Doctor Ville's Stream
Josh watched with growing dismay as his companion prepared to enter the cave. Luc Faber, spelunker and guide, had already stripped completely naked. Now he was wrapping a handful of candles in a plastic bag. The slender wax sticks appeared to be the Belgian's only piece of equipment.
"Luc? What the bloody hell are you doing?" Josh asked finally. Under other circumstances Josh might have found the man's eccentricities amusing, but he was nervous enough as it was. They had only met six hours earlier in the bustling town of Coban, but his safety depended on the spelunker's skills.
Josh wished, not for the first time, that he had been allowed to play a more active role in planning the trip. Professor Goodman, the tyrannical Head of the School of Zoology, had overseen all the preparations himself, and Josh had not found out the details until he was already far from England's safe shores. Where the hell did they find this guy?
Luc finished securing his candles and then cast Josh a look of such savage pity that the younger man felt like a stray dog begging at a connoisseur's table. "How many caverns have you explored, Mister Researcher?" he asked.
Josh puffed out his chest a little and matched the Belgian's gaze. "Enough to know that clothes and electric light are usually of benefit."
"Ha! Did the great Norbert Casteret need electric lights when he explored the grotto of Montespan in 1922? Did he need your high-tech clothes and gadgets?" Luc waited only a heartbeat before answering his own questions. "No! He swam naked through glacial waters. He saw by candlelight alone. And Casteret..." Luc leaned close to Josh's face. "He was the finest speleologist of them all. The best!"
"Whatever you say Luc. Just get me in and out of there in one piece. I'm depending on you."
The two men stared out at the Guatemalan forest. Beyond the overhang of the cliff, under which they sheltered, warm rain teemed down over lush tropical growth. Somewhere nearby a howler monkey let out a mournful whooping cry.
"I don't think that you have much choice, hmm? You are not in England now." Luc's mouth stretched into a tight smile.
Josh felt suddenly defeated. Turning from the forest, he stared down the throat of the cave that they were to enter. "You know, this is my first proper expedition for the University. I'm not much more than a glorified lab technician really," he said. His jaw worked unconsciously, chewing at his bottom lip until a dull pain made him stop. "The closest I've got to fieldwork in the past was checking the life spans of a colony of fruit flies near Southampton. The department only sent me out here because they wouldn't miss me."
Luc shrugged. "I am surprised that a university would send any one at all to validate the findings of their own man."
At the mention of the trip's progenitor, the mysterious Doctor Ville, Josh's enthusiasm flickered into life like a flame fed oxygen. "Ville is a legend on campus. He's a genius! What he doesn't know about invertebrate morphology and behaviour isn't worth knowing," Josh exclaimed. "The problem is that he's also a little... quirky. The Head of the School isn't willing to risk publishing without concrete evidence of the new species, but Ville didn't even include photographs, yet alone samples, in his initial report." Josh's brow creased. "Nobody's heard from him since then. It's not the first time he's taken off, but it is strange after such an important discovery."
"And yet they will still pay for us to come here and investigate?" Luc shook his head. "It seems that your Doctor Ville is a little crazy."
"Maybe, but if these creatures really do exist it will be a massive story!" Josh felt his cheeks flush with excitement. "Ville will have to come out in public then. You can't announce the discovery of a dozen new species and then just disappear."
"Well then, let us go and see if your little bugs are at home, eh?"
Josh tried not to focus on Luc's tight buttocks swaggering off into the darkness ahead. Taking one last look at the daylight, he entered the cave.
#
The following is an extract from the report of Doctor Harris Ville, as received by the University of Haddesworth in March of 2003.
#
8th February 2003
Nepa Anophthalma, the Romanian water scorpion, is the closest extant species to this animal. I have observed the feeding behaviour: the prey is held fast in its pincers whilst the beak is inserted into the flesh. The scorpion then sucks the insides out of its meal, usually a water flea or other small invertebrate. It may seem a disagreeable technique to us, but it is essentially identical to the behaviour of other cave-based animals of its type.
