Beckon

by Tom Pawlik

  Rudy took a few hesitant steps closer to the pile. “There’s so many of them.” His light flitted across the mass of bones. “Look at them all.”

  Jack felt as if he’d stumbled across a subterranean Nazi concentration camp. Hundreds of victims killed and their bodies just dumped into this pit. His nausea was quickly turning to anger. His face flushed with emotion. “What did they do to these people? How could they do this?”

  “Beats me,” Ben said. “I wasn’t there.”

  “Well, you seem to know a lot about them. You said this was all a Caieche legend.”

  “Look, man.” Ben stood, and his tone grew sharp. “The N’watu were here way before any of us. My people weren’t responsible for this.”

  “Hey, there’s something here,” Rudy said, pointing his light at the base of the pile. “I see something in there.”

  But Jack was preoccupied with Ben’s comment. “I didn’t say your tribe was responsible. I’m just struggling with the idea that someone—anyone—could do something like this to other human beings.”

  Rudy was still talking. “It looks like it’s a . . .”

  “Oh, really?” Ben snorted and spread his hands. “Welcome to the human race, kid. Let me tell you, this is nothing compared to what happened to thousands of Indians at the hands of—”

  “Don’t lecture me about suffering! You know how many Africans died in the holds of slave ships?”

  “Both of you, shut up!” Rudy’s voice rose. “Get over here and take a look at this!”

  Jack took a breath and tried to calm himself. Clearly the gruesome discovery had put them on edge, and he needed to get a handle on his emotions. He made his way over to where Rudy was inspecting the bone heap. Rudy turned and held up a small, metallic object.

  Jack aimed his flashlight at it and gasped. “Is that a—?”

  Before Jack could say anything further, a section of the bone pile burst outward, knocking them both off their feet. Rudy yelled and scrambled away. His light flashed back and forth, and Jack caught a glimpse of a jagged shape occupying the space where they had been standing—just a fleeting, skeletal shadow before it slipped out of view again.

  Rudy scrambled backward on his heels and elbows, kicking and shrieking. Jack saw flashes of a dark shape following him. And he could hear a sort of growling hiss along with the same clicking sound they’d heard earlier.

  The thing pursued Rudy with jerky movements, and only when it paused momentarily was Jack able to finally train his own light on it. In that brief second, he saw it more clearly. It was crablike in appearance and enormous—about the size of a large dog—with what looked like a bony, armored shell. And it had multiple segmented legs like a crab, with two longer ones jutting forward. Then it reared back as if up on its haunches, with its front legs coiling like cobras ready to strike.

  The creature flicked forward again, out of the light. Rudy’s scream jolted Jack out of his daze, and he jumped to his feet, looking around for something to use as a weapon. Just then another dark shape flashed through his beam.

  It was Ben. He looked like he was carrying something. Jack thought it might’ve been a rock, but it was all happening too fast. Between Rudy screaming and the lights zipping back and forth across the cavern, Jack only managed to discern a flurry of movement and sounds. There was a loud, rattling hiss and three heavy thumps before his light caught up with the action again.

  Jack found Rudy lying on his back, chest heaving, and Ben kneeling a few feet away with a large rock in front of him. Under the rock was a motionless, contorted mass of limbs.

  Jack shone his light on Rudy. His pant leg was torn and a trail of blood dripped down his calf.

  “You okay?” Jack said, but Rudy’s eyes looked as round as saucers and he gasped for breath. Jack raised his voice. “Rudy!”

  Rudy blinked and snapped his head toward Jack. “I’m . . . I don’t know.”

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “I . . . I think I got cut or something.”

  Ben crawled over to Rudy and inspected his wound. “It doesn’t look too bad.” He dug in his pack for the first aid kit.

  Meanwhile Jack found his attention drawn back to the creature, now lying crushed and twitching beneath the rock. He rolled the stone aside with his foot and circled the body from a safe distance. The animal lay with its legs splayed out. Jack counted eight of them. Each of the longer forelegs contained the same curved claw as the specimen Rudy had discovered.

  “Is it one of those . . . things?” Rudy’s voice was shaky.

