The Saga Of Tom Stinson (Book 1): Summer School Zombocalypse (20 page)

“
I agree,” Tom said. “The cave looks like it ends here anyway. I can feel a small current coming in this pool pulling down. I think we are going to have to swim again. Take ten deep breaths, then follow after me.”

One by one they swam down into the darkness, touching the crystal lined tube to light the way. It tube twisted in a long path and strange fish darted in and out of pockets in the rock where clusters of algae grew. The tube shifted upward, and they surfaced, bobbing in the water. They looked around. The cave was small, the ceiling was only a few feet above their heads.

“
How far did we swim?” Winston’s voice echoed.

“
400 feet,” Tom said, spitting water.

“
I didn’t think I could swim that far, but it was easy,” Winston said. “I felt like I barely had to hold my breath.”

“
We are on Mars and almost 100% lizard,” Tom said, swishing his tail to tread water.

Anidea held onto a rock that jutted out from the wall. “Ah . . .” her voice shook “There’s a lizardman up there on the ledge.”

In the dim light of the crystals they could just make out the silhouette.

“
Hello?” Tom said.

Emmett ducked under the water and when he lizardman didn’t move.

Tom said to Winston, “Keep an eye on him while I climb up. Let me know if he moves.”

Out of the water, Tom crawled cautiously toward the shape. Emmett was right behind him.

“
Look, glow sticks,” Emmett cracked one and shook it, “Hey, it works.”

In the light they looked over the man. “He looks mummified.” Emmett reached out to touch the man and accidentally snapped off a piece of the his finger. “No, take that back. This body is desiccated.”

“
What’s a human doing here?” Anidea asked.

“
He’s holding something. A thin rectangle,” Tom pulled it free. “It has a picture of an apple on it. What is it?”

“
It means he’s been here for a long time,” Emmett examined the body, “If I remember correctly they used these at the beginning of this century. It’s like the junk you find in antique stores. There was no holo-tech back then.”

Anidea pushed her way to the body. “He doesn’t look like he was taken for food. See here, he’s got a gun and look in this pouch. Is that a grenade?”

Emmett blocked Anidea’s hand. “This means that humans have been to Mars before.”

“
I’ll hold that,” Winston said, appearing from behind. He took the grenade from Emmett.

Examining the rectangle Tom pressed a button. The light shone and made Anidea’s eyes glow in the dark. “Activate display.”

“
Power?” Anidea said.

“
No, slide that bar with your finger,” Emmett said. “Pretty stupid huh?”

“
It’s a map.”

“
Can you make it bigger?” Winston asked.

“
My hands are transformed, I can’t,” Tom held it out, “Here Emmett, take a look.”

“
Nothing doing. It looks like the file is corrupt and will only display what we see here. See that flashing light? It must be where we are, and these lines must be passageways.”

“
But how did he get here?” Anidea asked.

“
I think we should follow this tunnel to where he came from,” Tom said. “Maybe we can find out how he got here, and use it to get home.”

The tunnels twisted and turned as they followed the dimly lit passages. They came upon an opening that spread out into another small cave. It contained folding chairs, crates and cots plus a table with equipment on it.

“
There’s another mummy,” Winston said.

“
Ew. Where’s its head?”

“
Behind the chair.”

“
Beds. There are beds. Glorious beds,” Anidea couldn’t be happier. The bed and blankets were stiff with ancient dust. They were also were brittle and cracked when touched but Anidea didn’t care she lay down and settled in, waving her arm and beckoning to Winston. “Servant, bring me a bag of crunchy cheese monkeys to snack upon this instant.”

“
This is no time to play around Anidea,” Tom said.

The cot collapsed. “Damn it.”

Winston and Emmett laughed.

Tom grabbed a knife off the desiccated body. “Let’s see what’s in these crates.”

The locks clicked open and Emmett’s eyes opened wide. “I think they called that a laptop.”

Anidea clawed through a box. “This is a bunch of, well I don’t know what, but I’m sure it’s useless.”

“
First aid kit here.” Winston held up a box. “This is useful.”

“
No power,” Tom grunted.

“
There’s a hand crank field generator over here,” Anidea said. “It looks like my grandpa’s.”

“
A power generator,” Tom looked up, “If it still works we can power this computer and access the data?”

“
I doubt it’s going to work,” Anidea said, “How long’s it been here for?”

“
Let me try.” Emmett plugged the laptop in. “Winston, start cranking.”

The generator’s crank arms were stiff and Winston strained.

