by Perrin Briar
“Aaron,” Bryan whispered.
He didn’t move.
But the monster did. It turned to look in Bryan’s direction. He lay still, unmoving, and hoped the monster wouldn’t come investigating. He waited, not daring to check. Then he heard more munching and slurping. The monster was feeding again. Its tongue wiped around the bowl. It must have almost finished.
Aaron was still unconscious. Whatever movements he made earlier appeared to have been unconscious ones. Bryan would have to carry him away as he had Cassie.
Bryan looked up. The monster was still licking his food bowl. Perhaps his sense of smell was so strong that no matter how much he licked the bowl, he could never completely remove the scent of blood clean.
Bryan lifted himself up onto one shoulder, and then an elbow. He knelt at Aaron’s head and bent down to lift him up. He never even got to brace the boy’s weight. The monster had straightened up. Bryan’s body turned to jelly and he hit the deck.
The creature’s footsteps pounded the ground, thudding through Bryan’s body like a second heartbeat. The monster arched its neck, its huge back bones popping.
Aaron began to stir once again.
Bryan’s arm flashed out. He wrapped a hand over his mouth. Bryan felt Aaron stiffen beneath his grip. Aaron turned his head. Bryan felt the boy’s lungs fill with oxygen, presumably to scream. Bryan pressed harder, forcing his hand over Aaron’s mouth so he couldn’t even breathe, never mind scream.
Aaron’s eyes were wide, but they were alert and focused.
“Sh,” Bryan mouthed.
From the creature’s point of view, they would have looked like a pair of bodies, one piled on top of the other. At least, that was what Bryan was hoping.
He daren’t say another word. Bryan’s appearance had some effect on Aaron, and he calmed down, his eyes still wide as saucers. He knew that if Bryan was holding his hand over his face he was doing so for a very good reason.
And then he saw the reason, over Bryan’s shoulder. His body tensed again. Bryan strengthened his arm, holding Aaron tight. If the creature had to take one of them, he was going to make sure it was himself, though he would ensure to give the monster a run for his money too.
The creature pressed his snotty nostrils into Bryan’s back, the stench of blood and guts from its recent meal like a thick cloud. Some of the blood wiped off on Bryan’s clothes. The creature licked it. Bryan was both disgusted and terrified.
The monster reached down with its short arms—still almost the length of a fully grown man—and picked the second scorched man up. His limbs hung lifelessly as the creature carried the body over to the machine and began its meat harvesting process all over again.
Bryan slowly released his hand, giving Aaron back control of his mouth. Bryan slowly began to sit up, focusing on the creature. He must have had a million questions, but he knew right then wasn’t the time to ask.
Bryan nodded to the boulder behind him, to the one he’d hidden behind when watching the monster’s horrific display.
The knives were coming down from the ceiling in their effortless dance, entered the corpse, and began hacking at the flesh. The blades made swift scything movements.
Aaron and Bryan made it to the boulder, but still neither of them spoke. They crept down the tunnel, feet silent as the grave. Only once they entered the wide open space of the cavern did they slow.
“Where are we?” Aaron said in a low whisper.
“In a cave,” Bryan said.
“Oh really, you think?” Aaron said. “Where’s Mom?”
“I don’t know,” Bryan said. “I woke here and she wasn’t there.”
“She must be around here somewhere,” Aaron said. “What about Cassie?”
“I found her,” Bryan said. “I tried to get you both out of here, but I ran out of time and could only get her out.”
“Where is she?” Aaron said.
“In a tunnel,” Bryan said. “This way. Come on.”
8.
FINDING the tunnel was very easy. It was directly opposite the path they took to get to the monster’s torture cavern. It was even easier to find where he had deposited Cassie. The difficult part was knowing where she had gone.
“Well?” Aaron said. “Where is she?”
“She was right here,” Bryan said.
“Are you sure you left her here?” Aaron said.
“Positive,” Bryan said.
“A lot of these tunnels do look the same,” Aaron said.
“No, it’s this one,” Bryan said.
He pointed to the message he’d written in the dirt. STAY HERE.
“She just ignored me,” Bryan said.
“Imagine that,” Aaron said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“As per freaking usual,” Bryan said.
A great roar went up. The monster had just learned his final course was missing. And by sound of it, he really loved his dessert.
9.
ZOE RECALLED a rush of sand up her nostrils, forcing a path into her brain. She could hardly breathe. She must have passed out because the next thing she knew, she was in a wet place, soaked to the bone. Then she was in a dry place, lying on a pair of reeking bodies, their stench washed out only by a rinse of water. Zoe assumed it must have been a nightmare.
It’s funny how you could do that sometimes, how you could know you were in a dream even while you were still inside it. But toward the end it had been too real, too vibrant, too difficult to wave off as a mere dream.
She’d been lying on her back on a harsh rock when she’d become conscious again. When she was young she’d had a cheap mattress that resembled the Himalayas, and it was that thought that had stirred her from her dream.
She forced herself to get up. She’d stumbled, falling to her knees, before getting back to her feet again. She leaned against a wall and heard someone coming. Who, she didn’t know. In all honestly, she didn’t care. She just wanted to get away from them. If there was one thing she’d learned about being in these underground worlds, it was that she knew she couldn’t trust the locals.
