The Sea Below

by William Meikle

  "It follows us," was all he said, all he had to say.

  Danny stopped them all for a drink of water and a smoke and scanned the ground to their rear. He saw no sign of the beast.

  "Trust me, it is there," Stefan said. "A shepherd can read the signs. Elsa knows it too; she has been walking at heel and staying close these past twenty minutes. Her flock is in danger."

  Although he looked long and hard, Danny was unable to see any sign of the cat, but he trusted the shepherd's judgement. When they finished their smokes and started to walk again five minutes later all three of them had their weapons at hand, ready to react in an instant to any trouble.

  They walked in silence for a while as the trail they were on grew ever more barren, the rock underfoot so dry that even the tough wiry grasses could not take root in it. The temperature rose again, a damp heat that had all three sweating and Elsa's tongue lolling. And still the land in the dark shadows ahead seemed little closer.

  "Perhaps this was not the best idea," Ed said, his voice coming in gasps.

  "We are not going back," Danny replied. "Not with yon beast on our heels."

  Ed waved off to their right and the distant shoreline.

  "If we cut across from here, we could be at the shore broch in an hour."

  "And then what? Yon beast will still be following us, the bats might have returned, hell, we might even have the pleasure of the company of a horde of curious baboons. At least here we can see what's coming at us."

  "And if it gets warmer?"

  "Then we sweat. Come on, lad. Pick up the pace. We'll need a longer rest soon and we have to find a spot that's not quite as exposed."

  After a further hour's sweaty walking, Danny noticed that the light had dimmed, it now being akin to a late evening if they were up above and beneath the stars. When he looked up, he saw for the first time that there were definite structures in the gloom ahead, tall spires of jet black stone, far larger than any broch, that reached like stalagmites towards the roof, some indeed almost seeming to touch the rock above at their highest points. The towers, more than a score of them, did not look quite man made, yet neither did they look to be entirely natural, being a strange amalgam of both and obviously smoothed and corroded by time. As they got closer, they saw what appeared to be windows set at intervals up the columns, and doorways in their bases leading to vast spiralling staircases in the interiors.

  "And who built these then?" Danny asked. "It certainly wasn't bloody baboons."

  "Possibly the same people who built the brochs," Ed replied. "Although the stonework here looks more sophisticated… and much older. These must predate the pyramids of Egypt by centuries...millennia even."

  "I don't care how old they are," Danny replied, looking up to where the columns tickled the roof. He pointed at the third column on their right. "That one goes all the way up...and so will we. It might be our way topside, and I for one am eager for some sun on my face. But first things first...rest and a smoke are in order, I think. Come on."

  Danny led the others to his chosen column. It was some twenty yards wide at the base, tapering as it rose up into what was almost total darkness at the roof of the cavern. A wide doorway at ground level led to a short hallway and a narrow, steep, stairwell leading upward. Ed made to drop his pack in the hallway.

  "No, lad, not here," Danny said. "The doorway is too exposed, too wide for three of us to cover. Let's head up the stairs a bit… see if we can find a spot that can be defended."

  It proved to be cooler inside the tower, a welcome respite from the dead, still air of the cavern floor, and got cooler still as they ascended the first flight of stairs. They didn't have to go far to find a spot that Danny's trained eye found acceptable as a defensible position. After thirty steps they came to an opening. The stairs continued upwards, hugging the exterior wall, but the opening led into a circular chamber with a single, tall narrow window on the opposite wall from the entrance. The chamber itself was empty, just bare stone walls with no sign it had ever been inhabited.

  "This will do nicely,' Danny said. "There's no kindling, so there'll be no coffee, but we have meat, water and somewhere safe to have a kip. We'll rest here before going up higher; yon steps are going to be a sore trek; they were built for someone with longer legs than mine."

  Danny saw that Ed wasn't listening; the younger man walked the circumference of the room, studying the walls.

  "They're here too," he said, almost to himself.

  "What's that, lad?"

  Ed motioned at the wall.