“
Anidea, help me.”

“
Me? You can’t be serious.”

“
Do it.” Tom shot her a look.

The laptop beeped and the screen turned on.

“
Really, Anidea, help me here.”

“
Don’t stop cranking, Winston,” Tom said.

“
All of it’s encrypted,” Emmett said.

Tom turned the screen. “Emmett, can you get in?”

“
Wow, this stuff is really old. Lucky for us it’s only quantum encrypted. Give me a second.”

“
How do you know all this stuff?” Anidea looked over Emmett’s shoulder at the screen.

“
Because I do. The reason why they stopped using quantum encryption was that it was so complex, only the mind of a child could crack the code. It was supposed to be foolproof, but it was soon discovered that kids could crack it, even when adults couldn't. It's the definition of child's play really. They soon abandoned the idea.
”

“
They don’t teach this stuff in school,” Tom said. “I agree with Anidea. You shouldn’t know this.”

“
I just do.” Emmett went to work.

Anidea held up a silver bag. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in forever and look, dehydrated tahini and spam.” She threw the package on the cave floor. “Why would anyone eat this? And none of this food is even good anymore. 2015? That’s forever ago.”

“
You should have eaten when you had the chance,” Emmett said. “Like, I when I offered you that food.”

“
I’m still not eating anything from here.” Her gaze bored into the back of Emmett’s head and she vaguely thought of hitting him with a rock.

“Anidea, try and do something to keep your mind off delicious mouthwatering food.”

A silver package flew across the cave and Tom ducked. “Hey,” he said, but she was already back to searching the cave.

She looked at the desiccated body. “Don’t you think we should at least find out who he was?” She peeled back the brittle cloth that covered him. “Look, here’s his wallet.”

“
Probably has money,” Emmett said, “They used it before the debit chip.”

“
My arms are getting tired,” Winston panted.

“
It’s okay, you can stop. The battery says it’s 15% charged.”

“
What’s this? It’s got an Eagle on it. 1933,” Anidea brought it over to Tom. “That’s even older than the computer thing.”

“
That’s a coin, stupid,” Emmett said without taking his eyes off the computer screen, “That guy wasn’t so lucky after all.”

“
I’m confused, this equipment and the clothes on that mummy. Where is he from?”

“
Earth, dummy,” Emmett said. “Not where, but when.”

“
We need a plan.” Tom held up the rectangle and looked at the map.

“
Here we go, again,” Anidea said.

“
I’m in,” Emmett announced.

Tom, Winston, and Anidea stood behind him. Anidea elbowed Winston in the side. “Stop licking your eyeballs.”

“
It says here that the lizardmen tried to start a colony on Earth,” Emmett pointed to the screen, “They killed the lizardmen, captured their ship, and sent this team to investigate and destroy them. It was a one way trip for these people.

The log says that they discovered strange ancient machinery that they thought was older than the lizardmen. The lizardmen might even be from another dimension.”

“
Then what happened to them?” Anidea asked. “They obviously didn’t complete their mission.”

“
He lost his head,” Tom pointed, “and the other one we found. Emmett, does it say how many were on the mission?”

“
No, that’s it. If there was more, they never added it to the log.”

“
I don’t get it,” Anidea shook her head, “if they flew a spaceship here, how did they get down into these tunnels? I mean like duh, wouldn’t you stay on the ship instead of crawling into a cave to carry out your mission of destruction?”

Tom ran his finger along the screen. "The map says that we go this way down through the cave.”

“
How were they going to destroy the lizardmen?” Winston asked.

“
There’s still more cases to check. Must be something they brought,” Tom said.

“
This yellow sticker says danger radiation,” Anidea said. “I don’t think we should open it.”

“
I think we most certainly should.” Winston stepped forward. His smile could be seen from the back of his head.

“
A nuke.” Tom moved toward the crate.

“
Winston,” Emmett said, “put the nuclear bomb down. We’re not going to blow it up in a cave when we have no chance ever of getting far enough away to survive.”

“
But?”

“
Put it down.”

Their path became torturous as the rocks closed in around them. It was like crawling underneath furniture, squeezing in and out through chair legs to continue on. Every inch forward was a test of flexibility and patience.

“
Anidea, your tail is too big to fit,” Emmett said. “Try to squeeze a little harder.”

“
Tom, tell him to be quiet.”

“
Keep calm and use your head. Think it through.”

“
Emmett give her a push,” Winston said.

“
Well, okay I admit it, I’m stuck.”

“
I told you,” Emmett strained. “Your tail is too big.”

