He turned back. What the hell is that?
Big Bull Vincent angled his head, trying to get a bead on the noise. The problem was, in a cave sounds bounced around all over the place.
He lifted his rifle and panned it around, ready to deal death to anything that even looked at him sideways.
After another moment of all quiet, he lowered his gun. He then exited the cave. Double time.
CHAPTER 09
“Don’t let them take me.”
“What?” Mike turned to Jane who walked with her head down.
“I said, don’t let them take me.” She glanced up at him, her face drawn. “Kill me first.”
“What’s that supposed to…?” He suddenly understood. “Aw, Jane, stop thinking like that. We’ll be fine.”
Jane had dropped her head again, and Mike lifted his arm, about to loop it over her shoulder, but didn’t know if she’d like that. Instead he just laid a hand lightly on her shoulder. “We’ll get them to the gravity well, and head back, with an armed escort. Our job will be done.”
She shook her head. “It’ll never happen, something will stop us; you mark my words.”
He sighed. She’s just depressed, he thought. Seeing Lana’s fate would have been enough to bruise anyone’s spirit. Plus, sometimes going days without sunlight can bring on a malaise in even the most experienced cavers that can cause everything from flashes of out-of-nowhere anger to bone-deep depression.
Mike also knew that cave darkness seemed to magnify idiosyncrasies: if you come into a deep cave feeling low, you get depression. And if you come with fears, you end up with dark terrors and jump at every shadow.
But Jane was a strong person and he bet she’d snap out of it. He hoped she’d snap out of it.
Harris dropped back beside them and kept pace for a while. “How much further?”
Mike glanced at the soldier. “Should be another vertical chute a few hundred yards ahead. We drop down a hundred feet or so, pass through a few caverns and then simply head along another passage until we come into a larger cave with the gravity well.”
“Very good,” Harris replied.
“From there, you guys simply fly all the way to the Earth’s center. Piece of cake,” Mike added.
Harris turned to him. “Still really like you guys to come with us.”
“Not a chance,” Jane shot back.
“Okay, Jane.” Harris nodded. “But remember, last time you guys were there you were unprepared, on the run, and...” He bobbed his head, “…this time, you’ll have hard muscle and firepower all around you. You can enjoy it a little more. Study it and learn about it. They’ll be talking about this expedition for generations to come.” He shared his most disarming smile with them. “This is big, and you’re already part of it.” He moved a little closer to her. “Guide us, we need you.”
Jane just made a sound of disgust in her throat, and Mike slowly shook his head. “Nah, we’ll pass.”
Harris straightened. “We’ll pay you a thousand bucks a day, tax free.” He raised his eyebrows. “Even backdate it from when you first got on the plane, how about that?”
Jane simply sped up and left them behind. Mike shrugged. “I think that’s your answer.”
Harris chuckled as he watched Jane leave them behind. “Strong willed; I like that.”
“Very. And eyes off,” Mike said as he sped up to catch her.
“Why? You two aren’t dating,” Harris called from behind him.
*****
After several more hours of walking in winding, featureless passageways, the line of cavers had strung out with about fifty feet between soldiers Russ Hitch, the lead person, all the way back to Pete Andreas at their rear.
The passage they now moved along had steep walls on either side and nothing but darkness above. It was a huge crack in the rocks and Mike recognized it as the passage where they first decided to head upward instead of moving horizontally along the pathways. That meant that they were only an hour at best away from the gravity well cave.
Jane walked quietly, lost in thought. Alistair had tried to engage her in conversation about evolutionary biology a while back but her one-word answers had eventually warned him off.
The team made use of multiple lights each on their helmets, on their wrists, or for the soldiers, on the barrel of their guns, and all provided good illumination in the inky blackness.
Up ahead the team entered a huge cathedral-sized cave with a lip of stone over one side creating half a ceiling just a dozen or so feet above their heads.
