Callsign: King II- Underworld

Instead, it was his guide’s hand that reached out from the darkness to tap his shoulder. “Here. Take a look.”


Something hard, about the size and weight of a small camcorder, was pressed into his hands. He realized that it was a night-vision device like the one King had given him earlier in the night. A green glow showed him which end was the business end, and he quickly held it up to his right eye.

Looking through the objective lens of the night-vision monocular was like watching a movie on a tiny television screen. It was hard to believe that what he was seeing wasn’t just footage from a monster movie, but was actually taking place just a few feet away. A line of the enormous hominids was moving past the niche in which they were concealed. More than a dozen passed by as Pierce watched, and every single one of them carried a body—either the camouflage-clad form of a soldier or one of their own species—all dead, he assumed. What was most surprising to Pierce was the complete absence of the ferocity he had witnessed during the attack. The creatures moved with a single-mindedness reminiscent of ants trekking relentlessly between their hive and a food source. He sucked in an involuntary breath as one of the beasts turned its shaggy head and glowing eyes to look at him as it passed, but the creature did not even break its stride.

It was only as the monster moved away that he realized he had seen something else.

In the chaos of the attack on the military camp, he had seen the creatures as nothing more than enormous shaggy animals, driven by mindless instinct. But as they paraded by, he saw evidence of more complex behavior—one of creatures reached back and with a quick tug, removed the hair from its body—much more complex.

Holy shit, Pierce thought, the hair isn’t natural.

The photo he had seen earlier, had showed one of the creatures with a single ancient Greek coin, worn like a medallion on a string around its neck; it was the very aberration that had brought him here. And it was nothing alongside what he now beheld.

Coins, rings, bracelets…every manner of precious or semi-precious metal ornament adorned the creatures—every last one of them. The treasures were threaded like beads onto strings of what looked to Pierce like strands of twisted gut, and they were worn like amulets or totem necklaces. Some of the strings were heavy with dozens of pieces of jewelry; evidently, the creature whose image had been captured digitally was a pauper among his peers—or hers, Pierce thought.

For just a moment, the horror of the attack was eclipsed by this new mystery. This was a form of complex animal behavior…evolutionary behavior. Pierce didn’t know exactly what the explanation was for all of it, but he knew that it almost certainly had nothing to do with Manifold Genetics.

After a few minutes, the procession ended; the last of the enormous creatures vanished down the adjacent tunnel.

It was only then that Pierce had an opportunity to scope out his surroundings. But for the fact that he had just witnessed at least a couple dozen of the creatures passing, he would not have believed that he was in a cave. The monochrome green of the night-vision device revealed only upright walls of dark rock in every direction.

“I’m gonna need that back soon, pardner.”

Pierce turned to get his first look at the man who had evidently come to his aide. The man’s digital camouflage uniform showed him to be a soldier. There was a patch with three chevrons affixed to his body armor vest, and next to it a name tape that read “De Bord.” It was impossible to make out much detail in the green display, but Pierce thought the man looked quite a bit more mature than most of the enlisted soldiers he’s seen in the camp. The sight of the uniform slammed a door on his musings about the extraordinary creatures, and reminded him that a lot of people had just died... King might have died.

But they just ignored us. We’re obviously on their turf now; why didn’t they attack?

It was a mystery that would have to wait. Darkness engulfed him as he lowered the monocular and extended it toward the soldier.

“Sergeant De Bord is it?”

There was a pause as the other man took the goggles from him. “That’s right.” De Bord sounded confused by Pierce’s knowledge of his identity.

“I saw your name tag. So, am I your prisoner?”

De Bord chuckled. “I reckon we’ve got bigger things to worry about. For now, let’s just focus on getting out of here, and finding your friend.”

“I’m not too sure where ‘here’ is. What happened?”

“I saw you take a tumble into this here cave. Those…whatever they are…they were headed your way, so I went in after you.”

Pierce felt a guiding hand on his shoulder and allowed the soldier to steer him out of the recess where they had hidden.

“We can’t be more than a hundred meters from the opening,” De Bord continued. “Just keep a hand on my shoulder and we’ll be outside in no time flat.”