The Tunnel
Page 7
Ruck also carried a Daniel Defense M4A1 rifle and knife.
Jordan outfitted himself with the same make of clothing and firearms that he used during his two combat tours in Afghanistan. Not because he was too lazy to research anything different, but because they’d served him well. He saw no reason to change what worked and the low-cost of surplus military gear fit his thrifty nature well. For weapons, Jordan carried a Heckler & Koch MP5A3 rifle and Sig Sauer P320 chambered in .45 ACP.
Drake carried a Radical Firearm AR-15 rifle, Glock 19 pistol, pry bar, and a little something extra she recently picked up online.
“What the hell is that?” Hunter asked as his team assembled outside the wooden barricade that blocked the tunnel’s entrance.
“Flamethrower,” Drake replied with serious pride.
“Flamethrower?” Hunter both exclaimed and asked in disbelief.
“That it is,” Drake replied. “One all American flamethrower made and sold by America’s favorite inventor Elon Musk.”
“The car guy?” Hunter asked.
“The one and only,” Drake answered
“His cars come with flamethrowers now?” Hunter seriously inquired.
“Don’t know,” Drake answered. “I just bought one of his flamethrowers. I’m not into electric cars. I’m more of a diesel kind of gal.”
“Time’s wasting,” Taylor interrupted. “Sun’s going down. I want to be at the massacre point when it’s dark above and below the earth.”
“It’s your mission,” Hunter assured Taylor with a smile.
Taylor stood before the plywood and timber reinforced garage door. He held his rifle supported by a Spec-Ops Patrol Sling before him and at the ready. He turned his head away from the group and whispered into his radio, “COMMS check.”
The team answered with their names one by one and Taylor turned to face them.
“We’re going underground and into a pitch-black void,” Taylor commanded. “Do not let your mind get the best of you. Trust the gear, stay tight, and stay focused.”
The team nodded and gave thumbs up and formed two lines before the sealed tunnel. Taylor pointed to Juan and Arturo and they quickly took their places at the barricade. Taylor turned and pointed to José who stood next to a bank of light switches at the far wall. José nodded, flipped the switch, and the windowless interior of the barn was plunged into total darkness.
28.
Dejah felt like she was in a fevered dream.
Her state reminded her of the time she had the flu. She had laid in bed for three days, unsure if she was awake or not. Things would happen and she’d later wonder if they had truly occurred.
Had her mother really bathed her in bed?
Had her grandmother really brought her soup?
These encounters had seemed real, but Dejah couldn’t be sure when recalling them.
The same held true of her time in the cave.
The view through the hole above her showed dusk.
Had she really been alone in the cave she’d fallen into for almost a full day?
Or had it been two days?
She remembered taking a nap in the beam of light that shone through the point of her entrance earlier in the day. Had she slept through the day then the night and into another day?
She couldn’t be sure.
She stared at the sky high, high above her and wondered.
Wondered when her mother would finally come get her and what they’d eat to celebrate their being back together again. She really hoped that the reunion would happen soon, as she was starving.
After all, she hadn’t eaten anything in a day.
Or was it two days?
She remembered trying to quell her hunger with several trips to the small stream that flowed beneath the pinpoint of light deeper within the cave. Her drinking did little to ease her hunger and the light—all the lights—were now gone.
Did the lack of light mean the dogs or whatever they were would start growling again?
She’d heard them lots of times during her time in the cave. Sometimes they’d bark; other times they’d shriek or howl. They sounded like dogs, kind of like dogs but she couldn’t be sure.
Not because she couldn’t remember but because their cries were so faint and came from so far away.
They were still scary though. The sounds they made didn’t sound like they were friendly dogs.
Not at all.
They sounded mean and angry.
Dejah hoped maybe with the coming of night they’d go to sleep.
29.
Taylor dropped his thermal imaging goggles from his helmet and onto his face. The lightless void before him came into stereovision and he watched as the blaze-white heat signatures of Juan and Arturo opened the barricaded garage door. Taylor nodded and the team entered the tunnel slowly and deliberately. They had walked maybe 10 yards when the team dropped into the kneeling position. Taylor turned and watched as Juan and Arturo shut the doors behind them.
The team paused for a time to see if the noise of the door attracted any attention from deeper inside the tunnel. When none came, the team moved forward with Taylor’s line hugging the left-hand side of the tunnel and Hunter’s line taking the right side. The floor they hiked upon was mostly loose dirt and made for easy and silent movement. They’d gone another 10 minutes in when Taylor brought the group to a halt and knelt next to wallow in the earth. He pulled Julio closer and whispered, “What happened here?” The group listened on the COMM channel as Julio sniffed and breathed into his microphone, trying to hold back tears.
“I almost to give up,” Julio whispered. “I could no drag no more. I fall. Try to stand again.”
Taylor put his hand on Julio’s back in a sign of compassion. He held it there for a moment then stood and took his team further and deeper into the tunnel.
