ANCIENT ENEMY
By MARK LUKENS
This book is dedicated to my wife, my love, who never once told
me that I was wasting time writing these novels.
She’s the most caring person I know.
CHAPTER ONE
New Mexico Badlands
–Anasazi Dig Site
He was out there – she was sure of it.
Stella remained perfectly still; she listened for sounds of movement around the dark room, but all she could hear was heavy breathing, some snoring, and the ceaseless wind that howled around the trailer. The room was claustrophobic with the smells of body odor, sweat, and fear. She made herself wait a few more minutes before opening her eyes. She wanted to be sure everyone else was asleep.
Under the thin sheet that covered her body, Stella was fully dressed. She even had her hiking boots on. She had been planning this for more than a day now. This was her only chance.
And David’s only chance.
Finally, after counting slowly to one hundred, Stella opened her eyes just a crack. She sat up, not making a sound. She looked around the dark room at the few people who were left; some of them curled up on chairs, some on the floor. Some clutched weapons in their hands as they slept: knives, archeological axes, anything that could be used in defense.
Jake, who was supposed to be awake and on guard, slept in a fetal position on the floor, a hunting knife gripped in one hand.
Stella watched Jake as she pulled the sheet away from her body and swung her feet to the floor. Keeping her eyes on Jake, she groped in the darkness for her purse on the floor beside the couch. The keys to her rusted and battered Chevy Suburban were inside the purse.
Stella grabbed her coat from the end of the couch and stood up in the darkness. She froze. Someone coughed and snorted in their sleep, but then the person rolled over and laid still. After the four days of terror they’d been through, it was unbelievable that they could sleep at all – but the body eventually surrenders to its basic needs of food and sleep.
And survival, her mind whispered.
Stella crept past a table cluttered with labeled Anasazi artifacts that they had dug out of the cave only a week ago. Had it been only a week? It seemed like years – another lifetime. She made it to the side door of the trailer, unlocked the lock, opened the door, and slipped out into the dark night.
Jake’s eyes popped open. He sat up in the darkness and watched Stella slip out the door. He gripped the hunting knife in his hand, his forearm muscles bunching. He got to his feet and walked to the back door of the trailer. He knew what he had to do.
Stella hurried down the trailer steps and stood on the rocky ground. Her eyes scanned the dark canyon floor – she spotted David, forty yards away, bundled up in his coat as he gazed out at the barren landscape under the starry night sky. Stella glanced back at the trailer – no one coming. Then she hurried out to David.
She stood beside David. He seemed so small and fragile, only nine years old, at least half Navajo, maybe even full-blooded, she didn’t know for sure. She didn’t know much about David at all; the only thing she knew about him was that the others inside the trailer wanted to kill him.
Stella touched David’s shoulder, a gentle touch. He looked up at her with his dark eyes; they were almost like dark shimmering pools of liquid in the night. “David, we need to leave right now. You understand, don’t you?”
David nodded. He offered her his hand. She took it and they ran.
They ran past the three temporary trailers and tents that had been set up at the dig site weeks ago. Even though they tried to be quiet, Stella could hear their shoes pounding the rocky landscape as they raced towards the group of cars and trucks in the distance. None of the vehicles worked anymore, and she wasn’t sure why she believed her Suburban would start now.
But that wasn’t the truth, was it? She had an idea of why her truck was going to start this time.
They were only sixty yards away from the group of trucks when Jake jumped out from behind the last trailer, the hunting knife gripped in his hand, an insane look in his eyes. His hair was wild, his clothes ripped, and he seemed to be unaffected by the freezing air. This wasn’t the Jake that she’d known – longtime archeologist, longtime friend. This Jake was someone different, an animal trying to survive.
Stella and David stopped; Stella’s arm shot out in front of David protectively.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jake screeched at them as he took a step towards them. “You can’t leave!”
Stella didn’t answer; she just watched Jake like someone would watch an unpredictable animal.
Jake took another step towards them; his eyes were unblinking orbs of terror. “You can’t take him!”
“I have to,” Stella answered.
“We have to do what he wants. We have to give him what he’s asking for.”
Stella stood her ground, her arm still in front of David. “No. I won’t do this.”
“We have to!”
There was a rustling in the brush near Jake. He turned and tried to look everywhere at once. The cold night wind blew harder, it howled down into the canyon, swirling sand around, bringing the coppery smell of blood with it.
He was coming.
Jake shook his head as unnoticed tears of hopelessness slipped from his eyes. He called out to the dark night, to the dark wind. “No! I’m doing what you want!”
Stella remained in front of David, ready to protect him as best she could.
Jake backed up to the last trailer, still shaking his head no, still trying to look everywhere at once. His back touched the metal wall of the trailer and he held his knife out in a trembling hand, like it was his last line of defense.
Jake looked back at Stella, and Stella could see a realization dawning in his eyes now; she could see some of the old Jake back in those eyes. He shook his head no as tears slipped from his eyes. He tried to give her a smile, but his lips were trembling too badly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m not going to let him take me while I’m still alive.”
Stella moved in front of David to block his view of what she knew was coming next. But she wasn’t able to turn away in time and she saw Jake bring the hunting knife up to his own throat. He didn’t hesitate, he slashed his own throat in one sharp cut; he opened up a wide gash in his flesh that spilled dark blood immediately.
Stella turned and nudged David forward into the night, keeping him away from the horrible sight of Jake. But she couldn’t block out the sounds of Jake’s gurgling throat, of the liquid thump as his body hit the ground, the sound of one leg kicking at the trailer in death spasms.
“Run!” Stella yelled at David.
They bolted for the group of vehicles.
As they got closer to the vehicles, Stella could hear something chasing them, crashing through the brush – gaining on them.
The Suburban was only thirty feet away now. Twenty feet away. Ten.
Stella didn’t dare turn and see what was chasing them; she opened the door of her Suburban and yelled at David. “Get in!”
David hopped inside and scrambled across the bench seat.
Stella jumped inside and slammed the door shut. Her fingers slapped at the door lock button. She rummaged in her purse for the keys to the truck. Her fingers finally curled around the keys. She tried to jab the key into the ignition with trembling fingers, but she was shaking too badly and she dropped the keys down onto the floorboard.
David sat up on his knees in the passenger seat as he stared out at the inky darkness outside the truck’s windows.
Stella groped for the keys in the darkness down by her feet. Her fingers searched and searched – and then she found them. She sat back up; she didn’t look at David, she didn’t look out the windows, she only concentrated on getting that damn key into the ignition. They were so close now to escape – so close.