Night Chill

by Jeff Gunhus

  The scream seemed to be right next to his ear. He swore he felt hot breath on his neck. But with a final push on Lonetree’s back, they tumbled onto the elevator platform together. Jack climbed to his feet and searched for the control switch, surprised the creature wasn’t already upon them.

  “Up there.” Lonetree groaned. “Up.”

  Jack saw it. A metal control box hanging from a chain against the back wall. He grabbed it and punched the green button. They didn’t move. He tried the red button. Nothing. He pressed them together. Still they didn’t work.

  Oh shit. Huckley sabotaged the elevator.

  “The release. Hit the release switch out there.” Lonetree pointed to the control console out in the passageway.

  Jack understood. He looked out into the passage. The creature had stopped its advance next to Huckley’s body. They were already out of time so Jack knew he had no other option. He sprinted out from the elevator and ran to the console. He expected to feel the slashing cut of the creature’s claws at any second. The release was labeled. He flipped the switch and rushed back into the elevator. Lonetree had managed to pull himself up using the metal rails around the platform and held the control box in his hand. As soon as Jack’s body cleared the threshold, he punched the buttons and the elevator started to rise.

  Jack turned as new screams erupted behind them. These were not from the shaman creature. These were human. And they were pure horror. Peering out from the elevator they watched what was happening in the passage.

  Huckley was still sprawled out on his back but had regained full consciousness. At first Jack thought the creature stood in front of Huckley, but he realized he was wrong. The creature was on Huckley, each foot planted through one of Huckley’s legs, the thick talons piercing through the muscles like iron pikes.

  Huckley raised the shotgun, only to have his hand lopped off with one quick swipe. The creature reared back and screamed, overwhelming the pathetic whimpers that came from its prey. As the shaman lunged forward to tear into Huckley’s stomach, the elevator rose into the rock shaft, blocking Jack’s view.

  They traveled upward, away from the grisly scene and toward the salvation hundreds of feet above them. Huckley’s screams chased them up the vertical shaft. Whatever the creature was doing, one thing was certain, it was taking its time.

  EIGHTY-FIVE

  Jack sat on the floor on the elevator, rocking Sarah in his arms. As he rocked her, he tried to apply pressure to her wound to stop the bleeding. The blast had riddled her left shoulder and chest with shot. Blood was everywhere.

  At least she was still breathing. He checked his watch. Less than a minute until the explosion. The elevator creaked up the shaft. He wasn’t sure if they would make it.

  Lonetree sat on the opposite side of the platform. Even under the dim light of the one bare bulb that hung suspended in the center of the cage, Jack could tell how pale he was. He clutched his side and his breath came in painful bursts.

  “Hell of a ride, huh?” Lonetree managed through clenched teeth.

  Jack nodded up the shaft. “How long do you think to reach the top?

  “Maybe a minute, give or take.” Lonetree said.

  “Let’s hope for some give. Otherwise we’re shy about twenty seconds.”

  Lonetree nodded. Jack struggled to his feet, Sarah still in his arms. She moaned quietly as she was moved around. Lonetree craned his head back to look up above them. “I think we’re going to make it.”

  As if in answer to his optimism, the platform slowed. A hollow sound came up the shaft from below them, like the thud of fireworks being shot off in the distance. Lonetree looked over to Jack. “Hold on.”

  No sooner were the words in the air then the platform was rocked by a violent earthquake. Jack curled his arms around Sarah, fending off the chucks of rock that crashed down from above them. The elevator gears whined as the cable holding the platform whipped back and forth like downed power line. Still, the platform crawled upward, slower now, but gaining ground.

  Another violent shock hit and threw the platform against the wall. Lonetree lost his grip on the rail and rolled across the floor and slammed into the opposite side. One leg dropped off the edge and dangled in the air. The platform completed its arc and started back the other direction.

  “Watch out!” Jack cried as the wall rushed toward them.

  With a grunt, Lonetree hefted his leg back onto the platform just as the edge slammed into the rock wall. The maneuver left him face down staring through the metal grid beneath their feet. Lonetree’s body stiffened.

