The group stayed close together, especially Tommy. He nearly tripped on Sean's shoes several times as they walked deeper into the gap.
When they reached a point where the opening grew much wider, Sean branched off from the group. "I'm going to check this side. There are some shrubs blocking the view of the rock. Reece, you and Tommy take the other side."
"Good idea," Reece said. "Come on, Tom."
"So we're just going off the trail. Perfect. Good things always happen when you veer off the path." He muttered the sarcastic words to himself.
Adriana joined Sean on the right. They crept forward, carefully eyeing the base of the rock for any signs of what could be art. After a few minutes of looking, he stopped and shouted over at the other two.
"You guys find anything?"
"Pretty sure we would have let you know!" Tommy yelled.
"No need to be a smart aleck!"
"Then don't ask obvious questions!"
"You two are like a married couple sometimes," Adriana said.
Sean smirked. "Jealous?"
She shrugged. "Maybe a little." The corner of her mouth creased up the right side of her cheek. "Back to work, mister."
"Yes, ma'am."
They moved forward, scouring the stone for any signs of ancient drawings, but nothing appeared. It was only another three minutes before they heard a shout from the other side of the chasm.
"Sean?" Tommy shouted.
"Yeah!"
"I think we found it!"
"Be right there!"
"No, wait!"
Sean and Adriana exchanged a surprised expression and then ran out from the bushes and rocks, across the path and to where Tommy and Reece hovered around something on the rock wall.
"What is it?" Sean asked as they approached.
"See for yourself," Reece said and pointed at the wall.
They followed his finger to a point on the rock about waist high. The drawings were subtle, barely noticeable compared to most they'd seen in the past — probably due to exposure for a few thousand years. They were definitely man-made designs, though, and two of them stood out more than others.
Figures of people were etched into the rock, all standing around a bunch of squiggly lines. Again, there were several circles within circles, just like they'd seen with the last clue at the Baiame cave.
"What are they doing?" Adriana asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"From the looks of it," Sean said, "it's a bunch of people standing around water." He motioned to the wavy lines. "I mean, I'm just guessing those represent water. My expertise on Aboriginal drawings is a bit meager."
"No, that's a pretty common thing," Tommy said. "While their art may differ in many ways, if I was Mathews, that's what I would have thought it meant. Keep in mind, we're tracing his steps, not the steps of the people who left these here."
"Good point. Now my question is, what is that?"
At the base of the monolith, the flat surface of a creamy white stone poked out of the ground.
The other three looked where Sean pointed. The foreign rock almost blended with the color of the sand surrounding it, but not perfectly. It was shielded from the path by a few large bushes, and even if someone had noticed it, they likely wouldn't have thought anything of it.
Sean and the others knew better.
"Where light turns dark," Tommy said in a low tone.
Everyone took another moment to gaze at the odd rock before Reece spoke up. "So, dig it up?"
"Definitely. We'll need something to dig out the packed earth around it." Tommy bent down and then crouched to get a closer look. He shifted his feet to the right and brushed his back against a nearby bush.
A sudden hiss and crinkle of dried grass behind him froze Tommy in place. "Guys? What was that?"
The other three looked behind him and immediately saw the danger. A long snake with blended black and light brown scales coiled next to the bush only four feet away from where Tommy crouched, terrified.
"Is that what I think it is?" Tommy asked. His legs were already burning from being in a baseball catcher's position.
"Tommy," Reece said, "stay perfectly still."
"Easy for you to say. My quads are on fire."
"Don't move," Reece ordered in a deeply serious tone. "That's a fierce snake."
"Fierce snake? That doesn't sound good."
"It's a Liru. Locals call them Mulgas or King Browns. If you stay still, he won't come after you. Most of the time they don't bite people."
Tommy's voice trembled. "Yeah, you said most of the time. That means some of the time they do bite people."
"Don't you worry about that, mate. I got this one." Reece unbuckled the button on his knife sheath and flipped it to the side. Inch by inch, he carefully drew the knife — the whole time keeping an eye on his prey.
"Would you mind terribly hurrying it up a little," Tommy hissed. "Just shoot the thing."
Sean and Adriana had initially had the same thought, but Reece wasn't drawing his pistol for a reason. In the rocky chasm, a bullet could ricochet in unpredictable ways. They saw Reece's reaction and trusted the more experienced man's wisdom.
Just in case, however, Sean had his weapon at the ready.
Reece pinched the knife tip with his thumb and forefinger. The blade was a long hunting knife. Tommy remembered thinking it was a tad excessive when he first saw it. Now he wished Reece carried a long sword.
"Stay still," Reece reminded. He raised the knife over his shoulder and eased his right foot back to get a steady position. "It's still there, Tom. He's lookin' at you. Just relax."
"My legs are about to give out." Tommy said. Sweat poured down the side of his horrified face. His legs began to tremble violently.
"Steady." Reece sized up the snake one last time. "Steady, Tom. If I miss, it will just piss him off."
"Not helping, Reece. Can you just kill it already?"
Reece's arm whipped forward like a catapult. The shiny blade flashed through the air, only turning over once before the tip sank through the snake's neck just behind the head. Tommy fell forward against the base of the monolith, his legs still quivering.
"Did you get it?"
Reece swallowed and then gave a nod. "Yeah, I got him."
Tommy looked over at where the other three were staring. Reece's knife stuck out of the ground with a writhing serpent between the handle and dirt. Tommy got up and staggered over to where his companions watched the dying snake trying in vain to wiggle free.
It took nearly four minutes before the reptile stopped moving. When it finally appeared to be dead, Reece took a deep breath and stepped over to retrieve his knife.
"Wait," Tommy said. He put out a hand to keep his friend from getting too close. "You sure it's dead? I mean, give it another minute or two."
Reece flashed him a toothy grin. "He's a goner, Tom. Won't be bothering anyone again."
He reached down and pulled the knife out of the ground and kicked the dead serpent several feet away. It didn't move other than a few nerves in the tail causing it to flick around now and then.
Reece eyed the blood on his blade and then wiped it off with some leaves from the bush.
As he put the knife back in its sheath, Tommy stared at him with silent admiration. "You know, for a second there I thought that thing was going to get me. Is that a very poisonous snake?"
"Mulgas? Sure. That snake has some of the deadliest venom in the world."
"You said they don't bite people very often. Were you just saying that?"
"Nah. They don't. Only a handful of blokes die from Mulga bites every year. That being said, their venom can kill ya in about forty-five minutes if they do get ya."