Aquifer: A Novel (35 page)

Clayton turned to Larry and gasped in amazement, “Did you see that? Gimp Foot’s their leader.”

“Yeah, you’re probably also right about him being the grand patriarch of the entire clan,” Larry replied in disgust.

*

The next morning Clayton, Welton and Larry were at the Sheriff’s office making a report of the events of the previous night’s attack.

“Six of the kids at last night’s party are still missing,” lamented the Sheriff. “We can only presume that they’ve been eaten by the creatures.”

“We know these creatures have attacked individuals before, but this is the first instance of an organized attack,” added Clayton.

“And it
was
an organized attack,” interjected Larry. “That gimp-footed alien was in charge.”

“Yes,” Clayton continued. “These creatures are obviously more intelligent and more aggressive than we previously thought. I shudder to think of the implications this raises.”

“Larry,” inquired the Sheriff. “You used the word
alien
. What did you mean by that?”

Before Larry could respond, Clayton began to speak. “Sheriff, we’ve been studying the specimens we collected at the Blue Spring cavern as well as samples we took at the impact crater of the meteorite crash and the site where Honace disappeared. I know how this is going to sound, but based upon the evidence we’ve collected we believe that these creatures are survivors of an alien space craft that crashed behind Blue Spring. The military’s hiding something, but I haven’t put all the pieces together yet.”

“Well, that confirms my suspicions,” said Sheriff Akers. “I didn’t really think we were dealing with rustlers.”

“Yeah,” added Larry, “but the thing that really concerns me, is their food supply. They’ve already decimated the fish in the rivers, and apparently they’ve gotten most of the cows and horses within easy reach. The brazenness of last night’s attack means that they’ve got nothing else to eat. Undoubtedly, they see us as their next course.”

“Oh, I don’t think the situation is nearly that bleak,” commented Clayton.

“Regardless,” interjected the Sheriff, “the situation is obviously much larger than we can handle. I called the State Department of Emergency Management last night to inform them of our situation. They said they lack jurisdiction in animal situations. But our situation is getting critical now, so I’m going to call them back to see if I can’t make better headway.”

He picked up the phone and dialed the number.

=/\=

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY
-S
EVEN

Meramec Caverns

That same morning dawned a beautiful sunny day at Meramec Caverns, a large commercialized tourist cave on the south bank of the Meramec River, about an hour northeast of Eminence. The cave had numerous entrances. All of them except for the main entrance, however, had been sealed many years earlier.

The Meramec River, like most rivers in the Ozarks, flowed crystal clear, spring-fed water over a mudless, graveled riverbed. The Meramec was a popular float-fishing river. Numerous canoe outfitters ran guided tours or provided canoes and equipment to campers or day-trip floaters.

The parking lot at the mouth of the cave, which held spaces for over three hundred vehicles, was bordered by a concrete-edged, raised, grassy strip. Erected in the center of the grassy strip, near the cave’s entrance, was a life-size bronze sculpture of Jesse James and a member of his gang. They were mounted on a granite base with a plaque stating: “Famous Jesse James Hide Out.”

A large gift shop and restaurant straddled the cave’s entrance such that admittance into the cave could only be made by going through the gift shop. Several hundred tourists were either seated in the restaurant, purchasing trinkets in the gift shop, or buying tickets to tour the cave. The gift shop and restaurant extended over two hundred feet into the interior of the cave, making air-conditioning unnecessary, even on the hottest of summer days due to the cave’s constant, cool temperature.

Beyond the gift shop the cave’s massive tunnel was over one hundred feet wide and twenty-five feet high. The tunnel was well lit by strategically placed electric lighting. The walls along the tunnel were lined with glass display cases depicting examples of various minerals, crystals, and interesting rock formations - all of which were for sale. Additionally, the walls were adorned with the photographs of numerous celebrities, including several presidents of the United States, who had toured the cave since it became commercialized.

An army of Park Rangers ran the facility, though the title was really a misnomer inasmuch as the cave was neither a national nor a state park. It was privately owned, thus the Park Rangers were actually tour guides who conducted tours for groups of seventy-five people or more. A complete tour lasted about an hour-and-a-half, and a new tour began every thirty minutes.

While waiting for their tour to begin, tourists congregated in the Grand Ballroom, located two hundred and twenty-five yards inside the cave’s entrance
.
It was a large room about two hundred feet in length, one hundred twenty feet wide, with a ceiling height of about forty feet, and a very flat, level, floor. It was well lit and filled with chairs.

At the appointed time for a new tour to begin, a Park Ranger addressed the group of seventy-some-odd tourists, “In the late 1800s and early 1900s the local people held dances in here during the summer because of the cave’s natural air conditioning.”

The room was enormous, able to seat over 1,500 guests for a lecture and it easily accommodated virtually any size of dance that organizers could put together. The floor had been tiled with waxed and highly buffed tan and black checkered floor tiles so that it was perfectly flat and smooth. A stage had been erected at the front of the room where the bands could perform.

As the tour group exited the Grand Ballroom they passed through a long tunnel before coming to a large pool of water at a bend in the passageway. The pool filled an alcove where the ceiling curved down to meet the cave floor. Here the Park Ranger paused for the group to circle around her. She then continued the lecture.

“Back in the 1870s the local sheriff was pursuing Jesse James and his gang and chased them here to the cave. The sheriff didn’t want to enter the cave for fear of being ambushed, so he set up watch outside and decided to wait for Jesse and his gang to give up from hunger. After several weeks of staking out the cave entrance, the sheriff learned that the James gang had just held up a train in the next county. Realizing that somehow they had been given the slip, the sheriff entered the cave by torchlight and found only the horses the James Gang had used. They had been corralled in a temporary rope corral with a large quantity of hay. However, the sheriff and his team could not find any other exit. It was a great mystery how the James gang had eluded the sheriff.”