Mike frowned as he concentrated. It was hard to hear with the constant mumble of conversation going on, plus the scuff of so many feet. But after a moment he stopped dead.
“Quiet.”
Harris put a hand up to halt the group and turned. “What have you got, Mike?”
Mike tilted his head, concentrating, as Jane moved in closer to Harris. Mike didn’t like that she sought him out for protection but guessed one of the heavily armed soldiers was better than him right now.
“Everyone be quiet and listen,” Mike said.
The sounds died away. Caves were rarely empty of all noises, as there can be the drip of water somewhere, the trickle of grains of sand, or even the creak of old stone trying to get comfortable like an old man who has sat in his favorite armchair too long. And the solid rock carried sound, so something that happened half a mile away might seem like it was just over your shoulder.
The group had all stopped moving and some even held their breath as they all listened now. Lights criss-crossed in the darkness, but everyone mostly had their eyes on Mike.
Tock.
Mike slowly turned his head.
Tock.
He changed angles to now focus on the direction behind them.
Tock, tock.
“I hear it,” Harris whispered.
“That’s them,” Mike said.
“Them?” Alistair asked. “You mean… the cave creatures?”
“Yeah, I heard that same noise in the skeleton cave,” Bull said.
“What? Why didn’t you tell us?” Mike asked.
Bull shrugged. “Didn’t know what it was then.”
Tock, tock, tock, tock, tock…
The group looked one way then the other, but there was nothing, even though the sound seemed to come from all around them.
Then there was silence again.
They waited.
“Have they gone?” Penny asked in a small voice.
Her answer came fast from out of the dark, a greasy-looking white body slammed into Harris. He went down with a grunt. Then another came at Bull. Gunfire erupted from all around them, and when Mike looked up, he saw their cave ceiling was full of scuttling near-translucent bodies, clinging there like hairless, upside-down dogs with gargoyle faces.
There were too many, and they moved in amongst the people fast and confidently. Squeals came out of the darkness as bullets smacked into flesh, and in a few moments, the cave seemed to get even darker as lights began to go out.
Mike pushed through to Jane, throwing his arms over her as one of the things landed on him, grabbed his helmet and ripped it free. And then vanished.
Then he realied what they were doing. “The lights. They’re taking our lights.”
Sure enough, helmets, wrist lights, and guns with barrel-mounted lights were roughly pulled from hands or heads.
In seconds more it was all over.
Harris yelled, “Sound off.”
For a moment it seemed they had escaped unharmed as people replied from within the darkness.
Almost all of them.
“Andreas, sound off.” Harris looked about. “Where’s Andreas?”
The few remaining lights flicked about the cave.
“Andreas!” Their shouts now filled the cavern. But there was no response.
“He’s gone,” Hitch said from the darkness. “And so have the creatures. I damn hit one, I know it; I saw it go down. But it’s gone now as well.”
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“Andreas!” Harris yelled again. He went to his mic and tried to locate his man on the comms link. “Pete, can you hear us?” He waited, and then, “If you can’t speak, make a noise or use Morse.”
They waited, but nothing came back.
“They took their own injured and dead away,” Mike said. “They only wanted to blind us, take our lights.”
“How? How did they even know they were lights when they’re cave blind?” Alistair wailed. “Or even know we needed them to see?”
“Maybe they could detect the electrical current. Or the heat, or who damn well knows. I don’t think these things are just dumb beasts at all.” Jane growled as Mike helped her to her feet. “And you know what else them taking our lights tells me? I think they’ve hunted us sight-reliant people before.”
“Oh.” Alistair grimaced, making his white teeth stand out in the darkness.
“We need to find him,” Harris said.
“We don’t even know where to look,” Jane said.
“We shouldn’t run off into the dark,” Alistair said. “They’ll pick us off one by one.” His voice was getting higher and he jammed a fist over his mouth. “No, no, no, this is bad.”
“Calm the hell down, we’ve got more lights,” Harris yelled.
