He first noticed dirt paths climbing those mountain walls, paths hidden behind boulders and climbing in a haphazard design. It took some effort, but he managed to track one of those paths to its destination: a hole in the rock face. Small and surrounded by dead brush, that hole was, in fact, a cave opening. Then he saw next to the cave entrance a Chaktaw guard, well-camouflaged in his color-changing poncho that had turned a mixture of brown and tan to match the mountain's terrain.
Trevor gasped aloud as his eyes adjusted to the entire picture before him; a network of paths servicing dozens of cave openings, each nearly invisible.
"We're here," he said to Nina who stood nearby with her hands also tied. "Look," he nodded toward the ridge. Like Trevor, it took a moment for her to realize that they were surrounded by some kind of Chaktaw city. "This isn't another break; we're at Fromm's base."
She said, "I didn't even notice."
"Amazing. There's a ton of entrances but you can't see them unless you're at the doorstep. And look at the paths through the mountain, they're all random and shit so they won't draw attention from aerial recon."
Something stole Nina's attention from the caves. Her eyes first narrowed and then widened.
"Trevor…look," her voice included a distinct tremble.
He followed her gaze across the gently sloping field. Something moved out there. A whole herd of somethings. The size of vans, the big creatures stampeded forward on four muscular legs. Trevor spied patches of gray armor plates with tufts of brown fir sprouting between. Yet it was the front of the creatures that made him shiver.
The approaching horde sported huge jaws each holding a circular array of teeth with eyes set just above those monstrous maws.
Jaw-Wolves.
A whole pack of them thundered across the muddy grass directly for the caravan.
Directly for Trevor and Nina.
30. The Chaktaw
Trevor watched the pack of armor-plated Jaw-Wolves as they galloped toward him and Major Forest. He felt frozen into inaction from a combination of his bound hands and from the expectation that the Chaktaw soldiers would spring to action and gun the creatures down.
Twenty yards…fifteen yards…
Trevor lost his nerve and screamed, "Christ! Look out!"
The Jaw-Wolves threatened to crash into them. Certainly the pack would cut apart Trevor, Nina, and the Chaktaw workers unpacking the lizards.
With no means of defending himself, Trevor felt entirely helpless. His eyes locked onto the lead wolf and its massive round orifice of ivory-white teeth.
Fromm finally took notice of the approaching danger and shouted a stern command. The Jaw-Wolves stopped their charge as surely as if they had smacked into an invisible wall. The line of hideous creatures halted close to the humans-to the intruders-and waited. Their bellies heaved as puffs of breath-exhales-shot from the sides of their gums like tiny geysers of air.
One gigantic set of teeth hovered less than a meter from Trevor’s face. The beast's small eyes looked at the human, to Fromm, and back to the human.
Trevor shivered from head to toe, his heart threatened to pound right out from his chest. He had seen Jaw-Wolves swallow men whole and knew them to be one of the most dangerous predators to come to his Earth.
As he lifted his bound hands to wipe his forehead, he noticed Fromm wore an expression one part smug and one part laugh, no doubt savoring Trevor's fear.
"What are these things?" Nina asked in a shaky voice.
Trevor glanced from Fromm to the Jaw-Wolves and answered, "Grenadiers."
"What?"
"Don’t worry, they won’t attack. Not without Fromm’s orders."
Still unsure of the situation, Nina stood still save for a shiver in her bones, her eyes focused on the magnificent killing machines that resembled something like biological tanks; tanks with a permanent, evil smile similar to a pair of novelty walking teeth.
Trevor stepped directly to one of the huge mouths. His smile could not match the Jaw-Wolf’s natural grin, but he tried nonetheless.
The Emperor from the other world, the one who commanded dogs to help defend his planet, raised his bound wrists, held one finger up, and said to the Jaw-Wolf, "Sit. Stay."
– The hidden entrances in the mountain side concealed far more than simple caves. A labyrinth of tunnels as well as both natural and artificial caverns comprised the Chaktaw hideaway. Some of the passages felt as primitive as a mine shaft lit by torches and lamps. However, most of the halls were lined with gray and blue panels constructed of a material resembling Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) pipe.
Lighting came mainly from rectangular, frosted panels but some rooms made use of the same type of hour-glass fixtures he had spied at the lakeside mansion.
In any case, the buried complex buzzed with activity. Chaktaw warriors marched in squads along corridors. Civilians, even children, ran about carrying boxes and bags.
Trevor overheard urgent conversations and barked orders. Subordinates scurried around at the direction of officers and wheeled carts hauled parts and ordnance to and fro.
The humans remained bound as they were escorted through the facility. With every hall they traversed and every room they passed, the eyes of the Chaktaw people found them and stared. The civilians tended to gaze upon the two in wonder. The children gasped and turned to the nearest adult for sanctuary. The soldiers and officers sneered; their desire to do harm came across clear with no need of translation.
As strange a sight as he and Nina seemed to these people, they were not enough of a distraction to keep the Chaktaw from their duties. Trevor sensed energy in the air and it had nothing to do with him.
Along the way, he saw the Chaktaw equivalent of cots and sleeping bags spilling out from rooms into halls, giving him the distinct impression of overcrowding, also evidenced by the gangs of children racing around the corridors, some pursued by angry adults.
They passed a set of doors marked with bold red and yellow letters. Those doors swung open and a technician walked out, affording Trevor a quick glance inside. He noted two sets of controls, a couple of high-backed chairs, and work stations circling the room, some of which appeared phony like stage props. The entire set up gave him the impression of the bridge of a ship, which did not make sense given the environment.
Nina, who also caught a glance before the door swung shut, started to say, "They seem busy-" but one of the escorting soldiers slapped her and shouted what certainly meant ‘shut up.’
They crossed through a large, spherical cavern with a high, domed roof. This area obviously served as a community gathering place and, given the spiraling ramps ascending and descending to either side as well as the sheer number of passages connecting there, probably served as the central hub of the complex.
Easily two hundred Chaktaw men, women, and children sat about eating and talking. One section of the huge burrow resembled a sort of cafeteria complete with kiosks carved in rock offering food and other goods. Lamps and light panels lit the area, most with exposed wiring.
Although on a much larger scale, the place reminded Trevor of the church basement near the estate back home.
Few noticed the humans as they shuffled through then out a side corridor. The new path was less lit than the other tunnels and the walls grew rougher, less refined.
They finally arrived at their destination; a round cave with jagged walls of dark stone with what appeared to be a seam of coal running around one side. Two Chaktaw soldiers sat at a console just inside the entrance, and banks of security cameras-round orbs with shiny lenses-hung from metal tracks, focused on a round pit dug ten feet into the rock floor.
A metal ramp extended into the pit. The guards directed Trevor and Nina-still dressed in their battle armor and jackets but sans all other supplies-to descend into the pit. One guard followed them and then cut their binds when they reached the bottom.