In Situ (11 page)

Jesus
, Alex, she thought, how was she going to explain what a year is, let alone 65 million of them? You are going to shock this guy to death. “Many years,” was all she finally said.

“I do not understand ‘year’? What is a ‘year’?” Mot was confused.

Now you’ve done it Professor Moss. She was furious at herself. “Calm, Alex, stay calm,” she heard her father say. “It is a way we mark time. It is the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun.”

“I do not understand ‘orbit
.’ The Astrologers say when Qa’aa aligns in the same spot a season has passed, is that the same?”

Oh
my god! Compose yourself Alex. “Yes, Mot, that is essentially the same. How many seasons have you lived?”

“I just turned two by eight, and you?”

Alex could actually sense pride in the answer. He’s just a kid she thought, a teenager! OK, he did not count in tens. Come on Alex, remember your math. He is using base eight. “I am three eights and five.”

“You are old!” Mot exclaimed.

That hurts. “Maybe in your world, not so much in mine. Humans often live—how do I say this?—eight eights, and more.” Alex said. She could not think of how to go higher.

“Arzats can live that long as well, but it is rare
, and usually just the females.”

“
Arzat? Was that the name of your people?” Oops, damn it, Alex thought, should have used ‘is’ not ‘was.’

“That is
the name of my race. Our clan is the Zanta. I must find the others.” Mot’s stomach growled. He was so hungry it was causing him physical pain. “I must get out of the cave. I need to find food.”

“Will you help me get out as well?” she asked.

The scent of the female so close to him was almost overwhelming. I bet she would be delicious thought Mot, then once again put the thought out of his mind. “It is too difficult. I must go and find my people and food. Then, perhaps, I can come back and get you.”

Alex suddenly realized she hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day and she herself was ravenous, so she could certainly understand what was going on with her dinosaur friend’s stomach. She sensed Mot was going to leave her
, and believed that, if he did, she would die. Alex was also strangely aware that her presence was not doing anything to ease Mot’s hunger. Dangerous to be around him in that state, but suicide if she didn’t convince him to lead her out of here, she thought. She might die with him, but Alex knew she would die for sure without him. She could tell the creature was determined to see if the world was the same as he had left it and was anxious to see for himself as soon as possible. Alex decided that now was as good a time as any to break the news.

“You are going to need my help
, Mot. You have been asleep for a very long time. The world you left has changed. I am sorry to say, Mot, that there are none of your ‘people’ left.”

Mot could feel his temper rising. What did this creature know about anything? There were many, many Arzat clans—surely some were still around. Yet, in his heart, he could tell that the smooth skin creature was speaking the truth
, at least as far as she knew it. Perhaps he would need her assistance. But, they needed to cross the crevasse. How could they? Mot was confident in his ability to climb down and back up, but the female? In the dark of the cave?

“I am sorry I destroyed your magic light, Alex,” was all he could think to say.

The sincerity of the statement took Alex by surprise. Little did he know how many more of those magic lights there were in the world he was about to enter. He would be as helpless as a baby out there, and probably be killed almost immediately by the first human with a gun that encountered him. “Listen, Mot, I know how to find all the food you can eat if you can just get us out of here. As I said, there are many of my kind on the surface, and some of them are very dangerous. But I can help you.”

Mot thought about the night he had killed the
two footed beast. A creature like Alex wouldn’t survive a moment in his world. She would be torn apart, if not by the many nasty animals of the forest, then surely by the Arzats themselves. How could the world she was from be any more dangerous than his? Mot was totally confused, and this was no time for confusion. He would keep this creature close to him until he found out exactly what was going on above.

“I will have to carry you.”

“Alex
, you will have to hold to my back. I will climb down the rock then up the other side. Since I will require all of my limbs in order to do this, you will have to hold on to me all on your own. Once we begin, if you let go, I will not be able to save you. Also, while I normally have good vision in the dark, my eyes do need some light to be able to see. Since I have killed your magic light I have made things more difficult.”

Alex realized that both she and Mot had given up speaking aloud
. It was much easier to simply exchange thoughts.

“I understand,” she silently replied. Her immense relief that Mot was not going to desert her was short
-lived. How in the hell am I going to hang on to this guy? It’ll be like trying to bareback a Volkswagen up a steep hill! “You have to do it, Alex, so just do it,” Simon said to her.

“I am a very good climber
, Alex.”

There was silence in the cave.

“Alex?”

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Here.” Mot reached out and took Alex gently by the arm to guide her. “Just place your arms around my neck and hold on to my back with your legs,” he instructed.

I am glad I can’t see, Alex thought. This would probably scare the shit out of me. She reached up and tried to grasp Mot around the neck
, but she was too short to even have a chance.

