Authors: Robert Storey
Their clothes and gear were the next things to pass over the crevasse, then it was Jason’s turn to attempt the crossing. Like Trish, he lost his grip on occasion, sending the rope twanging tight as it supported his weight. Eventually, however, all three stood on the same small ledge that used to be joined to the rest of the pathway.
The next two sections proved a lot easier for Sarah as she had the added protection of the rope. Confidence high, she quickly scaled the first obstacle and then braced herself with the rope so that Trish could cross over more easily. Sending their baggage sliding along the line, Jason followed, with Trish and Sarah both holding the rope to aid his crossing. They handled the next gap with the same process. Once they were all safely across, Jason and Trish secured the rope to themselves and Sarah retrieved the other end, having to cross the two smaller sections twice more.
Back on the path again, and perspiring heavily, Sarah wiped herself down with her jumper as they all took a breather. Having taken on some water, they geared up and pushed on. Since they didn’t know where they were, time might very well be of the essence. Their water wouldn’t last long and they only had a few chocolate bars in their bags.
Once they reached the bottom of the stone trail, Sarah checked her watch; it had taken them two hours to get that far. Although there was still only one direction to take, which took the stress out of making the right choice.
‘Would you look at that,’ Trish said in reverence, after they had squeezed past some fallen boulders.
Sarah looked up to where Trish’s torchlight cast shadows on an enormous arch that had been carved out of the stone. It rose a hundred feet above them and, as Sarah traced its outline with her own beam of light, she noticed it had been decorated with a multitude of shapes portraying leaves, trees and even animals, some of which seemed vaguely familiar. Sarah withdrew her computer and took a few photos. She just hoped she got the chance to print them out.
As they passed through the archway, Sarah thought she caught sight of something ahead.
‘Did you see that?’ she asked them.
‘See what?’ Jason said as he walked past.
‘I thought I saw a light up ahead.’
‘I didn’t see anything,’ Trish said, also moving past. ‘It was probably the torchlight reflecting off some stone.’
‘Yeah, maybe,’ she said. But Sarah was certain she’d seen something.
‘This place is huge,’ Jason called back over his shoulder. ‘My light doesn’t reach the ceiling of this cavern either.’
No chasms or deep drops littered the way now, just a flat plateau. As they moved deeper in, their lights highlighted strange shapes a few hundred yards away. Jason forged ahead reaching one first. It stuck out of the ground, jet black and stretching upwards like a skeletal arm beckoning to the heavens.
‘I think it’s a dead tree,’ he said, walking around examining it. ‘It looks almost fossilised. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘How is that possible? We’re in a cave.’ Trish touched it tentatively and then ran her hand across its surface.
‘There are more of them up ahead,’ Sarah said, increasing the range of her beam.
There weren’t just a few more, there were a lot more, thousands in fact.
‘This must have been a forest at some point,’ Trish said in awe as they moved amongst the now densely packed trunks, some of which towered far above them.
Keeping up the pace, they continued pressing forwards until finally the dead trees thinned, and then Sarah saw it again.
‘I definitely saw a light ahead that time,’ she said, speeding up but ensuring she watched her footing.
As the final trunks disappeared she could see it clearly now; a blazing light in the distance, shimmering hundreds of feet in the air. She stopped moving, entranced by the sight of it.
Trish and Jason came to a stop by her side, also lost for words.
The hushed silence persisted, before Trish shattered the spell. ‘What do you think it is?’ she asked them in a whisper.
‘Perhaps Homo gigantis still lives down here,’ Jason said, the wonder in his voice mirroring the feelings of them all.
The hairs on Sarah’s neck stood up at the thought. She took a deep breath and then expelled it.
‘Let’s go and find out,’ she said and they began walking once more, but at a faster pace, the ethereal radiance temporarily making them forget their plight.
The light turned out to be much farther away than they had initially thought, and when they eventually neared it, they could tell it was a lot higher, too.
‘It must be a mile up,’ Jason said, tilting his head back to keep it in view, ‘if not more.’
