Them: Society Lost, Volume Four

by Steven Bird

  “Whatever you think,” she whispered.

  “We go this way,” he decided, working his way toward an area where the cave branched off into several chambers and tunnels.

  Leading Britney by the hand, Yuri would quietly give her notice of changes in her footing to help her navigate the varied geology of the subterranean maze. “Watch head,” he cautioned, placing his hand on her head, forcing her to squat down. “Object extending from ceiling. Sharp points.”

  Holding on tightly to Yuri, following his every move, Britney felt him come to a sudden stop. “What is it?” she asked.

  Feeling him squeeze her hand, she heard him say in a grim voice, “Bones.”

  “Bones?” she asked, fearing his answer.

  “Bones of many people,” he replied. “Is horrible. Bones sorted and stacked in piles. Some bones broken or cut, like they were chopped off. Many teeth missing from skulls.”

  “Skulls?! she shrieked, squeezing his hand tightly. “Let’s go. Please, let’s not stay here any longer.”

  Doing as she asked, Yuri carefully led Britney around the piles and stacks of bones toward the far side of the chamber where there appeared to be a gap.

  Reaching the opening, Yuri whispered, “Stay here. I go see.”

  “No!” she insisted. “Please! Please don’t leave me in the dark alone.”

  “Is okay, we go,” he conceded, leading her forward.

  When they entered the chamber, the sound of running water could be heard off in the distance, as if it was trickling down the cave’s walls. Kneeling down to touch the floor, Yuri felt a shallow flow of cold water following a low, water-worn channel in the floor. Scooping up a handful of the ice-cold water, Yuri took a sip.

  “Is good,” he declared. “Water running beneath our feet. Is good. Drink. You need to drink. You not get enough when in chains.”

  Kneeling alongside Yuri, Britney began scooping up the fresh, flowing water with her hands, drinking handful after handful. “Oh, this is good,” she said, wiping the dripping water from her chin.

  Just then, the sounds of the all-too-familiar horn echoed through the labyrinth of underground chambers and passages.

  Britney’s heart sank as Yuri said, “They know. They know we are gone. Quickly, we must move.”

  Leading her through the chamber, Yuri saw where a large, flat rock had fallen from the ceiling sometime in the past. The rock had created an obstacle to climb over to continue down that path, but it also presented them with an opportunity.

  Looking down at their feet, Yuri was pleased to see that the small stream had kept the limestone floor free of sediment that would have otherwise highlighted their tracks.

  Hearing movement coming from the passage behind them, Yuri pulled her hand and instructed, “Quickly. Climb rocks. Hold onto my belt. Do not lose me.”

  Scurrying up the fifteen-foot-high wall of rubble, Yuri slipped between several of the larger jagged stones and into a gap in the rubble. “Come,” he whispered, taking her by the arm and leading her into the tight confines of the rock slide.

  Several feet into the pile of fallen rocks, they found a void created by the debris that was approximately three feet across and four feet high.

  “We hide here,” he whispered as the sounds of their pursuers could be heard entering the chamber.

  Britney’s heart pounded in her chest because she knew if they were discovered, there would be no escaping again. They were pinned in with nowhere to go. Yuri had killed one of their own, and that was an act she was sure the barbarians would not let go without severe penalties. If the innocents in their grip suffered so greatly, what would they do to those they saw as having lashed out at them?

  Yuri listened to their movements, but he heard no words from the figures in the chamber. He heard what sounded like smacking and pounding on one’s chest. Almost as if they were communicating by the rhythm and beat of their hands and fists.

  The figures then went silent, as if they, too, were pausing to listen. Britney felt a tingle in her throat. She felt the urge to cough begin to overwhelm her. Please, God, no. Struggling to control herself, Britney held her breath, hoping the feeling would soon fade.

  Just as the urge to cough became unbearable, she buried her face in Yuri’s chest to muffle the sound as the figures once again began to move about in the darkness, leaving the chamber, and departing in the direction from where they had come.