“I will bend down,” Mot said.

Alex realized that her previous analogy to riding bareback on a car was right on the money. The creature’s neck was so enormous that her arms barely met in the front. She did her best to lock her hands and hold on with her legs. The skin on his back was very course and reminded her of alligator, which helped her to hold on, but on the sides of his body his skin was smooth, and as slippery as a snake’s. She squeezed her legs around him as tightly as she could.

“Are you secure?” asked Mot.

“Yes, I think so,” Alex answered, with some doubt.

“You will need to squeeze your legs together
, Alex, when we start down, or I am worried that you will fall.”

“I am! This is as good as it ge
ts!” Alex exclaimed in her head, suddenly aware of how close some of her extremities were to the dinosaur’s very sharp teeth. She could feel the creature’s warm breath on her hands.

“You needn’t worry
, Alex, I have been climbing like this since I was a child,” Mot said calmly.

“Even in the dark?”

“Often in the dark. As I said, light would be better, but we have none.” This creature is never going to make it, thought Mot, blocking, so Alex could not hear his complete response. He turned, carefully feeling his way, moving his body so as not to throw the smooth creature into the black below. His toes caught nicely into the rock, which seemed to be rough, not nearly as smooth as the sides of the cave, and would have made climbing next to impossible with the creature on his back. One leg, then two, and then he began to descend. Mot could feel the female already struggling to hold on, so he knew he would have to be swift and without mistake. When the magic light had fallen, he had judged the hole to be eight sticks of eight deep—a relatively easy climb by himself, somewhat harder with the weight of the female pulling him from the wall. He could feel her breath on his back becoming more labored.

Because they were in pitch black, Mot could only guess at their progress.
He moved carefully, testing each foot and hand hold as he went. When he thought they were about half the distance to the bottom he paused. The creature was slipping, he could feel it. Some correction had to be made or she would fall. “Alex, you must take a tighter hold,” he told her, his hands and his feet bound to the wall.

Alex was painfully aware of the fact that she was about to fall
, but she was at a loss as to what to do about it. She started to slip, then it was over, and she totally lost her grip.

“Kak,” Mot
said aloud. He felt Alex slip and immediately swung his right arm around to catch her while he struggled to hold the wall with his left, barely reaching her before he lost her into the crevasse. Mot pulled her up to his side, and then shoved her all the way above his shoulders with his one free hand. “Swing your legs around my head Alex.”

Alex
suddenly found herself on Mot’s shoulders, his head directly beneath her. She thought she had just heard the creature say “shit” when she had slipped.

“This will make climbing more difficult
for me, but should save you from falling Alex. You will have to balance the upper part of your body carefully as I cannot hold on to you.”

“I understand,” she said. Alex could see
nothing.

“Hold on to my head if you need to.”

Alex did so, placing her hands on each side of it, amazed at the enormity of his skull. It was like grasping a large pumpkin—with teeth!

Mot continued down, his hands and feet perfectly interpreting the
stone wall as he went. Finally, his senses told him the opposing wall must be close behind them. “Alex, carefully reach behind you with one arm and feel for the other wall. I will hold you.” Mot used one free hand to pinch Alex’s legs securely around his neck and took a strong grip on the wall with his other.

Alex forced
herself around and pushed her right arm out into the dark. Nothing.

Mot stretched out as far as he could. “Further, Alex.”

Alex could feel one of Mot’s hands holding her legs like a vise, so she leaned as far as she could into the black void and was surprised when she actually touched stone. “Got it! The other wall is only about three or four feet behind us.”

“I do not know this ‘feet’ measurement
, Alex, but if you touched the wall it is enough. Hold tightly.”

Mot spun and blindly went for the other side, depending completely on Alex’s information. He felt himself starting to fall into the black, then both his hands struck the wall and he w
as able to grip it. He brought one foot forward, then another, and managed two solid footholds. They were across. This was fortunate, he thought. While he couldn’t be exactly sure, he felt the move had saved them several sticks of descent and as many for the ascent. “Now we will go up, Alex.”

Mot pulled and tugged his way up, slowly, deliberately. With Alex riding on his neck, the climb was difficult
, but he had less worry that she would fall. If something had gone wrong now, it would have been his mistake that made it so.

Alex said nothing. She remained fully focused during the entire ascent making sure she didn’t slip and go ‘ass over tea kettle’ back to the bottom of the ravine.

When over a full torch of time had passed, one of Mot’s hands finally felt the top. He pulled up, and flicked his tongue to be sure. Yes. “We have reached the other side, Alex. You may climb off of me. Be very careful, and go forward.”

Alex reached out and felt for solid ground. When her hands touched the flat part of the cave, she gently tumbled off of Mot’s shoulders and crawled along the floor. She could still see nothing in the pitch black.

