Out of Sight (Progenitor Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  “We could live in here,” said Juan. “It’s got room, and it’s not gonna make us sweat.”

  “It was pretty warm in here before.” Sima glanced at the metal slab. “I slept in here the first night and it wasn’t this cold.”

  “Maybe you forgot to turn the air conditioning on,” said Austin, a nervous tremor in his voice.

  She rather did not like the implication that a cave either had air conditioning, or someone/something turned it on after she’d been here. It could’ve been automatic, a mechanism in the walls having reacted to her presence… but she hadn’t come back here since.

  “Is anything making it cold in here?” asked Sima, holding her forearm up.

  ‹The walls are emitting energy in a wavelength I’m not able to properly analyze. I calculate that this energy is likely responsible for the drop in temperature.›

  “Could that energy be making me feel weird?” asked Sima.

  “It is kinda creepy in here,” said Lissa.

  “Yeah.” Austin poked at the wall. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to live in here. At least not until we find some clothes. It’s too cold.”

  Lissa jumped down from the metal disc and ran over to Sima, clinging. “Yeah. I’m cold.”

  “Who wrote on the walls?” asked Juan. He stuck his finger in one of the grooves, tracing the circuit pattern.

  “The aliens, umm, I mean whatever beings lived here before we arrived,” said Sima, gazing up at the decorations that extended well into the ceiling.

  Click.

  Juan screamed.

  Sima whirled around. Where the boy had been a second ago, a hole in the wall revealed a round-walled tunnel bending downward. Juan’s continuing howl of fear faded into the distance, echoing back up the shaft. She ran over to the opening. A door-sized section of the wall had retracted into the floor, exposing a tunnel of smooth purplish-red rock that angled away and down with a rightward curve. Slick with water or some other type of moisture, the coloration made it look far too much like the guts of a living being.

  “Juan!” shouted Sima.

  Austin rushed up beside her. “Whoa.”

  Lissa burst into tears.

  The boy’s distant screaming cut off with a splash.

  “Juan!” shouted Sima. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

  Sputtering echoed back up the tube for a few seconds before Juan yelled, “There’s water down here. It’s cold. I’m okay.”

  “Water?” called Sima.

  “Yeah. There’s tunnels and metal and stuff down here.”

  Sima leaned into the opening, inhaling the scent of mossy stone. “Can you get back up?”

  “No. I fell outta the roof. There’s a lot of other tunnels.”

  Austin squatted and picked at the groove where the wall section had gone down into the floor. “This is a door. Maybe they were like worms or something. There has to be another way out.”

  Sima looked back and forth from the tunnel to the other two kids. No way could she leave Juan down there alone, but if she went after him, she wouldn’t be able to get back up, and these two would be on their own until she found a way out. If she found a way out. Going down after Juan felt like abandoning Austin and Lissa to their deaths. But not going felt like abandoning Juan to die.

  “I’m sorry for pushing the button,” yelled Juan.

  Do something, Seem. You can’t just stand here. Ugh. I can’t choose between them. Kill two to save one. Abandon one to save two? She grabbed two fistfuls of her hair and groaned. I’m over thinking. There has to be a way out. The bracelet can track where I go. Maybe it can even scan for a way out.

  “I can’t get back up,” said Juan, his voice shaking. “Which tunnel should I go?”

  “He’s only eight. I can’t leave him alone,” muttered Sima.

  Lissa squeezed her. “I’m only six.” She sniffled. “But I don’t wanna leave him down there.”

  “Let’s go.” Austin nodded toward the tunnel. “It didn’t hurt him. If the aliens made this like a hallway, there’s gotta be a way up somewhere.”

  Sima put a hand on each of their shoulders. “You guys stay here and wait for us to come back.”

  “I don’t wanna be alone,” whispered Lissa.

  “You’re not alone,” said Austin. “I’m here.”

