by C. R Corbin
"So what should we do?" I asked.
"We confront whoever this is, we kill them and make them pay. From there we can focus on getting out of this cavern but firstly, we stop this man before he hurts us or anyone else." he stated with a determined look fostering in his eyes. I whipped out the tracking device from my back pocket and glanced over the screen, there was still that blinking signature that was quite a ways away. This time we had to head upwards, that likely meant going back to where we once were.
"Come on." he said and turned to retrace our steps but I shake my head.
"Wait, wait." I have something that might help us. I didn't get the chance to assemble it earlier but..." I muttered as he raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?" he asked me.
"If I can code the communicator I should be able to get it to emit a high pitched sound so I don't tear my voice apart. Let me see here." I muttered and typed in a few lines of code into the tiny device, waiting for the signal to pop out before I confirm it and a sound is suddenly emitted. It was high pitched and I could barely hear it but it was there. I glanced amongst the rocks and beckoned him to come with me. I lead the way and we eventually make it back to the original hole without incident. I glance at his axe and the bags that he had left behind, much too heavy for me to carry but I had him back with me now. I had him back and we were going to make it through this. I just knew it.
"Come on." He said and climbed the rope with one arm, chucking the bags onto the stone and helping me up.
We venture further and further along, getting closer and closer to our location. His axe was at the ready and I held the device high, in the distance I would see some of the creatures stumbling away as we got closer, I knew that we had a winning plan, I knew that we were going to reach whomever this was and slay them.
And eventually we did. I saw piles of papers gathering at our feet once we got closer and there were hints of intelligent activity. Markings on the wall, papers, scraps of electronics all around the ground as we got closer and closer. The crystals on the rocks began to glow different colors, there wasn't one constant shade as there had been before, now it was varied, the shades blink red, green, blue, yellow, white, everything in between. I watched Anthriel ready his axe, hoisting it and watching for any quick movements.
"So you said this is a man? An intelligent life form?" I asked and Anthriel nodded.
"Likely. I don't' know the reasoning behind these creations however." he stated and I frowned.
"Maybe he got stuck down here and was trying to.....no, I don't want to think of it." I said aloud, the thought was just too much to bear.
"What is it?" he asked me.
"Nothing, just my imagination saying things to me." I muttered with a frown as we continued along.
I can see the crystals fading and giving way to patches of metallic wall before the papers began to litter the floor completely. I hide behind Anthriel and he holds his axe up before I hear someone screaming.
"No, no, this cannot be happening! This cannot!" shouted someone and I frowned while Anthriel maintained his expression.
"Stay close." Anthriel said.
As we turn a corner the rocky walls are replaced by smooth steel and I see a collection of computers in the distance. They sit there and blink their various colors while we make our way forward. There was someone in the center of this ring of machinery, he was as pale as snow, his hair was growing in patches of white, his lips were chapped and his eyes were a milky white. I frowned while glancing at him, shaking in fear as we crept closer. His hands claw at the metal floor, trying to grab something invisible, trying to gather something long lost.
"What the hell? What the hell are you?" I asked myself.
"God no. I was so close. Oh I was so close! I would have gotten my creation, my friend. I would have had it but you had to get in the way didn't you? You had to get in the way of beauty!" he shouted at us.
The room was a large circular structure with a collection of mirrors against the rounded walls. There were blinking mainframes and various piles of papers littered about. I looked down and I could clearly read them since they were written in English. Day 323, day 1043, a variety of dates and scribbles sat on each of the pages. This man had been stuck down here for...years. The ink was faded even on the papers that said that they were thousands of days old, eventually the dates become disjointed as if he was forgetting what day it actually was. I saw two day 2333's, two day 5012's. I presumed that he had run out of paper some time later and was using paper of a lower quality, likely produced by him, as well as using ink of a lesser quality, I think he even used his blood at one point as ink.
"How long have you been down here?" I asked aloud, knowing that I would just get some mad raving in response.
I glance at the man, he was mostly nude with the exception of some rags that sat across his body. He was emaciated, his teeth were chipped and missing, there were cuts all over his hands and his voice was hoarse. His nails were broken, cracked, and some were missing, I wondered if he could even see us.
"You did this!" He hollered and lunged towards Anthriel with a knife in his hands. Anthriel merely grabs his wrist and snaps it before tossing him onto the floor and kicking his face in.
"How do we get out of here?" asked Anthriel.
"NO escape, no escape!" shouted the madman and Anthriel merely scowled
"Shut up!" He shouted and kicked the man in the ribs. I had to hold Anthriel back so that he didn't outright kill the man.
I began to bundle up the papers and glance at the readings. I kept an eye out for any diagrams that I could find, there weren't much. I frowned and glanced at his journal writings instead, I thought that there might be some clue as to how to escape from here. The more I read what he had written the more disturbed I grew.
"My god." I muttered with a hand up to my mouth.
