The Caverns of Mare Cetus (25 page)

   "Please," begged Renata, desperately trying to remain in control of the group and her own composure. She reached over Hunter's lap and found Arielle's hand, which was grasped to Hunter's knee like a vise. She began rubbing the top of it. "Please. We'll figure something out. Don't go to pieces on me."

   Richelle's whimpering continued to fill the unfathomable darkness surrounding them.

   Renata felt Hunter's hands moving up her arm to her shoulder. "I have to get to Richelle," he said. "She's cracking up. What do you say?"

   "Go. Go. But be careful."

   As Hunter moved away, Renata pulled the sobbing Arielle close to her chest. She began whispering to her, trying to calm her.

   "Richelle!" cried Hunter. "This is Hunter. Talk to me, honey. I'm going to crawl toward your voice."

   "Over here!" she shouted. "I'm here!"

   As Hunter and Richelle called out to each other several times, Renata's thoughts seemed to rapidly blur, as if her rationality was being sucked into the morbid darkness, obliterating her hope, her ability to survive. She wouldn't admit it, but she knew Arielle was right. Without light they were doomed to a brief, nightmarish existence that would torment their minds as it shredded their logic and reasoning to pieces. Eventually they'd succumb, one by one, to insanity, thirst, or each other. She had painstakingly prepared and trained for a situation like this, but until now she never understood the meaning of absolute blindness, absolute helplessness. She had to do something, or her command was going to end in tragedy.

   "Does anyone have a match?" she cried. "How about a phosphorescent source? Or maybe a watch with a light! Someone has to have one of those!"

   "I've got a couple packs somewhere," answered Edison. "Let me find the damn things."

   Suddenly Arielle began whimpering.

   "Please," whispered Renata. "Don't freak out on me. I need you. I want you to start playing with this Vimap. See if you can get some light out of it. Press every button." She placed the Vimap in Arielle's hand.

   "Okay," sobbed Arielle. "I'll try."

   "Good girl," said Renata softly, then her voice rose. "How about those matches, Edison? Have you found them yet?"

   "You bet I have," answered Edison, laughing. "And Ramon's with me now. Or at least I think it's Ramon."

   "It's me, baby!" shouted Ramon. "I'm with Edison. Richelle, honey. Calm down. We're coming to get you."

   "What's going on?" cried Edison. "What's wrong with these things."

   Renata turned toward Edison's voice. She couldn't even see a spark.

   "How can this be? cried Edison as it sounded like he slammed something into the ground. "How can matches not work?"

   "Richelle!" shouted Hunter somewhere in front of Renata. "I think I'm getting close to you. Give me a target. Say something again."

   "Over here," she replied. "I'm over here!"

   "I'm on my way too!" shouted Ramon. "Keep talking, Richelle."

   As Richelle seemed to calm some, Renata began running a checklist of light sources through her mind. What else did they have? Flashlights. Matches. Camp stove. "The camp stove, Edison! Have you…"

   "Already tried it!" exclaimed Edison. "Nothin'! Tried the torches too. Won't even engage. And my laser spotter—it won't turn on either."

"I've already tried my KSM!" called Hunter. "It's dead too."

"What about a lighter?" asked Arielle.

"A lighter!" shouted Renata. "You got one?"

"No," answered Edison. "Anyone got one?"

Hunter and Ramon returned with a resounding no.

"Richelle? Devon?" cried Renata. "A lighter?"

   "Hey!" exclaimed Richelle. She gasped loudly. "You just scared the c-c-crap out of me. God, I'm glad you're here." She paused. "Hunter. Hunter? Is that your hand? Hey. Hunter. Stop that. What are you d-d-doing? Your hand just went up my shirt. What's with you? It's me, Richelle. Can you get your hand out of there, please? Hunter?"

   "What's going on?" cried Ramon. "Hunter! What are you doing to Richelle?"

   "What are you talking about?" shouted Hunter. "It's not me! I haven't reached her yet."

   "Edison! Devon!" shouted Renata. "Are either of you by Richelle?"

   "Hell no!" replied Edison.

   "I'm not anywhere near Richelle!" cried Devon.

   "Who's touching me then?" cried Richelle. "You guys are scaring me. Come on. Who's next to me? This isn't funny. Hey! Stop that! Get your hands off me…" Her voice trailed off.

