Prey

by Jon F. Merz

  "I'd suggest that no one go anywhere by themselves, either," said Mick. "We haven't determined how far this cave goes on for. And we also haven't determined if this is abandoned or not."

  Everyone turned slowly to peer into the darkness of the tunnel. Julia found herself staring into the inky blackness wondering what might live down there. And what it might do to them if it knew they were down here.

  Vulnerable.

  Wilkins cleared his throat. "I hate to be the one to bring this up, but we need a place to go to the bathroom. I'll nominate myself to find a proper place. That wind made my bladder shrivel." He hefted his rifle and started off. Darren got up and went with him.

  "There's no wood or vegetation to speak of inside here," said Nung. "Looks like we'll have to make do with a fire from the hexanol blocks."

  Mick shook his head. "No fires yet. The last thing we need is to announce our presence to whatever might be in here with us. Our clothes will keep us warm enough. Once we clear some more distance into the cave, we can move back more away from the opening. The air should be warmer back there."

  "We need light," said Julia. Indeed, in the short few minutes they'd been inside, the ambient light from the opening had gone dark. Their eyes had adjusted, but it was coming on near total dark.

  A light blossomed into the inkiness. Another soon followed. The survival lanterns used a slow-burning oil composite that would last for hours. They had six of them in total. Julia figured if they spaced them out right, they had enough to last for at least a day and a half.

  Wilkins and Darren came back. Wilkins thumbed over his right shoulder. "Back and down there is a depressed area that should fit the bill.. There's even some small opening that can act as a drain."

  Mick brought his rifle up. "It's time we moved further in." He looked at them. "I'll take point."

  Wilkins walked over toward him. "I'll go with you." He glanced at Julia. "Okay boss?"

  She nodded. "I'm going, too."

  Mick started to pretest but Julia shot him a look. "Girl Scouts, remember?"

  He grinned. Julia turned to Nung. "Keep an eye on things back here. Two of you watch in the direction we're traveling. The other two watch the door. I don't want anything coming in there and taking us from behind."

  She moved off behind Wilkins and Mick. She noticed Mick had his rifle in his shoulder with the barrel aimed down at a forty-five degree angle. A sudden beam appeared from the end of his M16. She could see that he'd jury-rigged a flashlight to the underside of his barrel.

  Smart, she thought. He's definitely been in hairy situations like this before.

  Once clear of the rest of the team, Mick turned and signaled Wilkins and Julia to come in close. He spoke in whispers, close to their ears.

  "We should try to move as quietly as we can. We don't know what's up ahead and I'd rather not let it know we're coming."

  Julia pointed at the end of his rifle. "What about the light?"

  Mick frowned. "Not much we can do about that. We have to be able to see. Unless one of you has some night vision goggles you've been holding out on me, I don't see much of a choice."

  "Looks like we go with the light then," said Wilkins.

  Mick nodded. "From now on, we'll try to use hand signals only. When I give one, Wilkins will pass it down the line to you Julia so we all know what the deal is." He went through some of them and then smiled. "All right, let's move."

  He stood up again and started back down the tunnel. Wilkins stayed about four feet behind him and Julia followed.

  As they walked, she couldn't help but marvel at the jagged interior of the tunnel. Bits of rock jutted out at every angle. The floor of the tunnel underfoot felt like they were walking on an uneven rough surface that could slice them up if they fell.

  Bits of moisture dripped down from unseen sources overhead. Julia supposed it was condensation gradually seeping through the rocks. Droplets fell and splashed in the darkness.

  They were able to move remarkably quietly and the only echo came from behind them where the rest of the team was still waiting.

  Mick's flashlight beam cut through the darkness ahead, moving smoothly over the tunnel, back and forth, to and fro.

  I'm glad he's on point, thought Julia.

  They'd traveled maybe one hundred meters when Julia thought she saw Mick do something with his arm. Wilkins' arm went into the air soon after.

