Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Trapped

"We've arrived," An unfamiliar voice said.

I was led out of the vehicle and my blindfold was removed. It was already dark and the last bit of light from the sun shone against the deep black backdrop of the mountains in the distance. The ashen remains of the cabin lie before me. I could feel my gut tighten at the sight. The grass nearby was cleared by the fire.

"We're here Mr. Bergmann, the start of your journey but hopefully not the end of it."

Dr. Olsen had walked up behind me. He wasn't dressed in a lab coat this time, instead opting for fatigues. I looked around, there were about thirteen Humvees and dozens of men. All of them wore black fatigues, body armor, and carried an assault rifle and sidearm. They worked quickly to start clearing what was left of the burnt cabin.

"I never thought I'd come back here when I left. I hope that me being here today will save many others," I stated coolly.

I was calm now. It wasn't that the fear was gone. I was still terrified. The thought of going back into that cavern and facing that monstrosity shook me to my very core but I made peace with the fact that I may not make it out alive. Besides, I would be dead anyway if I didn't help.

Dr. Olsen nodded his head in approval and continued to the cabin.

It wasn't long before the debris was cleared and the tunnel entrance I filled was uncovered. A team of six ran over with equipment and began to dig.

"Please lead the way, Mr. Bergmann, we're counting on you to bring us right to the Amarantus." Dr. Olsen turned away and began barking orders to the men around him before turning back to me. "You said that the tunnels narrow the deeper we go, we have an excavation team to widen the tunnel as needed. Amarantus 017 may not be influencing you any longer but you're still linked to it. You'll be able to guide us."

He turned to the men behind him, "follow Mr. Bergmann and clear the way for the rest of us."

I shuddered at the thought, "linked" to it, as if I never even escaped its grasp. Yet I knew he was right, I could feel it still, that tingle deep inside of my mind. It didn't control me but it was there deep, deep inside my subconscious.

Everyone was ready and we began our descent into the bowels of a hell I never wished to return to. It was different then I remembered. In my clouded state, I didn't notice the extent of the branching tunnels. Those who were here before me must have spent a cumulative decades digging these tunnels in search of the Amarantus.

"Turn left here..."

"Down this center tunnel..."

"Turn right..."

No matter how many branching paths we came across I always knew which way to turn. I wondered if it could sense me too, if it knew that we were still linked to each other. I brushed aside the thought I continued on. The tunnels were beginning to narrow and the excavation team took the lead.

They removed the dirt and rock ahead of us and passed it back. The progress was slow since we had to clear the dirt from the tunnel before us. There was a certain feeling of comfort as they burrowed through the earth. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to crawl through crevices tighter than any human should ever fit through.

Hours passed. Progress was slow but finally the lead member of the excavation team called out.

"We've broken through!"

I could hear the message being passed all the way to the back. Some voices filled with excitement, others with dread.

I stepped through the opening to the cavern. There was no purple glow this time. There was only darkness, a deep, black abyss that penetrated far into the cavern. The rest of the men filtered out behind me. Dr. Olsen stepped out from the hole in the cavern and a man dressed in all white followed.

We rounded the corner and lying before us were fragments of purple crystal, shattered and scattered across the cavern floor.

"Where is the Amarantus, Mr. Bergmann?" Dr. Olsen asked through gritted teeth, "you told me that it was still encased in a purple crystal. Why isn't it here?"

Even in the darkness I could see that Dr. Olsen was red with fury. I wasn't sure what happened. As far as I knew it was in the crystal. The man in white walked past us and knelt down near the crystals. He grabbed a fistful of the crystal and crushed them in his hand, slowly sprinkling them on the damp cavern floor.

"I see we've been misled into believin' that Amarantus 017 was still contained within its crystal," he said with a familiar southern drawl.

My body reacted with panic before my mind could even register what was happening. As the man in white turned to face Dr. Olsen and me, I realized who he was. I couldn't see it earlier due to the darkness but now I could see his face clearly. He was the sheriff.

He turned sharply in his boots, roaring at me in anger with a tongue like a whip, "ya lied to me, Bergmann, and I'm gon' make sure ya regret it. I shoulda killed ya the moment I saw ya."

He turned to Dr. Olsen, "and you, you said the Amarantus' influence had vanished. Because of yer incompetence, its free from its crystal and we're without recourse." The man in white turned to the mercenaries beside us and barked an order. "I want Bergmann restrained, now!"

"Mr. Beauregard, I can assure you that the tests we conducted show that he is no longer influenced by Amarantus 017. If the Amarantus is released from the crystal, it happened after Mr. Bergmann's encounter with it."

My mind was racing to find answers. Beauregard was the sheriff who had knocked me unconscious and threatened to have me executed for arson. Why was he here? Dr. Olsen said they had rescued me from the sheriff before vigilante justice could be enacted. And yet, here he was, giving orders. This was his operation, not Dr. Olsen's.

Two of the mercenaries grabbed my arms, twisting them behind my back. Beauregard punched me in the stomach and if it weren't for the two mercenaries restraining me, I would have keeled over in pain. Instead, I let out a shrill shriek as the air from my lungs exploded out of me.

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"Because of you Bergmann, we won't be able to capture Amarantus 017. Do ya understand the setback ya caused with yer lies? Do ya not understand what we coulda done with the power to influence an entire population's minds? Where is it, Bergmann?"

