THE LOST VALLEY

William Meikle

www.severedpress.com
Copyright 2019 by William Meikle
 - Danny -

Danny Swaitek and Gus Jacobs stood on the porch of the high shack
waiting for the struggling quartet below to reach them. Gus had already had
time for two smokes and was working on a third while the city folks
making their way up the deer track through the trees still had some way to
climb. It was getting late in the day, the low sun already casting long
shadows, spreading Danny and Gus out like giants down the slope at their
feet.
“You ever brought anybody up here who wasn’t another hunter?”
Danny asked.
“Fuck, no,” Gus answered and spat on the ground beyond the porch.
“Who the hell else would want to be this far out apart from a hunter? The
walk is easier, and the views are better across the valley on the eastern side.
Ain’t nothing up on these tops but old bears and cold rock.”
“So why this lot?” Danny said, looking down the slope. The first of the
straggling group, the woman, was making her way confidently enough
through the knee-high vegetation, but the other three seemed to struggle
with every step. Even at this distance, Danny saw the small bleeding cuts
that marked their faces and hands where they’d allowed branches and twigs
to lash against them in the climb from where they’d left the cars.
“This sorry bunch of fucks are paying us two thousand bucks for a few
days up on the tops,” Gus said. “Eight hundred of that is yours, as I said
before. Although given how they’re struggling already, I don’t think we’re
going to need to get anywhere near the tops before they give up and go
home.”
Seeing the struggling attempts of the stragglers to even get through the
scant vegetation on the slope, Danny could only agree
“So what are they after if it’s not the view or a trophy for their dining
room walls?”
“Fuck knows,” Gus replied. “And I don’t really care. They’ve already
paid, and I don’t do refunds. Maybe they’ll let us in on what’s so secret
once we get them settled for the night in the shack here. Get a pot of coffee
brewing, will you, lad? They look like they’re going to need it.”
 They’d left Jasper in a convoy of three trucks, Gus and Danny leading
in Gus’ ancient pickup, that July morning. The others were in smart, rented
SUVs that looked like they’d never gone off-road. Gus tested them out,
leading them north and east, first on the public road then always upward
through twists and turns along logging roads, rutted tracks, and trails no
wider than the trucks themselves. Danny watched in the mirror while
branches whipped scratches all along the side of the shiny, rented vehicles.
“Somebody’s going to lose their deposit.”
Gus laughed.
“I’m willing to bet our fee that at least one of them’s already lost their
breakfast.”

Just after noon, they’d parked when the trail finally ran out in a north-
facing clearing at five thousand feet. Between now and then had been five
hours of solid climbing up a trail through the pines that was punctuated
every ten yards or so with deer droppings but no other sign that anything
had been this way in years. Gus had seemed to know where he was headed
though. Danny hadn’t been surprised to look up when they reached the
upper limit of the forest to see a shack perched on a ledge of rock in the
liminal zone between the green of the forest and the steel-blue and white of
the high tops.
The sky hung like an opaque blue dome overhead. Off to the north, the
Rockies marched in a line above the forest, the tops still mostly white after
a hard winter and late spring. Danny looked down to see that the stragglers
were finally approaching the last stretch of climb up a scree track to the
shack.
Time for coffee.
He turned reluctantly from the view and headed inside. The building
was little more than four rickety walls and a flat roof, with an ancient iron
stove in the center of the space, some chopped-down logs for seating
around it, and rudimentary cot beds lining the walls. The coffee pot and
accompanying tin cups looked to be old as the stove. Danny had a newer,
better set in his rucksack, along with a gallon of filtered water, but didn’t
see the sense of unpacking more than he needed to. He filled the pot from a
water tub at the rear of the shack that collected rainwater off the roof and
loaded the stove from a small pile of wood beside the water butt. He got it
going with the help of half a dozen of the scud-mags that lay in a pile in a
corner of the shack—the magazines were all dated in the early eighties.
I wonder how long it’s been since Gus was up here?
They’d brought their own coffee—two tubs of continental dark roast
Danny had also gladly lugged up the trail in his backpack. He dumped a
large handful of grounds into the pot and the aroma quickly filled the room.
The smell reminded him of meeting Gus three days ago in Tim Hortons in
Jasper.

Gus was a big bear of a mountain man, two hundred and forty pounds
of mostly muscle, although his beer gut was threatening to overtake that
sometime in the future. He was well-known throughout the area as the man
to see if you wanted to organize a trip in the Canadian Rockies. Danny had
known him for several years, since his own arrival in the town from
Edmonton looking for an escape from the city. Gus had provided him with
his first experiences in the high hills, and since then, Danny had never been
able to get enough. When Gus asked for a meeting, he was only too happy
to oblige.
The big man’s belly and beard had preceded him into the diner and the
seat squeaked in protest as he lowered his weight onto it. Danny slid over a
mug of coffee—tall Americano—and two chocolate muffins, a typical
breakfast for both of them.
“I’ve got a job for you, if you’re free and want some easy cash?” the
older man had said after he made the muffins disappear. “I’m taking four
people up to the tops, and I’d like somebody I can trust along in case they
need babysitting and as backup against unforeseen accidents.”
“Is this a hunting trip?” Danny had asked, for he’d been out with Gus
on other expeditions after deer or even bear during the previous two
summers. But Gus had shaken his head.
“Not this time. A bunch of city tourists who want to get up high, that’s
all I know,” Gus replied. “They’ve got a specific place in mind, and I know
a route that’ll get us there without anybody getting dead. But we’ll be the
only ones carrying guns. I’m not taking greenhorns up there to wave rifles
about and play at being John Rambo. They’re coming in from Toronto
tomorrow and at least for the guy I talked to, it’s their first time in the
mountains. As I said, babysitting. There’s eight hundred bucks in it for
you.”
 “Eight hundred bucks and a few days in the mountains? I’m in,” Danny
had replied.

When they’d met the four ‘tourists’ from Toronto that morning in the
Timmy’s car park, he could tell that Gus wasn’t impressed. The leader of
the small group, Lodge, was a lanky, sour-faced man in his thirties who
looked like he’d bought all his gear the day before, wearing the kind of
clothing that a request like “Fit me out for a hike in the mountains,” would
lead to. At least the woman seemed comfortable in worn in-hiking boots,
heavy socks, loose clothing, and a rucksack that looked like it had seen use.
But it only took Danny one look at the other two men to know that it was
going to be slow going on any climb. They were pasty-white, soft-bellied,
and looked to have come straight from a desk job. They struggled even to
lift their laden packs and both wore new boots that were going to raise
blisters in a matter of hours if not minutes.
Danny hadn’t said anything at the time—eight hundred bucks was most
welcome this early in the season and jeopardizing it before leaving the car
park would be the dumbest move in a history of dumb moves.
But he was proved right. The first thing the two men did on entering
the cabin wasn’t to head for coffee but to sit on the logs around the stove
and, gingerly, take off their boots. The shorter, plumper man—Mike, as
he’d been introduced—had a left sock that was soaked with blood from a
burst blister on his heel, and the other, Erik, had a ready-to-pop blister the
size of a sparrow’s egg on the outside of the big toe of his right foot.
Gus threw them a packet of Band-Aids.
“Patch them up as best you can, lads,” he said. “We’ve got a long way
up to go yet to get where you want to go. That was the easy bit. Tomorrow
you’ll see some real hills.”
Both city men groaned in unison but didn’t utter any complaints while
they set about their feet with the Band-Aids. Danny fetched everyone a cup
of coffee and got a thin smile from the woman, Jess, as he handed hers over.
He saw her eyeing the cots against the wall.
“Not much privacy I’m afraid,” he said. “We’ll be roughing it a bit
tonight.”
“No problem,” she replied. “I’m not shy.”
She gave Danny another smile, a broader one this time, and when he
went to the stove to pour a coffee for himself, he was beginning to think
that this babysitting lark might not be too bad after all.
 - Jess -

Jess took her coffee out to the shack’s porch for a look at the view.
Noble was already there looking, not at the view over the northern range,
but up the mountainside at the back of the shack, their route for the next
day.
“How far do we still have to go?” she asked.
“As the crow flies, only about ten miles,” Noble answered. “But our
guide tells me it is going to take us the best part of two days to get there.
We’ll be camping somewhere up on the tops around this time tomorrow.”
“Have you told the big bear exactly where you want to go yet?”
“Not specifically—only that we want to see the Dreaming Indian
valley.”
“And what did he say to that?”
“He laughed, told me it was a myth…just as we knew he would.”
“He still might be right,” Jess said.
“I might agree, if we didn’t have the journal and the directions it has
given us.”
“We only have Mike’s guesswork for the second part of that,” she said.
“But you know Mike. His guesses are as close to fact as guesses ever
get. It’s there. I feel it in my bones.”
“I hope so,” Jess replied. “Because when we get home with nothing
and you submit your expenses for this jaunt, Hitchins will have your balls
in a basket.”
“It’s there,” Noble said, little more than a whisper.

It had been Noble’s mantra for weeks now, ever since Mike brought
them the journal and explained what he thought it was. Jess remember the
day with perfect clarity, a turning point where hopes and dreams were born
and with them a course of action that had led the four of them directly to
this remote shack in the mountains.
 “It’s a detailed journal of a mining expedition in the eighteen
seventies,” Mike had said. The four of them had been sat around a coffee
table in the company rec room and had the place to themselves. Mike had
put a beat-up, leather-bound journal on the table in front of them.
“I was down in the company archives, doing some research on early
searches for mineral deposits in the Rockies,” he said, “around Banff in
particular. I found it stuffed in between two boxes of samples. It looks as if
nobody has looked at either the boxes, or this journal, for a long, long time.
I had to get the dust off it with a damp cloth.”
“So why are you so excited?” Noble replied. “It’s not as if it’s a
fucking treasure map?”
The look Mike gave in reply got him all the silence he needed to
continue.
“I think that’s exactly what it is. It’s a slog to get to the meat of it—it’s
a man’s diary after all, and it’s full of inconsequential details—but I think
I’ve picked out enough facts to be able to draw a map.”
“Good for you,” Noble said sarcastically. “Care to get to the bloody
point? I’ve got a two-thirty with the boss.”
“I’m getting to it,” Mike replied. “The expedition this journal details
failed, badly, resulting in only the one survivor. But before that happened,
before the man walked out of the hills, they found what they were after—a
workable seam of gold in a high valley to the north and west of Jasper. And
if this journal is right, there’s enough there to make us all very rich indeed.”
Noble’s irritability faded immediately, and they spent the next hour
poring over both the journal and Mike’s notes from his reading of it. None
of them could find any flaws in Mike’s reasoning, and Noble in particular
was getting more excited by the minute.
What followed that fateful meeting was weeks of discussion, argument,
then eventually planning. Noble managed to wangle the trip on expenses as
a field mission in search of uranium ore, but that was just a cover.
If the gold was where Mike said it was, then they intended to find it,
stake a claim, and make it theirs; fortune and glory stuff that had seemed
just a dream back in Toronto seemed a whole lot closer out here in the
mountains.

When Jess finished her coffee and returned to the cabin, the younger of
their two guides, Danny, was busy at the stove, tipping tins of stew into a
pot. She saw him look over expectantly.
I didn’t come all this way just to get roped into doling out the food.
She turned away to see that Mike was showing the older guide, Gus,
the journal.
“I told your man Noble there, and I’m telling you,” the big man said. “I
don’t care how many journals and old miners’ stories you’ve been able to
dredge up. It’s a myth, a hunters’ tall tale told to scare them all shitless on
cold nights on the tops. It’s right up there with Bigfoot when it comes to
bullshit.”
Mike waved the journal in front of him.
“That’s what we thought…at first. But we’ve had this authenticated.
The paper and ink date it to the right time; I found the man’s death record in
Banff. There’s even a small piece in a local newspaper of the time that tells
of him being found descending into a valley and being found by three
hunters, near death and rambling.”
“Yep. And mad as a bag of gophers no doubt. The high tops can do
strange things to a man; I’ve seen that for myself. But I’m telling you, there
is no Dreaming Indian Valley. I know these hills.”
Noble took the journal from Mike and slid out the map the four of them
had put together from a variety of fragments of documentation and the
journal entries themselves.
“We’re about here, right?” Noble said, pointing to a spot on the western
range.
Gus moved Noble’s finger about an inch to the left, then his eyes
widened when he saw the route Noble went on to trace on the map.
“We need to go here,” Noble said, pointing.
“That’s too high,” the guide said. “I’ll be well above the snow line and
probably impassible, even at this time of year. Nothing lives up there, so
there’s no reason for any hunters to go to that altitude. I don’t know
anybody that’s tried it—I doubt anybody has.”
Noble smiled and waved the journal under Gus’ nose.
“These guys did, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago. With our
equipment and your expertise in the hills, I’m sure we can do even better.”
“You never said anything about going that high,” Gus said. “I wouldn’t
have brought you if I knew. It’s risky enough for us who know the hills. I
can’t guarantee your safety on the tops up there.”
 “I tell you what,” Noble said. “Get us to that valley and there’ll be a
nice earner in it for you. If we find what we’re looking for, there’s going to
be people up and down here in convoys for years to come…and they’re
going to need a guide.”
Jess could almost hear the cash register ring up in the big man’s head;
Noble wasn’t head of the sales department for nothing—he could talk the
hind legs off a donkey…or convince a mountain guide to take risks he
otherwise wouldn’t countenance.
“What do you say, Danny?” Gus asked. “You up for a Hail Mary
expedition in return for a forty percent share of my profit?”
The younger guide smiled.
“More beer money is always good for me, boss.”
It looks like we’re going higher.

Later, after the stodgy stew and more coffee, the big guide, Gus, was
obviously still mulling things over.
“Okay,” he said, “we go higher. But if I’m taking you, I need to know
why. What’s so goddamned important up there? What’s in your Dreaming
Indian Valley that’s got you city folks riled up enough for a jaunt in the
wilds?”
Mike opened the journal and read from it, a passage Jess knew almost
by heart.
“The seam is more than six feet wide where it shows near the mouth of
the shaft and appears to be widening where it disappears into the rock. If
we can but get the right tools and equipment up to this place, there is a
fortune to be had, enough to make us all as rich as Croesus.”
Gus’ booming laugh echoed around the shack.
“And here I was worried that it was a Sasquatch you were after. So
what is it, gold or silver? I’ve heard both stories. There are more lost mines
in these hills than I’ve had hot breakfasts.” He patted his belly. “And I’m
never short of breakfasts.”
“The journal’s authentic,” Noble said. “We’ve proved that to our
satisfaction.”
Gus laughed again.
“You said that before. And maybe it is, but the man who wrote it might
not have been right in the head. I’ve seen plenty of men lose track of
themselves after time in these hills. Who knows whether he’s only writing
about what he thought he saw rather than what was really there?”
“It is there,” Noble said.
Their leader was still full of his sense of purpose, the lure of the riches
the only thought in his head. But Jess knew well enough that there were
other passages in the journal that gave credence to Gus’ skepticism. Those
parts were so wild that they too were stuck in a loop in her memory, a worry
she couldn’t help picking at.
“The tiger got Franks last night, even though Jeffries was on guard
with him and they kept a fire well lit. The beast seems to have no fear, either
of us or our fire, and it plucked poor Franks off and away into the night
before Jeffries even knew it was there. We all heard Franks’ screams well
enough though, for they echoed loud in the night, filling the whole valley
with his terror, which was thankfully short.”
“Mountain lion, it had to be,” Noble had said. “They got themselves
spooked up there in the dark, that’s all.”
Noble had refused to read the wilder parts, refused even to have them
discussed, but when he wasn’t around Jess, Mike and Erik had pored over
them avidly, trying to glean meaning from what, to their eyes, looked to be
fantastical ravings. Only the fact that Mike could pinpoint the valley’s
position on a map and that the early parts of the journal were coherent kept
Jess’ confidence high.
But the worries were always there to be picked at, fragments of
scattered words and images that had been scrawled across the last pages the
man had written.
“Johnson wouldn’t leave the cave. Gold fever mostly, but also terror at
what waits for us in the valley. But we must leave him. We are not wanted
here.”
“They ate Williamson. He was still alive when they took out his liver
and I didn’t help him. I ran. God help me, I ran.”
“The tiger has found my scent. I hear it, padding along behind me. I
have smeared myself in the shit of the tusked things to try to mask my smell.
Dear God, it is rank.”
“There is nothing I can do but climb and hide, climb and hide, but it is
too cold now and the eagles are watching. At least the other beasts haven’t
followed me. Not yet…I left them enough meat to be going on with. God
help me, I left them.”
 - Then –

I can scarcely believe we have come so high on little more than a

legend and a whim, but Johnson is adamant that the Indian had to have
come by his story via a measure of truth at some point. So here we are, far
off any beaten track or trail, more than a mile high with higher still to climb
on the morrow and at the mercy of an aged Indian guide who may not be in
possession of all his faculties.
That being said, he may be old, but he outstripped all of us younger
men on the climb today, and kept up a pace that I was sorely pressed to
emulate. After today’s efforts, I am not sure my legs will walk another step
any time soon, but a night’s rest in the tent here and a bellyful of baloney
and beans might sort that problem out. We have a fire in the center of our
tented circle, and the air is not as chill as I had feared. The fur-lined jacket I
procured in Banff is serving me well, although I could wish for another pair
of socks, for my feet feel like cold stone.
But we are all in the same boat, so there is no sense in being a moaning
misery. Besides, we are all excited to be here and there is a mutual
camaraderie and joy in the chase that ensures that the will to succeed
continues to burn brightly despite our little aches and pains.
The old Indian guide has us to this first staging post with us and we are
grateful that he has led us this far, but he insists that he will go no farther.
He is adamant that The Dreaming Valley is a place of his gods and for him
to disturb it would be to jeopardize his own position in the hunting grounds
beyond. Superstitious claptrap of course, but Johnson’s offers of more,
frankly quite ridiculous amounts of money have not reversed his decision.
Tomorrow, we shall go on alone.
It is of no matter though, for the old guide has given us detailed
instructions and a crude map that should lead us directly to our goal.

I write this sitting at the mouth of the biggest tent where we shall bed
down for the night, squeezed tightly together to preserve heat. Behind me,
Williamson is already lost to sleep and the others have made inroads into
our liquor and will join him soon. For myself, I will stay awake a while
longer and take in the view under the stars.
I find that I am quite content for the first time in months, since the start
of our planning of this expedition. There is a serenity to be found in these
high places that speaks directly to my soul. If the gold is indeed there and I
am able to procure my share of the spoils, I do believe I would like to spend
my days in a place like this, seeking solitude in the majestic splendor of
mountains. It is a dream I have.
And now that we are here, almost within reach, the dream seems closer
than ever before.
Of course, we are not the first to bet our all on a chance of riches that
may or may not be locked in rock in inaccessible places, and I doubt we
will be the last. But, by God, we will try and be the most successful.
My soul needs it.
 - Danny -

Danny had seen the certainty in Noble’s eyes when he talked about the
gold. But he’d also seen the looks the other three of the group gave to each
other. They were keeping something to themselves and Danny knew fear
well enough to see it flickering in the man Erik’s eyes. Sure, they were after
gold…fool’s gold if Gus was to be believed. Something else was bothering
them, but Danny never got to find out that first night.
They’d all bedded down for the night without any further talk on the
matter after a rudimentary cold wash and brushing of teeth using more
rainwater from the barrel out back. They all slept fully clothed, although the
shack was quite warm after having run the stove for a few hours.
Any heat had long gone by the morning, and Danny knew it was his
duty to do something about it. He rose quietly and set about getting the
stove lit before heading outside where he relieved himself over the edge of
the porch in full view of the majesty of the Canadian Rockies and one
curious squirrel.
By the time the others woke and rose, groaning at their various aches
and pains, Danny had the first brew of the day already made. There wasn’t
much time for conversation between more coffee and preparations for the
day’s climb. He met Jess out on the porch and helped adjust her rucksack
straps. He noted again that the rucksack had clearly seen a lot of use in the
past.
“You’ve done this kind of thing before,” he said. “You’re rigged for
comfort.”
“Sadly not for speed. I’ve been up a few hills, yes. Never as high as
we’re going today though,” she replied. “Lots of east coast walks and
camping in and around New Brunswick, where I’m from. I’m a country girl
at heart.”
“It shows,” Danny replied, then realized it might be taken the wrong
way and started to bluster. “I didn’t mean…”
She laughed.
 “I know you didn’t. Look, do me a favor and look after Mike and Erik
today, would you? Noble’s a work-out junkie, keeps in shape and will get
by on sheer bloody mindedness, but those other two don’t really have any
idea what they’ve let themselves in for. I’m worried for them.”
“You and me both,” Danny replied. “But I’ll keep them on the straight
and narrow, and Gus knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t take risks up here.”
That was his chance to spin the conversation out, to maybe get to the
bottom of what was worrying them all, but Gus called for him just then, and
the moment was gone.
“Danny, get your ass on the move; time’s a wasting and I want to get us
all up on the tops before the light goes this evening.”
“Moving my ass, boss,” Danny shouted and got another smile from
Jess before he turned away.
Five minutes later, they headed out onto the hill.

