Ambush Predator

The mine keeps pulling me deeper. I tell myself I am looking for another exit. That if somebody hauled generators, wiring, and electric lights beneath this mountain, there has to be another way back to the surface besides the hole I dropped through. But the deeper truth settles into my stomach with every step.

I am lost. The tunnels twist endlessly beneath the mesa, folding over themselves like veins inside a corpse. Some corridors narrow until my shoulders nearly scrape the walls. Others suddenly widen into massive chambers filled with rusted machinery and collapsed scaffolding hanging over black pits that seem bottomless.

The generator hum never stops. Sometimes it sounds close. Sometimes impossibly far away. The flickering lights overhead make everything worse. Weak amber bulbs buzz unpredictably above the tracks, leaving long stretches of tunnel drowned in darkness between them. Every time one flickers, shadows jump across the stone walls like moving figures.

I keep expecting to hear voices. Instead, the mine breathes around me. Water drips somewhere deep below. Timber creaks overhead. Loose gravel shifts beneath my bare feet. My overall shorts are filthy now, streaked with dirt and rust and old mine dust. Sweat trickles down my spine despite the cold air underground.

And I cannot shake the feeling that something is pacing me. I glance behind me for what feels like the hundredth time. I see only darkness swallowing the tunnels behind me. “Get it together, Bells,” I whisper. My voice disappears into the mine.

I round another bend in the tracks and stop abruptly. The tunnel ahead narrows sharply between jagged walls of black stone. Thick mineral deposits coat the rock in strange layered textures that almost resemble scales beneath the flickering amber light.

I stare at the walls uneasily. Something about them feels wrong. The silence deepens. Even the generator seems quieter here. I take another cautious step forward. The hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. I stop moving completely.

I hear a faint scraping noise against stone..I slowly turn my head toward the wall to my right. At first I see nothing except rock. Then the rock blinks. My stomach drops instantly. The thing unfolds from the wall so suddenly my brain cannot process what I am seeing at first.

The faint light reveals a hulking silhouette, easily eight feet tall, its form distorted by thick, craggy growths that glisten like damp scales in the gloom. Pale gray skin coated in thick scaly growths peels away from the stone itself, almost perfectly camouflaged against the mineral deposits.

His skin shifts in the flickering light, blending with the rock so naturally he becomes nearly invisible whenever he stops moving. “Oh God!” He explodes toward me..Before I can scramble back, a massive hand, rough as sandstone, closes around my upper arm, its grip implacable but not crushing.

The impact slams me backward against the tunnel wall hard enough to drive the air from my lungs. My head cracks against stone and stars burst across my vision instantly. Huge hands seize my wrists. I scream and thrash violently.

The mutant snarls directly into my face, his breath hot and rotten. Up close, his skin looks even worse. Thick scales cover large portions of his neck, shoulders, and cheeks like diseased reptile hide growing through human flesh. I knee him hard in the stomach. He grunts but barely reacts.

“Get the fuck off me!” I twist violently, trying to tear one arm free, but he slams my wrists against the stone hard enough that pain shoots up both shoulders. The bastard is terrifyingly strong. His scaled face presses close to mine while his eyes study me with animal curiosity more than rage.

He snarls softly and slams me violently against the stone wall again hard enough to rattle my teeth. Pain explodes across the back of my skull. I lash out instinctively, driving my knee upward toward his stomach, but he twists sideways and catches my leg beneath one massive scaled arm before pinning it against the wall with brutal ****.

“Son of a bitch!” One of his hands clamps around both my wrists easily. The other seizes my throat. His claws press against my skin just enough to promise what happens if I keep fighting. I still fight anyway.

I twist violently beneath him, kicking and clawing while my bare feet scrape uselessly across loose gravel. The mine spins around me beneath the flickering amber lights overhead. Dust rains down from the ceiling as my shoulder smashes painfully into the rock again. The mutant barely moves.

Up close, his skin looks horrifying. Thick reptilian scales spread across parts of his neck, jaw, and shoulders in uneven patches that blend almost perfectly into the mineral-stained stone surrounding us. Whenever the lights flicker, parts of him seem to disappear entirely against the walls.

His eyes stays fixed on me. I rear my head back and slam my forehead into his face as hard as I can. He recoils with a guttural snarl. For one glorious second his grip loosens. I rip one arm free and shove hard against his chest, trying to break past him into the tunnel. He catches me instantly.

One scaled arm wraps around my waist and lifts me completely off the ground like I weigh nothing. My stomach lurches as he spins and drives me down hard onto the gravel beside the tracks. The impact knocks the breath from my lungs. I gasp sharply. Before I can recover, he pins me flat beneath him.

One forearm crushes across my collarbone while his other hand forces both my wrists into the dirt above my head. The flickering mine lights buzz overhead.The generator drones endlessly somewhere deeper underground. He just stares down at me breathing hard through broken teeth while dust drifts around us in the amber light.