  Gently coughing into Yuri’s chest, she felt him pat her on the back as if to reassure her everything would be okay. As she embraced him, she thought of the irony of having a man who she would have thought to be a monster, having been with the group that murdered her parents and so many others in cold blood, who was now her potential savior.

  After waiting for what seemed like a half an hour or more, Yuri whispered, “We go now.”

  Taking her by the hand once again, Yuri led Britney out of the rock pile and back down into the wet, damp chamber of the cave.

  “We go this way,” he said, following the sound of the trickling water.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Joining up with Daryl, Q whispered, “Move up with Tyrone, and the two of you join up with Jessie. Try to establish a defensible position and wait for the rest of us to join up with you. Carl and I are gonna go back and check on Sam. He’s not responding after that odd vibe alert.”

  “Roger that,” Daryl confirmed with a nod, and he immediately began moving forward toward Tyrone’s position.

  Working his way back to Carl, Q asked, “When’s the last time you laid eyes on Sam?”

  “At the top of the ridge. When I went over and started down, it looked like he was keeping a watch on our six while the rest of us began the descent.”

  “Was anything unusual going on?” Q asked.

  “No. It all seemed to be business as usual. Why?”

  “We got a long, steady vibe alert,” explained Q. “I pinged everyone for a response, and Sam’s radio has been silent ever since. Something’s up. I can feel it.”

  “Have you tried voice comms?”

  “No. I don’t want to give away his position if he’s in a bind and avoiding contact. Let’s work our way back up the hill. Be careful. According to Jessie, we’re getting close to where we'd expect to encounter those creepy bastards.”