   Renata's heart pounding in her chest, she began taking deep, short breaths as the blackness of the cave filled up with an uneasy silence, not a word being spoken by anyone. Seconds passed. Then more seconds…

   At once Richelle screamed, her shrill cry roaring through the passage like she had unleashed a tornado. "Oh, my God! There's something down here with us!" She shrieked, then shrieked again, her cries reverberating through the darkness. "Stop! Leave me alone! Get away from me! Stoppppp! Stopppppp!"

   "What's going on?" shouted Ramon. "Who's messing with Richelle?"

   "Richelle!" shouted Edison. "I'm on my way!"

   "What in God's name are you doing?" cried Richelle, her voice echoing through the passage. "Get away from me!" She suddenly shrieked at the top of her lungs. "Oh, my God! Something's trying to get me! Help! Help!" She shrieked again. "Stop! Leave me alone! Let go of me! Help!"

   "Jesus!" cried Edison. "What's going on? Someone get to her already!"

   "I'm trying!" cried Hunter. "I'm trying to get to her. Where the hell is she?"

   "Someone help that girl already," said Arielle, tremors in her voice.

   "Aaaahhhh!" screamed Richelle. "That hurts! Someone help me already! God Almighty, get it off me…" Richelle's words becoming garbled amid the shouts of Hunter, Ramon, and Edison, she shrieked louder than before. "Leave me alone! Don't touch me! Let go of my leg! That hurts! That hurts…"

   "Someone! Help her already!" screamed Renata. As she put her hand in her left pocket, she immediately felt cold metal.
The electra!
She took it out, then nudged Arielle's arm. "Arielle, move behind me! Put your hands on my back. I'm going to try firing my electra."

   "Get away!" screamed Richelle. "Ooooooh! That hurts! My leg! It's got my leg! Help! Help me! It's got a hold of me! Oh, my God! It's just stabbed me! Help me! Oh, God, it's stabbed me again! It's trying to kill me! Someone fucking help me…"

   "Prepare yourselves!" screamed Renata, trying to get her voice above Richelle's frenzied cries. "I'm at the lead end! I'm going to fire an electra down the passage! On the count of three—close your eyes!" She raised the gun and pointed it away from Richelle's cries. She closed her eyes, then shouted at the top of her lungs. "One! Two! Three!"

   She depressed the trigger and the gun let loose with a violent crack, jarring her forearm. Static electricity swarmed over her, violated her, pricking her like a million pins—in her mouth, her ears, her nose, every place imaginable. She opened her eyes. Radiant blue light had filled the passage, turning night into day. Squinting painfully, like she was witnessing the birth of a star, Renata immediately realized what had happened. She had been pointing the gun at a wall and not down the open passage. The discharge had spread along the wall like moss covering a stone, a residual static cloud backing up into her and Arielle.

   Shielding her eyes with her hand, Renata turned toward Richelle. Richelle was standing near a wall, her legs spread, her arms up against her chest.
There wasn't anything by her!
Hunter was crawling toward her but was still a few meters away. Edison and Ramon were farther down the passage. Devon was standing between them and Richelle, her back pressed against a wall.

   Like a kangaroo, Hunter jumped to his feet, took several long strides and grabbed Richelle, pulling her to the ground.

   "Let's go," said Renata. She grabbed Arielle's hand and dragged her to her feet. They ran toward Hunter and Richelle, reaching them just seconds after Edison and Ramon. Hunter was behind Richelle, his arms held tightly around her. Renata knelt beside Richelle and touched her face. It was clammy and cold, and her whole body was trembling like she was having a seizure.

   Devon touched Renata's arm. "Thank God you're okay."

   Richelle looked Renata in the eyes. "It tried to kill me," she sobbed. "It stabbed me. Again and again…"

   "Honey," said Renata. She caressed Richelle's sweaty, trembling face with her hand. "Everything's okay. We're here now."

   "No, it's not!" cried Richelle, her nostrils flaring, veins bulging on her forehead. Her hands shaking, she opened her jacket and pulled up her shirt. "L-l-look what it did to me."

   When the others saw about a dozen dark red blotches on her stomach, they gasped in disbelief. The largest blotch was to the right of her navel and looked vaguely like a half-moon, open-end facing her chest. Another prominent blotch was below her navel and looked like a winding stream that split into four long, finger-like welts on her lower abdomen. A third blotch started above her navel and ran up toward her breastbone in the general shape of a widening corkscrew pattern.

