Regeneration, Pt. 5 of 8.

         The sky rapidly became as dark as night, and the lightning discharges were almost continuous when Jack, Bonnie, and Nadine advanced further within the forbidden area.  It was like an experimental biology laboratory in which every imaginable plant form was being manifested, moving up and retracted back down fast respectively before their eyes -- tested temporarily for adaptation in any permitting planetary environment.  Insects, amphibians, and other otherworldly fauna also seemed to come out of nowhere to be most visible during the electrical outbursts, but all was primitive and unknown to any science; they could not even guess why.  In their situation, they could not ponder the very important question either, only to know that something was increasingly wrong.  Time and evolution together could not remain artificially in check for any reason -- even in the ri's sanctuary.

         The alien plants popped up out of the slime and often water-covered ground and went back down into it faster, as if sucked in, as they boldly proceeded onward in a more defensive manner aware that danger could appear, injure, kill, and disappear as swiftly.  They turned part of the way to the left, then to the right, and shifted their sights each time the localized area was illuminated from the activity above.  Otherwise, only the eerie yellowish light persisted.  The special zone of the whole prehistoric biome seemed to be an area of simultaneous creation and destruction in ultra-fast motion more and more to them, but it also appeared considerably more fragile, vulnerable than the greater outer limits of the sanctuary.

         Pale green-glowing specks could be seen in the slime all over the ground and about the bases of the briefly presented fanciful plants after the brave trio was some three hundred feet into the exotic central zone, and numerous other even more iridescent ones appeared repeatedly, as the dynamic lightning flashes lit up the countless minute flakes embedded within it.  They pressed on further, avoiding the squishy lubricating slugs and other more indistinct slithering organisms as much as possible, and noticed the white tubes gradually converge to form a solid supporting surface -- a different kind of level floor.  Their windblown hair wanted to stand on end from the aerial static, but the frequent veinous lightning continued to ravage the roiling sky above only, as if not chancing to strike down into the precious core of the environment and do harm.  The stark silhouette of the Coal Age forest still showed all around with each thunderous emission though.

         Jack looked at the sharp boundary where the Carboniferous trees behind them ended next to the surrounding ring of graceful ferns and thought there were blue-white flashes OTHER than lightning occurring in the distance.  He made sure the new floor of juxtaposed tubes was stable and secure enough for the two women to step onto and walk safely on before staring to their rear again.  The flashing lights were still occurring there and all along the encircling wall of foliage, showing better through the gaps, and he felt butterflies in his stomach -- anxiety pangs.

         "Something's closing in on us," he said.  "It's everywhere outside and . . . not just in the clouds."

         A large outburst of lightning broke his dialogue, and a loud snapping noise immediately afterward distracted all of them.  Before Bonnie could reply or see what it was, Jack already had his aim fixed to the right and sent the spear previously used against Robert shooting through the darkness and into an emerging mushroom-like plant almost forty meters away -- a fine but needless fear-motivated shot.  The dull-gray thigmotropic form slumped some, stopped rising, and exuded a milky white fluid, like that of a dandelion's, and he cursed upon realizing his mistake.  

         "Goddammit!  I wasted my last shot on that weird piece of shit.  Now, what?" he blared, sounding more afraid.  

         "Take it easy!  I've still got both spears in my weapon," Bonnie said, and pulled Nadine further along.  She was gazing in awe and concern at the approaching incandescent flashes and flinched when his spear buried its barbed head into the odd fleshy structure.  

         "Good . . . luck," she breathed.  

         "Well, we're sure going to need it.  I'm still going to carry this thing anyway to maybe fool our way passed anything else around here," he added.

         "You hope," the younger blond-haired woman said.  "It doesn't look like there's much more ahead to fool."  

         Jack let the two women pass by him, and they moved between a few more tight gaps in the new surface, where simple curly and spindly plants were in small clusters.  Inevitably, the openings became smaller as they went onward, to allow only individual stems with protruding bulbous tops (spore cases) to fit through; the slugs also became much less in number, which enabled them to encounter less icky slime.  However, the thunder was only a much fainter continuous rumbling despite the dynamic electrical storm descending from above.  Another fact soon dawned inside their alert minds: the "new" fantastical fauna and very electromagnetized atmosphere of the strange localized area were acting as extra sound absorbers.  Thus, the storm no longer sounded natural and very widespread.  

         The floor of compacted tubes grew more rigid and uniform after more progress was made, but when the stems were more sparse and much more stunted minutes later accordingly, they finally saw the uncanny core entity of the primeval world -- the long-sought central point and source of the ri's sanctuary.  The unique surprising object looked like it could have grown directly out of the Earth, emerged from Hell, or planted itself from space and spread its invading influence and power outward to mimic the Coal Age forest after careful experimentation in the transitional zone they just traversed.  For about ten meters all around the alien sessile life form, the floor was almost transparent, like the ri's tunics, and devoid of any pores, where stems and synthesized flora moved through, and they stopped cold in their tracks near the edge of the last inner circle.  

         Nadine's mouth fell open as she stared aghast at the thing and said, "Oh, heavens.  There is . . . no way out.  What are we going to do?  It is so -- "

         "Weird to say the least," Jack responded, "but it must be real important by the way its glowing from within.  Looks like a big cone with knobs and short feelers all over."

         "More like a kind of . . . pedestal or perhaps . . . the end of a tail of some sort," Bonnie said.  "Its surface resembles the thick skin of a pineapple, and those thick fleshy leaves around its base with white spots have to control the movements of the tubes we're on or . . . enhance the sensitivity of the thing."  

         "You think that beach-ball-sized globe on top with the sparkly colored goop swirling about inside is its brain?"

         "I'm . . . not sure, Nadine.  I can't see any way how to communicate directly with it.  Looks like a lava lamp there, but the whole thing could just be an ancient extraterrestrial pylon of a sort too."

         "Sheeesh!  I thought it resembled a hand-engraved lava lamp on top of a rough cone head too.  I can also see the tubes coming together through the floor below and join into it as a single primary . . . root, but what's making the darned thing glow?"

         "Bioluminescence or some kind of electrochemistry.  It's probably tapping power from everything all around."

         "Or increasing it within itself . . . since we reached this location from across that last wide channel.  Did you notice how this light turned itself off then?" Nadine said.  

         Jack patted the back of her shoulder.  "Good observation.  I at least know the stuff in that sphere isn't salad oil being stirred around by any ordinary blender."  

         "Maybe it is alive too."

         "Don't know either way, but I know how we might find out for sure.  Step aside and keep an eye out for that . . . ri bitch," he replied.  "It's got to be nearby and probably watching us."


Continued to Pt. 6.