Dead Five's Pass Read Online Free PDF Page B

them. He turned round with a quizzical expression on his face and raised his shoulders as if asking what they were doing.
    A tingling in Mike’s spine spread to his legs, and a great weight pinned him to the ground, the snow approaching his knees. Brick and Mouse didn’t say a word. Nate must have sensed their unease and turned slowly. All four of them remained silent, staring ahead.
    From the trees, a whispered moan floated on the wind. At first Michael just thought it was usual noise wind made as it whipped through trees and branches, but there was an otherness about it. A sound so forlorn and ancient than Michael was sure it was an old man in pain.
    “Maybe there’s someone else in the cave?” Mouse whispered.
    “Maybe whoever mutilated the last guy,” Brick said.
    Michael’s feet and hands were shivering now and a slick sweat broke out across his forehead and lower back. Despite the fear, he felt the need to get closer. “Come on, let’s just get in. Nate, is there a signal out here?” He knew the answer. Nate had been checking the cell signal religiously every minute. Nothing.
    Together, they crept forward like burglars in the night. Nate with his flashlight broke the tree line first and, clambering down a set of boulders that acted like giant steps, approached a point under the outcrop, disappearing from sight.
    Michael and the others quickened their pace to catch up. They followed Nate and soon found the gap in the rock. Nate’s voice called out, followed by a huge reverberating echo, “Guys, I found it!”
    They joined Nate inside an initially small cavern. On the ground, dying embers glowed from a recent fire. Around it lay two sleeping bags and two flasks with their caps off.
    “I think we found our poor victim’s camp,” Nate said as he poked a stick at the ashes and blew at the embers to reignite the fire. “Probably a good place for us to warm up and catch our breath before we chart the place. What do you think, Mike?”
    “Sounds like a good plan. My feet are frozen.”
    With that, the four of them hefted their heavy packs off their backs and placed them in a circle around the fire. While Nate and Brick were preparing some food, Mike inspected their surroundings.
    The rock walls were smooth, almost as if they were man-made, but given the location and narrow entrance, they couldn’t have been; there’d be no way of getting any machinery in such a space, and why would anyone do that halfway up a mountain?
    Like the entire night, it just didn’t seem natural.
    “I’m gonna check farther in, make sure there’s no crazy axe murderer waiting round the corner,” Mouse said.
    “Ain’t funny, dude,” Brick said, slapping Mouse, who was almost half his size, around the head.
    “Want some time alone, you two?” Nate said as he piled more twigs on the fire.
    “Seriously though, I think I can hear something down there. Like a rumble or something…”
    “Probably just water; there’s gotta be quite a lot running through the mountain this time of year with all the run-off and snow,” Michael said, more to calm his nerves than anything else.
    “Maybe,” Mouse said, “but I’ll just have a quick look while fat boy sorts the food.”
    “Stay within shouting distance, eh?” Nate said.
    Mouse gave him a mock salute, accompanied by his stupid grin. “Sure thing, Cap’n!”
    “It’s always the funny ones that die first,” Brick said. Michael couldn’t tell if he was joking, but he tended to agree. His nerves seemed to stretch and an acidic anxiety bubbled away in his gut.
    “This place gives me the creeps,” he said, sitting down next to Nate. Even the fire didn’t seem to warm the chill that wrapped its icy fingers around him.
    Not for the first time that night, he questioned what the hell he was doing there as he watched Mouse walk into the gloom and round a curve in the tunnel. A few seconds later, his flashlight grew dim and disappeared altogether.
    “This ain’t right,”