by Greig Beck
“Seriously, you’re going to lead out with that busted wing? Best if you leave this one to me.” She stepped in front of him and went to flick her flashlight on, but changed her mind. “Light’s not bad now, and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to save the batteries.”
“I’m not going last,” Joshua said quickly.
“Fine, I will,” Mat said. “But you go next, and as an added bonus, as you’re the only fit man here, you get to give Eleanor assistance, when she needs it.”
“I won’t,” she snapped.
“Team-bonding session is over. Let’s go.” Rachel stepped down from the rock ledge.
Matt sighed and looked briefly over his shoulder. “And that means I get to bring up the rear – shit.”
Rachel picked her way down the gentle slope until her feet sank into soft soil. The group followed quickly, with Eleanor refusing Joshua’s hand and eventually coming down on all fours like some sort of tiny, well-dressed insect. In no time they were pushing through the dense foliage.
They followed the sound of gurgling water, and soon found a small pool where the water swirled and then drained beneath a large stone.
Matt shone his light in the pond – it was clear and a few small fish darted about in it. Eleanor immediately knelt and dipped a hand into it and lifted it to her lips.
“Don’t do that.” Joshua lunged, knocking her hand from her mouth. “The water is more than likely the source of the parasite.” He implored.
She turned back slowly, her lip curled. “Look to yourself, you young pup.” She dipped her hand into the water again and brought the cupped palm to her lips. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, as if waiting for something.
After a moment she opened her eyes, held up her hand, turned it over and stared hard at it, before turning it over and looking again at its back.
She seemed to deflate. “Nothing.”
“What were you expecting?” Matt asked, but already knew. “Rejuvenation?”
“Fuck off.” Eleanor rose to her feet, small brown teeth bared.
“Erk.” Matt recoiled. Mad, he thought. Or perhaps obsessed.
“Come on,” Rachel said. “We’ll follow the water. Stay on its bank.”
They moved slowly, and Matt noticed that none of them needed to be told to be quiet. Even so, they didn’t need to be that silent as the forest certainly wasn’t silent around them, with all the movement, animal and birdcalls, and water gurgling. The odd thing was, other than the tiny fish they had previously seen, the wildlife seemed content to be vocal but invisible.
The back of Matt’s neck prickled, and he couldn’t resist looking over his shoulder. He felt sure they were being watched and for the last few minutes he even had the distinct feeling that someone or something was keeping pace with them on the other side of the stream.
Several times he spun, pointing his light into the undergrowth, but each time he saw nothing. Jumpy as all hell, he knew. He grinned, imagining what Rachel would say to him: grow a pair, will you? He snorted and hurried on.
Odd, he thought. Now he was aware of the sound of his footsteps, and could only hear them because… the sounds of the forest had silenced.
He spun again; this time there was a round face peering through a bush. The flesh was corpse-pale and the skin oddly moving, rippling like ribbons being wound over each other.
“Ack!” Matt jerked back fast and fell onto his ass. The face was quickly pulled away.
“What?” Rachel stopped and turned.
Matt pointed, feeling his heart rate going through the roof. “Something’s following us.” Matt shone his wobbling light back into the shadowed foliage.
The group each followed his gaze, and then turned slowly, searching the overgrown areas nearest themselves. They all froze, listening and watching.
“I don’t see anything.” Rachel said. “It’s probably just the shadows. We’re all tired.”
Matt got to his feet. “Bullshit. I know shadows, and they don’t have…”
“Kearns, please, I’m nervous enough as it is.” Joshua’s light beam whipped around and into his face.
Matt pointed. “But…”
“You’re not in the classroom now, Professor.” Eleanor smirked.
“Come on, Matt; stay cool.” Rachel’s brows were sloping over her eyes in pity. “Do you need to walk up here beside me?”
“Oh, good grief.” He turned one last time to the foliage, but there was nothing, now. “Forget it.” The sounds of the forest had returned.
