Dirge Danorum

Chapter 13

There were all kinds ways to describe our situation. Some of them began with the word 'royally.'

Though nothing had happened, we'd instinctively grouped together, back to back, all of us facing out. Maybe it was just me, but the light from the fungus seemed to be fading a little, like someone had given a dimmer switch a little twist. The man under the hood turned back.

"Won't you stay with us?" he asked in his stilted Russian. His voice wasn't quite as normal as I'd fist thought. There was something odd about it, something I couldn't put my finger on. He sounded a bit like a long-time smoker, a bit like something else. "For the night? I can lead you out in the morning."

Enough. I cut in. "No," I said sharply, and it was probably clear that my Russian was bad, but I didn't care. "No, we have friends who could be in danger. We have to cross now."

Like I said, I couldn't see a face – but I didn't think he was pleased. No one said anything. The black shape regarded me for several moments, then there was a twitch that I think indicated an incline of the head, like a small nod.

"Very well. But I am needed here tonight, and I cannot guide you."

My hand lit up like a cutting torch. I formed a tight fist and held it, standing my ground. The man in the hood moved to one of the doorways. Ever and Velvet had no choice but to back my play. Velvet probably agreed with it. Maybe Ever thought we should play it out, but I didn't care – he was wrong. We had to go, and we had to go now. There was no other way we were getting out of this alive. I didn't have to know the nature of the threat to see that much, and my hand didn't think it was a sure thing in any case.

The man halted beside one of the passages. "This way," he said. "You need only follow the carvings. Don't stray."

Velvet and I exchanged a glance. Ever looked bemused, but wary.

"Thank you for your kindness," he said, extending a hand. To my surprise, the hooded man took it. His hand was gloved. No surprise there – it was cold down here. I was wearing gloves. I had been even before my hand had started to change. Grigor and Ever were as well. Lots of people wear gloves. So why did this bother me?

That was it; there were no more words. Ever started down the passage, and the rest of us followed. None of us liked being in that chamber, with those people on all sides. How did we know if they were even people? There could've been anything in those coats. Okay – now I was being silly. But still, this was bizarre. And we hadn't even scratched the surface yet.

We were walking fast. No one spoke until we'd traveled quite a distance. Ever's light showed us some of the carvings. "These are what he meant, I suppose."

"You trust it?"

"Honestly?" he said in English, turning back to Velvet. "This is the strangest thing I've ever encountered, and I've been to the Center."

"I feel the same way," Grigor said.

"What are these pictures of?" Venge asked, squinting.

"Looks like fish. And people."

"What are they doing?" Venge asked.

I had a pretty good idea what they were doing, but I didn't want to voice it. There was a lady present. And she was looking at the pictures too. She cleared her throat. "Keep moving," she said in English, probably for Venge's benefit. Looking puzzled, he straightened and followed us.

I couldn't help but look at the carvings, but there was no time to stop and examine them. It was unspoken; obviously no one wanted to linger. And that would've been all well and good, but I wasn't convinced we hadn't been pointed at a dead end. Obviously following instructions was the thing to do – we weren't armed to just shoot our way through a whole colony of underground-dwelling stalkers – but I had to wonder just how good Ever's plan for this contingency could be. I think he likes to just try things, and if they don't work, he wings it – and then if that works he says it was his plan all along. That's what I think. Okay, no I don't – but that's what I'll tell anyone who asks me.

There was a subtle pressure in the air. I could almost feel the water overhead. There might've been quite a lot of rock between us and the channel now, but that didn't change anything. Again the ground was sloping downward. I did some silent estimating, and shuddered. If we didn't see some uphill soon, I was going to try a motion to get us turned around. There was a limit to how deep I would go.

It was safe to talk now, but no one seemed keen to say anything. We were all so intensely cognizant of how truly awful our predicament was. We'd almost gotten off the path once already – the carvings weren't always easy to follow. Even if this was the right road, there was no guarantee we wouldn't make a wrong turn. And there were plenty of them to make.

Venge was lagging behind. I paused and looked back. "Come on," I said. He was standing at one of the passages, looking perplexed.

"I think I just saw a naked woman," he said.

"You what?"

I dragged him after the others. We didn't have time for this. "I'm serious," he said, and I was trying really hard not to think about how he'd been right about the child. I pushed him ahead of me. I didn't know what he'd really seen, but I'd already known we weren't alone down here. We didn't need Venge in the back; it was too easy to picture him being grabbed, and none of us noticing. I'd stay in the back; nobody was going to try to grab me, and if they did, it wouldn't be quiet.

I stumbled, and realized there were holes in the floor. "Guys," I called out, and the others looked back. "Watch your step." Everyone pointed their lights straight down. The holes weren't large, and they weren't frequent – but if we weren't careful, somebody was going to twist an ankle. These rock formations were not normal. The walls of the cave were largely smooth, but the floor was different.

This slowed our pace somewhat, and I didn't even know how far we'd gone. Something caught my eye, and I knelt down to look, shielding my light. There was movement through one of the pores in the stone. Not making a sound, I knelt down to have a look.

There was, in fact, a naked woman down there. It couldn't be the same one Venge had seen, because we'd come quite a ways, and the corridor had twisted several times along the way.

The hole gave me a very limited field of view, and I couldn't see her face – but her body was clearly illuminated by the soft green glow down there. I didn't know if it was the strange light of the fungus, or her actual skin tone, but she looked extremely, unhealthily pale. Though apart from that she seemed quite healthy. Her skin glistened, but it couldn't have been sweat, because it was freezing down there, and the rock she was lying on must've been ice cold. Both her hands were working enthusiastically between her legs.

In the Zone there are things you don't see every day, and then there are things you don't see every day because you're in the Zone. This was probably one of those. And you know, I mean – I'll admit, this was odd. I know what you're thinking; things being odd in the Zone are like people being wrong on the internet. It's just one of those things. I take odd for granted. But even with all of that in mind, this was still odd.

Venge was abruptly at my side, and I clapped a hand over his mouth, and my other over his eyes. I wasn't sure he was old enough to be seeing this.

For a second time I dragged him back to the others, who had noticed our absence and stopped. They could sense something was wrong; we were talking in whispers now.

"What is it?"

I wasn't sure what to say. I released Venge, who gave me a look, but he didn't even make the cut to be at the bottom of my list of worries.

I was lost. Everything down here was so far out of my comfort zone – if you can even have a comfort zone in the Ukraine. I had no frame of reference for what was happening. And if I told them exactly what I'd seen, they'd look at me the same way they looked at Venge, and that was a fate worse than death.

When you're in the Zone, you're in over your head. Just in general. It goes without saying. But even by Zone standards, I felt like we were somehow more in over our heads than usual, and that probably wasn't good.

"We need to run," I said.