Jabberwock Jack (23 page)

Unsurprisingly, morale was low on Team Bait. They were all on this team because they had pissed off Jericho. Szandor disagreed with this assessment. As he stated loudly, they were on this team "because Jericho's an asshole!" Diego laughed and Meat rolled his eyes, but neither of them could disagree with this statement. Fala said nothing, keeping her role as the ghost that haunted the group by trailing behind and not engaging with them in any way.

There was a feeling of uneasiness across the team. Szandor had been sarcastic in calling it Team Bait, but that name struck them as uncomfortably true. They knew that Jericho had no additional knowledge, that he really didn't know if this was a better or worse path to take. But they couldn't shake the feeling that Jericho had sent them into a trap. Fala's accompaniment helped that feeling a little, as Jericho would not cast away his favorite so easily, but on the other hand, he had tried to not let her go without him. She didn't seem worried or otherwise bothered that Jericho was not with them. She was almost happy, which just annoyed the rest of them. They were trying to be silent and move quietly, but Fala hummed a happy tune. There were whispered admonishments to get her to stop, but she just kept humming. If they hadn't been trying to be quiet, there would have been yelling, and I know my brother did consider knocking her out "for the good of the team."

The descending tunnel eventually ended in a landing where there was an opening to the right. Through the opening was a large, cavernous room. I've used that word before to describe some of the Undersystem interiors, but nowhere else was this term so appropriate. The chamber they had entered was not made, it was instead a natural rock cavern. The ground here was more level. It was uneven in places, with water pooling in depressions, but it was otherwise nothing like the descending passageway. A few improvements had been made to try to integrate this with the manmade tunnel system, such as adding in overflow grates and pipe exits, but this was definitely a place that existed long before the city above. Stalactites and stalagmites had grown in the corners, water dripping from the former into still pools of brackish water. That foul smell was even stronger here.

There were two major features of the room. First was a crevice at the far end of the room. Something had long ago broken the rock, creating an enormous crack. The crevice was enormous, a yawning opening that descended rapidly into its own tunnel. The other feature was right in front of the crack. This was a section where the ground was more even, almost flat. It was covered with random debris. Not the sludge and rock you might expect of a natural cavern. If we had been above ground, I would say this was almost trash. But down here it was out of place. There was no way it had gotten here by accident; someone or somethings had dropped or placed that debris.

Weapons out, my brother and his team slowly and carefully walked into the room. Typical hunter style: check the corners, find out if there was any danger, expect an ambush, ever on alert. Finding the katana took no time, Szandor found it easily on the top of the scattered debris. It was intact, but it was covered with a dark, sticky ichor that Szandor didn't want to touch. He also wondered if the blade had rusted or corroded in all this water and slime. He still picked it up, knowing I would want to make the final call on whether to get rid of the sword.

They looked over the rest of debris, particularly Diego. He was looking for a trail or a sign. It was a strange collection of objects. There was a broken phone, a ripped handbag, a splintered spear, torn scraps of clothes, a broken spear, parts of a leather biker jacket, a nearly intact boot, and some crunched up bones. Diego shook his head in dismay. He knew what this all was.

"These are the remains of the dead," said Diego. "The left over bits and pieces after they were devoured."

Szandor had been holding the phone, but hearing this he dropped it as if the broken piece of electronics might bite him. "From ghouls?"

Diego shook his head. "There are ghoul remains here. I'm guessing..."

"Jack," said Meat.

Diego nodded.

"At least we know his diet isn't exclusively human," said Meat.

"Then where is Jack?" asked Szandor. "Can you track him?"

"I don't need to," said Diego. "I already know where he is."

"Where?" said Szandor.

"Breathe deep," said Diego.

