by David Wood
Aston and Slater jumped up, helped Syed and Jen to their feet. Tate wasn’t lying, the entire huge cavern seemed to swarm with mantics, the soft green light reflecting off their shining carapaces. Clearly they were getting bolder in the light. Reid and Tate aimed for joints and eyes, dropping several. Sol’s fire was less accurate, but he helped to hold the creatures back briefly, then looked at his empty guns in despair. He backed behind Tate as Aston took his place, pumping rounds from Gates’s dropped rifle as best he could. Slater fired fast from her pistol, switched out the clip for the one Reid had given her, and emptied that. As she clicked empty, so did Aston. Panic started to thrum through him as he became convinced they were going to die here. Tate switched to her sidearm once her own rifle was spent.
“Get away from open ground!” Reid yelled. “We have to try to defend ourselves in a narrower passage, some place where they can’t surround us.” He ran, firing, clearing a path.
Aston questioned the wisdom of it, as they’d been surrounded in a tunnel before, but at this point anything seemed preferable to standing vulnerable in wide open ground.
As Reid moved, Sol kept pace beside him, Marla a step behind. After them came Slater and Syed. Aston helped Jen, staying close to Tate as she covered their rear, the whole group moving towards an exit tunnel on the far side. A blur of motion to their right made the group swerve like a school of frightened fish, but Sol Griffin wasn’t fast enough. With a howl of panic, he fell and the mantics swarmed over him.
“Move!” Tate screamed, pushing Aston and Jen forward, Sol already forgotten.
They ducked left and right, dodging the fast-moving mantics, then realized they’d moved aside from the others up ahead.
Aston looked across the gap between them. He was nearly at the mouth of one tunnel, but a swarm of chitinous creatures was between him and Slater. As Slater, Syed, and Marla were driven sideways towards the next tunnel around, Slater realized they had been separated, reached out to Aston. In the moment of pause, she didn’t see a mantic closing up behind her. Aston opened his mouth to shout, but Marla was already there. She pulled Slater violently to one side, saving her boss at the last instant, but it cost the sound engineer her life. The creature’s mandibles snapped shut and Marla’s head leaped from her neck, face wide in a pained expression of shock as blood fountained up below it.
“No!” Aston yelled, drowned out by Slater’s own scream, then Tate was hauling him and Jen towards the tunnel mouth.
Reid stepped up and pushed Slater and Syed into their tunnel, then turned back to hold off the advancing mantics. He fired three shots, then his gun fell silent. His face turned into a grimace of pure rage as he began laying punches left and right into the creatures’ multi-faceted eyes, but then they covered him and blood gouted up and sprayed the walls.
Slater and Syed were swallowed by the darkness of the passage as Tate pushed Aston into their own, screaming at them to “Run! Just fucking run!” and Aston, still hauling Jen Galicia with him, couldn’t help thinking they were going to run straight into more of the bloodthirsty creatures and what was the point anyway?
In darkness, they fled, Jen’s weight dragging down on Aston, but he refused to let her go. His mind was filled with images of death. Reid, Marla, Sol, all gone. Slater and Syed somewhere separated and he may never see them again.
“Jo...” he said, voice edged with the panic roiling in his gut.
He sucked in a huge breath. He’d be damned if he would collapse in the face of this, no matter how ridiculous the odds, no matter how deadly the enemy. He would go down fighting, howling his rage into the face of death. He redoubled his efforts, almost lifted Jen off her feet as he ran alongside Tate.
They came out into a large chamber and Aston actually laughed at the ridiculous lack of luck they had. At least it wasn’t mantics. “Hold it!” he shouted.
Tate raised her pistol, but Aston pushed the barrel down.
“Don’t bother. We’re surrounded.”
33
Jo Slater ran alongside Jahara Syed into the darkness of the tunnel, her mind spinning in shock. Was everyone but them dead? She’d seen so many go down. The image of Marla’s shocked face would haunt her forever. It seemed that whoever came to work for her met a grisly end and she wondered if maybe she was a cursed journalist.
