Burial Ground (46 page)

The tunnel framed silhouettes much farther
ahead than she had expected. The floor sloped downward and became
uneven. She couldn't bring herself to look to either side as they
descended. The skulls of the ancient dead leered at her from the
walls, but worse still would be meeting the reptilian stare of
another one of those creatures.

How long had the one Merritt killed been
hiding in that recess? Had it watched the others pass while waiting
for the stragglers, or had it somehow slipped past them in the
shadows?

The corridor ended and they stepped out into
the cavern where the others had already gathered. Blazing light
flumed from another incendiary grenade where it rested against the
far wall. Colton and Leo wore hard hats with the spotlights turned
on, while Galen paced nervously in the middle of the room.

Colton took up post at the mouth of the
tunnel at the back of the cavern. The light barely penetrated the
dark channel.

A distant
skree
.

The acoustics of the cavern made it
impossible to pinpoint the direction from which it originated.

"I can't hold them off forever!" Sorenson
yelled. He backed into the room, firing in indiscriminate
bursts.

Sam looked past him into the tunnel. What
little light reached into the orifice swirled with cordite smoke.
The darkness beyond churned as though a living entity.

They were out there, at the limit of the
fading flare's reach.

Waiting.

Nails clacked on bare stone.

The shuffling sound of bodies jostling each
other in the close confines.

Muffled grunts.

The incendiary grenade fizzled and hissed.
The corona of light beat a hasty retreat.

Sorenson shot again into the tunnel and
something shrieked.

Merritt removed his hand from hers to steady
his rifle, and pointed it past Sorenson toward where flashes of
iridescent green tested the limit of the glare.

The glow dimmed, and, with a sizzle, the
light extinguished.

A predatory
skree
raised the hackles
on her arms.

The shadows advanced with the clamor of
talons.

Andes Mountains, Peru

October 30
^th

10:36 p.m. PET

Merritt unsnapped the canister from where he
had clipped it to his belt, pulled the pin, and tossed it to his
left. Gunfire echoed from directly to his right, where Sorenson
shot blindly into the tunnel. Shrieks and high-pitched cries
erupted from the darkness.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Sorenson
shouted.

Chemical fire spouted from the incendiary
grenade. The sudden influx of light stained Merritt's vision red.
He raised his rifle and fired into the dark mouth of the channel.
When his sight finally cleared, he unconsciously retreated a step.
He was completely unprepared for what he saw.

Blood poured down the stone floor from the
tunnel. Feathers filled the air. Hisses and squeals rose over the
tumult of gunfire as bodies fought for position amid the carcasses
of their brethren. One creature hopped up on the flank of a
twitching mass of scales and feathers, lowered its head toward the
ground, and released a savage
skree
from a mouth opened wide
enough to swallow a bowling ball. Sharp teeth glinted, and quills
stood straight up from its long neck.

They were going to be massacred inside this
mountain.

"Fall back!" Colton shouted from behind him.
Sam tugged at his jacket.

He stumbled away from the tunnel, firing
every step of the way.

The creature hopped down from the corpse and
crouched even closer to the ground. A bullet ricocheted in front of
it, and in a blur of motion, feathered shapes exploded from the
opening.

Sorenson bellowed and shot into their ranks,
but they were already upon him. The man's battle cry turned to
screams of pain. A hand grabbed Merritt by the collar and jerked
him in reverse. He whirled to see Sam already running toward the
smaller tunnel at the rear of the chamber, where Colton stood
beside the entrance, firing back into the room while the others
ducked past him into the darkness.

Merritt sprinted after them and raced into
the thin crevice. The lamp affixed to Leo's helmet bounced and
jittered ahead, highlighting random sections of the bare rock wall.
Merritt glanced back and saw Colton spray a stream of bullets into
the chamber, then duck into the corridor behind him.

Sorenson's screams were drowned out by avian
cries.

"Go!" Colton shouted, shoving him deeper
into the mountain. Colton's headlamp cast strange, elongated
shadows from behind Merritt that made the shrinking tunnel appear
to bend, twist, and turn.

