"Be careful and quiet," Cavenaugh whispered, and began his ascent.
Gabriel leaned onto the mound and tested the boulders with a shove, but they didn't budge in the slightest. He reached out and found purchase on a rock. His hand slipped when he tried to pull himself up. The surface was slick and damp. He prayed it wasn't blood from a body being dragged over them, and resumed his climb. When he crested the top, he looked up into the hole in the fractured ceiling, but couldn't see the more than a few feet before the passage bent to the right. Cold air blew in his face.
The descent was more challenging as he refused to turn his back to the unseen chamber beyond in order to properly use his hands. Instead, he picked his way down on his rear end, testing each step with his heels. At the bottom, he stood beside Cavenaugh, where they waited for the others to join them.
"Jess," Cavenaugh whispered. "Flare."
Again there was a whoosh and a scream as the ball of fire sped into the darkness. It hit the ground and bounded down the tunnel. Its momentum petered out after about fifty yards.
Gabriel gasped. Nothing could have prepared him for what he now saw.
"Holy crap," Kelsey whispered.
The thin stream on the ground divided the cavern into halves. To the left, a stained and aged mattress rested against the rounded rock wall. Two rumpled sleeping bags were spread out on it. The pillowcases at the head of the bed looked like they hadn't been washed in ages. There were two backpacks on the floor, overflowing with clothes. A kerosene lantern rested beside the bed. A bench had been constructed from tree trunks, still round and flaking with dried bark. A black leather book sat on the planks. It was embossed with three white words: The Holy Bible. The pages were dog-eared and tattered. Another lantern had been positioned next to it beside a reserve tank of kerosene.
The right side of the room was something else entirely, as though the occupants had created their version of heaven on one side, and hell on the other.
There was a pallet composed of uneven tree trunks lashed together with various thicknesses of rope. A rusted ax stood at an angle from where the blade was buried in the wood. Chips and wedges had been stolen from the trunks through repeated use. Its function was no mystery, as Maura's and Will's bodies were sprawled across it. They had been stripped, their wet clothes piled beside them in twin heaps. Their flesh had paled dramatically in stark contrast to the vicious red wounds across their chests and throats. Oscar sat in the crook of Will's neck, worrying at a sizeable gash with his teeth. He secured a mouthful and darted deeper into the tunnel without a backwards glance.
Various animal carcasses were scattered on the floor, the bones bleached, presumably from being boiled in the carbon-scored pot sitting on the charcoaled remnants of an extinguished campfire.
Gabriel caught a reflection from the wall above the carnage and looked up to see a half dozen necklaces hanging from the imperfections in the stone. His eyes were drawn to one in particular, from which a small golden cross dangled. There were five small diamonds set into the design, one in the center, and one at each end.
He recognized it immediately.
The flare died, and again the darkness enveloped them.
Gabriel stifled a sob, but couldn't prevent the tears from streaming down his cheeks. He felt like someone had reached inside him and torn out all of his bowels. His stomach roiled and his head spun. Whatever hope he had held out that Stephanie might still be alive had been crushed. Rage and anguish warred within him. He wanted to rip the rifle out of Cavenaugh's hands and run screaming down the tunnel, to make someone pay for his sister's death. All he could see was an image of Stephanie's naked, lifeless body spread across that hideous chopping block, covered with blood, while a faceless shadow stood over her, raised the ax, and---
Thuck. Followed by an angry hiss.
"What was that?" Jess whispered.
The sounds had come from deeper in the mountain, where Oscar had just fled.
"Someone's down there," Kelsey whispered.
"They've been leading us in that direction the entire time," Cavenaugh whispered. "They're waiting for us."
***
Cavenaugh led them through the pitch black, slowly, silently. The ground began to slope upward ever so slightly. Once they reached the point where the flare had died, they halted and closed rank.
