"Blast!" He extricated his foot, and began to carefully reverse out again. He'd seen enough, given the parlous condition of the floor. "Nothing here," he shouted, and returned outside.
They continued down the central avenue until Cal broke the silence.
"Can you smell that?" he asked Will suddenly. "It's sharp, like—"
"Ammonia. Yes," Will cut in. He played his light on the area in front of his feet. "It seems to be coming from… from the ground. It feels sort of damp," he observed, grinding the ball of his foot into the cavern floor and then squatting down. He took a pinch of the soil and held it under his nose. "Phew, it is this stuff. It stinks! Looks like dried bird droppings. Isn't it called guano?"
"Birds. That's OK," Chester said in a relieved voice, recalling the harmless flock they'd encountered in the Colony.
"No, not birds, this is different," Will immediately corrected himself. "And it's sort of fresh. It feels really squidgy."
"Oh crikey," Chester sputtered, looking frantically in all directions.
"Yuck! There are things in it," Will observed, adjusting his weight from one leg to the other as he remained squatting.
"What things?" Chester all but jumped into the air.
"Insects. See them?"
Shining their lights by their feet, Chester and Cal saw what Will was talking about. Beetles the size of well-fed cockroaches crawled ponderously over the slimy surface of the amassed droppings. They had creamy-white carapaces, and their similarly colored feelers twitched rhythmically as they went. Other, darker insects were around them, but these were harder to observe, apparently more sensitive to the light, since they scuttled rapidly away.
As the boys watched, just within their pooled circle of light a large beetle flapped open its carapace. Will chuckled with fascination as its wings hummed into life with the sound of a clockwork toy and it took to ungainly flight. Once in the air, it weaved erratically from side to side until it vanished from view, into the gloom.
"There's a complete ecosystem here," Will said, engrossed by the variety of insects he was finding. As he scratched around in the droppings, he uncovered a large, engorged, pale-colored grub as big as his thumb.
"Grab that. We might be able to eat it," Cal said.
"Ewww!" quivered Chester, stamping his feet. "Don't be gross!"
"No, no, he's being serious," Will said flatly.
"Can we just get going again?" Chester begged.
Will reluctantly pulled himself away from the insects and they resumed their walk down the central avenue. They were at the last of the huts when Will beckoned them to a halt again.
"Feel that breeze? I think it's coming from up there," Will observed. "This whole area has some type of netting over it. Look at the holes."
They peered above the tops of the huts, where they could see a layer of mesh. Weighed down with debris, in some places it sagged so much it almost touched the roofs of the huts, while in others the mesh was absent altogether. They tried to shine their lights up through one of these openings, past the torn strands of the mesh and into the void high above. But the orbs weren't strong enough, and only revealed an ominous darkness.
"So that could be the crevice this place was named after?" Will pondered aloud.
"HEY!" Cal hollered at the top his voice, making the other two start. Vague echoes of his shout reverberated across the void. "It's big," he said unnecessarily.
Then they heard a noise.
Gentle to begin with, similar to the sound when pages of a book are being fanned through, it was growing louder at an alarming rate.
Something was stirring, waking.
"More beetles?" Chester asked, hoping that was all it was.
"Uh, no, I don't think so," Will said, scanning the space above their heads. "That shout might not have been such a great idea, Cal."
Chester immediately turned on the younger boy. "What have you done now, you little jerk?" he said in an urgent whisper.
Cal made a face.
All of a sudden, from holes in the mesh up above the boys' heads, dark shapes dipped down, swooping at them. Their wingspans were huge and their screeches echoed off the walls like unearthly, high-pitched feedback, hitting the very limits of the boys' hearing.
"Bats!" Cal yelled, recognizing the sound right away. Chester howled in panic as he and Will remained rooted to the spot, mesmerized by the spectacle of the hurtling mammals.
"Run, you idiots!" Cal bawled at them, already taking to his heels.
Within seconds, the air was thick with the flying animals. They flicked past so quickly that Will couldn't keep track of any single one.
"This isn't good!" he exclaimed as leathery wings thrummed currents of dry air around their heads. The bats began to plunge at the boys, swerving aside just at the last moment.
Will and Chester raced down the avenue after Cal, not thinking, not caring, where they were going as long as they got away from the onslaught of airborne monsters. They were driven by a single thought, almost a primordial fear: to escape from these screeching, oversized beasts.
As if in answer to their plight, a house loomed out of the darkness ahead. At two stories high, its austere faзade towered over the low huts. It appeared to be constructed of a light-colored stone, and all its windows were shuttered.
"Quick! Over here!" Cal cried as he spotted that the front door was slightly ajar.
In the midst of all this nightmarish confusion, Will glanced behind just in time to see a particularly large bat hurtle straight into the back of Chester's head. He heard the soft thud as it struck. The size of a soccer ball, its body was black and solid. The collision sent Chester sprawling. Will raced over to help his friend, while trying to protect his own face with his arm.
Shouting, he pulled Chester to his feet. And with the boy slightly dazed and running unsteadily, Will guided him toward the strange house. Will was lashing out in front of himself, trying to ward off the beasts, when one careened into his rucksack. He was knocked sideways but managed to keep his balance by hanging on to the still-befuddled Chester.
Will saw that the bat had dropped to the ground, one of its wings twisted and flapping uselessly. A second one flicked down, alighting next to the first. Then yet more, until the injured animal was almost completely hidden from sight by clambering bats. As the felled creature struggled futilely to get away, trying to crawl from under the others, Will saw them snapping at it, their tiny pinlike teeth colored scarlet with blood. They attacked mercilessly, nipping at its thorax and abdomen as it began to squeal in pain.
Ducking and stumbling with Chester beside him, Will continued along the remainder of the avenue. They staggered up the front steps of the house, under the porch, then through the door. Cal slammed it shut behind them. Several bangs followed as bats dashed against it, then others brushed their winds over its surface. This fracas soon died down, leaving only their strange piping calls.
The boys found they were in an imposing hallway replete with a large chandelier, its intricate design gray and furred with dust. A pair of elegantly curving staircases, which swept up to a landing, flanked this foyer. The place appeared to be empty; there was no furniture and just the odd tatter of curling wallpaper hung on the dark walls. It looked as though it had been uninhabited for years.
Will and Cal began to wade through the dust, which was nearly as thick as driven snow. Chester, still shaken, leaned over by the front door, panting heavily.
"Are you all right?" Will called back to him, the sound of his voice quiet and muffled in the strange house.
"I think so." Chester straightened up and stretched his head back, rubbing his neck to alleviate the soreness. "Feels like I was hit with a basketball." As he inclined his head forward again, he noticed something.