To The Center Of The Earth

by Greig Beck

  “I think we’ll be okay. Whatever massacre happened here, happened many millennia ago,” Michael said. “It’d be like us finding the remains of Troy and worrying about invading Greeks in wooden horses.”

  Wenton waved it away. “But Saknussov was alive only a few hundred years ago.”

  Jane kneeled by the skeleton that was propped up against a column of stone. One hand was lying palm up next to the fallen hammer and chisel, and the other rested on a rock. She stared at the hand.

  “I can see the poor guy has some badly broken fingers, but look at this—is he pointing?”

  The group stared at the hand and then in the direction the single finger was indicating. Carved into the far wall was a single doorway.

  “You don’t think…?” She stood slowly.

  “The way out.” Maggie turned, her fists balled. “He’s showing us the way out.”

  “Maybe,” Michael said. “Or maybe the path the last occupants had taken. And they never made it to the surface.”

  “We don’t know that,” Maggie replied. “Maybe they didn’t want to.”

  “There’s one way to find out.” Andy leaped up on a boulder and rock-hopped across the debris to the doorway.

  The group followed as the young caver held his crystal inside the entrance—all except Michael, who pulled free the satchel under Saknussov’s hip and searched inside. As he hoped, there was a book, wrapped in oilcloth, and he quickly opened the cloth to examine it.

  “Michael,” Jane yelled. “Come see.”

  “Coming.” He quickly rewrapped the book and tucked it inside the ragged remains of his shirt. He then turned to leap up over the debris to his friends.

  “Shit. I knew it was too good to be true.” Andy lowered his arm. “Blocked.”

  They caught up with him, and Michael stepped inside. He saw that there were huge blocks across the entranceway, totally sealing it off. He ran his hand over a few of them.

  “You know what I see here?” He stepped back. “This was no cave-in—this entrance was bricked up on purpose. Either the people that escaped into this opening sealed it from the inside, or the people who remained sealed it from out here.”

  “That’s a scary thought,” Jane said. “That maybe the invaders sealed it up to stop anyone else getting away.”

  A horn sounded long and deep, and they turned slowly to look back at the entrance.

  “What. Was. That?” Maggie asked with round eyes.

  The horn sounded again and Michael slowly turned away. “That didn’t sound like an animal’s bellow. More like some sort of instrument.”

  “A war trumpet,” Wenton lamented. “Usually carried at the head of an advancing army.” He snorted softly, his mouth turning up on one side. “Remember what dear old Saknussov said? They are watching. Well, my dear friends, looks like they still are.”

  “Crap on crap.” Andy’s eyes were wide. “Hey, guys, I really do not want to be here if that’s the thing that killed and ate the people from this city.”

  “None of us do.” Michael looked about. “Harry, go and do a quick reconnoitre and tell me what you see.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Wenton frowned.

  “No, I’m not.” Michael held his ground.

  “And what are you going to be doing?” Wenton’s frown deepened.

  Michael pulled the very last stick of dynamite from the tattered remains of his kit. “Try and open this doorway.”

  “Andy, come with me, if you please.” Wenton clicked his fingers.

  “No.” Michael shook his head. “If I manage to open this hole, I expect there will be debris to be moved, and damn quickly. I’ll need him. Come on, Harry, get to it. We need to know what’s coming and how much time we have.”

  Wenton grumbled and turned away. He then jogged awkwardly down over the fallen ruins back out to the mouth of the cave.

  Michael turned back to the blockage. In his caving expeditions, he was loath to use explosives. But he knew there were many times when it was necessary—if a caver was trapped and they needed to get some medical equipment in to them because of spinal injuries, then caves needed to be widened. And every expert caver had experience in targeted demolitions on a small scale.

  Michael immediately saw that the pivot point was probably the larger slab mid doorway that had smaller stones beneath it and some larger boulders above. Theoretically, blowing the mid-slab should cause the rest to tumble out. Theoretically, anyway.