Gabriel heard a rustling sound behind him and turned. Something warm and wet slapped him across the face. A salty, metallic taste filled his mouth and he had to swipe the fluid from his left eye. He froze. His mind raced in an effort to comprehend what had just happened. His first thought was that Kelsey had stomped into the stream, but there hadn't been a splashing sound to match.
Gabriel spat out the foul substance, then whispered, "Kelsey?"
There was a scraping noise mere feet away from him, but he couldn't see a thing.
"Kelsey?"
"Gabriel," Cavenaugh whispered. "Flare. Now."
Gabriel pointed the blunted gun back in the direction from which they had come and pulled the trigger. The tunnel bloomed orange as the fireball streaked away into the darkness with a shriek and collided with the wooden pallet where the corpses still rested, and burned, hot and fast.
The ground at Gabriel's feet was sloppy with blood, and, as he could now see, so was he. A wide smear led back down the tunnel, terminating in a pair of boots. Kelsey was sprawled on his stomach, his head and shoulders under the water, arms pinned beneath his chest.
Jess ran to him, rolled him onto his back, and cradled his head to raise it out of the stream. The laceration across his neck opened like a second mouth into a soundless scream.
A shadow darted along the wall to Gabriel's left in the dying light, but by the time he turned, there was no sign of movement.
The flame fizzled and extinguished, stranding them in the impregnable blackness.
There was the clatter of rock on rock and the soft sound of footsteps, and then nothing at all.
Jess whimpered and started to cry.
Gabriel spun in a circle. It felt like he was surrounded, as though there were people so close he could feel their breath on his face.
"Fall back," Cavenaugh whispered.
"What about---?" Jess whispered.
"Leave him. There's nothing any of us can do for him now."
"But I just saw someone---"
"I said fall back."
Gabriel felt a hand shove him between the shoulder blades from behind and started walking. He could no longer tell if his eyes were open or closed.
There was a splashing sound from his right. A few seconds later, a wet rifle was thrust into his abdomen. He shoved the flare gun into his jacket pocket and cradled the rifle across his chest, sweeping it in front of him in jerking motions.
"Jess," Cavenaugh whispered. "Fire another flare."
Light exploded from the barrel and hurtled away into the living quarters. The flare struck the mounded rocks and bounded back toward them. The area was momentarily illuminated by a wavering peach glow, casting shadows from every object like black flags, before the ball of flame bounced into the stream and darkness raced back in with a hiss.
"Give me the flare gun," Cavenaugh whispered.
A dozen more echoing footsteps and the light blossomed again. With a scream, the flare flew into the corner of the dead end, ricocheted from the boulders and then from the wall, and came to rest beside the bed. Cavenaugh passed the smoldering pistol back to Jess and walked directly toward the lantern on the ground.
"What are you doing?" Gabriel asked.
"What we should have done from the start." Cavenaugh picked up the lantern, removed the glass housing, and held the broad wick to the flare until it lit. After dialing up the flame, he replaced the top and held it up to light the room. "I thought we'd make easy targets walking with the lantern. Apparently we did a good enough job of that without it."
The dancing flame and the refractions through the glass brought the furthest reaches of the lantern's light to life with
shifting shadows.
"How many flares are left?" Cavenaugh asked.
"I have one," Jess whispered.
"Same here," Gabriel whispered.
"Then we don't have much margin for error," Cavenaugh said in a normal tone. The lantern was a handheld bull's-eye. It didn't matter now if their voices betrayed their location. "Jess, do you think you can carry that red canister?"
She lifted the container easily by the handle and sloshed the fluid. It sounded like there was maybe half a tank. Cavenaugh passed her the lantern, which she held aloft in her free hand.
"Gabriel," Cavenaugh said. "You stay in the rear. Walk backwards. I'll lead. Jess, stay between us and keep the lantern raised high enough that we can see."
He started walking back toward Kelsey's body.
"What are you doing?" Gabriel asked.
"I just told you."
"We need to get out of here. I thought that's what we were doing."
"No," Cavenaugh said. He turned. The expression on his face was frightening. "This ends here and now."
