by Greig Beck
“And by the way, our job is not done here until we’re all safely on our way home,” Loche said. “And we need to work out how we’re going to do that.” He turned to Katya. “Are you sure that the crab people will try and stop us?”
“They are there,” Katya said. “Now and then, a scout creeps in here. But so far, they believe there is no life. Unfortunately, you being here will change that.”
“So, they will come for you now?” Jane asked.
“Yes, with more warriors, and they will try and break in. They’re mindless and relentless automatons when it comes to carrying out the orders of the great beast,” Katya replied.
“So, we just wait here and try and repel them?” Janus scoffed. “That’s not a great long-term strategy.” He pouted. “We don’t have many weapons, and a first wave is liable to exhaust our ammunition.”
“Fight where we are strongest,” Loche said.
“Sun Tzu?” Zhukov smiled.
Loche nodded. “Our best offensive strategy is to take these things and their master on with all the armaments we packed into the submersibles. We just need to get to them.”
“Oh, is that all,” Janus laughed derisively.
“There is a way,” Katya said softly.
Silence reigned for several seconds before Janus lifted his chin.
“Yeah, okay, we’re listening.” He folded his arms.
“The labyrinths in the deep caves.” Katya smiled. “There is a way.”
“Hold on, Katya, we’ve been in those labyrinths, and I gotta tell you, there’s some pretty unpleasant wildlife back there,” Mike said.
“But we have the screechers now,” Jane said. “That’ll ward off anything that hunts by sound.”
“We have them too,” Zhukov added. “A gift from you Americans before we embarked. We’ve tested them, they work. But…” He looked at Jane from under his brows. “We found that there are things in the caves that do not need sound.”
“Good news on the screechers. And I guess we deal with each threat as it comes,” Mike replied. “Our chances just improved.”
“Where do they come out?” Loche asked.
“In the jungle, but close to the shoreline… and the Y’ha-nthlei village,” Katya replied.
“The abandoned village,” Janus included.
“Don’t be fooled,” Katya said. “They are there, waiting.”
“Will you come with us?” Jane asked again.
Katya shook her head. “My place is with my people. I will stay until the beasts are knocking down our wall, and I will pray that you are successful. If you are, then both our problems will be solved. If you are not, it will undoubtedly mean you have been killed, and my world will end also.”
She tilted her head back. “I am home here. They cured me, and I have a love for them as much as they love me.” She smiled softly. “On the surface, no one had loved me for fifty years.”
“We love you.” Janus’ attempt at a warm smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Hey, don’t suppose you have a map?”
“There are maps.” Katya turned to one of the red guards standing, watching them silently. She said a few words, and Jane could tell Matt followed along, fascinated.
The man left the room, and then appeared back with some rolls of parchment that he placed on the table. Katya unrolled several before choosing one.
She pointed to a place on the map. “We are here.”
Like veins and arteries running through a body, Jane saw the diagram illustrated a vast network of the kingdom’s underground tunnel system. Katya traced a finger to a line across one of the larger tunnels.
“This is where you begin to leave our domain. The caves run deep.” She looked up. “And unfortunately, very hot.” She traced the line again. “They are ancient caves, not used for many centuries. We keep them sealed off, because as you said, there are some denizens down there that we’d prefer to keep out of the city.”
“Just great,” Janus breathed out.
“If you have your sonic devices, you should be safe.” She paused. “However, there is light down there.” She paused, looking from Jane to Mike, and then Ally.
Ally nodded. “I understand. That means things will also hunt with sight.”
“They might. No one living here has been down there. Maybe they don’t even survive anymore, or maybe they never did. Just stories to scare the children into never going exploring there.”
“Let’s hope,” Matt said, following the map from over her shoulder.
“But the heat is real. There are hot mud pools there. They will be dangerous, and you must stay on the path and not wander.” Katya showed them where the danger areas were and then continued her explanation. “When the cave starts to lift and slant upward, you will know you are heading out. Where you finally exit, you will be only a few hundred yards from the shoreline, and close to the city.”
“This is great news,” Loche said.
“The exit is concealed.” Katya straightened. “When you leave, you must seal the exit again and hide it as best you can. We don’t want the Y’ha-nthle discovering the exit and coming at us from behind as well as the front.”
“We will. And thank you. Thank you for everything.” Jane took Katya’s hands.
Katya smiled and pulled Jane close. Then she held her at arm’s length and looked into her face. “I remember, years ago, a fresh-faced American girl coming to see me with a tall, handsome man named Mike Monroe. The questions you asked led you here.” Her smile fell away. “Maybe I should never have answered your questions.”
“It was meant to be,” Jane replied.
“I blame Arkady Saknussov.” Mike half smiled. “If only that brilliant fool had never indulged his wild theory, then maybe no one would have ever learned of this place.”
Katya and Jane broke their embrace and Katya called two warriors to accompany them.
“We will just take you to the entrance to the labyrinths. The rest must be up to you,” she said sternly.
“When do we leave?” Matt asked.
