Burial Ground

I

Andes Mountains, Peru

October 30^th

10:36 p.m. PET

Merritt unsnapped the canister from where he had clipped it to his belt, pulled the pin, and tossed it to his left. Gunfire echoed from directly to his right, where Sorenson shot blindly into the tunnel. Shrieks and high-pitched cries erupted from the darkness.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Sorenson shouted.

Chemical fire spouted from the incendiary grenade. The sudden influx of light stained Merritt's vision red. He raised his rifle and fired into the dark mouth of the channel. When his sight finally cleared, he unconsciously retreated a step. He was completely unprepared for what he saw.

Blood poured down the stone floor from the tunnel. Feathers filled the air. Hisses and squeals rose over the tumult of gunfire as bodies fought for position amid the carcasses of their brethren. One creature hopped up on the flank of a twitching mass of scales and feathers, lowered its head toward the ground, and released a savage skree from a mouth opened wide enough to swallow a bowling ball. Sharp teeth glinted, and quills stood straight up from its long neck.

They were going to be massacred inside this mountain.

"Fall back!" Colton shouted from behind him. Sam tugged at his jacket.

He stumbled away from the tunnel, firing every step of the way.

The creature hopped down from the corpse and crouched even closer to the ground. A bullet ricocheted in front of it, and in a blur of motion, feathered shapes exploded from the opening.

Sorenson bellowed and shot into their ranks, but they were already upon him. The man's battle cry turned to screams of pain. A hand grabbed Merritt by the collar and jerked him in reverse. He whirled to see Sam already running toward the smaller tunnel at the rear of the chamber, where Colton stood beside the entrance, firing back into the room while the others ducked past him into the darkness.

Merritt sprinted after them and raced into the thin crevice. The lamp affixed to Leo's helmet bounced and jittered ahead, highlighting random sections of the bare rock wall. Merritt glanced back and saw Colton spray a stream of bullets into the chamber, then duck into the corridor behind him.

Sorenson's screams were drowned out by avian cries.

"Go!" Colton shouted, shoving him deeper into the mountain. Colton's headlamp cast strange, elongated shadows from behind Merritt that made the shrinking tunnel appear to bend, twist, and turn.

Leo's weak beam grew larger and larger on the stone wall ahead of them. Merritt's heart nearly stopped at the realization that they were racing into a dead end, but then the light lowered to the floor and faded to a candle's glow.

At the end of the passage, Sam crawled through a tiny hole rimed by Leo's light. The passage couldn't have been larger than a sewer pipe. Her feet disappeared as she wriggled out of sight.

He stopped and stared at the diminutive orifice. Colton's lamp made his massive shadow dance on the wall.

"Get in there, for Christ's sake!" Colton yelled. He spun and shot into the tunnel behind him.

There were more hawk-like shrieks and the rapid clatter of talons on granite.

Merritt slid the rifle into the hole and dove in after it. He pushed it in front of him and squirmed as fast as he could through the claustrophobic tube toward the pale yellow aura ahead.

Behind him, the report of gunfire ceased, and was replaced by the scraping sound of Colton scrabbling into the tunnel.

There was no longer anyone guarding their rear.