  He lifted his head to shout something at Jack, but the noise from the earthquake was too loud. Lonetree stabbed his finger downward. Jack looked through the metal grate and saw the elevator shaft extend down beneath them. The light from below appeared to blink off and on. He thought maybe from a dust cloud gathering beneath them.

  But soon he realized it was no dust cloud or an electrical short. The light blinked off and on as a shape passed back and forth in front of it. As his eyes adjusted, Jack saw the shaman-creature crawling up the shaft. And it was gaining on them.

  “It’s coming after us,” Lonetree shouted.

  “Sarah said it wouldn’t hurt us. It was just after Huckley and Mansfield.”

  Lonetree looked back down at the creature climbing up toward them. “Something tells me that deal’s off. The world down there is collapsing and this is the way out.” Lonetree reached out and pulled Jack close to him. “No matter what, we can’t let that thing get out of here.”

  Jack lost Lonetree’s voice in the rumbling of the earthquake around them. He looked up. The light above them was stronger now. They were almost to the surface. Ten seconds. They needed just ten more seconds.

  But they didn’t have it. The rock shaft started to disintegrate. The walls caved in at the lower levels first, mangling the safety cables that ran the length of the tunnel. The platform stopped and danced wildly in mid-air, suspended over the carnage below. Lonetree shouted that the creature was still climbing up the walls. Jack watched in horror as fissures appeared in the wall next to him. In was only a matter of time before the walls caved in and buried them alive.

  Then he saw it. A metal ladder attached to the rock wall. A service ladder. A way out.

  He shouted to Lonetree and pointed. The crash of rocks below and the rumble from the shaking earth drowned out his voice. But Lonetree saw his gesture and waved for Jack to go first. Jack shook his head. “Can you carry Sarah?”

  Lonetree nodded that he understood. Between the two of them, Jack was in better shape to slow the creature down.

  Without hesitating, Lonetree hefted Sarah over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, teeth clenched against the explosion of pain in his side. He staggered across the platform, forced down to his knees every few steps by the spasms from the quakes. He gripped onto the ladder with his free hand and pulled himself up off the platform and started the climb. The rock wall continued to shake but he focused on moving one hand at a time, one foothold at a time.

  Jack watched them climb up the shaft. They were so close. If only the ladder and the rock wall would hold for another minute. Even then, he wondered if they could stop Sarah’s bleeding in time to save her life.

  Jack pushed the doubts aside and focused on maintaining his balance on the platform. One thing at a time, he thought. Give Lonetree enough time to get Sarah out the elevator shaft. Stop the shaman-creature. Get out of the shaft himself before he was crushed by a cave-in. Piece of cake. Still, just in case, he muttered a prayer as he waited for Lonetree to finish the climb up the ladder. And, even though they couldn’t hear it, he told his wife and daughters he loved them.

  EIGHTY-SIX

  The creature was close enough that Jack could hear its high pitched shriek above the roar of the earthquake. There was enough room on each side of the platform that the creature could easily get by. He considered using one of the large rocks on the platform as a weapon, but Jack knew he couldn’t defend the
position. Better to get to higher ground and fight there. Lonetree had finally made it to the top so Jack staggered toward the ladder, fighting to keep his balance as the platform continued to buck wildly.

  The creature grabbed the bottom of the platform just as Jack jumped to the ladder, the right side buckling from the weight. Black talons bent the metal guardrails and dug into the rock wall of the shaft. It looked up to the light above, screamed and pulled itself onto the platform.

  Jack didn’t waste time looking down. He climbed up the ladder a fast as he could. The rumbling earthquake turned into a series of quick jolts and rocks pelted down on him from above. The metal ladder groaned as the metal bolts started to work loose from the rock.

  Jack wondered why the creature hadn’t caught up with him yet. Judging how fast it had climbed up the shaft, the creature should have been able to reach him without problem. He kept climbing, shocked with every step that he was still alive. He wondered if the ladder couldn’t support the weight and the creature was stuck on the platform. Maybe it was distracted. He couldn’t understand what was taking it so long to finish him off.

