Beckon

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.

Chapter 07

They stood in the tunnel listening to the tapping noise getting louder. Jack felt himself holding his breath.

At length Ben said, “I don’t mean to be a killjoy or anything, but maybe that millipede knows something we don’t.”

“I agree,” Jack said, gesturing to the passage ahead. “Let’s keep going.”

They made their way up the passage in the direction the millipede had departed. Soon the tunnel began to narrow sharply and eventually came to a dead end. Jack could tell that the bizarre sound was coming from behind them, which gave little comfort since they now appeared to be trapped.

“Okay,” Rudy said, “anybody have any other ideas?”

Ben was busy inspecting the walls of the passage. “Just keep your shirt on. Let’s see if there’s another way out of here.”

“It’s still getting closer,” Jack said. He could hear the click-clack sounds more distinctly now, but they weren’t just getting louder; they had multiplied, like several people were off in the dark tapping rocks together.

Ben had apparently realized the same thing. “I think there’s more than one thing making that noise.” He pointed his light up at the ceiling of the tunnel. “Here! I think I found an opening.”

With that, he climbed up the wall and disappeared into a small hole above them.

Meanwhile the tapping grew more intense.

Rudy aimed his camera back down the passage. “I gotta tell you, I’m starting to get a little creeped out here.”

After several seconds Ben’s voice came from above them. “I found another tunnel.”

Jack peered up into the shaft. It was a nearly vertical passage with jagged walls, not even three feet at its widest point, but he could see Ben’s flashlight shining down over a ledge about fifteen feet up.

“It’s a bit of a climb.” Ben’s voice echoed down the shaft.

“No kidding.” Jack shouldered his pack. He wondered how Rudy would manage if his claustrophobia began to kick in again. “It looks a little tight.”

Rudy spun suddenly and pushed Jack up into the passage. “We don’t have time to think about it.”

“What’s wrong? Did you see something?”

“Just get moving.” Rudy’s voice was tense.

Jack groped around the passage for a handhold. Sharp outcroppings on the rough surface gouged his hands, but at last he was able to pull himself higher into the tunnel. He could feel Rudy beneath him, pushing hard against his feet.

“Hurry up!”

Jack pulled himself higher up the shaft, ignoring the pain of rocks scraping his hands and arms.

Beneath him, Rudy’s voice grew more urgent. “C’mon, keep going!” He gave another thrust against Jack’s feet.

Jack groped around blindly, pulling himself up foot by foot. His heart pounded as he wrestled his fear both of getting stuck and of whatever was in the tunnel beneath them.

Then his hand reached up but felt only a smooth section of cold rock with no ledge or outcropping. Nothing with which to pull himself up. And Rudy was still pushing against his feet, shoving him higher into the tunnel, pinning his other arm against his side.

“Hold on,” Jack said. “I’m stuck.”

“Keep moving!”

Jack struggled to twist his body free, but it was no use—he couldn’t pull or push himself any higher. His heart thrashed inside his rib cage like a wild beast ready to burst out. “I’m stuck!”

Then he felt warm flesh clamp down around his uplifted hand, and he was yanked up through the passage until at last the rock seemed to open around him, freeing his other arm.

Ben pulled Jack into the tunnel, where he rolled onto his back, gasping for breath. A moment later Ben helped Rudy scramble up out of the hole as well.

The sounds drew closer, echoing up the shaft. Click-clack-click-click-click-clack. Ben switched off his light, and the three of them lay in complete darkness. The noise grew louder until it sounded like the source was right at the bottom of the shaft. Jack held his breath and waited, measuring the time by counting his pulse as it throbbed in his ears. Then the sounds began to grow fainter again, and within minutes they disappeared altogether.

Jack fought to calm himself and slow his heart rate. “What was it? What did you see?”

Rudy sat up, shaking his head. “I’m not sure. I saw something moving… back up the tunnel. I don’t know what it was. But there was definitely more than one.”

“What did they look like? Did you get anything on video?”

When there was no response, Jack flipped on his flashlight. Rudy’s face was white in the glare, and his eyes seemed distant and unblinking, staring into the darkness.

“Rudy.”

Rudy started as if snapping out of a trance. “I… I don’t know what they looked like. I just… I didn’t get a good look at them, and I didn’t exactly want to stick around for one.”

Rudy played back the video recording. With the night-vision setting, the amplified glow of the slime showed up as bright patches of pale-green veins running over the floor and up the sides of the passage. They were lit so brightly that the rest of the detail was fuzzy and out of focus. It looked like some kind of crazy, neon house of