The Reluctant Warrior (17 page)

It was ironic really, years ago on an expedition to the Congo to investigate a sighting of a dinosaur that had been reported in the jungle he would have given his right arm just for a glimpse of the prehistoric beast. But here, although he had just been up close to the biggest dinosaur he was ever likely to see he felt none of the elation he thought he would have. Instead, he felt nothing but a dreadful sense of foreboding, and he would give almost anything to be back in New York right at this moment enjoying an ice cold beer in his favorite bar, rather than running the gauntlet through this plain of prehistoric killers.

The variety and quantity of animal life out on the plain amazed Jed. If this was how the earth’s surface had once been thousands of years ago then how poor it had become now. Some animals he recognized as being almost identical to those he had seen back home, some he knew had become extinct on the earth’s surface but whose pictures he had seen in books, but there were several that he had absolutely no idea as to what they were.

The raptors could always put the willies up him but what scared him the most were the Pterodactyls. Just this morning they had stopped for a rest and to watch a herd of ponies about the size of Shetlands grazing beside a river, when from out of nowhere an enormous creature swooping down plucked up an unsuspecting pony in its talons and sped off with it towards the mountains.

“One of those things could snatch us at any time and there’d be nothing we could do about it,” Rex commented when they were out of earshot of Amora.

“It was so silent.” Jonathon couldn’t suppress an involuntary shudder. “We’ll have to keep an eye on the sky from now on as well as the land.”

Jed had no doubt of that. To a predator the size of a Pterodactyl a human would be easy pickings, and although he was certain a few well aimed shots from a rifle would bring one of the creatures down they had to either see it or hear it coming first. “I think our real problem will be if they hunt in a pack,” he said to the other two.

Jonathon looked alarmed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“They might be reluctant to attack prey they’re not used to,” Rex suggested.

“That’s assuming they’re unused to humans.” Jed was carefully surveying the animal life up ahead of them as he spoke. “Humans must come onto this plain to hunt for food. Humans may even be a Pterodactyls prey of choice.”

“That’s a cheery thought,” Rex said glumly.

“Even so, it would pay for us to be vigilant at all times. I’ll take first watch,” Jed offered.

Jed’s thoughts slipped back to New York. The homesickness was really starting to get a hold of him now, and he just longed to be roaming those familiar streets again. Sure, you had to watch out for the occasional mugger, and now and then a crackpot would be on the loose until the cops got him. But out here was a totally different kettle of fish. A man had to be constantly on the offensive, his very life depended on it.

The problem now was that with all the adrenalin that had been coursing through his veins these past few weeks it had left him permanently on edge, and that wasn’t a condition he enjoyed being in. Still, it was probably all that had kept him going, especially given the state that his leg had been in these past few days.

His hand immediately went down to probe the wound. That hurt, it obviously wasn’t getting any better at all. But then he had never really believed that it would. Not after the penicillin failed to make any inroads. He knew it wasn’t going to be too long before he was going to be forced to take frequent rests, and too many rests were not good. Montrose was back there waging a war of genocide against innocent people, and so now every hour counted.

It was a good day for travelling, the hazy sun was warm, the sky clear, and the terrain easy. Jed looked across at the others. Rex seemed to be unusually tense. Gone was the excited gleam that had possessed his eyes so completely a few short weeks ago and now they betrayed the turmoil his fatigued brain was being subjected to. Still not fully recovered from his own wound yet he knew Rex would be full of concern for his friend and his rapidly deteriorating leg.

Amora was an open book. Her face oozed worry and fear from every pore. Her frequent glances in his direction told him she was deeply concerned about him, and her more frequent scanning of the sky and terrain suggested to him that she was equally concerned about becoming some creature’s meal. He did feel for her. She had believed him to be some sort of untouchable hero, a savior of her people, but that illusion must have taken a hammering each time she saw him hobbling along like the cripple he had become. What terrors must be doing the rounds of her mind? Her brother and her people on the brink of annihilation and here she was placing all her hopes on a spent warrior and his two sidekicks. No wonder she looked like she had aged ten years. He smiled grimly to himself. That would be a hundred years more or less for the pretty Noragin.

