Alessandro’s Unexpected Traverse

by Michael Alan Potter

part 2 of 5

“Why are there yeti here?”

“Where there are forms of great good,” Tak stated, “there are forces of great evil to stop it.”

That evening after dinner Justin had another meditation lesson with the monk. Afterwards he felt that he had done all he could here in the limited village. Surely his group on the mountain top had noticed he was gone and maybe even contacted the outside world with a satellite connection. He needed to call home and tell them he was all right.

Justin decided to leave the village without telling anyone and went to bed early. He woke up in the morning darkness and opened his door to leave and found a pack outside. There was a necklace lying on top of the pack made from what he guessed were magical charms. He put the necklace into the pack and took the pack with him.

Justin thought he was leaving unseen but the Chinese boy intercepted him. “You must wear the necklace,” Tak said.

Justin stopped, took the necklace out of the pack and put it on, thinking it was a harmless good luck charm. If it made the boy happy what did it matter? Tak again implored him to stay but Justin bid Tak farewell and started his journey back to civilization and home.

Justin was feeling good since he was finally making some progress but his joy was mixed with the trepidation that somehow he might be doing something irrevocably wrong.

He walked down the river for several miles figuring it would be the shortest and easiest way to anywhere; at least he would be dropping in elevation. He got to a point where the river crashed through steep rock walls and the trail divided into several different paths, none of which looked terribly used or distinct. Some were on the other side of the river, which was much too full and fast to cross.

He set up his camp for the night on a rocky mountainside. He looked into the pack and found some matches, a little tea, ghee, a small pot, a bit of bread, uncooked barley and a jackknife that he put into his pocket.

As it got dark and he drank his tea he wondered how he had recovered from his accident so fast, it seemed almost magic. Perhaps Chon Yon had something to do with it.

That night he heard movement in the rocks, voices in the water and a howling in the distance that scared him. He wondered if he should return to the sanctuary as he shivered in the dark. He fell asleep but he kept being awakened by small stones that hit him. He looked around but could not determine where they were coming from. When he slept he dreamed of hairy monsters that had the stench of dead, half-decayed fish.

In the morning he opened his eyes, then he realized where he was and startled wide awake. The monster nightmare was still fresh in his mind having awakened in the middle of it several times during the night. He noticed that the smell in his dream had lingered into reality and it sickened him.

Justin tried to gather his courage but he felt terrified. He tried to reconcile his fears by arguing that the smell was only a dead fish some animal had left. It must have become putrefied and its rotten smell had influenced his dreams.

Justin decided there was nothing to do except to look around and find the source of this bad smell. He stepped into the bright morning sunlight feeling foolish. There was nothing to be seen except for the beautiful view that began to bring back his courage as the smell dispersed in the fresh mountain air. He thought how stupid he was because the smell must have been carried by some unlucky fluke of the wind. Most likely it was only the smell of distant civilization invading his mountain camp.

He carried on with his hike and followed a trail until it petered out in the rocks.

Then as he looked at the ground he saw a huge partial footprint in a small patch of dirt. His mind froze. His dream had come true; there was a monster in his reality.

He felt uneasy and decided to return to the village.

He had to climb back along a mountain side of scree above the roaring river. He felt like he was being watched and thought he was being followed. He heard furtive movements and a noise like the howling wind, but there was no wind. He guessed that he might be following a yeti trail when without warning there was a bloodcurdling scream and an overpowering stench.

He heard a roar in front of him but did not see anything. Then he heard a scream in back of him and he quickly turned around to see nothing. Then he turned back to front again and he saw a huge white haired yeti rushing at him. He was scared witless and ran to jump into the river even if it meant his death but his foot lodged into a space between the loose rocks and he fell.

Justin was surrounded by several huge fierce white beasts that had a sour, yeasty, skunk smell. As they evaluated him he felt imperiled by their cold alien intelligence. An older male came up to him and touched him.

Justin began reconciling himself to death. The yeti stood him up and patted him down with flat palms and pulled the necklace out from his clothes. The yeti snorted in surprise and held it up for the others to see. They made various noises but what they said most sounded like ‘Chon Yon’. Some showed disappointment in not having a kill.

