Posted on June 12, 2009

Karaoke Quintessence: Chapter 11: Dead Flesh

None of them had an idea of what might have caused all this, but Danny was okay with that.  It was his curiosity about the words on his computer and the colors in his head that got him kidnapped in the first place and right now all he wanted was to get out of these tunnels and go home.

Jimmy and Alex argued about it for a bit.  Danny paid no attention, and instead focused on walking.  The staff continued to glow whenever it was within a foot of him.  That close, however, and his skin tingled, the hairs moving like they were caught in an electric field.  He rubbed his arms, but it didn’t do any good.

They’d walked for half an hour or more when he saw the first sign of light from somewhere other than the staff.

“Hey,” he said, interrupting Jimmy talking about how he never trusted Africans to begin with and sure as hell wouldn’t now.  “You guys see that?”

“What?” Jimmy said.

“See what?” Alex said.

Danny pointed.  Ahead of them, a good distance away, there’d been a flash of light—only once and then gone, but Danny was sure he hadn’t imagined it.

Jimmy put his hand on Danny’s shoulder.  “Sure you ain’t still messed up in the head from getting stuck to that stick earlier?”

“No,” Danny said, “I saw it.”

“Sure thing,” Jimmy said.  “Just want to be positive, you know?”

“It was there,” Danny said.  “A light.”

Alex pulled the staff away from Danny.  Its glow ceased.  “Be quiet,” he said.

They waited—seconds then minutes and then, as Jimmy began to fidget, the light came again.

“There,” Alex said.

Danny nodded.  It was a flash along the stone, like the reflection off a source moving outside their field of vision.

“That’s firelight,” Alex said.

“You’re right,” Danny said.

“You can tell that?” Jimmy said.  “You can tell that’s fire?”

“Come on,” Alex said.

They stayed close to the wall as they made their way along the tunnel in the direction the light had come from.  Alex held the staff far away from Danny, making sure it didn’t start glowing again and give them away.

“Maybe we’re in a mine,” Danny whispered.

Alex hushed him.

“Who the hell still uses torches?” Jimmy said.  “Miners sure don’t.”

“Be quiet,” Alex said.  He stopped.  “Wait here.  I’ll go on ahead and see if I can see anything.”

“Right, boss,” Jimmy said.  When Alex tried to hand him the staff, he said, “Keep it.  In case you need to hit something.”

“I have a gun,” Alex said.

“Oh, yeah,” Jimmy said, and took the staff.

“Keep that away from Danny,” Alex said, and left them.

Without the light from the staff, Danny couldn’t see Alex.  The detective moved silently.  Even with Jimmy there, Danny felt alone.

“What do you think it is?” Jimmy said into his ear.

“Don’t know,” Danny whispered back.  “Miners, maybe, like I said.”

“Can’t be.”

“What do you think it was?”

Jimmy was quiet a moment.  “You know, kid?  After the shit I’ve seen over the years, I don’t even want to guess.”

“Over the years?”

“Don’t worry about it, not—”

“What other stuff have you seen?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Jimmy said.

But Danny didn’t want him to wait until later.  He pressed the subject, asking Jimmy to elaborate, but it was like trying to get directions from a dead dog.  Jimmy just kept saying, “Nope, not now,” or “You’re gonna have to wait, kid, okay,” and Danny thought he could hear nervousness in the dismissals.  Jimmy hadn’t meant to bring the topic up and was now kicking himself for having done so.

Eventually, Danny let it drop.  He leaned against the tunnel wall and stared in the direction Alex had gone.  Quiet, and dark, and without the chatter of his two new companions, the insanity of the last day settled into Danny’s awareness.  He’d managed to forget about the culture box and the thing in his computer, but now they both returned, along with flashes of the awful man on the bus and the chrome tools he’d pulled from his bag.  Danny wanted to go home, to go to sleep and wake up and attend classes, like he was a regular college kid again.  He was even willing to deal with the headaches if it meant getting out of this tunnel.

The world isn’t supposed to work like this, he thought.  Danny was trying to figure out whether he could trust Jimmy Pete and Alex Dale when he heard the shot.

