“Ow!” Max rubbed his arm. “The shit nuggets was that for?”
“For being a douchenozzle,” Megan said. “Can’t you be serious, just once?”
Max shrugged. “The jury’s out on that one.”
“Ugh,” Megan said and stormed away, meeting up with Hannah deeper into the cave.
He nudged me a bit, smiling. He leaned close and whispered, “I kid, of course. I do it just to get a rise out of her and Hannah. Helps with tension sometimes. Sorry about all the shit I said before. Consider it a hazing. I was testing your mettle. Anyway, welcome aboard and all that.”
Then he did something I didn’t expect. He took me in a firm embrace, kissed the top of my head, and whispered in my ear, “Don’t always believe what Hannah says.” Then he let me go, patted my shoulder, and spun around.
I watched him join Hannah and Megan, mind reeling by what he said.
Don’t always believe what Hannah says.
So, what lies did she tell me? That little tid-bit about her son? Me actually getting paid? There was so much Hannah said and promised, I had a hard time figuring out what was real and not. Or…was Max just messing with me again? All of the above were possible.
Somewhere behind me, something growled.
Heart crashing, I turned around.
All I saw were teeth and streams of drool dripping from a closed, narrow maw. Large nostrils flared, sucking in my scent, and blew out a breath so massive it nearly shoved me to the floor of the cave.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Every nerve in my body sparked. My stomach churned. A violent shiver racked my body. I couldn’t see what it was at the mouth of the cave, but it was huge. Much larger than the T-rex creature. Its massive maw opened, and I gaped into a cavern of teeth.
The roar which burst out of that toothy cavern, the very force of the air, made me stumble away. The reek of spoiled meat filled my nostrils and the sound alone instantly made my ears ring to the point that I couldn’t hear anything at all for a few godless seconds. I wanted to puke and run at the same time.
Someone yanked me farther away from the cave’s mouth, though I didn’t know who, exactly. I was too struck by terror to care. Because, that thing outside, it was really big. Maybe even smarter than the T-rex, as it seemed to like to toy with its prey. With it sticking its snout down within inches of the cave, it roared and growled but made no advance to claw them out like the T-rex.
After a moment, the slender snout lifted out of sight and the ground shook as it walked away.
Or…maybe it was pretending to walk away and laid in wait for us.
“What…was that?” Max asked.
“I don’t know,” Megan said, sounding shakier than usual.
No one said anything for the longest time.
I broke away from the group, though I didn’t go near the mouth of the cave. I needed to think, and with them talking, I couldn’t focus.
I roamed the cave for a moment, mind still a mess of theories and questions. My heart bashed into the walls of my chest and all I saw in front of my mind’s eye were all those teeth.
“We’re going to give it a shot now,” Megan said, joining me while I roam. “Do you really think this place was built to hold these things?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just feels impossible for them all to live down here for so long and not kill each other off. You know?”
“We don’t know how far this place stretches. For all we know, it could take up an entire continent in length and width.”
“Maybe,” I said and sighed. “Guess we’re going to find out.”
Megan flashed a smile and my heart gave a heavy thud. My stomach felt like it was filled with fluttering dove wings and oh my God of grape jelly…she was gorgeous. It took all my strength to look away from her, though my gaze returned. That smile was too damn intoxicating. Especially right then. I was attracted to her when she first started working at the park, but right then…damn…
I didn’t know what it was. The thrill of possibly getting slashed and ripped to bits by mutated dinosaurs, or how sweat trickled from the hollow of her neck to the space between her breasts.
I shook my head and looked away again.
Stop it, I told myself.
Finally, I just walked away. If I had stood there much longer, I might have done something I’d regret. It wasn’t a damn date. We were trapped thousands of feet below the earth, possibly near to the core, and making out with Megan would only complicate everything.
I felt her gaze on my back as I made my way back toward the mouth of the cave.
Didn’t make it.
Hannah tapped my shoulder and said, “Suit up, Wen. We’re setting out.”
