The Lost Level (19 page)

Bloop wandered back over to us and crouched on his haunches. Deke
stared at him for a moment, clearly uneasy, but then he relaxed and continued.
I noticed that his voice was getting weaker.

“So, we’re in this oasis…and there’s a stream running along the
valley floor. We headed on down to the watering hole, and everything was fine
until they showed up.”

“The dead?”

Deke shook his head. “The lizards. Not like them snake men…these
were different. Hogan said men of science call them…dinosaurs. I reckon you’ve
seen them around.”

I nodded, noticing as I did that the blood flow from the wound in
his arm had slowed to a trickle.

“There was four of them…ambushed us. Killed the horses and then
moved on to Terry and the Reverend. That was when…the dead showed up. Coyotes…infected
with Hamelin’s Revenge. They must have…followed us from the desert into the
canyon. They…fought with the dinosaurs, and the lizards ate them. We got away
and huddled up for the night. In the morning…we tried to find our way back to
the canyon mouth, but my compass wasn’t working. Damned thing…just spun round
and round, like it couldn’t find north. We headed out on foot…trying to find
our way back…and then…”

He broke off again in a fit of coughing, spraying blood all over
himself. I pulled away, making sure none of it had landed on me. When he leaned
back against the tree again, his breathing was harsh and ragged.

“Dead dinosaur found us…ate Jorge…me and Hogan and…Janelle
climbed the ridge…figured we were lost…. Hogan said we weren’t where we were
supposed to be…another time…back before there were humans…said the disease must
be what killed off the dinosaurs…. I didn’t…believe…went looking for the
archway…found another one…looked like a door…ended up here…couldn’t find…way
back….”

He stopped breathing, and I was sure he was dead. Blood flowed
from his mouth and nose. Then, suddenly, he gasped, arms flailing weakly.

“Hogan and Janelle still back there…in the other place…. Somebody
got to find them…. I ain’t infected…no dead here…just want to go home…find the
door…home…. I…the door back….”

His breath hitched in his chest. He shuddered once and then lay
still, eyes open and staring at nothing. This time, I was sure he was dead.

Bloop staggered to his feet and said, “Bloop.”

I picked up two leaves. Using them to protect my fingertips, I
reached out and closed Deke’s eyes, holding them shut with my fingers until
they stayed that way. Then I glanced up at my companion.

“I know you’re anxious to go. I am, too. But there’s something we
need to do first. I don’t know how much you understand of what I say, but this
is important. We can’t just leave him lying out to rot. First of all, he
deserves better than that, and I promised him. Secondly, the place where he
came from—there was a disease. He might be infected with it. He might not. But
if he is, we can’t risk it getting loose here in the Lost Level.”

Bloop grunted softly, inferring some understanding from my tone
if not my words. He watched as I grasped the hilt of my sword with both hands
and pressed the tip of the blade against Deke’s forehead. Grimacing, I pressed
with all my might, driving the sword through his skull and brain until I felt
it strike the tree trunk behind him. The sounds this elicited were gruesome.
Trying to ignore them, I wrenched the sword free. The blade was covered in
gore. Deke’s corpse slumped to one side. Using leaves, I cleaned the blade as
best I could, being careful not to get any of his blood on me.

“There,” I panted. “If he is infected, according to everything I’ve
always heard about zombies, then that should keep him from coming back. Now,
give me a hand.”

Moving as quickly as possible, I stretched Deke out flat on the
ground and then began to fashion a cairn overtop his corpse with rocks and tree
limbs. The Anunnaki had stripped him of his belongings, except for his
tattered, bloodstained clothing. Bloop watched me for a moment, and then,
realizing what I was doing, began to assist me. Between the two of us, we’d
soon completed a decent burial. It wouldn’t protect him from a hungry
Tyrannosaurus, but I was confident our efforts would deter smaller predators
and scavengers. It would have to suffice, in any case. I hurriedly scratched
his first name onto one of the rocks, and then I nodded at Bloop.

“Let’s go.”

“Bloop!”

We started off into the forest again in pursuit of Kasheena and
her reptilian captors. It was slow going at first, until Bloop picked up their
trail once more, and then we increased our speed. The brief rest we’d had while
delayed by Deke had been beneficial, as we both seemed to have renewed stores
of energy. My injuries from the fight with the robot still pained me, but they
were more manageable now.

