Still, the creature approached, apparently unfazed by any fears of getting crushed by tons of rock.
Scrabbling backwards towards the cooler air that indicated the drift, she slowly turned her head until the light of her headlamp crept up past the buckling boards to fix on the hideous face of the creature.
As soon as the light struck it, it shrieked as if in rage. It flinched back, lifting a clawed hand to block its face. Then it shoved away from the collar, dropping downwards.
Sarah kicked her feet to move herself backwards faster, flailing her uninjured arm above her head to push aside enough of the debris to crawl through.
She was just rolling onto her stomach when the creature struck.
It’s shrieks vibrated the air as its claws slashed in her direction. She could feel the tug on her pack as it tried to hook her with its claws.
Beneath the hideous sounds of the creature’s screaming was a wet, squishy sound, like someone squeezing a raw steak. Sarah wasn’t going to look back, determined to escape through that tiny opening she’d made before the creature could tear her apart.
Yet it had a hold on her pack. She couldn’t release the pack without rolling back onto her side.
That was when she saw it, her light bright on the creature’s face. The malleable features had fallen eerily still now, hovering only a couple of feet away from her own.
The black eyes were glassy and lifeless.
She gasped and pulled herself towards the hole, unsnapping her pack with her injured hand, still sluggishly bleeding from her torn skin and nails.
The creature’s claws were buried deep into the material of her pack. Even in death, it hadn’t relaxed its grip.
It seemed to be very dead, impaled on a splintered spike of wood that had once been part of a ladder. The wood had apparently shifted from her desperate kicking to escape as the monster jumped down on her, positioning it perfectly to stab through the creature.
Sarah, unwilling to relax until the corpse was well behind her and she was out of the crumbling shaft, kept her eyes on the monstrosity until she crawled through the opening she’d dug out. She had to leave her pack behind, as chunks of stone started to rain down from above, and the wooden collar creaked ominously in multiple places. There was no time to untangle the fabric of her pack from the creature’s lifeless grip.
She slipped through the hole like a baby being born, sliding out of the choking dust and the rising stench of meat and freshly spilled blood into air that was still musty but much fresher. She crawled several feet into the drift before climbing to her hands and knees. Her legs shook from reaction as the adrenaline burst began to wane, leaving all her aches and pains to rise to the surface.
Her entire body ached. She felt like she’d gone ten rounds with a champion boxer. With her as the punching bag. Sharp pains throughout her body hinted at splintered wood that had found its way through her clothing to dig into her flesh. Though she was sure by this point that she hadn’t broken anything, every joint and tendon and sinew felt like it had been battered and twisted. Much of her bared skin was covered with scrapes and cuts.
She looked back at the hole, now dark and even more ominous since she knew what was beyond it. She slowly backed away from it, not just because she still worried about a collapse, but because she couldn’t believe the monstrous creature was actually dead. She feared it would somehow come back to life again and burst out of the darkness to tear her throat out.
She walked backward deep into the drift, casting glances over her shoulder to illuminate where she was going before turning her attention back towards that hole. Finally, she rounded a corner and it was out of her sight. Only then was she able to focus on what lay ahead of her.
She faced the darkness, her lamp barely seeming to make a dent without the aid of her flashlight, which she’d lost during her plummet. The dimmer headlamp created only a small bubble of light in front of her. She didn’t want to walk into that unknown place. She had no idea where it led, and she feared there might be more monsters. She also knew there was no going back the way she’d come. Even though the collar had yet to collapse, it was close. Any attempt to climb back out through that shaft would see her crushed by rock as the boards completely buckled.
Her only choice was going forward. Deeper into this mountain. Deeper into the darkness.
3
The mind is a funny thing. Sarah believed, despite all evidence to the contrary, that she could still survive. She refused to acknowledge the logical realization that she was a dead woman walking. Perhaps it was because of all the video games she played. There was always an escape for the protagonist. Always some secret door or hidden tunnel. Always a way out, if she was smart enough to figure out the puzzle.
Or maybe it was something more primal. Maybe it was simply the human will to survive, despite all odds being against her. After all, even humans in the real world sometimes clung to life when logic said they should have long ago given up.
Whatever the reason, Sarah knew she was already dead, but she didn’t let that stop her from trying to survive. Her entire body hurt and each new step was a struggle, earning a pained grunt when she didn’t have the strength to bite it back as the fall of her foot against the stone floor jarred everything in her body.
The only encouragement she got from delving deeper into the drift was the fact that it didn’t seem to end. This mine was massive. Far more so than a wildcat mine should be. But then again, perhaps she wasn’t in a mine anymore, though the stone walls of the tunnel still looked like they’d been worked by tools. Most likely primitive ones. The tunnel still meandered as if following a vein. There were still offshoots that suggested tangential drifts, but she decided to remain in the largest, main drift, hoping for another vertical shaft heading upwards.
Instead, she felt as if she were traveling further downwards, as the tunnel had a slight slope that grew more pronounced the deeper she went. She felt it pulling her forward with each step, as if the void of darkness dragged her towards it like a lodestone.
The sound of her shuffling steps growing more labored with each movement was the only sound she heard in the deathly stillness of the tunnel. When she kicked a loose chunk of rock after what felt like hours of endless walking, she jumped as it rolled away with a loud clatter that ended in a soft thud a short distance past the light bubble cast by her headlamp.
She dreaded the moment the battery pack failed and she lost that precious light, which was the only comfort she had left.
She took a few more steps forward. The light preceding her revealed yet more stone floors and walls. Then it settled on a layer of soft sand, signaling an abrupt shift in the tunnel’s appearance. The seam between the worked stone and what appeared to be a natural cavern was so dramatic that it was like looking at a glitch in a video game world.
The sand remained on one side of the path, lying in a straight line along the edge of the worked stone. She stepped over the line, straddling both sides as she bent to get a closer look, aiming her light at the seam.
It was after she passed that seam that she first caught scent of something different in the air. The cave air was fresher, and held more moisture. Yet she hadn’t smelled that until she stepped over the line. There was also the taint of a scent that was unnerving. A sickly smell that reminded her of a dead mouse rotting away behind a wall.