“No,” Emma said with heavy resignation in her voice. “Let him go.”
“No one on my watch gets left behind,” Drake insisted.
“Drake, he’s not being left behind. He’s made a decision to stay; respect it,” Ben said. He pointed up at the sky. “See that?”
Drake turned to where Ben indicated.
“That spinning cloud is just the start. Soon, the wind will rise, the cloud will drop, and then all hell breaks loose as this place goes back to where it belongs.” Ben looked at his friend. “We need to be long gone by then.”
Drake dropped his head for a moment. “Yeah, I get it.” He took one last look out at the clearing. “That’s the plan. So let’s go see if any of our wayward clan is still here, or left us a sign.” He checked his gun and then held his flashlight high, locating the room that held the steps down to the basement. “This way.”
The trio entered the room, and Ben saw the hole in the floor. He sniffed. “Not good.”
“Yeah, snakes. Seems there was a nest in the chute,” Emma said.
“Well, as long as Ajax didn’t bring the entire roof down on his head, I expect to find a lot of snake bodies.”
“Here’s hoping,” Emma said, uncertainly.
Drake turned to her. “Don’t worry, he and Fergus know their stuff and had enough firepower to do some serious damage.” He lit a flare and tossed it down into the darkness. The red glow was anything but warm and welcoming as the soldier was first to descend.
Ben paused for a moment; the smell alone put him on edge. He also noticed that Drake went down the steps like he did — as far up against the wall as he could get. For all his confident words, he noticed the guy was on edge.
They inched down, toes alighting first, softly, followed by the rest of the foot. Add weight, and then onto the next step, doing the same over again. Just the sound of the flare fizzed below them.
Ben and Drake came into the room first with Emma at their heels. Ben went to push Emma back, but she swiped his arm away and held her gun in both hands.
Then he saw it.
Ben dry-swallowed down some bile. The place looked like an abattoir, and even though the pyrotechnic smell of the flare was strong, they could still detect the overpowering smell of the blood and viscera.
“What the fuck happened here?” Drake had his gun up. “Is it snake’s blood?” he asked hopefully.
“No, look, there’s torn cloth, boots, clothing strewn about.” Ben pointed at a shred of camouflage material. “I think one of the guys bought it right there.” He put an arm across his lower face as he saw the glistening thing. “Jesus Christ.”
Ben stared down at the mess on the ground. It was about 10 feet long and was roughly compressed into a giant, wet-looking cigar shape. But in amongst the red of the meat and speckled fragment of bone, there was a boot on one end.
“I think that’s Ajax,” Drake said. The tough soldier’s jaws clenched as though he was also fighting to keep down his sick down.
“Regurgitation,” Emma said softly. “I remember Andy telling me that big snakes do it from time to time. If they’ve had their fill, even after crushing and swallowing something, they might decide to vomit it up and come back to it later.”
Ben was nauseated but found it hard to drag his eyes away from that crushed boot. He didn’t want to, but his gaze was now drawn to the other end of the thing, where the man’s head should have been. In amongst the mess, he could just make out some hair, an elongated skull, and a single eye floating in the mess. The jaws were still there, but now torn wide in a perpetual scream of agony.
Now he knew how Drake had identified Ajax — there was a silver tooth floating in the gore. He grimaced. “Poor sap.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Drake spat the words through clenched teeth. “We’ve gotta get out of here. Get off this damn plateau.” He edged up to the portal in the wall and darted his head around the carved stonework, and then pulled it back. When nothing jumped out at him, he looked back in and shone his flashlight deeper into the hole. He looked about to step inside.
“Don’t!”
They all spun, three guns pointing to where the voice had come from.
About five feet up on the wall, there was a crack, no more than a foot high and six feet wide. Probably where some sort of earth movement had caused the heavy stone blocks to settle at an angle.
A slim hand emerged, followed by a dirt-covered woman — Helen. Drake rushed to her, helping to extract her from where she had wedged herself in tight. He carried her down to the floor of the room, and she clung tight to him.
“You’re okay now.” Drake tried to calm her, but Helen just shook her head, and wouldn’t let him go. Drake tried again. “Can you tell us what happened?”
“Out, out,” she hissed.
“Let’s take her upstairs,” Ben said, keeping his eyes on the hole in the wall.
Drake looked up and saw where he was looking. “Yeah, good idea.” He helped the woman to her feet, putting an arm around her and literally dragging her up the steps. Emma quickly followed.
Ben spotted some things near the hole and ran for them. He snatched them up — one of the M4 rifles and a bloody ammunition belt that held stubby can-like rounds. He could feel by the weight of the gun that the magazine wasn’t empty. There was also a slime-covered handgun. He took one last look at the dark portal, and then backed up the steps, keeping his eyes on the impenetrable blackness inside every step of the way.
Drake sat Helen down and gave her a sip from his canteen. She immediately lurched forward and vomited onto the ground. Emma rubbed her back and spoke softly to her and she sobbed once, wiped her mouth and nose, and sat back. Her eyes remained tightly closed.
“We can’t stay here,” she said. “We can’t.”
Drake put a hand on her shoulder. “Tell us wh—”
Helen grabbed his arm, her eyes round. “We’ve got to go.”
“We’re here, you’re okay now.” He kept his voice soft.
“You don’t understand.” Helen seemed to deflate and leaned forward onto her knees. “The Titanoboa; much bigger than I ever expected. And fast, so fast.” She started to laugh, but her eyes began to redden again. “Couldn’t kill it.” She turned to Drake, shaking her head. “Nope, wouldn’t die.”
Helen’s eyes took on a faraway look. “It trapped us; ambushed us.” She slumped again.
Emma’s eyes went to Ben momentarily, before she took the woman’s hand. “From the pit?”
“Yes, no… ” Helen grimaced. “The snake came, but not from the cave. We all thought it was in there, and Ajax tried to lure it out.” Her eyes went wide. “But it came from behind us, trapped us. The bullets didn’t seem to hurt it at all.”
“Shit,” Drake said under his breath and looked up at Ben.
“I had to hide. I couldn’t do anything but hide.” Helen shook her head. “I’ve been in there ever since. The snake ripped them to shreds, crushed them down to nothing and ate them all.” Her face screwed up in horror. “Then the others came, the smaller ones, and she fed some of the bits to them.”
Helen buried her face in her hands. “Camilla, Fergus, all of them, crushed, eaten.” She took her hands away, her eyes wild. “We need to get out, run, now.”
She went to get to her feet, but Emma grabbed her, and sat her down hard. “No; there isn’t time.” She looked at Ben, and then Drake, her teeth showing. “We stick to the plan.” She shook Helen. “Look!” She pointed at Ben. “You know who this is?”
Helen shook her head, and then realization must have dawned on her. “You’re Ben Cartwright?”