by Jonah Buck
The inside of the cave was even more eerie knowing what was happing just above at the surface. Denise could sometimes hear muffled thumps and roars that came to them more as subtle vibrations than real sounds.
Suddenly, Denise heard something moving behind them. A rock dislodged and struck the floor somewhere further back in the cave. Denise swiveled around and pointed her Nitro Express in the direction of the sound.
There was nothing there. Her light played across the rough stone, but nothing leered back at her. Nothing leaped out of the shadows. She bit her lip and kept moving. Maybe it was just the cavern settling or perhaps a bug had knocked a rock loose. Hopefully, that was all it was.
They came to a pool of deeper water where the stream they were following backed up. Something was blocking it. There must be a tight space up ahead where it couldn’t all escape down some crevice, like a clogged sink.
The stone around them also changed. Up ahead, the rock was dark and lumpy, like the black basalt left behind after a volcanic eruption. They’d just found some sort of volcanic intrusion.
However, parts of the ceiling were open to the naked sky. Several holes and rifts let the moonlight in to glitter on the water. Denise looked around again, but she still didn’t see anything. She hadn’t heard any more activity behind them since that stone striking the floor either. Maybe they were in the clear after all. None of the gaps in the roof of their cavern were more than a few feet wide, either. Certainly nothing as big as an ahool could get down here with them. She was thankful for that at least.
This was a completely different part of the cave system than from where Denise fell in earlier. She wondered just how far the tunnels extended. Did they creep beneath the whole island, extending past the land’s edges and under the sea at some point? How far deep did they go? From here, it was easy to imagine the endless warrens as the desiccated arteries of some great and awful being, winding and twisting deeper and deeper into the earth until they reached a rotted heart that needed only the light of the moon to beat again.
“I came in through that lava tube over there.” Dr. Marlow pointed at one of the tunnels branching off from the chamber they were currently standing in. “We’re going to have to wade across this little lake here. Don’t worry. The deepest part only comes up to about your knees. After that, it’s more or less a straight shot to an exit. It’s a tight fit to get in or out, but we can do it if we take our time.”
Denise started into the lake, moving slowly. The water was shockingly cold, and it soaked right through her boots. She grimaced as the freezing water turned her socks into clinging wads of fabric. It felt like she was wearing dead squirrels around her feet.
“It’s colder than a witch’s belt buckle,” Harrison said, making a face.
Gail started to take her boots off before wading in. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Denise said.
“Why not? I’d rather keep these dry so they don’t chafe later.”
“I don’t see anything, but there could be something in the water. Maybe not anything big, but the moon can get in here. There could be worms or biting fish or God knows what else. I’d rather they took a bite out of my leather boots than making off with one of my toes or something.”
Denise heard another sound behind them. She stopped moving in the water. It was a stealthy, almost sub-audible noise. She wasn’t even entirely sure she had heard it in the first place, but it sounded like a leathery scraping noise.
The sound was followed by a hiss that echoed and reechoed off the walls.
“Did you guys hear that?”
“Yeah,” Gail said in a low voice as she relaced her boots. She hefted herself to her feet and pointed her rifle behind them.
A head emerged from the tunnel they’d just emerged from. It was sleek and scaly, and it filled up nearly the entire tunnel. A forked tongue darted in and out of the lipless mouth, and a pair of amber eyes just as cold and hard as the surrounding rock stared out at them.
It was a snake, hunting them through the tunnels based on their scent. The huge reptile was hunting them like they were baby rabbits left alone in a burrow. With a hiss like air escaping from a leaking zeppelin, it slithered closer to them.
Most snakes “tasted” the air with their tongues, following scent trails as easily as blood hounds. Some could even sense heat signatures, allowing them to track potential prey even through barriers. Denise didn’t know what this snake was using, but it had managed to follow them through the entire labyrinth of tunnels and found them here.
