A/N: It's finally here – the next chapter! Sorry it took so long to post; I've been working on my other ongoing fics too (and a couple impromptu one-shots), not to mention running into a bit of writer's block with this chapter. Your patience is appreciated :)

I do not own Godzilla.

Chapter 5: Underworld

CARLSBAD CAVERNS, NEW MEXICO

The cavern sloped into the depths of the earth. As the team headed farther down it, the rumbles of thunder from above faded away until they became inaudible. After that, the only sounds were that of an occasional drip of water off the cavern's stalactites, and everyone's footsteps echoing off the walls of the cavernous passage.

"Sure is quiet down here," Stanton said. "We could use some conversation, don't you think? Like, say, about stuff we refuse to tell each other-"

"No," Nathan said.

"Worth a shot," Stanton muttered.

"Nathan, how much farther does the Main Corridor go?" Emma asked.

Nathan dug the map out of his pocket and shone his flashlight on it. "A few hundred yard further, and then there's a fork in the path at a giant iceberg. We want to make a left there, and then another left. The right turns would just lead us in a loop behind the iceberg."

"There's an iceberg down here?" Coleman asked.

"Apparently."

The stalagmites cast eerie shadows on the walls as everyone's flashlights passed over them. Patterns of indents in the rocks resembled hollow, petrified faces staring from the walls of the cave.

The team soon reached the iceberg, and made a pair of left turns, as Nathan had instructed. This led them into a large space that in turn became another tunnel – wider than the Main Corridor but still somewhat claustrophobic, given the abundance of stalagmites and stalactites in the cave.

Nathan consulted the map again. "Up ahead, the tunnel's gonna curve to the left, and then we'll be in the area called the Big Room. The Big Room curves to the left a bit, and then on the far side of that area is the Bottomless Pit."

"I'm just surprised nothing…ominous has happened yet," Coleman said.

"Well, people regularly come in this area of the caves," Madison said. "I wouldn't expect any spooky stuff to start at least until we're in the bottomless pit."

"Sorry, but I'm not really sure how much comfort I take in that after that creepy crap that went down in the Osprey," Stanton said.

After passing many more stalagmites and large rock formations, they arrived at the edge of the Bottomless Pit. The mouth of the pit appeared to slope instead of descending vertically, but nobody could tell how far. Even with flashlights, several yards down, the pit became engulfed in darkness. "Well, it looks like we'll need the parachutes for this too," Mark said. "It's not straight down, but that slope looks too steep for us to safely climb down."

"We'll probably want to try walking a little ways down it anyway," Nathan said, "so that when we jump and activate the chutes, we have a straight shot down to the bottom."

"Sounds like a good idea," Coleman said.

Everyone started inching down the slope that led to the pit itself. "Once we get a few more feet, then we'll jump," Nathan said. "I'll go first. We'll want to deploy our parachutes almost right away; 140 feet sounds like pretty far, but not when you're freefalling."

A few seconds later, Nathan reached the designated point, about a foot from the edge of the slope. He attached the flashlight to his belt so it was pointing down, then grabbed his parachute's backpack. "Wish me luck," he said.

"Of course. It would be a shame to survive Ghidorah's takeover of the world and then, you know…splat," Stanton joked. "Not to mention, then we'd never hear what your top-secret secret is. Want to tell us now, just in case the jump goes sideways?"

"Stop trying to get me to tell you," Nathan said without a trace of humor.

"'Kay. Geez."

Nathan leapt off the edge of the stone slope, and the others heard his parachute bloom open less than a second later. Several seconds later, he called up, "It was a bit of a rough landing, but I'm fine! Come on down!"

"You're the next contestant on 'Jump Into the Bottomless Pit!'," Stanton added.

Mark went next, and when he reached the bottom, he said, "I'm okay too. Nathan's right, the landing was a bit rough, but nothing too bad."

"What's it look like down there?" Coleman asked.

A few seconds later, Mark replied, "Well, the cave down here is wider than the pit. It's pretty circular, and…I only see one tunnel leading out of here. That must be the way into the Hollow Earth."

One at a time, everyone else leapt into the pit: Emma next, then Barnes, Chen, Stanton, Coleman, and Madison. All of them had a slightly rough landing, but it could have easily been much worse. After that, they refolded their parachutes in case they needed to be reused later for entering the Hollow Earth. "So Mark, where's the tunnel you found?" Coleman asked.

