Barry Reese
The Damned Thing
Prologue
“Mr. Slade…?”
Carter Slade looked up from the dusty map that he had been poring over for most of the morning. He wiped sweat from his brow with the back of a hand, acutely aware of how damp his shirt was. It clung to him like a second skin and he was sure that he looked unwashed — which he was. Leading this dig in the middle of the Nevada desert didn’t afford very many opportunities for cleanliness. Swallowing, he answered with as calm a voice as he could manage. “Yes, Eloise?”
Eloise Green, a 24-year old graduate student, stepped into the tent’s interior. She noticed the casual, bachelor way that Carter had of strewing his belongings all over the ground, but she found it somewhat charming. Carter Slade was old enough to be her father (or much older brother, she preferred to think), but he had kind of a Tyrone Power quality to him that made her weak in the knees. She smiled at him, hoping that he didn’t think she was some kind of tart looking for a good grade. She smoothed down the front of her jodhpurs and cleared her throat.
“Harper found something outside. She wanted me to come get you.”
Carter forced his eyes away from her pert young breasts. He was grateful that she’d come to him on an archaeological matter… more and more lately they’d found little excuses to be alone together, talking about what she planned to do with her degree, how he’d ended up at the University of Nevada…
A few more times alone, Slade knew, and his willpower wouldn’t be strong enough to prevent his acting on their attraction. “What is it?”
Eloise walked out with him, her arm brushing against his. She was much shorter than Carter — no more than 5′5″, with shoulder-length auburn hair. In contrast, he was tall and broad-shouldered, his skin bronzed through years of working in the sun. A pair of spectacles gave him an intelligent air.
A small knot of students was gathered around Harper Kincaid, a frail little student from the Midwest. Carter could hear her excited voice droning on about something and he felt a surge of annoyance towards her.
Most of the students he brought out into the field considered it nothing more than a glorified field trip and that never sat well with him. Harper was one of those, always bubbling over with laughter at some off-hand remark. Harper and Eloise were the only females amongst the two dozen members of the expedition and Carter had sensed an immediate rivalry between the two.
As if reading his thoughts, Eloise whispered under her breath, “It’d be nice if we had this place to ourselves, huh?”
Carter flushed a bit, casting a glance in her direction. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat and Carter shared a laugh with her. “Yes… We’d get twice as much done, that’s for sure.” Composing himself, he stepped into the midst of the students. “Harper… What did you find?”
The thin girl looked up with an expression of triumph. “We’re going to be famous, Professor! Look…” She backed away and Carter saw the hole in which she’d been digging. Bits of pottery lay scattered about, but that wasn’t what had attracted her so much attention. There, just barely revealed by Harper’s activities, was what appeared to be a door or seal of some kind. It was formed of reddish-brown stone, with a raised impression of a man’s face. The expression on the face was one of torment or horror.
“What do you think it is?”
Carter didn’t even turn to see who had asked him the question. He was kneeling instead, reaching out to run a hand over the smooth surface of the stone. It was warm to the touch. “It’s not Native American… I’m sure of that. None of the local tribes ever practiced this sort of work.”
“You think it’s a tomb? Or maybe some kind of time capsule? Like the one they buried at the World’s Fair?”
Theo Ridley laughed as he said it, making Carter wince. He was glad to hear Eloise respond, “I think the idea of time capsules is pretty recent, Theo. This is probably where someone buried something of religious significance…” Her pretty little nose wrinkled in revulsion, “Something pretty terrible, from the looks of that seal.”
She squatted down beside Carter, her scent filling his nostrils. She smelled sweaty, but it mixed with her perfume and made his head spin. Carter cleared his throat, feeling along the sides of the seal. “There’s a latch of some kind…” He paused, pulling away.
Harper frowned, not happy that her grand discovery wasn’t being pounced upon. “Why aren’t you opening it?”
“Because we don’t know what we’re dealing with, Harper. There may be traps, for one thing.” He stood, facing the throng of students. “Everyone, take a break. I don’t want anyone coming within twenty feet of here. Understood?”
Amidst a flurry of mumbles the group broke up, leaving only Carter, Eloise and Harper. The latter stood unhappily for a moment before turning away. She marched off with tears in her eyes.
Carter felt a surge of sympathy for her… It was quite a discovery. But he didn’t want anyone getting hurt here.
Eloise touched his arm. It was a familiar gesture and it didn’t go unnoticed by some of the other students. Rumors were beginning to swirl about Eloise Green being the “teacher’s pet.” Moving closer, Eloise said “So… What are you going to do?”
Carter looked back at the seal. Something about it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
“I think we should open it. You and I.”
Eloise’s words took him by surprise and he shook his head. “No. I’ll do it alone. I don’t want you here where you could get hurt.”
“I’m a big girl.”
“So I’ve noticed.” He put an arm around her and led her away. “I’ll open it tonight. In the meantime, rope it off, okay?”
CARTER IGNORED THE sounds of laughter coming from the campsite behind him. The students liked to cut loose in the evenings and Slade didn’t blame them — being on an archaeological dig was hard work. He thought about Eloise and felt a pang of jealousy… she’d been dancing with Theo when he’d seen her last. Let it go. He’s more her age, anyway, he mused. Besides, she’d looked my way while she was doing it. Probably some adolescent attempt at making me jealous since I wouldn’t let her come with me.
Staring down at the seal, he felt his heartbeat begin to quicken. He could almost smell the supernatural aura from the thing, like an acrid cloud of smoke drifting slowly away from a fire. Taking one glance back behind him to make sure no one was watching, he bent and ran a gloved hand over the seal, feeling for the latch. With a twist, he felt it give and the stone seal slid to the side. Immediately, the horrible scent grew stronger and something could be heard slithering deep inside. It was no snake, he knew, not unless that snake was of gigantic size, for the sounds it made were inhuman and frightening.
Setting the seal gently aside, Carter peered into the darkness, picking up a lantern that lay beside him. There were stairs within, but the shape and size of them seemed odd, as if they were made for creatures whose gait was much shorter than a man’s. Small claw-marks lined each of the stairs.
Carter patted his hip and was relieved to feel his revolver in his left hip pocket. He considered holding off on this little expedition until the morning and possibly taking a few of the boys with him, but then he thought about the potential fallout if one of the students broke an ankle or worse down there. Given the still fragile state of the economy, the archaeology program was under constant review — best not to tempt fate by risking an embarrassing injury.
Taking a deep breath, Carter began to descend into the pit. The stairs were so small that he took them four and five at a time.