Kraken Rising

CHAPTER 41

“Stinks down here.” Blake had his gun up, scanning the dense undergrowth.

“Creepy as hell,” Hagel added, sighting along his rifle in the other direction.

“I heard that, brother,” Blake said. He’d been in plenty of jungles before, from Colombia to the Congo, but this was like nothing he’d ever seen. Strange boughs, gnarled and twisted, dripping with slick mosses, all looked less like trees and more like some sort of elongated mold growths. Others were just hairy trunks rising three stories in the air, with bulbous pads like tongues on their ends. The only real characteristic they shared was that where they touched the ground, they all looked like they were trying to break free, lift their roots out, and then go marching, triffid-like, off on their own.

But the thing that bothered Blake the most was the silence. Jungles weren’t quiet, unless something made them go quiet. He sensed life all around them, but nothing chirped, croaked, or whistled. It was like a dead forest, but not. His gut told him that the predator knew they were there and was watching them — he hated it.

Blake half turned. “You know, a lot of civilizations, old and new, think that hell is under our feet. Looks like they were right,” Blake said, his gun moving along another quadrant of the jungle.

“No way, man. This is home from now on. Get used to it. Cause we ain’t got enough rope to climb out anymore,” Hagel added.

Blake shook his head, keeping his eyes on the silent jungle. “We needed it to get everyone down. What would you have done, smartass?”

Hagel put his gun on his shoulder, and turned. “We were given a job by Hammerson — find that sub. That’s our priority. We could have scaled down without the rope.” He bobbed his head. “I’d have left the civs behind. Send a rescue party back for them later.”

“Yeah right, what rescue party? You mean leave ’em to die.” Blake knew Hagel meant every word he said.

“Look, Blake, all I’m saying is, butchy boy is burning through our resources far too quick.” He shrugged. “We could also track down the PLA, take their resources. Improve our chances.”

Blake scoffed. “We’re doin’ okay so far. I suggest you lighten up, as you’re starting to piss me off.” Blake looked squarely at the younger HAWC. “Hey, why don’t you share your views with Franks? I’m sure she’ll enjoy having a chat — just the two of you.”

“I’m not scared of Franks. She’s just…”

Rhino appeared out of the undergrowth. “Can’t find Dawkins.”

“Huh? I don’t get it.” Blake’s brows went up. “That kid fell straight down. We all saw it.” He looked up, calculating. “Should be around here, and as he was no superman, I don’t see him walking away.”

Rhino shrugged. “I’m telling you there’s nothing, not even an impact mark. Guy never hit the ground.” He tilted his head to the towering tops of the growths that had odd, stubby heads, looking like massive undersea tubeworms. “Maybe he’s caught up in the canopy of one of these suckers?”

“Maybe,” Blake said, unconvinced.

“Yeah, maybe.” Hagel grinned. “And maybe we only imagined he fell. Maybe we’re all asleep and this is a dream.” He chuckled. “Assholes.” He pushed his rifle up over his shoulder and walked off to rejoin the group.

Rhino watched Hagel for a moment before turning back to Blake. “I’m telling you, it’s like he never hit the ground.” He grimaced. “This place is all fucked up.”

“You think?” Blake exhaled. “Hold it together, big guy. We’ll all be fine if we all just keep clear heads.”

“Clear heads.” Rhino pushed his weapon up over his shoulder. “Yeah, sure.”

Aimee was lost in her own thoughts. How did I get here again? she wondered as she pushed aside stubby fronds. Some people are just programmed to make bad decisions, she answered. She looked up towards the roof of the giant cavern — tiny blue lights twinkled like stars — bioluminescent glow worms. Attached to the ceiling, huge multibranched trees of lichens hung down hundreds of feet, almost looking like a mirror image of the ground. Things flew in and out of the lichens. Some looked like mere dots, but others she knew were probably the size of small airplanes. Up there, it’s another world, in yet another world. She smiled at the paradox.

She sighed. Another few miles or so above that clinging ceiling was another world again, her world, frozen, and perhaps now engaged in a tense nuclear standoff… or worse. A sudden image of Joshua screaming as he was caught in a nuclear inferno ripped across her mind, and she shook her head to clear it away.