   As Renata gazed at the marks on Richelle's body, she thought it looked like someone had painted Richelle with a series of abstract Native American petroglyphs, each blotch looking like both something—and nothing.

   "What in God's name?" exclaimed Edison.

   Abruptly the light began diminishing. Renata turned toward the open passage and aimed the electra. "Cover your eyes. I'm going to fire again."

   When the others indicated they were ready, she closed her eyes, then pressed the trigger. The gun
cracked
and she opened her eyes, the passage again filled with a radiant blue glow. She turned toward Richelle, the others already anxiously examining the marks on her stomach.

   "Are you in pain?" asked Arielle.

   "Of course I'm in pain," answered Richelle. "It hurts like hell."

   "Here," said Edison. He put a tablet to her lips. "Take this."

   She opened her mouth, and he placed it on her tongue. She looked at Renata, her eyebrows narrowing. "I warned you, b-b-but you wouldn't listen."

   Hunter looked at Renata in confusion. "Warned you about what?"

   "She told me there was something following us down here," answered Renata defensively. "I blew it off as her imagination running wild."

   "Well, that is one hell of an imagination," said Edison as he examined the marks. "You know, it almost looks like she was grabbed by something. And this mottling…" He pointed to the mark above her navel. "…it looks like some kind of knobby thing was pressed against her. I've never seen anything like it before. And these look like scratch marks of some kind." He pointed at the four long welts below her navel. "Let me know if this hurts." He gingerly pressed a cloth against them, then pulled it off and showed it to the others. There was blood on it. "Something did attack her."

   "Let's not jump to conclusions," said Renata as she looked at the marks and examined the blood on the cloth.

   "And m-m-my legs," said Richelle. "It grabbed my legs. It stabbed me in the knee." She unfastened her pants and began hastily pulling them down.

   As Richelle got her pants to her ankles, Renata stared in disbelief; Richelle's left knee was covered in blood.

   Everyone gasped.

   There was also a thin red welt winding down Richelle's right leg from the front of her thigh. The welt split into two crisscrossing loops over her knee, then reformed into one wavy line that continued down the inside of her calf. A large diamond-shaped blotch covered a good part her right thigh, and there were traces of blood scattered across it. Renata thought the welts and blotch vaguely resembled a cobra.

   "Damn!" exclaimed Edison as he began anxiously looking around the passage. "It had to have come out of one the side passages." He took his electra from his pocket.

   "Did it attack you anywhere else?" asked Arielle as she placed a cloth on Richelle's knee.

   "No," said Richelle. "At first it k-k-kept touching me under my shirt. When I fought it off, it started hurting me. Then it w-w-went for my legs. I t-t-tried to get it away from me, but it started stabbing me. It was so horrible." She began sobbing, and Ramon took her in his arms.

   Arielle pulled the cloth off Richelle's knee, then looked at the wound. "Rene. Look at this. Something's cut her knee like a razor. And look at the blue color the skin has around the cuts."

   Renata took a close look at the five thin vertical cuts across Richelle's knee, then examined the knee area of Richelle's pants. Her eyes opened wide. There weren't any slits in the pants. She showed Hunter what she had found, and he just shook his head in bewilderment.

   Edison sprayed some blood-clotting agent on Richelle's knee, and he and Arielle quickly bandaged it.

   After a few moments, Renata noticed the light from the electra's discharge was beginning to fade. She set the electra on her knee and pointed it down the passage. "All right, everyone. Close…"

   "Hold on," said Hunter, placing his hand on her wrist. "Don't use any more charges. We only have four electras and eight spare clips. We're going to need all of them to have any chance of getting out of here."

   "Yeah," said Edison. "We need those things. We can fry it. It might not attack if we stay together. We have numbers here. We can kill it."

   "Yes, yes," sobbed Richelle. "Kill it, Edison. D-d-d-don't let it hurt me again." She shuddered.

   "Keep your cool, Edison," said Hunter. "Let's not get any more rattled than we already are."

   "But we have to come up with a plan, or it's going to strike again." Edison continued to anxiously cast his gaze in all directions.

   "Edison," said Renata. "Listen to Hunter." She looked at Hunter. "You know we're too deep in the caverns to get out of here on those charges."

"I'm not sure what I know anymore," he said.

   "But what are we going to do?" she asked in dismay as blackness rapidly closed around them, the last vestiges of light slipping away. "We'll need light so Edison can repair the symotes. Something has to be wrong with them."