Syed cried out as she stumbled and Slater caught her by the elbow, hauled her along. No, they couldn’t all be dead. Madness snapped at the heels of her mind when she thought like that. She had seen Aston forced into the next passage around, and Tate had been with him. And Jen too? It was hard to remember. But Aston had been alive. If nothing else, she needed to cling to that knowledge, that hope. Somehow they would have to find a way to loop around and rejoin each other. Or both escape by separate routes and meet again on the outside.
“They’re coming!” Syed cried, glancing back over her shoulder.
Slater trusted the woman’s word, didn’t risk a fall by looking back herself. “Let’s get somewhere bright. Find another cavern with vines or something.”
“That last cavern was bright with vines and crystals,” Syed said, her voice trembling on the verge of open panic.
“Let’s hope that once they go along dark tunnels, their eyes take a long time to adjust again to the next bright place. It’s the only hope we’ve got. We keep moving from one to the next, no rest until we get out.”
Syed nodded, brows knitted. Slater wondered if her biologist’s mind was working. That was good, anything to distract her from giving in to fear. “That could be why we keep getting reprieves,” Syed said. “If we don’t linger too long in any one place and they have to keep readjusting, we can maybe stay ahead of them.”
“It’s the best plan we’ve got.”
“It’s the only plan we’ve got! But do you really think we can find another way out?” Syed asked.
“We have to. There must be multiple ways in and out of a network this big. The evidence of habitation means at some point it was well populated. There’s no way there would only be one entrance to a place so vast. We just have to keep moving, keep looking.” Or die trying, she thought, but chose not to vocalize that addition. Syed wasn’t stupid, and would be entertaining the same thoughts, she was sure.
They ran on, keeping their headlamps aimed at the ground to avoid tripping on the rocky debris strewn everywhere. Finally, Slater noticed a soft luminescence ahead. The by now familiar green tinge was like a breath of fresh air. “Come on!”
They redoubled their speed and burst out into a cavern that was long and low, but had a fissure all up one of its long walls from which bright green vines snaked out like veins, lighting the place. As they skidded to a stop, Slater rejoiced at the sight of three other people already there. Her mouth started to form Aston’s name, but her relief was short lived. Anders Larsen and two mean-looking mercenaries she had never seen before turned in surprise and brought their weapons to bear.
Slater threw her hands up. “Don’t shoot! We’re unarmed.” She still had the pistol jammed into the back of her pants, but it was useless without ammo. She knew Syed didn’t even have a knife, but her bloodstone dagger was tucked safely in her jacket.
“Jo Slater and Jahara Syed,” Anders Larsen said. “Well, well, some of you still live after all. Just you two?”
“Yes,” Slater said quickly, before Syed could answer. “Everyone else is dead. We need to get out.” She couldn’t articulate exactly why, but she felt pretty certain Larsen was not their friend. If he thought Aston, Tate, and Jen were dead, as the others really were, perhaps she would buy them a chance to escape.
“Well, that’s okay,” Larsen said.
Slater was stunned. She was definitely correct that he was not their friend. “Okay? Everyone’s dead, Larsen! How is that okay?”
He grinned. “Because you’re still alive and we only need one guide.”
“To where?”
“Back to the big cavern, with the lake and all the greenium crystals. We got lost
in these damned tunnels. We need to get back. So you’ll show us the way.”
“But we...” Syed started.
But Slater spoke quickly over the biologist. “Yeah, sure, okay. We’ll do that, if you use those guns to protect us.” She knew they had little chance, unarmed as they were. At least Larsen and his angry-looking friends had weapons. Perhaps she could use them as much as they used her. “But we can’t go back that way, it’s swarming with mantics. And they’re catching up.”
Two tunnels led from the far side of the long cave in which they stood. Larsen gestured to the one on the left. “Well, we can’t go that way for the same reason.”
Slater forced a smile, hoping to project a confidence she didn’t feel. “Not a problem.” She pointed to the other tunnel. “We can go that way.” It was a ploy to keep moving at least. Syed looked at her, but Slater refused to meet the woman’s eye. “Let’s move,” she said. “The quicker the better.” She hoped Aston was having better luck.