Mark shone his flashlight around the cave, and the beam found the hole in the wall he had mentioned. It was circular and about seven feet in diameter. "There," he said. "It's the only way out of here I see."

Everyone approached the tunnel's entrance, and immediately felt a cold breeze blowing up from its depths. "Just when we thought it couldn't get any colder in here," Stanton said. "Are we still sure we want to go down there, because if this isn't the powers that be trying to dissuade us from going down there, I don't know what is."

"Well, we don't exactly have an easy way back up," Madison said.

The tunnel continued forward a few yards before sharply sloping down and to the right. It didn't appear to grow any wider, at least not right away.

"Who…wants to go first?" Coleman asked.

"I will," Nathan said. He stepped forth into the tunnel and started down it. Everyone else glanced around and followed him two at a time.

If anything, this location was even more ominous than the earlier tunnels. Part of this was the constant chilled drafts, but it was also fueled by the knowledge that, in all likelihood, no one had ever set foot in these tunnels before, and anything could be lurking around the next bend. But for a while, they found no other signs of life. In that time, the tunnel continued its perpetual downward slope, often winding and cutting back on itself. One section was even a downward spiral that looped down for about fifty feet before regaining its normal slope.

A while later, the tunnel made a hairpin turn to the right, completely blocking what lay ahead from anyone's view. Nathan rounded the bend first, and as soon as his flashlight shone on the far side, he froze.

"What is it?" Emma whispered. "Nathan, what is it? Is there some creature over there?"

"…No," Nathan choked out before slowly walking forward.

The other exchanged puzzled looks before following him around the bend. On the far side, several yards down, the tunnel became a few feet wider. And positioned on a diagonal across the tunnel was a grey car. Its rear end, facing towards everyone, declared it was a Nissan Sentra – it looked to be from the mid '90s. But as everyone drew closer to it, they saw that the car's entire front end had been destroyed. The grill and front half of the hood had been crunched inward, leaving a large, U-shaped indent, and large pieces of metal and the front driver-side tire were missing.

"What the hell is a car doing down here?" Stanton asked.

Nathan approached the car, whose driver door had also been dented. "This…is the same one," he said.

"Same as what?" Mark asked.

As everyone drew ever closer to the car, they saw that the windshield had a jagged hole in it in front of the driver's seat. In front of the hole was a dark red smear down what was left of the hood.

"What is this?" Chen asked.

"Her…car." Nathan pressed his hand against the driver door, but as soon as he did, the car vanished into a plume of red smoke. Everyone staggered backwards in shock as the smoke drifted towards the ceiling. For a second, Emma thought she saw a sunken, hollow face form in the plume, but then it vanished as the wispy tendrils of smoke continued shifting. As the smoke reached the roof of the tunnel, if slowly dissipated, vanishing into unseen vents in the cavern.

"You said 'her car'," Coleman said. "What did you mean by that? Whose car?"

"Was it just…an illusion or something?" Madison asked. "Since it just vanished as soon as Dr. Lind touched it."

"But if it was an illusion, who set it up?" Barnes asked.

"Obviously someone who knows more about whatever Nathan's not telling us than we do," Stanton said. He turned to Nathan, who was still standing next to the spot where the car had been. "Dude, you gonna give us anything to work with here or are we gonna have to play 20 Questions?"

"Why would someone put the illusion here, though?" Coleman asked. "As a warning? Telling us to turn back?"

"It's not a warning," Nathan said, surprising everyone. "It's a taunt."

"Well, that's a bit of progress, as least," Stanton said. "A taunt by who? You mean to tell us there's actually someone you told about…whatever you're not telling us?"

Nathan turned back to everyone else – it could've been a trick of the light, but his face looked more haggard than before. "You really want to know, do you?"

"Not gonna stop asking until you cave. I'm relentless that way."

"I'll tell you on the ride to Gobekli Tepe. We need to get through the Hollow Earth and back to the surface as soon as possible. We can't let any more time pass for Ghidorah to continue his takeover than is absolutely necessary."

After a few more minutes, the tunnel widened suddenly and drastically. The tunnel led into a large chamber, over a hundred feet wide and tall. Higher up, the walls were lined with honeycombed holes considerably larger than the one they had entered through. Mark shone his flashlight on them. "Let's hope there's another way out of here, because there's no way we'll be able to climb up there."

Barnes and Chen shone their lights towards the far end of the cavern, which was too far away to even be seen. "There could be something down there. We can't tell."

