Havoc by Shannon McKenna
2
Cait LaMott tossed aside some tree boughs that the wind had blown up against the big slabs of plywood that functioned as doors to the reinforced entryway. They were plastered with big scary signs. Do Not Enter. Danger. Falling Rocks.
It looked like no one had been here since the winter snows had started to melt. The place must have been buried in ten feet of snow over the winter.
Ping.There it was, the intermittent signal. Her heart thudded.
Dad’s coordinates were right on.
Stuff had happened up here, for sure. Dramatic stuff. But it had happened a long time ago, and it looked like nobody cared anymore. The place was deserted. Fine by her. It was much better if she didn’t have to fight anybody for permission, or explain herself.
Not that she had anything to explain. Not yet. Just a handful of disconnected dots, with no way to pull them all together. Just ‘X marks the spot.’ The GPS coordinates that Dad had left on that journal, trapped in a safe deposit box for fourteen years. Dad had also written down a frequency in his lab notes and left them in the safe deposit box, along with a handheld tracking device. That was all she had.
Random dots to follow, with no context. The contents of that box, and a father who suddenly disappeared fourteen years before, leaving her desperate for answers.
That ping that the sensor heard—it might lead to another breadcrumb. But looking at the big sheets of plywood wedged into the cavern mouth, she had a sinking feeling that whatever might once have been in there, a mountain had fallen down on top of it since then. Tons of broken rock would be a depressing setback.
The rough doors blocking the entrance could be moved, with some effort. She heaved and rolled rocks and brushwood away from the door until she was able to lever open a space big enough to squirm through. The stretchy synthetic fabric of her clothes snagged and ripped on the door, but she made it inside.
It wasn’t completely dark in there, as part of the cavern roof had caved in, and the hole was bearded with dangling roots and tufts of dead grass. A narrow beam of light came through. She slowly made her way deeper in, sniffing the clammy smell of damp earth and mold, the sharper smell of urine. The cave looked deep and wide. Creepy.
Cait wished she’d brought a bigger flashlight, but she’d never dreamed she’d be crawling into a cave. Next time she’d be prepared. If there was a next time. That ceiling above her could fall down on her head, and no one on earth would know what had happened to her. This place would be her tomb.
Worth it.She’d risk it, to know what had happened to Dad.
And wherever Mom was now, out there in the great unknown beyond death, Cait hoped that she’d finally had her questions answered, and that they had been answered to her satisfaction. That Mom was content, and at peace, reunited with the man she loved.
She dared to hope for at least that much, after so much pain and loss.
Dad had left his cryptic trail of breadcrumbs in that safety deposit box, and she would by God follow them, if they led her to the depths of hell.
Cait fished out the small flashlight in her pocket and shined the weak, watery light around. The glow didn’t penetrate far. There was a wide space close to the entrance that looked like it had been cleared out, even smoothed out, crisscrossed with lots of tire tracks. But beyond that, the cavern stretched much farther back, and was heaped with rubble and ruined building structures.
Ping.There it was again. The intermittent beacon showed itself coyly, glowing briefly on the screen from somewhere beneath that crushing mass of rock. Taunting her.
She crept farther in, making her way around obstacles, climbing over slabs of concrete. The light that had illuminated the entrance was barely visible now.
She jerked back just short of plunging into huge hole in the floor of the chamber, heart galloping. The floor had collapsed into a lower level. She peered into it with her flashlight, and saw nothing but more bricks, concrete, dust, darkness.
She crept in deeper, following the trace, but her heart sank by the second. She wasn’t going to be finding that trace today. Or anytime soon, if ever. This project had suddenly gotten bigger, more difficult, more expensive. It would take resources and permission and cooperation and teamwork, and a not inconsiderable budget. She would need heavy equipment, people to run it. She would need to somehow justify all of that to the powers that be, when all she had was a missing father, and a handful of breadcrumbs.
Nothing worthwhile comes quickly,Dad used to say when he wanted to egg her on. The thought made her laugh. For real, Dad? Fourteen fucking years?
She took a tentative step out into the tumbled boulders, and oof—
Something huge and heavy had hit her in the back. Her flashlight flew. Rocks slammed up to meet her. Darkness closed in all around.
Her first thought was that the ceiling had fallen in after all. She’d die here in the dark, pinned by massive rocks. Curiosity had killed the cat.
Then that massive rock that pinned her down shifted and flexed. A big hand clamped her wrists behind her back. Another wound through her hair, jerking her head back sharply.
“Who are you?” His voice was a deep rasp in her ear. “And what the fuck do you want from this place?”