What marks this specimen as different is its bioluminescence. While the emission of light by animals is obviously not uncommon, it is the purpose here that I cannot decipher. What can be the evolutionary benefit of the ripples of red light as it pounces on its prey? Or of the slow, satisfied pulses of green as it feeds? They are almost analogous to human emotions...
This hidden stream is yielding many surprises. I must return equipped for a longer stay.
#
Josh watched with admiration as Luc scaled a slippery seven-foot wall. He had to admit that the eccentric speleologist did seem to know what he was doing.
A rope slithered down the rock, and Josh began to haul himself painfully up. As well as his availability, Josh knew he had been handed this assignment because of his physical fitness. He might have been a decent rugby player, but he was finding out the hard way that he was no spelunker. "Take that bloody smile off your face Luc," he warned.
There was a cracking sound as Josh's bag, packed with specimen jars and cameras, swung heavily into the rock. His feet flailed clumsily in the air.
"Bien?" Came the jolly query from above.
"Smashing."
Josh's feet made contact, and he began to climb again, eventually hauling himself to the top. "How far have we come now?" he asked, when he had stopped gulping air like a fish on a riverbank.
"Only two hundred feet."
Josh rested on his haunches. "Doctor Ville's stream is about eight hundred feet in, right?"
Josh frowned at Luc's answering nod. He hoped that the Belgian had memorised a map of the cave, because he did not appear to be carrying one. There weren't many places he could hide it.
"Ville only found the creatures in the area around the stream," Josh continued. "We'd been hoping for samples from his later trips, but he never sent any." The wet rock had soaked Josh's expensive trekking gear, and now it clung coldly to his skin. He shivered. "Have you been in many caverns this deep?"
Luc crouched by the Josh's side. "The chasm of Spluga della Preta is over two thousand feet deep; the complex at Mont Corchia more than three thousand five hundred. Both of these I have conquered," Luc whispered.
Then he stood upright and held his candle to the narrow passageway that twisted away into the earth. "But every cavern has its own secrets - its own challenges. Depth is not the only concern."
Josh choked back a laugh. His guide was becoming more melodramatic by the moment. "Umm, Luc, Doctor Ville is sixty-three years old. If he managed it I think we should be alright, don't you?"
Luc scowled. He clearly did not like to be rebuked in his own domain. Slowly, a mischievous look crept onto his face. "Do you know monsieur, the name of this cave?"
"No. Well, only in Spanish - La Cueva de los Niños Perdidos."
"It means, 'The Cave of the Lost Children'"
"Really? Why's that?"
Luc laughed in what Josh thought was an unnecessarily sinister way. "You will find out soon enough... "
With that Luc began to descend the sloping passage, his candle casting flickering shadows around him. The Englishman followed with a degree of trepidation, a wide electric beam lighting his way.
#
12th February 2003
Haemopis Caeca, the cave leech; but here again the luminescence marks this specimen as different. And the aggressiveness of these tiny parasites! Like all the creatures here they are unnaturally voracious.
I am beginning to suspect that the stream is not as pure as I first thought, but what contamination could cause these mutations I do not know.
For once it is unlikely to be a manmade pollutant: I am too far into the wilds of this primitive country, and the habitat is surely too deep for surface chemicals to penetrate.
#
"Your pretty rucksack is waterproof, I assume?"
Josh felt his heart sink. Luc had stopped before a pool that marked the end of the passage. There was no way to go except into the water.
"This is a seasonal siphon," Luc said. "If you do not like to get wet, we should not have come during the wet season." Luc's grin suggested he at least was glad that they had.
"That's why the flights were so cheap!" Josh exclaimed. "Bloody tight-fisted university."
Luc gestured to the pool. "You go first, then I can ensure that you do not get stuck."
"Hmm. I suppose that makes sense." Josh waded until his rucksack began to float off his back. The water was cold, and the floor beneath hard and slippery smooth.
"I will bring your bag," Luc called from the shore, "just try to get yourself through, eh? From Ville's map, there will be a passage below the surface. It is only six feet long - facile!"
It did not feel easy to Josh. He shrugged off the rucksack and left it for Luc. Then, with a deep breath, he plunged into the clear water. His forehead-mounted light showed the tunnel entrance below. Crouching down, he could see into the submerged passageway, but not to the far end.
