Freed

by Holly Hook

  We might get caught down here with something trying to kill us as soon as we step off.

  “You think your gun will fend off the monsters down here?” I ask.

  “It won't hurt. The only one I ever saw was the Megapede, though.”

  “How many bullets are in it?”

  Weslie checks it as we pass Shaft 12. At least, I think it's Shaft 12. I've stopped counting. Finally, she manages to open it. “Six,” she says. “That's all.”

  “It's better than nothing. All I have is this axe.”

  “That axe kept you alive so far.”

  “Good point.” I set it down on the floor and shake out my arm. I'm getting stronger from carrying it all the time, but not strong enough. How can I possibly do what my father didn't succeed in doing? I don't know if he ever went after the Heart of Flamestone at all.

  Whatever I do, I have to do it right.

  Down, down. Another shaft. Lucky thirteen?

  “We've been in here for forty-five minutes,” I say. “At least.” I can't imagine the ride down for those who know they're never going to surface again.

  “We must be several miles down now,” Weslie says. She's going quiet again.

  “Weslie—hold on. Breathe slowly.” I can't have her break down here. And I can tell by the shine in her eyes and the way she's breathing that she's about to. Even Pit's getting ready to break down. He keeps pacing, which is only adding to Weslie's panic. I have to be the calm one. If I'm not, we're done. “We haven't noticed anything bad so far. We have the lantern to fend things off with.”

  Shaft Fourteen.

  Thud.

  Something strikes the cage of the elevator. I scream. The cage rattles. I crash into Pit and Weslie. Pit growls. I turn. There's something with tentacles stuck to the outside of our cage. The creature is blue and green, with disgusting green spots pulsing like suckers as it grips at the bars. It's wide enough to wrap me in its arms if it wants.

  “What is that?” Weslie shouts.

  “I don't know.” It's making me feel sicker. It's the green stuff pulsing through it. I look at the floor and the nausea releases a bit. This creature's like the Dwellers so I only keep it in the edge of my vision. It's not letting go of the bars.

  And then the underground squid starts seeping in.

  It's the best way I can describe it. The creature moves an arm inside the bars, right for us. We pass the opening of the shaft, but there's enough room between the elevator and the stone so that it doesn't get smashed. It's going to get in with us. Maybe latch onto our faces.

  “Kill it!” Weslie screams. She's holding the gun. She's forgotten it's there in her panic.

  My axe. I seize it and raise it. Pit growls again and gets in front of me like he's ready to battle. What is this thing?

  It squeezes its bluish, gelatinous body inside. Tentacles wave. It has huge orbs for eyes on top of its head. The creature's going to slaughter us before we even get to Shaft 17.

  I swing.

  Something squishes. The axe meets metal and I glimpse a tentacle retracting and another falling to my feet. There's a dripping sound as the green stuff squirts to the floor of the elevator. Weslie screams again. I take another swing, fighting down the nausea. This time, there's a wet sucking sound as I pull my axe back. More slime rains down and forms a puddle around my shoes. I'm slicing up this ground squid into pieces.

  I swing again, screaming.

  My axe hits metal cage. It rattles. A tentacle lands at my feet. I keep my gaze away, but not fast enough to miss the fact that it's still wiggling. I raise my foot and stomp on it. Disgusting green stuff flies everywhere and splatters the walls. It stinks like burning tires. Like the Megapede.

  The squid lets go and falls into the void. I stagger back and sigh. My limbs tremble.

  Weslie's shaking. She sets the lantern down on a clean spot in the floor and slaps her hand to her face. Her breaths come fast. “I'm sorry, Elaine. I should have shot it. I should have killed it before you had to do that.”

  I look down at the tentacle on the floor. It's squished, but the tip is still moving. Pit advances and sniffs at it, then backs away. Even he doesn't want to touch it. I wonder if the blue coloring is some kind of poison. I've read that bright animals are usually toxic. It might be true in this world as well.

