The ford was indeed quite shallow and the four Caduceus operatives crossed it quickly and easily, the water never rising above the tops of their knees.
The west side of the river was much like the east, a small clearing with a single trail leading off to the northwest. Three dead Peruvian soldiers were scattered about. Vivienne picked one at random and went through his pockets, looking for anything that might help them understand what happened here, but only found a handful of local currency, a cigarette lighter, and a badly worn family photo. She pocketed the lighter but left the rest.
Rolling him over she was surprised at what she found, and whistled softly. The others turned and saw that the soldier had fallen atop his gun, which wasn't the standard issue rifle or shotgun but instead a fairly large BAR - a Browning Automatic Rifle.
"Now that is a serious gun," Ralph observed.
Maddie was fascinated. She picked it up and put the strap over her shoulder. It was huge compared to her, but she didn't seem to notice. "Pappy's hunting rifle was this big to me when I was a kid, and I shot that just fine," she said, giving it the once-over.
Vivienne found two full magazines for the BAR and handed them to Maddie, who stashed them away in what seemed like a never-ending supply of pockets inside her wrap-around clothing.
Vivienne looked at Ursini's map. "I'm guessing this trail will take us to the site of the battle."
"Well that's the way we need to go then," said Colt, hiking up has pants and trying to show more confidence than he felt.
While Vivienne and Ralph could see past the bravado, Maddie stayed close to the much older Colt. "I'll walk with you," she said, the long rifle swinging back and forth as she walked, the barrel occasionally hitting her or Colt in the leg.
Vivienne and Ralph watched as they walked toward the trail, then looked at each other. Vivienne was about to say something but stopped herself. Ralph simply shrugged and began to follow.
The trail quickly turned due west and Maddie noticed some faint tire tracks, the source of which became evident a minute or so later when they emerged into another clearing. About 50 feet away sat an army truck, the canvas covering of its cargo area tattered by shrapnel and the front bumper dented badly by the boulder it came to rest against.
But it was the scene in the center of the clearing that really got their attention. Partly surrounded by shrubs was what had once been a roughly 50 foot diameter stone disc in the ground. Two craters, both partially filled with water, were near it, speaking to a likely artillery strike. The disc itself also appeared to have been hit, as a substantial portion was blasted away revealing a dark hole.
"I'm going to see if I can get that truck running," Ralph said, heading over to the vehicle, Colt following.
Vivienne walked over to Maddie. "Let's check out that hole," she said. Maddie nodded, moving her shoulders a bit to re-situate the BAR.
The women looked into the hole and saw a stone spiral staircase hugging the inner wall, spinning downward into the darkness. They figured they could see about 30 feet down given the position of the sun, but that wasn't enough for hem to see the bottom. The stone steps looked sturdy enough, but with no railing they also carried an air of danger.
"Pretty sure I can get this running," Ralph shouted as he poked around under the hood of the truck. "No serious damage here."
"Guys, come over and look at this," Vivienne replied. "There are stairs leading down into this hole."
Ralph and Colt headed over and the four of them stared silently into the hole. The sides of the shaft were made of cut stone. Whatever this was, it had been built intentionally.
"I've got an idea," Colt said. He walked back over to the truck, climbed into the back, and emerged a few moments later with a can of gasoline and brought over to the side of the hole. "We'll make a torch. Does anyone have a knife?"
Maddie pulled a large blade from her robe, causing Colt to step back momentarily in surprise. "Uh, yeah, thank you Maddie." Removing a handkerchief from one of his own pockets he wrapped it around the knife, then poured a bit of gas on it.
"A torch!" he proclaimed, feeling quite satisfied. "C'mon, let's go."
The steps came right up to one of the broken sections of what had once been the topper stone, so it was easy to climb onto the steps and head down. Once they reached a point where they were having trouble seeing, Colt pulled out his lighter and lit the makeshift torch, which burned brightly. He smiled and nodded, then began heading down.
After two more revolutions they still couldn't see the bottom. "I have an idea," Colt said. He held the knife over the shaft and shook it, causing the burning handkerchief to fall downward. It flitted to and fro, burning brightly for a few seconds before the remaining fabric was consumed and it went out. They still had not caught sight of the bottom of the shaft.
Vivienne sighed. "Great plan. Now we can't see at all."
The four of them looked back up the shaft where they could see blue sky. "Yeah," Colt admitted, "maybe we should have made more torches..."
Which is exactly what they did, returning to the surface to collect sticks and strips of fabric from the back of the truck before returning to the hole. This time the had no trouble making their way down, though it took well over 20 minutes to get to the bottom, the sky just a pinhole above their heads.
The walls surrounding the bottom of the shaft were covered in bas-relief. Snake-like humanoids were shown doing various things, as were some larger, hairy creatures leashed with collars and chains that appeared to be some kind of slave class.
Vivienne was struck by a section of wall that looked familiar. She pulled out both maps and held them up to the wall. "This looks like the river. And that would mean this," she said, pointing to a spot marked with a circle, "is most likely this shaft."
The others came over to look. In fact there appeared to be five such circles, the closest to them being to the northwest and southwest. The circles were all connected by lines in a way that made them form an inverted pentagram, in the center of which was a shape that looked like a corkscrew. To the left of this apparent map was the figure of another snake person, taller than all the others, wearing robes and a crown capped with the heads of seven snakes.
