Julio nodded in understanding.
“What’s your calling, Julio?” Agüera asked.
“I don’t know,” Julio replied. “We no to get call in Mexico. A man just to do what he to do for he family.”
Agüera nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, well, now I got a calling of a different kind,” Ruck announced. “Nature’s on the horn and she’s telling me I gotta take a piss.”
“Thanks for the info, babe,” Agüera said, chuckling.
“I got your babe right here,” Ruck replied with her middle finger.
Agüera smiled and Ruck walked through the passage into the cave. She walked along the wall until she was just outside of the shine from the tunnel’s lights. She leaned her rifle against the wall and reached to undo her belt.
The unseen and unheard slammed into her face with such force that it knocked her backward and onto her back. She grabbed the beast in her hands and pressed forward with all her might then heard a sickening crunch as the animal bit through her nose. Pain flashed through her and out her lungs in a primordial scream. The animal ripped into her face was such ferocity that Ruck felt her cheekbones give then shatter. She yanked a handful of fur loose from the beast atop her with her right hand and pulled her pistol from its holster. She jammed the barrel into the animal’s side and fired. The blast kicked the animal from her face, and it howled in pain. Ruck scrambled to her feet then put a second round through the animal’s head with a scream of anger.
Ruck fell against the wall, grabbed her rifle, then pushed herself back into a standing position. She wiped the blood from her eyes and trained on Agüera who was exiting the tunnel.
34.
Agüera heard the scream.
Then the gunshot.
He slammed Julio against the tunnel wall and down. “Stay here!” he barked.
Agüera ran to the entrance of the cavern, his rifle before him and at the ready. He rushed into the cave to see Ruck stumbling toward him, her face caved in and washed in blood. He started to call her name then saw the horde storm from the darkness.
He saw eight sets of teeth and claws.
Reflective black eyes.
Heard their howling screams of rage.
Agüera raised his rifle and fired.
The beasts were too fast. They slammed Ruck forward into Agüera. Agüera tried to keep his footing but was knocked backward and into the tunnel. He jerked his finger at the impact, unleashing a barrage of gunfire.
Ruck launched herself off of Agüera and rolled over and onto her back. She sloughed the blood from her eyes and fired her pistol into the swarm of baboons overtaking the tunnel. The lead cave dweller leapt outward and came down on her chest. Ruck’s arms were hit and her shots went wild. Her second bullet pierced one of the two 100-gallon propane tanks leaning against the wall.
Agüera wrestled himself on top of a baboon and thrust his SOCP dagger into the creature’s abdomen. The beast thrust its arms out to fight the pain and inadvertently grabbed the pin of the percussion grenade on Agüera’s chest. A smaller monkey leapt onto Agüera’s back and slashed and raked the mercenary’s head. The beast pulled Agüera’s ear from his head, and Agüera shot backward in agony. The sudden jerk of his body and hands completely separated pin from grenade.
35.
Julio watched in terror as the maelstrom of Ruck and Agüera and a pack of beasts exploded into the tunnel. The chaos of gunfire and bullets ricocheting off tunnel walls, screams of pain and the savage will to fight, and the howls of beasts was deafening. Julio heard one of the shots pierce metal then saw and heard the constant expulsion of gas from one of the propane tanks. He watched in shocked disgust as one of the predators ripped Agüera’s ear from his head then plunged its claws into the gaping wound it had just created.
Julio started to run then caught the horror in Agüera’s eyes at some frightening revelation. Agüera scrambled over his chest, flailing his hands in search of something. A sudden blinding light exploded from beneath Agüera and flashed through the tunnel. Julio went blind. He reached his hands out in front of him then heard the explosion that a nanosecond later sent him hurtling backward and through the air.
36.
“The hell was that?!” Nickerson wildly exclaimed.
“I don’t know,” Jordan replied. “But I felt it.”
The sudden clap of thunder had been followed by a rumble that shook the floor of the cavern and sent ripples across the shallow subterranean lake that Taylor and his team stood before.
“Sounded like…” Hunter began.
“It was an explosion,” Taylor insisted. “Sound. Percussion travel differently underground.”
Hunter nodded in the darkness.
“It came from the tunnel,” Taylor continued.
Hunter got on his radio. “Ruck. Agüera. Come in.”
Nothing.
“Ruck. Agüera. Come in.”
“I believe this falls to your command,” Taylor insisted.
“Team,” Hunter commanded in a stern voice. “Back to the tunnel entrance. Taylor’s still on point and in command.”
“You sure?” Taylor whispered aside to his friend.
“We don’t know who or what caused that explosion,” Hunter exclaimed. “This down here is your world. Not mine.”
Taylor agreed and gave instructions. “Same as before. On me. Staggered positions. Keep your spacing. Double time it.”
Taylor turned and led the team back into the narrow tunnel and toward the source of the explosion at a hectic clip.
The team made it back to the cavern in 20 minutes and fanned out after exiting the tunnel with arms ready. They crossed the cavern in haste and took note of the mayhem that had occurred.
Taylor trained in on the fading heat signature of the recently killed baboon. The blood spray from the bullet wound and the pool it created were also glowing with heat.
“Tunnel’s closed,” Pearce announced. “Something blew the shit out of the entrance. Must be several feet of rock blocking the way in.”
“Ruck. Agüera. Come in,” Hunter directed into his radio. “Ruck. Agüera. Come in.”
“Either they can’t reply, or they won’t reply,” Drake theorized aloud.
“I’m guessing it’s can’t after this thing came calling,” Pearce exclaimed as he kicked the fallen beast in the head.
“We don’t know that,” Drake rebutted.
“We know Ruck was attacked,” Taylor assessed. “And that she didn’t fare well.”
The team gathered around Taylor and stared at Ruck’s torn nose on the cavern floor.
“Guess monkeys don’t like nose rings,” Nickerson joked.
Drake rushed forward toward Nickerson in writhing anger. Hunter interceded and held her at bay.
“He’s free to be an asshole,” Hunter barked. “You’re not free to clock him for it. Not until we get out of here.”
“And just how are we gonna do that?” Pearce inquired from the darkness.
“Again, man, there must be several feet of rock and earth blocking that entrance,” Jordan reiterated.
“Juan. Arturo. Come in,” Hunter commanded into his radio. “José, come in. José.”
“Too much rock between us and them,” Taylor explained. “Too much distance.”
“So we’re not getting through that way,” Hunter accepted. “Got any ideas?”
“Drake’s monkeys are our best plan,” Taylor stated. “Those bones we saw at the lake prove they’ve been hunting above ground. We find their way out and we’ll find our way out.”
“That’s our best option?” Hunter clarified.
“Yes,” Taylor stated. “We can’t dig through that rock. We don’t have the tools. And even if we could, there’s no guarantee our doing so wouldn’t make the cave-in worse.”