Old Magic

Unexpected Entrapment

Melody coughed when she took her first breath. It was strange, the air shouldn’t be this stuffy this close to the entrance. She aimed her flashlight further into the cave and found that she could barely see through all of the dust particles collected there. Shouldn’t the dust have settled by now?

“Do you think someone’s been in this cave recently?” she asked.

But before David got the chance to answer, the iron grate slammed back into place overhead.

Melody’s heart leaped in her chest as she looked up at it. They’d left the grate more than two feet away from the hole and the entire thing was ridiculously heavy.

“What the hell?” David said, shining his flashlight up at the grate.

Melody didn’t speak, unease finally overwhelming her curiosity. Either someone above them was inhumanly strong and wanted to trap them inside, or something in here had. And while she didn’t like the idea of facing some monster above, it was the second notion that filled her with dread.

A cold sweat broke across Melody’s face as she realized that they had no way out now. Just pulling the grate clear the first time had taken most of their combined strength and a lot of leverage, there was no chance in hell that they would be able to push the grate clear again.

Still, nothing had happened yet and there was a chance that there was another entrance; she just needed to focus on that. They’d packed more than enough supplies to last them for at least a few days, and if all else failed, they would probably be able to cut their way out.

“You still have that laser-blade, right?” she asked.

“Mmhmm,” David hummed.

“Alright then,” she said, taking a deep breath.

But the suddenly clean air didn’t help calm her. The air had been swirling with dust before, what happened? She aimed her flashlight at the ground, wondering if the dust had somehow settled during their distraction. But the ground was clear too. She could see shining, polished stone now.

“David,” she said, her voice shaking, “what’s going on here?”

David didn’t respond. His flashlight was pointed up at the ceiling and when Melody followed the ray she saw the shimmering, swirling mass of particles overhead.

“This is impossible,” he whispered.

“Yeah, you’ve been saying that a lot today,” Melody said, her voice shaky.

“Come on,” David said, grabbing her hand and dragging her further into the cave.

“Are you crazy? I’m not going in there.”

David rolled his eyes.

“Says the girl who wouldn’t stop pestering me to take a look down here. Well, we’re here now, and the only known way out is blocked.”

“We could cut our way out.”

David gave her an incredulous look.

“Seriously,” he said, “that grate didn’t just wind up there all by itself. Do you really think that whatever put it there is willing to allow us to escape?”

He had a point, but what had happened to the scared David from above? Why wasn’t he freaking out right now?

“How are you so calm? You should be running like a scared little girl!”

“Well, I’m not.”

Melody huffed.

“Why,” she yelled, “tell me why!”

“Fine, I’m terrified,” David said, his eyes burning as he turned to look at her, “are you happy now? Does it make you feel better to know that I’m not comfortable? We’re trapped in a freaking cave, Melody, with no way out and no idea what could possibly want us trapped down here. Is that useful for you to hear? Do you feel better?”

Oddly enough, she did. Knowing that David felt just as scared brought her comfort, and glancing over at David, admitting his fear had made him feel better too. They stood in silence for a few moments, just starring at their surroundings.

“Kind of makes you feel alive, doesn’t it?” Melody asked.

David let out a chuckle.

“Yeah,” he said “kind of does. Guess we’re just a couple of crazy weirdos, huh?”

“Definitely.”

Her heart was still pounding a bit, but something about the uncertainty of it all made her mind absolutely clear.

She pulled up her hand display, called up the mapping drones, and sent them out. It would take a few minutes for them to find all the crevices, nooks, and crannies, but that would have to be okay.

“You know David,” she said, walking slowly forward, “sometimes I wish you weren’t so good at this.”

“That makes two of us.”

They scanned the walls and floor as they walked, checking for booby traps. As they went further, Melody started to notice odd carvings in the stone. They weren’t pictures, per se, more like symbols or runes. None of them looked familiar though.

“Hey, David,” she said, crouching down to get a closer look, “check this out.”

The symbols seemed to morph even as she looked at them, but the second David leaned down to see, her flashlight went out.

“What the heck,” she mutter, hitting the light against her hand, “try yours.”

