Inhabited (25 page)

Travis realized that he was still holding Justin’s hand when his friend jerked him forward.

“Come on!” Justin shouted. He let go of Travis’s hand and moved fast.

Travis followed. He misjudged one of the gaps. Travis slipped through on his toes and his helmet fit through the space between the walls, but a sharp edge of rock scraped his cheek. He felt a line of blood rolling down his face like he was crying thick tears. He ducked through the next gap. He wanted to shed his backpack. It kept getting hung up on the walls. The space was so tight that he couldn’t figure a good way to free his arms from the straps.

Suddenly, Justin disappeared.
 

A hand shot back through the crack and pulled him forward. Travis popped free and stumbled into the middle of the mine shaft. He turned back, expecting to see the crevice slam shut behind them, and he was right—the crack was gone.
 

Justin moved to the side a little and the shadow from his light showed Travis that he was wrong. The crack was there, it was just hard to see when he looked directly at it. He had to move to an oblique angle before it was really visible. The walls made a strange optical illusion that conspired to hide their crevice.
 

Travis hiked his bag up to his shoulders.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said.

Justin nodded.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They ran, pausing only a second at the turn to verify that they both agreed. They got to the shaft that led down and Travis threw himself to the floor. His foot found the rung while Justin leaned over and pointed his light down to the tunnel below.
 

The rung was bent. One side had been torn from the wall. Travis slipped down and caught himself before he could fall too far. His other foot found the next rung down and he was stable again.

“Careful with that first step,” he said to Justin. “Keep your foot all the way over to the left side.”

Justin’s light bobbed as he nodded.
 

Travis found the next step and dropped his head below the lip of the shaft. He still held the edge of the rock. With one more step he could grab on to the broken rung.

Justin snatched his hand as his foot was feeling around.

“It’s okay. I got it,” Travis said.

Justin didn’t let go. Travis looked up and Justin tore his eyes away from whatever he had been looking at. He looked sad and frightened as he shook his head.

“What?” Travis asked. He looked down. “Carlos! Hey, man, is everyone else…” Travis trailed off as he got a better look. Carlos was down there. His face was pointed up the shaft. His eyes were closed.
 

“Carlos?” Travis asked.

Carlos didn’t answer.

Justin pulled on Travis’s hand.

With both their lights shining on his face, Carlos turned and walked out of view. A cold chill ran down Travis’s spine. He climbed back up a rung until he was face to face with Justin.

“What the fuck?” Travis asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t like it,” Justin said.

“It’s the way out. Like it or not, we have to go that way.”

Justin took a look up and down the mine shaft. He turned back to Travis and nodded. Travis stood there on the rung. He figured it was just his imagination, but his legs felt colder down there. It was like the first time he’d gone swimming in the ocean. Below him was an unknowable deep. Anything could be down there in that water. Enormous creatures who barely ventured close enough to the surface to understand sunlight might be swimming beneath him, intrigued by the sight of his legs dangling. Travis fought the urge to climb up out of the shaft.
 

Travis reached down with his foot, feeling for the next rung again.
 

“Hold up,” Justin said. He leaned over the shaft and opened Travis’s pack. He lifted back up and tied the old length of rope around one of Joy’s flashlights. The yellow beam seemed pathetic as Justin lowered it down into the hole. He set it down on the floor of the tunnel below and it shone like a lonely beacon.
 

Travis started down again.

-o-o-o-o-o-

He bent his legs and crouched low so he could see down the tunnel. When he had looked both ways, Travis pushed off and jumped down from the wall. Justin was right behind him. Travis stayed put until they were both down.
 

They looked up and down the tunnel, using their lights to chase back the darkness. Neither said anything for a minute.

“Carlos?” Justin called. “You here?”

Travis nudged his friend’s shoulder. He pointed at the ground. Dark spots were dripped in a trail down the tunnel.
 

“Back to back,” Justin whispered.
 

Travis nodded and kept his light pointing in the direction of the trail of spots. He saw the rope slithering in his peripheral vision as Justin coiled it up. Travis moved backwards as Justin walked forwards.
 

Travis studied the darkness. He watched the edges of his light against the wall, making sure that his beam progressed down the tunnel at the same pace they were walking. He remembered the journal. He remembered the description of the darkness swelling and flooding the tunnel, like a dark liquid.
 

Justin stopped.

“What?” Travis asked, over his shoulder.

“I thought I saw something move.” Justin pressed back until their spines were touching.

“You thought you saw it, or you did? Which is it? Those are two different things.”

“I saw something, but just the edge of something.”

“Do you see it now?”

“No.”

“Then keep moving for fuck’s sake.”

Justin started shuffling forward again, allowing Travis to back up once more. He felt Justin beginning to turn and glanced to his side to see that they were rounding a corner. That meant they only had two more straight sections and one more corner before they were out. At least that was the way that Travis remembered it.
 

“We should just run,” Travis said.

“We’ll keep going slow,” Justin said. “Slow and safe.”

At the edge of Travis’s light, in the middle of the tunnel’s floor, the shadow began to advance. Travis reached back.

“Give me that flashlight,” Travis said.

“Why?”

“Just give me the fucking flashlight.”

As Justin put it in his hand, the shadow grew. It was the shape of a man. It didn’t make sense. For his shadow to be cast towards Travis, the man would have to be lit from behind. If he was, then where was the light?

Neither the flashlight nor his headlamp were able to chase away the shadow as it grew.

“I’ve got a shadow back here,” Travis said.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s move faster,” Justin said.

Behind Travis, Justin’s back pulled away. Travis kept his light trained down the tunnel, hoping it might keep the shadow at bay. He picked up speed, sneaking glances behind himself to make sure he was keeping on track.

