Speaker 1: I wasn't a good man. I didn't grow up with
a wrong crowd or fallen with bad influences. I made
my choices. When the trial ended, the judge said I
was the most calculated man he had ever sentenced, and
granted me life without parole, no visitors, no possibility of release.
They buried me, and that was that until she came
along that day. Guards poured me out of my cell
without a word. Two stayed at my sides, two more behind.
We passed through corridors where walls sweated under fluorescent lights.
Doors slid open ahead of us after key card scuns.
Eventually we stopped at a reinforced door. One of the
guards stepped forward and unlocked it without speaking. Cold air
drifted out into the hallway. Side was a table bolted
to the floor and two chairs, one empty, one occupied.
Her eyes were already locked on mind before I sat down.
She wore a gray suit with a faint pin stripe pattern,
hair pulled tight against her head, skin pale but without blemishes.
The guards forced me into the chair across from her,
wrists shackled to the ring at the center of the table.
She didn't introduce herself. Do you want to rot here
until your skin comes off your bones. She asked, what
do you want a chance? She sounded studio practiced. I
didn't answer. She slid a folder across the table. A
thick black clip held the pages together. I could barely
move my arms, but she didn't seem concerned with that.
There's a sigh, she said, tapping the folder with her
index finger. A cave deepest ever discovered, deeper than anything
on record. Our first expedition didn't return. She didn't blink.
They made several kilarmeters down before something killed them. We
believe it was biological, possibly sentient. She let that sit
for a second, then flip the folder open. The first
image was an aerial shot of a dense mountain range,
followed by several grainy stills of people in environmental suits
carrying gear through a jagged tunnel. We considered sending qualified personnel,
but the risk is too high. We'd rather loose some
one replaceable. You're a murderer, a terrorist. You're already a
dead man. If this doesn't work, we'll find another one
like you cheaper that way, she paused. Then she folded
her hands. You won't be alone. After a short debrief,
You'll be taken to the cave entrance with three others.
You'll be outfitted with recording devices, weaponry, and monitoring equipment.
There is a strong likelihood you will not return. If
you survive and complete the contract, you walk free. She
tapped the folder again, clean record. You pick where you
go after. My first instinct was the laugh. I hadn't
tasted outside air in over a decade. I hadn't seen
a sky without mesh across it since sentencing, so I
didn't ask whether the contract involved what they were really
looking for, or how many had already died trying to
find it. It didn't matter what I signed. I'd already
died once. If this got me out, even if it
killed me for good, I was ahead, fine, I said,
strap me in. She nodded to someone I couldn't see.
I felt the sting of a needle in my neck.
Cold spread through my spine. Before I could ask where
I'd be taken, the ceiling peeled away from me, then
the light, then everything. I woke in a bed with
clean sheets, white walls, a smooth ceiling with a built
in glow panel that lit the room without a bulb
or fixture. Before I could sit up properly. A door opened,
A man in sterile clothes stepped inside, gestured, and stepped
back without a word. I followed. It took me through
a short carried door and into a chamber where the
lights were brighter and colder. Four chairs faced the screen.
Three were already occupied. A man with a tag that
read Hollis on his shirt sat with his legs spread wide,
arms tattooed to the wrist, jaw unshaven, and a permanent
smirk planted across his face. He glanced at me and snorted.
Drew sat beside him, bold and built, thicker, his hands
clasped between his knees. He didn't react to me at all.
He stared forward with dead focus. The third was smaller,
shoulders hunched. Nervous energy rolled off her in waves. She
twitched every few seconds. Sometimes her head jerked to one side.
Sometimes her knuckles tensed then released. She'd make a strange
every once in a while. In looked involuntary. Nobody said
a word. As I sat in the last open seat,
the lights dimmed and the screen blinked on. We were
ushered into another room. After the short presentation ended. Some
vague footage of cave walls and sensata, nothing identifiable. This
one had a long table, cold steel surface, and no chairs.
A man in a black uniform stood at the far end,
holding a remote in one hand and a tablet in
the other. As you already know, he sighed, you're going underground.
You'll be outfitted. You'll be monitored, your vitals, your recordings,
every word you say will be logged. You'll have one guide.
