Chapter 7: Part One
Hollow Road
Chapter 7: Hollow Road (Part One)
“So, you didn’t actually tell Cayden about the Sword family monster hunting in town?” Aurora asked incredulously. Her voice emanated from Wendell’s cell phone, which was placed on speakerphone on the passenger seat, alongside the Paddington bear plushie and a container of lavender shortbread.
Thunder grumbled in the purplish gray sky. Lightning zig-zagged across it like a scar. The rain that had been steadily falling showered down harder and faster.
Of course, Wendell had to drive to Astrid’s baby shower during the first bad summer thunderstorm of the season. He bumped up the speed on his windshield wipers.
“A lot happened, okay! I can barely keep up with it all myself!” Wendell cried. “Lupa and Dacian being arrested by DONHE hits close to home, alright? And now I have this partial note from the lone wolf that makes sense whatsoever.”
“I’m thinking about where the other half of it could’ve gone,” Aurora’s voice crackled and fizzed like soda was poured over it. “I still can’t promise clairvoyance on demand, but maybe I can get some murmurings about where we can look.”
“The top of it looks like an address, if that’s any help,” Wendell said.
“Repeat that? You keep cutting out, Wen,” Aurora’s voice, distorted and metallic, said. “Wait… hang on a sec… please don’t tell me you’re taking Silver Mine Road to get to Astrid’s baby shower,” Aurora groaned.
The unofficial name for it was “Hollow Road” on account of all the old mining tunnels and caverns beneath the asphalt. Even though there was a lush forest surrounding the winding road, deer hunters steered clear of it because of the treacherous patches peppering the ground. It wasn’t uncommon for sinkholes to pop up now and then.
“This is the fastest way for me to get there from where I am at the Wolfinger-Hedlund packlands!” Wendell cried. “Plus, people drive on the closest highway like they’re high on cocaine. I don’t want to end up in a ditch.”
“So you’d rather end up in a sinkhole?” Aurora’s fizzy, crackly voice said dryly.
“I’d rather get to the party in the most uneventful way possible,” Wendell said, equally dry.
As if diabolically on cue, a massive black truck, so huge it looked barely street legal, merged onto the street. The engine roared and growled as the driver nearly cut Wendell off.
“Geeze!” Wendell beeped at the reckless driver. “Someone is overcompensating,” he sighed to himself, rolling his eyes.
“What was that?” Aurora asked.
“Someone with a massive black truck almost just cut me off,” Wendell sighed.
“What a jerk! I’m going to let you go so you can focus on driving safely, okay? Let me know when you make it to the baby shower!” She hung up or cut out before Wendell could say another word.
The truck drifted over into Wendell’s lane again.
“Whoa! Watch it!” Wendell swerved out of its path. He beeped again. They’re probably texting and driving, Wendell thought to himself.
The truck driver flicked their blinkers on, and just as abruptly as they had merged onto the street and nearly plowed into Wendell a few minutes earlier, they merged back off it and gunned it onto an intersecting street.
“Good riddance!” Wendell said, breathing easy for the first time since he encountered the truck.
Wendell’s car wasn’t particularly old, and he kept it in good shape, but the wipers still struggled to keep up with the heavy rainfall. He slowed down as they swiped the deluge. The road was eerily empty. Except for the truck, not a single car passed Wendell. Still, as he neared some of the especially windy, twisty parts of the road, he opted to pull over and flick his hazards on and wait out the heavy rain.
His radio fizzled and crackled, and the stations cut into each other, making a Frankenstein’s monster of different audio. If Wendell were in a movie, this is where it would take a turn into horror, he thought to himself.
“But I’m not in a movie, I’m on my way to Astrid’s ordinary and uneventful baby shower,” he said to himself, firmly. The pouring rain slowed to a steady rate, and Wendell shut his hazards off and got back onto the road.
The emptiness of the road stretching out around him started to freak him out more than usual, so he bumped up his speed.
A small silver car turned onto the road and matched Wendell’s speed for a few miles before turning onto another street.
The next town, one without miles and miles of old mines, wasn’t too far off. This part of the road was especially dark, even without the raging thunderstorm, so Wendell snapped on his headlights. The pale yellow beams only barely illuminated a few feet in front of him. Wendell’s heart pounded in his ears, and his sweaty hands clenched around the wheel tighter. He wasn’t even at the most treacherous part of the road yet. Maybe he really did make a mistake opting to take this route.
As he pushed down on the gas harder, an unusual shape appeared in the road ahead. It was zig-zaggy and spanned the length of the road. Too late, Wendell noticed that it was interlocking strips with spikes on them. There was no way around them. He had to go over them. Flooring it on the gas, he knew instantly this time he did make a mistake. He could feel his tires grinding and shredding.
