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Authors: Mark Wheaton

Bones Omnibus (53 page)

BOOK: Bones Omnibus
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On cue, they felt a sudden change in the breeze, something rushing through the darkness towards them and, half a second later, one of the giant tube worms had plunged its mouth - over twelve feet across - onto the end of the mine shaft, its teeth drilling in a circle a mere few inches from the MPs’ faces. It churned rocks and dirt from the surrounding rock walls, blasting it in towards the soldiers and dog with gale-force intensity.

“Run!” screamed Sgt. Celek, who stumbled backward but was grabbed by Holt, who kept him on his feet. Bones let out a few terrified barks at the worm and bent down on his forepaws as if trying to convince the thing he only wanted to play. After getting struck by a couple of rocks, the dog did a quick 180 and sprinted after the MPs as the ground, ceiling, and walls around them began to quake, showering them with pulverized shale.

Bones’s nose went into overdrive as silt and coal dust clouded into it, now pouring down from the crumbling ceiling like a heavy rain. What would’ve been most curious to Bones if he could have such a thought was that the tube worm and its symbiotic anemone gave off no smell whatsoever, despite its earlier stages carrying with them such distinctive, cadaverous scents. No sooner had he and his party gotten just past the flat car, about twenty feet up the shaft, than the downpour of dirt became a hail of rocks and the tunnel caved in all around them, burying them under hundreds of pounds of earth.

Back in the cavern, the symbiotic tube worm, detecting no more heat from the targeted mine shaft, returned to its task, drilling deep down into the earth. Like the anemone and the other worms, the nerve endings on this worm detected a very faint, yet incredibly intense heat signature coming from below the earth’s surface, the greatest heat it could fathom. The worm kept digging, churning up black and red shale, sand, and limestone as it got closer and closer to its destination, a few hundred feet a minute, down, down, down, deep into the earth.

It was only a few minutes before Bones woke up, covered from head to toe in rocks and dirt. His sides hurt, his head hurt, his paws hurt. But the good news was, he could move. Sure, the ceiling of the mine shaft had collapsed, but above that was hard, solid (for now) rock that hadn’t been affected by the attack of the giant tube worm. Though the exit was now blocked, Bones had managed to find himself in a small open pocket during the cave-in.

A little tentative still, Bones staggered to his feet, shook off as much of the dust and dirt as he could, then looked around. The dim light of the flat car could still be seen glowing through layers of collapsed rock, still at the shattered mouth of the mine shaft but virtually unreachable. Bones put his nose to the ground and began sniffing around, the smells of the tunnel now hanging heavy with death.


Booones
,” came a voice from nearby.

Bones trotted over, recognizing the scent of Sgt. Holt, though mixed with the harsh smells of blood and human shit. Bones leaned his nose down to her hand and gave it a couple of quick licks. It was already starting to get cold. Bones caught the faint scent of Sgt. Celek as well, but it came from deep under a solid mountain of rocks.


Bones
,” Sgt. Holt said, her voice weak and barely audible. “Help me…”

Bones saw her arm move and could tell that she was trying to dig herself out from under the dirt. Bones’s training kicked in, and he began digging around her arm until it was completely free. Feeling ambitious, Holt then tried to move the rest of her body, only to shriek in agony. It took her a couple of moments to recover her breath after this attempt, but then she turned back to the shepherd.

“I’m paralyzed,” she said, more to herself than the dog. “But I can almost reach the detonator switch.”

She pointed out to the small, gray trigger that had tumbled clear of her during the cave-in, now sitting just a few feet away. Bones continued to dig around her torso with his claws, but in doing so caused more dirt and rocks to rain down over her.


Guuuhhh!!
” she groaned as pebbles slipped into wounds opened up on her back and neck, bouncing against shredded muscle and nerve tissue. Tears exploded up into her eyes. “Bones. Please…”

She pointed at the trigger. Bones looked at her oddly for a moment, but then she pointed again.


Bones
,” she said, attempting a sharp tone in her voice. “There. Retrieve. Bring that to me. Come on…get it!”

Bones glanced over at the trigger, then back at Sgt. Holt, who waved her hand in the direction of the detonator, making Bones look back at it again.

“Get it, Bones,” she tried. “Bring it to me. Wait, how about this one:
fetch.

