Beckon (3 page)

Chapter 05

Jack plunged into a dark pool of frigid water. The cold tore through him like icy razors slicing his skin as he struggled to keep his thoughts from scattering into panic. He could feel gravel and rocks beneath his feet, but he was in water up to his waist and the cold was nearly overwhelming.

A light blinked on in the darkness, and Jack could make out Ben's large frame standing a few yards off clutching one of the flashlights.

Now Jack saw the pit was maybe fifteen or twenty feet across. Smooth rock walls loomed on all sides, and water cascaded from above in a steady stream. There was no place to climb up out of the cold. It looked to Jack like they had fallen into the bottom of a well.

“This is just great.” Rudy's frantic voice sounded from the shadows behind Jack. “What are we gonna do now?”

“Don't panic, for one thing,” came Ben's gruff reply. “Get your ropes off.”

Jack untied the rope from his waist and fumbled beneath the water for his own flashlight. He could feel his teeth chattering. “Wh-where are we?”

Ben was scanning the walls. “Looks like some kind of pit.”

Jack found his light and peered up at the ledge. He spotted the tunnel they had fallen from about twenty feet up. A grim realization was beginning to set into his mind. He looked at Rudy and could tell he'd come to the same conclusion.

“W-we can't climb back up that w-way,” he said.

“Check your packs,” Ben said. “Make sure we have everything.”

Jack swung his pack around and inspected its contents. His minicam was moist but not ruined; his canvas pack had obviously protected it during the initial fall into the water. He slipped the camera back into its nylon case and zipped it tight. It wasn't waterproof, but hopefully it would stay dry enough. Although from the look of their predicament, the fate of his video equipment hardly seemed important anymore.

He continued struggling to keep his mind off his father, but he couldn't help wondering if he had fallen down this shaft as well and died alone here in the dark. He shuddered at the thought of stumbling across his father's bones somewhere under the water.

“W-we're gonna freeze down here.” Rudy shivered.

“Shut up!” Ben's voice took on an irritated edge. “Quit talking like that. Just keep looking for a way out.”

Jack pointed his light back up at the ledge. “Do you think if we boosted Rudy, he could climb back up?”

Rudy shook his head, shivering. “It's too high.”

Ben shone his beam on the streamlets of water pouring down from the darkness overhead. “The shaft isn't filling with water, so it's got to be going somewhere.”

Jack nodded. “Another tunnel?”

“Probably underwater somewhere.” Ben began searching the perimeter of the shaft. “There's gotta be an outlet.”

Then Jack got an idea. He unzipped his pack, unwrapped one of his granola bars, and set the plastic wrapper on the water like a tiny canoe. It spun in the eddies and swirls but soon began drifting toward one of the walls. As if drawn by an invisible thread.

He looked up at Ben. “What do you think?”

Ben didn't reply. His stern, leathery countenance seemed fixated on the wrapper as it picked up speed. In moments it bounced into the smooth rock wall and bobbed against the side.

Ben looked at Jack. “Glowsticks.”

Jack dug further in his pack and produced a couple of the chemlights. He snapped them and shook them up until they gave off a pale green glow.

Ben grabbed them, sucked in a few deep breaths, and ducked under the surface. Jack was shivering at just the thought of being fully submerged again in the bone-chilling water.

A moment later Ben came back up, shaking. “L-looks like some kind of sh-shaft down there,” he said. “But I can't see how far it goes.”

Jack was heartened by the news. “How wide is it? Can we fit through?”

“I dunno. A couple feet.” Ben set about uncoiling another length of rope and tied it onto his belt.

Rudy was shivering worse now. “Wh-what are you d-doing?”

Ben slipped off his pack and handed it to him. “I'm gonna see how far it goes.”

“Through there?” Rudy's eyes widened. “Y-you're c-c-crazy.”

Ben handed the other end of the rope to Jack and took a handful of glowsticks. “Keep it tight. If I tug twice, pull me back through.”

