“Well, we know it’s predatory,” Ben said without looking up. “It attacked from out of cover of the bones. Like it was waiting there to ambush prey.”
“Jack.” Rudy grimaced, pointing to the bone pile. “Did you see the watch?”
Jack remembered why Rudy had called him over in the first place. He swept his light across the ground and saw the scuffed and battered wristwatch lying in the mud where Rudy had dropped it. He picked it up.
“This looks pretty new,” he said. “I mean, like a modern watch.”
Rudy was shaking his head. “What’s going on here?”
Jack peered at Ben through the lights. “Obviously we’re not the only people in this cave. You said the N’watu would offer human sacrifices to the Soul Eater.” He held up the watch. “I think they’re still doing it. Or at least somebody is.”
They stared at each other for a hushed moment as that thought sank in. Only the sounds of their breathing echoed in the cavern.
Ben shook his head. “This is crazy. They’re just a legend.”
“You saw those drawings on the wall. And all these bodies got down here somehow. They didn’t just wander in on their own.”
“Then we better find a way out pretty quick.” Ben finished wrapping Rudy’s leg with gauze. “We don’t know how many of those spider things are down here, and we should probably get him to a hospital.”
For a moment, Jack bristled at the thought of leaving. He knew there was real danger here and that they needed to find a way out, but still, his curiosity had been piqued. They had just discovered some actual hard evidence that the N’watu might in fact be real. And that notion was mind-boggling. Part of him wanted desperately to find out more.
He helped Rudy to his feet. “Are you okay? Can you walk?”
Rudy tested some weight on his leg. “Yeah, it just tingles a little, but I can walk.” He limped over and stared down at the creature.
Jack nudged it again with his foot. “What do you suppose it is?”
Rudy shrugged. “It does look like some kind of arachnid or an entirely new species of arthropod. We’d need to do a comparative DNA analysis to modern arachnids to be sure. But these things could have been down here since prehistoric times.”
He turned to Ben. “We have to bring it with us.”
Ben winced. “What? You’re both crazy!”
But Rudy persisted. “This is a huge scientific discovery.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’m not carrying the thing. You guys figure out what to do with it.”
Rudy bent closer and inspected the carcass under his flashlight. “You realize we’re going to be famous with this discovery.”
“No doubt… but hopefully not posthumously,” Jack said.
Rudy chuckled. “What should we name it?”
“What d’you mean?”
“Well, whoever discovers a new species of animal always gets to name it,” Rudy said. “How about Cavernous Arachnis Giganticus?”
Jack just raised an eyebrow. He was thankful at least that Rudy was feeling well enough to joke, bleak as their circumstances were. “Maybe I can carry it with something or at least drag it along.” He unpacked his rolled-up wet jeans and knelt down to slip them under the spider.
Suddenly the carcass jerked and erupted into a seizure. Jack leaped out of the way as the spider bumped and jittered on the ground. Rudy and Ben jumped back as well.
The creature growled and hissed, kicking in violent spasms. All of its legs thrashed about, stretching out and digging into the mud as if trying to flip itself back over.
“I thought you killed it!” Jack heard himself scream.
“I did,” Ben shouted back at him.
“Apparently not all the way!”
“Shut up and kill it!” Rudy yelled, hobbling backward. “Kill it! Kill it!”
Jack was scrambling in the dark, searching for another rock, when he heard the hisses and growls turn into high-pitched squeals. He turned back to see that Ben had pounced on top of the animal and was ramming his knife deep into its center. He plunged it over and over into the soft underbelly as a viscous yellow fluid spattered his arms and face. The animal’s legs thrashed and clawed in furious tremors but gradually slowed until at last the only movement was a slight twitching in one of the rear appendages.
Jack stared at the grotesque sight, not sure what to say. His heart was still pounding. Finally Rudy spoke up from his vantage point several feet away. “Is it dead this time?”
Ben stood over the animal, wild-eyed and grimacing. He wiped his face on his sleeve. “It better be.”
Jack inspected the carcass and cringed. The underbelly was a mass of shredded flesh and yellow goop. Its legs had contorted and curled inward but were finally motionless.
“You must’ve just stunned it before,” he said after a moment.
“No way.” Ben shook his head. “I hit it three or four times. And that rock weighed a good thirty pounds. No way it survived that.”
“Well, that shell must be harder than it looks.”
Rudy snorted. “Or maybe it was just playing possum.”
Ben glared at them. “I’m telling you, I killed that thing.”
“Great,” Rudy muttered. “Giant zombie cave spiders.”
Ben swore. “Y’know, if it weren’t for me, both of you guys would be dead by—” He stopped his rant short and looked around the cavern, cocking his head.
“What?” Rudy whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“Shh!” Ben snapped his palm up and tilted his head the other way.
Then Jack heard it too. Somewhere in the darkness, an eerie clicking sound echoed off the cavern walls. It was soft and indistinct at first but growing steadily louder.
Ben turned. “We need to get out of here now!”
Chapter 10
“Wait!” Jack grabbed his camera out of his pack. He couldn’t leave without recording what they’d found. “I have to at least get a shot of this place. I have to document—”
Ben clutched him by the back of his shirt and tugged him away, but Jack shrugged himself loose. Ben yelled, “You idiot, we have to get out of here!”
Rudy’s breath was growing labored. “Which way?”
“Up,” Ben said. “We need to get out of this pit.”
“Up… up where?”
Jack pointed the camera around the chamber. With the night-vision setting, he could see a couple of side passages leading off the main room. One looked big enough to stand in, but the others were barely large enough for them to crawl through.
Jack got a quick shot of the giant spider and then panned over to the bone pile. In that shot, he could see Ben in the foreground shining his light up the cavern walls. Rudy was bent over and holding his side. Beyond them both, Jack could see a wide ledge just above the heap of bones. It looked maybe twenty feet high or so, but it wasn’t that far from the top of the pile.
“Up there.” Jack pointed. “There’s some kind of ledge up there.”
Ben ran to the edge of the heap and scanned his light along the ledge. He turned back and said, “We’ll have to try it.”
“Guys…,” Rudy wheezed, clutching his side. “I’m kinda… starting to feel a little… not so good.” He staggered a few steps toward Jack and then fell to his hands and knees, vomiting.
“Rudy!” Jack stopped filming and ran to help, but Rudy had already collapsed into a quivering heap. Ben was there in a moment as well.
In their lights, Jack could see the ground stained dark red. Blood frothed from Rudy’s mouth and nostrils, down his chin. His entire body quaked with violent tremors, and Jack could hear him struggling for breath.