“It was obviously a little too conservative.” He stated, arms sweeping the length of the back cave.
“There has to be over a hundred eggs here, and who knows how many more... these shallow pools go deeper back into the mountain.”
There explorations where cut short as a scream broke the relative silence in the caves. Nodding toward a set of closer caves, almost diagonally across from where they had emerged, Chase took the lead, heading for cover, placing his glow-stone back into his mesh pocket. With both hands free, they climbed up along the shelves, taking cover inside the lip of a smaller cave.
As Persephonii was walking, following a few feet further out behind Chase, she noticed a strange rock formation that reminded her of cave clouds, the bulbous forms ringing what looked like a pit or mouth to another lower cave. Covering her glow-stone, with one hand, she patted Chase’s shoulder with her other outstretched arm, still looking at the formation. Pointing toward the anomaly, she stepped closer coming to a full stop a few feet from the edge as Chase’s light went out.
“I thought you said it wasn’t light sensitive and we could keep the stones..... out,”
the last word was strung out as the cave became illuminated in an eerie bluish glow. Walking even closer to the now visible edge, they peered down through a relatively circular five by seven foot hole in the floor into a lower section of cave. Persephonii had been expecting to find some phosphorescent mineral enriched water, maybe some glow worms, but the cave revealed something quite a bit different. The fifteen foot or so drop ended in a sloping right angle further back into the cave. It was dry from their view and the floor seemed to be somewhere between five and eight feet thick.
From their angle, kneeling and bent down to look inside, they could see a boot clad foot and a number of other items strewn across the floor. Looking back up at Chase to gage his opinion, it was clear they were both wanting to get down there to check for survivors, but were unsure if they had the time should the Lamia return. Persephonii had one ten foot ladder left in her supplies, and only three bolts left. She had used the longer twenty foot ladder to gain access into the caves where the Lamia had stashed the children. Which now that she thought about it weren’t too far from this cave.
Lowering her voice out of habit rather than need, “I only have the smaller ladder, which will make it to the slope. It should be just enough to reach when I climb in.”
“I?” he said in surprise. “What about We?” Shaking her head as she pulled the supplies from her pack, Persephonii looked back down to the lower cave floor and the foot that had yet to move.
“I’ll need someone to stay here and keep watch,” before Chase could protest she continued.
“If there are survivors down there we may have to haul them out, which will mean I need you up here in order to do that.” She grasped his rope, walking the few feet over to the large column beside them, surrounded by cascading flow stone formations from higher up.
The pockets of heated air and gas, erupted in a certain rhythm, sounding like an odd drum deep in the caves. She took this to be the perfect cover for her next plan of getting down to the lower cave and seeing if any of the men were still alive. Persephonii, hammered the first blot into the floor driving it deeper with each timed swing until she was sure it would hold fast. Securing the carabineer to it, she looped the head, and threw the rope around the column, using the large stone formation like a pulley and dropped the rest of the rope down the hole.
Pausing to make sure the noise hadn’t attracted any unwanted attention she began pounding in the bolts for the Ladder and her decent. As the last ladder and their only way of getting down to the men, the cave would give it enough support to not fling about, but it was still a good four to five feet to the cave floor. Reaching up, she would just be able to grab onto the last rung and pull herself up. Once secured she swung over the edge and climbed down the ladder, sliding down the slope in a crab walk position. She would have bolted the bottom to the floor, making it more stable, but she doubted the Lamia would be fooled twice, nor did she have any more bolts.
Bluish light from the glow worms created the illusion of a sky full of starts over head. Revealing her full glow-stone might damage them so she popped the leather cover, letting a sliver of light illuminate the cave. What it revealed was disheartening to say the least. Around twenty two bodies were haphazardly flung around the cave walls. Not sure if they had been placed there by the Lamia or simple dropped down into the pit. Each man seemed to be covered in a kind of mucus, Persephonii pulled out one of the few collection vials she had kept in her belts, using the tab in the lid to scoop up a sample. Moving along she checked for visible signs of life, breathing movement, careful not to touch the mucus or get any on her. Who knows what sort of nastiness that would bring with it.
Checking each body as she traveled further back, the cave had pockets of smaller niches where bodies were thrown, it was slow and sad work as it appeared none of the men were still alive. She memorized their faces, placing names with each one. A few were unknown, probably like Yeong and his brother, orphans or others whom had no one who cared enough about them to let the authorities know they were missing. She stayed a little longer on them, searching for Yeong’s older brother Jin, whose name, Persephonii remembered, meant 'precious'. At one time these men had been alive, the young barely out of childhood teens were especially hard on her, at one time they had been precious to someone. Closer to the back she found herself calling out his name, unsure if it was for herself or to break the silence.
“Jin, ” her voice was a little louder being echoed back to her from the nearby rear of the cave. She was quickly running out of bodies and hope. Determined to finish what she had started, she stepped closer to a small but deep alcove in the back and nearly had a heart attack as the shadows moved toward her. From behind a column formation two young men stepped forth, the smaller one supporting the larger. Their incredulous looks said they were just as surprised to see someone down there, as she was to see them alive. Looking between the two young men, she spoke again this time more of a hopeful question.
