14
Jeff Gray stalked along the dark tunnel, all the while questioning his sanity. There couldn’t possibly be something down here. They were god knew how deep beneath Antarctica. It was just his imagination. Had to be. But what if it wasn’t?
Then he heard the sound again, that soft scuffing and subtle ticking that had caught his ear back in the previous cavern. But no matter how fast he moved, he couldn’t seem to catch up with whatever it was, always seemingly just ahead of him in the blackness. He had all his own lights off, moving by the glow from the cave behind, deeper in the dark. But now there was precious little light from his back, the murk almost palpable. He wanted to prove himself. Imagine if he filmed something else in these caves, then showed the footage to Jo Slater. Maybe she’d stop treating him with such disdain. He used to be a boss, for God’s sake. This job of running around like a lackey made him grind his teeth.
He paused to catch his breath, thinking about the wisdom of his love of burgers and ice creams. He had certainly grown in girth over the last couple of years, and was far from fit. There had been a time when he could have run five miles without thinking about it. Now he was lucky to walk five hundred yards without panting.
How far had he come? Too far to be safe on his own, that was almost certain. He wanted to turn on his camera light, bathe the passage in brightness, but also didn’t want to scare off whatever he had heard. He was torn between excitement to find something and fear of what it might be. Though he was out of shape, he was no coward. The discovery of the previous cavern, the remains of the explorer, and the blood red knife, had got him revved up for even greater discoveries. There was definitely more to the story here than a simple exploration in search of an energy source, he was certain of that. There were secrets to be revealed, and he had a feeling he might be able to cash in on a few of them if he played things right, as well as earn that respect from Slater that he was due.
When everyone had started organizing their gear, and Slater had been deep in quiet discussion with Aston, Jeff had felt superfluous. A pang of jealousy struck deep in his gut. He knew he stood little chance with a woman like her. Even though he was a bit out of shape and heavier than he would like, he was still a smart and good-looking guy. But he’d seen the way the others looked at him, like he was some bumbling fool. He had proved people wrong before and he would again. But over all of that, for some reason Slater’s closeness with Aston really stuck in his craw. He had tried to be friendly to Aston, tell him that Jo would forgive him, even though he hadn’t believed that for a moment. Aston had been a complete ass to Jo. And yet, there she was, touching his arm and confiding in him, thick as thieves. Maybe she had forgiven him after all, and that sucked.
Well, let it not be said that Jeff Gray would take that kind of ostracization lying down. While they were quietly sharing secrets, he had heard a sound and was certain he had caught a glimpse of movement in the main passageway leading off the glowing cavern. He had only intended to be a minute, not go far at all, but the sound remained so tantalizingly close. He would follow it a little more before he went back. It sounded small, not something to be too scared of, maybe a creature previously undiscovered that he could claim credit for. Maybe even name. He took a deep breath, his equilibrium regained, and moved on slowly. The silence seemed heavy, even the murmurs of conversation from behind lost to the distance now.
He strained his ears, desperate to hear whatever it was again, and had about given up, cursing his need to rest, when it came once more. A slow scrape, a drag of tail or foot maybe? And then that rapid, soft ticking, like a clock in the distance counting off seconds way too fast. He started forward again, then stopped, looked around, blind in the darkness. He realized the sound had come from behind him that time. Surely that was a trick of the close tunnel, a strange echo.
His heart rate increased, this time with nerves rather than exertion. He lifted the camera, his fingers feeling for the light mounted on top, then hovering over the button to switch it on. He turned a slow circle, listening hard. Then he remembered the camera had a night vision setting. If there was even a tiny amount of light here, it could make use of that, give him a view without needing his bright lamp. His fingers crept over the controls, familiar without needing to see them, and he slowly raised the camera to look through the viewfinder. The tunnel resolved in deep shades of green and black, barely better than blindness, but he picked out a few tiny details. He panned the lens slowly to the right. A soft blur of movement whipped past.
He gasped, moved the camera back again, but nothing was there. Then that soft scraping again, this time to his left. As he turned that way it came again, from his right. He stepped back, moved around, heard it on both sides at once. And then behind him. The dim view through the camera showed him nothing except a few stark edges of rock and occasional blurs of swift movement. Was he surrounded? And by what?
His stomach churned with fear, all thoughts of bravery and discovery fled. Suddenly wanting to see everything clearly, but terrified to look, he gave up all hope of having something to himself and turned tail for the cavern and the rest of the team. His feet slapped the rock, echoing loudly after the stillness of his slow search, every step a gunshot of noise. And the scuffling and ticking seemed to trail along behind him, always right on his tail, never quite catching up. A wail of fear escaped his lips as he gasped for breath and increased his pace. He hurtled headlong through the tunnel, running one hand along the rock beside him so he didn’t run right into it. Surely he should be back by now, or at least see the glow from the cavern of luminescent vines. A new panic gripped him. Had he turned himself around? Was he running away from his friends, further into subterranean depths and who knew what monstrous creatures?
If he stopped now, whatever pursued him would be on him in an instant. But he was slowing anyway, lungs burning, feeling like his heart was about to burst, and they hadn’t caught him yet. Were the things herding him? Were they deliberately holding back, driving him further into the darkness with some malevolent purpose?
“Oh my god, no!”
Jeff gave in to his fear, screamed out in desperation, calling for help. Unable to bear the darkness any longer, he slid the switch on the light above his camera. The tunnel leaped into view in stark contrasting tones of gray rock and black shadow. His legs, jelly from lack of oxygen and over-exertion, failed beneath him and he tripped and fell. He hit the rock on his knees and one palm, the other hand holding the camera high to protect it. The palm he had landed on flared into pain as the skin was scraped off by the rough ground, pain blossomed in his knees from the impact. He fell onto one side, rolled onto his butt, and swung the camera around to shine his light on whatever pursued him.
He screamed as his beam reflected back off shining, armor-like surfaces swarming up the tunnel. He saw an array of multi-faceted eyes, snapping mandibles like curved swords. For a moment, whatever the things were arched back, screeching shrilly as his light seemed to assault them, then one struck out, smashing the camera from his grasp. It hit the rock with a crack of glass and plastic, and the light broke. Everything fell into darkness once more. Jeff Gray felt his bladder release, had a moment to contemplate the horror of what he’d seen, then all thought fled as his body was shredded by dozens of tiny striking slashes, and sharp pain sliced through his flesh.
15
“Has anyone seen Jeff?” Aston scanned the cavern, trying to catch sight of the annoying cameraman. Funny, when you didn’t want him around he was omnipresent. But now he seemed to have vanished.