  "The stick figures, like in the broch. They're faint, worn with age, but they're here too."

  "Aye, very nice I'm sure," Danny said. "But I can't see them being of any use to us. I'll leave the esoteric to you, lad. As for me, I'm concerned with more practical matters. It's been a long walk on a hot day. I'm keen to get on up but the auld legs need a rest first. What say we get some grub and kip here before moving on?"

  "Elsa agrees," Stefan said, laughing and pointing at where the dog had already laid herself out to sleep below the window.

  Danny stepped over to look out at the view. There were more columns close by and beyond them a dark shore with an even darker sea beyond; they were almost at the furthermost tip of the island and travel any further in that direction was going to be impossible without a light source. That brought a chastened silence to them all when he called the others over to have a look, the scene serving to amplify their solitude here in this strange land.

  "Chin up, chaps," Danny said. "We know this tower reaches the roof. There's going to be a way up for us. I feel it in my bones."

  In actuality all that Danny felt in his bones at the moment was a deep ache that he was more than happy to appease by sitting down with his back to a wall.

  They each ate from their portions of the bat meat; they'd get one more meal each out of it, then they'd need to find more food, but Danny hoped to be somewhere much higher, much nearer the 'real' world before it came to that.

  After eating, Stefan lay down beside Elsa beneath the window and was soon asleep. Ed had taken to studying his little figures on the wall. To Danny's eye they looked like primitive scratchings, no more, no less, and he failed to see the younger man's fascination in them.

  "At least it keeps him out of mischief."

  Danny took first watch, standing in the doorway smoking. There was nothing to see but the stairs but he had plenty of things to occupy his mind, hope being among them.

  -Ed-

  Stefan woke Ed six hours later and Danny woke up at the same time so that all three broke their fast together; the very last of their hard biscuits and water followed by a smoke. There had been no signs of anything occupying the tower apart from the three men and the dog; the 'night' had passed quietly. If the big cat was still on their trail, it was too cautious to approach such a well defended position.

  The water was too warm, the biscuits too dry but Ed barely noticed. He missed his coffee but the sleep had rested his weary legs and now he, like the others, was eager to get onto the staircase and head upwards. If they could find an easy route back to the surface so much the better, for on future trips Ed, and the world's scientific community beside him, would be able to come and go into this new realm at their leisure. It was a nice dream to entertain as they prepared to move out.

  When Danny led them out to the stairwell, Ed was right at his back, with Stefan and Elsa bringing up the rear. They quickly realised that Danny had been right; the steps had been made for beings with a larger stride than was comfortable for any of them, although Elsa seemed to be enjoying the almost bounding gait she had to employ to ascend. After only a dozen or so steps, Ed's calf muscles were already beginning to complain and he was grateful when they reached another landing and another room off it, giving him a momentary respite.

  This new chamber was much like the last; although the window was differently positioned the room was just as empty, and yet again there were faint imprints of marching stick-figures on t
he walls. Danny didn't give them any time for examination. He was already stepping up into the next portion of the stairwell. As Ed joined at his back, he noticed it was now getting noticeably warmer again, accompanied by a new odor, an oily tang in the air, thick and cloying in nose and throat.

  "I smell it, lad," Danny said when Ed spoke up. "But if a bit of a stink is all we have to cope with, I'll take it and be thankful."

  They kept climbing, their breath coming heavier, the air getting warmer and the strange smell growing to a noxious stench; it seemed that the air wavered in rainbow colors around them. When Danny stopped at another landing and went to light a smoke, Ed stayed his hand.

  "Gases in enclosed spaces are not to be trusted," was all he had to say. Danny nodded and put the match back in its box, turning his attention instead to the chamber that opened up off the landing. This was much like the last, but this time the window overlooked the length of the island they had walked to get here, and more besides. Ed stepped up beside Danny for a look.

