This is just something I was experimenting with. It may go somewhere, it may not. If it dies, don't say you weren't warned. Don't expect fast chapters either, I'm still trying to wrap up ToV and I am going to be moving, and it's summer, and yada yada yada....
Mostly I'm just looking for opinions. I haven't proofed this or edited it.
Well, here goes. Feel free to just add comments at the end, in this thread.
I'll just start a new thread if this goes anywhere.Enjoy!
The Rift: Hell Opened
Chapter 1
“Ladies and Gentlemen, The President of the United Federation.” The announcer spoke boldly into the microphone and then stepped aside as the President walked up. The sound of applause could be heard in the background from the small crowd of reporters packed into the press room.
The President paused at the podium for a moment as he looked over the crowd in front of him and directly into the camera for effect. After a few seconds he waived his hand to quiet the crowd and began his address.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the world, it is my distinct honor today to stand before you and deliver this ground breaking news. Once again our top scientists, archaeologists, fearless explorers, and our breakthrough technological achievements have pushed back the borders of our known universe and opened up a new world for us to explore.
“We have assembled a team of the best researchers, scientists, archaeologists, and cave explorers from all over the world, these people are the best of the best, if I may be so bold as to use that cliché. The team is currently on location in a recently discovered cave in the Sahara Desert in Africa, in the country of Niger.
“What we know so far is that the team is currently ten miles underground and venturing further daily. They estimate that they have eighty percent of the known cave mapped out and current estimates are that the cave is only forty percent explored so far, and it only gets deeper.
“The team so far has discovered massive mineral deposits of gold, silver, iron, copper, and several large pockets of diamonds, jade, and other precious rocks in quantities that almost defy imagination. Huge deposits of salt have also been discovered. Due to the massive wealth of this new discovery, we are mobilizing Federation Army troops in cooperation with the local authorities and governments to secure this site from looters and criminals, as well as the rogue governments who would like to seize this discovery for their own. This cave is the property of the Niger government and we are only offering our aid and support to secure this site from any enemy invaders.
“In cooperation with the Niger government, we are offering sealed contracts to companies worldwide to begin exploiting the resources of this cave. The Federation is committed to providing security until such a time as the country of Niger has mined sufficient resources to build a military of their own capable of replacing our forces there.
“This find is a historical event Ladies and Gentlemen.” The President paused for a moment and then continued. “The conservative estimate of the financial value of this new discovery is somewhere around twenty trillion dollars and that is based strictly on what can be seen visually; no mining has begun yet and no mining will occur until the cave has been explored and mapped one hundred percent.”
The President took a sip of water and then continued, “All of us are amazed at the reports coming from Niger and the team on site there.”
A computer generated image of the cave and the mapping progress replaced the President as he continued speaking. “You can see from this image the amount of exploration that has been done so far. The yellow dots are branches of this cave that have not been explored yet. The white lines represent the areas already mapped and explored by the team.
“I am excited about this discovery and I look forward to seeing what other great finds will come out of this new discovery. Thank you for your time Ladies and Gentlemen, God bless and Good night.”
The President promptly turned and left the stage as the announcer stepped back up. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United Federation.” He said in reference to the man who had just left. “We will not be taking any questions at this time. Goodnight.”
Several reporters sighed in disappointment, a few others yelled questions anyway as the announcer left the stage and disappeared behind the heavily guarded doors that the President had just exited through. Across the globe, the news networks turned back to their regular news broadcasts. Several commentaries were offered by various talking heads about what this new discovery could mean and the possible consequences and what effect it might have on the global financial market, not to mention Niger.
Investors around the world, many already in the know, began lining up to buy into the companies that would be awarded the mining contracts, a few investors had some good ideas as to what companies would get the contracts. There were only a few companies capable of handling such a job; Hellion Industries was one of the few and at the top of the list.
++++
“Listen. You hear that?” Archeologist David Cecil asked quietly. The team had been underground for almost three weeks straight now, currently almost fifteen miles below the earths surface. They had explored what they had taken to calling the main shaft and bypassed literally hundreds of lateral branches in this massive labyrinth that went to only God knows where.
