Ancient Enemy

ANCIENT ENEMY

By MARK LUKENS

Ancient Enemy – copyright © 2013 – Mark Lukens

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (or any other form), business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book is dedicated to my wife, my love, who never once told

me that I was wasting time writing these novels.

She’s the most caring person I know.

CHAPTER ONE

New Mexico Badlands

–Anasazi Dig Site

He was out
there – she was sure of it.

Stella remained perfectly still; she listened for sounds of movement around the dark room, but all she could hear was heavy breathing, some snoring, and the ceaseless wind that howled around the trailer. The room was claustrophobic with the smells of body odor, sweat, and fear. She made herself wait a few more minutes before opening her eyes. She wanted to be sure everyone else was asleep.

Under the thin sheet that covered her body, Stella was fully dressed. She even had her hiking boots on. She had been planning this for more than a day now. This was her only chance.

And David’s only chance.

Finally, after counting slowly to one hundred, Stella opened her eyes just a crack. She sat up, not making a sound. She looked around the dark room at the few people who were left; some of them curled up on chairs, some on the floor. Some clutched weapons in their hands as they slept: knives, archeological axes, anything that could be used in defense.

Jake, who was supposed to be awake and on guard, slept in a fetal position on the floor, a hunting knife gripped in one hand.

Stella watched Jake as she pulled the sheet away from her body and swung her feet to the floor. Keeping her eyes on Jake, she groped in the darkness for her purse on the floor beside the couch. The keys to her rusted and battered Chevy Suburban were inside the purse.

Stella grabbed her coat from the end of the couch and stood up in the darkness. She froze. Someone coughed and snorted in their sleep, but then the person rolled over and laid still. After the four days of terror they’d been through, it was unbelievable that they could sleep at all – but the body eventually surrenders to its basic needs of food and sleep.

And survival, her mind whispered.

Stella crept past a table cluttered with labeled Anasazi artifacts that they had dug out of the cave only a week ago. Had it been only a week? It seemed like years – another lifetime
.
She made it to the side door of the trailer, unlocked the lock, opened the door, and slipped out into the dark night.

Jake’s eyes popped open. He sat up in the darkness and watched Stella slip out the door. He gripped the hunting knife in his hand, his forearm muscles bunching. He got to his feet and walked to the back door of the trailer. He knew what he had to do.

*

Stella hurried down the trailer steps and stood on the rocky ground. Her eyes scanned the dark canyon floor – she spotted David, forty yards away, bundled up in his coat as he gazed out at the barren landscape under the starry night sky. Stella glanced back at the trailer – no one coming. Then she hurried out to David.

She stood beside David. He seemed so small and fragile, only nine years old, at least half Navajo, maybe even full-blooded, she didn’t know for sure. She didn’t know much about David at all; the only thing she knew about him was that the others inside the trailer wanted to kill him.

Stella touched David’s shoulder, a gentle touch. He looked up at her with his dark eyes; they were almost like dark shimmering pools of liquid in the night. “David, we need to leave right now. You understand, don’t you?”

David nodded. He offered her his hand. She took it and they ran.

They ran past the three temporary trailers and tents that had been set up at the dig site weeks ago. Even though they tried to be quiet, Stella could hear their shoes pounding the rocky landscape as they raced towards the group of cars and trucks in the distance. None of the vehicles worked anymore, and she wasn’t sure why she believed her Suburban would start now.

But that wasn’t the truth, was it? She had an idea of why her truck was going to start this time.

They were only sixty yards away from the group of trucks when Jake jumped out from behind the last trailer, the hunting knife gripped in his hand, an insane look in his eyes. His hair was wild, his clothes ripped, and he seemed to be unaffected by the freezing air. This wasn’t the Jake that she’d known – longtime archeologist, longtime friend. This Jake was someone different, an animal trying to survive.

Stella and David stopped; Stella’s arm shot out in front of David protectively.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jake screeched at them as he took a step towards them. “You can’t leave!”

Stella didn’t answer; she just watched Jake like someone would watch an unpredictable animal.

Jake took another step towards them; his eyes were unblinking orbs of terror. “You can’t take him!”

“I have to,” Stella answered.

“We have to do what he wants. We have to give him what he’s asking for.”

Stella stood her ground, her arm still in front of David. “No. I won’t do this.”

“We have to!”

There was a rustling in the brush near Jake. He turned and tried to look everywhere at once. The cold night wind blew harder, it howled down into the canyon, swirling sand around, bringing the coppery smell of blood with it.

He was coming.

Jake shook his head as unnoticed tears of hopelessness slipped from his eyes. He called out to the dark night, to the dark wind. “No! I’m doing what you want!”

Stella remained in front of David, ready to protect him as best she could.

