Defenders of Destiny, book one, the Discovery of Astrolaris

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Labyrinth

  “Maybe we could swim back to the platform,” Joseph proposed, halfheartedly.

  “Not with that monster in the lake,” countered Mom. “Be-sides, I’ll bet it’s not the only one in there.”

  Dad responded: “Well, I don’t want to go groping down the tunnel in the dark, not knowing where it leads or what might be down there.”

  Sharianna moved a little closer to the light with his last words.

  “Look, the walkway is all broken up,” observed Joseph.

  “That’s stating the obvious,” retorted Sharianna. “That’s why we can’t get back.”

  “No, look, the railing is broken up too; it is made of the same material.”

  Dad perceived the direction of Joseph’s thoughts: “Yes, if we could get some sections of it, maybe we could use it like flashlights.”

  “How are you going to get the pieces,” asked Mom. “That creature can move through the water even faster than it can run…or crawl, on land.”

  “I’ll bet it’s not normally so dangerous,” said Joseph.

  “Are you crazy?” asked Sharianna. “Didn’t you see those pincher-like mouths on its arms?”

  “I’m just saying that if I hadn’t put its eye out with the rock, maybe it wouldn’t have attacked.”

  The last thirty feet or so of the railing had been knocked into the lake by the advance of the creature.

  “I see a loose piece of railing, down where the walkway goes under water. Do you see it Joseph?” asked Dad.

  “Yes, but look at that last section, the one that is closest to us – one end is loose,” Joseph replied. “I wish I knew how tough that material is. Do you think it might break if we pried on it?”

  “Maybe, but I’m not going to chance it. I’m going for the one that is already loose. I don’t want to waste time if I can’t break the other one,” said Dad. “Get ready to retreat into the cave; I’m going out to get it.”

  Thomas took a couple of deep breaths and braced his foot against a rock, like a sprinter at the starting line.

  “I’m a faster runner than you, Dad,” said Joseph.

  “I’ll go,” replied Dad. “You stay with the girls.”

  Thomas burst out of the mouth of the cave and sprinted down the walkway toward the loose piece of railing.

  Joseph dashed right behind Dad and grabbed onto the loose end of the closest piece of railing. He began to bend it but it would not break. Suddenly, Sharianna was by his side, and the rail bent a little more. Right behind Sharianna was Mom, who threw herself against the railing. Without warning, it suddenly snapped. Sharianna and Joseph went flying into the water, still holding onto the rail. The rail slid through Mom’s hands but she clamped onto the end of it.

  “Hold on!” Sophia screamed. She suddenly felt like Mrs. Hercules as she hoisted both her children from the water.

  Joseph and Sharianna falling into the water was not the only disturbance upon the surface of the lake. As Thomas reached for the loose piece of railing, he felt the walkway jolt beneath his feet. He lunged onto his knees and caught the piece of railing as it rolled into the water. He felt the walkway sink a little more into the lake. He turned around in time to see his children dangling from the end of the railing as Sophia lifted them out of the water, but he could not see Sophia. On the walkway between Thomas and Sophia stood a creature like the one they had escaped from, except that this one was much smaller, but it looked no less formidable.

  Sophia deposited Joseph and Sharianna onto the walkway behind her and turned toward Thomas. All she could see was the back of the creature. The lake seemed to be a cauldron of activity; the water was in turmoil and she could imagine, who knows how many other monsters, speeding toward them.

  “Get back to the cave!” she ordered.

  Percy raced past her toward the creature.

  She leaped into action. Holding her glowing twelve-foot pole she rushed down the walkway toward the monster.

  Percy barked at the creature and attempted to bite the back of its soft muscular foot. But, of course, the helmet of his space suit prevented him from inflicting any injury on the creature.

  Three of the arms arched toward the back, while the other two proceeded to attack Thomas.

  “The eyes!” screamed Sophia, as she swung her pole toward the end of one of the arms that was reaching for Percy. “Get back Percy!”

  Rather than connecting with the eye, the monster caught the end of the pole in its pincher-like teeth. Sophia held onto the pole with all the strength she had. She was flung against the railing.

  Sophia gasped as she tried to get her wind back. She was surprised to see a hailstorm of rocks suddenly pelt the monster. It screamed as one of its protruding eyes was struck a glancing blow by one of the rocks that Joseph and Sharianna were hurling. The creature bit through her metal pole, shortening it by a foot. She swung the pole at the creature again and another arm quickly grabbed the pole and pinched off another foot.

  “Don’t hit Mom or Percy!” cautioned Sharianna, as Joseph threw a rock the size and shape of a football with all the strength he had. The rock spiraled, like a quarterback’s perfect pass as it hit the monster with a loud thud exactly in the middle of the body, about two thirds the distance from the foot. The creature seemed momentarily stunned.