Her name is Wren, the girl with the ticks. Presumably
Wren glanced up but didn't speak. She was part of
the firm mission, he continued. She didn't witness the attack.
She abandoned a team before it occurred. She was found
days later at the mountain base. She ran, Holly said, grinning,
you're sending us down there with a coward. Ren flinched
and her shoulders jerked. She tried to hold still, but
the tension inside her was impossible to miss. The man
ignored them both. You are explorers. You're being given an opportunity.
Find out what happened, find out what they discovered, assess
the biological threat. You will have audio and video documentation
running at all times. You will not go off plan.
You will not deviate from the root. She outlines, you
will not improvise. Do that, and you'll have a shot
at walking out. They loaded us into the back of
a truck with no windows, no light, sense of movement
beyond the vibration of the road. Beneath. Ren and I
sat across from each other, silent for most of the
first hour. Her leg bounced nervously. You're right, I asked.
She blinked hard and nodded, yeah, sorry, it's well, it's not.
She stopped and forced the head straight. It's hard sometimes
you were there before, She nodded again. What happened? Well,
she said, it's silly, but I was scared. I left
before anything even happened, as you heard. I didn't have
a reason. I guess I just kind of felt claustrophobic.
Maybe I don't know. Something about the place spooked me,
so I ran out of the cave. I'd walked all night.
I looked at her carefully. And you still don't know
why you left. I've been trying to figure it out,
especially after they questioned me a bunch of times. I
guess I did avoid danger. She seems sincere you scared
of going back in, She perked, up suddenly full of energy.
Of course, something in there killed my colleagues, and she slowed.
They told me I breached contract and I was required
to do this. After a brief pause, why are you here,
she asked, I mean really, I lit some buildings on fire,
I said, keeping the other things secret. She didn't look away.
Do you regret it? I didn't answer her right away.
I watched her instead, I guess so. Her eyes flicked
back toward me, searching for something. Maybe she found it.
She gave me a small nod, then looked away again.
When the truck stopped, they kept us inside for another
twenty minutes. When they finally opened the doors, daylight hit
me so hard I had to shield my eyes. A
dozen figures waited near a chain link gate that had
been rigged into a stretch of pale rock. They wore gear, helmets, visors,
and gloves. We looked at them in disbelief as they
pointed toward a crate full of weapons. I took a
short gun and a side arm. Harlis went straight for
the automatic rifle and smirked. When they didn't stop him.
Drew slung a belt of shells across his shoulders, and
picked up pomp action like it was a toy. He
really given us guns, Harli said, shaking his head and
turning around to face us. They gave the prison crew guns.
Hollis turned toward Wren, who backed herself against the side
of the truck. She hadn't taken anything from the crate.
What about her, he said? Do we even need her?
What if we take her hostage? Maybe walk her back out,
Tell them we want a helicopter or something. He didn't
sound serious, but he didn't sound like he was joking either.
One of the mass guards looked at him, and Hollis
piped down. He looked disappointed. I guess that wouldn't work,
would it. A man in a hazard suit gave a
final briefing. Equipment had already been staged inside ammunition, light,
nutrition packs, water. There was no communication. Once we entered,
we would document everything, follow the route, and if we
tried to exit up the doors would remain locked until
the scheduled retrieval time. The cave entrance was tiny, a
little more than a slit and stone. The walls were uneven,
jagged in some places, then smooth in others. They were
wide enough for two of us to walk side by side,
with space in between. We moved through long tunnels that
opened into chambers large enough to park air craft in.
Wren led the way. She had a tablet secured to
a vest and a laminated map strapped to a leg.
