Return to the Lost Level by Brian Keene

Author:Brian Keene [Keene, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Apex Book Company
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8

The Tunnel

I spun, plummeting downward, catching pin-wheeling glimpses of brown and gray rocks and blue sky—a bewildering, spiraling kaleidoscope of shifting colors and textures and surfaces. The angry shrieks of my pursuers faded. The only sound was the wind roaring in my ears, drowning out everything else, even my screams. As terrifying as my capture and ascent in the clutches of the pterodactyl had been, this was somehow worse. Even while in the dinosaur’s claws, I’d still had hope. I’d still had the will to fight, if an opportunity presented itself—and it had. But there was no way to fight against the pull of gravity. It wasn’t a foe you could outwit or outrace. You couldn’t stab it or shoot it. The only thing you could do was surrender to its unrelenting force. Gravity always won, in the end. The only mercy in it was that my descent would be much faster than my flight had been, and given the rate of speed I was falling, with any luck I’d be rendered unconscious before I struck the bottom.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when neither of those things happened. Instead of passing out, I became aware that the terrain had changed. I could no longer see the sky, but that’s about all I understood of this new predicament. I had a vague sense of tumbling through some sort of enclosed space. And instead of landing with an explosive splat at the bottom of the cliff, I careened against more rocks and stone. My ears rang. My vision went black. I pinged around like a pinball, caroming off structures I couldn’t see. Now, instead of free-falling, I rolled head over heels, battered against a hard surface, adding fresh pain to my already serious injuries. I tucked myself into a ball as best I could, trying to minimize any further damage. The agony was so overwhelming that I briefly forgot all about Kasheena and everyone else who needed my help. I wished instead for oblivion, if only to escape the pain, but stubborn consciousness persisted. It wasn’t until I smashed against a boulder and came to a sudden, jarring stop that I was finally blessed with what I’d craved.

I don’t know how long I lay there, but when I regained consciousness, I found myself exposed to one of the Lost Level’s rarest things—darkness. Well, okay. Maybe not a total darkness. But for the first time since I’d left the village and set out on this rescue mission, I couldn’t sense the sun overhead. Even in the depths of the forest, we’d known it was there, lurking above the treetops. But not now. The sun’s warmth was gone, and what little light I could see was filtered, as if coming to me from a great distance. I lay there shivering, but I wasn’t sure if it was from shock or cold. It was hard to breathe. When I tried to move, the pain was so excruciating that I passed out again.

The next time I opened my eyes, nothing had changed.

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