Leo's weak beam grew larger and larger on
the stone wall ahead of them. Merritt's heart nearly stopped at the
realization that they were racing into a dead end, but then the
light lowered to the floor and faded to a candle's glow.

At the end of the passage, Sam crawled
through a tiny hole rimed by Leo's light. The passage couldn't have
been larger than a sewer pipe. Her feet disappeared as she wriggled
out of sight.

He stopped and stared at the diminutive
orifice. Colton's lamp made his massive shadow dance on the
wall.

"Get in there, for Christ's sake!" Colton
yelled. He spun and shot into the tunnel behind him.

There were more hawk-like shrieks and the
rapid clatter of talons on granite.

Merritt slid the rifle into the hole and
dove in after it. He pushed it in front of him and squirmed as fast
as he could through the claustrophobic tube toward the pale yellow
aura ahead.

Behind him, the report of gunfire ceased,
and was replaced by the scraping sound of Colton scrabbling into
the tunnel.

There was no longer anyone guarding their
rear.

10:39 p.m.

Leo fell out of the tunnel onto a crusted
heap of feces and struggled to his feet. He turned his head to
sweep the lamp from one side of the cavern to the other. It barely
penetrated the darkness and died before reaching the far wall. This
was as far as they had explored. Lord only knew what lay beyond.
There was no going back, however, so their only option was to take
their chances with the unknown.

He turned, grabbed Galen by the upper arm,
and hauled him out of the passage. The man fell to all fours and
let out a meek sob.

"Hurry!" Leo called to Sam. The moment she
was within reach, he dragged her into the cavern. He removed the
helmet from his head and shoved it against her chest. "Put this on
and see if you can find a way out of here."

She donned it, and when she turned away, he
watched the beam on the other miner's helmet slowly brighten from
deep within the earthen tube as it neared.

Merritt's rifle clattered across the stone
and tumbled out onto the ground. The pilot followed. Leo helped him
to his feet, then returned to the hole. Now that Merritt wasn't
blocking the light, he could clearly see Colton crawling toward
him. Hand over hand. The lamp on his forehead swayed with the
exertion, his face a wash of shadow behind the glare. He shoved his
rifle ahead of him as Merritt had done.

"Get the others moving!" Colton shouted. "I
can hear them right behind---"

The light grew smaller as Colton slid
quickly backward.

Leo lunged inside and grabbed for Colton's
hand. The two men locked wrists. He tried to gain leverage with his
knees, but he wasn't fast enough.

Colton cried out as he was again jerked from
behind, dragging Leo deeper into the tunnel with him. Leo felt
pressure on his ankles. Someone was trying to drag him back
out.

The rifle lay on the ground between his face
and Colton's. He could see his old friend's mouth, bared teeth
shimmering with blood.

There was another sharp tug and Colton
roared in agony. Leo's arm was strained to the point that any more
pressure would dislocate his shoulder. Behind him, Merritt shouted
for him to hold on and pulled on his legs.

He heard the cracking sound of breaking
bone, and Colton released his wrist.

"Let me go," Colton said.

Another jerk pulled Colton away, but Leo
grabbed his wrist again.

"You go," Leo said, "I go."

There was a sharp
skree
from beyond
Colton's prone form.

"Listen to me, damn it!" Colton snapped.
Bloody spittle dotted Leo's face. Another snap of bone and Colton
winced. "Let. Me. Go."

Leo groaned as he was stretched to his
physical limit. It felt as though his ribs were pulling apart and
his arm was about to be yanked right off. He strained to maintain
his grasp.

The force working against Colton
increased.

One by one, Leo's fingers started to
slip.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. His eyes met
Colton's through the shadows and an understanding passed between
them. Blood drained from the corners of Colton's mouth. The pain
contorted his features.

A loud crack of breaking bone sounded like a
gunshot.

Sloppy tearing sounds.

"You have ten seconds," Colton rasped with
what little voice remained.