There were good people, of course, but there were also many bad ones. They had grown up in a world a far cry from the one Zoe was used to. There was no telling who they were and what they really wanted. She wanted to get away from whoever the figure coming toward her was.
Zoe stumbled toward a tunnel and braced herself against the craggy surface. Her head swam and she couldn’t see straight. She didn’t know where she was going or what she was doing. She thought the man was heading toward her. She turned and headed deeper into the cave.
No matter how deep or fast she went, the man behind her was always hot on her heels, his footsteps echoing off the hard craggy walls. He kept up with her no matter how fast she went.
Zoe tried to remember where she was going, how many corners she’d turned, and in which direction, keeping a running tally of left, right, left, left, right, straight forward, right, third on the left… But she soon ran into trouble. She got muddled and couldn’t recall the correct order.
She strengthened her resolve. She didn’t need to worry about that right then. She needed to escape the man who was still chasing her, whoever he was, and get somewhere safe.
He was still hot on her heels. Zoe kept going, kept forcing herself on. If she didn’t, and she stopped, she’d never find Bryan and the kids again.
There was a rushing, roaring sound that Zoe recognized immediately. Finally, some luck in this place. She came to a large open space. In the center was a cascading waterfall. But it wasn’t just one waterfall, but three combined into one. A mist escaped to one side, rising like a cloud.
Zoe approached the water’s edge, fell to her knees, cupped her hands, and splashed the ice cold water over her face and neck. Her headache flashed behind her eyes, but it was worth it.
She was wide awake now. It was hard not to be when doused with freezing cold water. She was alive, her brain cells firing on all cylinders. She had a series of revelatio
ns all at once.
First, the man hadn’t been following her. If he had, he would have been here by now, grabbing her by the scruff of the neck. Then what were the footfalls she’d heard? Surely someone had been following her?
She chuckled, putting a hand to her face. She almost felt the blood rush to her cheeks. It was herself, her own footsteps bouncing off the walls, reflecting back at her. She had been running from herself. They had only stopped when she had entered this large cavern, where the sounds didn’t bounce or reflect back to her eardrums. There was no man, only herself.
The second revelation was in relation to her recent memories. Though still fuzzy and warped by light and sound, they snapped into focus. There were others lying on the sand beside the water, just as there had been other bodies lying on top of her in the boat. Those lined up on the beach could not have gotten there by themselves. The lines were too uniform. Someone had put them there. But why? For what purpose? It couldn’t have been for anything good.
The third revelation was the biggest, and the most shocking. She stood up and stepped out of the crevice she’d stumbled into at the water’s edge. It was a giant clawed footprint. One of its nails alone was as big as Zoe’s hand.
“What the…?” Zoe said out loud.
She’d seen tracks like this before. In the first world they’d come to.
“But it can’t be…” Zoe said.
There was a roar, loud and vibrant, echoing from the tunnels on her left. She got up and ran to the tunnel entrance, but didn’t enter it. Zoe could tell by the number of times it rebounded that it wasn’t close. It was some distance away. But not far enough for her liking. She entered the tunnel and followed the sound, taking three turns before pausing.
She listened for the next roar, before backing up and heading down another tunnel. The roar was desperate, one of anger and annoyance. There was only one person she knew who could drive someone to distraction like that.
“Bryan,” Zoe said.
And if Bryan was there, there was a good chance the kids would be with him. She picked up her pace, building to a jog. She slowed when the roars died. She waited to hear another before turning down a different tunnel. She felt along the rough tunnel walls as she went, keeping her eyes ahead.
Before she knew it, the roar was full in her ears, echoing, loud and deafening. She was right on top of it. But where was it?
Then something lurched out of the darkness. And Zoe screamed.
10.
THE MONSTER was hot on Bryan and Aaron’s heels. No matter how fast they ran, how many corners they took, the creature was always right behind them. And they needed to keep changing tunnels, Bryan knew. It was their only advantage against a beast as large as the one chasing them.
Out in the open, the monster would outpace them with ease. But constantly changing direction gave Bryan and Aaron the edge they needed to stay ahead.
That was, until the monster changed tactics.
The creature’s footfalls slowed, becoming faint. Bryan and Aaron slowed in accordance with it, allowing their lungs to refill to their full capacity. But they didn’t stop.
“Do you think it stopped chasing us?” Aaron said.
“It’ll never stop,” Bryan said. “But he might slow down for a while.”
“How does it know which way we’re going?” Aaron said.
“Our shoes,” Bryan said. “It must be able to hear the sound of them bouncing off the walls.”
Bryan slowed to a stop and bent down to pull his shoes off.
“Take off your shoes,” he said.
“What for?” Aaron said. “There are sharp rocks down here. We’ll cut our feet open.”
“Better sharp rocks than the teeth of a monster,” Bryan said.
Aaron wasn’t so sure, but he didn’t argue. He slipped his shoes off and carried them in his hands. Bryan led them down the tunnel, replacing speed with stealth.
