by M H Ryan
“Get some torches,” I said.
In a minute, the girls had a few torches they made from branches and kindling. They’d be smoky but better than trying to go in the dark. I took the torch from Sherri and pushed the flaming stick toward the darkness.
The light brought into focus the rough stone walls. They had been carved as if someone had chiseled this cavern by hand. Even the steps had that roughhewn look to them from a thousand hammer hits and chisel gouges.
It reminded me of an old gold mine my dad had taken me to when I was a kid and the work the old-timers put into it. Low on safety and high on manual labor.
The stairs were steep enough that if any of us took a tumble, I doubted we’d stop before we rolled all the way to the bottom and whatever was waiting there.
Taking a breath, I mentally reached below, hoping I didn’t find what I found in on Cave Island, the thing Danforth’s body had been put next to. Or the man’s welcoming voice, inviting me to come on in.
Thankfully, I didn’t hear the voice this time. Though I felt the sea creatures from before, clearer this time, they were small and long and still just as agitated.
“This is so cool,” Sherri said, touching the stone walls. “Can you imagine what it took to make this?”
“Why they made it is what I’m concerned about,” Cass said. “You said that squid monster came from a cave, right?”
“The Anyck,” I said. “And yeah, it came from that other cave.”
“Did your people build this?” Eliza asked Shaya.
“No,” Shaya said and winced in pain.
“What about Cave Island?”
She shook her head in a negative.
“This is stone-age tech,” Benji said. “That means there is some kind of civilization out here, or at least there was at some point.”
“Getting a little smokey in here,” Aubrey said and raised her hand.
A breeze blew by us and, more importantly, blew some of the sooty smoke from the cave.
“Thanks,” I said, still marveling at what she could do.
I continued walking down the stairs, making sure I kept an eye on the furthest edge I could see. Beyond us, I felt the sea creatures in more detail. Predators for sure.
“Eliza, you still feel okay about this?” I asked.
“I think we’ll be okay if we work together. Something is ahead, close.”
“I feel water down there,” Sherri said.
“Yeah, I smell it,” Kara said as she touched the jagged wall. “I can almost hear the hammers. I think humans built this, guys. A lot of them.”
“What? Emma, give her boost,” I said.
Emma took a few steps up and held Kara’s hand.
“Whoa,” Kara said. “This was built a while ago and in a rush. They were beaten for moving slow. This was important to finish in time.”
“Time for what?” I asked.
“I don’t know. The walls just have the emotions stuck in them. Strong emotions.” She let go of Emma and then took her hand off the wall. “Thanks.”
“Sure,” Emma said, rubbing her hand.
“I didn’t even know that you could do that,” I said.
“I’ve been getting these feelings out of things that I touch lately. I don’t know what most of it means, but these walls had a strong…magnetism. And Emma made it stronger and better.”
“I’m like salt,” Emma said.
“Or a mango,” Benji said.
“Oh, I can be your little mango, Benji?” Emma said.
“Be careful,” Aubrey said. “Benji will peel you and eat you.”
“Hey, we only have a few mangos left, and once those are gone, I’m not going to be responsible for my actions.”
“Let’s keep going down,” I said.
The girls giggled, and I took the next few steps down.
The fact that humans built this meant there were more of us out there but they must not have had powers, or why would they build this thing by hand?
The air had grown increasingly humid and cool. It smelled of ocean water, salty and fishy. I heard the splash of water before seeing it, and a few steps later I spotted the rippled water covering half a step, with several more steps submerged below it before the staircase faded into the murky darkness of the water.
The creatures I had felt lived in these waters, and they were now aware of us. I counted four of them swimming around in the pool in front of us. They reminded me of the wood-eating fish that attacked our boat, but these were long and skinny. Closer to an eel or some water snake.
“The stairs end in that water,” Benji said as she touched the wall. “There is a room right in front of us and more rooms beyond it.”
“It’s filled with the seawater, like a bathtub,” Sherri said.
I reached the step right before the water took over the path. Above us, a room jutted out from the stairs with a large, arched ceiling. The arch and room extended about thirty feet and ended on a stone wall. It appeared to all be carved into the earth in the same manner as the staircase, with carve marks marring the walls and ceiling. Five feet below the arch, the top of the water rippled and hid its depth in the darkness.
“This might be a bad time to mention I’m claustrophobic,” Carmen said, holding herself and looking at the stone ceiling just a foot over our head and then down at the pool of water in front of us.
Emma put her arm over her friend and hugged her. “I got you. I hate thunder. Don’t know why, just always freaked me out. Felt like God yelling at me.”
“I hate spiders,” Aubrey said. “Eight-legged fucks.”
“Heights,” Shaya said.
“Snakes,” Cass said.
“Being alone,” I said.
“Ah, you’ll never be alone as long as I’m alive,” Sherri said and put her arm around my waist. Then her grip tightened as she stared at the water. “Something moved down there.”
“There’s a few eel-like things in there,” I said, trying to connect with them.
Shaya grunted and paced, or more stepped side to side on the stone she stood on.
“You got to pee, sweetie?” Sherri asked.