The Park Ranger pointed to the electrical lights that were hidden behind various stalagmites and stalactites as she continued her lecture. “In 1933 the cave was commercialized and electric lighting was installed. But, it was not until the dust bowl drought of the mid-1930s, sixty years after the sheriff had
trapped
the James Gang, that the mystery of Jesse’s escape was finally solved. During the drought the water levels in the cave dropped considerably. The water level of this pool before you receded by several feet and exposed a secret underwater passageway that led into another section of the cave.”

The Ranger aimed the beam of her flashlight at a section of the cave wall several feet above the current water line. “The water used to be up to here,” she said. “But during the drought the pool’s level dropped to about where it is now. We pump the water out now to maintain this lower water level. When Park Rangers entered this previously unknown section of the cave they found firewood, cooking pots, and a number of strong boxes that the James gang had brought there.”

At that point the Park Ranger doused the cave’s main lights and turned on lights in the exposed tunnel. The tourists could look down the dark side-tunnel which extended for only thirty or forty feet. From there it opened into a large, brightly lit room which was staged with figures representing Jesse and members of his gang making camp.

The Park Ranger then continued her narrative. “By following the passageways and the underground river in this newly discovered section, the rangers found another exit about a mile from the main entrance. The James Gang had somehow discovered this passageway, swum underwater through it, and emerged on the other side. In this manner they could come and go as they pleased without fear of the sheriff catching them.”

As the Park Ranger was giving this lecture a young boy, about ten years old, noticed what he thought was a large and very colorful Eastern Collared Lizard scurrying along the floor. He tried to chase it but his parents restrained him. The Ranger’s lecture was quite boring to the child. The boy’s mother had taken him by the hand and held him close by her side, but the child kept craning his neck to see where the lizard had gone.

Completing this portion of the lecture, the Ranger then took the entire tour group into the natural theater, a large room in the cave that had been installed with theater seats and benches to accommodate up to one hundred tourists.

The tour guide explained, “This room is divided into two sections by a natural stalactite and flow-stone curtain that gracefully drapes from ceiling to floor forming a natural translucent curtain about seventy feet in height.”

The curtain almost cut the room into two sections, though an area on the left side was not entirely sealed off by the natural formation. Red, white and blue-colored lights were artfully trained on the curtain to accentuate the many nuances of the massive drip-water formations.

“The Park Service has prepared a special motion picture that will be projected onto the natural stalactite screen,” announced the Park Ranger. These were the last words she uttered.

The lights dimmed and the picture began. As the lights went down the young boy again noticed the colorful lizard scurrying along the floor next to the wall, only this time it was accompanied by several others, varying in length from about a foot to eighteen inches. In the semi-darkness, unbeknown to his parents, the boy slid from his aisle-side seat and began to pursue the tiny creatures. In his pursuit he wandered into a small side passageway.

Projected onto the natural stalactite screen was a billowing American flag. In the background a recording of the renowned opera singer Kate Smith sang “God Bless America.” It was a very moving depiction, with the natural rippling of the stalactite screen enhancing the fluttering of the flag.

At the height of the performance a tiny amphibious alien walked in front of the projector’s lens, partially blocking the image and casting a large shadow of an alien walking across the screen. At first the audience did not understand what was happening.

Then Gimp Foot poked its head from behind the left corner of the screen. A lady on the front row screamed. The projector flickered and the house lights momentarily came on. Gimp Foot emerged from behind the screen, stood erect and issued a loud half-roar half-trumpet sound, calling others to join it.

The Park Ranger leading the tour had never seen an animal like that before. Terrorized by the sight of the massive creature before her, yet concerned for the safety of the patrons, she bravely approached Gimp Foot in an effort to scare it off or bluff it into submission. That was a mistake she would never have time to regret. With lightning speed, Gimp Foot attacked and grabbed her in its mouth.

Park Rangers were forbidden to carry weapons, so the best she could do was to scream and wack at the creature with her flashlight. She did so several times but Gimp Foot hardly seemed to notice. Then, as easily and as quickly as a frog swallowing a moth, she was gone.

Panic overtook the patrons. In mass hysteria they ran from their seats only to find all the exits blocked by other creatures which had come from side passageways of the cave. A feeding frenzy began as the creatures lunged at the group.

The young boy who had pursued the harmless looking lizard into the side passageway watched in horror as the hungry aliens feasted upon the helpless tourists. Fearing for his life, he huddled as far back into the narrow passageway as he could, only to be quickly surrounded by a dozen of the smaller aliens. His eyes filled with terror as he discovered that the cute little creatures were not the harmless lizards he had originally thought them to be.

Large shadows of people being eaten by the creatures appeared on the stalactite screen. The lights went out momentarily then came back on again. Some of the tourists flattened themselves on the floor, trying to get beneath the benches for protection and seclusion. Others crawled into some of the smaller side passageways of the cave in hopes that the large creatures would not be able to get them.

Most of the tourists bolted from the theater, rushing past the aliens guarding the exits and spilling into the main tunnel, screaming hysterically. The alien creatures followed in quick pursuit.

They ran past the pool where the James Gang had learned of the secret tunnel and through the Grand Ballroom where another tour was just beginning.

The second group saw the remnants of the first group frantically running toward them, screaming hysterically, then saw the creatures pursuing them, and they too panicked and began to run.