Return To Primordial Island, Rick Poldark [top non fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

puffed, his lungs burning as the corpses jerked into motion, reaching out shriveled arms and hands for them. Peter shrugged them off as he zigzagged through the undead gauntlet.

In front of him, Jason was tackled to the ground by a mummified ape, and others immediately piled on top of him. Peter turned to look back over his shoulder, and he saw Ghenga seized by mummies. His path of escape narrowed in front of him as zombie ape men closed in on him. Large hands and long fingers pulled him down to the ground.

The apes mauled him, tearing his shirt and clawing at the orb in his chest. Nazimaa wanted the orbs, even if she had to rip it out of them with cold, dead hands. Peter pushed and kicked against his attackers as hands and bodies blocked out his vision. He had the sensation of suffocating under the pile on. He gasped, struggling to breathe. He heard Jason shouting and cursing.

Peter closed his eyes and felt the dim, cold presences of these mummies, much like the zombie cannibals Mike Deluca had created and controlled.

“Use your orb!” Peter cried out to Jason. “You can control them!”

“I’m trying….” he heard. “I can’t do it!”

Fingers clawed at Peter’s chest, sinking into his flesh, but not harming it. It reminded him of one of those weird late-night specials he saw on psychic surgery. The undead ape men were grasping the edges of the life orb, trying to pull it out of his chest.

Peter resisted, summoning the full strength of his inner power. He reached out, grasping at the icy life force that reanimated these apes. He concentrated, pushing the dark energy back. He felt Nazimaa pushing back against his power, and she was strong.

The life orb was now half out of his chest. He felt as if his life force was entangled with the orb, clinging to it. The resultant sensation was extreme pain, as if they were yanking his very heart and soul out of his body. Peter opened his eyes to find glowing eyes staring down at him as undead fingers pried the orb from his chest. He closed his eyes again, awaiting death, helpless to defend himself or prevent it.

Suddenly, Peter felt a wave of cold, black energy and everything stopped. He opened his eyes and saw the ape mummies frozen, staring down at him. It didn’t make any sense. What had happened?

“Hurry!” shouted Jason. “She’s too strong! I can’t hold them forever!”

Peter pushed himself to standing and scrambled forward, shoving his way past inert ape men, bobbing and weaving through outstretched hands frozen in time. Up ahead, he saw Jason getting to his feet. Peter caught up to him and ushered him toward the far end of the tunnel, where another stone door blocked their exit.

“Hurry,” grunted Jason, exerting himself over the mummies. “She’s pushing back.”

Peter frantically searched the end of the tunnel for a button, switch, or lever that would open the door. “I don’t know how to open the door.”

“Hurry,” said Jason through gritted teeth, straining.

Peter turned to find the Simian mummies jerking back to motion in staccato movements. Nazimaa was disrupting Jason’s signal to them. It was only a matter of seconds.

He turned back to focus on the stone door. He ran his fingers along its surface, but there wasn’t a keyhole. “Dammit!” He looked at the walls around the door and saw nothing. He stepped back, slipping past Jason, who had his eyes squeezed shut, his body tense and rigid. He looked constipated. “Hurry, Peter!”

The mummies took uneven steps toward them, advancing slowly but steadily. Peter looked at the walls on either side of them and saw a large lever mounted up high on each side, ten feet back from the wall with the door. He jumped at one, latching onto it, pulling it down. It slid down and stopped. Nothing happened.

Peter ran across to the other wall and jumped, grabbing the other lever. He used his body weight to pull it down. However, he looked over his shoulder to find the other lever sliding up, back into place. When his current lever stopped dropping, nothing happened. “Crap. The levers have to be pulled down simultaneously.” It made sense. An ape man would have the proper arm span to do it. However, Peter was no ape man.

He turned to find Jason swooning on his feet, hands out in front of him, holding the horde of mummies back. The more they advanced, the more he faltered.

Peter’s mind raced, trying to figure out how to pull both levers simultaneously. He looked around him for anything he could use. The mummies were closing the distance, now only fifty feet away.

“Jason, I need your help!”

Jason snapped out of his focus and staggered over to Peter. He was soaked with sweat and panting. The mummies behind him started to regain fluidity to their movement.

“We need to pull these down simultaneously,” said Peter.

Jason nodded.

They each stood under a lever and jumped up, pulling down on them. As they slid down, the stone door began to roll away. Peter saw the mummies closing in, reaching out for them, now only twenty-five feet away.

“Now!” cried Peter.

He and Jason let go of the levers and the door stopped rolling away. Almost immediately, it began to roll back into place. Peter slipped through the narrowing gap and into the next room. Jason darted over, the Simian mummies now clawing at his back. He wedged himself in the shrinking gap; Peter grabbed his arm and pulled him from the other side.

Jason slipped through in time as the stone wheel sealed off the gap, crushing reaching arms and severing grasping fingers. They heard the faint pounding of undead fists from the other side.

All around the room fire bowls erupted with fire at their presence, illuminating the room.

Exhausted, Jason’s