Into The Deep (125 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Manda (View user info) at 2006-10-24 11:54:18 EDT
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"Do not go into the deep." The native man spoke, pointing deeper into the forest. I followed his pointing finger with my gaze. Twenty feet in front of our group stood a semi-wall of trees; trees that had grown so close together one could barely squeeze through, save perhaps the native man. Sunlight was seemingly being swallowed by the dark beyond the trees.
Our group had been traveling for days now with the help of an English-speaking native who graciously agreed to help us (after we agreed to provide twenty goats and forty-five chickens for his village). We arrived here on the third day of our journey. On the first day, one of our men had misstepped around a pit and had fallen in. He hadn't died instantly, but instead had moaned and twitched on the spikes protruding out of his body for what seemed like hours. When he finally passed, it was a relief to our group. None of us had wanted to play God by finishing the deed.
All of the natives that were carrying our packs had dropped our gear and ran, deciding instantaneously that his death was a bad omen.
"You mean don't go any deeper, right?" Conrad stood mocking the native man.
"Do not go into the deep," repeated the man.
"He is warning. He tells you not to enter the forest further. He speaks the truth. We should not go into the deep." Our native guide looked at us, a stern, seriousness plastered on his face.
"Tah Usu. You do not listen to this man, do you?"
"I do not go into the Deep. May the gods watch over you." Tah Usu looked stern, like a mother lecturing her unruly child.
"But we have to go. We have to look for our men." I sighed heavily, wondering how the task was set upon our shoulders so easily. We had undertaken many, but somehow this mission did not seem worthy of our abilities.
"And why do you have to?" Tah Usu asked.
"We were chosen." Conrad spoke from my left. After Gerald's demise, our group was left with only five members, Conrad, Samuel, Dr. Mitchell, Oscar, and myself; there was also our guide Tah Usu, who seemed to be deserting us
as well.
"We hired you to come with us, so you must come deeper into the forest."
"No. You said to me to show you the way to the deep forest. We now are here. I bring you only this far. I will not go into the deep."
"Fine! We'll go on alone." I knew none of the men I picked for the mission would back out on me. Time was being wasted by standing around and arguing. I began walking stiffly towards the wall of trees, wondering how I was going to squeeze through.
"There. That looks good." I blinked and looked towards Dr. Mitchell.
"What was that?" I asked.
"I said, 'that looks good'. To enter the forest by?" He pointed again and I
saw what he was talking about.
"It looks like a fucking door!" Conrad said. He was always one to state the obvious. He was right, however; there seemed to be a door carved into one of the towering trees.
"Do not go into the deep." The warning native said again from his little hovel. I glanced back but Tah Usu was already gone. The native stood alone in his loincloth, arms folded over his chest and his eyes piercing mine. I turned away.
"It's got a handle and everything! This is just too weird." Samuel was newest to the Organization and consequently he had barely any field experience. I chose Samuel to come with us because I knew he was desperate to gain experience and prove himself. He would not turn tail and run because he knew he would be branded as a wussy.
Conrad had the physical strength of an elephant; Oscar was knowledgeable in ancient history and tribal marking. Dr. Mitchell was chosen by the Organization for his immense field experience. Since he had joined on five years ago, he had been out on over 300 field missions, only 8% of them being failures.
"To go back is to admit defeat." With that motto, Oscar grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. From inside came utter silence and a smell so foul I thought I would puke.
"Ahh, the smell of sulfur." Oscar sniffed the air heavily.
"But why that smell? I saw no volcanoes around here on any map for hundreds of miles." Dr. Mitchell pulled his handkerchief from his pocket to cover his mouth and nose. Oscar inhaled even deeper.
"Ah. There is the reason." Oscar stepped into the tree. Samuel eagerly followed, then the Doctor, Conrad and finally myself. Somehow, although it seemed dark from the outside, it was actually still light, like a room lit by a few candles.
"What is that, Oscar?" Samuel's eyes enlarged ten fold as he saw what Oscar was examining.
"This is called the Inferno flower." The flower was growing with at least a dozen more on a waist high bush. It had three petals each the size of a piece of paper and each the color of the ocean. In the middle of the flower, the pistils were glowing red.