Szandor had been on edge since he came into the room and more so since they identified the remains. He had noticed the foul murky smell when he came into the chamber, but his shallow breaths since then hadn't given him any new scents. Now he stood straight and let his lungs take in a deep breath. Here in front of the crevice, he could easily smell what he had overlooked. It was a pungent stink that wafted up from that crevice. It was a mix of decayed fish, mold, polluted water, and curdled blood. The stench seemed to slowly gush out of crack like an invisible mist, the scent significantly stronger with every step closer to the crevice. After noticing the stink, Szandor looked at the crack in the wall and floor with a renewed respect. As he stared at it along with his silent companions, he began to notice a faint growling. Not particularly loud, but an ever present background noise that rolled through the space. He tensed immediately, but a firm hand on his shoulder from Diego stilled him. My brother looked back to the crevice, noticing that the growl was rhythmic - it rose and fell regularly.

"I think he's sleeping," said Diego softly, his eyes still locked on that black crevice.

"Fuck, what are we going to do?" whispered Szandor.

"Tread very carefully," said Meat. "We need to report back to the others. We need full force and a plan."

"Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here," said Szandor.

The three of them began a slow and silent walk back to the chamber entrance. Fala, however, had other ideas. Behind them, the three heard a hiss, but not of a snake or serpent. Turning back caused them to turn away, the brightness of what Fala was holding too much for their thermals. As they pulled their goggles off, they looked back to see why Fala was holding a flare in the space in front of the crevice.

In a very loud voice, she shouted into the cracked chasm.

"Hear me, Jagherherawagh! I call upon you!"

Danger Line

Sometimes you're part of it all when things go very bad. You're right there in the middle of it, feeling things go from bad to worse, flailing and failing miserably to stop it.

Sometimes you're outside of it, watching it all go bad with not a damn thing you can do.

We looked down through the grate at the room below. I heard Fala calling out to Jack loudly. A chill went through me.

"What's she doing?" asked Delilah.

"I... I don't know," said Jericho, honestly shocked.

"We need this grate open!" I said urgently. My brother was down there and things were about to go really bad. I reached for the grate, finding the bolts covered in grime and hard to get a grip on with my fingers. "We need your power drill!"

"It's too loud!" said Delilah. "It'd bring everything anywhere around here straight to us!"

I cursed. Shaking my head, I started grabbing at the bolts and twisting them. My fingers kept slipping off, but I was getting at least a little traction. I was actually turning them, just slowly and painfully. I felt someone near me as Jericho crouched next to me, twisting at some of the bolts himself.

"Jagherherawagh, spirit of the river and the deep, hear me!"

Fala dropped her flare and then lit another. The growling breathing was louder but still rhythmic.

"What the fuck is she doing?" said Szandor.

"Getting us killed," said Diego. "Let's get out of here!"

Meat walked over to Fala and put a hand on her shoulder as he looked at the crevice for some sign of Jack. "You need to stop that. You're going to wake him up." His voice was level but stern. Maybe he was thinking of her as childish as she sometimes portrayed herself as. I couldn't tell if he was laying his hand on her shoulder to be calming or to show the force he could exert on her.

In one movement, Fala shrugged off Meat's arm and drew one of her long knives, pointing it at his throat. "Don't touch me," she said icily.

Meat put his hands in front of him defensively. "I just want you to think about what you're doing."

"What I am doing?" said Fala with a laugh. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

"I just think that..." Meat trailed off as he looked past Fala. He had noticed the growling breathing had stopped. Now there was movement in the darkness.

The flickering flare provided some light to the room, but not as good illumination as flashlights or LEDs. So they couldn't see the thing before them very well. It was more of a dark shape highlighted with light and features. But no one could miss that it was enormous. That horrid stench now pervaded the room, even reaching us through the grate. I could vaguely see the bulk rise up and then lean forward.

In that meager illumination, Meat saw an enormous red eye, a ruby red that caught the light. A single vertical pupil swam in that vast redness, almost more like a cat's eye. With an agonizing slowness the eye and the rest of the monster's head pushed forward into the flickering light. Before we had just seen flashes of it, but now Jack's features were clear.

Jack's head was massive, bigger than both Meat and Fala put together. His skin was rough and white, marred only by dirt and dried blood. The head had a long snout like an alligator or perhaps a dragon. Jack's mouth hung open, huge drops of saliva hanging from long and impossibly sharp teeth. That one gigantic eye held court in Jack's left socket. The other eye socket was covered with an ugly mess of white scar tissue. That one wound told us two things. One, this impossible, awe inspiring, and unfathomably dangerous creature could be hurt. Second, Jericho had not lied about his own tangle with Jack.