  He jammed the dynamite stick in under the center of the slab, packing another stone in over it, and then turned to Jane and exhaled through pressed lips as he crossed himself.

  “Here goes nothing. Everyone take cover.” He lit the fuse, noticing his lighter was just about dead. The fuse sputtered and went out.

  “Goddamn.”

  He calmed himself and also waited until his hands stopped shaking and tried to light it again—the tiny striking wheel didn’t spark. It didn’t spark the second or third time.

  “Come on, you little bastard, you can do it.”

  It took three more spins of the striker wheel before a tiny, weak flame erupted. This time, the fuse lit and burned.

  He sprinted away and got behind an ancient wall. He put his hands over his ears and as soon as he did, the concussive blast rushed past them in a flurry of dust and ejected stone. He said a quick prayer and sprinted back to the doorway.

  “Yes.”

  The huge slab had split and fallen out, releasing a lot of the other rocks. It wasn’t totally cleared, but there was an opening now big enough for them to fit inside.

  Michael wiped his hands together. “Andy, check it out. I’m going to go down and see what’s keeping…”

  “Go, go, go…” Wenton came sprinting back up the ancient path toward them. Even in the muted blue glow from his crystal, they could see his face was bleached from fear.

  Michael jogged down a few paces to meet him. “What is it?”

  “They’re coming. So many.” Wenton puffed. “Big, too big. Monsters.” He grabbed Michael’s shoulders and began to push him backward. “We need to go, now!”

  Michael grabbed him. “We don’t even know if this is the right cave.”

  “Saknussov thought it was.” Wenton continued to push Michael toward the cave.

  “You mean Saknussov that never even went inside it?” Jane said.

  Andy poked his head out. “It’s big, deep, and keeps on going.”

  Wenton closed his eyes and stood rod straight for a moment. “Listen, Michael, please, everyone. We do not want to be here when those abominations arrive. Do you understand?”

  “I vote we go for it,” Maggie said. “Our freaking backs are to the wall anyway.”

  Michael nodded. “Okay, but we seal it once we’re in. That way if it’s not the right path, we have a chance of coming back out without them following.”

  “Yes, yes, good plan, go, go.” Wenton pushed him in the back.

  Maggie went over the top of the rocks as Andy helped her in. Jane was next, followed by a near-panicking Wenton.

  Michael hesitated. His curiosity screamed at him to at least see the creatures, these intelligent arthropods that seemed to have dominated this world.

  But they had butchered or scattered this entire ancient race and he had no doubt they would do the same to them if they caught them. Another time, he thought, as Jane called to him from over the lip of stone.

  He clambered up and over, and already Andy, Wenton, and Maggie were moving a stone to the top of the opening and piling it up to close the hole. Michael and Jane assisted, and bigger stones went first, and as the opening shrank, they wedged in smaller and smaller stones.

  Though it wouldn’t hold up to a concentrated push, it might just mask where they had gone.

  Michael looked out through the last small hole in the wall and caught sight of the long-dead Russian’s skeleton.

  “I hope you’re right, Arkady. We’re in your hands now.”

  He wedged the last piece of
stone into the hole and used another rock to hammer it in. The entrance was sealed once again.

  *****

  “Hurry, let’s get the hell out of here.” Wenton backed up.

  “It’s okay, Harry, we’re safe for now. Tell us, what did you see?” Michael asked.

  Wenton stared straight ahead. He laughed, but the sound was almost a sob. “Lovecraft,” he said.

  “What? The author?” Michael frowned as they moved through the dark labyrinth.

  “Yes.” He licked his lips. “I remember reading HP Lovecraft in my youthful years. And the thing that struck me was the way he had of describing these horrible creatures in his stories that were a mix of humans that were blended with either arthropod or sea creature characteristics.” He dry swallowed. “They were like that—big, seven feet tall at least, and immensely powerful looking. Six arms, or legs, I don’t know. They carried weapons.” He turned and stopped for a moment. “And they had cages ready… for us.”

