Nickerson pantomimed looking around then exclaimed, “I don’t see a city.”
“Enough with the science and mythology lessons,” Hunter snapped before turning to Julio. “How many were there?”
Julio shook his head and partially shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t…”
“Guess,” Hunter demanded.
“Fifteen. Twenty,” Julio offered. “Maybe more.”
“We can kill that many no problem,” Nickerson promised.
“Mission’s still the same, people,” Hunter declared. “We eliminate the threat so that the tunnel can be completed.”
“It’s night now,” Pearce reminded Hunter. “Drake said those things are nocturnal. Won’t they be up top hunting or something?”
“Most likely,” Drake agreed. “But most primates follow a social structure of assigned duties. While some are out hunting—if that’s what they’re doing—then there are most likely others left behind to protect their territory, tend to the young, etc.”
“A real nuclear family,” Nickerson spat sarcastically.
“Ruck,” Hunter directed. “You ‘n’ Agüera keep watch over the entrance to the cave.”
Ruck and Agüera nodded in agreement at their assignment.
“Julio,” Hunter decreed. “You’ll stay with them here in the tunnel.”
Julio was still ecstatic about being told he was going to the United States and his nod of agreement toward Hunter showed as much.
Hunter looked to Taylor then waved his hand at the enormity of the cavern just outside the entrance he stood before. “Any ideas?” he asked.
Taylor directed his flashlight beam out of the tunnel and across the cavern toward a multitude of holes on the far side of the cave.
“Some of those are tunnels,” Taylor stated. “I say we follow the one that smells the worst.”
“Yeah, this whole cave reeks of ammonia. Like a damn zoo exhibit,” Nickerson complained.
“All the more reason to go off them smelly bastards,” Jordan declared.
32.
Taylor and the remainder of his team lowered their goggles and ventured forward into the total darkness of the cavern. The cavern floor was mostly rock worn smooth by some ancient river long dried up, and the air was weighted with humidity and the heavy ammonia-laden smell of primate urine and feces. The main cavern was 200 to 250 yards across and ended at a wall honeycombed with tunnels. The team stood looking at the wall and the tunnels that ran into it. Some of them walked a few feet from the others in study while others looked to Taylor to see what he would do.
“This one,” Taylor said walking forward toward an opening some six and a half feet tall and five feet wide.
“Why?” Hunter questioned in a heavy whisper.
“Stinks more than the others,” Taylor explained before pointing at an object laying on the floor eight feet into the tunnel. “And that.”
Hunter trained his eyes into the tunnel to see a cheap work boot with six inches of what was left of the human leg coming out of it.
“Good bet,” Hunter whispered.
“It’s gonna be tight,” Taylor informed the team. “Single file on my lead. Staggered formation and keep your spacing.”
Taylor led his team of five into the tunnel and further into the depths of the earth. The tunnel walls were smooth rock, and the path they walked upon was extremely narrow and littered with signs of activity. In addition to the human foot, the team passed droppings and pools of urine, bones stripped clean of meat, and weathered animal hides dried stiff with the passage of time. The team were silent wraiths cutting the darkness in total invisibility, following the tunnel as it led them further and further away from the main cavern and the human-carved tunnel that brought them to it.
They snaked through the underworld for 30 minutes before the passage opened into a scene torn straight from the nightmares of hell. The cavern was two football fields in size and contained a stagnant lake that covered half that. The sandless beaches were strewn with bones from a dozen different animals and from humans of every size. There were the crushed skulls of infants, collapsed ribcages of adults, and leather that was once human skin or that of animals ripped in half. The team exited the tunnel, stepped into the cavern, and stared through goggles at the signs of a massacre and feeding.
“What the hell is this place?” Nickerson whispered in fearful disbelief.
“Not ‘What the hell?’” Drake countered. “This is Hell.”
33.
“For the love of God!” Ruck barked. “Either speak English or shut up.”
Julio stepped back in fear at Ruck’s tirade.
Agüera simply laughed.
“What’s wrong?” he chided. “Are you feeling left out for not knowing Española?”
“Oh yeah,” Ruck deadpanned. “I’m sure y’all’s conversation over the past 45 minutes has been real life-changing. Y’all solve the problems of the universe, did you?
“Close.” Agüera laughed. “No. He was asking me about the United States, and I asked him about digging the tunnel. You know they did all this with picks and shovels and one jackhammer? And that the jackhammer and that generator run on propane?”
“Fascinating.” Ruck moaned. “Real sorry I missed out on discussing the intricacies of digging a narco tunnel.”
“You think you could do it?” Agüera rebutted.
“No,” Ruck answered. “Digging holes in the ground wasn’t my calling.”
“Calling?” Julio interrupted.
“Calling,” Agüera began. “It means…”
“It’s what you were born to do,” Ruck interjected. She held her rifle before her and said, “This is my calling.”
Julio nodded in understanding.
“What’s your calling, Julio?” Agüera asked.
“I don’t know,” Julio replied. “We no to get call in Mexico. A man just to do what he to do for he family.”
Agüera nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, well, now I got a calling of a different kind,” Ruck announced. “Nature’s on the horn and she’s telling me I gotta take a piss.”