Using advanced portable radar and sonar devices, they had mapped most of the cave that they had passed through so far, but the high tech machines could only “see” a few hundred feet in any given direction and they could only map hard rock formations and minerals and metals. So far, no sign of any previous human presence had been discovered.
“No. I didn’t hear anything” replied Sammy Powers; she looked around at the other team members still catching up to their position. The LED helmet lights lit the area around them in an artificial white light, revealing the glittering diamonds and metals that literally covered almost every rock face in sight. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?” she asked in hushed whisper, almost inaudible.
David looked around as he prepared for the next climb. “Yeah. It is.” He set up his spot light and began surveying the cliff before him. They were going down, always down. The void in front of him was a chasm of inky darkness that seemed to soak up the light from the five million candle power spot. He could not see the bottom and the cliff face appeared to be smooth and unbroken as far as he could see. This was by far the biggest and deepest pit they had discovered so far in this expedition.
David reached into his pack and pulled out a white phosphorus flare and set it aside. The rest of the team was gathering around and setting up various pieces of equipment and gear. Jim Dawson pulled out the sonar and radar devices and began setting them up near the edge of the pit. Karl Teller quickly took readings of the air quality and tested for the presence of any dangerous gases.
“You know,” he muttered to himself but loud enough for everyone to hear, “I find it odd that this deep under the surface the air is still good and there is no radon, no nothing.” His meter chirped once as he finished talking and the needle showed a brief spike of nitrogen in the air and then returned to normal. “Strange” he muttered, “very strange.”
“Hey Karl, we should just count our blessings that we got this far without anyone getting hurt.” Vincent Cooper said, his voice echoing in the cave.
“I know and I am” replied Karl, “It just seems strange to me is all.” Karl set his meter down and assisted Vincent and Jim as they began setting up the descent cable and winch. Jim had finished setting up the radar and sonar and began actively pinging the pit, trying to establish a picture of the area and what was down below them. After an hour of surveying, he pulled the flashcards from the devices and plugged them into his laptop and waited for the computer to map out the readings. It automatically added the new readings to the existing map of the “known” cave and then rendered a 3-D image of the new space.
“Interesting David. We still can’t see the bottom and this thing took a reading down to 1000 feet. That’s about the limit of this small machine.”
David grunted his reply as he looked over Jim’s shoulder at the 3-D image. He turned and walked back to where he had placed the WP flare and popped the cap off. The flare ignited instantly in a brilliant white flame that almost blinded the rest of the cavers. David leaned over the edge as much as he dared and dropped it into the void.
They all watched as the flare fell seemingly forever, then it vanished from sight altogether. No one said a word as they contemplated what that meant. The cable winch only had 1000 feet of cable on it, if there was no bottom to this pit, then they could go no further in this direction; it was a dead end.
“I’m going to harness up. Send me down the cable.” Jim said as he began strapping himself into his harness. Jim was a seasoned and experienced caver, practically a legend in the world of spelunking for some of his adventures and discoveries. He finished putting on his harness and Sammy began checking him over to make sure everything was satisfactory. Jim cracked two chem lights and slid them into the holders on his arms, then clipped the five million CP spot onto his belt.
“I think I’m ready. Radio check.” He spoke into the mike that was attached to his helmet.
“Check, read you loud and clear” replied David as he checked over the winch and cable. He picked up the end of the cable and attached it to Jim’s harness, gave it a quick tug to make sure it was locked and then stepped back to man the winch.
Jim walked up to the edge, took one last look at his team, took up the slack in the cable and stepped off. The cable went tight as it took his weight and Jim stood against the cliff face and adjusted himself for the long descent.
“Start descent” David heard over the radio beside the laptop. He picked up the controller and pressed the button and the winch began a slow controlled release of the cable. The team was looking over the edge watching Jim as he began to descend into the void, his LED headlamp and green chem. lights slowly disappearing from view.
“Cliff face is smooth and black. No fissures or cracks or anything. It’s like glass almost” came the voice over the radio, “I’m going to turn on the spot, see what’s down here.”
