Well
Before delving once more into the unknown, Alice reveled a while longer in her victory. Despite the dark and horrible place she was in, she felt a tiny, warm feeling of hope. She was not only alive, but also overcoming her hurdles, reaching her goals despite the adversities of a habitat she didn’t belong to, filled with scary creatures ready to rip her apart.
She thought of her real home, of the small apartment she shared with her dog. She thought of her parents, always abroad for one job or another, but also ready to catch an earlier plane if she was feeling lonely or sick.
From her blurry eyes, a single tear streamed down her face, leaving a paler trace on her cheek.
She wouldn’t give up. She wiped away her tears and got ready for the rest of the day.
50%. A few minutes later, she was in the antechamber, in front of the third opening of the room, the one she hadn’t had the time to explore. This entrance was a bit bigger than the one leading to her base but had the same shape, a rough knee-high circular opening in the limestone walls.
Alice shined her torch through the hole, inspecting the new passage. While it looked similar to the others, it also seemed far smoother, its texture almost polished. The ground was also slightly slanted, enough for an almost imperceptible trickle of water to flow down onto the cave floor.
She had come fully prepared for the exploration. In her hands were her phone and one of the two rounded clubs. The limestone knife was, once again, unpleasantly tucked in the waistband of her increasingly dirty pajama pants, with the coiled rope acting as an extra security belt.
She crawled in on her knees, unable to even crouch because of the low ceiling.
If it starts narrowing I’m going back. Even if there is an exit here I’ll find another one. Fuck getting stuck. She thought before moving in deeper.
After a bit, Alice had turned off the torch on her phone to save its battery, only using the light of the display to check the passage every now and then. Given her awkward position, she had to rely more on the other senses.
As she crept on, trying not to slip on the slick surface, Alice focused on her hearing, trying to catch any alien sound in the blackness in front of her.
It was then that she slipped, her hand losing purchase on the increasingly slimy floor. With her other limbs, Alice tried to readjust herself mid-fall, only managing to completely lose any sort of attrition on the smooth calcite.
Alice fell painfully on her chin, her teeth slamming loudly against each other as the resulting wave of throbbing pain caused her to lose her grip on the phone, the device shutting off and skidding away, leaving her in absolute darkness.
She could only perceive her increasingly ragged breathing. The exertion of crawling, combined with the now claustrophobic feeling of the tight walls, causing her to hyperventilate. Sweat covered her body as her lungs worked at full regime to try and provide more and more oxygen to her brain. She started panicking, a metallic flavor coating the interior of her mouth, her hands pushing on the walls that seemed to be narrowing more every second.
She was getting more and more agitated, her movements frantic and her limbs thrashing around, trying to free herself. Her only thoughts those of escape.
Then, she saw the light on her wrist.
At first, she thought the phone had lit up again, maybe she had hit it by mistake; the color, however, was wrong, as was its brightness, this one was softer, more akin to a glow.
She focused on it with all her being, the weak luminescence an anchor in the oppressive void all around that wanted to consume her. She started controlling her breath, slowing it back to normal. The walls stopped bearing down on her as her vision and mind cleared enough for her to understand what she was actually seeing.
It was a few tiny green specks of light, shimmering like stars in the blood that was coating her hand. She had cut herself in her panic, the shining particles having entered the wound.
She kept looking at them, silently watching how they flowed in her blood, and only many moments later did she move again.
Almost prone on the floor and touching every inch of the surface, she crawled on, searching for the smartphone she had dropped.
She kept creeping forward, in her still dazed mind that was the only possibility, her way back forgotten, only the phone would lead to the right direction.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when she finally touched the water, the fresh liquid surprising her with its texture, so different from the painful, hard ground.
She moved her hand in it, surprised at its blackness despite her disturbance of its still surface. It smelt fresh, and cold, her fingers not finding a bottom, only more water.
