Kong: Skull Island- Beneath the Surface

Chapter 4

Sweat drips down her brow. Panting heavily Mason leans against the cave wall. It seems like the monsters were getting bigger and bigger. She had just faced a creature that had eight spindly legs, two heads, and a long, whip-like tail. It had stood about 2 feet taller than Mason. Now it lay at the bottom of a deep basin, hopefully squished. Mason had barely survived this encounter. But in her mind things were worse than larger monsters:

She is out of water.

Her body feels like a battery on low. A corpse still moving. She smacks her cracked lips. She has only just run out a few hours ago (or was it longer? Time doesn't exist here) and that fight took everything Mason had. Has? Had. She still has food, but dry Food doesn't do anything for lack of water. She leans against the stone wall and feels it's coldness--mentally she wills that cold feeling to transform into cool liquid. She begs it to. But a stone wall is a stone wall and it answers to no one.

Mason slides down the wall. Her barrier is breaking. So far she has managed to take small naps here and there to keep her strength up and ration her food and water wisely. But time is against her. She is tired, cold, hungry, and thirsty. The caves feel endless. Her arms, hands, and knees are raw from crawling and fighting in the dark. The muscles in Mason's legs twitch from exhaustion. Her sweaty body now makes her shiver in the cold. Maybe there's no way out. Maybe there's simply endless monsters. She closes her eyes, a tear tracking down her face. She smiles slightly, her fingers

meddling with her camera lens.

"You and me have been through it all haven't we," she whispers to the camera, "Vietnam, the war protests, all the graves we were shown, all the people we have seen and the dangers we've survived," she pauses, sighing, and leans her head against the stone wall, "who would've guessed it'd end this way, huh?" She laughs softly, "I mean, I suppose I thought an explosion or a bullet would finally stop me....or that perhaps I'd retire...hell I'd have even thought James would man up and...and ask..." She sighs again, not even wanting to go there, "Not that he could keep up with me...but I'd have liked to see him try..."

Another tear makes a track through the dirt and dust coating her cheek. She takes a shaky breath, her throat burning from being so dry.

"I guess...I guess I never wanted to die alone."

Her words echo off the walls and corridors. In the distance a monster screeches. The cold settles in and the silence engulfs her.

And then she hears it.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

She leans forward, turning her head towards the noise.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

As quietly as she can she crawls closer to the sound. Because of all her movement before she hadn't noticed the minuscule noise.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

Splash!!

Mason recoils her hand, surprised. It's wet. The ground is wet. In fact it's a puddle. Mason can contain herself no longer. Fumbling she whips out her flashlight and turns it on. Battery life be damned. The beam fills the cavernous space before her. Sparkling, clear liquid twinkles back at her and her flashlight. A freshwater spring has collected into a mineral-water pool about the size of a small hot tub. Stalactites reach down like long fingers--drops of water falling from their ends. Mason grins.

It's not over.

She still has a chance.