When they got to the next turn, Justin spun and joined his light to Travis’s. The two of them trained their lights on the shadow and sidestepped along the wall. They were at the last section of mine. To their right, the exit waited.

The shadow stalked forward. It turned the corner with them. For a second, Travis saw the shadow in profile. It was stretched out. He couldn’t determine if it was thrown by Carlos or not.

“Should we run?” Travis whispered to Justin.

Justin’s light whipped away as he turned to see where they were going.
 

“Yeah,” Justin said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Travis nodded. It was hard to turn his back on the advancing shadow. He kept expecting to see the man emerge from the darkness, but the form stayed just beyond the reach of Travis’s light. Travis backed over a rock and nearly stumbled. He had to turn now, before it was too late.

He spun, turning his back on the shadow.

They sprinted. The flames of their headlamps were challenged by the rush of the headwind. The flashlight beam swung wildly in Travis’s pumping hand.
 

Justin looked back at the shadow. He barked out a single word.

“Faster!”

In the distance, Travis saw the white rectangle of a sign. It was the skull and crossbones posted at the entrance to the mine. They were almost there. He couldn’t stand it. He had to look. With a glance over his shoulder, he saw the terrible truth. The shadow was nipping at their heels. It would be upon them before they got to the open sky.

He dug deep, pulling out a little speed he didn’t know he possessed. For a second, he pulled beyond Justin. A terrible thought crossed his mind—he didn’t necessarily need to outrun the shadow. As long as he outran his friend, that might be enough.

Travis didn’t get the opportunity to test his theory.

Before they reached the exit, a figure sprung from the darkness.

K
RISTIN
MADE
IT
TO
the top of the pile of rocks and surveyed the desert. By the winding access road, the highway was miles away. It seemed smarter to cut the distance by walking a straight line through the scrub. Despite the logic, she wasn’t convinced until she saw the lights of the cars. The rising air played tricks with the headlights. It made them dance and shimmer, but they were beautiful. They represented civilization and safety.

She began to pick her way down the rocks.

Kristin veered away from a dark bush. It could be hiding anything. She oriented herself with the stars before the highway dropped below the line of low hills she was going to have to cross.
 

“This is stupid,” she whispered. “I’m five minutes into this and I’m already making bad decisions and second-guessing them.”

She picked up her pace. The decision was made. It was time to commit and see it through.
 

Kristin couldn’t keep her eyes off the stars. The sky was so deep and black, she could almost imagine that she could see which stars were closer to the Earth.
 

She ran into a bush and resolved to keep her eyes pointed at the ground. It was difficult though. After being in the cave, the idea of limitless space had an undeniable appeal.

Somewhere off in the night, a truck blared its horn and Kristin stopped.

She blinked and tried to figure out what she had just seen. She was walking downhill and still a bit elevated from her surroundings. Because of that, the desert floor spread out before her and she had a decent view of all the rocks and bushes in the starlight. That’s not what confused her. There had been a few dark spots across the terrain and they had grown lighter when the horn sounded.

Any other night, she might have dismissed the phenomenon as a trick of her eyes. Tonight was different.
 

Kristin waited.

When nothing happened, she cautiously crept towards one of the bright spots. It didn’t look any different than the surrounding desert. There were a couple of bushes in the center of the spot. Kristin gave them space, but kept her attention focused there.
 

The effect was so gradual that she would have missed it if she hadn’t been paying attention. From below the bushes, the shadows began to pool and then grow. They seeped outward like water soaking into fabric. Kristin backed away. She turned and saw that she was backing near another spot where the shadows were growing. She had to change direction.
 

Kristin panicked and ran for a rock. She climbed its face and turned in time to see the shadows finish their expanse. Once they were done growing, it was impossible to detect them. Sure, the sand was a little darker, but it all looked perfectly natural. She could have wandered right into one of those shadows. It was just dumb luck that she hadn’t.

Kristin glanced around. She found some loose rocks on top of her boulder. She lifted one and brought it to her shoulder. The distance was difficult to judge in the night, but she did her best. She flung her rock at the center of one of the shadows.

It hit the sand to the right of the bushes.
 

The impact was far enough away that she couldn’t really even see it in the dark. Kristin was beginning to doubt the whole thing. Had there really been growing shadows, or was she just stressed out and over-tired?
 

She turned a slow circle on top of her boulder and realized that she didn’t even really know where the shadows where. The whole scene just looked perfectly normal.

Just for safety, she picked up a much bigger rock. She aimed a bit more carefully and threw it at the bushes.
 

She heard a couple of things.

First, the rock tagged the branches of the bush and then fell to the sand. Right after that, it must have tumbled into a hole. She heard it ring against stones as it tumbled. The last sound it made—a big, reverberating thunk—sounded like it came after a decent drop.

The shadows retracted.

They all sucked down back into their holes. At the same time.

Kristin had an epiphany. She imagined the shadows like big nets, all radiating out from their holes. They waited—delicately triggered traps—for a sound, or maybe motion, and then retracted, pulling their prey. Once deployed, they were impossible to detect.
 

Kristin glanced back in the direction of the highway. She couldn’t see it, but knew the direction once she oriented herself with the stars. The shadows were already beginning to creep their fingers back out across the sand.

She ran.

R
OGER
LISTENED
TO
HER
feet retreating down the cave. He lowered himself to the floor of the cave and leaned back against the wall. The sad eyes of the portrait kept drawing his attention. Roger reached up and shut off his light.

After a few seconds, he let his eyes drift shut. They weren’t doing him any good.