  Sima lowered herself to sit at the top of the tunnel, and stuck her legs out onto wet stone. For an instant, she felt foolish at the idea of going down into what could be an inescapable pit, but Juan needed her. No matter what she did, it felt like the wrong choice. But Austin did have a point. If some alien creatures had made this place, it most likely did have another way out. “You two stay put. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Before Lissa could wail, Sima pushed off.

  She shot down the curving tunnel feet first, water spraying from her heels. Glowing patches of moss raced by for several long seconds until she sailed out into the air. She barely had time to suck in a breath before plunging submerged in freezing water. It took her a second to get a sense of orientation after the spiral slide, but she righted herself and put her feet down, squishing past a few inches of gooey muck to smooth stone beneath. Suppressing the urge to scream at the disgusting feeling, she thrust her head above the surface and found herself standing chest-deep in a huge underground lake. The sensation similar to walking in raw eggs made her shudder. Barely holding back the urge to gag, she glanced down at the dense purple muck up to her ankles.

  Juan swam over and grabbed on, sniffling. “You came after me.”

  “Yeah, kiddo.” She ruffled his wet hair. “We only have each other, right?”

  He smiled.

  She turned in place, gazing around at a massive chamber with rainbow-striations on the walls. Natural stone columns dotted the room, some thicker than trees, others precariously narrow. Twelve different passageways led out of the room, all caves of smooth rock with strikingly similar size. The design didn’t seem possible to have occurred naturally. Four silver metal obelisks jutted up from the water, standing in a square around the room’s center. They gave off a faint noise at the edge of human hearing, more a sensation of energy in the air than any sound. For no particular reason, she decided that approaching them would be a bad idea.

  “Bracelet, do you have any idea which way leads out?”

  ‹Insufficient data. However, I am tracking your motion so you will not get lost.›

  “No!” shouted Austin, his voice echoing from the hole in the ceiling.

  Sima gasped and looked up.

  Lissa came flying at her feet first.

  With a yelp, Sima ducked in time to avoid a double-kick to the face. Lissa splashed into the water nearby and went under. Before she surfaced, Austin sailed hands first out of the hole on his back, flipped over in midair, and belly flopped.

  “Ooh!” Juan cringed.

  Lissa stuck her head above the surface, dog paddling. “I can’t reach the bottom!”

  “I told you to stay up there!” Sima grabbed her and lifted her into a hug. “What are you doing?”

  The sad, pleading stare the girl gave her would’ve caused any Citizen to empty their entire bank account. “I was scared. I wanted to be with you. Please don’t be mad.”

  Sima couldn’t get angry with her, especially not while looking at that face. “I didn’t want you to get trapped down here.”

  “We’re trapped?” Juan gasped.

  Austin surfaced, floating on his back and moaning. “Ow.”

  “No… I don’t know that. Only afraid of it,” said Sima. Well, at least I don’t have to choose which kid lives… Despite it being potentially foolish, she preferred having all three of them with her.

  Lissa trembled from the dunk in cold water, her brittle cough echoing in the chamber.

  “We should get out of here before we freeze,” said Sima.

  “Yeah,” moaned Austin, swimming around to stand up. “Ow, damn. I totally landed on my face. Sorry. She jumped in before I could gr
ab her. And eww. The floor is nasty!”

  Sima decided on the nearest passageway and headed for it. “We’ll be okay. It’s better that we stay together.”

  Lissa smiled.

  Each time she took a step, Sima grimaced at the ooze squirting between her toes. “Ugh. What are we walking in?”

  “Feels like runny poo,” said Juan.

  Sima gagged.

  The bracelet buzzed, so she held her arm up.

  ‹I am detecting a sediment layer that scans as a mixture of silt and single-celled plant organisms similar to algae. However, they do not possess any chlorophyll.›

  “Whatever that means,” muttered Sima.

  ‹It means they don’t derive nutrients from sunlight. I lack sufficient data to determine how they survive at the bottom of an underground lake, but the substance does appear to be alive. Before you ask, since I know you’re about to, I do not calculate it as being dangerous to touch. However, I would advise against consuming it.›

  “Oh, that’s not happening.” She gagged again.

