Subterrestrial

by McBride, Michael

  Calder knew exactly where she was.

  Again she succumbed to the panic and thrashed in an effort to move any part of her body. Not twenty-four hours ago, she had stood in that stone corridor with the holes carved on each side, fingering the crust around the edges while she studied the teeth marks carved into the cortex of the skeletal primate’s bones.

  She moved just enough to create room for her chest to rise, if only by a few millimeters. She took several breaths and screamed them out. The sound emerged as little more than a frightened gasp. It took her several tries before it came out with the desired effect. Even to her own ears it sounded like the cry had come from the bottom of a well.

  She heard a muffled shout, if that was even what it was. The noise was so soft she couldn’t be certain she’d heard anything at all.

  The numbness in her arms and legs gave way to pins and needles. She screamed again and this time managed to slip her left arm out from against her chest, which allowed her to get her knees out of her face.

  “Someone . . .” The pain made it nearly impossible to speak. She tried again and the words erupted with a scream. “Help me!”

  She pushed her head against the nesting material and it bulged outward. She used the extra space to shift her hips and wedged her feet against the back wall. It took several moments to catch her breath from even that minimal exertion. She was burning through what little air was trapped in there with her at a staggering pace.

  Again, a muffled shout. It sounded like it came from miles away.

  With the flow of blood returning to her legs came pain beyond anything she’d ever imagined. Her left leg . . . it felt like a bear trap had snapped on it. The blood spread down her calf inside her suit. Her foot squelched when she pushed off from the wall. The nesting material stretched and made a crackling sound but rebounded into place when her trembling legs gave out.

  If she didn’t fight through the pain and exhaustion, she was going to die in here.

  Calder screamed and drove her legs as hard as she could. More crackling sounds, but this time her goal hadn’t been to break the seal.

  She freed her right hand and struggled to straighten her wrist. It had been pinned in an almost palsied position. She extracted the flashlight from her sleeve and sobbed when she clicked the switch and it actually worked.

  The beam revealed only bare stone beyond her thighs. The ceiling was rounded and higher than she’d initially thought. She used the additional room to raise her knees and arch her back to alleviate the pressure on her abdomen.

  Something twitched against her stomach.

  She froze and waited for it to happen again. The movement became almost frenetic. She screamed and grabbed the egg sac. Flung it away, but there was nowhere for it to go. It bounced from the wall and squirmed against her side.

  What little of it she could see was crisp and burned. A viscous fluid oozed from the cracks in the desiccated mermaid’s purse.

  That was why the creature hadn’t immediately followed them, why it had thrown itself into the flames. It had managed to save at least this one egg. An egg she couldn’t afford to let hatch while she was still in there with it.

  She pushed off from the back wall so hard that her legs positively shook. The material forced her chin to her chest. She whimpered at the pain in her neck.

  More crackling sounds.

  She twisted her face as best she could and looked for a weak point in the seal. There was a slight gap, right at the top edge, where it pulled away from the rock.

  Her feet slipped and she slumped to her back.

  Again, shouting from far away. Someone else was in here with her.

  She was breathing so hard that she was on the verge of hyperventilating. It took several seconds to draw enough air to push again. She watched the gap split downward. Dropped the light. Wriggled her fingers into the hole. Pulled down with everything she had. The crackling sound grew louder and the material bowed even farther outward.

  Her strength abandoned her. She collapsed to her back, panting. She’d heard the sound of running water from just behind her head. The shouting was louder, too. It was a man’s voice, although she couldn’t decipher his words.

  Had Mitchell somehow survived, too?

  Calder pushed her feet against the wall and wriggled both hands through the seam. She pulled them apart and the material ripped straight down the middle so quickly that she spurted from the enclave and was immersed in cold water before she could take a breath.

  She splashed to the surface and coughed out the brine. There was another taste, like someone had extinguished a giant match in it, a tinge of sulfur that was as much a smell as a taste.

  The water was waist deep and there was no discernible current. She grabbed her flashlight and shined it from one end of the narrow corridor to the other. It extended beyond the reach of her beam. There were more sealed holes, only the material was torn and bulged outward from the water contained within. The worst of the flooding must have already passed and trapped the air down here. The same kind of thing happened in shipwrecks, allowing sailors to survive for days in the sunken carcass until they were rescued.

  A panicked shout. She heard it clearly this time.

  Calder shined her light at the recess opposite hers. Something pressed against it from the inside.

  “Is someone in there?”

  A muffled cry in response. Whoever was in there pushed against the sheath, over and over.

  “Mitchell?”

  She attacked the fibrous membrane with her fingernails, scratching and clawing and screaming. She exploited the first tiny seam and ripped it first one way, then the other. Braced her foot against the wall. Gripped one side with both hands. Pushed off—

  The material ripped and she stumbled backward. Her legs betrayed her and deposited her into the water with a splash. Her light dimmed underwater and for a moment the passage was dark. The silhouette of the man rolled over the edge and fell into the water. She slogged over to where he floated and cradled his head to her breast.

  “Mitchell!”

  She shined her light onto his face and felt something break inside of her.

