by ST Branton
I was hoping for the karaoke. I could belt out a mean "Summer Nights" if I found the right guy to be my Danny. I glanced around as Ally and I walked up to the bar and slipped onto two of the stools. No one jumped out at me as being T-Bird material. I might have to forego my musical expression for the evening. Or be seriously hardcore and go straight into ABBA.
A man beside me downed an entire pint of beer, followed it up with a handful of nuts, then washed that down with another pint of beer in about thirty seconds. Maybe this wasn’t my audience.
"I don't think I've seen your faces around here." I looked in front of me and saw a kind-eyed woman with loose dark waves hanging below her shoulders and crinkles around her mouth that acted like a scrapbook of a life rich in both laughter and hardship. "You two visiting Hunt?"
Ally smiled at her. "Yes. We'll be here for the next few days."
"Good to hear. Always nice to meet new folks. At least some of us think so." Her eyes flickered to the end of the bar, where a man glared at us with the same suspicion Edna had. "But don't you let anyone bother you." She grinned and held out her hand to Ally. "I'm Shailene, the proprietor."
Ally shook her hand. "Ally. And this is Slick."
Shailene eyed me with a hint of a bemused smile on her lips. I couldn't blame her. The woman had introduced me as Slick without any of those extra pesky letters that make up my first and the rest of my last name. She made me sound like I should be chewing a toothpick and performing petty crimes for Al Capone.
"It's nice to meet you," I said.
"You, too. What brings the two of you to Hunt?" Shailene asked.
"We're meeting a friend," Ally answered.
"Well, welcome. Can I get you something to eat?"
"Do you have tacos?" I asked.
Shailene shook her head. "Can't say we do. But we make a good burger. If you want, I can have them smash it up and sprinkle some chili seasoning on there for you." She stared at me for a few seconds, completely blank-faced, before she finally laughed. "I'm kidding. I wouldn't do that to an innocent burger. But we really don't have tacos."
"That was a roller coaster of emotions you put me through," I told her.
Shailene smiled. "So, a burger?"
"That would be great. Thanks."
She looked at Ally, who nodded. Shailene disappeared through the swinging door into the kitchen and I looked around. "Do you see Jonas?"
"No."
"Do we know what Jonas looks like?"
"I've seen a thumbnail of him."
"That's helpful." I sighed. "So, you're not Alejandrrrrrrrrrrrrrra today?"
She laughed. "Not today."
A form suddenly appeared on Ally’s other side. The massive, burly man squished himself onto the stool beside her and offered her what was probably supposed to be a dashing grin.
"Hi, there." He might have meant it as smooth and sultry, but it came out gruff and rumbling. "You must be new around here. I would have remembered a face like that."
"I'm visiting," Ally said.
"Then let me be the first to welcome you to Hunt."
"I've already been welcomed."
"Not by me. That's what really matters. I'm Cale."
"I'm Ally."
"I'm going to buy you a beer, Ally."
"Oh. No, thank you. I'm doing fine. High on life."
Awkward.
"Fine isn't good enough for someone like you, baby. I can make it so much better for you."
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm here hanging out with my bestie and waiting for a friend."
She was trying hard to be polite. I heard it in her voice. But I also saw the way she pulled away from him, her body tense. She was doing her best to brush him off, but Cale wouldn't take the hint. That was fine. I was a lot of things, but subtle wasn't one of them. I stood from my stool and was about to make sure the burly dude with the bad game took her hint. Before I could, another man stepped in.
He was young, with a chinstrap beard and sparkling eyes. Something about him said he was athletic, but not in the jock sort of way. The flannel shirt and backward baseball cap gave off a sense of youth and contemporary attitude that didn’t exactly fit in the town we were in, yet he moved and spoke as naturally as someone who had known these people for years.
"Hey, Cale, you're not making trouble for my guests, are you?" the man asked.
