Polar Yeti And The Beasts Of Prehistory (6 page)

Yukon roared at the saber-toothed cat and the feline growled in response then sprang at the Yeti. The quicker cat once more managed to dig its claws into the Yeti’s hip. The cat pulled his head back to plunge it into the primate’s leg. Before the cat could bring its head forward Yukon’s left hand wrapped around the cat’s neck and held it still. Yukon reached down with his right hand, grabbed one of the cat’s long canines, and with a turn of his wrist, the Yeti snapped the long weapon out of the cat’s mouth. Yukon continued to hold the cat in his grip as he lifted the broken tooth over his head then plunged the cat’s own tooth into his back. Yukon then forced the cat to the ground with his left hand while repeatedly striking the predator with his right fist. Gina watched in horror as Yukon continued to pound on the saber-toothed cat long after it had perished. Yukon did not cease his brutal attack until the remains of the male cat were little more than a pool of slush and blood. With his opponents defeated, the Yeti stood and looked at Gina. The Yeti’s normally white fur was now almost entirely red and blood soaked. The Yeti threw his arms out and roared at the valley proclaiming his victory.

Once Yukon had finished roaring, Gina could feel the adrenaline in her body wearing off. Without the rush of adrenaline, she could now feel the cold that gripped her body. The only source of warmth available to her was Yukon himself. Like a toddler approaching her father, Gina walked over to Yukon with her arms open in a gesture for the monster to pick her up. Yukon looked down at Gina for a moment then he scooped her up in his warm and bloody hand. As soon as Yukon’s fingers wrapped around Gina, she immediately felt her body warm up. Despite the blood that was soaking into her outer layer of clothing, Gina pulled her legs up toward her chest and slouched down as low as she could. She was trying to get as much of her body and in particular her fingers and toes into the warm palm of Yukon’s hand.

With Gina safely in his grip, the Yeti took one last look at the vanquished cats and then he continued his journey farther south.

Chapter 8

Henry gripped the controls to his snowmobile with such force that his hands were shaking. He had the vehicle moving at full speed but he kept pushing the accelerator as hard as he could, as if by doing so he could will the machine to move faster. All that he could think about was how the monster had a several hour head start over them into a valley that they had never seen before. Those thoughts coupled with the fact that the monster took Gina out into subzero temperatures during a blizzard all added to Henry’s concern for his wife.

When the valley came into view, Henry leaned forward and pushed down on the accelerator even harder. He maneuvered the snowmobile at full speed through several of the large boulders that dotted the entrance to the valley. The snowmobile went up the incline into the valley and launched itself into the air when it reached the apex of the valley pass.

The snowmobile hit the snow of the valley and Henry was about to take off in an eastern direction when Jun-Tuk tapped him on the shoulder. “We must wait for the others. We have greater safety in numbers and we must also determine which direction the Yeti took your wife in. This valley is large. If we simply move around it without a definite direction, we will move to far away from the valley pass to make our way back out. If we become lost in the valley, it will be only a few days before the animals or the elements end our lives.”

Henry nodded in reply. Jun-Tuk was right. As anxious as Henry was to rescue Gina, he knew that keeping a level head and following a plan would be the most effective way to locate his wife.

A moment later, Rodgers and the rest of the rescue team pulled up next to Henry and Jun-Tuk. “Henry, you have to wait for everyone else before you just take off. We need to move as a group if we are going to be successful.” Henry nodded silently in reply to the hunter. Rodgers returned the nod and then looked at Gordon. “Do we have anything from either the radio or the transmitter that Professor Murella took with her?”

Gordon looked at the transmitter to see that it was still not receiving any information. He then put the radio up to his mouth and turned it on. “Professor Murella, this is Tony Gordon, do you copy?” There was no answer, and after waiting ten seconds, he spoke into the radio again, “Professor Murella, this is Tony Gordon, do you copy?” Once again, there was no reply. Gordon looked toward Rodgers. “Nothing. It seems as if Professor Murella still has her communication equipment turned off.”

Rodgers shrugged then he directed his attention to Jun-Tuk. “Well, what direction do we head from here?”

