Take Back the Light

Chapter 6

"It's the wind," insisted Eli. "And last time I checked, the wind doesn't say turn back."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kord said, picking up one of the hard hats sitting on the ground as they reached a fork in the path and setting it on his hand. "Hey, Pronto, it's another one of your brain-eating ghosts," he teased.

"Ha ha. Very funny, Mr. Cave Troll!" Pronto scowled, rolling his eyes. Kord chuckled, waving the hat in the air.

"Tuuurrn baaack," he said mockingly.

But when he lowered his hand, the faint outline of a man stood behind him. Nearly as tall as Kord and almost as muscular, the specter was slightly see-through with pulsing red eyes and long, pointed teeth. It let out a hiss, and the gang all sped backward, yelling and shrieking. More of the phantoms appeared, dozens of them covering the two paths in front of them. They all had the same cursed red eyes and deadly hiss.

Alana winced and pressed her hands to her temples as iciness crept up to her head.

"Ghosts?!" Trixie gasped.

"I told you so!" Pronto cried out.

"I don't think they wanna be friends. Let 'em have it, guys!" Eli called. Alana nodded and fired her Armashelt as Eli fired a Rammstone.

The slugs transformed and sped toward the figures- and flew right through them.

"Floppers!" Alana groaned. The group tried firing more slugs, but they all flew right through the specter people. They were definitely real, but they were untouchable.

"We can't hit them," Trixie scowled, lowering her blaster.

"This way!" Eli called, gesturing to a path behind them, where old rail cart sat on the mine track.

Eli leapt in, ushering Trixie, Alana, and Pronto into the cart. It creaked and shook, but it looked like it had held up well after all its time in the tunnels. Kord stayed on the outside of the cart until everyone got in, then began to push it forward, down the slight slope of the tunnel.

Once it got going, Kord jumped in, and Trixie pulled out her camera to film the ghosts that were getting steadily farther away as the mine cart sped down the track.

"That worked well," Alana noted.

"Haha, yes! Take that, ghosts!" Pronto yelled as the specters faded away in the distance.

"I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes," Eli said. "At least we lost them," he added as the tunnel walls around them opened up into a large cave. The mine cart sped through the cave area- and then reached a rise in the track.

"You may have spoken too soon," Trixie groaned as the cart lost momentum and began to speed backwards. They rode back through the cave and into the tunnels, where the ghosts were covering the ground wall-to-wall. The cart lost momentum again just in front of the crowd of phantoms before sliding back into the cave and coming to a stop.

"Oh no," Pronto said as the gang turned to face a crowd of the ghosts surrounding the cart. They were all hissing and looked angry, but Alana was more worried about the cold feelings she was getting again. She winced and pressed her hands to her temples again as Kord wrapped his arms around the others as the ghosts got closer.

Then, just as one rested its hand on the mine cart, a faint horn blew in the distance. The ghosts all froze at the sound and, without hesitation, turned away from the gang and walked away from the mine track. They walked into the walls of the cave and disappeared without looking back.

"Haha! That's right! Run, you ghosts!" Pronto yelled as he hopped out of the mine cart. "Fear me!"

"Why did they leave?" Trixie asked as Eli hopped out of the cart and looked around.