  “What’s not happening?” asked Austin, the chamber lending his voice a watery echo.

  “The bracelet said we shouldn’t eat the muck we’re walking in.”

  He gagged.

  The water became progressively shallower the closer she walked to the wall, reaching a minimum depth of knee-high, which continued into the tunnel she’d chosen at random. Slime also lined the bottom of the passage, though it formed a layer only an inch deep. Four steps into the tube, the combination of rounded floor and slick muck made Sima slip. She wound up on her butt, dropping Lissa, who shrieked before landing flat on her back in the water. Austin started to laugh, but wiped out and went under a second later.

  Shivering, Lissa swam over and clung to Sima’s arm.

  Juan didn’t wait to fall, and lowered himself into the water before swimming on ahead. Sima kept trying to walk, but every few steps, the smooth goo-covered stone took her feet out from under her. Eventually, she followed Juan’s lead and swam, walking her hands along the bottom to pull herself forward. Lissa floated beside her, teeth chattering. Austin kept trying to walk, despite wiping out over and over.

  They followed the tunnel around a gentle rightward bend, passing numerous side chambers. Some contained inexplicable metal cubes or obelisks next to pads of plant matter that resembled sleeping mats placed in bowl-shaped depressions in the floor. She peered into the ‘rooms’ one by one, but since none of them offered a way out, kept going. Metal tools littered the floor of the seventh space. Curious, and eager for a respite from the chilly water, Sima pulled herself out of the passageway and sat on the dry stone floor.

  All three kids followed, both boys bee-lining to check out the tools while Lissa kept clinging to her, shivering and coughing. Sima cradled the girl in her lap, rubbing her back and trying to share body heat. It didn’t help that the air temperature down here felt even colder than the cave had been. The girl’s teeth chattered, and she kept muttering, “cold.”

  Austin held up a device resembling a crowbar that got run over by a big gee-vee. Juan picked up another metal rod with various movable rings and sliding parts. It amused him longer than the crowbar occupied Austin, who tossed his find aside and checked out a small hammer-like tool.

  “Wow…” Sima whistled. “There really was intelligent life here before us.”

  Austin dropped the hammer and approached a one-foot metal cube near the sleeping mat. “This thing’s humming.”

  Sima pointed. “Don’t touch—”

  Austin put his hand on the cube and promptly collapsed over sideways onto the sleeping mat.

  “No!” Sima lunged to her feet, clumsily setting Lissa on the floor. “Austin!”

  She ran over and grabbed his shoulder, shaking him, but the boy didn’t react. “No… no.” She knelt beside him, feeling at his neck. He still had a pulse. She patted his cheeks. “Come on. Wake up. What happened?” She sniffled and gasped, tears falling free.

  “Oh, wow.” Austin looked up at her. “Just playing around.”

  Sima stared at him. “You little turd!”

  He bit his lip. “Sorry. Didn’t think you’d flip out like that.”

  She pulled him up and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t ever do anything like that again, okay? You scared the hell out of me.”

  Austin sat there for a second or two, stunned, before gingerly returning the embrace. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t lie.” Juan shook his head. “Lots of stuff we don’t know here can hurt us.”

  “Please don’t scare me like that again, okay?” Sima leaned back from the hug and held his face in both hands, staring into his eyes.

  He looked down. “Sorry. I won’t. I didn’t wanna scare you that bad. Just thought it would be funny.”

  “I’m cold,” whispered Lissa past clicking teeth.

  “Me too.” Sima touched foreheads with Austin, sighed, and got up. “Okay. Let’s find a way out of here.”

  Her foot shot out from under her as soon as she stepped into the hallway. Scowling at the wall, she sat there until her rear end stopped hurting. Grumbling, Sima didn’t bother getting back up, and paddled along. They swam past eight more side rooms before the end of the tunnel appeared, bringing them right back to the big room they first landed in.

  “Ugh.”

  The bracelet buzzed.

  “What?” yelled Sima.

