Demon Trackers: The Anointed

part fifteen

It looked like the tunnel split up ahead, which was bad luck all around because if they took the wrong fork and the majority of the gremlins were in the other one, they could get behind them and box them in, but as they got closer they found it wasn’t two tunnels, but a section of wall that had caved in, leaving a thick stalactite-looking pillar standing in the middle of the tunnel.

“Looks like tonsils in someone’s throat,” Jake quipped.

“I think you mean uvula,” Cal said. “And it doesn’t look like that at all.”

“Because it looks like a tonsil.”

“How would you even know what—eeew.” Jake’s and Henry’s beams of light snapped toward the direction of Cal’s exclamation. Since he had the only flashlight, he’d kept his beam more on the floor while theirs had been directed higher. His light played over bones, a long thick skull, cracked femur bones that had teeth marks gnawed into them. They’d known gremlins would eat just about anything, and apparently that included each other.

“That’s just gross.” Jake moved closer to examine the funky looking skeleton while Cal’s flashlight beam moved away.

“Dad, stop!” Cal shouted. The warning tone had Jake swiveling around to see his father frozen mid-step, Cal’s flashlight revealing the drop below Henry’s raised boot.

Carefully Henry moved back from the edge he’d almost tumbled over. Jake and Cal raced to his side, all three lights angled downward. It wasn’t exactly a sheer drop since the walls were bumpy with small ledges and protrusions, but their combined lights didn’t reach bottom either. Jake toed one of the little rocks that littered the sandy floor over the edge. They stood silent, waiting for the echo that never came.

“Damn. That’s ah…deep,” Jake stated the obvious. Looking down into the dark hole, a sick feeling washed over him.

Henry reached across Jake to squeeze Cal’s shoulder. When the kid looked at him, Henry nodded his approval. It was as close to a thank you as their dad ever got.

Jake angled his light across the chasm. It was pretty far to the other side with only a slight protruding lip against the bottom of one side of the wall. While he thought he could balance it no problem, he wasn’t sure he was up to watching his dad and brother try to do the same. He also wondered how the fat-footed gremlins had managed it. They did have fairly muscled legs.

“Dad, how far do you think these golem-things can jump?”

Hands on his hips, studying the hole, Henry shook his head. “I’d say at least that far ‘cause there’s no other way they could have gone. Okay, we’re going to need to—“ Henry was cut off as one of the beasties dropped on him and they both went to the ground.

“Dad!” Reflexively, Jake looked up. His light played over several gremlins crawling along the ceiling. Holy crap, the things could move across the rock like lizards!

A blast of fire sprayed over the ceiling—Cal’s torch—a moment before Jake’s joined his. Squealing, one, two, four creatures burst into little fireballs and fell to the ground. Another streaked by, falling into the hole like a meteor. Man! These suckers didn’t just burn, they full on erupted. “Dad!”

“I’m okay.”

Jake twisted to see his dad on the ground at the exact moment he kicked the creature off him and Cal’s flame arced toward the beastie. Except the flame sputtered and died as Cal’s propane ran out and the gremlin launched itself at the kid.

“Cal!” Two jets of flame converged as both Jake and Henry eliminated the threat to their youngest family member.

Until another dropped onto him. Jake called out to his brother at the same time Cal screamed a warning to him and something smacked against Jake’s back. He felt the burn of teeth clamp into his shoulder, heard both his dad and brother shouting for him.

Suddenly Cal was behind him, slamming the butt of his propane bottle over and over into the ugly that seemed stuck to Jake’s back, while Jake twisted, turned, fingers scrabbling to get the thing off him. All at once, it came loose, pulling Jake off balance and fighting to stay on his feet, as his dad’s horrified scream reverberated around the walls. “Caaaaaaaaaaal!”

Jake spun, expecting to come face to face with Cal who was behind him. Except he wasn’t. He met only empty air. Jake looked down and his world dropped away.

He stood mere inches from the hole.