  His speculation ended with a burst of hot air on the side of his face.

  He froze.

  Slowly, he turned to face the center of the shaft.

  The creature hung suspended, legs grasping the elevator cable, its body outstretched toward him. Its face hovered less than a foot away, swaying as the cable moved. The creature’s breath hit Jack’s face in hot blasts of foul air. The creature leaned in, turning its head so that its one eye matched up with its prey, its clawed hand clicking its talons in a slow rhythm.

  For a moment, Jack and the creature stared each other down. The blood pounding in Jack’s ears blocked out all sound. The world moved in silent, slow motion. He knew what he had to do. His muscles flexed. He shifted his weight for the jump off the ladder and onto the creature. It was the only option left. The only way he could stop the creature was to throw himself at it and try to drag it down into the shaft as the walls collapsed.

  The creature’s mouth opened in a scream. It drew its arm back over its head. Talons flexed into a claw. Jack cried out and started to push off from the ladder, ready to meet his opponent in mid-air.

  A shadow flew down from above him. Close enough that he felt it more than saw it. His reflexes kept him on the ladder, a move that saved his life.

  The rock struck the creature in the back. It spun to the side, but was struck by another rock as the lip of the shaft crumbled above them.

  The creature stretched out desperately for the rock wall as the elevator cable went slack. It dug its talons into the wall.

  The elevator’s surface machinery toppled over the edge of the shaft and came crashing down. The creature looked up and screamed, trying to block the mass of twisted metal with an upraised arm. The metal wreckage scraped the creature off the wall. Together, creature and machine fell down into the dark shaft, the twist and grind of metal mixed with the unearthly screams of the shaman-creature, until the noise was lost in the roar of the earthquake.

  Jack watched in astonishment, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The machinery had come within inches of him, but he was unharmed. A sharp whine of metal bending brought him back to his senses. The ladder was coming out of the wall.

  He pulled himself up the ladder, ignoring the small rocks that bounced off his shoulders and arms. The ladder bent backward as he climbed, the bolts pulling out from the wall. He was so near the top. Only a few feet to go. He was so close. All he needed was a few more seconds. The ladder tore away in a grind of metal. He wasn’t going to make it.

  A hand shot out from above him. Jack cried out and reached for it just as the ladder came completely off the wall and fell down into the shaft. The strong hand gripped onto his wrist and held him dangling over the treacherous shaft. A face appeared above him that shocked him enough that he almost lost his grip. Deputy Sorenson.

  “Come on,” Deputy Sorenson said. “Give me your other hand.”

  Jack let the deputy pull him from the shaft into a brightly lit room. They were inside a barn. Dust and straw danced in the light, shaken from the rafters by the earthquakes. Timbers creaked ominously as the whole barn swayed from the tremors.

  “You O.K.?” Sorenson said with a nod to the elevator shaft. “I saw that thing down there. Son-of-a-bitch.”

  Jack looked around the room, confused by the deputy’s appearance but too worried about his little girl to ask questions. He saw Lauren crouched over Sarah, compressing the shotgun wound with a cloth. She looked up. “Jack, thank God you’re O.K.”

  “How is she?” Jack shouted.

  Lauren shook her head, her eyes red from crying. “I can’t tell yet. She’s lost a lot of blood.”

  Jack turned back to Sorenson who was tending to Lonetree’s wound. Lonetree grinned. “Jack meet Nick Sorenson. Navy SEAL.”

  Sorenson matched the grin and stretched out his hand to shake Jack’s. “Ex-Navy SEAL. Retired to help out a friend.” He looked over at Lauren and said, “You’re wife is a fighter. She gave me a couple of bruises before I could explain that I was one of the good guys.”

  Jack shook the man’s hand, took a deep breath and released it slowly. The adrenaline of the last hour was catching up with him. His mind was too tired to do anything but accept what his eyes told him. Sorenson was working for Lonetree. Lauren would take care of Sarah’s injuries. The earthquakes had stopped after he’d been dragged from the elevator shaft. It was as if the earth had spit them out and was then content to settle down. In the quiet of the barn, it finally felt as if they made it. They were safe.