On the opposite side of the street, a pair of high-beam headlights suddenly flashed on, blindingly bright. The monster black truck was back, and this time, the driver made no secret about gunning it with Wendell’s car in their sights.
He’s going to run me off the road, if he doesn’t t-bone me first! Wendell thought to himself in panic. He wrenched at his steering wheel, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the truck as possible, but the grinding sensation of his tires being torn apart was impossible to ignore.
A rock whizzed through the air, suddenly smashing a hole through the windshield by his passenger seat. Then another, and another. The glass sprayed out over Paddington, and Wendell threw a hand up over his glasses to shield his eyes.
Rocks? Rocks? No, they’re not rocks, Wendell thought to himself in horror. “They’re bullets!” He screamed.
Another light blasted on several feet ahead of him. It was a single one. Not car headlights.
Something dark and fast rocketed at him and smashed hard into one of his front headlights, blasting it out. A second round thudded into the second headlight.
“IS THAT A CROSSBOW?” Wendell screamed.
A demon must’ve been driving the black truck with the maneuvers they were doing. Finally, they’d had enough of the games and swerved around Wendell for the final time. Angling for the back end of Wendell’s car, the truck driver rammed him so hard that Wendell spun out as the bullets and crossbow arrows continued raining down with the thunderstorm rain.
The container of shortbread cookies crashed to the floor and broke open. The lavender scent was anything but soothing, though.
Wendell’s car spun out into the woods. It was bumpy and jostly from the forested ground and his mutilated tires. Rocks and stones pelted the car. Some whizzed through the partially broken glass of his windshield. Finally, the car jerked to a halt. It crashed into the middle of a towering oak tree so hard that the airbag deployed. Wendell fought his way out of it, bruised and battered. He didn’t have time to waste.
People were after him, maybe even the Sword family. His car was ruined. He’d have to flee on foot.
His hair and face were wet from the steadily falling rain. The cuts on his face from the glass burned and stung in the rain and wind.
Suddenly, a loud crash rang out as the silver car that Wendell saw earlier smashed into the black truck. Another car abruptly veered onto the road. Together, both cars attacked the truck and were trying to run it off the road.
Soon, all three cars were out of sight, although Wendell could still hear the onslaught.
“What the hell is happening?” Wendell said to himself, feeling like he was in a daze.
On cue, another odd thing happened. Something high above Wendell whizzed by with a whistling noise. A sprinkling of red sparks fizzed from behind it. It looked like a firework… or maybe a flare… whatever it was, Wendell watched in horror as it struck the area behind the single light and the thing it crashed into burst into flames.
The mounting fire illuminated a dark figure sprinting almost inhumanly. They weren’t just running away from what was blown up. They were running toward Wendell. In their arms was a crossbow.
Wendell screamed internally and audibly. This wasn’t good. He forced his legs to run, but he felt clunky on the uneven, gnarly forest ground, and everything was slick and muddy from the rain. He kept tripping and almost falling.
He threw looks behind him every few seconds, and it made him even clumsier.
The crossbow-wielding person behind him was a woman, and from the weapon she was brandishing and what she was wearing, Wendell could tell that, undeniably, she was the monster hunter.
A rain of bullets aimed for her this time, and she dodged and weaved. But the same diabolical knobby tree root that tripped up Wendell also tripped up the woman, and she wiped out, her crossbow knocked out of her grasp.
Now she was within grabbing distance of Wendell, and ignoring the gunfire at her back.
“WEREWOLF!” She screamed, reaching into her jacket for something else.
“IT’S NOT THE FULL MOON YET!” Wendell screamed back. He ran harder, harder, harder, and then suddenly the ground gave way, and Wendell and the woman pursuing him dropped down like an elevator beneath them gave way, falling, falling, falling down into darkness.
Wendell was trapped between a rock and a hard place. Literally. He was pinned up against the smooth stone of the tunnel by a jagged, uneven wall of rocks and rubble. He tried to take in a deep breath, but his throat felt constricted and his chest tight. Oh god. He hadn’t felt like this since before he was bitten. This was how Wendell felt before an asthma attack struck.
His breathing was shallow, and he started to feel dizzy.
Could there actually still be silver in these abandoned mines?
Wendell tried to sniff out any silver, but other odors were more potent. The cavern had the damp, mildewy smell of a basement with a metallic tang. It almost smelled like blood. Then Wendell felt the warm trickling from his nose. It was blood. His blood.
He fought to free one of his arms from the stony prison and wiped his bleeding nose with the back of his arm.
His whole body hurt. It felt like he was the one who was hammered by the truck. Not his car.
Hopefully I don’t have internal bleeding, too, Wendell thought as he tried to staunch the flow of blood while also attempting to free himself from the rocks.
He wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. The air felt strange and electric, and the space itself almost had a heartbeat.