“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked, facing her.
“No. Do you?”
I felt the snark in the question, ignored it, and said, “Not really. But maybe we should try behind the hill these caves are dug into. Just keep moving in that direction until we find a wall.”
She stared at me for a long time, expressionless. Long enough for me to wonder if she was pondering about killing me off after all.
Then she smiled a bit and gestured to the Flex Mech. “We’ll do that. Suit up. These things are our only protection. From the smaller predators, anyway.”
I started toward the mech, stopped, faced her once more. “The pressure at 1,000 feet of water is 441 psi. If anything can bite harder than that…”
“The suit can withstand 2,500 psi, actually. Yours, anyway. Ours are like knockoffs, since they are earlier models. Our suits can handle about 1,000 psi. The big guy that was sniffing around would probably be able to crunch us up like M&Ms.”
I nodded. “Well, let’s avoid that asshole then.”
Hannah chuckled. “Damn right. Okay, let’s get our shit together and get moving.”
I sat in the Flex Mech and laid down. It closed over me, sealing tight. Hissing filled the mech, and…there I was again. Stuck inside a contraption hotter than hell, despite the air flow.
But, Hannah was right. It’s all the protection we had against the dinosaurs.
I sat up once everything was equalized and glanced around. Hannah was just lying down into her own mech. The other two sat up in their own mechs. Honestly, I didn’t want to go out there. That big bastard seemed truly intelligent. Not that I knew for sure, but the way it moved and acted…it was kind of scary.
I stood, and that’s when a large claw shot into the cave, snagged onto Hannah just as she was standing, and yanked her outside.
7
“Shit!” Max shouted.
“Go, go, go,” Megan said.
Me, I couldn’t move, even as the other two ran for the mouth of the cave.
“Shoot it!” Hannah shouted.
I watched Megan and Max aim their lasers and fire. Apparently, they didn’t need to say the command. Blue bursts of light shot from their right arms at something I couldn’t see. And still, I couldn’t move. No matter how much I needed to…my legs wouldn’t obey.
In my ears, Hannah screamed.
“It’s crushing her,” Megan said.
“Shoot its arm,” Max said. “It’ll drop her. No bursts, full beam.”
“Where’s Wen? Wen?” Megan asked, sounding on the verge of a breakdown.
I opened my mouth but couldn’t say anything for a second or two.
I don’t know what happened to me just then, but my legs loosened, and I stormed forward. An odd, gray fog consumed my mind. Everything around me had a peculiar red tinge to it. I heard of such a thing happening to a soldier during war. Battle fog, they called it. Where they act and think later. They killed and didn’t stop until either they died or everyone else was dead. Sometimes, they never escaped the fog…
I shoved Megan and Max aside. “Laser.” I aimed my arm at the thing’s cream-colored throat and squeezed my hand into a fist. Full beam.
The blue beam sliced through the scales. Black smoke billowed out. Roaring, I swiped my arm to the s
ide, slicing through the neck. It made a loud squeak, head plopping off to the side. The fog receding, I realized the massiveness of the creature. Beyond huge, scales a deep blue/green. A long trail of spikes sprouted from its back as it swayed.
“It’s gonna drop,” Max said, pulling me back. “Look out!”
We were a couple feet from the rear of the cave when the ground quaked. The mech stabilized most of the shock, but not all. I stumbled into the back wall. Rocks rained down from the ceiling and I feared the cave would collapse.
Someone, I didn’t know who, screamed.
Dust choked out all the light and I waited to be crushed by tons of rock.
That didn’t happen, thank all the imaginary gods.
Once the dust cleared, I turned toward the mouth of the cave.
“Holy hell, Wen,” Max spouted.
“C’mon,” Megan said. “We need to see if Hannah is okay.”
“What if it’s not dead?” Max asked.
“Dude,” Megan said, running toward the mouth of the cave. “Its head was dangling. I think it’s dead.”