The further they went into the Earth, the more stagnant the air became. The team’s boots inadvertently kicked up sand and clouds of dust plumed from the floor. The team hugged the walls, occasionally and inadvertently an individual catching the wall with their shoulder or arm. Julio did this twice and each time recoiled in horror and away from the unseen that had reached from the darkness to grab him. This, along with the smell of the tunnel and seeing the spot where he had almost given up on dragging his brother’s body back from hell, brought back a flood of emotions.
He felt the fear of that day.
The weakness of being able to crawl out from under his brother to help ward off the nightmares.
The rage of his brother’s killing.
And the desperation to get his brother’s body to safety.
Julio was brought out of his memories by Taylor’s sudden stop. Julio almost ran into the heat signature before him and he shuffled his feet to keep from doing so. The team came to a halt and watched in either night or thermal vision as Taylor pointed to a spot on the tunnel ceiling some 15 yards before them. The heat signature was small, oval-shaped, and not much larger than a fist.
“Julio?” Taylor whispered.
“No bats when I here,” Julio answered.
Taylor immediately analyzed the situation.
He theorized that the animal had entered the tunnel from a natural cave rather than a rival’s newly dug tunnel. It took bats weeks if not months to accept a new roosting spot and them doing so while the area was under construction was most unlikely. Still, Taylor thought, it doesn’t mean soldiers couldn’t have come through a natural cave. All they would need was a way in.
Taylor kept his thoughts to himself and led the team onward. They passed under the bat and it remained wedged in a small crack on the tunnel ceiling, unfazed or unaware by the team passing beneath it.
The team traveled onward, each step taking them further and deeper under the earth. The temperature dropped and the air grew more stale. They had hiked another 30 minutes without incident or sign of life of any kind when a draft was felt. The air was cooler, more humid, and carried with it the overwhelming stench of rot an
d decay, viscera and blood.
Julio panicked at the wretch. His mind flooded with the still-fresh memories of the attack. He couldn’t breathe and the helmet and goggles the team was making him wear were too constrictive. He gasped for air but each and every breath filled his lungs with the taste of death. Taylor sensed Julio’s change and brought the team to a halt. He turned to Julio and whispered, “You’re fine. Take a deep breath. Relax.”
Julio nodded in the darkness.
“We’re not gonna let anything happen to you,” Taylor continued. “Take a moment.”
Julio nodded once more.
“Remember your deal with Colonel Hunter,” Taylor added. “You’ll be in America soon. You and your family.”
The promise of a new life for him and his family washed over Julio. His mind left the tunnel and the pain of the attack and carried him to a better place, to land of unlimited possibilities. His breathing returned to normal and he felt confident in his being.
Taylor led the team forward. The stench grew worse and the air became even heavier. They moved forward silently and at the ready for anything and everything. Twenty minutes passed before they came upon the first signs of slaughter. One of the tunnelers lay splayed upon the tunnel floor. His body was free from clothing and his arms legs and torso free of meat. His intestines were twisted and coiled about him as if pulled from him and thrown aside by someone or something in a fit of rage.
Taylor and his team barely acknowledged the body and instead moved forward through the crack in the earth. They passed three more bodies, each mutilated beyond recognition and instead resembling caricatures of human forms as if fashioned from a fevered dream or by evil itself. The tunnel floor was littered with dried blood, viscera, and torn earth that told of struggle and carnage.
The team ventured another five yards and came to a site of ghastly proportions. Scattered among the digging equipment, propane tanks, and jumbled rock were the remains of six bodies, each partially dismembered in some form or fashion with some missing limbs, and others having faces shredded or left hanging from exposed bone. The air was putrid and made poisonous with the smell of offal and putrescence. The team snaked through the downed equipment and ravaged corpses to the door-sized entrance to the cave. They entered the cave one by one and each took in the vastness of the spectacle before them in their own way. Taylor ignored the wonder of the undiscovered and instead scanned it for fluctuations in temperature that would denote life. The cave was enormous but void of anything warm-blooded.
“Goggles up,” Taylor commanded before switching channels on his COMM. “José, we’re at the cave. Hit the lights.”
30.
The lights in the tunnel flamed to life and flooded out of the entrance to the cave and into the cavern. Taylor, Hunter, Drake, Nickerson, and Pearce each turned on their flashlights and scanned the cave.
“Welcome to Hell,” Nickerson joked.
“Funny, I thought it’d be hotter,” Pearce said, laughing.
“I thought it’d be lighter,” Ruck added.
Nickerson and Pearce looked to Jordan for explanation.
“Ya know,” Ruck began. “To better see the misery you’re spending eternity in.”
“This thing is huge,” Hunter announced in disbelief. “Absolutely incredible.”
“There’s tunnels going off in every direction,” Taylor declared, scanning the far wall with his flashlight beam.
Taylor’s study was interrupted by the fevered announcement of Pearce. “We’ve got ourselves a monkey!”
Taylor and Hunter turned toward the tunnel to see Pearce and Drake standing over a dark form. The team assembled around Pearce and Drake’s discovery, and they all gazed upon a creature that only Julio ever believed existed.
The animal resembled a baboon except for his eyes, which appeared three to four times larger than they should have been on an animal of its size. The eyes were coal black and void of pupils. Its fur was dirty white and course. The claws on each of its feet were elongated, razor sharp, and pale ivory in color.
