Inhabited

by Ike Hamill

  She handed a flare over to Roger. He moved closer so he could read the instructions.

  “Huh. It expired,” he said. “Typical. Put my back to the wind—right. This burns about fifteen minutes. Is that long enough?”

  “I’ve got three. Go ahead.”

  Roger followed the instructions and struck the abrasive cap against the of the flare. It was like lighting a giant match. The flare burned with a bright, noisy, red flame. Roger set it down and waved his hand in the air to disperse some of the smoke.

  Florida put her arm across her nose and shrank down to the floor. Roger moved next to her.

  “That’s a lot of smoke,” he said.

  “And a lot of light.”

  Roger turned and looked up the length of the tunnel. Aside from the smoke, he decided that the flare was a very bad idea. The shadows danced in the red light. The tunnel looked like a decent approximation of what Hell might look like.

  “Look at that,” Florida said. She sat up straight.

  “I know. It’s creepy, right?”

  “No, I mean look at the flag,” she said.

  Roger shrugged. “What about it?”

  “With the red light from the flare, the colors look black and white. That’s the flag of group F-6, I think.”

  “So?”

  “How yellow were our lights when I looked at the flag before? I told them purple and red. Maybe it was blue and orange or something. Maybe the dim color of my headlamp was making me see the colors wrong.”

  “You’re crazy. I saw purple and red too.”

  “Yeah, using the same yellow light.”

  “Calm down,” Roger said. “I’m sure that they’re on their way.”

  “But what if that’s why they didn’t recognize the stamp ID?”

  Roger exhaled. “Okay. Get on the radio and tell them that the color might be wrong. Maybe they have another way for us to identify which path we’re on. Better safe than sorry.”

  “Yeah,” she said. She nodded. “Exactly.” She keyed the radio. “Command? This is J-6. We’re unsure about the flag color. When we spoke earlier, we said we were on a purple and red flag, but our lights were pretty dim? We’re unsure of the color. Is there another way to verify the color?”

  She turned up the radio and waited for a response.

  Roger whispered, “Color is a silly way to identify anything underground. You’d think they would put braille or something on the flag, you know?”

  “Do you know braille?” Florida asked.

  “No, but…”

  Florida held up a finger and raised the radio when it began to crackle. She narrowed her eyes when no voices emerged from the device.

  “Command, this is J-6? Over.”

  She put the radio up to her ear. At first, the sound was so faint that it was indiscernible from the background static. A single note emerged. The voice swelled from the speaker. Florida pulled the radio away from her ear. Roger drew close and they listened as the moan broke into a chorus of screams. They couldn’t identify individual words or voices in the din. The radio emitted a sounds of horrible torture and chaos.

  “Command?” Florida asked. When she let go of the button, the screams came through even louder. They filled the mine.

  Chapter Forty-Six — Gone

  ACCORDING TO THE CLOCK on the dashboard of the Jeep, they only waited five minutes. Travis was bouncing his knee, Kristin was compulsively turning her head to look in every direction, and Justin counted off the seconds.

  “Okay, we gotta go,” Travis said.

  “Yeah,” Kristin said. “Okay, I changed my mind. Let’s go get help. We can come back for him.”

  “Good,” Justin said. “You’re finally making some sense.”

  Travis turned the key. The Jeep fired right up. The engine seemed to be okay, but when Travis put it in gear, it was clear that the Jeep had taken some damage. They heard a grinding noise as he backed away from the entrance of the mine and turned the Jeep around.

  Kristin spun in her seat to keep an eye on the entrance as Travis pulled away.

  Justin climbed over the seat and brushed away debris so he could sit in the passenger’s seat. Kristin kept watch behind them. Travis drove in silence, sitting forward in his seat and concentrating on the dirt road ahead of them. Each time the Jeep bounced, one of the headlights flickered. Finally, it went out. Travis found the switch for the high beams. The remaining headlight did a decent job of showing their path.

  “What happens when I get to the shadow trap?” Travis asked. “Should I drive right through it?”

  “We made it through before,” Kristin said.

  Travis and Justin looked at each other.

  “Yeah. Fuck it,” Justin said. “Go fast.”

  Travis nodded. He increased their speed. On the next bump, a crack split the windshield. Travis leaned to the side to see better. Justin pulled his seatbelt across and then thought better of it. They saw the turn ahead. The road descended into a little dip and then rose again. On the other side, next to the hill where they’d seen Kristin, they saw the place where the big shadow trap stretched across the road. Kristin leaned forward and Travis sped up a little more.

  They all studied the road ahead, trying to guess where the shadow trap began.

  When the Jeep bounced over a bump in the road, Justin gave a shout at the sound. The Jeep sped on. Travis guided the vehicle around the turn and down another hill. When they started to climb again, Kristin spun around and looked at the hill they had just passed.

  “We’re by it,” she said.

  “Yes!” Justin said.

  Travis nodded and didn’t take any of his focus from the road ahead. They bounced over a rough patch of road and the backend of the Jeep began to get a little squirrelly. Travis eased off the accelerator and loosened his death-grip slightly. Over the crest of the next hill, they saw lights in the distance.