Gus took the lead with Noble and Jess right behind him. Mike and Erik
were next, distracting themselves from their blisters by discussing the latest
Star Wars movie. Danny brought up the rear.
After only ten minutes, he knew it was going to be a long day. Gus,
Jess, and Noble were already over a hundred yards ahead up the hill track
while Erik moaned constantly about the incline, the flies, the cold, and
anything else he could think about. Danny hoped he might step foot first
into a pile of elk dung, just to give him something to really moan about.
“Come on, lads,” he said, cajoling them along. “Gus is mad for his
coffee. If I know him, there’ll be a stop and a rest before too long.”
He knew that was a lie. Gus could climb all morning, all afternoon too
if they were on the trail of a bear.
But they don’t know that.
Over the next ten minutes, the three in the lead got ever farther ahead,
and Danny sometimes lost sight of them around corners or over bluffs. He
wasn’t worried. The trail, although narrow, was clear enough and, so far at
least, safe enough, not exposing them to any drops on either side.
That’ll come later.
He didn’t speak that thought aloud; he already knew the real test of the
two men’s resolve would come higher up, when they hit real weather, real
cold, and real hills. He hoped neither of them suffered from vertigo, for if
they did, they were never going to get within miles of where Noble wanted
to get them.
Erik was still moaning, about the blister on his toe now. Danny tuned
him out and tried to enjoy the view.
Now that they were well above the tree line, he was able to look north
along the whole length of the range, the blue rock topped with white cones
standing stark against a gray sky, high clouds masking the sun. The
northeast-facing slope they were climbing would never see much sunshine
anyway, not even in high summer. A chill rolled down from the higher
peaks, reminding him of what was to come. The land was laid out like a
map below them, wilderness almost as far as you could see, with only a
straight line far to the east sowing where the railway line took its cargos
through the mountain passes.
Jasper felt like a hundred, a million miles away. Danny was okay with
that. It had been a shitty summer of shitty jobs so far; barman, traffic
control, garbage collection, each job as low paid as the next, and each as
mind-numbingly dull that he’d often felt like screaming. Being up here
made all that fall away though, and he felt more alive than he had
since….well, since his last time in the hills. He was wondering about what
Noble said the night before, about lots of people coming through here who
would need guides, and fantasizing about a steady job out in these trails,
when he walked into Erik, who had come to a dead stop just ahead of him.
They’d been climbing for less than forty minutes; Danny could still see
the shack well below them down the trail, but it appeared that the man had
already reached the end of his tether.
“I can’t do this. This is fucking stupidity,” he said and sat down on the
trail. The other man, Mike, looked like he might speak, but Danny
preempted him.
“That’s fine by me,” Danny said. “I’m getting paid anyway. The
shack’s back down there a ways. Off you go. There’s no food, no coffee,
and not much water until it rains, so no lavatory either. But I’m sure you’ll
be fine until we get back. Gus reckons it’ll be a couple of days. Just watch
out for bears. There’s some big ones about up here at this time of year.”
He saw that the man had already gone white, so he kept pushing.
“Or you could keep going down, head on back to the trucks. You
remember the way, don’t you?”
 He didn’t wait for an answer, just stepped past the sitting man. He took
Mike by the elbow.
“Come on, it’s just you and me now, Mike. We should make better time
without him anyway.”
He heard the shout as soon as he turned his back.
“Wait up, I just needed to catch my wind. I’ll be fine,” Erik said.
Danny saw Mike grin, and he dropped him a wink as Erik caught up
with them and all three headed up again. They didn’t make much better
time.
But at least the whining has stopped.

Half an hour later, they crested a ridge to find Gus and the others
finishing off a pot of coffee and preparing to move out again.
“If you lose ten to fifteen minutes every hour on us, you’re going to be
climbing in the dark by the time we reach the high camp I want to reach
tonight,” Gus said, addressing Danny. “Best get a move on over the next
stretch. And watch out for falling debris; it gets steeper and less secure
underfoot, and we might inadvertently send some crap down to you.”
Gus had already packed up his stove and gear so Danny had to spend
time getting coffee together for the three of them from his own kit. He tried
to hurry Mike and Erik along; Gus and the other two were already little
more than black dots higher up the hill.
“You heard what the man said. Let’s have our coffee on the move; we
don’t want to be out on the hill in the dark. Trust me on this.”
He expected rebellion but it looked like both of them were already too
tired to do much else but comply, and they moved out again without
complaint as soon as Danny got the coffee brewed and his stove and pot
packed away.

Danny spent the rest of the day cajoling first one then the other of the
men to take just one more step, to keep the upward momentum going. The
trail wound close to long drops in some places, but by then, the only thing
Mike and Erik could see was the short part of the path immediately in front
of their feet, all their concentration on that next step.
At lunchtime, they caught up with the others and again were just in
time to see them preparing to head up. Danny heated up a tin of stew that
the other two ate without tasting, and then bullied them to their feet and
back to the hill.
By late afternoon, the light was already starting to go. Danny looked
up. They were approaching the snow line now, and the cold was starting to
bite harder. He saw a flutter of green high above where rock met snow and
realized that Gus was already making camp up there. Judging the climb, he
thought it would take them another hour to reach it.
In the end, it took nearly two. They arrived at a high ledge in almost
full dark. It had been Mike, not Erik, that slowed them the most, his
blistered heel having turned to an open wound. No number of Band-Aids
could stop it bleeding into his sock. Finally, Danny had them stop so that he
could apply a field dressing from the small kit he always carried in the hills,
and Mike moved better for a bit after that, but all too soon he was hobbling.
Danny and Erik had ended up half-carrying him up the last slope and were
happy to be able to dump him unceremoniously on the ledge.
“Nice of you to drop by,” Noble said, and Mike showed him the finger,
although it looked like it took him an effort to just raise his arm.
Danny’s legs and back ached, but he still wasn’t done; he had a tent to
put up, for neither Mike nor Erik was in a fit state to help with it. Gus only
laughed when Danny gave him a pleading look, and Noble pointedly
ignored him, but Jess rose to help when he unfurled the material.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No problem. Thanks for looking after my two lost lambs.”
By the time they were done, four small tents filled most of the space on
the ledge. Danny would be sharing with Gus, Noble and Jess were both on
their own, and the two other men would share the other.
Mike and Erik both looked ready to lie down and sleep for a week,
despite it being only just after seven o’clock, and they crawled off to their
sleeping bags straight after more stew and coffee. The remaining four sat
huddled around a camp stove, there being no wood to burn this far above
the tree line.
“This is as high as I’ve ever been,” Gus said. “My old man brought me
up to this very spot thirty years ago. As far as I know, nobody’s been here
since. Certainly nobody’s been higher.”
“Not for a hundred and fifty years anyway,” Noble replied. “How tough
is it going to be tomorrow?”
 “Tougher than today,” Gus replied, and Danny was glad that the other
two had gone to bed and were dead to the world. He was going to have
enough trouble getting them moving in the morning as it was.

Both Noble and Jess departed early for bed.

“They climbed well,” Gus said, somewhat grudgingly, “especially her.
No complaints either, not like your pair.”
“Yeah, thanks for sticking me with them,” Danny replied as Gus
reached into his rucksack and came out with a bottle of rum. “I don’t know
how much farther either of them can go.”
“We’ve come too far,” Gus said, unscrewing the bottle and pouring
them both a large measure into their coffee. “They can’t go back on their
own, and they can’t stay here. Too risky. So they come.”
Danny knew better than to argue, so he contended himself with getting
as much coffee and rum inside him as he could manage. They sat in silence
for a while as a carpet of stars filled the sky and the range on the other side
of the valley danced under scudding cloud and a three-quarter moon.
Danny reached over to accept another slug of rum, and at the same
moment, the silence was broken by a high screech that echoed and rang
around the mountainside.
“What the hell was that?” he asked, not noticing that the rum was going
more over his hand than into the coffee.
“Eagle, it must be,” Gus replied, steadying both of their hands to pour.
“It sounded huge.”
Gus sipped from his cup and when Danny looked over, the man for
once wasn’t smiling.
“It did, didn’t it?”
 - Jess -

When they broke camp the next morning, Jess had to scrape ice
crystals from where she’d been breathing against the sleeping cap. Sun
bathed the valley below them, but none of it reached their position in the
shadow of a tall spar of rock on the northeastern slope of the mountain. The
high tops of the range across the other side of the valley glistened, almost
golden in the morning rays, and the smell of fresh coffee wafted across the
small campsite.
It beats Toronto in the rush hour into a cocked hat, that’s for sure.
Her good mood lasted long enough to reach the camp stove and find an
argument going on around the coffee pot.
“I’m not going back just because you two are feeling tired,” Noble
said, almost shouting.
“I’m not saying go back,” Mike said, but Noble interrupted him and
pointed a finger, inches from Erik’s nose.
“He is. He just said it.”
Mike tried again.
“I’m just saying that we need a rest before going on.”
Noble laughed bitterly.
“I’m not paying these guys,” motioning at Gus and Danny, “to sit on
their asses while you rest. We go up, and we do it today. Who knows what
the weather might be like tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure I can,” Erik said. “Not if it’s anything like yesterday.”
Jess remembered Gus’ words of the night before, about it being a
harder climb, but held her tongue. This was Noble’s show to run, and she
could see he was determined to get his way. And as usual, as they did every
time in the office, both Mike and Erik finally gave in, although they made a
fine show of grimacing and wincing as they laced up their boots.
Noble was raring to go but the big guide put a spanner in his works.
“We all go together as a team today. It’s too risky higher up to split in
two groups. Not when we’re in unknown territory.”
“They’ll slow us down too much,” Noble protested.
“Don’t tell me,” Gus replied calmly. “You brought them.”
 They broke camp ten minutes later, without Noble saying another
word. Jess saw that both Danny and Gus had unslung their rifles and were
carrying them, casually but with a watchful eye.
If they’re keeping an eye open, maybe I should too.

Gus had been right; it was a much tougher climb than the previous day.
Jess’ calf muscles ached after only half an hour, but at least the big guide
wasn’t pushing them too hard, being careful to keep a pace that would allow
Mike and Erik to stay in touch with them.
Noble, on the other hand, was clearly champing at the bit, frequently
walking ahead then making a big show of waiting for everybody to catch
up.
“He’s a bit of a dick, isn’t he?” Danny said, not too quietly, to Jess after
they reached another of Noble’s strutting points.
Jess smiled.
“More than a bit,” she said, more quietly. “But he’s the boss.”
Danny laughed at that.
“Not up here he isn’t. And if he tries any of that alpha-male shit with
Gus, I know who my money’s on.”
The running repairs that had been done on Mike and Erik’s blisters
seemed to have done some good and both men, while clearly not having
any fun, were keeping up with the pace as they got ever higher. A narrow
trail, hardly more than a foot wide in places, wound up through a slope of
scree that shifted alarmingly underfoot in places, but held their weight. At
first, the snow was patchy, but after an hour, it was an inch deep—and
getting deeper—underfoot. The tops of the range still seemed impossibly
high above them, and Jess saw no sign that the path they were on might
lead to a pass through the peaks to any valley.
At their first break, while Gus and Danny got coffee going, Noble had
Mike check their position on the GPS on his phone and try to evaluate the
direction in which they were traveling.
“We’re headed too far north,” Noble said.
“We’re going up,” Gus said with a laugh. “I thought that’s what you
wanted?” He pointed south, to a steep, almost sheer, cliff face. “You’re
welcome to go that way if you’d like. I prefer to go ‘round shit like that.
And so did the deer whose trail we’re following. Be smart. Be a deer.”
“I’m not paying you to mouth off,” Noble replied.
 Gus laughed again.
“You’re not paying me enough not to.”
Jess saw color rise in Noble’s cheeks and was surprised when he turned
away from the confrontation; had this been in an office environment, Noble
would have gone for the throat.
But he needs the guide. And they both know it.
“Do you at least know where you’re going?” Erik said, unable to keep
the whine out of his voice.
“Nope,” Gus said with a grin. “Do you?”
Mike pointed at his map. Then up the slope ahead of them.
“If I’m right, it’s about three miles west. If the trail takes a turn slightly
south once we get ‘round the outcrop there, we should be heading straight
for it.”
Gus grinned again.
“That’s the plan. Listen to your man there, Noble. He’s talking more
sense than you.”

Mike and Gus’ instincts both proved to be right. An hour later, they
rounded the top end of the outcrop and the track, such as it was, snaked
away from them along a long saddle between them and the next peak,
which was high, snow free and almost pyramidal in shape.
Mike got excited.
“We’re here,” he said, almost shouting. “It’s in the journal.”
He fetched the old book from inside his jacket, flicked though the
pages, and read.
“We eventually crossed the saddle before noon, with the sun almost
blinding us, glistening off the ice on the pyramidal peak to the west. The
trail disappeared ahead of us but we stuck with our instincts and broached
a leftward slope that led us over a smaller peak and suddenly our goal was
in sight—the valley lay spread out below us, bathed in rich sunshine.
“What are we waiting for?” Noble said. “Let’s go.”
He headed for the path, making for the saddle, but Gus pulled him
back.
“This is fresh snow,” he said. “We go single file, I go first…and we
take it slow. If I say it’s too dangerous, then it’s too dangerous. Do you
understand?”
 Noble looked far from understanding, but again he deferred to the
guide and Gus led them out onto the saddle.

It felt like walking along the top edge of a piece of paper, exposed on
both sides to a vertiginous drop that fell away for a thousand feet.
Somewhere behind her, Erik whined and moaned and Danny cajoled, but
Jess’ whole concentration was on Gus’ and then Noble’s footprints in the
snow. She planted each of her steps in the center of the marks left by those
ahead of her and tried not to look to either side. Luckily, there was only a
slight breeze from her right—anything stronger and she wasn’t sure her
nerves would take it. She heard Erik whine again, a pitiful moaning that
sounded more animal than human, followed by soft encouraging words
from both Mike and Danny. She tuned them out again and kept moving
forward.
Noble came to an abrupt stop ahead of her, and she wobbled, almost
lost her balance, and had a bad moment when she thought she might lose
her footing and slide away off the saddle entirely. By staring ahead rather
than down and focusing on Noble’s back, she was able to get her bearings
and steady herself.
“What is it now?” Noble asked.
It had been Gus who stopped them. Jess saw over Noble’s shoulder that
the big man was looking ahead along the saddle. They were almost exactly
at the halfway point, and it had dipped slightly from where they started.
Now it looked to rise again, upward toward the pyramidal peak to the west.
From here on, it would be a climb as well as a balancing act. Added to that,
the breeze coming across from their right was definitely getting stronger,
starting to whistle and raise flurries of dry snow from the path ahead.
“That’s it,” Gus said. “This is as far as we go.”
“Are you mad, man?” Noble said, almost shouting. “It’s right there,
right ahead of us.”
“It’s too risky,” Gus replied.
“Too risky my ass,” Noble said and pushed his way past the big man.
Gus tried to block his path, but Noble wasn’t to be stopped and in the act of
passing nudged the guide so hard that the big man took a wobble bigger
than the one Jess had just had and went over, first onto one knee then onto
his back. He started to slide away off the saddle.
 “Help him,” Jess called, but Noble was already off and away along the
saddle, already climbing toward the pyramidal peak.
Jess got down on her belly, spreading herself flat and reached for Gus.
His right arm came up and caught her left. He had a tight grip on his rifle
with the other hand.
“Let go of the weapon and give me your other hand,” she said. “I can’t
hold you.”
Gus shook his head.
“Can’t, we might need it.”
“For pity’s sake, man, I can’t hold you.”
Then his weight took its toll.
They both started to slide off the saddle.
A sudden counterweight on the back of her thighs stopped the slide.
“I got you,” Danny said, almost in her ear, his weight holding them
both in place while Gus climbed up her arm and over her shoulders to
safety.

Danny helped her to her feet. “Quick thinking,” he said. “Nicely done.”
“There wasn’t much thinking involved,” she replied.
“I owe you one,” Gus replied then looked along the ridge. Noble was
still climbing, having now veered left ‘round the base of the hill. “And I
owe him something too. The fucker nearly got me killed.”
“What now, boss?” Danny asked.
“Now we go home,” Gus replied. “And that bastard can find his own
way back.”
Jess put a hand on the big man’s arm.
“I’ll take that favor right now if I can,” she said softly. “Don’t leave
him. You can chew him out as much as you like. But please don’t leave him
up here alone.”
Even then, she wasn’t sure Gus would relent, until Danny lent his
weight to her plea.
“She’s right, big man. We’d never get this kind of work again if we just
left somebody up here.”
“Shit,” Gus said and spat at his feet. “Somebody’s got to go and get
him. And if I do it, I’m likely to lose my temper as soon as I catch him. Are
you up for it, Danny?”
The younger guide nodded.
 “I’m game,” he said.
“And me,” Jess replied. “You’ll need somebody to talk to him, to get
him to turn back. He’ll listen to me.”
She wasn’t at all sure that was true; she’d seen the zeal in Noble’s eyes
as he’d pushed Gus aside.
But I have to try.
She followed in Danny’s footsteps as the two of them started to climb
up the saddle.
 - Then -

We nearly lost Jeffries on the damned saddle. He slipped at the worst

possible instant and slid a good twenty feet before coming to a halt. I took it
upon myself to go to his aid and despite the vertiginous drop was able to
drag us both to safety, although it took some time and we were both weary
to our core by the time we joined to others at the base of the pyramidal
peak.
Even then, Johnson was all for plowing on, insistent that we must be
close, but as I say, we were all fearfully tired after the day’s exertions. I
managed to persuade him that we should set camp in the lee of the peak and
press on in the morning when we were fed and rested.
Baloney and beans has never tasted so good, and I even partook of a
few slugs from Johnson’s bottle of rye, feeling the need for a stiffener when
I thought of the drop we had so narrowly avoided. Jeffries joined me and
took the bottle with him when he crawled into his blankets for the night.

This journal is meant to serve as a record of the expedition, a true

telling of our journey, but an event has just occurred that has me at a loss to
explain. I will lay out the facts of the matter here and let anyone who reads
it make their conclusions, for I am unable to reach one of my own.
We had finally bedded down for the night after much excited chatter as
to what we might find on the morrow. The night was clear and cold, a
blanket of stars above and a shifting, almost luminescent sea of snow
below, and I sat at the mouth of the tent with a lantern, transcribing the first
three paragraphs that you can read above.
A rustling from outside, at the rear of the tent where we had piled our
supplies, interrupted my writing. The old Indian had warned of the danger
of bears in the high places. We had brought large-caliber hunting rifles
against just such an eventuality; Johnson slept with one at his side although
it took me a good minute to wake him, by which time the rustling had
become louder. There was definitely something out there, sifting through
our gear. My worry was that it would realize there were easier pickings to
be had inside the tent.
Once Johnson was awake and fully appraised of the situation, he took
charge. Both he and Williamson loaded their weapons and headed out into
the night, with the rest of us bringing up the rear, hanging back in a mixture
of fear at what might be outside and of caution, not wishing to get in the
line of fire.
I got out of the tent just in time to see Johnson raise his gun and fire. A
deafening crack echoed across the peak, and there was a high, lonesome
wail like a far-off train whistle and a fluttering snap, as of drying sheets in a
wind. A dark shadow moved overhead, blocking out the sky for an instant
and then there was only silence.
I had the lantern and went forward with Johnson at my side, around the
tent to the rear. Something had indeed raked through our supplies. Jeffries’
leather rucksack had been torn asunder and our tools, pickaxe, shovels, and
chisels lay strewn on the snow. Luckily, whatever it had been had not
reached the food supplies and everything else appeared to be intact.
None of us will get much sleep now. There has been much discussion
as to what we scared off and the general consensus is that it was an eagle.
But it seems I was the only one who looked up to see it blanket the stars,
the only one able to gauge the size of the thing. I have not spoken of this
with the others, for they would only ask me how much of Johnson’s rye I’d
been drinking.
But I know what I saw. I can only say that if it were an eagle, it was of
a prodigious, indeed unheard of, size.
I estimate the wingspan at close to twenty feet.
 -Danny-

