Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (13 page)

“Smart guy,” Steven whispered. As the rest of them,
he was staring into the pit. He thought he could see a lump of something, not
rock or cave floor because its texture was different, far below. It wasn’t
moving. It looked like the left behinds of some animal. A really big animal.

Justin was slowly moving his flashlight’s beam down
into and around the pit. “Chief Ranger Witter, what makes you think the animal
down there might be what I’m looking for? Might be prehistoric? Why am I really
here?”

“Because
you
called me and asked the right
questions. Let’s take a little side trip, Dr. Maltin. I have something else to
show you. Follow me.” The ranger swung away, led them to the other side of the cavern
and sent his flashlight’s glow to the wall in front of them. “This is one of
the reasons why.”

Steven closely scrutinized the surface, surprised
at what he was seeing. Bones. Everywhere. The wall was embedded with hundreds
of bones and fragments of something he couldn’t identify right off. Egg shells,
perhaps? There were loose bones on the cave floor, too. He followed Justin to
the wall, and near enough to touch what was protruding from it. Even he
recognized what he was looking at now. “Fossils? Dinosaur fossils?”

“Looks like it,” Justin replied, skimming his
fingers reverently across the wall, his face unable to mask his awe. “Just like
the fossil wall my father-in-law discovered at Crater Lake. I’d bet it’s full
of previously unknown species of dinosaurs as well.”

“Stricklin thought so, too,” Witter interjected, “so
when he was in the cave last week he collected a few of these loose bones and
brought them back to me. I sent some of them to a paleontologist I know and he
confirmed it. They’re dinosaur bones all right…but there’s another mystery…some,
he believes, haven’t been dead that long. Years maybe.”

“Years?” Steven echoed, confused. “Not millions of
years?”

“Not millions, no. Years.”

“So that’s why you think what might be down in the
pit is what I’m looking for?” Justin had abandoned the wall and returned to the
pit’s opening.

“That’s why.

“Well, what are you going to do now, Dr. Maltin?”
Witter pivoted towards the scientist, his face darkened by the cave’s shadows.
“That’s a dangerous drop. And you don’t know what that thing at the bottom is.
It may still be alive.”

“I’m going to go down there and check it out. See what
it is. But I’ll be careful. I’m armed.” Justin patted the pistol on his belt.
Then he began uncoiling the rope, putting on his harness, and attaching the line
to it.

“How far down do you think it is?” Steven wasn’t
sure he wanted to be lowered into the hole, but what a great scene it would
make in his book if he experienced it firsthand, alongside his friend. If
Justin, who was afraid of caves and heights, could do it, he should be able to.
He wasn’t a coward, though the thought of going into the inky abyss did give
him a stomach ache.

It was so dark down there.

Behind the handkerchief, his mouth operated before
his brain. “I’m going with you, Justin.”

Justin didn’t argue with him. “So I won’t be alone.
Anyone else want to descend into the hole with us?” He looked at the two
rangers expectantly.

Both shook their heads no. No explanations, no
excuses.

“We’ll lower you two down and wait up here for
you,” Witter said. “I need another man for that anyway.”

“Thanks.” After Justin helped Steven get harnessed,
he handed the end of the ropes to the rangers, who used a sizeable boulder some
feet behind them to wrap the ropes around.

“Ready?” Justin asked him and Steven nodded.
Maybe
this isn’t such a good idea
, he thought, but before he could voice his apprehensions
Justin and he were over the edge and being lowered deeper into the cave…towards
he had no idea what.

The drop was swift, though, and flashlight in hand,
Steven was soon standing on the floor of the pit beside Justin. The two skimmed
the black interior cautiously with their lights.

A minute later Steven breathed, “I don’t see
anything down here, buddy. Just a hole in a cave. Some rocks. That’s about it.
No dead creatures of any kind.”

