Among the Dead

Fengge (before)

Fengge (before)

The chopper ride wasn't too bad; the pilot was friendly enough and his crew didn't ever say a word. The explorers and guides buried themselves in their work and maps and left Fengge to keep himself occupied; mostly sleeping.

"Alright guys and dolls," the pilot said over the radio, "If you look to your left you will see a clearing in the trees. This is where I'm dropping you off. Your location is about ten miles east of here and I can't get any closer."

The group looked out the window and with determined faces. They had all been given the brief, locate and retrieve this mythical flower that can only be found in a certain cave; a cave no-one has ever ventured into.

Fengge couldn't understand it. There were millions of flowers in the world, but apparently this one was special and was worth a lot of money. He seemed to be the only person in the chopper who had been told what was at stake if they didn't gather enough information about it. He had gathered enough information about the flower to see if there was a bigger buyer anywhere in the world; but apparently it wasn't a market for it, although he did know you could turn it into a drug, and the drug market was always huge.

They hovered over thick trees as the group got ready for their descent and then hike.

"Okay people, drop your ropes when you are ready, I'll be back to pick you up in ten hours at the extraction point; if you're not there when I am, it's going to be a long walk for you."

Clipping themselves into the rope and securing all their bags to their backs, the group of seven got ready for the drop.

They threw the doors open, dropped the ropes to the ground and everyone started to abseil out of the chopper.

Once all seven were safely on the ground, the ropes were pulled back up and they were left in the wilderness.

"Okay we don't have a lot of time and a lot of ground to cover," Eduardo announced; trying to make out he was in charge.

Fengge just rolled his eyes and let the pampas fool think that. He pulled his bag tighter onto his back and quickly checked his SAT phone; nothing yet and he ground his teeth in announce.

He didn't talk to anyone as they trekked. He never did like making friends on trips like this, they always finished promising to keep in touch and then never do, or they slow him down when he was in a rush or they died and people always blamed him. He hated small talk even more, people always wanted to know his life story; a story no-one had the right to or would like to hear.

By the time they reached the cave mouth, Fengge was ready to kill some of his companions; Eduardo especially.

"Right people, kit up now before we get any closer," Eduardo ordered, dropping his bag to get the kit he needed for himself. "The locals call this cave; the cave of the dead, I'm not taking any chance in there and I don't see any bodies hanging around here either."

That was a lie, Fengge thought, the local people didn't speak English for a start and the cave had been forgotten about by pretty much everyone.

Once inside, the cave came to life. Their lights bounced off stalactites and the minerals dotting around.

"It doesn't seem that bad," a woman commented with her eyes fixed on the ceiling.

Fengge's eyes however were glued to the ground. Eduardo may have made the name of the cave up but the dark red streaks that he didn't want to think what that was and deep claw marks seemed to tell him another story.

Just as they walking away from the natural light, the SAT phone finally beeped.

UNKNOWN NUMBER:

YOU WILL BE PAID ONCE YOU ARE OUT WITH THE PLANT; IN FULL AS AGREED. WE HAVE NO INTEREST IN PAYING A CORPSE IF YOU FAIL; HOWEVER WE WILL PAY A TENTH IF YOU DIE TO YOUR FAMILY. DO NOT KEEP US WAITING; KEEP US UP TO DATE ONCE YOU ARE OUT.

Fengge stared at the message; slowly being left behind by the group. If you fail? Not paying a corpse? If he knew before hand there was a chance he was going to die he would have asked for triple.

A scream echoed through the cave.

Even though Fengge had no interest in the others, the scream made him towards it; just in time to watch the woman who had claimed the cave not to be 'that bad' be dragged away; her body limp and lifeless.

"What s your problem?" he demanded as he turned on the others who had stood by to watch with faces as white as sheets.

"We need to get out of here," Eduardo said slowly and quietly. The group didn't argue and started shuffling as quickly and as quietly as they could.

"We've only just got here," Fengge snapped and grabbed Eduardo's arm before the man could walk by, "We have a job to do."

"I'm not putting my life at risk." He snapped and pulled his arm free, "That thing has just killed her and I'm not sticking around to be next."

He marched away not caring if Fengge followed or not, to him the small Chinese man was nothing but a pain to have in a team.

Fengge was left alone with only his head torch to light up around him. He shone it down the path they were meant to take and saw more red stone and scratches like he saw on the way in and then he shone the light behind him, to the rest of the group and wondered which way he should take.

The massage he received said nothing about being paid if he turn-tiled; he highly doubted he would be paid anything if he returned back empty handed.

There was only one path for him.

Readjusting his pack straps, Fengge put his best foot forward further into the cave, following the lines of red stones and deep scratches deeper into the cave.

The cave felt like it went on for miles. On his own and in silence, Fengge didn't meet any creature living down there; he assumed whatever had killed that woman was attracted to noise, or it was too busty eating to bother with him. Even though he knew he was alone and made as little noise as possible, he jumped at any noise he made to something moved in the corner of his eye, causing him to make more noise when he quickly swung around to see what was following him.

The cave had never been explored before; the creature probably ate anything that came in to explore, so when he came across a cross section of the cave, he pulled out a coin and flipped it to decide what direction he would take. It was going to take a long time to search every corner of the cave, but he was determined to find the plant he was after and get out of the cave as quickly as he could.

As he squeezed through a tight tunnel, his eyes started to play tricks on him. His white LED light would reflect off the rocks around him, but he was sure he could see a second light source, softer, golden; sunlight.

There was a high pitch screech coming from in front of him.

Bats?

Fengge looked up as best he could but saw no little flying monsters. He never liked bats and being this far down, they shouldn't have been there with him.

He finally emerged from the tunnel and could take a deep breath. Adjusting his light, Fengge could finally take a good look at where he was standing.

He stood on the edge of a large cavern with long thin fingers reaching from floor to ceiling and a large hole in the roof letting water drip loudly into a clear pool below.

The bats he heard flew high above his head; their waste was piled high in front of him and under his feet. The smell was vile and tickled the back of his throat like he was about to start of dry heaving, but he had been around bat excrement before, nothing smelt as bad as it did at that moment.

The golden light he saw didn't come from a hole in the roof like he thought. It flickered and danced in the far corner of a fire.

Not sure what to make of the fire down in a cave, Fengge took off his rucksack to root around for the tools he needed and kept an eye out for anything big and smart enough to make the fire.