The human cries, however, were unmistakable.
They were sounds of fear and anger and reminded her of a cheap horror movie. Megan’s mind raced through ideas of what to do in response to what she was hearing. Her first instinct was one that a child might have: to hide, to climb under the covers and hope and pray the scenario away. Maturity pushed this idea behind her and replaced it with the idea to attempt to help.
Or to flee.
She quickly put on a pair of jeans and unlaced boots and crawled out of the tent. She turned on her phone and shielded the light of the screen with cupped hands to see that she had no signal. She shoved the phone into her pocket and listened to her surroundings. The cacophony of sounds changed in tune.
Gone were the harrowing screams of pain and death, replaced instead with the sounds of lapping and tearing. She edged down the trail toward the fire pit, keeping to the side of the trail, trying to let the brush partially shield her body from sight. She came to a stop behind a small clump of huisache trees and peered through their tangle of branches to the source of the noise some 10 yards beyond the vegetation. She saw fallen bodies being torn apart, reduced to meat and pools of blood and being fed upon by animals unlike any she’d seen before. She covered her mouth with clasped hands to stifle her scream and the feeling that she would be sick.
The closest animal to her stood from the carrion it fed upon and barked in her direction. She didn’t know if the action was directed at her or if the creature saw her but she ran in response to it. She ran with full abandon down the trail, past her tent, and into the brush. Thorns from limbs and vines scratched at her skin and snagged and pulled at her shirt and jeans. She ran through cobwebs and over rocks and skirted cactus. She ran as fast as she could, never looking back, always looking forward. She ran until she felt her lungs would burst then ran some more until it was physically impossible for her to do so. She fell to her knees in exhaustion at the edge of a dead cedar and fought to catch her breath. She crawled behind the tree and looked to the area she’d just fled. She saw nothing but a landscape of harsh realities painted in faint moonlight.
The sight made her weep.
51.
Taylor and the rest of his team had gone through a long list of ideas on how to deal with Dejah’s lack of shoes but in the end decided she’d just have to walk barefoot. If the group encountered too rough of a terrain, the team would take turns carrying her until she could walk again. The team had also discussed the best way to deal with her lack of night or thermal vision.
“We can tie a rope around her,” Drake suggested.
“Like a leash?!” Nickerson scarfed. “Jesus, girl. You really don’t like kids, do you?”
“So, we should all just hold hands then?” Drake countered.
“We’ll use flashlights,” Taylor decreed. “We’ll rotate through usage to conserve batteries.”
“Do you think we’re going to be down here that much longer?” Pearce asked.
“No,” Taylor responded. “I doubt those monkeys…”
“Agartha baboons,” Drake corrected. “I named ‘em, I get to enforce proper name usage.”
“I doubt these monkeys…” Taylor continued.
“Really?” Drake jokingly barked.
Taylor smirked and continued.
“I don’t think Drake’s new species would travel too far underground to get to a hunting area. There’s bound to be multiple entrances to down here. We’ll find one soon.”
“Then let’s get to it,” Hunter exclaimed. “Let’s get back to the top. That beer don’t drink itself.”
“And find my mom,” Dejah both interrupted and reminded.
Taylor looked to the child and the innocence and hope she wore upon her face.
“Gonna do our best,” Taylor promised.
Dejah smiled and stood, watching as the team gathered their gear, tightened their straps, and made themselves at the ready. Taylor led them along the tiny stream in the cavern until it disappeared into a crack in the wall. He skirted the wall and soon found a tunnel he believed was the one animals had been using then sighed at the size of the passage.
“Another tight one,” Nickerson complained.
Taylor nodded.
“You sure this is the one?” Nickerson continued.
Taylor studied the ground inside and out of the tunnel and said, “Afraid so.”
Taylor eased into the five-foot-tall by three-foot-wide passage and shined his light forward and into the void.
“Looks like it opens up again in ‘bout 20 yards or so,” Taylor announced from just inside the tunnel. “We’re just gonna have to hunchback it again.”
Dejah walked into the tunnel and next to Taylor.
“I only have to tilt my head down a little bit,” she observed.
“Blessed are the short.” Pearce laughed.
A few in the group chuckled then returned to silence as Taylor led them into the cramped passage. The going was difficult, and it took them almost a half hour to cover a distance of almost 20 yards. There, the passage opened up slightly to reveal a split in the tunnel, as well as a shaft that went straight up.
Taylor, Hunter, Drake, and Dejah cramped together under the shaft and studied the sides of the chimney with their flashlights.
“They’ve been going up that way,” Taylor decreed before turning his attention back to ground level. “And down both these tunnels.”
Hunter wiped the sweat from his brow then spit and said, “Which tunnel down here ‘cause we ain’t climbing up that thing. We don’t have the gear and even if we did, Drake and the kid here would be the only ones that could fit.”
Taylor returned his gaze to the split before him. He peered into each of the passages in study then declared that the smaller of the two was the correct avenue.
Hunter nodded in his friend’s direction and announced, “You heard the man. Let’s go.”
Given the confines of the tunnel, all but Dejah had to walk sideways and lean over or to the side to maneuver through the passageway. The progress they made was extremely slow and all were annoyed at where they found themselves.
“God damn do it smell in here!” Nickerson complained. “Like straight up ammonia.”
“Animal piss,” Drake corrected.
“What?” Nickerson countered.
“The ammonia smell,” Drake explained. “It’s animal piss.”
“From your monkeys?” Nickerson continued.
“Most likely,” Drake offered. “And that smell is most likely why Taylor here chose this tunnel. Am I right?”
Taylor ignored the question directed at him and instead announced in a heavy whisper, “Big cave up ahead. Maybe five yards.”
Taylor led the group through the arduous task of moving forward until the tunnel gave way to a vast opening. He stepped out from the tunnel and cast his flashlight beam outward and to the interior. What he saw shattered his stoic demeanor and sent a shiver up his spine.
“My God,” he whispered.
52.
Megan hadn’t moved in hours. She had sat behind the shelter of the cedar tree in isolated fear. The first sign of dawn gave her some but even there, in the growing light, she was still frightened of what she’d seen and of what she feared might come.
As the light grew, she came to realize that she wasn’t actually that far from camp. She couldn’t see the camp, any of the tents or vehicles, but could see in the distance the scrub oak tree that she and Tom had camped under. This realization turned her thoughts to Tom.
Was he still alive?
Still there in the area of the fire pit?
Was he hurt and unable to move?
Or was he dead like those she had seen?
She didn’t want to think about the latter.