  “Roger that, Boss,” Carl said as he double-checked the condition of his rifle and began working his way up the hill toward the ridgeline.

  ~~~~

  Using the game tracker, Jessie watched as two human figures approached from his rear. Look to be the size of Daryl and Tyrone, he thought.

  “Jess,” he heard whispered in the darkness.

  “Come on up,” he replied.

  Once Daryl and Tyrone were at his position, Jessie asked, “What’s going on?”

  “No response from Sam after that tone was received,” Daryl explained quietly. “Q sent us to join up with you. He said to get ourselves in a defensible position and wait on him and Carl to show back up with Sam.”

  Looking around, Jessie said, “This is probably as good as it gets without moving farther away from our path of travel. This cluster of trees is pretty tight and gives us visual cover and makes for a good barrier from several directions. I’ll keep an eye out ahead, while you guys split the difference behind and beside us. I’ll pass the thermal around so we can each scan our areas systematically. We don’t want a friendly-fire accident, nor do we want to be snuck up on by those furry bastards.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Daryl replied.

  “Me, too,” affirmed Tyrone. “I’ll take this side, Daryl,” he said, referring to their western flank.

  “I’ve got this side, then,” Daryl indicated before turning to face their eastern flank.

  Seeing nothing on the thermal up ahead, Jessie handed it off to Daryl, who thoroughly scanned his area as well. “Nothin’ here,” he noted as he passed it off to Tyrone.

  “I see… Oh, wait, that’s Q and Carl working their way up the hill,” Ty
rone said. “Well… I saw them, but just lost them,” he remarked when they passed behind some trees and terrain as their path of travel winded its way up the mountain.

  Just as Tyrone began to hand the thermal back to Jessie, he caught a glimpse of color to the east of Q and Carl’s position, level with their height up the hill and moving toward them.

  “Ah, hell,” he said. “I’ve got movement. I don’t think it’s Sam either. It’s way too tall to be him, and it’s working its way toward Q and Carl.”

  “Lemme take a look,” Daryl said, reaching for the thermal game tracker.

  “That’s definitely not Sam,” Daryl said confidently. “Well, hell, what do we do? If we key up on the radio, we’ll help that bastard zero in on them. I could reach the threat from here with my .45-70 if it weren’t so damn dark. I can barely see my front sight in this.”

  Thinking it over for a moment, Daryl said, “Jessie, if you relay the threat to Q, I’ll start pounding the general location of the threat to keep him pinned down while they take evasive action or get into position to fight. I mean… I won’t hit anything, but it’ll turn the tables, at least, taking the surprise out of the equation.”

  Scanning the area again with the thermal, Daryl exclaimed, “Damn it, there’s two of them! Call ’em!” he demanded as he raised his big .45-70 lever gun, aiming at the approximate area of the threat. Thinking quickly, Daryl held the thermal onto the barrel of his rifle just ahead of the rear leaf sight. “This will give me a better general idea,” he mumbled as he quietly cycled a round into the chamber with the gun’s oversized lever loop, and said, “Now!”

  Picking up the radio and pressing the push-to-talk button, Jessie exclaimed, “Q, you’ve got movement to your right. Here comes the artillery,” just as Daryl let the four-hundred-and-five-grain lead flat point round fly, followed by a steady volley of seven more rounds from the twenty-four-inch barreled reproduction of the venerable Winchester model 1886.

  Seeing a muzzle flash from the vicinity of the threats as they fired on Q and Carl’s position, Tyrone joined Daryl in laying down a suppressing and diversionary barrage of fire with his M4 while Jessie kept an eye on possible threats ahead of them.

  Upon firing his last round, Daryl put the thermal to his eye and scanned the hillside, “I see Q and Carl on the move. They’re hustling to the east and back down the hill, away from the threat.”

  Looking back to the area of the threat, Daryl said, “Well, I’ll be damned. I think we lucked out and accidentally hit one of those bastards. I’ve got one on the ground not moving. The other is retreating to the west. And… he’s gone. Lost him.”

  “Are you sure the other one is down?” Jessie asked.

  “He, or it, ain’t moving. We’ll know in a few minutes if the image starts to cool.”

  Pointing in the direction of Q and Carl’s last known position, Jessie said, “See if you can keep a visual on Q and Carl. We don’t want to engage them by mistake when they come upon us in the dark.”

  “I think we should move,” advised Tyrone.

  “Come again?” Jessie asked, seeking clarification.

  “It’s like the old truism, ‘tracers work both ways’,” Tyrone explained. “If the two we saw aren’t the only ones, the rest of them know where we are now. We lit ourselves up with muzzle flash pretty damn well.”

  “Good point,” conceded Jessie. “I’d vote to move toward where we think Q and Carl may be coming from. The sooner we join up with them, the better chance we’ll have of repelling another attack. If we stay separated, it may just make it easier for them to pick us off one at a time.”

  “Sounds good to me,” agreed Daryl as he handed the thermal game tracker back to Jessie so he could reload his rifle. Loading one round and then racking it out of the magazine tube and into the chamber with the rifle’s lever, Daryl loaded eight more rounds in the magazine tube for a total of nine rounds on tap. “She doesn’t hold as many as one of them fancy AR’s or AK’s of yours, but each shot means something.”

  With a chuckle, Jessie shrugged, “I wouldn’t call an AK fancy. They are forties technology and all. And trust me, I envy you right now. I love a good lever gun. As a matter of fact, I was carrying a Marlin .30-30 when this all started a few days ago. And that .45-70 of yours… well, one of its cousins saved my bacon a few months back. You’ve got your mind in the right place if you ask me.”

  “I guess I should have read that about you from that ol’ Colt on your side,” Daryl remarked, complimenting Jessie’s choice of sidearm.

  Interrupting with a chuckle, Tyrone said, “You two guys can keep the bromance going later. Let’s get on with the task at hand.”

  “Right on,” Daryl said. “What do you think?”

  Looking to Jessie, Tyrone reached out his hand and asked, “Can I see the radio Q gave you?”

  “Sure,” Jessie said, fishing it out of his pocket and handing it to him.

  Attempting to reach Q and Carl via the hand-held unit’s vibratory alert, Tyrone waited patiently for a moment before attempting a second time. “C’mon, guys,” he muttered.

  “Nothing?” Daryl asked quietly.

  “Nope, let’s move. We don’t want to risk keying up with voice just yet. Let’s get moving. We can’t keep sitting here waiting for… um, them, to find us. I’ll lead,” Tyrone asserted, looking at Jessie. “No offense, but I know all the signals they may use.”

  “None taken,” Jessie replied.

