Horror Sci-Fi Box Set: Three Novels

by Bryan Dunn

  Up top, Kylie and the others watched as the rope swept out at a sharp angle.

  What the hell was going on?

  Kylie keyed the radio and said, “Nick? Nick, what’s going on? Are you all right? Do you want to come up?”

  At the same time, three hundred feet below, Nick arced around and slammed into the far wall, the side of his helmet making a sharp crack as it glanced off a section of limestone.

  For a frozen moment, he seemed to be hanging in space. He felt a line of sweat trace down his spine, and just as he was about to fall back into the void, he thrust an arm out and the scrabbling fingers of his right hand dropped into a crack, locking in to the wall. His body was yanked outward. He twisted sideways and suddenly found himself drawn and quartered between his outstretched arm and the rope attached to his harness.

  Holding his breath, the tips of his fingers going numb, he pulled himself toward the rock. As he was about to latch onto it with his other hand, his fingers slipped, and he was suddenly slicing through the empty blackness again.

  He snapped his head up, leveling the beam of his helmet light, expecting to connect with another rock wall, but instead, at the end of the arcing swing, he found himself swinging back through the void.

  For what seemed like an eternity, he clocked back and forth in the black pit until he finally ran out of momentum and was left hanging like a plumb line, his body doing little pirouettes in the open space.

  Okay, that was interesting, he thought to himself. And hey, at least the bats were gone. And then Kylie’s voice was on the radio.

  “Nick, can you hear me? Are you okay?”

  Nick fished up his radio, and he watched the beam of his helmet light sweep through the darkness as he said, “I’m okay. I’m fine. I just passed a narrow section of the opening…and made some new friends.”

  Kylie said, “What?” her voice filled with confusion.

  “Bats. I found bats.”

  Then he heard Ray’s horror-filled voice filter out of the background. “Bats? Did he say bats?”

  “I’m okay,” Nick said, adjusting his helmet. “But for the record, I’m with Ray. I hate bats.”

  There was another pause, then a shuffling sound, and then he heard Lucas’s voice. “Nick, any sign of the access shaft?”

  Nick stared into the blackness as he turned in a slow circle. “Negative. Nothing, no sign of the shaft.” Then he added, “It’s black as hell down here.”

  “Roger that.” Then Lucas asked, “Do you want to come back up?”

  “Negative. I’m fine.” Yeah, right. Nick reached up and felt something wet near his temple. He held his finger up to the light and saw that the tip was covered with blood. Great, guess more than my helmet hit the wall. He checked the cut again and was relieved to find that it was just superficial. Head wounds like to bleed.

  “How far down am I?”

  “Almost four hundred feet,” Lucas said.

  “Roger that. Let’s keep going.”

  Nick reached up and gripped the rope above his head for added support. He felt the line begin to move, and he was descending again.

  As he dropped silently through the open darkness, he felt like a diver, drifting to the bottom of some deep ocean trench. At that moment, he wouldn’t have been shocked to see a school of fish swim by.

  Twisting in a slow spiral, he continued down, and down, and down. Twenty feet…forty feet…sixty feet…

  He heard something.

  A voice.

  A girl’s voice.

  Four hundred and eighty feet below the Ballroom chamber, he heard it again. A moaning sound. Incredible, he thought. She’s alive. The girl somehow managed to survive the fall.

  Nick fumbled for the radio, grabbed it, keyed the mike, and shouted, “Hold up! Hold the line!”

  A second later, the line jerked and Nick bounced to a stop.

  Nick quieted himself, holding his body as still as possible and listening, strained to locate exactly where the sound was coming from.

  Then he heard Kylie’s voice. “Nick, are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. Hang on.”

  A frozen silence as Nick completed a turn on the rope, and then he heard it again. A soft crying sound. Molly.

  Still unable to precisely determine her position, Nick cupped his hands around his mouth and called into the dark, “Molly? Molly, can you hear me?”

  The void was silent. After a long a pause, the crying started again.

  “Molly, honey, if you can hear my voice, say yes.”