34
Aston stared in resigned astonishment at the second underground city they had discovered. Like the first one in pretty much every way, except this one was clearly inhabited. Dozens of creatures stood all around him, Ronda Tate and Jen Galicia, with bloodstone knives and spears all pointed menacingly.
His initial thought had immediately gone to aliens, the “grays” so commonly referred to in popular culture and conspiracy theories. But after a moment it became clear they were something different. Almost certainly not aliens, he decided, but hominids who had evolved and adapted to their subterranean surroundings. Where they may have originated, why they had been here, were questions he thought may perhaps never be answered, unless they could communicate. Even then, how much of their own history would they know? The habitation, the simplicity of the city, pointed to a largely undeveloped society, not unlike he imagined the Neanderthals of history to have been. But these creatures bore no resemblance to heavy-browed, hairy, dark-skinned cavemen he’d seen in displays at museums.
Small of stature, these people had pale, almost bone white, skin, and lean, spindly muscles stretched along fine limbs. Their skinny bodies made their heads appear overlarge. Their eyes were even larger than their heads should have allowed, with huge pupils, which Aston presumed were for drinking in maximum light. They had very little body hair, and what did cover their heads was wispy, nearly transparent. Their spear shafts were made of all manner of improvised tools, most clearly scavenged from other people like himself who had intruded into their domain. Among the weapons he saw shafts of ski poles, old-fashioned backpack frames, even rifles, with the sharpened bloodstone jammed into the end of now useless barrels.
“What the hell is this?” Tate whispered, her pistol hanging forgotten beside her thigh.
“It’s the answer to why we’ve seen signs of civilization that clearly wasn’t the work of the mantics,” Jen said. “Let’s assume they might be friendly.”
“What if they plan to eat us?” Tate asked.
“There’s too many of them to fight,” Aston said. “Let me try to talk to them.” He stepped slightly forward of the two women, then immediately stopped when the crowd of pale folk bristled, brandishing their weapons. “Okay, okay!” He raised his hands, palms out, tried to force a smile, though he felt nothing but fear. And a mild sense of wonder. Perhaps he needed to focus on that. He pointed at his chest. “I’m Sam Aston.” They tilted their heads at his words, clearly more curious than aggressive at this point. He tried again, tapped his chest. “Aston.”
One of the creatures lowered its spear and pointed to itself. “An-na-ki,” it said, in a high, breathy voice. Immediately many others became animated, started chattering in a series of rapid clicks and chirps interspersed with vaguely recognizable syllables of speech more akin to known language. Regardless, it was all far too fast and garbled for Aston to follow. The one who had spoken rounded on the others, its voice sharp, angry. They settled slightly and it turned back to Aston, gestured to itself again and made the same sounds. “An-na-ki.”
Aston pointed toward it. “You’re Annaki?”
The creature pointed to itself, then the two either side of it. “Annaki. Annaki.” It gestured to take in the crowd of gathered pale folk. “Annaki.”
“They’re all Annaki,” Jen said. “They have a collective name for themselves.”
“It’s a start,” Aston said. He smiled at the one who had spoken and gave a small bow. “Annaki,” he said. “Hello. It’s nice to meet you.”
The group chattered rapidly again, their tensions easing.
Aston pointed to himself again, said, “Aston.” He gestured to the others. “Galicia. Tate.”
The first creature bobbed excitedly. “Annaki-Akan!” it said, pointing to itself. It gestured left. “Annaki-Innka.” Then to the right. “Annaki-Oto.”
Aston grinned. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Hello, Akan!”
The creature gave a throaty cough that might have been a laugh. It pointed to its mouth and made chewing motions with its small, pale teeth.
“It’s offering us food,” Jen said.
“Hell, no.” Tate’s brows creased in a frown. “I ain’t eating anything from this crazy place.”
“They must live on something,” Aston said. “If it’s glowing green, we don’t eat it, though.” He nodded to Akan. “Okay.”
