Beckon

by Tom Pawlik

  Nun’dahbi leaned close over Elina’s face. Behind the veil, Elina could see vague, pale features and colorless eyes gazing down at her. The woman reeked of human stench. Elina’s breath came in sharp, rapid bursts, and she could feel herself choking on the rag.

  Nun’dahbi whispered another unintelligible phrase and then slowly lifted her veil.

  Elina’s heart pounded hard inside her ribs.

  The woman’s face was as hideous as it might have once been beautiful. Her skin held no pigmentation whatsoever, though it was perfectly smooth and without blemish, like a layer of white latex stretched over a human skull. Only her thin lips and eyelids held any color, painted as black as her fingernails. And she was completely hairless. No eyebrows or even eyelashes that Elina could see.

  She picked up a stick out of the bowl. It was long and slender like a quill of some kind, and Elina could see the tip dripping with a viscous black liquid.

  Nun’dahbi issued a sharp, guttural command, and two more of the men grabbed Elina’s face. Cold, hard fingers clamped onto her jaw and skull, holding her immobile as the woman leaned close.

  Elina screamed through the mouthful of rag, choking and sobbing as the woman etched marks across her face, whispering unknown words that only Elina could hear.

  Chapter 39

  Jack, Dwight, and Javier followed the tunnel deep into the mountain. Dwight had taken the lead, carrying his flashlight in one hand and a revolver in the other. As they descended, the tunnel became rough and harder to navigate.

  Jack found himself praying desperately as he plunged further into danger. It was a strange sensation. Before meeting Elina, he hadn’t even thought to pray. Not earlier in the caverns. Not even when he was being chased by the N’watu. But now . . . now he was heading back into the pit. Back into the danger he’d escaped from just one day before to try to save a woman he hardly even knew. And he wondered if there really was a God who would help him. Or at least give him some answers. Was this the right course? Or would they have been better off staying on the surface and contacting help?

  But he knew Elina didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the authorities to arrive. He also knew every step was leading him back into the horrors to which he had sworn he would never return.

  Dwight held up his hand and shut off his light.

  “What’s the matter?” Jack said between breaths.

  Dwight whispered, “They’re coming. I hear voices.”

  Jack squinted into the darkness. He could see a faint shaft of light drifting across the tunnel up ahead. “What’s the plan?”

  Dwight flicked his light back on and inspected their surroundings. The cavern passage was low and wide and marred by numerous rock formations that had slowed their progress.

  “Take cover off to the side,” he said. “We can ambush them when they come by.”

  Jack’s pulse was racing as Dwight explained the plan in Spanish to Javier. Jack had never fired a weapon on another human being before. Now he wasn’t sure he’d be able to. But he heard himself saying, “Fine.”

  They found a couple of rough boulders against one of the cavern’s sides and took cover behind them. Jack crouched in the darkness, watching the light approach and now hearing voices as well. It was Vale all right, and Carson, but Jack couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  Minutes crept by, and finally the men came into view. Jack couldn’t see well enough to shoot at any of them. And on top of that, he was having doubts about killing anyone in cold blood. No matter how much he felt they deserved it.

  “Aim for the head,” Dwight whispered. “Perilium begins the clotting cascade almost immediately, so hitting them anywhere else may not do the trick.”

  Vale and Carson were discussing something about the prisoners. Jack thought they were trying to decide whom to sacrifice next. The big man was following close behind.

  Suddenly Javier leaped from cover and started firing his shotgun toward the flashlight. Which immediately blinked out, plunging them all into darkness. Jack could hear Dwight yelling and firing his revolver as well. He stood, aimed in the direction he thought Vale was, and pulled the trigger. The blast kicked the shotgun back into his ribs.

  It was over in seconds, and the rumble echoed off along the tunnel. They emerged from cover slowly, and Dwight swept the area with his light. They spotted one man—the big one—splayed across a rock. Rivulets of blood dripped down from his head into the mud. In front of him was Frank Carson lying on his back, staring up. His chest and shoulders were soaked with blood, his gun still clutched in his grasp. But there was no sign of Vale. Dwight moved his beam across the rocks and found a trail of blood leading back up the tunnel. But they couldn’t see any movement.

