Kraken Orbital (13 page)

Chapter 9

The Caves

It takes me a
few moments to adjust my eyes to the blackness of the cave. I come
out of my hiding behind Kolt. I force myself to. I need to take
control and remember what it was that forced me here in the first
place. I need to remember how empowered I felt when I kicked the
crap out of my boss and I need to remember how to be
that
guy
again.

I step forward and rip the torch from his
loose grip. And then I stupidly slip on a wet rock I hadn’t
seen.

I go tumbling head over heel and drop the
torch onto the soaked ground. Luckily, more by his skill than my
good management, Kolt picks it up and dusts it off before it has
the chance to get swamped by the water running through the cold and
soggy cave. My back hurts again. I’m not fully recovered from the
crash, not by any measure, and that fall has done it no good at
all. I stand, arch my back to hear it crack, and groan in a feeble
attempt to garner any kind of sympathy.

I feel a
right idiot. Kolt has, as a testament to the kind of guy I now know
him to be, not said a word and has just stepped ahead of me.
He could have ripped me to shreds over that. I
think I would have done that were I him. I listen hard for the
sound of sniggering through his mask filter but it doesn’t come.
Maybe he just feels my embarrassment. I already know he has
virtually no sense of humor so I really shouldn’t be as surprised
as I am.

All I can
hear is the incessant and rhythmic dripping of far away water. I
wa
ste no time in catching up with Kolt.
This place is making me feel cold and afraid again. I can see he
has descended down into another level of the cave complex, only by
the fading light of the torch, and my blurred vision can sparsely
cut through the lingering mist that seems to have formed out of
nowhere. I steady my stance and start making my way over to
him.

‘Kolt!’ I shout and the sound echoes. The
confined walls of the cave, and some yet to be discovered more open
space, bounce every decibel right back at me.

‘Wait up!’ I
shout up. The words carry for what feels like forever. I shuffle
closer and finally reach a steep downward gradient that I slide
down on the backs of my legs to meet him.

I land in a
heap at the bottom of a slippery slide. I can’t get any traction on
the wet rock, even with my hardened boots on. Kolt hasn’t said
anything yet but at least he stopped to wait for me. The mist has
blanketed the cave in a thick, relentless, and penetrating veil
that I can barely see through. The light from the torch is all we
have to guide us.
But all that does is
light up the mist rather than a path through it.

At least I
can stand up properly. And at least I can’t hear any of the
dinosaurs in here so I have to hope we are safe from them.
Somet
hing must call this cave “home”. I
just pray it’s nothing big enough to try to eat us.

I can hear
water in the distance somewhere. It is flowing slowly down some
underground traps and streams. I can hear it trickle slowly,
licking the side of the dark rock, and cascading down into some
unknown abyss.
But I’m fixating on that
to hide something else I don’t want to believe.

I’m so sure
that I can see shapes and figures moving around in the mist. My
eyes are
, despite all of my effort to
concentrate on anything else, fixed on them. I’m watching them
shift in the ever changing fog and light condition. I glance to
Kolt to see if he is looking in the same direction. He is. But he
either hasn’t seen the figures that wisp around the penetrating
mist, has seen them and is not afraid, or they aren’t even there at
all.

I watch
carefully as one shape, so human to my tired eyes, dances through
the dense fog, twirling almost playfully to a soundtrack that I
cannot hear. Then it disappears again. Back to the fog from whence
it came. I stare into the vacant space the figure used to occupy,
so hard that I feel as though my eyes could hone
i
n on every particle of the
fog.

I’m sure it must be my tired eyes. I’m sure
it’s a trick of the light and the way the bamboo torch is burning.
But I can swear I see a face made of mist. A human face. One with
scared and lonely eyes, that glance longingly at me, craving to
live as I do.

I can feel my
tongue swell in the back of my throat as the fear settles in and
takes hold of me. I can’t look away. I can feel my breathing deepen
with every
labored inhale as my throat
begins to close with fear.

I feel cold. Not like a snow and ice caused
cold, but a chill. Almost like my very blood is running away from
my skin with dread of what might be. The face has not gone. Kolt
remains focused and still. The chattering of the water running
through some unknown cavern and the licking flames are the only
noises around. I try to focus on them. I try to take my eyes away
and stare at the flame but my gut won’t let me.

The spectral eyes captivate me and I feel the
pain I see in them. I need to do something. I need to move, to run,
to turn and sprint in terror back the way we came and wait for my
fate with the Morris Cooper security force.

I shake my
head violently from side to side with my eyes firmly clamped shut.
It is a while before I can open them again. A few moments before I
dare to. But the
specter has gone when I
do. There are no more shapes in the mist, no more figures dancing
through it, no more fearful eyes piercing me with longing
stares.

I sigh, a lot louder than I would have liked
to, and wait for my heart to stop thumping inside my ribcage. I
blow out the air from my lungs through my tightened lips. I make a
funnel out of them and blow away as much of the mist as I can. I
can see the effect of it but more mist rolls in to take the place
of every volume my lungs manage to move.

But there are
no creatures, at least that I have yet been able to see,
lurking
inside. My companion has still
not said anything and I can no longer fight the childish urge to
seek comfort from his, hopefully, more mature thoughts.

‘Kolt.’ I whisper so the sound does not
bounce so vividly back at us.

‘We need to pass this field of fog.’ He says
back, peering through his strained eyes through the dark blanket of
mist, studying it and trying to remember which way we need to go.
He doesn’t say anything about the eerie figures, which I am certain
were nothing but figments of my battered and over active
imagination, so I decide to press him further.