  “Looks like it,” Jack said, kneeling to inspect the creature more closely. Its outer shell was roughly circular and about the size of a large serving platter. It was black with gray patches and had a bumpy, pebbled texture. The edges were ringed with small, hornlike protrusions. Jack made a quick mental estimate of its size. It was about three feet wide from leg tip to leg tip, and maybe four feet front to back with the longer front legs.

  Jack nudged the body with his foot. “I want to try to flip it over and get a look at its underside.”

  Ben turned around. “Be careful with that thing. I think these cuts are puncture wounds.”

  Rudy seemed surprised. “What do you mean? Like bite marks? Did it bite me?”

  Jack carefully lifted the outer shell and rolled the animal over. It was heavier than it looked. Its armored legs seemed to curl inward reflexively as he laid the creature on its back. From this perspective, Jack could see a distinct set of long, meaty fangs that curved out and downward. And between them protruded a pair of short, bony, fingerlike appendages, like the palps that spiders use for sensory purposes. Between them was a large slit that Jack assumed was the creature’s mouth.

  “Whoa,” he whispered.

  “What is it?” Rudy’s voice rose. “Is it poisonous? Did it bite me?”

  “Hold still.” Ben was busy cleaning and dressing the wound.

  “Well . . .” Jack couldn’t tear himself from the specimen. “It looks like some kind of giant spider with an armored shell. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s huge.”

  “But is it poisonous?”

  Jack shrugged. “How would I know? You’re the biologist.”

  “Well, we know it’s predatory,” Ben said without looking up. “It attacked from out of cover of the bones. Like it was waiting there to ambush prey.”

  “Jack.” Rudy grimaced, pointing to the bone pile. “Did you see the watch?”

  Jack remembered why Rudy had called him over in the first place. He swept his light across the ground and saw the scuffed and battered wristwatch lying in the mud where Rudy had dropped it. He picked it up.

  “This looks pretty new,” he said. “I mean, like a modern watch.”

  Rudy was shaking his head. “What’s going on here?”

  Jack peered at Ben through the lights. “Obviously we’re not the only people in this cave. You said the N’watu would offer human sacrifices to the Soul Eater.” He held up the watch. “I think they’re still doing it. Or at least somebody is.”

  They stared at each other for a hushed moment as that thought sank in. Only the sounds of their breathing echoed in the cavern.

  Ben shook his head. “This is crazy. They’re just a legend.”

  “You saw those drawings on the wall. And all these bodies got down here somehow. They didn’t just wander in on their own.”

  “Then we better find a way out pretty quick.” Ben finished wrapping Rudy’s leg with gauze. “We don’t know how many of those spider things are down here, and we should probably get him to a hospital.”

  For a moment, Jack bristled at the thought of leaving. He knew there was real danger here and that they needed to find a way out, but still, his curiosity had been piqued. They had just discovered some actual hard evidence that the N’watu might in fact be real. And that notion was mind-boggling. Part of him wanted desperately to find out more.

  He helped Rudy to his feet. “Are you okay? Can you walk?”
>
  Rudy tested some weight on his leg. “Yeah, it just tingles a little, but I can walk.” He limped over and stared down at the creature.

  Jack nudged it again with his foot. “What do you suppose it is?”

  Rudy shrugged. “It does look like some kind of arachnid or an entirely new species of arthropod. We’d need to do a comparative DNA analysis to modern arachnids to be sure. But these things could have been down here since prehistoric times.”

  He turned to Ben. “We have to bring it with us.”

  Ben winced. “What? You’re both crazy!”

  But Rudy persisted. “This is a huge scientific discovery.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’m not carrying the thing. You guys figure out what to do with it.”

  Rudy bent closer and inspected the carcass under his flashlight. “You realize we’re going to be famous with this discovery.”

  “No doubt . . . but hopefully not posthumously,” Jack said.

  Rudy chuckled. “What should we name it?”

  “What d’you mean?”

  “Well, whoever discovers a new species of animal always gets to name it,” Rudy said. “How about Cavernous Arachnis Giganticus?”

