The Demon Conspiracy (13 page)

“Okay,” said Mandy. “Come on, Katie.
Hurry.”

Clara watched until the kids got safely
inside the station before rushing over to the cave. She heard
voices echoing inside.

“Dr. Parrish!” It sounded like a young
child, a boy? She stopped in front of the cave entrance and
listened. She heard sounds of a struggle. Then footsteps. Lots of
footsteps on the run.

A second later three people burst into the
sunlight. A very big man, a young girl, maybe Mandy’s age, and a
younger boy with white blond hair. The man and the girl ran until
they collapsed by the Pandora’s Cave sign. The girl sobbed
uncontrollably. The man held her in his arms.

“Dr. Parrish, come on! Run!” The boy was
frantic. He pulled on the big man’s arm, absolutely terrified.
“We’re too close! They’ll get us!”

But the man—Dr. Parrish—shook his head.
“Travis, can’t you see Kelly’s upset? Something grabbed her! It
pulled her into the cave! I couldn’t see it!”

The girl named Kelly didn’t try to speak.
She just cried and cried in his arms.

The boy, Travis, was really scared. “They’re
still there! I can feel ‘em!” He watched the cave warily. He
scooped up a rock and faced the cave entrance. That was when Clara
noticed the blood on Parrish’s head. She ran over to them.

“I’m a doctor!” she said, kneeling beside
Parrish. “What happened?”

“We were in the cave!” said Travis
excitedly. “We got caught in an earthquake! An’ there’s demons!” He
pointed at the cave.

“Travis, you don’t know there were demons,”
said Parrish. “It was probably some wild animals.”

“Stay away!” yelled Travis at the cave. He
tried to act fierce, but Clara noticed his whole body shook with
fear. “Stay in your hole!”

Clara looked up. Something moved in the
blackness, she was sure of it. She narrowed her eyes. The boy was
right, something was there. Something alive. Travis hurled the rock
into the cave. Whack!

At once a dozen evil, hungry eyes appeared
from inside the darkness. A voice cried out. But it clearly wasn’t
human. “Ow! You little maggot!”

Clara gasped. “Oh, my God!”

“What the devil was that?” said Parrish.

“Not a wild animal,” said Clara. “Unless
it’s the talking kind.”

Travis pulled on Parrish’s arm again. “We
gotta get out of here!”

The creatures in the cave spoke. “We gots
yer brother! An yer father, too! We’re gonnsa rips out their soul
and eats their flesh!”

“You let ‘em go!” cried Kelly through her
tears. Parrish released her. He sat up, obviously stunned at what
he was hearing.

“You’ll never see them again!” said a
second, higher-pitched voice.

Kelly stood up, sobbing. She shook her fist
in useless defiance. “No! Let them go, or I’ll get you! I swear
it!”

“No!” said another demon
in a deep, gravelly voice. “
We’ll
get
you
! We know where you live, Kelly
and Travis. We’ll grab you in the dark, when the night comes. The
dark belongs to
usss
!”

11

RESCUE

KELLY

After we left the cave it took a long time
for us to stop crying. Travis was embarrassed to cry in front of
people, and if Jon or Chris had been there, I know he would have
stopped. Of course, if they’d been there he wouldn’t have had any
reason to cry to begin with. He didn’t know for sure what had
happened to either of them. But he knew that I had somehow seen
what they saw when the demons attacked and I’d delivered an
upsetting glimpse for Travis to see. His understanding of what
happened wasn’t clear, but he realized, with good reason, that our
brother and Chris were most likely dead.

Of course they were dead. How could anyone
fight off so many demons? Chris wasn’t a fighter to begin with and
he couldn’t run with a broken leg, so the demons probably just
grabbed him and took him away. Or maybe they ate him right there on
the ledge. I shuddered all over and caught myself before the images
got any worse. So much terror and pain. Poor Chris.

“Jon hacked a lot of them
to pieces before he went down,” I said. “A
lot
of them. But there were
way
too many demons.”
What I’d seen made me both proud and sad. I was proud of Jon’s
fearlessness in battle, but I felt sad because we’d never see our
big brother again.

