Out of the Dark Read Online Free PDF

out which tunnel to take, we’ll be out of here in twenty minutes.” Adam shook his head. “It’s the GeoCom guys messing with us, erasing the marks and making the new ones. That’s all. There must be something good down here they’re trying to keep us away from. Hey, assholes!”
    Adam’s shout echoed through the tunnel, loud and sudden enough Luke took a step back with a wince.
    â€œWe know what you’re doing, so cut the shit!”
    No answer, though it seemed like they were all straining for one. Nothing but the trickle of water dripping from one of the cracks in the ceiling and another honk from Terry’s nose. Luke took a few steps forward, his headlamp parting the dark. He put a hand on the wall to guide him and closed his eyes, not wanting the unsteady light to distract him from listening.
    At first he heard only Pete’s mutters and the scrape of someone’s boots against the rocks. But then, yes. Further down, past the tunnel they’d all come out of when they’d turned around after figuring out the chalk marks were wrong. A small scraping noise. Stealthy, sneaky.
    Sly.
    In all the years Luke had been doing this sort of work, he’d been hit on the head with falling rocks, shit on by swarms of startled bats, even been turned around a few times just like this. He’d seen caverns hundreds of feet below the earth with ceilings four stories high and he’d crawled through tunnels so tight he’d had to push himself one shoulder at a time. Until now, though, he’d never, ever been afraid of anything that might have been in the dark.
    Adam was probably right. Just the GeoCom guys messing with them, getting the jump as he’d told Celia the night before. This business could be cutthroat and if what they’d found down here already today was worth even one-tenth of what Luke guessed it might be, it might be well worth GeoCom’s time to try and sabotage the MineSys operation.
    And yet…something didn’t feel right about this. GeoCom had a rep for underhanded business, but Luke didn’t believe even the most hard-core member of the opposite team would put anyone in danger. Besides, the farmer who’d found this cave had been convincing about the fact he’d called MineSys first—said he’d seen them written up in one of his magazines.
    An hour later Pete could no longer insist he knew the way because every single one of his chalk marks had been erased, some but not all replaced by others drawn in sneaky, similar fashion so that it was hard to tell they were fakes until the group navigated down some passage or stumbled into a cavern that none of them recognized. It was unprofessional and stupid for them to be lost this way. Ridiculous.
    It was terrifying.
    Worse was Jeff’s mumbling, getting louder and louder, about how fucked they were. Adam’s constant looking over his shoulder. Terry’s sniping. They’d been a good team, but now they were falling apart.
    â€œEveryone,” Luke said suddenly. “Just shut the hell up, okay? Stop. We’re going to get out of here. If nothing else, Farmer Fuhrman up there knows when we came in, and if we don’t come out in a few more hours, he’s going to call someone to find us.”
    â€œGreat,” Terry said. “Just a few more hours.”
    Luke had never wanted to punch another man in the face as much as he wanted to clock Terry. But just then Pete let out a hoarse cry of relief. He slapped the wall of the tunnel they’d just come through, crawling on their bellies.
    â€œThis is it! This is the way! I remember for sure because I stopped to take a piss—“
    â€œDamn it, Pete,” Adam broke in.
    Pete didn’t pay any attention. “This is the way! I know it!”
    â€œJust like you knew the last four times?”
    Luke couldn’t hold back any longer. He shoved Terry by the shoulder. “Shut up, Terry. Listen to