  Jack just raised an eyebrow. He was thankful at least that Rudy was feeling well enough to joke, bleak as their circumstances were. “Maybe I can carry it with something or at least drag it along.” He unpacked his rolled-up wet jeans and knelt down to slip them under the spider.

  Suddenly the carcass jerked and erupted into a seizure. Jack leaped out of the way as the spider bumped and jittered on the ground. Rudy and Ben jumped back as well.

  The creature growled and hissed, kicking in violent spasms. All of its legs thrashed about, stretching out and digging into the mud as if trying to flip itself back over.

  “I thought you killed it!” Jack heard himself scream.

  “I did,” Ben shouted back at him.

  “Apparently not all the way!”

  “Shut up and kill it!” Rudy yelled, hobbling backward. “Kill it! Kill it!”

  Jack was scrambling in the dark, searching for another rock, when he heard the hisses and growls turn into high-pitched squeals. He turned back to see that Ben had pounced on top of the animal and was ramming his knife deep into its center. He plunged it over and over into the soft underbelly as a viscous yellow fluid spattered his arms and face. The animal’s legs thrashed and clawed in furious tremors but gradually slowed until at last the only movement was a slight twitching in one of the rear appendages.

  Jack stared at the grotesque sight, not sure what to say. His heart was still pounding. Finally Rudy spoke up from his vantage point several feet away. “Is it dead this time?”

  Ben stood over the animal, wild-eyed and grimacing. He wiped his face on his sleeve. “It better be.”

  Jack inspected the carcass and cringed. The underbelly was a mass of shredded flesh and yellow goop. Its legs had contorted and curled inward but were finally motionless.

  “You must’ve just stunned it before,” he said after a moment.

  “No way.” Ben shook his head. “I hit it three or four times. And that rock weighed a good thirty pounds. No way it survived that.”

  “Well, that shell must be harder than it looks.”

  Rudy snorted. “Or maybe it was just playing possum.”

  Ben glared at them. “I’m telling you, I killed that thing.”

  “Great,” Rudy muttered. “Giant zombie cave spiders.”

  Ben swore. “Y’know, if it weren’t for me, both of you guys would be dead by—” He stopped his rant short and looked around the cavern, cocking his head.

  “What?” Rudy whispered. “What’s wrong?”

  “Shh!” Ben snapped his palm up and tilted his head the other way.

  Then Jack heard it too. Somewhere in the darkness, an eerie clicking sound echoed off the cavern walls. It was soft and indistinct at first but growing steadily louder.

  Ben turned. “We need to get out of here now!”

  Chapter 10

  “Wait!” Jack grabbed his camera out of his pack. He couldn’t leave without recording what they’d found. “I have to at least get a shot of this place. I have to document—”

  Ben clutched him by the back of his shirt and tugged him away, but Jack shrugged himself loose. Ben yelled, “You idiot, we have to get out of here!”

  Rudy’s breath was growing labored. “Which way?”

  “Up,” Ben said. “We need to get out of this pit.”

  “Up . . . up where?”

  Jack pointed the camera around the chamber. With the night-vision setting, he could see a couple of side passages leading off the main room. One looked big enough to stand in, but the others were barely large enough for them to crawl through.

  Jack got a quick shot of the giant spider and then panned over to the bone pile. In that shot, he could see Ben in the foreground shining his light up the cavern walls. Rudy was bent over and holding his side. Beyond them both, Jack could see a wide ledge just above the heap of bones. It looked maybe twenty feet high or so, but it wasn’t that far from the top of the pile.

  “Up there.” Jack pointed. “There’s some kind of ledge up there.”

  Ben ran to the edge of the heap and scanned his light along the ledge. He turned back and said, “We’ll have to try it.”

  “Guys . . . ,” Rudy wheezed, clutching his side. “I’m kinda . . . starting to feel a little . . . not so good.” He staggered a few steps toward Jack and then fell to his hands and knees, vomiting.

  “Rudy!” Jack stopped filming and ran to help, but Rudy had already collapsed into a quivering heap. Ben was there in a moment as well.

  In their lights, Jack could see the ground stained dark red. Blood frothed from Rudy’s mouth and nostrils, down his chin. His entire body quaked with violent tremors, and Jack could hear him struggling for breath.

