Escape From The Center of The Earth (To The Center Of The Earth Book 3)

by Greig Beck

“Yep, for the last few minutes,” Loche said. “And we got movement on our three o’clock. Something’s been keeping pace with us for a while now.”

  “Do you think it might be what scared off Matt’s green angel a while back?” Janus asked.

  Loche shrugged. “Does it matter? A threat is a threat.”

  “Just don’t shoot until you verify a target,” Matt requested. “It might be more of the green people.”

  Around them, the tree canopy began to shake, just a little, but enough to let them know that something of size was moving through it.

  “Whatever they are, they’re moving in the trees,” Loche said.

  “They sound too damn heavy for your angels, Matt,” Janus observed.

  In a few more moments, they came to the edge of a clearing about two hundred yards in length and breadth to what looked like an ancient overflow plain from the river. The red light streamed down in hot curtains through the mist, making the grass look lush, and there were plump, knee-height grazing animals that vacuumed it up through anteater-type snouts.

  Loche stopped them at the jungle edge, staying under cover. “Lot of exposed ground.”

  Nina momentarily glanced back and then to the clearing again. “We go around, we have to chop through all that undergrowth and that’ll take us an hour. Or we double-time it, and we’re across in five minutes, easy.”

  “Agreed. And every minute counts.” He turned. “Angel, Watts, left and right flank, covering positions. Everyone else, we’re going to double-time it in two columns. Everyone armor up, stay cool and alert.”

  The captain turned to the opposite wall of jungle across the clearing. “See that largest middle tree trunk? That’s where we’re going to re-enter the jungle. Ready?”

  “HOOAH,” came the response.

  “Let’s do it,” Janus said.

  Loche turned to Mike, Jane, and Matt, who nodded. All three held their handguns.

  “Three-two-one… go.” Loche led out one column at a fast jog.

  As Jane ran, she glanced over her shoulder. The jungle remained silent, as if it was waiting to see what they would do—and then it acted.

  The two groups were no more than twenty feet out into the clearing when the left-side wall of the deep green erupted in movement—huge things, twice as big as a human, burst from the jungle walls, furiously bearing down on them. Jane immediately thought of an octopus, as there were muscular tentacles and a bulbous head with the large forward-facing eyes of a predator. They were mottled green, as if they were camouflage painted by the military. No wonder they couldn’t see them among the foliage, she thought.

  Nina roared a warning as she spun to engage their attackers, and she was immediately followed by the group spraying hundreds of rounds at the thrashing monstrosities.

  The creatures looked to weigh 400 pounds easy, and for something so big, they were a blur of motion. There were dozens of them, and this must have been what the green girl had heard and was frightened off by in the jungle canopies.

  The bullets smashed into the flailing horrors, and only Angel and Watt’s heavy-caliber weapons seemed to deter them. The others came through the gunfire as if it didn’t exist and were among the people in seconds.

  Joe Edison yelled as he was grabbed by two of the creatures. Horrifyingly, they began to drag him toward the jungle line, and Maxine Archer went after him.

  “Get back in line,” Loche roared.

  Maxine Archer punched rounds into the creatures holding Edison who was dropped to the ground. He scurried back to the group on all fours while Archer gave him cover.

  The veins in Loche’s neck bulged as he yelled, “Archer, you get your ass…”

  It was too late, as now alone and outside of their defensive ring, Maxine Archer was also grabbed. As the team tried to pick off her attackers, the things easily dragged her to the forest line and then lifted her into the trees. Just before she vanished, they saw two of the muscular creatures fighting over her in some sort of horrifying tug of war.

  The woman screamed and then in a spray of blood and entrails, both monstrosities won as the top half of her body went one way and the lower half was taken another.

  Loche had drawn the group into a circle, with the soldiers with the guns standing and Matt, Jane, Mike, and Janus kneeling at the center of the circle and firing out from waist level.