Anidea squirmed to free herself from an elbow shaped siphon channel. “I’m not really panicking, but there is this feeling of pressure on my chest that makes me want to freak out before one of those horrible cave critters comes to eat me.”

“
The only ones who are going to eat you are us,” Tom said. “If we don’t get you out, we will need something to eat. Now be quiet and let us push.”

“
Did you just say ‘I love you Anidea’,” Anidea asked, “because that’s what I thought I heard.”

Winston pulled and Emmett put his shoulder into it. Anidea popped out of the elbow with a sigh of relief. “I’m off the menu.”

“
For now, Anidea, for now.”

Once they were through the tube, they found themselves in yet another small cave. Tom cracked a glow stick and held it up. The light sparkled off a spiraling mineral structure that grew from the wall. “Whoa!” he gaped.

“
That’s helictite,” Emmett said. “They grow like that due to the fluctuations in a planet’s gravity field. It’s called capillary action.”

“
Stop pretending to be so smart.” Anidea thumped his cranial protrusions with her claw.

“
I’m not. I feel like I know it, all of it.”

“
Now what?” Winston stomped his foot. He stood by the caves far wall. “It’s blocked.”

“
At least there is a breeze coming through, feel here,” Anidea said.

“
We have to dig if we want to go any farther.” Tom patted Winston on the shoulder. “Our hands are almost completely covered in scales, they will protect us.”

“
We could blast it open with the grenade.”

“
Bad idea. Dig.”

“
My hands are still squishy human flesh. I’m out,” Emmett said.

Dust rose up, irritating their throats as they piled rocks behind them.

“
The cave tube turns down,” Anidea said, “We’re wasting our time.”

“
Keep digging.” Tom threw a rock to the side. “This is where the air is coming from.”

“
Listen, it’s coming from under that flat rock,” Winston scooped the sand away from around it and the sound of syphoned air whistled. “Pull, we need to get this up.”

It slid away with a great effort.

Tom cracked a glow stick and dropped it down the hole. It disappeared into the blackness. They waited and listened for it to hit. Silence. “We can climb down.”

“
That’s dumb, climb into a bottomless pit?”

Tom dropped another glow stick. “No, Anidea, look there’s a ledge down there.”

Their lizard claws proved to be very useful. Not for just digging, but climbing too. Scraping and clawing their way down, loose rocks broke away and fell into the abyss. On the ledge below they found another tube splitting off from the vertical shaft. It was large enough for them to stand in.

“
That could go on forever,” she said.

“
We can’t go back, we have to find another way out,” Tom said. His face looked strange from the glow of the map. “This is the way it says to go.”

Winston pressed against the tube wall. “Watch out, there’s more of that slime stuff dripping from the ceiling.”

“
Don’t touch it, remember,” Anidea said. They moved around the acidic slime drool carefully.

After some distance blue green tinted light appeared ahead, they moved quicker.

“
It looks like daylight,” Tom said.

The tube opened out onto a rock terrace, which didn’t look like it was ever used. It was overgrown with alien plants and mounds of rotting vegetation squished under their feet. Before them a giant cathedral opened up revealing Pyramids, domes, monorails, and waterfalls spreading out before them.

In the center of the ceiling was a giant glowing orb. The light was a bright as a sunny day on Earth.

“
It’s a city.” Tom shielded his eyes from the light as they adjusted. “It must be bigger than Chicago. There must be thousands, millions of lizardmen here.”

“
If we could ask the man back in the cave he could probably tell us,” Winston said.

“
Another dumb thing to say Winston. If we could ask him, we wouldn’t be here. We’d be home already.”

“
Anidea, will you knock it off? Leave me alone. What’s wrong with you?”

“
What’s wrong with you? Meh meh meh,” Anidea mocked him.

“
I’m sick of you saying dumb things. That’s what.”

Tom rolled his eyes. “I’m sick of you two bickering, that’s what.”

Anidea flipped him off.

“
I saw that,” Tom said.

“
How?”

“
The transformation has moved his eye sockets to the sides of his head. That’s how,” Emmett said, “It won’t be long before we are completely lizard and have almost 360 vision. Well, 280 to be exact.”

Crumbling rock cascaded down the cliff above them. A rock caught Winston on the side of the head, and he fell to the ground. He stood up, held his head, and groaned.