David’s light flickered on, but right before it hit the mark, his flashlight went dark too.

“That’s weird,” he said, “it’s fully charged.”

“Yeah,” Melody said, whacking the device against her hand again, “mine too.”

After several more failed attempts to turn it back on, she gave up.

“Whatever,” she said, “this is why we have backups.”

She tapped the side of her head to switch her vision sensors.

“God, I hate using night vision,” she said, “it’s makes everything look inverted.”

She looked over at the symbol and froze.

“What the heck-”

The thing was glowing, and not just glowing, it was putting off some kind of purple glittering smoke; she didn’t even know that night vision could pick up that color.

“What?” David asked.

“You don’t see this?”

“No.”

Melody reached out toward the symbol and a strange tingling feeling seeped up her arm and she shivered.

“You seriously don’t see this?” she asked.

“No,” David said again, his voice rising in pitch, “but I can see those.”

Melody’s eyes flicked up toward David and then toward whatever was causing his eyes to bug out. She was certain that he was overreacting, but you could never be too sure.

“Holy s**t!”

David was pulling at her arm, trying to help her up, but Melody’s body wasn’t responding very well as the desire to backup fought with the vertical movement; her eyes fixed on the skeleton walking toward them.

She managed to gain her feet at long last and the two of them ran back the way they’d come, glancing back as they went.

“What are we going to do?” Melody asked, remembering the fact that they had no escape.

She looked back again and was relieved to see that the distance between them and the moving skeleton had grown.

“I don’t know,” David said, staring up at the grate that had blocked their way.

Melody heard a zipping sound and turned toward it, grateful to catch sight of the mapping drones. They settled back into their casing and Melody pulled up the new blueprint.

Starring down the passage, she watched as the walls were lined with a translucent green display. Several feet down the cave, the display diverted at a strange angle on David’s side.

“How did you miss that?” Melody said, grabbing David’s arm and setting the display focus on an exit.

“Miss what?” David said, “wait, what are you-”

His voice cut out as she dragged him through the gap.

“My God,” he said, his voice awestruck.

“What?” Melody asked, switching off the display for a minute to get a better view.

Looking back she no longer saw the gap, but a solid wall in its place. She shook her head.

“You know what,” she said, taking David’s arm again and switching back to display, “I’m getting tired of these constant surprises.”

And while the living skeleton didn’t appear to be moving very fast, she still didn’t like the idea of letting it get too close. The display indicated a way out not too far ahead and she was determined to reach it.

No doubt that headquarters would be interested in this place, but David and she just weren’t equipped to handle it on their own. Collapsing buildings and stray robots were one thing, but inanimate objects that weren’t supposed to move on their own were out of their wheelhouse. This whole place was complete insanity and who knew what else might be waiting for them.

“Do you have any weapons in your pack?” Melody asked, for the first time irritated that she didn’t carry any tools herself.

If they made it out of this, she would definitely have to rethink her strategy of making David carry everything. The problem was, he was so much better at keeping track of his possessions.

“We have the machetes,” David said, “but I’m not sure how useful they will be against bone.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather face them with a weapon in hand than without.”

The light started to shift around them and Melody scowled when they turned a corner and saw a lit area ahead. The exit was still projecting further down the passage, so what was causing the light?

“Is that the exit?” David asked.

“I don’t think so.”

The light flickered as they drew close and Melody slowed her pace. The light didn’t seem to grow, but the sinking feeling in her stomach didn’t help alleviate her fears.

“Give me a machete,” she said, pulling David to a stop before the last turn.

He handed her the little metal tube and she pressed the button to turn it on. She knew these lasers were somewhat less powerful than the laser-blades, but they gave her a longer reach, which seemed preferable.

David followed her example, his own machete glowing white alongside hers.

“On the count of three,” Melody said, and David nodded.

“One… Two…”

They both rounded the corner, but when Melody caught sight of the cavern before them she turned right back around, her heart racing as she stared at David.

His eyes were wide too as he stared right back at her.

“There must be hundreds of them,” she said, her gaze flickering to the cavern again as if of their own accord, “maybe even thousands.”

David nodded and ran his free hand over his face.

“This isn’t good,” he said.