Danny looked up to see Noble disappear out of view over the edge of
the saddle where it met the pyramidal peak.
Well, that’s just great, isn’t it?
He thought about calling out but didn’t think the man would pay him
any attention. He concentrated on following in Noble’s footsteps and
maintaining his balance, having to lean now against the stiffening wind
coming over his right shoulder.
That’s going to make it interesting on the way back.
“You okay back there?” he called out.
“Just keep leaving deep prints,” Jess called back. “I’m following what
you do, so don’t fuck up.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Danny replied, and despite the situation was smiling as
he climbed toward the pyramidal peak.
Just before they reached the base, Noble reappeared, flush with
excitement.
“It’s here. The valley’s here, right where Mike said it would be. We’ve
found it!”
Before Danny could shout out, the man turned his back and was off
again out of sight. Behind them, Gus shouted something but the wind was
strengthening further and the words were lost in the whistle. Danny put his
head down and moved quicker, making for the spot where they’d last seen
Noble. His prints were easy to follow; they ran off the saddle, around the
base of the peak, and over a rocky pile. They found him standing on a high
ledge, gazing down and west.
“What the hell are you playing at?” Danny asked.
“This isn’t playtime,” Noble replied. “This is the real deal. Look. Just
look.”
Finally, Danny did follow the man’s gaze. His breath caught in his
throat. A long verdant valley, the green shockingly bright against the white
peaks above, stretched away almost to the horizon, a deep v-cut gorge with
a flat, glacial floor studded with ponds, rivers, and woodland that reached
high up the steep slopes on both sides. Way below, herds of animals—
Danny thought some of them might be bison, but at this range, it was hard
to tell—clustered in tight groups on grassland or around water.
“How can this be here and nobody know about it?” he said.
“Somebody did know about it,” Noble replied and pointed across to a
gouge mark on the slopes across the valley from them. They could just
make out the small, dark hole of a cave mouth.
“That looks like a spill heap to me,” Noble said. “Somebody worked
that rock face. I’m willing to bet it was our man from the journal and his
friends. There’s our mine, Jess. It’s there. We’re going to be rich.”
“Only if you live long enough to see it,” a voice said at their back.
Noble turned, just in time to see Gus’ fist coming for his face. He tried
to duck out of it, but the big man’s punch caught him on the side of the head
and sent him sprawling on the rocky ledge. Danny saw Noble try to stand.
“Stay down, if you know what’s good for you,” he said and turned
back, thinking he’d have to try to hold Gus off. But the big man’s anger was
spent as quickly as it had come.
“Asshole,” Gus said and spat in Noble’s direction before turning to
Danny.
“We had to come over with you,” he said. “The wind was getting up
too hard. We need to find somewhere we can hunker down until it blows
itself out. We can’t go back along the saddle until it’s calmer.”
“Back?” Noble said from the ground. “We’re not going back until
we’ve checked out that mine.”
“Help yourself,” Gus replied. “I’m done with you. Our contract was
finished when you nearly got me killed out there. From here on, you’re on
your own.” He turned to check out the view, not down into the valley, but
along the slopes to the north where it looked like they might be able to
descend to the tree line without too much difficulty.
“We can pitch a camp over there under the trees,” he said, pointing. He
looked at the sky. “And we’d best do it soon. Weather’s coming in.”
Noble got to his feet, keeping distance between himself and Gus.
“I’m not pitching camp,” he said. “I’m going down. There’s hours of
light left yet.”
Gus shrugged.
 “That’s up to you. As I said, our contract is done. But I’d advise against
it.”
Noble turned to the others of his team.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s find a way down.”
Mike seemed keen to go with Noble, but both Erik and Jess looked
from Gus to Danny, then back at their boss.
“I’m staying with them,” Erik said to Noble. “They know what they’re
about up here. We don’t.”
“I agree with Erik,” Jess added. “We’d be stupid to split up at this
point.”
“You’re the ones that would be splitting,” Noble said. “Look, the
mine’s there. It’s what we came for, isn’t it? And there’ll be a way down…
if they got down, so can we.”
Erik was wavering, Danny saw that. But Jess took a step closer to Gus.
“Let me know how it goes,” she said to Noble. “Now that we know it’s
there, we’ve got all the time in the world. What’s the rush?”
“It’s what we came for,” Noble said again, and there was a definite
whine in his voice. He didn’t like being disobeyed, and it showed. Erik
stepped over to stand beside Mike, but Jess stayed put near Gus and Danny.
“Okay then,” Noble said. “Keep a pot of coffee warm for us; we’ll be
back before dark.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Danny said, but Noble’s stare was now fixed and
unwavering.
He won’t back down now; he’s tasted enough defeat for one day.
Danny, Gus, and Jess headed north, while the other three cut off south
and west, gingerly zigzagging their way across and down a steep, snow-
covered slope.
“The fucking idiots are going to get themselves killed,” Danny said,
but again Gus shrugged.
“I can’t be responsible for every dumbass on the planet,” he replied.
“Come on. Let’s head for the trees. I need some coffee.”
The big man turned away, just as a high squeal echoed across the
valley. Something came out of the trees to the north, a black shadow that
rose, wings unfurling and beating, gaining height. It came on like a torpedo,
an eagle with a wingspan so vast Danny couldn’t believe what he was
seeing. It went over their heads ten feet up; close enough that they felt a
draft as the wings beat. Each jet-black wing was as broad as a house door
and half again as long, spanning what Danny would later estimate at nearly
twenty feet tip to tip. Right there and then, he didn’t have time for thinking,
for the impossible bird was already swooping down in a screeching attack
on Noble’s group.

It caught the last of the three, Erik, on the back, huge talons hooking,
not into his flesh but into his backpack, ripping it away with a squeal of
frustration. Erik tumbled away under the bird, leaving a trail of red behind
him in the snow as he rolled, gaining speed, tumbling off the hill. The bird’s
wings beat twice and it launched itself upward in a tight spiral, squealing
again in frustrated rage.
“Erik,” Jess shouted and before Danny thought to stop her was off and
running toward the injured man.
Overhead, the eagle circled then swooped in another attack.
 - Jess -

Her only thought was for her fallen friend. A red trail showed the path
of his descent and Jess made directly for it. She was vaguely aware that
Mike was approaching her position from the other side and looked up over
his shoulder to see Noble making off at speed in frantic flight across and
down the slope in the opposite direction. Erik, in the meantime, was still
tumbling away down the slope. There was a distinct drop-off some way
farther down and he was heading straight for it. From here, Jess had no idea
how long a fall it might be; but even only a few meters would be enough to
kill him if he landed on rock.
“Erik, hold on, I’m coming,” she shouted and headed for him, the snow
flying at her heels as she plowed through it.
“Get down,” Gus shouted behind her. “Everybody down.”
It sounded like an order.
But if I obey it, I lose Erik.
She plowed on. Erik was trying desperately to get a hold somewhere on
the snow, but his momentum was such that he was still accelerating, still
moving farther away from Jess even as she put on a new burst of speed.
“Jess, look out,” Mike shouted from behind her, and she was suddenly
aware of a black shadow falling on her from above. Instinct kicked in and
she threw her body to her left, ducking and rolling in the same movement.
But this wasn’t a gym; the presence of her backpack meant that her roll
ended abruptly with her lying on her back on top of it, looking up as the
eagle speared down, straight at her, talons reaching for her face.
She kicked away, propelling herself backward. The backpack acted like
a sled, taking off and away at speed, dragging her along screaming behind
it, the eagle once again squealing its frustration as she escaped it by less
than a foot, a talon raking the air where her legs had been a second before.
Then there was no time to think of eagles, or Noble, or Erik. She saw
the wounded man’s astonished look as she sped past him, unable to do
anything to halt her descent, sliding ever faster down the slope.
 She went over the drop-off like a ski-jumper, her heart in her mouth for
three seconds of freefall before she landed hard, bounced twice on soft
snow, and kept descending, the backpack still tugging her along. She was
trapped in an icy runnel between the trees, a partially snow-covered frozen
stream that now acted like a toboggan ride, funneling her away and down
under an arch of pines.
All she could do was scream and hope.

Finally, after what seemed like an age of back-wrenching bouncing and

ass-freezing sliding, the funnel spat her out. Once again, she flew, airborne,
wondering whether this time was the end before she hit freezing water with
a splash that knocked the wind out of her and immediately soaked her all
the way through. She coughed, spluttered, and worried about drowning for
all of three seconds before she realized the water she lay in was no more
than six inches deep. She got to her knees, gingerly, expecting broken bones
at the least, but it seemed all she had suffered was a bruised back and an
affront to her dignity.
The first thing she did was look up. There was no sign of the others,
just a wall of green and, impossibly high up, a white patch that must be the
snow slope she’d fallen from. She was about to shout out when she noticed
the silence around her. For the first time since her landing, she looked
around at her surroundings.
The pond she’d landed in was in the middle of a patch of boggy
ground. It was almost circular, about twenty feet in diameter…and all
around the rim lay the carcasses of what looked to have been large deer of
some kind. Most were almost totally skeletal and had obviously been there
for some time, but one, only ten feet or so from where Jess knelt in the
water, was still moist, still red, although most of the meat had been stripped
from it.
There’s a predator around here somewhere.
Out here in the mountains, it could be wolf, bear, or mountain lion. She
didn’t want to meet any of the three.
They’ll come for me. Gus and Danny will come for me.
That was as may be, but standing out in the open in a feeding ground
wasn’t the best plan for waiting. It was when she turned to look across the
valley that she knew where she should go. The cave mouth—mine entrance,
if that was what it was—showed as a darker hole up the slope and it didn’t
look like a difficult scramble to get to it.
They’ll know to look for me there. And even if they don’t, Noble will
find me. Nothing’s going to keep him from his gold.
She stood, again gingerly, winced as her back flared in deep muscular
pain, then lifted her totally sodden, tattered backpack and started across the
valley floor.

There was no sign of any other life in the immediate vicinity, although
there was a large herd of something way to the west, lost in a misty haze
thick enough to obscure exactly what they might be. Jess’ gaze kept
flickering upward to the sky, but it appeared the eagle had lost interest with
her rapid leaving of its territory. She also kept checking the higher slopes,
hoping to see signs of the guides, but there was no sight, or sound, of them.
After a time, she concentrated on the dark mouth of the cave ahead, and,
ignoring the constant throb of pain from her bruised back, made a straight
line for it.

She paused only once, when she almost stumbled over a skeleton by
the side of a dried-up pond. It wasn’t the size of the rib cage that impressed
her, although she saw that she could probably get her whole body inside it;
it was the pair of antlers and the skull that she couldn’t look away from. The
antlers were heavy, almost spade-like and thick, and with a span wider than
her outstretched arms fingertip to fingertip. She’d seen its like before, in a
museum, on a skeleton labeled Giant Elk (extinct). These remains were old,
but not that old. Somebody in a museum was going to be changing labels.
As she neared the sloping trail that led to the cave mouth, she was
starting to hope that Noble might even be there already, but she knew that
wasn’t possible—her own descent from the heights couldn’t have been any
more rapid.
The trail itself was a rutted track through gravel. Noble had been right
earlier: it was definitely a spill heap running down from the cave itself.
Somebody had been mining here, although it had been many years in the
past.
As she started to climb away from the valley floor, she saw other signs
that this was human activity. Discarded tools and implements lay at the side
of the track; a rusted pick axe with a broken handle, a corroded tin bucket
with a fist-sized hole in it, and an old leather saddlebag, little more than dry
scraps of material. It was while she was studying the bag that a gunshot
echoed around the valley, followed by a second. It was answered by a
trumpeting bellow from the west. She looked that way and found she was
now high enough to see past and through the mist to the herd.
Her breath caught in her throat and her heart raced, all thought of the
gunshots forgotten at the sight of the herd, thirty or more of them, another
museum piece that would need to be relabeled to allow for the fact that
wooly mammoths still walked the earth.
 - Then -

We are in the third day in this strange valley. There are wonders here,
and I do not merely speak of the gold we have uncovered, for the treasure
seems, to me, to be the least of the marvels this place holds.
We came off the hill early in the morning, having descended into the
verdant valley the Indian guides’ map had led us to. Johnson’s geologist’s
eye immediately identified a spot on the far side of the valley from our
point of descent, a shallow cave, as our most likely point of access to any
seam. We set off across the valley floor toward it.
Almost as soon as we were off the hill, we discovered all manner of
skeletons, some of which were obviously large deer but others of beasts we
could not identify, and others still of beasts we recognized but much larger
than the norm in the outside world. Some of the remains were obviously
ancient but others still bore flesh, some of it wetly red.
Johnson and Williamson kept a tight grip on their rifles as we moved
across open ground, but no live animals approached us. We could see
several distinct herds of larger beasts farther to the north and west up the
valley, but for now, they were keeping their distance. We were able to reach
the cave mouth without being disturbed in our walk.
Once we were there, Johnson directed activities. He was as excited as I
have ever seen a man. It was infectious in the extreme and had us all
scurrying hither and thither in a rush to get started. We set charges and,
using the four sticks of dynamite we had brought with us, blew a great hole
in the hill. We set up camp in the mouth of the entrance, put Jeffries and
Franks on guard, and the rest of us set to hewing into the rock with a
vengeance.

It quickly became apparent that we would need better tools, and

possibly more dynamite, to do a proper job but even in that first day, we had
been rewarded with the find of two nuggets the size of the first joint of my
little figure.
We celebrated that first night by making a large dent in a bottle of
bourbon and if anyone but me heard the strange bellows, roars, and howls
that echoed around the valley, none spoke of it, all of us lost in our
seemingly achievable dreams of fortune and glory.
I slept better than I have in months, but I fear it was more to do with
the bourbon than from any peace of mind. I cannot shake the image of that
great eagle blocking the stars, and I fear that apprehension for the return
journey has already got a grip on me.

But it has to be said, day two has gone even better than the first, for we
made good progress despite our rudimentary tools, the rock being riven
with faults that allowed it to be easily split and carted out of the shaft. The
hardest part has been in transporting the spillage up and outside, and we
have taken to dumping it down the slope just outside the cave mouth, where
there is already a scar on the hillside to mark our presence
But it has all been made worthwhile by the fulfillment of all our
dreams. Williamson found it just after noon and by God, it is huge.
The seam is more than six feet wide where it shows near the mouth of
the shaft and appears to be widening where it disappears into the rock. If we
can but get the right tools and equipment up to this place, there is a fortune
to be had, enough that none of us shall ever want for anything again in this
life.
We are all going to be rich men.
 - Danny -

Danny had only been able to stand and watch as first Jess then Erik
tumbled away down the slope. They fell off the edge out of sight while
Danny was still taking his first steps to go to their rescue. Then his whole
attention had to be on the eagle, which, having failed to grab the woman,
was already circling again, looking for a fresh target.
Noble was off and away somewhere to the east, Mike stood at the spot
where Jess had fallen, looking around, confused and bewildered. Only Gus
seemed to have a handle on the situation. He knelt on one knee, rifle raised,
tracking the eagle.
“Come closer, ya bastard thing,” the big man muttered. “I’ll have you.”
Danny did what he should have done earlier: he joined Gus in taking
aim. The bird tucked its wings in for a dive and fell out of the air, heading
straight for Mike.
Both men fired at almost the same moment. Danny missed, he knew
that as soon as he pulled the trigger, but Gus’ shot hit the bird in the meat of
its body and it tumbled over in the air, twice, before spreading its wings and
coming out of the dive. It dripped blood on Danny’s head as it swooped
away overhead. Gus tried another shot, but if he hit it, it didn’t slow.
Seconds later, the bird was soaring away over the top of the trees to the
north, where it quickly dipped out of view.
“You got it,” Danny said and clapped the big man’s shoulder.
“Buggering thing was too big,” Gus replied. “That shot would have
stopped a bear, but it took it and kept flying. How did it get so buggering
big?”
Danny knew the big man wasn’t expecting him to answer, which was
just as well, as he didn’t have a clue how to begin. He helped Gus to his feet
then went to check on Mike.
The man was obviously in shock, his glazed eyes and slack jaw
evidence to that. But he wasn’t injured so Danny left him alone for the time
being. He looked east along the slope, looking for Noble, but the man was
nowhere to be seen.
 “Well, this has gone to shit and back real fast, hasn’t it?” Gus said.
“What’ll we do now, boss?” Danny asked.
The big man pointed down the bloody trail to the drop-off.
“We’d best go check on those two first. Noble can look after himself
for a bit, I’m sure. His legs seemed to be working well enough last I saw of
him.”

Danny went first down the slope, taking it slow and making sure each
foot was firmly planted before venturing lower. He followed the blood trail
down. Judging by the spillage, Erik was wounded badly. As Danny
descended, he listened, hoping to hear a cry for help from beyond the drop-
off but now that even the eagle was silent, the whole valley appeared to
have fallen into a hushed expectancy. As he approached the drop-off,
Danny knew that he didn’t want to look over; what he was likely to see
would haunt him for a very long time.
But they might be alive. Or at least, Jess might be. I have to look.
When he did pluck up the courage to venture to the edge and look over,
it proved to be an anticlimax. There was a ten-foot drop to the tree line
below, no sign of any bodies, but a blood trail that continued downward to
be lost under the canopy.
Gus arrived at Danny’s back, with a still lost-looking Mike at his side.
“Anything?” the older man asked.
Danny pointed to the blood.
“They went farther down by the looks of things,” he said.
“Then we should too, I guess,” Gus replied. “I don’t have any qualms
about leaving Noble up here, but that woman saved my life not an hour ago.
I owe it to her to do what I can.”
Danny looked along below the drop both left and right, then pointed
out a spot where the slope butted up hard against a few taller trees.
“It’ll be a bit of a scramble, but we might get down there?”
“Might is as good as it’s going to get for a while, lad,” Gus said.
“Come on. Let’s see if we can get the flock back together.”

They had to push Mike around like a doll to get him to move along the
ledge, and Danny stayed between the man and the drop-off; Mike didn’t
look aware enough of where he was to be trusted not to fall off the edge.
And when they reached where the trees butted against the slope, Gus and
Danny had to manhandle Mike down through the branches between them,
dumping him in a bank of soft snow like a discarded rucksack.
Danny joined Gus in heading for the blood trail. It was worse than it
had looked from overhead—a meter-wide smear heading north and east,
more along the slope than down.
“What does that look like to you, lad?” Gus said, speaking softly and
keeping his voice low. There was a quiet watchfulness in the big man now
that Danny recognized from previous hunting trips.
“It looks like something was dragged off,” Danny replied, pointing,
“that way.”
“That’s what it looks like to me too,” Gus said grimly.
They returned to where they’d left Mike. The man was standing upright
now and looking about him, still obviously confused, but closer to the land
of the living than he had been. Gus took him by the shoulders and looked
him in the eye.
“We need you here and now, man,” he said. “Your friends are in
trouble, and I can’t spare time to look after you too. Are you with us?”
Mike’s eyes finally focused.
“They’re alive?” he whispered.
“They might be,” Gus answered. “But they could also be in deep
trouble. Are you with us?” he asked again, more forcibly this time. Mike
nodded.
“Whatever it takes,” he said.
Gus led the way along the slope north and east and was first to go
under the canopy, following the blood trail down into semi-darkness. Mike
kept his eyes on Gus’ back as he followed but Danny saw how pale the
man’s face had gone. The shock might have lifted, but it wasn’t far away
from coming back.

The trail wasn’t a long one. It ended in a small clearing on a flatter

piece of ground on the hillside. All Danny saw was a splash of red on snow
then Gus moved to stand between him, Mike, and the view of the clearing.
“There’s something here. I’ll go and have a look,” he said calmly, but
Danny caught the look Gus gave him, and when Gus moved away, Danny
stepped in to stop Mike being able to look past him.
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know,” Danny replied, which was the truth.
 But I can make a damned good guess.
His fears were confirmed when Gus returned. He looked pale, almost
gray, as if ready to throw up. He addressed Mike first.
“You need to prepare yourself, lad.”
“Prepare myself? For what?
“It’s your pal; what’s left of him.”
Gus moved aside, Danny turned, and saw that the red was spread much
further than he’d thought. Most of the clearing was splashed, red streaks on
the white below and now that the way was clear, he smelled it too: copper
and piss and shit all together. Almost in the center of the clearing, set out as
if in ritual, were two large chunks of what looked like raw meat. One was a
leg, shoeless, a pale foot showing all too clearly, and the other chunk was
half of a torso, broken ribs puncturing what was left of the flesh. The other
limbs, the rest of the torso, and the head were nowhere to be seen.
Mike took one look, gagged, and had to turn aside to throw up. Danny
didn’t blame him one bit.
“Bear?” he asked Gus, but the big man shook his head.
“Bears are neater than whatever did this. This thing likes biting in big
chunks. I’d say mountain lion, but if it is, it’s a big sucker.”
Danny was thinking of how big the eagle had been earlier. He didn’t
want to think about a scaled-up big cat.
“Any sign of Jess?”
“Nope. No other tracks except the blood smear and what look like huge
paw prints…again, I’m thinking cat. But go and look for yourself…if
you’ve got the stomach for it. I’ll watch our lad here…he doesn’t need to
see it.”
Danny wasn’t sure about the state of his stomach.
But if there is a big predator around, the more we know the better.
He stepped into the clearing, covering his mouth and nose with his left
hand to try to mask the smell. Something hit him on the left shoulder and
fell to the ground. He looked down to see a pine cone lying there. A second
hit him on the top of the head.
He looked up. Noble was high in the branches of a tall pine, looking
down at Danny. His face was ashen, and he didn’t speak at first, merely
pointed, south and down the slope.
“It went that way,” he finally said.
 It took Danny, with Mike’s help, ten minutes to talk Noble out of the
tree; Gus refused outright to have anything to do with him. It was another
five minutes after that before they got any information out of him.
“I was just trying to get away, anywhere away from that fucking huge
bird,” he said. He was looking at the ground, not able to look Danny, or Gus
in particular, in the eye. “I turned up here, just in time to hear something
coming through the trees. I wasn’t stupid enough to speak and ask if it was
any of you…I just got up the nearest big fucking tree I could find. And I’m
damned glad I did, for the fucker dragged poor Erik in just a few seconds
after I got up there.”
“Was he dead?” Mike asked, no more than a tremulous whisper.
“Long dead,” Noble replied, “as if that’s any consolation.”
“And you saw what dragged him in here?” Danny asked.
“Yep. It was a fucking cat, but the biggest damned thing you’ll ever
see. You ever seen a Bengal Tiger? Think bigger. More russet in color,
hairier, heavier in the shoulders, longer teeth…just bigger.”
“There’s nothing like that in these hills,” Danny said, and Noble
laughed.
“There is now. And I vote we get the fuck out of here before it realizes
it’s got a taste for us.”
“What about Jess?” Mike asked.
“What about her? Fuck her,” Noble said and got punched again, by
Mike this time. It didn’t floor him the way Gus had done earlier but Danny
saw that the surprise was even greater.
Mike turned to Gus.
“What’s your best guess as to where we find her?” he said.
Gus was still smiling at Noble’s discomfort when he answered.
“Down in the valley, if she’s anywhere. She’ll figure someone will look
for her at the mine.”
“I’m not going anywhere except out of here,” Noble replied, and Gus
finally spoke to him.
“And I’ll tell you what I told you before. Our contract is done. Feel free
to fuck off. But we’re going to look for Jess.”
When they left the clearing a few minutes later heading downward,
Noble followed closely at their backs.
 Getting down proved to be more difficult than they’d imagined. There
were some animal trails but mostly they criss-crossed the slopes rather than
heading up to the tops or down to the valley floor. And it was slow going;
Gus wasn’t taking any chances, as watchful and careful as he would have
been tracking down an old Grizzly.
They found more blood thirty yards north of the clearing, but after that,
it was as if both the big cat and any parts of what was left of poor Erik had
simply vanished.
“It went off deeper,” Gus said in a whisper. “Under the canopy off-trail.
And I’m not stupid enough to follow it. It’s the woman we need to find
now. We’re going down the next trail we find heading that way.”
They came across a frozen stream running away downhill some five
minutes later. Gus led the way as they carefully picked their way in a steep
descent, every footstep a trial in staying upright, every breath held in
anticipation of a slip that might send them tumbling away between the trees.
“This is bloody pointless,” Noble said at Danny’s back. “She fell off
the cliff. She’s gone, and we all know it.”
“I know no such thing,” Gus said ahead of them and bent to pick up
something off a rock. He passed it back via Mick to Danny, who showed it
to Noble—a silver rucksack buckle.
“I helped her tighten these up this morning,” Danny said. “She passed
this way.”
“Passed, or was dragged,” Noble said, then went quiet when he saw the
look in Danny’s eyes.
“You’ve been punched twice today already,” Danny went on. “If you
want to make it three for three, just keep on running that big fucking mouth
of yours.”
Noble looked like he might want to argue but Gus quieted them both
with a sharp low whistle. When Danny looked to the older man, Gus
pointed through the trees and raised his rifle.
Danny had just got his own weapon raised when something came out
of the canopy at a rush that sent branches flying and wood splintering.