  The amount of gunfire was holding the creatures at bay for now, but Jane knew that they were doing little damage, and if the attack continued, their ammunition would soon run out and they’d all be dead. She tried real hard not to think about the image of the female soldier being torn in half.

  “On our six!” Croft yelled and spun his sniper rifle to point behind them.

  More of the creatures erupted from the jungle at their rear and it was now clear that wherever these things were coming from, there were a lot more of them than the human beings.

  “We need an exit!” Loche yelled over the gunfire. He turned about then selected a route. “We head to that fallen tree over…”

  Even as he was talking, more of the tentacled things burst free from the spot he was indicating, their muscular arms coiling and unfurling as if in anticipation of getting hold of more of the soft-bodied human beings.

  “Ah, shit!” he yelled and fired into the approaching abominations as he searched for more options.

  Jane knew that their chances were diminishing while they were in the open. One thing she knew after being embedded with the last military team was if you were attacked, having to defend all four quadrants was a tough game; they needed cover or at least something at their backs.

  Matt Kearns aimed and fired, hitting most of his targets, but even though the things coiled in on where they were struck, they weren’t stopped or even slowed. He turned to Jane and grimaced. “This is crap.”

  Loche yelled orders over his shoulder. “Angel, Watts, go big!”

  “About time.” Angel loaded his grenade launcher.

  “Fuck yeah.” Watts did the same.

  The two men fired, and Angel’s grenade was first to strike, totally obliterating one of the land cephalopods. Watts did the same.

  The creatures fled from the explosions, but their boiling frenzy was only switched to somewhere else.

  Both men aimed and fired the stout grenade plugs again and again, each time hitting and blowing apart one of the creatures. But they soon began to exhaust their grenades.

  “There’s more coming in,” Matt observed.

  The trees surrounding them now waved and bristled with the tentacled things, and Jane knew that with one concentrated rush it’d be all over.

  “Hold the line. Get ready to form a wedge!” Loche yelled with a gun in each hand.

  Jesus, Jane thought. We’re going to try and make a rush to the jungle line, which might be no better.

  Jane reached out to grip Mike’s hand and he squeezed it back. She guessed then that it might not be the cancers that was going to get them after all.

  “Incoming!” Watts yelled and raised his gun to the sky.

  Loche looked up. “Hold fire,” he replied.

  From out of the sky, dozens of the green flying people appeared with long spears, and from fifty feet from the ground threw them with unerring aim into the closest creatures. They skewered many of them, but though the creatures coiled in on the trauma areas, they soon managed to pull the lances free.

  Jane saw then that attack wasn’t meant as a deterrent, but more a distraction—as a ring of the flying women kept the land cephalopods at bay, more of the green women dropped down and grabbed each of the people in their team under the arms and then lifted off.

  “Hey!” Watts exclaimed as they took the heavy gun from him and tossed it away. “I need that.” He began to fight the woman.

  “Let it happen!” Matt yelled.

  “I’ve got it.” Edison went after the man’s gun.

  The others lifted off like a squadron of mini helicopters, taking everyone else with them.

&nb
sp; One hovered over Edison who held the gun tight to his chest. “I need this gun, honey,” he said.

  The flying woman grabbed him and tried to lift him off but couldn’t quite get airborne. She let him go and hovered a dozen feet above him for a moment, as if in indecision.

  Edison held the weapon and turned to see the ring of flying people that had been holding the tentacled creatures at bay also begin to lift off.

  Then Edison’s flying girl also began to rise into the air.

  “Hey.” Edison held the gun up. “I just needed…”

  “Oh no.” Jane watched as the green woman began to lift away while staring down at him. “We need to…”

  “Come back!” Edison yelled. He tossed the gun to the side and began to run underneath them.

  He was alone, and his movement was like a beacon to the monstrosities surrounding him. Unimpeded now, they slammed into him, and each fought for a morsal of the remaining human, tearing limbs, head, and even the torso into pieces. Jane couldn’t watch anymore and shut her eyes.

