One Minute to Midnight (18 page)

"
Ha, ha, we’ll see.
Well, it looks like it’s going to be another hot
one.
"
Dave said.

"
Tropical heat is
serious business. The secret is drinking clean water, and drinking
lots of it.
"
Henry
replied.
Dave sauntered over to where Henry stood and put his hands on his
hips as he surveyed the volcanic, rocky terrain, and the dense
jungle beyond. Gunung Padang loomed in the distance, somewhere
southeast of their position, and although Dave was not as
experienced in world travel as Henry, he could smell their
destination at the end of the road. Dave felt like a pilgrim in
search of new land, and it was exhilarating. Henry saw the look in
Dave’s eyes and could not help but remember when he had begun
travelling to remote, isolated ruins as a young man. Henry had the
same look on his face when he gazed upon the Great Pyramid for the
first time. The height and scale of such a creation excited Henry
to no end. His imagination ran wild about how impossible it seemed
that something so precise and massive could have been built with
stone and copper tools by hunter-gatherers. Perhaps the answer was
that the people who built the megaliths used high technology, maybe
more advanced than we have today. He would often conspire to anyone
that would listen at parties after having too much to
drink.

"
It’s exciting,
right? Getting the hell out of your house and seeing those places
that books are written about.
"
Henry said.

"
Yes sir, it is. I
would not trade this for sitting at a desk.
"
Dave replied.

"
When I’m away I miss
my wife, but when I’m home I miss my time on the road. It’s a
strange duality.
"
Henry
said.

"
There’s so much to
see.
"
Dave
nodded.
"
Let’s get
these guides up, eat something, and be on our
way.
"
Henry said.

After a light breakfast, their guides, Bakti,
Hamzah, and Muluk, packed the tents and supply boxes, and the five
men began to walk down the path. Hired in Jakarta for their
knowledge of the country, the guides were to carry all of the gear
and lead Henry and Dave to their destination. The two guides up
front began speaking to one another.

"
Ada pertanda buruk
tentang gunung yang, Hamzah.
"
Bakti said.

"
I know Bakti, but
the money feed our families for whole year,
"
whispered Hamzah in broken English.
"Bakti, shut up!" Muluk barked.

"
What did he
say?
"
Henry asked.

"
Bakti say there is
bad omen, or sign on the mountain. We should not go there, but he
just joking.
"
Hamzah
answered.

"
Ridiculous
superstition! Ha, ha, these natives!" Henry shook his
head.

Hamzah shrugged and grinned kindly, as if to
say
'my friend is crazy'
,
because the last thing Hamzah wanted was the rich white man to
cancel his trek due to fear of ill omens. Fifty percent of the
promised money was to be paid at the end of the journey. They hiked
through the Indonesian countryside and through a forest, until
Henry and his party found their way out and into another barren
rocky area. In the middle of the clearing, Bakti could see
movement. He shielded his eyes from the sun with both hands to get
a better look at what was ahead.

"Monkeys." Bakti said.

"That's not good." Henry said.

Henry instinctively placed his right hand on
the butt of the .45.

"Let them pass. They leave us alone if we
quiet." Hamzah warned.

Henry and his party stood still until the
troupe, taking very little notice of the men, moved on to the west.
They could hear the monkeys chattering to one another, and when
they were gone everyone began to breathe easy again.

"
You think they saw
us?
"
Dave said.

"
They saw us, but as
long as we out of this area by nightfall we be
alright.
"
Henry
said.

"
Yes, the monkeys not
follow us.” Bakti said.
The men continued on through another small patch of trees, and
around five o’clock they set camp atop a rocky hill. They could see
for miles around, and there was a spectacular collage of lush green
trees, small bushes, and animals of all variety that ran free in
their native land. Pitching his tent as the yellow-orange sun set,
Henry wondered how much this land had changed in twenty thousand
years. The rest of his party was busy gathering firewood for the
night and setting up tents. When Henry’s tent was set up, and he
had eaten some jerky from their rations, he stood alone looking
over the valley, and then he noticed movement from below them about
a hundred yards away.

"
Hamzah! Is that the
same troupe of monkeys from earlier today? Henry asked.

Hamzah brought out the small telescope Henry
brought with them, and after a minute he nodded.
"
They maybe following us. I am not
sure, but probably nothing.” Hamzah said.

Hamzah, Bakti, and Muluk all glanced over at
one another, and had Henry been paying particular attention to the
fear in their eyes, he might have been more on guard. The guides
were praying in secret that the monkeys would quietly go away, or
leave them alone until they reached Karyamukti, where help could be
found. All three knew that the monkeys in that region were known to
violently attack humans, but tribes, and villages were so spread
out that the statistics of just how many attacks occurred went
unreported to the authorities.

As night fell, the small campfire illuminated
their space as the men ate, chatted and laughed under a canopy of
stars.

"
It’s wonderful being
out here.
"
Dave
said.
"
Yes. I get break
from wife.
"
Bakti
said.

That sent the group into a gale of laughter.
They ate a soup made of beans and cured ham that tasted like a
dirty dish rag, but at least it was food.
"
Maybe we should have shot one of those monkeys
and ate them instead. This tastes like death.
"
Henry said.