Cale grumbled something but slid off the end of the stool and walked away. "Come on. Shift at the mine is about to start," he said to a man hunched over in one of the booths.
Cale and most of the rest of the people at the bar walked away. When it quieted down, the man sat on the recently vacated stool. Shailene whisked out of the kitchen with our plates and scanned the suddenly almost-empty bar.
"There better be some cash left on those tables," she muttered as she set the burgers down in front of us. "How are you doing tonight, Jonas?"
Ally looked at him sharply, her mouth opening slightly when she saw his attractive face, and I leaned closer to her. "I thought you saw a thumbnail."
She nudged me with her elbow, and Jonas turned to smile at her. "Alejandra?"
"You can call me Ally."
"Ally, it's nice to meet you. I'm Jonas."
“It’s nice to meet you, Jonas.” Her voice slipped a little higher, and her eyes widened a little. If she batted her eyelashes any harder she might take flight.
"Why did you call her out here, Jonas?" I asked.
He chuckled. "Jumping straight to the point, aren't you?"
"Is there a reason I shouldn't?"
"Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" Ally tried to smooth out the somewhat rocky ‘getting to know you’ phase unfurling in front of me.
"Not too much to tell. I share Ally's fascination with the strange and unexplained. That's why I asked her to come here. I'm impressed by her work, and I knew she would be the ideal person to share this investigation. I trust her to understand it and help me get to the bottom of it."
"So, you don’t work at the mine?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm not a coal miner. I'm not even from around here. I'm a civil engineer, in town for an assessment of the local dam."
He flashed a smile and gave Shailene a playful wink when she set a beer in front of him.
"Damn," I whispered.
Ally and Jonas both looked at me. Her eyes narrowed. "You’re assessing the dam? That's... Why?"
I propped my elbow on the bar and rested my chin in my hand, staring at him as if fascinated by his job. It wasn't the most elegant of back-pedaling, but after I stuffed a few fries in my mouth without taking my eyes off him, he moved on.
"Hunt isn't all that different from other West Virginia mining towns. Old buildings. Generations of the same families. Traditions and roots that dig deep. I've been all over this state. I know what's normal. But there's something not normal here."
"Seems pretty normal to me.” Ally sipped her beverage.
"On the surface, maybe. There's some sort of cult or commune that lives deep in the woods. They call themselves the Vrya." Jonas lifted his eyes to look at Shailene, who had moved over to the other side of the bar and was deep in conversation with an elderly man. He lowered his voice. "The townsfolk don't like to talk about the Freak-ahs. They're quiet and keep to themselves. They only come into town every once in a while to trade. When they do, they dress in strange clothing. It’s like they don’t know what clothes are appropriate for the climate or time. Sometimes they wear top hats with cowboy boots or sweaters and swimming trunks. It’s weird."
Ally and I exchanged glances. This all sounded very familiar, and we were both thinking the same thing.
"Where do these people live?" I asked.
"That's the thing. No one knows for sure. I've spent a lot of time hiking and hunting around these woods, and I've never been able to find out where they are. As far as I can tell, no one has."
"If no one can find them, and they don't come into town bothering anybody, I’m surprised the townsfolk ca
re,” I said.
"I agree. It doesn't sound like much. And I didn't think too much of it until the murders started," Jonas continued.
"What murders?" Ally and I asked at the same time.
"It's been happening for a couple of weeks now. Three people have shown up dead in the mines. Their bodies looked really weird." Jonas drew a deep breath and looked around him conspiratorially. We leaned closer as he spoke barely above a whisper. "Like, they weren’t normal. Freakishly tall, like they had been stretched. All cut up and scarred. I can only assume these people were tortured and mutilated. It's the only thing I can think of that would make them look so strange. The locals assume it's some weird cult ritual. Cops can’t figure it out. I've tried to contact several papers and news organizations, but no one has shown up. I knew Ally would. I'm hoping she can shed some light on the situation."
"I'll try," she assured him.