I ran on autopilot, trusting Bloop’s tracking abilities, and
mulled over everything Deke had told us. His story fascinated me. Obviously, he’d
come from not only an alternate reality, but from the past—a level where a
zombie apocalypse had occurred during the days of the Old West. At some point,
he and his party had wandered out of that reality and into another. He’d
mentioned a rock formation that had reminded him of a doorway. A passage into
the Labyrinth, most likely, but the question was where had that doorway taken
them? Deke had mistakenly thought he was still in that place when Bloop and I
had first found him. He’d described it as forested and populated with
dinosaurs, so it was reasonable to assume that it had looked similar to the
landscape here in the Lost Level. But then, at some point, he had discovered
yet another doorway and gone through that alone, presumably arriving here.

My mind swam with the myriad possibilities this presented. If the
zombies had followed Deke from his time to the time of the dinosaurs, could
they have also followed him from there into the Lost Level? If so, what did
that mean for all of us here? If there was supposedly no escape from the Lost
Level, and it was a closed ecosystem, then the effect a virus such as a zombie
plague would have on this environment was too terrible to consider. Every
living thing here would eventually be decimated.

The thought reminded me of what I’d read in my occult studies
about the Siqqusim, Elilum, and Teraphim—three races of entities led by
creatures named Ob, Ab, and Api. All three groups moved from planet to planet,
level to level, working in waves and completely exterminating every living
thing until nothing was left. Then, after reducing that planet to a cinder,
they moved on to the next world. Luckily, all three races had been confined to
a realm known as the Void for millennia. But the damage they could do if they
were ever freed was remarkably similar to what something like a zombie virus
could do to a self–contained ecosystem like the Lost Level. I shuddered, hoping
that my preparations during Deke’s makeshift burial had been enough and that
nothing else infected had followed him here.

It occurred to me that, although our time together had been
brief, I hadn’t asked Deke for the location of the doorway which had led him
from that primordial world to here. The thought had never even crossed my mind.
My concerns were focused solely on rescuing Kasheena, rather than any effort to
return home. Of course, even if I’d known where to find Deke’s second doorway,
there was no guarantee it would still be there, nor would stepping into an
alternate–reality infested with undead dinosaurs be a more preferable
alternative to the world I currently inhabited.

Life in the Lost Level was terrifying and difficult, but I could
tolerate the dangers and discomfort as long as Kasheena was with me. It was
time to get her back, and I vowed to myself that once we’d rescued her, I would
never be far from her side again.

Had I only known then what I know now.

EVENTUALLY, WE
HEARD THE SOUND
of rushing water ahead of us and to the left. The
Anunnaki’s trail must have gone in the same direction as the noise, because
that was where Bloop led us. We emerged on the banks of a wide, fast–moving
stream. The water appeared to be fairly deep. Bloop didn’t pause to sniff it,
so I assumed it was normal water and not something like that strange amoeba we’d
encountered before. In the middle of the stream, I saw the occasional ring left
behind by fish striking at insects on the surface. A small brown snake
slithered away from us, clearly frightened. Clouds of mosquitos and gnats
hovered around us, buzzing incessantly, but I barely noticed. The vegetation
thinned along the rocky banks, allowing us to increase our speed. We ran
downstream, still moving single–file. Bloop paused less often, seemingly
certain now of which direction Kasheena and her captors had gone.

Further proof that we were on the right trail occurred when we
found the dead Anunnaki. The snake man lay partially on the stream bank with
his legs in the water. It was clear from the position of his head that someone
had broken the creature’s neck. The corpse’s armor, weapons, and gear were
still attached, and its scaly skin, although cool, was still pliant and soft to
the touch. Clearly, its death had been recent. It had only been armed with a
short spear and a club. I left the weapons where they were, preferring my sword
and dagger.

Scattered footprints in the creek mud added to the tale. One set,
obviously belonging to Kasheena, headed off into the forest. Other tracks,
belonging to her captors, clustered around the dead snake man before following
her into the woods. I surmised that she had somehow managed to kill one of the
Anunnaki and break free long enough to escape. The others had gone after her.
Whether she had been recaptured or was still on the loose remained to be seen.