We found a flat stretch of tunnel that widened near
a wall of crossed sediment. Some one had left old
markers orange tags, half buried under dust. Wren told us
this was the first stop. We weren't expecting to reach
the next landmark until morning. We dropped gear, unrolled mats,
and sat down in the dirt. Drew, leaned against the
slap of rock, and slept. Almost immediately after a few minutes,
Wren approached me. She looked hesitant. I don't want to
be near them, she said, yeah, I know, maybe I'm
againting scared for no reason again, But I don't know
what if they do something, If they might, I said, whatever,
let's just stick together, the two of them and the
two of us. Sure, I nodded. She breathed out through
a nose and nodded again. Then she lowered her head
and mumbled something I didn't catch. We all woke up
around the same time, and nobody spoke. We just started
walking again. It was a strange situation. We all knew
we could potentially die here. Whatever had killed those researchers
were still down here, and now that we were getting closer,
that realization was sinking in deeper than ever before. A
few hours in, the cave shifted, the walls widened again,
and the floor began to level out. The slope that
had pulled us down from the start eased, but the
tunnel didn't narrow. It kept expanding in every direction. That
was the first place we saw the trail. It stretched
across the stone like someone had spilled a vatter silver
and led it cool. Long lines of dull metal fused
with the ground, following the cave's natural channels. Some parts
had pulled into circular patches. Others looked like they had
been flung out during motion. Thin trails scattered but clearly
following something's path. Wren stopped and knelt um She started
the original crew. There was a satellite scan if I
remember correctly, something in this range gave her a turn
that matched heavy rhodium content. It was a really dense
and unnatural concentration. It could have been worth a fortune,
so it's no wonder there are traces of it around.
We listened briefly. Drew talked about bringing some of it
back and potentially getting paid for it, but no one
answered him. We kept walking. More trails appeared. Some ran
along the walls, and a few looped over natural arches
over our heads. It was everywhere. It reached the junction
where the ceiling opened into a chamber almost the size
of a hangar. The walls clinted, Strips of exposed minerals
caught the low light, veins of gold, and something darker
ran to the rock, like roots frozen in place. That
was when I heard it. A series of sharp clicks
echoed behind us. They were fast. I turned. It emerged
from the bend in the tunnel without warning, moving on
all fours but rising. As it entered the open chamber,
its forearms twisted at a sick angle, ending in serrated
appendages that resembled both talons and surgical blades. Beneath its skin,
if it could be called that something pulsed in irregular spasms,
thick cables of muscle rolled beneath the fused metallic and
oily surface, as though it had been dipped in molten
chrome and left it congeal in uneven patches. Its head
was horrific elongated, tapering to a point that hovered behind
its shoulders. The jaws split downward instead of opening wide,
unhinging into four separate folds, and molten metal leaked out
in thin lines that hissed again the stone. He raised
his head and looked around, almost like he was trying
to listen. We looked at it in the silence, and
then Hollis lifted his rifle and fired it. A full
burst tore through the CAFN air Shells clattered to the ground.
The noise was deafening. Drew stepped up behind him and
joined in, racking around into the chamber with a grin.
The creature didn't even flinch, but he started moving toward them,
seemingly now alerted to their presence. It was fast and fluid.
Hollis got half a breath into another laugh before it
reached him. One swipe took his legs, another tore through
his chest. I didn't see what happened next. There was
in a sound beyond the gunshots and the wet slap
of contact. Drew kept firing and to the gun locked
open the creature pivoted toward him, Already moving, I turned
and ran, and that seemed to alert Wren. She moved
with me, and her body convulsed in both physical and
vocal ticks. The shots behind us faded, then there was nothing.
Wren gasped, her mouth opened, but she didn't speak. I
pushed the harder toward us. Split in the tunnel, her
heead We moved fast and low, and I started to
realize something. It was blind. I slowed, pulling her behind
a wall of rock with the ground dipped. Her head shook.
She kept whispering something beneath, her breath, split up by
involuntary yelps that were too loud for comfort. You have
to stop. Do you hear me? She nodded hard, her
jaw clenched tight. Sweat ran down the sante of her
face and streaks, and her whole body trembled from the
effort of holding still. I can't see he can only
hear us. You have to stay quiet. She nodded again,
and this time her body stilled, not entirely, but enough.
We moved without speaking. Every step felt calculated, every breath
too loud. The tunnels narrowed again as we descended behind us.
Sounds from the creature could still be heard, but it
was far enough away to give us some hope of survival.
Not even bullets damaged it, so our best bet was
to try sneak past it. Somehow, we entered another chamber,
smaller than the last one, but wide enough of the
darkness to stretch past the range of our lights. The
ceiling bowed downward. They stepped around a jagged edge and
nearly tripped over a body, or what was left of it.