He sucked in a few more deep breaths and disappeared under the surface again. Jack felt the rope slip through his hand as he fed it into the tunnel. He soon lost track of how much length had gone in. Maybe twenty feet. Maybe thirty. Finally the rope stopped pulling, and Jack stood with his flashlight tucked under his chin, holding the coil in his numb hands above the surface.

“What happened?” Rudy asked, his face drained of all color.

Jack shrugged and pulled back gently on the rope to keep the tension. Then he gave it one short tug. A moment later he felt a single tug in reply and breathed a relieved sigh. “I think he's okay.”

Nearly a full minute later, Ben emerged again, gasping for breath, his teeth chattering. “It c-comes out into an-nother chamber. The tunnel's about twenty-five feet long, and it gets a little narrow in the middle.”

“How narrow?” Rudy said.

“It was t-tight for me, but you g-guys should make it no problem.”

Rudy turned to Jack, shaking his head. “Jack . . . I'm telling you, I will freak out down there.”

“Well, we don't have any choice,” Jack said, trying to sound firm but supportive. The last thing he needed was Rudy getting hysterical.

“I'm gonna get stuck!”

“If Ben can make it, you can too.”

“But I can't—”

“Rudy.” Jack grabbed the collar of his sweatshirt and jerked him close, shining the light in his face. “It's real simple. You either stay here and die for sure from hypothermia or take your chances down there. Now man up and let's do this.”

Ben was already uncoiling several lengths of rope. “I'll go first. Then you send the packs through, and you two come last.” He turned to Rudy. “All you gotta do is follow the rope. Hand over hand. Got it?”

Rudy was shivering too badly for Jack to tell if he was nodding or not. He slapped him on the shoulder. “You'll do fine. You'll be through before you know it.”

“I'll tug three times for you to send the packs,” Ben said. “Then I'll give three more tugs when you're clear to come through.”

Jack and Rudy nodded.

They tied their packs to the rope, and Ben started sucking in deep breaths. Jack could see he was fighting off the effects of the cold, and Jack himself was starting to go numb. He could feel his mind shutting down as the blue beams of their flashlights began to flutter in his eyes.

Ben ducked under again, trailing the rope behind him. A minute later Jack felt three tugs and began feeding the rope through the tunnel. He could tell by the feel of the rope that one of the packs snagged a bit somewhere in the darkness, but after a sharp yank, it continued pulling through.

Rudy was rubbing his arms and hugging his slim frame. “I c-can't believe this is hap-p-pening. I knew I should've st-tayed home.”

“Keep it together, Rudy,” Jack said as he waited for Ben's signal. “You got to stay focused.”

Suddenly the rope tugged three more times.

Jack clutched Rudy's arm. “Okay, it's our turn,” he said. “You go first and I'll be right behind you.”

Rudy's lips trembled. “I c-can't. . . .”

Jack shook him. “Rudy—you can do this. You're not going to get stuck.”

Jack thrust the rope into his hands and pushed him toward the tunnel, shouting positive reinforcements like some kind of desperate life coach.

Rudy sucked in several deep breaths; then Jack pressed his head under the water and guided him to the opening. A moment later Jack followed, ducking under the surface as a thousand needles of ice pricked his flesh. He fumbled blindly for the rope, following it into utter darkness.

Jack kept his eyes squeezed tight as the sharp edges of the tunnel scraped past him, closing in tighter the farther he went. It was smaller than he had expected, and at one point he felt like he would get stuck in the middle of the passage and drown. Panic began to swell inside his chest.

He could still feel Rudy's feet ahead of him, thrashing wildly, and at least took some comfort in knowing he wasn't completely alone. As the chill of the water sliced through him, memories burst in his brain like flashbulbs going off. Memories of his father. A funeral without a body. The big, empty rooms of his house.

He fought back his terror and tried to concentrate on the rope.
Move forward. Hand over hand. Keep moving forward.