  Dad’s pole was only about four feet long, so he had more control over it. He swung with all his might and hit the creature square on one of the eyes. As the bioluminescent fluid spurted from the orb, its unearthly shriek reverberated through the cavern, more intensely than ever. To Sophia’s surprised relief, the wounded fiend plunged into the water.

  The ramp sprang back up a little as Thomas sprinted toward his family. “Quick! Get into the cave!” he yelled. Miraculous-ly, he saw one of the short pieces of railing that the monster had cut from Sophia’s pole on the walkway. Without even pausing, he scooped it up and ran after his family. Thomas felt the walkway move under his feet but somehow he was able to maintain his footing.

  Sophia ran headlong into the cave entrance directly behind Joseph and Sharianna.

  Percy had become much more accustomed to the moon’s low gravity, but he still had not completely mastered running. He was a short distance in front of Thomas as the end of the walkway began to pull away from the entrance of the cave.

  “Here boy!” called out Joseph, as Percy launched himself from the end of the walkway.

  Sharianna yelled, “Faster, Dad!” Her heart stopped when she saw how far the walkway was from the cliff.

  At the edge of the light, she could see the wake created by what she assumed were several more of the hideous creatures coming from different directions under the water.

  “Get back farther into the cave!” ordered Dad, as he leaped from the end of the walkway. Sharianna stepped back as her dad flew an amazing distance through the air.

  The two pieces of railing clanged to the floor as he rolled to a stop on top of the rubble pile left by the previous monster.

  Joseph picked up the four-foot pole, while Sharianna grabbed the short one. Mom still had her ten-foot pole. The light filtering into the entrance of the cave faded as the walkway was pulled down into the depths of the lake by the furious creatures. They could see the very dim glow of the platform in the distance. The only other light they had was the faint glow from their pieces of railing, but it was enough to see several yards around them.

  From the light of her piece of railing, Sharianna suddenly saw a glowing orb, accompanied by the now familiar metallic teeth, appear near the floor of the entrance.

  Joseph saw the eye at the same time and swung his pole with all his might. The eye popped and glowing liquid splattered against the wall of the cave. The mouth screamed as it jerked back from the entrance of the cave. A moment later they heard a splash as the creature hit the surface of the water.

  Joseph held his pole over the edge to see anothe
r creature emerge from the lake and begin climbing up the cliff. The teeth at the end of its arms simply bit into the rock as it climbed up toward the cave. This creature looked small enough to enter the cave.

  “Dad, the boulder,” directed Joseph, as he jumped over to a large rock that had been dislodged by the first creature.

  Thomas and Joseph grabbed onto the rock, but it was so big that even with the added strength afforded them by the moon’s low gravity and their spacesuits, they could not lift it.

  “Roll it,” directed Sophia as she joined them and pushed with all her strength. Sharianna swiftly joined the effort. Together, they quickly rolled the huge boulder to the edge. As it toppled over, they heard a crunching thud and then a splash. They could discern no more activity coming from the lake.

  “I think we should get moving as far as possible from the lake; I suspect that perhaps those creatures prefer the water; if so, maybe they will stay near the lake. Surely, there must be another way to the surface,” said Dad, as he turned toward the darkness of the tunnel.

  “Here, Thomas, take my pole – it’s producing the most light. I’ll take up the rear, but I would like to have a weapon,” Mom said, as she looked back anxiously in the direction of the lake, which was now quiet again.

  “I’ll take the rear,” Joseph replied. “I know what to do if one of those creatures follows us.” Joseph held his pole as if it were a two handed sword. He swung and jabbed at an imaginary monster.

  “Okay, but keep your eyes and ears peeled, and keep Percy by your side,” instructed Mom. “Sharianna, you follow Dad. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Here, boy, heel,” Joseph instructed. Percy came and stood by Joseph’s leg.

  The tunnel led upward at a slight angle; it seemed to wind aimlessly, turning first this way and then that. The tunnel was perfectly round, even the floor was curved. It was like walking through a large stone pipe. The walls were smooth, except where there were voids or cracks in the natural rock.

  Even though the tunnel was probably seven or eight feet in diameter, the curved floor made walking side by side impossible. The family trudged along in single file. Every few paces Joseph would spin around and shine his pole behind them to make sure they were not being followed.

  “This cave definitely is not natural,” commented Mom.

  Dad stopped without warning and Sharianna bumped right into him.

  “What do you think that is?” asked Dad, as he pointed to a round hole in the wall of the tunnel, a little more than two feet in diameter.

  “It looks like this tunnel that we are in, except that it is smaller,” observed Sharianna.

  Sophia knelt down cautiously and peered into the hole. “Sharianna, let me see your light, please.” She reached the light into the small tunnel. “It slopes down,” she reported.

