Bonechiller (28 page)

He reaches out as he runs. Too late.

Howie’s about to step into the tunnel.

Then the earth rips apart.

Thunder cracks the air. Flames burst from the tunnel and a fist of superheated air slams me back.

The earth shakes, the air too hot and smoky to breathe. I cough. Coughing turns to puking. Can’t breathe. Can’t see. Everything is fog and smoke.

Through the blue haze, rocks tumble from the roof, crashing on the floor without a sound. The world has gone deaf.

I squint tears out of my eyes.

Then I feel this pressure inside my skull growing stronger. With a painful pop, my eardrums screech back to life.

I crouch, moaning.

A scream of pure agony breaks against the rock walls, throwing back echoes that make me wince. I cover my ears, searching for the source.

Through gusts of fog, I make out a body on the floor across the cave. It rolls over onto its back.

Howie! Still alive.

There’s blood gushing from his nose, and he’s shaking with a coughing fit. But he’s still breathing.

That scream shakes the stone under my knees.

Something moves in the mist by the cave entrance.

The fog parts, and the beast staggers into the cave. Its right front leg has been blown apart, ending in jagged spikes of bone. Its hide is scorched black on that side.

The mouth hangs open, the long blades of its teeth gleaming blue. Its scream deepens into a ragged growl.

Those silver eyes meet mine.

It rears up on its hind legs.

The beast takes a step closer, mouth stretching wide.

I’m dead!

A blast of gunfire erupts next to me. I spin and see Ash with her pistol raised. The giant flinches as bullets bounce off its chest, shoulder, forehead. Ash empties her mag on it.

The last shot catches the beast in the left eye, making it screech and bow its head. As Ash’s gun clicks over and over on an empty chamber, the creature howls.

A fat drop of liquid silver runs down from the eye.

“The eyes,” I croak, voice raw from the smoke. “Go for the eyes.”

Ash ejects the empty magazine and digs in her pocket. She fumbles the new mag out and drops it. It clatters on the rocks, eaten instantly by the tide of mist. Ash sweeps her hand in the fog, feeling for the ammo.

The beast steps toward us, bleeding a new silver tear from its wounded eye. Ash isn’t going to find the mag fast enough.

Then the beast stops, shaking a rear leg like it’s caught.

Howie’s lying right in its path, coughing and hacking, eyes squinted shut. He reaches out and grabs blindly at whatever just bumped into him.

“Pike!” His arm hooks around the beast’s ankle. “Pike?”

The giant’s head snaps downward.

“Pike?” Howie pleads, like his brother can still save him.

With a backward kick the giant dislodges him. Howie flies toward the far side of the cave and crashes on the mound of bones.

The beast turns to me.

I try to look away. But I’m frozen, can’t even blink.

I open my mouth to warn Ash. She’s still searching for her ammo.

But before I can speak, a wild yell ricochets off the walls.

Pike emerges from the mist in a burst of speed, racing across the cave. He rushes up behind the giant, leaps into the air and lands on its back.

It twists to see what’s there.

Pike clings to its back. He wraps his arms and legs as far as he can around it, digging his heels into the beast’s ribs.

Pike’s insane!

The beast tries to throw him. But Pike won’t budge.

It’s like he’s riding the mechanical bull at the Legion Hall. Like if he just stays on long enough he’ll win.

Pike said he had a backup plan. If this is it, we’re screwed.

I hear the click as Ash slaps a mag into the stock of her gun.

The beast twists, reaching back with the razor claws on its remaining front paw. Pike lets out a howl as they snag his foot, ripping off his boot. A spray of his blood runs down the beast’s ribs.

As Pike holds on tight, he reaches for his jacket pocket with his right hand.

No bullet is going to puncture that armor. The eyes are the only soft spot, and there’s no way Pike can take aim at them from his position.

Ash searches for a clear shot while the beast bucks, shrieking with rage. Pike yanks something out of his pocket. Not a gun.