Jake backed up to the last trailer, still shaking his head no, still trying to look everywhere at once. His back touched the metal wall of the trailer and he held his knife out in a trembling hand, like it was his last line of defense.

Jake looked back at Stella, and Stella could see a realization dawning in his eyes now; she could see some of the old Jake back in those eyes. He shook his head no as tears slipped from his eyes. He tried to give her a smile, but his lips were trembling too badly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m not going to let him take me while I’m still alive.”

Stella moved in front of David to block his view of what she knew was coming next. But she wasn’t able to turn away in time and she saw Jake bring the hunting knife up to his own throat. He didn’t hesitate, he slashed his own throat in one sharp cut; he opened up a wide gash in his flesh that spilled dark blood immediately.

Stella turned and nudged David forward into the night, keeping him away from the horrible sight of Jake. But she couldn’t block out the sounds of Jake’s gurgling throat, of the liquid thump as his body hit the ground, the sound of one leg kicking at the trailer in death spasms.

“Run!” Stella yelled at David.

They bolted for the group of vehicles.

As they got closer to the vehicles, Stella could hear something chasing them, crashing through the brush – gaining on them.

The Suburban was only thirty feet away now. Twenty feet away. Ten.

Stella didn’t dare turn and see what was chasing them; she opened the door of her Suburban and yelled at David. “Get in!”

David hopped inside and scrambled across the bench seat.

Stella jumped inside and slammed the door shut. Her fingers slapped at the door lock button. She rummaged in her purse for the keys to the truck. Her fingers finally curled around the keys. She tried to jab the key into the ignition with trembling fingers, but she was shaking too badly and she dropped the keys down onto the floorboard.

David sat up on his knees in the passenger seat as he stared out at the inky darkness outside the truck’s windows.

Stella groped for the keys in the darkness down by her feet. Her fingers searched and searched – and then she found them. She sat back up; she didn’t look at David, she didn’t look out the windows, she only concentrated on getting that damn key into the ignition. They were so close now to escape – so close.

If the truck was going to start …

You know it will start this time, her mind whispered.

She managed to finally slide the key into the ignition. She twisted the key. The motor turned, it made a tired and sputtering sound. She twisted the key again; the motor cranked and cranked. Over the sound of the engine trying to fire into life, Stella could hear something outside, like the wind itself had come alive – the Dark Wind, that’s what Jim Whitefeather had called it. Jim Whitefeather – the first one taken.

She couldn’t think about Jim Whitefeather right now.

“Come on, damn it!” Stella screamed at her Suburban just as something slammed into the side of the truck, rocking it so hard that Stella was afraid it was going to tip over. David flew backwards and fell into the passenger door. He hit his head on the passenger window, but not hard enough to break the glass. Stella almost lost the grip on the keys, but she held onto the steering wheel and kept twisting the key.

The truck started! The powerful engine roared to life.

Stella slammed the shifter into drive. She stomped on the gas pedal. The Suburban’s back tires spun in the sand and shot up a rooster tail of dirt into the night air, but the tires caught traction and the truck climbed the small, rocky incline with ease and drove up onto the dirt trail that led out of this place.

Stella muscled the steering wheel, her foot still hammered down on the gas pedal, the rear tires still spinning in the dirt – the rear end of the Suburban fishtailed, losing control. She had to be careful; she couldn’t wreck the truck and leave them stranded here. With all of her will, she pulled her foot off of the gas pedal, fighting the natural urge to panic. She turned the wheel back the other way to correct their spin away from the decline back down into the parked vehicles.

She stomped the gas pedal again, and this time she guided the truck back away from the hill that they had just climbed. The truck sped up right away, the powerful engine a screaming fury again. The headlights knifed into the darkness as she navigated the twists and turns of the canyon road.

Stella let out a long breath that plumed in front of her face in the freezing air. She could breathe again – it felt like she’d been holding her breath for hours. Her muscles began to relax, her fingers loosened on the steering wheel a little.

They were safe for now.

Stella looked at David. He rubbed the back of his head, his long black hair rumpled.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

David looked at her and nodded; his dark eyes were glassy in the night, his small breaths clouded up in front of his face.

“You’re not bleeding, are you?”

David shook his head no.

Stella glanced at the rearview mirror, the dirt road barely visible behind them in the red glow of the tail lights. But someone stood there in the middle of the road – a man watching them leave. She was sure of it.

She looked back at David. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” she promised him.

David just stared at her. He didn’t seem so sure.

CHAPTER TWO

Cody’s Pass, Colorado

Stella had driven
through the night from New Mexico up into Colorado. At four thirty in the morning they reached the outskirts of the small town of Cody’s Pass. Stella was bone weary, her eyes so tired it felt like she had sand in them. She saw a cheap motel at the side of the road. The vacancy sign blinked in the night.