There was clearly still some dissension among the population, but on the whole the Annaki seemed to have relaxed. Aston and his friends were led to one of the larger dwellings and guided inside. He wondered how they remained safe from the mantics. Were they in league with the creatures? Or did they have better defenses? This cavern, like so many others, had webs of glowing vines crawling from fissures in the walls and ceiling, the enormous place lit in the gentle green glow they had become used to. Deposits of greenium glittered here and there, the dark curling ferns growing in fissures all around the walls and floor. But the mantics could clearly grow used to the brightness in time, as the recent attack had proven. They had hardly rested at all before they were overrun. And that cavern had been no different to this one, only perhaps it was a little smaller. Had the Annaki relocated to a bigger home cave? Regardless, they seemed to exist here quite comfortably, so they obviously had some way of controlling or holding back the mantics. He realized every weapon, from spears to knives to sword-like machetes, had been made of the strange rock Murray Lee had dubbed bloodstone. Was that the answer? If so, what was it about bloodstone that did more damage than bullets? And where did they get it?
He and his friends were led to a smooth rock being used as a table. On it were piles of mushroom-like fungi, pale and smooth, and dried out cockroach-like bugs. Neither had the bright green glow of the vines or the fish they had seen. Annaki-Akan pointed to the food, then his mouth. Aston’s reluctance must have been clear on his face, for Akan moved forward, took one bug and a pinch of fungus and ate both together with relish. He nodded, stepped back, gestured again.
“I am starving,” Jen said. “And still weak as a baby.”
“We’ll need energy,” Aston agreed. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Holy hell,” Tate said. “I feel like that chick from the Indiana Jones movie. The one they tried to feed eyeball soup.”
Aston managed a grin.”
The three of them took some of the fungus and tentatively ate it. Aston found it dry, dusty, spongy in texture with a subtle savory flavor, but it wasn’t too unpleasant. He tried a little more. “It’s okay,” he said.
Tate and Jen both chewed, faces twisted in mild concern. Or perhaps disgust.
“Well, in for a quarter, in for a buck,” Aston said, and threw one of the dried bugs into his mouth. It was crunchy and rich, with a nutty taste that he found strong and slightly unnerving. After a few chews he grew used to it. “Actually not bad,” he said with a smile.
Jen and Tate gave identical shrugs and the three of them ate their fill of small mushrooms and beetles. Some of the Annaki joined them,
clearly some hierarchy at play where a handful of the pale creatures ate while the rest filed out and went about their business.
Aston hadn’t realized how hungry he was and felt strength and clarity of thought return as he ate. He didn’t like to guess at the actual nutritional value of the stuff. Looking at the Annaki, he didn’t fancy living on a diet of it for long, but in the short term, it was a valuable feed.
As they had their fill, Aston tried to communicate again. “We need to find our friends,” he said.
Akan looked quizzical, tipped its head.
“Our friends,” Aston said. He pointed to himself, then Tate, then Jen, then pointed to three fingers on his left hand. He did it again, then held up the last two fingers of that hand, pointed to them and shrugged. Akan was clearly confused. He repeated the gestures, then swept his arm around to encompass the cavern they were in and beyond. “We have two more friends,” he said, despairing and frustrated. “We need to find them.”
“I don’t think he gets it, man,” Tate said. “I say we let them take their chances and convince these guys to show us the way out. They must know one, right?”
“No way!” Aston said. “I’m not leaving Jo down here. And Syed was with her.”
“They’re probably dead already. If not, they probably will be soon.”
“We can’t know that,” Jen said. “And we can’t just give up on them. We have to try to find them.”
Tate laughed, but it had little humor in it. “Do we have to? Really? I’m thinking all I have to do is get the hell out of here.”
“You’re not a bad person, Ronda,” Aston said. “You really going to be selfish now? We can ask these guys to help us find Slater and Syed, and then show us all the way out. They’ve survived for who knows how long down here, so they can obviously avoid the mantics. We’ll be safe with them if we befriend them.”
Tate pursed her lips, shook her head. After a moment, she looked down, but said no more. Aston had to hope she’d stick with them. He turned his attention back to Akan. “Our friends.” He stopped, thinking. Then he pulled the bloodstone dagger from his jacket. Akan made positive noises, pointed to the weapon and moved his arms like mantic mandibles. “These work against the mantics?” Aston asked.