"Then let's go that way," Emma said.

They headed across the chamber, their footsteps echoing off the walls and vaulted roof. After they had walked several hundred yards, still with no end in sight, Coleman said, "Even if those holes on the walls aren't the way out of here, what do you think they're for? I mean, there's so many of them."

"That's what I'm concerned about," Chen whispered. "Given their size, they could be nests belonging to some sort of species living down here. If that is the case, I suggest we keep our voices down."

"Like giant, mutant bats or something," Stanton said. "Just what we need to make this trip even better."

Suddenly, Nathan, who was still in the lead, stopped in his tracks. "What is it?" Emma asked.

"Come look at this," Nathan said.

Everyone walked forward, and immediately saw what he was talking about: a series of four large claw marks slashed in the floor of the cavern.

"What do you suppose did that?" Mark asked.

"Bats," Stanton said. "Big freaking bats. I say we get out of here as fast as possible, because even if it wasn't a bat that did that, I would still very much not like to have a run-in with whatever did do it."

They continued ahead for a few more minutes, observing an increasing number of claw marks in the cave floor. Eventually, Barnes said, "Guys, I see something! It looks like the far end of the cave, and I see a tunnel at the bottom of it. Looks like the same type of tunnel we came through. Maybe a little bigger, but…not much."

Suddenly, they heard a guttural growl coming from above and behind them. Everyone warily cast their flashlight to the roof of the cavern.

And saw a creature staring back at them.

"What the hell is that?" Madison asked.

"Skullcrawler," Coleman gasped. "Everyone, RUN!"

The Skullcrawler growled again before clawing its way across the ceiling to the wall. It clambered down the wall, and as it did, more Skullcrawler heads emerged from the hollows in the wall.

Everyone turned and sprinted towards the tunnel. "Are you serious?" Coleman said. "There's a Skullcrawler hive underneath Carlsbad Caverns?!"

"Why have I never heard of these things?" Mark asked.

"We used to think they were just contained to Skull Island, but in the past few years, nests of them have been popping up all over the world. We figured they somehow got off the island by swimming."

"Nah, bullshit," Stanton said. "They obviously got out via the Hollow Earth. Which, I'm just gonna say it, is probably also the answer to every other unsolved mystery Monarch's come across over the years."

With a series of tremendous crashes, several Skullcrawlers leapt straight from their nests onto the floor of the cavern. They screeched and growled before heading after the team.

"These Skullcrawlers definitely won't be able to follow us into the tunnel," Chen said. "If they were any younger, though, they might be able to squeeze in."

"Then let's hope they don't have any younger ones with them," Stanton said.

Suddenly, something grabbed Coleman by the leg. Everyone turned back to see that the lead Skullcrawler had shot its tongue out and grabbed him. It was dragging him across the cave floor back towards itself.

Barnes grabbed his gun, took aim, and fired several rounds into the Skullcrawler's tongue above where it had grabbed Coleman. Seconds later, most of the tongue fell on the cave floor with a wet splat. Mark and Stanton helped Coleman up while the injured Skullcrawler shrieked in pain and several others closed in.

"Everyone, go on ahead!" Barnes ordered. "I'll bring up the rear and hold them off!"

The tunnel was about fifteen yards away. Everyone else headed into it while Barnes continued shooting at the ever-increasing number of Skullcrawlers closing in on the tunnel. Once they were inside, everyone turned back to see what was happening outside the tunnel.

Barnes was slowly backing up towards the tunnel while holding off the Skullcrawlers. One monster swung its tail at him; he attempted to duck under it, but was a fraction of a second too late. The tail caught him across the arm, knocking him over and sending his gun flying into the darkness at the edge of the chamber. Another Skullcrawler grabbed him around the chest with its tongue, but Barnes managed to grab a knife from his belt and stab it into the tongue. The Skullcrawler cried out in pain and retracted its tongue, while two more Skullcrawlers ran at him from the side. Barnes threw his knife right into one Skullcrawler's eye. The creature was disoriented by this and crashed into the other one, knocking them both over. Several more Skullcrawlers started scrambling over the injured ones, but were slowed by that. Taking advantage of this, Barnes turned and ran towards the tunnel, making it inside just in time.

