“I noticed how you’ve been conserving ammo,” I said to Mom as we searched the chamber we found ourselves in. “Only taking shots when you know you’ll kill them, when you won’t miss.”
“Yeah,” she said, reloading her gun. “I only have so many bullets, and I don’t know how long we’ll be in here. Or how many of those things there are. Besides, I’m afraid of ricochets if I shoot and miss.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
“I do that occasionally,” she said. “Hopefully it’s enough.”
“Hopefully.”
“So, the group that ran, they went this way,” she said. “Does that mean we’re going in the right direction?”
“Probably.” It was strange, for some reason, having this conversation with my mother. Awkward. Peculiar. I supposed there was no normal or comfortable parts to this entire thing. “Ready to go?”
“Yep.”
We slogged on. One section of this dismal underworld looked much like another. Wide passageways, narrow ones, large chambers with stalactites and stalagmites littering the ceiling and floor, it all passed unnoticed. We weren’t looking at the big things like that. No, we were looking at the small things. Is that shadow big enough to hide some of the creatures? Is that a side passage or just a little depression where the light doesn’t reach? The suspense of when the next attack would occur was causing me to jump at every flicker of light. I was clenching my teeth so hard, anticipating an attack, I was getting a headache.
There was no doubt there would be another one. If we’d all learned one thing well, it was that there would always be more of the dark creatures coming after us. Until we got back onto the surface, we were fair game. And that cliché was as true literally as it was figuratively. I had the definite feeling we were being hunted.
At one point, when a fat drop of water dripped from overhead and landed on my forehead, I almost hit Sam with my staff in my panic. It was a wet, musty, miserable place, and I just wanted to go home.
Less than an hour after our last encounter, they came after us again. It was not clever, not a carefully planned ambush. It almost seemed as if the shadowling were running through the cavern on the way somewhere else and we happened to be there. Some of their eyes widened—just before the light beams hit them and they squinted—as they caught sight of us.
To be honest, it was more of a collision than an attack.
There were probably fifteen of them, and once their shock had passed, they split up and did as before. Three came at me, two went after Jacob, four surrounded Rick and my mother, and the others were attacked singly. Except Emily. Apparently, she was the target for this group. Six of them crowded in around her, only one really paying attention to Zach and the others concentrating on my British friend.
I was not about to let them take her. Anger started building in me. First Bobby, then all the endless chasing and fighting, and now they were trying to take my friend? It was different when they were after Madison. I didn’t have an emotional connection to her. I did with Emily.
The three came at me at once, swiping at me in the same way the others had. Well, I’d had about enough of playing their games. They would try to attack me, try to take my friend? I’d show them their reward for pressing us.
There was a lot of room in the cavern we were in, and I used it to the full. The first shadowling to come near found how hard a staff could be swung when its wielder held on to the end with both hands and rotated her entire body to strike. I literally caused the creature, about the same size and weight as me, to fly off its feet and slam into the one next to it. I’m pretty sure the strike broke its arm.
With two tangled up together, I went after the third. Gripping the weapon in the center with both hands, I swiveled my hips to rotate my torso, swinging the staff on either side of my body. As I moved it faster and faster, it made a whirring sound. Until it hit the shadowling’s outstretched arm, which it promptly broke.
Even breaking its arm didn’t slow my momentum that much. I kept spinning the staff, striking the creature every few turns of the weapon. The shadowling was forced back as I hammered it repeatedly. A final blow to its face spun it about and dropped it to the floor. I continued spinning the weapon and turned to the other two, now just recovering from my earlier attack.
I widened my hands and increased the arc of the spins. This decreased the speed, but gave me more leverage to generate more power. I struck downward so hard toward the uninjured shadowling that its arm broke, too, bone bursting through the skin, as it tried to block my strike. The weapon continued down, breaking its skull. The thing’s eyes rolled up in its head as it fell. Another three vicious strikes, the last one horizontally to crush the third creature’s throat, and all my attackers were down.
I didn’t stop, didn’t allow the staff to slow. I darted toward Emily, stopping so abruptly when I got there that I slid across the floor several feet. I was striking at my foes as I came to a stop, wide swings batting away limbs and heads, taking feet out from under creatures. I was like a tornado, spinning around the creatures, hammering at them, knocking them down. Killing them.
It wasn’t enough.
Three of them had hold of Emily and were dragging her into a side tunnel. Her stick lay on the floor nearby. Once they got her through there, I knew we wouldn’t be able to get her back. Those things moved much too fast for that to happen. I flailed at the other beasts around me, but couldn’t seem to move toward her fast enough.
An unearthly howl filled the cavern and suddenly, Zach was there, blocking the three from getting into the tunnel. They would have to go through him, his stance said. The shadowling holding Emily moved as if to attack him, but he had other ideas.
It was evident by the way the creatures’ bodies stiffened that they were surprised when Zach leapt at them, snarling as he attacked.