“Neither do I.” Justin walked away from him and
explored the rest of the area, his flashlight in one hand and his other hand on
the butt of the pistol in his belt holster. It wasn’t that large of a pit. Like
the cavern above it was honeycombed with tunnels going in all directions. For
some reason Justin didn’t voice the desire to scramble down any of them. He
barely looked at them. “You’re right, there’s nothing  down here.”

But Steven had the eerie sensation they weren’t
alone. There were eyes on him, he could
feel
them. His skin grew bumps. “Let’s
get out of here then.”

“I’m with you.”

Justin called to the rangers above to pull them up.

“We found nothing down there,” Justin admitted to
Witter when they were on top again. “Whatever was there isn’t there any longer.
If it ever was.” There was disappointment in the scientist’s voice.

“I did see something down there when I was here,”
Ranger Stricklin insisted, shaking his head. “I’m sure of it. And what about
that smell, like something’s been dead for weeks? The cave is permeated with it.”

“It’s another mystery then.” Justin smiled
nervously, his eyes moving around the cave as if he expected what might have
been below to now be up there with them. Alive again, watching them with ravenous
eyes from one of the tunnels.

“If you would allow us, I want to explore more of the
cave, Ranger Witter, before we leave.” Justin had undone his harness and coiled
up the ropes, replacing everything in the backpacks.

“You don’t need my permission doctor. We have a few
hours before we have to start back, so use them up.”

“You and your men can accompany us or wait for us
here or outside. I want to see if there’s any other signs of living creatures
or more fossils.”

“We’ll stick with you,” Witter said. “Just give me
a minute to let Ranger Jefferies know what we’re up to and we’ll be with you.”
The ranger flipped open his cell phone and let the ranger outside know what was
going on. Good thing they were close enough to the entrance for the phones to
still work.

The four of them spent the next hour and a half
exploring the tunnels rambling off from the main cavern.

They found nothing. But, many times, Steven could
have sworn he heard strange animal noises, scratching and clicking, in the
distance. He could never tell from what direction, never tell if what he was
hearing was real or just his imagination. The exploration was filled with
anxiety. He and Justin jumped at every unknown sound. He was sweating even
though the cave was cold.

But they saw no dinosaurs of any kind. Dead or
breathing. And they never found the cause of the revolting smell.

Steven was relieved. He hadn’t wanted to be caught
in the narrow tunnels with a live monster scuttling after him anyway. But as frightened
as he was, if Justin forged on, so could he. In fact, it made him feel better
about himself than he had in a long time, bravely following his friend through
the tunnels. Looking for dinosaurs.

After they’d gone as far as they could, seen as
much of the cave as feasible, with the time restraints, and found themselves in
the main cavern again, Witter made the decision to leave for them. “Well, if
there’s nothing else to see or do, let’s get out of this place. It gives me the
creeps. Too far below ground for my liking. And the smell, I swear, has seeped
into my bones. My nose can’t take any more.”

Yeah, Steven thought, my clothes probably stink
like dead things. I’ll have to either wash them right away or burn them. Most
likely burn them. Which would be a shame. He really liked the shirt he had on.
He’d worn it down to comfortable.

On the way out they stopped at the wall of bones one
last time. Justin took samples from the wall itself he gently pried loose with
his knife, picked up more from the cave floor and used his cell phone to snap
photos. Steven brought out his phone and camera and took a full detailed series
of shots. The find, at least, would be somewhat documented until local
paleontologists could be sent out to further examine it.

They finally exited the cave.

Yanking off his handkerchief, blinking at the glare
of the sun, Steven stepped in beside Justin. He didn’t have time to utter a
word before Stricklin joined them.

“Dr. Maltin, you asked me to tell you if I recalled
anything else about what I saw in the bottom of the pit that day last week?”

Justin, after removing the cloth from his face,
canted his head at the ranger. “You remembered something else?”

The ranger’s voice was intentionally low as he
continued, “Maybe. I think the creature I saw in the pit had…wings.”