Without thinking, she dumped her head in it, gulping down the liquid, the icy water running down her throat and through her hair, finally clearing her addled mind.
Oh shit, what did I do? Was the first thought that appeared in her head.
Her gaze fixated under the surface, where a couple of luminous spots had appeared. Entranced, she watched as the twin dots seemed to get bigger, their appearance distorting by the moment.
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She focused on them, watching them expand and multiply with every second. Another ripple broke through the water, causing it to bulge outwards, and, for a second, work as a lens, showing the origin of the mesmerizing lights.
The large, flat, and slitted head of the giant salamander was ascending the deep water well she was gazing down, brought forward by the powerful movement of its snakelike body.
The pale horror was only a couple of meters away from the surface.
With a terrified cry, Alice slid backwards, using her hands to push herself away from the edge of the bore, the slick ground aiding her endeavor. Three seconds later, a splash of water erupted from the pool, the thick limbs of the now glowing creature trying to find a grip on the stone.
She kept sliding down the opening, her only focus on running away as far as possible from the horrifying creature.
She didn’t know how long she had numbingly crept forward, so she kept pushing, soon noticing the increasing glow in front of her. It was coming.
Her feet impacted painfully on something hard, she had found her discarded club, which now was also being dragged on her way by her frantic movements. Nonetheless, Alice kept pushing, ignoring the scraping sound of the club behind her, soon joined by the sound of plastic clattering on the uneven surface.
The damned phone! She ignored the stray thought, only focusing on getting as much distance as possible from the glowing amphibian.
With every meter she slid, the light in front of her intensified more and more until the eyeless head of the salamander finally appeared from behind the latest bend of the passage. The tufts on its side were dazzling in a blinding green light as somehow more and more particles flowed into them from all over its body.
Alice doubled her efforts, trying to keep the distance between the maw of the creature and herself. It kept getting closer, its weight and powerful frontal limbs providing an advantage over her own body, definitely unsuited for slithering on the ground backwards.
With a last push, the monster dashed forward, closing in on the few meters that separated them.
It was now so close that she could see the slits tremble and throb with its every breath, she could smell a sweet and pungent chlorine-like smell all around it.
Alice finally realized she wouldn’t get to the antechamber.
Sensing her proximity, the creature opened its large mouth, revealing rows upon rows of tiny and extremely sharp-looking teeth. As the jaws kept opening wider and wider, the cheeks on its sides kept stretching, now wide enough to cover the passage from side to side.
She only had an instant before they closed in on her, so she did the only thing she could think of.
Take it down with her.
For the last time she pushed backwards with only one arm, the other quickly reaching behind her back, to the waistband of her pants, gripping the sharp limestone knife tucked in them.
As she gripped it, her perception of time slowed down to a crawl. Alice could see the powerful limbs of the monster bulging through the skin, starting to push on the ground, using thin retractable nails protruding from its palmed fingers for an increased grip.
As it was closing in for the first and final bite, she raised her knife and slammed it into its mandible in a downward motion.
Still in her adrenaline-fueled perception, Alice could see the tip of the knife pierce effortlessly the soft tissue of its thick, fixed tongue, the cut erupting in a mess of luminescent blood.
She kept looking, as the lower rows of teeth cut into her exposed forearm, splitting the skin like wet paper, as thick lines of her vital fluid emerged and flowed in its rapidly closing maw.
She saw the light that had accumulated in the creature’s external gills rapidly flow through its head and somehow emerge as blue bolts of electricity in its mouth, instantly arcing to its many rows of teeth.
As the maxillae slammed down on her forearm between the wrist and the elbow, she saw the multitude of fangs light up and felt a sharp and hot pain coursing from her right arm throughout her body, causing her limbs to spasm and her heart to falter.
Alice felt the bone as it was severed, cut through effortlessly in an instant; her right arm simply stopping to exist for the rest of her body.
It hasn’t been enough, I’m sorry.
Despite the pain, a small and sad smile appeared on her lips, her eyes closing in her last moments before oblivion.