Jim flipped the switch on the spotlight and began to shine it around him as the cable slowly spooled him lower and lower. He could see the far edge of the pit opposite him, maybe 300 feet distant. The utter darkness seemed to soak up the light from the high powered beam and as he continued his descent the darkness became palpable and closed in around him with a tangible force.
Jim licked his lips nervously and continued to shine the light around. The cliff face was entirely smooth as if it had been polished. There were no handholds, crevices, outcroppings, or breaks in the wall. It was black like obsidian, but it wasn’t a rock he recognized. On the opposite wall the cliff appeared the same, but his light seemed to be dimming even though the battery indicator was reading almost a three quarter charge remaining.
“Passing 250 feet. See anything yet?” Came David’s voice over the radio.
Jim pointed his light downward and the beam disappeared into blackness. “No, not a thing. The walls haven’t changed either, still smooth as glass. I have no idea what kind of rock this is. It almost looks like obsidian but it isn’t. It’s something else I’ve never seen before.”
“Passing 500 feet.” The scenery hadn’t changed a bit but now Jim was trying to suppress a feeling of anxiety and panic that was creeping over him like a fog. He wasn’t one to rattle easily and during his twenty plus years of cave explorations he had had more close calls and near misses than most people live through, but something about this wasn’t right. The feelings began to grow as he continued his descent.
“Passing 750 feet. Anything?” Jim shined his light around some more but now the light seemed to be even more subdued than before. He checked his battery; it was reading more than half full. He shined it back up above him but he couldn’t see the edge of the cliff anymore. The walls opposite him seemed to absorb the light and he was no longer sure if there was even a wall there anymore. He pointed the light downward and his beam seemed to be cut short; there was still a black void there that the light wouldn’t penetrate.
“No. Nothing yet. Everything is the same.” He felt the fear inside began to climb and had to force his voice to sound normal. He pulled up his instruments and checked them; the air was still reading safe which he couldn’t understand. This far below ground they should all be wearing their respirators and having oxygen pumped down from the surface.
He felt the cable slow and then he stopped moving. “You’re at the end of the cable Jim. 1000 feet. You see anything at all? We can’t see you from here.”
“No. Can’t see a thing. Apparently there is no bottom here. Hold on, I’m going to drop a flare.” Jim pulled a white phosphorus flare from his cargo pocket on his pants and popped the top. The brilliant flare lit instantly as he turned his eyes away from the searing white light. He held it out at arms length and then dropped it and watched it as it fell. It fell a very long ways before disappearing into the darkness. Jim watched as he hung there for any sign of light from below and wondered curiously just how deep the pit went. They would probably never know without getting some more really advanced equipment down here to check it out.
He sighed with resignation and was just about to call for ascent when he thought he saw a light below him. He quickly grabbed his spot light and aimed it downward, but the blackness closed on the beam like liquid ink and seemed to snuff it out. The feeling of panic washed over him with almost desperate fury and he suddenly had the urge to get out of there right this instant. He fought for control of his emotions and mind before keying his mike and saying softly “Ascend. Ascend now. Get me up there. Now.” He kept his voice low but the urgency was plain.
He felt the cable tug and then he was ascending. “Roger that, the cable is ascending. What’s up?” David’s voice had concern in it as he caught the urgency in Jim’s request.
“I don’t know. Something ain’t right down here. Can this thing go any faster?” He already knew the answer, the winch had a set speed for ascent and descent and it was at max speed right now. It felt painfully slow.
BOOM.
The sound, like a giant bass drum, reverberated from down below and up the pit to the team above. “What the hell was that Jim? Are you okay?”
Jim didn’t answer. He was too busy looking down below him, shining his light in all directions, fighting the ever increasing panic in his chest. The blackness seemed to get thicker if that was possible. Finally he whispered into the radio, “It wasn’t me. Just get me up there NOW.” He stated with urgency.
BOOM.