I followed behind them as they raced to the mouth of the cave, which was partially blocked by scaly flesh.
We squeezed through a narrow opening to the outside. The light about knocked me over, it was so bright.
“There she is,” Megan shouted. “Help me!”
Hannah was still clutched in the monster’s claw, but she wasn’t moving. She was slumped over one of the dark talons like a discarded rag.
Megan and Max struggled to pull her out of the claw. I helped until I realized it was useless.
“Look out,” I said. “I’m going to cut.”
“Careful,” Max said. “Don’t get too close to her or you’ll burn a hole in the me—”
“Look out,” I shouted. He stepped aside without a further word.
I aimed my right arm at the claw and said, “Laser.” Squeezing my hand into a fist, I cut away talons until Hannah spilled onto the ground in a heap.
Megan and Max were there in an instant, helping their leader (mine too, I guessed) into a sitting position.
“Hannah?” Megan said. “You with us?”
No answer.
“Hey,” Max shouted, apparently as loud as he could because it scared the hell out of me. “Hannah!”
Still…nothing.
I stepped closer. “We need to get her out of the mech, I think. She might’ve passed out from the pressure.”
The smaller of them, Megan no doubt, pressed the blue button under the mech’s right jawline. The mech split open, revealing an unconscious Hannah within.
“Shit,” Max said. “What do we do? CPR?”
“Hold on,” I said and laid on the ground. “Open.”
My mech opened and I got out. Kneeling beside Hannah, I placed a couple fingers on her neck, checking for a pulse.
“Her pulse is strong. She’s just unconscious. Blacked out.”
I gently slapped her cheeks. Hannah groaned, head lolling back and forth. Her eyelids fluttered.
As exposed as I was beyond the cave, it took a lot to merely breathe. The heat and humidity were beyond anything I had ever encountered. Even in the tropical regions above. The place felt like a literal Hell, if one wanted to believe in that. Oppressive…
Little by little, as I patted her cheeks, Hannah came to. Her eyelids fluttered, then finally opened to a squint. Her chest was heavy with the thicker air. In the cave, the air hadn’t been great, but at least it was cooler than out in the elements. Which furthered my suspicion the place was lit by either the Earth’s core or…something artificial.
“I…” Hannah said, eyes shifting back and forth slowly. “Is it dead?”
I nodded. “Welcome back.”
She then did something I wasn’t expecting. She reached out of the mech and cupped my cheek in her hand. Her gaze lingered on me. “Thank you.”
At a loss for words, all I could do was smile and nod some more. Not like there was much to say anyway.
I helped Hannah away from the massive dead thing lying partially on the hill.
“Why does this thing look like something I saw at the movies many years ago?” Max asked.
To this, Megan said, “I don’t know about that, but this is a Spinosaurus. Well, a variation of one, anyway.”
“Variation?” Max asked. “Like a mutation?”
“Definitely that,” she said. “But it’s much too big, for one thing.”
“You’re tellin’ me. I think Wen just killed a damn kaiju or something.”
I blinked. “A…what?”
Max comically smacked his forehead and sighed. “I keep forgetting I’m not hanging out with my fellow nerds. A kaiju is a giant monster that destroys everything. Like…well, Godzilla.”
“Oh.” I stared at the massive dead Spinosaurus mutation and could definitely see a monster of destruction. Still, it had been smart enough to wait for just the right time. It had patience. Which made it even worse.
I just hoped there wasn’t another one out there waiting for us. If so…we might not get so lucky again.
Meanwhile, Megan was getting all close-up and personal with it. She ran a mech-clad hand along the dark-green scales. Its top half leaned against the large hill, head dangling. Its mouth opened, and a long, pink tongue plopped out. Blood-tinged drool streamed out like a grotesque waterfall. Suddenly, Megan faced us.
“Max, get me a needle and syringe. I want to take home a sample of this.”
“For what? Jesus…we’re kinda trying to get outta here, ya know?”
