The Lost Treasure Map Series (83 page)

One of the
biggest surprises he got was when examined it up close and saw how
expensive and advanced it was! The military back on the Earth would
be enraged at its loss! He could not understand how they could put
it there with such value!

Everywhere he
looked he found them searching for clues and examining things, and
realized that they were going to discover something of immense
importance!

Chapter 21

The Killer

When he arrived back at the meeting room he
heard a heavy thud that sounded like an explosion of something and
he felt it shudder through his body, and he realized someone had
fired a gun and he and Merton rushed over to where they heard it
and at the front of the castle, where they now usually avoided!

As they reached there, wondering what was
happening, they saw a strange black figure like a hairy ape
creature covered in long black hair rushing out into the jungle,
which he thought was staggering, and wondered what it was.

When it started vanishing into the trees he
looked about for what he was missing and stood confused when he saw
two of the archeologists hidden behind a tree blasting rounds of
bullets at it, and one finally hitting it!

Bryson put on a thicker jacket from his bag
and threw his bag into the castle, and rushed over to them, and he
became sure something was going to happen there as they were
getting ready to do something, and they rushed out into the jungle
and invited them to follow them and they followed, checking that it
was not going to turn darker, but he was sure that they had at
least an hour before it did.

Bryson soon started showing his presence
when he questioned one of them, while they scrambled through the
trees and he heard something in front of them giving panic-stricken
cries.

They clearly were chasing the killer out
into the jungle, after it had tried to kill one of the
archeologists and they were glad to have Bryson there.

None of them could identify the killer and
they wondered what it was and why it was killing them! None of them
clearly had seen its face, and they were positive that they had
shot and could kill it, before it escaped!

It had entered the castle and tried to kill
one of them again but had been caught this time, and it had alerted
Bryson that they had not even locked or shut the castle entrance,
especially with all the things in the jungle there!

One of the archeologists removed a light and
flashed it over a dark area, heavily surrounded in large trees, and
they watched it illuminate there, making Bryson also realize it had
become dimmer around them, with the sky above darker, and he
wondered if they had mistimed it. Was this thing even setting them
up and luring them into a trap somewhere ahead?

It turned worse later when he realized that
they were going to refuse to return until they came to a
conclusion!

Yet they had guns and many bullets, which
they had made, and the thing surely had not seen guns before, and
he realized it could have them out there in the dark with all those
things there about!

It confused him as nobody yet had properly
seen its features below its hair, which was clearly covered, and
the speed of it was incredible and like a good athlete. Yet had it
increased its running speed to get out of being caught, and he
wondered how long it could run at that speed? They were sure that
it had slowed down!

Its speed was all it had and where they had
underestimated it and it had managed to get out into the jungle,
but it had left bloodstains and footprints and them going after it
fast.

When Bryson saw one of its full
footprints he was surprised! As it looked like a human footprint,
but far smaller and lighter, with its placement strange and placed
differently than he had seen before! Yet he knew nothing like a
human or anything else could exist there, and to
Bryson
’
s
disappointment it still seemed to be traveling at a fast pace and
he wondered where the hell it was going to out there, and he
wondered if it had attacked them as they had been the same as it,
which could mean that it was on its own and at war with its own
species.

It had survived in the jungle and seemed to
know it and where it was going, and it proved that they could
survive there. He was sure that the other things in jungle when
they had arrived at the castle might have attacked them there as
they walked straight through them and openly stood against them,
and he was sure that it survived by hiding and avoiding them!

Their confidence increased by the discovery
of a large amount of blood that showed that it had been badly
wounded and that they had not imagined it, and they collected some
and examined it and Bryson was amazed that it looked the same as
theirs and as though it had been altered with something, and
something on the wound had altered it somehow, and he wondered if
they could catch it if they chased it for long enough, and he was
sure that it was attempting to keep going until they gave up!

Although they kept considering turning back
as it became darker and deeper in the jungle, and it looked as
though they could be ambushed at any time, and Bryson even started
wondering if they could make it back without getting lost there,
and even thought of leaving a trail of something.

When it finally turned to its darkest they
saw its shape away in the distance racing and stumbling through
trees, giving out cries of despair when it realized the grim truth,
and he felt sorry for it and wondered if they let it go if it would
avoid them and killing them, but he could not be sure and thought
that they should at least capture the thing and check it out! It
was far too dangerous!

He wondered where such a thing lived and why
it never moved away from such a deadly place? Why had it entered
there? Why had it killed them? And why had it kept returning?

The surprising thing was he was sure that it
could escape by climbing to the top of a tree! It was lighter and
an ape creature!

On the horizon through an area of trees he
spotted a bright glowing light, from an immense star beaming out,
with beams of radiance blasting through the darkness, through the
trees, and he watched its surreal features and tried to compare
them to anything that he had seen on the Earth, but never succeeded
and ignored it.

The archaeologists suddenly shouted and ran
away in front as fast as they could, leaving them behind.

Chapter 22

The Last Human

Away in the distance they watched the
archeologists using their lights to search for somewhere beside
some trees and stopped and Bryson tried to see what was happening,
through the trees in vague light there, and he raced towards
them.