  The fist.

  Julia stopped before she bumped into Wilkins.

  Up ahead, Mick stayed absolutely still.

  Seconds ticked by and Julia felt like her heart was about to crash through her chest. It sounded so loud in her ears! Surely everyone else could hear it. She struggled to get a breath and inhale and exhale smoothly through her nose.

  Relax, she thought. Mick's up there. Anything that comes down the tunnel has to get through him first. And then Wilkins. And then me.

  She grinned, but the thought didn't make her feel much better.

  More seconds ticked by. It felt like minutes. What was going on? What was Mick waiting for? For her part, Julia couldn't see or hear anything that might have indicated danger ahead.

  But then again, she didn't have Mick's acute senses.

  She looked at Wilkins. The family man. Was he thinking about his family now? Was he thinking about how much more he'd rather be with them than here in this dank cave searching for safety while some unseen creature waited to hunt them all down?

  The weight of her responsibility for the safety of her team suddenly crashed down on her. Their lives rested on her shoulders. Sure, Mick, was the solider who could protect them all, but Julia's primary mission was to achieve her exploration objectives and bring her men home alive.

  Funny how the appearance of danger suddenly made that responsibility all the more real and all the more overpowering. She took another breath and resolved herself to making sure the rest of them came home safe. She'd mourn Vikorsky later.

  Finally, Mick's arm moved again and they resumed walking. What had he seen? Julia frowned. Part of her wanted to be up front, leading the way. She wanted to see and hear what Mick did.

  She grew used to walking on the uneven floor. Her footsteps rolled along, while she maintained an upright posture. The rifle felt a bit heavier than she remembered them being in the Scouts. But then again, she'd only ever fired a small .22. The M16 was a heavier assault rifle.

  The grips even felt a bit slippery, even though she still wore her gloves.

  Was she sweating?

  Under the coat, she felt warm suddenly. Like she'd just begun to perspire heavily.

  A breeze tickled her face.

  Breeze?

  It was warm.

  Something didn't compute. They were at the South Pole virtually. A howling raging snowstorm blizzard raged outside these walls, and yet...the breeze was definitely warm.

  The air around them started to grow almost balmy.

  Wilkins had noticed it, too. She could tell from the way he moved that he was trying to figure it out as well. Mick, however, just kept plodding along.

  Then suddenly, his arm shot up. And for some reason, Julia could see it clearly. She hadn't been able to before. But was the cave getting...brighter?

  Wilkins and Julia both stopped. Mick signaled them to stay out and then he crept ahead. He moved like a ghost. He made no noise at all. After about five minutes, he returned.

  He cupped his hand and whispered to them.

  "You won't believe this: there's a light up ahead."

  Chapter Twelve

  "What kind of light?" Wilkins looked incredulous in the distorted light of Mick's flashlight.

  There's a fissure between some rocks. There's light coming from the other side."

  "Artificial?" asked Julia. "Or natural?" It was tough to believe there'd be any type of sunlight coming from the hole, given the storm raging outside, but perhaps...

  "I can't tell without prying up the rocks and getting a closer look." Mick shook his head. "Damnedest thi
ng, though. There's a warm breeze coming from the other side as well."

  "Is that why the cave got warmer?"

  Mick nodded. "It's steady, too. Like there's an entirely different atmosphere on the other side of the rocks down there."

  "Different atmosphere?" What could possibly explain that? They were down in the freezing barren landscape of Antarctica. It seemed silly to think about the possibility of balmy temperatures down here.

  Mick shrugged. "Just letting you know what I saw down there. I haven't got a clue as to explaining it, but it's there anyway."

  Wilkins glanced back in the direction they'd traveled. "Should we get the others? Move them on up here and set up a camp? It's warmer and even lighter."

  Julia glanced at Mick. "You're the tactical guy. What do you think?"

  "May as well. It's pretty obvious this is going to be our starting point for exploration. And I'm fairly confident there's something interesting going on up there."

