SNAFU: Hunters

Instantly, he moved past to the other side, his holy weapon raised. I drew my mirror and angled it at the hole. A tunnel, no more than eighteen inches high and two feet wide, extended into darkness.

I nodded to Colin beside me and he lowered his torch, shining the crimson beam along the tight passage. It extended a little over a meter before opening into another chamber. Relaying this to my partners, I crawled onto the smooth floor.

Nick cracked one of his last glow sticks, filling our tunnel with brilliant orange light then he hurled it down the shaft before me.

The stick ricocheted off the tight walls, finally bouncing to a stop just a few feet inside the room. The chamber appeared small, but I couldn’t see much from my limited view. I extended the mirror’s handle to its full length and stretched my arm as far as I could to get a better look.

It wasn’t long enough to reach and I had to crawl a little inside, my arm out before me. Rotating the mirror, I saw no exits. I pushed it out a little further for a better view. Black whip-like strands shot down from the ceiling, wrapping around my mirror and ripping it from my grip.

I cried out in surprise, banging my head as I tried to scramble back. More tendrils fluttered along the top edges of my tunnel, reaching blindly. A palpable waft of sweet nectar filled the passage. Colin seized my belt and dragged me back out.

They didn’t have to ask what I’d seen.

“Exits?” Nick mouthed.

I shook my head, panting, then pointed upward. “On the ceiling.”

“What do we do?” Colin whispered, his mouth so close I could feel his breath on my ear.

“If we try to crawl in we’re dead before we can make it,” I replied, looking back down the now empty hole.

Nick crouched beside me, silent as he studied the shaft. He shook his head steadily, seeming to run through our few options.

I licked my dusty lips. “I have an idea.”

Nick gave me a look and I pulled off my pack and lay on my back. I drew Hounacier. “Give me my gun. Push me through. Fast.”

Colin shook his head.

“It’s the only way.” I mimed firing the Remington, then hacking the machete.

No! Colin mouthed. He looked to Nick for support, but the Armenian nodded instead.

“It’ll work. But I’ll go. I’m senior knight.”

“You don’t have this,” I said, opening my palm. “Bang,” I whispered, miming pulling the trigger, then dropping the gun and rolling my empty palm before me. “I’m the only one that can do it.”

Nick’s lips tightened. He handed me the sawed-off. I’ll push you through, he mouthed. Then you, pointing to Colin, push me. One, two.

I nodded.

Colin looked at Nick, then to me. Finally he nodded. “You need earplugs.”

“Ah.” I reached for my pack and drew out the yellow foam plugs Nick had given us. With those firmly in place, I returned to position, gun and Hounacier against my body and before my face.

“Close your right eye,” Nick ordered.

I did.

“Open it after you’ve fired. Otherwise the flash will leave you blind.” He cracked his final glow stick and set it on my stomach then took position at my feet, crouched in a runner’s stance, hands on my boots. Colin squeezed in behind him, mouth tight in an unhappy line.

Right eye clenched, I nodded to Nick and mouthed, three… two… one.

I launched forward, rocks scraping my back. The tunnel flew past me in a blur. As my head came into the room I extended the shotgun toward the ceiling. I had only a moment’s glimpse of a thousand eyes looming above, black tendrils lashing toward me.

I fired.

The brilliant flash burned my vision and the boom was so loud it jarred my bones. A keening shriek filled the room, audible through my plugged and ringing ears.

Without time to think I rolled to my feet, staying low but still banging my head, and slinging the other glow stick onto the floor. The room was no more than five feet high. Opening my unblinded right eye I saw the demon before me lashing and writhing like an enraged manta ray. Thousands of eyes rolled to focus in my direction. I dropped the smoking shotgun and extended my warding palm. The tattooed lid stretched wide and the beast shrieked again.

I lunged, thrusting Hounacier into the heart of the thrashing mass. Her blade buried deep. I yanked it free and hacked and hacked, shredding rolling eyes as slimy tendrils squirmed and whipped at my face and arms.

Screaming, I rammed the machete’s blade back into the twisting folds with both hands, and then slashed to the side, splitting the monster nearly in half.

Brilliant maroon fire spilled from its wounds as the demon crumpled to the chamber floor. Panting, and covered in blood, now burning with cold flames, I noticed Nick beside me. Hounacier twisted in my grip moving like a dowser’s rod, her blade coated in flickering fire.