Abraham fires balls of fiery death, each shot placing where he wanted them to go. He may not have understood how the weapon worked, why it coiled around his wrist, or how it just knew when to shoot, but he didn't give a damn. All that mattered was burning that thing down to the ground. With a fierce determination, each fireball exploded and blew back hot air that evaporated the sweat that had been running down his skin. The creature began to dissolve, vomiting up Louise and crying out in strange, terrible voices. It couldn't be that it was really happening though, right? The voice had to be PTSD, this thing had to be some sort of chemical and biological monstrosity. There was no way it was real.
Pushing the troubling, mindbreaking thoughts from his brain, Abraham rushed forward for where Louise laid and went to grab her and get the hell out of there. There was no more reason for them to stay there any longer than needed.
Antonio stares in horror as the -- thing -- devours Louise and then dies violently on the ground. He clutches his rosary, still holding it out, though whether as a threat or as a shield it's not clear. Demons. More demons. Like the Captain...just bigger.
The priest sinks to his knees and finds himself mumbling in Latin. He looks over to where Abraham is trying to pull what is left of Louise back from the demon's remains. He goes to help.
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Minerva sobs uncontrollably for several moments before snapping herself out of it and taking several deep breaths. Meanwhile Louise is covered in slime and wandering aimlessly, muttering in Chinese.
Abraham carefully approaches Louise, taking out a rag from his hand as he steps close.
"Louise...hey...look at me. You're alright. You're fine. It is gone, nothing bad was going to happen to you. Just...let me clean you off, yeah?" Cautiously, he would reach out to wipe the much away from her face.
Louise impassively allows Abraham to wipe her face. "It was full of stars. I heard a mad piping and the screams of gulls."
She mutters something that sounds like "Tekeli-li..."
Father Antonio kneels down to take Louise' hand. "You are alright now, Louisa. You are safe. Abraham has vanquished the demon with some sort of weapon. A small miracle perhaps." He glances at the man to see if he still held the weapon.
He refocuses back on Louise. "What are you trying to say, my dear? Tekel....?" He looks into her eyes.
Coming up from behind Antonio, Abraham places his hand on the priest's shoulder and gives a shake of his head. He had seen things like this before; kids breaking on the frontline. They weren't all there anymore and sometimes, the best thing to do was to send them back and hope they came back themselves. Maybe Louise would come back.
"We should have the guide give us instruction and let him take her back. She's just a liability now and...I don't want her getting her." Abraham murmured, his lips tightly pressed as he looked down at the girl. She had helped save his life once and while he saved hers, did he really?
Antonio nods. "Gregorio, can you take her to safety? We will press on. I think we should go to the temple. If this pillow is broken, something may have happened there. Plus, that's where we were supposed to go anyway."
Abraham agrees with Antonio, looking to their native guide to lead Louise back to the safety of the medical camp. They would be on their own from here on out. The Temple of the Dreamer awaited them.
Gregorio, as priest of his people, seems uncertain, but is a little shell-shocked himself. Without too much prodding, he leads Louise away in the direction of the camp.
Before he goes he waves a hand in a broad arc. "There are five pillows arranged in a circle. The temple is at the center." He indicates a westerly direction into the densest jungle. "But there is nothing there, my friends. Only a little stone marker, you see? The Dreamer is below the earth where no one can reach her."
Gregorio and Louise leave. What do you do?
"If the Dreamer is 'below the earth', then perhaps that is where these tunnels leads. We could either scout out the temple and the other pillows to see if they are cracked or destroyed as well. Or we could explore underneath this one and see if it might lead anywhere." He stares back at the giant stairs and shudders.
Abraham looks back down at the hole, thinking back to the message and the map that was given to them from the slain doctor.
"If that is what we need to do, maybe that was the temple guardian. If we need to go down...then lets get to it." Abraham mutters, none too excited about either option.
You can't. Not without some serious climbing gear. You blew up the staircase!
Minerva looks stunned at the events of the last few minutes. She's shaking and sits down on the ground hard. As if her legs just won't support her any longer. "Poor Louise. She wasn't cut out for this. I'm not cut out for this either" She wraps her arms around herself as if she's freezing, and stares into the jungle for a few minutes.
Then she nods, and stands. "Right. Stiff upper lip and all that. If we look at the other pillows and they have been blown open. Do you think there could be another one of those things coming up the stairs after us? I'm ok with trying to climb down this one, but I don't think Father Antonio could make it."