Hours passed, and then more. The fatigue was starting to affect all of them. In addition, the angle of the light from the glowing columns from the ceiling was changing as the sun obviously moved across the sky outside. Matt wondered how Khaled was getting on, as even though curiosity was still burning within him, he knew it wouldn’t be long until the sun vanished once again, and this time they’d be in the center of a forest in darkness.
“Daylight’s burning.” Rachel picked up her pace, and together they headed to the glowing place in the center of the forest. The darker it got in the cave, the more light seemed to emanate from up ahead.
They moved quickly, carefully, now in a crouch. Matt saw that Eleanor had one bony hand down the back of Joshua’s trousers hanging on tight and allowing the young man to pull her along. He wondered what would happen if she stumbled – would she be pulled forward like a small dog on a lead.
Rachel slowed and then stopped and peered through some foliage. She slowly raised a hand. “Just up ahead.” She pushed the fronds aside and squeezed through. Joshua was on her heels dragging the tiny Eleanor with him.
They had to climb the last few dozen feet, as the ground rose before them, and the stream became a small waterfall. Matt slipped and had to grab on tight to stop sliding back down.
Huh? He had needed to use both hands – both hands. He unwrapped the severely broken fingers and then flexed the hand into a fist. No pain, no damage, and not even a sign there had ever been trauma. But the hand looked bony, almost skeletal, as if the fat and muscle was somehow missing.
Matt felt his face again, feeling the sharp cheekbones. There was no doubt in his mind; he had somehow been infected, and now the nematodes or whatever they were, were eating him alive.
How? He wondered and dropped his hand again, wiggling the once-broken fingers. Just like the dog bite, he thought. But this time it took only a few hours to heal. Shit, he thought, and made a fist. He looked up to see Eleanor watching him with a smirk.
He smiled weakly and lowered his hand, but before the woman could speak there came the sound of two quick gunshots from over at the far side of the cave.
“Khaled!” Matt spun.
Chapter 19
Khaled ibn Al Sudairi stopped to wipe his brow. They’d been skirting around the edge of the forest at the cave wall for most of the day. There was a rocky platform several dozen feet over the basin-shaped interior where the lush plants and trees grew out of an obviously fertile enclosure.
So far all of the holes that were allowing the huge columns of light inside the cavern were hundreds of feet above where they stood, with no way to reach them. In addition, the interior walls were steep to begin with, but then towered over them to become a roof, so climbing up was out of the question.
A while back they had crossed a small side tunnel that harbored one of the tentacle things that had made a grab at Professor Kearns. Khaled kept his gun trained on it, as he waved Okembu and Greta past. But it seemed that the creature became triggered by movement and didn’t present them with any trouble as long as they moved slowly and stayed out of its reach. Personally, he would have loved to pull the disgusting thing from its lair to kill it, or at least get a good look at the abomination.
Okembu was on edge. A few miles back he had fashioned a small spear and made them wait while he carefully stalked a large, fat parrot sitting on a tree branch. The thing had just sat there, watching him approach. Okembu had lined it up, thrown with unerring deftness to strike
its colorful plumed target dead on. But then came the wrongness. The bird seemed to explode. Feathers, flesh, beak and bone all came apart, as if the thing was made of nothing but colored liquid.
“What is this?” Okembu stood with his mouth open, watching as the multicolored liquid soaked into the ground and vanished.
He turned. “Did I hit it? I hit it.” He nodded vigorously. “Didn’t I hit it? You saw.”
Khaled’s eyes narrowed. “You hit it.”
Okembu went to retrieve his spear, but then changed his mind. “I’ll eat when we are out.”
Several miles further on lay the lowest of the cave holes that shone in a beam of golden light and was their most promising chance of scaling a way out. Khaled looked at his watch – if it too proved an impossible climb, then they might need to give up on this option and cross into the forest to meet up with Professor Kearns’ group and work on a new plan.
“I can’t.”
Khaled turned. The voice was unrecognizable at first, and he realised he had rarely heard the tall female nurse of Mrs. van Helling speak. She was down on one knee.