"You see the glowing in the middle? Well that comes from a build up of energy waste in the flower. The flower converts it into gas that heats up the pistils until they cannot hold anymore and the gas is released, producing that smell of sulfur."
"That is just amazing." Samuel was holding his hands out over the flower.
He was eager to learn but we couldn't keep taking study breaks. Each minute we stopped and stared, was another minute our missing men stayed missing. Conrad was peering through the forest with binoculars pressed to his face. Dr. Mitchell stood by Samuel and Oscar inspecting the foliage.
"Conrad do you see anything?" Conrad let the binoculars hang against his
chest again and pulled out his map.
"No. It's too dark and the thermal imager keeps picking up those damn flowers. I figure we have to continue on about fifteen miles before we come across the downed plane. Who knows how many more miles until we find those missing men."
"You don't think they stayed with the plane?" I stepped onto the log Conrad
stood on.
"If they did, they're fools. That kind of crash would've gained the attention of the whole forest. Where there are Inferno flowers, there are sure to be Pyre cats. I also found droppings of Ermacs a little while back. They are not indigenous to this region, so it makes me wonder what else could be lurking out there. And if the legend is true..."
I cut him off. "There is no way those bullshit legends are true. Look, we've seen a lot of unusual things, but not one of those were ever based off some legend." I had a sinking feeling that I was out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of boys, not men.
Dr. Mitchell piped up just as I was about to go on a tirade about bullshit legends, "Okay, the way I figure it is we can reach the crash site by nightfall. We should make some sort of camp there and if the missing men are not there, then we will proceed with our rescue mission in the morning."
"What about the pyre cats?" Conrad asked.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Do you honestly believe that I would put my men in danger by not providing weapons? If you open your packs, you'll find plasma rifles as well as Spectron guns."
"Spectron guns? You mean we may find Spectrals here? What the hell is going on?" Conrad was furious, his face became red, or perhaps it was just the
flowers.
"No, I just don't want to take any chances. After all, we are in unfamiliar territory and this is still a forest. You know, lions and tigers and bears, oh my?"
I swung the pack from my back, shifted through the food and retrieved the two guns and a holster. Slipping the holster belt on, I noticed the rest of the group follow my lead. I made sure the Spectron gun was charged before placing it in the holster, then, I made sure the rifle was also charged. I waited for the others to do the same, thoughts racing through my head faster than a techno beat.
"The dangers are just as equal if we wait for sunrise. Possibly more so, since if we rest, we become sitting ducks. We have to go into the Deep, get our men and get out. Everyone must stay close and watch each other's backs. If we get tired, there is energy food in your packs that will recharge your bodies for another eight hours. Any questions?"
"Yeah. What if we gotta go?" Samuel asked jokingly.
"Then hold it. The scent will attract any creatures that may be in here. I will take the lead. Conrad comes second, then Samuel, Doc, and Oscar. If we come to a point where the Inferno flowers don't grow or their light is not illuminating anymore, there are glow sticks also packed in your gear."
"What if something moves?" Samuel's question irked me and I sighed.
"Shoot first and ask second. Remember this could be dangerous." I turned and headed down the path we were already on, the rest of the group close behind. The first couple of miles were pretty uneventful, then in the fourth mile the weather took a sharp turn and the temperature plummeted. Inferno flowers began to stop illuminating and we needed to halt to bring out our glow
sticks. A rustling group of bushes made us freeze.
"Wh...what was that?" Samuel's breath could be seen in the air.
The bushes rustled again but before anyone could get a shot off, three large birds flew from the foliage and into the treetops. Everyone sighed heavily, and Samuel chuckled nervously.
After some warmer clothes were put on, and the glow sticks were lit, we continued our journey and just as we reached the five-mile mark, we shot and killed our first two Ermacs. They were only scouts and the main herd of would not be far behind. The Ermacs were easily scared away; it was the Pyre cats that were even more dangerous. A couple more miles and a few more dead animals later, the group needed to rest for a minute to eat. We double checked the map and compass and headed out again to our objective. Oscar stepped up beside me.
"So how does the Organization know those men aren't dead? Did they contact headquarters?"
