And, she realized, something moving around in those shadows. It was something much smaller than most of the things they’d seen down here so far, but she was pretty certain that, whatever it was, it wasn’t human.
“Hey guys?” she said. “I think something’s following us.”
Henderson looked doubtful about that, but Laura immediately took her seriously. “What kind of something?”
“I don’t know. But look over there.” Murky pointed into a darkened tunnel. “I thought I saw…”
Something in the darkness opened its green, piercing, reptilian eyes. They caught a slight glow from distant fungus, making the eyes appear as though they shined with their own light. Although they still couldn’t make out the thing’s shape, they definitely heard it hiss as something disconnected from the shadows and ran right toward them.
Chapter Seven
“Run!” Jesse screamed. They all started running, but it was obvious right away that none of them were sure which direction would be the best one to run to. Murky went one way and Henderson another, while both Laura and Jesse went straight for the largest tunnel opening they could see with a significant amount of the fungus. Henderson recognized right away that they were probably moving in a smarter direction, but Murky wasn’t thinking clearly enough to run after them. Instead she ran for the nearest tunnel, one that had a dim glow from fungus but was still much darker than any other path they had gone down yet. Behind her she heard something running, something with sharp claws that clicked harshly against the stone. Whatever had been hiding in the shadows, it had singled her out as the one it really wanted to go after.
“Murky! Wait! Not that way!” Laura called out to her, but Murky’s panic took over her and kept her running up until she found herself up against a rock wall with nowhere else to go. She turned around, certain that she was about to see some monster ready to rip her to shreds and eat her, only to find the tunnel empty. She didn’t dare move, though. Whatever the thing had been, it was obviously good at hiding in the shadows, and anything at all that she did might give her position away to it.
“Murky? Where are you?” Henderson called from out in the main cavern. After about thirty seconds, she heard several footsteps as her three companions entered the tunnel.
“Murky?” Laura asked, her voice full of genuine concern.
“Are you sure this is the tunnel she went in?” Henderson asked.
“No, I’m not sure, but this was the last direction I saw her running in before I lost track of whatever that was after us,” Laura said.
“Maybe that thing got her,” Jesse said.
“You shut your damn mouth with that,” Laura said in an uncharacteristically harsh tone. “My sister is going to be perfectly fine.”
Murky looked very closely around her in the shadows, making sure she was truly alone, before she called out to them. “I’m over here!”
The other three ran down the length of the tunnel to find her cowering in the corner. “Murky! Are you okay?” Laura asked as she hugged her little sister. “Where did that creature go?”
“I don’t know,” Murky said. “I thought it was right behind me. But then when I got in here…”
A low growl sounded from back in the direction of the tunnel opening. They all turned to it and saw a shape silhouetted against the brighter glow from other tunnels.
“Uh, crap,” Jesse said. “I think it set up a trap for us. And we all just walked into it.”
They all huddled against the wall next to Murky as the thing took several slow steps closer to them. It was about six or seven feet tall, and from the front it appeared to be vaguely lizard-like, or maybe more like a huge scary bird. It had a long, thick tail whipping back and forth behind it that seemed to be for balancing, and the closer it got, the more Murky thought it might be some kind of small version of the tyrannosaurus rex that they had seen roaming around out in the main cavern.
“What is it?” Murky asked quietly. “Is it a dinosaur?”
“It’s too small to be a dinosaur,” Henderson said. “Dinosaurs are huge.”
“Nuh-uh,” Jesse said. “There were plenty of them that were smaller.”
“The smaller ones were less dangerous, right?” Laura asked.
“Um, again, that’s not exactly true.” There was a noticeable stutter in Jesse’s voice as he shook with fear.
The closer the creature got, the more they could see of it. It was dark and rough skinned, there were a few parts here and there that looked like they might have had strange feather-like protrusions on them. On its feet and its short arms it had very large, wicked-looking claws, and its mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth. Strangely enough, despite these intimidating features, Murky found herself becoming less and less afraid the closer it got to them. If it wanted to attack them it could have already. Its mannerisms didn’t seem predatory at all at the moment, either. If anything, it looked like it was more curious about them than anything else.
“Hello,” Murky said as pleasantly as she could manage. The dinosaur stopped a few feet away from them and made a couple of strange little chirping noises.
“Murky, what do you think you’re…” Laura started to say, but Murky ignored her and took a step toward the creature. When it didn’t react negatively to the motion, she took off her backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out the bag of marshmallows. Murky tore open a hole in the bag and held one out.
“Would you like a marshmallow?” Murky asked.
The dinosaur cocked its head at the offered treat.
“Go on,” Murky said. “It’s tasty. I promise.”
“Um, Murky?” Henderson said. “Maybe you shouldn’t be using the