  “Do you think these tunnels were dug by the creatures in the lake?” asked Sharianna.

  “I doubt it,” replied Joseph. “Did it look to you like that creature was too particular about the way he was tearing rock from the walls of the tunnel?”

  “I agree,” said Dad. “I don’t think they would be capable of such precise work.”

  Joseph continued, “I think this tunnel was probably made by the same aliens that built the obelisk. I don’t think those creatures in the lake would have built stairs, with their single snail-like foot—stairs are for bipedal creatures.”

  “Let’s keep moving,” admonished Mom, “at this rate we will never find a way out.”

  They continued on their way at a rapid pace. They passed several more of the small tunnels, all intersecting the main tunnel at different angles.

  “What did they do with all the rock they took out of the tunnel?” asked Sharianna.

  “Maybe they vaporized it,” replied Joseph.

  “I don’t think so, the way this tunnel wanders, I would think they were following some kind of mineral deposit.”

  “Remember that strange mountain we saw, before we found the obelisk?” asked Mom, “I’ll bet that was the tailings dump from this mine!”

  “That makes sense,” answered Dad, “I’ll bet you’re right.”

  “That must mean that this tunnel does lead to the surface,” exclaimed Sharianna exuberantly.

  Moments later, the tunnel widened into a cavern large enough to fit a house. Exiting the large room were several other tunnels.

  “Which way?” inquired Mom, with a little anxiety in her voice. She remembered hearing stories of spelunkers loosing their way in the abandoned mines out in the desert and perishing before they could find their way out. The rumbling in her stomach added emphasis to her worry.

  “Let’s see if any of them slope up,” suggested Sharianna.

  “Great idea,” exclaimed Dad, as he ran toward one of the openings, “you guys check those, I’ll check this one.”

  There were seven other tunnels that intersected the cavern, four sloped downward, one seemed to be level, and two sloped upward.

  “Which one should we take?” asked Joseph after the analy-sis.

  “This one, we’ll mark as number one,” said Dad, as he jabbed at the rock next to the tunnel they had come through with his piece of railing, “then we’ll number each one in a clockwise direction. That way we won’t be going down the same tunnel twice – if we happen to choose the wrong one and have to backtrack.”

  “That still leaves the question of which one should we take?” insisted Joseph.

  “That one slopes up the most,” said Sharianna, pointing to number four.

  “I think that one is larger than the others,” said Mom, point-ing to number six. “Let me have your pole, Thomas.” She placed one end of the pole against the side of one of the tunnel entrances and marked the other side of the tunnel with her finger on the pole. Running over to tunnel number six she did the same thing. “See, it is several feet bigger – I think we should take this one.”

  “But that one doesn’t slope up,” argued Sharianna.

  “It’s the only one that is level,” stated Joseph.

  “It’s just a hunch, but I think the tunnels may get larger the closer to the mine entrance we get,” Mom replied.

  “That makes sense to me,” agreed Dad.

  They hurried down the large tunnel; it seemed to wander a little less than the previous tunnel.

  “There’s a light up ahead,” announced Dad. “It looks like a door,” he declared, as they approached.

  The door was closed; about five feet up it looked like there was some kind of latch.

  “Open it,” directed Mom.

  Dad reached for the latch.

  “I hear something…” whispered Joseph, who was looking the other way and peering into the darkness.

  “What is it?” asked Mom quietly.

  Percy began a soft, low growl, as he faced the darkness from whence they had come.

  “Shh,” Joseph whispered to Percy, “It sounded like a soft clicking, like the creature’s teeth.”

  Sharianna grabbed onto her little piece of railing with both hands, but she still felt defenseless.

  “Open the door!” Mom repeated in an urgent whisper.

  “It’s locked, or something,” answered Dad.

  Out in the darkness, from around a bend in the tunnel, Joseph suddenly saw five small lights; they seemed to be slowly dancing in the air.

  “A creature is coming!” Joseph whispered fervently. “It must be able to track us.”

  Dad pulled on the handle with all his strength, but it broke off.

  Dad turned in time to see all five eyes suddenly stop their slow dance. The creature began its charge with a chilling wail. Thomas put his foot against the side of the cave. Pushing off, he leaped to the other side and ran along the sloped surface until he was all the way around his family.

  Sophia looked around anxiously for some kind of weapon, but there was nothing to be found. Instead, she spotted one of the small tunnels right next to the door
. It looked like it sloped steeply away.

  Percy charged to meet the creature.

  “Percy! Get back here! Now!” screamed Sharianna, as she threw her short piece of railing with every particle of strength she had toward the shrieking instrument of death charging toward them.

  Joseph heard Sharianna’s weapon whiz by his head.