The drum sounded again, the deep bass crashing up from below and bouncing off the walls of the pit around him. He looked down, desperately searching for any sign of what was there; the cable moving at an incredibly slow pace. He looked down again and his heart seemed to stop.
Far below him, incredibly far below him, he saw a red glow appear, swirling slowly in the blackness, almost ethereal in appearance, like a gas. He stared hard at the light as he fought the panic inside him. This wasn’t real. It was his imagination.
The light grew deeper and darker.
BOOM.
The sound crashed passed him with almost deafening force. This time the panic won and he screamed into the radio, “GET ME UP NOW! NOW DAMMIT NOW!”
“We’re going as fast as we can Jim. Hold on. You’re passing 500 feet right now; we can barely see your spot light now. What’s that red light?”
“I don’t know. Whatever it is, that sound is coming from down there. Whatever is down there, we just ****ed it off. Get me up there now dammit.” Jim was almost ready to try climbing the cable hand over hand as he fought to regain control of himself. He looked up above him and saw several flashlights hovering out over the cliff as his team anxiously looked for him. Pointing the spotlight back down below him he watched in horror as the red light grew and then something even blacker than the blackness of the cave moved within the light, growing bigger and bigger as it gained on him.
The smell of phosphorus and sulfur hit his nose like a baseball bat and he physically recoiled in his harness as his eyes began watering and his nostrils began burning.
“Passing 250 feet. You’re almost here. What the hell is going on down there?”
Jim stared down at the light and darkness below him, the even blacker shape within the light moving in a circle, gaining speed as it approached Jim at an ever increasing pace. The thing looked up at Jim and he saw the eyes.
They burned deep red and yellow, and smoldered with a menacing hate that Jim could physically feel. The eyes locked on Jim like a vise and held him; he couldn’t look away, he couldn’t respond, he couldn’t speak. The creature continued to rise toward him, taking shape as it grew in size. He could see the head now, shaped like a goat and two massive horns came from the skull and wrapped around in a full curl until they almost touched in the front; giant fangs protruded from the bottom jaw and up over the nose. The body took shape slowly but seemed to change as the smoke and flame and light moved. The skin of the creature appeared to be cracked everywhere and what looked like white hot flame glowed from the cracks.
“Passing 100 feet. You’re almost here Jim. Hang on, we’re all set to grab you.” The voice in his earpiece snapped him back to consciousness and he struggled to think of something he could do. In a desperate move he pulled his last phosphorus flare and popped the cap. The flame seared white light around him and he prepared to throw it at the creature.
He was bringing his arm back for the throw when he saw the hand reaching up from the depths to grab him. The black skin was covered with huge scales and the flame from within was searing through the cracks in its skin. There were no fingers, only huge giant black claws; each one bigger than Jim's body. The inhuman scream that escaped Jim’s mouth was one of pure horror as he tossed the flare with all his strength straight into the creatures gaping mouth below him.
The flare hit the creature in the mouth and the hand recoiled away from Jim for just a moment as attack caught the creature off guard. Just then Jim felt hands grab him and jerk him back over the cliff. Someone snapped off the winch cable from Jim’s harness and he felt several pairs of hands grab him and drag him backwards away from the cliff edge. He wasn’t aware of anything but the growing red glow that was coming from the pit.
Suddenly someone slapped him across the face. “JIM! Let’s go. Let’s move!” Sammy was suddenly standing in front of him and screaming at him at the top of her lungs. He snapped out of his trance and was instantly on his feet, spinning around and racing to keep up with the others. The entire team was on the run back up the main shaft they had come down, abandoning all their gear behind them.
David was leading the way, his LED helmet light bobbing around up front as he scrambled over boulders and outcroppings and ducked under ledges; the other team members right on his heels. There was a chimney up ahead that they had descended to get here and now they must ascend it, but they could only do so one at time. David was the first one to go up.
Jim wheeled around as he reached the chimney and watched the cave behind him as he waited for Sammy, Karl, and Vince to climb up. The faint glow of red could be seen from down the shaft and the acrid smell of burning sulfur was filling the air and growing stronger.
BOOM.