It was too far away, around a curve in the tunnel, for Danny to see the muzzle flash, but he knew immediately the loud pop was a gunshot.  He jumped and Jimmy did the same.  They collided, the staff in Jimmy’s hand swinging past Danny’s arm, erupting light.  In that brief illumination, Danny saw Jimmy’s wide eyes and, beyond him, Alex running toward them out of the dark.

“Keep it lit,” Alex shouted.

Jimmy didn’t hear or wasn’t paying attention, but Danny moved closer to the staff, coaxing it back to life.

No longer blind, Alex covered the distance between them quickly.  He had his pistol in his hand.  “There’s something up there,” he said, hands on his knees, panting.

“What’d you shoot at?” Jimmy said.

Alex shook his head.  “I don’t know.”

Jimmy said, “What do you—”

But Alex cut him off.  “I don’t have a goddamn clue.  I was walking and then there was this thing in front of me.”

“Did you find the light?” Danny asked.  “Is that how you saw it?”

Alex shook his head again.  “It was dark.  The thing was dark.”

“So how’d—” Danny began.

“It was darker than everything else,” Alex said.  “That’s how I saw it.  A black shape standing there in front of me.”

“Shape of what?” Jimmy said.

“A man, I think.  A large man.”

“You killed it?” Jimmy said.

“I shot it.  I think I hit it.”

“But you don’t know if it’s dead?” Danny said.

“No.”

“What about the torch?” Jimmy said.

Alex stared at him.  “The what?”

“Did the thing you shot have a torch?”

“Was it what made the light?” Danny said.

“I didn’t see one,” Alex said.  “If it had one, it wasn’t lit.”

“Let’s go have a look,” Jimmy said.

“Wait—” Danny said.  His stomach ached.  Far away, but close enough to tingle along his arms and spine, he could feel the pull of the staff.  And he knew—somehow he knew—that getting near that thing Alex had shot would only make it worse.

But Jimmy was already walking further along the tunnel and Danny had to run after him before the glow of the staff went out.  Alex followed.

The thing Alex had shot lay on the floor of the tunnel, its head propped up by the rock wall rising from the dirt.  Danny stared at it as Alex and Jimmy poked around the body.  Alex was right: the thing—or creature, or man, Danny wasn’t sure—was blacker than even the absence of light marking the continuing path of the cave tunnel.  It reminded him of a wooden artist’s doll, the kind with joints that could be posed in all sorts of ways: featureless, the basic shape of a man, but without any characteristics to make it human.

“That’s some crazy shit,” Jimmy said.

Alex crouched and poked at it.  “It’s dead.”

“You sure?” Danny said.  He stood next to Jimmy, who held the staff between them.

“Yes.”

Jimmy hunkered down next to Alex.  “Is it some kind of suit?” he said.

Alex shrugged.  “Maybe, but I don’t think so.”

“It’s a goddamn alien, then,” Jimmy said.

“Could be,” Alex said.

Danny said, “Let’s just leave it, okay?  Let’s keep going, see if we can find a way out of here.”  He’d been right about the tingling.  Up close, near the body, the tug of the staff was awful.  His arms felt like they’d gone to sleep and his stomach was writhing.

Alex was pulling at the thing’s face.  He’d grabbed it under the chin and now yanked up on its jaw.  The head rocked back and banged against stone and dirt.  “It’s not coming off,” he said.

“Maybe it’s a tattoo,” Danny said.

Jimmy stared at him.  “You ever seen a tattoo like that?”

“No.”

“You even think they make tattoos like that?”

Danny shook his head.

“An alien,” Jimmy said.

Alex stood up.  “It’s dead,” he said, “and we can’t learn anything more about it here.  We should keep moving.”

“That’s what I was saying,” Danny said.

“We’re not going to at least take a piece of it?” Jimmy said.

This time Danny stared at him.

Alex shrugged, took a pocket knife out of his jacket, and cut away a sugar cube sized chunk of the thing’s arm.  Danny felt sick.

“We keep going,” Alex said and put the piece of flesh in the pocket of his pants.