The Cave

by Tom Clarke

  “Copy!” Jim replied. “We're headed to you!” Jim turned to Paul, “Let’s go.”

  Darrel took one last look at the compound, and then backed out of his position. Once back in the woods, he started to jog down the hill towards the road. When he got to the bottom he stopped short of the road and waited for Jim, keeping himself hidden in the tree line.

  As the SUV pulled up Darrel moved out of the woods, ran over, and jumped into the right rear passenger seat. Nico slapped him on the shoulder, “Good job!”

  “Let’s go!” Jim said with a sense of urgency in his voice. He turned back towards Darrel, “How did she look?”

  “Okay Jimmy.” Darrel replied. “She looked a little rough around the edges, but she was okay. I’ll tell you this though, she was walking with that other woman like they knew each other.”

  “Paul, they are all going to be inside that church, right?” Jim asked.

  “Yes, all will be there for the meal.” Paul replied with a large smile spreading across his face.

  “What meal would that be?” Darrel asked in a snarky tone of voice. “Pancakes and some hash browns maybe.”

  Paul started humming again, “Oh, I would imagine it will be something a little more, fresh. Or should I say someone,” he answered, looking right at Jim.

  No more words were exchanged the rest of the short drive to the main gate of the compound. Paul, continuing to hum, hit the button on the opener Nico had recovered from his SUV. The gate lumbered open and they drove in.

  As the gate shut behind them Paul drove towards the church. As they approached the church Jim looked back at Nico, reached back and hit his friend in the shoulder. He turned back to Paul, “Slow down.”

  Paul slowed to almost a crawl as Jim and Darrel both stepped out of the SUV with their packs and ran towards one of the smaller outbuildings near the church. Paul then sped up and drove to the pickup point.

  Jim ran towards the large shed by the side of the church. As he got close he slowed to a quick trot, and then came to a stop by the front corner. He took a knee, keeping the building between himself and the church.

  Darrel came running up behind him, also taking a knee, the muzzle of his rifle pointing in the direction they had just come from. “I’m gonna take a quick look” Jim said as he stood up.

  Jim braced himself against the side of the shed and then, making sure to only expose half of his head, quickly looked around the side of the building and at the front of the church. He then laid down on the ground and using the same technique took another quick look at the church.

  After looking at the church Jim rolled over and sat up. “No windows facing us,” he whispered to Darrel. “Front door is there. I’m gonna go to the front, you go see if there’s a back door, then come to the front.”

  Darrel nodded, pivoted on his knee and moved around to the other side of the shed. Jim stood, looked back at Darrel, nodded, and they both moved quickly closing the distance between the shed and the church. Both men slowed, and then stopped just before the building being careful not to alert anyone inside.

  As Jim slowly moved up the side of the church towards the front, Darrel re-slung his rifle, and then using the same technique Jim had used, took a quick look behind the church.

  Darrel could see that there was a back door that opened to a walkway which led onto a small patio. The area on either side of the walkway was landscaped with gravel. Moving cautiously Darrel stepped to the back of the building, reached down and dug into the gravel to see how deep it was. Seeing that it was deep enough he removed one of the IED’s Jim had made from his pack and buried it in the gravel. The buried bomb produced a hump in the gravel but was not visible.

  Just as Darrel finished burying the Tannerite IED the back door of the church came open. Darrel stepped back around the corner of the church and into shadows that were cast by the angle of the sun. As he moved he produced a six-inch hunting style knife.

  Standing in the shadow of the building, his knife at the ready, Darrel could hear a male humming and shuffling his feet as he walked around the building. The man in the brown suit stopped as he stepped into the shadow and came face to face with Darrel. The man’s humming stopped as he looked at the strangely painted man looking back at him from the shadow.

  Before the man could speak Darrel struck, plunging his knife into the man’s throat. As he reached to his throat with both hands Darrel pulled the knife back to him and kicked forward to the instep of the man's right leg, knocking him off balance. As the man fell forward Darrel grabbed him with his free hand, spun him around, pushed him down, and then thrust forward with the knife again, striking the man in the base of his skull with the blade.

  Darrel grabbed the now dead man in the brown suit, pulled him in the shadow. He laid the man down, pushing his body up against the side of the church. He then quickly ran up to where Jim was knelt, covering the front door with his rifle.

  As he got to Jim Darrel whispered, “There’s a back door. I planted a package in the gravel. One of them walked up on me, he’s DRT back there.”

  Jim nodded, “I’m gonna check out the front door.”

  “Wait!” Darrel said. “I got an idea.” Darrel pulled his pack off and removed the small drone they had been using earlier. “Watch this,” he said as the drone quietly lifted off and started sending a video image back to his cell phone.

  “That’s possibly the coolest thing ever!” Jim said in a hushed voice. “Fly it by that window over there.”

  Emitting only a slight hum Darrel maneuvered the drone to the window. “Look at that,” Darrel said. “They’re all huddled towards the front!”