"You're out of your mind. Think about what just happened to Kelsey. We need to get the hell out of here while we still can. Let the police and the FBI come in here after them."
"We leave now and they'll be gone before reinforcements arrive. If we don't do this now, we'll never know what happened here."
"It's pretty obvious," Gabriel said, gesturing to the corpses on the other side of the stream. "What more do you need to know?"
"I need to know why!" Cavenaugh shouted.
Gabriel retreated a step. Cavenaugh's eyes were wide and wild, his red face contorting awkwardly with emotion. Gabriel was debating the merit of turning his rifle on Cavenaugh when the man spoke again, this time more softly.
"I'll be dead inside three months. The cancer's metastasized to my stomach and lungs. In a matter of weeks, I won't be able to breathe without oxygen or swallow anything solid. Radiation will just prolong the process. There's nothing I can do to change that. And I can't go back empty-handed. There isn't anything for me to go back to anyway. All of this equipment? These guns? You'd better believe someone's noticed they're gone by now. The department's probably pretty anxious to have a little chat with me, one that starts with 'You have the right to remain silent.' So, as you can imagine, this is my last chance. My little sister died here. She never had a chance to get married or have children, to find happiness. All I want from the time I have left is to make sure that Jenny's life mattered, that it counted for something. I don't care if you come with me or not. Run away. That's fine by me. But there's something I want you to think about before you do."
Gabriel looked at Jess, then back at Cavenaugh.
"Whoever killed Kelsey snuck up on him from behind. From the direction you want to go," Cavenaugh said. "We probably walked right past him in the dark."
Gabriel felt a sudden chill at the thought. Neither option appealed to him in the slightest. He wanted to just sit down and wait for someone to come rescue them, but he knew that if none of the search parties had found this tunnel before, they weren't about to any time soon.
Cavenaugh turned away and struck off deeper into the mountain. After a moment's hesitation, Jess followed.
Gabriel glanced back at the mound of rocks and the passage over them that led to the spring one final time before he joined the others. He spun around and walked in reverse, pointing the barrel of the rifle at the moving shadows cast by the lantern.
He slid his trembling finger onto the trigger.
***
Gabriel watched Kelsey's body fade behind them until the darkness advanced from beyond the lantern's reach and claimed it. He could barely breathe. The terror had conspired with the heat and humidity to compress his chest. Were it not for the prospect of someone with a wickedly sharp knife lying in wait in the darkness, he would have gladly succumbed to the panic and run screaming out of the cave. As it was, he was slowly losing the battle with his nerves. Every shift in the shadows nearly summoned a fusillade of bullets. With his hands shaking as badly as they were, he wondered if his aim would be remotely accurate if he had to put it to the test.
He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Jess had stopped until he backed into her.
"Sorry---"
"Shh!" Cavenaugh whispered.
Gabriel listened, but couldn't hear anything over his ragged breathing and the thrum of his pulse. After seeing nothing ahead, he risked a glance back over his shoulder. About twenty feet past Cavenaugh, illuminated by just the faintest glow, were twin mounds of rock to either side of the tunnel where another section of the earthen roof had collapsed. The passage narrowed to a bottleneck. They would have to pass through single file, becoming sitting ducks as they emerged on the other side one at a time.
"They'll be ready to ambush us at the end of that passage," Cavenaugh whispered.
"There's no other way through," Jess whispered. "We should turn back now. I don't want to die in here."
"You think any of our sisters did?"
"Don't you dare use my sister against me. You have no idea---"
A shadow darted across the tunnel at the peripheral extent of the flame's light and Gabriel jerked the trigger. The bullet flew high and wide, struck the wall with a spark and a ping, and careened off into the darkness.
"What did you see?" Cavenaugh asked.
"Something. Someone. I didn't get a good look."
"We need to keep moving."
"We're being herded," Jess whispered.
"Do you have a better idea?" Cavenaugh asked. "If you want to wait here for them to come for you, I'm not about to stop you."
