by Greig Beck
“If they’re going to pull it down, it’ll take a while,” Loche said.
In response to this, a slab of formerly invisible and slightly recessed rock to their side slid back into a recess, leaving a dark passage beyond. As they watched, now with guns pointed at the entrance, a blue glow began to emanate from deep inside as someone or something came closer.
In another moment, a woman emerged and straightened. She wasn’t red. The woman looked along the group until her eyes found Jane and Mike.
“An explorer comes here once. A fool comes twice…” One side of her mouth quirked up. “… but what is someone who comes for a third time?” she asked.
“Insane, I guess,” Mike replied.
“Katya,” Jane said. “But. You look…how?”
The woman that stood before her had long silver hair, but she was in no way the decrepit, bent-over skeleton they had left behind. Her back was straight, and her skin, though lined by time, was clear of the nasty canker-type sores that plagued her, and Mike knew had also been working their way into her body—just like with he and Jane now.
“The salve,” Mike said softly. “It works.”
“Yes, it does,” Katya replied.
She stepped forward and Jane noticed she still wore the small gold disk around her neck that had once belonged to her sister.
“The Grunda Omada people gave me most of their remaining stores to apply to my skin and make into a brew to drink for the internal cancers eating away at me. They healed me, but unfortunately, it is running out. And when it does, the cancers will return. It is a temporary shield, not a cure.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Janus inserted. “Just let us know where it comes from, and we’ll do the rest—we’ll make you gallons.”
Katya ignored him and crouched before the children. She looked into many of their eyes and cupped their faces and smiled. Then she stood and turned to Mike and Jane. “You look exhausted. You are welcome inside. But the remaining people of the cave are now fearful after the last attack.”
“The attack… what happened here?” Loche asked.
Katya looked at the tall American, and then her eyes slid to his gun. “Put your weapons away. The red people have poison darts they use for hunting. They can kill you all before you’ll even see them.”
Loche nodded and waved his men to lower their weapons. “Sorry, we’ve been through a lot.”
She half smiled. “I can tell.”
“What happened?” Jane pressed.
Katya sighed. “Come inside and rest.” She pointed at Matt. “And you stay close, Mr. Russian speaker. I have not used English in a long time, and it is a struggle for me. I may switch to Russian when I tire.”
Katya turned and led them into the small side cave, and the group followed in single file. Once inside the blue-tinged cavern, the door was slid shut, fitting neatly into the wall and becoming invisible once again.
Katya led them onward and for the first time, they encountered the small red people, with the dark, screwed-down hair and coal-black eyes. The men and women had weapons now, and they watched the surface people go past with a mix of fear and awe.
Jane wondered about their leader. “Katya, is Ulmina still here?”
“No, she died in the great battle.” Katya half turned. “Down here, the leaders lead, even in battle. More than seventy percent of our people died in the attack.” Her eyes grew dark. “The last push meant those outside had one job: to slow down the advance so the wall could be completed. They knew they were going to die when they were left on the outside. Ulmina was one of them and just her being there stiffened their spines. Such bravery.”
“Shit,” Mike said softly.
Katya stopped. “Yes, it was, shit.” She turned away. “Follow.”
Katya led them into a large room that they recognized with the alcoves and blue crystal rods around the walls illuminating the space. The enormous table and the picture frescos with the stories of their history were still there.
“Wow,” Matt said.
“So far, we have preserved much behind the wall. But they often return, and we fear the next attack will wipe us out,” Katya said.
Mike found the crude drawings he had carved into the tabletop. He turned to Loche and Janus. “My explanation of the outer and inner world. Seems like years ago now.” He looked up. “Katya, with Ulmina gone, who is the ruler here now?”
Katya turned. “I am.”
“You?” Jane said.
Katya smiled and spoke in a lyrical language to the small warriors who seemed to be guarding her. They bowed and vanished.
