by Greig Beck
The being’s face could barely be called human, even protohuman. It was so pale, the skin was near transparent, and the entire head was egg-smooth. The nose was non-existent, being just two slits in the center of the face, but it was the eyes that were truly alien. They were the size of chicken eggs and black as oil, shiny, and more like those of a spider.
“Agh, deformed,” Yang said. “You should kill it.”
“Ho-leeey shit,” said Jackson.
“Dark adapted. I bet it sees in an entire range of spectrums,” Aimee said.
“Wow.” Cate ducked down to look into the eyes. She turned. “Get that light away. Aimee’s right, dark environment evolution. No wonder the light freaked them out; it’s got almost total pupil to sclera ratio.”
Rhino also bent lower as the thing wriggled again in Alex’s grip, now trying to reach around and bite his hand. He pointed, and the thing’s jaws snapped at his finger. He snatched his hand back. “What’s with that mouth?”
“Hold him, her, whatever,” Cate said. Alex gripped the thing tighter, and it calmed again in his hand, surrendering.
“Her, by the look of that chest,” Jackson said.
Cate carefully reached forward, gripping the chin and holding it tight. With her other hand she peeled the lips apart.
“Fuck me,” said Rhino. “What the hell are they for?”
The teeth in the small mouth looked to be just a single pair, one on the top jaw and one at the bottom. They were large triangular wedges growing from both gums, to scissor over one another.
“That’s not normal,” Cate said.
“No shit,” said Casey.
“No, I mean, it’s not natural, even for this female. I can see that the tongue and larynx look well formed – she should be able to talk. And by feeling the jawline and looking at the growth of the teeth at the gumline, I can tell it’s a female only just out of her teens. But the teeth themselves have been altered, perhaps filed, to be like this.”
“If it can talk, make it talk.” Yang leaned in close, his face twisted in disgust.
“It’s like a beak,” Alex said. “Same association for the mask – the ultimate worship – make yourself like your idol … or god.” He turned to Rhino. “Use the rope, bind her.”
“It’s like tattooing or scarification in primitive tribes,” Rhino said, taking hold of her and looping the rope around her wrists and neck.
“Easy,” Aimee said. “We humans do what we need to do to survive. The great Aztlan race collapsed and regressed. An ever-hungry god became their religion and their idol, and they in turn tried to become like it. So, they reverted back to something primordial to survive in this primordial place.”
Yang continued to stare, but still looked like he had smelled something bad. “The freak must talk.”
“Well, it’s freaky anyway,” Rhino said, finishing his work, and holding the rope like a leash. The small being looked down at her bound hands, and then stood silently, her large black eyes unreadable.
Yang pushed in close. “Where are my men?”
Casey moved fast to intervene, grabbing Yang and spinning him so she could stare into his face. “Back off. You’re not in charge anymore.”
Yang glared at her, and his fists balled. Casey returned the cold stare, her face twisted into its usual sneer. “Just to be clear, I still want to kill you.”
Yang’s lips momentarily twisted before he turned to briefly lunge again at the small creature. This time, it bared its beak-like teeth at Yang, and then opened its mouth wider. Alex felt the splitting scream deep in the core of his brain. He doubled over, his hands pressed to his ears.
Aimee rushed to him, and knelt. “What is it?”
Alex lifted his head, his eyes tightly closed from the pain. “The sound.” He opened his eyes to slits and looked across to the being, who then snapped its mouth shut with an audible clack of teeth. The sound was immediately shut off.
Alex breathed deeply, feeling the white-hot needle of pain withdraw. “It came from her.”
“We heard nothing.” Aimee looked from Alex to the humanoid. “Just like in the cave mouth. It’s the subsonic wavelength again, a defensive mechanism.”
Alex got to his feet. “Now we know where the sound came from. But I don’t think it was designed to cause pain … more like a call to its own kind … or to something else.” He straightened. “We need to be on guard.”