“Now,” Janus ordered.
“We have all we need.” Loche organized his people.
“Where do you want me?” Viktor Zhukov asked.
“You and Ally are two very needed soldiers. Ally can assist covering the civilians, with Croft at point. You can work with Angel at our rear.”
The group began to file out with the two small red warriors leading them. Jane and Mike turned at the door and Katya held up a hand.
“Kill Dagon. Free us all,” Katya ordered.
“Can you kill a god?” Matt asked.
“You will find out. If you do not, then even the surface world will not be safe. He sees you in your dreams, and his vengeance knows no bounds.”
“Is it, Dagon, the only one?” Matt asked, his questions rushing now.
“I believe it is the last one of its kind,” Katya replied wearily. “Legend has it, Dagon has been alive forever. But no one has ever tried to hurt him before, or even could. Until you came.”
“We’ll finish it this time,” Jane replied.
Loche saluted. “We’ll do our best, ma’am. Thanks for everything.” He nodded to his soldiers and followed them out.
Mike and Jane waved and rushed after the group.
EPISODE 14
“When I returned to partial life my face was wet with tears – Never was solitude equal to this, never had any living being been so utterly forsaken” ― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
CHAPTER 18
Matt followed the small red warriors as they moved quickly along the well-lit tunnels. He had been in the remnants of fallen civilizations before, and he saw all the signs—cracked and crumbling edifices, moss-covered monuments, and large areas that looked unused, perhaps for centuries, perhaps for millennia.
He tried to quickly interpret and read everything he saw as they passed by ancient writing, picture frescos, and glyphic symbols. He learned more about the three great rulers and how they had be
en attacked by Dagon and his minions and had broken into several groups. The three kings then organized their quests to find a new home, each taking some of the crystal cave’s inhabitants with them.
However, one smaller group were determined to stay behind to climb into the higher caves, and this is the one that seemed to have become the hideous creatures inhabiting the mid-world. He remembered Mike’s report that had sampled DNA evidence of what they believed these “ancestors” were—the malformed remnants of that colony that over thousands of years had devolved back into raw, animal savagery.
Of the three great clans that did depart, there was one that voyaged by sea, another entered the great desert—this one—and then the last one traveled into the deep jungle. He bet they were wiped out by the green insect people within the great idols in the valley wall they had encountered. It was sad, as they looked to have grown and flourished for centuries before being infiltrated by the parasitic mimics, the green women. And what became of the clan that took to the seas? Perhaps they would never know.
The group took a turn into a side tunnel from the main thoroughfare, and they noticed that the blue crystals became sparser. Down in the center Earth world, their glow would be eternal, but it seemed they weren’t wasted on a place no one was going to go.
Matt practiced his language skills on the men, and though he knew they understood each other, he got the impression they were scared shitless and just wanted to get their task done so they could retreat to their own clan.
The small red men stopped and waited for the surface people to catch up to them. When they did, the small men pointed. Matt turned to where they indicated and saw the huge door.
One of the men held out a crystal four-pronged key to Matt. “May your journey be everything you hope for.” His face was grim as he bowed.
Matt took the key and returned the bow. He responded in their tongue, “Thank you, and may you…”
The two men turned and vanished back along the tunnel without another word.
Matt watched them go for a moment and turned back to the door. The first thing he noticed was there was writing set into the heavily corroded iron. He held his luminous crystal closer and rubbed a millennium of dust from the words.
“Beware all who enter here.” He scoffed. “How about that? It seems even the underworld has an underworld.”
“What else does it say?” Janus asked.
He shook his head slowly. “It presents as more an image than sentence text. Something about being burned and consumed.” He turned. “By demons.”
“Well then, we came to the right place,” Loche said. “Open it.”
“On it.” Matt tried to turn the key. He then gripped it with both hands and ground his teeth as the key finally turned. There was a sliding sound of bolts being slid back, and then the door swung inward with a shower of rust flakes.
“Ach.” Mat held up a hand in front of his face as a wave of heat billowed out at them.
Janus had his eyes as slits. “Jesus, is anything easy down here?”
“The easy stuff ain’t worth doin’, right?” Croft finished with a grin. “Orders, boss?”
“Take us in, Croft. Everyone else, same formation as before. We all stay alert. And we all stay alive.” Loche nodded to Croft, who turned and headed in through the large door.
***
Matt did as asked and pulled the door shut behind them. On closing, he used the key again to lock it and watched as two horizontal stone cross beams slid into the wall.
He turned back to see the group waiting for him at the top of a downward-sloping tunnel. Or rather, partial cave, as the walls looked to have been hacked out by hand but didn’t have the finish that the bricked and sculpted tunnels did behind them.
Some huge boulders were as nature had carved them and intruded on their path, perhaps of some mineral composition that resisted the primitive instruments used to widen and enlarge their avenue.
Matt moved past Zhukov and Angel at the rear to take his position at the center of the group. With him was Janus, Mike, Jane, and then Ally. Up front were once again the large forms of Croft and Captain Loche.
