I forced myself to consider the man more closely. I’d have no trouble poking and prodding at a thousand-year-old mummified cadaver, but studying someone with blood still trickling from his wounds was a different story. Summoning the detachment of a scientist-or a morgue worker-wasn’t easy. In addition to the fresh gaping wounds, he had a number of old scars on his arms. I didn’t know enough about sword fighting to proclaim that he’d gotten them that way, but they were a mix of straight lacerations and punctures.
“I don’t know,” I said again, reluctant to commit to anything. As the one with the archaeology degree, I ought to be the last one to posit ridiculous unscientific notions. “For all we know, he might have been made by whoever made the monster.” Speaking of unscientific notions…. “Maybe it’s a robot,” I said helplessly.
“A robot that bleeds?” Temi asked.
I made a throwaway gesture, half dismissal and half frustration, then walked farther down the chamber, only to halt at the next caved-in alcove. This one held a body as well, the gashed remains of a lean, muscular black man with his hair pulled back in tiny braids and his ears pierced with disks of elephant tusk. Streaks of red ochre paint smudged his cheeks, and he wore a dyed garment that I dubbed a toga, though I doubted that was the right word. I’d only had one class that had touched upon African history.
“Masai warrior?” I asked and found myself looking at Temi for her opinion. She offered a blank look in return, and I blushed and gave myself a mental kick in the butt. Right, because she was black, she was automatically an expert on nomadic African tribes from centuries past.
“This one got a weapon out at least.” Temi pointed to his hand.
He’d died holding a knife. But if he’d been fighting the creature, why hadn’t we heard any sounds of combat? Surely he would have yelled or screamed in pain when his flesh was torn asunder. His eyes weren’t even open. The first man’s hadn’t been either. From their calm faces, it appeared as if they’d died in their sleep rather than in battle.
Simon had moved farther down the chamber, and I was of a mind to catch up and leave this mystery until later, but something about the African man’s face snagged my gaze. He appeared to have been about thirty with broad handsome features. Trying to put scientific curiosity ahead of squeamishness, I knelt to examine his teeth. His lips were still warm. I felt sick. If we’d had decent weapons or some kind of plan, we might have been able to stop the predator from slaying all of these people. Whoever they were-had been-I was certain they would have been intriguing to know.
“What are you looking for?” Temi asked.
Remembering my original purpose, I leaned in with my flashlight and inspected his teeth. They were white, straight, and uncrowded in his mouth. He had flawless skin as well, aside from a few scars that, as with the first body, appeared to have come in battle.
“Answers,” I said, “but all I have is more questions.”
“About his teeth?” Temi raised her eyebrows.
I sat back on my heels. “I thought that if he had some cavities, it’d be a clue that he was a modern dude dressed to look like a primitive dude. You didn’t see much of that before sugars and processed foods were introduced to cultures around the world.”
“But he doesn’t have any?”
“Nope. Perfect teeth with a jaw large enough to let all his wisdom teeth come in without trouble. Lots of theories on the why, but that’s getting rarer these days.”
“Guys?” Simon said from the end of the chamber where he was staring into the last alcove. He had his hand flat against… nothing. It was as if there were a window there, but I didn’t see any glass. Maybe it was simply too clean and perfect to see from where I stood. The stone columns framing that alcove hadn’t been smashed. “I think these are stasis chambers,” Simon said.
“They’re what?” I asked. “And if the words star or trek come up in your explanation, I’m going to thump you over the head with that big shield.”
Simon had his mouth open, about to launch into his answer, but he closed it and glowered at me before starting again. “In Space Seed, an episode of an excellent but at the time under appreciated space-based adventure show-” I rolled my eyes, but he pressed on, “-a team of genetically engineered super men who’d tried to take over the planet were cryonically frozen and placed into stasis chambers inside a ship that was launched into space. These superior beings were revived by the crew of the Enterprise before the captain realized what they were dealing with.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen it. These guys weren’t frozen though.” I rubbed my fingers at the memory of the lingering warmth of the dead man’s lips.
“That’s just what happened in the story,” Simon said. “Maybe these chambers used some other kind of technology to keep their specimens alive. Alive but in a biologically suspended state.”
“Swords, glowing relics, advanced technology, and robot monsters,” I muttered. “Someone want to let me know whether we’re wandering through a fantasy movie or a science fiction one, because I’m getting mixed messages here?”
Simon shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“I want to know whether we should be looking for a warlock to help us build a magical artifact of doom to destroy the evil wizard behind this or a scientist to construct an electromagnetic field generator to wipe out the nefarious aliens’ super technology.”
This statement earned me blank looks from Temi and Simon. Apparently they weren’t impressed with my tendency to get sarcastic and cranky when the world wasn’t working right.
Shaking my head, I walked past more destroyed alcoves on my way to look at the undamaged one in front of Simon. I passed three more bodies along the way. One wore the dark garb of a ninja, one had the headdress and jade axe of a Mayan warrior, and one was clad in the helmet and armor of a Roman centurion.
“They’re all from different time periods,” I told Simon. “They couldn’t have been snatched up and frozen here at the same time. Not to mention that they’re all here, thousands of miles from where they’re from. Who would have brought them to Arizona? And for what purpose? I think it’s more likely that…” I rubbed my face. “Ugh, this is sounding more science fiction-y all the time, but maybe someone found samples of DNA and grew them from scratch.”
“Oh, like Jurassic Park,” Simon said.
“Is everything a movie or TV show for you?”
“No… that one was a book. It was a book first, anyway.”
“Maybe if we keep hunting around, we’ll stumble across the secret lab where it was all done,” I said. Not exactly the archaeological find I’d hoped to make down here, but nothing about this day-or week-was going as planned, so I don’t know why I’d expected something different from these caves.
“Oh,” Simon said again, this time with an enthusiastic bounce, “maybe the monster was the scientist’s first creation, and the reason it’s back here destroying everything is because-”
One of the rocks half burying the Roman centurion shifted and tumbled down the pile. I jumped a yard.
More helpfully, Temi pointed her flashlight at the body. My breath caught. His eyes were open, his face contorted in a rictus of pain. As with the other warriors, his chest had been torn open by claws and his neck slashed, but the creature must have been in a hurry for it hadn’t severed the jugular. The man tried to turn his head to look at us, but ended up gasping, short wheezing breaths. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
I wasn’t sure whether to run from him or try to comfort him. Was he an enemy? Or a friend? Or neither? Just a victim?
Temi didn’t hesitate. She knelt by the pile and took the man’s hand.
He looked at her, his dark brown eyes full of pain. He whispered something, urgency lacing his tone.
“What?” Temi asked.
I crept forward. I could barely hear him.