Jun-Tuk didn’t wait for Henry to translate. He knew what the hunter was asking him to do. Jun-Tuk climbed off the snowmobile and walked roughly thirty feet to the right side of the valley pass. Once he reached the steepest section of the mountain on which he could still stand upright, he bent down and took a long look at the snow around him. After staring at the snow, he stood and he began walking back down the slope of the mountain and into the valley. He walked in a wide arch from one side of the valley pass to the other. As he walked, he kept his head down, constantly staring at the snow. When he reached the right side of the valley pass, he climbed that as well. He had walked up about halfway up the base of the mountain when he suddenly stopped and bent down. The old man stood and then he began taking large steps in a southern direction. He took five steps that covered the maximum length of his stride. He took five more steps and then bent down again and looked at the snow. He nodded and then looked toward Henry. “The Yeti took your wife in a southern direction.” He pointed to the snow. “There are indents in the snow that take five large steps for me to cover. They are the steps of a beast that walks on two legs. The snow filled in most of the tracks but the Yeti is heavy and his feet are large. As long as we keep the dog-less sleds from moving over the tracks, I believe that I can track him.”

Henry translated for the rest of the group, and after hearing what Jun-Tuk had to say, both Gordon and Rodgers walked over to where the old man was to inspect his findings. Gordon bent down to examine the snow, and when Jun-Tuk pointed to the indentations, Gordon nodded affirmatively then returned to his snowmobile. Rodgers was skeptical of the native’s ability to track an animal, but when Jun-Tuk showed him the evidence, he begrudgingly had to admit that he concurred with the old man’s findings. Rodgers looked at the rest of the rescue team and shouted, “We have tracks that are heading in a southern direction. We will reform our circle with Jun-Tuk taking point on the right side of the circle nearest to the tracks. It is important that we don’t run over the tracks themselves.” Rodgers looked specifically at Henry. “We also need to maintain a moderate speed. Moving faster won’t help us or Professor Murella if we lose the tracks and get lost in the valley.”

Henry nodded as Jun-Tuk was climbing back onto his snowmobile. Satisfied that everyone understood his orders, Rodgers climbed back onto his snowmobile and the group started following the tracks in pursuit of the Yeti. The group followed the tracks for over twenty minutes when Rodgers signaled for them to stop. The hunter stared out across the ice at a large brown creature that was staring back at him. Rodgers slowly stood up to get a better look at the creature. It was standing roughly two hundred yards away from the group. The creature stood on four feet and it was covered in brown fur. The creature was not as large as the mammoths that Rodgers had seen the day before. This creature was slightly smaller than the mammoths. The beast was about fifteen feet long and roughly stood ten feet at the top of its shoulders. The creature’s face was long and it ended in a huge brown horn.

Henry pulled up next to Rodgers. “What are we stopping for?”

Rodgers pointed out at the brown mass. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say that’s a rhinoceros.”

Gordon and Dana pulled up on the other side of Rodgers as Henry took a look through his binoculars. “It’s a woolly rhino. It’s the Ice Age equivalent of our modern rhino just as the wooly mammoth is the Ice Age equivalent to our modern elephant. Just like the mammoth and the elephant, the wooly rhino is larger and stronger than the modern version.”

Dana was sitting behind Gordon on one of the snowmobiles. She slid off the vehicle and walked over toward Henry. “I’ve only ever seen rhino’s on TV and at the zoo, but I am sure that I have heard they are extremely aggressive. Maybe we should just move on before that thing thinks that we are a threat to it.”

Rodgers started walking to edge of the snowmobiles closer to the wooly rhino. When he reached the end of the snowmobiles he pulled his rifle off his shoulder and dropped to one knee.

He was taking aim at the animal when Henry shouted at him. “Rodgers, what the hell are you doing? That thing isn’t bothering us. Just leave it alone.”

Rodgers shook his head. “That head of that thing alone will make me a millionaire. Then I won’t have to concern myself with whether or not you or your wife signs my checks.” Before Henry could respond, Rodgers lifted his rifle and fired at the beast. The shot rang out and echoed across the barren terrain. The bullet struck the rhino and ricocheted off its thick hide. The beast snorted, turned toward the snowmobiles, lowered its head, and charged the rescue team.