  Nothing—more silence. Nick shifted his position on the rope. A carabineer on the harness made a clinking sound. He froze when he heard a tiny voice filter out of the darkness and say, “Yes.”

  “Great!” Nick replied. “I can hear you, Molly.”

  Nick reached down to a pocket, fumbled with the zipper, and pulled out a survival knife.

  “Molly, listen to me, sweetheart. I want you to tap on the wall next to you. Find a rock, or maybe you have something in your pocket.” Nick brought the knife up and began tapping the handle on the side of his helmet, making a loud clicking sound.

  Tap, tap, tap…

  “Can you do that for me, honey? Can you find something and make a tapping sound?”

  There was a long silence, and then he heard a dull tapping sound echoing out of the dark, just to the right of his position.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Across the void from Nick, wedged in the fissure, Molly struck a rock against the wall.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Nick scissor kicked, rotating himself a few degrees to the right until he was facing the sound. He pointed his helmet lamp, following the beam with his eyes to what looked like a V-shaped opening in the wall forty feet directly in front of him.

  At the bottom of the opening, protruding from its base, was a rock shelf that looked big enough for him to stand on.

  Nick kicked again, adjusting his position. “Molly, honey, I think I found you. Keep tapping, honey. I’m going to try and get to you.”

  Nick waited. Just when he thought she’d given up, he heard it again, slow and steady. Tap, tap, tap…

  Good girl!

  Twenty feet below the ledge, jutting from the opening, the creature dangled by one hand, its razor claws sunken into the wall like pitons, its free arm rising and falling as it hammered a rock against the wall.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Chapter 37

  Kylie was clutching the radio and jumping up and down, unable to contain her excitement at what she’d just heard.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God! Nick, are you sure? Are you sure it’s her? Are you sure you found her?” Without waiting for him to reply, she said, “Nick, you have to get her, you have to get her out of there.”

  With the exception of Emmett, who remained on the line, anchoring it by coiling the rope around his waist, the rest of the group crowded around Kylie, all of them anxious to hear the news about Molly.

  Below, Nick gripped the rope, looked up at the light filtering down from the Ballroom, and as he slowly compassed around the void, he said, “Roger that. I’m not going anywhere without the girl.” He lowered his head, illuminating the opening in the wall, trying to judge the distance. “But I’m going to need some help.”

  He studied the gap between himself and the rock shelf, and after a couple of quick calculations, he continued, “I’m too high up to reach the girl. I’ll need to be lowered ten feet. And then I want you to swing the line so I can reach the wall. My best guess is that I’m about forty feet away from the opening. From your position facing the hole, swing the line left to right.”

  Nick waited for a response and then he said, “Do you copy?”

  Back in the Ballroom, Lucas stepped up to Kylie and motioned for the radio, then held it up to his mouth and said, “We copy. Hang on, Nick. Give us a minute and we’ll get you over to the girl.”

  * * * *

  Five minutes later, Nick was swinging thro
ugh the void, each pass bringing him closer and closer to the opening in the wall.

  Lucas had attached a spring line to the rope, working it as far down as possible, giving him the leverage he needed to get Nick swinging on the line.

  On his sixth pass, Nick was just able to get the toes of his boots on the rock shelf below the opening, but he was already swinging back through the open darkness before he had a chance to secure himself.

  He swung back toward the wall and the opening loomed once more. His boots dropped onto the ledge, he thrust an arm out, and he locked his fingers onto the lip of the opening, pulling himself forward and righting himself on the shelf, his heart jackhammering in his chest all the while.

  Jesus, it worked. He gulped a lungful of air, fished up the radio and yelled, “Hold up! Hold the rope!” After a couple more breaths, he said, “I’m there. I’m at the opening.”

  As his heart slowed, he heard Lucas say, “Roger that. Standing by.”

  Nick stepped sideways and positioned himself directly in front of the opening, then leaned forward and flooded the fissure with his helmet lamp.

  The opening was about ten feet high and no wider than his shoulders, but it looked big enough for him to squeeze into.

