Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 23



NOTHING HAD CHANGED, and yet everything had. The first thing Michael noticed was that the tracks that had been going up the mound, were now going down it. They were on the other side; they had crossed over, but to what, he didn’t know. Quade’s mouth uplifted in a tiny smile while Charlotte and Jake stood still. They spoke not a word; their eyes said it all.

Michael turned slowly. The distant trees looked the same as those before, and the mountain ranges hadn’t changed. Yet, the very air felt different, heavy, almost sandy.

Jake broke the silence. “It can’t be,” he said, looking down at the footprints. “I don’t get it.”

Even the phlegmatic Quade was excited. “It is said that the first and greatest alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus, used his alchemical powers to create a portal between worlds—in alchemical terms, to create a transformation.”

“That’s crazy,” Jake said, incredulous that they would be discussing such a thing.

“Is it?” Quade asked. “Look around you. Open your eyes.”

“Quade is right,” Michael said. “The pillars are simply a visible part of the phenomenon. Their rumbling, thunderous sound is a warning you're approaching an altered reality.”

“It makes no sense,” Jake insisted. “And it’s wrong. Horribly wrong.”

“I’m going to try to go back,” Charlotte announced as she walked through the pillars. Nothing happened. She remained in full view of the others. She then entered the pillars through the opposite direction with the same results. She went through forwards, backwards, around the pillars and then through. She even walked backwards between them. Nothing worked. “It’s all right,” she said, trying to project strength. “When we need to, we’ll figure out a way.”

Jake nodded at her, wanting to encourage her strength even as the full impact of all this built within him. “We knew we were going to have to find our own way back, and we will. But first we follow those tracks going down the mound. The students are here, alive, and we’re going to find them.”

Quade, Charlotte and Jake climbed down. Something held Michael back. He took the red stone from his pocket. The color radiated even more vibrantly than before. “Lady Hsieh,” he said softly, “are you here somewhere? Will I see you again?”

A flock of crows circled the pillars. Caws, too loud, created a wall of noise. Then, a shadow. He put the stone back in his pocket and slid down the mound to the others. “Something’s near, watching us. We’ve got to be careful.”

A low growl sounded. They froze.

“What was that?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know,” Jake said, drawing his Smith and Wesson 327, with a five-inch barrel, eight round, .357 magnum. He was more comfortable with it than the Remington strapped on his shoulder.

Michael and Charlotte chambered their rifles.

“The beasts here could be different from those now in Idaho,” Quade said. Even he sounded tense now. “We don’t know what era this ‘world’ is from, how long it’s been here, how the beasts evolved.”

The creature shrieked now, louder, and a heavy musty odor wafted near.

“I think,” Charlotte said, her voice small, “it’s coming closer.”

They backed away from the sound, then turned and quickly put some distance between themselves and whatever hid out there. They walked on a slight upward grade when Jake cried out. Horror on his face, he slowly moved toward some bushes.

One Adidas sneaker with the foot still in it lay before him, along with tufts of curly red hair. More gnawed and scattered remains were near.

Jake found torn clothing and an I.D. to confirm what he knew as soon as he saw the hair color.

They dug a shallow grave and buried as much of Ted Bellows as they could find.