Alex looked off into the darkness, and saw Yang watching them silently. The PLA captain turned to walk away a few paces into the dark. Shenjung and Soong were talking quietly, standing away from the being.
Alex ducked down, looking into the small pale being’s face. “You’re safe.” She recoiled from him slightly. “I’m sure we’re as freaky to her, as she is to us.” He smiled. “We mean you no harm … if you mean us no harm.” He repeated the words in his mind, trying to project them, the silence from the being making him think they might communicate by other means. She stood there as impenetrable as ever.
“It’s unnatural. The silence freaks me out,” Franks said.
“Like everything else down here,” Jackson added. “Guess they learned that being quiet is something that keeps you alive.”
Alex stood, and pointed to himself, then the others. Then he pointed at her, and made looping motions around her neck, and then walked away. “Where did you take them … our friends?” he said slowly.
Cate snorted. “You can say it as slow as you like, Alex, but she isn’t going to understand.”
The girl lifted her dark orbs to Alex, and he felt a sudden throbbing in his brain. She turned and started off down the dark tunnel, only stopping when she reached the end of her leash.
“You were saying?” Casey asked with a grin.
“Give her some slack.” Alex motioned forward and she set off again. “Keep the flashlights on, and watch side corridors and also overhead. Don’t want anyone having a noose dropped around their necks.”
Alex let the small being lead him. The tunnel narrowed, with huge age-patinated stone blocks having fallen from the ceiling or collapsed in from the walls. Alex stopped the girl at one of the fallen blocks, and looked up into the cavernous dark from where it had fallen. The rock fall was ancient, but the size of the boulders meant that if there were another cave-in, they would never be able to dig themselves out.
Aimee laid her hand on the wall. “This building, this entire city, is carved from the surrounding cliff face.”
“Like the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, the Rose City,” Cate said. “It’s carved straight into the side of a mountain. But this,” – she slowly panned her light around – “this far exceeds its complexity, and size.”
“It’s a maze,” said Rhino.
“Makes for good defensive fortifications,” Casey said. “Against everything except earthquakes.”
“Something sure hit it,” Jackson said. “But why is it a wreck on just this side?”
“Good question.” Alex turned back to the stygian depths of the tunnel ahead. He noticed that the small female being was staring off into the darkness. He laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “Hey, let’s go.” She turned to stare up at him with those glassy black orbs for a moment, before leading him again.
Alex sensed the change in air density long before the tunnel ended. “There’s something up ahead.”
The small female being led Alex around more fallen blocks and then out onto a ledge, perhaps once a balcony. She stopped and pointed. Alex lifted a hand, keeping the group back, as he surveyed the new surroundings. After a moment, he stepped to the side and waved them on.
They had passed through the cliff wall. Or the wall itself was only a partition of one underground world to the next. There was another huge cavern, this one even hotter than the one they had left. It was also luminescently lit, but this world was dominated by a body of water, nothing like what they had encountered with the previous underground sea. It was more a lake, miles across. Steam, like a low mist, hung over its surfac
e, and on some of the banks, mangrove-like plants stepped out into the water on stilt-like legs. At its center, bubbles popped and small eddies swirled as submerged gas pockets were released from their muddy prisons.
“So much for the grand city,” Jackson said. “It ends here.”
“Look down,” Alex said, pointing to huge blocks half submerged. “That rubble? I think this was part of the city, but somehow it collapsed into here.”
“Maybe it’s like a giant sinkhole,” Soong said. “These things happen in China a lot. There are big land-drops that can swallow entire villages. Maybe this one opened under the city, swallowed it entirely.”
“Long, long time ago,” Rhino said. “This collapse is damn old.”
“Maybe it wasn’t just the land falling in, but maybe something else trying to break its way in. I got a bad feeling this is something’s backyard. Check out ten o’clock.” Alex stared out at the far shoreline as a veil of mist lifted.
Jackson squinted into the distance as the fog cleared slightly. His mouth hung open, and he adjusted the jawbone axe still stuck in his belt. “No fucking way.”
“This is why we’re here,” Rhino said softly.