  “He’s still alive,” Jack said. “He got away!”

  “He won’t get too far.” Dwight was staring at the ground a few feet away.

  At his feet Jack saw a shattered glass jar. Its yellowish liquid contents were seeping into the mud.

  Dwight bent down and lifted one of the pieces of dark glass. “This was a week’s worth of perilium for all of us.” He looked up at Jack. “What have I done?”

  “We can find another way,” Jack said. Though even as he heard his own words, he knew they rang hollow. “How much is left up at the lodge?”

  “Vale keeps it under lock and key. Maybe a few vials. They always give us just enough to last until the next feeding time.”

  Jack took the flashlight and cringed as he inspected the bodies. “The big guy’s dead. Half his skull is gone.” He came to Carson and saw him blink. His bloodied chest was moving. Perhaps already recovering from the wounds. “Let’s just take his gun and get going.”

  Javier pried Carson’s revolver out of his fingers and checked the bullets. Then he leaned over him. “Cómo cambian las cosas en un par de semanas.”

  Jack looked at Dwight. “What’d he say?”

  Dwight just grimaced and shook his head.

  They continued on. Jack had walked only a few paces when he noticed Javier was not with them. Suddenly a gunshot cracked the darkness behind him and Jack spun around. Dwight shone the light behind them, but all they saw was Javier walking toward them, sticking Carson’s smoking revolver into his belt.

  He didn’t say a word.

  Chapter 40

  Elina was nearly faint with terror as Nun’dahbi finished marking her face with the black ink. She spread her hands over Elina’s body, then took the staff and swept it across her again, rattling the beads and the round gourd affixed to the top.

  After this she lowered her veil again and barked a few more commands to her men. They lifted Elina from the stone table and carried her toward the edge of the pit.

  They looped additional ropes around her and tied them to another line connected to the log. Then one of the N’watu lifted Elina up and dropped her over the edge of the pit.

  She screamed a muffled cry of terror as she felt herself fall away from the ledge over the open black maw. She swung out and then back, dangling from the log like a fishing lure.

  She kicked frantically, trying to swing herself back to the side, but another N’watu loosened the rope and began to lower her into the hole. Elina descended slowly into utter darkness. The smell of death and rot wafted up from below, a sickly sweet odor that filled her with fear. She could feel that her struggling was beginning to work the gag loose from her mouth.

  Her heart pounded against her chest and she prayed desperately, wondering what was down here, what kind of horror she was about to encounter.

  Then her toes scraped against something solid; she hoped it was a rock but couldn’t be sure. They let her dangle there, twisting in the darkness. Waiting. She looked up and could see the black outline of the rim against the faint glow of the lanterns above her.

  She hung in silence, weary from struggling. Yet her terror was like a noose, strangling her. She stared into the solid black void, waiting to die.

  Suddenly a muffled clap of thunder echoed through th
e cavern. Elina looked up and heard some sort of commotion among the N’watu. Clearly whatever made the sound wasn’t something they were expecting. She could hear them speaking to each other—arguing in their choppy, guttural language. Their sounds quickly receded, leaving her in silence again.

  But now she felt a spark of hope kindle inside her. Maybe the others had gotten free somehow and were coming for her. Maybe someone had finally notified the FBI.

  Or maybe . . .

  Somewhere in the darkness in front of her came another sound. A low, erratic tapping, unlike anything she had ever heard before.

  Chapter 41

  The passage came to an abrupt halt, depositing Jack, Dwight, and Javier into a large, open chamber. Jack took one of the flares from his bag and snapped it open. The bright red-orange glow lit up the whole room.

  Along the far wall was a large wooden gate of some kind. It stood over eight feet tall and at least six feet wide.

  “Not another one,” Jack groaned. He slid his hand along the wood. “So that’s where they took her?”