  “Jesus,” Jane whispered.

  “I suddenly wish we had more dynamite,” Andy said.

  “You and me both,” Michael replied. He just hoped they didn’t find their cave, or they at least had enough of a head-start on their pursuers to stay in front of them.

  But what if they hit a dead end? he wondered darkly. Cross that bridge if we ever come to it, he thought.

  The tunnel they passed through was ornately carved, with smooth brickwork over its façade and no natural stone showing. Some alcoves had small bowls inside them; perhaps once they held food or other things the fleeing humanoids had once stored here that had long rotted or dried away.

  There were also discarded weapons, but of these only some of the handles and hilts of swords remained as the steel spikes of spears, heads of axes, and once formidable sword blades were now just discolored mineral marks on the stone.

  Their path gradually tilted upward and Michael took that as a good sign—up was where they needed to be. Just that they needed to be up by about another 6,000 miles.

  It was after only another few minutes that they found the first body. An age-browned skeleton was lying in one of the alcoves. It had probably had sheets laid over it at one time and also some jewelry of colored stones that were lying loosely on the ribs, as the string holding them together had long vanished.

  Jane crouched. “They were small. Not more than four and a half feet.”

  “Could it be a child?” Maggie asked.

  “No, the teeth are adult teeth. It was a male as well, looking at the pelvic structure,” Jane replied.

  “We would have been giants to them,” Andy added.

  “Imagine what the arthropod people must have been like then? Absolute monsters,” Wenton said.

  “Who came to catch and eat them. The arthropod people might have just seen them as another herd of food creatures to take back for their pot.” Maggie shivered. “Can we get moving now?”

  Far back the way they came, the sound of a bouncing rock was heard as it fell to the ground.

  Everyone froze for a few seconds as they stared back into the darkness.

  “Yeah, okay, and let’s pick up the pace.” Michael held out his crystal and led them on.

  EPISODE 05

  “As long as a man's heart beats, as long as a man's flesh quivers—while there is life there is hope.” ― Jules Verne

  CHAPTER 24

  Jane sucked in a thick breath of the rapidly warming air and wiped an arm across her brow. The tunnel had begun to incline sharply at least a mile back and the going was more arduous. Along the way, they saw that the ancient caravan of people had begun to discard clothing and other possessions.

  Perhaps the heat was getting to them or maybe the fatigue. But soon, it was more than just their possessions they left behind—more skeletons were found, some laying in groups as though entire families had simply lain down to die, and others with broken bones and signs of trauma.

  “Did they start fighting among themselves?” Maggie asked.

  “Maybe resources were becoming scarce. Maybe they started to panic,” Michael said.

  “Maybe there was something else in here that caused them to panic,” Wenton said softly.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Jane said. “They knew these caves, and I think that there was a lot of scared and depressed people. They’d just been attacked and had to flee into these catacombs. More likely depression, psychosis, and who knows how many other psychological traumas they were suffering.”

  “But they got away. There was no sign that tunnel blockage had been breached before us,” Andy said. “Those things didn’t go after them, so they should have been relieved by that.”

  Wenton chuckled softly from behind them. “You’re making an assumption based on what you hope happened.” His eyes glinted blue from the light of the crystals. “For all we know, those arthropod humanoids were the ones who sealed the entrance. Maybe to stop them ever getting back out. Or perhaps they chased them in and sealed it up so they could keep them alive. Like keeping them as stock on hand.” He wiped his mouth. “These things were huge, and I’m sure moving the stones would not have been a problem for them.”

  “That’s a shitty thought,” Jane said and then exhaled. “But it’s a possibility.”

  The bricked tunnel finally became raw cave, and then they were beginning to navigate the rough, ancient stone of the mountain. Signs of the people fleeing became less distinct.

  Wenton puffed hard and then stopped for a moment, leaning one hand against the wall and drawing in deep draughts of the warm air. “Want another shitty thought?”

  Maggie groaned. “Not really.”

