BENEATH - A Novel (37 page)

Connelly grinned, remembering the last time he'd used that phrase, the day all this insanity began in
Antarctica
. "Crazier."

Willard turned and began walking down the tunnel, moving at a quick pace. Before taking three steps, he stopped and turned around. "I almost forgot. The tunnels up ahead are populated."

Robert stumbled. "Pop—populated?"

"By what?" Connelly asked, feeling her grip on reality tighten.

"Can't say for sure…but they're big."

"How big?"

"Ever seen a rhino up close?" Willard asked.

Connelly didn't want to answer, but did. "Yes."

Willard sighed. "Bigger."

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The temperature inside Connelly's space suit seemed to be climbing. Sweat dripped down her forehead like rain off a windshield. Of course, the perspiration had nothing to do with heat and everything to do with her emotional state. Even if her body had begun to overheat, the finely tuned body temperature system in the PMS would have cooled her before she registered feeling hot.

Ever since her breakdown while being chased by the "creeps," as Willard had come to call them, she had struggled to reel in and control her emotions. At first she felt back to her stable self—cool, collected and in control. But every few feet they climbed into the new cave system, the more her anticipation had increased. She wished Willard had never told her about the large creatures dwelling in these caves. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss. If she didn't know the danger existed, she wouldn't be starting to panic, and if they were attacked, she might be able to handle the stress. But now…now she was spiraling down that dark path again and her fears were getting the best of her.

Willard's description of the creatures he'd seen didn't help her anxious imagination either. He described them as large, bipeds, maybe quadrupeds and hard to see—like they blended in with the surrounding cave wall colors, which had varied from cave to cave. The bright walls were the only distraction Connelly found from her sense of impending doom. The tunnel they were moving through now was a deep violet, so rich it looked as though it might taste like blueberry pie.

Robert's steady pace broke at the end of the cave, where the tunnel opened up into a large, dark cavity.

"What is it?" Connelly asked.

Robert stood to the side. "The tunnel ends here. There's a path moving down the face of the cavern. I can't see the bottom."

Willard joined them at the mouth of the opening. "Switch on your headlamps," he said. They had shut them off to conserve battery life. The caves had been bright enough to see by so far. Since leaving the first tunnels, this open space was the first completely dark area.

Willard snapped on his light. Connelly and Robert followed suit. The three lights did little to trim away the darkness. "Boost the juice," Willard said. "Just for a minute."

All three turned their lights up, which glowed with three thousand watts. The enormous halo of light was enough to illuminate the bottom of the cave, which looked like a graveyard. Phallic stones, rising up from the cave floor cast deep shadows and created a maze with several exits to the other side of the cavern. The opposite wall glimmered lightly in the distance. A path of switch backs rose up the wall and into a tunnel on the opposite side. There was no other way to go.

Connelly couldn't help but notice the purposeful switchback trails. They resembled those leading to the bottom of the
Grand Canyon
. These trails had been created by living creatures, and from the width of the paths—six feet minimum—they were designed for creatures much larger than human beings. Connelly swallowed hard. They had to cross through the maze.

"Let's get a move on," Connelly said, trying to put up a tough front. She might crack again, but she'd be damned before she let Robert and Willard see it happen.

They headed down the steep path, which dropped three hundred feet to the floor. The low gravity made the descent easier on the knees, but Connelly found it difficult not to overcompensate with ever step. A normal step forward meant drifting for several long moments as gravity pulled her slowly back to the steep path. She only made the mistake once and nearly spilled over the edge when the path reversed directions. If not for Willard's quick grab at her boot, she would have toppled over the side and fallen all the way to the bottom.

After reaching the bottom of the cave, Connelly could see the tall stones clearly. They were fifteen feet in height, each and every one of them. They reminded her of the statues erected on
Easter Island
, standing tall and noble, like eternal watchers. It was then that she realized it was more than the stones watching her.

With a quick turn, she was facing the stone wall that they had just descended. Standing flat against the wall was a massive creature. Connelly's voice caught in her throat, keeping her verbal warning locked inside her throbbing ribcage. But the creature did not move. It simply watched. Robert and Willard stepped forward, leaving her a few feet behind. They had no idea the creature was there.

The creature stood on two, three toed feet. Each toe was spread wide, displacing the creature's weight and increasing its gripping surface area. Its legs were built like tree trunks, but single jointed like a humans. That's were the physical similarities ended. The upper torso was hunched slightly, pulled forward by the creature's large, domed head. Its eyes looked like blue teacups. Its translucent skin gave an eerie peek into the inner workings of the creature's internal organs. Connelly didn't recognize any portion of the creature's exposed physiology. The strangest aspect of the creature was its two arms, if that's what they were. The appendages were built like a squid's two longer tentacles. The tips looked like soft diamond shaped spear heads. Rising up from behind the creatures head, they hovered in the air, wavering back and forth as though moved by a slight breeze. Connelly was more than twenty feet away but felt the creature could easily lurch out and snag her if it desired.

Before Connelly could will herself to react, the creature appeared to grow wet, as though liquid were being excreted from hidden glands. As the moisture spread, the creature's body absorbed the darkness of the cavern. Within seconds, the entire alien had vanished, save for its cobalt eyes, which stared at Connelly with an intensity she had never felt before.

During that single moment of connection, Connelly felt her anxiety wane, her nervousness disappear, and her fear about life and death, Robert and their mission, fade to nothing. She saw peace in the monster's eyes…until it closed them and disappeared completely.

