The fossil, p.1
The Fossil, page 1
THE FOSSIL
The Complete Novella
By
GREIG BECK
www.severedpress.com
Copyright 2019 by GREIG BECK
There is life on other worlds.
But it is not alien.
Instead it is us, looking back from the future.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Special mention to the 3 brave souls who offered to be my test pilots for the raw version of this upgraded novella. Thank you to Angela Johnson, Sam Stephens, and Debra Trayler.
CHAPTER 01
NEANDERS VALLEY, GERMANY 48,000 BC
Drun staggered, the skin on his upper body raw and weeping where it had been burned away. The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before in his long and arduous thirty-five years of life.
He needed to rest, he needed to hide, and he needed to find the Drawing Cave. For days, he and his tribe had been aware of the strange newcomers in their territory. He had urged his people to ignore them and simply wait until they passed on, as they had done many times before. But Orlak, Orlak the Angry One, had managed to convince the young warriors to attack them, steal their goods, and let all the peoples of other tribes know that this land belonged to the Urdan.
Drun had argued, but no one listened to the old chief anymore. Orlak carried the spear of leadership now. Only his voice would be heard.
They had crept closer to the strangers. Just like on any other hunt, they stalked their quarry; creeping forward on toes, belly-crawling through the coarse grasses, and then finally the small groups of warriors were gathered behind a stand of trees, a tumble of rocks, or just laying on their bellies, waiting for the call to attack.
They could see there were only two of the strange visitor creatures, and they were weak and so small they were tinier than the youngest child in their clan. It should have been easy—two quick kills for Orlak to crow about, and two trophies to bring back to the clan.
Orlak was first, as always, leading the tribe in a whooping charge that had surprised the pair of visitors. Before they could even react, spears were thrust into the shimmering body of one, making him collapse at their feet. But the other was faster and had not fled as they expected, instead turning to point some small object at them that flared like the brightest dayshine in its hand.
Immediately most of the tribe had been covered with fire and light, including Drun. He whimpered as he remembered the pain of the burning rays—it was like staring into the sky at the great ball of heat and fire. His eyes still ached.
Orlak had been first to be touched, and so was first to feel the sting of it. He simply vanished in the beams of light that had flown from the stranger’s hand. Many of the Urdan had burned along with their new leader, their screams of fear cut off as they were turned to ash, or parts of their bodies were there one moment, and then after the light had touched them, were there no more.
They fell, their faces a mix of agony and surprise. Drun had been close, but partly shielded by the body of one of the younger warriors. Even so, the heat had been unbearable, and it had seared his flesh deeply.
In the pain and confusion, Drun was thrown to the ground and saw that the fallen visitor lay beside him with its strange belongings scattered around him. And there it was —the beautiful shiny thing. Drun had acted on instinct and snatched up the gleaming object, turning to flee.
The old warrior staggered on, finally spotting the refuge he sought. It was the deep cave they used to capture the spirits of animals they would hunt by painting their images on the walls. Drun himself had drawn bison, musk ox, and the greatest prize of all, the giant mammoth.
He crawled deep inside, the precious thing still held tight in his hand, and he dropped down against the cave wall. He grimaced as another wave of pain wracked his body. He breathed deeply for a few moments, trying to ease himself into a more comfortable position, and rested his head against the cool damp stone. He listened for the sound of pursuit, or some other beast that might have taken up residence deeper in the cave. But there was nothing, save the continual drip of milky water.
Drun opened his hand to examine the mysterious object—it was as hard as a piece of stone, but so polished and smooth it defied belief. And now when he looked closely, he could see there was something bright inside it. Something like a tiny speck of fire.
He held it in one open hand, pressing and stroking it with a blunt finger. Immediately a beam of lightning shot from its narrow end, striking the ceiling of the cave. Rocks fell, dust rose, and the small vestiges of light from outside were immediately shut out.
Drun cried aloud and his hand locked tight again over the object. Before the dust had even settled, he knew he was trapped. He cried out again but the echo of his voice was absolute. He knew then he was sealed in.
The old warrior wept; sorry for himself, sorry for his lost brother warriors, and sorry for not being strong enough to stop Orlak from making war on the strange visitors.
He lay back, feeling again the rawness of his agonizing wounds and not caring about the constant drip of the water that fell upon his matted hair. In fact, he welcomed its coolness as it calmed the angry red burns covering his head and body.
Drun closed his eyes and let his mind wander, taking him away from the darkness and the pain. He dreamed of his youth, of his mate, of hunting in warm spring sunshine. He exhaled, the long breath leaving him slowly for the last time.
His hand stayed locked around the gleaming object as the water continued to drip down upon him.
CHAPTER 02
NEANDERS VALLEY, GERMANY – Today
Klaus Hoffman strode up the steep hill and stopped at the tree line. He used a forearm to wipe his brow and turned to look back down the slope as he waited for his girlfriend, Doris Sömmer, to catch up.
She came slowly, even though he had been carrying her pack as well as his own for the last few miles. And she still didn’t look happy.
