He walked in the darkness of the cave for what seemed like an eternity and then slowed, but carefully. As it turned out his friends weren’t that far ahead of him at all. Soon he managed to catch up to Lee, who almost shot him.
“Whoa!” He yelled. “It’s me! Put down the gun!”
Lee lowered his gun, and squinted to see him.
“Hey. So what’s going on?” he asked him and clapped his back.
He paused, as much to listen as to catch his breath.
“They’re definitely not friends if that’s what you want to know,” Peter told him.
“How’d they find us?”
He thought about that one. Could it be true? Did Sophie really betray him?
“They said… that Sophie sent them. That she got a hold of them and… well that she hired them.”
Peter thought it was a funny thing about her hiring them considering she talked to him the other night about how useless money was. Guess he was just a sucker.
Alex, Justin and Johnny were also down here, apparently they thought they were suddenly part of the inner circle, because they stood close by listening.
“Sophie?” Alex asked. “That makes sense, she was always anti-establishment.”
“This is weird, considering she was a brand chaser before,” Justin said. He’d always had a crush on her along with most of the school.
“I doubt it really matters right now,” Lee said. “She can be dealt with at another time. Right now we have two objectives. Bikers…”
“Nazi-bikers,” Peter interjected.
“Nazi-bikers, and to find that inner hole, and we’ll have a third problem if the bugs decide to show up.”
“How far are we going to go down?” Alex asked.
“We don’t have a choice,” Johnny chimed in. “We can’t go up, the commander said there’s over a hundred of them.”
“Retreating is not an option. We keep going down!” Peter said, “Fighting with them right now would utterly destroy us. So we head down and blow the hole’s entrance!”
“We can’t keep going down,” Alex said.
“And why not?” He asked.
“I’ve been thinking about it and I’ve been thinking about a hypothesis. It’s an idea that’s been floating around for centuries. It’s called the hollow earth theory. Before we might have just thought that the bugs were underground a few hundred feet. But judging by the look of this cave it’s a lot deeper than that. At the center of the earth there’s a big ball of molten, more or less. And surrounding the earth is the atmosphere, and then we have the surface, terra. It all works in perfect tandem. But it’s what’s between heaven and hell that people are interested in. I’ve read several papers about possible eco-systems in complex series of tunnels. So life can be underground with no sun. But one paper in particular got my attention. It was written off rather quickly, but now it might have merit.”
“Come on man, we don’t have all day,” Peter said trying to hurry him up.
“This paper talks about the sudden destruction of the Mayans and other sudden demises of civilizations all over the planet. This scientist proposed a race of giant beings swallowing the people and bringing them down giant holes to be devoured. Some ancients thought this was hell come to earth, but… when you put the similarities together; it’s pretty easy to see a pattern. He said in every case that a period of darkness preceded the destruction and that the hell spawn brought destruction. Of course, I’m not saying that the sun has been in this particular scenario before, but the world has seen massive volcanic discharges that could certainly blot out the sun over parts of the earth, eclipses, prolonged bad weather and of course meteorites. So I’m saying that if we keep going down that we’ll find an insect society older than mankind and could be in fact as old as the dinosaurs. It’d be like… like the earth’s immunity system. They thin out, whatever happens to be inhabitating the earth you know.”
Everyone went silent, he’d attracted all the men who came over and listened.
“Interesting, Alex,” Peter said and it was, “And I have no doubt that we’ll find more bugs when we go down, in fact I’m counting on it. But they’re not that smart!”
Some of the soldiers laughed.
“It’s not intelligence, its instinct. Maybe something bigger than that even.”
A cold chill went down Peter’s spine.
“Sure. Now, my plan is that we get the bugs to attack us, and the bikers to attack us, we duck out somewhere and let them duke it out, and in the resulting milieu we plant our bombs and we blow the hole. I never said this wouldn’t be dangerous and it seems to only get more dangerous by the minute.”
“That sounds good in theory, but in practicality where do we go? And if the bikers had any brains they’d keep at least some of their men on the surface,” Alex protested.
“Dammit Alex, we’ll hide in the bloody walls or something. It doesn’t matter, we’ll think of something, all I know right now is that we’re wasting time when we should be going down,” Peter said
This Alex kid was really pissing him off. He was the type of kid that was probably involved in one of the coups. And now was here to annoy him.
“Now listen everyone. We’re running low on options and time. I had no idea that we’d find ourselves fighting on two fronts. But we are and we’re soldiers and we deal with it.”
“You heard him, we go down!” Lee said.
“But it could be miles and it’ll be like walking into hell!” Alex protested.
“Well, we’ve got to eat somewhere,” Peter said and started walking.
***
The noise of their pursuers pushed them on for hours. The smell of virgin clay reminded Peter of bright sunny days helping his grandparents on their farm in Montana. They had taught him how to love nature and dirt; right now he hated it though.
It was a long walk into hell. So very long. Every once and a while they’d find a personal item, like a shoe, a picture, a wallet, a watch, sometimes a limb.
They’d stop occasionally to eat and rest and send someone ahead to scout out the tunnel. Soon hours turned meaningless. It didn’t seem to end. It was too long.