  ~~~~

  Shivering and sweating profusely from what Nate was now sure was a fairly serious infection, he rested across several closely-spaced branches of the tree, looking down at the tattered remains of the coyote had fallen victim to the ravenous hunger of its own pack.

  Damn, that’s a rough way to go. Those mongrels rip you apart, gut first, while one of them holds your face in the dirt with his teeth. It’s like they don’t even try to kill their prey like a big cat. They merely hold it down while they eat. Sick.

  Although Nate had seen the remains of sheep that had fallen victim to coyote attacks back at their homesteads, Nate had never seen them in action. Before now, he could only surmise what had happened based on the remains and on the trauma to the sheep’s nose and face. He now knew that trauma was a result of being pinned down by teeth while being eaten alive.

  Oh, thank God that wasn’t me down there.

  Flipping his night vision on and looking around, he couldn’t see any sign of coyotes remaining in the area, but knew if he struggled to climb down the tree in his condition to retrieve his weapon, he’d never get back up to safety. He was growing weaker by the minute. He’d lost a lot of blood, and now infection was setting in. Add to that the hunger and thirst that was taking its toll on him, and he felt the best course of action he could take at this point was simply to stay where he was and hope for the best.

  Hearing a thundering boom off in the distance, up the hill and toward the ridge behind him, Nate perked up and quickly turned his head in the direction of the sounds. He could hear a large caliber rifle firing away, thump after thump, followed by the steady cadence of the supersonic cracks from a smaller, high-velocity round.

  “What the…?” he mumbled as he attempted to make sense of it all. Almost as soon as it had started, the gunfire ceased. Something’s going down, but what? Is it more of those UF guys getting a run for their money with those monsters from the cave, or… is it the cavalry? Ah, no need to get my hopes up. Just hang on. That’s all I need to focus on for now. Not dying, and not falling out of this tree.

  ~~~~

  Moving in bounds, Tyrone, Jessie, and Daryl stopped momentarily for Tyrone to scan the area with the game tracker. “We don’t have a lot of battery life left, guys. I hope… Wait, I’ve got two on the move. The way they’re bounding and moving, I’m gonna put my money on them being Q and Carl.”

  Attempting the vibratory alert yet again, Tyrone patiently hoped for a response, to no avail. “We’ve got to assume they’ve lost comms, or aren’t in a
position to reply.”

  Thinking the situation over for a moment, Tyrone said, “You two hold up here. I’m gonna get to a position where I can signal them. We don’t want them to head right past us in the darkness. They don’t have one of these fancy thermal toys, and we can’t just announce ourselves given our current predicament.”

  “Whatever you guys say,” Jessie replied. “You’re a team. You know each other. I’m just the new guy.”

  “I say go for it,” Daryl said in support of Tyrone’s idea.

  “I’m gonna have to take the thermal, so I can intercept them. You guys gonna be all right here in the dark, blind?”

  “We’ll live,” Daryl said answered, patting his friend on the shoulder. “Well, that’s the plan, at least,” he said with a crooked smile.

  Nodding, Tyrone looked up at the sky and noted the clouds forming overhead. “Hopefully we won’t lose the moonlight. Well, I’d better get going. Be safe,” he said as he slipped off into the darkness in the direction of the thermal images he assumed to be Q and Carl.

  Chapter Twenty

  Following the steady sound of trickling water through the twists and turns of the vast, underground cave system, Yuri paused abruptly, startling Britney. “Do you feel breeze?”

  “Breeze, I… uh,” she stammered, momentarily confused.

  “Shhh, be still, and feel breeze on face.”

  “Yes. Yes, I can feel it,” she affirmed, beginning to understand where Yuri was going with this.

  “We follow. Find where air enters cave,” he explained, pulling her along.

  Approaching a rise in the cave floor leading up to a small opening, Yuri announced, “Up. We climb up,” and he led her to the rock features that lay between them and the opening.