His eyes suddenly moved to me and narrowed. "Who are you? What's your job?"
"I'm a photographer." The lie tumbled out of my mouth before I had a chance to think it all the way through.
Jonas's eyes brightened with excitement. "You are? That's fantastic. What kind of camera do you use? Sony A7 III? Canon EOS? Rebel SL2? Olympus Tough TG-5? That one's waterproof…"
"It's the point-and-shoot kind," I said.
He looked at me oddly, but before the conversation could continue, the ground rumbled beneath us, and I heard a loud boom.
"Oh, God!" Shailene cried. "It's a cave-in."
Chapter Thirteen
A plume of dust fell over the town like brown snow. It stung my eyes as I tried to run toward the source. Hunt was laid out fairly simply, with most everything branching off the cross-section of the two main streets.
The mine was a mile or so away, but since it was mountainous there, the road went straight up, and all the dust from the cave-in was settling onto the town. A large group of people joined us as we ran, everyone shouting and trying to help.
As we drew closer, a man stumbled by me, his clothes ripped and torn and his head a matted mess of dirt and blood. He seemed like he was in shock as he stumbled wildly away from the mine’s entrance. I wanted to stop and help him, but at least he was out. More people would be trapped down there, and they needed to be my top priority.
Getting to the entrance required fighting through people running the other way. Some were helping others who were bleeding or were nursing visibly broken bones, and others were running for their lives. Panic set in, and those who handled it well started helping others. By the time we reached the entrance, there were a few others there helping people out.
Wave after wave of mostly able-bodied people came out, many of them coughing uncontrollably as the dust settled in their lungs. Some were covered in dirt to the point that only their wild and scared eyes blinked out at us. I tried to step into the entrance, but it was so dark I could barely see anything, so I stepped back out to find Ally. She was attending to a wounded person whose head nearly caved in despite his hard hat. He was babbling about something, and Ally was trying to soothe him.
Two ambulances roared down the street heading toward us, one from either side. That would help. They could take the wounded outside the mine to safety. The problem was the people still inside. I heard shouts and cries from deep within of people trapped, hurt, and panicking. I had to go back in.
I needed to help them. I knew it wasn’t my town, and I was a stranger here, but there was an instinct in me to rush to where the trouble was. Something about my time in The Deep made me want to help as much as possible. I guessed it was better than if I had shut off and wanted to hurt everyone instead. Solon probably played a big part in that.
Three other men were running into the crumbling cave, and I took off with them. I heard rocks shifting, and the ground occasionally made a sound like the earth itself was trying to decide if it wanted to swallow everything and start over. There was but a short time to help these people out, and even then, we might be putting ourselves in more danger. Despite that fact, no one slowed down, least of all me, and we soon reached a pile of rubble where various voices came from inside, underneath, and behind.
We shoveled the rocks away in silence, tossing them to the sides of the cave so we didn’t block our way in or out. More people filed in with us, ready to help carry survivors out. I threw rocks as fast as possible, trying to reach a body I saw through the debris.
I knew I was talking, I felt my vocal cords vibrating, but I couldn’t process what I was saying. It was partly encouragement for them to stay with me, partly motivation for myself to remain calm and keep going, and partly anger at the fact that I was running out of time. Finally, I pulled the last large, jagged boulder off the hand and tossed it aside.
He was dead. The boulder I pulled off had crushed the back of his head, and his hand, which was now free, was only moving because of the cave’s vibration. I was devastated, but I needed to keep moving. I pushed his arm out of the way and kept pulling rocks and tossing them aside. Thankfully, someone reached in and grabbed the body of the man I freed and hauled it away. If we had time, we would collect the dead.
If we had time.
The time seemed to go by so quickly, but as we kept working, the rubble cleared enough to make a pathway. The survivors came out one by one. We got them to safety outside, to the ambulances and doctors and nurses who hurried to the scene. Then we went back for the dead and dragged them out one by one until there seemed to be nothing left. I went back inside one last time and realized as I got halfway down the mineshaft that I was alone.