“You need more rest?” Khaled asked.
Okembu snorted his derision and looked away.
“I need…” She held out a hand to Captain Okembu.
He looked back at her but his face was without pity. “So, the helper asks for help?”
“Please.” Greta beckoned, looking pained.
“No.” The tall Chadian officer’s expression hardened, and he stepped back.
“Help her up,” Khaled said softly.
Okembu half-turned to Khaled. “This woman…”
Greta exploded up at him, staying low. Before Okembu could turn back her hand glinted with a flash of silver that went from behind her back to hammer down and embed itself into the top of the man’s foot and into the ground.
Okembu howled and then pulled free his own huge blade. But by then Greta was coming up in front of him. With the knife nailing him to the ground his ability to move was inhibited.
On her rise, Greta snatched one of the Chadian officer’s own knives from his belt and jammed it into his neck.
Khaled’s mouth dropped open in horror as he saw the 12-inch blade protrude from just below Captain Okembu’s opposite ear. The Chad Army man’s tongue extended, but no words could or would come. Repulsively, Greta then twisted the blade, opening the wound and allowing the carotid artery to shower the wall of the cave.
Khaled felt an electric shock of disbelief run through him. “Wha…?”
The tall woman ripped the blade free, allowing Okembu’s body to fall like a tree trunk, but not down to the forest floor, as it was nailed to the ground by the blade.
She then spun and began to advance on Khaled. Her face was calm as if she was just ordering hot tea in her local café, and her brawny forearm was now covered in glistening blood to the elbow. He saw that her huge knuckles stood out like barnacles on a wharf as she adjusted her grip on the long, bloody blade.
Khaled held up a hand. “Stop!”
She didn’t and closed the distance between them in three great strides and slashed at his chest. He had jerked himself back, but the razor-sharp blade still opened his shirt and sliced the flesh beneath.
Khaled then threw himself down, sweeping his leg around to strike at Greta’s legs and managed to knock the woman off her feet. She fell hard, but didn’t stay there. Instead snatching up a fist-sized rock in her free hand and coming back immediately.
Khaled reached for his gun as he backpedaled. He tugged it free and brought it around, only to have the rock smash into his wrist and the shots he fired ended up hopelessly off target. He went to adjust his stance, and his next step back was on only half the ledge they were both standing on. His arms pinwheeled as he lost his balance, and the huge woman shot out a hand to grip his gun arm.
Khaled knew her blade would be coming up again, and this time his torso was fully exposed. He used her weight to jerk his head forward to head butt the woman, once, and twice, feeling the satisfying crunch of bone each time. He waited for her to fall, cry out, or even blink, but instead she tore the gun from his hand, and flung it aside.
Greta still held him and he looked momentarily over his shoulder at the drop behind him. When he turned back the huge woman had her face close to his, and the eyes he stared into were the deadest things he had ever seen in his life. There was blood on her teeth and she grinned like a death’s head.
Greta pointed the blade at his left eye, and began to bring it forward – he made his choice, and propelled himself backwards, falling the 15 to 20 feet down to the dark rocks and earth below.
He hoped for a soft landing – he didn’t get one. The cliff edge was rock all the way to the bottom, and he struck the jagged surface hard, bouncing several times, before finally coming to rest at the mouth of a small cave.
He dragged himself in as Greta followed him down. But when she arrived the huge woman paused and didn’t enter. Khaled waited, but instead of coming in to finish him off, the woman began to carefully back away, a knowing smile on her gargoyle-like features.
It was then that Khaled felt the feather-light touch of the first sticky tendril.
Chapter 20
“That’s the sign,” Matt said. “They’re in trouble – we need to help.”
“No,” Eleanor snapped. “We should continue on. It would be hours until we caught up with them. They are strong and competent, and will have overcome whatever problem assails them.”
“Or have been overcome by it,” Rachel said, flatly.
Eleanor shrugged bony shoulders. “Either way.”
Matt scoffed. “I would hope if we fired an alarm shot, they’d have a different attitude.”