‘
Did you have
any problem passing through the cave before.’ I hide my fear
admirably and I don’t think he senses that I’m all messed up.
That’s good. I already feel like a child, like the beta
male
, I can’t do with another slip down
the pecking order. For the sake of my own assaulted ego.

‘The caves are disorientating, I think I have
a map of them in my mind for us to follow though.’ I assume he
means that he has spent the last few moments planning a route while
I have been panicking over shapes and shadows that I must have made
up. He starts to walk his way down the deep cave system, each step
thundering a malicious echo around the cavern, his fire torch
flickering and seemingly dying with every passing second. I still
can’t help but to keep checking all of the field of view. I check
the mist every few seconds for shapes and masses in there but there
doesn’t seem to be anything.

‘
Ouch!’ I
kick a rock since I’m not really watching where I’m going. I need
to get my game face back on. I’m tired, upset, stressed and my
imagination is playing hell with me.

I follow Kolt
a little further, listening contently to the chattering water in
some unknown distance, letting my eyes settle to the faint but
flickering light, and let my mind waver a little
more from the task at hand. I have to forgive myself for
not being as “on the ball” as I would like to be. I feel sorry for
myself, that much is true, but I need to be less hard on myself
right now.

I made my
choices back in the mine. I killed six people and beat the
hell out of one more. That takes it’s toll.
Especially considering I’ve been nothing but a good, law abiding,
well behaved and dutiful member of society all of my life. I didn’t
think I would ever have it in me to kill people. I kind of wish I
could turn the clock back, but I know that I can’t.

Then I fly a
rig all the way here with nothing but experience gained in a
simulator, crash the damn thing right into the dirt, traverse
across a desert, escape the snapping jaws of creatures I though
long ext
inct, climbed a precarious vine
up a slippery rock face, nearly drowned in a babbling river since I
messed up and jumped in, only to start seeing ghosts in the thick
mist in this claustrophobic and dense cave.

All this while thinking about my inevitable,
if that’s the right word, capture at the hands of the Morris-Cooper
Mining company. I should really give myself the break I should
deserve but I can’t. I’m not even half way through this epic
journey I, and Kolt, have embarked upon. I’m tired, we’ve been
traipsing through the night and I’ve not really eaten much at all
in days.

My legs are
starting to burn. I hadn’t even noticed the gradual incline but we
must have been walking up hill for some time. I hadn’t even noticed
the mist clear but now that I have, I’m glad
it’s gone. The images of those figures, and especially that
face, are pasted into the back of my mind.

I’m glad I don’t have to think about it
anymore. The sound of gushing water has grown more intense in the
past few minutes, it sounds like it might be running through the
walls to our left and right.

The tunnel
has closed in around us and the walls are no longer smooth and
water worn. They are jagged and unforgiving to the slightest
mistake. I keep catching my shoulder blades on the sides and the
rock keeps tearing chunks of my
armor
away each time. I just grunt in frustration. I’m on auto pilot
right now, just watching Kolt step the miles away.

‘
Now we have
to crawl.’ Kolt says, turns back at me and lowers his arm across
his face to demonstrate that the roof is much lower in this section
of the cave. I’d forgotten his eyes. I had thought they might clear
in time but they are still bloodshot to the extremities. To the
point where there is no white left in there. The flame from the
torch is exaggerating the
color for sure
but it doesn’t stop the sight from being intense and a little
disturbing.

Even now,
after I have known him for some time
, he
still scares me. I just nod. I’m too tired to speak.

I’m even glad
when I drop to my knees. My thighs are throbbing from the uphill
struggle. I know moving through tight spaces will be physically
hard but I’m just happy to be lower. Closer to the ground. Kolt
moves ahead first. I watch as he pushes his eight foot tall frame
through a confined tunnel and disappear, along with our
light,
into another area of the
cave.

I tuck myself
into a tight ball, roll my shoulders to face the thinnest
direction, and press on. I can only hear my
armor scrape against the rough surface of the wall and the
force I need to push myself through the thin section of the closed
walls surprises me. I don’t even know where I’m pulling the energy
from it but I’m definitely glad of it.

The sound
wasn’t much at first. There was nothing to separate it from the
distant sound of running water. It wasn’t pronounced enough to hear
over my
armor rubbing against the rock.
But slowly it began to pierce my ear drums and fill my head. A
scream. I can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman, but it oozes
fear and dread. It’s primal and near deafening. It fills me with
fear immediately and I begin to panic as the reality slowly settles
in.

I have no way
to turn my head. If I push it to the right I just bash my head on
the cold rock. I can feel blood trickle down my face as the sharp
geology cuts into my fragile, cracked and cold skin. If I try to
look around the other way I just jam it
against my own shoulder blade.

I can’t tell where the scream is coming from,
or if my mind is just playing tricks on me, but I could swear it’s
coming from behind me. I start to breathe hard and push harder and
tougher against the rock to squeeze through.

‘Kolt!’ I shout at him and hear my voice
drowned by the constant and devilish scream. ‘Kolt!’ I scream again
until he finally stops. He can’t turn either, he’s far bigger than
me after all, and I can’t hear if he is calling back to me or
not.

‘Keep
moving.’ He yells, his voice finally pushing through his rasping
mask. He must have heard me, and the viscous scream coming from
behind too. I take his advice in a heartbeat and start pushing my
way through the tight and horrible space with every tiny bit of
power that I can muster.

The going is tough, and I try really hard not
to get consumed by own thoughts of dread, try not to think that any
number of beasts might be clawing at my back and I wouldn’t even be
able to see them! I try not to think about the ghostly spectral
figures I had seen when we first entered the cave either. Me, and
my body with me, has entered full survival mode and I can feel the
adrenaline burning through me.