“There.” Emma pointed.
Drake saw it. “Fergus, Brocke, 10 o’clock.”
All other heads turned to where Emma was pointing. The dark and slowly turning clouds seemed to dip into a sort of vortex. Fergus and Brocke opened and closed flaps, expertly maneuvering the balloon closer. It took them another 30 minutes until they edged over the vortex.
“Ho-oooly shit.” Andy grinned. “I think I can see jungle down there… and a lake. But it’s sort of … distorted, oily.”
“I expected that,” Emma said. “I believe there’s some sort of barrier, like a partition layer, magnetic waves or something, between our time and the past. It’s probably what stops those pterodons from flying away. We’ll need to pass through it.”
“Cool,” Andy said and turned back to hang over the basket’s side.
Drake leaned further out and held his binoculars to his eyes. “No clearings for landings that I can see.” He looked to Emma. “Were there any you can recall?”
Emma bobbed her head. “The only open spaces we encountered were at the jungle’s end — right on the plateau edge.”
“That’s where you said it ended up becoming like a hurricane?” Ajax threw in.
“That’s right.” Emma turned. “Hopefully, we’ll be gone long before then.”
Drake was looking down through the binoculars again. “It’s not a huge plateau to search, so the plan is we’re in and out quickly.”
“Not too quickly,” Andy said.
Drake saw Emma turn away. She’s hiding something, he thought. He didn’t like it. Lack of information on a dangerous mission got people killed.
“We’re over the center, boss,” Fergus intoned. “What are your orders?”
Drake looked to Emma. “Okay?”
She nodded.
“Take her down, Mr. O’Reilly.”
“Aye, aye.” He opened the top bag vent and let out some hot air. Immediately, the balloon started to drop in the air. “And, going down.”
“Hoo-wee. Next stop, ladies stockings, haberdashery, and freaking dinosaurs, man.” Ajax grinned ear to ear.
Emma gripped the edge of the basket hard as the balloon dropped into the funnel-like vortex in the clouds. Her heart hammered in her chest, and even though she had been mentally preparing herself for a decade, now that she was actually doing it, a growing ball of nausea in her stomach told her she was fooling herself to believe she had it all under control.
She also knew that once down there, it wasn’t the plateau at all. In fact, it had seemed more like a tiny slice of an entire world, not ours, and so ancient as to be unrecognizable to tiny, soft, and modern creatures like us.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, would everyone be ready for a fast disembark when we hit the ground?” Drake said. “We don’t know what we might encounter, but as we’ll be coming down big and slow, if anything looks up, we might be perceived as some sort of big fat bird coming in to roost.”
“You mean like something’s big fat dinner?” Camilla asked.
Drake just shrugged, but Emma knew everyone got the point. Backpacks were checked, loaded, and zipped. The civilians’ weapons were holstered and anything not secured was strapped down. The soldiers rechecked their weapons and held them ready.
The balloon approached the oily film-like layer that almost seemed like a cap over the land below, and as the basket touched it, it actually slowed in the air as though it was a type of membrane. Helen reached over and stuck a hand out as the basket settled through it like they were sinking into it.
“It’s sort of like… thick oil. But it’s dry.” She wiggled her fingers in the air as the basket eased down through the layer, a little like it had landed on the ocean and was now slowly sinking.
“More like some sort of distortion layer,” Emma said. “Between our time and theirs.”
Helen frowned as she leaned over. “I can hear something.”
The balloon settled further down into the layer by another few feet.
“Sort of like, um, whistling.” Helen looked up. “Or howling.”
“Howling?” Drake’s eyes widened. “Wind.”
They dropped all the way through the membrane layer, and then all hell broke loose.
The balloon and basket were grabbed by hurricane-force winds that acted like a mighty hand pulling and tearing at them. Immediately, the bag of the balloon was dragged down, and the entire basket went sideways. Bodies slid and crashed to the side, and equipment also skidded, smashing into them and also some bouncing and then disappearing over the side railing.
Juan yelled in despair as his camera case bounced once, twice, and then sailed into space.
“Hang on!” Drake yelled over the roar of the wind.
Emma screwed her eyes to slits and hung onto one of the basket’s ropes as she tried to remain upright. The wind was like a living thing; it was loud, had a physical presence, and seemed goddamn angry.
It became obvious that the strange distortion effect over the land not only separated the two worlds, but also had a layer of super agitated air between them, like the very planes of reality were rebelling against each other.
In the next second, Andy lost his grip on the basket’s railing, fell, and then slid into Fergus’ legs, knocking him over. As the soldier’s hands were knocked away from the burner, the jet shot up to its maximum three-foot flame.
The envelope of the balloon was treated with significant flame retardant, so they didn’t catch fire like the Hindenburg Airship. But that doesn’t mean they can’t burn — they can, but instead of catching fire, they melt, and to Emma’s horror, she watched as a four-foot hole was seared through the side of the balloon.
Gas heaved out, and the bag began to rapidly deflate as the wind continued to pummel the huge floating sack, squeezing even more of the hot air from it.
The balloon immediately dropped a hundred feet, as people yelled, screamed, and tried to hang on. Eventually, the balancing act between lighter-than-air travel, and gravity, is always won by gravity.
The upside was they passed out of the wind agitation layer, but they were coming down now at a rate of about 10 miles per hour, and as the balloon continued to deflate, they accelerated, going from balloon rate, to parachute rate, to falling at a rate that was going to mean serious injury, or death.
Drake struggled to his feet. He dragged himself to the basket’s edge and peered over.
“Coming down…!” and then, “… on water!”
Oh shit, no, Emma thought.
“Bra-aaace!” The big man bent his knees.
The basket struck hard, and it was like a bomb going off, as they were all crushed flat to the bottom of the basket.
And they bounced. Bodies, equipment and supplies lifted and dropped again. Juan, who could only hold on with one arm, landed on top of Emma and his elbow smashed her lip, cutting it.
They were all thrown to one side of the large basket, and it immediately caused it to tip. Water began to pour over the side as they settled.
Emma pushed the big Venezuelan off and climbed to her feet. They were toward the middle of a lake, the lake, and she quickly looked one way, then the other to get her bearings.
“Out, out, out.” She grabbed Juan and dragged him up. “Swim, swim… ” She pointed to the closest bank. “Drake, to the shore, there. Fast.”
The soldiers were tossing packs over the side, and also helped in pushing people out. In another few seconds, the basket was inundated and beginning to sink.