“No, leave most of them out for now. We need to save them,” Mike said.
Harris turned to Ally. “Bennet, we go to headset.”
“You got it.” Ally pulled on the infrared quad-goggles, and Harris did the same.
“Ah, shit,” Ally said softly. “You see’n this, boss?”
“Oh yeah, we got several dozen hostiles hanging in the cracks and crevices way up in the rift above us.” Harris lifted his gun.
“Are you sure they can’t see? Because those suckers are all looking right down at us,” Ally whispered.
“I’m betting they’re seeing you like you’re seeing them: thermal images,” Jane said. “Except their sense of smell and hearing will be much more acute than ours.”
“Any sign of Andreas?” Hitch asked.
“Nothing. Just them. And lots of them.” Ally slowly turned. “Do you think they know he’s a male? You know, so they can’t breed from him.”
“Yes, human males and females give off different pheromones. They’re carnivores, so they probably took him for meat. Just like they took their own dead,” Jane said.
“Oh.” Penny looked about. “We need to get out of here.”
“I agree. This place is not defendable,” Harris said. “Mike, Jane, which way to the well?”
“Wait a minute,” Hitch demanded. “What about Andreas? He’s still out there.”
“He’s dead,” Harris shot back.
“You don’t know that, boss.” Bull’s voice was deep and low. “Maybe a few of us should head back to that nest we found; you know, take a looksee.”
“And then you’d be dead too.” Harris looked up. “We’re on their home turf and those things outnumber us about ten to one. And there’s probably many more.” Harris straightened. “We all knew the risks and what’s at stake; we complete the mission.”
Ally scanned the ceiling. “I count about thirty bodies up there and more comin’ in. All waiting for something.”
“Maybe us chasing after Andreas is exactly what they’re waiting for,” Mike said.
“I said these things have probably hunted people before for a reason,” Jane said softly. “Dozens of people go missing in these deep caves, sometimes whole spelunking teams just vanish. We think they’ve fallen off a cliff or got lost, but maybe they haven’t.”
“Shee-it.” Bull blew air through puffed cheeks.
“We need to be out of this cavern; they knew to blind us and they did that for a reason. And my bet is that they wanted to blind us so an attack would be more effective when they had more numbers.” Mike looked down along the passage.
“This is a damn kill-box.”
Mike spun back. “We need to go, now.”
“You heard the man,” Harris said and took a last look upward.
Mike wished he had a pair of the goggles but couldn’t decide whether seeing the threat made it easier to deal with or worse.
“Ally, lead ‘em out,” Harris said. “Everyone stay one arm length to the guy in front, nice and tight. And do not use your lights unless I give the word. Go.”
Mike grabbed Jane’s hand and she took it. He led her on. He knew the passage eventually led them to the gravity well chamber. But then what would he do?
From up ahead there was a grunt and then a scream.
“Fuck it,” someone yelled as lights came on.
Then the gunfire erupted again. And no one held back. It was as if all the pent-up fury of the previous attack, Andreas being taken, and raw fear was spewed forth in waves of bullets.
The chamber was filled with deafening noise, and smoke, and ricochets. Greasy-looking bodies moved fast, mostly evading the aim of the soldiers, but a few taking hits and falling to the cave floor where they squealed and thrashed like landed fish.
More and more of the long, translucent creatures seemed to come from all around them, and Harris roared.
“Keep moving.”
Ally led them into the well chamber and the group fanned left and right around the dark void of the gravity well. Hitch and Bull still fired back into the narrow cave they had just emerged from.
“Cease fire.” Harris leaned back into the passage. “Damit, they’re still in there. Maybe waiting for us.” He turned to the two soldiers. “Keep covering that opening.”
The men took up positions either side of the entrance, and Hitch got down on one knee while Bull stayed high, both with the barrels of their guns pointed down into the darkness that was lit now by the lights on the gun barrels.
“Mike, that’s it?” Harris asked.
