The Awakening

by Tony Mazzarella

  Ever since he’d moved away from doing actual deep mine work, he’d forgotten how much he missed this time alone in the dark, with no one to distract him from the truth of his thoughts. He always relished the chance to revisit the exhilaration of the things he was able to do as a Delta Force operative—sometimes horrible things in the name of country, but things that kept his country safe. He regretted none of it. He was the best at what he did, and he often wondered if there would ever be another opportunity to challenge himself in the ways he had in the past.

  He knew that every moment since he’d left the military, he’d been slowly dying of a thousand small pinpricks laced with mediocrity. His soldier’s heart found this difficult to accept, but he got through by focusing on the day-to-day tasks, waiting for something to light the fire he once had in his soul.

  Several hours passed as the train burrowed deeper into the maze of tunnels, guided by the thin rail network. Gene could see from his readout on the depth meter that he was well below the farthest depth any mine had ever gone. He was surprised at how much progress the crew had made in such a short time. As the jagged, narrow tunnels revealed themselves a few feet at a time, he was surprised at what he saw before him. The train broke free into a giant tunnel with walls as smooth and rounded as glass—as if they’d been perfectly honed by a giant drill bit. He could see the warning signs for the end of track fast approaching and the siding five hundred feet away that would allow the train to turn around and continue back the way it came. He slowed the train to a stop and switched on the spotlight to examine his surroundings further. The bright light exposed the path forward, showing the endless, smooth passageway that led deeper into the earth.

  “What the hell is this?” he said to himself as he strapped on his backpack and began to walk farther into the tunnel. He pulled out a small handheld walkie-talkie, thinking his signal should be able to reach his foreman from that point.

  “Sam!” he called out into the handheld. “Sam, it’s Gino. Come in.”

  He listened as the shrill static echoed off the tunnel walls with no break for a human voice.

  “Come in, Sam. Where are you guys?” he repeated.

  Once again, there was no break in the static that emanated from the small speaker on the handheld. He clipped it onto his belt, put on his helmet, and began walking toward the gradually descending passageway that opened before him. He found it strange that no one had reported this and began to get angry at his foreman. Don had warned him of the “hot dogs” in his crew, and he knew that was exactly what was going on there. He came upon a small light ahead and could hear the propane generator running the dim lights that illuminated a small section of the tunnel. As he closed in on the source of the light, he saw it was illuminating a small makeshift camp with sleeping pads and rations packed in small crates against the wall. A small foldaway desk had been erected, and a map sat on top. He once again removed the handheld from his belt and attempted to reach his foreman.

  “Sam, it’s Gino. Where the fuck are you guys?” he asked with growing anger.

  He set the handheld on the desk and began to study the map. He saw the track line he’d just followed up until the point that it broke through to the immense passageway. The tunnel continued on the map for what, according to the map legend, was about another quarter-mile. A strange notation appeared where the tunnel ended on the map. It said “pit” and was highlighted in red. He snugged his pack straps and began to walk farther into the passageway.

  “Where the hell are you, idiots?” yelled Gene into the darkness. He continued on for a few minutes, noticing that the size and texture of the walls remained unchanged. He knew it was impossible for this to be any kind of natural occurrence, but he could think of nothing that could possibly bore out such perfect holes through rock. As he continued forward, he began to hear faint shouting coming from farther down the tunnel. He quickened his pace and began to see a faint red glow in the distance.

  “Sam! Sam, it’s Gino!” he shouted urgently now running at full speed. The shouting got louder as the intensity of the fiery red light illuminated the entire passageway. As Gene approached, he could see that Sam was holding the feet of another man as he leaned halfway over the edge of a giant abyss that angled straight down into the earth and that other man was trying to hold onto the arms of a third man.

  “Sam! What the hell is going on?” he shouted, letting his pack fall to the ground.

  “Help us! It has Frank!” screamed Sam desperately.

  Gene immediately rushed over and began to pull on the second man’s legs with Sam. He could hear the screams of the third man as his flesh sizzled like bacon in a pan from the heat of the creature’s tentacles as it pulled at his legs. With one final scream, he was pulled into the abyss, and his screams ended abruptly as the others heard a popping noise, as if an insect had flown into an electric lamp. They frantically pulled up the second man, Roy, from the abyss, and Gene looked over the edge. He locked eyes with the demonic red irises of a beast. He’d seen many things in his life and watched men die in horrific ways, but he’d never seen anything like this. The creature resembled a giant cockroach but with horrific features such as massive horns and red eyes, as if it was formed in hell. He quickly pulled away from the edge as the creature’s tentacles shot up, just missing their target. They melted large welts into the rock floor next to Gene as he took evasive action.

  “Run! It’s coming!” he shouted as his soldier’s instincts kicked in.