At first, all Danny knew was that it was big and rust-colored. He
caught a glimpse of a gaping mouth that contained long, curving teeth that
looked longer than his hand width, and then it was on them. Gus got off one
shot—Danny didn’t know if it hit the beast or not, but a second later, it had
barreled into the big guide, and both Gus and the big cat rolled and tumbled
away under the trees. Danny sent a shot after it and saw a burst of red at the
back of its left thigh where he hit it. But it didn’t slow. It let out a roar that
told of pain, but more of defiance then both it and Gus were gone as a deep
silence fell around them.
Danny didn’t stop to think. He ducked under the canopy and went after
them, all though of caution forgotten, the tracks and fresh blood, an easy
trail to follow. He was vaguely aware of somebody thrashing along behind
him, but whether it was Mick or Noble, or both, he didn’t care.
“Gus!” he shouted.
He didn’t get an answer.
 - Jess -

Jess had stood, open-mouthed, staring at the mammoths for a long

time, her brain trying to process information she knew to be impossible but
unable to deny her eyes. She was vaguely aware that she was also listening,
hoping for another gunshot, another sign that she wasn’t alone with this
impossible view. But the valley had fallen silent again, the mammoths
having gone back to whatever it was that mammoths did up here in the high
valley.
Something shifted under her feet, forcing her to look down, and that
broke the spell that had held her. She stood on a decaying piece of leather
saddlebag, a reminder that someone had been here before her.
And that someone might have left something that I’ll need to survive.
She forced herself to concentrate on the path and not return to gazing
up the valley, and headed up the slope toward the cave mouth.

As she climbed higher, she found more evidence of mining; small spoil
heaps, gouges in the rock that could only have come from tools, and more
discarded, rusting, and broken implements. At the mouth of the cave itself
she found an oil lamp hanging on a hook driven into the wall, and saw
another some eight feet inside, beyond which it was too dark to see. She
had no means of lighting the lamps so she set about a survey of what little
she could see without having to go deeper into the dark.
There wasn’t much to find. The cave wasn’t a cave at all, but a worked
shaft. Judging by the echoes, it went quite some way down into the side of
the valley, but without a light to guide her, Jess was loath to venture beyond
the reach of the light from outside. Even that was going dimmer by the
second. She went back to the entrance and looked to the sky; it had gone
slate gray, visibly darker than before. The snowy high slopes from where
she’d fallen were now concealed by low clouds, and there was a damp chill
in the air that spoke of harsher weather to come.
 She began gathering anything she could find to make a fire, although
she still didn’t have anything to use to get one going.
But I’ll bang rocks together if it comes down to it.
She found some dry wood and scraps of worn clothing that might be
useful as tinder. She began piling it in a small heap inside the mouth of the
mine, and had just turned to look for more when she saw three figures
heading toward her across the valley floor.

Only three?
At first, she tried to persuade herself that the others had stayed up top,
and that perhaps Gus had stayed with a wounded Erik while these three
came for her. But as they got closer, it only needed one look in their faces to
understand the story was a different, more terrible one.
Mike came to her first.
“Erik?” she said, and a shake of Mike’s head was all that was needed.
She saw the rest in Danny’s pale face.
“Your friend, the big man?”
“Gone the same way as Erik,” Danny said, his voice dull. “At least I
think so. We haven’t found either of them yet.”
“Then they could still be alive?”
Danny shook his head, but didn’t speak. It was Noble’s insensitivity
that finally got her the information she didn’t want to hear.
“There was too much blood for the big man to have made it,” he said.
“And Erik was torn to bits like an angry kid with a straw doll. I saw it and
—”
“That’s enough,” Mike said softly. “She knows all she needs to know
for now.”
She saw Danny look around. The weather was closing in fast, heavy
gray clouds rolling down the slopes.
“We head back,” he said. “We head back right now. If we move fast,
we might beat the weather and make last night’s camp by nightfall.”
A mixture of sleet and rain started to spatter on the ground. At the same
time, the wind got up out of nowhere, whistling along the length of the
valley.
“You were saying?” Noble said sarcastically.
 Even then, Danny was all for making the attempt to get out of the
valley, but Jess was still battered and bruised, and Mike looked dead on his
feet.
“None of us are in much of a state for a hike right now, Danny,” she
said. “And at least we’ve got shelter here.”
“You’re all my responsibility now,” Danny replied. “I just want to do
what’s right by you.”
“What’s right is we get a fire going, get some rest, and head back at
first light. How does a pot of coffee sound?”
“Sounds might fine to me.”
While Jess was persuading Danny to stay, Noble and Mike, their
excitement overriding any trepidation they might have, were already
making their way down the tunnel, lighting oil lamps with Danny’s lighter
as they went. Jess heard their excited chatter fade off down the shaft but
strangely felt no desire to join them. Any gold-lust that might have driven
her to come here had just as quickly been driven out of her by the disasters
of the day.
Besides, Danny looked like a man in sore need of a friend. She stayed
with him as he got the camp stove going and started brewing coffee, the
small ritual seeming to calm him and ground him back in a reality he’d
been drifting away from.
“Is there any hope?” she said quietly.
“For Erik, none at all. Noble was right about that at least. As for Gus…
I’m pretty sure he’s gone. There was too much blood, and there were no
more shots. He would have used his weapon if he was able. What the hell
have we walked into here?”
She told him about the mammoths, and he laughed bitterly.
“I’ll see your hairy elephants and raise you a fucking saber-toothed
tiger,” he said. “I’m pretty sure that’s what got the others. But I’ll be
damned if I can figure any of this out. Giant eagles, mammoths, and tigers
should be extinct. This kind of shit doesn’t happen in Canada.”
“It’s some kind of relict environment,” Jess said. “A lost world.”
“Yeah? Well, it’s not fucking lost now.”
Danny handed her a mug of coffee.
“Shouldn’t you be away down the hole with the others looking for your
gold?”
“Right now, coffee wins,” she said and realized she meant it.
 But when Mike’s excited call came up the shaft seconds later, her
resistance faded.
“We’ve found it! We’re rich!” he shouted.
Danny managed a thin smile.
“At least somebody’s happy.” He took Jess’ coffee cup from her. “You
should go and see what all the excitement’s about. I’ll watch the door.
Holler if you need anything.”
Mike was still shouting excitedly as Jess made her way down the shaft,
her shadow flitting and dancing in the flickering light from the lamps.
It got warmer as she descended, but she didn’t have to go far. After less
than twenty paces, the passage opened into a wider chamber. Mike and
Noble stood at the far side from her, a lantern raised. A seam of golden
sparkles a yard and more at its widest ran all along the far side of the
chamber, broadening as it disappeared deeper into the rock
“We’re rich,” Noble said. “We’re all fucking rich.”
“Yeah. All of us but Erik,” Jess said.
“Don’t be a party pooper, Jess,” Noble said. “Let me enjoy the
moment.”
She bit her tongue and didn’t reply. Her attention had been caught, not
by the gold seam but by something else on the rock face to her right.
“Get that light over here, Mike,” she said.
“There’s no gold on that wall,” Noble replied.
“It’s not the gold I’m worried about,” she said and had Mike get the
lamp right up close to the rock face. Someone had been painting on a flat
area. There were broad, flat handprints in red and white, alongside spear-
wielding stick figures that were obviously meant to be human and others
with horned antlers sprouting from their heads that were obviously not. To
the left of that were depictions of animals, mammoth and deer in the main,
herds of them, being chased by more of the stick figures.
“I saw that when we came in,” Noble said. “Ancient Native art, of no
interest to us.”
“Native, yes, but ancient? I think not,” Jess replied. “You don’t get it
yet, do you? This isn’t a cave…it’s a mineshaft, dug out by the miners we
came looking for. So these paintings are relatively recent.”
“So?” Noble said.
 “So, we might not be alone in this valley,” Jess replied. “And if there
are indigenous people here, the gold isn’t ours. It’s theirs.”

Noble was still fuming when they left the chamber and headed back up
to where Danny had another pot of coffee brewing on the stove.
“What they don’t know can’t hurt them,” Noble said. “We can stake a
claim, get the digging down, and be out of here with nobody any the wiser.”
“That’s not the way things work,” Jess said. “And you know it. There
are licenses to apply for, rules to follow. The government—”
“Fuck the government. We found it. It’s ours.”
Noble had reverted to childhood arguments, and Jess knew there would
be no convincing him on the matter until they were well away from the site
and clearer heads could prevail.
And it looks like we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
Sleet was coming down heavy now outside the entrance and the wind
whistled across the opening, setting the flames of their small fire guttering
and flickering.
“Well?” Danny said, directing his question at her. “Are you rich?”
“That remains to be seen,” she replied, taking a fresh mug of coffee.
“But there’s something else you should know.”
She told him about the paintings on the wall of the cavern, and he
looked thoughtful.
“There’s long been stories of tribes out in the hills, people that fled
north to escape the Indian Wars and resettlements in the USA way back
when. Maybe we’ve stumbled on one of them.”
“Given the way today’s gone,” Jess replied, “I’m keeping an open mind
on everything.”
 - Then -

The tiger got Franks last night, even though Jeffries was on guard with
him and they kept a fire well lit. The beast seems to have no fear, either of
us or our fire. It plucked poor Franks off and away into the night before
Jeffries even knew it was there. We all heard Franks’ screams well enough
though, for they echoed loud in the night, filling the whole valley with his
terror, which was thankfully short. I went out with Williamson at first light
to search, but there is no trace of the body, although judging by the pools of
blood on the slope down to the valley floor, poor Franks is long gone into
the belly of the beast.
This is a hellish place and the tiger, monstrous as it is, is not even the
most worrisome thing.
It is now abundantly clear that we are not alone in this valley. There is
a tribe of savages here but we have not yet seen them up close, for they are
a secretive group, staying up the high slopes to our north. Johnson says he
caught a glimpse of two of them nearby yesterday. He said they were naked
save for leather and fur kilts, and stockily built, almost bear-like in their
movements. He put a shot from his rifle over their heads and they melted
away into the trees, but I would not be surprised if they are not watching us
even now. They are certainly used to being active on the valley floor, for we
have all seen the results of their hunts, the hairy elephants brought low by
crude spears and butchered where they lay.
But as long as these indigenous folk stay out of sight, and we have the
rifles, we should not have to worry overmuch about them.
The wolves, however, are another matter.
The indigenous people are not the only ones who leave traces of their
hunts. And the wolves are less circumspect. Just this morning, I stood at the
entrance and watched the pack bring down a young mammoth, the valley
echoing with barks and snarls and the piteous bellowing of their prey. The
nights are full of their spectral howling. Like denizens of some cold reach
of hell, they sing and my dreams are full of blood and death.
At least we are eating well. Johnson brought down a huge elk this
morning with a single well-placed shot, a nine-foot spread of antlers that
he’ll never see on a wall of his trophy room. But we have enough meat for
many days should we require it, there is a freshwater stream off the hill to
our south, and there are berries aplenty on the low bushes just inside the
tree line.
If it were not for the beasts, it might even be said to be pastoral.

We have hewn as much rock as we are able. The seam is exposed, but it
is increasingly obvious that we will not get any gold out of the wall without
better tools. I have tried to persuade Johnson of this but he will not listen;
the gold fever has him in its grip and it is not a simple thing to shake.
Williamson, Jeffries, and I have resolved to take our leave on the morrow
and return when we are better equipped. We must persuade Johnson to
come; he will not last long without us.
 - Danny-

The other three continued to argue about their discovery but Danny
tuned them out. He kept going over and over the seconds between Gus
hearing something in the trees to the point where the big man had been
dragged off under the canopy.
Was there anything I could have done differently?
It had been mere seconds but every part of it was imprinted in his
memory, in particular the splash of red when his shot hit the big cat.
Could I have gone for a kill shot?
The more he thought about it, the more he knew that he’d taken the
only good opening available; any other shot would have been too risky and
might have hit Gus.
He was going to be dead anyway.
Danny pushed the thoughts away angrily and stood at the entrance
looking out into the gathering murk. Night wasn’t too far off now. It looked
like they were going to be hunkering down—at least the rest of them would
be. Danny had no intention of moving from where he stood; he wouldn’t be
caught by surprise a second time.

When the surprise came, it was from inside, not out. Noble came out of
the shadows, shouting angrily as he pushed past Danny.
“I don’t give a fuck about any fucking savages,” he shouted. “We found
it. It’s ours.”
He’d walked several yards outside the entrance, his anger making him
unaware of either the sleet or the fact that he was out in the open for any
predator to see.
Mike came past Danny. He didn’t go as far outside as Noble but he too
was now exposed.
“Come back in,” Mike said. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
Danny didn’t have time to admonish either of them. Something hit the
ground near Noble and there was a loud thud of stone on stone. Mike turned
to Danny, a question forming even as a missile whistled from out of the
mist. Danny caught a glimpse of something long and spear-like. It hit Mike
in the back and the man fell to the ground with a surprised whuff of breath.
Noble stood, mouth open, rooted to the spot while Danny knelt to
where Mike lay. The spear stuck out of his back, long shaft straight up,
several inches of stone embedded in Mike even through his quilted jacket.
Blood pooled around the wound, far too much of it.
“Need a hand here,” Danny shouted.
Noble still didn’t move, even as something heavy struck the rock face
to the side of the mine entrance. Jess came to Danny’s side and between
them they hauled Mike back into the mine, deep into the shadows.
Noble was still in the same place when Danny went back for him and
Danny had to bodily haul the man back to safety. Another stone-tipped
spear clattered against the rock at Danny’s feet as he got them both inside.
He turned, raising his weapon, looking for a target, and had to move swiftly
to one side as another spear came out of the mist. He put two quick rounds
in the direction from where he thought it had come.
No more missiles came out of the mist.

“How is he?” Danny called into the shaft.

“Not good,” Jess called back.
Danny considered going to help, but Jess had looked since the start like
someone who knew what she was doing. Besides, it would be folly to leave
the entrance undefended. He stood inside the mouth, in the shadows and
leaning up against the left-hand inner wall, rifle raised, expecting a fresh
attack at any second.
None came. All he could hear was Mike moaning in pain and someone,
probably Jess, frantically ripping material for a field dressing.
A few minutes later, Noble, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else,
arrived at Danny’s back. Danny was relieved to see that the man had at least
learned enough sense to stay in the shadows and in cover. Danny turned to
see that Noble had the spear, holding it out for inspection.
“Jess said you probably need to see this.”
It was wooden-shafted, crudely cut. A stone head with sharpened outer
ridges had been lashed to the wood with tightly wound strips of leather.
Mike’s blood showed all over the stone and up the shaft beyond the
strapping. It didn’t look Native American in form or function; it looked, just
like the animals they had encountered, like something that belonged in a
museum. His early words came back to mind.
What the hell have we walked into here?
He tossed the spear outside to join another that lay just beyond the
doorway. Noble was still there at his back but the man wouldn’t look Danny
in the eye.
“Mike’s in a bad way,” Noble finally said then, after a pause, “this is all
my fault, isn’t it?”
Danny had no answer for him, at least none that Noble was going to
like, so he didn’t reply and after a few seconds, Noble left to return to the
shaft. Danny smelled the aroma of fresh coffee waft from deeper inside and
a few minutes later, Jess arrived carrying two steaming mugs. She too was
smart enough to sidle along the wall and not show a target to anyone
outside.
“Are we safe?” she asked as she passed a coffee over. Danny cradled
his rifle one-handed and took the mug gratefully.
“As safe as we can be for now,” Danny replied. “But we’ve got to get
out sometime. Mike’s going to need a doctor.”
“He’s going to need a miracle,” Jess said baldly, and Danny noticed
that she’d been crying. “The wound’s a deep one, and ragged, just above his
kidneys. I’ve bandaged him up best I can manage, but the blood’s already
seeping through. He’s down inside one of the sleeping bags. And I’ll be
surprised if he gets out of it. He’s lost too much blood already.”
Danny had been pointedly ignoring the pool of red outside and the
foot-wide trail that led from the spot back into the cave. He saw Jess glance
at it then avert her eyes. He changed the subject.
“The spear that did it…have you seen anything like that before?”
She echoed his thoughts back at him.
“Only in a museum. Who do you think they are?”
“I was going to ask you the same question. You spoke earlier of a relict
environment. Could this be a relict population? Like one of those tribes they
discover every so often in the Amazon?”
“I suppose anything’s possible,” she said. “But all I care about is
getting out of here in one piece.”
“You and me both,” Danny replied. “But it’ll be full night soon. We
can’t do it in the dark.”
 He wasn’t that sure they were going to be able to do it in the light, not
with a badly injured man to carry, but that wasn’t anything she needed to
hear. Her eyes were taking on the dull look of someone in shock.
I’ve got to keep her busy. If any of us dwell on what’s happened here,
we’re liable to just lie down and die.
“Do me a favor?” he said. “Get some stew on? We’re going to need it.
You’ll find the pot and the tins in my backpack beside the stove.”
She gave him a mock salute and a semblance of a smile as she left. It
wasn’t much, but it was enough to be going on with.

Danny felt a tension headache coming on, caused by trying to peer too
hard into the growing dark outside. He tried to relax, let his gaze slide
rather than peer. The coffee helped too. For the first time in several years
since quitting, he had an almost overwhelming urge for a cigarette. He
laughed at the thought.
At least that’s one thing that I know for sure won’t be happening.
There was no movement or sound from out of the valley, just the
continual spatter of sleet on rock. The stiff breeze was cold on his cheeks,
and he was forced to zip his jacket all the way up to under his chin, but he
never once thought about retreating deeper into the cave. He was under no
illusions.
If I’m watching for them, they’re sure as hell watching for me.
Jess came with a bowl of stew, and he allowed himself to put the rifle
down at his side, making sure he could reach for it in a second, but still no
attack came. Jess stayed beside him as he ate.
“Mike?” he asked.
“No better,” she replied. “And Noble’s just sitting there, staring into
space like a zombie. I tried Mike’s phone; it’s one of those new satellite
ones, but there’s no signal, and the GPS is all screwy, as if something’s
affecting the circuitry inside the phone itself. We can’t get a call for help
out. If we’re getting out, we’re going to have to make it on our own.”
“I know it,” he replied and waved out the entranceway. “But it’s suicide
to go out in this in the dark. We’ll move out at dawn.”
“And if our friends out there won’t let us?”
He passed her the empty bowl and lifted his rifle.
“I’ve got two dozen rounds for this baby. They’ll find that things have
moved on past stone spears in the outside world.”
 He said it with as much bravado as he could muster.
But I’m talking about shooting a man. Can I do that?