“They’ll bring you food and water. But remember, it will be sparse, as Dagon’s minions are always watching and waiting. They do not forgive our, your, attack.”
Jane remembered her injuring the great beast. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Katya smiled. “I’d like to see them all destroyed. They are a scourge on the entire inner world. They are like locusts that swarm and consume and feed their great god all they can capture.”
Her lips pressed flat for a moment. “And sometimes they intrude on the surface world. Same as Dagon. And then he returns with his own feasts.” Her level gaze was on Loche. “Your ships.”
“We came via the gravity well in the sea, beside the Y’ha-nthlei village. But it was empty—they were gone,” Mike said. “Maybe they moved somewhere else.”
Katya laughed wearily. “No, they are there. Their cities reach deep below the red ocean.” She looked up. “You see, the great beast wanted you here. It will have seen inside your dreams and it will never let you leave now. All here belong to it.”
“We’ll see about that,” Loche replied. “Our vessels pack quite a bit of punch.”
“You’ve also got to get to those vessels, Captain.” Katya turned to Jane and raised her eyebrows. “He’s never seen Dagon, has he?”
Jane shook her head.
“Question?” Matt held up a hand. “How did you learn their language so quickly? You’re not a linguist.”
“Ulmina was her teacher,” Jane said. “You were working on a guide together.”
Katya nodded. “She was a good teacher. Far better than me. Through great patience and skill, she taught me their language. But I could never teach her mine. I just wasn’t smart enough.”
“You have a Rosetta stone? A manuscript?” Matt grinned. “Can I see it?”
Katya paused as some of the red men and women returned bearing plates of food. They turned and bowed to Katya who thanked them. Many were stunned into immobility by the sight of the children, who stared back with a similar rapt interest.
Katya spoke again and then a few moments after a group of red women came and hugged the children. Many of the women had tears on their cheeks.
“Who are they?” Jane asked.
“Mothers who lost their own children. To the war, to famine, to disease… to Dagon.” Katya sighed. “The children will be very welcome.” She looked up at Matt, and then the others. “Thank you for rescuing and caring for them.”
“You’re welcome. But it was a team effort.” Matt beamed. “They’ve been teaching me a lot. They came from the jungle valley. Their city was wiped out by a race of things that looked like people but weren’t.”
Katya nodded soberly. “We had heard the ancient legends, but we never had the power to rescue them. It is terrible. Such is the brutal life down here.”
The other red people were about to depart but before they left, Katya said something else, which caused one of them to come closer and examine Mike and Jane’s faces. He nodded and then also vanished.
Katya smiled. “I guess the people here believed that because Ulmina spent so much time with me that I became imbued with her strength and wisdom.” She went to a shelf that had a curtain in front of it. She pushed it aside, brought out a leather-bound book, and turned to hold it out to Matt.
“They are a good people. And I do not want them harmed in any way.” Katya faced Loche. “That’s
why you are going to destroy Dagon for us.”
“That’s the plan,” Janus shot back.
Matt held the book open and grinned broadly. “You even added how to pronounce the words and phrases. Very cool.”
More of the small red people returned with a small, lidded bowl of glistening white salve, which they handed to Katya. She looked down into it and sighed.
“Not much left.” She stepped toward Mike and Jane and began to first daub and rub it on Jane’s lesions. “Like that,” she said and handed the bowl to Jane. “Do it all over.” She tilted her head. “But you really need to have ingested some as well, to ensure the minerals work their way right throughout your system. It will be a temporary reprieve, I’m afraid. Because this is the last of it.”
“What? That’s it?” Janus shrilled. “But where does it come from? Where did they get it from originally? Did they make or harvest it?”
Katya watched the man for a moment before responding. “It comes from a rare plant like an agave called the Youta. It is extracted and eaten raw. But it is most potent when it is boiled to condense into a paste for application to the skin and mixed with warm water as a drink.” She smiled. “But the plants are all gone from our area now and are too far away for us to travel to. I won’t let the people here put an expedition together to travel to farther lands—even if it is for me.” She shrugged. “All things must end.”