As he crossed the distance, Zach swung his bat with all his might. It blew through the first shadowling’s defenses and crushed its skull, spraying brain matter on the one next to it. Most of the momentum in the bat was spent, but Zach somehow turned it, added more force to it, and, with a diagonal swing upward, caught the creature on the side of the head, low near its jaw. The beast’s head snapped back and it fell, twitching, its neck at an angle it was never meant to be in.
The third monster caught the bat, the energy dispelled, and prepared to bite Zach. Instead, my previously gentle friend let go of the bat, drew the knife tied to his waist, and slashed the thing’s throat out in a savage motion. The attack spun Zach all the way around. When he came to rest, he held the wobbly knife out in front of him, obviously a little disoriented. He shook his head, glanced back and forth, and then relaxed when he saw that Emily was the only one left near him. His shoulders slumped and he dropped his knife, breathing heavily.
I lost track of what was happening with everyone else as I took care of the last two attackers. When I was done, I walked stiffly over to where Zach, Emily, and Sam were huddled in a corner. Emily had been crying but wasn’t any longer. Her red-rimmed eyes came up to meet mine.
“Me this time,” she said, clutching her cudgel, which she had just retrieved.
“Yeah,” I said.
She looked at Zach and her face got—I don’t know—warmer. He had risked himself for her, and she had noticed. I left them to it.
“How much longer can we deal with this?” I asked my mom. “If we keep getting attacked every hour, we’ll eventually go down.”
“I know,” she said.
Rick looked like he would say something, but he didn’t. The tension of the silence stretched, thinning, like a rubber band that had been pulled to the point it was ready to break.
It snapped.
“Should we give up?” Mom whispered.
“What?”
“Should we go home, leave this place?”
“Are you crazy?” I said. “They have Bobby.”
“We don’t even know that for sure. In insisting on coming to get him, will I be losing you,
too? Will we both be losing everything? I don’t see how we can do this. We’ve survived this long, but half the time, these creatures don’t even seem like they’re serious. How can they attack us lackadaisically and allow us to kill them like that?”
“I don’t know, but—” I said.
“Dani, it was a mistake to come down here. We’re going to die. Maybe it’s not too late to turn around.”
I looked at her, incredulous. “No. Just no. I’m going to find Bobby and the others. I’m going to get them, and we’re all going to go back to the surface. We have come too far, worked too hard, faced too much, for us to turn and leave. We’re committed. If I have to go alone, I will. I will not let those monsters have my brother. The darkness took Dad. It won’t take Bobby. I won’t let it. I…”
I turned and walked away from her. It wasn’t her fault, this whole thing. I was just so tired. Tired of being scared, tired of running. Tired. I sighed, took a deep breath, and turned to go back.
I ran right into Jacob.
“Hey,” he said, his eyes searching mine. His were guarded, as if he wasn’t sure if he was welcome. I looked away.
“Hey,” I said. A real conversationalist, I was.
“I kinda heard what you said. Back there.” He jerked his head toward my mom, still sitting there with surprise written all over her face.
“Yeah, well, I’m kind of pissed off right now. Sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry, Dani,” he said. “I agree with you completely. I’m scared to death down here, and to be honest, I want to go back home, to my house with all the lights and with doors that lock. But I won’t. It’s not my brother, or sister, or dad that have been taken by those monsters, but if I can help others to get those loved ones back, then I’ll do what I can.
“Did you know that I want to go to med school, become a doctor?”
“No,” I said, wondering why he was telling me this. “You’d be a good one, I’m sure.”
He laughed. “Maybe. My first choice was to be a firefighter, but my parents won’t let me ‘waste my life’ like that. You see, I have always wanted to help people. I’ve always had this Prince Charming, go out and save the damsel in distress, kind of thing going on. It doesn’t have to be a damsel, though. I mean, you could mop up the floor with me if we had to fight. I just like the idea of being a hero. You know, saving people and helping those who can’t help themselves. What kind of hero would I be if I turned and ran away at the first sign of danger?”
“Yeah.” I chuckled. “You’d have to pick a superhero name like Chicken Man or something.”
“Exactly. Anyway, I’m with you. Even if it’s just the two of us, I’m with you until…well, until the end of it. Whatever that means. I just wanted you to know that. Don’t give up. Don’t give up on us and don’t give up on yourself.”
He turned to walk away.
“Hey Jacob,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks. You are a hero. And what you said helps. A lot.”
He reached over and pulled me to him, hugging me and stroking my back. “You’re welcome.” He ducked down to try to make eye contact, finally resorting to putting a finger on my chin and gently moving my head up. “Why won’t you look me in the eyes?”
“I’m…I don’t feel comfortable doing that. Anymore. It’s just…I don’t really do eye contact.”
“Well,” he said. “Maybe you can make an exception for me?”
I nodded and met his eyes for about a second.
“That’s a start,” he said, smiling.
He walked back to Madison, who had been watching us the entire time and who was switching between glaring at him and at me. I didn’t care. He had given me the boost I needed.
“Let’s go kick these things’ asses,” I said under my breath as I picked up my staff and headed toward the tunnel where our latest attackers had come out. Though I didn’t care if anyone followed or not, I smiled as I heard shuffling feet chase me down the corridor.