  When she opened them just moments later, they were already hundreds of feet above the tree canopy and being transported up toward the open mouth of one of the huge statues that now looked to be a massive tunnel.

  She craned her neck to look up into the face of the being who held onto her. The green-tinged woman must have been enormously strong, as she was only around five feet tall, but the muscles in her chest and back were flexing powerfully as the wings on her back moved in a blur, like those of a bird or a dragonfly.

  Jane could also see more clearly the extra ribs or bands of muscles at her sides and wondered at their use—maybe an aid for balance or for flying, she wondered.

  “Hey!” Mike yelled.

  She turned to see him wave just around fifty feet from her. She waved back.

  She looked up again at the woman holding her. She knew from the last time she had been in the underworld that the kingdom in the crystal cave had been abandoned for around twelve thousand years, and that should not have been nearly long enough to evolve a significant and sophisticated physical characteristic like flight.

  But that thinking was based on the normal order of things on the surface and down here, everything was washed by a constant bath of extreme radiation. Could it have been enough time? she wondered.

  She turned back toward their destination—the colossal statue’s mouth was open, and as they approached, she saw inside more of the green people waiting for them. Again, all were females, and she had to wonder, where were the men?

  One after the other, the tiny squadron of flying women with their passengers entered the gaping cavern and softly lowered the people to the ground.

  Loche called them into a group. “Everyone okay?” he asked.

  “Except for Edison,” Watts spat. “That bitch.”

  “Shut it, soldier. You’re alive because of them,” Loche replied.

  It seemed all those lifted off were fine.

  “Take me to your leader,” Janus remarked as they looked at the growing number of green women surrounding them.

  “Are they friendly?” Nina asked.

  “They didn’t disarm all of us, so that’s a good sign,” Loche replied.

  “They may not have known what the weapons were,” Matt replied. “I think they took Angels and Watts’ heavy-caliber guns away only because of the weight.”

  “Well, this is why we’re paying you the big bucks, Professor.” Janus held out his arm toward the group. “Work your magic.”

  Matt turned back to the women. “Notice something?” he asked.

  “Yeah, like they’re all chicks,” Croft replied.

  “Sure, there’s that, but that’s not so unusual. We had the ancient Scythians, all women, on the steppes of Russia, which some said were the basis of the Amazons legend.” Matt shook his head. “But not that.” He turned back to Janus. “They’re silent. Totally silent. None of them has uttered a word of joy, fear, greeting, or any sound at all since we’ve arrived.”

  The group turned back to the throng of green women. It was then that Jane observed that there was another feature about them. Though they were all attractive, they all seemed to be the same age, build, and height, with the same facial features but a few variations as to make one think they were all related.

  Their clothing was a tunic dress that wrapped around their waist, but their breasts were bare. Jane squinted and saw another difference—they had normal, firm breasts, and there was an areola situated where it should be, but there didn’t seem to be nipples.

  “Valley of the clones,” Janus remarked.

  Matt spotted the original being they had met earlier and recognized the small slash of an old scar above one of her breasts. He stepped toward her and raised his hand.

  “Hello, again.” He touched his chest. “It’s me, Matt Kearns. Do you remember me?”

  The woman also walked forward with her wings now folded down behind her back, making it look like some sort of gossamer cape. She held up her hand and placed it against Matt’s.

  Once again, Matt could feel the odd coolness of her hand and wondered whether one of the adaptions to the heat down here was a lower body temperature.

  She took hold of his hand and placed the palm against her cheek first, and then her chest. She turned to the assembled green throng, and all their heads swiveled toward her.

  Jane could just make out a high-pitched whine and frowned as she concentrated. “Did you hear that?”

  Matt nodded and turned to her. “They may be communicating with each other in a way that we can’t process.”

  One after the other, the green women came and placed a hand on or just touched the exposed flesh of the humans.