Katya walked to one of the frescos, and Jane saw it was the one depicting the old people rising up in the gravity well to what they believed was their ancestors in some sort of heaven.
“One day soon, I’ll need to make the walk into the darkness. And if the mother of the caves allows it…”
“Mother of the caves?” Matt asked.
Katya nodded and turned to him. “Legend has it that there’s something in the caves, that sorts the believers from the non-believers…”
“Oh yeah, we’ve met,” Mike said and turned to Jane. “The spider-woman in the caves.”
She nodded. “With all the hatchlings.”
Katya turned back to the frescos. “If I pass her judgment, I will ascend, and perhaps meet my ancestors.” She smiled benignly. “And maybe my beautiful little sister, Nina, will be waiting for me.”
“No.” Jane shook her head and lowered her voice. “There’s no ancestors, Katya,” Jane sighed. “There is just a race of monsters, that might once have been human beings, that live in the caves. The people who arrive, thinking they’re meeting their ancestors, well, they may well be ancestors, but they’ve devolved into monstrosities that feed off flesh.”
“They’ll be waiting for you,” Mike said softly.
Katya smiled at him. “That talk is blasphemy down here.”
“It’s worse than that,” Mike said. “It’s a horrible truth.”
Some more of the red people returned and chattered briefly with Katya. She nodded and her brows came together.
Matt listened in and then tilted his head. “Seems we have more visitors.”
Katya nodded. “You learn fast, Professor Kearns.”
He held up the manuscript. “I do because you write well.”
Loche held up his GPS to Janus. “Our mystery guests have arrived. I’d say they have been tracking us like we have them.”
“Well, let’s go meet them,” Janus replied.
Katya shot him a distrusting look, but Loche motioned for Croft to accompany them. “Jane, you come as well. Everyone else, stay put.”
Mike watched them go and then turned back to Katya. “When we leave, will you come with us?”
The striking old woman scoffed. “Return to a world that rejected me? Disbelieved me? Locked me up? I think that is a world I want to be no part of.”
Mike shook his head. “There’ll be no disbelieving or rejecting anyone anymore. Besides, how can you stay down here now when you’re a prisoner off the Y’ha-nthlei? Sooner or later, they’ll break in and massacre or capture everyone down here.”
“No.” She smiled knowingly. “We have other options. They are high risk, but we can escape if we want to.”
“By ascending?” Mike shook his head. “You would ascend to darkness and madness, and a certain brutal death. There is no heaven or meeting up with friendly spirits that are your ancestors.”
Mike pulled his collar across, exposing a circular mark the size of his fist. “This is a bite from one of them on my last trip. Not my imagination.”
Katya reached up to pat Mike’s other shoulder. “Thank you for caring about me, Mike Monroe. There are a few good people left on the surface, so I have great hope for all of you.”
***
Jane watched as Loche positioned Croft at the mouth of the tunnel entrance and then motioned for Jane to wait just inside. He then checked his GPS. “They’re here.” He stepped up the ladder and stood at the top, cradling his gun. She saw him scan the horizon, and then fix on a position to the north.
In another moment, he raised his arm in a salute. “Lieutenant Ally Bennet, I presume.” He smiled broadly and quickly let his gun drop to hang on the trap from his shoulder. A woman launched into his arms.
Croft turned to Jane with a grin. “I guess they’re friendlies.”
Jane ran up the steps to see two people—one, a Russian soldier that looked like he had been dragged through a briar patch, and the other, a thin, but healthy-looking Ally, dressed in an oversized Russian uniform.
Upon seeing Jane, Ally burst into tears. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for leaving you…”
Jane rushed to her, shaking her head. “No, we didn’t know. We thought at first you had made it out. Then we thought you were dead.” Jane couldn’t help her own tears flowing. “I’m so happy you made it.”