One of them picked Justin up and laid him over his shoulder and carried him. With a leaned-over gait they bounded over the rocks and he was carried off as if he had no weight.

In a short time they entered a hidden cave and he was carried deep underground into a labyrinth. The cave had warm humid and fetid smelling air and Justin was sure that he would never breathe fresh air again.

The yeti walked with him for some distance until they came to what looked like a guard station. The yeti handed Justin over to a reptile-looking creature dressed as a soldier who seemed to be in charge. His ankle hurt when he was put down on the ground. He found himself looking up at the strange soldier who had angular features and was over seven feet tall with short leathery wings.

Two subordinate reptilian soldiers noticed the action and walked over to observe. The reptile’s feet were splayed and large, the legs slightly bowed. They were thin with well developed muscles, no facial hair and little body hair. Their ears were small and set low on the large rounded skull, the nose thin and long and the mouth wider than a humans and lipless.

“You yetis have been over breeding and starting to steal food, like this fellow here,” said the huge guard reptile.

The biggest Yeti snarled and they all walked back the way they had come. Justin had the feeling the yeti did not want to deal with Chon Yon and so gave him to the reptiles.

The fierce looking soldier turned on Justin and backed him into a corner as the other two soldiers jeered. Justin drew the little knife on the huge soldier with gold skin, green scales and two inch long claws. He decided that he would not be an easy meal.

The reptile smiled, “Oh, a fighter. We like your type.”

The reptile locked its small widely set eyes, with large diamond shaped pupils, brownish black iris and grey whites with Justin’s eyes. Justin could no longer move and was easily disarmed.

The reptile continued to stare into Justin’s eyes and he saw in his mind a history of the lizard people. They had begun as a group of pack animals four to six feet long. They had learned as a group, through psychic transmission, to stand up and attack with stones the eggs of the dinosaurs that ate them.

They then learned to swing sticks, then to use sharp sticks. They learned very fast and evolved as a psychic race. They developed a civilization and then enough technology to colonize planets. The ones on Earth were on an outpost and they were waiting for the arrival of a large force from home.

The visions went away and Justin found himself staring into the soldier’s eyes. The reptile held Justin’s gaze and morphed into a perfect replica of the President of the United States. It laughed in a hissing manner and then changed back into a reptile.

“I will think of something interesting to do with you,” the soldier said.

Justin’s heart sank but he managed to ask, “What right do you have to hold me?”

The reptile turned on him angrily. “We were here first; we created you humans from apes. Our land was on the surface but natural catastrophes drove us underground. We became synonymous with demons and Hell in the human mind.”

‘Small wonder,’ Justin thought.

The soldier clicked and whistled some orders to his subordinates.

The two armored reptiles grabbed Justin’s biceps and marched him through a maze of caves. Their grip was like iron and Justin felt helpless to resist. He noticed they had small hands with four long fingers and no thumb but the outside finger was jointed to be opposable.

Justin was placed with other captive humans in their den. The cave was hot and uncomfortably humid.

A gangly, pale, tall, skinny fellow with a mole like face and a pronounced Adams apple came up to him. “Hi, I’m Bob.”

“Ah, Justin.”

“Got tossed into the reptile colony, did you?”

“Yeah,” Justin answered disconsolately.

“Could be worse, you could be in the experiment cage.”

Justin blanched.

“Oh sorry, you didn’t know about that,” Bob said sounding apologetic. “How did you get caught? What were you doing in this part of the world?”

“Mountain climbing accident,” answered Justin.

Bob nodded. “I got captured spelunking in the wrong cave.”

“How long have you been here?” Justin asked.

“I don’t know, maybe a year, it’s hard to keep track of time in this place.”

“What are all of these people doing here?”

“The reptiles capture Earth people and work them to death underground and mate with Earth women to start a crossbreed. They eat humans. They are evil. Some of us have evaded the reptiles and bred,” said Bob.

“What do the reptiles want?”

“You notice how hot and humid the caves are?”

Justin nodded yes.

“The reptiles like it that way. They are terraforming the surface of the Earth, creating global warming so it will be better for them. They want to alter the Earth with greenhouse gases, and they are waiting for the human overpopulation to force the climatic breaking point. They plan to take over when humans begin to die out.”