Peter volunteered for a shift and walked quietly into the darkness of the tunnel. He looked around at the amazing walls, then he thought he saw something up ahead. He turned off his flashlight to see if he could focus on what’s ahead. He could feel heat suddenly too.
He waited for the guys to catch up to him.
“Kill the lights guys.”
The flashlights clicked off and Peter looked down at his hands, he could see them pretty good. From far away dull light beckoned holding the entrance into hell for them.
He stopped and took a long deep breath. He could smell fresh running water. He thought he had smelled it earlier, but figured it was just his imagination playing tricks on him. Soon everyone was sniffing. Everyone started murmuring.
“Quiet!” He ordered. “I don’t want our position given away, especially when we’re so bloody close.”
“I assume you don’t want us just banging in?” Lee asked.
“No I think stealth is quite necessary here. And I have an idea,” It was just off-the-wall like most of his ideas, “It’ll be hard and perhaps impossible. I’ve come to a realization that if we go thought that hole the chances of us all coming back are miniscule.”
“That thought did cross my mind more than once, I’ll admit,” Lee said.
“You’re a good friend and loyal Lee. We wouldn’t be where we are without you.”
“Well I’m saving my own ass too, I won’t lie.”
They both laughed.
Olivia flashed through Peter’s mind.
When he and Peter were alone, they were just friends and warriors. But when she entered the picture, things got complicated. Her gorgeous smile and eyes flickered through his mind and her kiss, her soft lips. If Lee was around would he just step aside and let them be happy? Or would he fight for what he thought was his?
&
nbsp; Peter shook his head.
“Are you alright?” Lee asked.
“I must have blanked out for a sec’, sorry just thinking.”
Then Maddie entered his mind. To compare them would be folly, but it enters one’s mind unfortunately. Both were perfect in their own ways and both had their flaws.
Maddie was dead. Olivia belonged to Lee.
Wonder what Sophie and Maddie were hiding, did she blame him for Maddie’s death. Was this what it was about? Did Sophie just want revenge? Maybe he deserved it. Maybe he should be sacrificed…
“I’m going to go in alone. We have a better chance if just one goes in. I can do and I know you can do what I need done out here,” Peter said.
“Are you serious?” Lee asked.
“It’s an order and I know you can take orders.”
“I can,” Lee nodded.
Just looking at him, so young, knowing he was betraying him. God Sophie was right, He was a villain, no wonder she turned on him. He wondered what she was doing right now? Leading another revolt?
Peter explained to Lee what his plan was over what could possibly be their last meal together.
He stood up and checked his guns. He had his hand gun and a rifle, not to mention his sword and his bombs. He was disappointed that we didn’t have any more of the pesticide that Wendham and Rachel had come up with. That stuff was good.
“Well this is it!” He said and shook Lee’s hand, “Remember, they could be on you rather quickly. Lead well.”
“I will. And good luck!” Lee said.
“Thanks I’ll need it, if I don’t make it back… take care of… just lead well. Look after everyone right,” Peter said.
He turned and walked away from the group ever closer to the hole. Soon he was upon it.
Chapter 7
When Peter was younger, he had gone on a H.P Lovecraft kick, this was as close as he could imagine being in those stories. It was truly a different world and he now wondered if he was just a little stupid or a lot stupid. He was at the entrance of one of maybe ten launching tunnels. We hadn’t gone down far enough to find their true lair; this was more of a pit stop, or launch pad. But it would do and maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to save a couple cities or towns.
He readied his gun and had a firm hand on his back pack ready to unleash his bombs, hoping that he wouldn’t have to go up with the joint.
His mission was simple, just draw enough attention to himself, set off a few bombs and run like hell and try to take out as many of those damn things as possible. In the back of his mind he wondered if he’d really survive. It kind of seemed like wishful thinking. But if he didn’t, well… that would solve a lot of his problems, he’d get to see Maddie, hopefully she wouldn’t be too mad at him for what he’d done.
He figured he owed the survivors a chance to live bug free, if only for a little while, until the damn creatures dug another hole. But hopefully by then the world would be a happier, sunnier, more ordered place.
He quickly took to the shadows and made sure he wasn’t seen yet. He spied a few Night Crawlers, hoping they were too busy for him. He looked out at the cave. It was large, maybe ten times as large as a football stadium. More holes lead down. Support columns were everywhere and light seem to come out of the wall.
His attention to the place was snapped away by a roar of an army. An army of the Night Crawlers came down from one of the holes. They had people, most of them looked like they were dead. They didn’t have a lot of people, but still, just seeing them with people. They held them like mankind would hold their groceries, with so little care. But Peter realized that was all mankind was to them, meat.
He was willing to bet during the first few days they probably had a lot of bodies. It was easy picking, not now though. Mankind was fighting back.
In the center of the chamber was a large hole that the Night Crawlers brought the bodies to. They laid them down on the slimy platform; it looked like a giant piece of jell-o. The bodies started oozing down, and soon were completely enveloped. Were they being eaten, absorbed or was that just the easiest way for the Night Crawler’s to move their harvest? He wonder what horror awaited the person at the end of the jell-o chute. Did they breed them, eat them, maybe study them? Did they have that capability? Or were they just dumb hungry bugs?
