Dura

Part 3

A group of people, holding rifles, stood around the dead animal. Four of them were smoking, as far as I could see. They were covered in black cloths, similar to the one we had found in the cave, and they all had hoods on them which made it difficult to see their faces. They didn't speak any language we had ever heard before. It reminded us of a Khoisan language, but instead of the clicking sounds normal for those languages, it sounded like knocking sounds coming from the bottom of their throats.

Both Alex and I had the same impossible thought: that they belonged to the same species as the individual we had found in the cave. One of them blew a whistle. It didn't make any sound that we could hear, but a minute later four large animals came out of the woods.

"What are those?" I whispered.

They were big as grizzly bears but had wolf-like faces. Some of them began barking.

"I... I think they're dogs," Alex said.

"Have you ever seen dogs like that before?" I said.

"Look around you, Lester..." Alex paused, as to think of the best way to explain it to my frantic mind. "Don't you get it? I know it's fucking insane, but just consider what all of this is pointing to. Those people aren't humans, man."

"What are you on about?" I said, trying to deny his conclusion to the bitter end. "Are you really saying..."

"They had – have – a language! And, going by the way they're moving their hands, parts of it are sign language."

Alex was way ahead of me already.

"Are you suggesting we have traveled back to the neolithic age?"

"No, no, they have guns. As you said, this is the same day... It's just... just not the same Earth. I don't think Homo sapiens led them to extinction here. This is incredibly fascinating, Lester. I can't believe it! It feels like I'm dreaming, but you're seeing the same thing, right? I mean, I'm not lying in that cave slowly dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, am I?"

"N-no, I'm seeing it too," I said.

"Well, look at them... They domesticated the dog, but they bred them into something different than we did. And look, they didn't exterminate the megafauna. That points to a smaller population like we always suspected."

I still didn't know what to think, but I began to entertain the idea.

"It could explain the weather as well," I said while I watched how one of the presumed Neanderthals petted one of the huge dogs. "A smaller population of hominids during 40 000 years would have meant a much smaller amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and..."

Something growled behind us, and then it barked. Our blood ran cold. I looked behind us. One of the large hounds had found us.

"Lester...?" Alex whispered as our eyes met.

The beast charged at us. We had no choice but to run down from the hill, right into the arms of the cloaked men.

They gathered around us, pointing their rifles at us. They were huge, much larger than a typical man... or rather, than a human. Their knocking sounds – coming from deep inside their throats – was mixed in with deep sounds that didn't resemble any language I had ever heard. From what I could tell by their hand movements and agitation in their voices, they seemed just as distressed as Alex and I. Their faces were shadowed by their hoods, but I could still see that they had the typical Neanderthal facial structures. My thoughts – still having trouble accepting what was happening – was in a disarray.

"What will they do?" I heard myself ask.

As soon as I opened my mouth, one of the Neanderthals yelled something at us:

"Halufska!"

We both interpreted it as something similar to "hands up!" and fell on our knees and raised our hands.

"It all depends what happened to Homo sapiens in this world," Alex whispered. "If they see our species as mortal enemies we might be doomed, but if we died out thousands of years ago they'll probably want to keep us alive."

The man that had yelled lit what looked like a mixture between a cigarette and a cigar with a large match. I tried to assess their level of technology. The rifles, clearly made for hunting, didn't have scopes, only iron sights. My first thought was that this indicated a lower technological level than the one we had at home, but then I realized that it might rather be a result of their larger eyes and areas of the brain devoted to vision. Maybe they simply didn't need scopes because of their superior sight.

They talked for some time, and then one of them went away for a while and came back with some ropes that they used to tie our hands behind our backs. They didn't intend on killing us, not right away anyway. If this said anything about the fate of Homo sapiens in this world was unclear though. They led us away, seemingly abandoning the animal that they had just killed. Maybe finding us was more valuable to them.

"They've invented the combustion engine!" Alex exclaimed.

He was right. A vehicle stood on a dirt road in front of us. It had eight wheels, six at the back and two in the front, and resembled a diesel locomotive more than a truck. It was completely black, just like their clothes. They opened the back doors and pushed us inside the storage space. There was a smell of dead animals and gasoline. We were placed next to each other on a bench attached to the wall and two of the Neanderthals sat down in front of us, looking at us constantly. The only light came from two small windows on the back door. The truck began to move.