by catt dahman
Daisy pointed, “Them. They got her, and Ed ran off after them.” She pointed into the darkness opposite from where they stood. “Ed?”
While everyone kept asking who had Haylee and why, Tony and Theo ran into the darkness with Shimei and Luke right behind them, thinking maybe the little lizards had Haylee.”
“Daisy, slow down and breathe. What did you see?” Audrina asked.
Daisy shifted her eyes, “I don’t know. We can ask Ed when he comes back.”
“You said they.”
“I don’t know now….” Daisy covered her ears as they heard a shout from far away that sounded pained. Luke and Theo yelled back, their voices closer but far into the darkness of the cave.
“Let’s gather nearer to the fire,” Katie said. “If you have a stick or anything, please have it ready in case there are more raptors.”
“More? Raptors? Is that what got Wyatt?” Daisy asked. “How did you fight off anything that big?”
“Big?” Audrina blinked, “they were little.” She motioned with her hands. “But they did have huge teeth.”
Daisy stared at Audrina with confusion, “Little? No, I don’t know what I saw.”
Shimei and the others returned, and Daisy repeated her statement.
“Ed vanished. We heard a scream, but there’s no sign of him or Haylee. We need to know who grabbed them.”
Audrina shivered, looking at Daisy, “It wasn’t who, was it? It was it. Or it was they. Daisy, tell us. We won’t laugh.”
“What are you talking about?” Ann asked. “We have a serious situation and need a rescue out of here.”
Everyone began to talk at once which increased into a shouting match.
“Shut up,” Theo almost screamed, “let Daisy speak, seriously.”
“They were almost as tall as I am. Pale skin, but like a snake. Smooth scales. It had hands, not hands, but fingers, four or five, and they had claws on their fingers. They did. The teeth…they were much too large for whatever they were. No animal has teeth that much too big,” Daisy spoke in a moment of quiet.
“Teeth. Claws. What else? How did they move?”
Daisy looked at Theo, “They were fast, hunched over, heads darting all directions. They were like birds. No, they had fingers…like lizards…or birds with hands and a tail. They had tails.”
“Tails?” someone asked.
“Yes,” Daisy said, “I saw that clearly. I didn’t imagine them or their tails.”
“They took Haylee?”
“One did, I think. It was hard to see because I was up, smoking and pacing and waiting to hear what was happening over there with all of you. You left Ed and me and Ed here with Haylee. We were alone.” She wiped away tears angrily.
“We did leave you here, and I’m sorry,” Theo said, “but, Daisy, you have to explain what you saw.”
“What I saw? I don’t know. I told you. Haylee was there, and then she was gone; there were others, and then Ed ran and…they looked like….” She took a deep breath, and said, “They looked like big raptors in the movies.”
“Raptors?” Ann asked.
Tony sighed heavily, “Big ass, hungry, mean, predators. It means….”
“We’re in trouble,” Shimei finished the sentence.
Chapter Four: Light in the Darkness
As they ate, Ann glared at each person as she swallowed a spoonful of the stew. She sat with several people on her side of the fire. The people who were still positive about the trip and caving were on the other side; some were still curious about the airplane and the creatures now.
“I can climb, but I don’t like the idea that someone may cut my line at the top,” Theo said. “So it’s better to find another way out, and we have to find Ed and Haylee.” That was his vote. He was the best climber, and he wasn’t about to risk being plummeted to the rocks if someone cut his line. For once, he set his jaw stubbornly, not flirting or showing off. To leave without the other two was unthinkable and to climb with someone out there with a knife and ready to cut a rope was suicidal.
“With Ed…well, Corrine?” Tate asked.
“Me? I can climb but not well enough to scale an overhang with pitons and place cams and run slings on carabineers. I am not near good enough. I say we find Haylee and Ed,” Corrine said.
“We can let a rescue team find them,” Ann’s voice went shrill, “because we need to get out of here now that you’re seeing dinosaurs and having visions.”
Luke jumped up and vanished in the direction of the airplane.
“I’m just saying what everyone here thinks.”