Connelly's thoughts and emotions returned in a torrent when her connection with the creature ended. She realized that with the ability to blend into the surrounding environment, these creatures could have been tracking them the entire time. A lightning bolt of worry struck her. She had to warn the guys. She turned to where they had been and squinted as her head lamp glared off a nearby rock.

She swept the area with her light, cutting through the darkness. She moved from side to side, over and over again, until she came to the conclusion she dreaded most. Robert and Willard were gone.

They had left her behind.

A glint of metal on the floor caught Connelly's attention. She knelt down and cast her light on the floor. Willard's ice pick lay among a flurry of dusty footprints.
 

They hadn't left her.

They'd been taken, and she hadn't seen or heard a thing.

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The cavern twisted around Connelly like a living thing. She'd begun running in a blind panic. Images of Robert and Willard's demise flashed through her mind. They had been kidnapped, she knew that, but if they were still alive…she had no idea.

Before she could pause and think the situation through, her body had reacted on instinct alone. The muscles in her upper back twisted with tension as she remembered the creature hiding in the darkness somewhere behind her. She could feel it growing closer, moving in for what?
 
The kill? She didn't know, but had no intention of finding out. If the guys were still alive, she'd have to find out
after
she saved herself. Connelly gripped the ice pick and bolted into the maze of alien obelisks.

In an effort to lose anything following her, Connelly swerved in and out of stones, following a rapid and chaotic path. In the end, she only succeeded in tiring her lungs, wasting some air and confounding herself beyond recovery. She had no idea which direction lead to the switchback trail. She quickly attempted backtracking by following her boot prints, but soon realized she had crossed her own path several times during her mad sprint.

The surrounding darkness closed in around her, compressing her with a claustrophobic tightness. She forced her breath to come slowly…calmly. Robert wouldn't carry her this time and Willard wouldn't catch her if she fell. She was on her own.

Leaning against one of the lanky boulders, Connelly let herself slide down onto her backside. She pulled her knees up close and strained her muscles as she squeezed her arms around her legs.

Connelly had always thought of herself as an independent woman. She'd never relied on a man for anything. That's what she had thought anyway. On her own now, she realized that her self-image was slightly askew. Robert and Willard had become so much a part of her life that she'd come to depend on them for certain things. She realized now that their support, their encouragement, had been one of the contributing factors in keeping her anxiety at bay over the years…but now…now they were both gone. No one would tell her to get up. No one would encourage her to press on.

It was then that she realized the guys depended on her for just as much. Strength. Leadership. Determination.

"Get up," she said loudly to herself. "Get up, now."

After standing, Connelly rolled her neck on her shoulders and set her face into an expression of raw determination. It was Robert and Willard who needed her now. Anxiety be damned. She'd function through the tears and closed throat. She'd ignore the paranoid images that assaulted her mind. Never, in all her years of battling anxiety, had one of Connelly's anxious premonitions come to pass.

She focused on that thought as she prepared to set out. She'd head in one direction until finding a wall, then would follow the perimeter until she found the switchback trail. It might take some time, but she had no other options. Her light alone did little to pierce the darkness of the cavern and the tall stones blocked her view.

Connelly turned in the direction she thought, for no real reason, the switch back trail was located. As her light cut through the blackness, three objects filled her vision: the stone path, the obelisks, and a tall, tentacled alien, standing calmly in front of her. For the first time in all her life, her feeling of doom had been right. If only she'd listened to her inner voice and run again. If only…

Raising the ice pick over her head, Connelly prepared to attack the beast. In the time it took Connelly to poise the ice pick over her head, the creature leapt onto the side of one of the tall stones, gripping on to it with thick toes, and launched a tentacle towards Connelly. The appendage shot towards her head like a spear. Just before connecting, the tip of the long arm spread open like a beaked jaw, revealing a sticky, froth covered surface. The light from her headlamp was blocked out as the alien clamped onto her facemask.

Connelly let out a scream, but it caught in her throat as she felt her feet leave the floor. She was yanked up and continued to rise for what seemed a full minute. During that time, trapped in the darkness, limbs dangling helplessly, Connelly felt her anxiety return. But this time it was masked by the cancerous despair. She'd failed Robert and Willard. And she was about to share in their morbid fate.

IMMUNE SYSTEM

A flashing yellow hell greeted Harris as he came to, hours later. Wailing electronic screams rang in his ears like tortured souls. The stench of smoke and blood assaulted his nose. He really was in hell. Hadn't he lived a good life? If a child dropped a toy, he'd pick it up. If an old woman needed help carrying groceries, he'd help. He'd been a regular Boy Scout all his life, but he ended up heading south for the long winter?

Someone began shouting at him as he floated free, feeling neither floor beneath or ceiling above. The words were just beyond him, meshed with a loud rumbling—the fiery embers of Hades being stoked. Harris gritted his teeth as he began to sort through the chaos. The voice droned on. Insistent and toneless. Electronic…

The devil is a robot
, Harris thought.

The ridiculousness of the thought snapped Harris into a fully aware state. The voice sounded clear, "WARNING…ORBIT FAILING…WARNING…"

The warning systems on the Surveyor were designed in tiers, increasing in severity with every passing minute. It began with a flashing light. This was followed by a text message on all the ships video screens. The text on the screen would then begin flashing, accompanied by a loud beep. The beeping would become a loud wailing throughout the ship. Anyone onboard would be hard pressed to ignore it. And finally, the ship's computerized voice would announce exactly what was going wrong, repeating over and over, until the situation was averted, the system was reset, or the entire crew and ship had been destroyed. The fact that the voice was chanting the same message over and over again meant that whatever had happened to the Surveyor occurred several minutes ago, at least.