Howling Legion (Skinners, Book 2)

by Marcus Pelegrimas

  “I think we’ve all been spending too much time in this spot. Either that, or there’s too much going on with the wires or insulation or whatever.”

  “How about we take this all down to the basement?” Cole asked. “Whatever we’re looking for would most likely be down there anyway.”

  Before anyone could say anything, a muted thump echoed through the room.

  Val, Mick, and Quentin all looked at each other and then swung their flashlights toward the hall.

  “What was that?” Cole asked.

  There was another thump, followed by a scratching that seemed to come as much from the floor as it did from the walls.

  Val handed the monitor back to Quentin so she could dig a small digital audio recorder from her pocket. She flipped it on and asked, “Is there anyone in here with us?”

  When Paige started to say something, she was quickly silenced by the entire MEG team. Walking over to Cole, she whispered, “You brought your spear, right?”

  “It’s in the car.”

  “Go get it.”

  He headed out of the room as they heard more scratches from the vicinity of the closet and under the floor. Instead of the quick, skittering sounds of a critter trapped in a crawl space, the noises were more like thick claws scraping against the underside of the wood beneath Cole’s feet.

  Once he was outside, Cole could barely hear anything coming from inside or under the house. A short lady with her hair tied into a bun raced from the neighboring house to meet him at the Cav.

  “Did you hear any noises?” she asked. “It’s not rats! I keep a clean house and my son is an exterminator. There’s no rats!”

  “I’m just getting some more equipment, ma’am,” Cole said as calmly as he could.

  “You’re not making a mess, are you? Maybe I should come over there.”

  “We’ve got some expensive stuff set up,” Cole said as he rooted around in the car and took what he needed from under the front seat. “I’ll send Mick out here to answer any questions you may have.” He shut the car door and headed back to the house. “We just don’t want you to trip on anything, that’s all.”

  “Expensive equipment, huh?” the lady asked. “Is that a stick you’re carrying?”

  Cole pretended not to hear that as he went inside and locked the door behind him. The moment he crossed the threshold, he was surrounded by the scraping sounds, which were now accompanied by the rattle of pots within the lower kitchen cabinets. The lights coming from that area let him know that someone was already investigating the disturbance.

  Quentin and Val were in the kitchen, sweeping their meters along the floor and cabinets. “The lady who owns the house was outside and she seemed pretty upset,” he told them.

  Turning to look at Cole, Quentin nearly blinded him thanks to the penlight gripped between his teeth. “She’s not gonna come in, is she?” he asked.

  “She might. I told her Mick would go out to explain what’s happening.”

  “Good. We’re busy in here.”

  The two of them switched their lights off so they could use the thermal camera. Val dropped to all fours to get to one of the lower cabinets and pointed the camera in there while Quentin watched the portable monitor.

  Although Cole knew the basics of how the camera worked, all he could see on the foldable screen was a mix of bright reds and darker blues. “Find anything?” he asked.

  “We’re picking up traces of a heat signature moving around under the floor,” Val said. “There’s a spike in the EMF just before it comes along. It’s really cool!”

  Cole hurried to the bedroom, where Paige and Mick were crawling around knocking on the floor. “You might want to go smooth out the lady who owns this place,” he said.

  “Why?” Mick asked as he pressed his ear to the floor.

  “Because she’s about to come in here, that’s why.” When that didn’t get the other man moving, Cole added, “She seemed to think you guys were breaking stuff in here.”

  Mick jumped to his feet and grumbled, “I knew we shouldn’t have asked her to leave. Go against standard practices once and all you get is grief.” He continued grumbling, but couldn’t be heard once he left the room.

  “What’s going on in here?” Cole asked.

  Paige stood up and waved the K2 meter over the floor. “There’s something under the floor, and I think it knows we’re looking for it. Either that or it’s just getting restless. Did you hear all that scratching a few minutes ago?”

  “How could I miss it?”

  “Something moved right below the foundation of this house.”

  “Hasn’t anyone checked the basement?”

  “That’s the thing,” Paige replied. “Val went down there and came right back up again. There’s just a single room big enough for the water heater and some storage located below the living room, but no basement under this half of the house.”

  “Then maybe—”

  As soon as Cole started to talk, the scratching noises became loud enough to make him hop away from where he’d been standing.

  “Are you recording this?” Val shouted.

  Heavy steps thumped down some stairs and up again before Quentin replied, “Yeah, but it’s not as loud downstairs. I can hear it, but just a little.”

  “Hey!” Paige shouted. “Get that thermal camera in here!”

  More heavy steps along with some labored breathing announced Quentin’s arrival.

  “Point it right here at the floor,” Paige said.

  Quentin nodded and rushed over to her. Aiming the camera at the spot where she’d been pointing, he held the monitor for about two seconds before he nearly dropped it. “Whoa! Did you see that?”

  “Sweep that spot again,” Paige said as she took the monitor from him.

  The scratching sounded like nails raking against concrete. As it flowed up through the floor, it was distorted by all the layers of wood, insulation, wiring, dirt, and whatever else was between the MEG team and the source of the noise.

  Then the scratching stopped.

