Lucifer calmly watched the different reactions spread across the group after his warning.
Some looked frightened, others skeptical, while Dan seemed more irritated than anything else.
“This is why Senator Kaplan hired me,” Lucifer said.
Dan immediately cursed under his breath.
“No one told me there were supposed to be monsters down here.”
“You don’t need to worry about them.” Lucifer glanced toward him.
“Use your experience to keep us moving through the cave safely.
If everyone follows my instructions when something supernatural appears, you’ll have a much better chance of getting out alive.”
Sheriff Vaines frowned.
“You’re seriously expecting us to believe there are monsters living underground?”
His tone sounded dismissive, but Lucifer could hear the uneasiness underneath it.
Vaines clearly didn’t want the warning to be true, especially when the entire operation revolved around finding Senator Kaplan’s niece.
Lucifer ignored the skepticism and addressed everyone at once.
“I’ll say it one more time.
Keep your voices down, don’t wander away from the group, and don’t start running blindly if something happens.
Anyone who ignores that may get left behind.”
After what had happened with Ed and the Glock, nobody felt like arguing.
More importantly, the possibility of actual monsters had made Lucifer’s earlier warnings sound far more serious.
The group moved forward in near silence until the passage eventually split in two.
Dan instinctively looked toward Cath.
“Cath, get the—”
He stopped when he remembered she was carrying Lucifer’s DV camera.
Dan gave Lucifer an annoyed glance before retrieving his own equipment and checking both passages himself.
After several moments of testing and listening, he pointed toward the tunnel on the right.
“This way.
I’m picking up movement farther ahead.”
Lucifer nodded, and the group followed him.
The deeper they traveled, the colder the cave became.
Water dripped steadily from the stone ceiling, and the sound echoed endlessly through the darkness while the narrow beams of their headlamps provided the only reliable light.
Then Dan stopped so abruptly that Greg nearly walked into him.
A woman’s mutilated body lay across the ground ahead.
The corpse had been torn open with horrifying violence, leaving ribs and internal tissue exposed in a way that immediately made it clear this hadn’t been an ordinary accident.
“Oh God…” Dan whispered.
Vaines instinctively covered his mouth.
Cath turned away and vomited against the cave wall while Sarah began dry-heaving uncontrollably.
Greg hurried to help Cath as Deputy Rios caught Sarah before she could collapse.
Vaines forced himself closer to the remains despite his obvious disgust.
Years in law enforcement allowed him to examine the body without completely losing control, but even he looked shaken by the condition it was in.
“She was tortured,” he muttered.
Then his attention shifted toward Sarah.
His expression hardened.
“There were six of you down here.
You’re the only one who came out alive, and you were covered in your friends’ blood.
Tell me what happened.”
Lucifer immediately stepped between them.
“You seriously think Sarah did this?”
Vaines glared at him.
“I’m asking questions.”
“Then ask sensible ones.” Lucifer pointed toward the corpse.
“Look at what was done to her.
An ordinary woman isn’t tearing a body apart and stripping flesh from bone like that with her bare hands.”
Sarah’s breathing suddenly changed.
“Monsters…”
Everyone turned toward her.
Sarah stared at the body with wide eyes, and the memories she had been unable to reach since escaping the caves finally began forcing themselves back into her mind.
“There are monsters here.”
Lucifer crouched slightly so he could see her face.
“You remember?”
Sarah slowly nodded.
Her entire body trembled.
“We shouldn’t have come back.
There are things living underground…
pale things.
They attacked us.
They ate people.”
A heavy silence followed.
The skepticism disappeared from several faces at once.
Lucifer’s warning had been real.
He reached out and lightly touched Sarah’s shoulder, keeping his voice steady.
“Sarah, listen to me.
We need to find Juno.
If she’s still alive, you’re the best chance we have of reaching her.”
“Juno…”
Sarah’s expression twisted painfully.
She grabbed both sides of her head.
“No.”
Lucifer frowned.
Sarah shook her head harder.
“No.
Juno’s dead.”
The others exchanged stunned looks.
Their entire mission existed because Senator Kaplan believed his niece might still be alive.
If Sarah was right, there would be little reason to continue risking themselves deeper underground.