It was then that she felt her lower body suddenly drop, the support of the circular passage disappearing under her.
Her body slammed on the hard surface of the antechamber, the long shape of the giant salamander flying over her and slamming on the stalagmite in the center of the cave where it kept writhing and clawing at its blood-dripping mouth, its powerful tail slamming on the calcareous formations and turning them to rubble.
In a daze, the young woman looked at herself, staring wordlessly at the empty air where her right arm used to be; her stump slowly but surely dripping blood on the ground, the smell of charred skin and flesh emanating from the wound. Somehow, the bite had sealed the arteries and main veins of her arm, saving her from a quick death from blood loss.
Oh, so strange. She thought, moving around the residual limb and feeling its lightness.
In the meanwhile, the salamander had managed to dislodge the knife from its mouth, the weapon breaking on the ground as the amphibian tried to orient itself, its mouth dripping blood and saliva.
A brief hum invaded the chamber, the gills of the creature rapidly lighting up and just as quickly releasing a wave of electricity in the air.
Hehe, it’s like a shark.
As the static reached her body, shocking her lightly, the creature’s head fixated on her position.
Thankfully for her, the sudden shock had managed to shake her from her trance, a wave of pain once again travelling from her stump.
Her eyes widened as she saw the monster rush at her, its mouth snapping open to rend her body.
She pushed herself away just in time, the head of the creature slamming on the wall behind her.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
She stumbled in the dark cave, her foot wraps had somehow come loose, her now naked feet splitting on the jagged rocks.
Trying to get away from her predator, she ignored the pain, trying to find the way to her base.
Then, her hurting feet touched something different. She felt the familiar sensation of the smooth screen of her phone pushing against her wounded soles and immediately rushed to grab it, pushing the power button as the glowing amphibian’s gills lit up one more time.
Just as the electricity was discharged, the phone lit up with a weak jingle. Its screen was cracked and pixelated, but luminous enough for her to see the access to her base a couple of meters to her left. She also saw the salamander zero in on her, sliding on the ground to reach her.
In the spur of the moment, she launched the phone in its direction, the animal instantly veering to follow it, soon swallowing it whole with a wet gulp.
The distraction worked for but a second, the amphibian soon focusing on her once again, and yet it was enough for her to jump into the tight passage.
Ignoring the sharp pain of her wound impacting the stone and splitting open, she got back up on her unsteady feet.
She ignored the alarmed shrieks of the screechling, opting instead to reach the pool, jumping in it, and activating its glowing particles.
She paid no heed to the specks of light that swarmed her stump, coating it in a shining layer of slime, her eyes were on one thing only.
As the salamander burst into the cave, she trudged to her hideout, ignoring the narrow gap, and instead reaching for the long and thin pincer propped against the wall beside it.
The tied guardian screeched loudly at the huge predator; unable to run away, it was soon mashed to pulp in its already bloody mouth.
It was just enough for her to reach the other side of the pond, hoping to slow the monster in the water.
Blood dripped freely in the increasingly lit up liquid, her face paler and paler in the green light.
With a last hum, the giant salamander rushed in her direction, its mouth already open in anticipation of the bite.
With her final ounce of energy, Alice raised her weapon for the last time, a broken cry emerging from her mouth as she closed the distance to her foe. A shout of agony and loss, of rage and desperation which shook the walls of the cave, reverberating through the empty tunnels and echoing in the many caves of that dark and unforgiving world.
Her 'sword' punched through the mouth of the surprised salamander, the whole weight of a young woman behind the single piercing thrust that smashed through flesh and bone, finally finding the brain of the beast.
As the pale horror writhed in agony its last moments, Alice fell soundlessly into the glowing pool.
Her body was unable to keep up anymore. Alice watched the increasingly blurry lights gather around her, in a halo of radiance to her fading conscience.
With a weak last breath, she finally sunk into a shapeless void.