Idiot, she whispered with enough venom to lash her own conscience. Jack Hammerson had said he wanted a scientific negotiator with experience, someone who could be their guide. She had been vain enough to suck up his flattery, but now thought that if she was the best they had, they were all doomed. She ground her teeth. Some people will continue to make stupid decisions until one eventually kills them.

Aimee stumbled from fatigue, and tried to remember when it was she last really rested — too long ago.

She exhaled long and slow, looking over her shoulder to the cliffs they had just scaled down. The thing she feared the most was in there — a thing that could squeeze its monstrous boneless bulk down, and then spring at them from any crevasse, cave, or dark space. It could mimic their form, seeming to be like one of them until it was close enough for you to realize you had made a horrible mistake, and by then it was too late, as it was in reach and able to grab you, and steal you away, to… she grimaced, not wanting to finish the thought.

They were leaving the caves behind, but in the open, are we any better off? she wondered. She slowed and watched as Hagel remonstrated with Casey. She was half a head shorter than Hagel, but Aimee bet the female HAWC was a dozen times more deadly. She caught up to Ben Jackson, and the equally big Rhino, who was looking over his shoulder at the small device he had in his hands. He pointed at the screen, showing the McMurdo soldier what he was looking at. Aimee craned to see.

“Signal here is long and strong, and about 4.4 klicks.” Rhino turned and recalibrated the device and pointed it into the distance. “This cave is too big for a signal bounce — has its own horizon, and beyond.”

Blake and Casey also joined them, Blake holding out a different small box. He whistled softly.

“What is it?” Aimee asked, looking down at the small screen as a wave pulsed out and showed up a smattering of dots, some large and some pinpricks.

“Standard movement tracker,” Blake said, looking up and then along at the walls of jungle around them. “This place is near tomb silent, but there’s a helluva lot of movement out there. Too much for the tracker to fully untangle, but basically, we’re surrounded by things as small as a mouse and as big as a freakin’ bus.” He pointed. “About a hundred feet that way, there’s something the size of a truck right now.”

Casey leaned back. “Moving away from us, thank Christ.”

Soong peered down at the screen and walked off a few paces with Blake and Rhino, just as Jennifer came into the group, her arms wrapped around herself. Casey tilted her head towards the dark haired medic. “How you holdin’ up, Jenn?”

Jennifer shrugged. “I’d rather be back in the rec room, with a cold beer, getting ready to shoot some pool.”

Casey grinned and reached out to grasp one of her shoulders. “I heard that. Maybe when this is over, you and I can catch up. Share a beer and rack up a few.”

Jennifer’s cheek dimpled. “I’d like that.”

Aimee smiled as the two walked off. You go girl, she thought with a half smile.

Within an hour, they came to a small depression, like a fifty foot bowl in the soft lichen mats. Casey held up a hand.

“Rest. Thirty minutes, sleep if you can. Might be the last opportunity we get.”

“We should keep going,” Hagel said, continuing to walk.

“We could continue, but the group needs rest,” Casey said, turning away.

Hagel paused, his eyes going from Casey to each of the HAWCs, trying to gain support — he got nothing. Casey turned back to him.

“I’ll do first watch. Then seeing you’ve got so much energy, you can take over in thirty minutes. Happy now?”

Hagel smiled, but there was little humor in the lift of his lips. He turned and muttered all the way over to a pile of rocks where he sat down, back against it, and covered his eyes.

“Wake me in thirty, mommy.”

The group collapsed, the HAWCs lifting the belts and straps of packs and weapons off their shoulders and laying prone. Aimee lay down, and Soong lay close to her.

“This is not a good place,” Soong said.

“No.” Aimee had few words of comfort for her, so she just smiled, and reached out to squeeze her arm. “Rest now.”

Aimee turned away and shut her eyes. What seemed like seconds later, she was being shaken awake.

She sat up and saw Hagel talking rapidly to Casey and pointing off into the undergrowth. He stood over her, giving her grief, the man as usual not amused by something out in the jungle. Give it a rest, twerp, she thought and went to sit forward. She groaned, sore all over.

“Hey, who’s fucking around?” Rhino was on his feet, walking in a circle, kicking plants and debris out of his way. “Where the fuck is my cannon?”

Casey Franks turned away from Hagel to glare. “You better find that weapon, mister.”