  “I was standing in front of you,” I say. “You couldn't have shot.” Weslie could have killed it before I jumped into action, but I don't want her to feel worse than she already does. She doesn't look convinced. “You know, a bullet wouldn't have stopped that thing. You saw how many times I had to swing in order to get it off the bars.”

  Weslie nods and drops her hand from her face. “You should get away from the door.”

  “You're right.” I back away and join her at the back of the car. At least we have a solid wall behind us and nothing's going to grab us from there.

  I hold my breath as we pass Shaft 15.

  This time, it's all dark, but there's a chewing sound echoing from the distance. We're getting into the worse areas that Weslie and Jaden told me about. The ones where Shawn and Talia and Travis probably are, knowing Garrett.

  The stone's getting darker now. Turning blacker. The ores stand out against it and appear brighter than before, like the colors in that black pressure board I had when I was little. We're headed into a new layer and I hate it. I don't even hear the Dwellers anymore. I wonder if they shut people down here and don't let them up until they meet a quota or something. That could be good or bad for us.

  Several minutes pass. The orange and red lines grow thicker. They're tree roots now, only upside down. I can still see plenty of regular stone, but there's a lot more red and orange. The lines almost look like someone's tried to paint angry intestines on the walls and it's making me sick again.

  Weslie puts her nose in her tunic. “It stinks down here.” The lamp continues to blaze next to her. The flame hasn't gone out yet. There's enough oxygen to breathe, at least. But what if there are other toxic fumes? Ones that can explode if exposed to flame?

  I smell it, too.

  It's a rotten smell, like what Hell is supposed to smell like. This could be Hell for all I know.

  The elevator squeaks.

  Shaft 16. There's a bit of light coming out of this one, a bit of mushroom blue mixing in with the orange and red of the walls. It's creepy. The lines of ore look like the claws of some huge underground beast.

  The elevator stops for a second with a loud squeal as if it's not sure it wants to go down any further. The door creaks. I wonder if it's going to let us off here. If it's going to open the doors and let something in to eat us. I hear a distant shout. It might be someone's only escape. And then, footfalls. Someone's running this way. Someone human.

  And then the elevator descends again. I catch a glimpse of a woman in dirty overalls bolting towards us. “No!” she shouts. “Let me on. Let me on!”

  “I can't!” I shout.

  We vanish from her view, and stone grows up around us again. Her shouts ring through my head. She's so desperate. So scared.

  And then I hear skittering. The Dwellers in pursuit.

  “She's not going to make it,” I say. I'm so scared that I can barely speak. Pit circles and stares at the ceiling.

  And then there's a thump. And a jolt.

  The woman has jumped on top of the elevator car. “Don't leave without me!” There's a slipping sound, then silence as she keeps her footing.

  “Stay there!” I shout up at her. Please don't fall. “Stay there. This elevator should go back up once we're done!”

  The woman shouts something else at me. I can't make it out over the squealing and the groaning of the car. I wonder if she's injured and how she's going to make it back up without these bars to protect her. There might be more of those squid things ready to pounce. Ready to kill.

  We descend for minutes. “We're still going down!” the woman shouts. “No! I won't go down any farther!”

  “The elevator will
go back up,” I shout.

  “You just have to wait,” Weslie says.

  We look at each other. This woman might die in a few minutes and there might not be much I or Weslie can do about it.

  And at least, the elevator slows. It groans as another maw of darkness comes into view.

  Shaft 17.

  The stench overtakes us. The rock is more red and orange here than it is black. There are no wooden support beams holding tunnel up. It's just a large, round corridor carved through jagged rock.

  I cough. The rotting smell is making me sick. How can anyone stand to be down here for more than a minute? The light of the elevator and Weslie's lamp cast a pale glow on the ore veins. I don't see any green Slimestone going through this rock. Just angry red, flaming orange and an occasional splash of blue.

  And it's hot. As in, middle of summer on the equator hot.

  Weslie grabs my hand. “If we die down here, it was great. We tried.”

  I gulp. “We did.”