The tunnels were deathly dark, silent as the grave. Bryan pulled to a stop. He held out a hand and gently pressed it against Aaron’s chest. He stopped.
There was something strangely familiar about this situation. The deathly silence, so quiet it seemed like the world had its beady eye focused intently on the scene taking place. Bryan stepped back, pressing his back to the wall. He gently pressed Aaron back too.
They waited.
Bryan’s senses were on overdrive. He sensed danger out there in the darkness, but his senses were too weak to give him enough information. He had learned to trust his gut, and waited. What did they have to lose by waiting a little longer?
Bryan’s arm still laid across Aaron’s chest, keeping him back. Bryan forgot it was placed there. Aaron began to lean forward. Bryan pressed back, soft but firm. Aaron grew tense. It took a moment for Bryan to realize why.
Something was in the darkness. And it was moving.
It was hard to say how they knew something was there. There was no light, so there was nothing to see. The tunnel was silent, so there was nothing to hear. It was the smell, Bryan realized. That underused sense in humans. It was the stench of rotting flesh and dried blood from the scorched bodies. That was what their senses had picked up on, their conscious minds slow to realize.
The creature had somehow managed to sneak ahead of them, cutting off their escape route. It had gone into stealth mode and waited for them to present themselves. This was an expert hunter. It was clever, smart, and knew these caves, its domain, like the back of its stunted claw. Furthermore, it had its sharpened skills to hunt.
If Bryan didn’t know better, he would have said the creature was enjoying itself. The majority of its meals were fed to it, coming in the form of dead bodies. Now it had live meals and was able to utilize the weapons and instincts its ancestors had developed over millions of years.
It was close. It was going to get them. If Bryan put out his hand, he was certain he would have felt the scaly skin of its hide.
There was a pair of screams from deep in the cave system. The monster grunted, and then slowly, very slowly, like something that did not want to leave this place, began to withdraw itself. Soon the space returned to normalcy, the creature taking its stench with it.
Bryan and Aaron remained silent, listening to the darkness. Then the monster gave up its stealthy pose, its footfalls once again heavy on the rocky floor.
“That was lucky!” Aaron said. “Now, let’s get out of here!”
“Not so lucky, as it turns out,” Bryan said.
“Why?” Aaron said.
“Those screams,” Bryan said. “Didn’t you recognize whose throats they came from?”
“No,” Aaron said. “Why?”
“It was Cassie and Zoe,” Bryan said.
11.
ZOE RAN as fast as she dared, lifting her knees high to avoid any potential traps and things that might catch her feet. She needed to find the others. She hated being alone. She held out both her hands to feel along the walls. She turned to look behind her as she rounded another corner.
A flash of white, a hard thud to her forehead, and Zoe screamed, on her ass. She hesitated only a moment before getting to her feet and turning around to run in the opposite direction.
“Look where you’re going!” a voice said.
Zoe had to double take to make sure she wasn’t imagining the voice.
“Cassie?” she said.
“The one and only,” Cassie said.
Zoe helped Cassie to her feet. She wrapped her arms around her tight. Cassie was unprepared, and her arms flailed out to either side. Zoe pulled back.
“What are you doing here?” she said.
“I’m on a scavenger hunt,” Cassie said. “What do you think I’m doing here? I’m trying to find the way out. As I’m assuming you are too. I’ve got bad news for you if you’re hoping to find the exit that way. There isn’t one.”
“I wasn’t looking for the way out,” Zoe said. “I was looking for you, and the others.”
“Well, they’re not this way,”
Cassie said. “I would have seen them.”
Cassie paused, her eyes drifting back down the tunnel she had just emerged from.
“Do you hear anything?” she said.
Zoe listened.
“No,” she said. “Why?”
“Because until a moment ago there were loud footsteps of a monster chasing after me,” Cassie said.
Zoe smiled.
“I made the exact same mistake earlier,” she said. “I thought someone was chasing me, but really it was just my own footsteps echoing behind me.”
“If those were my footsteps I need a serious diet,” Cassie said.
“Sounds reflecting back at us can take on all kinds of abstractions,” Zoe said.
“Roars too?” Cassie said.
“No,” Zoe said. “I heard them too. That’s what I was working my way towards.”
“Wait,” Cassie said. “You were heading towards the big bad monster?”
“It’ll be chasing something,” Zoe said. “Or someone. As I’m here, why wouldn’t it be Bryan, Aaron or you?”
“It was definitely chasing me earlier,” Cassie said. “But it’s gone quiet now.”
“Predators don’t suddenly stop pursuit of their prey,” Zoe said. “Unless they’re resigned to the fact they’ve lost it.”
“Or begin getting close enough to stalk them,” Cassie said.
She turned to look at Zoe. Both their faces had drained of color. They turned to the darkness in either direction. Zoe hadn’t been afraid of the dark since she was a child, but right then all those night terrors filled her heart at the same moment.
There was a soft intake of breath, so soft they both almost missed it. They shared a look. Whatever it was, it was right beside them. They needed to run, and run quick. Staying still wasn’t going to help them. They needed to move.
The intense heat began as a single intense spark, but it quickly ignited, and grew to a voluminous cloud of fire that bellowed and raced toward them.