He felt like he was being watched. And not just by whatever bats and critters called this cave their home. It felt just as wrong in here as it did at the abandoned amusement park he and Rodger found twenty years ago.
A flashlight clicked on and aimed the beam in Wendell’s eyes.
“Jeeze!” Wendell cried out. He clenched his eyes shut and turned away from the offending light.
The light panned away from his face, and Wendell slowly blinked.
A woman a few feet in front of him was attempting to load a gun with darts with liquid in them. Probably a tranquilizer gun. But instead of clicking into place and blasting Wendell, they turned springy and rubbery, flopping this way and that like an overcooked noodle.
“What are you doing?” The woman demanded.
“Trying to not have an asthma attack. I haven’t had an inhaler in over two decades,” Wendell admitted.
“No, idiot. What are you doing!?” She shook the floppy tranquilizer dart.
“I’m not doing anything! You see me! I’m literally stuck here!” Wendell snapped. “You’re a Sword, aren’t you? Well, I’m perfectly posed here for you to kill me. I can smell the knife in your pocket, so what are you waiting for?”
The woman grinned and pulled it out. For a second, the blade glinted wickedly. Then, in her hands, it turned to flimsy plastic, like a child’s toy.
“What. The. Actual. Hell,” the woman grit.
“Well, my neck is within wringing distance for you, as long as you can reach over these rocks that are trapping me in place,” Wendell said. “I’m completely at your mercy. I bet you love this.”
Looks like both Aurora and Dani were wrong about how old the Sword after Wendell was. She looked like she was about the same age.
“I actually prefer more of a challenge,” the woman said.
“Hence the whole Fast and the Furious car chase. I don’t know what I’m going to tell my car insurance company, by the way. Assault by a monster hunter isn’t exactly a claim option,” Wendell groaned.
“That’s not my problem,” the woman said.
“Why are you trying to kill me anyway?” Wendell asked. There was no use tiptoeing around it. “Were they your hellhounds? The ones that I trapped outside of the Edgy Veggie?”
“You know what you did,” the woman said sternly. “I’m not going to spell it out for you.”
“So it was the hellhounds,” Wendell said heavily. “I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved.”
“It wasn’t the damn hellhounds,” the woman snapped.
“Okay, then what? Was Todd your boyfriend? I didn’t kill him!” Wendell insisted.
“What are you talking about?” the woman sneered. “This misdirection is tiring.”
“If you’re not going to tell me, fine. Just leave me here to die and go off on another monster-killing quest. I’m sure you and Mr. Truck out there have…hundreds of other people like me, because yes, I’m a person, to kill. But good luck getting out of these caves alone. Especially when your flashlight battery dies.”
“It’s fully charged,” the woman said.
“Yeah, but everything else has been malfunctioning on you. Plus, look at the compass on your wrist. It’s been going haywire the whole time we’ve been talking. I can see well in the dark, and I have stronger senses than you. If we go together, we both might get out of this place. And if you still want to kill me after, fine. I guess I can’t stop you,” Wendell half shrugged. He was still pinned in place.
“If I help you get out of those rocks, who’s to say you’re not going to wolf out and kill me?” The woman challenged.
“I only ‘wolf out’ during my moonset, and the full moon still isn’t for another two weeks. You know that. Plus, I’m pretty sure my arm is broken if not fractured.”
“But you heal fast,” the woman challenged.
“Not down here, apparently. You see the cut on my forehead, and my nose hasn’t stopped bleeding. This place used to be a working silver mine. I’m just as vulnerable down here as you are. I even have asthma again,” Wendell said. “You really think me, a fat, asthmatic thirty-two-year-old with a broken arm, is going to kill you down here?”
“Foe’s Folly,” a high-pitched voice giggled into Wendell’s ear.
“What?” Wendell asked.
“What?” the woman asked back, exasperated.
“Did you hear that?”
She shook her head and sighed.
“Something just said ‘Foe’s Folly’ in my head,” Wendell frowned.
“Great. Now you’re hearing voices,” she rolled her eyes.
“I think this place is enchanted to keep killers out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Deer Shifters and Elementals worked with witches to put up protection and disarming spells. Neither of us will be able to even attempt to hurt the other,” Wendell said firmly. “Look at what happened to your darts and knife.”
The woman scowled at the useless weapons. “Fine. But if you make one wrong move, I will end you. I’m very creative when I need to be.”
The woman was jacked, and with her huge biceps, she cleared the rocks pinning Wendell in place in no time.
He stretched in place and tried to shake the stiffness out, only to yelp. “Yeah, this arm is definitely messed up,” Wendell rubbed at it gingerly, “It’s broken or sprained.”
“Oh, get over it. You’ll be fine in a day or two,” the woman snapped.
“Does that mean you’re letting me leave this place alive?” Wendell asked brightly.
“Why haven’t you howled for your pack already? Why not have whoever you sent to attack D and blow up my stakeout bail you out of here?”
