He quickly calmed himself. The supply of air might be limited, and he would do himself no favors using it all up. He had to relax, breathe slowly.
The beast struck the boat again and again, the force of each impact jolting him from head to toe. But he was safe, at least for now. He wouldn’t immediately drown as long as the boat held together and the precious air remained. He just had to hope the monster tired of battering the police launch before it broke to pieces and sank.
Chapter 41
Aston and Slater pulled themselves up from the water onto the rock shelf of the monster’s lair. Bright light flashed into the cave as the camera Aston had set into the far wall registered their movement. Aston stood, offered Slater a hand, and hauled her to her feet.
They stripped off their fins, masks and respirators and stood clutching one another, gasping for breath. Water dripped from the ceiling of the dank cavern, probably filtered down from the storm up above, plinking on the rocks and spattering the smooth surface of the dark water that filled the cave. It was the only sound in the otherwise silent space.
Aston’s breathing began to slow and warmth returned to his extremities. His muscles ached, but his heart still raced. The survival instinct ran strong, and he was nowhere near giving up.
“What the hell do we do now?” Slater asked eventually, looking up at him with a dazed expression.
Aston shook his head. “We need to find a way out.”
Slater pointed at the water shimmering darkly in the bright white LED light. “The only way out is back down there. I’m not too eager to chance that.”
“We’re relatively safe, at least for the moment,” Aston said. “The monster is stuck behind the cage.” He looked around, searching. Could there be another means of egress?
“But for how long? That thing is crazy powerful. It’s bound to smash its way through eventually.”
Aston couldn’t disagree. “Especially now we’ve opened the cage door. That will structurally weaken it, make it easier for the beast to buckle the thing.”
Slater rolled her eyes. “Well, thanks for that!”
“If this is the cave from Old Mo’s story, the one the Nazis found, we know there was a way into it from on land. Somewhere in the hills around the lake.”
“Was being the operative word,” Slater said. “We saw the Nazi knife, remember? It’s entirely possible this is that same cave, but according to the story, the Nazis never made it out again.”
Aston nodded. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.”
“Maybe.” Slater’s voice betrayed her doubt.
“Besides, if we check around, we might at least find some tunnels or caverns too small for that bloody great monster. After all, we have air up here so we can preserve what’s left in our tanks. Maybe we can hide out somewhere safe and wait for the beast to bust its way through. Eventually it’ll come looking for us and when it can’t find us, it’ll go away. When it does, we can sneak back out, dive the shaft and escape into the lake.”
Slater gave him a flat look beneath lowered lids. “That’s your plan? Wait for the monster to chase us down and the give it the old, ‘Nyah, nyah, you can’t get me’, then we wait for it to leave and hope it doesn’t hang out in the lake waiting for us?”
Aston raised his hands. “I guess so! I mean, it’s not really a plan, more of a worst case scenario. You got any better ideas?”
Slater laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, no. I don’t. You’re right, our options are pretty slim and maybe you’re onto something. Let’s search and see if there is anywhere to hide. I feel vulnerable as hell standing here expecting that thing to burst up out of the water any moment.”
“It’s too quiet,” Aston said. “We should be able to hear it crashing into the cage, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. Maybe not. How well does sound travel in a place like this?”
“I guess it doesn’t matter. If we’re lucky, it’s given up for now, gone back out to the lake to see if there’s anyone left up there for it to chomp. That’ll buy us some time.”
Slater winced. “Do you think there is anyone left?”
“Who knows? If nothing else, I hope it eats that arsehole, Laine.”
“Laine,” Slater breathed. “What’s with that guy?”
“I don’t know.” Aston was staring at the dark mirror of the water, eyes narrowed.
“What are you thinking?” Doubt rang in Slater’s voice. “You look like you’re concocting some sort of scheme.”
He turned to face her. “Maybe we should chance it.”
“Chance what?”
“If the thing has gone back to the lake, it might be our only chance to get out. The cage is wedged crosswise, but I think we could squeeze past it.”
Slater shook her head. “I’m not ready. I can’t do it. I like your other idea better. Let’s make sure there isn’t another way out. And if not, we’ll hole up until it comes looking, then when it leaves again we know it’s gone. We know it’s not just lying in wait. Let’s let everything calm down for a while.”
Aston too was reluctant to get right back in the water. “Okay.”
Leaving their equipment by the rock wall, they moved deeper into the cave, searching by the illumination of their head-mounted flashlights. As they picked their way through the jumble of bones that carpeted the ledge, a fetid, sickly-sweet smell twisted Aston’s gut. He knew that aroma — decaying flesh. Clearly, some of these bones were fresh. He glanced at Slater, who held a hand over her nose and mouth, and motioned ahead with the other.
Beyond the skeletal remains, the cave opened out a little, the ceiling rising a few feet higher. Past that, as the rock sloped back toward the cave floor, three dark patches punctured the wall. The smell of decay still hung in the air, but weaker, more tolerable.
“Three tunnels?” Slater asked.
“Let’s find out.”
They started on the far right and found it wasn’t so much a passage as a rent in the stone that only went back about ten feet, like a rock closet hewn into the cave.
“Not a way out, but it might be a good hiding place,” Aston said.
“I dunno.” Slater’s voice was weak, an edge of despair to it. “The monster could easily see us or smell us in there. Does it have a good sense of smell?”
“No idea.”
“I’m not sure it would be much of a safe haven. That thing is huge, but I think it could get its snout in there. That might be enough encouragement for it to keep trying until it got us.”
“True.” Aston shuddered at the mental image of him and Slater splayed against the rock, watching as the snapping jaws came ever closer. “Let’s keep looking.”
They moved to the next opening and this time it was a tunnel — a ragged passage with a rock-strewn floor, and easily big enough for the monster to squeeze into. But it led away into darkness. They followed it for about thirty yards and came to a fork. One passage of equal size swept around to the left while a smaller split in the rock branched away to the right.
“Let’s check the wider way first,” Aston said. “It seems to be part of the main tunnel.”
They moved on, the tunnel curving more to the left, and before they long emerged on a small ledge back into the monster’s lair. They stood gazing across at the pile of bones where they had stood only moments before.