Antonio looks down into the dark hole with the broken staircase. He shakes his head. "I am going to break my neck if I try to climb down that. Let us find another of these pillows and see what's happened there. I pray there are no further demons like that. But maybe this is the only one that broke open too."
"Well, that grenade took out the stairs. We could request climbing gear and see about the delivery with the long range communications but that'll take time." Abraham said, peering over the side for a moment. He took a moment to consider their options before looking back at the group.
"I say we had in deeper towards the main part. Our friend says there is nothing there but the shelling could've unearthed something. Gregorio, take Louis back to camp and take her to the doctors. Tell them nothing about what happened. The rest of us will head to the temple, see what is there."
Antonio nods slowly. "As good an idea as any. If the Dreamer is indeed asleep under the marker, perhaps we will find some evidence of that with all the shelling. We should remember, however, that we are visiting a holy place. Maybe not to you or me, but to the nativos. Besides, if these demons have taken form, there is no telling what else from their beliefs might be there."
You walk through the deep rain forest of Gran Chaco, swatting at mosquitos and avoiding bogs and deep crevasses. The buzz of insects and the howls of monkeys in the trees can be heard in any direction. Occasionally you catch a glimpse of a giant snake or a wild boar.
The temple, when you find it, is obvious and not at all what Gregorio described. Amidst a field of upturned earth you find a large stone structure that has clearly risen from within the ground itself. It is a conical helix of stone, some thirty feet high, like a massive screw of stone protruding from the ground. Broken ground and displaced plants still cling to the sloping sides of the temple. No cracks or joints can be found in the structure.
"Increíble" Antonio mutters as he peers up at the spiral structure. "Whatever is happening, it's not just the bombing." He reaches out to touch the stone structure, trying to see if it's made of normal, local stone.
Enoli circles the large stone pillar, looking for any signs of writing or symbols. He looks upwards, [b]"Gregorio mentioned a marker, I assume the top of this thing, I wonder if there was any writing on it."
It is possible to edge your way carefully up the threads of the screw. The stone is smooth and hard, but doesn't appear to be extraordinary in composition.
Minerva moves up to the structure, and looks for writing. "Enoli I can try to climb it." She starts to use the screw like ridges to climb up the structure.
Antonio looks up the structure and moves to help Minerva up before he realizes he has no idea what he's doing. He ends up mostly just watching her climb. "Careful, señora Ashford."
"Just be careful, Miss Ashford." Abraham says, echoing the sentiment of the good father. Abraham surveys the area around them to see if anyone else has been here outside of them. He was certain there would likely be animal tracks but his interest was more in the human kind.
The stone is smooth, without joint or seam or door. It is very much like the point of an enormous stone screw jutting up from the ground. Minerva finds nothing else.
"So one of the pillows were open, and this thing screwed itself out of the ground. Maybe if we open more pillows it will push the tower up higher. What do you think?"
"That is good thinking, there must be a way to open the pillows without dropping bombs on it, I hope. But Enoli frowned, as he also wondered if we had to fight more of these creatures with each new pillow.
You somehow know that breaking only three will be sufficient. Like a car tire with three lug nuts missing, it won't hold together after that.
You remember seeing a case of dynamite on the packs of the mules you came in on and thought that was strange for a medical team.
As you stand debating, you hear a loud explosion in the middle distance to the northwest, causing the ground to shake. The entire temple shakes as stone and dust flake off and the temple takes on a much more aged appearance in mere moments. Minerva nearly falls, managing to grab the edge of the screw thread and hang on, dropping down to the next thread when the rumbling stops.
Looking now at the temple, lines have appeared between the pieces of stone. And right in front of Minerva is the outline of a door...
Antonio sees Minerva almost lose her grip and tries to shadow her below to catch her if she were to fall. When she doesn't, he breathes a sigh of relief, not knowing if he could have even helped her. He peers up at the cracks in the stone. "Is that...is there a door there, Señora Ashford? Does it open?"
It's about twenty feet up. Yes, you'd need to climb up, too.
Ha ha! And you thought you'd never use geometry once you got out of high school! Assuming you're out of high school, that is.
Anyway, the distance was roughly a mile and this explosion could easily be about a mile away. Minerva can see a small plume of smoke in that direction.
Certainly the explosion startled many birds that raised a great racket after a brief period of total silence.
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Then, off in the distance, you hear an all-too familiar roaring and the sudden crackle of gunfire!