It wore a suit, or what had been a suit.
Once the fabric had fused. The limbs torn open across
the chest and peeled back at the shoulder. The skin
beneath had dried into something gray, stiff, and hollow. I
counted three more nearby. Wren knelt slowly next to one
of the bodies. I knew her. She whispered, but there
was no time for reminiscing or anything of the sort.
I tapped on the shoulder and gestured for her to move.
The tunnel dropped hard. After that, we slid down a
slope that forced us onto our hands, boots scraping loose rock.
The air was changing again, hot, and now not from
the strain. It hit my face before we saw the sauce.
Then we rounded a bend and the floor or dropped
out into a massive chasm. Rhn and I stared in
disbelief as a lake stretched out in front of us,
smooth as glass, not one made of water, but rather
molten metal, gold, silver, blue, all bleeding into each other
in an endless loop. Heat poured from the surface. Sweat
ran down my back in slow waves. My hands felt
down beside my gloves. I thought about how this was possible.
Surely the heat from the molten metal itself would have
killed us by now, But my attempts at rationalization were
interrupted by a clicking sound behind us, and a realization
that we had just reached a dead end. We moved
to the side and took cover behind a jagged ridge
of stone at the lake's edge. It was a match
enough to break the line of sight, maybe enough to
muffle sound. Rent's body convulsed and she put both hands
over her mouth butt. If she made a single sound,
we die. I could feel the creature approaching. The air
shifted as it entered the chamber. She reached for me,
her fingers closed around my arm, trembling her eyes met mine.
She knew I looked at her. I didn't say anything.
There wasn't time. Even a whisper could have ended it.
She mouthed something. I raised the shotgun. Her head shook,
small and sharp. Her lips trembled, but she didn't speak.
Her hand tightened around my arm. I felt her fingernails
through the fabric. She tried to pull back. Her mouth opened,
no sound came out. Her eyes screamed. I fired. Her
head snapped sideways, gone before the rest of her had
time to fall. Blood hit the rock behind us in
a wet splash. Her body collapsed to my feet. The
creature sprung into motion. I could hear it. It stood
on top of the rock I was hiding and slowly
dropped itself down. His tail ran right past my arm,
and it seemed to inspect Wren's body. It lifted her
up by the torso and walked out of view. I
could hear the liquid sloshing. Curiosity got the better of me.
I peeked around the corner to see the monster slowly
walking into the lake of metal, Wren's body in tow
The surface took both of them, metal folding upward to
embrace its body as it was scended into the glowing pool.
Then he was gone. The lake smoothed over again, silent still,
as if nothing had ever broken its surface. I didn't
know how long it would stay submerged, but I wasn't
going to give it time to come back. I stood
and ran. I followed the same path we'd taken down,
or close to it. I kept one hand on the
rock to guide my turns. Everything looked different on the
way up. Eventually I reached the chamber where Drew had fallen.
His body was bent in half across a flat boulder,
split from the ribs down. I recognized the boots before
I saw the rest. Hollis lay a few feet away,
or at least most of them did. His rifle was
still in one hand, his other hand was missing. I
kept moving. By the time I saw the faint blue
glow of the reinforced entrance, I couldn't feel my legs
any more. Two guards stood at the threshold. The helmets
reflected my face as I stumbled forward. Neither of them
moved until I crossed the final threshold and fell to
my knees. I didn't speak, They didn't either. One of
them stepped forward and removed the shotgun from my back.
The other one retrieved the body. Calm, they helped me
to my feet and led me into transport. A little
while later, she sat across from me again, in the
same suit. We reviewed your footage. She said, your documentation
exceeded expectations. She flipped through a few pages. What happened
to Wren was unfortunate. She closed the folder and pushed
it aside. You've done your part, she gestured toward the door.
The hallway stretched in front of me, too bright to
focus on. A man in black uniform walked me through
two checkpoints, then into another chamber. He handed me a
small envelope. Inside were travel documents, a debit card, and
a folded sheet with my new credentials. I was escorted outside,
and just like that, I was alone. I walked until
the facility shrank behind me, nothing more than a shape
at the edge of stone. I was free.