14. Chapter 14 - Matt #3
A creature launched itself onto the rear section of the bridge. The impact cracked stone beneath it. Matt spun instinctively and fired.
The shot tore through the creature’s chest, throwing it sideways into the abyss below, but two more climbed over the edge behind it.
“Keep moving!” Baptiste barked.
Gunfire erupted behind them.
Chaos swallowed the narrow bridge as the creatures swarmed upward from the cavern below.
One of the Valker agents screamed when claws tore through his calf and dragged him backward across the stone.
Another wolf caught him beneath the arms at the last second, boots skidding dangerously close to the edge before several others grabbed hold and hauled them both back.
Matt reached the far end of the bridge alongside Theron just as the first creatures vaulted onto the center span.
They moved with horrifying speed. Their starved bodies stretched too tightly across bone, reduced to jagged limbs and frantic hunger. One lunged toward Matt with milky white eyes and a jaw distended almost beyond recognition.
Theron intercepted it without breaking stride. Claws burst from his hands as he caught the creature by the throat, lifting it clear off the bridge before driving it sideways into the cavern wall hard enough to crack bone.
Recognition, rather than fear, made the others hesitate.
The corrupted wolves knew exactly what Theron was, and for one terrible second they almost looked relieved to find him.
Then the screaming started again. More creatures surged onto the bridge.
Vale fired controlled bursts into the advancing mass while Baptiste and two other agents dropped beside the support columns nearest the far ledge and began securing explosive charges against the stone.
“You brought explosives?” Matt demanded.
Baptiste did not look up from his work. “I’ve been alive too long to enter cursed underground kingdoms unprepared.”
“Fair.”
Another creature vaulted over the edge toward them.
Matt met it head-on.
The hyena surged violently beneath his skin, not fear this time but something far older and far more territorial. Heat tore through his hands as claws punched through his fingertips.
He drove the creature backward with strength that did not entirely feel like his own, slamming it into the cavern wall hard enough to crack stone. The thing shrieked inches from his face, rotten breath flooding the air between them as Matt buried his knife upward through its jaw.
Something inside him wanted more. The realization came with the sharp ache in his teeth and the sickening shift of bone beneath his skin.
The creature clawed wildly against him before Matt slammed the blade deeper with a snarl that sounded disturbingly inhuman even to his own ears.
The body finally went limp. Matt staggered backward breathing hard. Blood ran from the claws jutting from his hands. He froze at the sight of them.
“Matt!” Theron’s voice cut through the chaos just as another creature hauled itself over the edge of the bridge.
Matt met it on instinct, catching it across the throat with his claws before driving the knife deep into its chest and wrenching it sideways. The creature collapsed heavily against him before sliding limp onto the stone.
And beneath the blood and rot coating its ruined face, Matt caught a glimpse of what it must once have been.
Young enough that the realization hurt.
Theron grabbed Matt’s shoulder hard enough to yank him backward just as another creature slammed into the space where he had been standing. “Focus,” Theron snapped.
Matt dragged in a breath and refocused.
Right. Existential horror could wait until they were not being chased across a collapsing bridge by undead wolves.
Survival first.
Then the bridge groaned again.
Baptiste looked up sharply from the detonator in his hands. “Everyone off the span. Now.”
The group fell back toward the next corridor as the creatures continued flooding across the bridge behind them.
Theron remained at the rear.
Matt turned quickly. “Theron.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“That’s not reassuring anymore.”
Another creature lunged for Theron from the side. Theron caught it by the throat one-handed and hurled it directly into the advancing swarm hard enough to send several bodies crashing sideways off the bridge.
Matt hated how terrifyingly beautiful he looked doing it.
The realization was deeply inconvenient.
“THERON,” Vale shouted.
The support columns cracked.
Stone split beneath the weight of hundreds of climbing bodies as fractures raced across the bridge in violent lines.
Theron finally moved. He sprinted toward them just as Baptiste triggered the charges.
The explosion shook the entire cavern.
Fire erupted beneath the bridge supports while the central span collapsed inward with a deafening roar. Stone, bodies, and black dust disappeared into the abyss below as the remaining creatures screamed beneath the avalanche of falling rock.
The shockwave slammed through the corridor hard enough to knock several agents off balance.
Then near-silence crashed down over the cavern, broken only by the mountain’s endless whispering. But the immediate sounds of pursuit vanished beneath the settling dust.
Matt bent forward, catching his breath.
Across from him, Theron stood motionless near the corridor entrance, chest rising heavily beneath blood-smeared clothing while pale dust drifted through the air around him.
Then the mountain moved again. Not trembling. Shifting.
Beneath miles of stone and forgotten tombs, the corruption stirred, spreading through the prison like a slow breath drawn after centuries of stillness. Somewhere in the dark, a sound drifted upward that almost resembled laughter.
***
Dust continued drifting through the corridor long after the bridge collapsed behind them.