He smiled crookedly as he watched her. They’d been dating for a few years now, and every time he thought she was the one he wanted as his life-mate and planned to ask would she marry him, she’d turn on one of her frightful moods, and if she was like that in their courting days, imagine after a few years of marriage. It made him feel uneasy and unsure of himself.
He watched her close in on him—tall, brunette, with a spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks—he sighed—cute though.
She finally made it to him and grabbed his forearm to rest. She looked up into his face, her own now beet red.
“How much farther?”
He turned about, getting his bearings by judging a few of the landmarks. “Not sure exactly, but the whisper I heard about the new sinkhole placed it around here somewhere. Might be hard to spot unless we nearly fall into it.”
She groaned softly and her mouth turned down at the corners. Klaus smiled back weakly, but she lowered her brow and pointed at his chest.
“Herr Hoffman, if you’ve dragged me up here for nothing, there’ll be hell to pay.”
He laughed, trying to project confidence and patted her hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll find it. It’ll be really cool.” He hoped.
Bottom line was that the geology of the area was predominantly limestone strata and therefore riddled with caves. And if a new sinkhole suddenly appeared, it meant there was a cave down there whose ceiling had collapsed. And a whole new cave meant the potential for seeing or finding something that no one else had seen before.
It was around here, Klaus was sure of it. He just needed to find it, and before anyone else. But he knew if he dragged Doris further up the slope and they found nothing, she’d be pissed off for days.
He looked about—it was a nice spot. Where they were was an easy rising slope amongst a rich green mantle of beech, hornbeam, and ravine forest trees providing a gentle cover from the sunshine.
“Why don’t you sit here in the shade, and I’ll do a quick scout? That way if I find something I’ll shout, but if not, you won’t have wasted any time.”
“That’s a good idea.” She turned and sat on a small lump of stone, and pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket.
Klaus grimaced. He hated that she still smoked, at any time. But he could never understand why anyone would want to suck burning gases into their lungs when they were out in the middle of such a pristine area.
“I really want to come with you.” She reached out and grabbed his hand.
He smiled down at her, knowing she didn’t mean it. Doris was definitely a work in progress, and he couldn’t help loving her—most of the time.
“Back soon.”
Klaus turned and bounded up the hill. Most of the Neander Valley had been heavily quarried for the limestone over the previous century, but today it had been allowed to regrow, renew, and return to its once pre-industrialized, pre-modern human state.
Though the quarrying had been a boon to the local area for jobs and money, for future fossil hunters, the downside of the heavy mining was that it left few caves—even the famous one where the first Neanderthal remains were discovered had been obliterated. Therefore, he had to keep a lookout for older areas of forest, ones that signified they had never been excavated before.
He continued on, trying to cut a zigzag path while also trying to remember his landmarks to find his way back. As he ventured on, the surrounding trees became older, more gnarled, and on the ground were logs that were rotted down over the many decades.
“Around here somewhere,” he whispered and leapt up one of the fallen boughs, to slowly turn his head.
“Th ere.” He grinned. He could see two trees that were bent at odd angles—leaning toward each other as though curtseying before a dance.
He leapt down and jogged toward them, slowing as he came closer. His smile spread across his face; there was a dark hole in the ground and there were trees, still green, sticking up from it that had obviously just toppled in. Perfect, he thought, as they also made ideal ladders.
He quickly spun about making note of the trees, rocks, and landscape to mark his place, and then turned to rush back to where he had left Doris.
He always felt he had to struggle to impress her, but there was no way this was going to fail to blow her mind.
*****
“Phew.” Doris covered her nose.
“Just a little bit of stale air.” Klaus sniffed deeply. “But not too bad. In fact, that’s a good sign. Means this cave has been totally sealed up for a long time.” He slowly looked around. “And I’m guessing for years, maybe even tens of thousands of years.”
They were still under the halo of light afforded by the sinkhole opening above them, and Klaus drew out his large flashlight. He shone it around, seeing the dark passage yawning before him.
“That way.” He looked over his shoulder. “Gonna be totally dark the further in we go, so we’re going to need your light as well. Hurry and get it out and let’s go.”
“I haven’t got it,” she muttered.
“What?” He fully turned. “I left you the big red one, the best one, remember?”
She shook her head. “It was too heavy.”
He straightened, bumping his head on a hanging tree root. “So you just left it behind?”
“I didn’t think I’d need it.” She shrugged. “Besides, I can’t carry everything.”
“O-oookay.” He turned back to the ink-black cave passage. “Just stay close to me then.”
He guided her in, and as they moved further away from the light, it got as dark as he expected and even more claustrophobic. It didn’t bother Klaus as he loved cave exploring, and especially fossil hunting. He wasn’t so sure about Doris as he felt her hand on his jacket, scrunching the material up into a tight ball.
They edged along, sometimes having to bend forward to navigate the tighter spots, and soon came to an area that opened out. Klaus straightened, panning his light around.
“Wow! Do you see?”
There were drawings all around them, and their detail was magnificent—giant bison, antelope, and even the huge mammoth.
