Kraken Rising

CHAPTER 17

Shenjung Xing heard shouts from within the cave opening, and he clambered back up over the rubble, stepping carefully back into the cavern. A hundred feet farther along, a group of the soldiers were standing before a huge wall of stone, combining their beams of light up onto its flat surface.

Captain Wu Yang looked briefly in his direction, and then back to the huge edifice. As he approached, Shenjung could see the carvings and raised lettering etched deep into the stone.

“Hoowah. This is old,” he said softly. The work was crude chiseling, but the images were intricate and clear.

Yang stepped closer and placed his fingers into one of the carved lines. “Certainly not done by any of Zhang Li’s team. The rock and the markings have an unbroken cover of moss.” He rubbed his fingers together, and then wiped them on his pants. As he stepped back, debris crunched beneath his feet. He turned.

“Comrade Shenjung, you are a man who works with rocks and stones, and must have come across cave art before. What is your opinion?”

Shenjung panned his light across the tableau. “I am not a specialist in the ancient works of man, but yes, I have encountered many things before in my excavations.” He leaned in closer, bringing his light up and reaching out a hand, first touching the moss, rather than the stone images.

“Acarospora sinopica, a lichen; it grows on iron rich stone. But it is remarkable for being very slow growing, and in the right conditions, can live for thousands of years.” He half turned. “Current research has found that some lichens may even be immortal.” He stepped back, looking up at the wall. “For this depth and covering, it could be at least five thousand years old, and perhaps even tens of thousands.”

Shenjung focused on the carvings beneath the growth. There were whorls, strokes, and lines, some carved in, and some raised in relief. Further along, there were depictions of birds, snakes, something that could have been a big cat, and a bison type animal. And then there were the faces: tongues lolling, some gnashing teeth, and many with wide eyes, staring, holding looks of anger combined with fear.

“Look here, this one.” Yang pointed, and Shenjung followed his arm.

At the center of the relief was a huge glyph of a small mountain that had what looked like coiling snakes emanating from it, and a giant eye nesting in its middle.

“Their god?” Shenjung grunted, staring for several moments more. “Perhaps our demented survivor was right — perhaps it is Zhàyǔ, the devourer of men.” He turned. “Remember, it lives in the underworld.”

Yang scoffed. “I think I will ignore any intelligence briefings derived from a frightened dumpling cook.” He shook his head, his eyes flint-hard. “To me it looks like a representation of the sun… sunlight. It is telling us that this is probably a way out.” He turned away, to more brittle crunching beneath his feet, and stepped away from the wall.

Shenjung sighed, about to follow the PLA captain, when instead he crouched as something caught his eye. The crunching beneath their feet, it wasn’t stone chips as he expected, but instead bone fragments — different shaped shards and splinters, the fragments brown and aged and mostly pulverized. He picked up a tooth, a human molar.

“Captain Yang.” He held it up.

Yang leaned closer but didn’t take it. He shrugged. “Maybe some cavemen got trapped in here.”

Shenjung got to his feet. “Cavemen do not create this type of carven symbolism. They paint, using natural dyes, charcoal, and some rubbing.” He scoffed at the bone fragments. “And then what happened to them? They’re ground to pieces.”

Yang shrugged. “The cutter crushed the bones when it broke through.”

Shenjung shook his head. “No, even the edges are…”

“Captain?”

Yang turned towards the voice. A soldier, standing further along the stone shelf.

“Steps, Captain Yang. Cut into the cliff wall.” The tall soldier stood at attention. “There is evidence that they were used recently.”

“Steps?” Yang clapped his hands once, the sound like a gunshot in the cave. “So, now we are getting somewhere. Hoi!” He circled a finger in the air, and followed the young man. The rest of the soldiers fell in behind them.

A few hundred feet farther along, the ledge narrowed to about six feet, and then simply ended. Cut into the wall were steps, descending, and also disappearing upwards into the darkness. They were narrow, small, and barely wide enough for a normal foot. Shenjung could see that they changed angles as they descended, before they disappeared in the blackness of the void below.

Yang pointed his flashlight upwards. “To the surface?”

Shenjung also craned his neck, following the steps. “These look thousands of years old. The stone is age-darkened by moisture, and cave gasses.” Shenjung shrugged. “Maybe there was a surface when the steps were cut, but that was around 12,000 years ago. Our position now is far out under the ice sheets, so too much ice and snow above us.” He stepped back, lifting his light. “However, I would be interested to see where they lead.”

Yang turned away. “Lieutenant, beacon signal source and direction.”

The PLA soldier held up a small-screened device, panning it around. He then spun back to his captain. “Four point eighteen miles due west, point ninety-two miles on vertical descent… down.” He pointed.

“Good.” Yang turned back to Shenjung. “Upwards, is likely to be miles of more labyrinth, or a dead end.” Yang brought his light down to the descending steps. “If there is scuffing on the lower steps, then most likely it was made by Zhang Li and his team. If they went down, and our objective, the submarine is down, then we will follow.”

Shenjung could tell that Yang probably didn’t give a damn about the missing engineers. His priority was the signal, and only the signal. He waved his light over the stone ledge at its brink. “Doesn’t look like footprints, more like drag marks.”

“Come.” Yang ignored him.

Shenjung stared down into the darkness. He had a feeling that the massive hole in the earth was more like a gigantic mouth that was about to swallow them all. He could feel a slight updraft against his face — it felt warm, humid, and there were hints of salt, methane, and an odd sourness among other odors… odors of living things, or perhaps things long dead. It did nothing to dispel the image of the mouth open and waiting. He followed the PLA captain, but couldn’t shake the feeling that sunlight was a luxury he may never see again.