Jonathon was more of a mystery. His face wasn’t really giving too much away. Normally his friend’s facial expressions were there for all to decipher. He studied the young man as they trudged along. The normally cheerful features were now completely expressionless, they were as if set in stone. Maybe there was just the merest hint of determination in that dark eye, Jed wasn’t sure. But there was one thing he had absolutely no doubt about, and that was if Jonathon was in any way human then he must be as frightened as the rest of them were.

Jed thought about what lay ahead of them. They weren’t even half way to Chantros yet, and if what Amora had told them was correct then they were up for some tough times in the next few days. If they made it off this plain they had to get through the “Forbidden Lands” as Amora called them. He didn’t like the sound of the place, a place her father had told her that no Noragin should ever venture. He wondered what terrors lay lurking for them there and decided it was probably best they didn’t know. The last thing they needed right now was to become so discouraged they would be tempted to turn back.

He scouted the sky again. Nothing unusual up there to worry about just the usual small birds flitting around and so he let his thoughts slip back to the journey ahead. Getting over those distant hazy mountains was going to be no picnic. They didn’t have any climbing gear so if it became too rugged then they were sunk for sure. If they did make it over the top they still had this mysterious Chantros to find, if in fact it existed at all. He decided to believe that it did. Then what? Would they actually just be able to walk up to the big glass dome knock a few times and hey presto it would be open sesame? Or what if they found the city but couldn’t figure out a way of getting in? Maybe all the inhabitants of Chantros were long since dead and the domed city lay in ruins. So much was hanging on Chantros being everything they hoped it would be that he hadn’t dared to think about the consequences if it proved not to be. But he was thinking about it now. He couldn’t think of anything else, for there would be no salvation for the Noragin and Skraeling people if it wasn’t. Their combined strength would be nothing to what Montrose could muster against them.

Jed’s keen eye picked up a movement on the horizon. He could just detect a small black mass moving slowly towards them, and as he stopped to watch it more closely Rex joined him.

“Spotted something?”

Jed pointed in the direction of the slowly growing mass. “Might just be a large flock of birds, it’s too far away to tell yet.”

“Trouble is,” Rex said, shading his eyes with his hand to block out the sun’s rays, “the distances out here are so immense a man can’t accurately judge either how far away an object is or the speed it’s travelling until it’s almost upon him.”

Jed was still watching the mass with interest. “It’s suddenly veered off and I can’t say I’m sorry it’s no longer heading in our direction.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Rex said. “I wonder what…” He stopped short and stared in disbelief at the sky. “Did you see that? It just shot a big bolt of flame towards the ground.”

Jed’s attention was riveted to the spot as the black mass dropped swiftly groundwards until it was no longer visible. What was it? Was it some sort of alien aircraft that had just torpedoed something on the ground? The thing was there was no explosion to indicate a missile, only a short silent bolt of fire.

“What do you make of it?”

“I don’t know, Rex.” Jed thought it over. No creature could shoot bolts of fire. It had to be some sort of aircraft.

“Something from Chantros maybe?” Rex’s voice betrayed more than a hint of concern. “What if the inhabitants of Chantros are hostile?”

“Not something we’d counted on,” Jed confessed. “But I guess we’ve no choice but to press on and take our chances with them.”

“I vote we stay away from where that thing landed though.”

“I think that goes without saying. But whatever it is I don’t think we’ve seen the last of it.”

“This weapon had better be worth it,” Rex grumbled. “I left Frida behind and am risking my life to bring it back.”

“Think of it as risking your life to save Frida,” Jed suggested. “After all, if we don’t get this weapon Frida’s going to end up with Montrose’s lot and you know what’ll happen to her then.”

Rex gritted his teeth. “If he touches her I’ll tear him apart.”

