Into Eden: Pangaea - Book 1 (36 page)

The next morning the three set out on the road headed south, and they hadn’t gone far before they noticed a change in the foliage. The forest was still dense, and parrots and monkeys could be seen scampering in the trees, but for the first time in many days they could see the sun peering through the treetops.

“I suspect,” Enoch speculated, “that before the An-nef War this was all farmland. Those trees must have grown in the past five-hundred years. We must be getting close to Old Sodom. The last time that I was here with the Atlantan legions we marched for a day through farmland before we reached the city. If we took the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if we could find the remnants of some an-nef farmhouses off in these forests. Of course, they might be inhabited by giant lizards or werepanthers.”

“Let’s stick to the road,” Perez replied.

As the day progressed the three noted that not only was the foliage changing, but the animals appeared to be more of what they were used to back in Atlantis. On two occasions gazelles ran across the road in front of them. On the second of these occasions the gazelles were pursued by a huge saber-toothed tiger that pounced on one and dragged it down in the middle of the road. They decided to take a brief detour rather than interrupt the tiger’s meal, and left the road for an hour while they worked their way around the tiger. They hadn’t gone far into the forest when Enoch announced, “I smell dogs. Lots of them.”

Jesse and Perez drew their swords and carried them the rest of their way back to the road. In the jungle they could see a pack of black dogs following them, but keeping their distance. They could hear them murmuring among themselves, and they were close enough that they could make out a few of the phrases,

“Humans…spirit host…not supposed to be here…go away…attack them…kill them…eat them…not supposed to be here…”

By midday they were back on the road, and the dogs had fallen back into the shadows. All three were concerned that the pack had them vastly outnumbered. If they were to attack, they could overwhelm them and kill them with little effort. If they would only talk with us, Jesse thought, we could assure them that we mean them no harm. Tell them that we are just passing through. But what if they didn’t care?

Not long after they were back on the road they noticed a low hill in front of them, its top barely rising above the trees.

“See that hill up ahead?” Enoch announced. “That’s the pyramid of Sodom.”

“No way!” Perez exclaimed. “That’s just a hill! See? It’s covered with trees!”

“Yes,” Enoch agreed, “it’s covered with trees. But that’s just the jungle reclaiming what’s hers. Five-hundred years ago that was the tallest structure in Sodom.”

As Enoch spoke, the boys started to look around. For the first time they could see the remains of what had once been a great city. Massive stones, now overgrown with vines and hidden under giant ferns now lay strewn along the roadway. Beside them was a long stone wall, now little more than a line of scattered stones, that the Atlantan legions had knocked to the ground in their effort to destroy all that remained of their rival’s capital. A few feet from the road lay a massive statue, broken in several places from being toppled centuries before. The bull-head atop it now lay shattered, it’s face chipped away by vengeful troops.

“We weren’t going to enter the city until we had a full day to go through it,” Jesse remarked.

“Too late for that now,” Enoch replied. “Let’s hope that we can make it out by nightfall.”

A mile or so further down the road they came across what had at one time been a great stadium. Now all that remained were toppled stone bleachers, knocked askew by trees that forced their way up between them. Below, on what had been a field of games, a forest now grew, its trees not quite as tall as those in the surrounding jungle, but massive none-the-less. Between the trees, yellow eyes stared back at them. There were not just dozens of the dogs, but hundreds of them roaming the ruins.

Perez looked behind them, “gods!” he cried.

They stopped and turned to see the road behind them filled with dogs, trotting behind them at a distance of about ten paces. The dogs stopped when they stopped, and stood saying nothing. Jesse estimated that there must be over a hundred black dogs following them through the city.

“Stay here,” Jesse said to Perez and Enoch, “I want to talk to them.”

Jesse drew his sword and walked five paces into the space between Perez and Enoch and the dogs.

“We mean you no harm!” Jesse announced.

The dogs said nothing, but stared back at him.

“We are just passing though!”

One dog stepped forward and spoke, “If you mean us no harm, then why the drawn sword?”

The dog’s mouth was open, but it didn’t move as the voice came out of it. A chill came over Jesse and he could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“Yes!” came a different voice from the same dog. “If you mean us no harm, why draw the sword?”

“Because,” Jesse replied, “I’m going to chop the head off of the first dog that gets too close!”

When Jesse said this laughter could be heard coming from the dog facing him and soon all the dogs in front of him were laughing as well. Their mouths were open, but still they did not move.

“You have no business, here, human!” the lead dog snapped. “You should not have come!”

“We are on our way to New Sodom! As I said, we are just passing through.”

The dog stepped a little closer to Jesse, and Jesse tightened his grip on his sword.

“Why would you being going to New Sodom?” the dog snapped.

“Because…I have business there.”

“The only business for a human in New Sodom is to die!”

The dogs behind the lead dog again began to laugh. The lead dog motioned with his head and the pack quickly circled them, leaving Perez, Enoch, Jesse, and the lead dog alone in the center.

“If it wasn’t for the spirit-host with you, we would have killed you long ago, human! Why do you travel with a spirit-host?”

“Because he’s my uncle.”

“I see…just one spirit for the host. That seems a bit stingy. Didn’t anyone ever tell him that he should share?”

Jesse thought for a moment. This situation was getting out of hand fast.

