DOUBLE DOWN

DOUBLE DOWN (Part 3)

Hurry, Nash!

I darted down the twisty path through the cave, the unconscious man's weapon in my hand. My head deduced I only had a limited amount of time until more armed men arrived to protect whatever unholy secrets they guarded down here.

As I turned left and right, I passed some office cubicles and other living quarters set up in the cave. It all appeared out of place so far underground. One office area held bundles of cash and counting machines along with several safes.

Cash from the casino above or what they're doing down here? I wondered as I continued on.

Another "office" I passed held several realistic, man-sized ant costumes. I instantly realized a person wearing the costume, except for an in-depth inspection, would appear as a giant, human-sized ant walking around on two legs.

What the hell are those for?

Turning the last corner, I entered the end of the cavern and a large, open area. In the center of the cave, a giant, alien appearing plant, easily twenty-feet high and forty-feet wide sat ominously in stark contrast to the dead environment of the underground terrain. Apart from its size, I'd never seen this time of vegetation before. The plant thing's appearance triggered something primal in my brain, warning me to stay away.

The giant underground bush appeared unhealthy and extremely dry. With no visible light or water sources, this fact didn't strike me as odd.

Or at least not as odd as a giant underground plant in a cave below a casino guarded by a sunglass-wearing jackass. I thought.

As I examined the thing's leafy vegetation, I noticed several pods, each approximately six-feet by four-feet, hanging from the various vines of the enormous plant.

Pods?

Standing dumbfounded before the greenish-brown plant, trying to comprehend why the pathway led me this underground, mysterious shrubbery, I noticed something else odd about the vines splayed haphazardly on the stone ground, spreading out in every direction from the plant.

They moved.

Repulsed by the unnaturalness of the slow-moving vines, probing in every direction, I carefully avoided them as I examined the rest of the cavern. Ensuring I kept a safe distance from the plant and the human-sized pods hanging from it, I discovered another fissure in the far side of the cave. Unlike the other openings in the cavern floor, this one didn't have a protective railing around it.

Peering over the side, I couldn't see the bottom in the darkness.

The matches!

Remembering the thin book of matches in my pocket, I retrieved them, lit one and dropped it down the naturally formed hole. The thin match fluttered down and self-extinguished. I lit and dropped another one which made it to the bottom, faintly illuminating the hundreds of human bones and skulls piled at the bottom of the fissure before burning itself out.

Damn!

I involuntarily took a step backward, away from the horrific sight at the bottom of the fissure. As I did, one of the plant's vines slowly wrapped around my ankle. Noticing the thing encircling my leg, in the corner of my eye, I spied one of the man-shaped pods open and slightly moved towards me.

What the hell?

I snatched my leg out of the vine's grasp before it fully closed and ran around the enormous plant thing and back down the illuminated path. I deeply desired to move away from the bones and away from what I assumed to be a man-eating plant. As I took a few steps away from the lair of the plant thing, the man I'd disarmed minutes early leaped from his hiding place and tackled me!

Ouch!

Landing hard on the rocky ground, my pistol bounced out of my hand and out of my reach. Jumping on top of me, we rolled around on the ground, fighting to keep each other from punching or choking the other. Several objects, to include the man's sunglasses, fell off of and out of our pockets as we fought. Before I knew it, we had rolled onto the profane vegetation of the killer plant.

Realizing my proximity to the plant thing, panic swept over me. With my opponent on top of me, attempting to grab my throat, I placed both my feet on his hips and pushed with all my might.

Falling back and off of me, I quickly stood as I observed the man stumble directly into the central portion of the plant. Apparently the vines at the center of the outlandish plant didn't move as slow as the outer vines as they immediately wrapped themselves around the man and lifted him towards an opening pod.

"No!" Help me!" The man screamed as he thrashed about. "Without another body to copy and transfer my mind into, this thing will kill me! No! Help me! I'll make you rich! Please! You can live forever! Help me! Nooooo!"

I tasted bile in my throat as the pod closed around the man and the vines returned to the main part of the plant. Inside the hanging pod, I could see the outline of the guard continue to fight and push against his living enclosure until going limp after a few seconds.

The realization of the enormity of this immoral set-up deep underground enraged me. My mind raced. Are people paying to have their minds transferred into new, younger bodies through this thing down here? How is that even possible? Although I didn't have any answers to the questions flooding my mind, and I didn't know about this plant thing or where it came from, I did know one thing.

The plant had killed its last victim.

Searching around on the ground for everything which had fallen out of my pockets, I retrieved my possessions, to include the matchbook the casino had graciously provided me. I also found another odd-shaped key for the elevator which must have fallen out of the man's pocket as we fought.

Approaching the repulsive plant thing, I lit several matches and tossed them onto the dried vines of the brain-transferring, man-eating abomination.

Surprised at how fast the plant ignited, I quickly took several steps backward to avoid the heat of the rapidly burning plant. After a few moments, the entire thing burned and as the smoke rose into the vaulted ceiling of the cavern, I retraced my steps back towards the elevator.

Of course, I stopped to grab several satchels full of money before continuing to the elevator shaft. I had a reputation as "the Corsair", a type of devil-may-care pirate, I had to live up to after all.

Coughing as the cave filled with smoke, I turned the man's key in the elevator control panel and smiled as the car lifted me out of the nightmarish, underground home of the plant thing.

I guess the house doesn't always win!