Epilogue
Water dripped from grey-brown stalagmites in slow, uneven beats like a sad, subterranean metronome. The air stunk with wet stone, mold, and something metallic. Probably blood. Mine.
I panted, pressing a muddy hand against my ribs. Definitely further cracked, cutting up my insides, I'm sure. Either way, every breath turned into a twisted knife in my gut.
Clusters of green mushrooms pulsed and painted the wall with a neon-like glow. Otherworldly and kind of pretty, but poisonous. Would've made a great shot if I still had a damn camera or phone.
I flicked on my penlight, the tiny beam pushing through dark spots in the gloom, revealing the winding tunnel stretching ahead.
Jagged rocks jutted at odd angles, some slick with moisture, others covered in spindly, coral growths sharp enough to bleed anyone touching them.
The cliff was too high and slippery with dripping water, so I had one way to go.
Deeper into the darkness.
My light wasn't Volardi tech and wouldn't last long.
Just a gift I gave myself when Brandon's children's program came back.
Half penlight and half an old-style pen with a large, tapered point.
The kind pretentious scriptwriters give themselves when they complete a forgotten project on hiatus for twenty years.
I spun, hoping there'd be a new tunnel leading back, alien vines or something. Nope, and I'd like to get out of here. The whole place reeked of 'things crawl out and eat you' energy.
A low, shuffling noise echoed from the cliff's base. Only one thing here made that sound. Don't let me be right.
I froze, listening.
Something big was moving toward me, each uneven step dragged.
I forced my penlight steady. The tight beam and the green glow from the mushrooms illuminated the twisted form dragging itself to me.
My breath hitched.
Its long head, black as oil and studded with fresh scars, came into view, along with way too many teeth to count.
The Zerlite Queen.
The same one, judging from the stab wounds. Zephyron had really laid into it harder than Hollywood producers tearing apart a script.
"Oh, hell, and me without my camera, backup, or an exit." I tightened my grip on the penlight, swallowing hard.
The queen lifted her armored head, the glimmer of intelligence flickering behind cruel, glowing alien eyes. I exhaled, glancing down at the only thing I had left—my pen.
"Well," I muttered, forcing a smirk. "They say the pen is mightier than the sword."
I'd rather have a damn sword.
She saw me. No way she didn't. Instead of lunging for the only Human snack, her head whipped toward a few basketball-shaped, and sized shadows.
Screeching headcrabs burst between her teeth with a sound like wet, crushed Pop Rocks.
Faint mineral veins lit up along her arms and legs, the teal glow running stronger, warmer.
When she finished eating her children, she straightened, and her movements became more fluid.
Run.
I did, or to be honest, zombie-shuffled. After cracking ribs—maybe twice—and rolling over the cliff, I wasn't breaking any track records. You'd think I'd know enough to not fall over a cliff again.
Spoiler: I didn't.
Down I tumbled further into the murk with softly glowing cavern veins and a single mushroom cluster in a circular enclave for natural light. My penlight caught something else. Long, slender shapes. Four of them.
Another Zerlite clutch? It would make sense. Those creatures hunted everywhere, and it was why the Sandari gave up a third of their planet to the Volardi Empire for something that approached a solution.
These things were... off. Not quite animals.
Thin, nearly skeletal bodies curled in on themselves, with skin stretched tight and grey.
They had huge black eyes, but not glassy like the others.
Even in death, they seemed alert, even curious.
Zerlites for sure. The pale blue minerals along the right and left of their oversized head proved it.
Are those parts of their brain?
Three had been mangled from the neck down as if chewed upon. The heads remained untouched, like a serial killer's trophy collection. My stomach twisted. They looked almost... well, not Human, but humanoid. None moved, except one still whole. Its chest rose. Barely.
Before I could get a better look, uneven shuffles came closer.
The Queen.
She had followed me down, deeper into the pits. She dragged herself into view, still every inch the wounded monster I had seen earlier, just more... mobile. Her long black head tilted toward the bodies behind me.
Instead of coming right at me and her food, she crawled around a glowing green mushroom patch, avoiding it like a background actor on set sidestepping a prima donna movie star. A small amount had been enough to poison Sandari wells and fields for miles.
"You can't risk it either, can you?"
She didn't answer, or maybe she did by staying away from it.
She was here for a snack and a way to heal. Those heads, the brains, they were the entrée.
Mushrooms. My only chance.
