Sid continued assembling bones.
“So how exactly does the soul-summoning work?” Elias asked.
“I haven’t a notion.”
“Are there rules?”
“I’unno.”
“What about the bones?”
Elias crouched beside the half-assembled skeleton.
“What happens if you leave a few out?”
Sid stopped.
He turned toward Elias.
“What did you just say?”
“It was a thought.”
“A poor one.”
“For science.”
“Those are not mutually exclusive.”
Sid pointed at the skeleton.
“They need to be complete.”
“How do you know?”
Sid’s blue eye lights blinked once.
A long pause.
“…I don’t.”
Elias immediately held out his hand.
“Crystal.”
Sid stared at him.
“Can I try?”
A shrug.
“Go for it.”
Elias took the crystal and crouched beside the skull.
He studied the runes etched across Sid’s bones, then carefully reproduced some carvings along the bones.
Nothing happened.
No glow.
No reaction from the crystal.
Elias stared at his work.
“Why isn’t it working?”
Sid crouched beside him.
“Interesting.”
The crystal hadn’t dimmed at all.
“Maybe carving the symbols isn’t enough.”
“Then why does it work for you?”
Sid shrugged.
Elias’s crimson eye lights narrowed.
“You’ve revived multiple people and you still don’t know how it works?”
Sid looked away.
“Correct.”
He reached for the skull.
Then stopped.
“…Wait.”
His blue eye lights narrowed.
“It’s all wrong.”
Elias looked at the carving.
“What is?”
“This.”
Sid pointed accusingly at the rune.
“What is that supposed to be?”
“A reproduction of the symbol.”
“It’s terrible.”
“It’s accurate.”
“It offends me.”
Sid snatched the crystal from him and began cutting over the existing lines.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Have you ever made art before in your life?”
“I am an engineer.”
“Exactly.”
Scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
The crystal dimmed.
Elias leaned closer.
Blue light spread through the runes.
Loose bones scraped across the floor.
Then snapped together.
Everyone stopped.
Amber light flickered inside the skeleton’s sockets.
Its fingers twitched.
The skull lifted.
Sid immediately backed away and pointed at Kaya.
“Do your thing!”
Kaya stared at him.
“My what?”
“The not-traumatizing-new-people thing.”
“THAT ISN’T A THING!”
The amber-eyed skeleton sat upright.
“What is happening?”
His voice rolled through the tunnel.
Deep. Resonant. Impossibly rich.
Sid stared.
That voice belonged to someone announcing the fall of a kingdom, not waking up naked and dead in a cave.
Kaya cautiously stepped forward and offered her hand.
“Do you have a name?”
The skeleton studied it.
Then took her hand and rose.
“Alan.”
Amber light swept across the tunnel.
The bones.
The crystals.
The four skeletons staring at him.
Sid chuckled.
Alan looked at him.
“You sound like a fantasy narrator.”
Alan glanced down at himself.
Then back at Sid.
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Absolutely.”
Alan considered him for a moment.
“Would anyone care to explain what’s going on?”
Silence.
Sid turned toward Kaya and raised both hands.
“And… action.”
Kaya stared at him.
“What?”
“Go.”
She didn’t move.
“The social thing.”
“I am not your spokesperson.”
“You are now.”
“That isn’t how that works.”
Sid made an impatient gesture.
“Hurry up and dance already.”
Kaya’s pink eye lights narrowed.
Then she turned to Alan.
“Hey, Alan.”
A small wave.
“Hi?”
“I’m Kaya. Blue eyes is Sid.”
Sid raised a hand.
“Hello.”
“Red eyes is Elias.”
Elias nodded.
“Right.”
Alan looked between them.
Then back at Kaya.
She raised both hands.
“First, you’re completely safe—”
“Don’t make me laugh.”
Sid stepped in.
“The person before you is probably being dissolved into giant spider slushie as we spea—”
“SID, PLEASE!”
“What?”
“You are not helping!”
“I am providing context.”
“You are providing trauma!”
Sid’s jaw opened.
Then closed.
He rubbed thoughtfully at his chin.
“Hm.”
Alan looked between them.
“There was a sentence in there about a giant spider.”
Kaya covered her face.
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that important?”
Kaya glanced at Elias.
Elias glanced back.
“Yes,” he said.
“Very.”
Kaya lowered her hands.
