The Vilcabamba Prophecy: A Nick Randall Novel (26 page)

Yupanqui
turned and
disappeared back into the
shadows
as Randall stood
motionless, once again dumbfounded by the turn of events.

After a few
moments, Randall started up the gently sloping shaft, suddenly feeling
exceptionally fatigued. His muscles ached and his every movement was a
struggle. His body was finally experiencing a
let-down
after many days of operating on sheer adrenaline. Suddenly, all Randall could
think about was a warm shower and a long nap. His thoughts were abruptly
interrupted by a new thought:
They are in
danger
. Randall stopped dead in his tracks thinking,
Who
is in danger?
But before the words had finished, he realized the
answer. He ignored the fatigue and picked up his pace. Three words suddenly
flashed brightly in his mind:
Ackers
is here!
His slow jog morphed into a sprint, the beam of his flashlight bouncing madly
as the words repeated in his mind,
Ackers
is here
,
Ackers
is here
!
A new thought flashed through his mind:
Duck
. He did, just in time for the shiny
metal blade to pass narrowly over the top of his head.

Ackers
let out an
animalistic grunt. "I'm going to kill you, mother fucker!" Even in
the dim lighting, Randall could see the madness in his eyes. "No one fucks
with me and gets away with it."

Randall sensed
immediately that
there would be no reasoning with
Ackers
,
he was too far-gone
.
Instead, he employed the opposite tact, hoping to throw him off. "It's
going to be pretty pathetic when you get your ass kicked by a guy who makes a
living lecturing to college students."

Ackers
responded by
swinging his knife in violent uncontrolled arcs, each closer than the last. As
Ackers
swung again, Randall parried the blow with his
forearm, knocking the mercenary into the wall.
Ackers
was fuming, bewildered that the scrawny academic was able to match him in
hand-to-hand combat. He stood facing Randall, his knife shifting from hand to
hand. Randall, for his part, marveled at his ability to fight off the younger,
stronger man, looking at his hands in surprise.

Ackers
breathed in
short, snorting noises, his eyes wild with rage. This time, the attack was well
disciplined.
Ackers
drove Randall back against the
rock face, cutting off his line of retreat at each attempt.
Randall,
his back literally against the wall, searched desperately for a weapon.
He found none. His prey now cornered,
Ackers
made his
move at Randall, pinning him against the wall with his open hand, while driving
his blade in an upward arc at Randall’s chest. Randall grabbed Acker’s knife
wielding arm with both of his hands, using all of his force to slow the
impending impact of knife to chest.
Ackers
grunted
against the opposing force, willing the knife closer to his target. The knife
slowly pierced Randall’s stomach – he let out yelp of pain. With all of
his force, he pushed the knifed hand sideways, the blade tearing a ragged wound
in his stomach.
Ackers
staggered against the sideways
force, the knife moving past Randall and becoming embedded in the cavern wall.
The pain in Randall’s stomach was at first a searing heat, then a throbbing
ache.

Randall
backpedaled away from
Ackers
, but the mercenary
regained his footing and drove his elbow into Randall’s injured stomach.
Randall staggered backward, holding his stomach.
Ackers
gripped the knife handle, wrenching it from the wall. Ribbons of light from the
surface created a surreal view of the crazed mercenary lurching closer to
Randall.
Ackers
lunged, the knife blade leading the
charge. Randall dodged to the side. The blade swung again, catching Randall in
his left thigh. He spun away from
Ackers
, his stomach
and thigh oozing blood. The stench of sweat and blood filled his lungs, causing
Randall to wretch. He wiped his mouth, watching
Ackers
circle him like a wild beast moving in for the kill.

Another
attack
, this one up high. The blade of the knife narrowly
missed Randall’s right cheek as he pulled away.
Ackers
countered with a kick to Randall’s stomach, which sent him careening into the
wall. He bounced off the hard, slick rock, falling to the ground, gasping for
air. Despair gripped him. If
Ackers
beat him, he
would surely kill Sam and Phil as well. Randall dragged himself to his feet,
knowing that if he didn’t he was dead. He saw
Ackers
wearing an evil smile. “It will all be over soon.”

“Come on, you
psychopath, come and get me!” Randall goaded.

The crazed
mercenary’s eyes narrowed, the look on his face a mixture of confusion and
sheer hatred.

Ackers
grunted. “Get
ready to die, asshole.” He moved toward Randall, who matched each movement
forward with a step back.

“You talk tough
for a man who keeps backing up,”
Ackers
said,
savoring the moment.

Randall watched
the
mercenary,
his eyes locked on his every move.

Ackers
moved forward,
breathing heavily, switching the knife from one hand to the other. “Where are
you going, Professor? There’s nowhere to hide.”

Ackers
bull-rushed
him, trying to tackle him to the ground. Thinking quickly, as he fell, Randall
placed his booted foot into
Ackers’s
stomach. Using
the mercenary’s own weight against him, Randall launched
Ackers
into the air and sent him flying into the tunnel wall.
Ackers
hit the wall hard, letting out a scream as he did, his body making a loud
cracking sound as it impacted. Randall watched as the now lifeless body dropped
the floor, the mercenary’s contorted face coming to rest looking at Randall. It
was over
now,
Ackers
would
never harm his family again.

Randall grabbed
his flashlight and sprinted up the tunnel, which grew hotter by the minute. He
shined the light up and down the shaft, moving back toward
Vilcabamba
where
Ackers
had first attacked him. “There has to be
an exit here somewhere!” The increasing heat within the tunnel made it more
difficult for Randall to move. Finally, he found what he was looking for: a side
tunnel. Randall turned the corner and saw Sam, Phil and George bound and gagged
on the ground.

“Thank God, are
you all okay?”

Randall removed
Sam’s gag first.