  “How do we know this is the right way back? I mean, we’re certainly committed now so there are no other options for us. But what if we’re wrong?” Wenton agonized.

  “All we have is Saknussov’s dying advice. Besides, we didn’t really have time for a committee decision, did we?” Michael replied.

  “But like Jane said, he never actually tried it, did he?” Wenton lifted his chin.

  Michael stopped and turned. “You were the one that urged us on. What do you want from us, Harry?”

  “And here’s another thought—neither did your little Russian friend. After all, the wall was intact and would have been 50 years ago, when Katya escaped.” Wenton straightened.

  Jane knew he was right and hated him for it. “Forget it, this is just navel-gazing—we had no choice. We can’t go back now.”

  “We could. We could wait those creatures out if need be. Maybe we shouldn’t go too much further. We reach a point of no return due to no more supplies, and we’re screwed.” Wenton put his hands on his hips and stretched his back. “The main cave has food, water, and light. We’re leaving that long behind us now.”

  Michael looked at the raw tunnel before them, and then looked back into the unfathomable darkness behind. They had traveled many miles, and though there was no evidence other than Saknussov’s pointing finger that this was the right way, there was also no evidence it was the wrong choice.

  “Harry, right about now, we don’t need you sowing seeds of doubt. We’re moving ahead,” Michael said resolutely. “Happy for anyone who wishes to go back and wait to do so.”

  Wenton threw his hands up. “For God’s sake, Monroe, I’m not trying to lead a damned revolt. But look…” He motioned to more skeletons tucked into alcoves. “These poor saps were fleeing for their lives. And looks like most of them died doing it. We can afford to make decisions with a little more measure.”

  The projectile came out of the dark and pierced Wenton’s shoulder—it went right through the meat with the barbed tip coming out the front. He gagged and gripped it with both hands.

  “What the hell?” Andy rushed to him, just as another of the projectiles smacked into the wall over his head.

  “Get down!” Michael shouted.

  To everyone’s horror, Wenton started to be dragged backward as he howled in pain. The projectile that had pierced him was
attached to a tether. And now it was being reeled in.

  Andy hung onto his legs, and Maggie crawled to him. Jane reached into the bag hanging on her hip and drew forth another shard of glowing crystal and tossed it back down into the darkness where the spear had come from.

  The crystal flew 40 feet, struck rock, and exploded into dozens of glowing shards. The entire cave was illuminated and in that glow was a vision from Hell.

  “Oh God no.” Maggie let go of Wenton and crawled backward.

  “Don’t let me go!” Wenton screamed.

  The cave tunnel was crowded with carapace-covered creatures that stood on multiple back legs. In their clawed hands, they held spears, weapons like crossbows with tethers attached, and worst of all, nets.

  Their faces were a mix of insect and lobster with black eyes on quivering tendrils that were never still and moving mouthparts that seemed to be shivering with excitement at the prospect of a human’s capture.

  One of the creatures in front began to pull the rope, eliciting another howl of pain and panic from Wenton. Michael leaped on him and pulled out his blade, trying to cut through the tether and the projectile. But whatever the spear tip was, bone or some sort of hardened material, he wasn’t even making a mark on it. And unfortunately, his knife had long ago lost its edge and sawed uselessly against the toughened rope fibers.

  Another of the barbs flew at Michael, but this one only pierced the sack on his shoulder. The monstrous creatures then began to advance on them.

  Jane crouch-ran at Michael and pulled him and Andy backward. “We have to go,” she whispered into his ear.

  “Don’t leave me. Please,” Wenton cried.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Jane dragged Michael back and Andy scuttled away.

  Without the added weight of Michael and Andy holding him, Wenton was then pulled roughly down the cave, as the crystal shards dimmed only because the crush of huge arthropod bodies moved over them.

  Michael grimaced, as he watched Harry Wenton be dragged toward the waiting horde. “I’m sorry, Harry.”

  They turned and ran.

  *****