Danny noticed that the interior of the mine was lit dimly by the
flickering orange of their small fire, showing brighter as the darkness of
night gathered in.
We need it, for comfort as much as for the heat. But it tells anybody
who wants to look where we are.
He let it be; he knew it wasn’t anything that Noble would want to hear
and Mike needed as much warmth as they could give him. But he made sure
he stayed well in shadow, not letting a silhouette show against the dim
glow.
There hadn’t been any movement outside since he’d let off his two
shots. His hope was that whoever the attackers were, they were as primitive
as their weapons suggested, and that they’d never heard a gun before today.
It was a slim hope, but it was all he had.
 - Jess-

Mike was dying.

All three of them inside the mineshaft knew it, but nobody was
speaking. Noble sat off by himself, back to the wall, staring into the
flickering flames of the fire. Jess sat on her rucksack at Mike’s side where
he lay in the sleeping bag. He’d stretched out a hand to her ten minutes
before and she’d taken it, a cold slab of meat in her palm. Even in the dim
light, she saw that the sleeping back was soaked through with blood beneath
Mike’s body. Whatever life he had left in him, she didn’t think there was
much more to give, but she did not let go of his hand.
He tried to speak, twice, but the strain was too much for him. His
eyelids fluttered wildly, his gray lips opened to show a dull, stone-colored
tongue, but only a croak came out. Jess gave him some water and got a
squeeze of the hand in reply but that was as much communication as he
could manage.
Jess felt more helpless than at any other time of her life; she considered
getting Mike out of the sleeping bag, trying again to close the wound and
bandage him up. Her fear now was that moving him at all would do more
damage than good.
So she sat there in the flickering glow of the fire, holding a dying
man’s hand, feeling the heat going out of him and knowing that she’d never
forget these moments, however long she might live.
She guessed it must be full dark outside by now. The fire grew low,
started to stutter, but when she let go of Mike’s hand to tend to it, he
grabbed her tight and held on like a clamp.
“Noble,” she said softly to the other man against the wall. “See to the
fire, would you? We can’t let it go out.”
Noble didn’t acknowledge her, his face impassive, his gaze not leaving
the dying flames.
“Well, fuck you too,” she said. She had to work hard to prise free from
Mike’s grip and felt guilty as soon as she was free for he grasped around,
fingers opening and closing, looking for some last vestige of human
contact.
 “Hold on, Mike,” she said softly, “I have to see to the fire. I’ll be
back.”
As she was rebuilding the fire from their small stock of dry wood,
Danny called softly from the entrance.
“I could do with a coffee if you’re up and about. I need something to
keep me awake.”
Keen as she was to get back to Mike, she also knew that Danny’s
wakefulness might prove key to them all surviving the night. She finished
up with the fire, checked that Mike was still breathing, and then got the
small stove lit and some coffee going, using up the last of her bottled water
in the process.
She had another check on Mike before taking the coffee out to Danny.
His eyes were shut but as if he sensed her presence, his hand made slow,
grasping movements that brought a hitch to her throat. Suddenly, she
needed some fresher air, something to wash away the scream she felt
building up in her chest.
She went to the entrance with two mugs of steaming coffee in her
hands.

Danny turned at her approach; she saw firelight reflected in his eyes.
As she went to hand the coffee to him, a darker shadow moved out beyond
the entrance. Danny must have seen something, maybe her gaze going over
his shoulder, for he turned, dipped, and raised his rifle in one smooth
movement.
The sound of the shot he fired was deafening, echoing around the rock
face and out into the valley. The muzzle flash left a yellow, fading patch in
Jess’s eyes, but when she looked down, she saw the body clearly enough;
less than five feet from the entrance, a heavy, squat figure, half its head
blown away.
She didn’t have time for closer inspection; a second figure came
silently out of the night. Danny fired again, but he’d hurried his shot and his
aim was off. The attacker kept coming, and Jess saw that Danny was
struggling to reload.
Her next move was pure instinct. She stepped forward and threw the
steaming hot coffee into the attacking figure’s face. She got a scream, more
surprise than anything else in response then she was pushed aside as Danny
stepped forward and calmly put a bullet into its face. He kicked the body
aside as it fell so that it landed on top of the first one.
“Well, I guess that answers one question,” she heard him mutter. He
pulled Jess back into the entrance then stood beside her rifle raised, gazing
out into the night.
No further attack came.
“Thanks for the coffee,” Danny said, deadpan, and suddenly they were
both laughing, a combination of adrenaline rush and relief.
“I’m glad somebody’s happy in this shit show,” Noble said at their
back. “Mike’s not. He’s dead.”

The first thing Jess did on returning to Mike’s side was take his hand
but it had no life in it, as cold as the stone on which it lay.
“Oh, Mike,” she said softly, “I’m so sorry.”
“I vote we get the fuck out of here right now,” Noble said at her back.
“Are you with me?”
It took her a few seconds to realize he was talking to her.
“Are you mad?” she said. “Or didn’t you see the bodies out there? Who
knows how many are out there waiting for us to do something stupid.”
“So we just sit here until we starve or they pick us off one by one like
Mike there? Fuck that for an idea.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
“We put that fire out, for starters,” he replied. “It could be drawing
them to us for all we know. Then we sidle off under cover of darkness. Your
pal out there is a woodsman, isn’t he? He can get us out of here if anybody
can.”
“And what about Mike?”
That just got her a blank stare. She realized Mike was now gone and
forgotten in Noble’s mind, along with Erik before him.
And if he can wipe them from mind that easily, he’d do the same to me
in a second.
 “Danny thinks we should wait for morning,” she said.
“Ooh, Danny now, is it?”
“What age are you? Twelve? Just shut the fuck up and let’s show Mike
some respect.”
She thought he might continue to argue but he went back to sitting in
the shadows, staring at the fire. Jess immediately put him out of her mind
and turned back to Mike. She couldn’t just leave him lying there but equally
had no idea what to do next. She didn’t know if Mike had been religious but
she lowered her head and said a prayer remembered from childhood before
carefully putting his exposed hand into the sleeping bag, pulling it over his
head, and zipping the body up tight inside. Then she dragged it away. Noble
didn’t move to help as she tugged and pulled. The bag slid easily, and it was
only after she returned from leaving it in the chamber with the gold seam
that she saw the reason: she’d left a wide trail of blood all the way down the
corridor.
The scream welled up in her again. She fled the cramped shaft and
headed for the entrance.

Danny was still in the shadows, leaning against the wall, looking
almost casual.
“He was right, Mike’s dead,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” he replied. “But there’s nothing we can do for him now.
There is something you can do for me?”
“Anything,” she said. “Ask me anything. I need to be moving.”
“I hear you,” Danny replied. “Fetch a lamp, would you? I want a close
look at those two I shot. I’ve been looking and looking…there’s something
not right, but it’s too dark to see exactly what.”
Jess went back inside and took the oil lamp from the wall. They lit it
with Danny’s lighter and both stayed very still as the wick flickered,
expecting the new light to draw a fresh attack, but none came. Danny gave
her the nod and she stepped out to where the bodies lay on the downward
slope of spillage.
She immediately saw what had concerned Danny.
They don’t look fully human.
She bent closer. The body on top looked directly at her, eyes sunk deep
under a heavy brow, a flat face below that with a nose that appeared
squashed across the cheeks. The hair was long, black, and shaggy; the torso
was broad-shouldered but looked strangely compacted. The upper half was
naked, but there was a leather and fur kilt from waist to knees and the legs,
although sturdy and muscular, seemed too small for the bulk of the body
above. She estimated it—he—would be no more than five feet tall if
standing.
She might not have made the connection if she hadn’t seen the
mammoths earlier, but recognition came immediately, for this was another
thing that surely belonged in a museum.
“I know something’s hinky,” Danny said at her back. “Tell me what it
is?”
“Something’s hinky all right,” she replied. “They’re not Native Indian.”
“What are they then?”
The word didn’t seem adequate for the things on the ground beneath
her.
“Neanderthals.”
 - Then –

This will be my last entry. I write it from my deathbed, but at least it is

a bed, something I never thought to experience again. They tell me I am in
Banff, but it could be the one in Scotland rather than the Canadian one for
all that I will see of it. I am in a small room with a single high window, and
I am too enfeebled to get out of bed to look through it. They tell me I have
been here for a week, but I will not see the end of this one.
I woke here in this too-soft bed with no memory other than a headlong
flight upward through pine forest away from the horrors I had left on the
valley floor. I know that my intention was to make for our camp on the rim.
I have read the fevered passages I wrote when I reached that high camp at
the pyramidal peak, but I have no recollection of writing them; indeed, to
my eye, it reads like the hand of another man entirely. I also obviously had
enough presence of mind to pack my writings in the rucksack; it lies here
on the floor beside the bed. I arrived wearing it in a valley on a timber track
near Jasper but again, how I might have got there has been wiped entirely
for my memory. I lie here and think that might be for the best, for the sake
of my sanity for however long I have left to me.
I take to my grave the shame of leaving my companions, my friends, to
their horrific fate. The words I wrote in the journal remind me all too
clearly but I do not have to read it for it to come back to me; the sight, the
sounds, the smells are all there waiting for me every time I close my eyes. I
shall take them into the long sleep of death with me as my penance.
“Johnson would not leave the cave. Gold fever mostly, but also terror
at what waits for us in the valley. But we must leave him. We are not wanted
here.”
“They ate Williamson. He was still alive when they took out his liver
and I didn’t help him. I ran. God help me, I ran.”
The next part is where my memory has left me. But if the big cat was
indeed after me on that mad flight up the valley side, I am glad to have that
slate wiped clean.
“The tiger has found my scent. I hear it, padding along behind me. I
have smeared myself in the shit of the tusked things to try to mask my smell.
Dear God, it is rank.”
And the last, the climb up and out and up to the camp? My frostbitten
fingers and toes are testimony to a sore trial. Perhaps it is for the best that
too has gone from whatever is left of my mind.
“There is nothing I can do but climb and hide, climb and hide, but it is
too cold now and the eagles are watching. At least the wolves have not
followed me. Not yet…I left them enough meat to be going on with. God
help me, I left them.”
I have asked my God for forgiveness, but as of yet, he has not
answered me.

I have told no one here about the gold; I doubt my story would be
believed in any case. I have entrusted this journal to the Presbyterian
minister who has been spending these last hours with me and he has assured
me it will be buried with me. It is apt that I take the story to my grave. It is
where it belongs.
But if he is not true and someone is reading this in some time ahead,
then beware.
Do not go into The Dreaming Indian Valley. Only hell waits for you
there.
 - Danny -

The long night had just taken another turn into the Twilight Zone,
although Danny couldn’t see how this new information made any difference
to their situation. He had Jess step away from the dead and come back
behind him in the entrance. The sleet had died off, taking the wind with it,
leaving behind only steady drizzle. He still couldn’t see much more than a
few yards down the slope, and the only sound was the drip and splash of
water from the top of the entrance above him to the rock at his feet.
“I could handle another coffee?” he said.
“We’d need water,” she replied. “We’re out.”
Danny waved at the drip. “Fetch the pot and sit it under here. It won’t
be much, but we’re going to need it in the morning. Any stew left?”
“Two tins. It’s going to be a simple breakfast.”
“At least we’ll be alive to eat it.”
As soon as it was out, he knew it was the wrong thing to have said. Her
eyes clouded and she turned away, leaving Danny alone to rue letting his
tongue run faster than his brain.

He continued to peer out into the darkness. His watch told him it was
the early hours of the morning. Strangely, he wasn’t feeling tired, despite, or
perhaps because of, the events since they left the safety of their high camp
the morning before. Everything after that ran like a blur in the projector in
his head—Noble’s arrogant stupidity, the first eagle attack, the carnage at
Erik’s kill site, the beast, and Gus with it rolling away into the trees, and
now the two dead bodies at his feet. Neanderthals was what Jess had said,
and he vaguely remembered pictures from a long-forgotten book. Cavemen
he’d have called them in his boyhood days, but these were no slow-minded,
cartoon club-wielders; the viciousness and speed of their attacks proved the
lie to the stereotype.
 Jess returned and put the stew pot under the largest area of dripping
water then left again without speaking. Danny was thinking about cigarettes
again, and beer, a lot of beer. Every part of him wanted to take off, head for
the high camp then home, to Jasper, the security of a well-known bar and
the oblivion of people, loud music and booze. But that would be letting Gus
down even more than he had already.
He shared Gus’ last views on Noble—that one could get back on his
own for all Danny cared. Jess was his job now, getting her out of here and
somewhere where neither of them had to look at dead bodies of things that
shouldn’t be. Maybe she’d even join him for a drink. That was a pleasant
enough daydream to be going on with, and he indulged it for a while before
he realized he wasn’t really on watch any more, just woolgathering.
After that, he tried to pay attention. Every so often, he’d glance at the
dead bodies outside, reminding himself of the threat that might still be out
there in the dark, watching and waiting for an opening. On top of that, the
sound of water dripping into the metal pot was certainly annoying enough
to ensure he stayed in the present.
Jess surprised him into a startled jump some time later by returning to
check the pot.
“Coffee coming up in five,” she said as she carried the pot away and
gave him a small smile that made him think he hadn’t made too big a faux-
pas earlier.
There had been no sign of Noble for hours but Danny didn’t really care
enough at first to ask when Jess returned with two mugs. She replaced the
pot under the drips.
“I put Mike inside his bag,” she said softly. “He’s down in the bottom
chamber. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Noble?”
“Still sitting on his ass. He hasn’t said a word.”
“And you? How are you holding up?”
“You really want to know? I’m a frazzled wreck. I need a hot bath and
a cold beer, not necessarily in that order. Tell me you can get us out of
here.”
“I think you could probably get yourself out,” Danny said, “but I’ll take
the lead. As soon as it starts getting light.”
“What about Mike…?”
 “We’ll have to leave him where he lies. We certainly can’t carry him.
But the authorities will look after him, once we’ve got out and made a
report.”
“Noble might have something to say about that.”
“Noble can go fuck himself,” Danny replied and was surprised to get a
laugh in reply.
“I’m sure he’d try if he thought it would help him get the gold. It’s all
he cares about.”
“I thought I saw a hint of remorse earlier?”
“If there was, he’s buried it,” Jess replied.
They drank their coffee in a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable.

“I have a confession,” Jess said a few minutes later. “I need to pee. I

couldn’t go inside, with Noble there, and I couldn’t go down in the shaft
with Mike lying down there. So I’m just going to step outside. I’d be
grateful if you’d make sure nothing kills me.”
“I’ve got your back,” Danny replied with a grin. “Then you can do the
same for me.”
He tried not to listen to the tinkle of water on rock. Thankfully, it didn’t
last long, and Jess returned only a minute later. He handed her the rifle.
“You know what you’re doing with one of these?” he asked.
“Sure,” she replied, checking it was loaded. “I point it at the bad guys,
pull the trigger, and keep firing until they go away.”
“Just don’t shoot me,” he replied. “I’ll be back.”
He stepped outside into the drizzle, suddenly feeling exposed and
vulnerable. He sidled to one side of the entrance, away from the bodies,
suddenly feeling self-conscious as he unzipped his fly. But the relief was
worth it. He finished up and was tucking away when he heard it—a soft
flutter, wings in the dark. He ducked, rolled, and came up beside Jess,
turning and retrieving the rifle in one smooth movement just in time to see a
huge eagle settle on the dead bodies outside and start to tear bloody lumps
of flesh from the exposed torso.
“Oh, just fuck off,” he whispered and took aim. Jess stopped him by
putting a hand on the barrel. She bent and lifted a fist-sized rock from the
ground and, with a throw that would impress any baseball fan, hit the bird
squarely in the chest. It gave out a surprised squawk and took off,
awkwardly for the first two beats of the wings, and then disappeared
smoothly away into the night.
Jess looked at Danny and grinned.
“Nice arm,” he said.
The big cat answered with a roar from out in the night that echoed
around the mineshaft.
“It’s the bodies,” Danny said once they were sure an attack wasn’t
imminent. “They’re attracting scavengers.”
“As long as they’re not after us, I’m not sure I care,” Jess replied.
Danny was silent. The first glimmer of a plan was starting to form. He
didn’t speak of it, not while it wasn’t fully formed.
Besides, I’m pretty sure she’s not going to like it.

The night passed without further incident. Jess stayed by his side and
they talked in low voices. Rather, Jess talked, Danny mostly listened to her
tell of Toronto, the big city, and eventually of memories of Erik and Mike.
She had tears in her eyes several times but she kept on talking. After a
while, Danny realized that it wasn’t just her coming to terms with the death
of her friends; she was also doing it to keep him awake. And it worked.
I’ve never felt less like sleeping.
She only stopped when a glimmer of gray light showed far in the east
above the rim of the valley.
“Breakfast?” she asked, bending to retrieve the pot.
“You betcha,” he replied. “Coffee first for me, I think. Best get Noble
to eat something if you can. We’ve got a long climb ahead of us.”
While Jess was gone, he took a risk. He left the entrance and went to
where the two dead bodies lay. Using his hunting knife, he cut deep, open
wounds in the chests and bellies, then rolled the dead off the path and down
into a gully to the north. There was almost enough light now to see the
valley floor. The earlier drizzle had lifted, the clouds now risen up almost to
the valley rim. Nothing appeared to be moving and there was no sound but
his own breathing.
This had better work, he muttered then went back to the entrance to
wait for Jess’ return.

Noble joined them in the entrance for coffee and stew. They ate in
silence then prepared to move out. Danny took the heaviest of the packs but
even then it was much lighter than it had been the day before, empty now of
water and stew tins. Noble wanted to leave immediately.
“No,” Danny said. “We wait.”
“Wait for what?”
Danny pointed out over the valley floor. The big cat was stalking
across the open ground, occasionally lifting its head to sniff the air, but
mostly heading directly for their position.
“For that,” Danny said.
The cat came forward then veered off, heading for the gully to the side
of the track. It was only then that he saw Jess notice the bodies had gone.
Danny shrugged at her querying look.
“We needed a diversion.”
 - Jess -

When Danny finally said run, Jess didn’t wait to be invited. She tried
not to look down into the gully but couldn’t help herself. The cat—too
small a word for the monster that loomed over the bodies—tore at the torso
of one of the Neanderthals, ripping it in two pieces with no apparent effort.
Blood coated the huge russet head from nostrils to ears and its long, tufted
tail swished from side to side as if in pleasure at the meal. It had a wound at
the thigh at the rear, red and suppurating, but the cat was more interested in
feasting.
“Run!” Noble shouted at her back and pushed past her, almost toppling
her off the path and down toward the feeding cat. Danny saved her,
grabbing her arm until she’d retained her balance. Noble was already off at
speed down the slope.
“If I catch him, I’ll fucking shoot him,” Danny said.
“Let me punch him first,” Jess replied.
With Danny right beside her, she headed down. She was concentrating
on keeping her feet so she didn’t look up until she was almost on level
ground—just in time to see Noble fall to the ground, pole-axed by a fist-
sized rock that came from somewhere to the north. He tried, feebly, to get to
his feet. When he put a hand to his head, it came away red.
“Help him,” Danny said. “I’ll hold them off.”
Jess ran to Noble’s side. She looked north only once she’d reached him
to see a small band of stocky, kilted figures advancing along the foot of the
valley’s side. Danny fired a shot above their heads and they stopped, as if
confused by the sound.
The big cat had no such qualms. It bounded up out of the gully from
where it had been hidden and leapt among the Neanderthals.
Danny didn’t wait to see the outcome. He turned to Jess.
“We’ve got our diversion. Get the fuck out of here.”
He ran over, took one of Noble’s arms while Jess took the other and the
three of them headed away south and east with all the speed they could
muster. Piercing yells of rage and terror from the Neanderthals echoed
around them, mixed with the bellowing roars of the tiger. There was a battle
ongoing at their backs, but Jess didn’t dare waste the time to look back to
see the outcome.
The other side of the valley looked a long way away.

Their cause wasn’t helped by the fact that Noble was staggering along
like a drunkard, his neck and shoulders bright red with fresh blood.
“We have to stop,” Jess said after several minutes. “We need to dress
that wound; otherwise, he’ll be a dead weight before we know it.”
Danny led them south to a boggy hollow where they could keep low
and hopefully out of sight. He knelt at Jess’ side as they lowered Noble to
the ground, but stayed there, rifle raised, while she worked on the back of
Noble’s head.
He already had an egg-sized lump there with an inch-long open wound
seeping blood out over his collar. She got it cleaned as best as she could
manage, stuffed the wound with cotton swab, and wrapped a crude bandage
‘round and ‘round Noble’s head from forehead to nape of the neck and
round again and again until it looked like he was wearing a turban.
Noble moaned piteously all throughout the process but when Jess
checked his eyes, they looked to be focusing well enough.
She patted Danny on the knee to get his attention.
“Ready to move,” she said softly. “How are we doing?”
He didn’t shift his gaze from looking north along the valley when he
spoke.
“The cat’s still over where we left it. It’s feeding and I can’t see
anything else moving.”
He didn’t have to say much more; it was enough to allow Jess to
visualize the carnage in her mind’s eye. She helped Noble get groggily to
his feet.
“Can you walk?” she asked and got a nod and a grimace in reply that
she took as a yes.
She took Noble’s hand and led him up out of the hollow, headed south
and east, her gaze fixed on what she thought might be the spot where she’d
landed after her descent the day before. Danny followed a few yards back,
regularly turning to check there was no sneak attack imminent.
They had reached a spot almost halfway across the valley when a new
noise echoed around the valley slopes, a high ethereal wail that quickly
became a chorus as other voices joined the swelling wall of sound.
“Now what?” Jess said.
Danny looked grim.
“That one I do know. It’s wolves, a pack of them. Make straight for the
trees, quickly now, and no stopping.”