  “Have you heard anything like this before?” Cole asked.

  Quentin continued to move the camera back and forth while shaking his head. “A few times, I’ve heard banging and whispers, but nothing this bad.”

  “Did the home owner mention anything like this when you talked to her?”

  Although he didn’t look away from the floor, Quentin shook his head. “Not that I remember.” He used his free hand to grab his phone and then keyed it to send a few chirps through instead of one.

  After a few seconds Mick whispered, “Yeah?”

  “Did the home owner ever mention scratching sounds?”

  “Yeah. Those and some knocking.”

  “I mean loud scratching like what we heard.”

  There wasn’t a reply through the phone’s speaker, but Cole could hear muted voices coming from outside. After they died down, the phone chirped and Mick said, “She says there was scratching, but not from rats.”

  “There!” Paige said. “Did you see that?”

  Cole had been watching the monitor while also glancing down to see where Quentin was aiming the camera. “I saw something flash by on the screen, but don’t know what it was.”

  “Here,” Quentin grunted as he got up from where he’d been kneeling. “Rewind the feed. Right here.” He pointed to a button and then tapped it. When he saw the movement in reverse, he backed up another few seconds and played it frame by frame.

  Most of the screen was a mess of dark blues and greens. Brighter lines crossed the screen in bundles, which had to be wires or possibly narrow pipes under the floor. The thing that slowly moved from one side of the screen to the other wasn’t a bundle of wires, however, and it sure as hell wasn’t a pipe. It was, however, very hot.

  “What the hell?” Quentin gasped.

  Val raced into the room and pressed between Cole’s and Paige’s shoulders so she could get a look. “What? What is it? What did you find?”

&n
bsp; “Is that…some sort of beak?” Quentin asked as he used his finger to trace a long hooked shape at the bottom of the glowing red and orange blob. “There’s another one. And another! It’s all connected.”

  “Maybe it’s some sort of snake,” Val offered. “Looks like those beaks or whatever connect down at a neck and…move it ahead a bit.”

  Quentin sped the video up a notch so he could watch the hooked shapes slide along until the bottom of the screen was covered by the larger body. He stopped the video, rolled it back, and played it at regular speed. Although Cole knew what to look for this time around, he still couldn’t see much before the entire shape wriggled past.

  “That looks like a big snake to me,” Quentin said. “What do you guys think?”

  Paige didn’t say anything, but glanced around as if waiting for the scratching to return. When nothing happened, she looked down and asked, “Where’s that big meter Mick set down?”

  “You mean the Tri-Field?” Val asked.

  “Yeah. Where is it?”

  “I’ve got it,” Quentin replied. “Picked it up so it wouldn’t interfere with the thermal.”

  “Let’s get another look downstairs.”

  The entire group rushed to the basement. Cole’s first observation was just how small it was. The steps were narrow, and the stairway felt more like a tunnel as it led down to a pair of brick walls and single door to the right. The small storage room was almost directly below the living room, just as the others had mentioned.

  “Point that camera there,” Paige said as she slapped the wall to her left.

  Quentin did, but the only thing that showed on the monitor was a mix of black and dark blue.

  “Give me that Tri-Field thingy,” Paige said.

  “Actually, it won’t do much good down here with all the wires and—” Quentin stopped short when he saw the glare on Paige’s face. Knowing that glare all too well, Cole wasn’t surprised when Quentin dug out the meter and handed it over right away.

  Paige held the meter in her hand and flipped it on. Almost immediately the needle on its face waggled back and forth. It jumped in one direction, fell back, and then jumped again. All the while, it made the staticky high-pitched wailing that they’d heard before.

  “It’s the current down here,” Val said from where she stood halfway up the stairs. “There’s just too many wires and stuff in this cramped space.”

  Moving the meter up and down along the wall, Paige looked as if she truly knew what she was doing with it. Within seconds more noise emanated from deep behind the brick wall. It rumbled and scraped until the source got close enough to the back side of the bricks for the screech of nails against rock to be added to the delightful audio mix.

  Paige smirked, turned the meter off and waited. When the scratching faded, she smirked again. “There’s something behind this wall, and this meter is driving it nuts.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Val asked as she hunkered down to crouch on the stairs.

  “Yep. All that scratching started when the meters were on, and it got worse when all of them were gathered in that same spot. Do these things give off any noise besides what we can hear?”

  Val shrugged. “Just the normal hum most electronics give off.” Looking to Quentin, she added, “Unless there’s some sort of interaction with the electromagnetic field that the detectors have picked up. We’ve never heard of anything that could hear that sort of thing so well before. Not through a brick wall anyway.”

  “There are bats and other rodents that hear plenty we don’t,” Quentin offered, “but nothing that burrows like this. I mean…there can’t really be something under here like what we saw on the thermal. Someone would have seen it, right?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Paige said. “Cole, go outside and look at the ground around the house. Whatever it is must come up for air. If it’s as big as it seems, you might be able to see something squirming around beneath the grass.”

  Val’s eyes widened. “Oh, is that what the stick’s for? I want to go with you!”

  “No!” Cole snapped. “Stay here and take some more readings.” As he stormed up the stairs, he almost ran into Mick. Paige came up right behind him and pointed back down to the basement.