Unwilling to show hesitation in front of a naked Belgian, Josh launched himself forward. Immediately a wave of panic hit him, the walls pressing in and seeming to force the air from his lungs.
For a nervous moment he considered turning back, but then his electric light showed a change in the ceiling up ahead. Brown rock was replaced by the shimmering silver of air. Chest pounding and eyes aching, Josh kicked out towards the surface.
He emerged to the chattering voices of lost children.
#
14th February 2003
Today I reached an area with an incredibly high bio-density. It is a natural pool some six hundred feet upstream from my initial entry point. All the previously described species are represented here, along with a luminescent form of centipede that hunts tirelessly at the water's edge.
I am glad now that I was unable to secure the services of a guide for this trip. The locals' incessant talking would have distracted from the magic of the grotto.
I turned the torches off, and sat for an hour whilst all around the lights of the creatures danced.
Violet pulses flitted down the backs of the centipedes roaming over the walls and ceilings. Magnified by the water I saw threadworms and water lice flickering yellow in distress, as the scarlet hunting pulses of the Nepa Anaphthalma pursued them. The babbling of the stream lent a further unearthly ambience, an eerie soundtrack to the life and death unfolding about me.
It is amazing that the ecosystem here can support itself. The hunters are so active, so ferocious, like tiny jaguars amongst a herd of miniature peccary. They even seem to have an interest in me!
I must find the source of these aberrations in form and behaviour.
#
Josh sat shivering on a shelf of rock. Ghostly sounds echoed around him. Rusty mineral deposits loomed like faces from the walls.
He flashed his electric lamp here and there, trying to illuminate the whole cave at once, but this only conjured more fleeting phantoms. His lip was sore from nervous chewing. His chest felt tight.
After an age, a torrent of bubbles rushed up from the dark pool, and Luc's happy face appeared. Josh's relief was short lived. "You sod - you could've warned me!"
Luc hauled his naked body out of the water and grinned. "I thought Doctor Ville's notes would have prepared you," he replied, his eyes wide with feigned innocence.
They listened in silence to the sounds that had earlier been blocked by the water of the siphon. The gentle chatter ebbed and flowed, as though a dozen children were running through the caves somewhere deep below them. Josh swore that he could almost distinguish individual voices.
"It is beautiful is it not?" Luc said. He unwrapped his candles carefully and lit one.
"I suppose it is, in a spooky way. What is it?"
"That, monsieur, is Doctor Ville's stream. The noise of its flow over stones and pebbles is twisted by the acoustics of the passages." Luc paused, a wistful expression on his face. "This is the source of many myths, all over the world. Ghosts and goblins of the mountains - all just water on stone."
For the first time Josh saw something beyond Luc's macho posturing. "You really do love it down here, don't you?"
Luc looked up. Josh couldn't be sure in the poor light, but he thought that his eyes were misted.
"The cave is ancient, Josh. Timeless. Down here we are not important. We are not rulers or conquerors, just fleeting visitors to a different world. It is an experience that would benefit many, I think."
Josh stared at his guide. He could not think of anything to say. Finally Luc stood, and dragged Josh to his feet.
"Come on, Mister Researcher. It is not far now."
Together they moved off towards the sound of the stream. Josh held a specimen box at the ready.
#
16th February 2003
This will be the last entry in my initial report. I must send news of my findings earlier than I desired as my work has exceeded all estimates of time and funding. I need more of both.
When I return to the cave I intend to find the source of the subterranean brook at all costs. So far I am sure I have explored only a fraction of its length, for always it stretches off ahead into the darkness, lit by the neon glow of its vicious inhabitants.
This time I will take food for several days, and iodine to treat the water for drinking. My only concern is the impending wet season. At the first sign of the water's rising I will hasten back to the surface.
Harris Ville.
#
"Hey Luc, what's that?" Josh pointed to a dark space on the floor of the passage ahead.
"I believe it is the chasm that leads down to the stream."
Josh swept his powerful light forward. An aluminium caving ladder was attached to the lip of the ragged hole.