Vivienne turned to the others. "Shapiro said the wards might be spread out in an occult pattern. That looks pretty occult to me."
Vivienne traced the pattern in her notebook, and after searching the bottom of the shaft a bit further they headed back toward the surface. It was now late afternoon and they hadn't eaten for a while. Plus they had to decide if they were going to chance returning to the village.
Just short of the top they heard voices, and looking up saw a pair of helmeted heads. They couldn't see the rest of the bodies from the angle, but they were fairly certain these were Bolivian soldiers.
"I wish we could just find the other stones like this one and break them," one said to the other. "I'm tired of all this walking aimlessly through the jungle."
After much whispered discussion the party hatched a plan. Maddie left her BAR with the others, then circled around to the southern part of the stairs, one spiral from the top, and called out to the soldiers, who were stationed at the northern edge. "Help," she said in Spanish. "I feel down here and hurt my leg." The rest of the group was half a turn down on the stairs against the north side waiting to spring their ambush.
The soldiers turned and looked into the shaft. "Show yourself!" one shouted down.
Maddie stuck her leg out, her clothing pulled up, hoping that the sight of some female skin might help lure them down to where the others could engage them. "I'm from the village," she said.
The soldiers were not in a caring mood. "Woman, make your way up here now. If you don't, when we get back to the village we're going to start killing people."
Maddie looked to the others. Colt mimed that she should go up and surrender and that they would follow. This plan was going to hell quickly.
Maddie headed up and the soldiers helped her out of the hole. With one holding each arm they called to the rest of their patrol and began leading her around the craters and toward the truck where another four soldiers and their lieutenant were resting.
With all eyes on Maddie the Caduceus team was able to exit the hole and make it to the cover of some shrubs. But honestly, they didn't have a plan.
Before that became a problem, however, massive crashing sounds came from the east. All the Bolivians turned to look, as did the party.
What emerged from the jungle was horrifying, a black blob of undulation the size of a barn that poured out of the trees.
"Oh god oh god oh god," Vivienne muttered, shock pouring through her system at the sight of this... this... this thing that should not be.
The Bolivians were also terrified and frozen in place. In the blink of an eye, two inky tendrils lashed from the creature. One wrapped around the guard holding Maddie's left arm, flinging him across the clearing and smashing him into a tree. Maddie's other escort was wrapped up and pulled... inside the thing, where he disappeared with a plopping sound.
Colt remembered the words of the Indian philosopher Chanakya. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. With that he pulled his pistol and strode forward purposefully and started shooting, the others following suit. Vivienne fired wildly and missed, her adrenaline causing her to shake badly at the horror of what was unfolding. Looking into the crater she saw Maddie pull out the flame-throwing snake bracelet and put it against her arm. Vivienne swore it moved like an actual snake as it coiled around the girl's forearm.
The creature moved with a speed belied by its size, flattening another soldier and launching another dozens of feet through the air. Shotgun blasts were simply absorbed by the creature's form, seemingly inflicting no damage at all as the Bolivians retreated in panic.
The officer seemed to be made of sterner stuff, however. He pulled a stick of dynamite from his back and lit the fuse. Just as his arm was coming forward to throw it at the creature, however, he took a bullet in the shoulder courtesy of Colt and the explosive went wide of its mark, landing under the truck and blowing it to pieces.
"Clarification," Ralph said, without the slightest hint of sarcasm. "I don't think I can get the truck running."
The creature smashed the remaining Bolivians flat, then began to undulate toward the Caduceus team. A streak of flame shot into the air from the crater. "Dang it!" yelled Maddie, frustrated with missing such a massive target and shaking her arm, trying to figure out how to get the bracelet to do what she wanted it to.
Colt was now closest to the... well, whatever this thing was. And he realized at that moment he was going to die. He felt strangely at peace with it, though, having had such an interesting final day. He was so pre-occupied with his pending demise that he failed to notice the red, sparkling stick arcing over his head.
Ralph's throw was perfect. The dynamite exploded just as it hit the top of the creature, splitting it two and ejecting black goo everywhere, a wave of which struck Colt, covering him in foul ichor. But with that, the clearing fell silent again.
There wasn't much left of the Bolivians to search.
The group landed on two options. One was to return to the hut where they left the radio and hunker down for the evening. The other was to trek through the forest and see if they could find the building shown in the middle of the wards on the bas-relief, which could be the temple they were looking for. They ultimately decided to look for the temple, but everyone agreed they did not want to spend the night out in the open.
There was no trail, but progress was still reasonable as the jungle wasn't overly dense. After half an hour of hacking they emerged into another clearing, in the center of which was a structure that looked like the sharp end of a screw protruding from the ground. It rose about 20 feet and appeared to be made of stone, with a walkway spiraling up the side. The churned earth around it didn't appear to be completely fresh, nor did it look old. This had happened recently, but how recently the couldn't say.
Walking around the object they saw no way in and surmised that they may need to do something to get it to rise further out of the ground. But the sun was getting low, so that would need to be a job for tomorrow.
Returning to their hideaway they found the mule they'd left behind had been killed by some kind of predator, though there was more than enough meat left behind to feed them. Maddie, no stranger to hunting and skinning, quickly went to work. Vivienne, too shaken to be much help, gave Maddie the lighter she'd taken from the dead Peruvian so she could start a fire.
The team checked in with Shapiro at Caduceus HQ and it was agreed that they'd head out in the morning to find another of the wards.
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