The team ran farther into the tunnel as two Skullcrawlers jostled each other to try to get their heads inside the mouth of the tunnel. A few yards in, the tunnel curved to the right. Everyone made it past the bend just in time, as the two Skullcrawlers then shot their tongues after the team. Fortunately, the tongues didn't wrap around the bend, as the Skullcrawlers now had no way of knowing where exactly their intended prey was.

"Everyone, keep going!" Chen urged them forward. "Let's hope there are no smaller Skullcrawlers that can fit in the tunnel."

"And let's also hope that it isn't much farther to the Hollow Earth," Emma said. "We've been going down for a while here."

They continued running, amidst the cacophony of more roars and shrieks coming from the cavern behind them. Suddenly, about a minute later, the roars ceased, but were replaced by a tremendous crash. "What the hell was that?" Stanton said.

More muffled crashes and rumbles followed. "I think one of the Skullcrawlers is forcing its way into the tunnel after us," Chen said.

"Oh great. More pressure, just what we need. C'mon, get narrower, you goddamn tunnel, get narrower!"

"Everyone raced down the twisting and winding tunnel, but from the sound of it, impeded as it was by its large size, the Skullcrawler was gaining on them. "Move faster!" Barnes yelled.

"We're basically running at top speed here," Coleman replied.

In their hurry, the team failed to make sure the ground continued flat ahead of them. As they rounded another bend, the floor suddenly dropped away into a steep, downward slope. Everyone was running too fast to keep from falling down it.

While the floor sloped down, the roof of the cave didn't look to do the same; instead, it stayed at the level it had been before, making the distance between the floor and roof ever larger. "This had better lead somewhere and not just to some sort of pit we get cornered in and then that Skullcrawler eats us!" Stanton yelled.

"Let's hope at the bottom of this is the Hollow Earth entrance!" Emma responded.

Suddenly, a loud crash and roar came from above. The team tried to shine their flashlights back towards the source of the sound; because they were sliding, though, they couldn't hold the flashlights steady.

But the light provided a quick glimpse of the Skullcrawler, lurking at the top of the slope and staring hungrily down it at them. As soon as the light was shone on it, the Skullcrawler screeched again and clawed its way down the slope.

"If this slope continued much longer, we're all done for!" Barnes yelled.

Suddenly, the slope made a jarring turn to the right. In the unsteady beams of their flashlights, the team could now see that, about a hundred yards farther down the slope, the ground levelled out and widened. But it only did so briefly before plunging into a dark pit about fifteen feet wide.

"Is that the way into the Hollow Earth?" Madison asked.

"Let's hope so," Mark said.

The Skullcrawler crashed around the bend behind them, slamming into the wall before turning to follow everyone once again. They reached the bottom of the slope, and Coleman said, "If that pit doesn't lead to the Hollow Earth, we don't even have a way of knowing how deep it is. You know, when to activate our parachutes."

"Then let's just hope it does lead to the Hollow Earth," Stanton said. "It's death up here at the jaws of Skully McCrawler, or possible death down there. I'll take possible death!"

"Everyone, just jump already!" Nathan shouted.

The team ran for the edge of the pit as the Skullcrawler reached the bottom of the slope, snapping its jaws at them. Everyone lunged off the edge of the cave floor into the depths of the pit. Meanwhile, behind them, the Skullcrawler fell off the edge as well, either unable to stop itself in time to turn around, or still in blind pursuit of its intended prey.

"Everyone, move to the sides!" Barnes said. "That thing's falling right down the center of the pit!"

The team tried to change their falling path to move aside; they just barely moved enough before the Skullcrawler hurtled past them into the gloom below.

Suddenly, around the writhing form of the Skullcrawler, a bright blue pinprick of light became visible far below them. "That light, is that the Hollow Earth entrance?" Stanton asked.

"Let's hope so," Chen replied.

The light rapidly grew larger and brighter, and several seconds later, the Skullcrawler reached it. It appeared as though the light stretched around the Skullcrawler before letting it through a few seconds later, as though the creature was tearing through a membrane.

"Everyone, hold on!" Mark shouted.

The team plunged into the light, and everything vanished in a blur of blue, yellow, and pink streaks of light.

A/N: I know I probably got your hopes up about Battra making an appearance when Stanton mentioned "giant, mutant bats." Sorry to disappoint you; I'd already decided the Skullcrawlers would be in the caves, but I figured gigantic bats would be a logical thought about what was living in the chamber's hollow spaces. I do have an idea for working him in further on, though – likely not under the name Battra, but it'll still be him.