“Ann, you’re assuming. Can I remind you about assuming and making an ass of you and me?” Tony said.
“That’s really sixth-grade level, Tony.”
Tony blushed.
Audrina spoke thoughtfully, “No, what’s sixth grade is your thinking, Ann. Logical thinking has obviously deserted you if you think we should risk Theo’s or Corrine’s life to climb in light of the fact that someone above pushed rocks in on us after cutting our only line out. Might I remind you that in a sense they caused Wyatt’s death or set him up to die. And Haylee as well.”
“You have no right….”
“Yes, I do have the right to express myself. Logically, we can’t snap our fingers and be out of here and have rescuers. So, we use what we have, and we deal with finding our friends and getting out and then letting someone help us. Either you work with us or hinder us, and if you hinder us, then Ed and Haylee’s lives or deaths are on you.” Audrina let her calmness make her point.
“You bitch.”
Before Audrina could react, Luke came back, his boots thudding heavily as he stalked over to the fire and glared at Ann. With a big plop, a small lizard-bird creature slammed onto the ground at Ann’s feet; Luke dropped it there, “Here is your vision, Ann. Here is my imagination. Now imagine one bigger and meaner, and that’s what Daisy saw. Wanna deny its reality?”
Ann didn’t respond but stared at Luke.
“Was that necessary, Luke? People here are afraid.” Dr. Parker patted Ann’s back. “I know I agreed to come down here, but it really is out of hand. We can’t go traipsing through the caves.”
“You’re gung ho when we are pretending and exploring, but when it’s real, you get scared? Dr. Parker, I’m offended by this side of you. I never imagined you would leave any one of us behind,” Shimei said. “Theo, let’s go find Ed and Haylee.”
“Pack up,” Theo responded, preparing.
“We may find a way out, but I want to find Haylee and Ed, no matter what,” Shimei said. “Anyone else? We’re going in a few. You’ll need to find something for a weapon either from the airplane or elsewhere. We want to be prepared.”
Dr. Parker started to stand but then stayed as he was, “I thought I was the leader of this group.”
“Yeah, I did, too,” Shimei said, “baby girl? You going?”
Audrina paused while checking her pack and nodded, “You bet.” She paused again and glanced at Tony. He gave her a quick nod as if he hadn’t even thought about it; of course, he was going, too. Corrine and Katie both checked their packs; Luke and Emma each finished checking their packs and then put them on.
“Taking our nurse, too?” Tate smirked.
“You aren’t hurt yet…until I kick your ass,” Luke snarled, “but Haylee is. Besides, Emma does what she wants.”
No one else joined them, so the seven set off, walking uphill along the path. Boulders and hard, rock formations, which looked like dainty flowers, were along the way; the formations called aragonite were made by water in caves. The colors ranged from pale almost white, to pink, red, and fiery orange.
Theo pointed out some blood on one; the sharp edges had cut someone or something. Shining their lights everywhere, they searched, looking behind rocks and in corners for their friends. Theo and Shimei went ahead.
“You scared?” Tony asked.
“Yeah. Worried, too,” Audrina used her Xeron light to look in a corner as
they spoke softly, “I shouldn’t have let Ann get me going.”
“She’s got a stick up her butt,” Tony laughed.
“It’s beautiful down here, but scary,” Emma said as she stomped by them.
“Hey, everyone come here,” Shimei called to them, “we want to talk.” He breathed hard, and his eyes were wide with fear.
“Up ahead, it’s really bad,” Theo said, “so be prepared. There’s a lot of blood and stuff. We saw one of those things, and it was dragging Haylee. Emma, you can see how much blood there is, but I don’t think she’s alive.”
“You saw one what?” Katie asked.
Shimei shrugged, “Like Daisy said. It wasn’t her imagination.” He explained that they saw a creature hauling Haylee along by pulling with its sharp claws; it hissed and chattered, but since it was alone, it retreated into the darkness. The creature had a small head and long tail marked with stripes of red. He described the creature as his own height, pale pink, soft-scaled, and precisely dinosaurian in appearance. “I can’t explain it, but it’s real. Thank God it ran away when we threatened it, but it was alone. In a group, it may be braver.”