"At last!" Josh's mouth was suddenly dry, and he swallowed hard. "Can you believe it Luc? We're about to see something that only Doctor Ville has before us!"
Luc did not look impressed. "I have seen many bugs in caves."
Josh peered over the edge of the crevasse and flicked off his torch. "Stop being so bloody snooty. Look at them!"
The sound of Ville's stream was loud in their ears. In the gloom below, dozens of tiny glowing forms scurried around, their colours flickering and changing constantly. Despite his scepticism Luc gasped at the sight. It was like looking into a kaleidoscope.
Josh moved to the top of the crevasse, but felt Luc's restraining hand on his shoulder. "This is a good quality ladder," Luc said. "Steel cable, with aluminium steps. It is surely too expensive to abandon in a cave... "
"Well, maybe Ville forgot it - never mind that now, let's see what's there!" Josh clambered enthusiastically down the swinging ladder. When he had reached the bottom, Luc followed.
The stream ran through a round tunnel that was about the height of a man. It meandered off into the darkness, but Josh's eyes were on the glowing lights of the creatures. He rushed to the bank.
"This is amazing!" he exclaimed, his voice booming in the confined space.
"Please try to be quiet. We do not know how stable this tunnel is."
Josh was in no mood for caution. "Ville was right! Look at this - it's clearly a new species of myriapodous arthropod!"
In his palm he held a centipede-like creature. Violet pulses of light shivered organically down its back as it nosed around its new environment.
"Watch!" Josh poked the creature gently. The change was instantaneous. Red pulses flickered over the centipede's body as it reared on its back sets of legs. Docility was replaced by aggression.
"Look at the colours! Fascinating, fascin... OW!" Josh leapt to his feet as the centipede's powerful mandibles bit into his flesh. It hung on as he danced on the spot and frantically waved his hand.
Luc's frown did not ease; if anything it deepened as he watched Josh struggle with the tiny creature. "Try the water," he suggested, glancing worriedly around.
Josh plunged his hand into the icy torrent of the stream. Immediately the creature released its grip, and they watched as it tumbled away.
It did not get far. Flickering red lights appeared in the flow and converged on the stricken centipede like tiny neon sharks. It blinked yellow, as if with fear, and then disappeared beneath the swarm of aquatic predators.
Luc observed its demise solemnly as Josh rubbed his stinging palm. "Vicious little sod," Josh murmured. He peered at the puncture wound with his spotlight, and then flicked it off again so that he could see the luminescence more clearly. Shadows pressed in around them as Luc's candle guttered.
Almost immediately a loud noise echoed around the tunnel from somewhere downstream. Josh's heart leapt in fright. It had not been the chattering of the stream, nor the scuttling of an insect; the sound had been harsher than that, deeper and throatier. Josh grabbed at Luc's arm. "What the hell was that?" he hissed.
Both men stared into the darkness of the tunnel. Only the lights of the cave's strange fauna flickered in the blackness. The noise came again from the dark. It was closer now, and clearer, but no less terrifying. Josh thought he could discern a faint red luminescence in the distance. He began to back away.
"It sounds almost like something groaning," Luc said. His naked body glinted in the candlelight. "Perhaps it is an echo of your voice?"
The Belgian's voice quavered slightly as he spoke. That tiny inflection scared Josh almost as much as the approaching sounds. He had known Luc for less than a day, but Josh knew that he would not willingly show uncertainty. The experienced caver was worried.
The distant glow grew brighter. Something was coming down the tunnel towards them. Josh reached for the ladder as a shape began to coalesce out of the shadows.
"Luc," Josh called, his voice rising in concern. "I think we should get out of here!"
"One moment Josh, I think I see it!"
Suddenly the nature of the thing became clear. It was the glowing figure of a man. Fierce scarlet light seemed to burn under its skin. A roar of anger echoed down the tunnel.
Josh felt his eyes bulge. His hands clenched the aluminium rungs. "Jesus Christ! What the hell is that?" He began to claw his way desperately upwards, not waiting to see the answer to his question.
