Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
Scorpio planted himself at the top of the glacier to have a look. He could see for miles around. Saw a whole lot of nothing, just the glaring white of snow and ice and the dark blue of the ocean as it lapped against the shore. Penguins roamed the wet edge, hopping onto the solid ice, only to fling themselves off again into the water. Cute little buggers. A few seals sunned themselves, including the same one he’d wrestled with the day before.
He treaded to the far side of his high vantage point and observed as the doctor pulled the sled around the glacier, huffing and straining. It killed him to watch her struggle. He’d kept waiting for her to ask for help. She never did, and, after her reaction to the kiss, he didn’t dare offer, lest she accuse him of overstepping. He didn’t want her to think he viewed her as incapable or weak, but it almost physically hurt to not give a hand. He would have pulled that sled with ease.
Avoiding a pool of water, she parked her sled in the shadow of the glacier and removed some equipment. She aimed some of the devices at the icy wall before tapping at it with a hammer and chisel, placing the chunks in a bucket, selecting some to go in plastic bags.
Boring. He chose to make a circuit, on the lookout for threats. Aries and Sage hadn’t specified what he should be vigilant for or even when the danger would arise, so best be safe. From his vantage, he could see the immediate area and even the smudge of her camp, nestled amidst a few snow- and ice-covered mountains.
Tap . Tap .
The doctor’s picking at the glacier became a monotone in the background that he barely paid any mind to until it stopped and didn’t resume. He went to check on the doctor, only to realize she’d disappeared. Her things remained, if scattered—the giant seal who’d snuck up was having a blast knocking them about.
“You fucker.” He leaped down, his knees bending to minimize impact. The seal took one look at him, barked, and waddled off, but not far. It slipped into a puddle and disappeared. Sly bastard.
Now, where was the doctor—first name Rebecca, another thing discovered while he’d been snooping. It wasn’t as if she’d volunteered it.
“Where are you, Doc?” She couldn’t have gone far, yet the icy plateau showed nothing but penguins. Had she fallen in the same hole the seal used? She didn’t seem that clumsy. Still, he crouched by it and peered into the deep water. Saw nothing. As he turned, he noticed a slight alcove in the glacier. His brow raised at the sight of a large hole that showed an edge of stone, the size and shape of it very much like a doorway.
“Doc? Hello?” he called out as he approached. She didn’t reply.
Up close to the gaping entrance to the cave, he noticed the rock had been tooled, the edges perfectly square, the symbols etched?—
“Holy fuck.” He recognized the Zodiac signs, or at least their ancient version and not the more modern stuff used these days. “She found it,” he murmured aloud, only to scowl. She’d discovered an ancient ruin and gone looking without notifying him.
He put a foot on the first step but hesitated at the darkness below. Surely, she wouldn’t have gone exploring without light. Even he couldn’t see in the dark. Did she carry a flashlight on that sled? Had she taken it? He didn’t spot any hint of illumination.
A faint groan rising from the stairwell brought a frisson to his skin.
“Rebecca?” he called out.
A moan replied.
Ah, fuck. He trotted down the steps, his visibility worsening as he descended, until he brushed his hand against the narrow walls enclosing the stairs. The stone began to emit a faint glow. He frowned as he flattened his palm against the surface, increasing the brightness.
“I’ll be damned.” This stairwell hadn’t been carved into just any rock, but a meteorite, a star fallen to Earth, which explained why it reacted to him. As he descended, he trailed his fingers on the wall, the glow following as he made his way down the long stretch of steps.
Very long.
How fucking far did they go?
Rebecca didn’t make another sound. Had she encountered something?
Nothing attacked, and when Scorpio reached the bottom he found Rebecca crumpled on the floor. A quick glance showed no limbs visibly broken or twisted, a relief, although she did have a gash on her forehead. The blood from the head wound stained the floor, but her breathing remained steady. She’d have a headache for sure when she woke, possibly even a concussion, but at least it wasn’t worse.
He knelt by her side and began checking her more thoroughly. Once he’d ascertained she’d broken nothing—her thick snowsuit having padded her fall—he scooped her into his arms and stood. The dilemma? Should he take up the stairs and back to the habitat, or explore the small round chamber he found himself in? A glance showed the walls smooth but for a slender hole.
The kind of hole that begged for a hand to go groping.
The kind of hole that could very well hide something that would eat said hand.
The kind of hole that would bug him endlessly if he didn’t know what it hid.