“It’s beautiful,” Doris said.
“I know.” He grinned and grabbed her hand, squeezing it. “And we’re the first people to see it in thousands and thousands of years.”
“They were good artists…especially for cavemen,” she declared.
“They sure were. And they didn’t do it just for the aesthetics. It’s thought that they believed that by reproducing the animal’s images on the walls, they also captured the beast’s souls. Then it gave them the beast’s power during the hunt.”
She snorted, still looking around for another moment, before turning back to him. “Now what?”
“Now what?” he repeated and sighed.
From up ahead something glinted back at them, and he craned his neck forward. “Come on.” He tugged her forward and came to a bulge in the cave wall. He frowned, squinting in at it.
“Hey, there’s something in there.”
Klaus Hoffman shone his flashlight onto the wall of the new cave, moving it slowly back and forth, letting the beam penetrate from different angles. He felt rather than heard Doris creep closer.
“What?” She then sniffed in the cold darkness, letting him know her disinterest was peaking again.
“Look, look.” He turned and grabbed her sleeve as he crouched down, pulling her toward him.
“Ow.” Doris pulled her arm away from his grasp. He’d thought his girlfriend had been slightly interested in entering the cave. He couldn’t count the times she had seemed to sit spellbound as he had recounted his many spelunking adventures over the past few months. Perhaps her interest had been feigned, or perhaps her interest only extended to hearing about caves—entering them was a whole different ballgame.
“I don’t see anything.” She looked away and down into the interior of the cave. “It’s too dark. And wet. And cold.” She sniffed again. “And smells funny.”
Klaus muttered in annoyance and tugged her sleeve again. “Here…don’t look at the rock, look into it. It’s called a limestone flow, and it’s rather like solidified dishwater…cloudy but you can still see through it.”
She had folded her arms, leaned forward, and craned her neck. But after a few seconds, she slowly shook her head. “Nope, nothing.”
Klaus started to groan in frustration and then had a thought. He held up a finger and then fumbled under his jacket for his water bottle, uncapped it, and splashed the liquid onto the bulge in the cave wall. The smooth limestone now revealed looked more like glistening wax. He smiled and sat back on his haunches.
“The flow is the result of tens of thousands of years of water dripping down to coat everything in micro-mineral particles. It eventually hardens to a semi-clear covering. It’s the geological equivalent of capturing prehistoric bugs in amber.” Klaus changed the angle of his light beam once again. “Now look.”
“Oh yeah, I can see inside—yuck—that thing looks weird.” Doris wrinkled her nose but crouched beside him.
“Looks beautiful to me.” Klaus tipped some more water over it and wiped a hand over the smooth lump of milky stone.
“Is it a man? He looks deformed or something.” Doris got to her feet to change angles, and he liked that she kept her hand on his shoulder as she stared into the wet stone.
“You mean, was. And no, I don’t think he was deformed. Judging by the depth of mineral coverage, I’d say he’s been trapped in there for at least forty to fifty thousand years, maybe even sixty thousand.” Klaus leaned in, his nose almost touching the slick stone. “Not deformed, more like proto-human…probably Neanderthal.”
He shone his torch at the cave wall and ceiling before letting it rest on her face. “The sinkhole we entered only opened the cave a couple of days back, and so far the only people who know about it are you, me, and a few disinterested locals. We’re probably the first people to set foot in here for tens of thousands of years.” He raised his eyebrows theatrically.
Her eyes went from him to the stone. “So us finding it means we own it?”
“Well, not really; it’s not our land.” He bobbed his head. “But…it is our find. So we can claim naming rights.”
Doris scoffed. “Ooh, you’ll be rich.”
“Maybe just famous in the fossil-hunting magazines.” He grinned up at her.
She just nodded but with little enthusiasm. Klaus shrugged, still feeling the tingle of excitement ripple through him. He turned back to lean in close again, inhaling the smell of the ancient stone. He could smell the age of the rock and it made him tingle all over.
From behind there came the sound of a metallic flicking, followed by a spark of light.
He spun. “Doris! Are you shitting me…you’re smoking?”
She pointed the cigarette at him like the barrel of a small glowing gun. “I’m nervous. You know I smoke when I’m nervous. I’m nervous, cold, hungry…and horny.” She tilted her nose in the air, but looked back at him out of the corner of her eye.
Klaus snorted. He knew when she threw in the horny angle she wanted to distract him, or simply change the subject. Normally, she got her way, but this time, his focus remained firmly above his waistline. This was way too important.
“Hey, you smoke when you’re nervous, drunk, happy, sad…face it, Doris, you smoke all the time. Show some respect; this cave probably hasn’t seen people for about fifty thousand years…and do you mind not dropping ash everywhere?”
She wobbled her head. “I’ve seen you smoke too, Mr. High-n-mighty. Besides, who’s going to complain…him?” She jerked her thumb at the lump in the wall, jammed the cigarette between her pursed lips, and flashed a quick glance at the blue Seiko dive watch on her slim wrist.