This was, in fact, one of Bones’s commands. He turned, walked over to the detonator, picked it up in his jaws, and brought it back to her, though he dropped it just beyond her reach. As it fell, Sgt. Holt gasped, afraid it might set off the explosives, but then it clattered harmlessly to the mine shaft floor just beyond her fingers.


Jesus
, Bones,” Sgt. Holt sighed, a little relieved that somehow it hadn’t blown them up, though on some level she knew she’d be dead soon, whether it came from the explosion or her own life’s blood draining away through her wounds.

She stretched out her fingers until they just touched the detonator. It took a couple of agonizing tries, but she finally managed to slide it close enough to pick up.

“That’s a good boy, Bones,” she said to the dog, who padded around, looking worried. “You’re a good boy.”

Sgt. Holt looked up at Bones and knew that the dog had no idea what was coming next. She also knew that, after all he’d been through, he didn’t deserve it, either. She craned her neck around but saw that the mine shaft leading back up to the surface was completely blocked off, with no way out. She then looked back towards the dull light on the flat car and could hear the ongoing work of the monstrosity in the cavern. That’s when she knew she was going to have to die alone.


Go,
Bones,” she cried, pointing as best she could towards the light. “Get out of here. Go!!!”

When she flicked her wrist one more time, Bones flipped backwards, as if expecting to see that she’d lobbed something for him to retrieve – another game of fetch - but she hadn’t, and he turned back to her, confused. That gave the sergeant an idea. She picked up a rock and threw it, albeit weakly, at Bones’s head. It lightly connected, causing Bones to snort and back away.


Go!
” she screamed as loud as she possibly could. “
Get out of here!!

She picked up a second rock and threw it at Bones, this time hitting him in his injured shoulder. Bones let out a
woof
this go-round, still thinking it was playtime. Sgt. Holt gave up on the rocks and simply tried another gesture.

“Come on, Bones,” she said, waving him away. “Just go…”

For some reason, this did the trick. Bones, mouth still open in a pant, wheeled around and climbed over the rubble leading to the flat car. As he did so, his hind legs started a small avalanche that dropped a handful of rocks over the opening he’d just used, effectively sealing Sgt. Holt in, all alone.

She stared at the space where the dull light had come in from only a second before, but then grasped the detonator in her hand. Taking a deep breath, she checked the switch to make sure it was still armed and then gently pressed the trigger.

“One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi…,” she began.

On the other side of the collapse, Bones made his way to the flat car, which had been knocked over and half-buried in the tube-worm attack. He gave it a quick sniff-around but then walked to the gnarled edge of the mine shaft and sniffed out into the darkness. He could hear the gigantic beast out in front of him but couldn’t see a thing. The lack of smell didn’t help, which only confused the shepherd. But then, like a miracle, he picked up another smell nearby. It was the rich, dry soil he’d smelled earlier in the day, both during the underground multipede attack but also as he’d just descended into the mine. It represented the layer of earth that was near enough to the surface that any scent of it this far underground must have been coming in courtesy of another mine shaft, one that represented a way
out
.

Bones sniffed around the cavern wall alongside the mouth of the devastated mine shaft, his whiskers detecting that it was covered with small, jagged outcroppings made by the descent of the great, cacophonous engine currently plowing its way to the earth’s core in the center of the cavern. Bones took a first, tentative step out to one of the rocks, found it solid enough to take his weight, then took a second step, then a third, and then a fourth out onto the sloping wall, using his whiskers to plot a course as best he could. The journey was treacherous, and Bones was continually off-balance as he went, finding himself less than sure-footed in the dark. But he went slowly, making the first dozen feet or so, gingerly stepping from outcropping to outcropping.

Then the ground beneath his feet gave way.

With a startled yelp, Bones tumbled down the side of the cavern wall, along with a cloud of rocks and dust he kicked up as he went. He scratched at the slope to regain his footing, but gravity kept pulling him back down until he was finally rolling head over heels a good hundred feet. Then he finally stopped after bouncing into something soft, like a rubber cushion.

Bones leapt back onto his feet and knew at once that what he’d struck was alive,
the anemone
, and started barking, his whiskers twirling against the fleshy creature’s outer layer. The noise of the creature’s digging was so loud that Bones’s barking could hardly be heard. But then he felt something moving through the air directly towards him and leaped out of the way at the last second.

