by Greig Beck
“Captain,” she said. “Hold up.”
Ally reached up and grasped one, squeezing it with her fingers. It felt firm, but not rock-hard firm. She used her knife to cut it free, weighed it in her hand for a moment, surprised by the weight. She then sliced the end off.
Ally crouched as a clear sap ran from the slice and she let some drip onto the back of her hand. She waited a few seconds to see if there was a tingle—there wasn’t.
That’s level one test passed, she thought and then steeled herself, remembering Martin from their last expedition who nearly burned his mouth off.
“Here goes,” she said as she eyed the spots of thick liquid on the back of her hand.
“Good luck, Comrade Ally.” Zhukov grinned and gave her a small salute.
She licked the drops from her hand but just held the liquid in her mouth for a second or two. There was no fizz on her tongue, and it actually tasted sweet, sickly sweet, like concentrated cane syrup, but not unpleasant.
That was test two, she thought. Now for the gut test. “Bottoms up.”
She held up the pad-like leaf and squeezed a small stream into her mouth, and then swallowed—test three.
Ally waited a few seconds and still nothing happened. She smacked her lips together.
“Seems okay. A little sweet, but if it’s glucose in there, then that’s a bonus energy source for us.” She stood. “Let’s grab a few and take them with us. If I get sick, we’ll toss them, but if not, it’ll bolster our fluid supplies.” She grinned. “And if I drop dead, you’re welcome to eat me.”
“Thank you, but I hear American women are too tough and stringy.” Zhukov chuckled and then set to cutting free several of the large, fleshy leaves. Even Valentina managed to cut several and place them in her pack.
The captain checked their bearings and they headed out again. In the shimmering red heat haze, they saw nothing but more of the same endless desert with a few spare trees and some long stretches of open, scrabbly ground.
Zhukov pointed. “This way.” They struck out again.
Ally kept her eyes to slits; she would have killed for a pair of dark sunglasses or to be in darkness once again. Her hearing and sense of smell was acute, but her eyes were still weak from lack of use in strong light.
She ground her teeth as her headache pounded at her, and she bet it was a mix of dehydration and tormented eyes. She had one more sense that had become super sensitive—and she felt it now.
“Wait!” she yelled.
She stood with legs planted, staring down at the ground.
“What is it? You see something?” Valentina whispered.
“Not seeing but feeling. I can sense the vibrations.” Ally turned her head, and then quickly crouched and placed a hand flat on the surface. She then threw herself down to lay flat, pressed an ear to the ground, and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment or two. She jumped up and dusted herself down.
“Something’s coming.” She turned about.
“What?” Zhukov spun about with his gun held tight. “What is it?”
“Not it, them.” Ally stared into the distance the way they had just come. “There.” She pointed.
In the distance, there was the hint of a cloud of dust rising.
“What’s coming?” Valentina asked.
“My uncle had a cattle farm,” Ally said without turning. “Sometimes when a storm approached, we’d get dry thunder as the clouds rolled in. It spooked the cattle, and many times enough to stampede ‘em. That’s what this feels like.”
“You could feel it?” Zhukov asked.
“Yeah, feeling was a big part of staying alive in the caves.” Ally turned about. “We need to find somewhere to shelter in the event these things run us down.” She squinted. “There’s some low rocky outcrops—might at least be somewhere to shelter behind. Let’s move it.”
Ally began to jog, but as soon as she did, she felt the muscles in her thin legs rebel against her and she couldn’t lift the pace much past a fast walk.
“About half a mile. We can do it,” Zhukov remarked.
Ally looked over her shoulder. “That depends on the speed of those things behind us.”
The dust cloud was higher now, and below it she could just make out a line of darker objects. All around them, the smaller pebbles on the ground jumped and she guessed whatever was approaching must have been the size of a good steer. That meant if the things were tightly packed together and caught up with them, they’d be trampled.
“I can seem them,” Zhukov exclaimed. He looked back to the lagging Russian woman. “Valentina, your pack.”
She looked up, a little confused.
Zhukov dropped back to her and took her pack. He threw it over his other shoulder and took her elbow. “Come on.”
Valentina started to jog again, but all three of them were only moving now at little over fast walk pace.
The sound of thunderous hooves now reached them, and it even unnerved Ally. Up ahead just about two hundred yards, there was the first of the rocks.
“Nearly there!” she yelled. “Keep going.”
In a few minutes, they had to yell to each other over the din, and they passed the first lump of pebbly purple stone.
The first of the heat-baked exposed lumps of rock were only about a foot high and of no use. Worse, the ground was suddenly becoming soft and more like shifting sand. Each step sucked the energy from their already fatigued legs, and Ally began to feel waves of nausea from the strain.
She plowed on, having to drag her legs up and forward. At least it wasn’t wet like quicksand, so it fell away easily from their boots. But it meant their pace was too slow to stay in front of the approaching herd.
The things behind them were in sight now and even glancing back for a moment, Ally could see the wall of chitinous muscle, waving feelers, and bulb eyes bearing down on them.
Just ahead was a bottlenecked area with a three-foot-high line of rocks on either side. The creatures were probably large enough to leap over the stones, as well as pile up in the narrow gap, but it was all they had.