From somewhere down in the darkness, a hot and fetid breeze blew into their faces. It must have been a hundred ten degrees and smelled of sulfur and something else that gave the place an eggy, corrupted odor.
“Smells volcanic. But that’s impossible down here,” Jane said. “Got to be some sort of natural heat source.”
“For all we know, the gravity and magnetism of the core is still generating geological friction,” Mike added. “Maybe rubbing some deep crustal plates together. We think it’s solid iron, but we have no idea what’s really below us now.”
Loche led them downward, and they moved slowly as there were no blue crystals, just lights from their flashlights or the crystals they brought with them. They dropped down quickly, and as they did, the heat and humidity started to rise. In no time, perspiration ran freely from their faces and soaked their shirts.
“How much further down?” Janus asked.
Loche half turned. “The map gives direction, not depth. But we’re not even a third of the way yet, so let’s all just keep moving forward and get through it quickly.”
Matt noticed that all sign of intelligent habitation had disappeared. There were no carvings, no embedded crystal rods, and even the caves had stopped looking like the stone had been worked and were now just raw and dripping rock.
As they traveled, they came out onto a ledge that dropped into darkness. From below, they smelled molten magma, and steam rose, filling the cavern with a stinking fog.
“Don’t want to fall here,” Janus remarked. “Boiled alive.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Mike replied.
They entered another cave, and after another half hour, Loche told them they had traveled exactly half the way.
“Not so bad,” Matt said.
They then passed through a narrowing section under a shelf of stone and then came out into the next cave before Loche finally stopped them. This time, there was a raised path, a bridge, that traveled across a lake of mud that boiled and popped, belching sulfuric smelling gases and was continually churning like a giant pot on a stove.
In among the boiling mud was the occasional rock showing like a small island. No one could guess at its depths, but everyone knew that the heat would have been skin stripping.
Loche exhaled as he stared. “This is gonna hurt.”
Even though the bridge across the mud lake was raised about three feet, they could see that there were splashes of mud on its top, some of which still steamed. The first problem was the bridge was only about two feet wide.
The soldier turned. “Okay, people, we need to get across this as fast as possible. Stay focused and steel yourselves. If you get splashed, it’ll burn and hurt like a bitch. But suck it up and ignore it. Try not to overbalance, as the result could be… unpleasant.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” Janus grimaced as he stared at the popping, bubbling mud.
“Everyone hold up while Croft and I see what the lie of the land is like,” Loche said.
The captain tightened his pack and then he and Croft started across. The bridge or raised pathway went for a couple of hundred feet and at about fifty feet, he stopped and turned slowly, surveying the lake of boiling mud on either side of him.
After another moment, he turned back to the waiting group. “Okay, come on over, it’s solid and easy. Just try and ignore the mud.”
The group started after him and he waited, watching them cross toward him. Jane couldn’t help glancing at the scalding mud and several times a larger than normal bubble popped, splashing her legs with the thick, hot sludge. Even through her pants, she felt the sting of its heat as it stuck and continued to burn. But it wasn’t unbearable, and little more than when you are frying bacon and the fat pops and splashes you—it burned like hell but eventually cooled.
When they were about halfway, just shy of a hundred feet
, Jane glanced again at the mud—just in time to see something surface. And then submerge.
“Hey.” She pointed. “There was something there…”
Everyone stopped and turned to where she indicated.
“What?” Janus asked.
“Something came up.” Jane frowned down at the mud, focusing on the spot she was sure she had seen movement.
“Maybe it was just a bubble or some sort of surge,” Mike said. “Or maybe a coagulated lump. The mud is viscous and constantly moving from the heat.”
“Could have been,” she said, now doubting her own eyes.
As Jane watched, she saw the bubbles rise and pop, some of them no bigger than golf balls and some the size of basketballs. Most burst, sprayed their splatter, and then fell back to the red-brown volcanic-looking mixture.
But others didn’t. Now and then, larger bubbles rose, and then stayed as lumps on the surface. Jane thought that the air remained trapped, probably because of the thickness of the mixture.
“Let’s keep moving people.” Loche waved them on.
They still had a hundred feet to travel, and they tried to balance moving as fast as they could manage while also as carefully as was humanly possible. It was a curious human trait, that a pathway at ground level presented no problem, but that same pathway, with same width, when raised high, suddenly became like a tightrope when asked to keep balance and walk a straight line.
From time to time, one or other of them had been sucking in their breath or groaning as a splatter of hot mud found an exposed piece of flesh, but then Janus screamed, loud and high-pitched, and it jerked everyone to a stop.
Jane and Mike turned to see the man standing with eyes wide. Janus stood in a crouch, pointing, and holding up Ally, Angel, and Zhukov behind him.
“What the hell is going on back there?” Loche yelled.
Janus continued pointing, and they followed where he indicated but saw nothing but the roiling mud, with its large and small bubbles like a witch’s cauldron but on the scale of a dark lake.