The beast was moving with incredible speed for its size. Henry screamed, “Move people! Get the hell away from that thing!” Most of the rescue team jumped onto their snowmobiles. Dana climbed onto Gordon’s snowmobile and she wrapped her arms around the young hunter as they sped off. As everyone else was fleeing, Rodgers maintained his position and fired another shot at the rhino. The second shot caught the charging rhino in the shoulder and managed to penetrate its tough skin. The enraged beast snorted and continued to charge. Rodgers quickly realized that he would not be able to bring down the charging animal. He stood up and turned to run for his snowmobile. He took two steps and walked directly into the path of one of the oncoming snowmobiles. The team members veered to the right to avoid Rodgers and they crashed into a second snowmobile causing both vehicles to fall onto their sides and sending four team members tumbling through the snow.

Rodgers took one look at the fallen people, then he ran to his snowmobile, and jumped onto to it. The hunter sped away as the unarmed graduate students tried desperately to lift up their snowmobiles. Henry was speeding away when Jun-Tuk tapped Henry on the shoulder and shouted for him to turn around. Henry looked over his shoulder to see the wooly rhino quickly closing in on the graduate students. Henry looked over at Gordon and shouted, “Gordon, we have people down!” He then turned his snowmobile around and started heading for the graduate students.

Gordon didn’t waste time responding. He turned his snowmobile around and followed Henry back toward the graduate students with Dana holding tightly onto his waist. The wooly rhino had almost reached the graduate students when Gordon yanked his rifle off his shoulder and fired a desperate shot at the charging beast. The bullet struck the animal in the stomach, and while it managed to penetrate the animal’s hide, it didn’t slow down the charging monster. The wooly rhino slammed into the downed snowmobile with the force of a runaway train. The snowmobile went sliding across the snow as two of the students were trampled to death under the feet of the charging behemoth. Henry watched helplessly as his students were crushed into nothing more than a red and white pulp beneath the wooly rhino’s feet. The remaining two students were screaming in terror and running toward the snowmobile when the rhino turned to them and charged. The beast lowered his head and used his horn to toss one of the students into the air. The screaming young woman flew twenty feet in the air before landing on her head, instantly crushing her skull and breaking her spine. The last surviving student was roughly fifty feet from Henry when the wooly rhino’s massive horn entered her back and exploded out of her chest. The woman was screaming in agony until a gunshot sounded and her head exploded. Henry looked to his right to see Gordon holding his rifle in his hand. The hunter was frantically signaling Henry to turn around. Henry nodded and spun his snowmobile around less than ten feet from the wooly rhino. From the corner of his eye, Henry saw the wooly rhino shake his head to send the corpse of the graduate student flying off his horn and into the snow.

Henry had just completed his turn when the wooly rhino charged his snowmobile. Gordon’s snowmobile was just ahead of Henry and the rest of the rescue team was in the distance far ahead of them and still speeding away. Henry was pushing his vehicle to the limit and even with that he could hear the monster gaining on him. He feared that at any second the beast would upend his snowmobile and end his life.

Henry dared to take one last look over his shoulder to see the wooly rhino slowing down and then turning away from the fleeing snowmobiles. After moving at full speed for fifteen minutes, the rescue team finally came to a stop to regroup and assess their current situation. Henry could see Rodgers pulling his snowmobile to a stop in the group ahead of him. Henry pulled up alongside of Rodgers then he jumped off his snowmobile. The normally calm Henry grabbed Rodgers by the shoulder and then he punched the hunter in the jaw. Rodgers stumbled backward as Henry yelled at him. “Those kids are dead because of you! I told you to leave that rhino alone! If you hadn’t been thinking of making yourself rich, those kids would still be alive!”

Rodgers sneered. “And if you hadn’t convinced Princeton to send you down here, your wife wouldn’t be in the clutches of a Yeti.”

Henry went to strike the hunter again when Gordon stepped between the two men. “This isn’t helping. We need to decide what we are going to do and move on.”

Henry nodded. “Okay, from now on, Gordon is in charge of making decisions when we come across the creatures in this valley.” He turned to Gordon. “Don’t fire on anything unless we have to in self-defense.”

Gordon nodded at Henry as Dana walked up beside him. “Thank you for sparing that girl from a slow and painful death.”

Gordon shrugged. “I couldn’t save her but the least that I could do was to end her suffering.”

Dana hugged him. “You did the right thing.”

As Dana was hugging Gordon, Henry climbed back onto his snowmobile and shouted, “Alright everyone, there is nothing else that we can do here. Let’s keep moving before some other monster comes along.”