  The cage opens. It makes a hollow scraping sound like a prison door opening up. The woman above us mutters something. Ahead of us, there's nothing but dark. I let my eyes adjust and another faint glow from one of the giant mushrooms lights the tunnel ahead. Anyone down here must be way down the tunnel. No one's running to board the elevator, not like this woman who still sits on top of the car. The Dwellers must really want this Flamestone vein that they found.

  I take the first, terrifying step into Shaft 17, keeping my nose buried in my shirt.

  Weslie does the same and Pit whimpers.

  And we set off, towards almost certain death.

  Chapter Three

  Shaft 17

  It's too quiet down here.

  Way too quiet.

  Weslie keeps the lamp raised. The flame spits and burns. It's not bright enough. “We have enough breathable air,” Weslie says. “This would have gone out if we didn't. You don't feel funny, do you?”

  “Do you?” I ask. She's doing well so far. I have to keep her talking. That helps keep her panic down.

  “I'm fine.” She lowers the lantern. It trembles. “Except that I'm freaking scared as hell!”

  “Shhh!” I say. So much for that. “I'm right here. Pit's right here. He's great at warning you if something's coming our way.” I think of when he woke me up the night the Megapede was approaching the cave. “He'll let us know if something bad is coming up the tunnel. Then we can at least run back to the elevator.”

  I look back. I can't see the woman perched on top of the elevator over the top of the tunnel, but the pale light inside still blazes. It's a star compared to the dark around it. I feel like we're walking through some tunnel into a void.

  We're miles and miles underground.

  Maybe even dozens of miles underground.

  Don't think about that, Elaine, Shawn says. It's the first time I've heard him in a while.

  I breathe out, trying to get as much of the rotten smell out of my lungs as I can. The elevator hasn't lifted yet. Baxter hasn't brought it back up. Maybe he's not going to sentence us to death. He's a coward, but he knows if he brings the elevator back up and we're not in it, he'll be the one responsible for us dying.

  And besides, he knows I'm related to Ned, and Ned's his friend.

  Or maybe not, after Ned sent him with us. It would be perfect revenge to leave us down here.

  We walk further into the corridor. It stays as round as ever like a sewer tunnel. It's not going downward, at least. But it's curving. This almost doesn't seem like a mine at all. The Flamestone on the walls glitters in the light. The red stone—whatever it is—looks like rivulets of blood.

  Sweat gathers at the base of my neck.

  We pass the glowing mushroom. It's not as bright as the others we passed in that cave a long time ago. Someone's picked it and propped it here. This one's dull, wrinkled like it's dying. It's desiccating. I don't blame it. This isn't the place for anything that wants to survive.

  “How far do we have to go?” Weslie asks. She takes deep breath after deep breath. She's doing her best to stay calm. “How much longer?”

  I don't have an answer for her. The inside of my nose starts to clog. Whatever's down here is preventing me from breathing properly or something. Anyone working down here won't last long.

  “I don't know. They won't have the workers close the elevator, where they can jump on.” I think of that woman sitting on top of it. She's got a long wait before it goes back up.

  Weslie holds up the lamp and I debate lighting a torch. It's not like we're lacking Flamestone down here, at least. The Dwellers are loaded for life just from this shaft alone. But the lamp's providing enough light for us to see and I can light a torch in a hurry if that happens. There's no skittering. No sounds of tiny little feet.

  The tunnel curves again to the left. I hate that. This feels different from the other mine shafts. Almost like--

  Somewhere distant, there's a low groan.

  Weslie freezes. The flame of her lamp trembles. “What's that?”

  “I don't know.” I know I've said that twenty times by now. “Might be some machinery somewhere.”

  “It didn't sound like it.”

  The sound comes again. It's faint, like an injured giant moaning in the distance.

  I glance back at the elevator. It's out of sight now. The woman shouts something at us that's lost in an echo, then goes quiet again. I wonder if anything will find her while she's perched there, waiting for her ride. Or if Baxter will take her back up before the twelve hours is up. I hope he does. She'll make some weight register on the scale up there—right? He might think we're still on and bring it back up. Once he sees the woman on top of the car, he might send the elevator back down. It'll take us more than forty minutes to find our friends and get back here, anyway.

