11 – Into the Depths

“Hey, Andy,” Lucy called out as she, Bella, and Jace approached.

He looked up, smiled, and waved. He was sitting on a five-gallon bucket of deck stain, left there by Tucker and his helpers after they’d finished building the cover for the tunnel entrance. Plenty of other folks were standing around talking, speculating, and basically enjoying the fact that they were alive after the last few days.

“Been waiting long?” Jace asked. “We got caught up helping Bernice. She wanted to close the gate, but it came off the track.”

Andy shook his head. “Nah. Fifteen minutes or so. They just finished the hatch—check it out.” He pointed, and Jace and Bella moved past him to examine the new addition. Lucy started after them, but he waved for her to stop. “Just a sec.”

She stopped, turning to face him. “Aren’t we going in?”

“Yeah, but we still need to wait for Bea.” Andy held up the dark, supple cloak that the System had awarded him. “I wanted to give you this.”

“Huh? What’s this?” She took it in her hands, her eyes widening as she felt it. “Oh! It’s so silky.”

“It’s magic.” Andy grinned when her eyes jerked up to lock on his.

“You can’t—”

“It helps you be stealthy, and you saw my spell. I don’t need it. Besides, if you have that, maybe you can sneak around monsters with me.”

Lucy stared at him for another couple of seconds, then she pushed her bow toward him. “Hold this.” After Andy took it, she shrugged out of her quiver and passed him that, too. “I’ve never had a cloak. Do I just tie it around my neck? Is it too big?” She slung it over her shoulders and held it closed around her neck. Andy looked down and saw an inch or two dragging on the ground.

“Hmm. Maybe a little.” He nodded toward her hands. “Tie it anyway.”

“It doesn’t tie. See?” She stretched the collar of the cloak together, and he saw there were a pair of shiny, black buttons. When she passed them through their eyelets, the cloak shimmered with sparkles that were such a deep blue, he wouldn’t have seen them if not for the darkness. As soon as they faded, Andy realized the garment had shrunk to fit her perfectly. The hem now hung near her ankles.

“Looks nice!” Bella said, approaching from behind Lucy.

“You think so?” Lucy spun, and the dark fabric stretched out behind her a little, but not as much as you’d expect. “It’s super comfortable! I can’t even feel it around my neck.”

“Here.” Andy held out her quiver and watched as she slung it over the garment. “Feel okay?”

She nodded. “I guess magical clothes are just…always comfortable?”

“It’s magic?” Bella asked.

Andy looked at her, still smiling proudly. “Yep. It makes the person wearing it sneakier.”

Bella snapped her fingers. “Oh shit! Like some kind of elf cloak?”

Andy chuckled, shrugging. “I guess so.” He handed Lucy her bow, then picked up his spear and stood. “We’re gonna need a lantern.” He looked past Bella to Jace, who was talking to Hector Alvarez, the former trucker. “Jace, can you check the fuel level in those lanterns? We should take one.” He pointed to a row of lanterns on the deck that someone had unloaded from the trailer. The big, dark-eyed man threw him a thumbs-up.

Bella pointed behind him. “Bea’s coming.”

Andy turned to see a white-haired figure approaching. As she stepped close, the older woman said, “Violet let me know you were waiting. Thank you for remembering your promise, Andy.”

He nodded, smiling as he took in her faded jeans and green canvas jacket. He thought he saw some ancient army insignias on it, but they were so faded, he wasn’t sure if it was authentic or just something designed to look that way. She held a sturdy walking stick in her hand and nodded toward the platform. “Shall we descend into the depths of Mordor?” Her eyes twinkled at the joke, and Andy and Lucy both laughed.

Bella snorted and jerked her thumb. “Okay, Gandalf. Come on.”

Before Andy could start forward, Lucy grabbed his arm. “Can you guys give me a minute with Andy? I wanna ask him something.”

Bella’s eyebrows shot up, but she looked at Bea and said, “Come on, you old wizard.”

“Old? Wizard? I think you can come up with a better description than that!” Bea winked at Andy as she walked past.

As they walked away, Andy heard Bella giggle and say, “How about experienced?”

“Better…”

“They’re kinda cute, aren’t they?” Lucy asked. “I didn’t know they were so comfortable together.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Andy nodded. “I’ve seen Bella hanging around with her a lot. More than Jace, even.” He lowered his voice a little and added, “Between us, I think when she first got here, Bea saw that Bella needed someone to talk to.”

Lucy stepped a little closer, looking up at him, but she was done talking about Bella. She gently rubbed the cloak’s soft material. “Thank you for this. It was really nice of you.”

She was close, and Andy felt a hot rush of nervous energy as he looked down into her eyes and saw her lips part slightly—

“Yo!” Jace called, and Andy gasped out a startled, almost relieved laugh.

He turned toward the tunnel entrance, waved, and called, “Coming,” only to feel Lucy’s warm, absurdly soft lips brush against his cheek. He turned toward her, eyes wide, and she grinned.

“There.” With that, she turned and, cloaked in silky shadows, left him standing there.

“What was that about?” He heard Bella say before she leaned close to Lucy, and her voice faded to whispers.

“Damn.” Andy leaned on his staff, trying to gather his thoughts as he watched his companions and the other folks standing around. It had been more than friendly, right? She wouldn’t just go around kissing people on the cheek, even if they gave her something… After a few seconds, he straightened up and walked over to join them. “Let’s get in there.”

Five minutes later, they all stood in the steeply descending tunnel at the base of the ladder Tucker had built. While they’d been getting ready, Tucker had returned, and now Andy looked up toward the opening to see his face peering back at him. “You should keep someone up there, ready to close it. You know, in case…” Andy shrugged.

