The Undercave [Incomplete]

Chapter 6 - Out of the Woods

Cliff opened his eyes after a long week. It was already Saturday. Today was the day. He hopped out of his bed, donned his clothes and rushed down the stairs to see Lana already sitting at the table.
"Morning Cliff," she said casually as Onyx attempted to jump up on her lap. She shoed him off with a simple hand gesture and he grumbled, then crawled back over to his bed in the corner of the living room.
"Morning," Cliff replied, taking a seat at the table, "Why are you up so early?"
Lana put down the cereal which was on her spoon and prompted him with a nod of the head as if to say 'you know why'. And he knew exactly why.
After they finished their breakfast, they both sprinted out of the door and set off towards Rachael's house.

When they arrived at the end of her road, they spotted Sheri stood in front of the house, who waved her arms frantically to get their attention. Standing next to her was Theo, his eyes stuck to the screen of his phone and his fingers dancing on its surface. Sheri gave him a quick nudge to signal that they had come and he gave her an agitated look.
"I thought we agreed that you wouldn't do that anymore!" He grouched, before she pointed out their friends. He switched his phone off and slid it into the inside of his coat. "Hey!" He said when they approached.
"Hi!" Lana returned, as she realised that they had probably been standing outside for a while. "Why haven't you gone in yet?" She asked.
Sheri shared a look with her friend and looked back at the twins. "I would make up an excuse, but since I can't be bothered to today, I'll just be honest and say that I find it awkward being with one of my friends' family members alone." She ended with a smile.
"I appreciate your honesty!" Lana laughed, before knocking on the dark oak door.

"Ok!" Rachael announced, standing confidently in front of the crew, "Our mission today is to..." She picked up the polaroid picture and held it forward in her hand. "Retrieve this shard of tangerine quartz!"
The others stared at the picture in enticement.
"I believe that this is what the eggs were fertilised with." She went on, "If we could get a piece of it, I could experiment on it, and find out what it's weaknesses are."
Cliff displayed a confused look on his face. "So, you're going to try to un-birth them all?"
Rachael couldn't help but chuckle at his comment. "No. This gemstone is what makes up most of the Miners' DNA. If we could find a way to harm the mineral, we might be able to find a way of defeating them."
"So we can't just kill them with our weapons?" Sheri asked, caressing one of her earrings.
"Yes, we can kill the single Cuniculators." She responded, "It's just Malum. They use gender neutral pronouns because they're made up of so many different eggs. That's the reason that killing them with weapons isn't an option." She tried to explain further, but struggled for them to understand. "All of the others use male and female pronouns, and they were only made with one egg, which is why it's easier to defeat those ones. Sorry if this is all confusing."
"Ok, so..." Sheri began, "Malum is made out of multiple ones?"
"Yes. They were the first experiment. They grew too big and ended up absorbing the rest of the eggs. They also absorbed the table, so they have a metal plate over the side of their head." She motioned her hands to show the area of scalp that it laid on, before realising that they had restless looks upon their faces. "Ok, are you ready to go?"
They all simultaneously stood up and nodded, and so she picked up her car keys and headed to the front door where they followed after her.

Soon, they arrived at the forest near it, but noticed that there was a dead end before their destination. "What?" Rachael muttered angrily, "But I'm sure there used to be a road here!" She threw open the door and stepped outside onto the soft but rigid soil. Her eyes examined the horizon that consisted of equally spaced out trees, the sun glaring through their lime leaves. She walked back over to the vehicle and leaned her head through the door frame. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way..." She paused and looked down at the ground, "But I don't think I can step foot in there..."
"What?" Lana exclaimed, "Why not? It's not like they're gonna recognise you or something!"
Rachael sighed. "It's... complicated," she managed to let out. "Just, take this." She handed them a gadget which looked a lot like a flip phone. "It's a communication and navigation device. You can use it to find your way to the cave and around it. You can also call me on it if you need any help. All you need to do is flip open the top."
They done as she said, and suddenly, it grew into a disk shape with an advanced looking keyboard and a holographic screen. Lana set it down on the armrest in the front of the car so that they could get a better look at it. "Woah..." They chorused, mesmerised by the object in front of their eyes.
"It's called a 'CND' for short," she commented. "It was made by #60282. Quite an archaic design compared to some of his other inventions, but it's better than nothing." She pointed over to a place in the woods. "If you go straight in the direction that the top of that tree is leaning over to, you should be able to find the cave easily." She lowered herself onto the seat. "I'll be in here waiting for you all. Now go on. You should get going."
They followed her instructions and jumped out of the car, setting off on their journey.

"Ow!" Sheri cried out, rubbing the calf that the smirking Theo had just kicked a stone at. "That's it!" She started chasing after him, whilst Lana and Cliff tried to concentrate on the direction they were going in.
"Cut that out you guys!" Cliff warned them as Sheri pushed Theo on the ground and started kicking him in the knees, "We really need to keep our eye out here!"
They stood up and brushed the dirt off of their clothes. "Oh, come on, you square!" Theo teased, "We're just playing around!" He was ignored by his friend, so he charged at him. They collided and fell to ground in a bundle, knocking Lana over with them in the process. Worriedly, Cliff jumped back up onto his feet and frantically looked around at the slender trunks surrounding them, searching for a familiar target.
"Great! Now we're lost!" He stated, as Lana got up and pulled Theo up off the ground.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic!" He argued, "We still have that... phone thingy. She said it could help us find the way there."
"Oh yeah!" Lana searched around in her pockets, but failed to find it. "Um... Who's got it?"
Theo paused. "I thought... I thought you had it..."
Lana shook her head and slowly glanced at Sheri who just shrugged her shoulders. "Argh!" Lana screamed, "I must have left it on the armrest!" Her hands gripped her glittering blonde hair, which was suspended in an up-do with her ribbon holding it in place.
"It's OK," Sheri walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Why don't we just call Rachael and ask her to come here?" Her suggestion was rejected after the response from Lana:
"We don't have her number."
Theo sighed out of frustration. "Well, then I guess we'll just have to walk in a random direction, and see where we end up." He said, setting off in the direction of what looked like some grey clouds in the distance. His eagerness didn't allow them to argue, so they just followed after him.

After about five minutes of walking, the clouds began to become a little more noticable. It seemed like they weren't actually in the sky. They looked like they were rising from the ground at the bottom of the ditch which was ahead of them. Like smoke. It didn't take them long to realise that it actually was smoke, after they noticed the familiar sound of flames, sparking and spitting. But there was no sign of a fire at that moment. Cliff walked ahead of them, clasping his badge just in case of a flame suddenly leaping up at them. But what he expected to happen didn't. In fact, the sound of the fire seemed to start being drowned out by the sound of sobbing. As he gradually tip-toed further, he managed to spot a figure. It seemed to be the body of a man with his head buried in his knees. But he was engulfed in flames.