  It wasn’t Mitchell.

  Nabahe’s entire body convulsed. He sputtered gouts of rich arterial blood that rolled down his cheeks. His eyes filled with terror.

  “Where are you hurt? Maybe I can—”

  Every muscle in his body constricted at once. The tendons in his neck stood out like tent posts. The vessels in his eyes burst and flooded the sclera with crimson. A rush of warmth spread through the water around them. The fear left his eyes. Blood poured from his mouth, down his neck, and toward his—

  Calder screamed and threw herself backward.

  The creature scurried up over Nabahe’s chin and onto his face as his body sank beneath the surface. It looked like a hybrid of a lizard and a chicken. Its downy feathers were slick with blood and clumped with macerated viscera. It shrieked and struck at her.

  Calder scooted away from it until her back met the wall, which she used as leverage to gain her feet.

  The creature launched itself at her. Talons like fishhooks punctured her wetsuit as it climbed up her abdomen and chest.

  She grabbed it by its long neck and pried it from it from her flesh. It slashed at her wrists and snapped at anything into which it could sink its teeth. She turned and prepared to throw it against the stone—

  Err-err-err-err-err-err-uhh-uhh-uhh-err.

  The sound came from directly behind her.

  Calder lowered the squawking creature and held it away from her body. A wave of sheer exhaustion washed over her. She closed her eyes, mustered every last ounce of her strength, and turned to face her demise.

  ELEVEN

  I

  Below Speranza Station

  Bering Sea

  Ten Miles Northwest of Wales, Alaska

  65°47′ N, 169°01′ W

  Calder held the hatchling at arm’s length in hopes of shifting the creature’
s attention from her to its offspring, which continued to slash at her forearm with its wicked talons.

  Err-err-err-err-err-err-uhh-uhh-uhh-err.

  She tightened her grip on the beast’s neck until its screeching ceased. It was all she could do to hold onto it as it tried to wriggle free.

  Skree!

  The creature retreated several steps and vanished into the darkness beyond the edge of the aura of light.

  Calder couldn’t afford to let it out of her sight.

  She took several quick steps forward and hit it with her beam.

  Skree!

  It lowered its snout to just above the water in an attempt to keep the flashlight from shining directly into its eyes. The scales on its face were burned black. Blisters swelled from between them. The pupil in its left eye remained wide and unfocused beneath a milky haze. The feathers on its crown were singed to the bare vanes, which stood in spikes from its crest. It turned its head to watch her through its good eye.

  It was the same creature she and Mitchell had encountered in the nesting chamber, the same one that had hurled itself into the flames to try to save the eggs. There were entire sections on its body where the scales had been replaced by suppurating, full-thickness burns. The pain must have been excruciating.

  The edges of Calder’s vision pulsated with her accelerating heartbeat. She could barely see the recess where her life was meant to end from the corner of her eye. She thought about the egg sac with which she’d been entombed. The burned edges, specifically. The creature must have salvaged it from the blaze, and then hunted her down to incubate it.

  The hatchling’s scratching slowed until its legs merely twitched. She loosened her grip just enough to feel the pulse in its neck.

  Skree!

  The creature retracted its neck in an effort to get the light out of its eyes, but Calder matched its movement. As long as she shined the beam directly into its good eye, it wouldn’t be able to clearly see what she was doing.

  Its haunches descended beneath the water and its tail spread across the surface. She’d seen these monsters in action. One flick of its tail and it could cover the distance between them in a heartbeat.

  Something bumped her ankle and she nearly came out of her skin. She glanced down, then right back at the creature. Cringed as she nudged Nabahe’s remains away from her.

  Why wasn’t it attacking? The light wouldn’t deter it in the slightest if it came at her from underwater, yet still it remained where she could see it, inching closer with movements so subtle they generated no ripples. She mirrored its every move, which she was beginning to think was its intention. She’d watched these things attack with reckless abandon. The only time she’d seen one hesitate even for a second was when she’d been pointing the flare gun at—

  Suddenly everything made sense.

  Calder scooted sideways until she felt Nabahe’s flank against her ankle. She transferred the flashlight to her mouth, clenched it between her teeth, and did her best to keep the beam aligned with the creature’s face as she slowly knelt and fumbled with the strap on Nabahe’s helmet.

  The hatchling whipped its tail against the water and screeched. She tightened her grip again and the adult took exception.

  Skree!

  She rose with the helmet and seated it on her head with one hand. Buckled the strap. Switched on the headlight. Let the flashlight fall from her mouth. She was going to need both hands if she had any chance of surviving the next few minutes.

  The creature had moved a good five feet closer without her noticing. It was well within striking distance now, but if she truly understood its nature, it wouldn’t attack. At least not yet.

  Again, Calder knelt and ran her hand along the dead man’s side until she found the air tank on his hip. She removed the entire belt and nearly screamed in frustration as she attempted to buckle it around her own waist while the hatchling flailed in her grasp and drew blood with every slash. The blood pattering the surface of the water only seemed to fuel its frenzy.

  Err-err-err-err-err-err-uhh-uhh-uhh-err.