We were about to start off after her when a new sound rang
out—the clang of steel clashing against steel. This was followed by a gunshot.
While Kasheena’s trail led to our right, away from the water, the noise of
battle was coming from further downstream. Bloop and I glanced at each other,
and I pointed ahead of us. We ran toward the sounds, and after a short
distance, emerged onto the shore of a vast, mist–enshrouded lake. The shoreline
was thick with boulders, ferns, and reeds, and the water gently lapped at our
feet, but we barely noticed it, gaping instead at the battle taking place a few
hundred yards away from us.

We had journeyed hard, consumed with saving the princess, but as
it turned out, Kasheena didn’t need saving after all. Clutching a sword with
both hands, she stood facing four snake men. Four others lay dead, scattered
along the shore. Anunnaki blood dripped from her blade, glistening in the
sunlight. More gore was splattered across the rocks and running in rivulets
from the corpses into the water. Her shoulders and breasts heaved as she took a
deep breath, and the fury in her eyes was both terrible and beautiful to
behold. Two of her attackers were armed with stone–tipped spears. A third had a
handgun. I recognized the weapon as the .45 I’d found in John LeMay’s Jeep. The
fourth snake man was unarmed. The latter ducked low, trying to charge her from
the side, but Kasheena pivoted out of its way and let the creature charge past
her. Amidst the confusion, she slashed at the Anunnaki armed with the pistol,
severing its hand at the wrist. Both the weapon and the hand that had been
holding it fell to the ground. The wounded snake man hissed, tongue protruding
grotesquely, but otherwise made no sound. I had time to wonder if they screamed
telepathically, as well.

“Hey,” I shouted, “how about we even the odds a bit?”

“Bloop!” my furry companion agreed.

The unarmed Anunnaki and one of the spear carriers turned in our
direction. The third jabbed his weapon at Kasheena, aiming the jagged point at
her abdomen. She deflected the attack with her sword and then kicked the snake
man in the stomach, knocking the offender backward.

I grinned. “Serves him right for stealing my gun.”

Snarling, Bloop charged forward. I did the same, bellowing my own
battle cry and hoping to distract and disorient them just a moment longer. My
plan worked. Kasheena took advantage of the confusion and skewered her
opponent, thrusting her sword through his chest until the tip of the blade
protruded from the creature’s back. Then, before Bloop or I could reach her,
she’d lopped the head off the unarmed Anunnaki.

The lone surviving Reptilian turned tail and fled, running
straight for the water. Kasheena gave pursuit, and Bloop and I changed course,
trying to head it off. It beat us to the water and plunged into the surf with a
tremendous splash. The snake man waded out a few yards and then abruptly
stopped. Waves crashed against its waist as it stood there, trembling. Instead
of facing us, it stared at something in the swirling mists.

“No mercy,” Kasheena yelled. “The lake will turn red with its
blood!”

Realizing there was something wrong, I skidded to a halt and
tried to grab Bloop’s arm. I realized that at some point during the battle he’d
recovered another sword and was now armed with two of them again. Growling, he
yanked away from me. Both he and Kasheena continued running toward the lake.
The snake man continued to tremble in place, seemingly paying no attention to
us.

“Kasheena,” I shouted. “The waves….”

Just moments before, the water’s surface had been calm, with only
small currents gently lapping at the shore. Now, it was turbulent and churning
with foam, as something rose from the depths further out from shore. With a
great splash, the massive form breached the surface, and Kasheena and Bloop
halted. The Anunnaki dropped its spear into the water, gaping at this new
terror.

The creature looked like a cross between a crab, a lobster, and a
scorpion, but it was nearly the size of a full–grown elephant. Two black, beady
eyes glared at us from atop reed–like stalks on its head. The monster was armed
with two serrated pincers. Each of the claws were nearly six feet in length,
and tinted with a red and magenta crisscross pattern, which deepened to black
at the razored tips. Additional smaller legs stuck out from beneath its
carapace. I noticed that its long tail was equipped with a bulbous stinger. As
it surged forward, propelling its monstrous bulk through the surf, the beast’s
claws rasped together, making a terrible racket.