Kong: Skull Island- Beneath the Surface

Chapter 7

Conrad adjusted his backpack and touched the stone wall. It was damp and covered in mosses. His headlamp illuminated the vast caves. As far as he could tell, they were endless. A shiver ran down his spine as he closed his eyes and listen to it groaning. This cave wasn't stable and he knew they didn't have long down here.

Garret was combing the floor rubbing a rock between his fingers. Bo and Jin were resting against the cave walls their faces tired and sunken in. "The trail ends here." Garret announced. His eyes shot open.

"Repeat that again." Conrad dared him

"The Trail. Ends. Here." He stood his expression monotone.

"No, That's not right." His eyebrows scrunched together. "She can't of disappeared into thin air."

"What if she was... attacked." Jin dared to suggest.

"By who?" Bo said. Everyone went silent the only sound an uncomfortable murmur deep in the cave.

"By what. You mean." He grabbed the hilt of his gun. "you three haven't told me everything have you?" The quiet that followed meant it was a yes. He paced a few steps past Garret and looked down at his feet. A twisted smile crossed his face. "Either way, she wasn't attacked..." He removed his hand from his pistol. "She fell down there."

The four of them crowded around him to see his discovery. It was a hole in the ground of the cave barely big enough to fit a person.

Bo took out a glow stick shook it up and tossed it inside. They all watched as it cascaded down a narrow tunnel before smacking a stone floor far beneath it.

"There's no way she could've survived that." Garret spoke.

"Yes. She did." Conrad said exhausted. He was getting tired of the pessimism. "He reached inside and felt the side of the cave. "there was recently a land slide."

"you really believe she's alive." Garret asked.

"yes I do." James's voice was harsh. Jin just looked at him for a minute listening to the opposing arguments.

"I'm with him" She stuck out a thumb. "If there's a chance she's down there, we're going in." She sliced the air with her hand. "End of story."

"Ok little lady." Bo held his hands up. "but whose goin in? We have to have to split We need to have a method of communication."

"Fine." Jin sighed her voice bouncing off of the walls. "Ladies first. I'll go down there. Besides, I'm the smallest."

"I'm going to."

"Sign me up." Bo shrugged. Got nothing better to do. Garret that means you're on duty."

"Yes sir." He replied cooly.

The decent was tedious and hard. The hole was tight, slippery and uncomfortable. They had to ditch most of their supplies to even fit.

"You ok JIn?" he called beneath him.

"I'm in a wet gross cave and I smell." She grunted. "Doin great."

"At least we ain't in the desert right JIn? Remember that nightmare?" Bo called to her.

"How could I forget it?" James heard her tiny feet hit the floor. "I'm clear!" James slithered down the rope as fast as he could trying to keep up.

He was half way down when he heard it.

Like tiny drums all beating at a different pace or rhythm. He stopped for a brief moment listening to it carefully. Apparently Jin had heard it too because it was eerily quiet. For a moment he couldn't place what it was.

But the sound jogged a memory.

At the time he was working in the Natural History museum at the very beginning of his career. He was mainly doing tours for school groups and tourists but after his shifts he would help the professors study certain kinds of Insects that may have been different sizes or reverse evolved. An idea that wasn't to popular. But he had studied earwigs, spiders, and centipedes.

He felt a rush of air blow towards his face; it smelled like rotten food; as the pace of the skittering feet got faster and faster. He began to decent as quickly as he could shouting commands to Jin. Soon after she began to shriek.

Jin's screams were soon drowned out by a hailstorm of bullets that began to ricochet off of the cavern walls. For a full thirty seconds there was nothing but her cries and her AK47 blowing rounds. When it was over the skittering had stopped. James leaped from the hole and landed crouched towards the ground.

His headlamp shone on her terrified face. "Are you ok?" He asked grabbing her shoulders.

She said nothing. She only pointed behind him. He turned around slowly afraid of what he might find. His beam laced around a body. Not a human body; a centipedes body. But it wasn't a normal size. He guessed it was about eight meters... give or take.

Blood was oozing from it's wounds some of its 100 hundred legs were still spazing out. But was most surprising was the tale. It had two of them, each were decorated with razor sharp spines. James gulped. Bo landed right next to him. He said nothing, just stared at it. James shook himself from the trance he was in.

"alright-" He coughed to clear his throat. He knelt on the ground and examined it. Luckily everything had been preserved. He saw a little piece of white cloth stuck to the cave wall. Good girl. He thought. You left me a trail of breadcrumbs. "This way. Keep your guns close."

Bo had to tug JIn along encouraging her to not look at it. She was pale and looked like she was going to throw up. Bo was quiet, which was extremely out of character. He picked up his pace anticipation teasing his mind.

Every few meters he would stop and touch the walls and study the dirt patters. He barely even noticed the dead centipedes everywhere. Most likely from a knife cuts. There was a foul stench of rotting corpses and blood that followed. Which meant she hadn't been killed.

Most disturbing the further they wandered, the bigger in size they became.

. . .

"Conrad!" Bo called. "We've got to stop! We need a break."

"Alright. Three minutes." He said. The blood in his veins were pumping furiously and he could feel the adrenaline rush kicking in. "We can't be too far now."

Jin slumped against the wall and cradled her gun in her lap. "I just saw a giant fricken centapeid." Bo just nodded.

"That's damn right girl."

"I just saw a giant fricken centapeid." She repeated.

"Are you ok with this?" She asked James.

"I'm used to it." HE shrugged. "This is nothing."

"Yup." Bo nodded again.

As they guzzled down energy drinks and water, Conrad leanded against the side of the cave and listened. Soon his entire face was pressed to the side of the cave. There was that sound again. A scream. It began to get louder and louder.

It wasn't a scream.

It was a cry for help.

A human cry for help.

He smiled then began to chuckle then let out a huge laugh. He could hear her. She was on the other side of the cave wall. His heart caught on fire.