Another punch, this time harder. The little breath I recovered was once again freed from my lungs. Then the world faded for a moment and stars flashed in front of me after a blow to my head. My temple throbbed.

"Where is it?"

Another blow to my stomach.

"I don't know! Why would I know? I can't sense it like that!" I could barely breathe let alone speak.

"Liar! Ya tricked us and you will tell me where it is. I'll keep this up 'til ya tell me."

This time it was his knee. He made direct contact with my sternum and I felt a pop echo through my chest. A sharp pain dulled my sense of everything around me. Then I felt it. It felt different that it did before. The connection was much stronger without the crystal to attenuate the signal and I didn't feel the debilitating pain that came with each pulse.

I could hear a guttural wail bouncing off the walls of the cavern from deep within. My vision was still dim from the beating I took a moment ago but I could see Beauregard move away and give orders to the mercenaries throughout the cavern.

A hailstorm of bullets ricocheting off the cavern wall assaulted my eardrums. The cavern lit up like a fireworks show and I could hear the gargled screams of a few mercenaries near the entrance to the cavern. A stray bullet ricocheted off a wall and found its way embedded in Dr. Olsen's leg. He howled with pain. The two mercenaries released me and I hit the floor with a thud. I started to crawl to a nearby wall when Dr. Olsen grabbed me.

"Mr. Bergmann, you must listen to me. I didn't know this would happen. I thought we were saving people too. I can't walk now; I need you to bring that box. The gray one, there." He motioned his head to my right, his hands bound to the wound in his leg. "It's a weapon. Once I set it off, it'll emit a signal that will cripple the Amarantus and they will be able to kill it before it's too late."

It was a large metal box about the height of my chest that was brought down by the mercenaries. The box was fixed to two large wheels to make it easier to roll through the dirt tunnels. I crawled to it, bullets zipping through the air above my head and sparking off the walls of the cavern. It was only a few yards away but dragging it back felt like it was a mile. The gunfire and the threat of a monster more terrifying than any human could ever imagine turned the ordinarily easy task into a grueling fight for survival.

I pulled it up to Dr. Olsen as he sat up against one of the walls in the cavern. He opened a panel and pressed several buttons before shutting it once more.

"It'll take a moment to start up. I hope you can forgive me for what's about to happen. I'm sure you would do the same if you were me," he said between heavy breaths.

Just as Dr. Olsen finished speaking, the world flashed white. A wave of pain crashed through my body. My head was crushed by an invisible force, compressing my skull and everything inside it. I could feel the pressure building up, never giving me a moment of mercy. As quickly as it started, I collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain.

Then a deafening howl from within my head pierced my eardrums, building up pressure against the force crushing me from outside. Each pulse that squeezed me like a vice was met with an equally powerful force that threatened to rip apart the atoms that made up my body.

My vision began to clear and I was lying beside the metal box. I could see each pulse it generated warping the air around it. At least, it seemed like the air was distorting; though, somehow I could tell that wasn't it. It was my new sense that was being manipulated by the machine. The link between Amarantus 017 and I was being ripped apart and smashed back together over and over again.

I could feel it, Amarantus 017. It was pushing outwards from inside me, fighting to stay connected to me. I could feel its pain and it could feel mine. A surge of clarity flowed through me and I understood what I had to do.

I reached up to the same panel Dr. Olsen used and depressed it. It opened and I watched myself as I pressed several buttons before closing the panel.

As quickly as it came, it stopped.

I could hear again and my vision returned to normal. The gunfire had died down and it was silent for a moment. An explosion shook the cavern and rocks began to fall near the entrance we came from. They trapped the few of us still alive in here.

The lights had vanished and only darkness remained to fill the void it left behind. I could still hear the muffled screams of men being torn apart and... running water. Running water in a cavern that wasn't flooded meant it was going somewhere. There had to be an opening. I began to crawl towards it.

I was exhausted. My body was beaten. My mind was shattered. The only thing that kept me moving across the jagged, rock filled floor of the cavern was a primal instinct to survive. The screams had stopped and I could hear it slithering in the distance behind me. I pushed myself to move faster but in my state, I could only slow down.

And then I felt it bearing down on me, focused solely on me. I rolled onto my back, finally accepting the death that awaited me. I was face to face with it. It was looking down at me, hunched over as if it were inspecting me, thinking, deciding what it would do with me.

It reached out with a tendril but my body didn't flinch, perhaps I was too tired to move. It lifted me up and tossed me into the stream. It was much deeper than I thought and the current was strong enough to carry me away. All I could remember was the bone chilling cold, being bounced from rock to rock, and the icy water filling my lungs.

I awoke on the shoreline of a river. There was a waterfall jutting out about twenty feet up the side of a cliff. I was being lifted onto a stretcher by two men.

"Oh, you're awake. Good. I thought we lost you."

"Ya, you took quite a fall there, I'm surprised you're still alive."

"We did good this time. He was exactly where we were told he would be."

I listened to them talking for a while, too tired to speak out. As my eyes adjusted to the moon light I could see that their mouths weren't moving. I could hear them clearly. Then I felt it. It was the same feeling I got with the Amarantus... The link. I closed my eyes and slept. I felt safe.

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