SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER 20
They found the entrance to the cave carelessly covered over with rocks covered in moss and stones. Valadon knelt and felt the unstable rocks under his hands. “Need to be careful there is a drop under the rocks.” Carefully they removed them, slowly, one by one, until they were faced with a dark hole. As Valadon peered inside his eyes lit up to show a drop of about four feet. Valadon jumped down, he had an advantage because of his height. “Come on.” He called and they went in one by one with Brian and Kevin the last to follow. Inside was dark, damp, and cold. They could not shine their torches in case they were caught. Valadon looked ahead to see the tunnel narrowed about twenty feet in; he knew they were going to have to squeeze through. He kept looking expecting trouble to appear in some form or another at any moment. Kevin hated small dark places, he was claustrophobic and already had a sense of fear sliding up his spine. He took deep steadying breaths to calm his uprising panic when he saw the narrow cave just ahead, the gap looked like it was about three feet wide, and he tried to think logically, ‘Of course it’s small it’s a bloody cave’ his hair was damp and sweat started running into his eyes, they were stinging like hell. He wiped a hand across his eyes as his vision became slightly blurry, then rubbed at them; He stopped and put both his hands on each side of the closed-in walls.
“Are you ok Kev?” Brian asked following closely behind him, he could hear his wild breathing through his gaping mouth as if he was gasping for his last breath.
“Yeah, just feel a bit closed in, I hate small dark places.”
“You’ll be ok, we’ll come to the end of this soon,” Brian said, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Brian squinted in the darkness, he was scared too, it was only the thought of Ellen and Pixie that spurned him on, he couldn’t imagine what they were going through, and his insides shook like broken glass.
Kevin stopped suddenly when he realised the cave narrowed so much that they would have to struggle through. His heartbeat wildly, sweat poured again into his eyes despite the coldness of the cave, he wasn’t sure he could handle being closed into such a small space, but determination spurned him on.
“Nearly there, how you going Kev?”
“Yeah, ok, just more narrow spaces to climb through, but the thought of coming face to face with those ugly bastards scare the hell out of me.”
Brain laughed, “Me too mate, me too.”
“At least there are a lot of us, and I’ll do anything to get them back.”
“I know you will.”
Valadon led them down the tunnel until he saw light ahead and the constricting walls became wider, allowing them to walk through instead of squeezing. Kevin heaved a sigh of relief.
“We are many feet underground and I am seeing light, so we are nearer the top than I thought. Stop!” he called out cautiously forcing everyone to a dead halt. In front of them was a thick metal door. Brown rusty stains covered the top near the hinges and gaps lay underneath where the light was coming from. Valadon knew it was bolted, and he knew that behind that door were creatures with razor-sharp claws and fangs to do the utmost damage they could. He motioned for his people to come forward. “Not you or Kevin.” He told Brian. “Step back and cover your eyes.”
The cave was lit up by blinding white lasers from every angle.
Ellen lifted Pixie into her arms to keep her warm, she rubbed at her tired eyes with one chubby finger. Then looked up at Ellen with fear and confusion. “Where’s Daddy, I want to go home.”
Ellen brushed the hair from her eyes.
“He’ll be here soon sweetheart, with Todd and Lasko.” She had to keep positive, even though her hopes were fading, how could she be sure Lasko could track them, even with his amazing powers, she knew they were deep underground in a cave somewhere in Cornwall!
“Daryl!” she called.
“I’m here Ellen, are you ok?”
“I’m trying to keep Pixie quiet, she’s thirsty and she’s going to start howling soon!”
“If I shout loud enough, they might bring us water.” He started yelling at the top of his voice. “HELP SOMEONE! WE NEED WATER FOR THE BABY CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
Then someone entered the room. He heard the rusty creak of the door as the lizard appeared clumsily carrying two trays on top of each other. He padded over and placed one tray with food and a bottle of water by Daryl’s cage and one by Ellen; she reached out and pulled them through as the creature turned and padded away slamming the door behind him. Ellen held the bottle of water to Pixie’s lips controlling the gulps in case she choked.
“It’s as if they knew we needed food and water,” Daryl said.
