Louis Carolingian had been a contemporary of Adolf Hitler. Now seventy-four years old, he was one of the last Nazis but he was stranded on this cutoff highland. He had long since run out of bullets but he still controlled the Homo erectus he ruled over with the sight of the gun. The gun had become a frightening thing to them, him a malevolent god.
He was a Nazi scientist with ape-like bits of his anatomy. They were his agency to staying young and continuing his days. Back in the days of the war he had contrived an approach to transfer brawny, active ape body cells to his own aging person and rejuvenate in part. The cells he used came from a new bracket of big anthropoids, bigger than a gorilla and were light brown in color. The young ones had pink fronts. The apes were overall handsomer than gorillas and laired in chanterelle grottos lighted by glowworms and fireflies. The grottos were in a big dell that in truth was an old volcanic caldera. It was from the young apes the cells came from.
As he sat this afternoon in the sun, mulling over how the Homo erectus were more human than he was at the moment he heard one of them salute him.
"What do you want, Charles?" he asked.
"I have brought you a professor!" replied Charles.
Carolingian turned and looked upon Patrick. "This young man is a professor?"
"For the last time I am not a professor!" exclaimed Patrick. "I am a professor's assistant!"
"English?" Carolingian stepped down from the rock he was sitting upon and approached Patrick. "You speak English?"
"Indeed I do! Who are you?"
"I Commander Louis Carolingian." Carolingian's English was not very good. In fact his German accent was so thick he was nearly impossible to understand. "Who you?"
"Come again?" asked Patrick.
"Who you?"
"I am Patrick Malone, assistant to Professor Enrico Bulwer of the Royal Ontario Museum's Egyptology Department. I was on the plane that crashed into that wee mere!" Patrick pointed at the mere in the distance. "I myself landed in a tree far from it."
"I trapped here twenty year." Stated Carolingian. "There few places highland can climb. Why make bluffs when look me? I no belong anywhere. Not among Allies, not among Axis, not anywhere. I young but less human than once was. Hitler would laugh at me if I return to Berlin."
"Forgive me, Commander." Began Patrick. "But the war ended twenty years ago. Hitler is dead. Nazi Germany has fallen."
"What Germany now?"
"Divided between the East and West."
"Divided, unified, no place for me there, young redhead. I no human, I ape-man like Homo erectus... They more human than me! I belong this wilderness."
"With all due respect, Commander, you may be resigned to living out your days in this highland I am not. There is a girl who needs my help! Can you help me find her?"
"No. I no help outsiders if they cannot help me. I want be old, I want be human. Stay young but not full human. It no good."
"Okay then may I leave?" asked Patrick.
"No. You no leave! I get sport!" Carolingian turned to Charles. "Charles, take this outsider to the devil pigs!"
"Yes, Commander!" Charles grabbed pulled Patrick away. To a pit full of Daeodon did he bring the red-haired young man!
Carolingian gave a cruel laugh. "I search all highland. Find no snakes. Find no wolves. I find devil pigs. I trap them in pit. Starve them and throw people who no can help me in."
Patrick sighed. "Charming. Of course, I have no plans to be fed to a bunch of Daeodon."
"Daeo-don?" asked Carolingian in confusion.
"Your devil pigs!" replied Patrick. "A North American member of the entelodont species that lived in the forests and the plains. Of course given the other beasts I've seen I guess it is somewhat consistent. The only thing I've seen that is native to Africa are your Homo erectus."
"You try to make point?"
"Indeed I am! If you are going to hide away in Africa and execute people by feeding them to beasts you should at least use beasts native to Africa!"
In his evil mind, something sparked and Carolingian gave a grotesque smile. Patrick was right and with him being half ape, he was just the beast to do it. From the grotesque smile and the further addition of a sinister glint in his eye, Patrick realized that what he had just said had given Carolingian the motive to do it himself.
"And what better beast than I?" asked Carolingian. "I give ten second start for you run. It make thing interesting me." Carolingian began to count and immediately Patrick fled for the mere.
As Patrick ran, a feeling of dread overcame him. Even with the ten-second head start, he worried that he would not be able to outrun Carolingian. If he did then what was to stop him from running into a Smilodon or a wild Daeodon? And what if there were predators other than Smilodon or Daeodon? Given how so far the Hagerman Horse was the only creature he had seen that had not been in the book he had been reading the possibility of Phorusrhacos or a Hyaenodon seemed likely.
The young man came to the mere and found the wreckage of the plane. What he also found was a craft of some sort with a parachute attached and many bodies. None of which belonged to Julie.
