Bottom Feeder
Page 26
The cavity was nearly filled up with masses of onyx—colorless crystal and white striped with pale shades of grey.
This cave was perfectly dry and freshly broken surfaces in some places show signs of deterioration, so how could she venture even a guess as to the time it has required to first excavate the cave by the creature and then fill it with masses of rock deposited by the slow drip process, and later, for that crystalline rock in a now dry atmosphere to present a perceptible weakening? It was unimaginable to Deena. What was this creature?
She went as far as passages could be crawled into, which was no great distance, and at once started on her uncertain descent; but this was not a matter of so much concern as the upward trip, for the success of which some doubts were entertained in her mind; for going down was always naturally a less certain matter, as one can fall if more desirable means are unsuccessful, and she may have unexpectedly reached many coveted points in this simple manner.
Very soon she were able to continue the inspection of her surroundings, and the large passage she was in would more properly be called a long chamber, of irregular width but averaging about thirty feet. This ended abruptly nearly five hundred feet from the entrance, but a small passage scarcely more than six feet high runs off at right angles, and into this Deena turned. It is not quite so nearly dry as the outer chamber and at a distance of less than one hundred feet she suddenly come to the end of dry land at an elbow of the silently flowing river whose channel she had almost stepped into.
The ceiling dipped so she was not able to stand straight, and she contemplated going farther; but to her surprise there was a small body of water which she was ready to admits he displayed no eagerness to appropriate to her own use, and walking about it, close to shore, were numerous small, eyeless creature, pure white and perfectly frightful beings that had sharp teeth but stood no more than two feet in height. Deena held her breath afraid they may hear her. The lack of sight did nothing to deter their movement. It was like watching a colony of ants going about their daily chores. Not once did Deena see one stumble, trip, or bump into anything much less each other.
What were they? Where did they come from? What was their relationship to the beast that hunted her? Would they find her?
Deena’s mind was filled with questions and fear.
The small eyeless creatures had been noticeable in the water and out everywhere but now came walking about the area Deena was hiding in an astonishing multitude, and as unconscious of any possible danger as bees in a flower garden. Having no eyes, they were naturally undisturbed by the light, so the flashlight she held could be held close to them for a satisfactory examination of the horrible little creatures.
They bore a striking resemblance to goblins like Deena had seen in horror movies, although a few were larger than the others. They said nothing nor did they seem to hear anything. Deena let out her breath easily and slowly.
* * * *
The sides were almost perpendicular, and a few footpaths alone lead down amid the rocks to the bottom. In every direction she saw the hollows made by the monster of ancient days, the white color of the granite veined with the darker metallic streaks, and the curious shape of the rocks formed by the streams flowing down its sides, gave it a remarkably picturesque appearance.
Entering a spacious tunnel, completely walled with solid masonry, Gary Chapel advanced into the very bosom of the tunnels. Here galleries branched out in various directions, hewn in the slate forming the matrix of the vein. One of them led to a vast circular hall-like room.
Here the surface of the ground fell in, forming a vast pit of above, with precipitous and sometimes overhanging walls, so that the appearance was that of standing on the brink of an enormous crater. The bottom was filled with masses of rubbish and the remnants of ancient shafts, and thick roots were seen protruding in all directions.
When looking upwards, it appeared as if a canopy of black clouds hung over his head. On either side could be seen precipitous cliffs, rising apparently into the underground sky. Silence and darkness reigned around; the smooth sluggish water alone reflected the glare of what little light was visible. He was not disposed to utter a word, until the voice of one of the beast suddenly burst forth into a melancholy tone in his mind.
Was this how the monster controlled people?
Then he heard Deena cry out.
Chapter 44
She yelled out, not out of fear but mostly out of frustration.
The cavern was not destitute of inhabitants. Huge crickets and spiders of an almost white color crawled along over the ground, and rats as big as leverets ran by, exhibiting sharp teeth and long tails, others of their kind were encased in slime and others were coated in sheets of goo. Those in the goo did not move any further. It appeared the beast had to break down its food before digestion. Deena shuttered in revulsion at the thought of what this creature did to humans.
Animal life exists in considerable quantities in this subterranean region, such as beetles, eyeless spiders, scorpions, millipedes, and crustaceans. The most curious were the eyeless little beings, which breathed at the same time through lungs and gills like walking fish. They had long eel-like bodies, with an elongated heads, and four very short and thin legs. Their skin was flesh-colored, and so translucent that the liver and heart, which beat about fifty times a minute, could be seen distinctly beneath. Two little black spots, resembling eyes, lie buried under the skin—not outside like normal eyes, Deena noted, but inside—and were only partially developed. Weak as they appeared, they walked rapidly about.
Then the earth beneath her feet gave way sending her spiraling downwards toward the great black lake.
She hit the water hard and went under.
She was drowning, thrashing, and fighting the hideous creature in the water. It struck her and she flung a hand at it, only to miss, to tangle her hand in the slime that covered the monster and that slipped off into the darkness. Overhead there was light, distorted and broken through the cave. They’d been sucked away, deeper, into the watery underground, and were doomed to die.
The monster came close and she took the nail file from her pocket. As if in slow motion, she swung, the file driving hard into one of the beast’s eyes.
Blood and black goo spurted and plumed in the water.
Deena kicked away, her lungs on fire, the water a smear of blood and slime. She couldn’t hold on. Couldn’t reach the surface no matter how hard she kicked.