Holding Rebecca with one arm, he pulled a spear and poked at the opening.
Nothing happened. The spear entered and exited without issue.
Did he dare risk his flesh?
Fuck yeah, he did. His hand went in next and found the interior warm and dry. Nothing skittered over him like in Temple of Doom . Nothing tried to bite it off. He pushed deeper, only to find the opening narrowed enough he risked being wedged.
He withdrew his hand and noticed nothing on his skin, not even dust.
Doc began to stir, grunting in his arms, her head turning side to side. Her lashes fluttered, and when they stared at him blearily, she murmured, “Not you again.”
He grinned. “Hey, Doc. You took quite the tumble. Forget how to use stairs?”
She grimaced. “It was that stupid seal again. It scared me, and I fell.” She stiffened. “Hold on, you said stairs. Where am I?”
“Inside the glacier. You appear to have found some kind of ruin. You should have called for me before exploring,” he chided.
“Never had a chance. The radar spotted an anomaly, which isn’t unusual. I began chipping and had just uncovered the doorway when the seal attacked.” She craned to look. “Is this really a ruin?”
“Yup. Those stairs you rolled down finished in this room.” He spun to show her, the faint glow letting her see.
Her mouth rounded. “How is this possible? The Antarctic was never settled.”
“That anyone knew of. Congrats, you can add archeologist to your resume now.”
Her lips twisted. “It’s kind of ironic since I have a thing for ancient civilizations. I blame Indiana Jones. All my vacations are usually to spots where I can explore the past—the pyramids, Aztec temples, Machu Picchu.”
“I’d say this place is as old or older,” he stated, setting Rebecca on her feet but keeping an arm around her in case she proved unsteady.
“How is it I can see? Is the rock glowing?” She tottered from him to place her face closer to the surface before running her fingers over it. The light remained steady, not reacting to her touch.
“I do believe we’re inside a sizeable meteorite, and the light is because it’s reacting to my presence.”
“And you say you’re not an alien.” She snorted. “Any idea who built it?”
“I don’t know, but the symbols around the door are very old Zodiac ones.”
“Really?” Her brow arched. “Guess that means you found what you were looking for.”
He shook his head. “Not yet. There’s nothing here except that hole in the wall.” He pointed. “I tried reaching in, but it narrows quickly and I couldn’t feel much inside.”
She glanced at the crevice and, without hesitation, stuck her hand in it. Her tongue peeked from her lips as her eyes went out of focus and she murmured, “I wonder if there’s a catch inside here somewhere.” Her arm went inside past the elbow.
“That’s much farther in than I made it.”
“Aha.” An exclamation that was followed by an audible click.
She withdrew her hand, and her lips curved as a section of the wall shivered before sliding out of the way. “Tada!”
“Good job unlocking it.”
“What do you think is in there?” She poked her head into the opening, but the illumination of the chamber didn’t extend that far.
“No idea, hence why I’ll go first.” He stepped in front of her, ignoring her rolling eyes.
“Oh please. Pretty sure there’s nothing alive in there that can hurt me.”
“Said every person who died before going into a strange new place. Just give me a second to see if it’s clear before you enter.”
He stepped into the dark space, and once more, a mere brush of his flesh against the walls caused them to illuminate, showing an innocuous tunnel. He immediately distrusted it. Call it his astral sense, but something was amiss.
“See anything?” she asked, sounding far too close.
“Careful. Stay where you are,” he exclaimed. “I think the place might be trapped.”
“This is not a movie,” she scoffed, shuffling to his left. “Those kinds of things?—”
An audible click had him whirling. He threw himself on Rebecca, taking them both to the floor in time to avoid the blade that whistled as it swung past.
She lay under him, wide-eyed. “What was that?”
“A warning.”
“A good one, if you ask me. I think that’s our cue to leave.”
“Agreed. You should head back up.”
“Me? What about you?”
“I will join you once I’ve located what I came for.”
“You want to die for this mystery object? Go ahead. I’m not that brave. So, get off me you, heavy lug.”
“I’m not fat,” he huffed. “It’s muscle.”
“Which is still squashing me.”
Again, not a complaint he’d ever heard. He rolled from her, and she scrambled to her feet, moving back to the door, only to stop abruptly.
“It’s closed.”
“What do you—Oh.”
The opening they’d come through had shut, and unlike the other side, no hole existed with a mechanism for her to unlatch. It didn’t stop her from running her hands on the smooth stone before she huffed, “I can’t figure out how to open it. What are we supposed to do?”