Everyone else was outside, secure in the thought they’d rescued everyone and were safe. But the mine was seconds from collapsing, and something tugged at me that I needed to go down again. I made it to the rubble and stepped past it, going through the pathway we created to let people out. It was a surreal feeling, going into danger so grave, so unyielding there was no way out, and for what? A feeling?
Then I heard a voice, meek and weak and desperate. It called to me from a few yards away in the cave’s darkness. I stepped closer to it. I strained to see where I was since the darkness was overwhelming in its totality. I felt ahead of me while waiting for my eyes to adjust, and the voice came from below me.
“Help me,” it said.
“I am, I’m trying. Are you trapped?”
“Yes.” The ‘s’ came out long and labored. I felt something ahead of me and reached for it. It was a large, heavy beam leveraged on top of him. My eyes slowly adjusted. I could barely make him out but could see that the beam barely missed impaling him. It was Cale, from the bar. He was trapped, scissored by the timber and the ground. I tried to lift it, but it wouldn’t move. I needed more strength. I needed…
My locket.
Fuck.
Okay, something else. I needed to think of something else. Brute force wasn’t going to work, and there was no time. I looked around us, trying to see in the almost pitch blackness.
“I’m trying, buddy. Hang in there,” I heard myself say. He didn’t respond. My thoughts went to the hand in the rubble from earlier, and I shook it off. There was no time for that. I needed to try, and then I had to get the hell out of there.
I came across a heavy steel bar while stumbling around. It was short and cylindrical, and my brain popped into engineering mode. If I could wedge it between the ground and the beam, maybe…
I shoved it into place beside the man, in between him and where the timber had the most room. If I could wedge it up a little more, I could pull him out. I tried pulling down to no avail. It was stuck really well, and I needed to create some space. I pushed and pulled, up and down, trying to wiggle it free. Frustration built up inside me, and finally, with a yell of anger, it moved. I pulled down as hard as I could. The timber lifted, only a few inches, but enough. The man groaned and rolled out of the way right as I lost my grip and the beam crashed down.
“Come on.” I put his arm around my shoulder and hoisted him to his feet as best I
could. “I got you.”
We had crossed the rubble and headed up to the mouth of the cave when the rumbling began again, and the ceiling fell around us. I sped up our movements as much as possible, but a large chunk landed in front of us. A smaller piece fell just after and smacked the man in the back of the head, and his body became dead weight in my arms.
I had one trick left up my sleeve. I pulled the rune from my back pocket and activated the shield. It glowed white and yellow and crackled with energy, and formed a dome above me as I held it over my head like an umbrella. I reached down and grabbed the man by the waist. I didn’t have time to think about how heavy he was, only that I needed to move him. I hoisted him up, draped his top half over my shoulder, and ran. The shield above me sizzled in the darkness and protected us from certain death.
Rubble and rocks and pieces of steel fell and bounced off the shield as I crested the top of the cave. We stumbled forward, my shield cutting off as we exited the cave and I fell to the ground. I spun to look into the cave one last time, and I swore I saw a figure. It stood unfazed, eyes glowing in the darkness. It was impossibly tall, and I realized that I recognized it. It was the man from the street right before we went into the bar.
Then he was gone.
I rubbed my eyes as the cave collapsed into itself. Voices swirled all around me, and the man I rescued was picked up by EMTs and whisked away. I did it. I rescued him. Safe in the knowledge of a job well done, I laid back in the dirt, exhausted, and closed my eyes for a second.
Chapter Fourteen
"Ow, that hurts. Ow, that hurts. Ow, that hurts. Seriously, I'm asking you to stop," I said.
The nurse put down what seemed like the fiftieth little alcohol-soaked gauze pad she had used to clean me up. She shot me a brief glare and picked up another one. "I have to get you clean. You don't want dirt from that mine all over you and getting ground down into these cuts."