From what I had gathered he had been stuck here after being involved in an expedition gone wrong. He feasted on the moss along the walls and tried to find a way out until the various chemical signatures deep in the cave as well as his own loneliness drove him mad. Soon after he found more trapped individuals and began to feast upon their flesh in his madness. He had begun experimenting using the cells soon after and created these...things to help him harvest more flesh. The creations that we had seen, the trees, the lanterns, they were created to pass the time, to simply preoccupy himself with something. With us he had wanted to create something more, something to assuage some of his loneliness. He was planning on splicing our DNA together to manufacture a new creation, something that would likely have resulted in the monstrosities that we had seen prior once more but he held out hope. On every page was a name inscribed on the upper right hand corner, Ledon.
"Can you find anything?" Anthriel asked and I shake my head.
"No, I can't, but what I found is....horrifying." I muttered while glancing at the papers with a frightened expression.
"I can't seem to get anything out of him...." he muttered before the man lunged at him once more and this time Anthriel lost his patience.
"You don't seem to have anything useful to tell us so...." Anthriel snarled as he swung his axe and beheaded the man in one fell swoop. I shuddered and stumbled back, ready to chastise him before realizing that the life that this man had been living was a much more harrowing reality than death.
I paused and stared at the corpse, wondering if we would have ended up like him eventually. Even with our love I didn't think we could withstand the madness, the loneliness that would inevitably brew inside of us. I was already hungry, cold, tired, I wanted a way out and this man gave into that despair. Amongst all of that darkness I had found some sort of home however. I had found him, I was with him and with the love that we had both built I knew that I wasn't going to fall, not anytime soon anyways. The thin blood pools on the papers and I glanced at the computers, they seemed to be makeshift, to be low tech, but perhaps there was something here that I could jury rig
.
"What are you doing?" asked Anthriel as I sifted through buckets of the goods. I pressed my fingers into the piles of wires and muttered to myself.
"I don't know but.....I have to....." I began before gazing at his computer instead. Perhaps there was a map of sorts stored on here.
I sift through the lines of code and manage to log in to gaze at the various records and active programs that he had running. I quickly discovered that there had been charges placed near the entrances to cause the collapse of rocks to trap explorers at certain points. We were unlucky enough to be near one near the entrance. From what I could tell from the footage it looked like the collapse didn't capture anyone else in our crew so that likely meant that Stephanie was still alive. It seems that his madness had simply corroded his desire to escape into something much more malevolent, eventually he didn't want to run, he wanted to experiment, to play god in his little realm down here. The thought disturbed me to no end.
"Can you find anything?" asked Anthriel.
"Wait....there!" I shouted.
Ledon had mapped the area out using sonar and I quickly found his map after sifting through the files. It looked like there were still a couple of exits open, the closest of which was pretty close all things considered. I download the data into my mapping device and smile with a joy that seemed so alien. We were going to make it out!
When we arrived at the surface the sands seemed so inviting. It was strange to say but I really missed the harsh and overbearing sun. As soon as it struck my skin I could feel my body quiver with joy, Anthriel let out a large roar and we both chuckled, laughing and capturing each other in an embrace at this entrance. I looked back at the darkness of Medama, that cavern that housed those monstrosities and everything in between. Perhaps now that the man was dead we could hope to send in an actual expedition and hopefully do some good.
"Come in, come in." I muttered into my communicator, finally I was able to pick up signals from the rest of our group.
"Yes? Yes is that you Cass? Where the hell are you? We sent out a whole search party for you! Where are you now?! I need to come and get you!" yelled Stephanie, I nearly dragged the communicator away from my ear due to the noise.
"I'm sending my coordinates right now. We're fine, as fine as we can be I suppose." I muttered into the mic. She hangs up and I typed in the coordinates before sitting down on a nearby boulder, basking in the sunlight, Anthriel takes his seat next to me and sighed.
"Can you believe it? Freedom? Never thought we would see this again." he stated and gazed at the sun. I smiled.
"Well at least we got one good thing out of the whole ordeal huh?" I asked and he raised an eyebrow.
"What would that be?" he asked.
I leaned in and captured his lips in mine and he smiled. I stroked his armor and leaned in, shaking with excitement at the prospect of finally being able to foster a life with him now that we were free of that cave. He caressed my neck and allows me to rest on his shoulder and I sighed, my hands folded on my lap while we watched the horizon.
"What will the others say? I can tell they'll be shocked." he stated and I giggled.
"I don't' care what they say about it. In fact I think they would encourage what we have." I stated and he smiled.
"I quite like the idea you know? Maybe we could have two homes, one on Themia and one on Groba. We can have a massive ceremony and invite all of them. We finally made it Cassandra. We can start our lives again, this time with one another." he stated and I laughed, this was the best I've felt in years, in eternity.
I run my hands along his cheek and sighed. I glance him over as the orange light dripped onto his face, shrouding his figure and taking my breath away. He turns to face me, smiling as the sun shone on us both and I heard the roar of a ship fast approaching.
"We're home." I stated with a smile.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Anthriel
"I can still hardly believe there was someone down there doing all of this. The papers that Cassandra showed us were...harrowing to say the least." said Koghu , I stand there at the apex of the cliff, staring out at the desert landscape and sighing.