Pearce grabbed the dead animal by the scruff of its neck held it aloft. He dangled the beast before him and declared, “Hundred pounds. Maybe 105. Solid little bastard.” Pearce dropped the animal to the ground and Nickerson asked the group, “Anyone got a tape?”
Taylor ignored the question and instead knelt at the creature’s side. He spread his hand wide and used it to measure the carcass.
“About 45…48 inches long,” Taylor dictated. “Tail’s another 35 and looks like it’s maybe 30 inches at the shoulder.”
Taylor moved to the animal’s maw and spread it wide.
“Canines are over an inch,” Taylor added.
“It’s male,” Ruck observed.
“You know what one of those looks like?” Nickerson joked.
“A dick? Yeah, I’m looking at one,” Ruck countered Nickerson.
Taylor continued to study the body. He ran his hands over several puncture wounds then looked up at Julio. “Your brother got ‘em good.”
Julio nodded and spat on the animal’s face.
“Resilient little shits,” Ruck barked. “The thing got stabbed that many times yet still managed to get this far out from the tunnel.”
Hunter held out his hand to Julio and said, “You’re going to America, my friend. I’m a man of my word and apparently so are you.”
Julio stood in shock from the wave of emotions that crashed over him. He felt loss and anger, joy, and hope. He shook Hunter’s hand then enveloped him in a bear hug.
“That’s nice ‘n’ all,” Pearce said. “I mean, this is a real touching moment, but can somebody tell me what the hell this thing is? And what the hell is it doing down here?”
“It’s obviously a primate of some kind,” Drake answered. “And the way they attacked, going for the face and fingers is consistent with that. Chimpanzees disable rivals or prey in the same manner.”
All eyes turned to Drake. She shrugged her shoulders at their questioning eyes and disbelief and explained, “I don’t date. I watch Animal Planet. And Planet Earth on BBC. That one’s really good. They don’t sugarcoat animals at all.”
The team chuckled at Drake’s explanation.
“You know all that from watching TV, Miss Lonelyheart?” Hunter chided.
“That and an unfinished master’s degree in biology,” Drake explained.
“Anything else?” Taylor inquired.
“Yeah, I ran out of money while working on my masters, so I joined the Army.”
“No. I was talking about this animal here,” Taylor corrected.
Again, the team laughed.
“I’d just be guessing,” Drake continued.
“Please do,” Taylor replied.
“All right, I’d say his eyes are in indicative that it’s a troglobite…”
“Troglo what?” Nickerson snipped.
“Troglobites. Cave-dwelling animals. Or at least it’s an animal that spends most of his time in the dark,” Drake offered. “If this thing—or its kind—does leave the underground, it’s doing so only at night.”
“Sounds about right,” Taylor agreed.
“Its claws look like they’re adapted to digging,” Drake continued. “I’m guessing it’s pretty good at climbing as well.”
“And ripping tunnelers to shreds,” Nickerson added.
“I’m guessing it’s good at ripping anything to shreds,” Pearce tacked on.
“Why has no one seen these things?” Ruck asked, turning the conversation back to Drake
“Again, they’re probably a nocturnal species,” Drake theorized. “And this area’s extremely remote. Aside from a few ranchers and oil workers, the area is void of humans. My guess is that they’re an isolated species. Or what’s left of one.”
Hunter thought on Drake’s theory for a moment then asked, “Why would an isolated species, that’s probably never seen humans, attack humans? I thought animals that had never seen a human have no fear of them.”
“Then why did this species attack the tunnelers and eat them, for Christ’s sake?” Hunter pondered.
“Because they’ve encountered humans before,” Taylor declared. “And they like the taste.”
31.
“I don’t see how,” Drake countered. “Like I said, there’s hardly any people out here. For a couple hundred miles in each direction.”
“That’s true of the people we know of,” Taylor explained. “But this area’s full of lots of people that don’t want to be known about.”
“Illegals?” Hunter both asked and offered.
Taylor nodded. “Illegals have been crossing here for decades. Trade caravans for centuries before.”
Drake looked at Taylor in bemusement.
“I finished my master’s.” Taylor smirked. “It’s in Texas History.”
Drake smiled and Taylor continued.
“Point is, this area’s seen a steady stream of folks over the last forty, fifty years, and none of the ones that went missing would ever be reported.”
“People-eating baboons? I don’t buy it,” Jordan admitted. “Monkeys don’t even eat meat… I mean, do they?”
“Primates eat meat, including other primates,” Drake explained. “Chimps regularly hunt and kill Columbus monkeys for food. Orangutans have been observed eating squirrels and rodents.”
“Baboons?” Taylor questioned.
“Oh yeah,” Drake enthusiastically replied. “Baboons hunt and eat birds. Rodents. Small mammals. Other monkeys. I saw a troop of baboons take down this farmer’s sheep on a YouTube video once. It was freakin’ epic.”
“So, we just discovered a new species?” Nickerson asked in clarification.
“Agartha baboons,” Drake announced.
“What?” Nickerson pondered.
“Agartha baboons,” Drake repeated. “I’m naming them. They’re baboons and this is Agartha. The legendary city at the Earth’s core.”