She shook her head.
“Careful,” Shaya said and pointed at the water.
“Understatement,” Aubrey said.
I held my torch out, looking at the room past the stairs, kneeling to get a good look at the water and everything else. The water smelled like the ocean, so either we were below the water table or there was a water supply feeding this room.
On the right side, the water dipped a few inches, and I spotted the hole in the wall. Water poured in from the hole before the water rose again, burying the opening. I suspected the other side of these stone walls was the ocean. I wasn’t sure if this was low tide or high tide, but the water would fill and lower with the shifts. That would allow these eels to come and go as well. A perfect place for them to protect their young, making the situation all the more dangerous. A damn nursery for water snakes.
On the far side of the room, I spotted another feature on the wall, a door.
“Look, a few feet below the water, there’s a door,” I said.
More of the girls gathered on the lower steps, looking at the watery room.
“I see it,” Benji said and then coughed.
Even with Aubrey’s welcoming breeze, the sooty blackness spewing from the torches began to choke out all other smells. I felt the burning in my chest from the inhalation.
“We should just get out of here,” Carmen said, panic edging her voice. “The water could be rising, and the door we came through could shut from the wind or something. We could be trapped in here, with the smoke and the eels!” She took a few steps up.
“Carmen, chill,” Sherri said. “We aren’t going down because of some rising water—I control water, remember.”
“And I won’t let these rocks crush us,” Benji said.
Carmen nodded and took a step back toward us.
“Sorry,” Carmen said. “I’m, l
ike, not used to this shit yet.”
“Me either,” Cass said in a huff. “But it’s not like we have a choice. We either adapt or lose our freaking minds.”
“You hear the voice again?” Kara asked, getting closer to me as Sherri gave her room.
“No, but I feel something back there, beyond the door. It’s weak, as if it’s a mile away, but it’s there.”
“So, how do we get past the… eels?” Cass asked.
“I’m not sure we need to,” I said. “Sherri, you think you could pull a Moses right here in this room?”
She looked confused for a second and then smiled. “Part the seas...I don’t know. Maybe with Emma, I can.”
Kara and I stepped back as Emma and Sherri moved to the step next to the water. They held hands, and Sherri took a deep breath.
“Okay, I’m just going to try and push the water to the sides. No clue if this will work, so stay back,” Sherri said.
“You got this,” Emma said, and Sherri gave her a nod, then closed her eyes.
A pressure built in the room, and I felt it in my ears. Then the water near the last step pushed to the sides, as if a glass wall was driving into the water. The newly exposed stone steps and walls dripped with water. As more of the steps were exposed, the displaced water rose higher on the sides of the walls.
“Shit, this is heavy,” Sherri said, grunting.
I took slow breaths as I witnessed the power of Sherri. The water kept splitting all the way to the floor. The opening in the water kept moving down the hallway, pushing the water to the sides until it reached the ceiling. Sherri groaned and stepped forward, pushing the last five feet of the water out of the way. The water arched overhead, creating a watery tunnel all the way to the now exposed door.
“Wow,” Carmen said. “That is, like, both the best and scariest thing I’ve ever seen.”
An eel flopped out of the water wall and landed on the floor. It wiggled around on the wet floor, and I closed my eyes, hitting the thing with a mental hammer and broke through its barrier. I commanded it to move back into the water and to leave this room.
When I opened my eyes, the eel wiggled into the water and I felt it swimming into a hole in the wall, leaving the room.
“I can’t hold this much longer,” Sherri said, her outstretched hand shaking.
“Me either,” Emma said.
“Let’s move,” I said, rushing down the last few steps and to the wet bottom floor.
An eel jumped from the water next to me, heading straight for my face, mouth open, with jagged teeth ready to bite. I spun, pulling my knife out, hitting the water with the blade in the process but I pushed hard and the edge sliced right through its body, splitting it in two. The two pieces flopped on the floor for a second and then stopped moving.
“I got you,” Eliza said, holding out her knives.
I nodded and gripped my knife. We only had about five feet of space between the walls of water.
Another eel spilled from the water. It snapped at me and missed my hand by inches. I jumped back and stabbed it behind its head. I no longer felt the vile creature as it fell to the floor.
“Come on,” I said, motioning for the girls to get to the door.
“I’m dying here,” Sherri said, sweat dripping from her.
Kara helped her, and Emma walked down the hall toward the door.
Emma didn’t look much better as she held Sherri with one hand and her bat with the other. She dragged the bat across the floor. Each step seemed more labored than the last.
“We need to get the door open,” I blurted out.
“The water’s going to crush us,” Carmen said, glancing around at the water that was now all the way around us like a sick shark tank I’d once visited with my dad at an aquarium. Except there wasn’t a thick layer of glass stopping this tsunami from crashing over us—there was just Sherri.
“We’re going to die down here. Those snakes are going to eat us. We’re going to dissolve into nothing, and no one will ever know,” Carmen continued to say.
Carmen began to run back toward the steps when Aubrey grabbed her. Carmen struggled, but Aubrey held her tight, the large muscles on her body bulging from the effort.