Bryson exhausted himself trying not to
miss anything, determined to find out what happened, and was
blinded by one of the archeologist
’
s bright light as he beamed it
directly in his direction, blasting out of the blackness, and
Bryson stopped and waited until Merton caught up with him and they
continued when they saw things clearly ahead and moved over to
them, standing around something in the vegetation.

Bryson rushed over, sensing that it was
needed for some reason, almost blinded from the mixture of bright
light and intense dark there, considering everything that he was up
against and attempting to observe every place at the one time!

He listened and all he heard was a faint
wind blowing some trees about, with pieces of debris falling around
wildly.

In all the
footsteps below him he suddenly noticed the killer’s footprints and
that they staggered around and he saw that it had collapsed where
the archeologists were standing ahead of him, and he saw a trail of
blood there.

They had
attempted to fix its wound with bandages, and when Bryson stood
beside them he saw that it was still alive but very close to
death.

By their reactions he was sure that they did
not have a clue what they were dealing with now! It was dark,
within the grounds of the deadliest jungle that he had been in, and
they had chased a vicious killer animal and had shot it!

Bryson froze trying to see its face,
expecting it to attack him, and he saw that they had tied it up
with thick string.

Bryson moved in close trying to see it
properly and saw its face, and it watched a nearby branch come
falling down from a tree.

Bryson’s heart
exploded into action as he recognized its features, and its facial
features were directly illuminated by one of the lights!

He watched the
figure almost fall sideways, barely able to stay alive, and he saw
its blood was the same!

Merton
strolled there, not shining his light there, as though not daring
to – approaching in wonder as though he were going to meet the
devil himself!

Bryson stared
down in horror at what he was positive had to be a genetic cross
between a human and some alien, crippled across the ground!

It resembled
some form of ghost there, with it giving weak splutters from its
mouth!

“
Do you
know what it is?” one of the archeologists muttered, slightly
shivering and gritting his teeth.

And they
waited for Bryson to say something!

“
I want
to try to talk to it first!” he pleaded, and they moved back and
Bryson knelt down beside it.

“
Scientists!
”
its weak voice muttered, making
them gasp, and Bryson nodded in agreement, amazed it could speak
his language.

“
Are you human?
”

“
Yes! The last of your future species
of human! The last of us returned to living as animals years
ago!
”

“
How did you get here
though?
”
he
asked confused.

“
We were
on the last starship to leave Earth, traveling to a dazzling new
world hidden in the depths of the galaxy! It was believed that
there was nobody left on the Earth! But we encountered something in
the depths of space, far beyond the solar system, and though we had
one of the most advanced and powerful starships created with the
most advanced defenses it captured it! We were in suspended
animation and were brought out of it to witness what
happened!

“
It
brought our starship down on this island, where it rests to this
day!”

“
Where
is it buried?” Bryson asked, amazed, and amazed that they could
have missed it.

“
The
castle!”

“
That
castle is a starship?” one of the archeologists gasped.

“
It was
designed and controlled by our most advanced computers, and was
capable of many things, and was capable of altering itself into
many things, which we wanted, and supplying us with all our needs!
Except the alien encounter!

“
Our
leaders and people decided on the castle as a defense, with the
defenses that they created to defend it from the things on this
island and on the other worlds it moved to!

“
This
Earth island moved from world to world, uncontrollably, and more
and more people made mistakes and died! Many of us reentered
suspended animation, and made frequent reappearances, controlled by
its computers, taking us out of suspended animation to view any
changes or anything we asked to be brought out of it for! I was
determined to be the last, and asked it be, and I watched our
people slowly die away. They had wars and deaths from the dangers
here!”

Bryson
realized that it had been them that had built the canyon and tunnel
that they had found there, and that it had been humans that had
built everything there! Then he recalled what had happened when he
had been going down the stone steps in the tunnel from the canyon
and that he had left space and time, and he knew that it was not
the humans there, and their technology was not good enough to do
it, and he recalled being analyzed and tested by something, before
he awakened in the room below, and he knew it was the thing that
had landed the starship and the airplane on the island.

“
Where
did this alien look like?” Bryson asked, concerned.

“
Nobody
has ever saw it! I think it only used its powers one other time! I
think some people found it and attacked it!”

“
Where
did they find it?”

“
I think
it was detected directly below the castle!”

“
Below
the tower?”

“
Yes!
There! Where you are investigating it!”

“
Why do
all those things at this place avoid the castle?”

“
The
castle has defenses against them! Hidden energy shields that
detects them that they avoid as they can kill them, or damage them
until they leave its grounds!”

“
So what
happened to the top floor of the castle?”

“
The
starship’s functions and energy supplies diminished over millions
of years ... And it will eventually no longer function!”

“
Millions of years!” Bryson gasped, amazed at how much they
had underestimated it. “Your millions of years old?”

“
Yes!
Perhaps billions! I have changed my lifestyle a great deal every
time I have been awakened from suspended animation! I only awoke
this time on your appearance here!”

“
Did you
actually see this alien actually kill anyone directly?”