His lungs burned.

Hand over hand.

His arms throbbed from the cold.

Hand . . . over hand . . .

And then he was out.

Chapter 06

Jack surfaced, coughing and gasping for breath. He retrieved his flashlight from under his belt and flicked it back on, finding himself in a secondary pool within a much larger chamber. Ben was standing nearby, helping Rudy climb onto the rocky bank.

Jack waded to the side and scrambled onto the rocks. He lay there, clutching his flashlight and shuddering uncontrollably. “Wh-what do we d-do n-now?”

Ben had arranged their backpacks along the bank and was already going through them. “We need to take inventory of everything we have. I need to see what we've got to work with here.”

He was moving like some kind of robot, seemingly no longer affected by the cold. Probably due to his military training, Jack thought. Meanwhile Rudy was huddled on the shore, hugging his shoulders.

“I suggest you guys get changed,” Ben said. “We need to get out of our wet clothes.” He stripped off his shirt and slipped on the extra clothing he'd brought along.

Jack inched his way over and felt his own extra clothes. They were still mostly dry. He pulled off his wet clothing and slipped into his shorts and sweatshirt. It wasn't much to keep him warm down in this cave, but it was better than staying in his wet clothes.

“What are we going to do?” he asked again.

Ben didn't look up. “Find another way out.”

Rudy stirred at that comment. “What if there isn't one?”

Ben shone his flashlight in Rudy's face. “There's always another way out.”

Rudy had brought along a pair of sweatpants and a nylon jacket in his pack. Jack tossed them over to him. “Rudy, get changed. You're not going to do us any good if you get hypothermia.”

Rudy took his clothes and quietly began changing as Jack inspected the rest of the chamber. It was larger than he had first thought, more than a hundred feet across with a high, arched ceiling. Ben was already moving around the perimeter, shining the beam along the jagged black walls. The pool they had emerged from flowed out down a shallow trough along the floor of the chamber and disappeared again into a side tunnel. That tunnel seemed to be the only way out of the chamber.

Ben pointed his light down the passage. “Looks like we follow the stream.”

Ten minutes later, they had repacked their gear and were headed off down the side passage. Before long, Jack began to smell something. A sharp, pungent odor.

“Ugh, what is that?”

“Sulfur,” Ben said. “This whole part of the country is very geologically active. A lot of hot springs and geysers and stuff. We're pretty close to Yellowstone.”

They walked down the tunnel for several minutes and emerged again in a chamber even larger than the previous one. Jack could tell it was warmer here than in the tunnel. And he was thankful for that, but the smell of sulfur was stronger as well.

The chamber was uneven, with several side passages and large boulders scattered throughout. Twisting white stalagmites rose from the floor along with various other rock formations, which gave the cavern a crowded and cluttered appearance. And the most curious thing was that everything seemed to be covered with a pale, glossy substance. It was spongy, fibrous, and slick, and it shrouded the entire room.

They'd just begun moving through the chamber when Ben stopped and pointed his light at the floor, where a large puddle of water frothed and bubbled. “It's a hot spring,” he said. “Some kind of hydrothermal vent.”

Jack drew up beside him and cast his light across the steaming pool, gurgling beneath a layer of thick foam. He swept his light forward and found a second pool a few yards ahead. In fact, the more he scanned the cavern, the more he found.

He noticed Rudy crouching down, video camera in hand, filming the slimy substance covering the rocks. It looked like his fear had gone—at least temporarily—and now the biologist in him seemed to be taking over. “D'you guys see this?”

Jack turned his attention to the spongy material as well. It was a light color, appearing nearly white in the glow of their lights. “What is it?”

“It looks organic,” Rudy said. “Like some kind of bacterial slime.”

“It's everywhere,” Ben said, shining his light across the walls. He shook his head. “I've heard of bacteria growing inside caves. But not like this.”