“No,” Aubrey said. “We stick together.”
“Let me go!” Carmen wailed, but Aubrey had her tight.
Cass got to the steel door next to me and pressed her hand against it.
“This isn’t the same door,” she said with wide eyes. “There are layers of…something else. I can’t open it.”
Benji went to the door and pressed her whole body against it.
“Stones. I can feel them. They’re in slots. I can move them if you move the steel,” Benji said.
“Do it,” I said as I felt a flurry of eel-like creatures moving toward us. “More of them coming.”
“What’s coming?” Kara asked.
A wet slapping sound came from the back of the hall. Carmen screamed and pulled Aubrey toward us. Aubrey let her go as Carmen rushed to me, clinging to me in her fear.
A few more eels fell from the water and landed on the narrow stone pathway. That was another thing—the five-foot tunnel of water now looked to be about four feet wide.
“Give me your bow,” Aubrey said.
“Busy,” Benji said with her eyes closed.
A clicking sound from behind the door echoed across the room.
Aubrey pulled the bow and arrows free from Benji and pulled the string back with an arrow nocked. She fired, and the arrow struck an eel. It freaked out on the floor, hitting and biting at its brethren.
“There’s a lot more,” Eliza said, as if she knew what was in my head.
I felt them unleash, as if a cork popped, and they were slithering through the small tunnels leading from the ocean. The waves of slimy black eels rushed into the room, falling out of the water wall and writhing on the floor. They weren’t meant for land, but they slithered in a slimy mess, hurtling toward us.
Another click and groan from the door.
“We’re getting there,” Benji said.
“We’re going to die down here,” Carmen yelled, still gripping me tightly.
“Hurry,” Sherri said, barely able to speak.
More arrows flew, and spears stabbed, but there were too many of them. Everything in me told me that I couldn’t go into the next room weak, but I had no choice. I had to stop this wave.
I closed my eyes and felt the predators. I forced a thought that slid over them like butter on a hot plate. I grunted and tried again with the same result. Then I felt a hand touching me, and the power in me grew. Each eel became known to me, and I yelled out, slamming into all their minds.
A searing pain struck my head, and I heard Emma let out a yelp as her hand jerked away. I opened my eyes to see the mass of eels dead on the floor just a few feet from us. But it wasn’t over—another group flooded into the room behind this last one.
“Shit!” I said.
“I’m sorry…I can’t…hold it,” Sherri said, swaying in Emma’s grasp.
Emma didn’t look much better. Blood trickled from her nose.
The next wave of eels splashed into the room. The watery tunnel was now less than three feet wide, with my shoulder submerged into the wet wall. The eels moved over their dead relatives and slithered toward us. A few were swimming in the water, getting closer by the second.
Another click, louder than the rest, followed by a deep thud, sounded through the room. The water around us vibrated and dropped large teardrops of water onto the floor
“Shit, I’m losing it,” Sherri said.
“I think we got it,” Cass said and pulled the steel door open.
“Go!” Shaya said, pushing me.
The pain in my head made the room spin, but I moved with all the girls through the narrow doorway. As we passed through the entrance, I spotted the many layers of steel and stone stuffed into the ceiling. The pressure of us all pushing through at once, released as we made it into the more extensi
ve room. We all fell floor just as I head the water splash in the room behind us, creating a burst of air.
“Drop them!” Benji yelled.
A rush of water, teeming with eels, poured into the room and over the floor. A great crash came from all the doors as they slammed back into place, and crushing most of the eels as they did. The eels flopped around on the white floor as the shallow waters spread over the room. Shaya, Aubrey, Kara, and Eliza moved quickly, stabbing and spearing the few living ones that came in.
I got to my feet, swayed, and felt Aubrey grabbing me to keep me on my feet. The room was lit, not just from the sun but with lights, electric lights. Next to me stood a bookshelf holding a few tattered books.
“Took you long enough,” an old man said from behind a kitchen countertop.
Chapter 12
I felt the man. Not in some creepy, touching-old-balls way, but I felt his emotions. I expected angry vibes or even scared—hell, we just stormed into his place with a pack of dead eels—but he emanated joy and excitement. He was like Benji at a mango festival.
He stood behind a steel counter and wore a gray jumpsuit, like one that a mechanic or welder might wear. The ends of the sleeves were frayed, and there were patches across his chest and near his elbows. The fabric looked dull, as if it had been in the sun for many years, which didn’t seem possible in a place with no windows.
He had long, white hair with a matching beard, almost as if Santa had put his work clothes on to do some heavy repairs on the sled. His sheet-white skin was wrinkled with age. One of his blue eyes had glazed over from a cataract, while the other one seemed clear and intent. His toothy, albeit not complete, smile took us all in.
I used my extra sense to scan the rest of the place, but this man was alone. Not that it meant there couldn’t be a lady I couldn’t sense around the corner, but this place felt solitary, from the single mug on the small coffee table to the way everything seemed to have a place. Almost like my mother’s bedroom when I was allowed to enter it. Not a thing seemed out of place, well, except for us. We dripped sea water on his floor and sucked in his air with great breathes of anticipation.