The Lands Below

by William Meikle

  Henderson’s real name was George Patrick Staude. No one knew why he called himself Henderson, and anyone who tried to call him by his given name tended to walk away with bruises or black eyes. He was hardly a large person, but people tended to avoid him. Murky wouldn’t exactly consider him a bully, but he made little to no attempt to make friends. He wore faded flannel shirts and torn jeans because his family couldn’t afford much else, and in order to prevent others from making fun of him for this he tried to take on an intimidating air. Murky’s mother thought he was a bad influence, but he was never mean to Murky. If anything, he was rather protective of her because she was Laura’s sister, and wherever Laura went, he followed.

  At this exact moment he was trying to precariously balance his BMX on an outcropping of rock. He’d been that way for several minutes now, declaring that as soon as he was ready he would pull off some kind of amazing trick. Laura waited patiently nearby with her own Huffy BMX while the fourth member of their group, Jesse, jeered up at him.

  “Hey Henderson, it’s okay to admit you’re a chicken!” he said. Jesse was the only one who could talk to Henderson like that without getting punched in the face. Part of that was probably because he wore thick glasses, and Henderson knew what kind of hell Jesse’s parents would rain down on him if he broke them. Murky thought a bigger part of it though, was that Jesse always let Henderson copy his homework, and in exchange Henderson acted as the wiry, smart-ass kid’s pseudo bodyguard. “Who knows? Maybe even Team Murray is looking for a chicken to join them next time they compete in the Olympics. Gotta have a mascot, right?”

  “Team Murray doesn’t compete in the Olympics, you numbnuts,” Henderson said with noticeable anger in his voice. While Murky didn’t have their same obsession with dirt bikes, even she knew better than to insult Henderson’s great dream of someday racing his bike professionally. “Keep it up Jesse, and when I land, I’ll do it right on your head!” Henderson said.

  “That would require you to jump your bike down here first; at this rate I’ll already be in bed by the time you do that!”

  “Speaking of bed, it’s getting pretty late,” Laura said. “My mom’s going to get angry if we stay out here too much longer. It’s a school night.”

  “Like I care,” Henderson muttered, but as was usually the case, when Laura spoke to him reasonably, he listened. Murky was sure her mother thought Laura and Henderson were probably sneaking out to make-out, but she could see that Laura was more like the mother Henderson didn’t have. Murky didn’t yet know the word “platonic,” but if she did that was exactly how she would have described that relationship.

  “Wait, we can’t go yet,” Murky said. “I haven’t seen any of the bats come out. There’s supposed to be a whole bunch of them that live around here.” Even as she said it though, she went to grab her backpack from where she had dumped it along with the others. Regardless of whether or not she was ready, she’d learned long ago not to mess with Laura when she was in mother hen mode.

  “Bleh!” Jesse said as he grabbed his backpack as well. “Bats are gross. That’s seriously the main reason you wanted to come out here with us?”

  Murky shrugged. She was used to others not getting her. Even Laura didn’t seem to understand her, even though Laura would defend her with her life. “I just like bats.”

  “You like every animal, Murky,” Laura said. All four of them had their backpacks again, but rather than immediately riding back they walked their bikes out of the quarry. Despite Laura’s admonishment, none of them were exactly in a hurry to get back home.

  “Not every animal,” Murky said defensively.

  “Name one animal that you don’t like,” Henderson said.

  “Uh, those one things.”

  Jesse gave an obnoxious snort of a laugh. “Those one things. Is that supposed to be the scientific name?”

  “Spiders,” Murky said, naming the first plausible creature that came to mind.”

  “Try again,” Laura said. “I caught you playing with that disgusting spider egg sack last week.”

  “Fine. Uh. Mr. Turnbull.”

  They all had a good hard laugh at that. Mr. Turnbull was the old man who ran the pharmacy. Despite being one of the few places in town where they could get comics and magazines and candy, no one actually liked going in there. Mr. Turnbull was cranky and smelled like hemorrhoid cream.

  “Is your mom really going to be mad if you guys are home this late?” Henderson asked Laura.

  “Probably.”

  Henderson shook his head. “Must be nice.”