  They inspected the surface, looking for a way to open it. Jack told them about the first door he had encountered and how it opened upward. Yet this one was different. There was a clear crease running vertically up the center that seemed to indicate it opened from the middle. But there were no handles. They pushed against it to no avail, and there was clearly no way to pull it open either.

  Dwight stepped back. “Looks like it only opens from the inside.”

  Jack sat down and rubbed his eyes. “Any suggestions?”

  Javier reached into Jack’s bag and pulled out one of the grenades they’d taken from the armory. “Vamos a tocar a la puerta.”

  Jack stood. “Is he going to try what I think . . . ?”

  Javier scooped a bit of mud from under the middle of the door, pulled the pin out of the grenade, jammed it under the wood, and ran for cover.

  Jack and Dwight scrambled back to the other side of the chamber and flung themselves behind a jutting rock formation. A few seconds later the ground shook as a clap of thunder erupted in the cavern. Jack felt his ribs jolt from the force of the blast. Rocks and debris scattered across the room, and when the air cleared, his ears were ringing from the explosion.

  He stood and brushed off the mud. “Are you crazy? You could get us all killed! You don’t just go setting off explosions inside caverns. You could bring the whole place down on top of us!”

  But Javier was shining his flashlight at the doors. One side was cracked and splintered and had been torn off its hinge. And the other had swung wide open. He turned and grinned at Jack. “Good, yes?”

  Dwight shrugged. “Well, now they know we’re here.”

  Jack grabbed the flare and tossed it into the passage beyond the doorway. The place seemed deserted. At least for now. They got their weapons ready, Jack grabbed another couple flares, and they proceeded inside.

  They spread out and moved along the passage quickly. Dwight held his flashlight out along with his gun. Jack snapped a second flare and tossed it farther ahead.

  He looked into his bag and now wished desperately that he’d brought more of them with him. And to make matters worse, there was only one hand grenade left.

  Dwight paused in the tunnel, his shoulders stiffening. Jack nudged him gently. “What’s wrong?”

  Dwight shook his head and shuddered. “Jack . . . I have to tell you something.”

  “What is it?”

  Dwight flicked the light toward Jack’s face. “We’re probably not making it out of here alive.”

  “Come on, Dwight, don’t talk like that. We’re going to find her.”

  Dwight leaned close. Jack could see a strange sort of resolve in his eyes. Or maybe it was resignation. “If you do—if you make it out of here—there’s something in town you need to see.”

  “What?”

  “In my office, in the back room, is a closet—a supply closet full of boxes. They’re my journals. And there’s something under the floor that you need to see.”

  “What? What is it?”

  Dwight shook his head again. To Jack it looked like he was shaking himself out of a trance. “You have to make it out of here to find out.”

  He turned and continued through the tunnel. They walked on for several minutes before Jack could see a dim light ahead. The tunnel widened and he noticed a few side passages leading from the main tunnel. Jack saw that the passages here seemed larger and more evenly shaped, as if the N’watu had carved them right through the rock over the years.

  One of the tunnels opened into a long, oval-shaped room with several small glass jars of the glowing slime scattered around the perimeter. In the middle were two long wooden tables and a large wooden chair. Dozens of pots and jars and other vessels of various sizes littered both of the tables. The whole scene reminded Jack of something out of the Dark Ages. Like an ancient alchemist’s laboratory.

  Jack noticed one bowl in particular looked similar to the one he had seen during the ceremony earlier. The interior appeared to have some sort of thick, dried residue on it. Jack also spotted several more glass jars of a milky, yellowish liquid stacked along the wall.

  He pointed to the jars. “Is that . . . perilium?”

  Dwight inspected one of them and nodded. “This must be where she prepares it.”

  “Who? The woman I saw? Who is she?”

  “They call her Nun’dahbi. She’s the matriarch of the tribe. Their queen.”

