When I Dream of a Cambrian Sea

By L. M. Beyer

Four short stories, including...
When I Dream of a Cambrian Sea: Is it an abandoned mine? Or something older?
Baby's Breath: Don't speak of Millie in the past tense.
All Highways Look the Same in the Rain: Doesn't matter where you are.
The Bugs We Haven't Met Yet: Colonization might be easier than we think.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Temfield Books
• Release date: Jul 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516311712

Book preview

When I Dream of a Cambrian Sea

His yelling woke me. I rolled over and up on my elbow, ready to shake him out of his nightmare, but his sleeping bag was too far away from mine. Worse, the dark was total. Pitch black. I could not even see him. I heard him, though. He was breathing hard and moving around, maybe fighting with his sleeping bag, trying to get out of it, and I was afraid he was still half asleep.

Moving my hand over the rock nearby, I found the flashlight, thumbed the switch and aimed the light up toward the roof of the cave. Even so, by its dim reflected light I could see that his face was dripping with sweat as he sat up and turned his head to stare at me.

I need air, he said. He was still caught up in the panic of his dream and had trouble shaping the words he was thinking: escape from the cave.

I knew how he felt. I felt the same. He squirmed out of the bag and staggered away, having the presence of mind, at least, to go in the right direction, toward the mouth of the cave which lay beyond a curve in the rock that surrounded us. I got up and grabbed our jackets as I followed him, catching up just as he stepped out into the cold.

I took his arm, Careful, Jeff. I wasn’t sure he heard me, but he stood still and raised his eyes toward the distant, brittle light of stars spread across the moonless night sky.

Children, he murmured. We have to get back.

Jeff, I squeezed his arm and he shuddered, turning his eyes in my direction. It’s just a dream, I said firmly. Put your jacket on and sit down. Here.

Shivering and dazed, he slipped his arms into the coat and I zipped it up for him. He sat down on the rock. I put on my own jacket and sank down on the only bit of level surface that remained. We were high enough up on the face of the cliff that two steps further out from the narrow entrance of the cave would have meant a fifty foot fall to the ground below, a drop long enough to break a neck if you landed wrong.

Damn! he said, sounding more like himself. Damn! he said again. I don’t think I’ve ever had a nightmare like that before.

What was it about?

Total panic. Something hugely creepy was chasing me ... I mean, chasing us. Except you weren’t there. But I wasn’t alone, and we were all trying to escape it. His teeth chattered for a second and he closed them tight, grimacing.

So who were you with?

He didn’t answer at first. After a minute, rubbing at his forehead, he said more calmly, Don’t remember. Several ... uh ... soldiers, I think. Maybe.

Just running? Anything else?

"Into the sea. We went down under the water. Might’ve been a boat or a submarine or something. I guess I was with sailors and not soldiers by then. We