Out of the dark another monstrous entrance loomed in front of them and the star-like luminance they’d been following vanished behind it. It had a similar form to the arch they had seen previously, but if anything this one was even bigger. Passing underneath and coming out on the other side, the light failed to reappear and instead a vast blackness rose up before them. As Sarah tried to work out what it was, she heard a noise to her right and a small shape came rolling towards them out of the dark. They all focused their light on it.
‘That’s strange,’ Trish said, as it came to a stop a few yards away.
As they peered at it a small, red, blinking light came on at one end and then a deafening explosion tore through them, knocking them off their feet.
Stunned and disorientated, Sarah stared upwards from where she lay sprawled on her back. Odd looking shapes filled her blurred vision. She couldn’t make them out, but they were moving now, and coalescing into indistinct bipedal forms. As her sight cleared, a light bathed her face and what seemed like talking strove to make itself heard over the ringing in her ears. Finger like appendages grabbed and hauled her upright. Her wrists were bound and she was pushed roughly forwards with Trish and Jason by her side. It was clear now these weren’t some ancient race of humanoids, not Homo gigantis but Homo sapiens. Humans.
With their torches left behind, the men around them seemed ghostlike in appearance, resembling the forgotten shades of long dead warriors. A dim glow sprang up in front of them, tracing two towering rectangles in the shadows ahead, and a million thoughts swam through Sarah’s head as her mind returned to clarity.
‘Who are you?’ she demanded.
They didn’t respond.
‘Where are you taking us?’ Where are we?’
Again she was met with silence.
Up ahead the lead man raised an arm and waved an object through the air in a curious motion. The rectangles parted and dazzling light erupted between them, streaming out to encompass the three friends and everything else in its path. As their eyes adjusted, a massive city could be seen beyond, teeming with life, a phenomenal tower in its centre soaring above them, its spire shining with a beacon-like brilliance.
‘Where are you?’ a man said at last in a strong American accent. ‘Welcome … to U.S.S.B. Sanctuary.’
Chapter Twenty Six
Rebecca’s legs ached and her feet were sore; however, she only had concern for her small flock. The past couple of days had been very confusing and traumatic for a variety of reasons. They had been whisked up by a mysterious group of GMRC employees and a large collective of mercenaries, after having been assaulted by a gang of criminals. They had then been attacked by God knows who and experienced the death of one of their number, a much-loved elderly lady. If that wasn’t enough, they’d travelled in claustrophobic conditions for hundreds of miles and then been dumped in the middle of some cold Mexican mountains and left to trudge miles to a secret facility, after which they had been transported deep underground by the biggest elevator ever created and marched along seemingly never ending tunnels.
To top it all off, an earthquake had struck, sending rock cascading down onto their heads. Luckily the only large piece to hit the carers and their wards had Joseph’s name on it, and he’d been wearing the helmet Richard Goodwin had given him so it had bounced harmlessly off. Joseph had initially looked at Rebecca in shock, but a big grin had soon reasserted itself on his face when he realised what had happened.
Since the initial quake another smaller one had hit, but it had been a faint echo of the first and hadn’t resulted in any more injuries or falling debris. Their relentless walk had resumed soon after and Rebecca had been trying to keep Joseph away from the soldiers who moved along with them. Many wore some kind of weird helmet which made them look like they had glowing eyes. Rebecca thought they looked sinister, but Joseph, apparently undeterred, seemed fascinated with them. She could have done with eyes in the back of her head as he gravitated towards these grim men like filings to a magnet. On one such occasion Rebecca had been helping a younger mentally handicapped girl and turned back to find him gone. Looking about frantically she spotted him off to one side with one such soldier.
‘Joseph!’ she said, her voice raised in alarm. ‘Haven’t I told you not to leave my side?’
Joseph grinned and held up a large rifle to show her.
‘Oh, my God!’ she shrieked, striding over. ‘Give me that.’ She snatched the heavy weapon off him and shoved it back at the man who’d given it to him. ‘Are you out of your damn mind?!’ she shouted at the Darklight soldier.
‘It’s not loaded,’ the man said, oblivious to why his actions were inappropriate.