I wasn’t sobbing anymore, but I hadn’t
completely stopped crying. My eyes were puffy and red, and I kind
of hiccupped sporadically. Every so often random tears rolled down
my face, then I’d wipe my eyes and try to regroup my emotions
again. Travis struggled to stay clear of my feelings, but it was
next to impossible. He was just as upset as I was, and he couldn’t
help but sense every bit of my suffering.

We sat close to each other on a bench in
front of the ranger station. Ripper the wonder dog kept his head on
my lap to let us both rub his soft ears. We were upset, but
something about rubbing the dog’s ears had a calming effect. I
glanced over my shoulder through the window. Dr. LeBar was still
treating Parrish. Apparently, he’d been correct about his injuries
being minor. Dr. LeBar told us that facial and head wounds often
looked worse than they were because they tended to bleed a lot,
even when they were tiny.

The office door opened. Parrish came out
with the blood cleaned up and several small bandages on his head.
He groped his way almost blindly to the bench and took a seat
beside Travis. “Ranger Laarz called in a search-and-rescue party.
They’ll be going into the cave within the hour.”

“Are they soldiers?” asked
Travis. “They’d better have
lots
of guns.”

“I don’t know. But I’m sure they’ll find Jon
and Chris. And Anton, too.”

“They gotta have guns!” cried Travis. “You
know what’s in there!”

Parrish looked at him, frowning. I could
tell he was worried and didn’t know what to say to a couple of
scared kids. If only he hadn’t broken his glasses.

The door opened again. Ranger Laarz and
another ranger named Eric Wooden came out of the office. Wooden was
twenty-four and looked very fit with his broad shoulders and
muscular build. He had dark eyes and dark hair, and large, rough
looking hands. I thought if anybody could handle a demon, maybe he
could.

Laarz carried a shotgun and a box of shells.
She transferred all the shells from the box to her jacket pockets
and left the empty box on the windowsill. Wooden had a rifle slung
over his shoulder and a handgun in a holster on his belt. Dr. LeBar
was with them.

“I don’t know what they were, Melinda,” said
the doctor. “I only know what I saw and heard. I already told you
what they said.”

“Yes,” said Laarz. “But demons? Come on now.
Isn’t it more likely just somebody playing a joke? If I go in there
shooting, two things can happen. One, I kill a harmless prankster
by mistake. Or two, a bullet ricochets off the stone and hits me,
or someone in my party. Guns and caves don’t mix.”

“There’s a third thing you need to worry
about,” said Parrish. “The earthquake affected the infrastructure
of the cave. If you fire a gun in there, the ceiling might come
down on your head. All I did was yell and it happened. You said the
quake registered a three point six on the Richter scale?”

“That’s what the U.S. Geological Service
told us,” said Laarz. “But it felt worse than that to me.”

“You should have
been
inside
the
cave!” Parrish’s eyes got wide. “The noise was intense. I’ve never
been so scared.” Travis and I both nodded in agreement.

“I just hope there aren’t any aftershocks
until we get back out.” Laarz looked at us again. Her tone became
more serious. “Kids, the only reason we’re taking these weapons is
because you’re so upset about us going into the cave. Don’t expect
us to go in there shooting up the place, okay? We’ll do our best to
find your friends, I promise.”

“Are any army guys going?” asked Travis.

“Not specifically, no. Why?”

“Because when the demons
attack, you’re gonna run out of bullets. You need
way
more ammo than
that!”

Wooden chuckled and Laarz rubbed Travis’
hair. They both smiled at him, but it made Travis madder. I was
pretty angry too. What was wrong with them? Did they think we were
joking?

“You don’t believe us, but
they
were
demons!
I got a good, close look at one of them. It grabbed my leg!” I
showed them the side of my pantleg. The blue jeans were shredded
from the knee down to the ankle.

“Yeah,” said Travis. “One of them grabbed
me, too! It took my new backpack!”

“Why would a demon want your backpack?”
asked Wooden sarcastically. “He need it for demon school?”

“Cuz I was still wearing it!” Travis didn’t
hold back the anger in his voice.

Laarz looked to Parrish for some rational
support, but he only nodded.