  "Okay, Wilkins will go back and get the rest of the team. Bring them up here. We'll wait for you before we do anything else. I want us all situated and secure before we start prying any lids off of boxes. Got it?"

  Wilkins nodded and moved back down toward the entrance. Julia looked at Mick. "What do you think it is?"

  He smiled. "What - you think I was waiting for Wilkins to leave before I let you in on some deep dark secret?"

  "We are at the bottom of the world. Seems as good a place as any to have a secret."

  He shrugged. "No secrets. What I reported is what I saw."

  "What else is in the weapons cache?"

  "What?"

  "How come you wouldn't let us help you when you opened it? And don't give me that bullshit about security and state secrets. It doesn't wash."

  He smirked. "I thought perhaps there might be something else in the cache. Something that I'd heard about back in the service. It was a rumor, really. Nothing substantial. But those rumors and whispers seem to take on a life of their own when you're suddenly confronted by a changing reality."

  "What was the rumor?"

  He frowned. "That we'd stored small ADMs down here."

  "What's an ADM?"

  "Stands for 'Atomic Demolition Munitions'."

  "Atomic?"

  "As in nuclear. Yeah. They were originally designed to be small suitcase nukes capable of punching a big hole in an urban area. Or a ship. SEALs used to carry them on specialized missions. They never used them, but they did enough training that in the event of war, they could slap on to the hull of a ship and it would go bang and sink pretty damned fast."

  "And you thought we had them down here?"

  "When that cache was established back in the early 80s, we had a cowboy for president, remember? Some people thought the Cold War was going to freeze over it got so bad. We were storing crap like that all over the world. Hell, the NATO storage facilities outside of military bases had the things."

  "I don't get it."

  "NATO didn't just use military bases for their weapons storage. They had secret places all over western Europe designated hides. Old farmhouses, empty fields, you name it and they were used. The idea being that in case of a massive Soviet attack, the resistance fighters would have a ready store of arms from which to draw and fight from. We stowed a mess of pocket nukes all over the place."

  "Wonderful."

  "Trouble is, some of them went missing."

  Julia swallowed. "I'm thinking there was almost no security on those secret hides?"

  Mick nodded. "How could there be? They were supposed to be secret. A security force would have tipped people off to the presence of something besides a farmhouse or shit-strewn field."

  "So we stow nukes all over the place with absolutely no one to watch over them?" Julia shook her head. "Our capacity for stupidity amazes me sometimes."

  "Again, it was deemed necessary to ward off the growing Soviet menace. I'm not pretending to defend it, because I think the whole thing sucks, too. But you need to be able to view it from their position in order to make a fair judgment."

  "If you say so." She glanced around the tunnel. "Do you think this area is good enough to camp in?"

  Mick laid a hand on the rough ground. "It's not going to be fun sleeping here, but it will do." He pointed out some larger boulders. "See there? We can hide down behind them. Anything comes down the tunnel, we can pick it off pretty easily."

  "We'll have to stay quiet."

  He nodded. "Definitely."

  "And tomorrow you want to go and see if there's really something behind those rocks up ahead?"

  "That'd be my plan if I was in charge." He grinned. "But I'm not. You're making the decisions here, Julia. Not me. I'm just a dumb soldier who unfortunately has some knowledge you and the others need right now in order to stay alive."

  "I appreciate your input." Julia tried to smile. "Did you hear any other rumors while you were in the service?"

  "Like what?"

  "Like whatever might be hunting us right now?"

  "Nah." He shrugged. "I guess we have to remember that any new frontier has within it, the potential to also contain untold perils."

  "I just didn't expect such a place like this to be one of them."

  "Down here we all expect the weather to be the big killer - the biggest danger we need to always be aware of. And that's true."

  "But now we've got something else to deal with as well."

  "Yeah."

  She smiled at him. "I'm glad you're here."

  "Glad to be here. Wish things were a bit different, though."