  ‹Please go back and enter the last chamber on the left. There appears to be writing on the wall. I wish to document it.›

  “What for? None of us will ever read it.”

  ‹It seems foolish to find something like this and ignore it.›

  “We need to find a way out. We’re trying to survive, not explore.”

  ‹Please? It will take less than a minute.›

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  The chamber contained two sleeping areas, each with a nearby metal cube. Meaningless symbols in a general arrangement similar to writing covered the entire back wall. Neat rows and clustered groups of characters suggested sentences and words. She swept her wrist back and forth, letting the bracelet scan everything. As soon as it emitted a happy chirp, she pulled the kids with her into the main chamber. The next tunnel she went down had more of the same, a big loop around with numerous side rooms. Her bracelet insisted on scanning another two rooms with writing. As much she felt it pointless, she obliged. Maybe if more humans ever came to this planet, someone would find her skeleton and the data would still be in the bracelet.

  While she held her wrist up to the wall, walking to the right to scan, the unmistakable sound of two boys adding to the water in the tunnel filled the air. Lissa, hovering at her side, twisted to peer back at the room’s entrance.

  “Eww! We have to walk in that!” yelled Lissa. “Sima! They’re making pee in the water!”

  “The water’s moving,” said Austin. “And it’s better than going on the floor.”

  Sima couldn’t help but smile to herself. The kid had a point. Peeing on the floor would be much worse. Eventually, she finished placating the bracelet by letting it scan all the text. She led the kids once more into the flooded tunnel, which frustratingly wound up looping around to connect to the main room. The bracelet projected a map showing the mostly-oval central chamber with two C-shaped tunnels connecting at both ends. Sima examined the positions of the other tunnels, picturing similar loops everywhere except for two openings where the spacing didn’t look the same.

  Hoping one of those would be an exit, she jumped into the veritable lake inside the central chamber and swam across the middle. By the time she reached the other side, Lissa’s lips had turned blue. Juan appeared equally miserable and cold, though his darker complexion concealed it better.

  Sima crawled to her feet inside the tunnel, which right away gave her a sense of hope. Warmer air blew over her only a few steps in.

  “This might not be a bad place to live,” said Austin. “We’d be safe from danger down her
e.”

  “It’s creepy,” said Lissa between shivering fits. “And too cold.”

  “This place is all flooded. We’d get sick staying in cold water, and what if those rooms get wet? We can’t sleep in water.”

  “Oh.” Austin shrugged.

  The tunnel spiraled to the right, the water level falling bit by bit the farther she advanced. After a minute, she walked into a downward flow less than an inch deep, which appeared to be entering via hundreds of tiny holes along the sides. Slippery, smooth rock plus the constant current made the climb treacherous. Sima braced her hands on the dry parts of the walls and peered back at the boys.

  “Be careful. If we fall in here, we’re going all the way down. The floor is too slippery.”

  They nodded.

  Sima kept a grip on the wall, but her feet continued trying to slide out from under her. The incline steepened after a few minutes, which made staying upright even more difficult. Her left foot shot out from under her, dropping her to her knees with a hollow clonk of bone on rock. She slid backward, scrambling to get a hold of the wall, but the tunnel may as well have been made of oiled glass.

  Her effort to scramble for traction paid off in a few seconds when she got a grip on a slime-free patch and halted her backward slide. Afraid that trying to stand would cause a catastrophic wipeout, she crawled.

  “Gah!” yelled Austin, an instant before a fleshy smack rang out.

  He fell flat on his chest, instinctively grabbing Juan’s ankle. That, of course, pulled Juan off balance. The younger boy lurched forward and grabbed Lissa’s leg, causing the girl to shriek straight in Sima’s ear. The combined weight of two boys pulling on her, plus Lissa clinging like a backpack proved too much. Sima lost traction and went sliding down, sweeping all three kids with her in a screaming, shrieking tangle of arms and legs. Long minutes of climbing took only seconds to undo, and they splashed once more into the lake. Once the panic of falling wore off, the little ones sat neck deep, staring at her with pleading faces.