This time, the attack was two-fold, tentacles and tube worms both, bashing themselves into the rocks where Bones had just stood as he bounded away. Even though he couldn’t see his attackers, Bones’s other senses could feel their approach, and he began a pattern of dives and feints as he dodged out of the way, the ground erupting directly behind him with great force as the creatures zeroed in on his warmth.

Bones’s nose caught the scent of that dry near-surface soil again, and he made a beeline for its source. Even though it was steep and would inevitably slow his progress, Bones leaped onto the rocky wall of the cavern and struggled to ascend. All around the shepherd, the worms and tentacles plunged after him, causing minor earthquakes that continually knocked Bones off his feet. Some of these proved fortuitous, since Bones would be thrown in a different, unpredictable direction, out of the firing line of an incoming worm.

But Bones was also starting to feel the touch of the tentacles that just missed him as well as the heat emanating from the mouths of the predatory worms. It was only a matter of time…

That’s when a great light suddenly illuminated the cavern, followed by the roar of an explosion that was louder even than the machinations of the anemone. All of the worms and tentacles instantly retracted from Bones’s location and moved to this new heat source, only to be ignited by the ensuing, fiery devastation and battered under a hail of boulders. Behind Bones, the anemone was visible again, looking even more monstrous than before as its tentacles caught fire, throwing long shadows across the main body of the monster as it flailed around in desperation.

Even with the smell of burning flesh in his nose, Bones could still pick out where the mine shaft was ahead of him and raced forward towards the source. As he ran, a
second
explosion from the opposite side of the cavern – another mine shaft - showered the anemone with super-heated rocks and earth. This was immediately followed by a third, coordinated blast that had the effect of shaking the entire cavern, which began caving in on itself.

With the ground shaking beneath his feet, Bones raced up the side of the cavern and finally reached an open mine shaft. The smell of the soil, tinged again with the oil and grease of mining equipment, filled Bones’s nose as he galloped up the pitch-black tunnel. Behind him, a fourth explosion went off, quickly followed by a fifth, then a sixth. The roar of the drilling tube worms was soon drowned out completely by the tremendous din of the collapsing mine.

X

I
t was afternoon by the time Bones clambered out of the mine shaft, now solid black in color, so covered in coal dust was he. A jumpy National Guardsman almost shot him when he appeared, walking out of the mine, panting, but then Corporal Romeo spotted him and gave up a cheer.

“Bones!!”

Romeo raced over to the police dog, who gave him a couple of sniffs, followed by a friendly lick on the hand. The Guardsman, who a second before had almost shot him, stared at the dog, shaking his head.

“That’s the fucking wonder-dog?” he asked, incredulous.

“Bones,” Romeo said. “His name’s Bones, and he’s got more lives than a goddamn pussy cat. Don’t ya, Bones?”

Bones looked up at Romeo, happy to be petted but thirsty and desirous of water to wash out his throat and help recharge his nose. After Romeo had gotten to his feet to announce the discovery of the dog to the others, Bones noticed some rainwater that had gathered in the wheel well of a nearby truck and went over to drink it.

It turned out that the interest in Bones was mostly short-lived, as the military operation over the mine had bigger fish to fry at the moment. A pair of servicemen were tasked with leading Bones out of the mine pit, where he was placed on a truck and, luckily, given a big bowl of water and a couple of energy bars. He devoured each in a single bite. No longer hungry, he lay down with his head resting on his paws as hundreds of National Guardsmen and army regulars were marched past and into the pit.

Bones was asleep within seconds.

“You’ve had a hell of a day, huh, Bones?”

Hearing the most familiar of voices, Bones’s eyes opened, and his nose inhaled the most familiar of smells. He looked up from the hospital blanket that had been placed on the floor for him and saw retired police sergeant Lionel Oudin looking down at him from a stool. Bones, half-covered in bandages, with parts of his fur shaved away to allow for a couple of surgeries, excitedly got to his feet and licked Lionel’s hands before planting his paws on his old master’s knees and raising up to lick his face, too. Lionel chuckled.

BOOK: Bones Omnibus
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