The drum sounded again, the sound reverberating off the walls around them and rattling a few stones loose from somewhere above them. The light increased a little and then they heard something else.
Screams.
Mostly I'm just looking for opinions. I haven't proofed this or edited it.
Well, here goes. Feel free to just add comments at the end, in this thread.
I'll just start a new thread if this goes anywhere.Enjoy!
The Rift: Hell Opened
Chapter 1
“Ladies and Gentlemen, The President of the United Federation.” The announcer spoke boldly into the microphone and then stepped aside as the President walked up. The sound of applause could be heard in the background from the small crowd of reporters packed into the press room.
The President paused at the podium for a moment as he looked over the crowd in front of him and directly into the camera for effect. After a few seconds he waived his hand to quiet the crowd and began his address.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the world, it is my distinct honor today to stand before you and deliver this ground breaking news. Once again our top scientists, archaeologists, fearless explorers, and our breakthrough technological achievements have pushed back the borders of our known universe and opened up a new world for us to explore.
“We have assembled a team of the best researchers, scientists, archaeologists, and cave explorers from all over the world, these people are the best of the best, if I may be so bold as to use that cliché. The team is currently on location in a recently discovered cave in the Sahara Desert in Africa, in the country of Niger.
“What we know so far is that the team is currently ten miles underground and venturing further daily. They estimate that they have eighty percent of the known cave mapped out and current estimates are that the cave is only forty percent explored so far, and it only gets deeper.
“The team so far has discovered massive mineral deposits of gold, silver, iron, copper, and several large pockets of diamonds, jade, and other precious rocks in quantities that almost defy imagination. Huge deposits of salt have also been discovered. Due to the massive wealth of this new discovery, we are mobilizing Federation Army troops in cooperation with the local authorities and governments to secure this site from looters and criminals, as well as the rogue governments who would like to seize this discovery for their own. This cave is the property of the Niger government and we are only offering our aid and support to secure this site from any enemy invaders.
“In cooperation with the Niger government, we are offering sealed contracts to companies worldwide to begin exploiting the resources of this cave. The Federation is committed to providing security until such a time as the country of Niger has mined sufficient resources to build a military of their own capable of replacing our forces there.
“This find is a historical event Ladies and Gentlemen.” The President paused for a moment and then continued. “The conservative estimate of the financial value of this new discovery is somewhere around twenty trillion dollars and that is based strictly on what can be seen visually; no mining has begun yet and no mining will occur until the cave has been explored and mapped one hundred percent.”
The President took a sip of water and then continued, “All of us are amazed at the reports coming from Niger and the team on site there.”
A computer generated image of the cave and the mapping progress replaced the President as he continued speaking. “You can see from this image the amount of exploration that has been done so far. The yellow dots are branches of this cave that have not been explored yet. The white lines represent the areas already mapped and explored by the team.
“I am excited about this discovery and I look forward to seeing what other great finds will come out of this new discovery. Thank you for your time Ladies and Gentlemen, God bless and Good night.”
The President promptly turned and left the stage as the announcer stepped back up. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United Federation.” He said in reference to the man who had just left. “We will not be taking any questions at this time. Goodnight.”
Several reporters sighed in disappointment, a few others yelled questions anyway as the announcer left the stage and disappeared behind the heavily guarded doors that the President had just exited through. Across the globe, the news networks turned back to their regular news broadcasts. Several commentaries were offered by various talking heads about what this new discovery could mean and the possible consequences and what effect it might have on the global financial market, not to mention Niger.
Investors around the world, many already in the know, began lining up to buy into the companies that would be awarded the mining contracts, a few investors had some good ideas as to what companies would get the contracts. There were only a few companies capable of handling such a job; Hellion Industries was one of the few and at the top of the list.
++++
“Listen. You hear that?” Archeologist David Cecil asked quietly. The team had been underground for almost three weeks straight now, currently almost fifteen miles below the earths surface. They had explored what they had taken to calling the main shaft and bypassed literally hundreds of lateral branches in this massive labyrinth that went to only God knows where.