“Thanks for the info, babe,” Agüera said, chuckling.
“I got your babe right here,” Ruck replied with her middle finger.
Agüera smiled and Ruck walked through the passage into the cave. She walked along the wall until she was just outside of the shine from the tunnel’s lights. She leaned her rifle against the wall and reached to undo her belt.
The unseen and unheard slammed into her face with such force that it knocked her backward and onto her back. She grabbed the beast in her hands and pressed forward with all her might then heard a sickening crunch as the animal bit through her nose. Pain flashed through her and out her lungs in a primordial scream. The animal ripped into her face was such ferocity that Ruck felt her cheekbones give then shatter. She yanked a handful of fur loose from the beast atop her with her right hand and pulled her pistol from its holster. She jammed the barrel into the animal’s side and fired. The blast kicked the animal from her face, and it howled in pain. Ruck scrambled to her feet then put a second round through the animal’s head with a scream of anger.
Ruck fell against the wall, grabbed her rifle, then pushed herself back into a standing position. She wiped the blood from her eyes and trained on Agüera who was exiting the tunnel.
34.
Agüera heard the scream.
Then the gunshot.
He slammed Julio against the tunnel wall and down. “Stay here!” he barked.
Agüera ran to the entrance of the cavern, his rifle before him and at the ready. He rushed into the cave to see Ruck stumbling toward him, her face caved in and washed in blood. He started to call her name then saw the horde storm from the darkness.
He saw eight sets of teeth and claws.
Reflective black eyes.
Heard their howling screams of rage.
Agüera raised his rifle and fired.
The beasts were too fast. They
slammed Ruck forward into Agüera. Agüera tried to keep his footing but was knocked backward and into the tunnel. He jerked his finger at the impact, unleashing a barrage of gunfire.
Ruck launched herself off of Agüera and rolled over and onto her back. She sloughed the blood from her eyes and fired her pistol into the swarm of baboons overtaking the tunnel. The lead cave dweller leapt outward and came down on her chest. Ruck’s arms were hit and her shots went wild. Her second bullet pierced one of the two 100-gallon propane tanks leaning against the wall.
Agüera wrestled himself on top of a baboon and thrust his SOCP dagger into the creature’s abdomen. The beast thrust its arms out to fight the pain and inadvertently grabbed the pin of the percussion grenade on Agüera’s chest. A smaller monkey leapt onto Agüera’s back and slashed and raked the mercenary’s head. The beast pulled Agüera’s ear from his head, and Agüera shot backward in agony. The sudden jerk of his body and hands completely separated pin from grenade.
35.
Julio watched in terror as the maelstrom of Ruck and Agüera and a pack of beasts exploded into the tunnel. The chaos of gunfire and bullets ricocheting off tunnel walls, screams of pain and the savage will to fight, and the howls of beasts was deafening. Julio heard one of the shots pierce metal then saw and heard the constant expulsion of gas from one of the propane tanks. He watched in shocked disgust as one of the predators ripped Agüera’s ear from his head then plunged its claws into the gaping wound it had just created.
Julio started to run then caught the horror in Agüera’s eyes at some frightening revelation. Agüera scrambled over his chest, flailing his hands in search of something. A sudden blinding light exploded from beneath Agüera and flashed through the tunnel. Julio went blind. He reached his hands out in front of him then heard the explosion that a nanosecond later sent him hurtling backward and through the air.
36.
“The hell was that?!” Nickerson wildly exclaimed.
“I don’t know,” Jordan replied. “But I felt it.”
The sudden clap of thunder had been followed by a rumble that shook the floor of the cavern and sent ripples across the shallow subterranean lake that Taylor and his team stood before.
“Sounded like…” Hunter began.
“It was an explosion,” Taylor insisted. “Sound. Percussion travel differently underground.”
Hunter nodded in the darkness.
“It came from the tunnel,” Taylor continued.
Hunter got on his radio. “Ruck. Agüera. Come in.”
Nothing.
“Ruck. Agüera. Come in.”
“I believe this falls to your command,” Taylor insisted.
“Team,” Hunter commanded in a stern voice. “Back to the tunnel entrance. Taylor’s still on point and in command.”
“You sure?” Taylor whispered aside to his friend.
“We don’t know who or what caused that explosion,” Hunter exclaimed. “This down here is your world. Not mine.”
Taylor agreed and gave instructions. “Same as before. On me. Staggered positions. Keep your spacing. Double time it.”
Taylor turned and led the team back into the narrow tunnel and toward the source of the explosion at a hectic clip.
The team made it back to the cavern in 20 minutes and fanned out after exiting the tunnel with arms ready. They crossed the cavern in haste and took note of the mayhem that had occurred.
Taylor trained in on the fading heat signature of the recently killed baboon. The blood spray from the bullet wound and the pool it created were also glowing with heat.
“Tunnel’s closed,” Pearce announced. “Something blew the shit out of the entrance. Must be several feet of rock blocking the way in.”
“Ruck. Agüera. Come in,” Hunter directed into his radio. “Ruck. Agüera. Come in.”
“Either they can’t reply, or they won’t reply,” Drake theorized aloud.