Meat's own jaw dropped, while Fala smiled and called out to Jack.

"Jagherherawagh! Great spirit of the water! As an inheritor of the Appaquagh tribe you so long protected, a tribe you owe debt to, I ask for your favor! Long have we suffered at the hands of invaders, of interlopers! Our people have been scattered from our lands, broken, beaten down while others have spoiled the ground, killed the game, and polluted the air!"

"What the fuck does she think she's doing?" said Szandor.

"Now is the time, Jagherherawagh!" she cried, almost rapturously. "Now is the time for revenge! You and I can take back what was stolen from the Appaquagh, from what the current tribe leaders ignore in their decadence and subservience to the white men! Together we can destroy what these invaders have wrought! We can bring back the Appaquagh and their reverence for you!

"But first, as a show of good faith, Jagherherawagh, I offer you a gift!" She spread her arms at Meat, Szandor, and Diego. "I offer you the lives of these white men as a sacrifice!"

"Oh, fuck no," said Szandor, backing up toward the entrance to chamber.

"Bitch, I'm not even white!" said Diego, bring his hunting rifle up to aim.

Jabberwock Jack's head turned, scanning the room, taking in all its occupants. Then it opened its mouth in a screeching roar, the foul smell in the room becoming exponentially worse. Szandor braced for the attack. He had been about to run, but he wasn't going to leave Diego and Meat in the room. Diego braced his rifle on his shoulder, trying to find the kill shot. Meat lifted his spear gun.

And then with amazing speed, Jack lunged, closing his mouth around his prey.

That prey was Fala.

She was there and a second later, she was gone. No one expected it or even tracked the movement except for Meat. Somehow he saw Jack's intended move. He had grabbed at Fala's arm to drag her from danger, protecting human life even amidst betrayal. But he was too slow. Instead his movement put him too close to Jack's lunge. The force of Jack's movement threw Meat aside, the big man tumbling to the ground unconscious.

"We need this grate open now!" I shouted, having barely gotten a single bolt unscrewed. "I don't care about the noise!"

Delilah nodded, scrambling to get the drill out of her bag.

Below, Diego fired a round from his hunting rifle. The bullet hit Jack in the head, dark blood spurting from the wound. Jack reared back in pain and let out a piercing scream, but the monster was by no means dead.

Diego was reloading, slowly walking back to the entrance, only a foot or two away from Szandor, who was crouched at the entry way. With a screeching roar, Jack lunged forward, his long body darting through the flickering flare light. Diego saw that Jack was coming for him, deciding to drop his rifle and dive out of the way.

But it wasn't enough. Jack's jaws closed around Diego. Unlike Fala, he wasn't swallowed completely. That split second of Diego's panicked evasion meant Jack closed his mouth too early. He closed his mouth around the lower half of Diego.

It was a sound I will always remember. I won't claim that I had never seen or heard a man die before this, but I will always remember Diego's scream. He looked toward Szandor, Diego's face a shocked grimace, blood spilling from his mouth. The Jack began to pull his head and Diego back.

My brother has a history of fighting tooth and nail against futility. He wasn't going to give up. Instead of running, my brother jumped forward. Grabbing Diego's shoulders he began pulling. Diego groaned. I'm not sure what Szandor expected - was he going to be able to pull Diego out without Jack's teeth goring him? Did my brother see something the rest of us didn't?

Szandor kept pulling, shouting curses at Jack, tears welling in his eyes. But it wasn't enough. Jack reared his head back, pulling Diego's body up... and Szandor, who would not let go. Jack knew that he had bitten off more than he could chew. He had half of Diego's body outside of his mouth and the dangling, screaming form of Szandor.

"I need this grate open now!" I screamed over the whirr of Delilah's power drill. I started kicking at the grate, trying to force it open with a few bolts removed, uncaring of whether this was making Delilah's job harder. I was frantic and I needed to kick and push - those were the only actions that made sense to me. My brother needed me and I was stuck just watching. This was one of my worst nightmares.