Greenish blood ran down the side of his face, and he staggered toward the railing of the balcony. He tripped on a vine and fell over the rail. Tumbling down the embankment he tried to flatten out and slide. There wasn’t anything they could do. He slid and bounced off rocks, starting a mini landslide. Rocks cascaded, after him snowballing and gathering more and more. To chase after him would risk falling as well. He came to a stop by a bench in an overgrown garden below. They hopped down the embankment after him.

Winston lay partially covered in rocks, he gave a scaly thumbs up. “I’m alright. I’m fine,” he called up.

Tom inspected Winston for injury. “You have changed more. Look at your elbows. The scales are like green skateboard pads. Look at your knees. They are thick scaly plates.”

On his back small ridges of protective bone had risen up, adding to the horns on his head.

“
What happens when we completely change, Tom? Do you think we will we lose our minds?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
This garden isn’t used, so we should be safe here for a while.

“
This fountain is still working,” Anidea drank deeply. “It's that gooey black stuff like on the spaceship, but who cares, right?

“
You sure you’re okay?” Tom asked Winston.

“
Why are you smiling?” Anidea asked Emmett.

Emmett marveled at the statue.

“
Look,” Anidea gasped and spun in a circle, “These broken statues aren’t lizardmen, they are human. They are piled up around us to make this wall.”

“
No there’s a lizardman statue, it looks new,” Emmett said.

“
It looks like a guard,” Tom said, “see the shield and the spear.” He tugged at the vines, peeling them back from the statues. “There’s hundreds of human statues.”

Anidea’s head bobbed and weaved in confusion, she cocked her head to the side to get a better look.

Emmett smiled, he knew.

“
Humans and Lizardmen lived together?”

“
No.”

They gathered around the statue.

“
Hey, aren’t you going to help me get out of the rocks?” Winston said, “Come on. Get me out.”

Before they could turn, Winston screamed. They were taken by surprise as a lizardman emerged from behind a wall and grabbed Winston by the arms, pulling him free. He struggled, kicked, and shrieked. Tom was the first to react; he grabbed the lizardman by the tail and pulled.

The lizardman hissed furiously, threw Winston down and spun around with its claws held up in front of its face. Anidea circled around it and came from behind. She hit the lizardman over the head with a rock. “Enough.”

Winston lay there, pale and restless. His eyes were closed, and he breathed in short gasps. A jagged crystal shard pierced his thigh. Blood flowed steadily from the wound.

Spider-crabs like those on the escape pod started to emerge from a small hatch in the side of a nearby wall and went to the fallen lizardman. Tom grabbed one and put it on Winston. It waved its arms and clacked its claws. He shook it. “It’s not doing anything.”

“
Open it up and get the needle,” Emmett said.

Tom snapped off the spider-crab’s claw, exposed the needle, and stuck it into Winston’s leg. “That should take care of the pain. Anidea, keep pressure here.”

A high pitched scream came from behind them. They turned and saw a small lizardman running away.

“
They’ve found us,” Anidea said.

Tom ran after the little lizard to see where it was going. “We need to get moving.”

“
He’s hurt too badly.”

“
We don’t have a choice.”

“
The map shows that we go that way,” Emmett said.

“
I don’t think that lizardman was after us,” Tom said. “I think that lizardman was a lizard lady, bringing her child to the park.”

“
That kid is going to get help, so we’ll be caught now for sure. There’s no way we’re going to get through this city.”

Winston looked up. “We need that bomb. We have to go back and get it.”

“
You’re not going anywhere with that leg,” Tom said. “Emmett, do you think you can make it work?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I knew we needed it.” Winston smiled through the pain.

“
You can’t be serious Tom,” Anidea said. “What about all that ‘we will never get to safety before it explodes’ business.”

“
We’re not going to set it off, just threaten to.”

“
Now we’re talking.” Winston tried to sit up.

“
Stay down,” Tom said. “We have to leave you here. Anidea, I need you to stay here with him.”

“
Me? Let me tell you how I feel about this little idea of yours. It sucks. What will I do when that little lizard calms down enough to tell someone we killed his mother?”

Tom looked over lizard lady, she was covered in the little spider-crabs. “We’re lucky that she’s not dead. You could explain how she was helping free Winston and you brained her with a rock.”

“
What should I do?”

“
Hide, and hope they don’t conk you on the head.”

Tom and Emmett disappeared back up the hill and into the tunnel to get the bomb.

“
Hide? I don’t see where we are going to hide,” Anidea complained to Winston.

“
If you move me, my leg is going to start bleeding again.”

“
I don’t think we have a choice. I’ll have to drag you over to the statues. We’ll hide in there.”