Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 30



MELISSE AND DEVLIN inspected the area where Vince had gone to sulk the night before. He had run back to camp howling, screaming, and blithering that human-looking monsters had stared at him and wanted to kill him. Or eat him. Or tear him limb from limb.

The two found no tracks or signs that anyone or anything had been out there.

The group broke camp and hiked for two hours before they spotted a creek. They stopped. Hunger made them weak. They had little hope of catching fish with their wooden hooks and grassy lines, but they needed to try.

Rachel and Brandi searched for nuts, roots, and berries. Rempart and Vince found firewood. Devlin and Melisse fished.

Devlin had fished many times with his father. Now, slack-jawed, he looked down into the creek. Suppressing a whoop of joy so he didn’t scare the fish away, he cast his line.

Salmon and steelhead trout were anadromous fish. Born as freshwater fish in the headwaters and tributaries of the Salmon River, they made an eight hundred mile journey down the Salmon to the Snake River, the Columbia, and the Pacific Ocean. After living as ocean-faring fish for one to three years, depending on the species, they found the mouth of the Columbia River for the reverse journey upstream, climbing more than 7,000 vertical feet in altitude, to arrive back at their spawning grounds as freshwater fish once more.

With the introduction of dams on the Snake and Columbia, the fish faced eight dams over the course of their journey. It took phenomenal strength to make it past the dams and then leap against the current, far more than any human could manage. Before the dams were built, salmon nearly choked the Pacific Northwest streams. Despite “fish ladders” and other aids to migration, few fish now survived the journey.

Wild salmon and steelhead had disappeared altogether from many waterways.

Or so everyone thought.

Here, the fish were plentiful enough that even without decent hooks, lines, or bait they were biting. A stack of fish quickly formed.

“Any thoughts on what this place is?” Devlin asked after a while.

“Not really,” Melisse replied.

“I think it’s some sort of glitch in time and space. Like the Bermuda Triangle.”

“That’s original,” she said sarcastically.

“You got a better idea?”

“Yes. Stop scaring the fish.”

He concentrated on his line and soon had his eye on a big steelhead circling near. Thoughts of grilling it over an open fire made him salivate. He sat still, hoping it would go after his bait, when he noticed something shimmer downstream, on his side of the bank. He stared a moment. “What the hell? It looks as if the ground is moving.”

“You’re dreaming.” Melisse concentrated on snaring one of the largest trout she had seen that day. The wooden hooks required a well-timed sharp snap of the wrist. “Got it!”

Devlin stood. “Whatever it is, it’s coming this way. Fast!”

Melisse glanced where he stared as she pulled in the fish. She stood. The very earth seemed to ooze toward them. Her eye followed the hump in the ground from off in the distance, forward, toward her and Devlin just as she saw something jump at her.

A large black bug landed on the leg of her cargo pants. Another on her boot. Then two. Three. A dozen. She swatted at them, trying to get them off her.

Devlin jumped back. “What the f*ck!”

Melisse smacked the bugs from her boots in an effort to keep them from crawling up under her pants legs. “They’re like some kind of giant beetle.” At that moment, the line she continued to hold went lax. Where a long, plump trout had dangled moments before, she now saw a skeleton covered with bugs.

“The fish!” Devlin yelled. As he spoke, the beetles covered their food supply, devouring the fish in seconds, and continued toward them.

“They’re flesh eaters!” Melisse cried. “Run!”

They ran, yelling, toward the camp. At first the others thought they were making some kind of unfunny joke. But then, they watched the earth become a gelatinous, oozing mass that seeped toward them.

Rempart stared as if he couldn’t believe what he saw. “Impossible! Dermestidae, or flesh-eating beetles, are small and slow and like damp, moist environments. This isn’t the climate they live in.”

“Whatever they are, you’d better not let them swarm you!” Melisse shouted.

Everyone ran, swatting at the biting, stinging creatures.

“We can’t outrun them,” Devlin shouted, “but the creek curves up ahead. We’ve got to jump in. Don’t stop!”

The creek water moved rapidly, and they couldn’t tell its depth. They had no choice but to get in. The ice cold water reached their waists and the strong current knocked them off their feet. They tried to go straight across, but found the current pulled them downstream. They clutched any large rocks or boulders they could find to prevent being swept away. Devlin grabbed hold of Rachel, the lightest, who had the most difficulty fighting the water’s strong draw.

From the opposite bank, someone threw a rope at them. “Grab hold, lads,” a voice said. “And ladies.” Despite their shock, they gratefully followed the order.

One by one they were towed from the water by two men wearing faded camouflage clothing. The men had neatly trimmed beards and hair, and looked to be no more than thirty years old. Strangely, each carried a long bow and a quiver of arrows.

The men hustled the university group away from the banks, then scoured the water. The beetles had stopped at the creek’s edge and faded back into the land. “Water is too fast for them,” the second man said. “Fine and clever thinking to hurl yourselves into the flow.” He smiled pleasantly. His accent, like the first man’s, sounded odd and unrecognizable.

Rempart and the students stared at the strangers, scarcely able to believe what they saw, even as they shivered from cold, exhaustion and fright.

“Come along now,” one of the strangers said, looking back into the trees. “We must hurry. This is not a safe area come nightfall.”

“Who are you?” Rempart asked.

“The name is Sam Black, and this is my cousin, Arnie Tieg. The village is not far.”

“Village?” Rempart asked, looking from one to the other and then at Melisse. “Are you saying there’s some sort of town out here?”

“Let’s go,” Sam Black said.

“Wait!” Rachel cried. “Where’s Devlin!”