  There was no time for questions. Whatever had happened to the others would be a story for another time—if there were another time. The three men ran full-speed back toward the encampment. They could now see the giant creature emerge slowly from the lower passageway. Its monstrous glowing arms reached up, and it pulled itself out of the giant pit. Its huge teeth looked like they were made from solid lava rock, and long tentacles flew from its back. The ground shook with each of its steps. Sam and Roy desperately stumbled forward in mute terror, with Gene racing ahead of them.

  “It’s gaining! Oh God, it’s gaining!” Roy screamed as he began to fall behind his two companions.

  “Hurry, Roy. We can’t wait for you! You have to run faster!” yelled Sam. Gene could see the dull light of the camp in the distance. He could also see the red glow pass him on the left and right side of the walls as the creature gained ground.

  “Move your ass, Roy! You have to run faster!” ordered Gene.

  “I can’t, I’m finished,” said Roy as he fell to the ground. He was already exhausted from trying to save the other men. He turned slowly, watching the enormous creature bearing down on him. Its large red eyes fixed upon him as he fell to his knees, sobbing. He wondered if he would die first from the pounding he heard coming from his chest or be burned alive as the creature reached out his giant tentacles. Before he could complete the thought, a giant blast of fire shot out of the creature’s mouth, incinerating him instantly.

  “He’s gone!” cried Sam.

  “Just run!” shouted Gene. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We’re almost there!”

  “Almost where? We can’t outrun this thing!” panted Sam desperately.

  “When we get past the camp, the train is there. I’ll fire it up, and you cut the second car loose. It can go a hell of a lot faster than we can run. It’s our only chance.”

  They could feel the ground shake behind them as they approached the train. At that point, Gene knew exactly the source of the seismic activity. From the shaking he felt under his feet, he knew this had to be it. Fire shot past them as they ducked and covered their heads, barely avoiding a torturous, burning death.

  “Cut it loose now!” Gene commanded as he fired up the train’s engine. Sam pulled the pin freeing the back car and jumped in the passenger seat as Gene pushed the lever to full. The train took off at full speed up the massive cavern as the red glow continued to get brighter behind them. They could
hear the sound of the propane tanks exploding as the metal melted from the heat of the approaching giant devil.

  “Oh, God, we’re dead!” sobbed Sam.

  “Shut up and hang on. This is going to be close. I just hope we don’t tip over. When I tell you, kill the lights. Hopefully it will lose sight of us, and we’ll have a chance. When we cut back into the old shaft, it might not follow.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Me too,” said Gene.

  “The fire is coming!” cried Sam. “It’s almost on us!”

  “Hang on!”

  The train hit the sharp turn that led back through the smooth wall into the smaller, jagged shaft. It jerked sideways, forced onto two wheels as both men leaned desperately to right it on the rails. Sparks flew as the wheels slammed down hard on the cold steel rails, jerking both men violently forward. They could see the fire and feel the searing heat from the beast consume the chamber behind them as it had their friends. The train shook violently as the creature let out an earth shattering roar of frustration at its lost prey, as they sped into the safety of darkness.

  Chapter 4

  Cait drifted in and out of semi-consciousness for hours as Drew sat beside her bed, never letting go of her hand. It wasn’t lost on him that he might not be sitting anywhere if she hadn’t pushed him through the collapsing wall. As he caressed her hand with his bandaged fingers, he whispered softly, “As if I needed another reason to love you.”

  Cait stirred, moaning, as she had been for the past few hours. He couldn’t make out much of what she said, but it was clear she was agitated.

  “C’mon, Cait. Come back to me,” said Drew, wondering if he’d ever have the opportunity to express his true feelings for her. He cursed himself for waiting this long. He now understood the pain and emptiness she must have gone through when she lost Tom. It had never really occurred to him what every moment had been like for her since Tom’s death. Now, the grim reality that she might not wake filled his heart with dread and a profound sadness he hadn’t felt before.

  “Any change?” asked Antonio as he entered the room.

  “No. Same as before,” said Drew, not taking his eyes off Cait.

  “Can I do anything for you?”

  “Just keep your eyes out for Kirby. He’ll be here any minute. He’ll want to see Cait immediately.”

  “Okay, I’ll be outside. Please take it easy. You took a pretty good shot yourself.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” said Drew.

  Antonio took one last opportunity to rub Cait’s arm before he left the room. “You’ll be fine, Miss Cait. Who will keep Drew in line, if not you?”

  As Antonio left the room, Cait became extremely restless, once again mumbling. This time, Drew was able to make out some of the rambling words.

  “…green eyes. Where is he? What is he?” she muttered.

  Drew was puzzled by her words, and couldn’t help but wonder if she was once again in the dream state she’d described to him.

  “Wake up, Cait. It’s me. Focus on me,” pleaded Drew, attempting to snap her out of it.

  “It’s him. He’s the one,” she whispered. “He’s in my head, and now I’ve seen him.”

  Drew held her hand tightly as she began to drift toward consciousness. Her eyes rolled uncontrollably back into her head for a few minutes as she fought the dreams trying to seduce her back into the darkness. She eventually gathered her senses and made eye contact with Drew.

