The wind passed.
At his feet, the rope’s slack continued to decrease. Obviously, the fissure didn’t end a few feet in. Jim must have found his cave after all.
But there wouldn’t be any paintings, would there?
Alex had heard the bizarre theories for years. Fringe scientists and evolutionists who claimed that a race of men had inhabited Antarctica thousands of years ago. They had no evidence. No cave paintings, no skeletons of frozen natives, no nothing.
But that didn’t stop them from supposing.
And Alex found himself wondering if maybe there was a chance…
A small one.
“Hey.”
Alex almost jumped out of his skin. As it was Jim had to brace him. Alex turned. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“Sorry, pal. You gotta come inside and check this out.”
“Check what out?”
“What’s in here.”
“No rock?”
“Nope.”
Alex looked at the Snowcat. “We oughta call it in.”
Jim shook his head. “Forget it, this is too cool. We can call them later. Hell, once they find out what we’ve got here, they’ll come out anyway.”
“It’s that good?”
Jim smiled and ducked back into the darkness.
Alex waited a moment and then followed.
The instant he stepped through the opening, he felt the change. The roar of wind suddenly felt a million miles behind him. The air felt heavier.
It felt warmer.
It wasn’t hot, but whereas it was well below zero outside the fissure, inside the cave it was perhaps ten degrees,
Ten degrees!
Ahead of him, he could see the glow of Jim’s flashlight bouncing along. Alex stumbled to keep up.
Jim stopped. “You feel the change?”
“Warmer.”
“Yeah.”
“Some sort of thermal updraft?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what?”
“Let’s keep walking.”
They traveled two hundred yards in to the mountain itself. Only Jim’s flashlight kept them from tripping over the jagged rock edges poking out of the floor. Alex wondered what could have carved out the channel in the mountain itself. He ran a gloved hand over the wall. The edges were sharp. Not done by water, he surmised.
But what?
He bumped into Jim.
He stopped.
Jim squatted. “Look.”
Alex knelt down and removed his goggles. The temperature change felt more pronounced now. It must have been almost 32 degrees this far into the mountain. Balmy by comparison to the world they’d just left behind.
Jim was pointing to an opening barely big enough to get a hand through. Light spilled out of it. Alex put his head down and tried to look.
Green?
He shook his head. Couldn’t be. He looked again.
And now he could make out the green.
Blues. Reds.
Color.
From what?
“Flowers.”
Alex backed away from the hole. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Those are flowers in there. We’re looking down on them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. There can’t be flowers in there. We’re inside a mountain for god’s sakes.”
“Take another look.”
Alex peered back through. As much as his logical mind couldn’t accept it, he could clearly make out the edges of leaves and petals some distance below him. But how? How in the frozen landscape was this possible?”
He eased back and looked at Jim. “We’d better radio base.”
Jim smiled. “Yeah.”
They started back. Jim leading the way again. “Did you ever hear stories about Shangri-La?”
“Myths,” said Alex. “Supposed to be a place over near Bhutan. At the base of the Himalayas there was supposed to be some tropical paradise. No one’s ever found it.”
“A team from National Geographic found something a few years back. I don’t know what ever happened to the report, though since it got hushed up awful quick.”
“You think we’ve found our own tropical paradise?”
“You can’t argue with the flowers.”
“Not until I confirm what they are.”
“Can you imagine how incredible a find this is? Flora in Antarctica. Incredible! We’ll be famous — you and I.”
Alex wasn’t sure how famous he wanted to be.
“We’ll need more lights.”
Jim’s flashlight beam disappeared.
“Shit.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Batteries must be dead.”
“Didn’t you bring the hand pump one?”
“That thing sucks.”
“Well, it never goes out.”
“Hang on a second. Don’t move it’s rough footing. You’ll break a leg if you aren’t careful.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to the opening.”
“I can follow.”
“Too risky. I’ve made the trip twice already.”
“I’m connected by the rope. I can stumble along.”
“Forget it. Just hang here a second and I’ll be right back.”
“Jim, it’s goddamn dark in here.”
“Jesus Alex, just chill out a second, okay. I’ll be right back.”
Alex leaned back into the cave wall and sighed. “Go already.”
“Five minutes. No more.”
Alex could hear the scraping of Jim’s feet as he moved off down the cave away from him. From the sound of it, Jim wasn’t as sure-footed as he claimed to be. Twice he heard him stumble and swear loudly.
Alex almost smiled.
The darkness around him seemed absolute. He looked back the way they’d come trying to see the light from the small opening with the flowers but he couldn’t see a thing. He looked toward the opening of the fissure — where Jim had just gone.
He couldn’t see anything ahead of him, either.
He could hear his breathing. Surprised at how fast and labored he sounded, he tried to calm himself down. He couldn’t remember ever being really afraid of the dark. But then again, he’d never really been in absolute darkness before. Most times, he could see shapes and shadows from ambient light.
He couldn’t see anything right now.
But he could hear things.
An odd scrape sounded somewhere ahead of him. Alex frowned.
“Jim?”
The sound stopped.
Alex felt his eyes squinting. As if that would help.
“Don’t dick around with me, Jim. This is not the time or the place for this shit.”
The sudden scream sounded much further away than the scrape. Alex recognized Jim’s wail.
“What th-?”
He started running toward the scream. But then it died as quickly as it had begun.
And once again, the silence loomed heavy over him.
Had Jim fallen? Alex felt his lungs heaving as he tripped and fell down the corridor. He bumped his head off the rock wall twice, smelling a sudden draw of coppery blood. It streamed down his face from the cut by the temple.
He might need stitches.
His shoes felt heavy. Alex could feel his balance going and he lurched forward, crashing into the floor of the cave.
“Goddamit!”
His gloved hands scraped the floor and he tried to push himself off the ground.
That’s when he felt the sudden crushing weight drop on him.
A rock?
Breathing.
He heard breathing.
His own?
Alex’s lungs heaved. The weight felt like it was squeezing him to death. He tried to turn over, tried to dislodge the weight.
A draft tickled his ear.
Warm.
Humid.
And the stench of fetid… Alex gagged.
He scrambled to get onto his back and finally felt enough room to do so.
In the darkness, ensconced in the humid draw of breath, he saw the two glowing orbs above him, maybe ten feet away.
And then saw them rushing in at him.
Felt the crashing weight.
Heard his own choked screech.
And then the blackness swallowed him whole.
1
“Charlie 1–5 calling Howard Base. Come in, over.”
Julia Devereaux looked at the C-130 pilot for the third time in as many minutes. “Still nothing?”