It’s over, she thought wildly. Adrenaline caused her to kick hard, but her lungs, oh, God; her lungs were going to explode!
She thought of Maggie, Willard, Mike, Arlene, and Gary…
Her lungs were stretched to the limit, every air sac within feeling as if it would burst.
Pain, searing and hot, cut through her.
She let out a breath, air bubbles rising.
A bit of relief.
Don’t give up now! Don’t! Fight, dammit! Do it for yourself. You have so much to live for.
But the pain…
More bubbles.
The creature, like an octopus in a sea of its own ink, was struggling wildly, but it was drifting away, from her, from the rope…
She let out another breath hoping it was not her last. Deena felt light-headed.
This is it…
Her arm, the one twisted in the rope and before that in one of the tentacles, was being pulled and her last grim thought was that the monster had bound her with his deadly appendages as surely as if it had lashed her to a cinder block.
She let out her final breath and felt her lungs start to fill with water.
* * * *
No!
Under the hole in the earth, above the water, Gary Chapel saw Deena give up.
Watched as the woman he had come to care deeply for during this horrible series of events let out her final, dying breath.
No, Deena, damn it to hell, you’re not going to die on me! I cannot lose another soul.
He dropped into the water below.
Tugging on the rope that had wound around her arm, he pulled hard, simultaneously swimming toward the surface, to the hole that was only a few feet away. His lungs burned, but he wouldn’t give up, swimming hard, as hard as he had that summer some twenty years before when his cousin Ritchie had fallen through the ice up near Pittsburgh. Ritchie didn’t die and neither would Deena. Reaching the surface, he broke through the slime, blood mixture from the creature, gulping air, dragging her with him, cradling her head close to his chest as he hung on to the uncertain ground. The rescue team from the fire and rescue team had lowered a man near them.
It was then the monster with its tentacles grabbed Gary and pulled him under the water.
“No,” Deena managed to say weakly. She grabbed the gun from the rescuer and began wildly shooting at the monster. In the chaos she heard a thud and knew she had managed—somehow—to hit it. Then she saw Gary surface and gasp for air. “Hold on!” she screamed at him.
It was then that a barrage of well-armed men in full battle gear descended via ropes into the cave. They immediately began to pepper the beast with machine gun fire and the creature squealed in pain as bits and pieces of it along with the familiar black goo, slime, and blood covered the walls of the cave and showered into the water.
Two of the armed soldiers managed to steer Gary safely to shore and he and Deena reunited in an embrace.
Chapter 45
Up to then Sheriff Lindsey Hill who had not spoken a word—but it seemed as if she was endowed with the faculty of perceiving the huge volume of the words which she had left unuttered. “The town is in ruins, most of the citizens we’d thought left on their own in evacuations are more than likely underground if they aren’t already dead. My career is over, my life may not be far behind it and I’m completely lost at what to do next.”
At this point Gary Chapel felt that at all hazards he must interpose a question. “Is the monster really dead? Did we make sure? I’d hate to think that beast may come back and finish what it started.”
The sheriff took it better than he feared she might.
For the moment, so far as Chapel was concerned, the query was unanswerable.
The mental strain which he had been recently undergoing was proving too much for his physical strength. The disappearances of the women and the battle under the earth bade fair to be the final straw. He felt convinced that unless something was done quickly to relieve the strain upon his mind he was nearer to a state of complete mental and moral collapse than he himself imagined. Had he been under doctor’s orders he should have commanded him to at once. Feeling that suspense was for him the worst possible form of suffering Gary Chapel resolved to explain, so far as he was able, precisely what it was he feared, and how he proposed to prevent it from happening again.
“We have to go back down there,” Chapel said. “To confirm the fucker is dead.”
“I’m not going back down there ever again!” Deena exclaimed.
Chapel knew perfectly well, but he understood the mental attitude which induced him to prefer that the information should seem to come from him. “I get that. But it has to be done.”
“I’ll go down there,” Detective Sergeant Robert Townsend spoke up much to everyone’s surprise.
“Take a team with you,” Sheriff Hill was quick to suggest.
“Fine.”
Gary Chapel, Deena Hopping, and the Sheriff went back to the comforts of the Dauphin County Sheriff Department station house to get themselves and the town on the road to recovering leaving the sergeant and his small team to reenter the tunnels beneath the town to confirm the death of the monster—Deros.
It took the better part of the next hour for the team led by the Detective Sergeant to enter the tunnels and locate the site of the epic battle.
“Spread out and search for some clues to the beast’s death,” Townsend ordered as he stepped up to the lake’s embankment. He placed his hand in the black water then took a glance of the team members to make sure that no one was within ear shot before he spoke. “I’ve brought you some nourishment, Master—four healthy human males to begin your recovery.”
Good, you have done well. I will retreat into the earth once more, for now, while you help prepare for my next attempt at conquering the world.
Detective Sergeant Robert Townsend smiled and nodded his head as he said: “Yes, Master, as you wish.”
About the Author
Matt Cole is a college professor and the author of The Widow Begley’s Last Stand, Dead Horse Creek, The Marshal: A Novel of Bill Tilghman, Coffin-Notice, and The Complete Guide to Copyrights, Patents, & Trademarks. He lives in Florida with his son.
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WHISKEY CREEK PRESS
www.whiskeycreekpress.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Part One: The Basement
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Part Two: The Tunnels
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
About the Author