“Jin?”
The smaller of the two nodded, he was about a foot taller than Yeong and had one of the villagers amulets around his neck. Looking at the injured teen, who had maybe a stone and six inches on his friend, she motioned for them to talk quietly and hurry.
Jin quietly told a brief recount, of his best friend Iseul being taken and leaving to follow the Lamia, telling his brother to stay inside until the abductions were over. He smiled as she quickly told him about his little brother braving the trek through the tunnels to free the other children, and her promise to find him when they had seen he was not with the others.
Chase was happy to see the two, though concerned with the boys injuries. Jin was able to climb up the ladder, but Iseul[4] was too weak and his leg, which had been hurt when he had tried to climb out of the pit could support little weight. So Persephonii adjusted the harness, strapped Iseul into it and followed up behind him as Chase hoisted him up. The three men stood somewhat triumphant on the upper cave as she made her way to the top of the tunnel. Despite the language barrier they seemed to greet each other well. However the small celebration was cut short as the Lamia had finally made her way back into the cave.
“Behind the flowstone!” Persephonii’s stage whisper was muffled by the Lamia’s moaning and jerky movements. Sluggish and still disoriented from their earlier run in, she seemed to bounce along the cave walls, using them for support and coughing as she went. Luckily it also appeared that the powder was still working, playing with her sense of smell, that along with the sulfur in the water would mask their scents and hide them within the Nesting cave.
Dropping back down to peer over the lip of the pit, Persephonii watched her draw closer, tail gliding through the shallow pools. The eggs seemed to be the biggest concern, as the Lamia started close to the now outlined entrance and swept through the water, checking on the eggs by curling around the
m. Luckily she headed for the far corner, deeper back into the caves. When she had felt enough distance was between them, Persephonii made her own imitation of a slither and pulled herself out of the pit's opening, up onto the cave floor and rolled toward the flowstone, sliding under a lower out cropping to the right of where Chase and the boys hid.
They quietly made their way along, through the caves and hollows toward the mouth of the cave, any sounds in passing masked by the cooing and still jilting movement of the Lamia. Out in the larger tunnels, Chase carried Iseul while Percy navigated, Yeong taking up the middle. They made quick time back toward the main entrance and tunnels, but was forced to double back and make a detour when they found their way blocked from what appeared to be a recent cave in. Chase was sure that the area was probably where Team One would have been when the first explosion occurred. So close to the Lamia’s lair it was a wonder the detonators hadn’t misfired before then.
Northern Section of Cave Network; Southern End of the Sobeak Mountain Range, Asia. 4:05 AM PST.
The cave system really was the perfect lair for the Lamia, who would have lived contently in the medium sized caves off the main cave system and moved deeper into the larger erosional caves, whose warm, humid depths were serving as the perfect incubation site. The twisting tunnels and interlocking caves would prove a deterrent for trespassers, who would not travel deeply into the mountain under threat of becoming lost.
Thanks to Persephonii’s photographic memory, who had extensively studied the cave scans, they had made their way through the network with relative ease, it was only through the unexpected aftermath of the explosions that they were having to deal with switchbacks and blocked paths.
Up ahead the larger cave dissected into a darker tunnel and a few other shallow caves, Chase spotted an entrance seemingly barred with columns of rock. Shifting Isuel's weight to one arm and grabbing Percy’s sleeve, he pulled them in the cave’s direction. White and orange rock mixed together to form teeth like protrusions from the ceiling and floors, many were close to touching but a few had formed thick columns blocking the entrance into the cave. Squeezing through the openings, the four found themselves, in a wide but relatively flat cave, whose depth of about twenty feet made either a fantastic resting spot, or a convenient cage. Chase hoped it was the former. Catching their breath, the two young men studied their surroundings, while Chase and Percy tried to discern if the Lamia had followed them through the tunnels. They were nearly soaked from the humidity and condensation trapped in the tunnels, but their current cave seemed quite cool in comparison to the larger caverns.
Feeling like this would be a good time to discuss both the plan and their possible exit strategy, Persephonii thought to start with the biggest threat, the Lamia and work to the solution. She explained that she would be talking to Chase more than the boys, but would translate later. While the two talked she handed out the last of her power bars and water. Surprisingly they had answered that they knew a good deal of English but couldn’t speak it well.
"The Knot…" She started.
Chase interrupted, "what knot?"
“THE Knot…" the look Persephonii was getting from Chase said she's have to back up and explain more.
"A Knot is a nest or den of snakes, it's the term for the Lamia's family group, the clutch of eggs takes the Lamia from a lone hunter to a group or Knot." Looking back over her shoulder, Persephonii pulled the lead case from her pack and powered on the small tablet unit. By now the satellites had updated their scans of the mountain, which meant she could get a better reading of the current state of the cave system. Better yet, the signal from the boosters she’d placed at both entrances of the caves might penetrate the rock just enough for the signal to make it to her unit, enough so that she could message the troops outside. The device powered on smoothly, the lead case and distance from the Lamia allowing it to function properly. She quickly found herself surrounded as all three came closer, standing next to Persephonii as she searched for the booster signals.
