Kraken Rising

CHAPTER 43

Shenjung Xing felt himself grabbed and dragged through warm water. He blinked, his eyes gritty and stinging, but still not focusing properly. His stomach convulsed, and coughing, he emptied about two pints of water from his gut, before he was cast up onto an embankment.

“Good, get it all out.” Captain Yang stood over him.

Shenjung moaned and rubbed at his eyes, wiping out grit. He blinked, restoring his sight this time.

“Where…?” He sat up, and saw some of the soldiers nearby. There were ten, about half of Yang’s original squad. Only one other was on his feet, the giant, Mungoi.

Yang turned to sit beside him, picked up a twig, and looked out over the river as it wended its way out of sight. “My men are gone.” He nodded, still watching the water. “The flow is strong, and if they were unconscious they would have been swept away.” He flicked the twig into the water. “More food for the worms.”

Shenjung suddenly remembered and turned over, jamming fingers down his throat, and gagging up more water and bile.

Yang laughed. “Too late now, Doctor.” He slapped Shenjung’s back. “But I think we are okay; the water was moving too fast for them to get to us.”

Shenjung flopped onto his back, wiping one hand over his sticky mouth. “Where are we? Did we make it out?”

“Out of the caves? Yes. But out-out…” Yang motioned to the cliff wall, towering a half mile behind them, which then kept rising to touch a ceiling. “No, we are still in a cave. We fell, washed from up there.” He motioned upwards.

Shenjung followed his hand. A hundred feet up from the ground, a torrent of water poured forth, slowing now that the deluge was being exhausted.

“The missing men, will we look for them?” Shenjung asked.

Yang glanced again at the surging water. “No.” He got to his feet, and reached into a pouch to pull out his signal tracker. “Each man has a device like this one. If they are alive, they’ll know where we are going, and they will join us. We cannot spend any more time down here.”

“And if they are hurt?” Shenjung asked.

“Then they have a new home.” Yang checked his tracker.

Shenjung pushed wet hair back off his face. He knew there was nothing he could say which would change the PLA captain’s mind. He got unsteadily to his feet, wiped his face, and then looked around.

“So big, so… fantastic. It’s a forest, under the Earth.” He turned slowly.

“And now, all Chinese territory,” Yang said. “The Antarctic Treaty covers the continent’s surface. But down here is no one’s territory. So it all belongs to us.” Yang lifted his head high. “I claim this land in the name of the People’s Republic of China.” He saluted, and then turned to grin at him. “Good day’s work, huh?”

“Maybe you can be king.” Shenjung turned away.

Yang leaned back, looking skyward. “Yes, and my new kingdom even has light.”

Shenjung looked up at the twinkling stars in the dark blue heavens above them. “No, this is an illusion,” he said softly. “We’re still trapped in a cave… just a bigger one. I wish to see the light, real sunlight, one more time, Captain.”

Yang grunted. “Enough dreaming.” He read from his tracker. “We’re not far from the source of the signal.” He looked up again briefly. “At least we can preserve our batteries on our way to the sub.”

“Small gifts,” Shenjung responded.

Yang turned to bark at his men. They got to their feet, some slowly. Their suits were sodden and ripped. Many were hunched with fatigue.

“Mungoi will lead us out.” He pointed to where the far cave wall stopped at an endless dark sea. “That way.”

Shenjung looked skyward one more time. Sunlight, fresh air, and my Soong. Please be up there safe and waiting for me, he silently prayed, and then followed the soldiers.

“Something.”

Yang nodded to his scout, and turned to wave his remaining men down. He drew his revolver and followed.

Hung Balin was his latest scout. He was a good soldier — solid, trustworthy, even if not so brilliant. Already one of the previous scouts had gone missing. Perhaps he’d wandered too far ahead and got lost in the chaotic tangle of weird plants, some with poisonous looking barbs, stinging sap, or vines that refused to let go.

Though the jungle around them was deathly silent, Yang couldn’t escape the feeling that they were being watched, followed by something that was always close by, sliding silently and just out of sight.

“Hung, what did you see?” Yang eased up closer to the man, crouching now, and slowing as his soldier did.

The soldier turned, but there was a hint of confusion in his eyes. “I saw something… I couldn’t see clearly at first. But then it became a person… one of the engineers, I think.”

Yang frowned. “Impossible. One of those we left in the higher caves? How did they get down here so quickly?”

Hung shook his head and continued to burrow through the undergrowth as Yang followed. It started to make sense — this is who had been following them — the engineers. They had been too scared to join them, but also too scared to be by themselves. Yang’s chin jutted. They’d certainly feel his wrath when he caught them, he thought.

Hung led him to an opening in the undergrowth, with a small muddy pond at its center. The place was no more than twenty feet around, and almost totally overgrown to give the appearance of a dark green cave. The soldier turned and placed a finger to his lips. He waved Yang on and crept forward.

A man was standing perfectly still on the other side of the pond. He wore the familiar gray coveralls of the engineers, and was in the water. Yang frowned, no, not in the water. It looked like he was on top of the water.

“One of our engineers, but he doesn’t move or acknowledge me. Maybe he is in shock,” Hung said softly.

Yang snorted. “Go and get him, bring him back for questioning. I want to know how he got here and where the others are.”

Hung nodded sharply, his expression brightening as if he were happy to have some concrete orders to carry out. He got to his feet as Yang started to ease backwards.

Captain Yang turned away and only took a few paces, when he heard a grunt and the thud of an impact. Looking back quickly, he saw Hung and the engineer in some sort of embrace. He groaned, thinking that either his soldier was overreaching in his orders to bring the man in, or perhaps the befuddled engineer was fighting back out of fear.

While he watched, he saw Hung, who outweighed the smaller engineer by at least fifty pounds, struggle for a moment more. There came a tiny sound that could have been a whimper of pain or fear, and then the larger PLA soldier was yanked from his feet to disappear into the thick foliage.

“Huh?” Yang blinked, not understanding what he was seeing. How could that little fart of a man overpower and drag away the bigger Hung? He spat in disgust and crawled forward quickly, following both men into the deeper undergrowth.

The stink was the first thing that assailed him — the stink, the slime that covered everything, and the fresh path through the foliage. He followed quickly and then when it opened out, he stood.

His soldier, Hung, was there, or what was left of him. He also guessed he might have found his other missing scout, as there were too many body parts for just one man. Hanging in the trees like some sort of macabre decorations were strips of flesh, arms, legs, and the trunk of a torso, impaled on a sharp branch. Blood dripped down onto the ground where it mixed with the mud to create a bubbling red-brown soup.

Yang felt his testicles shrivel and he tightened his fingers around his gun. What had that little freak done to his men? The stench in the small clearing made his eyes water. It smelled of ammonia, blood, bowel contents and crushed plants. He lifted an arm across his mouth and nose.

A flicker of movement in the corner of his eye caused him to spin, his gun up and heart hammering. The engineer stood silently in the shadow of a huge tree trunk. His expression was totally devoid of emotion, as if the mutilation laid out before him didn’t exist.

“What have you done?” Yang whispered.

The figure edged forward, strangely, in a gliding manner like that of a ghost. The engineer looked wet, glistening, his eyes unfocused. He glided another few inches closer.

Yang took a step back. “Oh no, you don’t.” He took another step. “This is a trick.” He eased back another few paces, and then turned and ran.