Return of the Ancients

Chapter 29 Life, but Not As we Know it, Jim

‘Enlarge.’

Albert Harper sipped his twentieth cup of coffee for the day, and stared hard at the large screen. They had been following the boy’s footprints through the desolate wasteland for what seemed like hours, and they had seen nothing to give him hope that Arn could have survived for any period of time.

The observation area was crowded with scientists, technicians, and military specialists. Several additional screens had been set up, and for the last four hours nobody had moved.

The sun had risen a while back, and, at any moment, Harper expected to come across his body — dehydration, sunstroke or a dozen other elemental or bacterial afflictions could have brought him down. But as their hope had begun to wither, the flat, unbroken line of the horizon rose up into a series of jagged peaks. There was something out there after all.

‘It’s a forest.’ Harper punched the air in triumph. ‘Give me full scope.’

The lens rotated, and a panorama was revealed that looked a combination of the Amazon jungle and a redwood forest. There were grass-covered hills, trees climbing hundreds of feet into the sky, and, beyond that, mountain peaks.

Takada, smiling, handed Harper another cup of coffee. ‘Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.’

Harper grinned. ‘Life, but not as we know it, Jim. Increase speed,’ he said to the technician, then turned back to Takada. ‘If the kid made it this far, he’d have made it to the forest. We’re not that far behind him.’

After another twenty minutes, Harper called for the probe to slow as they came to the colossal tree line. The camera switched from its illuminated strobe to red-light vision as it swivelled under the dark and dense forest canopy, continually adjusting its focus to capture the detail.

Something burst from between the boughs and flew past the screen, startling everyone in the room.

‘What the…? Did you see that?’

Takada spoke evenly to the technicians. ‘Stay focused. Anything else on the motion sensors?’

‘Are you kidding? There’s too much on the sensors. This place is crawling with life.’

Harper clicked his tongue in frustration. ‘Okay, push it forward, but be careful now; we can’t afford to get the probe snagged on anything — can’t exactly send in a maintenance team.’

It was mid morning on SingerWorld, as some were now calling it in deference to the missing young man. Shadows darted past them — creatures, some revoltingly weird, only partly recognisable, which crept, scuttled or flew in the semi darkness. None were particularly large, but already they had come across the torn carcass of an animal the size of a goat on the forest floor. Something even bigger must have taken it down, judging by the bite marks.

The hovering camera floated about five feet from the ground. Its single lens glowed a deep red, indicating that it was only monitoring the environment in infrared for the time being. Harper had refused all requests to go back to strobe in the event it startled the wildlife.

Harper held up his hand. ‘Stop. Pan ninety degrees.’

The camera slowly swivelled.

‘Angle down right here… Let me see the forest floor.’ He squinted as the camera tightened its focus.

There, on the ground, lay something half buried in the leaves.

‘Is that a silver dagger?’