"They knew the Deep was dangerous. The Organization implanted the group
secretly with transponders that read their pulse and heart rate. All ten of them are still alive"
"Yeah, but if the legends are true about the Deep then..."
"Will you quit it with the fucking legends? You're going to make Samuel wet himself!" I said jokingly.
Oscar nodded and returned back to his position. We had come to the tenth mile when we were attacked by a group of Ermacs. No sooner had we scared them off with our plasma guns than a pack of Pyre cats attacked. They spat balls of fire and caught the foliage behind us on fire so we could not retreat. Their claws flashed through the air, slicing through the thickest of trees. The group took down several Pyre cats before one picked up Conrad, who was screaming bloody murder, in its jaws. Victory was theirs, and they all scattered into the forest.
Exhausted from the sudden burst of energy, and feeling a bit depressed over the loss of a group member, we sat down and ate some food. By this time the path behind us had finally stopped burning and was only smoldering, so we continued our quest as a group of four. The weather took another drastic change but this time the temperature soared. We stopped briefly again to strip off our warm clothes.
"Baric." Oscar approached me before we could begin the trek again. "Do you feel like we're being watched? I've been feeling human eyes upon me since welast stopped. Now I feel more than one set of eyes." My jaw clenched but I had a feeling that he was trying to scare me.
We continued on and reached the end of the twelfth mile. In front of us stood an immaculate stone pillar four feet high with carving up and down its sides. On top of the pillar a fat plain brown urn sat surrounded by a faint green glow. Oscar squatted to read the carvings on the pillar.
"Do not go into the deep. Souls lurk and shadows creep."
"Well, that's certainly useful information, now that we're here." I said sarcastically, walking away from the group. At the rate we were going, we'd never rescue the men.
"Wait! What do you think is in that urn?" It had certainly piqued Samuel's curiosity, as well as his stupidity. Before I had a chance to turn around, I heard a crash and an, 'uh oh!'. The air felt different in that moment, the air grew cold and the feeling of being watched intensified.
There was a scream from Samuel. Two Pyre cats jumped from the bushes on either side of the pillars and landed on Samuel. They began to feast on him, ripping muscles from his body. There was nothing I could do for him, so I turned and started firing on the scene. At least his death was quick this way.
Oscar panicked and started running back the way we came, gun in his hand. I heard a scream shortly after, followed by some unintelligible shouts. Doctor Mitchell stood in the clearing, grinning at me.
"You stupid, foolish man." I stopped what I was doing when the Doctor spoke. "The legends are all true. The men that are still alive from the downed plane? Dead. You were not brought here to rescue anyone. The Organization knows that we could not possibly survive the Deep. They sent us here because they know what lurks in the shadows. They know all about Kai Ming."
I stared at the Doctor. Surely, he must have snapped in all of the confusion. The Organization would never send me on a death mission. I was valuable, they had told me. Who the fuck was Kai Ming? I could not believe that the legends were true. The Deep may have been a little creepy, but I would not believe that the dead lurked in the shadows.
"Shutup, Doctor. You have no idea what you're talking about. If you knew all of this beforehand, why did you agree to come?"
"My time on this realm has come. I am an old man. I have nothing left in life, so why not go out with a bang? The Organization is monitoring us. They will study our undead bodies and the evil surrounding this place. They will try to stop it. I wanted to help."
I shook my head. "That's not adding up, sorry. I refuse to believe." I took a few steps away from the Doctor. I was positive he had snapped, and he still had his guns. I would rather take my chances with the crazy legend than risk sure death at the hands of my group member.
"Do not go into the Deep." The doctor laughed and started to lift his gun.
I ran. I ran fast and hard, away from the Doctor, away from his arsenal. I didn't stop running until I was out of breath and panting hard from exertion. I couldn't hear anything over the pounding in my ears, and when I came to a stop, I rested against a tree, gun in my hands.
It was then that I saw Samuel peeking out at me from the bushes. He was missing half his face, and grinning at me.
Fuck. I heard a rustling in the bushes to my left, and I raised my gun and fired in a semi-circle, trying to ward off the lurkers. Adrenaline was starting to pump into my blood and I wanted to run again.
It was then that I felt a hand latch onto my ankle. I screamed.
In the Deep, no one heard me.
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