“How does anything even survive this far underground?” Jack said.

“Bacteria are very adaptable,” Rudy said. “Some strains can grow in total darkness. Even in toxic waste. Whatever this stuff is, it's obviously adapted to the dark. And it looks like it's adapted pretty well.”

“That's cool,” Jack said.

Rudy nodded. “It's pretty incredible, actually. We used to think all organisms needed sunlight to exist until we started exploring the bottom of the ocean and found complex ecosystems thousands of feet deep thriving around thermal vents where no sunlight ever reaches. So instead of the sun, these organisms get energy from the heat and chemicals coming up from those vents.”

“Makes sense.” Ben seemed to catch on. “Probably why this stuff seems to be growing more around the hot springs.”

“Exactly.” Rudy nodded. “The heat and water—maybe sulfur dioxide or hydrogen sulfide. I mean, I'm just guessing here. But this . . . this is incredible.” He turned to Jack with a slight smile. “This could be a whole new microorganism.”

Jack grinned back at him. “Aren't you glad you came along now?”

Rudy continued filming, but after a minute he stopped. “Hey, guys, do me a favor and shut off your lights.”

“What?”

“Just shut off your lights for a second. I want to see something.”

They snapped their flashlights off, and darkness fell around them like a blanket. Jack could almost feel it draping over him. They stood in silence for a few moments until Rudy spoke up.

“Do you guys see what I'm seeing?”

As Jack's eyes adjusted, he saw that the entire chamber glowed with a pale light that seemed to come from all around them. It had been nearly imperceptible in the glow of their flashlights.

A sinewy network of glowing tendrils shrouded the cave floor and walls. Jack could even make out Rudy and Ben in the light.

“Whoa,” Ben whispered.

“Glow-in-the-dark slime?” Jack quipped.

“Bioluminescence,” Rudy said. “This stuff just keeps getting more impressive.”

The light was nearly hypnotic as Jack found himself staring at the substance. For a moment he felt oddly detached, like he was far off somewhere, watching himself from the outside.

Then he shook himself out of his trance. This discovery—as awesome as it was—didn't change the fact that they were still lost. More than that, he had yet to find evidence of the N'watu. Despite their circumstances, he needed to find some answers. He wasn't about to leave these caves empty-handed. “So which passage do we take?”

Ben stood, hands on hips, surveying their surroundings. After a minute he pointed up ahead. “That looks like a way out.”

The fibrous growth clung to the floor and crawled up the walls like a network of glowing veins and arteries. Ahead of them appeared to be a small opening, as if the luminous tendrils had grown around the mouth of another tunnel.

They found a tunnel about five feet wide, though less than four feet high. The slime continued far down the passage but became less dense the farther they got from the springs.

They found they could navigate the passage by the light of the microorganisms alone. It reminded Jack of a carnival fun house he'd been to once as a kid where the trail was marked by phosphorescent paint on the floors.

“This is a little psychedelic,” he said.

Ben stopped abruptly and held up a hand. Jack and Rudy froze in their tracks.

“What is it?” Rudy whispered.

“Something's moving up ahead.”

Jack drew up beside Ben, who was pointing down the passage. He saw an elongated black shape detach itself from the wall and glide across the ground maybe twenty feet away. It almost seemed like a hallucination—just a long shadow that flitted across the glowing veins on the cave floor.

In the dim light, Jack saw Ben slowly remove his flashlight and point at the switch. “Watch your eyes,” Ben whispered.

Jack winced as the light flicked on, and he felt Ben move away quickly. In the commotion, Jack found himself momentarily stunned, surprised by how bright it seemed. He shielded his eyes and spotted Ben ahead of him, shining the flashlight around the passage. Then Jack felt Rudy brush past him and heard their voices elevated in excitement.

“Did you see it? Did you see that thing?” Ben was saying.

“I—I didn't get a good look.”

“It was huge!”

“What was it?” Jack stumbled up to where they were standing.