“I know. Just…trust me.”
After a second or two, Max sighed. “They’re in the pockets of my pants. I need to get out of the mech.”
“N-No,” Hannah said, straightening a bit more in our arms.
Max grunted. “Well, welcome back, sleepin’ beauty.” He adjusted his grip on her, as did I.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” I asked.
“S-Stay in the goddamn mechs. No samples. We’re getting out of here. Now.”
“But I—” Megan began.
“No,” Hannah said. She stood on her own now, probably with more the mech’s help than her own. She still sounded shaken, but I didn’t blame her. A mutated Spinosaurus about ate her. I’d, more than likely, be having a panic attack right about then. Or something.
She shuffled forward. Stopped. She appeared to be afraid to move. But, soon enough, she walked away, giving some distance between the creature and herself as she tried to find a way around it.
Megan sighed heavily, gave the giant creature a pat, and stormed after Hannah. Max and I soon followed.
8
It took us almost 10 minutes to find a spot in the tail we could climb over. And even though Max insisted he could cut out a section for us earlier, Hannah told him no.
She seemed different right then. Of course, almost being eaten by a massive creature like that would surely mess with a person, but she appeared…almost angry.
I didn’t get it.
Like it was our fault. She treated everyone like shit as we made it over the tail and hurried back toward the hill.
“Keep moving,” Hannah said. “Fast as you can. This thing will attract scavengers.”
“Good point,” Megan said.
“Shut up,” Hannah said, voice low.
“What the shit is wrong with you?” Max asked, finally.
Hannah didn’t stop walking, nor did she respond.
After a while, I had enough and raced by the other two to match Hannah’s stride. She didn’t look at me, nor acknowledge me in any way. Which I figured, so…
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She huffed out a breath, which crackled in my speakers. “Getting as far away from this thing as possible for right now. Otherwise, I’m just peachy.”
“Look,” I said. “I know you’re feeling crazy about what happened, almost being eaten and all, but—”
She skidded to a stop and drove a mech
fist into my mech head. The force was enough to send me stumbling backward. It didn’t hurt, of course, but…damn.
She was in my face before I could fully recover. “No! No, you don’t know what it’s like so don’t even fucking pretend to know.” She spun, facing the other two. “Now, all of you shut the hell up and get away from this thing before more trouble comes.”
Hannah whirled back around and practically ran away from us.
The other two stepped on either side of me.
A low beep and a small voice said, “Incoming private communication.”
I frowned, and Megan’s voice filled the speakers. “Don’t say anything. Your mech isn’t equipped with private chat. But I think we really need to keep a close eye on her from now on. I already told Max and he agrees. Something happened to her when the Spinosaurus grabbed her. I don’t know if it’s a switch and maybe she’ll get over it, or if she might’ve been on the verge of snapping and that did it. Doesn’t matter. If she starts getting seriously violent, we need to subdue her, somehow. Until then, just keep your distance and we’ll see what happens.” There was a soft click and…
“Private communication has been deactivated.”
I stared straight ahead at Hannah. She was already about 50 yards away. I didn’t know if what Megan said was true, though. People dealt with trauma in different ways. Maybe Hannah’s defense mechanism was to run. To get out of this oddball lost world and, perhaps, forget the entire damn thing. Cut our losses and find something better.
As far as I knew, the team I was just taken into weren’t equipped for something so intense as what we dealt with then. In the grand scheme of things, they might have been the best, but they lacked any kind of defense training. Mainly because they were used to dealing with frozen specimens, rather than fully live ones. Every discovery had come from the depths. That lost world, it was different. They weren’t used to being on the defensive end.
So, I reckoned, Hannah was figuring out how to be defensive as she rushed away from us. Maybe she needed time to think.
Then again, in equal likeliness, she had probably gone mad.
Time would tell.
Still, we ran to catch up to her, slowing only when we were a few yards away. Getting too close felt dangerous. At that point, it was hard to tell.
Below The Earth Page 8