  “Why is it nice that Mom would get mad at us?” Murky asked.

  “I mean, must be nice having parents that care enough to even be mad,” Henderson said. He refused to look at any of them as he spoke.

  “Man, your dad just lets you run around and do whatever you want,” Jesse said. “We all wish we had your dad.”

  Murky wasn’t sure if Henderson looked like he would rather cry or smack Jesse right across the mouth. Personally, Murky would definitely take the relationship she had with her own parents over what Henderson had. She knew that his mother had been killed in a workplace accident when Henderson was little, and his father had started drinking after that. She didn’t think he did anything to hurt Henderson, but sometimes she wondered if Henderson would have preferred that to being treated like he didn’t even exist.

  From somewhere out in a field at the side of the road, Murky heard some kind of electronic squawk. She stopped to listen, but because she was trailing behind the others it took them a moment to realize she was no longer following.

  “Come on, Murky. We don’t have a lot of time left.”

  “Didn’t you guys hear that?” Murky asked.

  “I didn’t hear nothing,” Henderson said.

  They all stood quietly for second. At first Murky thought that maybe it had been her imagination, but with everyone quiet now she thought she could also hear the rustle of something large moving through the tall brown grass.

  “Probably an animal,” Laura said. “No, you can’t go see what it is. You’ll probably bring it home, and Mom will kill me if I let you bring home any more strays.”

  Before Murky could protest, she felt a slight rumble in the road. She’d walked and ridden on these county roads enough to expect it to be some kind of truck coming by, but when she looked up and down the road it was completely empty. Come to think of it, they hadn’t seen any traffic going toward or away from town since they left the quarry. While there certainly wasn’t any reason for outsiders to visit Kettle Hollow, this particular road was sometimes used as a shortcut by people trying to get to more lively places. There should have been something during this time, and yet there hadn’t been.

  “Do you guys feel that?” Jesse asked. “It feels like the whole world is vibrating.”

  Down the road they could see the lights in the houses at the edge of town suddenly go out, and the vibrating increased until Murky could feel it in her bones.

  “Something’s…”

  Murky could only assume that Laura was about to say “Something’s wrong,” but the last word was ripped from her mouth by a sudden boom accompanied with a flash of light from the direction of the center of Kettle Hollow.

  And that wasn’t even the most alarming thing that happened during the next couple of seconds. While they were all turned to the blinding flash, multiple soldiers erupted out from various hiding places in the fields around them, and the night became full of shouted commands. Most of the soldiers took positions with their weapons pointed to the town, like they thought a sudden attack might come from the sleepy little village. Three of them though, ran right to the kids.

  “Don’t move!” a soldier yelled at them. “Hands where we can see them!”

  Murky immediately dropped her bike and put her hands up like she’d seen in movies. Laura and Jesse did the same, although Henderson hesitated. He looked like he wanted to punch the soldier for threatening him, or maybe he was just hesit
ant to drop his prized bike, even if it was a cheap knock-off of the Murray X20C he actually wanted. Thankfully he did as he was told.

  While soldiers surrounded them, the flashing from town stopped, although a low rumble continued to be heard. Murky also thought she might have heard screaming, but she hoped that was just her imagination.

  One of the soldiers took out a walkie-talkie and spoke into it. “Sir, we’ve got a problem at Checkpoint H. It looks like four of the kids from the town weren’t in it as the portal erupted.”

  “Damn it!” a voice on the other end said. “We don’t have time for this. Detain them and take them back to the base camp. We can make that Larson woman babysit them while we do our jobs.”

  “Roger that.” The soldier put away the walkie-talkie and then gestured at the kids with his weapon. “Come on. This way.”

  “What… what’s happening?” Laura asked. “We have to get back home. Our parents…”

  “If your parents were in that town when the portal went off, they’re probably dead,” the soldier said.

  All four of the kids stared at him with open mouths.

  “Way to show some sympathy, Rodgers,” another soldier said to the first one, then also gestured at the kids. “He’s right though. If you don’t want to be as dead as everyone else in your town, you better follow us.”

  With nothing else to do or say, Murky, Laura, Jesse, and Henderson went with the soldiers out into the field.

  Subterranea is available form Amazon here!

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