Ghost Canyon (The John Decker Supernatural Thriller Series Book 7) Anthony Strong (popular romance novels .TXT) 📖

“Maybe.”

“Forget the two-way. We’re wasting time,” Charlie glanced backwards to make sure that his partner was still returning to the surface. He could see flashlights bobbing in the darkness, getting further away. Satisfied, he turned back to Colbeck. “Let’s go find her before she gets herself in trouble.”

“No argument there,” Colbeck replied through gritted teeth. He touched Enrique’s shoulder and set off down the tunnel. “Come on.”

Charlie cast another quick glance back toward the mine entrance, then followed along.

The three men passed by the pool of blood, taking wide steps over it to avoid contaminating the scene more than necessary, and pressed deeper into the mine. They moved at a fast clip, aware that Sasha might pull ahead of them. If they reached another fork before they located the missing woman, they would have to pick a passage and hope they’d made the right choice or split up. Charlie didn’t like either option. He prayed they would catch up with her before encountering that scenario, or that she would come to her senses and double back.

Charlie kept his ears open, listening for the strange noises that had lured the overzealous search and rescue team member away from the group in the first place. He heard nothing and wondered if it really was just a momentary breeze blowing through the tunnel.

Until he heard the scream, high pitched and full of terror.

It echoed down the tunnel before being abruptly cut off.

“Holy crap, what was that?” Enrique came to a stumbling halt. He stared into the darkness; his face flushed with fear.

“My guess would be Sasha,” Charlie said, pushing past the alarmed man and taking off at a faster pace than he should, given the unfamiliar terrain. He sped along the tunnel, playing his flashlight across the ground ahead to make sure he wasn’t going to run headlong into a mineshaft and fall to his death. Colbeck followed close behind, his pounding footfalls and labored breathing loud in the confined space.

They reached a spot where the tunnel curved to the left, the walls rough and pitted with chisel marks where the miners had followed the seam of gold. Further back came more footfalls as Enrique hurried behind.

“She can’t be that far ahead,” Colbeck said, drawing level with Charlie.

“That scream didn’t sound good.” Charlie hoped Sasha hadn’t stumbled into a vertical shaft and plummeted to her death or impaled herself on some piece of rusty equipment in her haste to find the missing geologists.

“Sasha, can you hear me?” Colbeck called out as they rounded the bend.

The only answer they received was a low moan.

Charlie felt a prickle of fear. Instead of pulling two injured or dead people out of the mine, they might have now made it three, adding Sasha to the casualties.

A hundred feet distant, the tunnel turned again, switching back upon itself like an undulating snake. Charlie swept his flashlight beam across the ground ahead and covered the distance at a jog. When he took the corner, his feet almost slid out from under him on the loose grit covering the floor. He caught himself just in time. Even so, Charlie stumbled, the flashlight beam dancing wildly until he regained his feet. Then, when he saw what lay ahead, his first instinct was to turn and flee back in the other direction.

Sasha was further down the tunnel, sitting propped against a pile of rocks. Her head was bent low, her chin almost upon her chest. But it was the figure crouched over her that filled Charlie with dread. It looked like a collection of bones wrapped in desiccated flesh. It straddled the stricken woman, pinning her to the wall with bony arms that ended in taloned fingers. It hunched low, bald head buried somewhere between her breasts and navel, where it appeared to be slurping noisily at a viscous dark fluid that Charlie realized, with horror, was the woman’s own blood.

Colbeck rounded the bend with Enrique a step behind and came to a skidding halt. His eyes flew wide, and he opened his mouth to speak, but Charlie put a hand up and silenced him. The creature, whatever it was, hadn’t noticed them yet. It was too busy chewing on their colleague.

But then, as if sensing the three sets of eyes gazing upon it in mute horror, the creature lifted its head and turned toward them.

Charlie’s hand flew to his gun. He pulled it from its holster and raised the weapon.

The creature hauled itself upright on wasted legs and stood blocking the passage ahead of them. Charlie aimed his service weapon but didn’t fire. He had no idea how fragile the tunnel was and didn’t want to bring it down on top of them. Besides, the creature wasn’t advancing. It was just standing there. Charlie had the strange sensation that it wasn’t afraid. In fact, just the opposite. It was confident they would become its next victims.

Charlie’s eyes flicked from the impossibly animated skeletal figure down to Sasha. She was obviously dead. Her arms hung limp at her sides, and she didn’t appear to be breathing. But that wasn’t how Charlie knew Sasha was gone. The creature had flayed her stomach open and tore the skin back like so much thin fabric, before discarding her innards next to the body in a bloody heap. Charlie had attended many homicides. He’d seen gunshots and stab victims. He’d witnessed strangulation and drowning. But he had never seen a body wrecked this violently. It was almost too much to bear.

He lifted his eyes from the shattered corpse just in time to see Colbeck shamble past him toward the monstrous creature. And tagging along behind, like a dutiful pet, was Enrique.

“What are you doing,” Charlie hissed.

Neither man answered. They were looking straight ahead, their eyes locked upon the withered husk that had so violently dispatched their co-worker.

“For the love of God…” Charlie reached out and gripped the man’s arm, but Colbeck shrugged the restraining hand off and kept going.

And then