . Then who can I contact for assistance? . . . You don't understand. He can’t handle this. It’s out of the dog-catcher’s league!”

*

That evening at Opal’s Café, Clayton, Welton, Tina, and Larry sat at a table with a stack of empty plates before them.

“I've never seen anything like those creatures,” remarked Tina, still not completely recovered from her ordeal.