“Let’s explore.”
He put Gluck down and his little friend waddled after him as he crossed the tide-line. Andy noted where the surf had come to, and he surmised that it was close to high tide right now, so his boat drifting away wasn’t going to be a problem. Also, the reef barrier should keep out anything larger than a salmon-sized fish, so the large marine predators shouldn’t bother him. Though he knew that the sea crocodiles could cross the reef if they wanted to, it was far too shallow for them to conceal themselves.
He entered the thicket and immediately encountered the pterosaur nesting sites. In among the squabbling and furiously scolding flying reptiles, he managed to steal several eggs without losing too much skin from his hands. He did have to rescue Gluck who obviously seemed to think of himself as part of Andy’s gang or flock now and went to attack several of the creatures that tried to peck at his big friend.
The one thing that Andy noticed was that the nesting sites weren’t built upon one another as he expected from a species coming to the same area over and over. He started to have an inkling of why there were no other terrestrial animals living here.
His next discovery confirmed his suspicions.
Toward the center of the island, piled up against two stout-looking tree trunks, were the remains of a huge animal. Great curving ribs rose high above his head, each as thick as his thigh. A massive skull, 10 feet long, lay on the sandy soil, and on its surface were patches of sun-dried leathery skin.
He saw that it had no arms and legs, but the remains of flippers. Andy went and ran a hand along the skull, and then exhaled.
“You didn’t crawl in here, did you?”
He looked around, seeing everything with a clearer eye — this was why the pterosaur nests only looked to be a dozen or so years old, and not hundreds: a huge wave had deposited the massive sea beast’s carcass here. More than likely, the area was subjected to huge storms and might be totally submerged from time to time. If Andy were caught here during one, then not being able to fly away like the pterosaurs meant he’d be drowned.
“Short visit only then, I guess.”
Andy crossed back to the rocky beach. It was already late when he arrived, and he decided he had time to wade out and grab some fish, shells, or anything else he could catch for dinner. Accommodation was easy, as he had learned that sometimes simply turning his boat over and sleeping underneath was the safest option and cut off his sounds and smells from interested predators.
He waded out into the bath-warm water and as he went, he grabbed one of the pterosaur eggs from his bag, put it to his mouth, and used his teeth to bite through the leathery covering. He ripped it away and sucked most of the fluid out. It was fishy tasting, rich, and oily. If he was back in his own time, his stomach might have rebelled at the strong flavors, but he had trained himself to eat all manner of things to survive, and hunger meant any food was good food.
The contents also contained the beginning of a small pterosaur, and rather than eat this, he lowered it into the bag for Gluck to greedily gobble down.
“You know that’s cannibalism, right?” He grinned and then tossed the shell fragments into the water before him where they created a milky cloud as their remaining fluid leaked out.
Fish almost immediately began to dart through it. On the bottom were numerous almost perfectly circular rocks or growths that looked like flat plates about a foot around or perhaps were some sort of scallop, and as Andy lifted his spear over the silver torpedoes, one of the discs opened and something that looked like a stubby, sandy-colored eel shot out.
“Holy shit.” He backed up, but then swung his arms, not wanting to set foot on any of the discs behind him.
The thing had been all mouth and teeth, and had grabbed one of the fish and drew back into its lair with an amazing speed. It seemed to be some sort of stonefish species, but obviously something that never made it into the fossil record.
As Andy watched, more and more of the jack-in-a-box ambushes took place due to the feeding frenzy he had created. The ambush-eels didn’t seem that large, more double-football sized, but looked more frightening than they were due to their front half being all mouth that was full of needle teeth.
Thankfully, big two-legged land creatures weren’t that interesting to them, and as he backed up to the shore, he still managed to spear a few fish on the way. It looked like there was going to be plenty for everyone.
That evening after he and Gluck had eaten their fill, he sat close to the shoreline with his back against a tree and looked up at the night sky. The stars were enormously bright, and the moon so close he felt he could almost reach out and touch it. In fact, it really was closer, and the constellations of stars were very different at this time.
Andy inhaled, drawing in the warm scents of the ocean, dry beach, plants, and even the fishy odor of the pterosaur nests. The flying reptiles had quietened down for the night and there was just the soft shushing of the surf out against the far reef. The evening’s warmth, combined with the isolation of his little island, made him feel safer than he had in years.
“I love everything about this place.” He smiled contentedly as Gluck climbed up onto his lap and nestled down. “Helen will too.”
He stroked the pterosaur, and it made a small noise like cooing. Andy sighed and felt a little down knowing he had to set off again next morning. But they weren’t far from home now, and the thought of seeing his sister again rallied his spirits.
“Yeah, she’ll love this place as much as I do. I know she will.” Andy leaned his head back against the tree and began to doze.
CHAPTER 35
“There it is.” Ben held up a hand and stopped the group.
The rain fell in large drops that felt like warm oil but its curtains still couldn’t hide the sight that met their eyes.
Through the mad tangle of green vines and creepers, there was the outline of the monolithic plateau’s cliff wall, rising to vanish into the dark clouds over 1,000 feet above it.
“We made it.” Nicolás tried to push past him but Ben grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.
Nicolás shrugged him free. “The abnormal effects — the clouds, wind, and rain, all just over the plateau, exactly as we thought.” He turned. “Technically, I know how this happens. But physically seeing it, I still can’t believe it.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Helen said from Drake’s shoulder.
An eerie bellow rang out, followed by an unearthly shriek that was suddenly cut off. The group looked from one to the other and finally Nicolás swallowed hard and spoke.
“What… was that?”
“A doorway to Hell beginning to open.” Ben continued to stare up at the plateau.
“We told you.” Drake turned to Nicolás. “It’s not just the weather that gets all screwy.”
“Whoa.” Nicolás blew air between his lips.
Ben checked his watch. The rubberized analog-casing watch still worked as he hoped. “Okay, we’ve got four hours until Primordia is right over us and the doorway opens. An hour’s trek, give or take, until we’re at its base where we’ll make camp and grab a last coffee. Then I estimate another hour to make it to the summit using the winches. That should put us right on the money.”
Ben had pulled free a small pair of binoculars and scanned the jungle ahead. “We can’t be there too soon, and need to time it so we are right there when the anomaly is underway — from then, we’ll have about 20 hours to find Andy.”
He glanced at Helen. “And bring him back.”