  “Jack,” Rudy’s voice rasped. His chest heaved like he’d just run a marathon, but his breath was lost in a thick gurgling sound. He gagged and coughed. “I can’t . . . I can’t . . .”

  “Rudy, it’s okay. We’ll get you out of here. Just hold on.” Jack’s own heart was pounding now. He felt utterly helpless. “Stay with me. Just try to slow your breathing. Take deep breaths. Stay with me!”

  “I . . . can’t . . .” Rudy managed two last words before his entire torso stiffened. His head arched back in a wide-eyed, silent scream. A tremor shook his body once, and then he was still.

  “Rudy!” Jack shook his shoulders. “Rudy!”

  Ben shone his flashlight into Rudy’s eyes, still wide open in a look of terror. His pupils were dilated; there was no sign of any reaction to the light.

  “Rudy!” Jack’s voice trembled, and a strange sense of detachment flooded over him. A feeling that he was outside of his body somehow, sitting in a theater or at home watching a horror movie.

  “Jack!” It seemed Ben’s voice called him from the other side of the cavern. “Jack, we have to get out of here.”

  Jack looked up to see Ben nose to nose with him. His lips moved as if in slow motion.

  “Jack . . . he’s dead. There’s nothing else we can do.”

  Ben shook him by the shoulders, and Jack blinked back to consciousness.

  “He’s gone,” Ben kept saying. “We have to get out of here.”

  “No!” Jack grabbed Rudy’s shoulders and tried to drag him toward the bones. “We have to get him to a hospital. Help me!”

  Jack felt his head snap sideways as Ben’s hand connected with his cheek. The sharp sting brought him out of his fog. The whole side of his face seemed to burn.

  Ben glared at him. “He’s dead! We have to leave him and get out of here.”

  The clicking noise was growing louder and now seemed to fill the entire cavern like an approaching chorus of castanets playing somewhere in the dark. But it was more intense now than when Jack had heard it before. And he could hear other sounds over the distinct clicking noise. Growlin
g and hissing, like the animal that had attacked them.

  Ben leaped onto the bone pile and scrambled toward the top. Bones slipped and cracked under his weight, but he kept clawing his way up.

  Jack looked back at Rudy, his body limp and contorted. And still.

  He grimaced, fighting back tears as he picked up Rudy’s backpack and slung it over his shoulder along with his own pack. Now Jack could sense a growing shadow approaching from somewhere in the darkness behind him. He jumped onto the bone pile and clawed his way up to the ledge.

  It was like climbing a snowbank; his own weight caused him to sink farther down than he was able to pull himself up. His hands clutched at thick leg bones, round skulls, and smaller ribs and hands and feet. Hard and cold to the touch, they shifted and snapped like old branches beneath his feet. The putrid scent of decay wafted up from the heap with each move he made, choking him in its stench.

  He struggled to turn his brain off to the horror of Rudy’s death and the corpses beneath him and focus solely on climbing, forcing his hands to keep moving and his legs to keep pumping.

  As he neared the top, he saw that the ledge was higher than he’d expected. He clawed at the rock wall to find some kind of handhold. And even as he did, his feet sank deeper into the bones. It was as if the corpses were grabbing his legs to pull him down into their tomb.

  But then he looked up again and saw Ben’s arm extended toward him. Jack gave one final push with his legs, hoping there were enough bones beneath him to hold him stable. He jumped . . .

  And felt Ben’s hand close around his wrist. Jack reached his free hand up, kicked his feet against the rock, and scrambled over the ledge.

  He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, gasping for breath.

  But he had left Rudy behind. Down on the cave floor. A few minutes ago, he was alive. Lungs breathing, heart beating. And now . . .

  Jack peered back over the ledge into darkness. Ben switched off his light and hunkered down beside Jack, peeking over the ledge as well.

  Below them, Jack could see an eerie blue cone of light shining off into the dark. It was Rudy’s flashlight. Everything else around was lost in the inky black of the cavern. But the clicking sounds flooded the cave now, sounding as if they were coming from all around them.