  Jack just shook his head as he looked through the objects in the room. “This is pretty incredible. These tables and chairs definitely show an outside influence on their culture. Maybe they’re not as xenophobic as Vale says they are.”

  “Trust me,” Dwight grunted. “They hate outsiders.”

  Javier had been waiting by the entrance and motioned for them to continue on. He was obviously anxious to find his cousin, and Jack quietly chided himself on getting distracted by this room. Elina was in serious peril.

  They moved onward and soon emerged into another open cavern. Only this one was different from all the others. Jack could see that this one contained remnants of structures. Pillars and archways in varying states of decay. And all around them were glass lanterns similar to the one Jack had seen out in the bone pit. Clearly this was some sort of common area of the N’watu.

  Jack shone his flashlight around, momentarily stunned by the discovery.

  “Look at this place,” he said softly. “My dad always said there was an underground city somewhere out here. This must be part of it.”

  Suddenly Javier grabbed Jack’s shoulder as if trying to tell him something, but instead he seemed to be choking. His eyes bulged and blood dripped from between his lips as a serrated spear tip emerged from the middle of his chest and a skeletal face loomed up from behind him.

  “No!” Jack shouted.

  Javier slumped forward and Jack stood, stunned at the sight. The pale N’watu warrior yanked the bloody spear from Javier’s back and now fixed his white eyes on Jack.

  Jack could see the warrior towering over him, but he was frozen with shock. Paralyzed. He tried to will his arms to raise his weapon or his legs to run, but he felt like he was in a dream, unable to even control his limbs.

  Then a gunshot rang out, snapping him out of his daze. The warrior lurched backward as a bullet tore into his chest. Jack glimpsed Dwight standing a few yards behind him, his revolver smoking. Jack spun back to see that the N’watu had quickly recovered his balance, his face contorted into a mask of fury. He raised his spear.

  But now Jack lifted his shotgun and fired. White-hot pellets hit the N’watu’s chest at close range, tearing through his flesh and ribs. The warrior stumbled back another few steps as Jack felt rage welling up inside him. He pumped the next shell into the chamber and fired again. This time the shot blasted directly into the warrior’s face, lifting him off his feet and flat onto his back.

  Before Jack could react or even check on Javier, another spear ca
me whizzing out of the darkness and sliced across his upper arm. Jack ducked, clutching his tricep. He could feel warm blood on his fingers. He snapped another flare and tossed it out in front of him. Immediately the chamber lit up, overwhelming the soft glow of the lanterns. And Jack saw two of the warriors cringing from the light not more than fifty feet away. He strode forward, keeping his eyes fixed on the N’watu, and fired another shot. This time he was aiming high—straight for the head. One of them dropped like a sack of rocks. Jack pumped and fired at the second one, who dove behind a crumbled archway.

  Jack snapped another flare and tossed it back in Dwight’s direction. He could see that Dwight had both revolvers drawn and was keeping a couple more warriors at bay. One pale corpse lay at his feet.

  Jack knelt next to Javier. He was coughing up blood and was barely coherent.

  “Elina,” he said, blood spattering from his lips. “Find . . . Elina.”

  Chapter 42

  Elina could hear the tapping sounds echoing in the darkness, almost like someone hitting a pair of baseball bats together. Fast, then slow, changing timbre ever so slightly.

  She struggled to free herself. Twisting her neck, she could feel the rope holding the rag in her mouth slide down farther.

  Now off in the darkness, along with the tapping, came more noises—a series of thuds like a pickax jamming into rocky soil, and the sound of something heavy scraping along the ground.

  From above she heard gunfire echoing across the cavern. Several shots were fired, and they sounded close by. Hope rose again in her, and as she twisted her head sideways, she could feel the rope slipping from her mouth.

  She worked it down below her chin until at last she was able to spit out the rag, suck in a lungful of air, and scream. . . .

  / // /

  Jack and Dwight moved back-to-back across the cavern, guns poised to fire. The flares seemed to be keeping the N’watu at bay, and they resorted to flinging their spears blindly from their positions of cover.