  They had already climbed high enough to get a panoramic view. Their first home here on the island, the broch on the shore, was clearly visible, as were the structures on the slopes of the volcano. Past that the forest stretched away the length of the island until, way off in the distance, a dozen miles and more distant, the land became rocky again. There was something there, wavering in the vaporous air, something that might even be more dwellings, but it was impossible to tell in the haze. On either side of the island the underground sea stretched away, dotted on the right-hand side by more islands that all looked to be rocky upthrusts with no vegetation to be seen.

  "Let us hope these bloody stairs lead somewhere," Danny said at Ed's side, "because it looks like we're here or nowhere for the duration."

  Any hope they had was dashed several flights of stairs later. The noxious odor became so strong that all three of them walked with their hands covering noses and mouths and Elsa gave out deep growls in her chest. Danny stopped abruptly on a landing and that led to Ed almost walking into him. Ed saw why they'd stopped when he looked over the old soldier's shoulder; the upward path ahead was blocked, the stairs coated knee-deep with what looked to be a semi-solid black tar from which rose an oily vapor that glistened in an aurora of rainbow colors. Ed guessed this to be the cause of the smell that was afflicting them.

  Elsa went forward, sniffed at the tarry mass, then backed away fast, whimpering.

  "Don't touch it," Stefan said. "She knows trouble when she smells it."

  Danny looked at the stairs, then into the chamber off the landing. There was a window there, looking out onto the dark area at the bottom end of the island.

  "Give me a hand here, lad," Danny said, and hoisted himself up onto the window ledge. The walls were almost a yard thick, and Ed held Danny's legs while he leaned out to look upwards.

  Danny took several seconds, then dropped back down into the chamber.

  "Bugger," was all he said, and motioned that Ed should look for himself.

  Ed scrambled up into the window and leaned out carefully, avoiding looking down lest vertigo get the better of him. The upward view didn't do much for him either. The roof of the cavern was twenty yards or so above them. The structure they had climbed did indeed reach the top, but only because the roof had come down to meet it. The rock above was coated thick with the black tar and it had oozed and dripped down over the turret, like melted candle wax, covering the whole structure above them.

  "There might be an exit up there among this black shite," Danny said, "but I'll be buggered if I can see a way to get to it."

  Ed didn't answer. Suddenly he was thinking of melted wax, of gases in enclosed spaces, and lit matches. He had an idea.

  "What if it's flammable?" he said. "Could we burn our way up?"

  "Are you daft, lad? We'd get roasted."

  "Not if we're careful," Ed said. "We stand well back, lob a lit rag at it, and leg it way down the stairs...at least one of us does; the others will be well down the stairs already in case of an explosion."

  "Explosion? Listen to yourself, lad. This is madness."

  "I'm open to other ideas," Ed said. "As you said, it's here or nowhere, and I'm none too keen on playing Robinson Crusoe. We're close to finding a way up. Will we ever get any closer? Isn't it worth the risk?"

  He saw that both the other men were skeptical.

  "Look, I'll do it myself," he said. "I'm faster on my feet than either of you in any case. You two back away, as far as you want, just don't get in my way if I'm on my way down after you with my arse on fire."

  Danny finally saw that Ed was not to be swayed from the idea.

  "We'll take your pack and water," the old soldier said. "Best you be as unencumbered as possible. Give us five minutes then do your thing. Just don't get yourself fried."

  A minute later Ed was standing alone on the landing. Several minutes after that he was as ready as he was ever going to be. He'd wrapped a handkerchief around one of their spoons and set it alight from a lit match. He had a bad moment as the match flared, hoping against hope that it didn't immediately spark a conflagration, then managed to breathe as the cloth took light.

  He counted to three, backed off into the downward stairwell, then lobbed the lit material at the mass of tar. He didn't wait to see if it took; he'd already turned and was bounding down the stairs.

  A blast of heat almost knocked him off balance then he was leaping precariously down the twisting stairwell with the fires of hell lapping at his heels.

  -Danny-

  By the time Danny, Stefan and Elsa emerged at the foot of the structure the top was already well alight. Fire showed at the windows several levels below the roof and flames rose up to roil across the rock above. Black smoke, forming like a thundercloud on a hot day, spread out to cover ever more of the ceiling, darkening the already dim cavern and sending scores of the giant bats swooping away in search of clearer air.