“Perez!” Jesse shouted, “Draw your sword!”

Perez drew his sword as Jesse told him.

“If Enoch has a seizure, kill him!”

The lead dog began to growl.

“If anything happens to my uncle,” Jesse said, taking a step forward, “you will die.”

The dog backed up a step. “No need to resort to threats,” he said. “We’re a friendly pack. But I can’t be responsible for what others may do. Especially after dark.”

The dog motioned with his head and the pack dispersed back into the ruins.

“See to it that you’re out of Sodom by sunset.”

The three walked as fast as they could down the Green Highway headed south towards New Sodom. They could see the dogs as they darted in and out between the ruins, leaping over tumbled columns and peering out from behind long-dark doorways. But Old Sodom was a large city. The scattered ruins seemed to go on forever. And late that afternoon they had another delay. They had almost reached what they believed to be the far end of town when they discovered that thousands of an-nef were at work in that part of the city, tearing down the old buildings for dressed stone and loading it on wagons to be transported north for use in construction of the bridge over the Pishon and in paving the highway. They had by accident stumbled across the source of the wagon-trains that they had been encountering since their first day in the rainforest. As troublesome as the an-nef could be, the dogs appeared to shy away from them, and the three of them were able to navigate ancient alleys just a few blocks from the an-nef without being trailed by the animals.

As the sun was going down, they decided that they would find some ruins where they could bed down for the night. They would take a cue from the an-nef and move some stones around—at least enough to block a doorway—and perhaps they would be safe from the dogs. They discovered a building with a stone courtyard surrounded by a wall that was nearly intact. A few trees now sprung up between the flagging stones, but the wall that surrounded the courtyard was nearly intact. Inside, Jesse and Perez hefted stones that had at one time been part of another wall and used the stones to construct a barricade to the courtyard entrance. Unless these dogs could fly, they weren’t going to be coming over the wall. At the far end of the courtyard was a doorway, the door itself long rotted away, and a few paces beyond they could see a stairway that led down.

“We can barricade the door,” Jesse suggested, “and we’ll have a stone perimeter on each side.”

“Before we do,” Perez replied, “let’s have a look-see inside.”

“Nothing in there but snakes,” Jesse said. “Let’s stay out. Besides, we don’t have a lantern.”

“That so, Enoch?” Perez asked. “Nothing in there besides snakes? No lions or tigers? No giant lizards?”

Enoch trotted to the entrance and sniffed. “There are some snakes,” he replied, “and lots of bugs. But I don’t smell anything that could be bigger than we are.”

“Good!” Perez said. “That settles it! I’m going exploring! Care to join me?” He bent over and started rummaging through his pack. In a minute he produced a small candle and some firesticks. Lighting the candle, he stepped into the dark entrance and headed down the stairs.

Jesse and Enoch glanced at each other briefly and then followed him in. They proceeded down the stone stairway slowly—it was slick and towards the top the stairs were covered with moss. At the bottom of the steps lay a pile of ancient bones. Ram-heads and bull-heads in full battle armor blocked their way to a dark room beyond, arrows still lodged in their breastplates. They stepped over the bones and found themselves in a large room littered with more bones and strewn with more arrows and broadswords.

“A battle was fought here,” Enoch remarked. “It’s clear that the an-nef were the losers.”

The boys looked around in the dim light. No human remains among the dead. On the wall hung large iron torches, the oil that fueled them long expended. To one side Perez saw an old desk, two candles still stood in brass candle-holders. Perez used his candle and lit the wicks. The room slowly started to light up. At the far end of the room was another door, with another desk, but this lay on its side. Beside it, broken on the floor was another candle. Perez kneeled, picked it up and jammed each half into the eye-sockets of an unfortunate ram-head that lay by the door. He lit these candles as well, and the three of them were able to clearly see the entire room and into the room beyond, which was filled with wooden racks supporting broadswords, spears, helmets of all kinds, and body armor.

“We are in a fortress,” Enoch said. “They defended it to the last an-nef. This has to be the armory.”

It was then that Jesse had his stroke of brilliance.

“Give me some light!” he said to Perez, as he stepped over the toppled desk and made his way back to the swords. He found a sturdy-looking (but rusty) broadsword and brought it back into the room with all the slain an-nef. Looking around, he found a bull-head skull laying by itself. “Perfect” he mumbled to himself as he began to whack away at the skull.

“Jesse! What do you think that you’re doing?” asked Perez.

Jesse responded with a, “You’ll see!” Then—horns in hand—he went back into the storeroom and searched though rows of helmets until he had found one that looked about the right size for a bull-head. Flipping it over, he jammed the bull horns through the horn openings and then pulled it down on his head.

“This,” he said proudly, “is how we sneak into New Sodom!”

Perez and Enoch looked at Jesse skeptically.

“What’s wrong?” Jesse asked.

“On nothing,” replied Enoch. “Except for the blond beard, the blue eyes and pale white skin. That’s all.”

“You have no imagination, Enoch,” Jesse said as he bent over and started to rummage through his pack. Momentarily he pulled out a black cotton shirt that he had stuffed in the bottom of his pack for his planned covert entry into Anubis’ house. He then removed the helmet with the horns and pulled the shirt over his head so that he was peering out through the neck. Finally Jesse donned the an-nef helmet again.