Using advanced portable radar and sonar devices, they had mapped most of the cave that they had passed through so far, but the high tech machines could only “see” a few hundred feet in any given direction and they could only map hard rock formations and minerals and metals. So far, no sign of any previous human presence had been discovered.
“No. I didn’t hear anything” replied Sammy Powers; she looked around at the other team members still catching up to their position. The LED helmet lights lit the area around them in an artificial white light, revealing the glittering diamonds and metals that literally covered almost every rock face in sight. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?” she asked in hushed whisper, almost inaudible.
David looked around as he prepared for the next climb. “Yeah. It is.” He set up his spot light and began surveying the cliff before him. They were going down, always down. The void in front of him was a chasm of inky darkness that seemed to soak up the light from the five million candle power spot. He could not see the bottom and the cliff face appeared to be smooth and unbroken as far as he could see. This was by far the biggest and deepest pit they had discovered so far in this expedition.
David reached into his pack and pulled out a white phosphorus flare and set it aside. The rest of the team was gathering around and setting up various pieces of equipment and gear. Jim Dawson pulled out the sonar and radar devices and began setting them up near the edge of the pit. Karl Teller quickly took readings of the air quality and tested for the presence of any dangerous gases.
“You know,” he muttered to himself but loud enough for everyone to hear, “I find it odd that this deep under the surface the air is still good and there is no radon, no nothing.” His meter chirped once as he finished talking and the needle showed a brief spike of nitrogen in the air and then returned to normal. “Strange” he muttered, “very strange.”
“Hey Karl, we should just count our blessings that we got this far without anyone getting hurt.” Vincent Cooper said, his voice echoing in the cave.
“I know and I am” replied Karl, “It just seems strange to me is all.” Karl set his meter down and assisted Vincent and Jim as they began setting up the descent cable and winch. Jim had finished setting up the radar and sonar and began actively pinging the pit, trying to establish a picture of the area and what was down below them. After an hour of surveying, he pulled the flashcards from the devices and plugged them into his laptop and waited for the computer to map out the readings. It automatically added the new readings to the existing map of the “known” cave and then rendered a 3-D image of the new space.
“Interesting David. We still can’t see the bottom and this thing took a reading down to 1000 feet. That’s about the limit of this small machine.”
David grunted his reply as he looked over Jim’s shoulder at the 3-D image. He turned and walked back to where he had placed the WP flare and popped the cap off. The flare ignited instantly in a brilliant white flame that almost blinded the rest of the cavers. David leaned over the edge as much as he dared and dropped it into the void.
They all watched as the flare fell seemingly forever, then it vanished from sight altogether. No one said a word as they contemplated what that meant. The cable winch only had 1000 feet of cable on it, if there was no bottom to this pit, then they could go no further in this direction; it was a dead end.
“I’m going to harness up. Send me down the cable.” Jim said as he began strapping himself into his harness. Jim was a seasoned and experienced caver, practically a legend in the world of spelunking for some of his adventures and discoveries. He finished putting on his harness and Sammy began checking him over to make sure everything was satisfactory. Jim cracked two chem lights and slid them into the holders on his arms, then clipped the five million CP spot onto his belt.
“I think I’m ready. Radio check.” He spoke into the mike that was attached to his helmet.
“Check, read you loud and clear” replied David as he checked over the winch and cable. He picked up the end of the cable and attached it to Jim’s harness, gave it a quick tug to make sure it was locked and then stepped back to man the winch.
Jim walked up to the edge, took one last look at his team, took up the slack in the cable and stepped off. The cable went tight as it took his weight and Jim stood against the cliff face and adjusted himself for the long descent.
“Start descent” David heard over the radio beside the laptop. He picked up the controller and pressed the button and the winch began a slow controlled release of the cable. The team was looking over the edge watching Jim as he began to descend into the void, his LED headlamp and green chem. lights slowly disappearing from view.
“Cliff face is smooth and black. No fissures or cracks or anything. It’s like glass almost” came the voice over the radio, “I’m going to turn on the spot, see what’s down here.”