The howls continued to echo and ring around the valley and soon they
were punctuated with excited barks and yips.
“They’ve found our scent,” Danny said at her back. “Can you go any
faster?”
They were plowing, leaden-footed, through wet, boggy ground, springy
underfoot and not allowing for any settled gait or pace. Noble was clearly
struggling, and Jess’ legs felt like dead weights, sucking her back every
time she tried to take a step.
“Can we outrun them?” she asked.
“Doubtful,” Danny replied, and she heard the worry in his voice. “Got
any bright ideas?”
Jess looked north up the valley. All she saw was an expanse of more
boggy ground. She found what she was looking for when she looked south;
the mammoth herd was several hundred yards away in that direction,
milling around the edge of a large pond.
“This way,” she said and without waiting for a reply tugged Noble
along behind her.
“We should head for the trees,” Danny said.
“We will. Later. But I’ve got a plan.”
To his credit, Danny gave her the lead. And now that she had a definite
goal in mind, she seemed to be making better headway on the soft ground.
The howling rose in intensity at their backs and ahead of them Jess saw the
mammoth herd rapidly shift position, tightening into a clumped group of
large males with the females and younger beasts inside the circle.
“Jess?” Danny said, at her side now. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’m playing a hunch,” she said. “But it’s a reasoned one.”
Again, Danny let her have the lead and they headed fast, directly at the
mammoths.
The howls turned to frantic barks, closing up fast behind them. Danny
turned and fired a shot in one movement. The largest of the mammoths, a
huge bull with tusks longer than Jess was tall, trumpeted out a bellow
almost as loud as the shot, and then Jess and the two men were among a
forest of hairy legs and musky odors. The mammoths parted to allow them
entry to the circle then closed ranks tight around them. Jess stood pressed
up tight against a tall wall of brown hair, the smell of which was almost
overwhelming. Danny laughed somewhere to her left.
“This was your plan?”
Noble sneezed, and the mammoth nearest to him almost jumped in
shock.
“Don’t let one of them stand on you,” Danny said, suddenly serious. “It
would probably snap your leg like a twig.”
The howling and barking from the wolves rose to frenzy. The bull
mammoth stomped its front feet, raised its trunk, and sent up a defiant
bellow. Two wolves appeared out of the north, low to the ground, moving
fast. The bull saw them coming, stood its ground and, at the last moment,
swung its great head from left to right, impaling the nearest wolf through
the belly on the end of a great tusk. The wolf yelped and squealed,
squirming and trying to free itself. Warm blood flew in the air, spattering on
Jess’ cheeks. The bull dropped the wolf to the ground at its feet and
stomped, twice. The wolf flattened like a burst balloon.
A second, then a third wolf prowled around the outside of the
mammoths’ defensive circle, but the big bull wasn’t in any mood to wait for
an attack. It advanced on the wolves, bellowing its rage.
The wolves fled, off into the bog as quickly as they had come and a
sudden silence fell over the valley.

“I’ve got to hand it to you,” Danny said as they tried to make their way
through the wall of flesh. “This is one hell of a plan.”
“Nearly as good as your trick with the tiger,” she replied. “I saw it on
an old documentary, one of those Brit things, elephants defending their kids
from a pride of lions. I figured, mammoths, elephants, how different could
they be?”
“I’m just glad it worked,” Danny said.
“Me too,” Noble added, his first words since leaving the mine, then
surprised Jess by squeezing her hand gently and continuing. “Thank you.
Thanks for looking after me, even when I’ve been an arse.”
She squeezed back.
“Less arsiness, more running, okay?”
 “Whatever you say, ma’am,” Noble replied in an almost perfect
imitation of Danny, which meant that all three of them were smiling as the
mammoths’ circle broke up. The beasts went back to pulling up tufts of
vegetation from around the pond edge, and a clear escape route showed
between their position and the tree-lined slopes of the eastern end of the
valley.
 - Danny -

Danny knew how lucky they’d been so far. Hunches had paid off, for
him and for Jess. But blind luck would only get them so far and trusting to
it out here in the wild was more likely to get them killed than not.
As soon as they were clear of the mammoths, he took charge again,
leading them in a straight line toward the frozen stream they had used on
their descent the day before. He took care around the watering hole where
the carcasses lay, aware that wolves were more than capable of setting a
trap, but it seemed that they were more afraid of the mammoth’s rage than
they were hungry. Jess, Noble, and Danny appeared to have this area of the
valley floor for themselves.
But for how long?
He found the outlet of the stream easily enough. It was no longer as
solidly frozen as the day before; the prolonged drizzle during the night had
brought on a thaw. But rather than make the climb easier, it was going to
have the opposite effect, for every rock now had to be checked for whether
the glistening on it was ice or just dampness. His heart sank at the sight, for
he knew that expected slow progress was about to get even slower.
As if wolves, saber-tooth tigers, Neanderthals, and fucking giant eagles
weren’t enough to worry about.
Jess was looking at him for direction, so he merely pointed up the hill.
“Straight up and no stopping if we can help it,” he said. “Just keep
thinking about a warm tent, coffee, and food back at the top camp. With a
bit of luck, we’ll be there long before sundown.”
He wasn’t sure he believed it himself but it got the other two moving.
The bang on the head had certainly quieted Noble, and he clung to Jess like
a little brother needing reassurance. Danny allowed them to go ahead so
that he could cover the rear; he was thinking that everything that had tried
to kill them so far was currently behind them, apart from the eagles, which
wouldn’t be able to get to them under the trees. He knew it was wooly
thinking at best but making a decision was better than not making one, and
it felt good to be on the climb so he settled for allowing himself to hope.

It quickly became clear that it was going to be a hard slog; Noble

wasn’t steady on his feet and his insisting on clinging to Jess’ hand wasn’t
helping either of their balance. Alongside that, Danny thought he’d caught
movement behind them, twice seeing darker shadows melt under the
canopy when he turned. The shadows weren’t large enough to be the tiger.
He couldn’t tell whether it might be wolves or Neanderthals but he wasn’t
keen on having either sneak up behind them, although constantly turning to
check was just another thing slowing their progress up the hill.
The next time he checked their back, he saw one of the Neanderthals,
not attempting to hide, standing in the middle of the stream fifty yards
below them; it was a heavily built figure, wide across the shoulders with
muscles like rocks under the skin. Dark eyes watched Danny from under
heavy brows. He leaned on a spear as tall as he was, the stone tip glistening
as if it had been coated in ice. The figure only faded away into the shadows
when Danny raised the rifle.
He wanted me to know he was there. But why?
Questions would have to wait. The only way they were getting out of
here was to get to the top of the hill.
“Can we go any faster?” he asked Jess. Noble didn’t even look up, just
kept the same, snail-like pace, and Jess just shook her head.
“Do we need to?”
“We need to,” Danny replied. “We’ve got company back here. They’re
keeping their distance at the moment but I don’t know for how long.”
Danny gauged they were maybe halfway up toward the snow line when
he next saw the Neanderthals, two of them this time, and closer now, less
than forty yards back. One was the same man he’d seen before, the other
much shorter and less squat, an adolescent male by the looks of him, bare-
chested and kilted like the older one. As before, they merely stood,
watching Danny keenly and only moving when he moved to raise the rifle.
They’ve learned fast. Just how smart are they?
He hoped he’d never get to find out. He turned back to the climb, his
back feeling exposed, wondering when a spear would come flying out of
the trees to bring a quick end to this flight.
 Several minutes later, he had to stop, having almost walked into Noble
who had come to a halt on a flatter shelf of rock. Jess spoke softly.
“Danny, you need to see this. You won’t want to, but you need to.”
She pointed up the slope.
Danny looked up to see Gus’ head sitting on a tall rock above the
stream. His scalp was torn, a piece flapping in the breeze, his tongue had
been partially pulled out, hanging over his lips like a gray snake. Part of his
spinal column lay beneath the head, the bone showing too white, too clean.
His eyes had been removed, the black holes rimmed with dried blood
staring, almost accusingly, down at where Danny stood. It looked to have
been staged for effect.
For its effect on me in particular.
“Bastards,” he whispered and, without warning, swung around, raising
his weapon in the same movement. The two figures were standing behind
him again, thirty yards away. The older Neanderthal moved quickly, away
into the shadows under the canopy, but the younger one seemed rooted to
the spot, caught off guard by Danny’s sudden movement.
There was no rational thought in Danny’s action. He swung the gun up,
took quick aim—the way Gus had taught him—and put a round in the
center of the chest. The young Neanderthal fell in a heap into the stream
and tumbled away downhill. A scream of anguish rose out of the trees, and
a long spear flew from the shadows. Danny saw it coming though and had
plenty of time to dodge aside.
“Just stay where you are, if you know what’s good for you,” he
shouted, aware that the chance of them understanding was slim to nil but
hoping they’d understand the tone.
He turned to Jess.
“We need to move, fast. We’re in trouble.”
Even Noble picked up on the urgency and put on a burst of speed.
Danny didn’t look again at Gus’ head as they passed by it; he didn’t have
to — the image was going to be imprinted on his mind for however much
longer he had to live.
As they climbed, they found more evidence that the placing of the head
was the Neanderthals’ doing; Gus’ blood-coated ammo vest lay in the
stream, one of his boots off to one side. There was no sign of the rest of his
body. Danny hoped that the cat had prevented them from desecrating the
rest of the big man, then stopped the thought dead; he couldn’t afford the
time for recriminations or for theorizing on matters over which he had no
control. Now it wasn’t the thought of a spear boring into his back that
occupied him as he climbed, it was Gus’ dead eyes, forever staring.

They didn’t get far.

Jess came to a dead stop first, Noble almost falling over his own feet as
he came to a halt next to her.
“Danny,” Jess said, “we’ve got movement up ahead.”
Another spear came flying, from higher up the hill. Danny tugged
Noble aside before it could impale him, the spear itself rattling away
downhill over the icy stones.
“Get down!”
All three of them tried to make themselves small behind a large stone,
but Danny knew they couldn’t stay there; the Neanderthals were above and
below them. There was only one obvious solution.
“Under the trees. Go. No questions now, just go. I’m right behind you.”
Jess did what he would have done himself, headed right and at a
slightly uphill tangent. Danny followed, with Noble in between as they
pushed and tugged their way through hanging branches. At least the ground
underfoot was firm enough; frozen pine needles and moss in the main,
slightly springy but not enough to impede them.
They were making so much noise that Danny knew they could be
easily tracked. He could only hope that his killing of the younger one had
given the rest pause, but they’d had plenty of experience the night before of
the power of the rifle and it hadn’t stopped them coming after him. He
couldn’t put any hope there.
Twenty paces in, he turned and fired blindly behind them, then hurried
away after Jess who had found what looked like a deer trail and was
following it rapidly up and eastward. It brought them out on the tree line. It
was where they wanted to be, but they had a sheer fifteen-foot cliff ahead of
them and no way to get up to the snow slope above.
“Noble,” Jess said. “You got down from there by a different route from
us yesterday. Where did you descend?”
Noble was looking left to right, but he was bewildered.
“I was running, I was frightened…I can’t remember.”
Danny looked west, looking for where the cliff butted tight to the trees.
Even as he identified the spot, a group of six Neanderthals came out of the
trees and stood between them and that escape route. Danny raised the rifle
to aim, but the distance was too far, and the six figures melted away into the
shadows under the trees.
“We can’t go that way,” he said. “There’s too many for me to take
before they get to us.”
“So we go east?” Jess asked.
“East, and hope for a way up damned soon,” Danny replied.
He turned to look as they set off, just above the tree line. The
Neanderthals came out of the shadows and followed, keeping their distance.
For now.
 - Jess –

Noble still had a firm hold of Jess’ hand and showed no sign of
wanting to let go. If she had time to think, she might be amused at this
reversal of their roles. But all of her attention was on the way ahead, her
gaze shifting from the tree line to the almost sheer cliff to their left, looking
for the slightest sign of a way up.
They were already halfway toward where the cliffs took a turn to the
east at the head of the valley, with not even a hint of a way up. She saw a
deeper indentation in the ground just ahead of them, and Noble’s grip
tightened.
“I remember now,” he said. “I jumped.”
Jess looked up the cliff face. The top was at least ten feet above her
head.
“That was risky.”
Noble laughed bitterly.
“There was a giant fucking eagle swooping around my ass, guns were
going off, and I was more scared than I’ve ever been. Of course I fucking
jumped.”
He joined her in looking up.
“But it means that we’re not going to find my ‘easy’ way up, doesn’t
it?”
“Looks that way,” Jess said and looked to Danny for advice on the way
forward. He was watching the Neanderthals, who were still following, still
keeping their distance.
“We’ve got little choice,” he finally replied. “We’ve got to keep going
along this way and hope we get a break. It’s either that or head back down
to the valley floor and hole up in the mine shaft and if we did that, I don’t
think we’d ever come out again.”
Ten minutes later, they reached the eastern end of the valley and a sheer
wall of cliff both to the left and ahead of them. The tree line was tight on
their right and the Neanderthals came on at a steady pace a hundred yards
away at their back.
They were cornered.

“Now what?” Noble said.

Jess looked up the cliff face, both to the north and east. The rock was
slick with ice, and there were no obvious handholds or ledges that might aid
a climb.
“If we had ropes and gear, then maybe it would be worth a try to
climb,” she said. “But it looks impossible without them.”
“I agree,” Danny replied. “All I can think of is heading for the mine
shaft. We’ve already proved it’s defensible. We can collect water, we have
the stove and can make a fire, and I can hunt for our food. From there, we
can make forays out and about, look for another way out.”
“For how long?” Noble said, and his annoying whine was back again.
“Stay here and ask them,” Danny said, jerking a thumb in the direction
of the approaching Neanderthals. “It’s the only hope I think we have.”
“I agree,” Jess added, but it had already become a moot point. When
they turned right to make for the trees, it was to see a group of at least a
dozen more Neanderthals emerging from the canopy, only ten paces away.
Danny fired a warning shot over their heads but they didn’t slow,
breaking into a run. Noble let go of Jess’ hand and made for the cliff but
had only climbed two feet when three of the attackers grabbed him by the
legs and hauled him down. Jess saw his head bounce on the rock, red
immediately seeping in the bandages. Danny stood between Jess and the
attack. He shot one of the Neanderthals in the head, clubbed another in the
face, and then went down under the weight of bodies.
Jess got in one good punch, feeling bones break in the nose of the one
she hit, and then they were on her. A weight pressed on her chest,
something sitting on her. She struggled for breath, felt darkness creep up
inside her. Her struggles grew feeble, the darkness swelled, and she fell
away, deep into the black.

She came out of it slowly. At first, she thought she’d woken from a bad
dream, and that she was back, safe, in the mineshaft. But when her eyes
focused, she saw that the wall facing her was a natural rock face, green with
moss. She had been sat upright with her back to a wall and when she tried
to move her hands, she found that they were tied behind her. Looking down
at her legs, she saw that her ankles were similarly bound together by thin,
pleated leather cords. At least they’d left her fully clothed, although there
was no sign of their rucksacks, or of Danny’s rifle.
Danny was at her left, alive but unconscious, his left eye bruised, spilt
in a gash above the eyebrow, swollen and closed to a slit. They had been
dropped just inside a wide cave mouth that looked out across the valley.
Judging by the shadows, they were somewhere north and west from where
they’d been captured, high up on the opposite side of the valley. From the
same shadows, she realized that the sun was already getting low in the west.
How long was I out?
She heard noises to her right and turned her head. She was looking into
a wide expanse of cave, a natural hollow in the cliff face. A dozen pairs of
eyes reflected the cave mouth opening back at her. The cave was the home
of the Neanderthal tribe, scores of them occupying the cramped space.

Four of them held a totally naked Noble upright in the center of the
cave. Even in the gloom, Jess saw that he was too pale, almost ivory, his
neck and shoulders a wash of crusting blood. His eyes fluttered wildly
beneath closed lids. It was probably for the best that he wouldn’t see what
was coming for him. A hefty individual carrying one of the stone-tipped
wooden spears stood in front of the stricken Noble. He raised the weapon,
showing it to the assembled Neanderthals, who moaned as if in anticipation.
Jess wanted to shout out, to stop what she knew must be coming, but no
sounds would come, as if a tight ball had lodged itself in her throat. She
squeezed out tears as the spear came up and was thrust forward.
It went in through Noble’s mouth, shattering teeth with a grinding
crack that echoed around the chamber, and emerged, a bloody shard coated
in brain and bone, at the back of his head where the previous wound had
been.
The four Neanderthals let the body drop and the one who had dealt the
killing blow stepped forward, scooped a handful of brains from the broken
skull, and chewed noisily.

Jess went away for several seconds, overcome by the darkness that had
taken her earlier. She came back to hear moist, wet sounds. It took several
seconds again for her to focus, and she soon wished she had not made the
effort.
Noble’s body, strangely deflated, lay face up on the cavern floor,
opened from throat to groin, rib cage splayed wide. The one with the spear
was using it to part chunks of meat from the legs while the other
Neanderthals picked and chose which sweet and moist parts they wanted to
eat next from Noble’s innards.
She felt a scream rise in her
“Don’t say anything. And don’t look them in the eye,” Danny said to
her left in little more than a whisper. “If they’re busy over there, they’re not
over here.”
She bit back a retort. What they were ‘busy’ with was eating Noble.
She knew immediately that Danny was right; any chance they might have
of escape depended on them keeping their heads. She turned so that she was
looking at him rather than at the horror inside the cave. What she couldn’t
ignore was the moist, tearing sounds as another piece of meat was chosen,
or the soft vocalizations, not words exactly, but definitely indications of
pleasure.
“Are you okay?” Danny whispered.
“Better than you by the look of things.”
“I’ll live,” he said and she saw the fear that danced in his one open eye
as he looked past her into the cave.
“How many are there?” she said.
“A couple of dozen that I can see…and smell. A mix of adults and
young ones. Were you awake when we were brought in?”
“No, woke up just seconds before you. I think we’re up high across the
valley from where we were though.”
“Yep, I’d guessed as much. There’s only one thing in our favor.”
“I don’t see it.”
“My hunting knife…it’s still there, in a sheath at my back. I can nearly
reach it. If we’re given time, I might be able to get at it and get us out of
these ties.”
“That’s a big if,” she replied. He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Both
of them knew exactly how much trouble they were in.

“Don’t react,” Danny said in a whisper. “There’s one of them right at

your back. A kid, I think.”
 Jess turned her head very slowly, so as not to alarm whoever was there.
Danny had been right, it was a child, aged somewhere between eight and
twelve if Jess had to make a guess. She was naked and filthy. When she
moved, she clacked and clattered, and it was only when she came closer
that Jess saw the tiny bones woven into her hair for decoration. She had a
thin bone in her mouth, and at first Jess was dismayed to think it might have
come from Noble, but this was old, polished, and obviously well handled.
The girl blew into it, producing a soft, modulating whistle.
“Can I try?” Jess sad calmly, exactly as she might have spoken to one
of her brothers’ kids back home. The girl’s eyes went wide at the words.
She blew into the whistle again, louder this time.
Do they not have language?
She realized that she hadn’t heard any conversation from the group
deeper in the cave. The girl’s whistle was the only thing breaking the
silence. Instead of asking another question, Jess put her lips together and
whistled, trying to imitate the sounds the girl made. That got her another
startled, astonished, gaze. Jess smiled and whistled a tune, “I’m Popeye the
sailor man.” The girl smiled back at that.
But any attempt at communication was short lived. A stocky figure
came out of the back of the cave, grabbed the girl by the hair, and dragged
her unceremoniously away into the darkness.
Silence fell.