“Oh pishaw, Professor. Stop being such a Nervous Nelly; we’re almost there. I say we continue on.” Eleanor turned to Joshua. “Doctor Gideon, what do you say?”
Joshua looked at Matt’s miraculously repaired hand. “I say we see what lies ahead – it’s only a little more climbing now – we’ve already done the hard part. It’ll take us too long to be of any help to the others anyway.”
“No, that’s not right. I’m going to see what happened.” Matt held his ground.
Eleanor smacked dry lips. “Young man, I’m too old to trek all the way over there now. We should stay together, but if you must go, then you must.” Her lips compressed for a moment. “So go.”
Matt looked at Rachel, who winced and shrugged. “Matt, give it 10 more minutes. That might mean we need to head over there anyway.”
Eleanor stared at him, and her eyes moved down his arm to his hand. Then back up at his face. Her expression was calculating. “Professor, how have you been feeling lately? You seem a little… drawn.”
“Fine, I’m just fine.” He straightened. “Hey, you think I’m delirious or something?”
“No, Professor.” The old woman smiled thinly. “But I’m thirsty, hungry, tired, and I goddamn ache all over. And that’s not just because I’m old. I bet your girlfriend there feels the same.” She smirked. “And yet, you seem to have boundless energy, while looking a little hollow, to say the least. Why do you think that is?”
“Huh?” Matt touched his chest. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.” But he knew exactly what she meant. He did feel fine, in fact, better than fine.
“The bomb blast, Matthew,” Eleanor said. “You shouldn’t even have survived. You were sitting right next to an FBI agent who was obliterated.”
His forehead puckered. “The scabbard; it was supposed to…”
“You know that’s rubbish. You barely had a scratch.” Eleanor said. “The broken bones, the burns, the dog bite – not even a single scar.”
“Oh god, it’s true,” Joshua said, pushing toward him. He grabbed Matt’s head and lifted his flashlight to look into his eyes.
“Get the fuck off me.” Matt pushed him away. “What’s the matter with you people?”
“The parasites; somehow you’re infected
.” Joshua pointed. “But it’s eating you.”
“Oh piss off. How? Where?” Matt looked at his hand, turning it over. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Rachel’s gun was suddenly in her hand, but held loosely at her side. “When Samuel died, you were there. When Oscar died at the church, you were there. And you led us here, and now more of us are dying, except you, who feels fine.”
“Hey, hey.” Matt held his hands up. “This is insane.” He started to back up. “What’s got into you?”
Rachel’s eyes were implacable as her gun came up. “Please, stay where you are. We need to work this out.”
He looked along their faces – Rachel’s held nothing but resolve, Joshua’s was twisted in fear, and Eleanor’s had a smirk of satisfaction. He pointed at the old woman.
“She knows something – look at her.”
“I know a rat, Professor.” Eleanor slowly shook her head. “We know who’s been keeping secrets. And I think we now know who’s been leading us into all these traps.” She half-turned to Rachel. “You need to stop him. He’s been working against us ever since we got here.”
“You sonofabitch,” Joshua said, his eyes round.
“Have you all gone mad?” Matt backed up some more. This is all going bad now, Matt thought. He started to ease back again. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Matt, please, I’m warning you, please, stop.” Rachel tracked him, the muzzle of her gun a pitiless dark eye following his every move.
“Kill him,” Eleanor said, the thin, gray skin over her face making it look like a leather-covered skull. But she wasn’t looking at Rachel or Matt, but just past him.
The snap of a twig behind him made him flinch and turn just as Greta’s blade came down hard and fast and aimed to bury itself between his shoulder blades. Instead, he jerked fast and it caught the meat of his shoulder, cutting long and deep.
The pain was excruciating, and Matt went down, rolled into the brush, and scrambled to throw himself off the small rock platform they were on. Matt landed hard on rock, but heard shouts and more worryingly there was someone bullocking after him through the foliage – by the sound of the weight, he suspected Greta.