Jim flipped the switch on the spotlight and began to shine it around him as the cable slowly spooled him lower and lower. He could see the far edge of the pit opposite him, maybe 300 feet distant. The utter darkness seemed to soak up the light from the high powered beam and as he continued his descent the darkness became palpable and closed in around him with a tangible force.
Jim licked his lips nervously and continued to shine the light around. The cliff face was entirely smooth as if it had been polished. There were no handholds, crevices, outcroppings, or breaks in the wall. It was black like obsidian, but it wasn’t a rock he recognized. On the opposite wall the cliff appeared the same, but his light seemed to be dimming even though the battery indicator was reading almost a three quarter charge remaining.
“Passing 250 feet. See anything yet?” Came David’s voice over the radio.
Jim pointed his light downward and the beam disappeared into blackness. “No, not a thing. The walls haven’t changed either, still smooth as glass. I have no idea what kind of rock this is. It almost looks like obsidian but it isn’t. It’s something else I’ve never seen before.”
“Passing 500 feet.” The scenery hadn’t changed a bit but now Jim was trying to suppress a feeling of anxiety and panic that was creeping over him like a fog. He wasn’t one to rattle easily and during his twenty plus years of cave explorations he had had more close calls and near misses than most people live through, but something about this wasn’t right. The feelings began to grow as he continued his descent.
“Passing 750 feet. Anything?” Jim shined his light around some more but now the light seemed to be even more subdued than before. He checked his battery; it was reading more than half full. He shined it back up above him but he couldn’t see the edge of the cliff anymore. The walls opposite him seemed to absorb the light and he was no longer sure if there was even a wall there anymore. He pointed the light downward and his beam seemed to be cut short; there was still a black void there that the light wouldn’t penetrate.
“No. Nothing yet. Everything is the same.” He felt the fear inside began to climb and had to force his voice to sound normal. He pulled up his instruments and checked them; the air was still reading safe which he couldn’t understand. This far below ground they should all be wearing their respirators and having oxygen pumped down from the surface.
He felt the cable slow and then he stopped moving. “You’re at the end of the cable Jim. 1000 feet. You see anything at all? We can’t see you from here.”
“No. Can’t see a thing. Apparently there is no bottom here. Hold on, I’m going to drop a flare.” Jim pulled a white phosphorus flare from his cargo pocket on his pants and popped the top. The brilliant flare lit instantly as he turned his eyes away from the searing white light. He held it out at arms length and then dropped it and watched it as it fell. It fell a very long ways before disappearing into the darkness. Jim watched as he hung there for any sign of light from below and wondered curiously just how deep the pit went. They would probably never know without getting some more really advanced equipment down here to check it out.
He sighed with resignation and was just about to call for ascent when he thought he saw a light below him. He quickly grabbed his spot light and aimed it downward, but the blackness closed on the beam like liquid ink and seemed to snuff it out. The feeling of panic washed over him with almost desperate fury and he suddenly had the urge to get out of there right this instant. He fought for control of his emotions and mind before keying his mike and saying softly “Ascend. Ascend now. Get me up there. Now.” He kept his voice low but the urgency was plain.
He felt the cable tug and then he was ascending. “Roger that, the cable is ascending. What’s up?” David’s voice had concern in it as he caught the urgency in Jim’s request.
“I don’t know. Something ain’t right down here. Can this thing go any faster?” He already knew the answer, the winch had a set speed for ascent and descent and it was at max speed right now. It felt painfully slow.
BOOM.
The sound, like a giant bass drum, reverberated from down below and up the pit to the team above. “What the hell was that Jim? Are you okay?”
Jim didn’t answer. He was too busy looking down below him, shining his light in all directions, fighting the ever increasing panic in his chest. The blackness seemed to get thicker if that was possible. Finally he whispered into the radio, “It wasn’t me. Just get me up there NOW.” He stated with urgency.
BOOM.
The drum sounded again, the deep bass crashing up from below and bouncing off the walls of the pit around him. He looked down, desperately searching for any sign of what was there; the cable moving at an incredibly slow pace. He looked down again and his heart seemed to stop.