Being down here, it all seemed a lot bigger than just some dumb insects attacking them. Just a feeling, nothing concrete. But right now was not the time to find out.
The walls were hot to the touch and glowed. They almost seemed translucent, like there was something flowing. Could it be lava? He looked closer. He know it flowed all over the world, but if they’d actually managed to do this, wouldn’t that mean they were a lot smarter than anyone even thought? He pulled out his hunting knife and dug at the walls until a little bit of lava started flowing out. The heat was intense, even such a small amount. And it burst into flames on impact with the air.
He pulled out his sword and stabbed it into the wall as deep as he could. He hoped his sword wouldn’t melt. He dragged it along, hoping I’d be able to use the lava as a kind of shield.
He strapped one of his remote control explosives to the wall. He wanted to get to higher ground so he climbed up a wall the best he could. He could see a ridge maybe thirty feet up. It’d be high enough for him to start lobbing his bombs. He climbed and climbed. But then with a ear piercing howl, he was noticed. He threw another sticking remote bomb to the ceiling, hoping it would catch, he got lucky, it did.
Night Dragons came flying at him. He pulled his rifle, he didn’t have any kind of shield, if they hit him with their fire he’d be burnt to a crisp. He sat down, set-up as fast as possible and opened fire like a sniper taking out his target, or like his dad aiming at those damn ducks of his.
He placed another bomb behind him and then threw out a tear gas grenade and slid on his gas mask. It worked well; the remaining Night Dragons started freaking out and were spitting everywhere, starting their own comrades on fire. He threw his cache of conventional grenades, making sure the area below him was clear for his escape. Hell had officially broken loose and the noise was deafening.
Things suddenly didn’t look that bad. Maybe man did have the advantage after all. He tossed a remote bomb at the jell-o chute. That should really put this place out of commission for awhile.
He had a couple more tear gas containers He threw them all at once, making the place as hazy as a winter’s day in Scotland. He climbed down as fast as he could. He emptied his back pack putting all the bombs around the entrance. Suddenly the chute exploded sending up bodies and goo everywhere. Then the ceiling bomb went off. He had no idea what was going on as he was setting them off. The place started to cave in.
Lava spilled from the walls turning the place into an inferno. Thousands of Night Crawlers headed for him. He wished he could have sunk the other holes first, cutting off their escape, but no they’d be able to go up their holes to escape, if they decided that that was the prudent thing. But maybe they didn’t view him as much of a threat, just one piece of meat trying to attack them, laughable.
A handful of the Night Crawler’s got close to him. He shot them with his handgun.
He stood at the entrance and turned to look at all the carnage he had done. Not bad, but only a beginning. If he could get this information to his brother, they’d be able to counter attack.
He left the Night Crawler’s battle station or harvesting area, whatever you wanted to call it and headed for the smell of red clay.
Chapter 8
Peter ran upwards with only his flashlight guiding him. He passed the part where he left his team. They’d probably gone up as far as they could, hopefully they didn’t hit Kaiser or his men though, and hopefully everything went to plan.
Peter stopped and pushed the remote buttons. The walls shook and loose dirt fell all over him. Hopefully blocking the damn creatures from his town forever. He could see a fire farther up the line. He killed his flashlight. He could hear the Nig
ht Crawlers that followed him coming now. He stuck close to the wall. They were getting closer and closer. He readied his gun…
Suddenly an arm reached out and pulled him into the wall. The Night Crawlers ran passed him. There must have been a thousand of them. He closed his eyes, He didn’t want a glint of his eyes sparking any interest from anyone and he prayed that fire he saw belonged to the Kaiser and his men.
Soon there was the sound of battle; screams, squeals, gun shots and the sound of the Night Crawler’s razor sharp forearms tearing into human skin. Soon enough the fighting died down and the victorious Night Crawlers continued upwards, hopefully to find a waiting Kaiser if he wasn’t already killed.
Fatigue set in, he was incredibly comfortable and he let his mind relax to a point of almost sleeping. Images flickered in his mind. The kind you get on the edge of sleep. His mind flew past the caved in entrance down past the giant jell-o chute and it raced downwards.
He arrived in a giant underground world with perhaps millions of giant honeycomb like structures, homes to the Night Crawlers. Then to a deeper subterranean world. Above was a bright yellow, like the sun, it was pulsing with lava, but it was different, it gave off a glow of life, it was no ordinary lava.
There were clouds in the subterranean sky, it dampened and softened the light. Hives of Night Crawlers stretched on for miles. He couldn’t see the end, but Peter got the feeling that it circled the plant. Thousand, maybe millions of giant beams supported the underground world. They were huge pillars, some as large as cities with catacombs inside of them. Night Dragons flew freely, carrying supplies.
And then with dawning horror, he saw them, thousands of humans laid out in lines in an amber coating. Night Crawlers would pick them up and put them in giant larvae chambers. They were being fed to the young.
The Complete Creeping Darkness Page 22