“It’s only dried bread, where did they get it from? I’m going to eat it myself before giving it to Pix in case it’s poisoned.” She took a piece and bit into it, it tasted awful she spat it out. It wasn’t bread, it was plant-based and looked as if it had been mixed in with honey and berries, of which some berries can be poison to humans. It was dark green and on closer inspection she saw hard black shiny shell pieces.
“OH God it’s awful!”
“Ellen! Don’t eat it.” Daryl called anxiously. “It looks like crushed insects mixed in with berries and some other things, I know Lizards eat insects, well almost all of them do, but I don’t know about these lizards, I expect they eat the same.”
Ellen gagged and washed her mouth out with the water, spitting it out on the floor. “I think I’ll just stick to water, you can survive for a couple of weeks on water.”
“Same here, although I didn’t expect them to give us an exclusive menu to choose from.”
Ellen lifted Pixie into her arms, grateful she had gone to sleep, at least while she was sleeping, she wasn’t witnessing the horror that would traumatise her for the rest of her life.
***
Valadon turned to the others to make sure Brian and Kevin had their eyes closed and were at a safe distance. Kevin held the small torch tightly, it’s brightness had dimmed to a pale shimmer, but at least it kept him from panicking in the dark. It was the first time he had used it in a while as they could not show any signs they were here, and he had forgot to change the batteries. It was cold and damp, water ran down the walls and fungus was growing on the ceiling, the stink of mould was overpowering in the small space.
“Stand well back, cover your eyes, we are going to blast the door, and everyone be ready. Kevin and Brian, you hold back, we go in first.” It was a clear and precise order from Valadon.
The bright flashing lasers lit up the cave like a massive bomb and the door fell in, in six seconds a mass of melted iron and rusty fumes filled the air. The noise reverberated around the cave.
Brian and Kevin still had their eyes closed with their backs to the wall. Brian said. “No wonder these guys don’t carry weapons, they have them built inside.”
***
“I heard something!” Daryl jumped to his feet and grabbed the bars of his cage, pushing his face as near as he could. “HEY!” he shouted, “let us out of here.”
“It sounded like an explosion, maybe they have come for us!”
“Don’t hold your breath Ellen it could be them.”
But they did hold their breath while trying to focus their eyes in the dark.
“Can you hear anything, Daryl?”
“Nothing.”
***
Lilly was strapped to the gurney, she looked around in the murky darkness and saw a light filtering under the door. Water dripped onto her face from the wet ceiling and the stench of mould seeped into her already frozen bones. Lilly tried to move her legs and realised with horror they had been shackled to the gurney by metal straps, the same with her hands, she struggled and screamed. Trying to calm down she took deep shuddering breaths focusing on Daryl and the children. She closed her eyes and pictured them in her mind, Carina’s sweet little face, and Christian so much like his handsome father, and she prayed for them to be spared. In a last bid to save her family, she was going to try and make a bargaining plea…Her life for theirs, but a dreadful realisation hit her! She was in no position to bargain they would do what they wanted anyway, she had no power, nothing! Unless a miracle happened, they were all doomed to their terrible fate whatever that may be. She started to sob. What was happening to Christian and Carina? And her heart turned to ice, and the blood in her veins turned blue.
She heard the creak of the rusty metal hinges as the door opened and a seven-foot lizard stomped into the room, he strode with heavy footfalls towards her.
“TIME TO INSSEMINATE YOU.” He looked down on her. Lilly screamed
They stepped over the door with Brian and Kevin entering last, the room was empty. “They must have heard the noise,” Valadon commented, looking around in case trouble was waiting around any corner.
“It could be an ambush, tread carefully Master,” Shiriak told him.
It was eerily silent as if they were entering a vampire’s cave and they were creeping towards where the undead slept. Suddenly Valadon raised his hand. “Wait.” The rooms ahead were narrow and damp they had to walk single file and Brian noticed a foul-smelling odour from a grey-green fungus growing up the walls as he passed. He warned everyone not to get too close to it. Reams of soft light were filtering through the tunnel.
As they came to the end it opened and they found they were in a massive cave, a huge open space where Crystals of ice hung from the ceiling and a small waterfall gently flowed from the rocks above into a cool blue lake beneath them. The water was so blue Brian and Kevin had never seen anything like it before, it was a place that time forgot, a place undiscovered by man, a lost Jurassic era. It was steep with a drop of the cliff of about forty feet or more, so they kept tightly to the walls.
