“And coming toward us, as well,” Susan exclaimed.
“Sound carries down here,” Jennifer whispered. “Don’t you hear that echo?”
Wade tried to help Jennifer. “Those sounds are coming from all around us. What we’re hearing could be another party of Dark Ones in an entirely different tunnel.”
Jennifer squeezed Susan’s hand, trying to reassure her. Don’t blow up at her down here, she thought. “We can’t be that much farther now. We probably went a mile underground all total. We’ve been walking gradually uphill now for a few miles. We should be very close to the surface.”
“I don’t know…” Susan’s voice was hesitant.
“I’m going first,” Jennifer said. “I’ll be the first to see any signs we’re reaching the surface.”
“Jennifer’s also the first in line if there are Dark Ones,” Wade added. “You’re between us. You’re safe.”
Jennifer glowered at Wade in the dark. What an idiot. What Wade said scared Susan even more.
“No, I really think we should stay here.”
Jennifer tugged gently at Susan’s hand, urging her forward. “Just stay by me. I promise, nothing will—”
Somewhere ahead of them, amid the far away grunting and clatters of the Dark Ones, came a series of screams. They were clearly audible, and male. “Oh shit, what the fuck!”
Another voice: “Hold your fire! Hold your fire, goddamn it!”
“Fuck that, get it off me!”
People. And from the sounds of it, they weren’t doing so well.
Jennifer, Susan, and Wade stood frozen in terror in the dark cave, listening as the thrashing sounds accompanied the screams, followed by other voices. Jennifer tried to follow what was being said, tried to discern where they were coming from, but it was hard to tell. The Dark Ones roared and judging from the sounds, it seemed like they were now doubling their efforts to squeeze their way deeper into the caverns.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” the male voice said. It was loud and coming closer.
A moment later there was a gunshot and something pinged in the darkness ahead. Jennifer ducked, pulling Wade and Susan down with her.
Jennifer’s throat locked up. Her knees wobbled as the thrashing continued and died down. A moment later there were voices of shock, of fear. “Jesus, look at that thing!”
Wade stood close behind Jennifer. “It’s people. We should call out to them.”
Jennifer nodded and tried to do that, but her throat was so dry she could only manage a strangled choke. The pain in her head increased.
“Hello? Hey, we need some help down here! Can you hear us?” Wade’s voice was loud and it echoed, booming down the cavern.
Whoever it was that had been yelling heard them. A male voice, strong and full of authority, called out.
“Who’s there? Identify yourselves!”
EIGHTEEN
Clark winced. The pain in his head varied by degrees, as if coming and going in waves. At times, it was a dull, sharp throb behind his temples, but then, without warning, it would flare so badly that his eyes began to water. Then he’d grow nauseous. He bit his lip and focused on his breathing, trying to block out everything else. Tony seemed to be experiencing it, too, but the Black Lodge agents appeared unaffected. He wondered if they’d had some sort of psychic training—a mental defense against this psychological storm.
They’d had to squeeze single file through a series of narrowing caverns and tunnels, but now they emerged in another wide cave. Ruby led the way without hesitation. Her flashlight’s beam wobbled amid her strides. Tony was in front of him, silent now, rifle clutched in his hands as he jogged along, while the other two Black Lodge agents, Diamond and Amethyst, brought up the rear.
Clark didn’t like this, but there was really nothing he could do about it. To fight the Black Lodge agents at any point between his abduction and arriving on Naranu would mean a quick and sudden death. He felt grateful to Tony for saving him back at the condo. He felt he owed the ex-hitman some backup and he was prepared to provide it.
But he still didn’t like the situation they were in.
It was bad enough being chased by those lizard-things and their mutant crustacean friends again. It was quite another to be forced by men-in-black spooks to stop some cataclysmic force he had minimal understanding of. Indeed, if it weren’t for the Dark Ones and the Clickers, he wouldn’t even believe in this nonsense. But it was kind of hard to discount the possibility of an ancient squid-headed entity crossing the barriers between worlds when confronted with the reality of intelligent reptile-men and giant crossbreeds of lobsters, crabs and scorpions.