She glanced over at David. He was still sleeping, curled up against the passenger door with his seatbelt over him. The heat was on low and the truck was warm and comfortable. She looked back at the road and pulled into the parking lot of the motel. She didn’t plan on getting a room – she wanted to keep on the move. But if she could just park for an hour or two, get a little sleep.

She parked in the back of the motel, far away from other vehicles. She shut off the truck and made sure all of the doors were locked. It was still warm inside, but she figured that the creeping cold from outside would wake her up in an hour or so. She just needed to close her eyes for a moment.

Stella glanced once more at David to make sure he was still asleep, and then she closed her eyes. And she instantly slipped into dreams. Not really dreams – fragments of memories. She remembered the dig site. They had found an undiscovered Anasazi site and set up the trailers not too far away from the mouth of the small cave. Jake was excited. Stella was excited. They were finding some great artifacts, never before discovered clues to the mysteries of the Anasazi. But then Stella found David near the mouth of the cave one day. He was bloody and barely conscious. He wouldn’t talk, like he was in shock. She carried him back to the trailer. She cleaned him up and asked him questions. But he wouldn’t answer her, wouldn’t talk at all. Jake wanted to call the police, but they were on Navajo land, with Navajo permission of course. Jim Whitefeather said he would drive to the nearest town thirty miles away and contact the tribal police. But there was something about Jim Whitefeather, something about the way he stared at David, like he was remembering an ancient story from his culture. And there was something in Jim’s eyes that Stella had never seen before – fear.

And that was the day everything started happening …

Stella snapped awake, her breath caught in her throat. She looked around, forgetting for a few seconds where she was.

In my truck, her mind whispered. Parked in a … her tired mind thought for a moment, sluggish from sleep … parked in a motel parking lot.

It was cold. Stella looked at David. He was awake and staring at her with his large dark eyes.

It was still dark, but the eastern sky was beginning to lighten up with the rising sun. The sun would bring light but not much warmth to the frozen landscape. Stella turned the key and the truck fired right up. The heater blasted cold air at first, but then began to warm up.

Stella had only slept for about an hour and a half, and at first she felt worse, but she knew she would feel better soon. Even an hour and a half of sleep would help. Her mind drifted back to her dream, to Jim Whitefeather, to what happened to him. But she pushed that horror away.

She looked at David. “How long have you been awake?”

He just stared at her.

“You hungry?” she asked him.

He nodded, but still wouldn’t say a word. He had spoken only a few words since that day she’d found him. She had at least got him to tell her his name.

Stella shifted into reverse and backed out of the parking space. She pulled out onto the street and drove half a mile and saw a gas station. “We need some gas,” she said, but didn’t expect David to respond.

She pulled her Suburban into the gas station and parked next to one of the gas pumps. She cut the engine and stared out the windshield for a moment. “I need some coffee,” she whispered. “What do you want to drink?” she asked David.

David stared at Stella, but he said nothing.

“I wish you would talk to me.”

Still no answer from David.

“I know you’ve seen some … some really bad things. We both have. But you need …” She let her words trail off. Maybe she should try a different approach. “Is there someone I can call for you? Your parents? A relative?”

David stared at her, but still wouldn’t respond. He looked out the passenger window.

Stella sighed and grabbed her purse. She grabbed some money; she had enough to make it through Colorado and up to her aunt’s house. They’d be safe there for a little while, she hoped. They would at least get there, and then she would figure out what to do with David.

She grabbed her keys from the ignition, and flashed a smile David’s way. “Come on inside with me, I’ll get you a soda or something, whatever you want.”

David didn’t move.

Stella hesitated for a moment. She didn’t want to leave David alone out here in the truck, not even for a few minutes. But she didn’t want to drag a child out of her truck with people watching. “You don’t want anything to drink?” she asked him.

David looked at her with his big dark eyes, but he still wouldn’t answer her.

“Okay,” Stella said, giving up. “I’ll get something for you. I’ll just be a minute. Keep all of the doors locked.”

Stella got out and shut her driver’s door. She’d only made it a few steps to the gas station store before she heard the sound of her truck’s passenger door opening and then slamming shut. She turned and watched David as he ran across the parking lot to her. He grabbed her hand and shoved his hand into hers.

Stella could feel the sting of tears threatening, but she fought them back. “Change your mind?”

David nodded.

They entered the small store. A bell over the door dinged as they opened it. A cashier sat at the counter – she looked bored. Stella and David walked down the small aisle of groceries. David’s hand was still in hers. Stella spotted a doorway that led to the restrooms. “Come on,” she whispered to David. “Let’s get cleaned up.”