“
Something
grabbed her,” he said.
“And then it dragged her back into the cave. I heard them, too, but
I couldn’t see anything. Still can’t. Damn glasses.”

“I saw eyes,” said Dr. LeBar. “Lots of
different colored eyes that were much too large to be human. I’m
not saying they were demons, but these kids were traumatized by
something strange and horrible. I’ve always been anti-gun, but in
this case I think the weapons are a wise precaution.”

“Guns are dangerous and heavy,” said Laarz,
closing the topic. “I just hope we can afford to bring along some
rescue equipment, too. Let’s get packed, Eric.” They went to a
nearby car and opened the trunk. I could still hear them
talking.

“I called Anya and Karen to guide us,” said
Laarz. “Next to Anton, they know

this cave better than anyone.”

“Works for me,” said Wooden. “When’s Ned
supposed to get here?”

“He’s on his way. He’ll be exhausted after
working all night.”

Laarz and Wooden loaded up two backpacks and
hauled them near the entrance to the cave. Soon the quiet little
park became center stage for a massive rescue effort. A few
reporters tried to find out what the commotion was all about, but
Laarz dealt with them quickly and made them leave.

“I called Angie,” said Parrish. He stood up
and opened the door to the ranger station. “And Yvette, too. They
should be here soon. Hey, Travis, how do I get to the men’s
room?”

Travis looked in the window and pointed.
“Take a right, go straight. End of the hall.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Travis watched the big man
grope his way down the hall until he found the correct door and
went in. A few minutes later a red Ford pickup drove up and parked
next to Anton’s SUV. Two pretty college-age girls got out and began
gearing up for the rescue. They pulled on some coveralls and
kneepads and hauled their equipment to the entrance of the
cave.

We were upset about Jon, Chris and Anton
Edwards, but we were also scared for ourselves. The demons knew our
names and said they’d come after us when it got dark. We hoped
Ranger Laarz and her crew could rescue everybody really fast,
because we didn’t want to be anywhere near this place after the sun
went down.

“How’d the demons get our names?” said
Travis. I looked at him with fearful eyes.

“When Chris tried to warn
us. Or maybe they could read
my
mind, but I couldn’t read theirs.” I sniffed and
wiped my eyes. “I don’t want those people to go in the cave. If
they do, terrible things will happen to them. But if they don’t and
Jon is somehow still alive…I don’t know.”

“Do you think he’s still alive?” asked
Travis hopefully.

“When mom and dad, died this terrible flash
of pain and emotion sort of exploded inside my head. It hurt really
bad when it happened. But I haven’t felt anything like that from
Jon, so I keep thinking there’s a chance he might be okay. I don’t
know about Chris or Mr. Edwards.”

More rescuers came to the park and gathered
stretchers, numerous backpacks, and lots of rope. An ambulance
pulled in and parked. An East Indian man and a woman got out to
unload a special backpack full of first aid equipment. Laarz called
them all over by the cave. She was ready to go in.

“How come Ranger Laarz doesn’t believe we
saw demons?” asked Travis. “Does she think we’re lying?”

“She just doesn’t believe in them. But Dr.
LaBar does. She’s very upset. She knows what they are, but she
doesn’t want to admit it to any adults. She’s afraid they’ll think
she’s crazy.”

“That means they
think
we’re
crazy. What about Dr. Parrish? What’s he think?”

“He needs more evidence. He’s a scientist,
you know.”

“When the rescuers see the demons, they’ll
believe then, won’t they?”

“Oh, yeah, they’ll believe. But if they see
demons, it won’t matter. If that happens, the rescuers won’t be
coming back either.”

***

“Earthquakes east of the Mississippi are
more prevalent than you’d think,” said Ranger Laarz to the rescue
team gathered at the entrance to Pandora’s Cave. “From what I’ve
seen on the news there hasn’t been any damage to bridges,
buildings, or other structures in the area. It only registered a
3.6 on the Richter.”

I could tell some of the rescuers were
worried about going underground after an earthquake and Ranger
Laarz was trying to ease their fear. I shook my head. If that’s all
they had to worry about I’d go back in myself.