The shadows gathered fast around them and the cave entrance took on
a red glow as the sun set beyond the western edge of the valley. Soft
shuffling sounds came from deeper in the cave.
They’re bedding down.
Her guess was confirmed a few minutes later when the unmistakable
sound of loud snoring echoed around them. Danny gave them ten minutes
to ensure everything was as quiet and still as it seemed before he spoke.
“I can’t quite reach the knife,” he said. “But if we shuffle around back
to back, you might get to it.”
They each moved painfully slowly, aware that the least scrape might
alert the Neanderthals to their movement. Finally, after what seemed to be
an age, they had their backs to each other. Her fingers touched his and were
given a gentle squeeze before he let go.
 “To the right…no, my right,” he said. “And down a bit. The sheath’s
attached to my belt. I got the popper open but couldn’t grab the handle.”
It took a few frustrating minutes but finally Jess’ fingers found the
smooth wooden handle of the knife and slid it from its sheath.
“I can’t get it into position to cut my cords,” she said after a few tries.
“But I could do yours if we guide the blade right?”
“Just don’t cut anything I can’t afford to lose,” Danny said grimly.
Between them, they managed to get the blade, sharp side down,
between his wrists and onto the cords. Then it was just a matter of sawing
away at it. Jess’ arms ached, sweat ran down her forehead into her eyes, and
at every second, she expected one or other of the Neanderthals to wake…
and realize they were still hungry.
Finally, just as she was on the verge of admitting defeat, Danny spoke.
“It’s loosening. We’re nearly there.”
She put all the weight she could into it. The cords parted and Danny
was able, after getting the blood back into his fingers, to quickly free his
own legs, then cut Jess’ cords.
He put a finger to her lips before she said anything and whispered in
her ear.
“We crawl. Hand and knees to the entrance, you first. Slowly now, but
if they wake up, run. Don’t wait for me; I’ll be right behind you.”
Jess felt her hands tingle as the blood rushed back to her fingers. She
carefully rolled onto the knees then put her weight on her hands. After one
last check to make sure the Neanderthals were still asleep, she made slowly
for the entrance which was little more than a slightly lighter patch of
darkness in the black night.
 - Danny -

Danny’s head throbbed. The cut above his eye felt cold when he didn’t
touch it and too wet, too warm when he did. The blow to the head he’d
taken still rang in his ears and his depth of vision was screwed due to
having just the one good eye in use.
I’m still better off than Noble.
He sheathed the knife at his back and waited until Jess was in the
entranceway of the cave before rolling onto his hands and knees and
following her. A breath of fresher air from the entrance did much to clear
his head. When he reached the entrance, she was outside on a high ledge
waiting for him.
He took a few seconds to look around, hoping they might find their
rucksacks, or even the rifle, discarded in the area, but he had no luck. While
he was doing that, Jess was at the far edge of the ledge, looking south and
east over the valley. There was no moon, but the night was clear enough to
show that they were where they thought, high up on the west edge, and a
long way from the only way they knew of escape.
Jess pointed to her feet. Danny went over to see that a narrow trail,
hardly a foot wide, led off across the cliff, tending slightly downward,
heading toward a darker patch of shadow a hundred yards away that might
be the tree line. Danny motioned that she should go first. He took out the
knife, the feel of a weapon in his hand providing only a modicum of
comfort, and watched the cave mouth until he was sure they were not being
followed before turning to follow Jess along the cliff track.

He felt exposed for every inch they sidled; there were too many things
in this valley looking to kill them and too many dark shadows in which they
might be hiding. Jess was moving very slowly but Danny didn’t say
anything—he didn’t blame her, for the track was almost as iced over and
slippery as the stream had been on their ascent up the opposite slope. Both
of them almost lost their footing several times, and once Danny set off a
small avalanche that he was sure must alert the Neanderthals to their
escape. But their luck held and the night stayed quiet.
The trip across the open cliff face to the tree line seemed interminable,
taking more than twenty minutes, but Danny finally allowed himself to
relax slightly when they were able to scurry into the darkness under the
canopy.
The sound of Jess’ heavy breathing was the only thing breaking the
silence. It was too dark for him to see her face properly, but she sounded
pained when she spoke.
“I need five minutes,” she said.
“You okay?”
He got a bitter laugh in reply.
“Just been banged up a few too many times in the past few days,” she
said. “What’s the plan?”
“We head for the far side and out of here,” Danny replied. “But we’ll
need to find some water and something to eat if possible. We’re both
running on fumes here.”
He didn’t say what he was really thinking; she was probably thinking
the same. They were in unknown terrain, on the run from a foe with
superior numbers and superior local knowledge. The ground they had to
cover was populated with predators of unknown numbers and their only
weapon was Danny’s hunting knife.
Hell, I wouldn’t bet on us.
But the alternative was to suffer Noble’s fate, and Danny had seen
enough of that to know that if it came down to it, he’d choose his own way
out rather than give the cavemen the satisfaction.
“I need to trust your eyesight,” he said. “Mine isn’t too hot right now.
Does the path keep going through the trees?”
“Yes, down and south by the look of it. But it’s very dark.”
“That can’t be helped. I’ve still got my lighter, but we should only use
it if we really need to. Can you see enough to start down?”
“I think so. But I warn you, it’s going to be slow going.”
“It can be as slow as you like as long as they stay sleeping in the cave.”
“Have you thought that they stay in the cave in the dark for a reason?”
“I’ve thought about it, but it didn’t do me any good. Concentrate on
getting down off this hill. That’s the first priority. We stay together, and we
stay alive.”
 “Sounds like a plan to me,” she said.
Danny followed Jess down into the dark.

As Jess had thought, it was slow going. But at least the ground was less
slippery underfoot here and there was less chance of them tumbling away to
their death. They moved in silence save for their breathing and the crackle
of footsteps on pine needles. Danny’s head continued to throb with every
step. The wound itself, above his eye, was now crusted and had stopped
seeping but he still couldn’t see out that side and felt constantly on the
verge of overbalancing. If anything came at them out of the dark, he wasn’t
sure he’d be able to handle it. All he could do was follow Jess and hope
their luck had changed for the better.
Jess brought them to a halt after ten minutes of descent.
“I hear running water,” she said. “Should I head for it?”
“Keep going down,” Danny replied. “That’s the way the water’s going
anyway. If we don’t find it here, we’ll find it at the base of the cliff.”
They came to a small stream of icy run-off five minutes later and took
turns in bending to scoop up handfuls that chilled the fingers but tasted as
sweet as any liquor. Danny took the opportunity to wash around his wound
and, with the help of a handkerchief, managed to prise open the damaged
eye. His vision was still blurred, but his balance was already greatly
improved. While he was taking another handful of water, something heavy
crashed through the trees to the south of them, the sound receding into the
distance.
“Deer?” Jess asked.
“Probably,” Danny replied, but knew that was just a guess, and
possibly a bad one. “Time to move on.”
He let Jess continue to lead and kept the knife in his hand, waiting for
any noise under the branches. Apart from a squirrel noisily announcing
their passage, they heard no other sound.
They reached the valley floor half an hour later.

He had Jess stop inside the tree line out of sight of any prying eyes.
“It’s decision time,” he said. “We can head directly across the valley
from here or we can track down this side until we hit the mine and take the
same route as yesterday.”
“Yeah, because that worked out so well,” Jess said. “Do I get a vote?”
 “Yep. You’ve trusted my instincts so far and that hasn’t worked out too
well. What do yours tell you?”
“They say to head straight across the valley now. But they also say that
might be a stupid idea in the dark when we don’t know the ground and with
who knows what out there. I don’t want to get caught in the open by a pack
of wolves.”
“Me neither. My vote goes to heading along this way as close to the
tree line as we can…that way we’ve got cover if we need it…and the mine
itself if things get really desperate.”
“How far to the mine do you think?”
“As far as I can guess, it’s three, no more than four miles. We’ve got
hours of darkness yet. We can reach the mine then cut across on ground we
know before daylight, and hopefully be most of the way up and out of here
before our friends in the cave there wake up.”
“We’re going to need some luck,” Jess replied.
“I’d say we’re due some, wouldn’t you?”
 - Jess -

Danny took the lead heading east along the south side of the valley,
following a deer trail that ran inside the tree line. At some points, it
threatened to take then back up the slope, but Danny always seemed to find
a new trail to keep them from ascending too high.
The night seemed endless, and Jess was acutely aware both of her lack
of sleep of the night before and of their lack of food since leaving the mine
what must have been twenty hours ago now. She almost cried with relief
when Danny stopped, plucked something from a bush, and handed her a
small clump of berries.
“Hard to tell in the dark if they’re fully ripe or not but they don’t feel
too firm. They might be tart. But food is food…just don’t blame me if we
both get the runs.”
Jess popped one of the berries in her mouth and tentatively bit down on
it. Sweetness covered her tongue and she wolfed the small bunch down in
seconds. Danny found several more bunches and they ate their fill and even
collected some to fill their pockets.
“That’s going to leave a stain that nothing will shift,” he said ruefully,
“but that’s the least of our worries. Listen.”
She heard it as soon as he spoke, the high mournful wail of a wolf
piercing the night, soon joined by a chorus of others, the echoes running
around the valley walls.
“All we can do is hope they don’t pick up our trail,” Danny said.
“Come on. Standing still is creeping me out.”
He led off again, still forging a path to the north and east.

The wolves’ howling continued to echo around the valley, a strangely

choral sound, like a choir in a vast cathedral. In other circumstances, she
might think it beautiful, but here and now it sent a shiver of fear up her
spine and she upped her pace to ensure she was never more than a foot from
Danny’s back.
They’d been going down for a while when he stopped them again.
“The trail stops here,” he said, turning. “It goes down to the valley
floor, about a mile south of the mine entrance if my bearings are right. I
could try to find an upper track but I’m not sure there will be one; if I
remember right, there was a sheer cliff to the west of the mine.”
“That’s how I remember it too,” she replied. “We’ll have to chance it.”
Danny nodded.
“The mine is our backup plan. If we’re caught in the open, we head
there and defend it as well as we are able. Agreed?”
She didn’t see any other option open to them. When Danny set off
again, she was still close up behind him.
The valley was lit with a shimmering silver, the high snow seeming to
funnel what little light there was from the stars down into a dancing aurora
of wisps of mist and reflected light from the many small ponds and water
flows.
“Well, Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” she said.
“Just as long as there are no flying monkeys,” Danny replied. “Now,
quiet. We’re moving fast from here on.”
They stepped out from under the tree line and immediately Jess felt
exposed, every fiber of her wanting to retreat back into the shadows. It took
an effort of will to put one foot in front of the other and follow Danny down
the steep slope of scree that led to the valley floor.
If there was a trail to follow, it was impossible to find in the dark. They
slid with every step, dislodging small scatters of pebbles that ran away with
a clatter down the slope ahead of them. When Danny stumbled and almost
fell, his movement sent a larger avalanche tumbling.
The howls of the wolves cut off, like a needle lifted from a vinyl
record, to be replaced by excited barking.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Danny said. “Run.”

They threw caution to the wind and went down the slope in a series of
bounding steps, every one threatening to throw them tumbling away with
the stones they dislodged. Jess was amazed when the ground leveled off and
they reached the valley floor in one piece.
 There was no time to celebrate. The excited barking interspersed with
fresh howls was definitely closer than it had been.
“The mine. It’s our only hope,” Danny said. “Don’t wait for me if
you’ve got the wind for it; just get there and find something to defend
yourself with. I’ll be right behind you.”
She didn’t wait to ask for directions; the cliff was on her right, the
valley on her left, and the mine somewhere up ahead. She broke into a run,
hearing Danny’s heavier footsteps behind her, receding at every pace.
Jess ran almost every day back in the city, mainly to wash away the
cares of a day in the office, but even the more woody parts of Toronto
byways were heavily sanitized compared to this wild valley. Despite their
situation, she dropped into her natural gait quickly, eating up the ground in
a long loping stride. She heard the wolves in the distance, heard Danny now
somewhere behind her, but she focused only on the finish line, the entrance
to the mineshaft, trying to wipe everything else from her mind.
The ground was springy and wet underfoot but not enough to slow her
unduly. Her back still ached from her tumultuous tumble off the snow slope
but even that stiffness started to ease as she upped the pace.
After a while, she realized that although she could still hear the bark
and howl of the wolves—definitely closer now—she could no longer hear
Danny’s heavy tread at her back. She slowed and turned to look. He was
still there, still coming, more of a stumbling plod than a run but when he
saw her looking, he waved her on and shouted.
“Don’t stop. Get to the mine. They’re closing.”
She turned back and upped her pace, sprinting now, exhilarated despite
herself, feet splashing through puddles.
And then the mine lay directly ahead of her. She went up the slope at a
run, hoping that her memory had not failed her. She almost shouted in joy
when she found two of the stone spears where they lay to one side of the
entrance, exactly where she’d remembered last seeing them. She lifted both,
dropped one at her feet in the mine entrance, and raised the other as she
turned.
Danny was at the foot of the slope, just starting up. Behind him, she
saw gray shadows converging in the dark.
The wolf pack was only twenty yards behind him.
 “Hurry!” she shouted. If Danny replied, she didn’t hear it, for the
wolves’ barks were loud and excited, the scent of easy prey emboldening
them. Danny was running full pelt up the slope. The wolves were already
coming off the valley floor behind him.
It’s going to be close.
 - Danny -

It sounded as if the wolves were at his heels and Danny was right at the
limit, his chest heaving fit to burst, his legs burning.
Jess shouted something he didn’t catch then, seconds later, something
else that he heard clearly enough.
“Get down!”
He reacted without thinking, throwing himself into a forward roll. He
heard a yelp behind him, turned in time to see a wolf tumble over its own
front legs with a spear embedded in its chest then was up and out of the roll,
running again. He reached the entrance just ahead of the pack.
He didn’t stop. He reached inside, pulled the oil lamp violently from its
hook on the wall, and smashed it hard on the ground between them and the
wolves. He had a bad moment when his lighter snagged on the lining in his
pocket, but then he had it free. He flicked it on and threw it amid the shards
of the broken lantern, saying a silent prayer.
The oil went up with a whoosh, directly in the face of the leading wolf.
The mane of shaggy fur at its neck took hold, flames spreading quickly
around its head in a red corona. It fled, howling, the rest of the pack at its
heels.
“Quickly now,” he said, “before it goes out. Get something lit to take
the fire inside. One of the other lamps will do.”
Jess handed him a spear and moved to comply while Danny stood
guard, knife in one hand, spear in the other, aware that neither would be of
much use if the beasts attacked now en-masse.

Ten minutes later, they had a fire going just inside the entrance and Jess
had brought all the available oil lamps up from the shaft.
“There’s another two in the bottom level, I think,” she said, “but I
couldn’t go in. Mike’s still there and—”
Danny stopped her.
“That’s okay. We’ve got enough.”
“Enough for what?”
 “Enough to keep the wolves at bay for a while, at least until daybreak.
Then, if the coast looks clear, we’ll make a run for the hills.”
“What about the others, the tribe from the cave?”
“We’ll have to deal with them if we have to,” Danny replied. “But they
won’t get me so easily a second time. Let’s hope they’re still fast asleep and
we’re well on our way before they spot we’ve gone.”
They stood together, looking out into the night, neither of them
speaking for a long time.
“Will we make it?” Jess asked.
“We’ve got this far,” Danny replied. “And I’ve promised myself a pizza
and a bucketload of beer, so we’re definitely getting out of here.”
“In that case, make that two pizzas and two buckets,” Jess replied. “I’m
already looking forward to it.”
Danny had Jess make up a rudimentary firebrand with strips of the old
leather from a discarded saddlebag dipped in lamp oil and wrapped around
the broken shaft of a pickaxe.
“If anything gets close, set that alight and shove it in its face,” he said.
He was answered by yelps and barks out in the night and tightened his
grip on the spear, expecting an attack. But the wolves had other things to
think about as a roar of rage rent the air. The tiger was on the prowl.
The barks became frenzied, and the tiger roared again. The next sound
was the cry of a wolf in pain, a howl of terror, and then the night fell quiet
again.
“One-nil to the big cat,” Jess said quietly.
“Let’s hope it’s scared the dogs off,” Danny replied.
“I’m not sure if that would be good or bad news,” she replied.

The night wore on. Danny was surprised to find Jess leaning against
the side of the shaft, fast asleep while standing. He let her have it. Much as
he’d like to join her, he couldn’t allow himself the luxury. He stood in the
doorway, knuckles white where they gripped the spear, trying to peer down
the slope, trying not to think about the cavemen waking up, or the wolves
coming back, or the tiger that might be just out of range of this vision.
“Don’t sweat what you can’t control,” Gus had always said on their
hunting trips. Danny knew that grief had yet to hit him; he expected it to hit
hard when it did, for the big man had been like an older brother, and to not
even have a body to bury meant that closure was going to take a long time,
if ever. He pushed the thought away, trying to stay in the moment, but he
was tired, hungry, and terrified, not the best combination to help him stay
alert. His head drooped, his eyes closed, and before he was even aware of it,
Danny was sound asleep.

He came out of it with a start and a frightened yelp of surprise. Thin

sunlight washed across a quiet valley. He’d slept the night away.
Jess woke groggily when he shook her.
“What time is it?”
“Morning,” he replied. “We’d best be on the move.”
“You shouldn’t have let me sleep,” she said.
He laughed.
‘I didn’t get any say in the matter; I only just woke up myself. Our luck
turned.”
They made quick preparations to depart; Danny carried his spear and
his knife, and Jess had the unlit firebrand along with three oil lamps strung
together with a makeshift leather strap. They lit one of the lamps from the
last embers of their fire before leaving.
“No running,” Danny said. “Not across the open ground; we’d be easy
prey. If anything approaches us, we fight it with fire and hope it holds them
off. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Jess replied. “But there’s something I want to do first. Will
you come with me?”
When she led him back into the mine and down the shaft, he had an
idea what she meant to do. When they arrived at the bottom chamber, he
helped her pour the oil from the two lamps over the closed sleeping bag that
held Mike’s body.
Her hands shook as she tried to light a strip of cloth from her own
lamp.
“I’ll do it if you like?” he said softly.
“No, this is for me,” she said and lit the end of the strip, having to step
back when she dropped it on the sleeping bag.
It burned fast, filling the chamber with choking smoke, so much that
they had to leave quickly, the smoke following them up and out into the
sunshine.
Jess had fresh tears in her eyes as they descended to the valley floor.
 - Jess -

She didn’t look back, but the smell of smoke in her nostrils reminded
her with every step of what she’d just done. The thought of leaving Mike’s
body unguarded, leaving it for the Neanderthals to butcher, had been too
much to bear, and she felt somehow lighter for having lit the pyre. And now
it was done, she was eager to be on the move.
I’ve got pizza and beer waiting for me. Let’s get to it.
Danny took the lead across the valley floor, making directly for the
same partially frozen stream they’d climbed the day before. The mammoths
were in a cluster far up the north end but of wolves, tiger, or Neanderthals,
there was nothing to be seen.
They kept up a strong pace; the unexpected sleep had done a lot to
wash away Jess’ aches and pains, and a mouthful of berries from her jacket
pocket was a welcome breakfast. The sun came out fully, the high slopes
sparkled, and a faint breeze in their faces ensured that the smell of the fire
they’d left behind was quickly dispelled.
Jess’ relatively good spirits lasted only as long as it took to reach the
foot of the frozen stream. Noble’s crushed head sat on top of two rocks put
on top of one another, empty, bloodied eye sockets staring back at them.
The Neanderthals are here somewhere. They’re waiting for us.

“We don’t have any choice,” Danny said as they approached the
grotesque head. “We’ve got to go on. Keep your wits about you. They
might not know that we don’t have another rifle, or maybe they think our
escape was some kind of magic.”
“They’re watching us, aren’t they?”
“Almost certainly. But they’re keeping their distance for now. I don’t
know about you, but I don’t want to spend whatever time is left to me back
in that mineshaft. I say we go up.”
Jess eyed the steep pathway ahead of them. Trees overhung the stream,
giving it the appearance of a dark tunnel. But it was the way home, to beer
and pizza, soft beds, and hot showers. She didn’t hesitate, stepping up off
the valley floor onto the first flat rock.
She could almost feel Noble’s dead stare probing into her as she passed
the totem, then all her concentration had to be on keeping her footing as
they climbed.

They heard the tiger a few minutes later, a roar alerting them to its
presence.
“Up ahead of us, somewhere to the north,” Danny said. “Not too
close.”
“I hope so,” Jess replied but didn’t slow her climb.
They reached the other totem, Gus’ eyeless, emotionless face watching
them all the way in their ascent toward it. Jess stopped to catch her breath
as soon as they’d passed the gruesome sight again.
“Don’t look back,” Danny said at her side. “We’ve got company.”
“How many?”
“Most of them, I think. They’re keeping pace with us, about twenty
yards back, just making sure we don’t go back that way.”
“So there’s probably more ahead of us too? Like the last time?”
“I’d say that’s a good bet.”
“So what do we do?”
“All we can do. We climb. We keep climbing, and if they come for us,
we take as many down as we can. I’m in no mood to be somebody’s lunch.”