  Jim looked at the image on Darrel’s phone and could see that the inside of the church was basically a large open room with pews and a very old looking stone alter in the front. “Look, there she is!” Jim said. “Front right. Is that blood all over her face?”

  “Yeah” Darrel replied. “It looks like it was smeared on. Hey, seated to her left, that’s Lone Wolf Reaper! Alan, I mean. That woman sitting between him and Shelly, that’s the one I saw walking her over here. She’s got blood smeared on her face too. Jimmy, I got another idea! Come on let’s place the other charges and then whack these fuckers!”

  Jim nodded and then covered the door with his rifle as Darrel recovered the drone. The two then snuck off and planted several of the Tannerite bombs around the path they were going to take back to Nico.

  Finishing up both men ran back to the side of the shed where they had started. “Here’s my idea” Darrel said, whispering his plan to Jim.

  “Are you sure about that?” Jim asked.

  Darrel nodded, “Yeah, it’ll be fun!”

  As the two men moved back up on the church they could hear what sounded like a combination of chanting, and gospel singing. Peeking inside through the front window Jim and Darrel could see that the congregation was gathered in front of the stone alter at the front.

  “Hey, look at that!” Darrel said, pointing to Alan as he bellowed to the worshipers in a language neither of them recognized. “Behind Alan, look at Shelly!”

  Behind Alan Jim could see his wife being held by two men, both wearing old style brown suits. Jim and Darrel watched as the face and jaw of both men started to contort, just like they had seen happen with Paul. Looking into the small crowd they noticed several of the members were starting to change.

  “Now’s our chance, she’s by the back door!” Darrel said.

  Jim nodded, “Yeah, meet back at the truck!” He then turned and ran to the back door of the church. Once in place Jim keyed the mic on his radio, “Set.”

  “Making entry” came Darrel crackling back over the radio.

  Darrel very gently pulled the front door open just a few inches. Only wide enough for him to reach in and set his drone in the entry way.

  The chanting and singing was loud enough that no one heard the low hum of the drone as it lifted off in the entry way of the church. Using the controls downloaded to his cell pho
ne Darrel guided the small, tactical-black colored drone up and into the ceiling area of the church.

  From the hovering position of the drone Darrel could see that all eyes in the church were on Alan. As he continued to preach to the crowd Alan produced a large curved knife which he was holding in his right hand. With his left, Alan lifted from the ground a young teenage girl who was wearing a flower print summer dress.

  As he continued Alan raised the knife as though he were going to strike the young girl with it. Then, in mid-sentence, Alan stopped as he looked curiously at the strange black object hovering just above the worshipers. As the drone descended to just about eye level with Alan he dropped the young girl. Suddenly the small black drone shot back up and flew a circular pattern above Alan’s head.

  The unit then descended, again, eye level with Alan. Stepping back into a fighting stance Alan yelled at the drone and raised his knife. Shelly, watching this unfold smiled as the drone suddenly shot forward, crashing into Alan’s head. There was a collective hiss and growl from the crowd as one of Alan’s followers reached up and grabbed the drone.

  As everyone in the church was so focused on the drone that had just dive-bombed their master, none of them noticed Darrel quietly step into the entry way of the church.

  “Attention!” Darrel yelled as loud as he could, his voice echoing through the building. “I am the police, you are all under arrest! Lay face down on the ground and put your hands on your heads!”

  The church became silent. The confusion on the faces of the worshipers as they looked on at this man, with a painted face, standing in their house of worship, yelling at them, was palpable. The confusion was increased when the young girl who was about to be killed by Alan ran straight towards, and then hid behind the man.

  Very quickly, however, the silence was replaced with a series of growls and hisses as the members of the congregation began to focus in on and move slowly towards Darrel. The forward movement of the group was halted when Darrel raised the muzzle of his rifle and again yelled, “Police! Get down on the ground!”

  The worshipers stopped and looked back at their master who, with a smile on his face, uttered something in what sounded like Egyptian. The group again started slowly moving forward, some of them clapping their hands and singing. Others were beginning to show sharp yellowing teeth and off colored eyes as they moved closer.

  Darrel locked eyes with one of the ones in the front. The man, who was wearing a brown suit, was now on his hands and knees taking the shape of a large animal. The man let out a scream that morphed into a loud growl. He turned and snapped another parishioner whose face was taking on the shape of a serpent. Darrel grinned, “Come on fucker! I got a biscuit for you.”

  With all the attention focused towards the front of the church, as they had done with Darrel and the drone, none one noticed the second man slip into the back door. Quietly walking up behind the now one man who was holding his wife, Jim reached out and grabbed the man around the back of his head, covering his mouth with his hand. In one swift motion, he thrust forward, striking the back of the man’s knee with his own as he pulled him back, causing the man in the brown suit to lose balance and fall backwards. Jim then buried his knife into the base of the man’s head, killing him instantly.