“I didn’t do that! And you’re one to talk. You killed my therapist right in front of me just to threaten me! You’re disgusting!” Wendell said.
“Excuse me!? I’d never kill an innocent human in pursuit of monster scum like you,” the woman snarled.
“Well, this ‘monster scum’ can get both of us out of here alive,” Wendell said dryly. “When I was a Boy Scout, we did cave explorations more than once. There are probably mine shafts and holes all around here, so I’ll go first. And no, I won’t lead you to fall into one and plummet to your death.”
“How can I trust you?” the woman challenged.
“If you want to split up, be my guest. I can get myself out of here with or without you,” Wendell said confidently, trying to believe it. “There might be more things in here than just old silver. I was able to capture three fully grown, adult hellhounds by myself. If there are creatures lurking around here, you’re going to want me on your side.”
“Is that a threat?” the woman scoffed.
“No. It’s the truth. You can’t kill anything down here, and I highly doubt you know any sort of witchcraft or containment spells. You’re helpless.”
“I’m never helpless. I’m more than just my weapons,” the woman said, stretching her muscular arms.
“So are we doing this or not?” Wendell asked.
The woman gave a single jerky nod.
Slowly and steadily, Wendell ventured deeper into the tunnel.
“You’re walking like an arthritic grandma,” the woman piped up.
“Do you want to end up dead in a mine shaft? This arthritic grandma is determined to get us out of here in one piece,” Wendell said sweetly.
The tunnels branching off to the left and right were caved in with old timber beams, stone, and rock rubble. The only way to go was forward. Wendell walked into the large cavern. He froze so fast the woman nearly crashed into his back.
In front of them, nearly the whole area was flooded with a pool of water lit up by patches of a strange, bioluminescent moss.
“Well done,” the woman said unenthusiastically. She gave him a mocking round of applause.
“So I guess that means you can’t swim?” Wendell said. He couldn’t believe he was actually trying to crack a joke with this woman. She rolled her eyes.
Wendell backtracked, taking a moment this time to examine the collapsed tunnels to see if any of them looked promising.
“There’s nothing here,” the woman said impatiently.
Wendell shrugged and led them to the tunnel on the opposite side from where they fell down.
The cavern yawned open, and more intersecting tunnels splintered out. Most of them weren’t collapsed.
One ahead had a curious smell.
“Do you smell birthday cake?” Wendell sniffed the air. It smelled just like the cake he and Wylan had on their tenth birthday, during their special double-digit party. He could practically feel the rich, fudgy chocolate buttercream frosting melting in his mouth.
“No. I smell jelly doughnuts and coffee,” the woman said.
“Let’s not go in that direction,” Wendell said, “It reeks like a fairy trap. My brother was lured by one of them.”
“Oh, Wylan?”
Wendell stopped short. “Wy? You know, Wy? How?!” He felt like the ground was going to give out from under him again. Did she know where Wylan was? Was she going to threaten him, too?
“I research my targets, Wendell,” the woman said, unimpressed.
“Wen,” Wendell said.
“What?”
“You must not research your targets very well because I go by Wen, not Wendell.”
“Do I look like I care about your nickname preferences?” the woman said.
“You look like you don’t care about anything,” Wendell beamed.
“Just keep moving. I want to get out of this place,” the woman said.
The tunnel they were passing by had a warm breeze and what sounded like whispering. Wendell stopped in front of it and listened.
“She’s going to kill you, Wen,” Cayden’s voice whispered.
“Her weapons are going to start working again!” Aurora’s whispering voice warned.
“I can help you, Wen, I’m here. I can protect you,” Cayden whispered.
“We’re both here. We’ll keep you safe from her,” Aurora’s whisper added.
Wendell wanted to do nothing more than chase the voices down the tunnel. But he knew, when he took a second to actually think about it, that there’s no way his almost-ex-husband and best friend would be hanging around a cave tunnel on Hollow Road.
“Dirk! Cassia!” Wendell heard the woman behind him say. Her eyes were glassy, and her whole body tensed up.
Wendell lunged for her arm. “Don’t listen to them! They’re not really who they sound like.”
The woman wrenched her arm away from Wendell’s touch.
Wendell snapped his fingers in front of her face, “I’m serious! Some creatures can get into our heads and mimic people’s voices!”
Wendell encountered one of them at the same cryptid sanctuary he and Aurora arranged to take in the hellhounds. It was a crocotta, a hyena-like creature with a jaw of very sharp teeth that stretched nearly up to its ears. Oh, and that said jaw was strong enough to crush bones with a single bite.
The woman bolted down the tunnel.
Happy New Year, readers! If you’re still on this deadly and dangerous adventure with Wen and his friends, it’d mean the world to me if you could click the heart to “like” this chapter and leave a comment!