When they climbed out of the tree line, a small band of six of the larger
male Neanderthals stood between them and the tree they would need to
climb to reach the slope above. The largest of them, the one that had killed
Noble in the cave, stepped forward, spear raised. He slapped his bare chest
with his free hand then pointed the spear at Danny. The intent was only too
clear. A challenge had been issued.
“If he wants a fight, he’ll get more than he bargained for,” Danny said.
“Don’t. Please don’t,” Jess said, but Danny shook his head.
“This might be our best bet. I beat him, they lose face and let us go.”
“I wouldn’t bet my life on that.”
“It’s the only game on the table,” Danny replied. He shucked off his
fleece jacket and dropped it at her feet.
 “If it comes to the worst, set fire to this, throw it at them, and make for
the big tree that butts up against the cliff face,” he said. “The surprise might
gain you enough time to make it.”
“Please, don’t,” she said again but could see that he’d made up his
mind.
Danny stepped forward, slapped his chest with the hand that was still
holding his knife, and then pointed the spear at the Neanderthal.
They stepped forward toward each other at the same time.
 - Danny / Jess -

They met in the clear mossy area between the tree line and the cliffs to
the west of the tree that was Danny and Jess’ only hope of escape. Danny
circled, eyeing up his opponent. Danny had height and reach advantage for
sure but the stocky Neanderthal more than made up for that with muscles
like corded wood under skin as tough as leather.
The Neanderthal feinted left, moved right, and stabbed the spear
forward, a movement so fast that Danny only got his own weapon up to
block it an instant before it would have taken out his right eye. He
countered with a low lunge of his own, aiming for the broad target of the
belly but despite his bulk, Danny’s opponent was light on his feet, dancing
back out of range before the spear could break flesh.
The Neanderthal didn’t pause but lunged again. This time, Danny saw
it coming, stepped aside and, with his knife hand, drew a deep slicing cut
across his opponent’s left bicep as the Neanderthal went past him.
Blood ran down the wounded arm and the stocky figure gave Danny a
look of amazement, as if he’d never considered that the blade might be a
weapon.
Well, you know now.
They circled each other warily. The Neanderthal leader let out a roar of
defiance.
An answering roar came out of the forest. Without any other warning,
the tiger leapt into the clearing.

Jess had been standing off to one side on her own. The gathered crowd
of Neanderthals was all intent on watching the fight. There was a clear path
between Jess and the tall tree up which they’d intended to escape the valley.
I could run. He told me to run.
She refused to consider it beyond the initial thought. Danny was out
there in the clearing, fighting for both their lives. The least she could do
was stand by him. She heard a thin whistle just as the fight began and
looked across the clearing to see the Neanderthal child standing there, the
bone whistle in her mouth. The girl saw Jess looking and gave her a smile
that Jess couldn’t help but respond to in kind.
Then all eyes were turned to the fight as Danny drew first blood with a
cut to the stocky figure’s arm. Jess almost let out a yell of support before
catching it in her throat.
The Neanderthal let out a bellow of defiance, the tiger answered in
kind from the forest, and then the place was in pandemonium as the big cat
bounded into the clearing.
Jess’ first instinct was to run then she saw the leader of the
Neanderthals give up his fight with Danny and step forward, spear raised, to
stand between the tiger and his people. Danny looked over at Jess then
nodded toward the trees, indicating that she should run. But he showed no
sign of joining her; instead, he too stepped forward, to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the Neanderthal, both with spears raised in the face of the
snarling cat.
Jess felt a warm hand in hers; the Neanderthal child had come across
and was clinging tightly to her, the child’s face a mask of fear as the cat
crept forward, never taking its eyes off the two spear wielders in front of it.
It was only then she remembered Danny’s words of earlier.
If anything approaches us, we fight it with fire and hope it holds them
off
She had to let the girl’s hand go; the child responded by grabbing Jess
around the waist even as Jess fumbled with the glass door of the oil lamp to
get at the flame inside.

Danny’s decision to stand with the Neanderthal hadn’t been conscious

at any level; he’d turned, seen Jess with the child, and had moved. He had
more in common with the figure with the spear than he had with the cat,
even despite the violence of their recent history.
The cat roared in their faces. Its breath stank of rotted meat and sweat
and blood. Danny wondered whether there was any burnt wolf among the
odors. Then there was no time for thought. The cat went for the
Neanderthal, lunging toward the bloodied left arm. It gave Danny an
opening he didn’t hesitate to take, allowing him to thrust the spear hard into
its neck where it met the left shoulder. The Neanderthal hadn’t waited to be
bitten, he’d stepped back with the same alacrity he’d shown earlier and
thrust his spear forward, but the blow was slightly off, sliding off one of the
great fangs and cutting a long gash through the beast’s cheek.
Hot blood flew; it tasted nearly as bad as the cat’s breath smelled.
Danny had to roll aside as the tiger flew into a rage. Two other male
Neanderthals had joined their leader, trying to face down the beast. It
knocked one of them aside as if he was a doll and had his chest ripped open
before the others could move. The cat roared again in a blood rage and leapt
for the Neanderthal’s leader. Danny caught his balance, ran forward, and
thrust his spear into almost the same spot as the last time but with more
weight behind it. Great gouts of blood pumped from the wound.
But the cat was far from finished. It turned its attention on Danny and
as it moved, it tore the spear, still embedded in the wound, from his hand,
leaving him face to face with a roaring fury.
He raised his knife, aware how puny it looked when faced with such a
raging beast, and waited for the killing bite that was surely coming. But he
hadn’t taken Jess into account.
“Down,” a voice shouted behind him, and as before, he’d complied
before he thought about it. A wash of heat passed over his head and he
looked up to see Jess thrust the burning firebrand into the cat’s face. With
her other hand, she swung two oil lamps, smashing them against the tiger’s
head where they immediately burst into a wall of flame.
The cat flew into frenzy trying to get at the fire. The Neanderthals
moved in for the kill. They lost another of their number in the process, for
the cat still had plenty of fight in it, but within seconds, the clearing fell still
and quiet, the dead cat lying a bloody, burnt, and smoking ruin at their feet.
 - Jess -

It had all happened so fast and now Jess couldn’t quite believe it was
over. She stood at Danny’s side while the Neanderthals poked and prodded
the dead cat to make sure it was going to stay down.
The young female Neanderthal came to Jess’ side again. She carried
Danny’s fleece jacket in one hand and the last surviving oil lamp in the
other. Jess saw with surprise that it was still lit. The girl handed Jess the
jacket but gave the lamp to the tribal leader. He took it, examined it, and
then held it out to Jess. The implication was obvious.
Show me.
“What now?” Jess said to Danny from the corner of her mouth.
“Show them,” he said. “I think this is our chance to trade for our
release.”
Jess searched around for some dry moss and twigs and showed the
Neanderthal chief the principles of making a fire. He, and the girl with him,
caught on fast. He had some of the tribe start collecting more wood and
there was soon a large pyre blazing on the hillside. The chief picked up the
brand Jess used to distract the cat. He stuck it in the flames then raised it,
burning furiously above his head.
The tribe roared their approval.
The leader turned his attention to Danny and Jess. He looked them both
in the eye then stepped to one side, clearing their path to the tree.
Danny nodded and slapped his palm against his chest in a salute that
was replied in kind.
“What say we get out of this dump,” he said to Jess.
The young female came over to Jess as she was turning away and put
the bone flute in her hand. Jess put it to her mouth and played, I’m Popeye
the sailor man.
The girl laughed, an almost human giggle, and ran off before Jess could
return the flute to her. Jess stuck it in her jacket pocket and followed Danny
as they headed for the trees by the cliff.
 She looked back as she clambered out onto the snow slope. The
Neanderthals were gathered round the fire, roasting chunks of meat that the
leader was carving from the big cat.
 - Danny -

“We’ve got to talk about our story,” Danny said much later. They’d
made it up out of the valley without being bothered by eagles, they’d
traversed—carefully—the saddle beyond the pyramidal peak, and were now
making their weary way toward where they’d left their gear at the high
camp.
“Story?” Jess said.
“Yep. Four people are dead…or at least missing. When we walk out of
here, somebody’s going to start asking questions. What do you want to tell
them?”
He watched her thinking, wondering if she was coming to the same
conclusions as he was. Finally, she answered.
“Can we make it seem like an accident? I mean, an accident
somewhere else, so that nobody will think of looking in the valley?”
“I’m sure I can come up with something plausible,” Danny said, “but
it’s a lot of gold to give up. You could have it all?”
“Fuck the gold. Just give me beer and pizza.”
“Whatever you say, ma’am,” Danny replied as they turned the last
corner and the last of that day’s sun showed them the tents of their high
camp only a hundred yards away.

The End
Read on for a free sample of Objekt 221
 Chapter One
The Final Specimen

IT SOUNDED like the end of the world. Heavy, thick drops of rain fell in sheets across the
landscape, pummeling trees and flattening grass. The air—filled with a palpable dewy sweetness
only an hour before—hung as fatly as a gloomy fog as far as the eye could see. Blinding lightning
and screaming thunder shook the building to its core.
Jason Beale looked up at the faint line of dust that fell from the ceiling. He could still feel the
reverberations of the last blast of thunder as it rattled its way through the building. The sky, black
with clouds, had sucked all light out of the building. He reached up and clicked a button on the side
of his protective acrylic facemask. He immediately saw the world in night vision—a high-contrast
green glow. The corridor lit up in front of him. He turned to look at the rest of the group.
“NVG,” he called out over the faceplate’s microphone. “Let’s keep this shit-show moving.”
Nothing had gone right for the advance team all day. From Jacobi clipping a boulder when
taking a corner too fast in one of the military-grade LSVs—Light Strike Vehicles—to an equipment
failure while trying to catch a bonus specimen on the list, to this ungodly thunderstorm they were
now wading through. But they persisted. All 10 men—a combination of field scientists and retired
Army Rangers—were crowding through the large corridor at the back of the main floor of Building
5. Beale was in charge of this force as he started counting off names and pointing. Two soldiers per
scientist except for Beale’s own group.
They had run down the list that intelligence had prepared. As of today’s hunting migratory
patterns, they were likely to find a specimen in Building 5.
“Roscoe. Halverson. Tenna. You’re with me.” He stood off to one side. “We go north. Smith.
Wilson. Jacobi. You’re east. The rest of you take the west branch. We only need one more NR-401G
for the lab. Any other specimens can be subdued or eliminated.” He hefted the shoulder strap of his
Mossberg 500 shotgun—the Persuader—off his right arm. “Quiet if possible.” He grinned. “Loud if
not.”
“Hoorah,” the other five soldiers called back as the three teams split apart.
**
“Do you know the history of that bit of military slang?” Halverson asked. He was dressed in
similar camouflage to the two soldiers in his group, but he held a motion detector in one hand and a
waterproof computer tablet in the other.
“No, sir, I do not.”
Beale was the point man of the group, his shotgun held at eye level. Just behind him were the
two scientists, Halverson and Tenna. They were both carrying sophisticated tracking equipment.
Tenna had what looked like an electronic checklist blinking away, clipped to his utility belt. They all
wore the futuristic-looking acrylic faceplate which had a small soda-can-sized air canister attached to
the underside.
Roscoe, a tall man of 25, brought up the rear. He was carrying a Belgian-made FN FAL battle
rifle. Many on the team preferred this weapon, or its British variant. He held the rifle in the same
manner as Beale held the shotgun but was sweeping his eyesight back and forth in the middle
distance of the huge corridor. Roscoe was on high alert, unblinking and staring into the green gloom.
“Radio operators in World War II,” continued Halverson without taking his eyes off the motion
detector, “shortened the response Heard Understood Acknowledged to HUA. When spoken, it
sounded like hooah.”
“Fascinating,” Beale said, checking his watch. “Six more hours of air.”
“Oh, that’s not all,” Halverson said. “Airborne Rangers adopted the acronym into one of their
own. HOOA. Hooah. Head Out Of Ass.”
“Shocking,” Beale said.
“It caught on from there,” Halverson said.
There was no additional response from Beale as they reached the first doorway on the left. The
doorways were larger than expected and it always gave Beale pause. He wasn’t paid to break down
the mysterious findings of the advance team—it was his job to deliver them home safe and secure.
Right now, he had a bad feeling about Building 5.
 “Entering courtyard,” Beale said into his faceplate mic to the entire team.
**
“Entering courtyard,” came Beale’s voice over Smith’s earpiece. He and Jacobi were escorting
their assigned scientist—Wilson—through the east branch of the main corridor. Wilson was carrying
a thermal imager while the two soldiers carried weapons—FN FALs to match Roscoe. On his back,
Jacobi carried a large, collapsible trap. It would expand to a six by six cube that could be slightly
modified to reduce the dimensions as the combination of high-tensile steel and PVC piping was
designed to telescope in on itself.
“Copy that,” Smith responded. “Leapfrogging rooms along the east hall. Stand by.”
**
There was no update from Harrison, Baker, and Leafly in the west corridor.
**
The courtyard of Building 5 was immense. It seemed like a multi-purpose room with a stage on
one side, a set of stone bleachers on the other, and numerous structures that defied definition. The
room was dominated by a series of sculptures along the north wall. The largest one, nearly filling the
space from stone floor to curved ceiling, was a tree that was carved to resemble a woman. Her
features were blurred and out of proportion. She looked like the 3D representation of an
impressionist’s painting. All the right pieces were in all the right places but the proportions seemed
somehow…wrong.
Beale entered the room first, the big Mossberg held at the ready. Roscoe kept the two scientists
in the corridor for a moment. He was swinging his battle rifle first down one path followed by the
other. For his part, Halverson held a motion detector through the doorway into the courtyard. It was
picking up Beale and nothing else.
While there was only one effective entrance into the room, there were dozens of places to hide.
Beale was clearing as many of them as possible and finally motioned for the rest of the team to come
into the giant 100 meter by 100 meter room.
Halverson, gently sweeping the motion detector back and forth, walked into the room. As he
aimed the unit at the far right corner of the courtyard, he caught a small blip of activity and then
nothing. The screen faded back to its default light purple.
“There was, uh,” the researcher said, sweeping the small black box back and forth, trying to
catch a glimpse of what had triggered the electronic response. “There was some movement over
there.”
Beale turned to look at Halverson, who indicated the corner of the room.
“NVG off,” Beale said and clicked on a powerful flashlight attached to the side of his shotgun.
The strong beam penetrated the gloomy darkness caused by the thick clouds outside. He slowly
swept the beam around the area Halverson had indicated. It was a tangle of branches of varying
thickness. It looked like a nest. Ten meters above ground.
“What the—?”
And then it jumped.
**
Blood.
In the west corridor, the three team members had been literally torn to shreds. The screen of a
motion detector was covered in gore, but the warning klaxons were still audible. Suddenly, however,
the insistent beeping halted.
Whatever had killed these men had slithered out of range of the tiny machine.
**
Smith cleared room number four along the east corridor. He and his team were making quick
work of their section of Building 5. Unfortunately, they were having no luck finding the specimen
that had led them here.
He activated the advance team’s chat by simply speaking.
“Beale, come in.”
He heard static and then a clipped reply.
“Stand by,” Beale said over the radio.
His voice was calm and cool, but there was something behind it. Something screaming. And
then gunfire.
The three men ran down the corridor to the Y-junction that would lead them to the courtyard.
**
Specimen NR-401G dropped from its nest and landed gracefully in front of the team. It
immediately skittered to the right and tried to find an exit.
While muted in the night vision filter, the team knew that this specimen was colored a deep
brown with dark green stripes. In the natural light, amplified by Beale’s flashlight, they could see it a
bit more clearly. It was nearly three feet tall and had a tail that seemed too short—just over a foot and
a half long—that started the entire width of its body and quickly tapered to a sharp point. No one had
yet observed NR-401G using its tail as a weapon, but it seemed more an obvious use than one of
balance. The specimen had a long snout full of razor-sharp teeth and what looked like a Mohawk of
thick brown bristles from between his eyes halfway down his long neck.
“Stand by,” Beale said into his faceplate.
With a quick look left and right, the specimen lunged at Beale who fired his shotgun into the
ground to halt the giant lizard’s approach. Halverson yelped. Roscoe muscled around the scientist and
hurled the protective cage toward the beast.
 Four things seemed to happen all at once. First, Roscoe hit the red button on the small black
remote attached to the combat webbing across his chest. Second, now activated, a blue laser beam
shot out of the control surface of the containment pod as it hurled toward the specimen. Third, the
specimen halted, frightened by the gunfire. It had no frame of reference for weaponry, but the sound
was scary enough. Fourth, the containment field automatically expanded along its telescoping pipes
and fully engulfed NR-401G. It slowly clacked back into place coming to rest on the floor of the
courtyard.
Five seconds from start to finish.
It took 20 more seconds for Smith and his team to arrive at the courtyard. By then, NR-401G
was sedated after receiving a carefully dosed vapor from Halverson.
“You got him?” Smith asked, holstering his sidearm.
“Yeah.” Beale nodded and pointed to the nest up in the corner of the room.
“Shit,” Smith said. “When did they start doing that?”
Beale shrugged.
“Not sure,” he said. “Gonna have to remember that one, though.” He turned to the three
scientists—Halverson, Tenna, and Wilson—who were standing around the collapsible containment
box. NR-401G seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Occasionally, its tail would thump against the
reinforced PVC. “Send it home.”
Halverson nodded and hit a few buttons on the rear control surface of the unit. Outside, a red
light started blinking on one of the LSVs. Inside Building 5, dozens of bearings snapped into place
on the bottom of the containment unit and the whole thing started sliding through the courtyard along
its mapped path back to the waiting vehicle.
Led by Beale, everyone reached up and snapped their masks back into night-vision mode.
“Anything else?” he asked the group. He gave the question a few seconds of silent response.
“Okay. You three,” he said, nodding to the three researchers who still huddled together as the
containment pod left the room, turned right, and headed down the hallway. “Go with the specimen.
Get it secured in an LSV. And you get locked down also. We don’t want any more surprises. Jacobi,
you’re with them.”
“Hoorah.”
“Roscoe, Smith,” Beale continued. “You’re with me. We’re going to locate Harrison’s team and
evac double-quick. This building has some bad mojo right now.”
**
The team of Army Rangers made it back to the Y-junction and turned left to follow the path
laid out in Harrison’s original orders. Both the soldiers and the scientists were maintaining radio
silence with only Roscoe trying to raise the west team every 30 seconds or so.
They slowed at the top of the corridor. Each of the three soldiers had activated NVG with a
detailed HUD (heads-up display) overlay. They were getting real-time readings of their environment.
Temperature. Distance measured by their reticule. It was a line of data along the right side of their
vision.
“Harrison, Baker, come in,” Roscoe said quietly. The high-tuned microphone in the faceplate
could easily pick up his whisper and transmit it over the HD radio signal. There was no answer.
Smith hefted his left arm. Like all of the soldiers, he had what amounted to a laptop computer
strapped to his forearm. Roughly the size of a large smartphone, the unit was the epitome of military
strategy. He hit a command and the screen came to life. It was both a motion sensor and an overlay of
their current location. It was reading the two missing soldiers’ units. They were further down the
hallway. Not moving.
“I don’t like this,” Smith said.
Beale nodded.
“Move out,” he said.
They had negotiated just more than half of the west corridor and Beale, in the lead, stopped. He
held up his right hand in a fist as a wordless signal to the two men behind him to halt. All three took
a knee, battle rifles up, eyes forward. Three meters ahead, there was a huge pool of blood, some
weapons, a couple pieces of equipment.
And some limbs.
Even worse than that was how the smear trailed off to the right into an open doorway on the
north side of the corridor. All three men were stone quiet. Beale crouch-walked to the leading edge of
the door. He was careful not to step on the gloved hand that rested on the grime-covered floor.
When he reached the door, he stopped and slowly reached his left hand around to a pocket at
his lower back. He pulled out a small rubber ball and gently rolled it around the frame and into the
room. The rubber surface of the ball was nearly completely silent and Beale only rolled it far enough
to clear the door frame. The ball stopped automatically and started sending a signal back to the three
men in the hallway.
On their visors, it resembled a picture-in-picture screen. It was a fairly standard room type on
floor one of Building 5. It was about eight meters square with no windows and no furniture. The
camera in the small ball’s sensor had centered on an object moving, only slightly in the far corner of
the room. It was completely in the shadows.
“What the fuck,” Roscoe whispered.
Either by hearing this utterance or sensing the three men in the corridor 10 meters away, the
creature turned.
“Oh shit,” Smith whispered.
They were looking at an uncategorized apex predator. The word “UNCLASSIFIED” was
blinking on their faceplate HUD screens with numbers and data flashing all around the image
perimeter. Soon, the word was replaced by the text UC-0104 as the shared computer started building
a file on the as-yet unstudied dinosaur.
 It was nearly 10 feet tall and had to stoop slightly to stand in the room. It stood on its hind legs
and had a thick tail curled around its feet. Massive cords of muscle were clearly visible beneath a
spiny, reptilian skin. Twin rows of spikes ran the length of its back and tapered to blend in with the
base of the tail.
Two of its four arms were holding the lifeless corpse of what was left of the researcher Leafly.
Ragged bits of flesh fell from its powerful jaws. It stopped chewing as it turned its head toward the
door.
“Barrier,” Beale called out as he tossed a flash-bang into the room. He could hear the pop as
the tiny canister exploded and the creature roared in anger as it was temporarily blinded. Smith
pulled a metal bar out of a thigh pocket and jammed one side into the door frame. He pressed a
button and the metal bar instantly expanded to cover the width of the door and then upward as it
climbed to the top of the frame. It was instantly attaching itself to the frame with an industrial
strength adhesive as Smith and Roscoe were hitting each side of the barrier with nail guns that shot
long, spiked projectiles. The door was completely barricaded in 10 seconds. Twelve seconds after
Beale had thrown the flash-bang, the barrier shuddered as the creature rammed it with incredible
force.
“Gotta go,” Beale said.
The three men turned and ran, double-quick, down the corridor to meet up with the scientists
and the waiting evac vehicles.

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