Tucker nodded, holding up his fist with his thumb extended. “I’ll be up all night, boss. Not going anywhere.”

Andy nodded. “Cool.”

“You've been down here, right?” Jace asked from behind him.

Andy turned to see his party looking at him. When he saw that Lucy was the furthest advanced down the steep, curving tunnel, he nodded, stepping toward her. He brushed past Jace and then around Bea and Bella. “I’m not trying to be a know-it-all or anything, but Lucy, you shouldn’t be in the lead with your bow.”

Her eyebrows drew down in a partial scowl. “Well, I wasn’t going to go anywhere…”

“It’s just that there could be anything down here. Even, like, right around the corner.” He smiled to soften the criticism, then looked at Bea, who held their lantern. Jace had a second one tied to his hiking pack, but it wasn’t lit. “I’ll scout ahead, but I don’t see in the dark as well as I used to, so I won’t be too far ahead. Jace, you should come next, then Bea, then Lucy, then Bella.”

“Why am I last?” Bella asked. “I can fight almost as well as Jace.”

Andy nodded. “I know! That’s why I want you in the back. I imagine bad guys and monsters would love to sneak up on us, and Lucy needs a little range to use her bow well.”

“And I’d rather not get into fisticuffs,” Bea added.

As everyone chuckled, Andy said, “Right.” He lowered the point of his spear, then announced, “First things first, there’s a corpse in here we need to check out.”

“A corpse?” Jace asked.

“Yep. I fought a guy named Chavez in here on the night of the attack.” He glanced at Jace’s current weapon—a heavy spiked club. “He had a nice sword, if anyone’s interested.”

“Really?” Bella asked, trying to peer around Lucy and Bea to catch a glimpse of Andy.

“Yeah. Let’s check it out.” Andy led the way down the winding tunnel, and when he saw the opening ahead that would lead him into the big, circular room where he’d seen the stairwell, he held up a hand and whispered to Jace. “Let me scout a little.”

Jace nodded, and Andy padded forward. His sneakers were still holding up, and they seemed fine for the kind of job he was currently doing, but sometimes stray thoughts about mundane things like that flitted through his mind—there were no more sneaker companies. Of course, thoughts like that threatened to spiral into all the other things that were “no more,” but he tried to focus, clearing his mind and pushing forward. When he reached the tunnel mouth, he opened the flow of his mana and cast Unseen Stalker.

As the magical smoke encased his figure, Andy slipped through the opening into the strange, dark hall. The light from the lantern, distant as it was, provided just enough contrast for him to see the walls and the stairwell at the center of the room. He carefully scanned the space, and when he saw nothing out of place, he padded toward the stairs. Just as before, he saw that they descended into darkness, though this time he couldn’t see nearly as far down. All he could think about was how much he missed his Reaper’s Senses.

He moved past the stairs to one of the openings on the opposite wall—the tunnel that led to the waterfall. He couldn’t see anything threatening, but the light was incredibly dim there. Frustrated, he jogged back toward Jace and the others and whistled softly. They got the clue and started forward. When they reached him, Andy dropped his Unseen Stalker spell, and Jace nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Shit!” He laughed, and Andy chuckled too, though he held a finger to his lips and tried to shush him.

“Sorry about that!”

“What’s going on?” Bella hissed from the back.

“Just a minute—Andy scared Jace,” Lucy replied.

In the much-brighter light, Andy turned to point to the stairwell. “I’ve never been down there. That tunnel on the left leads toward the waterfall, and that other tunnel”—Andy pointed across the room past the stairwell—“is another one I haven’t explored.”

Jace nodded, whispering, “What’s the plan?”

“I feel like two of us should stay here and watch the stairs and that other tunnel. The rest of us can go check out Chavez’s corpse and make sure there’s nothing new in that direction.”

Jace nodded, turning so his back faced Andy. “Get that lantern off my pack. I’ll stay here with Lucy.”

Andy didn’t have to ask why he picked Lucy. With the known tunnel at her back, she’d be incredibly effective supporting Jace in the big room if something came up the stairs or out of the other tunnel. “Good plan,” he said, untying the lantern and handing it to him. “Bea and Bella with me.”

“The B-team,” Bella said, grinning, as she scooted around Lucy.

Bea smiled, walking past Jace into the room. “That’s right, young lady.”

“All right.” Andy tried to lock eyes with Lucy, but with Bea’s lantern in the big room, she was deep in the shadows of the tunnel. “Be careful,” he said, shifting his gaze to Jace.

“You know it.”

“And don’t explore without us,” Bella added.

Jace shook his head. “Won’t.”

“Let’s go.” Andy started toward the tunnel on the left, and the bobbing lantern light told him Bea was following. In his mind, he’d stretched out the memory of his journey from Chavez’s body to the room with the stairwell. In reality, they covered the distance in only a few minutes. Andy saw something dark on the floor ahead and slowed, allowing Bea to catch up with the light, and when the yellow glow fell upon what he’d expected to be Chavez’s corpse, he frowned. It was a dark pool of congealed blood, some soot, and some scraps of clothes, but the body was gone.

“Andy,” Bea asked, her voice a whisper, “was there supposed to be a body there?”

Andy nodded, padding forward. He’d seen something that he wanted to confirm. Sure enough, imprinted in the mostly dried blood were long footprints that looked almost humanoid, but the medium made for a near-perfect, ink-stamp-like imprint, and Andy counted only three toes with distinctive claw marks nearly an inch from the digits. He turned to look at Bea and Bella. “Welp, I guess we’re not alone.”