"I know, I know, it was a miracle we even made it out. She thought of the idea of tracking the man down, she's the reason we're even here now. Hell if I was left down there alone I would have probably perished but she would have had a chance....i'm so lucky." I muttered and glanced over at her. She was standing next to the fire and speaking with Stephanie who was probing her with questions without any end in sight.
"In any case.....you mated? I know it's kind of a-" he began and I nodded.
"We did. On the 7th night or so she.....we reconciled and grew closer. About 20 or so days after that we finally...well you know." I muttered and he slapped my shoulder.
"You lucky dog! Who knew you would find something so wonderful in all of this tragedy huh?" he asked me and I smiled.
"I don't know what to say but...she makes me so much happier than battle ever has. I've already decided on what we're going to do. Two homes! On Themia and Groba!" I chuckled and he smiled at my enthusiasm.
"Well I have news for you as well. I've found my own mate." he admitted and my eyebrow raised, a grin plastered itself on my face.
"Oh? Is it Stephanie?" I asked and he chuckled, nodding as he did so.
"Indeed it is. Not as good as the story as you have but decent nonetheless. During the search we were both so worried for the two of you and well....through that we grew close. She seems like quite the flirt but she is so much more than that." he said.
"In that cave I came to understand deep secrets about her I never thought I would have discovered and in turn she found mine as well. That happens when you mate I suppose, you grow as close as you possibly can to another being. I can imagine the home world will like to hear about the tale. They already adore mating between a Kanosian and a human but this? This will definitely strike a chord." I stated.
"There have been reports coming in. They're sending representatives and as soon as we return they want a full report. A whole expedition is coming in to explore the caverns, I can already imagine the fame...and more importantly the wealth. Getting rich, fighting monsters, and falling in love! Who knew that you would be the one to do all three in such a short amount of time!" stated Koghu and I laughed heartily.
The night goes on, the last night I would have with her on Medama for a long while at least. I sit beside her near the flame as we inform our companions of what had occurred in those depths, the feelings of hopelessness, the love that had sprouted. With each passing moment and embers floating up into the stars my gratitude for the woman I have been granted grew. The night takes its course and we find ourselves in one another's arms, but at the end of it all, after a long while, I rest with my hand in her's and sighed as her breath scratches my neck and the waves of relaxation washed over me.
We had made it out and were finally absolved of that horrid fate.
#
Cassandra
"So you mated with him! Cass I didn't think you had it in you!" she shouts at me and I smile.
We had finally gotten a moment alone with one another after we had been rescued. I will never forget the look on her face when she walked up to us on that hill and saw the two of us holding hands. She was so shocked but that shock gave way to sheer joy as the day went on. Now that we had camped out and were preparing to rendezvous with the government ships the next day she seized on the opportunity. I would be incredibly busy in the coming days with testimonies and interrogations.
"I know. He's not the brute I thought he was. I misjudged him, I really did. He saved me so many times in that cave and protected me. Eventually I guess we just....made a connection. We're much more similar than I had ever thought but he makes me so happy." I muttered and she smiled.
"I'm so happy for you. My god that is amazing that you....wow." she began and I only nodded.
"What did you do while I was gone huh
?" I asked her and she promptly informed me that her and Koghu had become a thing.
"See I was crying about you and he came to me and told me that he was afraid for Anthriel and well we....it just sort of happened. We can have double dates now! Imagine the possibilities!" she shouted, I can only smile and think of ways to get out of such a proposition should it ever arise.
"Has there been any word from Themia?" I asked her and she nodded
"Yeah, well now they want all of the details. I managed to send them some photos of the papers but they're going to need to see the documents completely. They're likely going to dig through every inch of this place you know? With a mad scientist underground and all." she stated and I smiled.
"It was scary. There were these creatures infesting every inch of the place, luckily he was there to fight most of them off but....i'm here now. I don't ever want to go down there again." I grimaced at the horrid memories of those beasts.
"Well I guess the cultural exchange program did end up having what you wanted after all. Scientific discovery right? Besides I think you both got what you wanted in the end." she admitted and I smiled, nodding as I stared at him from across the fire. He was busy chatting with Koghu , too busy preoccupying himself with regaling his brother in arms with tales about the battlefield.
The next day we made it to the rendezvous point with the rest of the rescuers and were subject to intensive medical screening. I guess they wanted to see if we had any foreign bacteria or viral infections but it turned out that there were none. I guess Koghu and Steph didn't get the memo to quarantine us, because when we got back they were getting chewed out for not following procedure. I was locked inside a room with one of the investigators from Earth. I tossed over the papers and she appraised them, locks of silver hair running along her cheek as her dress shirt rippled and she hoisted the papers up.
"I see.....well that explains most of the disappearances then. We're going to initiate a full raid on the place as soon as possible but I need you to tell me about what you found down there exactly." she stated and I informed her of the monsters, the strange creations that Ledon has fostered including those glowing snakes and the trees. I told her of the weakness of the monsters as well, high pitched sound. She thanked me for my help and sent me out soon after collecting all of the materials that I had collected. Once I got out I saw that Anthriel had emerged from his questioning as well.