In the tunnel, Luc stood transfixed. He shook his head slowly, as though he did not believe what he was seeing. The creature drew closer.
"Come on Luc!" Josh yelled, snatching a glimpse back over his shoulder. The angry growl built into an inhuman screech that rang around the cave. Josh smelt a dank stench of earth and stale water. "Luc!" he shouted again.
Finally he felt the ladder buck beneath him as Luc began to climb. Josh hauled himself over the lip of the crevasse and lay spread-eagled on the sharp rock. Ignoring the stinging pain, he threw down his arm to help Luc up. The Belgian's hand grasped Josh's with a strong and steady pressure. Before Josh could draw Luc to safety though, there was a savage yank that almost dislocated his shoulder from its socket.
Luc's voice was etched with panic. "Josh! Josh! It has me!"
Josh clambered to his knees and hauled. From his new position he could see that the creature had caught hold of Luc's leg. He could also see directly into the creature's upturned face.
The thing's eyes burned with a rheumy yellow light. Red ripples moved like maggots beneath its skin. The face had changed horribly since he had last seen it, almost beyond recognition. But it was a face he knew.
Nausea swelled within him as he stared dumbly at the corruption of nature that had once been Doctor Harris Ville. His gut lurched, and for an instant he thought that he was going to be physically sick. This can't be happening, his mind screamed, how can this be real?
Only the pain in his shoulder brought him back to his senses. He felt Luc's grip slip a little; there was no time now to analyse the situation. Summoning all the authority that he could, he glared down at the abomination.
"Doctor Harris Ville!" he boomed out.
The creature blinked once. The red pulses slowed their hungry flight across its filthy body.
"You are Harris Ville!" Josh shouted again, his right hand reaching for the flashlight at his side.
Luc let out a soft sigh of pain as the creature's long nails dug into him. At that sound of weakness the creature snarled. The scarlet hunting pulses quickened again, as though it had suddenly remembered its prey. Josh's diversion had been momentary. He had to act now.
With his right hand Josh flicked on the flashlight and swept the beam into the creature's eyes. At the same time he pulled Luc upwards with all his strength.
Luc's naked foot, slippery with sweat and mud, slid from the creature's distracted hold. He flew up the ladder and landed with a groan at Josh's side.
"Drag the ladder up!" Josh yelled as he kept the beam trained. The creature covered its face with its arms and hissed, its luminescence now blinking so quickly that it was almost a constant, blood-red glow.
Luc drew the ladder up from the tunnel, and fell back to the cave floor again. His face was pale in the ruddy light that shone up through the crevasse like fire leaking from hell. "It cannot follow us now, I think," he panted. "The walls are too sheer."
Josh peered gingerly over the edge. The creature stalked below, its hands flexing in frustration. Ragged remnants of clothing still hung to its body. He could see the impression of a wedding ring, dark against the glowing finger beneath.
"Jesus," he breathed, thinking back over the long months that had passed since the original report had been submitted. "How long have you been down there?"
Summoning his remaining strength, Luc crawled forward to see the creature that had almost caught him. "You think it is really Doctor Ville? How can such a thing have happened?"
"That's for others to find out," Josh replied. Now that they were safe, the nauseating shock had given way to a deep weariness. "He was a great scientist, but I fear that soon it'll be his turn to be studied."
Luc climbed to his feet. "Let us return to the surface. This cave has lost its beauty. Even for me."
#
The hotel room was in darkness, curtains drawn against the hot Guatemalan sunshine. They were due to face the press the next morning, but Josh was not sure that he would be able to do so.
He winced as a breeze let a shaft of light through the drapes. By his bed a tub of painkillers stood half-empty, next to a pair of sunglasses.
He would have to tell Luc soon. He was not sure whether the creature's nails had pierced his friend's skin, but he had to be warned.
Josh felt a cold and gnawing fear inside that dwarfed even the horror of the cave. Tears came to his eyes as he contemplated his fate. He could not hold them back.
"I should have stuck with the bloody fruit flies," he sobbed, helpless.
In the gloom, Josh held his palm up before his face. A yellow glow flitted nervously beneath the skin.