Ben climbed onto a jagged rock formation along the side of the tunnel and shone his light into the cracks behind it. “I don't know. It was . . . like a centipede or something. But I mean, the thing was
huge
!”

“A centipede?”

Rudy shook his head. “I don't see anything.”

“It crawled back behind this rock,” Ben said.

Jack crouched beside the rock to inspect the opening. It was far too narrow to crawl through—not that he would've gone into it even if it
were
big enough.

“Shut your lamps off,” he said. “Whatever it is, it's obviously trying to avoid the light. Let's wait a minute and see if it comes back.”

Ben switched off the light again, and in several seconds Jack's eyes readjusted to the lower luminosity inside the tunnel. They moved away from the wall and waited.

Jack bit his cheek absently. He'd only seen a shadowy shape with no real detail. But it was far too big to be a centipede.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. Ben motioned for him to keep quiet, then pointed at something moving farther down the tunnel. Jack spotted a second shadow as it crept out from the side and paused in the middle of the passage.

Jack inched closer. It was definitely some type of elongated creature—as Ben had described. And it was enormous—he estimated its length at roughly five feet. He also heard a gentle scraping sound, like a mouse scurrying across linoleum.

Ben pulled a bandanna out of his pocket and wrapped it over the lens of his flashlight. Pointing it away from the creature, he flipped it on. Jack could see the light was dimmed considerably but still bright enough to illuminate the area around them. Then Ben turned the light toward the animal in front of them.

Jack suppressed a gasp. “Whoa.”

The creature had a solid black body five or six inches thick that looked more like a section of segmented industrial tubing than a living animal. It didn't flee but instead turned toward the light, lifting the front portion of its body. Its legs—dozens of red, fingerlike claws—wriggled in the air, and a pair of long antennae snaked forward from its bulbous head. It had no eyes that Jack could see, and only a small, horizontal opening for a mouth that munched on a glowing wad of the yellow slime.

Its antennae groped about in the air as if trying to determine where the light was coming from. Then after a moment it settled down and resumed feeding.

Jack whispered, “What is it?”

Rudy had his video camera rolling again. “It looks like some kind of . . . millipede. A very
large
millipede.”

“Yeah, but how'd it get this big?” Jack said.

Rudy shook his head as if at a loss for words. “I have no idea.”

“It looks like it's eating the slime. Do you think it has some kind of supernutrients or something?”

“Possibly.” Rudy seemed mesmerized by the creature. “There . . . there are some pretty big insect specimens in the fossil record—centipedes and dragonflies. But there's no record of anything this big living today. This thing shouldn't be alive at all.”

“Why not?”

“Well, there's not enough oxygen, for one thing,” Rudy said. “The oxygen levels in the atmosphere were a lot higher in the past. But they're too low today to support the respiration of an insect this size—especially at this elevation. And on top of all that, we're underground, where the oxygen content is even lower.”

“Right.” Jack gestured toward the millipede. “But there it is.”

Rudy rubbed his eyes. “Y'know, we might only be seeing the tip of the iceberg. There could be a whole separate ecosystem thriving down here, completely cut off from the rest of the world for ages.”

Jack noticed the millipede raise its head and turn toward them, wiggling its antennae. Then it beat a hasty, zigzag retreat down the tunnel and disappeared behind another rock.

“Where's he going?” Jack said.

Ben snorted. “Maybe he got tired of listening to you guys yak.”

But Jack wasn't quite so amused. He flicked on his light and swept it around the passage but saw no trace of the millipede. They stood in silence for a moment. Jack could hear the faint echo of water dripping somewhere off in the darkness. Then something caught Jack's attention. Another sound. Faint, almost imperceptible at first. But within a few seconds he could hear it clearly.

A sharp tapping sound echoed in the tunnel, like someone knocking two rocks together. Jack couldn't tell which direction it was coming from.

Only that it was getting closer.