Burial Ground

IV

10:44 p.m.

The ground shuddered under Sam's feet. She lost her balance and collapsed to her knees. Chunks of stone broke loose from the ceiling with the sound of thunder and crashed to the ground all around her. One rock clipped her hip and she cried out in pain. The startled bats swirled chaotically before coalescing into a single mass of whistling leather wings and swarming over her head toward the wall in front of her. Until that very moment, she had believed it to be solid. She followed their exodus through tear-blurred eyes, to where the beam on her helmet illuminated a thin fissure in the stone.

Once more, the earth trembled, and then stilled. The rumbling noise above her faded to the clatter of pebbles raining from the roof.

She rose and cried out. Her hip throbbed, but at least she could still wiggle her toes and the joint felt functional enough.

Merritt's voice materialized from the darkness and the settling dust. "Is everyone okay?"

Galen whimpered that he was, however uncertainly.

"We need to keep moving," Leo said. His voice had hardened to project a note of command. "The explosion will only buy us so much time. If there's a way out of here, we'd better find it right now."

"It's directly ahead of me," Sam said.

"Then quit screwing around and get going." She caught a glimpse of his face before she turned back toward the now silent passage. Were those tears shimmering on his cheeks?

She advanced into the crevice and focused on the diffuse beam of light. The walls were so close they rubbed against her shoulders, eliciting a constant wave of pain from her injured right. Alternately turning her head from side to side, she forced back the shadows while she navigated the rubble underfoot. They were lucky the fissure hadn't totally collapsed during the quake. Had Leo said 'explosion'? And where was Colton?

Fifteen yards later, the crack opened into a large cavern. The faint grumble of the waterfall called to her from ahead. She listened for the sounds of the bats up against the ceiling, but they must have continued past this chamber. The headlamp illuminated only a churning cloud of dust.

She hurried forward and had to clap her hand over her mouth and nose when the smell struck her. It didn't reek of feces as the last cavern had, but of the more repulsive, fresh stench of decomposition. She imagined rotting carcasses strewn across the ground in various states of consumption and decay.

The drone of flies provided an unremitting, dull buzz.

"Keep going," Leo said. He shoved her into the cavern from behind. She felt hands on her head as Leo relieved her of the helmet and donned it himself. "Lord only knows how much of a head start Colton bought us."

"Where is Colton?" she asked.

Leo didn't answer. Instead, he strode forward into the haze.

There was a snap and a hiss behind her, then the metallic clamor of a canister bounding across the uneven floor into the room ahead of her. Merritt's hand found hers as a fierce red glare blossomed from the incendiary grenade.

"That's my last one," he whispered, and pulled her toward it.

A shadow passed through her peripheral vision to her right. The crimson glow highlighted Galen's features and sparkled from the tears on his face. He started to jog in an attempt to catch up with Leo, who was already nearly twenty feet ahead of them.

"Hold on to my belt and stay behind me," Merritt said, releasing her hand so he could seat the rifle against his shoulder.

The ground was covered with a mat of feathers, upon which the dust accumulated like snow. She saw the hint of a ribcage to her right. Sharply broken bones stood at odd angles from the feathers, over the top of which she recognized the crowns of skulls and disarticulated skeletal remains of all kinds, human and animal alike, some fresh and glistening with blood, others older and aged to a dull brown. Something crunched under her left foot and she looked down. A thin, arched section of what looked like grayish-blue plastic had cracked beneath her weight almost like an---

"Eggshell," she whispered. She turned to her right and noticed a cupped structure composed of dry branches, leaves, and reeds. The bowl of the nest brimmed with downy feathers and the shattered remnants of countless hatched generations.

There was a shuffling sound outside of the light's reach.

Sam stifled a scream.

They weren't alone.

Merritt stiffened at the sound and slowed his progress. He turned his rifle toward its origin.

More rustling noises from the other side of them, which slowly melted away beneath the rising rumble of the waterfall.

They had to hurry, but they could only advance so quickly. They could no longer hear the motion around them, yet still Sam could sense predatory stares upon her from beyond the diminishing glare of the incendiary grenade, which fizzled and sparkled in its death throes. A ring of feathers burned around it. The meek flames were more smoke than fire, and would only last so long.

Leo passed the canister and fired into the blackness in front of him. As the intense flare dwindled, the light on his helmet became more apparent. The pale yellow beam spotlighted the mouth of a stone tunnel.

A gust of cool air that smelled of ozone caressed Sam's face. She nearly sobbed at the realization that they had to be close to the outside world.

The sound of the waterfall grew to a roar that made the rock thrum beneath her feet. If they could just reach the river, she knew it would eventually lead them to safety. And they were so close now...

"I can see the opening!" Leo called back to them. The darkness swallowed his headlamp to weak aura. "We're right behind the waterfall. I can even see---"

An avian skree cut his words short.

A rush of shadows eclipsed Leo's silhouette. The helmet flew from his head and clattered against the stone wall. It winked once, then extinguished.

More shrieking, and beneath it, Leo's horrible screams.

The incendiary grenade issued a long hiss, a prelude to its demise.

Only the diminutive flames crackled from the mess of feathers.

A skree from ahead was answered by another to her right.

Merritt fired toward the sound and bullets pinged from bare rock.

The carbine whirred. His finger clicked on the trigger to no avail.

Out of ammunition.

His hand searched for hers and squeezed it tightly.

She knew exactly what was about to happen, and prayed it would be swift.