  Nick grabbed for the radio and was about to call for more slack in the rope when he suddenly remembered the rappelling device on his harness. He double-checked his footing, reached down, and eased the rope, giving him enough play to enter the fissure.

  With the tail of the rope dangling over the shelf, he rotated his body sideways and slipped into the opening. Poking his head forward, he saw that the fissure went back five feet and then the ceiling plunged and the opening doglegged, blocking his view.

  The girl has to be in here, Nick thought. Maybe she was stuck, wedged out of sight and unable to move. But there was no way he was going to be able to squeeze past that turn in back. Shit.

  He slid forward as far as possible, pointed his helmet light at the rear of the fissure, and called out to Molly.

  “Molly, can you hear me?”

  He waited. Nothing—just silence. He called her name again, “Molly…Molly, listen honey, you’ve got to come to me. I can’t get to you. The opening is too narrow.”

  There was no response – and then he heard a moaning sound that turned to sobs. A moment after that, a girl’s face appeared at the rear of the opening, her cheeks streaked with dirt and grime.

  Molly.

  Nick reached forward, extending his arms as far as possible and calling to her. “Molly, give me your hands. Just take my hands. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. Come on, I’m going to take you back to Miss Sinclair.”

  When she didn’t make a move toward him, he said, “Are you hurt? Can you move?” But she didn’t have to say anything; Nick could see it in her eyes. Fear.

  Molly stared at him, and after a long moment, she began to shake her head. She was afraid to come out.

  Nick inched forward and said, “Molly, give me your hands. I won’t let you fall.”

  Tears welled up in Molly’s eyes and streaked down her dirt-caked cheeks. Ever so slowly, she inched forward, and then two arms reached up, and she was in Nick’s arms, clinging onto his neck for all she was worth.

  “I’ve got you,” Nick said, giving her a hug. “You’re safe now.”

  Nick pulled her up and shuffled backwards until they were in a sitting position. With Molly’s face buried in his chest, he asked her, “Are you hurt anywhere?” He glanced down and saw some cuts and scrapes on her legs. “How about your legs, honey? Are your legs okay? Can you stand?”

  Molly raised her head and looked at Nick, but didn’t respond right away. “I’m okay,” she said. Then she added, “I think.”

  Nick smiled and gave her a hug. He grabbed the radio, and in a calm voice he said, “I’ve got the girl. I’ve got Molly.”

  Kylie’s voice burst out of the radio. “Thank God! Nick, is she okay? Is Molly hurt?”

  “She’s okay. She has a few cuts and scrapes, but amazingly, that’s all.”

  “Molly, honey, I know you’re there with Mr. Walker. Just do what he says. He’s going to get you out of there.”

  Five minutes later, Nick and Molly were perched on the rock shelf, ready to be hoisted up. Nick took the end of a nylon strap that he had wrapped around Molly’s waist, and as he clipped it to the belay strap on his harness, Molly pointed down, to beneath the rock ledge, and tried to pull away.

  “It’s okay,” Nick said, trying to reassure her. “I won’t let you fall, I promise.” He tugged on the nylon strap. “See?”

  Before Molly had a chance to protest, Nick raised the radio to his mouth and said, “Okay, bring us up in five. Swinging out now.”

  Nick bent, wrapped Molly in his arms, and said, “Okay, hang on, honey, we’re going to swing out into the opening, and when we stop, they’re going to hoist us up.”

  Molly squirmed and shook her head, trying to break free, trying to stop Nick from leaving the safety of the fissure.

  Ignoring her, Nick tightened his grip, and as he stepped off the shelf he said, “Hold on.”

  They dropped off the shelf and the rope swung out, but instead of sweeping into the void, the line was jerked tight, and Nick and Molly spun in a violent one-eighty.

  What the hell?

  Thinking the line was hung up on something, Nick snapped his head down, letting his eyes trace along the line, and there, right below the shelf, clutching the end of the rope, was the creature, its alien eyes fixed on them.