This one looked like a big, pebbled boa constrictor. It wasn’t one of the venomous snakes that used elaborate cocktails of poison to kill or incapacitate their prey. Instead, it would wrap around them, use its entire body as one big muscle and slowly, slowly crush the life out of them. Constrictors didn’t squeeze all at once. They waited for their prey to exhale, and then they wrapped themselves a little tighter, making each and every breath harder to draw. Eventually, the prey’s lungs simply couldn’t muster the power to keep moving against that kind of resistance. They couldn’t inhale any more, and then the snake just waited a few minutes until the feeble squirming finally stopped.
Then it was just a simple matter for the snake to uncurl and fit its jaws around the unfortunate victim. Snakes were infamous for their double hinged jaws, which allowed them to consume absolutely enormous meals. They could fit impossibly large items down their gullets, the outlines of a dead meal sitting in their belly as a big lump.
Some of the big constrictor snakes had other features in addition to just their elaborate jaws, though. They had teeth. They weren’t fangs for squirting venom, and they weren’t the sort of teeth that chewed. They were long curved things that looked like filleting knives. The snake sank them into their prey as it maneuvered its mouth around its prize, trying to find the best way to consume it, just in case the animal somehow wasn’t dead and tried to thrash away. Even then, the snake would be able to keep a firm grip.
If it unhinged its jaws, Denise could probably walk right into this snake’s stomach without so much as a need to duck. Had the reptile sat at a cave entrance with its mouth open, they might have all marched right in before they realized that the curved spikes overhead weren’t simply more stalactites.
The snake slithered forward. The damned thing had to be over a hundred feet long. Denise doubted the water would stop it. Most snakes did quite well in water, actually. It was probably a bigger hindrance for her than the snake.
“Get moving,” Denise said. She leveled her rifle, but she didn’t fire. If she could help it, she wouldn’t kill anything else on Malheur Island unless she had to. She hadn’t wanted to kill anything at all when she came on this expedition.
Still, if it was between her and the snake, she knew which she’d choose. The Nitro Express could blow the reptile’s head off and tear through most of the length of its body.
She waded through the water with everyone else, sloshing toward the opposite end of the chamber. There was still plenty of room between them and the snake, so if they could just get out through the opening Dr. Marlow knew about, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Suddenly, Denise felt a tug at her legs. At first, she didn’t understand what was happening, but then the water started to flow away from her, as it was going down a giant bathtub drain somewhere further down the tunnel. Whatever blockage was damming the water up must have cleared.
But what could possibly cause…?
A leech the size of a cow reared up from the water and landed on Dr. Marlow. Its sucker mouth flared open and landed over the zoologist’s head, cutting off his gasp before it could turn into a scream. The leech engulfed the entire upper half of his body.
Denise realized what had happened. The boneless invertebrate had been lying flat below the water, covering up most of whatever cistern the water naturally flowed to. When it sensed prey moving through the water further along, it moved and unblocked the water, causing it to suddenly drain away.
Ma
rlow’s legs kicked and thrashed, but the leech started sucking almost the instant it latched onto the man. Suddenly, Marlow’s legs kicked straight out as if someone had stuck an electrical current through him. Denise could actually see the skin tighten against his bones in the matter of a couple of seconds as he was completely and utterly exsanguinated.
His skin lost all its color, turning a feeble grey in which only the veins stood out. Then, one by one, the veins and arteries collapsed in on themselves. Marlow’s body went as limp as a wet rag, slumping inside the grip of the leech’s mouth.
Harrison leveled his rifle and fired. The huge round basically cut the leech in half. Chunks of pulpy black flesh flew across the cavern like blackberry jam. A torrent of blood, a lot of it probably Marlow’s, gushed out as if someone had just torn a blood transfusion bag in half.
Both halves of the leech wriggled and writhed on the ground. Dr. Marlow slid out of the leech’s mouth. His body looked like something that had been buried in the desert for a very long time. Dozens of pinhole marks ringed his upper body as if he’d been kidnapped by a mad acupuncturist. The red perforations were the only color on his otherwise grey skin.