"You think they are anywhere near here?" Dave
asked.
“Nah, they miles from us now, right Hamzah?”
Hamzah began to smile and nod just as a large monkey walked into
their campsite from out of the darkness. An instantaneous fear
spread over the men as the monkey silently glared at them. His eyes
sparkled with intelligence, and as he stood straight up he mimicked
a small man. Four more monkeys entered the camp and stood just
behind the bigger of them, their leader, as he moved his head from
one party member to the other. The men remained motionless, and
Henry began to think about his gun. Did he dare move his hand
toward the grip? Sweat beaded on his forehead, and although he was
unaware of how powerful monkeys were, Henry did know a sizing up
when he saw it. He stood, reached into the fire and pulled out a
burning log waving it at the monkeys and shouted.

"
Go
away!
"

It was all he could think to do. The four
monkeys who entered camp after their leader flinched and cackled to
one another. The big one stood his ground and snarled at Henry, his
judging eyes turning fierce and sinister. Henry reached for his
pistol, and as he pulled the Colt from his holster the monkeys
disappeared into the night. He turned in every direction, his
pistol raised, ready to fire, the burning log glowing red, but he
could not see anything beyond their circle.

"
Sir, they’re
gone.
"
Dave said.

"You can put pistol down my friend. They just
letting us know they here." Muluk said.

"
My mood is
officially soured after that encounter. We need to keep watch, and
keep this fire going in case they come back.
"
Henry said.

"
I’ll take the first
one.
"
Dave said.

Hamzah would go after Dave, and then Henry,
then Muluk, and Bakti last. Howls from the monkey troupe erupted in
the distance, unnerving the men. After about twenty more minutes of
silence, everyone but Dave turned in. Sleep was a hard won battle
as each of them closed their eyes and saw the snarling, toothy grin
of the troupe leader. At two in the morning, Henry snapped out of a
night terror where the troupe of monkeys had returned and were
tearing his arms off. The leader was cackling, and howling as he
used Henry’s torn off limbs to beat his party members to death.
Henry’s shirt was bathed in sweat, and when he looked at his watch
it was time for his shift. He stepped out of his tent and saw that
Hamzah was nowhere in sight. Their little campfire had burned down
to embers, and it was very dark. Fear gripped Henry as he drew his
pistol and stepped with caution toward the center of camp. Nothing
moved, and there was no sound except for the gentle snoring of one
sleeping party member. Henry tossed a few logs on the fire and got
it going again as he looked around for signs of animals, and then
he lit his lantern.
Something moved in the dirt to his right, about twenty feet away.
Henry made sure the fire was blazing before he went to see what was
scratching in the dirt. When he came closer, Henry saw a human hand
twitching, and as his light shone he realized that it was the body
of Hamzah, lying in a pool of blood. Something had torn his throat
out. In a flash, Henry saw a figure dart past the dim light, and he
fired a blind shot from his Colt. He heard a choked scream, and
then a body hit the ground like a sack of flour. Before he could go
see what it was, something else ran past him and he fired again,
missing, but by then everyone was awake and standing at the opening
of their tents half dressed.

"
Hamzah’s dead,
something out there killed him.
"
Henry said, disheartened and sick.

He was wide eyed, and had a crazed look in his
eyes as he looked at the men. In the distance a howl broke the
night’s silence.

Bakti ran over to check on Hamza.

"
He’s still
alive!
"
Bakti
said.

"
Who did this to
you?
"
Henry asked.

Bakti rolled Hamzah over on his back and when
he did Henry had to stifle his urge to vomit. Hamzah was in bad
shape, with claw marks all over his face, and a large portion of
his neck gone from what looked like a bite.

"
Iblis
..."
Hamzah sighed.

Hamzah died in Bakti’s arms as everyone
watched in horror.

"What does it mean?
"
Henry asked.

"
Devil
"
Muluk said, sending chills down Henry’s spine as the word was
spoken.

Henry carried his lantern over to the spot he
heard the body drop after firing, and was not shocked to see one of
the smaller monkeys, lying dead. Henry’s bullet had gone through
the creature's temple. None of them slept for the rest of night,
and the monkeys never returned. Henry’s act of defiance had
apparently scared them off, but he could not help but think of
Hamzah’s warning that there was an ill omen on the mountain. Due to
lack of time and resources, they covered Hamzah with a pile of
rocks to keep predators off his body until someone could come back
and bury him properly. Another day of walking brought them to the
village of Karyamukti where the villagers spoke no English, and it
was a leap of faith on Henry’s part to trust the villagers. After
losing Hamzah in such a grizzly manner, the team was not in as high
spirits as at the beginning.

The village chief, Acotas, agreed to allow the
men to explore the mountain, but he did mention that the top was
sacred and they would not be able to dig up there. Gunung Padang
was a tiered mountain, each layer providing a different vantage
point and energy, but Henry explained that they would primarily be
digging at the bottom of the mountain. Based on information given
him by the photographer who took the original pictures of Gunung
Padang, he had a hunch that a door to the interior of the pyramid
lay somewhere on the back side of the mountain. So Henry agreed to
terms, and the men began to search around the mountain. The
distraction of the adventure was good for the men as they attempted
to put the tragedy of Hamzah behind them. Bakti and Muluk stayed on
to help when Henry offered to double their pay. He had already lost
one man to a violent attack, and being stuck in a village where he
did not speak the language did not sit well with him. On the second
day in Karyamukti, Dave found a recess in the side of the bottom
tier, and they began to dig.