  "How so?"

  "Well, normally, I like taking a woman to dinner and getting to know her over a fine bottle of Pinot Grigio. I don't usually consider barren icefields and strange creatures a good prescription for budding romance."

  "Are we budding?"

  He smiled. His teeth gleamed in the strange light. "I'd sure like us to be."

  She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the mouth. She found no resistance. He kissed her back and for a moment, everything disappeared. No more snow. No more ice. No more cold.

  Just the warmth that spreads from the heart when you experience that first kiss. Julia caught her breath and wished the rest of her life could be like that tiny microscopic moment in time. So perfect. So peaceful.

  Mick broke away suddenly.

  Julia frowned. "What's wrong?"

  He searched behind her. "Rest of the team's coming."

  She looked back. How had he heard anything. Julia searched the darkness but couldn't detect the slightest noise at all.

  "The air shifted," said Mick in her ear. "That's how I could tell."

  "I didn't feel anything."

  He smiled again, but this smile was the kind that an expert reserves for those who don't know any better. Julia saw it come across his face and got the message to trust him.

  She did.

  And three minutes later, Wilkins came into the ambient light followed by the rest of the team. They'd lugged the survival kits up with them.

  Again, using hand signals, Mick directed them behind the rocks close by. Once they got settled, he moved back up next to Julia's ear. "Okay, we're all situated."

  "Have you given anyone their sentry duties yet?"

  "Thought I'd clear it with you first."

  She smiled at him. "I guess we shouldn't stand watch together, huh?"

  "We might get distracted."

  "It happens."

  "We can't take the risk."

  "Yeah."

  Mick took a deep breath. "Okay, so me and Darren will take first watch. You and Wilkins have second. Nung and Kendall can take 3rd and Havel and Me will take four. That sound okay?"

  "Reluctantly. But yes."

  "You should get some food and water into you and then get your head down. Sleep's not going to be the most exciting thing tonight."

  "At least I can dream happy thoughts," said Julia. Mick moved off and Nung started breaking out the survival kits. Julia w
atched the cardboard box ration kits start going around. She grimaced. The high carbohydrate and protein meals always made her stomach cramp up.

  She sighed and got to her feet. She couldn't really afford to be picky about this. At least tomorrow they could presumably head back to the station and she could get some fresh vegetables from the greenhouse.

  She got a bottle of water and cracked it. The ice cold liquid trickled down her neck and she sighed, realizing it had been hours since she'd taken a drink. Even in the snow and ice, they all had to be careful about dehydration. It could kill as easily here as it did in the jungle or desert.

  Kendall scampered over to her. "Are we seriously staying here tonight?"

  She looked at him. "You saw the weather. You think we ought to try back for the station?"

  "It's just that these rocks are so absolutely uncomfortable. I don't know how anyone could even sleep here."

  Julia grinned and pointed at Havel. "He's already dozing over there."

  Kendall frowned. "I think he's narcoleptic anyway."

  "I doubt that. The point, Kendall, is that the human body can do amazing things if it wants to badly enough." She hefted her cardboard ration box. "Take this ham stew for example. I despise this stuff. But I'm eating it because I know I have to. So despite the fact that I will probably be a cranky constipated bitch after, I am eating and adapting to the conditions we've got here. I'd suggest you do the same."

  "If I must."

  "Remember, Darwin got it wrong. It's not survival of the fittest, it's survival of those who can adapt the best."

  Kendall sighed. "Such a cheerful thought that is. Fancy me being seconded to someone who rewrites evolution when she's not leading expeditions that get people killed."

  Julia set her spork down. "You're out of line."

  "Merely stating the facts is all."

  "And you think you'd do a better job leading the team? Is that what you're saying? Or are you just playing at your usual levels of bullshit again?"

  Kendall smiled. "It makes my night just knowing you're upset now about what I said."

  "You could be a real good guy if you just relaxed a little, you know that?"