“Wings?”

Stricklin sent a furtive glance at his Chief who
was walking ahead of them. It was warmer than when they’d hiked out and there
were beads of sweat on Stricklin’s face. “Yeah, I didn’t mention it before
because, well, it made it sound as if I’d seen a dragon or something. You know,
the mythical beast from fantasy tales?” His grin was apologetic. “My boss
already thinks I’m off the track a bit with what I say I saw in  the first
place. But, yeah, I think the thing might have had wings. They were folded
against its body and they weren’t that large. I just thought I should mention
it to you.”

Steven noticed how Justin’s face changed to one of
instant concern. “Thank you for telling me that, Ranger. And I don’t think
you’re off your track, not one bit. Someday I’ll tell you a couple of true accounts
that’ll make your really doubt your sanity, but not now. You’re still one of
the uninitiated.

“And,” Justin murmured, “I hope you stay that way.”

Ranger Stricklin gave the paleontologist an odd
look. “What are your plans now, Dr. Maltin?”

“My friend and I will spend the night in town and
tomorrow will head back to Crater Lake. I’ll notify my job–I work for John Day
Fossil Beds National Monument–of what we found in the cave. The wall of bones. The
possible sighting. And I’m sure they’ll be in touch with your local
paleontologists and Chief Ranger about all of it.

“And, you never know, you might see us here again
in the near future. I’m not done with that cave yet, or this park.”

“You believe I saw something down there and you
want to find it?” Stricklin concluded.

“You got it.” Then Justin stopped walking and
looked directly at the ranger. “But I have the feeling this isn’t the last you’ll
see of the creature from the pit. My guess is it’ll show itself soon enough to
someone. If it does, could you please give me a call? Your Chief has my
telephone numbers.”

The ranger tipped his head affirmatively. “If I see
another one of those
dragons
, I’ll be sure to ring you.”

The trek to the truck was mostly without
conversation. Everyone was exhausted and the sun was inching lower every
minute. Steven understood Justin, and the rangers, wanted to be out of the
woods by the time night came.

So did he.

But all for different reasons.

The three rangers wanted to get back to their
office and then home. Justin wanted to get back to Crater Lake and then home to
his wife and child.

Steven wanted to see what came next.

*****

He and Justin were in the car driving to the motel
when he asked him, “You believe there was a dinosaur in that pit, don’t you?
And that, if it didn’t drag itself away some place to die, it’s still there loose
somewhere in the cave’s tunnels or out running–or flying–wild in the park?”

Justin didn’t take his eyes off the road as they parked
in the motel’s parking lot. “I’m sure of it. I saw too many signs something’s
been living in those caves. Good guess is it’s prehistoric, as well. There’s
those cave bones and fossils. That smell. Very distinctive. I’ve smelled that
particular odor before. Dead dinosaur. Dead Hugo, in fact.”

“Hugo?”

And Justin explained about the specimen he’d called
Hugo they’d found at Crater Lake the last dinosaur go-round. “Hugo had wings,
too. So did his many brothers and sisters. And, man, did he have a shit load of
them.”

“So you think what that ranger saw in the pit was
another, er, Hugo?”

“I’m pretty sure it was. Which is both a good and bad
sign. That species could fly great distances so it’s possible it flew all the
way here from Crater Lake, drawn by the giant Redwood trees. That would be the
lesser of two evils.”

“What’s the greater?”

“That it was born in that cave we just explored, in
Redwood National Park, and there’s…more of them. Which would prop up my theory
the dinosaurs are an epidemic and it’s spreading. Oregon and now California.
And no telling how many other locations as well. I’m going to continue my
inquiries with other park lands, especially those in the vicinity of volcanoes,
in California, like Yosemite, Death Valley and Sequoia; and other national
parks in Nevada and Arizona, and see if any of them have glimpsed any strange
creatures roaming or flying around in their woods.”