The beast stretches, contorting to grab the pest clamped against its spine.

Pike lifts what he’s holding up to his mouth.

A bundle of dynamite, six sticks taped together. He uses his teeth to rip off a strip of paper, then slaps the six-pack hard against the beast’s back. And it sticks.

Sticky bomb!
It comes back to me, Pike talking about soldiers using them against tanks.

Pike dodges the claws, pressing frantically at something on the bundle.

As the beast takes another swipe, Pike falls to the floor with a loud grunt. He’s swallowed by the mist, and I make out his shadow crawling away. The beast turns to get him.

My eyes find the six-pack stuck to the beast. There’s
something attached to the bundle of dynamite and wires—a digital watch.

A timer. Counting down!

“Get down!” Ash shouts, tackling me to the floor.

The explosion cracks the earth apart.

And the world ends.

The end of the world hurts like a bitch.

I wake to darkness and suffocation. My whole body convulses. I try to suck in air, but there’s only smoke and choking dust.

I’m buried alive, a thousand tons of rock flattening my chest. My body starts bucking, trying to shake the pressure threatening to crack my ribs.

I open my eyes. They’re blind and burning with the dust.

Then a miracle. The weight of the mountain on me shifts the tiniest bit. I get a wisp of air into my lungs.

As I blink tears out of my eyes, my vision clears. I see the blue cave. The roof hasn’t fallen in. Yet.

I’m not buried. It’s—

Ash. Lying on top of me. I manage to worm my way out from under her.

She’s coughing now, coming to. There’s blood running from her nose, but Ash is still in one piece.

Clods of dirt and stones tumble from the roof like hail. Boulders have crashed to the floor. Something wet hits my cheek, making me flinch. I reach to swipe it off, thinking it’s blood. But my hand comes away wet with water.

Water?

The roof is dripping a steady rain. In spots, thin streams are pouring down. Above the hollow space of the cave, and who knows how many feet of rock, sits the weight of Lake Simcoe.

More drops hit my forehead.

Get out of here. Now!

But just as I move to get up, something stops me cold. Through the gusts of smoke I see a thick albino leg, the long spikes of its claws dug into the floor.

The beast. Still standing!

But as the mist shifts, I let out a shuddering breath, half shiver, half laugh. There’s nothing left above the knee.

He did it! Pike killed the unkillable.

Ash sits up, spitting out the blood running from her nose.

“Ash, it’s dead.”

She groans. “The guys?”

“Don’t know. But we gotta get out. The roof is caving in.”

I struggle to my feet. Ash pulls herself up, leaning on me. I squint through the smoke. No sign of Howie and Pike. But I see the tunnel entrance across the cave.

The hail of stones is getting worse.

Holding each other up, we stagger through the fog, tripping over fallen rocks.

I let out a yelp as a ghost rises from the mist.

“Danny!” it says.

A hand grabs my arm. I jump back, my heart seizing. Then a face leans in close.

“How-Howie?” I pant.

“Help. Help me with Pike.”

Another ghost kneels beside him.

“I’m okay,” Pike mumbles, dazed. “Just give me a sec. Man, what a ride!”

The thunder in the rocks overhead deepens.

“This whole place is coming down,” I say. “Move. Now!”

Howie drags his brother to his feet. Pike stands drunkenly.

“Right behind you, Danny,” he says.

I lead the way, Ash at my side.

Reaching the shadow of the cave mouth, I’m in such a rush I take the first step through before stopping dead. I put my hand out to stop Ash.

My eyes strain to see through the mist. Did the beast trigger both mines, or just one? Is the other twin still waiting down there?

Howie bumps into me, giving me a heart attack.

“Go slow,” I say. “Watch for the other mine.”

Inching along, I find a small crater in the floor from the first explosion. Then I see a shadow squatting by the wall. The surviving twin, still intact.

A crash and thud rumbles from the cave as part of the roof starts to give way.