“Dad, you have
to watch out, he’s crazy!
Ackers
caught us, tied us
up and said he was going to kill you!”

“It’s okay Sam,
he’s gone now. He can’t hurt anyone else. We’ve got to hurry, this volcano is
going to erupt any moment now.”

Randall quickly
glanced at his watch; eleven minutes remained until the event horizon.

Once again, the
earth shook violently. Chunks of rock fell from the roof of the cavern. The air
became choked with dust. George was the only one still tied up.

“Sam, Phil, get
out of here, I’ll get George.”

“We can’t leave
you!”

“Phil, get her
out of here! Now!”

Phil grabbed
Sam and forced her into the shaft, pushing her toward daylight. Another
earthquake shook as they stumbled up the cavern.

The small side
cavern was filled with dust, obscuring anything farther than an arm’s length
away. Randall felt his way along the side of the cavern until he found George,
still bound and gagged, and not moving.

“George!”
Randall removed the gag first and put his ear against his friend’s mouth. He
was rewarded with a string of coughs. He struggled to find the knot in the rope
Ackers
had used to tie George up. The cavern shook
again. Randall shielded George from falling debris. Once the shaking stopped,
he was finally able to untie him.

“Come on, we
need to get out of here.”

George screamed
in pain as Randall pulled him to his feet. “My leg, I think it’s broken. Goddam
it, it hurts like Hell!”

Randall waved
away the dirty air, revealing a nasty gash and a purple-black lump the size of
a baseball on George’s leg.

“It’s broken,
but we’ve got to move. George, I’ll get you out, but you’re going to have to
help me. You’ve got to use your good leg to walk.” Randall grabbed George under
the armpit and hoisted him onto his shoulder, bracing the young engineer by
placing his arm over his own shoulder. “Okay, we move on three. One, two …”
Another violent shake, worse than the previous two. Debris was everywhere and
the two men were thrown to the cavern floor.

George screamed
in pain. “Dr. Randall, you’ve got to get out of here, just leave me.”

Randall
struggled to his feet, grabbing George once again and moving toward the main
tunnel. As they reached the shaft, they immediately felt the heat. Randall
glanced down to where
Vilcabamba
had once been. There
was only superheated, glowing magma slowly forcing its way up the main shaft.
As they moved into the main tunnel, a wall of heat hit them. The main exit had
become a blast furnace. Randall struggled forward; the ragged wound in his
stomach felt like someone had shoved hot coals into him. The air was thick with
dust, which coated his throat and the inside of his lungs. The combination of
the intense heat along with the choking, dusty air was a deadly elixir, one
that promised to make the last hundred yards a nightmare for Randall and
George.

They pressed
forward, Randall telling himself,
Just
a little further
.
Another earthquake struck. More debris and dust choked the shaft. The pair lost
their balance and crashed against the hard rocky floor. George moaned in pain,
Randall coughed up brown mucus. The movement of earth created a curtain of
dust, which temporarily blocked out all light from the surface. Randall picked
himself up, his thigh pulsing with pain. He grabbed George and they continued
their slow crab-like crawl out of the mountain.

Minutes passed
like hours, the heat increasing with each step forward. The light was becoming
brighter now; they were getting closer. The shaft of light beckoned them
forward, and Randall responded with a surge of energy. “Just a little bit
farther George.”

Randall could
hear Phil’s voice and he knew they were close now, maybe fifty feet. The added
strain of carrying George through the dust-choked chamber had drained him of
his energy.

“Phil, Sam, can
you hear me! Hey guys, we need help.”

“Dr. Randall,
we’re here!” Phil entered the shaft, Sam close behind.

“Grab George
and help him out.”

Phil and Sam
grabbed their injured friend and carried him to the surface. Randall leaned
against the side of the cavern, needing the rocky wall to hold
himself
up.

“Come on, Dad,
you’ve got to keep moving!”

Randall pulled
himself to his feet and continued the march forward toward daylight, moving
slowly with exhaustion. His muscles burned like never before, but the thought
of exiting that hell on earth drove him forward.

Sam and Phil
gently set George down on the ground outside the cavern. “I wasn’t sure if I’d
ever see daylight again.” He smiled weakly.

Sam kissed him
gently on the cheek. “We never would have left you behind.” Under his dusty
mask, George’s cheeks blushed from the unsolicited affection.

Just another twenty feet,
Randall told
himself. Then the earth moved again, this time more violently than the other
times. Randall was knocked off balance, tumbling sideways into the side of the
tunnel and then to the ground. His flashlight, no longer under his control,
danced crazily in the air. Randall slowly got to his feet and surveyed the
darkness. Seeing the beam of light, he bent down and grabbed it. Large chunks
of rock had fallen from the roof of the cavern, sealing his path out. He was
trapped, only a few feet away from Sam and Phil.

Randall sank to
his knees, exhausted and beaten. His entire body ached and he was light-headed.
He slowly lowered himself to the ground and sat, feeling the extreme heat
radiating from the oncoming magma. He glanced wearily down the cavern toward
the molten rock, seeing that it had progressed slowly but steadily in his
direction. From the other side of the rocks, he could hear Sam and Phil’s
voices, distant dismembered sounds floating off into the distance.

He assessed his
options, quickly concluding that there weren’t many. He could try digging his
way out through the fallen rocks, though getting through was not likely, given
their size and weight. His only other option was to head back toward the magma
and hope he could reach the side tunnel before it was engulfed and hope that it
led to another way out. Once again, this wasn’t much of an option. He wasn’t
even sure if the opening to the side tunnel was still there and, if it was,
there was no guarantee it would lead to the outside world. Randall rubbed his
eyes. The only thought that crossed his mind was that he hadn’t come so far
just to trip at the finish line. Randall willed himself not to quit. He had to
make it to the side tunnel.