  Lowering the man’s body to the floor Jim reached up and grabbed his wife by the arm, put his finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet, winked, and then hustled her out the back door of the church.

  “Clear, I’ve got her!” Jim said into his radio as he ran, dragging Shelly along with him, towards the corner of the shed.

  “Jim!” Shelly yelled. “I knew it! Jim, wait that little girl, we can’t leave her!”

  Jim turned and looked at his wife, grabbed her and gave her a big kiss, smearing face paint on her in the process. “Hang on a second” Jim said with a smile on his face. “Darrel you copy?”

  “Copy!” Darrel’s voice replied. “I’m moving now, plus one, headed to the truck.”

  Once Darrel got the call from Jim that he and Shelly were clear, Darrel had started to slowly back up towards the door. He looked down at the young girl hiding behind him, “Cover your ears, get ready to move!”

  As the monsters inside the church moved closer Darrel reached into a satchel pouch he was carrying and pulled out a large plastic bottle that had been wrapped with several layers of duct tape and small marbles. Within steps of the door, Darrel tossed the bottle into the middle of the advancing crowd only to have it caught by one of the worshipers.

  “You can keep the drone!” Darrel yelled as he leveled his rifle at the crowd and started firing as he pushed his shoulder into the front door of the church.

  As he stepped out the door Darrel grabbed the young girl and threw her around the corner of the building. He then spun around, again leveled his rifle, and with a solid exhale he let loose a precision shot that struck the bottle. The explosion inside the church was deafening, anyone in proximity to the blast was shredded by the shrapnel.

  “There!” Jim yelled as he and Shelly watched Darrel, who had button-hooked out the front door and around the building, grab the young girl and start running towards his secondary location forward of the church.

  “Nico, do you copy?” Jim barked into the radio.

  “Nico, do you copy?” He asked a second time with no reply. “God dammit!” Jim yelled as he brought his rifle up and took aim at the back of the church.

  As expected, a few seconds after the explosion inside the church some of the worshipers began to stumble out the back door. “Shoot them!” Shelly said as she watched a couple of them drop to the ground and start to crawl around on all fours.

  “Wait for it” Jim replied as he gazed through the quick-acquisition sight mounted on the top of his M-4 rifle. Just then Alan came out, throwing the back door open and pushing his followers out of the way. Alan was yelling something when he stopped and looked right at Jim.

  Alan sneered as Jim squeezed the trigger, discharging his rifle and sending a .223 round flying forward and hitting the Tannerite bomb which Darrel had buried behind the church. The explosion was not as big as the one inside but was still effective. It blew rocks and dirt in all directions.

  There were howls and screams as the worshipers out back ran in all directions. The ones who were closest to the IED were rolling around on the ground with blast wounds.

  Jim, who had ducked behind the shed to keep from being hit with flying debris quickly brought his rifle back to bear on the crowd. He fired several shots into the crowd, scanning around for Alan, who had vanished in the confusion.

  Suddenly there were two successive and similar explosions in the front of the church as Darrel did the exact same thing that Jim had just done. “Let’s go!” Jim said as he grabbed Shelly and started running towards the rally point where Nico and Paul were supposed to be waiting with the vehicle.

  As they quickly moved towards the rally point, stopping every time they reached a point of cover to turn and look behind them, Jim again tried to radio Nico with no response. Jim and Shelly stopped and knelt behind the tire of an old tractor to catch their breath. While looking behind them Jim saw Darrel, who was now carrying the young girl in a fireman’s-carry, running towards the rally point.

  Chasing after them were several of the men in brown suits, their strides seemed to be long and slightly disjointed, but they were gaining.

  “You okay to run this?” Jim asked, holding up his rifle.

  “Yeah” Shelly replied as she worked on catching her breath.

  Jim pulled the rifle sling over his head and handed the gun to Shelly. He then pulled off the chest carrier he was wearing that still contained several 30-round magazines and passed that to his wife as well. “I’m going to help Darrel, you cover us from here. Listen, Nico is waiting behind that building over there,” Jim said, pointing to a large garage looking structure. “If anything happens, you run to him and get the hell out of here!”

  Before Shelly could say anything, Jim jum
ped up and started running towards Darrel in an arc so that he would intercept him, and the things chasing him from the side.

  As Jim got closer to Darrel, he started to slow and produced his .45 handgun. Jim watched as Darrel stopped running and dropped to a knee. The girl he was carrying slid off his shoulders as Darrel pivoted, in his kneeling position, and brought his rifle up to fire on his pursuers. He was able to get off two rounds and then ran dry. Darrel quickly rolled the rifle on its side and looked at the open chamber with the bolt locked to the rear.

  As Darrel dropped the empty magazine, and reached for a fresh one, he looked up and saw one of the men who had been chasing him suddenly standing over him with a large knife. Before Darrel could transition to his handgun he heard the familiar thud of two .45 handgun rounds being fired.