“Anyway. Before you died, did you have a—”
She hesitated.
“Occupation,” Elias supplied.
Alan looked between them.
“I was a student.”
Sid leaned forward.
“Studying what?”
“I, uh…”
Alan rubbed the back of his skull.
“Film and performing arts.”
Silence.
Sid turned away.
“Use—”
He stopped.
Everyone looked at him.
A visible struggle took place.
“Well…”
Sid cleared his throat.
“That explains why you sound so…”
Another pause.
“…well-spoken?”
Kaya narrowed her eye lights.
Sid cleared his throat again.
“Right.”
He pointed at Alan.
“So what can you do for us?”
Alan blinked.
“What?”
“Everyone here has something. Relevant knowledge. Skills. Experience.”
Sid gestured vaguely.
“Think along those lines.”
Alan stared at him.
“So this is an aptitude interview?”
Sid nodded eagerly.
“Yes.”
Alan considered the question.
“I managed a multi-level distribution structure.”
Sid’s head tilted.
“Oh!”
Everyone waited.
“So… a pyramid scheme?”
Silence.
Alan stared at him.
“What?”
“Sid,” Elias said.
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
“Oh.”
Sid scratched the side of his skull.
“I also worked part time in the cab service for a few years.”
Sid's eye lights brightened slightly.
“Navigation.”
Alan shrugged.
“I suppose.”
“Useful.”
Kaya stared at Sid.
“You were about to call him useless thirty seconds ago.”
“I revised my assessment.”
They continued onward.
About an hour later, the tunnel opened back into the vast cavern.
Kaya stepped through first.
Then stopped.
“Oh.”
White webbing stretched across the cavern.
Thick strands climbed from the stone floor to the darkness hundreds of feet above, connecting crystal formations in vast, tangled sheets.
Far more than before.
Kaya stared upward.
“I guess rescuing our chef isn’t an option…”
Elias studied the webbing.
“Not yet.”
Sid said nothing.
His gaze remained on the distant strands for a moment before he turned toward the dinosaur carcass.
The crystal blade went to work.
Twenty minutes later, Alan pulled a newly cut hide covering over his frame.
He looked down.
Then at Sid.
“Wow.”
Kaya inspected it.
“Actually…”
She turned toward Sid.
“You’re getting better at—”
“Thank you,” Sid croaked.
Kaya stopped.
“Ew.”
A long pause.
“Never mind.”
She turned away.
Sid nodded proudly.
They gathered what they could carry and continued deeper into the cavern.
Alan fell into step beside Kaya.
“This whole ‘skelly daycare’ thing…”
He glanced toward Sid.
“I presume it wasn’t your idea?”
Kaya chuckled.
“What gave it away?”
“Your complete lack of cooperation.”
“Well, I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“Neither did I.”
Alan looked toward Sid and Elias walking ahead.
Then his pace slowed.
“But don’t you remember what it felt like?”
Kaya turned.
“What?”
“Being dead.”
“No.”
Alan looked at her.
For the first time since waking, the amusement had left his voice.
“I do.”
Kaya slowed.
Alan stared at his skeletal hand.
“It was like being somewhere without actually existing there. No light. No sound. No sense of time.”
His fingers curled.
“Just this feeling of… turning. Like I was spinning in an empty room and couldn’t tell which way was up.”
Kaya said nothing.
“Then things started disappearing.”
Alan’s hand closed into a fist.
“Small things first.”
“How I died.”
A pause.
“Names.”
“Faces.”
“Parts of myself.”
His amber eye lights dimmed.
“Then pain—”
“Bullshit.”
Alan looked at her.
Kaya shook her head.
“It wasn’t like that for me.”
She pointed vaguely behind herself.
“One moment I was crossing a road. The next, I woke up in front of that psycho.”
Sid continued walking ahead, apparently oblivious.
“I don’t remember anything between.”
Alan watched him.
Kaya crossed her arms.
“Honestly, I’d rather still be dead than—”
“Has Sid told you how he died?”
Kaya stopped.
Alan kept his voice low.
She looked toward Sid.
Blue light moved steadily ahead of them.
“No.”
Alan’s gaze remained on him.
“Has he told you what he remembers?”
Kaya didn’t answer.
Alan looked down at his hands.
“Death is a whole lot weirder than being here.”
His voice carried softly through the cavern.
Then faded into the dark.