  The creature was so close that she could see the muscles in its shoulders bunch. She retreated a step, but if she took another, she wouldn’t be able to reach the recess to her right.

  The eggs in the nest had been laid over the course of multiple generations and in such a manner as to ensure they would hatch under the right environmental conditions or remain in a state of diapause until they could be individually hatched in one of these holes with a source of both heat and food. As an apex predator, the creature’s numbers were dictated by a delicate relationship with the availability of prey species, especially in a closed environment like this one. Too many of them would decimate prey populations, which, in turn, threatened their own existence. With their inherent savagery, they could easily hunt themselves into extinction. They’d evolved the perfect way of managing their own numbers while simultaneously being prepared to take advantage of the ideal conditions for rapid expansion the moment they presented themselves.

  That was why the creature had braved the fire to save the eggs. They represented the totality of its breeding efforts, the very future of the species. This animal had attempted to smother the flames with its own body. It had been willing to sacrifice itself for the good of the species, and, failing at that, it had subjected itself to horrendous physical pain in order to save however many of the eggs it could hold in its mouth.

  Its tail wavered faster, betraying either its impatience or its intent. She couldn’t wait a second longer.

  Calder darted to her right and grabbed the egg sac from the recess.

  Skree!

  In her hands, she now potentially held the future of the species. Maybe she was wrong and there were hundreds of other nests hidden in the tunnels and this merely represented a single bloodline. Whatever the case, this was the only card she had to play.

  “You want these?” she shouted.

  Skree!

  The creature alternately tracked the hatchling and the egg as she raised them over her head. Calder felt the current against her legs before she realized it had halved the distance between them.

  She prayed there was a way out behind her, because she’d be completely at its mercy underwater, unless . . .

  Unless she showed it that she was willing to do whatever it took to survive.

  The creature lowered its head into the water until all that remained above the surface were its eyes and the spiked crown on its skull. Its body vanished. She could positively feel it tensing under there, coiling like a spring, preparing to strike.

  It was now or never.

  Calder swung the hatchling toward the wall. Its neck snapped with a grinding of bones she felt as much as heard. Blood spattered from the impact.

  Skree!

  She turned and started a three-second countdown in her head. Swam as far as she could, as fast as she could.

  Three.

  Two.

  One.

  Stopped, flipped over and faced the creature again.

  Her light reflected off its wet scales, limning its outline. It nudged the carcass floating on the water, which kicked in circles with one leg until it finally stilled. The creature rounded on her and rose to its full height.

  Skree!

  Calder held up the egg sac as she backed away. She’d opened the gap between them to maybe twenty-five feet, which wasn’t nearly enough to outswim it. She sloshed backward so quickly she nearly tripped over the uneven ground.

  It watched her with what she could only describe as sheer malevolence, a trait she couldn’t even ascribe to the most vicious species of shark during a feeding frenzy. It was an emotional response beholden to a higher level of cognition, an ability to reason and respond to a specific situation or set of stimuli. This was no mere animal, nor was it a mindless killing machine. It was a predator unlike any the modern world had ever seen, one they could never allow to find its way out of this earthen prison, no matter the cost.

  Calder
raised her feet and quietly swam backward. She could no longer see the creature in the darkness beyond the reach of her headlight. She listened for the slightest sound to herald its impending attack, but she knew it had been hunting under these conditions for far too long to give itself away so easily. It held every advantage, except for one.

  She tucked the egg under her wetsuit, against her chest. The embryo sensed her warmth and started to squirm. She suppressed the urge to scream by biting the inside of her lip. Inadvertently hatching the creature was the least of her worries right now.

  Err-err-err-err-err-err-uhh-uhh-uhh-err.

  The sound echoed from all around her, making its origin impossible to pinpoint, although it was definitely closer than she expected.

  Her head struck stone and she let her feet settle to the ground. Her toes grazed a rounded ledge and continued deeper, forcing her to tread. The current was subtle, but unmistakable. There was a passageway beneath her. She prayed it was large enough.

  Err-err-err-err-err-err-uhh-uhh-uhh-err.

  Closer still.

  Calder seated the mask on her face, cranked the air, and dove.

  II

  The ground wouldn’t hold still. Hart fell, but Payton pulled her to her feet and shoved her ahead of him.

  Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack.

  Payton’s light shrank against the seamless cavern wall. He swept it from one side to the other so fast it was disorienting. Fifteen feet and they’d have nowhere left to go.

  The water rose over the ledge and washed past her feet. Their own splashing footsteps masked the sounds of the creature gaining on them from behind.

  Whaah!

  The sound came from somewhere ahead of them. Payton’s beam flashed wildly across the wall in search of its origin.

  Nothing.

  She glanced back. A shadow separated from the darkness, streaking low to the ground and moving with frightening speed. She screamed and urged her legs to run even faster.

  Whaah!

  The beam from Payton’s headlamp knifed upward through the darkness and swept across the shrieking face of the dominant male she had begun to think of as Alpha before settling back on him. He was easily eight feet up the escarpment and inside the mouth of a tunnel that was barely wider than he was.