“Cross your fingers...” was muttered under his breath as Chase leaned closer toward the screen. At the top right of the screen, the small wireless signal bars seemed to stare back at them, colorless. Their combined sighs were loud in the rather quiet cave.
“The Knot’s safety should be the Lamia’s biggest priority, thus we should have some time before her return.” Chase and especially Iseul seemed to take this as good news, so she continued.
“Given the distance between the Nesting cave and our current bunker, we should have about ten minutes or so,” the expression on Chase’s face suggested that this was not nearly enough time, but Persephonii wasn’t so sure.
Stepping back away from the group toward the column barred entrance to their current hide out, Persephonii jumped as one small green bar appeared. Running through the cave system in the dark, she had thought they had been heading deeper, back into the side of the mountain, but it seemed they were closer to the entrance, perhaps somewhere in the cluster of caves off the more explored frontal cave system. Moving even closer to the side wall and entrance, the second bar lighted. One more bar and she could link up to the server and download the... she look down at the large face of her 1958 Omega men's watch, less than half an hour old scans.
The LiDar[5] pass of the mountain region, taken after she finished tracking the Lamia through the jungle, had mapped a small lake system nestled inside the mountain range. Located on the northern side of the peak they were currently under, the water system could very well be fed by the same underwater springs as the caves. Perhaps the flow of water through hundreds of years had cleared a tunnel out to the small mountain lake. While more options for escape were always better, the new cave scans were becoming more important as she thought.
Infrared scanners on the tasked satellite had been focused on mapping the area Persephonii had designated from looking at local and military maps of the cave system. With a more updated view of the caves, recent enough that they would have detected any cave-ins and perhaps help them plot a path back through to the main entrance and meet up with the backup teams. Unfortunately, the satellites speed and path had only mapped as far back as the spar cave and could not tell them if the back half of the caves around the nest had been blocked. She desperately hoped that Yeong and the others had made it safely out the back tunnels, she had waited almost too late to blow the back caves, giving the children enough time to make it past the blast zone and away from potential cave ins.
Perhaps walking farther out toward the tunnels away from their cave, where the thick columns where spaced close enough to block the larger Lamia from entering, might produce enough of a increase in the signal to link with the server and download the new maps. She could also upload their current position through G.P.S and send a short message to the outside world, letting someone know that they were still alive and trying to make it back. Opening up the G.P.S program and inputting the command to send the information as soon as the download was finished, she stepped out into the tunnel, despite Chase’s protests.
“Do you want to get eaten?!” His voice rose as he ended on the last word, but the close cave walls seemed to turn his whisper into a yell. The boys seemed to agree with him as they looked out at her from behind the stone bars. He had no weapons to protect them, no gun, no grenades, the knife he’d given to Jin to defend himself if they met any trouble, not that it would do any good up close.
“I don’t have enough bars in the cave to hook up to the server...” glancing back into their wary eye, she continued.
“But out here...” she jumped as the third light flickered on, the program completed the connection as she had already typed in her password and I.D. But the unit was over heating, she quickly made the decision to remove the lead lined case and continue with the download having the information was more important than saving the tablet. She vowed to take the time and ward the next one so that it would survive against magical interference.
“It’s downloading but with so fe
w bars it will take almost... five minutes.” It was not a great deal of time in the scope of things, but the Lamia was fast in the slick tunnels, faster than even Persephonii had thought she’d be. With no foot falls or loud movements, the Lamia could make her way down the tunnel, scenting after them without losing speed and be on them in moments. The powder she had thrown, her own mixture of scent eliminating and pepper powders would not last long. Already the Lamia could have picked up their scents from the cave and been following them back through the tunnels. Five minutes was a life time, outside the safety of the cave.
“It?...” hesitantly moving closer to the entrance he asked, “What’s downloading?”
“Talk to me Percy... your making plans again without talking it through with me.” His voice rather than his face always divulged his true level of stress. Right now it was an eight out of ten, she could tell because that small vein above his right eye was visibly pulsing, something that only happened when he was upset. If he had been angry his right eye would have also been twitching, but since his tone was relatively even, not lowered into a quiet growl she could tell it was worry and not anger.
“I take it back. You can tell me anything you like, talk my ear off... just tell me why you are outside of the cave when it's nice and safe in here.” He patted the nearest column as he stood, wedged between two of the large ‘teeth,‘ staring down into the tunnel, his glow-stone illuminating the other openings, leading to similar caves and a few smaller tunnels and casting shadows back on the boys.
Talking and watching both Percy and the tunnels Chase searched through his utility vest, trying to locate something that would work as a weapon. The first few pockets where filled with his survival gear, and while a few protein bars and the like would be welcome he didn’t feel like eating at the moment, so he handed two more over to the boys, passing the flask along when he came across it. More pockets and nothing that would work for protection, not the fog horn he had slipped into his pocket nor the thermal blanket would be much help in the humid environment. The cave system practically had its own weather patterns. He found his multi-tool, fire starter, and reaching into a back pocket tucked inside a seldom used flap was a flash-bang grenade. Roberts must have slid it in there when they separated.
At First Sight (Persephonii Waters Book 1) Page 34