  Sarah lay on the floor, pale from blood loss. Her mother had pulled back the gown to inspect the child’s wound. Jack crawled over to them, staying an arm’s length away to give Lauren the room she needed.

  She looked up at Jack, the strain showing in her eyes. “It’s bad. She’s lost too much blood. Without a hospital, she’s going to die.”

  As the words were out, the ground jolted beneath them. The barn swayed unsteadily and the wood timbers groaned. The edges of the elevator shaft caved in, sending a torrent of dust into the barn. The earth shook violently. Jack used his body to shield Lauren and Sarah from the debris raining down from the rafters.

  “The cave system is still collapsing,” Lonetree shouted. “We have to get out of here.”

  EIGHTY-SEVEN

  Jack grabbed Sarah and pushed Lauren toward the barn door. Lonetree struggled to get up with Sorenson’s help, holding his side and spitting blood. Sections of the barn collapsed around them. Another tremor shook the barn and a rafter crashed down behind them. Timbers began to snap.

  They darted out of the barn door just as a sharp earthquake hit. There was a loud crack and then a slow groan. Jack looked over his shoulder. A full moon hung above the roofline of the barn. His eyes hadn’t adjusted after the bright light inside the barn, but he could see enough to know they were in trouble. The entire side of the barn was falling over in one piece. And it was headed right for them.

  “Go! Go! It’s coming down.”

  They scrambled away as the barn wall gathered momentum. The shadow of the wall chased them across the ground. Lauren screamed as Jack covered her with his body.

  The wall slammed into the ground behind them. Dirt and splinters of wood flew through the air. They huddled together as the debris fell around them, coughing from the dust cloud that engulfed them.

  “Are you O.K.?” Jack asked.

  Lauren coughed. “Yeah, I’m O.K. How about—”

  “We’re here,” Sorenson said, appearing behind them covered with dust. He shouldered most of Lonetree’s weight as they staggered forward. Sorenson’s face was covered with deep cuts. He blinked away the blood from his eyes.

  “We’re right over the cave here,” Lonetree said. “These tremors are small compared to what they’ll be when the main cave goes.”

  Jack understood. When the main cave below them collapsed, they would
be in the center of a giant sinkhole. The seismic force of such a collapse would be incredible.

  “The Land Rover is mine,” Sorenson said. He pointed to a cluster of cars by Huckley’s house. “Key’s in the ignition.”

  The group ran for toward the Rover. Sorenson and Lonetree lagged behind. Jack carried Sarah. Once they reached the beat up vehicle, Jack transferred Sarah to Lauren’s lap in the back seat. He climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the engine over. It roared to life just as Sorenson opened the rear gate and piled Lonetree into the back. He jumped in next to him and shouted that they were clear. Jack jammed on the gas. The tires churned through the gravel, found traction and the car lurched forward.

  He fumbled to find the lights, almost careening off the dirt road as he did. Once he got the lights on, he almost wished he hadn’t found them.

  Fissures were starting to open in the road in front of them. The cave system was collapsing layer after layer in a massive chain reaction. He bounced over the first ruptures in the ground, thankful for the ruggedness of the Land Rover. The next fissures were deeper and wider. The tires slammed into the gaps with the force of hitting speed bumps at fifty miles an hour.

  Jack pushed the truck faster and tried to steer away from the largest gaps opening before them.

  Lonetree cried out from the back.

  Jack chanced a quick look in his side mirror. Huckley’s house had sunk down into the earth up to the roof line. The subterranean underworld was being destroyed and soon a giant sinkhole on the surface would be its only testament. Jack just hoped they wouldn’t be in it.

  “Faster. Faster.” Sorenson shouted.

  The ground behind them was falling away, disappearing into blackness. The edge of a crumbling fissure followed behind them, as if a dark shadow was chasing them out of the valley.

  Jack twisted to look at Sarah in the back seat. Lauren was holding onto her whispering to comfort her. He turned back and squinted into the night. The tremors had kicked up dust and the headlights turned the particles into a thick fog. Then the dust cloud cleared and revealed a massive fissure opening in front of them.