  “I think I’m in heaven.” Watts smiled and nodded, loving the attention. “I forgive you,” he said.

  More and more of the clan wanted to experience the warm skin of the people, and after a few moments, another group of women appeared and took their hands to lead them further into the cave. It seemed that the colossal statue was riddled with tunnels, but it was by design as the walls weren’t hewn rock but a mosaic of small interlocking stones.

  They were led along a passageway with many offshoot caves or rooms that had strands of things like pearls over the doors, obscuring their contents. But then in a few moments, they were taken into a room of their own. It was large, and inside were the familiar blue crystals.

  “This must be our room,” Watts said and turned. “Can I order room service?” He grinned at the small woman, who just stared back at him with her large, black, doe-like eyes.

  “Careful, Watts,” Nina remarked. “You may end up married before you know it.”

  He chuckled. “Fine with me. But I can only stay for the honeymoon.” He winked.

  In another moment, a cohort of the winged women brought them a few dead insectoid-looking creatures, which they laid out on a bench.

  Nina frowned at the bodies. “What’s this supposed to mean?”

  “I think…” Mike approached. “I think this is supposed to be food for us.”

  After a moment of being observed, the green woman with the scar on her chest turned to the other women in the doorway, and then moments later more of them appeared holding armfuls of different-shaped fruits and vegetables.

  “I guess this might be more like it.” Matt turned to the women. “Thank you.” He picked up one of the fist-sized fruits and began to tear it open. Inside was a purple syrup and flesh that filled the cave with the smell of sugar. He licked a little off one of his fingers.

  “Hmm, okay, not as good as it smells—a little like a cross between a banana and cabbage.”

  “Well, that sounds like shit,” Croft scoffed. “Anything that tastes like steak and beer?”

  “Don’t insult our hosts.” Loche smiled and turned to the women. “Thank you. And thank you for saving us. Most of us,” he added.

  Once again, they were met with silence, but a few of the small women looked at each other a
nd then they all departed the room, dropping the pearl curtain in their wake. Except for one.

  It was the green girl with the scar on her chest and she stared at Matt. He walked forward and raised his hand.

  She did the same and placed it against his, her fingers small, but strong looking. He saw that the lines on her face were deep like they were scars—he knew of some primitive tribes that used scarification as a sign of adulthood or beauty.

  “Matt,” he tried again and tapped his chest. “Can you say that?”

  Her mouth never moved, and she didn’t even attempt the word. Instead, she touched where he had tapped his chest and then ran her hand down his stomach and then to his groin. She then took his hand and began to lead him away.

  “Forget it,” Loche said. “We stay together.”

  Matt nodded and pulled his hand free. “Maybe later.” He smiled. “Call me, okay?”

  The green girl stared for a moment more and then exited through the bead curtain, leaving them alone.

  “Seemed friendly enough,” Janus said.

  “Overly friendly, if you ask me,” Nina added.

  Watts guffawed. “No such thing as an overly friendly woman.”

  “But where are the men?” Nina asked.

  Janus shrugged. “Maybe they’re asexual. We haven’t seen what’s under those tunics yet.”

  “By the way she took to Matt, I’m not sure they’re asexual,” Jane replied. “She looked clearly interested.”

  “A race of women, thousands of miles below the Earth… that are hungry for men.” Watts chuckled. “Man, I’m livin’ the dream. Pick me up on the way back, will you?”

  “We’re not here on holiday,” Loche replied. “We rest, eat, and then if we can’t work out how to convince our flying hosts to transport us to the end of the jungle valley, then we’re going to have to find our own way out.”

  “That’s a long way down,” Mike added. “Got to be a thousand feet of sheer rock.”

  “I never said we had to scale down,” Loche replied. “We’re at the top, so we keep going up.”

  Nina nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Loche took off his pack, grabbed a few pieces of fruit, and slumped down with his back to the wall. “Everyone eat, rest, and recharge.”