A story from the What If? Anthology
Martina Crestada focused her binoculars and looked down into
the cenote, one of the sinkholes riddling the karst landscape of the Yucatan
peninsula. The building storm clouds scuttled across the face of the moon
making it flicker like a guttering candle.
“Philip, hold the flashlight still, this one isn’t filled
with water and there’s a carved altar stone in the center.”
He balanced his flashlight on the cenote’s rim to steady it.
Philip lived to make Martina happy. While he’d become fascinated with
Mesoamerican history and lore, his love of Martina was the primary reason he’d
majored in Mayan culture and the only reason he’d joined this archeological
expedition.
“Martina, we’d best hurry, the clouds are building. I smell
rain and we’re an hour from camp. It’s dangerous at night. Ocelots, jaguars,
and wolves, oh my!”
Martina pointed her flashlight upward from under her chin
ensuring Philip could see her look of disgust. “Don’t be a crybaby. I see an
altar stone on the bottom. There’s writing, but I can’t read it. Red veins.
Could be iron oxide. Maybe blood. How exciting! Philip, I hope they’re
bloodstains!”
“I’ll record the GPS reading and tell the guide we’re ready
to leave. We’ll come back tomorrow.”
The guide screamed. He
pointed at a jaguar skulking quietly as a gentle breeze and shouted “B’alam! B’alam!” The beast moved nearer
the explorers and pinned them against the pit’s edge. Philip was unarmed, he
had a flashlight, a pocketknife, and a pith helmet like the explorers wear in a
Tarzan movie.
The jaguar's eyes glowed like red coals. Philip froze in
place. The cat charged without warning and Philip threw his helmet like a flying
disk and hit the jaguar in the shoulder. He shoved Martina to one side and
stepped backward away from the leaping cat. He struggled futilely for purchase
on the crumbling pit edge. He fell into the cenote and the jaguar flew over his
head and into the pit with him. They both screamed all the way down.
Philip woke up on the decayed leaves that dotted the altar
stone. He felt his left arm. Shit,
broken. Dark down here. Where’s my
damn flashlight?”
Martina shouted, “Philip!”
“I’m alive. Broken, but alive.”
“I’ll send the guide for help.”
“Have them bring a harness. Pretty sure my arm is broken. I
can’t climb out. The air is stale, and it stinks of rotten fruit.”
“Is the jaguar, or should I say, the B’alam, dead? We can
practice speaking Mayan until help comes.”
Philip found his flashlight. The jaguar draped the altar
stone like a praying supplicant. Chiseled images of cats, snakes, and wolves
appeared and vanished with the sweeping of the flashlight’s beam. Philip crept
slowly to the jaguar and gently touched its throat seeking a pulse.
The creature opened its eyes, snarled, and bit Philip’s arm.
He tried to jerk away and cursed. “Christ, damn thing bit me. Probably has
rabies!” He searched the altar with his free hand, the one attached to a broken
arm. He caught a brief vision of an obsidian knife stored in a cubbyhole. He
gritted his teeth against the pain, stretched for the knife, and stabbed the
jaguar in the neck. The creature released his arm. He wiggled the knife until
the glow in the beast’s eyes faded to darkness. Their blood mingled and flowed
into the red-stained cracks atop the limestone altar. The stench of rotted
fruit grew overpowering. Philip couldn’t breathe, he gasped, staggered back
from the altar, his head spun, and he passed out.
The pain from the jaguar bite or his broken arm woke him. Flickering
torchlight and rancid smoke filled the cenote. Several men, costumed in ancient
Mayan ceremonial regalia, filled the cavern. He shouted for Martina. She didn’t
answer, but above him, the pit’s edge was lined with women and children.
The quiet was frightening. It was like the silent moment in a horror film before all hell breaks loose. Philip remembered from a class on negotiation that the person who speaks first, loses. He couldn’t stand it. The people just stared at him.
Read the full story in the book:
https://books2read.com/u/m27NQd
What if you think the known world isn’t strange enough? Embark on a journey that pushes the boundaries, challenges your perception, and questions reason, logic, and established beliefs.
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