“Explore?”
She pursed her lips at him. “Why aren’t you more worried? Were you expecting this?”
“Nope.”
“You knew there were traps,” she accused.
“Didn’t know so much as suspected. Someone went through a lot of trouble to create this place. And if it does indeed have this object I’m looking for, it stands to reason they’d have placed safeguards.”
“And how are we supposed to spot these traps?” She pointed to the floor. “I can’t even see where I triggered the blade.” A blade that now hung motionless. He glanced to the ceiling, where a section of it had moved to let it swing free.
“We’ll need to move carefully.”
“You move carefully. I’m staying right here,” she huffed, crossing her arms.
“That sounds like a great plan.” She couldn’t accidentally cause trouble if she didn’t touch anything.
She remained planted in place as he crouched to eye the floor. Seeing nothing, he placed his hand upon it. Unlike the walls, it didn’t glow, but up close, he could see faint striations in the stone. A glance behind and he could see where she’d stepped, a convergence of lines. A clue as to where to put his feet. He moved cautiously and paused before the next bundle of markings.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Testing a theory,” he murmured before lightly pressing the spot. He barely had time to fling himself backwards, as the floor suddenly dropped, revealing a deep chasm.
“Holy crap on a cracker,” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“Seeing as how I didn’t fall, yeah,” was his sarcastic reply.
The gap, while wide, was jumpable. He leaped to the other side, carefully so as to not accidentally land on something he shouldn’t. A good thing he’d shown caution, as his toes were a mere half-inch from the next set of lines, which formed a knot.
He skirted them and the next before coming across a thick band of them. Once more, he hesitated. He eyed the floor, the ceiling, and finally the walls. This section was darker, as he’d not touched the walls since he’d left Rebecca’s side, and that initial glow was fading.
A light brush of his fingers brought light, but also a grinding sound.
“The tunnel is closing in,” Rebecca yelled as she backed slowly from the moving stone.
“Quick, get to me.” He headed in her direction.
“I can’t jump across the hole. It’s too wide,” she stated, standing by the edge of it.
“Fuck.” He sprinted as the wall kept coming, heading for Rebecca. He dodged the marks on the floor and leaped over the chasm with only two paces between them and the moving stone. He slung an arm around her waist, took one step back, and then launched them back over the hole. A bit too forcefully. His foot partially hit the next trigger, and he flung them forward away from the holes in the wall, which suddenly shot metal darts.
He stumbled but kept his feet, dragging her along. They had to keep moving because the wall didn’t stop at the rift but kept coming. Rebecca said nothing as she clung to him. His grip around her remained tight as he sprinted, over a knot of lines then past. He then had to slow, needing to carefully watch where he put his feet.
Not careful enough. He once more hit the edge of some markings, and the wall closing in moved faster.
In good news, he could see the end of the tunnel. In the bad? He saw no way out, just a smooth wall. No hole. Nothing.
Still, there was nowhere else to go. Surely whoever built this place had a way of getting past.
They reached the dead end, and Scorpio set Rebecca down. To dispel the gloom, as the moving wall blocked the glow behind them, he put a hand on the close wall, and, to his surprise, symbols lit.
“Are those the same markings as the outside arch?” Rebecca murmured, peering at them with curiosity.
“Yeah.” But what did it mean? He glanced over his shoulder and saw the stone wall coming at them fast. He estimated they had less than a minute to figure out the puzzle.
“Try pressing yours.”
He slapped at the symbol Scorpio. Nothing. He tapped them all as the tunnel shortened. Nothing he did had an effect.
“Might be they have to be done in a certain order,” Rebecca stated with a frown.
He tried again. Capricorn first, then Aquarius and Pisces. He did all twelve in order to no avail. The wall was mere paces away and not slowing down.
“It didn’t work.” His frustration emerged in those huffed words. To think he’d die so ignobly, crushed by stone.
“You did it by calendar month, but aren’t they related to the solstices?” she murmured. She began tapping them, starting with Aries. “Aries is the start of the spring equinox.” She then did them all as Scorpio watched the advancing wall and wondered if getting crushed would hurt or if they’d die before the pain had a chance to register.
Click .
The door opened just in time for them to tumble through. Thud . The moving stone came to rest in the spot they’d been standing in.
“That was close,” he exclaimed. Close, but they’d survived.
And that called for a celebration.