darkness with a startling flash.
***
The resultant glow stained the room orange from where the ball of fire burned against the stone wall ahead and to the left. Already it was beginning to fizzle and fade. Gabriel was shocked by the sheer enormity of the cavern, which more closely resembled a highway tunnel through a mountain than any sort of natural formation. The walls were smooth, with few outcroppings, and rounded to create an elliptical room perhaps twenty-five feet wide, but only a dozen feet high. It almost appeared man-made. Beyond the leading edge of the fading light, a section of the roof and walls had collapsed into a pile of rubble.
Gabriel tried to absorb every detail before the crackling flame extinguished. Rivulets of water trickled down the walls and dripped to the ground from the condensation above. A small channel of water cut through the middle of the floor, whisper quiet, and emptied into the pool from which they’d emerged. There was a stack of red aluminum containers to the right, presumably what they’d heard the rock strike from the hole through which the cat had crawled. They were rusted and dented, but one still bore the faded letters KER SENE. The smooth stone floor beside the small stream was wet and sloppy. Maybe it was the orange glare, but the long smear that led deeper into the tunnel glimmered scarlet.
The flare diminished to a wan glow of embers, and finally to nothing at all. In the dying light, he thought he had seen movement ahead near the mound of rocks, a shadow passing across shadows. The darkness wrapped around them again with humid arms.
Gabriel felt Cavenaugh’s breath on his ear before the other man whispered, “They dragged the bodies through here. There’s blood all over the ground in front of us.”
There was a muted metallic clatter as Cavenaugh ejected the spent metal flare casing and chambered another.
“We should have brought flashlights,” Gabriel whispered.
“You think?”
He’d obviously hit a sore spot. Cavenaugh had gone to great lengths to outfit their expedition, but apparently hadn’t foreseen every contingency.
Gabriel heard a shuffling sound beside him and realized Cavenaugh was getting dressed. Following suit, Gabriel stripped out of his wet clothes, unpacked the dry, and had only begun to get dressed when a slosh of water and a gasp announced Kelsey’s arrival. His reaction upon crawling out of the spring was the same as Gabriel’s. He was still retching when Jess slipped out of the water.
They dressed in a silence marred only by the occasional zip of a zipper and scratch of Velcro.
“Ready?” Cavenaugh whispered. When no one immediately spoke up, he detailed his plan. “We advance in a diamond formation. I’ll take the lead. Jess and Gabriel, you’ll stay right behind and to either side of me. You’ll carry the flare guns. Only fire one off on my signal. Kelsey, you’ll bring up the rear. Walk backwards. Make sure no one tries to sneak up on us from behind. Anything moves, shoot it. Got it?”
Whispers of assent.
“If you see or hear anything—anything at all—stop where you are and tap the people to either side. Keep the formation close, and no one strays away. Understood?”
The stream hissed past them, an indifferent serpent in their midst.
Kelsey checked to make sure a load was chambered in the rifle with a clack.
The sound of their breathing grew harsh, tense.
Something pressed into Gabriel’s stomach and he took the flare gun from Cavenaugh. His palm was sweating so badly it took several attempts to find the proper grip. A thought struck him like a bullet to the temple.
They were all going to die in there.
“Move out,” Cavenaugh whispered, and took the first step forward into the darkness.
***
The clatter of rock against rock signaled Cavenaugh had reached the section where the roof had fallen. A faint slant of mote-riddled gray light cut through the darkness from a hole in the ceiling mere feet above the top of the pile. Judging by the distance from the spring, Gabriel could only assume that was where Oscar had entered from above.
“Be careful and quiet,” Cavenaugh whispered, and began his ascent.
Gabriel leaned onto the mound and tested the boulders with a shove, but they didn’t budge in the slightest. He reached out and found purchase on a rock. His hand slipped when he tried to pull himself up. The surface was slick and damp. He prayed it wasn’t blood from a body being dragged over them, and resumed his climb. When he crested the top, he looked up into the hole in the fractured ceiling, but couldn’t see the more than a few feet before the passage bent to the right. Cold air blew in his face.
The descent was more challenging as he refused to turn his back to the unseen chamber beyond in order to properly use his hands. Instead, he picked his way down on his rear end, testing each step with his heels. At the bottom, he stood beside Cavenaugh, where they waited for the others to join them.
“Jess,” Cavenaugh whispered. “Flare.”
Again there was a whoosh and a scream as the ball of fire sped into the darkness. It hit the ground and bounded down the tunnel. Its momentum petered out after about fifty yards.
Gabriel gasped. Nothing could have prepared him for what he now saw.
“Holy crap,” Kelsey whispered.
The thin stream on the ground divided the cavern into halves. To the left, a stained and aged mattress rested against the rounded rock wall. Two rumpled sleeping bags were spread out on it. The pillowcases at the head of the bed looked like they hadn’t been washed in ages. There were two backpacks on the floor, overflowing with clothes. A kerosene lantern rested beside the bed. A bench had been constructed from tree trunks, still round and flaking with dried bark. A black leather book sat on the planks. It was embossed with three white words: The Holy Bible. The pages were dog-eared and tattered. Another lantern had been positioned next to it beside a reserve tank of kerosene.
The right side of the room was something else entirely, as though the occupants had created their version of heaven on one side, and hell on the other.
There was a pallet composed of uneven tree trunks lashed together with various thicknesses of rope. A rusted ax stood at an angle from where the blade was buried in the wood. Chips and wedges had been stolen from the trunks through repeated use. Its function was no mystery, as Maura’s and Will’s bodies were sprawled across it. They had been stripped, their wet clothes piled beside them in twin heaps. Their flesh had paled dramatically in stark contrast to the vicious red wounds across their chests and throats. Oscar sat in the crook of Will’s neck, worrying at a sizeable gash with his teeth. He secured a mouthful and darted deeper into the tunnel without a backwards glance.
Various animal carcasses were scattered on the floor, the bones bleached, presumably from being boiled in the carbon-scored pot sitting on the charcoaled remnants of an extinguished campfire.
Gabriel caught a reflection from the wall above the carnage and looked up to see a half dozen necklaces hanging from the imperfections in the stone. His eyes were drawn to one in particular, from which a small golden cross dangled. There were five small diamonds set into the design, one in the center, and one at each end.
He recognized it immediately.
The flare died, and again the darkness enveloped them.
Gabriel stifled a sob, but couldn’t prevent the tears from streaming down his cheeks. He felt like someone had reached inside him and torn out all of his bowels. His stomach roiled and his head spun. Whatever hope he had held out that Stephanie might still be alive had been crushed. Rage and anguish warred within him. He wanted to rip the rifle out of Cavenaugh’s hands and run screaming down the tunnel, to make someone pay for his sister’s death. All he could see was an image of Stephanie’s naked, lifeless body spread across that hideous chopping block, covered with blood, while a faceless shadow stood over her, raised the ax, and—
Thuck. Followed by an angry hiss.
“What was that?” Jess whispered.
The sounds had come from deeper in the mountain, where Oscar had just fled.
“Someone’s down there,” Kelsey whispered.