The sheer force of the leech’s sucking had ripped Marlow’s eyeballs out of his skull. One dangled by a stalk, but the other was simply gone. His skin looked as fragile as damp origami paper as it hung on his body in loose flaps.
Gail shot the leech’s front half again as it tried to flop its way closer. The leech’s head exploded into a million little chunks. Ribbons of damp flesh the consistency of unfinished rubber landed everywhere like some sort of grotesque confetti bomb. The rear half of the leech continued to flop mindlessly all on its own, completely unaware that the rest of the leech was spread across the entirety of the chamber.
Without the water to wade through, there was nothing to slow them down. Denise, Gail, and Harrison ran across the now empty chamber to the opposite side. Their boots squelched and squished as they ran.
Behind them, the snake moved at its own leisurely pace, apparently quite confident that it could chase them into a corner and consume them all at will. Maybe it was even right. The huge reptile stopped for a second to investigate the dead leech. Its tongue flickered in and out of its mouth, in and out. The scent of blood was all but overpowering where it flowed out of the exploded leech and flowed in little channels toward the same dark crevice the water had escaped into. Marlow’s blood would slip beneath the world’s surface and disappear down into the depths, flowing in some black river never to be seen by man.
A moment later, the snake resumed its slow pursuit of the hunters, moving no faster than necessary to follow them. Its body flexed as it slithered, moving effortlessly over the stone in a long trail of flesh.
Ducking into the lava tube Marlow had indicated, Denise, Gail, and Harrison moved as quickly as they could in the tight little tunnel. The walls were black and sharp with jagged volcanic glass in some places. Brushing up against some parts of the tunnel was likely to flay some of the skin right off. The snake didn’t hesitate to follow them inside, though.
“I think I see the exit right up there,” Harrison said, pointing. Sure enough, Denise could see a little pinhole of light up ahead. The hateful moonlight shone into the tunnels ahead, though the moon was now lower in the sky than before.
Denise shone her light on her watch for an instant and realized that Hobhouse and the Shield of Mithridates would be at the island in less than ninety minutes. All they needed to do was find reliable shelter until then. They were so close to being rescued. So close.
And yet so far. The snake hissed again behind them, as if realizing their plan. A lot could happen inside of an hour, and on Malheur Island, a lot of it was likely to be bad.
They had to walk single file, with Harrison in the lead. He reached the end of the path first and stood next to the little borehole were the lava tube met the outside world. The hole was not very large. Denise would have to struggle to fit through it. She could see Harrison thinking the same thing. Would he be able to fit through at all?
“Gail, you’re the smallest. You go first.”
“Maybe you should try first just to make sure you’ll fit.”
“No. If I get stuck, you’ll never be able to push me through from this side. If you and Denise fit, you can help pull me through from the other side. Now go.”
The snake was fast approaching, its tongue still flicking in and out at them. Denise wondered if it could smell their desperation.
Gail leaned down and stuck her arms through the narrow hole. It was maybe three feet to the outside world, with the smallest section at the very outside lip. She crawled inside and used her feet and hips to wriggle her way through. Denise could hear her scraping and sliding along. Maybe thirty seconds later, she heard Gail’s voice. “Alright, I’m through.”
Harrison motioned to Denise. She took her Nitro Express and threw it through the hole. She was a little bigger than Gail, and she didn’t want the big, bulky gun slowing her down or snagging on anything. Then she tossed herself into the cramped little hole, probably formed when some big air bubble in the molten rock burst and left a void in the cooling stone.
She grunted and moved as quickly as she could. Her hands weren’t very useful in pulling her forward because there was a bare minimum of room to use her elbows. She had to generate most of her forward movement with her legs and knees.
The stone poked and stabbed at her the whole way as she moved. Behind her, she could hear the sound of the snake moving against the walls of the tunnel, sliding forward as surely as a dollop of sap down the side of a tree.