Rhino looked at each of them, trying to detect someone stifling a laugh. He turned his attention to Hagel. “What the fuck happened to it?”

Hagel waved him away. “I was scouting and didn’t see nothin’. When did you last have it — the caves? Betting that’s where it still is.”

“No, asshole, I had it right here.” Rhino pointed at the ground.

Blake also spun one way and the next. “Holy shit, where’s mine?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Casey marched over, and looked from Blake to Rhino, and then to Hagel. “You were on watch, what the hell happened?”

“Like I said,” Hagel spoke slowly. “I saw nothin’.” He shrugged. “I just went to scout for a few minutes, is all. But there was no sound, no movement — nuuu-thing.”

Aimee pointed at the lichen matting behind Rhino. “Look.”

There was a small, flattened path in the plants. Its edges glistened like a snail trial, and Aimee bent closer and sniffed.

“Ammonia.” She straightened. “We had a visit.”

“What?” Casey’s eyes bulged. “Here? It came in here?”

“Bullshit,” said Blake. “Why didn’t it grab us all, when we were out cold?” He pointed with his thumb. “And all while this jackass was off the reservation.”

Aimee wrapped her arms around herself, thinking. “Because it didn’t want to.”

“Huh?” Blake’s lip curled in confusion.

“It didn’t want to.” She looked up. “It’s having too much fun. You asked me what I meant by us educating it. Well, it learned real quick that these things,” — she pointed at the HAWCs’ remaining guns — “cause it pain.”

“So, it’s taking them from us,” Ben Jackson said, running a hand through his hair.

She grimaced, looking around. “It’s here, somewhere, probably watching us right now.”

The silence stretched as they turned, looking over their shoulders. Soong instinctively edged in closer to the group.

“That’s bullshit,” Casey finally said, her face red and furious.

“Nah, it’s not.” Hagel had his gun now cradled in his arms. “It’s what I was trying to tell you, Franks. You better come take a look at this.” He turned and waved them on, heading into the jungle.

“Gear up, we’re out of here,” Casey said, following.

“Remember our young scout who did the high-dive?” Hagel looked slightly amused.

“You found Dawkins?” Casey’s brows shot up.

“Maybe.” Hagel shrugged, a touch of a sneer in his smile. “You be the judge.”

He came to a fallen bough and crouched behind it. Casey did the same beside him. Hagel looked to Casey, grinning. “Ten o’clock, five up.”

She turned to the small clearing ahead. In among the twisted branches and oversized vines, there was a tree stump as thick as her waist. Five feet up, its top was near flat, creating a small tabletop. On it there was a smaller object. From the distance, it gleamed wetly.

She put a scope to her eye. “Jesus Christ.” Her teeth came together, and her lips curled in a snarl.

It was a skull, wet, streaked red, and also white where bone showed through the last vestiges of flesh.

Casey quickly turned to speak over her shoulder. “Keep ’em back, Rhino.”

The big HAWC held out massive arms to push the remaining McMurdo soldiers, plus Soong and Aimee back a pace.

Casey turned towards the grisly trophy and grimaced. The skull had a chipped front tooth.

“Could be Dawkins; got that same boyish smile.” Hagel sniggered. “I’m not thinking the fall did that to him… what do you think?”

“That’s him.” Casey tried to keep her breathing calm, but a range of emotions washed over her. Anger gave way to frustration, and then settled in as confusion. Who or whatever it was, it was dogging them, one step ahead all the time. She had never felt more out of her depth. Fuck that Dempsey, she thought. Getting himself killed, he was supposed to be making the decisions. She licked dry lips. What would Alex or Sam do? she wondered.

“Hey, you still here?” Hagel whispered.

“Yeah,” she said, and knew exactly what Alex would say. He’d tell her to fight her adversary at a time and place of her choosing, not its. She pulled back. In the caves, Rhino had been right about one thing — someone or something sure was fucking with them.

“You think it’s the Chinese, or like the Doc says, it’s that fucking monster thing playing with us?” He leaned closer. “What do you think? Can’t fight what we can’t see.”

“What I think, is from now on, we need eyes in the back of our heads.” She got to her feet, staying low. “We detour around it, and keep permanent watch. You’re still on point.”

“Nice time to be losing weapons, huh, boss?” Hagel grinned as he pulled back.