Far below him, incredibly far below him, he saw a red glow appear, swirling slowly in the blackness, almost ethereal in appearance, like a gas. He stared hard at the light as he fought the panic inside him. This wasn’t real. It was his imagination.
The light grew deeper and darker.
BOOM.
The sound crashed passed him with almost deafening force. This time the panic won and he screamed into the radio, “GET ME UP NOW! NOW DAMMIT NOW!”
“We’re going as fast as we can Jim. Hold on. You’re passing 500 feet right now; we can barely see your spot light now. What’s that red light?”
“I don’t know. Whatever it is, that sound is coming from down there. Whatever is down there, we just ****ed it off. Get me up there now dammit.” Jim was almost ready to try climbing the cable hand over hand as he fought to regain control of himself. He looked up above him and saw several flashlights hovering out over the cliff as his team anxiously looked for him. Pointing the spotlight back down below him he watched in horror as the red light grew and then something even blacker than the blackness of the cave moved within the light, growing bigger and bigger as it gained on him.
The smell of phosphorus and sulfur hit his nose like a baseball bat and he physically recoiled in his harness as his eyes began watering and his nostrils began burning.
“Passing 250 feet. You’re almost here. What the hell is going on down there?”
Jim stared down at the light and darkness below him, the even blacker shape within the light moving in a circle, gaining speed as it approached Jim at an ever increasing pace. The thing looked up at Jim and he saw the eyes.
They burned deep red and yellow, and smoldered with a menacing hate that Jim could physically feel. The eyes locked on Jim like a vise and held him; he couldn’t look away, he couldn’t respond, he couldn’t speak. The creature continued to rise toward him, taking shape as it grew in size. He could see the head now, shaped like a goat and two massive horns came from the skull and wrapped around in a full curl until they almost touched in the front; giant fangs protruded from the bottom jaw and up over the nose. The body took shape slowly but seemed to change as the smoke and flame and light moved. The skin of the creature appeared to be cracked everywhere and what looked like white hot flame glowed from the cracks.
“Passing 100 feet. You’re almost here Jim. Hang on, we’re all set to grab you.” The voice in his earpiece snapped him back to consciousness and he struggled to think of something he could do. In a desperate move he pulled his last phosphorus flare and popped the cap. The flame seared white light around him and he prepared to throw it at the creature.
He was bringing his arm back for the throw when he saw the hand reaching up from the depths to grab him. The black skin was covered with huge scales and the flame from within was searing through the cracks in its skin. There were no fingers, only huge giant black claws; each one bigger than Jim's body. The inhuman scream that escaped Jim’s mouth was one of pure horror as he tossed the flare with all his strength straight into the creatures gaping mouth below him.
The flare hit the creature in the mouth and the hand recoiled away from Jim for just a moment as attack caught the creature off guard. Just then Jim felt hands grab him and jerk him back over the cliff. Someone snapped off the winch cable from Jim’s harness and he felt several pairs of hands grab him and drag him backwards away from the cliff edge. He wasn’t aware of anything but the growing red glow that was coming from the pit.
Suddenly someone slapped him across the face. “JIM! Let’s go. Let’s move!” Sammy was suddenly standing in front of him and screaming at him at the top of her lungs. He snapped out of his trance and was instantly on his feet, spinning around and racing to keep up with the others. The entire team was on the run back up the main shaft they had come down, abandoning all their gear behind them.
David was leading the way, his LED helmet light bobbing around up front as he scrambled over boulders and outcroppings and ducked under ledges; the other team members right on his heels. There was a chimney up ahead that they had descended to get here and now they must ascend it, but they could only do so one at time. David was the first one to go up.
Jim wheeled around as he reached the chimney and watched the cave behind him as he waited for Sammy, Karl, and Vince to climb up. The faint glow of red could be seen from down the shaft and the acrid smell of burning sulfur was filling the air and growing stronger.
BOOM.
The drum sounded again, the sound reverberating off the walls around them and rattling a few stones loose from somewhere above them. The light increased a little and then they heard something else.
Screams.