“Are you through yet?” Harrison asked, his voice betraying his nervousness.
“Almost.” Denise reached her hands through the opening, and Gail grabbed her wrists. A few seconds later, with a lot of pulling and wriggling, she popped free.
“Okay,” Gail called. “Get out here, Harrison.”
His equipment flew through the opening first. First his rifle, then his vest full of gear and ammunition. Denise looked into the tunnel and saw Harrison’s face squirming toward her out of the darkness. His eyes were wide, and he was breathing fast.
“My legs aren’t quite through yet, but that scaly son of a bitch is almost here,” Harrison said. “Grab my arms and pull. Pull, dammit.”
Denise grabbed one arm and Gail grabbed the other, and they hauled with all their strength. Harrison moved forward a few feet. His head emerged from the tunnel, then his shoulders.
Then he got stuck. His chest was slightly too wide for the opening. He gritted his teeth and cursed. “My feet are still out in the open. Get me outta here. Quick. I can feel that thing sniffing around my boots. Pull me out quick.”
Denise hauled on Harrison’s arms until she could feel his tendons creak. He was wedged in the hole far too tight.
“Guys. It’s right there. It’s right there. Pull me out.” Harrison’s voice rose an octave.
“Denise, take both his arms,” Gail said. “Get ready to pull. Harrison, this is going to hurt.” She moved over and put her hands on Harrison’s chest. “Okay, pull now.”
Gail shoved her hands down, compressing Harrison’s ribs. He made a gagging noise, but he came slightly loose from his confinement. She kept dragging him, pulling him all the way free from the lava tube. He flopped out onto the ground and lay there for a few seconds.
“That wasn’t fun,” he finally said, lifting himself up onto his knees. “Not fun at all.”
Inside the caves, discontented hissing echoed out of the rock. Denise looked through the opening she’d just pulled Harrison through. All she could see was a huge amber eye rimmed by scales.
She looked out toward the sea. The village was perhaps only a half mile away. Torches guttered behind the walls, casting little pools of shimmering light.
There were other lights, though. She could see a tiny set of lights out at sea. That had to be the Shield of Mithridates, moving in to pick them up. It would be here within
the hour. They were so close to being safe, so close.
The route down to the village was comparatively short, an easy walk. All they had to do was stay low and find a way past the village palisades and then wait for the Shield of Mithridates.
“We made it,” Denise said. “We made it.” She almost didn’t believe it herself. They’d survived the onrush of crabs, the giant tree spider, overlarge insects, the leech, and a snake as long as several city buses. This part would be easy.
Then someone shot Gail.
NINETEEN
WELCOME TO HELL; ENJOY THE BUFFET
The bullet caught Gail in the jaw and blew out the back of her head. A fragment of bone shot out and buried itself in Denise’s cheek like a tiny shred of shrapnel. Gail dropped to the ground and twitched once…twice…and then went still.
Denise dropped to the ground. Harrison hugged the earth beside her. Gail was clearly gone. The high-powered rifle shot had taken most of her head off. She checked for a pulse, but it was clearly futile. Hot, angry tears burned in Denise’s eyes, but she willed them away as shock gave way to boiling rage.
“This must be the same bastard that tried to shoot me earlier today,” she finally managed to say. Her voice came out thick and husky before she cleared her throat.
“Why in the hell would they do this? Gail never hurt anybody. Why?” Harrison’s voice was off, too. “Too bad nothing on this island managed to eat them.”
“If I find out who it is, they’re going to wish the monsters got to them first.” Denise looked around. Finding where a shot came from was almost impossible in the jungle. She could roughly tell the direction of the shooter from the way the bullet impacted her friend, but she hadn’t seen a muzzle flash. For that matter, the dense, thick coating of greenery that ran across the island absorbed sound differently than a gunshot on the open savanna.
“Did you see where the shot came from?” Harrison asked.