“Won’t the military stop them?”

“Sometimes the military is in collusion with them. The lizard people made a deal with the military to live under the ground close to the surface but sometimes there are skirmishes over territory. I’m going to get some food, want to come?”

“What do you eat?”

“Primarily we eat fungus,” Bob pointed out the ugly-looking plants growing here and there in the cave. “And we cultivate a phosphorescent fungus to light the area; but you don’t want to eat it, and as soon as it’s picked the light goes out. If you need water, it’s OK to drink any seepage.”

Justin shook his head no and when Bob left he tried to hide by squatting in a recess. He knew it was just a matter of time before the big reptile came back for him and he would be dead. He wished it was a dream or a hallucination but it was all too real. He felt paranoid and broke out into an uncomfortable clammy cold sweat. In desperation he meditated until he thought he could walk through the cave wall but when he tried it he promptly bumped his nose on the rock.

Bob returned and handed Justin some of the fungus. Justin did not feel like he could eat it and put it in his pocket. Everyone in the cave began bedding down, so Justin lay down and eventually fell into a fitful sleep.

Justin was awakened by a small earthquake, one of the old decrepit tunnels had fallen in and dust began to fill the cave.

“Oh God, that will bring the soldiers,” said Bob anxiously.

They could hear the reptiles coming, their armor making noises and their search lights already on. They could hear the reptiles communicate with high-pitched whistles and clicks.

“Here they come,” Bob choked on the words, he looked deathly scared.

Justin saw the humans scatter and run into various tunnels and he looked around in panic. He chose a tunnel that appeared to be going the opposite way of the reptiles and ran for it.

The tunnel dead ended at a big deep hole and he could see why no one else had come this way.

Justin free climbed and slid down a steep cliff into the hole. He was not sure he could get back up but at the moment he did not care. He vowed that he would try to be as perfect and unselfish a human as he could be if he survived. He backed up against the farthest rock wall. He could hear the reptiles coming and see lights approaching.

He hid behind a large boulder and found a hole in the rock wall. Due to his intense fear of the reptiles he squeezed through the small fissure that was apparently created by the earthquake, uncaring if he became stuck. After a dozen feet the small fissure widened and Justin cautiously stood up.

He was in total darkness; there was nothing but a little cold air blowing. He did not know what he should do and kept his hand against the wall as he stepped carefully, unable to see. He wanted to put as much space between himself and the reptiles as he could. He moved toward the breeze hoping there would be an opening eventually. He moved for hours until his ankle began to hurt from where he had tripped by the river. He drew tired and stopped.

He was feeling hungry so he sat down and pulled some of the fungus out of his pocket and ate it. It had the taste of ashes. He was afraid and thought he might die in this dark place so he tried a meditation chant to calm himself. He half meditated as his anxieties kept popping up into his consciousness.

The head of the monk in the village who had taught Justin the chants came to him in a cloudy vision. “You must meditate more,” said the disembodied head. Then a hand of darkness seemed to push the vision of the monk away.

Justin concentrated on the light chant for fifteen minutes and the tunnel walls seemed to key in on the vibration and took on a dim golden green glow that allowed him to see the glassy walls. The tunnel seemed to have been burned through solid rock. The light was coming from the rock walls themselves and he could see it wax and wane as if it were breathing in time with him.

When he stopped chanting the light grew dim and he found he had to stay in that state of mind to keep the light going. The tunnel appeared ancient; it had a flat bottom about thirty feet across and a rounded top that was about thirty feet high. He walked toward the slight breeze until he saw an airshaft far over head which disappeared in blackness. There was no way he could climb the slick walls and reach it.

He continued walking and the tunnel ahead began a precipitous dip. He stopped because it looked very steep. He was afraid he would just slide down without control and for all he knew it could go on forever. He concluded that he would have to turn around and go back.

He noticed a niche in the wall and looked into the recess and saw something so ancient it seemed to have been formed at the same time as the tunnel. He looked closer and found it was a metal cylinder standing there.

After inspecting it he decided to have nothing to do with it. He decided to walk back the way he had come but he heard the clicks and whistles of the reptiles and he could see their lights in the distance. He considered jumping down into the steep part of the tunnel to his death.

To be continued...

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