“No one has discovered this cave yet,” Brian said peering carefully over the top, noticing there were smaller caves embedded into the rock below.
“I bet this is a wonderland steeped in history,” Kevin replied.
“Watch your step!” Valadon warned, “You could easily fall.”
“I know, it reminds me of Disney’s ‘Frozen’
Valadon looked at him questioningly. “Oh.” Kevin laughed. “It’s a Disney animated film the kids love it; it’s quite famous here.”
“I see.” He replied walking on. Still wondered what ’film, Disney, and animated, meant.
***
Above them were caves and more caves all to be embedded in the rocks. Above them were rocks that resembled salt steppingstones, they were white and flaky with pieces falling off into the lake below. “Wait until I see how safe they are.” Valadon put one foot on the step it held his weight. “Ok, now take care.” The rocks were hard and steady despite the flaky dust falling off them. Brian and Kevin went last. Brian wondered if they were manmade or a natural enigma. As they got to the top there was a ledge wide enough to walk across to the other side. The ledge had shiny green, and blue; either stones or sapphires and emeralds embedded into the stone. He guessed these were pure diamonds. Brian looked around, making sure his footing was secure, holding onto the wall so he didn’t slip. The cave was a magnificent aura of peace and tranquillity. It was silent, not a sound entered the massive cave. He could hear the gentle flow of the waterfall and watched the natural water, so clean and pure flowing into the lake below.
The sudden hissing and deafening sounds of wings shattered the cave so loudly it startled them as one Lizard flew from the cave above them, wings flapping talons and teeth slicing through the air, one of them knocked Kevin off the ledge and sent him spiralling forty feet below into the water. Brian shouted, “Kevin!” as he heard him hit the water in one tremendous splash. One of the masters jumped from the ledge and grabbed Kevin as the churning water current dragged him under. Kevin’s garbled screams echoed around the cave bouncing off the walls. Brian held his head as if it were going to tumble from his shoulders at any time soon.
“JESUS! Christ, Mary, and Joseph. KEV, are you okay?”
The master had already lifted Kevin with one hand and placed him on the rock. “Thank you…Thank you.” He said to him, then looked up at Brian. “Freezing…But I’m ok.” Brian heaved a huge sigh of relief.
“FIRE!” Valadon shouted. Five lizards flew above, their flapping wings almost deafening, sharp talons extracted as they tried to grab them from the ledge. Blinding lasers lit up the cave as the creatures tried to pick them off, but they hurtled down in a mass of smoking burning flesh, hitting the water, and drowning
***
Lasko’s nose twitched and his ears itched, he brought up his back leg gave them a good scratch, and then shook himself. Todd’s eyes widened and he grinned.
“You haven’t picked up fleas have you?”
Lasko looked mortified. “Don’t be so rude!”
Todd laughed. “I wasn’t, a lot of dogs pick up fleas when they are nearer the grass and stuff, and cats do too.”
Lasko gave him a comical sideway glance with eyes as big as exceptionally large buttons, Todd laughed.
“I’ll have you know fleas do not exist on our planet, and besides, I am a very clean dog!”
Suddenly Lasko’s hackles stood up omitting a silver glow, they sparkled like stardust and Todd knew something was wrong.
“What’s up?”
“Stay put Todd. Keep low.”
Lasko’s belly crawled from behind the embedded rock. His fur now changed from a silver glow to a dark salt and pepper colour that Matched the ground of salt and dirty stones. Todd still couldn’t see what Lasko had seen, and he strained his eyes, then he saw it, a huge lizard crawling along on all fours, its face low to the ground and tail elongated to a point behind it.
He watched its tongue flick in and out of its mouth in morbid fascination as it slithered along the ground, it reminded Todd of a monitor lizard except the face was not pointed but almost flat. Todd clamped his hands to his mouth for fear of shouting he was almost sure this is what Lasko had seen, it was rare anything crept past Lasko’s eagle eyes. Was it hunting for insects? Or small rodents? It started running towards the rock, and Todd realised with sudden horror it was hunting them!