Mot crawled over onto the floor of the cave as well. He took a good sniff of the air and got mostly the scent of Alex, but there was no mistaking it, somewhere down the tunnel the air was fresh. “I think we are very close now, Alex.”

Thank god. Alex moved to stand up and immediately hit her head on something. “God damn it!” she said aloud.

Mot, still crouching due to the short ceiling, could only imagine what Alex had done. He had not understood her expletive, but he could sense her pain. “Careful, Alex, this part of the cave is low. Always test with your hands.”

“Now you tell me.”

“Follow closely, Alex,” Mot said, ignoring her remark. “You may keep your hand on my back if you wish.” Mot led Alex slowly, testing the floor of the cave as he went. If he came upon another fissure, this time he would not see it, he would have to feel for it as he went.

They inched along for what seemed like another hour to Alex, moving mostly upward, sometimes even encountering the same type of stairs she had seen in the first part of the caves.

“I thought we were close,” she finally said, exasperated, breathing heavily.

“We are here, Alex,” Mot said, stunned by what he had found.

They had just entered the Great Chamber, and although it was still very dark, Mot was starting to be able to see. It now looked to him like the little female had been right. Mot took a deep breath and flicked his tongue. Sadly, he discovered, there was no sign or scent of his clan anywhere. He trained his eyes upward, and through a very narrow opening, high above his head, he could just make out the night sky. “This is the main gathering place of my clan, Alex. I know this place well. Can you see the starlight?”

Alex was still in a world of total darkness, but she instinctively looked up, and sure enough, high above her head, she could barely distinguish the fine white points of a few stars. She was exhausted, but the sight filled her with hope. Maybe she was going to make it out of here after all. “How do we get there?” she asked, worried they would have to climb again.

“Perhaps we will not have to. The main entrance to the caves is nearby,” Mot replied.

She followed Mot closely, sti
ll completely unable to see. The Arzat, on the other hand, could now see quite well, the small amount of light from the stars was more than enough. He was happy to discover that the large round stone that marked the main entrance was still in place just as he and his friend El had left it what seemed just hours ago. The rocks appeared to have grown around it, but it was still there. He placed his body against the barrier and pushed with all his strength, but it would not move. Mot tried again, but without success. “You may have to help me, Alex.”

“Mot, I can’t see anything
. What are you trying to do?”

“We must roll the rock.”

Mot led Alex to stand next to him. She could feel the cold stone, and ran her hands along the surface, surprised and amazed at its size.

“We must push it back Alex. Ready?”

On Mot’s command, Alex gave the stone everything she had. Mot strained with her. At first, nothing happened, then the stone actually moved an inch and stopped. They tried a few more times, but no amount of effort was working. Finally, Alex slid to the floor, out of breath, and Mot did the same.

“We should be able to move it Alex
. I do not understand.”

Alex was confused as well
. If they hadn’t been able to move the rock at all, she would have assumed that it had simply bonded to the wall. Then, out of nowhere, she recalled once trying to move a horse trailer before they had removed the chocks that blocked the wheels from rolling. Alex crawled to the other side of the stone and probed. Sure enough, there was a rock the size of a baseball wedged between the floor and the rounded edge of the giant barrier. Alex gave the rock a good tug and it broke free. The stone door, of its own accord, began to slowly roll and almost crushed her hand in the process.

By the time Alex and Mot jumped up
, the two of them were facing out onto the entire Utah desert. It was still dark, but the horizon was just beginning to show signs of sunrise. A cool breeze blew into Alex’s face, and she took a deep breath. They had made it.

She looked out onto the desert floor and began to laugh again. Somehow, she and Mot had ended up directly above the slide that had destroyed her dinosaur specimen. She could see
the dark outline of her pickup and her camp just beyond.

Nothing is going to surprise me after this
, Alex thought to herself. She looked over at Mot, who was staring blankly into the desert.

Mot
continued to gaze outward for some time. He noticed Qa’aa was about to rise. Then he turned to Alex, completely stunned. “This is not the world I know.”

Alex continued to look out at the horizon
. The sun was just beginning to peek over the mountains, a slight morning breeze in the air. To Alex, there had never been a more beautiful sight. “Well, you may be in luck my friend. This
is
the world I know.”

“I must eat Alex.” Mot was ravenous. The wind had blown her strong scent directly into his nostrils with almost overpowering effect. I hope there is something to eat in this world besides this young female named Alex
, he thought to himself again, eyeing her.

“Come on,” she said, start
ing down the hill. “I have food in my truck.”

“What is a ‘truck
,’ Alex?”

“Follow me
. I’ll show you.”