His hand was wrenched away. Leo was helpless
but to watch as Colton was dragged in the opposite direction. The
light on his helmet grew smaller and smaller. A scream trailed him
into the darkness.

Leo didn't stick around to watch. He grabbed
Colton's rifle and frantically wiggled back out of the hole.

There was no time to waste.

The clock was ticking.

10:42 p.m.

The pain was beyond anything he had ever
imagined. Once those jaws had clamped down on his lower leg, no
amount of thrashing or jerking could free it. Teeth like hacksaws
had slashed right through his skin and muscle to find purchase on
bone, and ground down with almost hydraulic force. His tibia and
fibula had both snapped mid-shaft. He had no idea if his foot and
ankle were even still attached. A flood of blood left his body as
the creature twisted and tugged, drawing him back toward the cavern
where the rest of the screeching flock waited.

Even if he managed to extricate his
shattered leg from its grip, he would bleed to death long before
reaching help. He was a goner and he knew it. All that remained was
to die. The only thing now within his control was how painful that
death would be. The hell if he was going to allow himself to be
dismembered like all of the others. He was going out on his terms,
not theirs.

And he was going out with a bang.

The distant egress of the tunnel faded to a
pinprick of dim light beyond his outstretched arms. His fingers
clawed for traction on the smooth rock, yet they were unable to
slow him. The skin tore from his fingertips and his nails bent
backward and peeled away. The ground was slick with his blood.

It was now or never.

In one swift motion, he flopped over onto
his back. The pressure on his lower leg abated as the bottom half
tore away in the mouth of the predator. He screamed in agony and
pawed at his jacket pocket until his hand wrapped around the
smooth, round object.

Blood gushed unimpeded from his ragged
stump.

The respite was brief. Jaws clamped around
his opposite calf and pulled him again in reverse.

He felt the metallic ball of the grenade in
his left hand and drew a measure of comfort from its awesome power.
With his right hand, he pulled the pin, and cradled death to his
bosom.

Consciousness fled with his lifeblood. His
head felt light, detached.

The sound of the shrieking creatures grew
louder by the second.

His tibia snapped with the crack of a
bullwhip.

He prayed the others would make good use of
the time his life afforded them, because the whole blasted mountain
was about to come down on their heads.

Colton slid out of the end of the tube into
a living blackness filled with avian cries.

Talons impaled his chest.

Teeth sawed into his abdomen, his groin.

He arched his back and opened his mouth for
one final scream---

10:44 p.m.

The ground shuddered under Sam's feet. She
lost her balance and collapsed to her knees. Chunks of stone broke
loose from the ceiling with the sound of thunder and crashed to the
ground all around her. One rock clipped her hip and she cried out
in pain. The startled bats swirled chaotically before coalescing
into a single mass of whistling leather wings and swarming over her
head toward the wall in front of her. Until that very moment, she
had believed it to be solid. She followed their exodus through
tear-blurred eyes, to where the beam on her helmet illuminated a
thin fissure in the stone.

Once more, the earth trembled, and then
stilled. The rumbling noise above her faded to the clatter of
pebbles raining from the roof.

She rose and cried out. Her hip throbbed,
but at least she could still wiggle her toes and the joint felt
functional enough.

Merritt's voice materialized from the
darkness and the settling dust. "Is everyone okay?"

Galen whimpered that he was, however
uncertainly.

"We need to keep moving," Leo said. His
voice had hardened to project a note of command. "The explosion
will only buy us so much time. If there's a way out of here, we'd
better find it right now."

"It's directly ahead of me," Sam said.

"Then quit screwing around and get going."
She caught a glimpse of his face before she turned back toward the
now silent passage. Were those tears shimmering on his cheeks?

She advanced into the crevice and focused on
the diffuse beam of light. The walls were so close they rubbed
against her shoulders, eliciting a constant wave of pain from her
injured right. Alternately turning her head from side to side, she
forced back the shadows while she navigated the rubble underfoot.
They were lucky the fissure hadn't totally collapsed during the
quake. Had Leo said 'explosion'? And where was Colton?