Chapter #7"They are all dead." by: Unknown “Dead!” Peter exclaimed. “How in the world did that happen?”
Nikhil sighed. “It was about three months after the crash. We had built this village you see here, and had become excellent hunters and gatherers. Though the thought of rescue or discovery hadn’t left our minds, we were happy and content with our little civilization. And then, the Hunters came.”
“The Hunters?” Peter asked. “You mean those guys who were chasing us?”
“Yes, they’re few of many.” Nikhil said. “There’s probably about three dozen of them total. They’re men-for-hire, some of them from the surrounding area, some of them flown in from elsewhere. All of them are doing this for only one thing: money.”
“But,” Peter thought for a moment, “ where is the money coming from, then?”
Nikhil reached under the bed and pulled out a sheet of paper. “From him,” he said, as he slid it over to Peter.
Peter quickly recognized the sheet as the front page of an Indian newspaper, and, though it was in Hindi, he understood what Nikhil was referring to. A large picture of a white man with a mustache and dark glasses covered the sheet. Peter guessed he was a general of some sort. “Who is this?” he asked.
“Demidov,” Nikhil responded. “He’s an old Soviet general, who hated capitalism and detested the new Russian government, and left the country after the fall of communism, taking with him about a hundred soldiers as followers.”
“I see,” Peter said, “but why is he here now, trying to kill you?”
Nikhil looked out the window, off into the distance. “Because, once all the guardians are dead, there’s nothing stopping him from getting to the one thing he wants most.”
“And what is that?” Peter asked.
“Come,” Nikhil said as he stood up. As if on cue, Kalima also quickly stood up and walked over next to him. “You need to see it with your own eyes.”
Nikhil reached out his hand, motioning Peter to step on. Peter did so, and Nikhil placed him on his shoulder. Quietly, he left the hut, and walked slowly through the rest of the village. Peter looked around, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. The deserted village reminded him of ghost towns he visited while vacationing in Colorado as a kid, just at a scale of three to four times larger.
As they neared the other end of the village, Peter saw they were approaching a cave. “Is this...?” he asked. Nikhil simply nodded.
They entered the cave, Kalima going first with Nikhil a few yards behind her. Peter suddenly felt a chill, partly from the drop in temperature, and partly from the dark. Nikhil didn’t have a torch or lantern, but seemed to be able to navigate the passageways in the dark with ease. Peter’s breathing began to quicken. Sensing his fright, Nikhil gave him a soft pat on the pack, and whispered, “Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”
After a few quiet minutes, they arrived at a giant cavern, with a ceiling stretching, at Peter’s best estimate, about 100 feet high. The cavern was filled with an eerie blue glow; Peter was happy just to have some light, though it did look to be a light source unlike any he had seen before.
Kalima was whimpering somewhat, making sure she stayed close to Nikhil’s feet. Nikhil stopped, and turned around to face Peter. “We’re here,” he said.
“Where’s here?” Peter asked. “What is this place?”
“It’s the... well, how do I describe it,” Nikhil said, thinking. “It’s the heart and soul of this area of the jungle. It’s the whole reason we’re in this mess.”
“But why?!” Peter exclaimed, his face getting red. “What makes this cavern so special.”
Nikhil stuck out his hand and pointed a long finer towards the center of the cavern. “That,” he said, simply.
Peter turned towards what Nikhil was pointing at, and it nearly knocked his socks off to see the source of the light, and that it was...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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