Ben swept his light from one side of the cavern to the other, spotting an alcove in the left rock wall that seemed incongruous. It narrowed to no more than a few feet wide, but inside, there were stones — cut stones — stacked up, almost sealing it off.
Around the outside, there were gouges in the rock walls, as though something had tried to force its way in. Ben leaped up and shone his light in between two of the stacked rocks.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” He stood back. “Looks like I wasn’t the only sap to get trapped up here once.”
The others took turns crowding around and looking inside the walled-off alcove. Ben knew what they were seeing — a skeleton, small, and brown with age. There were the remains of feathers and colored stones that were dappling the ribs and must have been some sort of necklace jewelry.
Whoever it had been, man or woman, they had sealed themselves in. And as the snakes had obviously been trying to get in, they had never been able to get out.
“They were trapped,” Ben said. “So they just sat back and waited to die.”
“Jesus — trapped in Hell.” Drake bared his teeth. “That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”
“Yeah, it’s Hell. But you know what they say, when you’re going through hell…?” Ben turned and grinned.
“You keep going,” Ben, Drake, and Emma both said at once.
Helen had her arms wrapped around herself and stayed closed to Drake full time now. “Appropriate, this being Hell, I mean.” She gave them a broken smile. “Some ancient Amerindian races believed that down, being the underworld, was Heaven. And the sky was where the devil lived. That’s why they used to carry their dead deep into caves.”
Drake turned his back on the tunnel to face her. “Then we better find our way back to Heaven.”
The snake struck then, grabbing Drake by the thigh. The soldier yelled, more in surprise than pain, and was thrown backward by the force of the attack. Helen screamed and Drake pummelled down on the reptile’s head as it immediately began to throw coils as thick as the man’s waist around him.
Ben remained calm, turned, and fired controlled bursts from his rifle. The gunfire was near deafening in the confined space, and the bullets zippered along the snake’s flanks.
Emma held her gun in a two-handed grip and also fired, taking care to avoid the downed man. Helen backed up against the wall and held her hands over her ears.
Drake managed to pull his knife, and using the entire upper half of his body, swung the blade into the eye socket of the creature, sinking the steel deep.
It opened its mouth and hissed with pain and fury. Drake then twisted the blade, and it was like the creature was receiving an electric shock, as the snake went mad, thrashing around and jerking Drake up and down. Eventually, its head lay still, while its tail seemed to be trying to coil itself into knots.
Ben was first to his friend and dug his fingers into the mouth and pried the jaws open. It took a while to unhook him, as the backward-curving teeth were sunk like fishhooks into his flesh.
“Fuck it,” Drake yelled, as Emma wrapped her belt around his thigh.
“You were lucky,” she said.
“Yeah, for some reason, I don’t feel it.” He grimaced as she tightened the tourniquet.
“She’s right,” Ben said. “It was a small one. If it was an adult, next time you made an appearance, it’d be like that.” He pointed to a huge ball of snake shit in the corner. He helped pull the man to his feet.
Drake hopped for a moment and then put his foot down gingerly. He shook his head. “I can move, but if it comes to running… ” He just shook his head. “Ain’t gonna win any medals this week.”
Ben handed him the rifle, and Drake used it like a walking stick.
“Yeah? Well, I’m betting if that big mother makes an appearance, you’ll win medals.” He slapped Drake on the shoulder. “Let’s move out.”
CHAPTER 42
Rib bones the size of a full-grown man’s torso on the theropod began to compress. The Giganotosaurus’ massive jaws were of no use if it couldn’t get anything between them, and the Titanoboa knew to keep away from them, using the coils of its colossal body to bring a titanic pressure onto the huge predator’s chest.
It squeezed some more, and the eyes of the theropod bulged and its mouth sprung open. A few large gasps emanated from its throat as it tried to suck in air. Another squeeze, and then like cannon fire, the ribs broke, one after the other. Finally, the massive heart exploded under the pressure.
The monstrous snake lowered its head close to the open mouth of the Giganotosaurus, and its tongue flickered out. It tasted the saliva, the blood, and felt for any trace of breath or a heartbeat — there was none.
The giant theropod predator was too large for the Titanoboa to eat, but hunger always burned within it. The snake could continue to crush the beast down, turning it to mush, but even then, it would be a challenge.
At that moment, the booming sounds emanated from the stone building. The snake released the gigantic corpse and turned to the temple, and its nest. Like a molten river of glistening scales and muscle, it flowed toward the doorway.
CHAPTER 43
“This way.” Emma followed the faint movement of air. Her hands ached from gripping the gun and flashlight. Added to that, her nerves were piano-wire tight. She didn’t doubt for a second that there were more snakes in the caves, and only prayed that they ran out of snakes before their bullets did.
Ben had dropped back to cover their rear now. Though Drake would still be a formidable fighter, his ability to move quickly was compromised. She turned and looked briefly at Helen, who looked pale and scared half out of her wits. As long as she kept up, then that’d do, she thought.
Emma wiped an arm up over her face that streamed with perspiration. Thank God she could feel the soft kiss of a breeze on her cheeks. It had to be coming from below — it had to be another entrance—please be another entrance.
She dared to check her watch and winced. Time was moving too fast on them. “We got forty minutes to go,” she said over her shoulder.
“Got it,” Ben said from back in the darkness.
They’d come too far to turn back now, she knew. There was no backtracking and trying another route. It was all in or bust.
After another few minutes, the cavern began to get smaller and the gentle breeze started to turn into wind. As of yet, there was nothing but the smell of dry dirt, ancient dust, and just a hint of the musky scent of the monster reptiles.
As a caver, what she was desperate to find was a chute that dropped them down into the heart of the flat-topped mountain. One that was climbable, yet steep enough to get them below the distortion line quickly.
She held a hand up and shone her light at her palm. There seemed to be a mist or fog filling the cavern, and it rushed past her on the breeze.
“It’s starting to happen,” she whispered.
But then the mist slowed, and then stopped, just hanging listless in the air. Oh no, she thought. Emma turned slowly. The wind had stopped dead now, and the mist hung heavily around them.
There was only one reason for it — a blockage. She turned and met Ben’s eyes. “Something’s coming.”