Small rocks tumble from the roof of the tunnel. A couple
bounce off my head. A stone the size of a golf ball clips the edge of the sleeping mine.

I freeze, waiting to be blown into a thousand bloody pieces.

But half a second ticks by, then a full one.

“Watch your step!” I point out the mine.

Howie nods, eyes wide.

My back to the wall, I shuffle past with Ash. I don’t breathe easy again until I take the sharp turn leading away from the cave. Howie follows close, arms wrapped around Pike to keep him vertical.

Good thing me and Howie can see in the dark, because the blue glow dies off and we make our way up the tunnel in total blackness. Ash grips my wrist tight.

The way up seems longer than the way down.

“Still with me, Howie?” I call back.

Before he can answer, a violent concussion rips through the dark, whipping up the tunnel and hitting us with a blast of hot air and smoke. I’m thrown against the wall with Ash.

The second mine!

As I’m coughing out the smoke, I hear a roar from down below, rushing toward us.

I flash back to that crowd of voices trapped inside the beast’s mind—the panic of countless victims. And now all those souls are making a jailbreak after an eternity of torture.

But it’s not souls or ghosts I see gushing up from below. A wall of water fills the corridor, floor to ceiling, pressed onward by the weight of the lake above.

It swallows up the brothers, and I just have time to suck in a breath of smoky air before it hits.

The wave shoves me ahead of it. I hang on to Ash as the water knocks me against the rocks, spinning and pushing me upward.

Even immune to the cold, I can feel the bite of the icy water.

The wave presses me on. My breath is about to give out when I surface near the roof of the tunnel and gulp in a lungful of air. Ash pops up, gasping.

We sputter and spit up lake water. Lost in the dark.

Something below grabs onto my leg, making me yelp. I try to kick it loose.

Pike and Howie bob up, hacking and spewing.

We dog-paddle frantically, keeping our heads above water.

How far to the surface?

Then I feel the sweetest breath of winter air on my face. We’re close.

I swim ahead till my feet touch the tunnel floor. Ash follows, and we slog out onto dry rock.

A breeze brushes over me, smelling like snow and cedar. I want to lie on the floor and just breathe. But I need to get out.

Like two drunks, me and Ash stumble up the last stretch of tunnel, leaning together. Howie and Pike stagger after us.

The night sky stretches wide and bright with stars. We lean against the rock face and just breathe. A surge of relief makes me want to laugh like a madman.

But Ash is shivering real bad. I’m immune to the cold, but she’s not.

“Gotta get you warmed up.”

She’s hugging herself, shaking too much to speak.

Across the clearing, I catch something moving in the dark. Silent phantom shapes come toward us. It’s a breathless second before I make out Mason and his huskies.

“It’s done,” I call out.

Mason shakes his head. I know how he feels. I was there and I can barely believe it.

Near him, I notice the snowmobile flipped on its side but still in one piece. I can hear the purr of the engine idling.

“Howie, we gotta get her and Pike heated up quick. Can you drive the car?”

“Yeah. Where?”

His eyes are clear now, the trance broken.

“The marina. Closest place.”

“Right. Lean on me, Pike.”

The brothers start moving.

Ash hugs onto me as I walk us to the snowmobile. The headlight is busted and one of the skids is cracked, but it’s still breathing.

Howie glances back.

“I’m going to take Ash on the snowmobile. Be quicker across the lake.”

I grab the handlebars and heave it over onto its skids.

“See you back at the house,” I say.

“H-hot c-coffee,” Pike stutters.

“You got it.”

I straddle the seat, and Ash gets on behind me.

“Hold on tight,” I say, looking over my shoulder.

Past Ash, I see Mason and his dogs in front of the tunnel. He’s staring into the darkness. Seeing ghosts.

Ash locks her arms around me. “Go, Danny! Fast.”

I pull the snowmobile around and head for the gap onto the lake. I take us smoothly down the incline I jumped earlier. Reaching the ice, I hit the accelerator. And we’re flying.