“Shut it down, Charlie,” Jack said through his com link just as he raised his tinted visor. He looked skyward and the night slowly started to take shape around him. “Your eyes will adjust. Look up and concentrate on the stars. You can see a few of them through the canopy and the—”
That was when they all noticed the heavy fall of black and gray ash as it fell upon them. Even as they looked the dark ash cloud blotted out the remaining stars. Charlie still did as Jack had ordered and shut off both lights.
All four men heard the heavy breathing and just assumed it was Charlie. It wasn’t long before they realized that each of them was the culprit. Jack released the toggle on the tractor’s remote and the small train came to a stop. He turned and looked back at where the doorway had been. He saw ash-covered jungle in the darkness as his eyes slowly adjusted. They seemed to be in a small thigh-high grass clearing. He once more looked at the sky and the moon was just sitting in this strange land, that and the ash clouds of angry elements was why the night was so dark. Collins looked over at Henri just as Jenks and Ellenshaw joined them. The master chief still had to have a handhold on the tractor as he steadied his shaking body.
“Well, we made it someplace,” Jack said as he looked around them and the stillness of the green canopy they found themselves under. The moon vanished low in the northern sky and then the ash had a complete hold on the night. The darkness became even more still than it had been just a moment before. They all knew it was the total absence of light that played tricks on their minds.
“Yeah, so far anyway,” Jenks said as he looked at a small box he held in his hand. “Wherever we are the oxygen level is off the chart.” He looked up from his readout. “Twenty times the content of our atmosphere at home. No pollutants other than this.” He reached up and caught a handful of hard ash as the pumice-like material fought its way through the thick tree canopy above them. Jenks turned his hand over and allowed the ash to slide off his glove. “Heavy ash particulate. It looks like your volcanoes are acting up big time, Colonel. This isn’t from just a smoking cauldron, it’s activity that’s carrying some weight to it. This stuff is being ejected far from the caldera.” Jenks looked to the south and that was when he saw the clouds in that direction were tinted red and flashed heavy electrical activity.
“We only have four hours’ extra supply of O2 in the trailers, we’re bound to run out. Can we breathe this stuff?” Jack asked.
Before Jenks could answer they saw Henri reach up and slide his locking mechanism on his helmet. He waited a moment and then looked at Collins. “We may as well find out now rather than later if we have to pack up and get out of here.” He lifted the helmet free and then slowly took a breath.
Charlie couldn’t help but take a deep breath while he watched the Frenchman, as if he were willing the air to be good.
“One thing we must do before we leave this place,” Henri said as he took another deep breath, “is to bottle as much air as we can to sell on the black market back home.”
Jack smiled and then removed his own helmet. He was happy not to hear the warning alarm for a bad environment sound in his ears just the same.
Before long each man had to sit in the darkness as the air was so heavy and oxygenated that they became momentarily giddy with an overdose of something none of them had ever breathed before — unpolluted air from a world producing such an abundance through the ancient plant life. It was impossible for them to fully comprehend its purity.
“This clearing seems good enough to get our bearings. Master Chief, can you get our precise location?”
“Yeah, I’ll break out the sextant,” Jenks joked.
Jack cleared his eyes and took a shallow breath as he tried to limit his intake as much as he could. He looked at his gloved hand and then unzipped it and peered at the illuminated dial on his watch. He was shocked that the timepiece made it through the electrical hell as they passed through the doorway. He again glanced up but was unable to see anything beyond the canopy as the falling ash came down like a winter snowfall.
“It should be daylight soon enough. We’ll forego camp and make ready to move at first light. We’ll set up in a more defensive position when we can see what the hell we’re doing. I don’t relish the idea of flashing a bunch of lights around without knowing what may be watching.”
The stillness of the night was shattered by the scream of a large cat somewhere in the distance. Each man froze as the cry echoed against some far-off obstruction and bounced back.
“That was not a normal large-cat call. I’ve heard them all and believe me, that’s something that hasn’t walked the Earth for well over ten thousand years,” Charlie explained excitedly.
Jenks, Farbeaux, and Collins looked at Ellenshaw as if he had just reverted back to his old, ditsy self. However, it was the Frenchman who put things into perspective once again as he removed the small M-4 from his back and made sure to charge it.
“I’ll say this once again: You people never cease to amaze me in your unlimited and imaginative ways you have for trying to get me killed.”
As if in answer to Farbeaux’s observation the unseen beast roared again, and this time it was answered by a second, far closer call before the echo of the first had faded to nothing. As they listened a heavy rain came and started cleaning the jungle around them of the white and gray ash. Still, the sound of the animal life of the Antarctic continent 227,000 years ago told them they were indeed a long way from home.
The strange new world they found themselves in was starting to awaken.
Sarah waited as long as she could as the doorway slowly started to power down. She swallowed her fear as Jack had vanished into a wall of light. She felt part of her rapidly beating heart go with him. She felt Anya beside her and she looked up and saw the sympathy in her eyes. The Israeli agent knew the exact anxiety she was feeling.
“Come on, ladies, waiting around in here won’t hurry things up any. Let’s get some air,” Mendenhall said as he nodded toward Ryan, who was speaking with the director and Alice. He soon joined them.
“I don’t know about you people, but I’ve never felt so damn worthless in my life,” Jason said as he held the door for the two ladies and Will.
The four walked outside and took in the stillness of the night. The fog had actually worsened in the past hour. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the open Wellsian Doorway in that all sound was absorbed by the fog. The strange light the fog produced made Sarah feel uneasy.
“Peter to Paul, we have a vehicle approaching from the main gate,” came the call from one of Ryan’s men at the perimeter. “Looks like a limo, over.”
Jason raised his brows at the other three who heard the call. He raised the radio to his lips and pushed the transmit button.
“Stop and detain,” he said. He lowered the radio and then started to raise it again but stopped. He waited.
The radio finally crackled to life. “Driver says the party is expected by Madam Mendelsohn, over.”
“Number?” Jason asked, not liking this one bit. He nodded at Will, who quickly vanished into the night after retrieving a small case from the dock area. Sarah raised a questioning look at Ryan.
“I count what looks like a family of four plus infant.” The radio went silent for the briefest of moments. Then it awoke once more. “Two well-dressed men plus the driver, over.”
“Will, are you in position?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Mendenhall said from the high vantage point he had taken. It was one of the many streetlights he had rigged earlier for climbing. He was using a new scope delivered the past year from Bushnell. The infrared lighting system cut through fog like it wasn’t there. Will could switch the system to read heat signatures as well as cold spots. “Oh, it looks like they brought company. They’re hanging back just beyond the gate. Lights off. Six large Explorers. Infrared says they’re full of very large sacks of meat.”