  The tunnel straightens out again. The roundness is too perfect. Everything's black with orange and red claws. I feel like I'm walking through the world's guts. Pit comes up behind me. He's silent and his tail's down.

  And then we hear another sound.

  A man shouting with anger.

  I stop and Weslie crashes into me. “You hear that?” I ask.

  “I do.”

  It's distant, like some guy just dropped a hammer on his toes and cursed. Very distant, maybe hundreds of feet away. I'm glad to hear it. Someone's alive down here and it might even be Antoine or Shawn or Travis. They're well enough to talk.

  And a squealing noise follows.

  “We have to be careful,” Weslie says. “Wherever there are workers, there will be Dwellers. They wait for the workers to run off and pounce if that happens. If they catch us, they'll take everything we have.”

  She's right. We have to plan this, and well.

  Pit pushes in front of me, almost like he's trying to shield me from something in the darkness ahead. He doesn't growl or whimper. Whimpering is very, very bad. I found that out on the surface. Maybe he's getting ready for a meal. Does he look a little skinny? Are those ribs beginning to poke out of his coat? I feel so bad for him. Jaden sent him off and he had to trek miles through the caves after us. He's ready for some Dwellers.

  I pet him. “Don't worry,” I say. “You'll have lots to eat.”

  He looks up at me and his tail wags. He's looking forward to it. I'm glad he's here. He'll scare the Dwellers. We can shine our lights and lead the workers back to the elevator. I tell Weslie about the plan.

  “That sounds good,” she says, staying close to the wall. “But the elevator's only going to take up a few people at a time. We might be able to cram a dozen people in there, but I'm not sure how much weight it's built to take up. While some people are going up, others are going to have to wait down here and fend off all the Dwellers we're going to tick off.”

  “We know how to deal with Dwellers,” I say. “They're easy if you have light. Usually. We just have to make sure we have enough to hold them back. It's the other things down here I'm most worried about.”

  The
shout comes again. We're getting closer. The tunnel splits up ahead. We're at a four way and there's another giant glowing mushroom propped against the corner, attached to nothing. I'm bathed in pale blue light. There are still no support beams down here and the poor mushroom is wrinkled. I wonder if the stench is getting to it. Or the heat. Sweat's pouring down the back of my shirt now.

  “Which way?” I ask. Weslie knows how to navigate mines better than I do.

  “I don't know,” she says. “This mine looks like those lava tubes I saw pictures of once. Those ones in Hawaii. These weren't dug out with pickaxes.”

  “I agree,” I say. “I hope they aren't lava tubes. This place is hot enough to have some of that around somewhere.” I imagine a fiery wall of molten rock rushing towards us. What if lava does spout through here sometimes?

  We stop. Listen. Every muscle tenses. Darkness spreads out in all four directions.

  And somewhere down a tunnel, there's a scraping sound unlike anything I've heard before.

  Weslie jumps and grabs my arm. “I heard that. Please say it was Pit.”

  “Sorry.” Pit's staying close to us, peering down the tunnel to our right. He's stiff. How close is the sound? I keep my axe raised and Weslie keeps her gun pointed that way. There are two of us.

  The sound doesn't come again. But there are things in these tunnels, all right. I shift. My foot hits something and I look down.

  And then I spot it.

  A hand.

  A severed hand.

  It's next to my shoe, palm up, its fingers curled in agony. There's a dark stain on the stone floor next to it where blood has pooled. It's dry. This hand has been here for a while. It's wrinkled and there are bugs squirming all over it.

  There are rotting body parts down here.

  It's part of the smell.

  People are dying right and left.

  Weslie has her back to me, gun pointed down another tunnel. I won't tell her about this. It'll send her over the edge. I hold my breath and keep my mouth shut. I can't vomit. I won't. Is this the hand of someone I know? Someone who just got pulled out of school and away from the sun and their family and friends?