Depth Charge - red earth

Chapter 15

Ryan lifted himself off his knees, stirring from his slumber and desperately trying to focus his eyes in the dark as he felt a warm breeze swish across his face. "Is someone there?"

Around the corner he heard a padded scurrying. Raising his alertness, Ryan slowed his breath and listened closely for more suspicious sounds. Had Greg come back to rescue him; possibly he expected Victor or Carl to have joined Greg in the search, but he certainly didn't expect that Becky had ventured back to help. Ryan wished her as far away from this madness as humanly possible. But was that far enough he wondered? Just what was the extent of this run of terror from those evil beasts?

In the near distance, Ryan heard what seemed like a number of small rocks falling down a cliff or cavern; falling a lengthy distance. Stepping to the left in his half blind state, Ryan stumbled upon a rock and fell flat on his side with a heavy thud. He cursed himself as he heard his own loud 'oomph' echo through the caves. More scurrying ensued nearby with purposeful padding.

Ryan lay still in the dark dirt. A brief flash of yellow flew past a cavern to his right. Then another flanked his left! One more from above!! As Ryan twisted his head to look up, he noticed that the place he was in was a cascading intersection of caverns and tunnels, both vertically and horizontally. The fact that he was able to see briefly in between the flashes was the only good thing he could realise as he tried to surmise what was coming for him.

Ryan pushed up onto his arms, and was about to stand. He froze in a push up position as he noticed a creature about twenty metres in front of him. The creature was like nothing he had ever imagined. Surprisingly clearer now in detail; was it actual light emitting from the creature, or had his eyes adjusted now? Without moving his head, Ryan shifted his eyes to the left and right, and could naturally see more of the caverns detail. The creature was slowly lifting one leg at a time and padding its way softly along the dirt.

Ryan noticed the predominately yellow skin on the creature had portions of orange grey and had a lumpy texture. It also had greyish black splotches along its body. Its four legs were jointed. At the end of each leg were five delicate looking toes or fingers. Each toe seemed to have some sort of special adhesive on it as it carried along fragments of dirt and rubble on its feet. The tail of the creature was fat and stumpy, but decreased quickly to a point at the end of the tail.

Its mouth was broad and reminded Ryan of an evil smile he'd seen in a movie once; sort of like the joker but flatter; no, more like that deranged serial killer with a mask and a very wide zipper smile. No zipper though for the creature as it let its long red forked tongue slip from between its lips and wriggle wickedly before retracting it back inside its sinister smile.

Ryan could now feel his arms starting to ache from being in the push up position. He slowly pulled one of his knees up. As he did, the creature stopped and hissed. Opening its mouth to what seemed like an attack pose; Ryan watched its two brilliant eyes staring intently at him. Its eyes were positioned evenly on each side of its head, at the far edge, and just above the mouth line. The creature blinked its eyes rapidly, which seemed protected by a heavy skin fold with a scale-like appearance that closed over it. The eyes were of amazing design; mostly black in colour, they had intricate swirling almost vein-like patterns in them of contrasting shades. The pupil of the eye was thin and piercing, running vertically; unlike human eyes.

Ryan courageously pulled up his other knee, readying himself to run if needed. The creature extended its neck forward, opening its mouth a bit wider as if to say 'what do you think you are doing'. It hissed loudly as the forked tongue protruded again. A few more padded steps and the creature was only five metres from Ryan as it hissed once more.

With a devilish shriek, the creature headed in for Ryan with its mouth wide open. Ryan covered his head, preparing for a sickly death. As the unexpected loud thud met his ears, Ryan was surprised that no impact had occurred; not to him at least. Another one of the same creatures had T-boned the first one and sent it barrelling down the tunnel. Duelling hisses and shrieks ran out as the two battled in what seemed like an odd challenge of authority. Ryan noticed the eyes of the second creature were decidedly different; not so full of hate, yet committed; not so animalistic, but more like - what, he didn't know.