  “They caught something on the thermal,” she said to Mick. “Go take a look.”

  The haggard expression on his face brightened and he ran toward the basement door.

  Once they were alone, Cole asked, “You think some sort of snake is down there?”

  “The thing in that video wasn’t a snake,” Paige told him. “It was a bunch of fingers connected to a hand connected to an arm. It was just a lot closer to the bottom of the floor than anyone thought.”

  “Ohhhh, yeahh. Good call.”

  “Whatever is underground is moving back and forth from the wall. It’s gotta come up for air, and when it does, try to stick it.”

  “We’re not here to kill it,” Cole reminded her. “We need its help, remember?”

  Gritting her teeth, Paige said, “Then get its attention or try to draw it out. Do you have your earpiece radio?”

  “No. I lost that in Indiana.”

  She sighed “What about an earpiece for your phone?”

  “It’s one of the smallest models made and I had to import it from a special store in Tokyo that only gets—”

  “Great,” Paige snapped. “Put it in and keep in contact with me. I’ll go back to the bedroom and try to stir it up. When you see anything, let me know. Mongrels are hit and miss as far as temperament goes. They’re not all exotic naked cat ladies, so don’t do anything stupid.”

  Giving her a quick, halfhearted salute, Cole headed out the front door. There were just enough clouds in the sky to keep the moonlight down to a minimum. It didn’t take long to circle around the little house and get to the side with the bedroom where everyone had been gathered.

  A small patch of flowers ran along the front, sectioned off from the lawn by inch-high wooden beams set into the ground. The flowers grew in thick patches, clustered together as if competing to live there. He didn’t hear anything, but he could see lights moving behind the little window a foot or so over his head. Before he could get to his phone’s earpiece, something shifted beneath the ground as though a patch of grass had decided to shrug. Cole held his weapon in both hands and cautiously approached the moving earth. When the hands reached up from the ground to grab his ankles, he was barely able to gulp in some air before being pulled under.

  Chapter 25

  The first thing Cole thought about when he felt the sharp jabs at his ankles were the bear traps that Paige had used to trip up those Half Breeds. In the fraction of a second following that thought, he wondered if he’d stumbled into a hole. Half a second later he kicked around the possibility of quicksand being a hazard native to central Nebraska. By then the dirt had gotten into his mouth and up into his nose.

  The sharp jabs worked up along his legs and were now scraping against his chest. When the hard, gouging talons found his shoulder, they were replaced by the touch of long, bony fingers. The claws Paige had spotted on the thermal camera wrapped around his chin and shoved his face upward.

  “How many did you bring, Skinner?” The voice was like a wire brush that had been forced into his ear by a set of rough, sandpapery lips.

  When Cole tried to speak, more soil filled his mouth. Wet granules hit the back of his throat, speeding up his pulse and commanding the rest of his body to crawl up and out of the ground. His legs were wrapped up tightly, however, and couldn’t even bend. His arms were stretched over his head and barely flexed in response to the frantic pleas coming from his mind. His palms ached with a familiar pain that told him he was still gripping his weapon, the only part of him still above ground.

  “Relax,” the hissing voice commanded. “The dirt’s freshly turned, so there’s just enough air to keep you alive for a while. Answer my question, Skinner, or I can drag you a whole lot deeper. How many others did y
ou bring?”

  Feeling more dirt trickle in, Cole closed his mouth until there was only the slightest break between his lips. When he spoke again, he did so more from his throat. Those ventriloquist lessons he’d taken as a kid had finally paid off. “Partner nearby.”

  “I know you’ve got partners. I can smell the Nymar drug coursing through your veins.” Whatever pressed against Cole’s face was twice as coarse as the earth that surrounded them. When it moved, muscles tensed and joints shifted all along the length of his body. Not only was he surrounded by dirt, but he was also wrapped in the embrace of whatever the hell had dragged him down. When he started to panic and felt his heart crash desperately against his ribs, the hand under his chin forced his face up until the slightest trickle of air arrived from between the chunks of dirt overhead. Pulling himself up with his arms increased the flow a little, but not nearly enough to take a real breath.

  “You’re not the one that came here before,” the rough voice said.

  Cole was so intent on breathing that he didn’t even try to respond. After a few agonizingly long seconds of silence, he felt the strong, clawed hands grip his shoulders and force him down another inch or two. His arms stretched to the point of dislocating at the wrists and shoulders. The thorns in his weapon tore his palms apart. Every gulping breath was accompanied by a rush of dirt.

  “I can sit down here all night, Skinner,” the voice whispered almost directly into his ear. “We spared the one that came before you, but we won’t allow our home to be destroyed. Speak to me or I’ll bury you deep enough for the worms to steal your last breath.”

  As it became impossible for Cole to breathe, an eerie calmness settled upon him. He felt the rest of the world turn while he remained perfectly suspended in the middle of it. Not only did his heartbeat thump through his ears, but the pattering of the heart within the other creature could be heard as well. Thickly muscled limbs clutched his torso and sharp talons dug into his legs. Even if he could crawl up, he’d have to pull through those claws to get there.