The speed of the thing had got from forty feet to ten in less than a second Todd’s heart was beating so fast he could hear a drum roll inside his head, he swung to the side away from its sharp claws then as suddenly as it was there it became covered in a white sparkling mass of silver fur, Lasko had jumped it from behind and was tearing into it as he spread-eagled it to the ground. The lizard was hissing frantically as Lasko’s teeth shredded it like a carrot and it screamed in despair, thrashing its massive tail like a whip; almost catching Lasko across his neck. He saw blood seep from the wound and screamed “LASKO,” but he didn’t reply, he hung on desperately until both lay still on the ground. “GOT HIM!” Lasko turned his head and gave Todd a wide doggy grin. The Lizard was dead sprouting blood from its throat. Todd ran from behind the rock and threw his arms around Lasko’s neck smearing blood from Lasko’s wound onto his hands and clothes.
“Are you ok Lask?”
“Of course, it’s only a scratch.”
“Doesn’t look like a scratch to me.” Todd’s heart raced as he saw a wide gaping cut at the back of Lasko’s neck. “That’s going to need stitches, Mum can do that.”
“So can Valadon, without the need of painful needles.”
“Can’t you, do it?”
“If I was an owl, possibly, but I’m not, I am a dog; and although I am a very clever dog, I cannot rotate my head ninety degrees to see what’s happening at the back of my neck!”
At this Todd laughed.
The bleeding had stopped, and Todd heaved a sigh of relief, Lasko was right it was only a scratch, be it a nasty one.
***
“Kevin! Stay back from the ledge.” Brian shouted lunging for his arm, Kevin turned and grabbed Brian’s hand as they both took shelter under the wider part of the ledge. “We can’t fight them, there are too many!”
“Give me a minute to get my breath back, that damn water was freezing, we will wait till it’s clear before we go up any further.”
Brian crept forward looking up into a mass array of blinding lights from the lasers. “Jesus!” He covered his eyes with his hands. He saw Valadon and the others climb the rock, they were heading to the top, and he called Kevin. “Ok, Kev?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“When you’re ready we’ll follow.”
Brian watched the last two lizards plummet down into the freezing water below.
“I’m Ready,” Kevin called, and they both shuffled towards the steps at the edge of the ledge.
Valadon waited for the rest to follow into the dark cave. Mildew filled the air and damp patches of fungus grew on the cave walls. “Which way do we go?” Brian asked.
“There are several tunnels by the look of it, we will split into groups and cover the three ahead, they seem to be the only three caves left.”
“This place is like a maze,” Kevin said looking around at the rotting walls. “Stinks of mould.”
“A fitting place for these disgusting creatures,” Brian remarked
Valadon couldn’t resist a smile at Brian’s comment.
Valadon split his teams into groups of ten and they headed off in three directions as Kevin and Brian followed.
“Now they know we are here, expect an ambush, they are very crafty, they will set a trap I don’t want anyone to wander off in another direction. Brian nodded. “OK.”
As they turned a corner, on the cold damp floor was a young female lizard clutching a young newborn close to her chest, she shrunk back into the wall, and her body trembled.
They all halted, watching in astonishment as the young lizard made a mewling sound of utter terror.
Valadon got down on his knees. “Who are you? Why are you here? Is this your young?
She nodded her head, blinked her huge green eyes, and held even tighter to the young baby.
Did they leave you here? ”She nodded again. Valadon stood up and turned to Brian and Kevin. “They usually have more than one offspring, so I am thinking this young female is way underage to produce, so they have left her to fend for herself, she is showing fear for the small one, this is unusual, they usually fend for themselves at the time they are born, and the mother leaves them.
“What are we going to do with her?” Kevin asked frowning.
“We leave her.”
“Leave her! What on her own?”
“Kevin, we can’t take her with us she will be killed, if they know she’s with us, they will consider her a traitor, if she is alone they will come back for her.”
The female slowly rose to her feet, blood dripped from her legs and arms, and her face was badly bruised as she stood.
“Please! Help me.”
Brian was shocked at the pathetic sight of her, she was small and very undernourished, her skin was shedding, and a pale face looked up at them pleadingly.