“There!” Zhukov yelled. “It’ll have to do.”
They used their last burst of energy in a staggering sprint, plodding through the soft sand and around the rock wall. They all immediately dived flat.
Ally took off her pack and put it over her head. The creatures came then, making a squealing-hissing noise, and sounded like heavy sheets of hard plastic rubbing together as they bumped up against each other.
The first ones came through the gap, then like a waterfall, they began to leap over them in waves. Though Ally wanted to keep her head down, she had to see what manner of creature they were and shifted the bag from her head to lift her chin.
The beasts seemed like a muscular form of roach with trunk-like legs and three claws on each. Out front was the weirdest head she had ever seen—a long trunk with tiny eyes right at the tip as if the entire thing was just a proboscis with sight.
She assumed it was for sucking up their food, whatever that was. They made pig-like squealing sounds as they panicked and headed on into the more open area that was like a large pool of sand, and it became clear the shifting grains were going to slow them down.
As expected, they began to get bogged, and the creatures in front had to use their powerful legs and bodies to wade forward as others landed on top of them.
“What’s that?” Zhukov shouted.
From one side of the sand pool, something like a forward curved spike approached, cutting the sand exactly as a shark’s fin cut the water. Then another and another appeared, and they headed for the first of the struggling beasts.
Ally saw that the hidden creatures had a single large eye on the end of the spike, more like a periscope for finding their prey, she guessed. Then, almost faster than the eye could follow, something launched from out of the sand, long jaws gaping wide to then clamp down on the front half of one of the roach-like beasts and drag it down, with a crunch and crackle of carapace.
> “Shit!” Zhukov exclaimed and turned about. “This is a kill zone.”
It was impossible to move with the huge creatures pouring over the small rock barrier and through the gap between them. They piled up as they waded deeper into the soft sand, and it reminded Ally of the herds of wildebeest trying to cross rivers while crocodiles picked the outer animals off.
One by one, the long, muscular predators sprang from the deeper sand to grab another victim and drag it down. The front animals screamed their fear, but the surging mass of the stampeding creatures kept pressing them forward no matter the danger, and the more that entered the sea of sand, the more the sand predators were attracted to the feeding frenzy.
As Ally stared, one of the things latched on to a larger specimen and had difficulty dragging it under. In a few seconds, it was above the sand’s surface. She could see a long and powerful eel-like body with pebbly skin, thin razor-tooth filled jaws of a barracuda, and dozens of short paddle legs running down its side that acted like oars to help it to slither and swim through the sand.
Like some sort of worm, Ally thought, as she watched it shake its head from side to side as it crunched down, severed the prey animal’s armor plating, and then tugged it backward below the surface.
The first of the herd of creatures started to make it out the other side, their numbers being far too numerous to be overly impacted by the now dozens of predator animals.
After another fifteen minutes, it dwindled to a few passing along, and then the last few tried to make it across but were attacked and pulled under with their agonized frightened screams being muffled as they were drawn down.
The single eye on the stalk of several of the predator worms still moved through the sand, keeping a watch, until Zhukov sat up. The movement focused them, and just like a school of sharks lining up for the kill, started to home in on the three humans huddled beside the rock.
“Shit,” Ally said from between her teeth.
She raised her gun and fired but missed the eyestalk.
She turned. “Quick, up on the rock.”
The trio turned, scrambled up on the three-foot-high purple boulder, and pulled their packs up after them.
With the humans gone from the sand, the creatures swerved away but stayed close by.
“Sandworms,” Ally said. “Like I said, there’s predators everywhere, all the time.”
“I think we’ll need another way forward,” Zhukov replied.
“They are also behind us.” Valentina tried to edge a little higher, but their rock was too small.
Ally looked about. There weren’t enough rocks close by to allow them to try and leap from boulder to boulder. And right now, they were exposed up on the stone. She also didn’t know if the things could reach up out of the sand, or how far. But she bet if they were hungry or excited enough, they might give it a try.
“We’ve got to move.” She shielded her eyes. Just a hundred yards or so to their right, there looked to be hardpacked gravel again, and maybe the edge of the sand sea. There were a few rocks to use, but not many.
“Over there,” she said. “I estimate about one-twenty yards—no more than a football field length.”
“Football fields are one-thirty at home.” Zhukov grinned. “Everything bigger in Russia.”
Ally chuckled. “Then this’ll be a cakewalk for you.”
“We’ll never make it,” Valentina pleaded.
“She’s right.” Zhukov sighed. “This is their domain. They’d run us down before we got ten feet, let alone a hundred-twenty yards.”
“Yeah, probably right.” Ally nodded. “Not a race I want to run.”
She continued to stare at the few remaining worm creatures in the sand for many minutes, until she had a thought. “These things were attracted by the vibrations in the sand. Sure, they use sight when in close, but the sounds drew them in from far away.”
She began to rummage through her pack. “Do you know what they’ve found to be a very good short-term deterrent for sharks?” She looked up. “Grenades.” She lifted free the two grenades and grinned.