  “That’s the highway,” Justin said. He banged his hand down on the dashboard. Justin moved up to the edge of his seat. “Holy shit, I was starting to think we would never make it, you know?” Justin turned back to smile at Kristin.

  Her jabbing finger nearly poked him in the eye.

  “Look out!” she screamed.

  Justin whipped around. Travis was already reacting. He hauled the wheel over to the side and stomped on the brakes.

  Justin almost didn’t recognize the man in the road as the headlight swerved away from him. He was standing there, right in the path on the far side of a small hill. Carlos was standing there with his eyes closed and his hands down at his sides. The Jeep’s tires locked up and they spun halfway around in the loose gravel.

  The Jeep rocked as it came to a stop.

  Kristin was staring out the back at Carlos.

  Justin tried his door. It banged against the bent frame and wouldn’t open. Instead of getting out, Justin turned in his seat.

  “I knew he would come to his senses,” Kristin said. She put her hand on the door.

  “Wait!” Travis said. “What if it’s a trap?”

  “What?” Kristin asked. “What are you talking about?”

  “What if the thing can’t get us while we’re in the Jeep, so it’s using Carlos to lure us out?” Travis asked.

  “No,” Kristin said. She didn’t argue or come up with any tortured logic. She simply repeated the word again. “No.”

  She pushed on the door and the metal groaned.

  Travis didn’t try to talk her out of it. Instead, he dropped the Jeep into first gear and ground the transmission again. The Jeep lurched back into motion and she fell back against the seat. Travis spun the vehicle in a tight circle until the headlights were pointed around to Carlos again. He approached Carlos at a quick pace, but angled the Jeep so they would pass to his left.

  Travis slowed as they approached.

  Justin heard Kristin working at the door again. He reached into the back seat and grabbed her arm.

  “Hold on,” Justin said. “He’s right—let’s
just see.” Justin reached back and grabbed Kristin’s arm. She stopped tugging at the handle.

  When the Jeep pulled to within a few feet of Carlos, he began to back away.

  Justin craned forward to see Carlos’s feet. When he figured it out, he started yelling. “No! Back up! Back up!”

  Travis slammed on the brakes and dropped the Jeep out of gear. He shifted to reverse and goosed the engine as he lifted his foot from the clutch. The tires began to spin, but the Jeep still slid forward. The ground swallowed Carlos. The Jeep kept sliding. The loose gravel didn’t offer enough resistance against the momentum of the Jeep.

  A crack appeared in the surface of the road. As the Jeep slipped downhill, the crack widened until it was big enough to consume the Jeep. Travis tried to steer against the slip, but nothing he did seemed to slow their creep. His spinning tires had no consequence.

  Justin threw his shoulder to his window. The glass was already cracked. In the seat behind him, the window was already knocked out. He threw his shoulder against the window one last time and then began to crawl over the seat again.

  The Jeep started to tip forward. The headlights showed the jagged sides of a chasm. The engine whined and the rear tires spun freely as they lifted from the ground.

  Justin climbed through the window and kicked himself away from the Jeep as it disappeared into the widening hole.

  -o-o-o-o-o-

  Justin landed on the sloped surface of the road and began to slide after the Jeep. He pedaled his legs against the gravel. Using his hands and feet to propel himself upwards, he began to make progress against gravity.

  When he got back to flat road, Justin didn’t stop. He turned to his right and scrambled up the gentle slope. He stumbled at the peak and landed on the sand. He flipped over in time to see the taillights of the Jeep disappear. The chasm closed. The road appeared passable again.

  In the distance, a set of headlights cruised down the highway, unperturbed by the drama in the desert.

  “Help me!” Justin screamed. It didn’t do any good. The highway was still at least a mile away. He might as well have been on the moon, yelling at the turning Earth.

  -o-o-o-o-o-

  Justin’s senses adjusted to the night. He slid down the sandy hill and stepped onto the surface of the road. He took a couple of cautious steps forward. He glanced back over his shoulder and then looked towards the highway.

  Kneeling down, he could see the tracks of the Jeep. He could see where they got chaotic and then ended with lines carved into the dirt road.

  Justin backed away. He retreated to his sandy hill.

  He looked to the sky and the highway and used both to make his best guess about which direction was north. With that settled, he lowered himself to the ground facing east.

  “Wait until dawn,” he whispered.

  He pulled his legs under himself and propped his head up with his hands. Gradually, his heartbeat returned to normal. The adrenaline coursing through him relinquished its hold. He exhaled and tried to not think about his friends and the Jeep, somewhere below the dirt.

  Justin was tortured with the idea of seeing Carlos. He couldn’t stop looking over his shoulder. Each time, he was convinced that he would see Carlos there, standing with his eyes closed. The idea made Justin’s stomach turn.

  Justin waited for the dawn.

  Chapter Forty-Seven — Abandoned

  FLORIDA DROPPED THE RADIO. Roger rushed forward and scooped it up. He found the volume control and turned it down, until the din was barely audible. Still, it was terrible. He was hearing people screaming for their lives. He was hearing the desperation of people who were facing certain death.

  One particular scream was louder than the rest.