Vaines stepped closer.
“What did you say?”
Sarah began crying.
“I saw what happened.
One of those things got her.
She was attacked…
I thought she died.”
Lucifer watched her carefully.
Sarah’s memory was returning through trauma and panic, which meant he wasn’t willing to accept everything she remembered as absolute fact.
More importantly, Lucifer knew something Sarah didn’t.
Juno Kaplan might still be alive.
Dan exhaled heavily.
“If she’s dead, we should turn around.”
“No.”
Lucifer and Vaines spoke almost simultaneously.
Dan stared at both of them.
Lucifer’s expression remained firm.
“I’m not leaving because someone who just recovered part of her memory thinks Juno died.
If she’s alive, I want to find her.”
Vaines nodded, although his motivation was clearly different.
“And if she’s dead, I want proof.
Senator Kaplan deserves more than a guess.”
Lucifer glanced at him.
“For once, we agree.”
Dan looked irritated but eventually pointed toward the passage beyond the corpse.
“Judging by the position of the body, she probably came from that direction.
If we’re continuing, that’s our best route.”
Nobody objected.
They entered the narrow passage one at a time.
Sarah stayed close to Rios, but now that some of her memory had returned, she no longer resisted every step forward.
Instead, she repeatedly scanned the darkness with a frightened expression.
“Lucifer was right about the noise,” Sarah whispered.
“The creatures can’t see normally.
They hunt by sound.
Their hearing is extremely sensitive.”
That warning changed the group’s behavior immediately.
Earlier, Lucifer had repeatedly told them not to shout, yet Dan and Vaines had still raised their voices whenever they became frustrated.
After seeing the corpse and hearing Sarah confirm the existence of the Crawlers, both men suddenly became much more careful.
Nobody wanted to make unnecessary noise now.
The passage eventually narrowed again, and loose sand began trickling from cracks along the ceiling.
Dan stopped.
“Careful.”
He examined the surrounding stone and the old supports before waving everyone forward one at a time.
“This section is unstable.
Move slowly and don’t put more pressure on the walls than necessary.”
Lucifer went through without difficulty, followed by Sarah, Rios, Greg, and Cath.
Vaines came last.
His larger frame made squeezing through the cramped section considerably harder, so he moved with unusual care.
Halfway through, his knee struck something inside the wall.
Clunk.
Loose gravel showered over him.
Vaines froze.
“Shit…”
Everyone ahead stopped moving.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
The wall held.
Vaines slowly exhaled in relief and began crawling again.
Then his right hand landed in something cold and sticky.
He grimaced.
“What the hell…?”
Vaines raised his head and angled his headlamp forward.
A pale humanoid figure crouched only a few feet away.
Its hairless skin looked almost white beneath the beam, while its clouded eyes stared uselessly ahead.
The Crawler tilted its head as it sniffed the air, bloody saliva dripping from its partially opened mouth.
Vaines stared at it in horror.
His hand was resting directly in the slime beneath its jaw.
The creature’s head suddenly turned toward the sound of his breathing.
Vaines lost control.
“MONSTER!”
His scream exploded through the narrow passage.
Lucifer’s face changed immediately.
“Idiot—!”
The unstable section reacted before he could finish.
BOOM!
The surrounding rock gave way.
A violent cave-in ripped through the tunnel, sending stone, dirt, and splintered supports crashing down between Vaines and the rest of the rescue team.
Lucifer threw himself toward the ground as debris tore through the darkness.
Rios covered Sarah, while Dan, Greg, and Cath pressed themselves against the stone and protected their heads.
Dust filled the air.
For several seconds, nobody could see anything.
Then the rumbling finally stopped.
The tunnel behind them had vanished beneath tons of rock.
Rios pushed herself upright.
“Vaines!”
Lucifer immediately caught her and clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Quiet.”
Rios struggled angrily until Lucifer turned her head toward the darkness ahead.
Several faint scraping sounds echoed through the cavern.
Lucifer slowly raised his headlamp.
One pale figure crawled over a rock formation.
Then another appeared behind it.
A third moved along the cavern wall with unnatural speed, sniffing the air as it searched for the source of the noise.
Rios’s eyes widened.
The Crawlers were coming.