  "Oh, lad, what have you done?" Danny whispered.

  They waited in the doorway at the foot of the stack, watching for Ed, the heat increasing with every passing second until it came down the stairwell like a blast from an opened furnace door. Ed came with it, flames licking at his heels.

  "Run, you idiots," he shouted, and almost knocked Danny over as he barrelled past him.

  Then all three were running, Elsa leading them on, full-pelt, away from the tower as smoking black tar flowed out like a river and flame washed the whole height from ground to ceiling.

  They ran for almost a quarter of a mile before having to come to a halt to catch their breath. Danny turned and looked back at what was now a conflagration. Black smoke hung across all of the cavern roof at this end of the island, laced through with guttering red flame. Burning streams of the black tar oozed and dipped from high and all of the turrets were now ablaze at the top, a grotesque parody of a birthday cake. Below that, flames lapped at all the windows and more of the tar oozed out of the doorways of the stacks, already spreading out across the plain towards where the men stood.

  "Any more great ideas, lad?" Danny said.

  The drips of flaming tar from on high were getting more persistent. They were also getting much closer.

  "It's not going to burn out any time soon," Ed said. "I think a strategic withdrawal is required."

  "But where to?" Stefan answered. He was looking up to where flames were spreading out in a blanket across a wide expanse of the roof above them. "Is anywhere safe?"

  Danny didn't waste any time coming to a decision.

  "The broch on the shore is closest. If worse comes to worst we can retreat to the water, the shallows at least, and hope that nothing else tries to kill us."

  The light had dimmed even more, the cavern taking on a reddish, flickering hue. Smoke was now mingled with falling flakes of ash as the flames reached the vegetated area of the ceiling and fed greedily. The heat was stifling and Danny felt the skin of his cheeks stiffen as if taken by sunburn.

  "Move," he shouted. "Doubl
e time, unless you want to be baked to a crisp."

  The next half hour was a journey through hell; if Danny had been a religious man he might well have taken it literally. The fires above, rather than abating, were growing in intensity. Burning ash and drips of flaming tar came from above while flowing, oozing black tar swallowed the ground at their rear. The whole bottom end of the island behind them was a single wall of sputtering flame. Giant bats swooped and shrieked in a terrified frenzy and the only saving grace was that the beasts were too busy trying to survive to pay any notice to the three men and a dog who fled shoreward beneath them.

  Stefan stumbled, fell, and let out a yelp of pain when his palms flattened on steaming hot rock. When he got to his feet his hands were red, blisters already rising.

  "Faster," Danny shouted, setting his gaze on the shore that was still a mile distant.

  They ran.

  Around them their world burned.

  Danny was surprised to reach the shore; it was touch and go. It felt like the clothes on his back were on fire and he was pretty sure his feet were blistered inside his boots. Elsa was running with a noticeable limp, pained whimpers every few steps. Ed looked to be almost on his last legs, his face red with exertion, his breath coming in great noisy whoops and Stefan stumbled along in a bent-over crouch that almost had him on all fours.

  Danny was in the lead as they crested the hill above the shore and had to force himself to come to a halt. They had been beaten to the peninsula; he looked down across the narrow causeway to see the huge cat beast prowling around the perimeter of the broch, snarling and growling at the burning ash that fell around it. Danny looked to Stefan, expecting to see the shepherd raise his rifle, but the weapon turned in the man's burned hands; he was unable to lift it to take aim.

  The delay in Danny reaching for his pistol almost proved fatal. The beast had seen him and launched itself into a full-on attack, as if blaming the men for its fiery predicament. Danny was aware that Stefan had pulled Elsa aside to prevent her trying to come to their aid and Ed had thrown himself aside to the ground, even now rolling and reaching for his own pistol. As for Danny, the old soldier in him would not allow him to do anything other than stand his ground.