Project Aspire

Chapter 14 - Eric (Written by Jason Kucharik)

Cole finally started to push past all the imagined personal bullshit and do something for the survival of the group.  It was foolish and dangerous, but I had to respect him for that.  After everything we’d been through, he’d better not go and fuck it up by getting himself killed.  All I wanted to do was turn around and help him, but I had to get Amanda and Hobbs out of here.  If Cole and I both fell, the rest of them wouldn’t last long.  There was no doubt in my mind at this point that all of us were going to die on this godforsaken planet, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to get some answers first.  Cole was emotional, but he had asked the right questions.  He just directed them at the wrong person.  There had to be someone on this planet who could give us some answers.

The tunnels continued to get smaller as we pushed through the thick mud covering the stone floor of the pyramid.  I kept my back against Hobb’s, lightly pushing him forward as I moved backwards through the tunnel.  Amanda was in front of him, trying her best to figure a way out of this deathtrap of a maze.  I could see the light from her rifle dimly flicker against the ground near my feet as we scurried down the corridors.  The ceiling was beginning to lower and we were crouched to the ground, asses almost touching the floor as we moved.  The tunnel behind us was oddly quiet except for a few shots from Cole’s rifle a few seconds ago.  It seemed like an eternity.

There was a scream and a loud high pitched squeal that echoed through the caves as we moved.  Hobbs stopped to turn around and we both fell to the ground as I ran into him.  Laying on my back, Hobb’s chest underneath my head, I glare down the rear of the tunnel through my rifle's sight, waiting for something to emerge out of the darkness.  Finally after a few seconds Hobbs whispered, “Do you think he’s dead?”

I pushed myself back up into a crouched position and continued to stare down the tunnel we came through while turning my head slightly to answer him.  “I don’t know.  Cole’s one tough son of bitch.  It doesn’t matter though, we can’t stay here.”  I had to get them to safety, or at least some place less dangerous and more defensible.  Then I could go back and find Cole.  I just hoped that his survival instincts, the monster inside, had woken up and won out.  We needed him more than he knew.

I could hear Hobbs getting back to his feet and shuffle around a bit.  “Amanda lets…” He stopped and his voice trailed off down the tunnel.  “Eric.”  There was fear in his voice.  I turned around as Hobbs was bringing up his rifle to shine the flashlight down the corridor and Amanda was no where to be seen.  There was a small round room three feet in front of us and there were seven more tunnel openings that lined the room and went out in every direction.  We slid forward into the small room, the roof of which opened allowing us to stand back up.  We stood shoulder to shoulder and stared up into light that poured through the opening above us.  Thirty feet up, fresh air poured in through a hole in the pyramid.  We lowered our heads back down and rotated completely around; glancing down each one of the tunnels before settling our eyes on the boot scaped mud that lined the floor of the hole we just came out of.

“She was right in front of us.” I said.  Out of the corner of my eye Hobbs nodded his head.  “Was she there before you turned around?” Hobbs nodded again.  “What the fuck?” I said desperately under my breath.  Hobbs stood there in shock as I crouched down and examined each one of the openings more closely.  I couldn’t see any disturbances in the mud with the exception of the our own footprints.  There was no indication that she had been taken, and no indication that she had come through this area on her own free will.  She had just vanished into the thick moist air.  This place was became stranger and stranger with each passing second.  I stood back up and looked at Hobbs shaking my head.  Then frustrated, I glanced off to the side and I saw something on the wall next to us.  I squinted and traded places with Hobbs, running my fingers down the stone.