She was about to suggest they take a break from speaking long enough to record the spooky silence in the tunnel, when it opened up wider as the tracks they’d been following veered off to the left. Ahead of them stretched a concrete barrier that took up the entire wall of the larger tunnel.
“What the hell is that doing here?” Sarah asked, walking closer to inspect the wall. The previous parts of the mine had probably been built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. This concrete looked far newer.
“It’s the government facility,” Matt whispered, his eyes wide, his mouth remaining agape after he finished speaking.
Beth reached for his arm, clutching at his dusty sleeve. “I’m scared now,” she said in a quavering voice.
Sarah was about to dismiss their fears, though she felt the hair standing up on the back of her neck. A soft dragging sound caused them all to stiffen, cutting off the words she’d been about to speak.
They moved to stand together in a cluster. Even Sarah debated clinging onto someone’s sleeve. They stared towards where the sound had come from, seeing only the impenetrable darkness.
“I’m gonna go check it out.” Matt aimed his camera in that direction and took a few steps closer to that end of the tunnel. Beth still clung to him, following in his shuffling, hesitant steps.
“Are you crazy?” Sarah hissed, reaching out to capture Beth’s arm. “You have no idea what made that sound. It could be some kind of animal. It might be rabid!”
Beth shrugged her off, tossing a glance at Sarah over her shoulder. “You stay here then. We’re going to check it out.”
Sarah ground her teeth to cut off her angry retort, still painfully aware that the camera was always rolling and she didn’t want to provide actual drama for their video. “Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You want to do something stupid, go right ahead. I’ll wait right here.”
Without another comment, Beth flipped her ponytail and then turned to follow Matt, who took more confident steps towards that end of the tunnel after no more sounds came from the darkness.
Sarah watched them, every muscle in her body tense as she strained to listen for any new sound. It was difficult because they made so much noise with their loud, shuffling steps and their constant chattering for the sake of the camera.
Their lights reached the area where the sound had come from. Sarah expected to see the glowing eyes of some poor, lost animal, or perhaps a rabid one. Instead, she jumped as Beth screamed and Matt abruptly backed away from the area.
Their lights had just barely captured the hunched form of some terrifying humanoid creature. They’d moved so quickly that she didn’t have the chance to make any details out, but she was already shaking her head, backing quickly towards the other end of the tunnel. She pulled her flashlight from her pack and clicked it on to add some more light to the situation, her headlamp not being bright enough to penetrate that far into the tunnel.
She gripped the flashlight with a white-knuckled hand that trembled so much the beam danced wildly over Matt and Beth’s frightened faces as they scrambled back towards her.
Before they could reach her, something grabbed Sarah from behind, hard arms banding around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides.
She screamed, lifting her foot to slam it down on her attacker’s foot as she felt the creature closing in behind her. Her booted heel impacted with her full weight behind it. The thing grunted in pain, its hold loosening around her.
Sarah took that opportunity to ram her elbow backwards into the gut of the creature. With a pained gasp, it fully released her. She spun around on her other foot and struck the creature in its gray, pale face with the heel of her open palm.
The dolphin gray, slender monster with the oversized head and huge black eyes had bent over from the strike to its gut. Her strike to its face had a lot of force behind it, causing the creature’s overlarge head to snap backwards, hanging crookedly like its neck was broken as it staggered several steps away from her.
Sarah snarled as she followed it, raising the flashlight. The solid weight of it felt like a small club as she prepared to bring it down onto the sagging head of the creature.
“Sarah! No!” Beth yelled, jumping in front of the creature while Matt rushed Sarah from behind to grab her arm.
Sarah kicked backwards, her foot striking Matt in the knee. He instantly released her forearm, gagging with pain as his knee hyperextended. He collapsed to the ground, howling as he clutched the injured joint. His eyes filled with tears of pain as he looked up at her, glaring as if she’d attacked him, instead of the other way around.
“You really are a bear, you crazy bitch!” he gasped out between pained breaths as he rocked side to side.
“What the fuck?” Sarah shouted, turning back to Beth and the creature, only to see that it had transformed into a young man in a rubber alien costume.
Realization struck her all at once as she stared at the attractive but clearly young man who she’d nearly brained with her heavy flashlight. He was still partially hunched over, moaning in pain as one hand clutched his stomach and the other rubbed his chin. He stood with his weight mostly on the foot she hadn’t stomped on.
“It was just a little prank,” Beth whispered, her eyes wide as she met Sarah’s accusing glare. “We only wanted some good footage for the video. We didn’t think you’d try to kill Wes. What the hell is wrong with you!”
Sarah gasped in outrage, her fingers once again tightening around the flashlight until her knuckles turned white. “What’s wrong with me? Are you fucking kidding me? You scared the shit out of me and you want to know what’s wrong with me? All for a fucking internet video?”
“We could have gone viral, man,” the youth apparently named Wes grunted. “I spent hours down here waiting for you guys, and you let this bitch nearly kill me.”
“Dude, we can still go viral,” Matt said to him, his tone excited as he completely ignored Sarah’s furious glare. With obvious pain, he pushed himself back to his feet, favoring his wounded knee. “I got it all on camera. Sarah totally kicked your ass! It turned out even better than our original plan.”
Wes groaned, straightening to his full height, which was well over six feet, leaving Sarah feeling dwarfed at only five foot five. “Worked out for you maybe. I think I need to go to the hospital. I swear she burst my spleen or something.”
Matt chuckled, walking towards the youth with a limping step to clap a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be worth it, man. You’ll see.”
Sarah completely lost her temper when she spotted another humanoid shadow moving closer to the light they were all casting. “Just tell your other goddamned friend that the gig is up! I swear to god, I will beat the shit out of all of you if he has the nerve to touch me again!”
All three of them turned to stare at her as if they’d forgotten she was there and she’d suddenly just popped into existence.
“What other friend?” Matt asked, feigning ignorance a lot better than his previous acting had been.
Sarah propped her hand on her hip, gesturing with her flashlight. “The one right behind you, Matt. You idiots just don’t quit, do you?”
“The fuck!” Matt said, spinning around to face the other “creature” as it rose to its full height.