Lining one of the far shorelines were ships, dozens and dozens of huge vessels. Some were small skiffs, and some were huge. There was even the skeleton of a WW2 bomber plane, many of its panels missing, and one wing sagging onto the bank.
Some of the boats had the three masts of centuries-old sailing clippers, ragged remnants hanging limply from the moss-covered wood. There were rusting iron hulks of cargo ships, and even a fishing trawler. They were all lined up, side by side, like a child’s collection.
“There’s an old goddamn warship – side cannons.” Rhino stepped forward. “Remains of a Union Jack still hanging on the bow.” He slowly read the name. “S-A-P-P-H-O – The Sappho.”
“It’s almost dream-like.” Aimee breathed the words. “The mist, the ships. You know, this reminds me of something, from childhood.” Aimee frowned as if searching her memory. “That’s it, the cove on Never-never Land, with all the ancient shipwrecks, lost in time.”
“Now crewed by ghosts,” said Cate softly.
“No,” Alex said, feeling a sense of elation. “These guys weren’t shipwrecked … they were brought here.” He lifted an arm to point. “Just like our sub.”
He couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his face. They’d found it, the Sea Shadow. There, among the decaying hulks, was the submarine, smaller than normal, dented and crushed in the center, but still looking largely intact.
“The Shadow, right damn there.” Rhino turned briefly to high-five Jackson. “But how the hell did these little freaks get them all down?”
“No, no, they didn’t do it. Look,” Aimee pointed to a different place on the lake’s edge. There were two piles of round white objects.
Alex ground his teeth. “Skulls, human skulls.”
“They’re fucking cannibals,” Jackson said, looking down at the small female being standing ghostly quiet beside them. “No wonder they file their teeth.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think they’re the only suspect,” said Cate. “Cephalopods are smart, very smart. A sign of intelligence is constructive play, and it’s been observed in modern octopus time and time again. Even in the wild, they will stack the remains of their prey into piles and then continue to rearrange them differently on different days. They play with them, like a child would play with its blocks.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Franks spat. “They’re not blocks, they’re freakin’ human heads.”
“Bingo, good news,” said Rhino. “That little inlet on our three o’clock … I have Blake, Jennifer, and our PLA buddies.”
Tied to stakes at the water’s edge were the four missing members of the group. They were in the lake to their knees, and Alex could see they’d been beaten. They had blood running from multiple wounds that could have been bite marks. The blood dripped into the water.
Alex looked down at the small female humanoid, feeling a sudden rush of disgust and anger. She was already looking at him, as though seeing how he would react to the captives. She turned her unreadable eyes away from him.
Casey was on the brink of the ledge. “They’re hurt.” She spun. “What did you little freaks do?” She went to grab at the small female, and Alex pushed her back.
“Save it, Lieutenant. We’re the intruders here.” He knew exactly what Casey felt, but needed them focused for what came next. “We got bigger things to worry about.”
“I don’t understand … how?” Rhino ran a hand up over his cropped hair. “The ships, they came from outside. Are we saying this thing can get out?”
“Yes, in and out,” Aimee said. “Last time we were here we found evidence of abyssal shrimp – they’re crustaceans only found in cold and deep ocean water. Not in these tropical temp, underground seas. Somewhere, somehow, there’s a vent between here and there.”
“Best news I’ve heard all day. If it can get out, maybe we can too,” Casey said.
“First things first, we get our people.” Alex looked up and around at the cave walls. The cliffside was like a bombed building. There were far too many smaller caves, and ancient room cavities open to the air. “Damn, these little guys could be anywhere, and I’m betting our people aren’t tied there just for fun.”
“You’re right. Got to be a sacrifice,” Cate said evenly. “We wondered how these … people, learned to live in harmony with the creature. I think now we know how.”
