The light chased off distorted shadows, unveiling bit by bit a tangled mass of pale bones, stacked high against the far wall of the chamber. Gaping skulls and misshapen spines and legs and arms, all twisted and contorted and heaped into a brutal white edifice. As if someone had just bulldozed them into a pile.
Rudy’s breath came in throaty gasps. “There’s… got to be… hundreds…” His voice trailed off.
Jack stared at the grotesque mound. “What is this place?”
Ben squatted down and hung his head for a moment. Then he looked up again and wiped his hair out of his face. “It’s a bone pit.”
Chapter 09
Jack tore his gaze away from the hideous sight and turned to Ben, who wore the vacant expression of a sleepwalker. “What do you mean, a bone pit?”
“Remember…” Ben hesitated a moment as if searching for a way to explain it. “The legends about how the N’watu would give Sh’ar Kouhm an offering of souls to appease her.”
“So it is true?” Jack grimaced. “They really were making human sacrifices?”
Ben rubbed his eyes. “They were just a bunch of old ghost stories. I never took them seriously.”
“Well, apparently they were based in some kind of fact,” Jack said. “We’re standing in front of it.”
Rudy took a few hesitant steps closer to the pile. “There’s so many of them.” His light flitted across the mass of bones. “Look at them all.”
Jack felt as if he’d stumbled across a subterranean Nazi concentration camp. Hundreds of victims killed and their bodies just dumped into this pit. His nausea was quickly turning to anger. His face flushed with emotion. “What did they do to these people? How could they do this?”
“Beats me,” Ben said. “I wasn’t there.”
“Well, you seem to know a lot about them. You said this was all a Caieche legend.”
“Look, man.” Ben stood, and his tone grew sharp. “The N’watu were here way before any of us. My people weren’t responsible for this.”
“Hey, there’s something here,” Rudy said, pointing his light at the base of the pile. “I see something in there.”
But Jack was preoccupied with Ben’s comment. “I didn’t say your tribe was responsible. I’m just struggling with the idea that someone—anyone—could do something like this to other human beings.”
Rudy was still talking. “It looks like it’s a…”
“Oh, really?” Ben snorted and spread his hands. “Welcome to the human race, kid. Let me tell you, this is nothing compared to what happened to thousands of Indians at the hands of—”
“Don’t lecture me about suffering! You know how many Africans died in the holds of slave ships?”
“Both of you, shut up!” Rudy’s voice rose. “Get over here and take a look at this!”
Jack took a breath and tried to calm himself. Clearly the gruesome discovery had put them on edge, and he needed to get a handle on his emotions. He made his way over to where Rudy was inspecting the bone heap. Rudy turned and held up a small, metallic object.
Jack aimed his flashlight at it and gasped. “Is that a—?”
Before Jack could say anything further, a section of the bone pile burst outward, knocking them both off their feet. Rudy yelled and scrambled away. His light flashed back and forth, and Jack caught a glimpse of a jagged shape occupying the space where they had been standing—just a fleeting, skeletal shadow before it slipped out of view again.
Rudy scrambled backward on his heels and elbows, kicking and shrieking. Jack saw flashes of a dark shape following him. And he could hear a sort of growling hiss along with the same clicking sound they’d heard earlier.
The thing pursued Rudy with jerky movements, and only when it paused momentarily was Jack able to finally train his own light on it. In that brief second, he saw it more clearly. It was crablike in appearance and enormous—about the size of a large dog—with what looked like a bony, armored shell. And it had multiple segmented legs like a crab, with two longer ones jutting forward. Then it reared back as if up on its haunches, with its front legs coiling like cobras ready to strike.
The creature flicked forward again, out of the light. Rudy’s scream jolted Jack out of his daze, and he jumped to his feet, looking around for something to use as a weapon. Just then another dark shape flashed through his beam.
It was Ben. He looked like he was carrying something. Jack thought it might’ve been a rock, but it was all happening too fast. Between Rudy screaming and the lights zipping back and forth across the cavern, Jack only managed to discern a flurry of movement and sounds. There was a loud, rattling hiss and three heavy thumps before his light caught up with the action again.
Jack found Rudy lying on his back, chest heaving, and Ben kneeling a few feet away with a large rock in front of him. Under the rock was a motionless, contorted mass of limbs.
Jack shone his light on Rudy. His pant leg was torn and a trail of blood dripped down his calf.
“You okay?” Jack said, but Rudy’s eyes looked as round as saucers and he gasped for breath. Jack raised his voice. “Rudy!”
Rudy blinked and snapped his head toward Jack. “I’m… I don’t know.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I… I think I got cut or something.”
Ben crawled over to Rudy and inspected his wound. “It doesn’t look too bad.” He dug in his pack for the first aid kit.
Meanwhile Jack found his attention drawn back to the creature, now lying crushed and twitching beneath the rock. He rolled the stone aside with his foot and circled the body from a safe distance. The animal lay with its legs splayed out. Jack counted eight of them. Each of the longer forelegs contained the same curved claw as the specimen Rudy had discovered.
“Is it one of those… things?” Rudy’s voice was shaky.
“Looks like it,” Jack said, kneeling to inspect the creature more closely. Its outer shell was roughly circular and about the size of a large serving platter. It was black with gray patches and had a bumpy, pebbled texture. The edges were ringed with small, hornlike protrusions. Jack made a quick mental estimate of its size. It was about three feet wide from leg tip to leg tip, and maybe four feet front to back with the longer front legs.
Jack nudged the body with his foot. “I want to try to flip it over and get a look at its underside.”
Ben turned around. “Be careful with that thing. I think these cuts are puncture wounds.”
Rudy seemed surprised. “What do you mean? Like bite marks? Did it bite me?”
Jack carefully lifted the outer shell and rolled the animal over. It was heavier than it looked. Its armored legs seemed to curl inward reflexively as he laid the creature on its back. From this perspective, Jack could see a distinct set of long, meaty fangs that curved out and downward. And between them protruded a pair of short, bony, fingerlike appendages, like the palps that spiders use for sensory purposes. Between them was a large slit that Jack assumed was the creature’s mouth.
“Whoa,” he whispered.
“What is it?” Rudy’s voice rose. “Is it poisonous? Did it bite me?”
“Hold still.” Ben was busy cleaning and dressing the wound.
“Well…” Jack couldn’t tear himself from the specimen. “It looks like some kind of giant spider with an armored shell. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s huge.”
“But is it poisonous?”
Jack shrugged. “How would I know? You’re the biologist.”