“We can’t leave her,” Valadon said. “She has been beaten, and mistreated by her species, this is how these creatures treat their own when they displease them. I guess that because she is too young to produce, although it looks like she has, this young lizard has got to belong to her, they find her no use to them, and they have abandoned her. “Is this true? Did they hurt you and leave you both here to die?” He asked her.
She nodded, and tears flowed from her eyes.
“I will leave someone to care for her wounds and come back for them later.”
One of the young Alien masters stepped forward. “Master, I will see to her and the young one.”
“Thank you Torea but keep yourself safe.”
“I will Master, I will take her somewhere safe, a small cave nearby.”
They had noticed exceedingly small openings on their way into the colossal cave, many giving access to the sea below.
They moved on, the caves were deadly silent, and for a moment they wondered if the lizards had gone.
They moved on through another maze of tunnels, Valadon’s eye’s intensely scanning the way for an ambush, sweeping his beam across the roof of the cave and back again to make sure there was no immediate danger. They went on.
***
Paul Mathews was still standing on the edge of the field observing the evacuation. He wanted the evacuation to go as smoothly, and as quick as it could possibly go. He suddenly heard a voice behind him.
“Mr Mathews sir?” Mathews turned.
“You are?”
“Commanding officer logistics sir, Captain Joshua Munro sir.”
“You are in charge of the evacuation Captain?”
“That’s right sir, trying to get as many people as we can on board the ships and lorries.”
“I think we need to go a little faster, the people need to be away from falling aircraft.”
“I agree sir…” His words were cut off by a whirring sound coming from the air to the north of where they stood, the sound got louder, and Captain Munro turned to Mathews. “What’s that noise?” He had a terrible feeling that something bad. Very bad was about to happen.
They both looked up into the darkened sky, at first they couldn’t see anything, then they saw the sky was full of flapping wings and Lizards.
“My GOD!” Mathews shouted. “Everyone dive for cover!”
The lizards landed almost in front of them, people screamed and scrambled for the ships and army lorries. Captain Munro ran to the edge of the field where troops were loading the trucks.
“FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!”
They opened fire and several lizards fell to the ground, but they were outnumbered.
Most of them got to their feet staggering towards the soldiers.
They stood their ground; Mathew shouting “FIRE AT WILL!”
He had also got hold of a machine gun and let fly, cutting down Lizard after Lizard. To the left of him, he saw from his peripheral vision a lizard dragging a young girl kicking and screaming, he turned and hit it with one shot, and the girl ran away.
The spaceships made a loud whirring sound and a bright dazzling light of pure white emerged from the front of the craft, which seemed to come from the headlights, four tubes; round and circular rose out of the ship, missiles fired into the herd of reptiles blowing them into bits. They spun round from left to right, then up into the sky as fallen lizards crashed to the ground in a ball of fire. Mathews looked on speechless, he never knew he could be capable of firing a machine gun. He lowered the gun to his side.
Captain Munro ran towards him, crouching as low to the ground as possible. “You ok sir?”
“What the hell just happened?”
“I think we just kicked their arses.”
***
Bodies spread on the ground some humans, mostly alien lizards, some humans were getting shakily to their feet stumbling around dazed, as if they were in a dream. “Get ambulances here ASAP!” Mathews called, but he didn’t wait long before a fleet of NHS Ambulances started lining up at the edge of the field. The walking wounded make their way to sit on the grass beside the field. Others were lifted and taken to the Ambulances.
The doors to the spaceships opened and ramps came down, The Aliens stepped out to a massive applause from the crowds of people who came out of hiding.
“Thank you, thank you all, you saved our lives,” Mathew said.
“I am the captain of this ship, my name is Touran. We can heal the more severe injuries and bring them inside.”
Mathew laced his hands together and bowed his head.
“Thank you sir!” he repeated as Paramedics and doctors started bringing severely injured people on stretchers into the waiting ships. There was more than enough room for everyone.
Mathews looked up at the sky, which was now flooded with big arc lights, for now, an eerie silence filled the village, no birds sang, no insects moved it was as if the whole world had taken a deep breath and held it.
Mathews turned and walked up the ramp into the ship, his dark grey suit was covered in debris and dust, and his white shirt resembled a dirty dishwater colour as if someone had thrown it straight from a sink full of washing up water, he didn’t even bother to brush himself down, but smiled in victory. They had defeated them…For now.