  “Can you hear me?” he asked.

  “What the hell happened?” she demanded.

  “Oh, thank God!” said Drew. “I wasn’t sure we were going to get you back.”

  “What happened?” she repeated with more force as her senses began to return.

  “The catacombs almost claimed two more victims. We almost joined our poor Egyptian friends.”

  “Yes. I remember now,” she winced in pain. “Was it an earthquake?” she asked.

  “Oh, you might say that—as the earth certainly did quake, unfortunately for us.”

  “You don’t sound certain. What is it?” she asked, trying to sit up.

  “Hold it. Not so fast,” said Drew, trying to keep her from sitting up. “You lie back down.”

  “I have to get up,” Cait insisted. “We have to get back in there and figure this thing out.”

  “We can’t get back there now,” said Drew. “It’s under military control now, and they have it locked down tight. What I was getting at earlier is that these seismic events are getting worse. That quake that almost killed us was localized to a small area, deep under the surface. The military is trying to keep it under wraps because they can’t explain it.”

  “Did you tell anyone about what we found down there?” asked Cait. “Is it all lost now?”

  “Just you and I—and Antonio, of course—know what we found. And the entrance is buried for now. According to Antonio, they’re working on opening it up again. Apparently, they ran some tests, and the chamber itself is still intact behind the cave-in.”

  Cait felt chilled to the bone as her thoughts went back to the moments right before she blacked out. Drew could see the goose bumps appear on her arms as she began to shiver.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, rubbing her arms.

  “Who was the man that carried me out?” she asked.

  “I don’t really know. I was in pretty rough shape myself, thanks to you throwing me out onto the hard floor. Thank you for that, by the way.”

  Cait totally ignored his sarcasm, which proved to Drew that she was still unnerved by his information. She wouldn’t stop shaking.

  “I need to know who that man was!” she demanded.

  “Why?” he asked in confusion. “What does it matter?”

  “I can’t explain how or why, and I know this is going to sound crazy.”

  “Try me,” said Drew. “After what we found yesterday, nothing would shock me now.”

  “It’s…a feeling.” She paused, hoping to frame her thoughts in a way that didn’t sound mad. “Those dreams I’ve been having—I haven’t really told you much about them. I can’t explain it, but I’ve been feeling like it’s more than just random nightmares. It’s like someone or something is trying to communicate with me. It takes the form of the creature we see on those walls. I thought I was just dreaming about it because I’d seen it in pictures, but now I don’t think that’s the case.”

  Cait could see Drew searching for the words to kindly tell her she was crazy and had taken a pretty hard hit on the head.

  “Look, I know what this sounds like,” said Cait before he could say anything. “Just hear me out. This isn’t some repressed episode caused by Tom’s death. I swear. Don’t you think I thought the same thing?”

  Drew nodded, accepting her assessment of the situation. He didn’t totally buy into what she was saying but knew he had to hear her out before he made further judgment. He also thought back to earlier, when he’d thought he was losing her. If she still had half the pain and anguish over Tom that he’d felt earlier, he at least owed her that.

  “Okay. Go on,” he said.

  “The man who carried me out.”

  Drew could see Cait hesitate for a moment, trying to gather the courage to speak the words that might really send her theory over the edge.

  “It was him. I know it in my heart. Whoever—whatever has been communicating with me in my dreams had unmistakable green eyes that looked straight into my soul. When he picked me up and stared into my eyes, it was as if I was in the dream, but he wasn’t a monster this time. He was a man.”

  Drew cleared his throat. “I don’t really know what to say. Let’s just assume for a second that any of this could be true. What does it mean?”

  “I don’t know. You have to help me find out who he is and what he was doing there. I th
ink he’s the same entity depicted in those pictures. Maybe we’re getting too close to something that he doesn’t want us to see. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me,” she pleaded.

  Drew just stared at Cait, letting her words soak in for a moment. His skeptical nature was one of his better traits and usually led to him digging deeper into things. It was true; most of what Cait was saying was crazy, but he couldn’t resist the urge to discover the truth.

  “Okay,” he said, and her face lit up in relief. “As soon as you’re feeling better, we’ll start to poke around and see who this mystery man is. Please keep an open mind, Cait. I know sometimes dreams can seem just like reality. Better than reality, in some cases, for someone who’s suffering.”

  “It’s not that, Drew. I swear to you,” she said desperately.

  “I guess I owe you one, don’t I?”

  Cait smiled, knowing that was his way of accepting her story for the time being. She knew he was pragmatic about most things, and didn’t expect him to believe everything she was saying, but she also knew he couldn’t stand an unsolved mystery. They’d always had a great professional relationship based on mutual respect. She would usually provide the emotional spark, and he would be the one to apply logic and theory. It was a perfect combination and had led them to a lot of success in the past. Cait was hoping, with his help, to use this same formula to solve the mystery that had been tormenting her.