"What are our options?" Gabriel asked.
Cavenaugh was silent for a moment. The corners of his lips curled upward into an uneasy smile.
"We're going straight through that bottleneck."
"But we all know it's the perfect spot for an ambush," Gabriel said. "You already said someone will be waiting for us at the end of the passage."
Gabriel looked down the tunnel and then back at him. Cavenaugh's face was a miasma of churning shadow and light. The smile had turned into a maniacal grin. Without a doubt, Cavenaugh had snapped.
"I hope so," Cavenaugh said.
***
"How accurately can you shoot with that flare gun?" Cavenaugh asked.
"I don't know," Gabriel said. He couldn't see where Cavenaugh was going with that line of thought, but the ever-present smile was unsettling.
They should never have gone through that spring, not without the police. And Kelsey had paid for their folly with his life.
None of them would ever see the light of day again. They were all going to die in there.
"We only have one shot at this, so you'd better not miss," Cavenaugh said. He leaned closer and explained his plan in a whisper while constantly peering through the darkness for the first sign of movement like a prairie dog emerging from its burrow. "So do you think you can do it?"
"Are you sure this will work?" Jess asked.
"No," Cavenaugh said. He took Gabriel by the shoulders and drew him closer until their faces were only inches apart and enunciated each word carefully. "Can you do this?"
Gabriel hesitated. Could he? He wasn't sure. Thus far he'd only been firing the flares in a general direction without taking aim.
"This is our only chance," Cavenaugh said. "If this doesn't work, then we're all dead. So I need to know. Right now. Can you do this?"
"I think so."
"You think?"
"Yes. Yes, I can do this."
Cavenaugh clapped him on the shoulder. "Give Jess the rifle."
Gabriel held out the weapon for Jess, who set the canister of kerosene and the lantern on the ground, and took it from him. She turned and faced the length of tunnel they had already traversed. The barrel visibly shook in her grasp.
Cavenaugh transferred his rifle to his left hand and hoisted the red container in his right.
"Everyone know what th
ey're supposed to do?" Cavenaugh asked. Gabriel and Jess whispered that they did. "Then on my mark... Now."
Jess fired indiscriminately down the tunnel, sweeping the semi-automatic from side to side. Bullets ricocheted from the ground, walls, and ceiling with a showcase of golden sparks.
Under the deafening ruckus of suppressive fire, Cavenaugh hurled the canister through the mouth of the bottleneck into the eager shadows, readied the rifle, and began to shoot.
Gabriel heard the faint metal chorus of bullets striking the container, steadied the flare gun, and pulled the trigger.
The shriek of the streaking fireball was barely audible over the echoing gunfire as the thin corridor between the fallen rocks turned orange.
There was a flash of light, and then flames everywhere. A black cloud of smoke billowed into the passage.
Cavenaugh charged forward into the smoke, the discharge from his rifle like a strobe in fog.
Gabriel tugged Jess by the hood of her jacket, and she started to walk in reverse, following him into the corridor. Once inside, she stopped firing as she had been instructed, saving what few bullets remained until she could see their assailant coming.
There was a scream from ahead through the smoke.
Gabriel coughed. His lungs hurt and his eyes felt as though they were on fire. The tears made it so even the little he could see ahead was refracted through the saline. Cavenaugh was a vague blur, his form silhouetted by fire. A puddle of burning kerosene advanced along the ground from the shredded tank, which now looked more like a sea urchin.
The shrill screaming grew louder with each step.
Gabriel stepped out of the passage into a confusion of smoke and fire. Liquid flames poured down the cavern walls and dripped from the ceiling. The smoke swirled with nowhere to go.
The tortured cries pierced his right ear and Gabriel turned to see Cavenaugh charging toward a creature of fire. A mane of flames rose from the figure's head and all of its clothes burned amber. Fingers of fire crawled over its blackened face. Its wide eyes and teeth were a sharp contrast of white, the cries a contortion of pain and rage.
The Mad and the MacAbre Page 19