‘I don’t give a rat’s ass. You do not give real guns to him, do you hear me?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ the soldier said, nonplussed at her anger.
Joseph had got angry and upset when he’d been taken away back into the mass of civilians; he’d been irritable with Rebecca ever since. Rebecca didn’t mind this reaction, she was used to it and much preferred it to the alternative, where he or someone else got hurt, or worse. She blamed herself, however; it was she who had encouraged Joseph with the pretend shotgun back at the care home; how was he to know the difference between a real and a fake weapon? She’d just ended up confusing the poor boy and now she felt guilty when reprimanding him for doing what she’d praised him for previously.
As they trudged ever onwards through the endless caves, Rebecca craned her neck now and then to see ahead, occasionally catching sight of Richard Goodwin alongside the hulking shape of the military leader, Commander Hilt. And, as she glimpsed the pair again, she wondered, not for the last time, where this underground base was and why they hadn’t reached it yet;
surely
, she reasoned,
it can’t be too much further?
♦
The sound of thousands of footfalls and the murmur of chatter filled the caverns through which they now passed. Goodwin had been receiving continued updates from Hilt about the progress of the Darklight scouts. As yet they were all coming back the same. No sign of manmade chamber systems or any human habitation at all, just more of the same.
As they descended ever further, Hilt’s radio crackled to life once more.
‘Commander, we’ve found something down here,’ a soldier said.
‘Something?’ Hilt frowned at the lack of detail. ‘Clarify.’
‘It’s – well – it’s better if you come and take a look for yourself. You’re about a click on our six.’
‘Very well, I’ll be with you shortly.’
Hilt called a halt to everyone’s movement and, giving out a few orders to his lieutenant, he made to leave.
‘I’ll come with you, Commander,’ Goodwin said.
Hilt hesitated, obviously weighing up the risks, but Goodwin had already walked past him with a torch in hand.
As they proceeded along the deserted intersecting passageways, Goodwin noticed something. ‘Is it me or is the draught getting stronger?’
‘You’re right,’ Hilt said, ‘it’s almost a light wind; we must be getting near to the base.’
As they rounded a curve in the cave wall they saw light ahead. The reconnaissance team had gathered and switched on their personal lights as they waited for their arrival.
‘Sir.’ A man saluted at their approach.
‘Report,’ Hilt said.
‘We came across a structure, sir.’
‘And this warranted my attention?’ Hilt asked the recon leader.
‘Yes, sir, follow me.’ The man headed off to one side past his men and into a dark opening leading to an adjoining section of the cave system.
The beams of light from the three men sought out and highlighted the features of the chamber they now found themselves in.
‘This is manmade,’ Goodwin said as he studied the structure of the floor and walls around them.
The soldier didn’t comment, but pressed further on until they came to a wide expansive and curiously constructed room, adorned in places with cracked and crumbling carvings of strange description. As their lights converged ahead, they illuminated something Goodwin couldn’t quite believe was there.
In front of them a large stone plinth rose up from the floor some thirty feet in length and ten in height, the surfaces intricately carved with a bewildering array of patterns and forms. This in itself would have been a marvel, but what rested on top was a revelation. Perhaps measuring twenty foot long, lay a carved stone representation of a man. Bizarre garments adorned it and while only the side of the face could be seen at an angle, the detail of form throughout was simply amazing, including the thick, long locks of hair on its head. Goodwin had seen such artistry in ancient marble sculptures in museums and galleries, but nothing on this scale.
‘And this is what you called me down here to see?’ Hilt said, the sharpness in his tone indicating his displeasure.
‘Sir, this is amazing. What is it even doing down here? Surely it’s worth investigating further?’
‘Sergeant, I don’t care for statues or tombs or whatever
this
is,’ Hilt said, gesturing vaguely at the monument. ‘I’m trying to deliver thousands of people to safety and you’re showing me some meaningless relic. Forget about it and continue the search at once.’
‘Yes, sir!’ The soldier saluted, spun on his heel and returned to his men.
Hilt got straight on the radio to tell his lieutenant to start everyone moving again, and then turned to Goodwin. ‘I’m sorry, sir, this has held us up needlessly.’