Deadly? Sure. To me? Who knows? I wasn't native.
I bolted toward the cluster, scooped up a double handful, and crumbled them over the... Oh, what should I call them? Brain Zerlites. Yeah, that works.
The Queen stopped as I dusted her meal like too much black pepper over a perfectly cooked steak. Her chest heaved, and she screamed loud enough to rattle my teeth.
"Guess I hit a nerve." I forced a smirk I know didn't meet my eyes.
She lunged.
Yeah, nerve-hitting for sure.
I backed up, intending to give Her Majesty breathing room, then handed her a lot more. Four light brown, big-eyed minions scuttled out from behind her—thin-limbed, claws hooked, and eyes locked on me like I was dinner.
They came at me in jerks and lunges like sped-up zombies.
Faces stretched back into snarling grimaces.
I blocked the first swipe with my penlight arm, which hurt like hell, but at least it kept my ribs intact.
My shoe stopped at the nest's edge as the second one slashed low and nearly took out my leg.
That's when something warm and jagged pressed against my clenched fist.
The Brain Zerlite. The one not eaten. She? Sure, why not? She had crawled close enough to hand me a serrated crystal shard. Her black eyes stared hard. Not pleading, just telling me something.
"Thanks," I muttered, right before the Queen's giant clawed hand came across like a wrecking ball.
Augh! Guess the message was 'Look out!'
I slammed into the wall, ears buzzing like someone stuffed them full of bees. The shard was still in hand—smooth at one end and chipped to a fine point at another. Looks like I have a dagger.
The Queen picked the glowing mushroom crumbles off the nearest head with a surgeon's precision. Once clean, she bit down hard, the noisy crunch wet and heavy like an overripe pumpkin mixed with aquarium gravel between her teeth.
The smell wafted over. Not rot from the head or damp muck I'd expect to find in a cave after a rain. This smelled like fear—sharp, metallic, and thick as ozone.
It didn't come from me.
The still-living Brain Zerlite. She trembled like a half-starved dog left out in the snow. She didn't move, just stayed rooted in place, paralyzed with terror.
Another monkey-thing charged with skin like baked clay stretched over bone.
Hooked claws came toward me, reaching to rip away my bruised flesh.
I ducked, every muscle screaming, and drove the shard into its chest. It shrieked, the sound ricocheting through the tunnel walls.
Zephyron would've ended its life in half the time and taken out another in the same attack.
Me? I'm a screenwriter. I knew the stabby end goes in first.
Three others still circled, and the Queen loomed like a second-story problem, her armored bulk merely house-high as she crawled past glowing mineral veins. She'd already eaten one head and moved with less sluggishness. The other she lifted, giving it a hard shake until the crumbles fell away.
Crunch. Slurp.
She'd figured out a faster way to clean them, and there was no way of dropping this group before she downed another.
Then, goodbye to my new buddy. One of those things leapt.
I ducked, screaming as my broken ribs scraped fire along my insides.
Pain forced me into a crawl, and I slid below the Queen's legs like I did when I worked on my car, except my Trans-Am couldn't eat me in a heartbeat.
Stab, stab... stab. All along her belly, and finally her lower jaw. The others hurt her, but the last one? Pressure point for sure. She roared, and her whole body shook. Then she threw me again.
I hit the ground hard, right on the glowing mushroom patch, with the air knocked clean out of me. Pain flared hot through my ribs and leg, and somehow... somehow, I didn't black out.
Suddenly, it appeared in my head. Not words, just a feeling with the flash of an image.
Lay still. Play dead.
I don't know if it was my thought. It could have been The Muse. Every writer has her to thank for inspiration. Maybe this time, there's another 'her' who deserves the credit? The Brain Zerlite?
Either way, I stayed down. Not like I could do much else.
The remaining monkey-things paused, sniffing at the air. An earthy musk rolled off them, mixing with the damp stone reek in the enclosure. They glanced at the Queen, then me, before slinking away back into the shadows. Did I have the mushrooms to thank, or did royalty eat first?
I didn't move. Not yet. Not until I knew how to write myself an ending that would save me and keep my new Zerlite buddy breathing.
The Queen's giant dark claws hovered over the last separated head, and it wouldn't be long until she tore into the live one. The Brain Zerlite's huge black gaze darted toward a mineral vein gleaming faintly along the wall before returning to me.
No... not me. My hand? The shard?
Her stare lingered... hesitant.