Out of the Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

Pete so we can get out of here.”
    â€œWhen I find those GeoCom shits,” Adam muttered, “I swear I’m going to kick their asses.”
    â€œI just want a shower and a cold beer.” Jeff sounded way perkier than he had, already following Pete through a low-ceilinged corridor.
    â€œI see light!” Pete hollered.
    Luke looked up, searching for the light, and instead found nothing but more darkness.
    He’d fallen so fast and hard he didn’t realize it at first, but then the pain exploded in him. Not just from the thud of his body against the rocks as he plummeted through a hole in the cave floor that hadn’t been there moments ago when the others crossed it. Slashing, ripping agony tore through his ankle, then his back. He opened his mouth to scream. Something leathery and foul, reeking of spoiled meat, shoved inside to choke him silent. The pain and pressure in his ankle released, but then a hot wind blew over him as the sound of something flapping hummed in his ears. Flapping like wings. He pushed back, scrambling over hidden terrain as his headlight bounced wildly. He hit a wall and a cascade of rocks and dirt fell over him, making him cough and choke again.
    He’d fallen about twenty feet into a cavern so vast from side-to-side his light couldn’t even touch the sides of it. The hole through which he’d fallen—no, not fallen. Been pulled, his mind said. He’d been yanked through that hole by his ankles, which throbbed and ached. He lifted his pant leg to look at the blood oozing from four puncture wounds just above the top of his boot. He spat, then again, to clear his mouth of the horrible taste. He looked up to the ceiling, noting how the hole that had been big enough to fit his entire six-foot-two frame had filled in, leaving a mounded hill of dirt, debris and boulders that would’ve made a convenient ladder up to the cavern’s roof…if there’d been any sign of an exit left.
    Dust had covered his headlight, but the helmet had protected his head from damage. Looking at the size of the rocks that had thumped down all around him and feeling the ache from where one or two of them had punched him in the back and shoulders, Luke knew he was lucky he was still conscious. He wiped his fingers across the light, clearing it, but it flickered when he touched it. The glass felt cracked. He’d fallen on his pack, the extra flashlight digging into the small of his back. He rolled off it to dig inside. Found his water bottle, the protein bars he always packed. A first-aid kit he’d need to use on his ankle in a few minutes. But for now, he needed light.
    He could hear the faintest sound of shouting, and another slew of rocks and dirt slid down from the place he’d come through the floor. Still no sign of the hole. He shone both lights up and up, across the ceiling, searching for any hint of light or sign of the place he’d fallen through.
    â€œHoly shit.” Luke tried to say it aloud, but his throat would make nothing more than the hoarsest croak.
    He’d been in caverns covered with bats before. The things he saw clung to the roof like bats, they had the same leathery skin as bats, but they were not bats. The size of a fifth grader, human in form but for the overlong fingers and toes that helped them cling to every crevice. Human eyes blinked, shining red in the wash of light from his headlamp, and the creatures hissed at him. A fresh wave of that stink reached him, and Luke put a hand over his mouth and nose to fight from retching.
    They moved as one, crawling the surface of the cave. The hissing got louder. Luke got to his feet, hopping on his wounded ankle and hunched from the pain in his back, but dammit, moving. At the base of the pile of dirt and debris that had fallen along with him, he found a severed…paw was the only way to describe it. Thick claws coated in blood. His blood, he thought as the room spun and he fought to