“The general in charge has decided that if we can’t close the portal, he might as well try to close it by blowing the town up,” Larson’s voice said. “It’s going to take a while to get enough ordinance, though. So you have about seven hours. After that…”
They didn’t get a chance to hear the rest of what Larson was going to say. They all scrunched up tighter against each other in the alcove as the thing that had been coming after them finally arrived. Whatever it was, it was absolutely enormous, and it must have had multiple legs judging by the relentless sound of clicking against the rocks. It went by too fast for any of them to be sure what it was supposed to be, but Murky thought she saw, at the front of the thing, two giant oversized mandibles that took up a significant portion of its entire head. The creature, whatever it was, gave some kind of screeching roar as it passed, but even with as fast as it was going, it took quite a few seconds before it was no longer blocking the entrance to their hidey hole. It was like some kind of organic freight train rushing by them. But even through the noise, Murky was sure she heard the crunching of metal and plastic.
Even after the enormous creature was past their alcove, none of them dared come out until the sounds of its movements were nothing more but distant echoes sounding throughout the caverns. Only once they were sure it wasn’t coming back did any of them risk venturing back into the main tunnel.
“Okay, would someone like to tell me what the hell that was?” Henderson asked.
“It was big,” Murky said.
“No kidding, Sherlock,” Jesse said. “I didn’t get a look at it, but it almost might have been some kind of insect.”
“That’s one huge insect,” Laura said.
“We already know we’re supposed to be seeing giant bugs down here, but I don’t think that was one of the ant people Agent Larson was talking about,” Jesse said. “That had to be something else.”
“Yeah? Well let’s hope it’s a something else we don’t see again,” Henderson said. He went over to the point on the ground where they had dropped the communicator and kicked at the remains. It was shattered beyond all recognition. Whatever that thing had been, it had been big and heavy enough to completely obliterate their only connection back to the world above. “So much for that doohickey.”
“Did anyone else hear what Agent Larson said before that thing came through?” Murky asked. “It sounded like she was saying something about explosions.”
“Yeah, I think she did,” Laura said. “She said we’ve got seven hours before the military blows up Kettle Hollow. Maybe less.”
“How would they even explain that?” Henderson asked. “An entire town going kaboom would make people pay attention, wouldn’t it?”
“They could make up any story, like a gas leak or something,” Jesse said. “It would be far-fetched, but still easier to believe than the truth.”
“So we don’t have any more time to worry about what else might be in these tunnels,” Laura said. “We need to get moving.”
“Shouldn’t be too bad,” Henderson said as they all started walking down the tunnel again. “I can’t imagine that there’s going to be anything crazier than what we’ve already seen.”
It didn’t take long at all before he was proven wrong.
Chapter Six
On several occasions they came across more branching paths. There was no way at all they could be certain, but they continued to follow the logic that the presence of the glowing fungus, beyond just making it easier for them to not stumble around blindly, suggested the presence of other life as well. They ended up being right, but they weren’t prepared for exactly what kind of life they were about to encounter.
They could tell they were approaching some kind of open cavern by the way the echoes of their voices changed, but none of them were ready to find an open space large enough to hold a small underground city. The tunnel opened out onto a high ledge overlooking the cavern, giving them a perfect view of the creatures grazing in the humongous space below.
The cavern was full of dinosaurs.
“That is so rad!” Jesse whispered. “Real, actual breathing dinosaurs!”
While Murky may have been obsessed with animals, she had never read up much on dinosaurs, so she was at a loss to give an exact name to any of the creatures roaming around down there in the cavern. She still recognized plenty of them though, names or not. Nearest to their hiding place she could see a small group of the kind with ridges and horns around their heads, while much further out she thought she could see the huge scary kind with big teeth as it ran after some kind of prey.
“Maybe we could go down there and pet one of them?” Murky asked.
“Murky, I’m sorry, but we’ve got a lot more important things to do right now than try to pet giant lizards,” Laura said. She tapped her wrist, even though she had left her colorful Swatch watch at home because she’d been afraid of wrecking it while biking. “Tick, tick, tick.”
Murky stuck her lip out in a pout, but she wasn’t going to argue with her big sister.
“We might still have to go down there anyway,” Henderson said. “I don’t see any other way to go, do you?”
They all looked around themselves, but they could tell right away that he was right. To one side there was a well-worn path that sloped down from their cliff and onto the main floor of the dinosaurs’
