Lisa looked around in the sputtering light. “No.”
Jason turned back to it and started thinking like a scientist again. Darryl was right. Rigor mortis would set in. He had to do an autopsy, fast—within the next twenty-four hours. Which meant they had to get the body into a lab and… “How are we going to get it out of here?”
“What?”
“How are we going to move this thing?”
“I have no idea. For Christ’s sake, Jason, let’s get Darryl to a doctor first.”
“You think he’ll be OK?”
“I don’t know, but his health’s a little more important than doing a damn autopsy. I’m going to check on him….” She walked away angrily, and Jason followed. She was exactly right. The autopsy could wait.
“My God, Darryl, are you really OK?”
Lisa stood over him again, eyeing the blood-soaked shirt over his missing shoulder.
He looked up at her sadly. There were tears in his eyes, and he tried to smile through them. “I’ll be fine, Soccer Mom.”
Tears formed in Lisa’s eyes too. Darryl Hollis was anything but fine, and she knew it had nothing to do with his shoulder. “I’m so very sorry, Darryl.”
He nodded sadly when… “Can we get a truck up here somehow?!”
Darryl chuckled. “Doesn’t waste any time, does he?”
Lisa shook her head. “No, he doesn’t.”
“You guys are gonna make a great couple, Lisa.”
“Oh, be quiet.”
“He’s in love with you.”
She hesitated. “Did he tell you that?”
“Didn’t need to. Just like you didn’t. The Big Dog sees all, Soccer Mom.”
“We’d have to airlift it up, wouldn’t we?!”
Genuinely amused, Darryl turned. “Airlift what up?!”
“The truck to carry that thing out of here!”
Darryl closed his eyes. “You’re gonna have a lot of fun with him.”
Lisa stomped toward Jason like an angry, chiding mother. “Will you take it easy, for Christ’s sake?”
“What, I want to—”
“You’re anxious—I get that—but can we just bask in the glory of this for like five seconds?”
“I’m a little… overeager?”
“Maybe just a smidge.”
He looked around. “This place really is incredible, isn’t it?” He picked a flare off the rock and peered into another tunnel.
Lisa looked around herself. “Honestly, Jason… it creeps me out a little. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of here….” Then she realized he hadn’t heard her. He was in the tunnel.
“Lisa, come over here! Look at this!”
“What is it?”
He walked in farther. “I’ll show you!”
She reluctantly followed. “What?”
He pointed. “Look at that.”
It was dark and not easy to see, something on the middle of the floor, it looked almost like… “What is that?”
Jason walked closer, illuminating it with the flare: a human skeleton, bent at impossible angles, like a marionette tossed aside. “This must be where it was feeding.”
Lisa suddenly felt like she was going to lose her lunch. “Jason, I want to go right now.”
“Wait.” He walked farther in. “Look at that.”
It was near the wall on the right side. Another skeleton, eight feet long with a large triangular head. Jason recognized the type of animal it belonged to right away. Not long ago, they’d seen a much smaller version. “I think that’s a bear.”
Standing alone and growing increasingly nervous, Lisa walked forward, joining him.
Jason raised the flare, scanning the rest of the dimly lit space. “Look, there are more, looks like a couple dozen.”
Lisa swallowed nervously. “Please, Jason. I really want to go now. Come on….” She started to walk away, but he grabbed her hand tightly.
“What the hell is that?”
It was near one of the bear skeletons. Something small. Something moving.
Jason moved his flare toward it. It went perfectly still, trying not to be seen.
But Jason saw it. He saw it very clearly. He suddenly couldn’t speak.
“What is it?” Lisa tried to see it, but he’d lowered his flare.
“Jason?” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Jesus, you’re shaking. What the hell is it?”
Numb, he raised the flare.
It was larger than a seagull, probably twenty pounds. A living animal. A newborn. Perhaps the first of its kind to have been born on land. A small stealth-shaped ray. Lying on the rock near the bear skeleton, it had been teething on the bone. It was perfectly frozen now, apparently frightened.
Lisa just stared at it, trying to understand. “So that thing… had a baby?”
Jason looked around nervously. “It couldn’t have.”
“Why?”
“I just checked. The one Darryl killed was a male.”
“Then that means—”
“There’s a female around here.”
“How could that be?”
Jason’s head shifted rapidly, looking everywhere. “A pregnant female must have followed the first one out of the water. And if there’s one, there should be a bunch. From everything we know, this order of animal spawns in large groups, so—” His head froze. “Jesus.” Five more of the tiny animals were lying near the far wall. He looked around nervously. “We better get out of here. We better get out of here right now.”
They turned and sprinted out.
CHAPTER 94
THEY HALTED at the rim of the main cavern, looking for any sign of movement. They scanned walls, tunnel mouths, the towering ceiling, everything.
Lisa thought it looked perfectly safe. “I don’t see anything.”
Jason nodded. “Me neither. Let’s get Darryl and get out of here.”
“OK.”
But neither of them moved. They just turned to Darryl, in the middle of the cavern a few hundred feet away.
“Darryl,” Jason said in a loud voice.
He didn’t move.
“Darryl!”
He didn’t flinch.
Lisa squinted, trying to see him in the dim light. “I think he might be asleep.”
Jason scanned the vast space again, but all he saw was lifeless dark rock. “Let’s get him and go….” He started toward the center of the cavern when Lisa grabbed his elbow.
“Jason, look.”
He turned as another creature, slightly larger than the one Darryl had killed, glided silently out of a tunnel, then landed on the rock floor.
He dropped his flare, staring at it.
Then a second creature emerged.
Then a third. And a fourth.
From another tunnel, one more emerged. From yet another, two more. Suddenly they were flying out of every tunnel, one enormous winged body after another, gliding silently and settling on the rock floor. Four dozen in total, the creatures had surrounded Darryl, still asleep and completely unaware.
But the Demonrays were ignoring Darryl Hollis, focused somewhere else. Lisa could feel them, she could actually feel their eyes watching her and Jason. Then one of them rumbled, a deep reverberating sound. The rumble continued for moment, then ceased. Then Lisa thought she saw Darryl stir, ever so slightly.
Darryl Hollis had been dreaming. For the first time in days, his subconscious had been in another place, a peaceful one. He’d been at home with Monique and their two kids, barbecuing on a nice summer day with Craig Summers. But then a sound had disturbed him. A strange sound. A dangerous sound. A sound he thought he’d never hear again his entire life. His eyes snapped open. Five of the creatures were staring right at him. They were twenty feet away.