“Might work.” Zhukov grinned back. He searched his pack. “I have two as well.”
“No, save them.” Ally’s lips pressed into a line for a moment. “We’ve only just arrived, and we need to preserve our ammunition for as long as we can.” She looked back. “We will encounter things more threatening than these little suckers.”
“Little?” Zhukov scoffed.
She turned back. “Ready… Valentina?”
The doctor’s brows came together. “To do what? What’s the plan?”
Ally pointed. “About one-twenty yards that way, there looks to be hard-packed ground. I don’t think these things can’t get us there. I’m going to toss a grenade into the sand, and the moment it detonates, we run for it. If more begin to show up, I’ll throw another one.”
Zhukov nodded. “I reserve the right to throw a grenade.”
Ally chuckled. “Okay, but only if needed.” She stood. “Get ready.”
Zhukov helped Valentina to her feet. Her legs wobbled more from fear than fatigue and he held onto her arm.
“You’ll be fine,” he said.
“We head for that tract of sand just beyond the two bushes, got it?” Ally said and the pair nodded. “I’ll lead us out.”
Ally sucked in a deep breath and turned to the sand sea. There was no movement or any sign anything could be living in there, but she bet just below the surface or in one of the sand pools to the side, the predators waited.
She held the grenade up. “And a three, and a two, and…” she pulled the pin, “…a one.” She threw it into the center of the sand pool.
“Go.” She leaped from the top of the rock and began to run.
There was a muffled thump and a gout of sand was blown into the air.
She heard Zhukov and Valentina come down behind her, and the three plodded through the knee-deep sand. It was hard work on already tired limbs, but adrenaline gave them an initial boost, and she felt she was pushing through at good speed.
At a little over halfway, she dared to feel confident and chanced a glance back. Her heart kicked up a few beats as she saw the three fin-like periscopes with eyes on top cutting the sand behind them.
“Incoming!” she yelled, pulled the pin, and then tossed her last grenade.
But it wasn’t a good throw and landed too close behind Valentina. The blast blew sand in the air, and the woman over.
Zhukov stopped to help her up, thankful there was no sign of the creatures. Valentina ran on groggily—how long did the things give her last time? 60 seconds? 40? And this time would the sand worms be just as worried by the blast or recognize they had nothing to fear?
Ally powered ahead again, and this time felt the adrenaline fuel tanks running low. Her thighs screamed, and her lungs burned from the effort. Zhukov was literally dragging the Russian woman along with him.
They had just on twenty yards to go—sixty feet—easy-peasy, she told herself.
Ally’s teeth were grit hard and bared as she used the last of her energy to lift her legs and stomp them down in the sand as the edge of the hard-packed ground neared. She glanced to the side, and then back, and saw that behind Valentina and Zhukov the periscopes had appeared again and cut through the sand far faster than they were moving.
She was about to yell to the man to deploy a grenade, but it might mean a few split seconds of him rummaging in his pack instead of remaining focused.
Fuck it, she thought and pulled her rifle. She tried to run backward and sight on the periscopes as they bore down on them.
Then her heel struck something solid.
“The ground!” she yelled. “Run.”
Ally switched to full automatic and fired off dozens of rounds into the sand just ahead of where she thought the things were and at anything that moved close to the Russians.
Zhukov started to lift from the deeper sand and literally threw the smaller woman up onto the hard groun
d before him.
One of the worms breached close to the Russian captain and then launched itself, its V-shaped jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth opening and ready to clamp down on his raised arm.
“Piss off!” Ally yelled and turned to empty her magazine into the exposed beast. The thing was blistered with holes and flopped back down into the sand to bury itself and vanish.
Ally ran and dove the last few feet to skid up onto the harder ground on her belly. She lay there, panting hard.
Zhukov also rolled onto his back and sucked in deep breaths, unable to even speak. After several moments, Ally lifted her head.
“You okay?”
Zhukov turned his head. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, yes?”
She lay her head back. “Funny, I don’t feel stronger.”
CHAPTER 14
Mariana Trench Mission, US Team – second twelve-hour block
The land became more rugged and for the last few miles, they trudged along an ever-narrowing, but long-dried water course, before their path then took them into a large cave.
So far, in the gloom of the cavern, all they came across were weird three-foot-wide growths that could have been either plant or animal attached to the rock walls and floor that waved feelers in the air as they attempted to net small flying creatures. The odd things seemed benign, and they were relieved to not be bothered by any larger denizens of the inner world.
The huge cave became damper and from up ahead, the background noise they had been hearing rose to become an all-encompassing roar. Loche got a heads-up from the drone pilot that had sped ahead.
“Waterfall,” Loche said. “Massive.”
“Can we get through?” Nina asked.
“We’ll soon know,” he replied.
In fifteen more minutes, the group came to a swirling pond and had to narrow their eyes from the spray that filled the cavern. The wall of thunderous water falling in front of them made what lay beyond invisible.
Jane wiped water from her face. “It’s too heavy to pass through.” She pointed. “Maybe beside it.”
Loche nodded as he saw that on one side of the falling sheet of water was a small gap between the rock face and the deluge. They could skirt the pool of water and avoid the falls.