They entered the women’s bathroom, then closed and locked the door. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and froze for a second. That wasn’t her, was it? Her hair was wild and stringy. She needed a shower. But it was her face that worried her; it was gaunt, like she’d lost twenty pounds. And the look in her eyes scared her the most. It was a haunted look, like the look in a soldier’s eyes that had just come back from battle and seen horrors that he couldn’t have imagined.

She washed her hands and face in the sink; she really wanted a hot shower, but this was better than nothing. She brushed her hair back with her hands and tried a smile at the mirror. Her smile seemed fake. She helped David wash up, and then they took turns going to the bathroom in the stall.

After they left the bathroom, Stella headed towards the coffee machine. She told David to go and pick out anything he wanted to eat and drink – whatever he wanted. He walked down one of the aisles of food as Stella fixed herself a cup of coffee. Just looking at the caramel colored liquid made her realize just how thirsty she was. And she realized that she was hungry. Ravenous. She spotted a warmer near the cashier’s counter that held typical gas station food: pizza, chicken wings, potato wedges, fried chicken. But all they had at this time of the morning were breakfast sandwiches. Normally this kind of food would’ve turned her stomach, but she grabbed a few sandwiches.

Stella set the sandwiches and coffee on the counter, and then she searched the store for other supplies: bottled water, a roll of toilet paper, two toothbrushes and a travel size tube of toothpaste, a stick of deodorant, a flashlight, two bags of chips, some chewing gum. She brought the items to the counter.

“You taking a trip?” the cashier asked as she rang up the items with a methodical slowness.

“Yeah,” Stella answered. “Heading up north.”

The cashier met Stella’s blue eyes with her own dark eyes. “I wouldn’t be going anywhere right now if I was you.”

Stella froze for an instant. “Why not?”

“There’s a bad snowstorm coming.”

The bell over the door dinged and Stella turned and saw an old man enter the store. He was dressed in overalls with a brown jacket over everything. He looked like he could be a farmer. He rubbed his hands together and stomped snow off of his boots onto the rug in front of the glass doors of the store.

Stella looked back at the cashier and slid the money to her. “We’re going to make it as far as we can. I also need fifty dollars on the white Suburban out there at the pumps.”

The cashier nodded.

Stella looked around for David. A sudden panic rose inside of her when she couldn’t see him anywhere. She hurried down the aisles and saw him right next to the old man. David held the old man’s hand, and the old man stared straight ahead with ice-blue eyes, like he was seeing something that wasn’t there.

“David!” Stella yelled and rushed at the old man. She pulled the man’s hand out of David’s hand and stared at him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked the old farmer.

The old man shook his head like he was just waking up from a dream and didn’t realize where he was. “I … I don’t know.”

“You okay?” Stella asked David.

He nodded his head. She ushered David away from the old man.

The old man walked back towards the glass doors of the store.

The cashier watched him. “You don’t need anything, Jed?” she asked.

“No,” he said, his voice croaking a bit. “I need to get over to the bank.”

Stella grabbed her bag of groceries and she and David left the store. They walked towards her Suburban, but she kept an eye on the old man as he got in his pickup truck and started it. He drove across the snow-covered streets to a bank nestled among a few other buildings along the main street. Beyond the buildings Stella could see a field of snow that stretched out for miles, there was a line of dark trees beyond the fields of snow.

She put the fifty dollars’ worth of gas into her Suburban, and then got inside the truck.

Stella drove out of the gas station and parked in front of a store that looked closed. She left the engine running, left the heat blasting, and left the radio on. The radio DJ warned about the impending snowstorm.

“Yeah, we heard,” Stella said to the radio.

Stella devoured her breakfast sandwich. She gave one of them to David, but he only picked at it. He ate two donuts and drank a pint of milk instead. Stella finished his sandwich for him and drank down the rest of her coffee. She bagged up the trash and threw it away in a nearby dumpster. She got back in her truck and left the door open as she brushed her teeth with some of the bottled water. She made David brush his teeth.

She felt a little better. She was full, cleaner, and calmer.

She backed out onto the snowy road as more snow began to fall from the sky. She put the truck in drive and plowed forward down the road. The town looked kind of busy for this early in the morning, like the townspeople were doing last-minute things before the snowstorm hit: gassing up vehicles, picking up food and supplies, getting money from the bank.

Stella drove towards the edge of town, but there was one more stop she needed to make first. She needed to find a payphone and make an anonymous call to the police and tell them what happened at the dig site, as much as she could tell them, as much as they would believe. Maybe a few of them at the dig site would still be alive, but she doubted that. Now that David was gone, there wouldn’t be any reason for them to be kept alive. But she had to at least make the call.

When she got to her aunt’s house, she would turn herself over to the police. But she wasn’t going to worry about that right now. For now she needed to worry about getting David to a safe place.

She looked at David and smiled at him. “You okay?” she asked.

David stared at her and there was just the trace of a smile on his face. “Yes,” he whispered to her.