  He gripped his weapon tighter, and thought about his plan of attack. He wasn’t going to hit only one of the eyes. He visualized himself hitting one and then another, and another, in rapid succession. He knew the monster would be formidably dangerous, even blind, but then at least they would have a chance. I wish I had a gun, he thought.

  The creature’s eyes fixed upon Percy, its arms lowered, ready to scoop him up.

  Sharianna’s projectile suddenly hit the creature, a few inches above its screaming maw. The sharp end of the broken railing pierced the tough looking hide of the creature, as if a professional knife thrower had thrown it.

  The creature paused as its eyes turned from Percy to this new distraction. It plucked the projectile from its body and crushed it in two.

  Mom grabbed Sharianna and shoved her toward the small tunnel. “Get down that hole!” she ordered.

  As Thomas descended back to the floor, between Joseph and the creature from the lake, he saw Percy try to sink his teeth into the soft foot of the monster, but once again, his helmet prevented him from inflicting any injury. Percy immediately darted back toward the family he was trying to protect, narrowly escaping the lashing teeth as the monster reached out in retaliation. The monster let out a scream even more terrifying and nerve tearing than before. Thomas stood frozen for a moment as he held his pole toward the monster like a spear as it resumed its approach.

  Percy turned and stood in front of Thomas, growling and barking at the creature. His ferocious bark sounded strangely mild and pitifully ineffectual, compared to the scream of the approaching menace. The creature seemed to be coming with a little more caution toward them, but it was still attacking nevertheless.

  Mom grabbed Joseph from behind and flung him toward the hole. “Follow Sharianna!” she ordered, as she grabbed his pole from him. “I mean it!” she screamed.

  Joseph obeyed the order, realizing that there was no arguing with her.

  Thomas heard her directions to the children and turned his head slightly, to see what was going on behind him.

  “You get down there too!” he yelled, as loud and command-ing as he could. He knew Sophia would stay and fight, but he had a plan. He backed away toward the door.

  “Get down there, NOW!” he ordered.

  Sophia dropped her pole and reached around Thomas’ legs. She grabbed Percy with one hand by the tail and pulled him toward her. She put her other hand on the scruff of his neck and shoved him down the hole after Joseph.

  “You better not die!” she yelled at Thomas, as she dove into the hole headfirst.

  The monster increased its speed when it saw them escaping.

  In a single motion, Thomas put his long pole against the bottom of the door, placed the other end of the pole directly into the creature’s main mouth and ducked. He grabbed the short pole that Sophia had discarded and dove headlong down the hole. It all happened so fast that he was right behind Sophia, sliding down with his hand pushing against Sophia’s feet. They all accelerated for a while, until the slope of the tunnel began to diminish and their forward momentum decreased; suddenly, they came to an abrupt stop.

  The tunnel was so small that Thomas could not even bring his arms back alongside his body. He lay there with his arms outstretched, still holding the end of the railing with one hand and his other holding onto Sophia’s foot. It’s a good thing the walls of this tunnel are smooth, he thought, or we would be just a bloody mess. But then he remembered the spacesuits; he rolled his arms over so that he could see his elbows from the light of the pole, where they had rubbed against the stone. He could see no damage. Pretty tough material, he thought with relief.

  “Are you guys okay?” called out Mom and Dad together.

  “Yes, I think so, but there is something blocking the tunnel,” replied Sharianna, “I can’t see what it is.”

  Percy whined and crawled forward onto Joseph’s legs.

  They could hear the maddened scream of the creature reverberating down the tunnel.

  Thomas could feel rocks and debris piling up on his feet and legs. His heart was pounding wildly; the adrenaline was coursing through his veins. He could envision the enraged creature tearing at the walls of the tunnel in an effort to reach them. He had a disturbing thought: Maybe its intent is to bury us alive.

  “Here, I have one of the poles,” offered Dad, as he struggled to move the four-foot pole out from under his body and push it up past Sophia, but he could barely move his forearms and hands, which were outstretched in front of him. Finally, he was able to work the pole loose and push it up far enough for Sophia to get hold of it and push it up to Joseph, and finally to Sharianna.

  The screaming of the creature had stopped, and the debris was no longer piling up on top of Thomas, but he realized that there was no way they were going to be able to climb back up the tunnel. It was deathly quiet: Like a tomb, Thomas thought. I’d better stop thinking like that, he quickly told himself.

  “It’s some kind of silvery metal thing, it fills the whole tunnel like a plug,” Sharianna reported. From her voice, it was obvious that she was feeling panicked and claustrophobic.

  “It will be alright, sweetie,” said Dad, as calmly as he could, “can you push it?”

  “I don’t know; I think it moved a little when we hit it.”

  She pushed against it but it did not move.

  “Put your feet on my shoulders and use your legs,” instructed Joseph.

  Sharianna put her head and hands against the obstruction and pushed with her legs.