“That one is different. Maybe there’s more than one kind. I mean we have the compsognathus, the big raptors, and the stripy things.”
Shimei nodded at Corrine, “Stripy things. Works for me. They look mean regardless of what we call ‘em. They hiss. They are aware…like they think.”
As calm as he acted, he almost screamed as noise came from behind them: scraping, a slight thud, and another scrape, could be claws on rocks. Shimei and the others readied their weapons, ready for battle. Whatever came at them would face a hard, deadly fight if they intended harm.
To their relief, the noise was Rick Parker, leading the rest who were with him, all with their packs and carrying weapons. “We went to get Wyatt’s body and put him in the airplane for later, but….” He choked on his words.
When they saw Wyatt, they found several of the little lizards (Parker refused to call them by their possible dinosaur name) eating the body. Scores of the creatures hissed and lunged at the people who had walked over to the pool. A pack of the creatures were rolling their eyes and clawing at the ground, wanting the dead body for food; they also wanted more food.
“And?”
“We killed a few, but we went back, talked, and decided we were stronger as one group but not as two.” They killed some of the creatures that came too close, but there were many, and in a few minutes, the creatures would figure out they had an advantage with sheer numbers.
Shimei nodded. “Okay. But we’re gonna have a rough time ahead,” he explained the situation. Shimei cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “Hey, one thing. Why do you call them lizard things and not the compy or velociraptor name?”
“It isn’t me being stubborn or reticent. It’s no secret. The thing is, Shi, you have seen the movies and probably pictures in school. They base all that on teeth and skeletons. In all those pictures, have you ever seen a compsognathus or a velociraptor that had teeth like those? Sure, maybe they have them all wrong, but these…they feel really wrong.”
“The stripy thing we saw, and we saw it clearly, had teeth that looked wrong, too. They didn’t fit. They are way too big for big lizard or dinosaur,” Theo said, “so that’s something to keep in mind.”
The group moved silently through the cave. They stayed together, listened, and walked a few steps at a time, prepared to fight. They had to find their friends and a way out of the nightmare of a cave.
Despite the circumstances, the cave was beautiful with aragonite flowers all over. The path they were on fizzled down to a tight, blocked area, but Theo led them around, and they wound around to an open place so they didn’t have to crawl through a tight, claustrophobic tunnel. The floor was tacky with dying blood, and their boots made a snick, snick noise as they walked in the blood. Rocks and boulders were drenched red, the walls were splattered with blood and flesh, and the floor was littered with bits of flesh, Haylee’s bandage, and some cloth. There was almost a pool of blood.
Shimei felt sick as he saw the bandages and thought of the pain she must have gone through. She hadn’t screamed and fought, but she might have been aware. “Emma? What do you think? Is Haylee alive?”
Emma looked at the amount of blood and considered that Haylee was already in need of blood since she had lost so much and considered the treatment Haylee received as she was dragged along and then torn apart. One piece of flesh was a glob of fat, indicating deeper injuries, and they hadn’t heard screams. Slowly, she shook her head, “No. I don’t think she is. She’s lost too much blood.”
Katie agreed, pointing out the dark red splashes.
“Recovery and we need to save Ed. Maybe he’s hiding from them so stay sharp,” Theo said, leading them forwards. He hoped they could rescue Ed and at least find out what happened to Hailey.
Again, Theo forged ahead. Along the way were holes that they skirted fearfully, wondering how deep they were, tunnels that smelled bad, reptilian-like carrion, tight crawlspaces, rock piles with openings at the top, and paths that looked as if they wound back inside the cliffs towards where they had come from. Theo and Corrine both agreed on one possible route they had found.
They explained it with drawings in the dust. It showed as a hole in the ground about the size of a bathroom stall, the lip smooth granite. Looking inside, Theo liked what he found. It was a chimney but a backtracking type on a slope that was easy to climb and that had fresh air pouring out from below.
