Spooky Halloween Excerpts, Part 1

To get myself in the mood for Halloween, I’m posting some of the spookiest excerpts from Day of the Devourer. Here’s the first. Hal Stamford tells the story of being trapped in a mine…

“All those people up on the surface lying dead out in the open and me alive, but buried in a giant tomb. I remembered a certain shaft that had been dug as a vent for gases that got released by the operation. During orientation training when you got there, they told you that’s where you should go if there was ever a cave-in. There were supposed to be markings that said ‘vent’ with an arrow, so I decided I would set out to find ‘em.

“Before I could get myself up, I heard a sort of dragging and scraping sound. I sat there, frozen, trying to figure out where it came from. I saw some of the rubble from the cave-in coming loose and rolling out into the tunnel. Then I saw it. This black, armored hand came out of the rubble pile and clawed at the rocks. One of the things had lived and it was digging its way out. I jumped up from my seat and hurried into the tunnel. I didn’t want it to see me there when it finally crawled out.

“I musta walked a kilometer and past a dozen shaft openings. I started to get panicky. I just wanted out and before I started running or clawing at the walls, I remembered I had what I needed to survive down there for a time if I needed to. I had water and some food and a first aid kit. So, I calmed myself down and just kept my eyes peeled for those markings.

“I got to a part of the tunnel where I knew there should be a vent. I slowed down so I wouldn’t miss it. That’s when I heard the thing behind me. It had freed itself from the cave-in and I could hear its heavy boots coming down the shaft toward me. I had to really control myself. I wanted to run and get away from that thing, but I couldn’t miss that vent shaft, so I had to stop myself from panicking. I just tried to focus on looking and breathing slowly.

“Finally, I found one of the markings and took the shaft it pointed to. That little tunnel climbed at a steep angle, and I knew this must be the right one since it was obviously designed to carry air up. It hadn’t been designed for people, though. It was too steep and too smooth to climb up. Somebody had been smart enough to install a cable on the wall and that helped a lot. I held on to that cable and just hung there in that shaft until I heard that creature stomping past.”

Hal shuddered as he remembered listening to its hissing breaths and the sound of one of its feet landing heavier than the other. He thought the thing might have a limp. It must have been injured in the cave-in.

“That vent musta been as long as a skyscraper is tall. I must have climbed that thing for six or eight hours. The cable fed through these big iron staples—bolted to the wall. When I reached one of the staples, I would stop and rest. I would run my belt through the staple and buckle it, so I could let my arms and legs go limp a bit without falling or sliding down the shaft again.

“I finally got to the end. I saw a night sky and starlight and felt fresh, dry air. The last three meters of the shaft straightened out. When I no longer had to climb or hold onto that cable, I remember falling to my knees and crying. But at the end, it was a fifty or sixty-meter drop. The end of that vent shaft had just been drilled into a sheer rock face. I knew the mine had been built on a plateau, and this was the edge of it. I had finally made it out of the mines, but I was trapped.

“I probably sat at the edge of that tunnel for days, staring at the sky for any sign that the Vul were leaving or any sign that humans were coming to rescue us. The survival kit had a little comms device, but I worried about using it. If the Vul were still there, I didn’t want to let ‘em know I was, too.

“Well, I finally decided I’d have to climb down from there.”

“Down a sheer rock wall?”

“Yes. I did try the comms before I finally made my decision though. No one answered. I tried again and again. I knew at that point, no one was going to come rescue me and it was all up to me. I had to do something.”

“Had you done any rock climbing before?”

“No, and I’m scared of heights. But there was only one brick of rations and I didn’t like the thought of starving to death.

“I had to climb back down to the bottom of the vent shaft. I used the chisel and hammer in the survival bag to chop the cable off the wall at the bottom of the shaft and then fed it out of all the staples as I climbed back up. That cable was probably fifty meters, I thought. I left it attached to the last wall-staple at the top and jerked it to be sure it stayed. I dropped the cable down. I was almost right. It was only about forty-five meters long. So, I hoisted it up and tied the length of rope from the bag to the end. After that I saw that it still didn’t reach the bottom—I would probably have to drop four or five meters.”

Hal remembered tugging at the cable, then sitting on the edge of the wall with his legs dangling off, looking at the landscape of white, windswept dunes punctuated by those cone-shaped hills peppered with black rock, and wondering if he could really do this. He remembered mustering his courage and taking a few practice runs to be sure the cable would hold. He remembered hearing the sound of water above him—an underground river. He remembered filling his empty water bottles with the slow drip of water that fell from the tunnel ceiling. He had no idea how many days he stayed at the end of that shaft before he finally decided he had to go.

“I don’t think I would have started down if I hadn’t been forced to. I had been going over and over it in my mind when I leaned against the wall and fell asleep. Then I awoke to a scraping and dragging sound in the vent shaft. Then I heard the hissing and heavy breathing. The thing was coming up the tunnel and there was only one way for me to get away.

“Just as I lowered myself into a rappelling position, I saw its green hand, dripping with black blood, grab one of the last staples. I knew I had to go. I rappelled down the side of that wall with my backpack strapped in the front so I could reach into it if I needed to.”

He thought about the huge gusts of cold wind that slammed him into the wall and caused him to hold on tight and pray. He remembered forcing himself to keep looking up toward the shaft and not look down.

“I looked up and saw that Vul soldier with its bloody, mangled hand looking down at me. I kept climbing down as it grabbed my cable and tried to pull me back up…

Day of the Devourer is available on Amazon