The Russian soldier came and saluted Loche. “Kapitan Viktor Zhukov, last member of Special Forces rescue mission, Glubokaya Zemlya, to rescue American woman.” He nodded toward Ally. “Mission almost accomplished.”
Loche returned the salute, introduced himself, and held out his hand. He gripped the Russian’s hand, and then his wrist with the other hand. “Thank you for rescuing our soldier. And thank you for surviving.” He let his hand go. “But we have more work to do just yet.”
“If it involves getting home, then I stand ready,” Zhukov replied.
Croft had appeared beside them and was scanning the distance. He held up his tracker and pointed at the far line of trees that marked the start of the forest to the east.
“Strange, I thought it was our two stragglers coming home. But there’s something else moving out there,” he said.
“She-it.” Loche looked along the horizon but saw nothing. “Then why don’t we go back down and not advertise there’s people back in here.”
Jane grabbed Ally’s hand and led her down into the dark tunnel. Inside, they went quickly to the side alcove with the hidden door.
“What happened here?” Ally asked.
“War,” Jane replied. “After we left, the Y’ha-nthlei came and massacred most of the clan.”
“Oh, that’s sad,” Ally said.
Jane rubbed her arm and half smiled. “It is. But come and meet their new leader.”
They walked down along the tunnel until they came to the large room again and entering, Jane waved. “Look who we found.”
Mike clapped and rushed to her. “We hoped it was you.” He hugged the woman.
Ally kissed him, stepped back, and held an arm out toward Zhukov. “My hero.” She grabbed him and pulled him forward. “This is Captain Viktor Zhukov. He risked everything for me and has been my guardian angel the entire way. He kept me alive and my spirits high even when I wanted to surrender.”
Zhukov blushed a little as he shrugged. “It is a soldier’s job.”
Ally spotted the silver-haired woman. “Katya? Katya Babikov?”
Katya held her arms wide. “Life is long and strange, is it not?”
Ally went to hold the woman. “What happened to you? I mean, you look like a different woman.”
>
Katya shrugged. “I gave up smoking.” She began to laugh but then scrutinized Ally’s face. She pushed her hair back. “You don’t look so bad for someone who has spent so much time down here either.”
Ally’s mouth drooped. “I wasn’t down here for most of the time, but in a twilight world of hell. And I’d still be there, if not for this man.” Her eyes welled up. “He lost his entire team rescuing me, and then getting me here through river caves and across deserts.”
Jane saw the Russian man beaming back at her and guessed they had grown close in their time at the center of the Earth.
“How did you survive?” Matt asked.
“Determination,” Zhukov replied. “And a lot of luck.” He grinned.
“And those weird leaves like aloe vera that were filled with something like syrup.” Ally pulled a face. “Yeesh, I never want to see one again.”
She reached into her bag, pulled out the two remaining fleshy bulbs, and tossed them onto the table.
Katya began to laugh and picked one up. “The Youta plant.” She looked up. “And the source of the salve. This is why you are not that afflicted by the radiation’s poison. This has been your shield.”
Janus snatched one up. “This is it?”
Zhukov emptied Valentina’s bag that still contained half a dozen of the fleshy leaves. “They were everywhere.”
“They were once everywhere here as well. But we took them without cultivating them.” Katya held up the fat pod-like leaf. “We know more about that now, and this will be our second chance.” She smiled at Jane. “And yours too.”
“How do you, ah, prepare the salve?” Janus asked.
“Simple.” Katya held up and squeezed the bulb leaf. A drop of pearlescent liquid appeared on the end where it had been pulled from its plant stem. “You crush the leaf, extracting the syrup. Then you heat it until the moisture is reduced to make a paste. It concentrates the medicinal properties.”
Janus began to put the leaves back in Valentina’s pack. “Ladies and gentlemen, our work here is done.”
“Hey, leave some for Katya,” Jane demanded.
“I only need two,” Katya said. “They grow easily, and we now know we can grow them underground near a heat source.”