“If we fail I doubt you’ll even be alive to make the attempt.”

“You really know how to deflate a fellow, Rand,” Rex said tersely.

“It pays for us to stay grounded. Everything hangs on us being successful because if we’re not it’ll spell the end not only of the Noragin and Skraelings but the peoples throughout this entire world, all the way to the North Polar entrance.”

“I didn’t think about this place being that big but I guess there’s nothing preventing it from being inhabited right through to the other entrance.”

“And you can count on Montrose knowing that too.”

“Why hasn’t Montrose tried to conquer the tribes this side of the mountains?”

“I don’t doubt he’s planning to,” Jed said. “He would have scouted the area out by air long ago. But he needs to conquer the Noragin and Skraelings first.”

“I don’t follow your reasoning.”

Jed stopped and scanned the sky thoroughly before moving on again. “Montrose needs a much bigger army than the one he’s got at the moment if he can achieve total domination of the world,” Jed explained. “To get an army of that size together he needs tens of thousands of new recruits.”

“The Noragin and Skraelings won’t fight for him they’d rather die than throw in their lot with that maniac.”

“And he knows that. So he’s prepared to kill all the men he conquers but keep the boy’s.”

Rex was beginning to catch on. “So he can then thoroughly indoctrinate them with his fascist ideas.”

“Exactly, in fact, much like Hitler did with the Hitler Youth movement of Nazi Germany. You see,” Jed continued, “he knows that he’s got all the time in the world to conquer this inner earth. He’s only aged six or seven years of our time since he’s been here. So he can afford to make his plan a long term one.”

“And he’s still got five or maybe six hundred years of their time left to live.”

“You got it. So if nothing else we know that Colonel Charles Montrose is a very patient man.”

“Within two hundred years he could conquer all the way through to the North Polar entrance then?”

“There’s nothing stopping him but us.”

“That’s a heavy burden to be carrying around on our shoulders, an entire world depending on us to stop a maniac intent on enslaving them all.”

“Nevertheless the burden does sit squarely with us,” Jed reminded him. “If we let him achieve that he may even attempt to invade our world.”

Rex laughed. “I’d like to see him try that one with his archaic weapons. He wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Who said he’d try it with archaic weapons?”

Rex looked at him with surprise. “Well, what else has he got?”

“You saw that aircraft out there,” Jed said, waving a hand in the general direction of the recent fire bolt. “If Chantros has weapons like that and the one we’re hoping to bring back then he has a very real chance of success.”

“He’d have to conquer the Chantrosians with his old weapons first,” Rex pointed out. “They’d be more than a match for him.”

“Montrose isn’t stupid, Rex. With weight of numbers and a carefully laid surprise attack he could take a small city, particularly if they weren’t expecting anything. Even Rome, as great as she was, eventually was defeated by a less organized army.” Jed shifted his rifle across to his other shoulder. “Montrose could become the greatest dictator this earth has ever known. Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, they’d all be small fry compared to him.”

“And all that’s standing in his way are three explorers and a rag tag army of primitives.”

Jed nodded. “Sounds incredible doesn’t it?”

“Put like that it sounds like suicide,” Rex said glumly.

“Unless we get to the weapons of Chantros first which means we will hold the balance of power.”

Rex’s eyes shone with admiration. “That was your plan all along wasn’t it? You’re always one step ahead of me.”

Jed allowed a rare grin to light up his features, “just one?”

Rex grinned back. “Okay, several steps ahead then. I’ve been wondering for a while now how you’ve been able to think like a professional soldier when you’ve had no training.”

“You have to try and get into the mind of someone like Montrose, learn to think like he thinks. In the end you discover you’re more like him than you ever cared to admit.”

“You’re nothing like Montrose. There’s not a savage bone in your body.”

“Don’t be so sure, I’ve learned a lot of things about myself these past few weeks that I haven’t much liked.”

“You’re nothing like Montrose,” Rex said again, only more firmly this time. “I ought to know, I’ve known you longer than anybody else.”