“I’m guessing it’s can’t after this thing came calling,” Pearce exclaimed as he kicked the fallen beast in the head.
“We don’t know that,” Drake rebutted.
“We know Ruck was attacked,” Taylor assessed. “And that she didn’t fare well.”
The team gathered around Taylor and stared at Ruck’s torn nose on the cavern floor.
“Guess monkeys don’t like nose rings,” Nickerson joked.
Drake rushed forward toward Nickerson in writhing anger. Hunter interceded and held her at bay.
“He’s free to be an asshole,” Hunter barked. “You’re not free to clock him for it. Not until we get out of here.”
“And just how are we gonna do that?” Pearce inquired from the darkness.
“Again, man, there must be several feet of rock and earth blocking that entrance,” Jordan reiterated.
“Juan. Arturo. Come in,” Hunter commanded into his radio. “José, come in. José.”
“Too much rock between us and them,” Taylor explained. “Too much distance.”
“So we’re not getting through that way,” Hunter accepted. “Got any ideas?”
“Drake’s monkeys are our best plan,” Taylor stated. “Those bones we saw at the lake prove they’ve been hunting above ground. We find their way out and we’ll find our way out.”
“That’s our best option?” Hunter clarified.
“Yes,” Taylor stated. “We can’t dig through that rock. We don’t have the tools. And even if we could, there’s no guarantee our doing so wouldn’t make the cave-in worse.”
“Then it’s down the monkey trail we go,” Hunter declared in the darkness.
37.
Miguel burst out of his makeshift office into the barn to Juan, Arturo, José, and the host of other men that stood before the hastily constructed blockade to the tunnel entrance. The men looked at Miguel in fear.
“Well!” Miguel exploded. “Do I have to ask?”
“No boss,” Juan cowered.
“Some type of explosion,” José reported. “Buckled the door here pretty bad.”
“What caused it?” Miguel demanded. “Our men or whoever they found?”
“We don’t know,” José confessed.
Miguel shot José a look of pure anger at his admittance.
“We’ve tried reaching them,” Juan scrambled. “But all we’re getting on the radio is static. There’s no answer.”
“Keep trying,” Miguel commanded.
“You want us to go in there?” Arturo timidly asked.
A look of disbelief washed over Miguel’s face. “Do you think you can do better than Hunter and his group?”
“No, sir,” Arturo counter. “No, sir, I don’t.”
“Then stay here and keep trying the radio!”
Miguel turned from his men and walked toward his office. He stopped then turned to face the group he’d just left. “And don’t let anything but our men come out of the tunnel. Nothing!”
38.
Agüera’s eyes opened.
The world around him was a blur.
His mouth tasted of blood and earth.
His ears were ringing, and his head throbbed in pain.
The ground before him slowly came into view. He saw the glittering jewels of one of his pistol handles lying in a haze of dust. He pulled himself toward it.
But something was wrong.
His body wasn’t responding to his will.
Agüera propped himself up with his right arm and looked behind him.
His right leg was gone below the knee.
Agüera’s stomach turned. He felt sick. He thought he might vomit. His head was swimming.
Then he heard something.
A low murmur.
Groaning.
Eating noises.
He turned himself completely over and looked beyond his own broken body to see a baboon devouring his severed leg.
The beast made eye contact and dropped Agüera’s limb. Agüera turned back over and pulled himself toward his pistol with all his might.
The mon
key jumped onto Agüera’s back.
It grabbed Agüera’s remaining ear.
Agüera pulled himself the last few remaining inches.
The animal opened its jaws and positioned them over Agüera’s ear.
Agüera took the pistol in his hand.
The beast bit down.
Agüera screamed.
He thrust the pistol into his open mouth.
And pulled the trigger.
39.
Julio heard the screams somewhere in the back of his subconscious.
He couldn’t tell if they were real or if he was dreaming.
The gunshot changed his perspective.
It brought him out of unconsciousness and into the horrifying reality of the tunnel.
Demons in the shape of baboons cackled and howled in the light as they tore and feasted on what was left of Ruck and Agüera. Their bodies were no longer recognizable as humans, replaced instead with shredded parts of what was once whole. One of the beasts held aloft an arm, another sat ripping flesh from a torso, while still another fed at its mother’s teat while the source of its milk fished Agüera’s eyes from his skull.
The sight was sickening.
Julio gently scooted backward from his position on the ground and toward the tunnel wall. Once there, he slowly stood and held himself flat against the carved earth. He slowly eased his way along the wall, away from the scene of terror.
He moved quietly and deliberately, making each step count and never letting his gaze fall from the animals that he feared. When he could no longer see the monkeys, and knew that they could no longer see him, he broke into a sprint and ran toward the barn entrance as fast as his legs would carry him.
40.
Dejah moved out from under the hole she’d fallen through and frantically brushed the dirt and debris from her hair. The material had fallen upon her shortly after she’d heard what sounded like thunder. The noise was followed by a tremor that shook the ground and sent a shower of filth upon her. Shaking the mess from her hair had sent something into her eye and left her with serious irritation. She wiped her eye repeatedly, but it only made the pain worse.
The Tunnel Page 8