“We will climb down with the ropes; it’s about a forty-five degree angle, and it’s not tight, but you won’t have room to jump up and down, okay? Then, it goes right back under that angle and is flat. It forms a Z shape. We will gather there and rest,” Theo explained as he and Corrine tied off the ropes. They knew fresh air wafted from the chimney.
As she removed her harness, Audrina called upwards and said she was there. She was excited and ready to make the second leg of the downward trip in the chimney; rappelling was, despite the poor circumstances, the most exciting sport she had ever found. No matter what happened, she wanted to rappel every mountain and cave she could find.
Tony hugged her, “You’ve stayed strong, brave, and smart this whole time. That’s amazing.”
“I’m scared to death, really, but I do like the climbing.”
“Yeah, it’s fun. Wish we had better circumstances.”
“We’ll get out…right?” Audrina asked.
“I promise.”
“Thanks. You’re pretty cool under pressure as well,” Audrina said.
“After we get out of here, do you think I could call and ask you for a date? Would you go?”
They were still filled with adrenaline, and Audrina almost laughed, “I’d love to.” She meant it, too.
A roar from above and far away chilled them. It was somewhat like that of a lion but had a clickity sound that was almost insectile. They sobered at once and held their makeshift weapons at the ready. Tony watched Daisy take the last jump down and take off her harness, “Everything okay up there?”
“I guess. I was halfway down. That noise scared the hell outta me. What was it? Is it near us?”
“We don’t know. Catch your breath,” Tony said.
Theo rappelled easily down the two-hundred-yard-slope of rock, called up, and grabbed the rope that fell along his feet. He showed the seven who were down there with him how he put a camming device into a crack of rock. It was spring loaded and held tight as Theo rigged up a rope to rappel down the next slope of the chimney, “You did great, Daisy. I know that scared you, but you were tough.”
“Thanks, Theo.”
There was a long drop, then an easy grade to walk, a slow rappel, and another very long drop onto a huge area that opened up into a massive cavern. Theo rigged ropes and talked each person down through each section, speaking in a low, calm voice and reassuring each that everything was fine. The roar wasn’t repeated, and methodically, ea
ch person made the climb, listening to Theo, Tony, and Corrine as they gave directions.
Theo couldn’t wait to see more of the cave system; it was beautiful and interesting. Lining the ceiling, stalactites, fragile, small stone features that looked like dripping water, were frozen in time or in calcite. As soon as everyone was together, he was able to really look around and take in the beauty of the cave system.
Stalagmites jutted in a few places from the floor, and above them were coral knobs, stone forms that looked like knobs or fists all along the ceiling. Along the floor and fused to the rock were odd spheres and dull, but intricate crystals.
Audrina and Tony followed Shimei as he looked around; they pointed out various interesting points. Climbing down, they landed on a flat area, and twenty yards one way led to a sheer cliff that dropped to a pool and a flat area that Fran and a few of the others looked down at. It was as if they looked down into a huge cavern that glowed with phosphorescence and lit up as they shined lights and tossed glow sticks.
It was a terrifying scene, but they all stared, unable to look away.
Below, granite boulders dotted the floor, a vast plain stretching for a long way under the ground. They were below the first pool and deep underground where they found the stewardess. The rocky floor ended at a clear, deep pool that ran underneath the slab of rock the people sat on; it was a huge pond or a tiny lake where animals drank.
“Is that…they aren’t called brontosaurs, but….” Fran watched them in awe.
“They renamed those. But no, they’re smaller. I think they’re about as big as elephants. Amazing,” Tate had nothing negative to say. The creatures had long necks with tapering heads, big bodies, and long tails to balance them. They looked like small versions of what used to be called brontosaurs.
“Look at the blue-green ones; they’re pale ‘cause of the cave, but look at their heads. See the crests and horns? Vegasaurs.” Pak pointed at other creatures that were smaller versions of what was once called triceratops, a dinosaur he always had liked best. They looked tough with protective crests around their necks and horns on the noses for fighting. A grown triceratops could hold off a tyrannosaur, or so it was speculated by palentologists.