  The creature twisted its spatula-shaped head, sizing up its next meal. Saliva welled in its mouth and streamed between its razor-sharp teeth.

  Oh shit.

  Molly screamed and began to climb, clawing her way up Nick’s chest and over his face to the rope above.

  “Molly!” Nick shouted, hauling her back down. “No!” He clamped an arm around her, holding her tight, and then using his free hand in concert with his legs, he began to pull and bounce the rope, trying to break the creature’s grip.

  When it was obvious that wasn’t going to work, Nick grabbed the radio and keyed the mike, but just as he was about to call up top and tell them to pull them up now, the creature released its grip on the wall, and the three of them went sweeping into the inky void.

  * * * *

  In the Ballroom, Emmett felt the line jump in his hands. He snapped his head down and saw the rope begin to stretch.

  A second after that, there was a loud bang, and the pulley at the end of the cable exploded, sending metal parts flying through the air like shrapnel from a roadside bomb.

  “Get back!” Lucas yelled. “Get back from the rope!”

  As everyone scrambled to get clear, they heard a loud grunting sound.

  Emmett.

  He grunted again. The pain was unbearable. What the hell was going on? Then he saw the carabineer brake fail and felt the coils around his waist constrict. Emmett thought he was about to be cut in two, and then, without warning, he was yanked off of his feet, sliding across the chamber’s floor toward the opening.

  “Emmett!” Lucas shouted. Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on down there?

  Pumping his legs as hard has he could, Lucas sprinted forward, and just before he reached Emmett, he launched himself horizontally. He hit the ground, skidded on his chest, and as Emmett skidded past, he dropped his arms across Emmett’s legs and clamped onto his ankles.

  Now both of them were being dragged toward the opening.

  “Help! Help us!” Lucas yelled, fighting to hang on to Emmett.

  Ray and Major Atwood were already on their way when Lucas yelled, and as they skidded across the floor, Ray and the major dropped across Lucas’s legs and dug their boots in, trying to stop the rope.

  By the time Kylie and Slade arrived to help, it was all over. Emmett’s body had slammed into the boulder that supported the cable and then had been wedged beneath it.

  The coils around Emmett’s waist were yanked u
p, crisscrossing his chest, and then there was the horrible sound of snapping bones as his ribcage collapsed.

  Emmett’s eyes went wide with shock. He stared up at Lucas and whispered, “Oh Lord,” as blood filled his mouth and spilled across his chin. A second after that, his eyes closed, and he was dead.

  “No!” Lucas shouted. “Emmett, no. God, no…”

  “Do something!” Slade demanded. But there was nothing to be done.

  Chapter 38

  Molly screamed. Her hands were ripped from the line as it jolted to a halt stopped by Emmett’s body, both of them left hanging at crazy angles, Nick’s harness the only thing keeping them from plunging to their deaths.

  “Help me!” Molly screamed as she hung upside down below Nick.

  With his head swimming and the world tilting, Nick gripped the belay loop. He rolled his body up, got a hand on the rope, and then with his free hand he pulled Molly up, clutching her tightly to his chest.

  “Don’t look down,” he said, cradling her in the crook of his arm. “Listen to me. Here’s what I want you to do: I’m going to push you up, and I want you to climb the rope until you’re just above my head. And then I want you to hold on using your hands and legs.” Nick pushed a wedge of hair out of her face. “Can you do that for me, honey?”

  After a short pause, Molly sniffed and nodded her head.

  “Good girl.” Nick moved the carabineer at the end of Molly’s safety line from the belay loop to the rope so she’d be able to climb up.

  Then they both felt it. The rope. It began to move. No, bounce.

  Nick looked down. The alien beast was moving. It was coming up the rope! It hissed as it rose on the line, pulling itself up with its powerful arms.

  “Molly, climb now!” Nick thrust her up, pushing her with a hand, wincing as she kicked off of his shoulders.

  She scrambled up the rope until she was hanging just a few inches above Nick’s head. Gripping the line with her hands and clamping it with her legs, she held on with all her might, giving Nick the chance he needed to deal with the advancing creature.