“Down where?” Drake said.
The huge snake came dropping down at them like a missile of scales and teeth. Emma immediately fired several rapid shots into a head that seemed to fill the entire shaft.
Drake could do little other than throw an arm over the shrieking Helen and cover her with his own body.
Ben screamed his frustration and tried to lever himself up. The monstrous snake seemed to coil around the outside of the shaft, its muscular body laying on the winding steps, and pressing outwards to hold itself in place. With the snake now not fully blocking the shaft, the gale-force wind started to howl upward again.
Ben released one hand to reach down for his spears, knowing he couldn’t possibly get the leverage to throw them, but thinking he might be able to pass them up to Emma or Drake.
As he fumbled them out, the snake lunged, and Emma fired her remaining rounds into its open mouth. The snake pulled to the side just over Drake and Helen, smashing into the side of the shaft to avoid the stinging pellets.
“I’m out!” Emma yelled and looked down at her watch, and Ben could tell by her face, their time was up. Around them, the entire shaft shuddered, and chunks of the steps, dust, and debris rained down.
Ben held out the spears. “Take these… ”
A baseball-sized chunk of rock flew down from above and struck his wrist, smashing the spears from his hand, and they tumbled away into the void.
“Shit!” he yelled. He looked briefly over his shoulder, but they were already gone. He’d lost their last weapon, but more importantly, he wondered would they…
The detonation was like a thunderclap. The shaft lit momentarily as an orange flower bloomed several hundred feet below them. The snake pulled back on itself a few dozen feet, as the hurricane winds first brought the heat of the blast, to be quickly followed by the sound of collapsing stone.
And then there was just dead air.
Ben stared downwards, knowing what that meant. He turned away to look up at Emma, and their eyes met.
She mouthed the fateful words he already knew.
“Time’s up.”
He felt like just letting go and letting himself drop to the bottom of the collapsed shaft. They were all doomed now anyway, he thought.
Ben looked past Emma and saw the snake still hanging above them, glassine, soulless eyes on them again. It seemed confident now that the bloom of the explosion didn’t mean any harm to it, and then it burst into action.
The Titanoboa came down on them and its coils against the blocks sounded like a miller’s stone crushing the rock to dust. Drake turned toward it, and then stood, defiant and waiting. But as the monstrous reptile opened its enormous mouth, displaying rows of backward-curving, tusk-like teeth, the air around it became indistinct.
It just seemed to become frozen, like an old movie on a projector where the film wheel has stopped.
“What?” Ben’s mouth hung open.
And then… it simply vanished.
Everyone just stared, mouth’s gaping, and no one able to speak for several moments.
“What. Just. Happened?” Ben asked softly.
“It’s gone,” Emma said with a chuckle. “The snake, the world, Primordia, it must be all gone.”
“Primordia has left us and taken that goddamn snake with it,” Drake whooped. “Yes!”
“Little help here.” Ben still dangled on the step, his fingertips now bloodless from the strain.
Emma finally was able to step over him and help him get an arm up over the remaining steps. Ben climbed back up and sat with his back against the wall. He looked up at her. “We can’t go down.”
“So we go up.” She grinned and rubbed his shoulder.
Ben nodded. “We go up. And we pray.”
CHAPTER 45
They scaled upward, taking them hours this time. At first, the massive body of the snake had crushed the stone steps, but further up, they simply ceased to exist. The carved steps had been totally eroded back into the wall.
Emma’s rock climbing skills allowed her to lead the way, and when they finally reached the top, she found there was no well-like structure built around the rim, but instead a roof of solid stone over the top of them. There was a slim crack of light showing, and together, they battered, beat, and bludgeoned the hole wide enough for Emma to be able to slide through.
She stayed down on her belly for a few more seconds, hugging the stone, and trying to shake off the fatigue and disorientation. They weren’t in a cave anymore, and she felt slightly nauseous as she got slowly to her feet.
“Wow.” She took a few halting steps, looking one way then the other, before quickly coming back to pick up a rock and bash the hole wide enough so Ben, Drake, and Helen could slide out.
They stood shoulder-to-shoulder, not moving, but simply adjusting, as they let their eyes move over the landscape.
Drake limped forward a few paces. “Ho-oooly shit.” He turned. “Did this just happen?”
Ben nodded slowly but reached up to wipe streaming eyes. “Yeah, yeah it did.” He smiled through his tears. “And now it’s over.” He threw his head back and whooped.
The tepui was different — very different. There was no monstrous snake, no gargantuan dinosaurs, or flesh-eating bugs. There was no primordial jungle, no lake, no temple, no nothing. It was like they had been transported to another planet.
Instead, there was just a weather-beaten, heavily cracked surface of a flat-topped mountain. Instead, there were a few stunted trees, wind-ravaged spindly grasses, ponds of water, and a clear blue sky above them.
“Gone, all gone.” Emma turned, arms out. Her face broke into a broad smile and she rushed to Ben to wrap both arms around him. “We made it.”
“We made it. WE MADE IT!” Ben lifted Emma off her feet and spun her around. “We’re back.”
“Thank God,” Helen said and tilted her face to the sun. “Home.”
Drake hobbled back to them. “We’re not home just yet.” He pointed. “We’re still right in the middle of the Amazon jungle.”
Emma looked out at the endless landscape — the tepui mountain was a floating island in a sea of impenetrable green for as far as the eye could see in every direction.
“Not this time,” Emma said. “Cynthia knows where we are.” She looked at Ben. “And you just try and keep this guy’s mom from seeing her little lost boy.”
Ben laughed out loud. “Today is a good day.” He put his arm around her and looked up into the sky. High up and toward the west, there was a faint streak, like an artist had daubed a tiny dash of white.
“Primordia is going again.”
“Good riddance,” Emma said.
“It’ll be back again,” Ben said. “In ten years.”
“Yeah, well, when it is… ” Drake grinned. “Please don’t call me.” His face became serious, and he fumbled in his pocket for his canteen. He shook it, eliciting the sound of a few drops sloshing around inside. He then uncapped it and held it up.
“To our friends not with us — to Brocke, Ajax, Fergus, Camilla, Juan, and Andy. We thank you and will miss you.” He sipped and passed it to Emma, and then Ben.
“Um.” Emma winced and turned to see Helen walking away, looking down at the bleak rock.
“No, we didn’t lose him,” Ben said. “He chose his path. I just hope he finds what he’s looking for.” Ben looked out toward the east. He knew just over the mountains there lay a sparkling blue ocean. On its shore today were the bustling metropolises of Georgetown, Paramaribo, and hundreds of smaller villages like Mahaica and Suddie and countless more. But it wasn’t always like that.