Chapter 20
The euphoria from Jacob’s pep talk and the hug lasted almost an hour. The tunnel we had been following had widened out into a huge cavern, with a roof too far ahead for my headlamp to reach and sides that were just beyond the beam when I was standing in the middle.
That wasn’t the weirdest part, though. There was trash all over the floor. I mean, a lot of trash. It looked like a fairground after a weekend. There was broken wood, pieces of metal, clothing and other types of cloth, cardboard, even a few empty barrels. How did those barrels get through the narrow passageways we had come through? There must be another way in.
“What do you make of it?” I asked Sam.
“I don’t really know. We’re very far into the cave. Why would anyone bring this much trash here? It’s bizarre.”
We began searching the refuse for clues or weapons. For anything, really.
“Remember,” I said. “No one is to be alone. At least two, preferably more. Stay together.” There were grunts I took as affirmations.
Something that sounded like a strong wind passed through the cavern. I stopped walking and cocked my head, listening. It took a few more seconds until I could place the sound.
“Shadowling!” I said, turning toward the area we had come from.
The sound changed into what it really was, footsteps on stone. Dozens of footsteps.
“We can’t possibly fight that many,” Sam said. “There have to be at least thirty of them.”
“Run,” I yelled. “If they surround us, we’re done for. Try to stay together.”
We ran.
We made it about fifty yards before the creatures’ plan became clear. As we moved toward the nearest tunnel, all in a group, the floor was pulled up, trapping us all in a huge piece of canvas. We were trapped.
The last thing I remember was something splashing over the cloth, a foul-smelling chemical of some kind. Then I lost track of everything.
* * *
I jerked awake. It was like when I had dreams of falling and woke just before hitting the ground, my body twitching. I was lying on my back, nothing but darkness above and something sharp digging into my back, like I was lying on sharp pebbles.
My head pounded and my stomach churned. I didn’t remember going to sleep. What had happened? I ran my hand across the floor and found it to be chain link, like a fence. Why was I lying on a fence?
When I tried to open my eyes wider, I realized that it was pure black around me. Not the kind of dark of a cloudy night or a darkened room. It was completely black, the kind you only get when you’re underground with no background light at all.
I clawed at my forehead to turn on my headlamp, but it wasn’t strapped there. Immediately, my breathing became ragged and I had to gulp for air. My heart was in a vice, one that was slowly squeezing, making my chest hurt. The darkness. I had thought I had gotten used to it in my time in the caves, but I understood now that I had only convinced myself of it because I always had my headlamp handy. I was not used to it. It was still my enemy, still a thing alive, waiting, ready to pounce. To kill.
My breathing quickened even more. Part of my brain warned me that I was hyperventilating, but all I could think of was that I needed more air. Ice raced up my back and back down again.
“Dani?” My mother’s voice sounded far away, yet also right next to me.
A hand found the top of my head and I let out a pitiful sound, like a whimper. I was too scared even for my reflexes to work.
“Calm down, Dani,” she said. “It’s me. I’m right here. Hold on.”
I heard rustling as she moved and then a spotlight burned a hole in the world. I shielded my eyes from it. It was so bright. But it was light. Glorious, wonderful light.
I gulped air, almost filling my lungs. I settled into my old habit, focusing on my breathing, slowing it. Relaxing. My mother was silent while I did so. She had seen me do this countless times during competition, when my anxiety and fear had tried to take hold of me.
&n
bsp; I opened my eyes fully as the light dimmed to a more comfortable level and my sight adjusted. Her face was a few inches from mine, looking at me.
“Mom?” I said, my voice catching.
“Yes, I’m here.” She stroked my hair, watching me.
“The dark…my headlamp…where?” I drew in another breath, easier this time. “Where are we? What happened?”
“They caught us. It was a trap. They poured some kind of liquid on the canvas they caught us in, a chemical. I think that’s what knocked us out. We were put in here.” She swept her headlamp in an arc and I gasped.
We were in some kind of kennel, a large box made of chain link fence, the gate secured by a chain with a padlock. Emily, Zach, Sam, and Madison were with us, all of them looking like they were still sleeping. I saw my headlamp lying on the floor. It must have fallen off in my sleep. I strapped it on and touched the switch. Blessed light came into being. I sighed.
With my own light source available, I scanned the surroundings. There was another cage maybe ten feet away from us, still forms scattered all over the bottom of it. No, not unmoving. I picked up little twitches and chests rising and falling. The remaining members of the team were there. At least none of us were missing.
“How long have we been out?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Mom said. “I woke up when I heard you having trouble breathing. It’s like when you were a baby. Every little sound could wake me up. I’m sure it’s been hours, but I don’t know how long. Oh—” She took her phone out of her pocket. “6:00 pm. The last time I looked at the time, it was three, so yeah, two or three hours, I think.” She moved around, putting her hand to her waist. “Damn.”
“What?”
“They left me my phone, but they took my gun.”
I looked around our small prison. It was only maybe five feet by five feet, with a ceiling lower than six feet. “My staff is gone, also. Do you have a headache? My skull feels like someone used it for a golf ball.”
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