Amongst the bodies he saw huge, dog-like footprints. Given the sheer coincidence they were likely to belong to Hyaenaodon. Not dogs exactly but just from looking at one the mistake could be made.
It was then that the idea hit Patrick. If Julie was not among the dead then what if she were still on the plane?
"Julie!" he called out. "Julie! Are you there!"
And then he heard her voice.
"Patrick! Patrick, is that you?"
"Yeah, it is! Are you okay? Where are you?"
"I'm alright! I'm on the plane! Stay where you are! I'll swim to you!" In a matter of minutes, Julie had swum to the strand. The moment Patrick saw that she had been wearing a scarlet red bikini beneath her clothes for that was what she was wearing. Where had her blouse and miniskirt gone? "I was very shaken by the landing, so shaken that by the time I had gotten off everyone else had been killed by these dogs the size of rhinos." Well, Patrick knew where her clothes were. She must have put them on a seat to dry when she returned to the plane.
"Hyaenodon." Stated Patrick. "It was a large, heavily built carnivorous mammal of the Oligocene epoch."
"So, they were hyenas?" asked Julie.
"Not really." Replied Patrick. "The name means 'hyena tooth' so I presume the name comes from similar tooth structure... May I inquire where your clothes are?"
"Drying on a plane seat."
"I thought as much."
"Are you sure you are okay?" asked Julie. Her eyes were full of worry. "Where did you land?"
"In a tree on this strange highland. I'm fine." Assured Patrick.
"I take it hyaenodon didn't live in Africa so that is what makes it strange." Conjectured Julie.
"Actually, they did." Stated Patrick. "Out of the fauna I have encountered so far it is the only one native to this continent. Sadly, I have no idea if they are native to this habitat... Wait! Chalicotheres! Hyaenodon preyed on chalicotheres! Chalicotheres were native to the open and wooded areas of North America and Afro-Eurasia! Open or wooded, as long as it had food for them it didn't matter."
"Well, isn't this sweet." Came a voice. Patrick and Julie both turned to see a man wearing an astronaut's uniform and he was holding a gun. He was six feet and four inches in height, muscular, had a strong jawline, bold blue eyes, a deep resonant voice and was forty-three years old. "A bookworm and his chick discussing fossils."
"I take it you were in the craft that brought down our plane." Said Patrick.
"That I am." Said the astronaut. "Name's Adam Lang. I'm an American, what about you two?"
"Patrick Malone, I'm a Canadian."
"An expendable nationality." Said Lang. He then looked at Julie. "What are you?"
"After what you said about Canadians I'd rather not say." Answered Julie.
"Are you Canadian, Chinese or Russian?" asked Lang.
"No."
"Then you are not expendable."
"What have you got against my country?" asked Patrick.
"I find your flag stupid looking." Replied Lang. He then looked once more at Julie. "Your nationality please."
"English." She said.
"Hmm, that is in Britain." Observed Lang. "And the British were our enemies in the revolutionary war. Might as well kill you too. Any last requests before I kill you? I will deny you them but I might as well ask."
"Shoot the mutant Nazi." Requested Patrick.
A look of confusion formed upon Lang's face. "What mutant Nazi?"
Patrick pointed to the right. Lang turned and he saw Carolingian running forward. Three things then happened. Lang shot at Carolingian, Carolingian turned his attention from Patrick to Lang and so Patrick and Julie were given a chance to escape.
Patrick and Julie ran from the mere for to run from the mere ultimately meant finding a way out of the highland. They ran far from the mere but Patrick had spent more time running that day than Julie and so tired out before she did.
Leaning against the tree, the twenty-year old Canadian breathed heavily. He was tired and he needed rest. Looking to the ground, he remembered the last time he had run for this long. The last time had been six years ago, 1959, the ninth grade, gym class. He had plenty of stamina but long distance walking where he could easily conserve his energy but not for long distance running, which resulted in him using it up quickly.
And then Julie grasped his hand in her own. Patrick looked up at her and she gave him a small smile. He then returned the smile and looked at the trail they were on. He then led her off the trail where footprints were less likely to be seen. Well, they technically were but with the amount of things that walk on the grass they could be interpreted as being as anything. At least that was Patrick's logic and even he would admit that it seemed flawed to him. Still even if the logic was flawed, whether or not Carolingian was a skilled tracker was what it all hinged on. Patrick himself knew absolutely nothing about tracking except for following tracks in the dirt or sand. The only thing he knew was getting off of the path of sand was the best thing possible for he and Julie.