“Doubt it. Didn’t save the Aztlantians above. They tried human sacrifice but the cephalopod just ate its way through most of their virgins, and then their slaves. Then it decided it wanted to come and get the rest itself,” Aimee said. “This thing is smart, dexterous, and has senses well beyond our own. The only reason it doesn’t compete with mankind for top spot is that it usually doesn’t live that long.” She snorted softly. “But down here that rule doesn’t apply. This thing could be centuries old, maybe more.”
“And it could be as smart as we are,” Cate added.
“Could we try and communicate with it?” Soong asked, reaching to hold Shenjung’s hand.
Yang scoffed. “Would the butcher listen to the sheep? We are food and toys, and nothing more. It is in there, the lake, waiting for us now.”
The group turned back to the ancient, black body of water, looking over its mist-covered surface, wondering what lay beneath that dark liquid veneer. Knowing there could be huge eyes on them even now.
“I can’t sense it’s in there,” Alex said, leaning out. “But I’m betting it was or will be soon. We only have two rifles, a pistol and a few grenades. Rhino, Casey, you’re the best shots; you stay at high ground and give us cover. Jackson, Yang, you come too; rescue your own people.” Alex straightened. “The rest of you stay down … and watch your six. Don’t want more of these guys sneaking up on you.”
Alex looked back down at the people tied to the stakes at the water’s edge. They were about twenty feet apart. First Blake, then Jennifer, followed by the two Chinese soldiers. They had all been stripped to the waist, and blood ran down their torsos. All were slumped forward either from fatigue or pain.
Alex pulled Jackson and Yang in closer. “This is our staging point. We move fast, cut them loose, and come straight back here. Hopefully they’ll be able to walk, but if not, we carry or drag them. Yang, do your men. Jackson, you get Jennifer and I’ll get Blake.” He looked each man in the eye. “Set?”
They nodded. Alex looked quickly back at his destination. The mist had started to thicken again, the ships now hidden behind the drifting curtain and the far end of the lake were beginning to vanish. Alex went to turn away, but paused. “And watch the water.” He thought through his next few minutes and held up a hand. “Three, two, one …”
CHAPTER 55
They ran, staying low and jumping over tumbled blocks larger than cars, maneuvering in and out of pathways between even bigger boulders. Alex went p
ast one of the piles of jawless skulls, noticing that there were larger ones, human, some brown with age, and looking perhaps thousands of years old. There were also smaller skulls, with filed teeth like the humanoid they had captured. It seemed the sacrificial candidates were also drawn from the local population.
They stopped behind a mound of rubble. A low sprawling cover of green polyps hugged its surface, making it look like a giant dead animal with matted fur. Alex counted down again, and then they charged. As he ran with the others, he watched the water, but couldn’t sense anything lurking below its surface. Also, above them, the cliff sides were empty. Still, there was a sensation of life all around them, but for now, it remained hidden.
Alex was first to Blake, and lifted his head. “Hey there, buddy.” The man had multiple wounds that could have been spear piercings or bites from the beak-like dentistry of the small beings.
“Am I … glad to … see you,” Blake said groggily.
“We’re getting you out of here. Be ready, soldier.”
Blake nodded slowly, and Alex quickly sliced through the binding around his hands, and then the straps holding him to the rusting iron rings on the ancient post. Alex noticed that the rings Blake was bound to still had remnants of dried flesh hanging from them – well used, he thought.
Blake fell forward into the water, and the liquid quickly revived him. He got up, staggered, and then Alex grabbed his arm.
“Can you walk?” Alex held on.
“I’ll damn well try.” Blake shook his head once, trying to throw off both water and his stupor. He began to stagger beside Alex, picking up speed.
Alex turned to see Jackson half carrying Jennifer towards them. Yang and one of his already freed soldiers were cutting the bonds of the third.
Once back at the staging point, Alex pulled Blake down with him, and gave him a sip from his canteen. “Do you remember what happened?” Alex asked.
Blake nodded. “Yeah, they beat the shit out of us. And the little fuckers bit me, bit all of us. It was as if they were tasting us.” He felt the shredded skin on his neck. “Too many of them. Tied us up and left us.”