  Roger was tempted to shut off the radio completely, but he couldn’t do it. There was a chance, however small, that the people on the other end of the connection might still help them escape. He wasn’t willing to give up on that chance.

  The scream echoed and swelled even though he turned the volume down even more.

  Florida’s head jerked to the side and Roger finally realized why the voice was getting louder. It wasn’t coming from the radio—it was coming down the mine shaft.

  “Put it out,” Florida whispered. “Put the flare out before it finds us.”

  Roger moved forward. He didn’t know how to extinguish the flare, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to anyway. There was someone else down there, and the person sounded like they needed help. After all that time alone with just Florida, Roger wasn’t about to turn his back on another human being in need.

  He set down the radio and moved another few steps towards the sound. The flare was behind him. It cast his own shadow on the floor.

  Roger’s shadow stretched forever. The edges danced.

  He took another step and finally saw movement and a white light. A figure stumbled forward. Roger ran to the person.

  The person’s screams were wordless, but they conveyed undeniable emotions. He heard fear, anger, and despair. As he approached, virtually all he could see was the headlamp as it turned towards him. Compared to Florida’s light, this one was as bright as the sun.

  As he reached the person, the light finally turned away and he saw the person’s shape. The face angled towards him and bellowed one more agonized scream. Roger flinched. Beyond the glare of the light, he could see the rip in the man’s skin.

  It began just below his eye and continued through his cheek and down his neck. The skin and muscle were pulled apart to reveal the jagged white edge of bone. The man flopped over on his back and his helmet bounced from his head. When it came to rest, the light was pointed down the length of the man, revealing the devastation of the cut.

  He had been opened, from cheek to thigh. Despite the severity of the wound, there was precious little blood soaked into his clothes. The light left the man’s eyes as Roger knelt down.

  Roger heard Florida scream. He looked back and saw her a few paces away. Her yellow headlamp was dwarfed by the light from the flare behind her. She was covering her face with her hands as she looked down at the man who was sliced open.

  “That’s Jacob,” Florida said. “He is part of the command team.”

  Roger reached out and touched the man’s wrist. He was dead.

  “Not anymore,” Roger said. He picked up Jacob’s helmet and traded it for his own. The bright light felt like a weapon on his head. He pointed in the direction that Jacob had come from. He didn’t see anything except a few scattered drops of blood on the rock.

  “We know which way to go,” Florida said. “There will be flags.”

  Roger nodded.

  Before leaving Jacob, Roger bent the man’s arm and fed it through the strap of his pack. He pulled it up over Jacob’s head until he freed it from the other arm. Roger ignored the blood on the pack. He slipped his own arms through the loops and started down the tunnel. He and Florida walked side by side.

  “What are we heading towards?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure I care,” Roger said.

  Chapter Forty-Eight — Under

  AS THE JEEP SLIPPED into the hole, Kristin fell forward. She got her hands out in front of herself and managed to absorb the bulk of the shock before her face slammed into the dashboard. Next to her, Travis had been thrown to the side and was compressed in the space between the steering wheel and the door.

  The Jeep ground at first and then tumbled weightless for a second. It rotated as it fell and crashed down on the roof. The battered roll bars held up for the most part. Kristin landed on the interior of the crumpled roof and pulled her legs to her chest so she could rotate her body. As soon as she got upright, she began to crawl between the upside-down seats so she could get to the rear of the vehicle. In the front, rocks and debris were coming through the windows. In the rear she could see empty space through the back window. That’s what Kristin headed for.

  She heard Travis moan behind her. Kristin ignored him.

  To get to the ba
ck, she had to squeeze between the rear seats and the crushed-in roof. The bags were in her way. She pushed aside the moldy canvas bag that Justin had liberated from the depths of the mine. As she crouched in the cargo space, she moved the bags and realized that she couldn’t see anything but black beyond the shattered window. She rooted through the bags and came up with one of the silver flashlights.

  Kristin turned it on and shone it into the darkness.

  “If you’re coming, then come on,” she said to Travis.

  “My leg is caught,” he said. He punctuated the statement with a pathetic moan.

  Kristin didn’t answer. She pressed herself down and slid through the window. Her shoulder was in tough shape. She transferred the light to her other hand and tried to get a sense of the place. She pointed the light upwards to get an idea of how far they had fallen. It was impossible to tell. She couldn’t even see the night sky. The walls pinched together up there. Gasoline was dripping down the back of the Jeep. The fumes stung her eyes.

  Kristin began to climb the overturned Jeep. It was wedged between the rocks. There was no way that the side doors would ever open.

  “You have to go out the back,” she said as she balanced her weight between the muffler and the differential. She looked up. She could touch the walls where they came together. There had to be a space between the rocks, but she couldn’t find it with her light.

  “Carlos!” she yelled. “Where are you?”

  Below her, Travis moaned again.

  Chapter Forty-Nine — Battlefield

  THEY FOLLOWED THE TRAIL of blood back to the next flag. From there, they could see the next turn. Florida began to rush ahead and realized that her headlamp was barely putting out any light. She slowed back down to Roger’s pace.

  When they saw another body, they both came to a stop.

  It was a young woman with blonde hair. Her head was split in two.