“That’s it; it’ll take you all the way to the center of the Earth,” Mike replied.
“This is as far as we go,” Jane announced as she glanced up at Mike. “Right?”
Harris’ head jerked back on his neck momentarily. “Are you shitting me? Where are you going to go? Those goddamn things are waiting for a chance to either come charging in here, or us to go out there.”
“We’re not going to the center; we told you that.” She pointed at his chest. “You promised we could have an escort to the surface if we wanted it.”
“Did you not see what just happened back there?” Harris shook his head. “Lady, those things just entered our defensive line when we were at full strength. You two plus a guard would be overwhelmed in 10 seconds, maybe 20, tops.”
“We’ll take our chances.”
Mike knew Jane was digging in, and no amount of logic was going to dissuade her now.
“The mission dynamics have changed.” Harris’ expression became stony. “You want to commit suicide, that’s fine. But I’m not throwing away the life of one of my soldiers, end of story.”
“I knew you’d go back on your word.” Jane shook her fist in the man’s face.
Harris folded his arms and spoke softly. “I’m now down one soldier and do not have any spare resources.” He then turned to Mike. “Mr. Monroe, you know, and I know you know, that if you leave the security of the group, you’ll both die.”
“Boss, we got a lot of movement,” Hitch said from behind them.
Harris turned back and pointed at Mike’s chest. “They’ll eat you.” He then turned to Jane. “And you saw what they do to their female captives.”
“You sonofabitch.” Mike surged forward, fists up. He threw a straight right.
Harris easily blocked it, moved to the side, and used Mike’s momentum to knock him down. Mike sprawled and Harris pointed into his face.
“Raw truth, Mike. It sucks, I know, but there it is. Come with us, and live.” He turned away, leaving Mike on his ass. “Listen up people, we are going to jump. Pair up. Ally and Penny, Hitch and Alistair, I’ll take Mike, and Bull gets the lovely Jane Baxter.”
He t
urned back to Mike and Jane. “Sorry Jane.” He sighed. “If you want to hate me for wanting you to stay alive, then so be it.”
Mike, still sitting, turned to Jane whose eyes glistened in the light of their flashlights. “No choice,” she whispered.
After a few seconds she nodded.
“Good.” Harris held out a hand. “Mike, we get to go last.”
Mike ignored it and got to his feet himself.
Harris went to the passage mouth, pulled his goggles down and peered in. “Oh yeah, getting real crowded in there.” He lifted them to his forehead. “I’m going to give them some push back, and buy us some time. Ally on the count of five, and everyone else at five second intervals: 5-4-3-2-1…Go.”
Harris got down on one knee and began rapid firing into the passage. Ally and Penny, roped together, dived in. Then they all began to peel out, diving head first into the hole, as they had learned to do from reading Mike’s manuscript.
Harris emptied his magazine. He stood, professionally changed his magazine and then backed up. It was just he and Mike remaining.
“Ready, big guy?”
Mike nodded. He felt like shit, as Harris’ comments to them were like a slap in the face and hurt more than the knockdown he just took. They were raw and ugly, but they were the truth: go, or stay and die; horribly there was no sane choice.
“I’m ready,” Mike said.
Harris got to the edge. “Count of 3-2-1, go.”
In they went.
EPISODE 07
If there were no thunder, men would have little fear of lightning
― Jules Verne
CHAPTER 10
On their voyage down there were no landmarks, only sporadic flashes of blue light, and a never-ending vortex of darkness. Jane remembered nothing from her previous time coming up in this gravity well, perhaps because they were physically and mentally exhausted and they mostly traveled while unconscious.
She noticed that the soldier she was with, Bull Simmons, constantly looked back over his shoulder to see if they were being pursued. But there was nothing other than the dots of lights signifying her colleagues.
For the most part, Bull’s mouth hung open in wonder, and after another few hours, he pulled her closer, undid his belt and lashed it to her wrist.
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