chapter 5 swallowed by the Void
"Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light." -John Milton, Paradise Lost-
After getting the lights on, Rachel and Eric did a quick sweep of the temple to see if they could find anything else useful. The only thing of some interest they found was a cuneiform tablet with 'A29' labeled on the back of it as if it was being cataloged. Other than that, they found nestled in a corner of the temple, two small tents with two desks where sat a note from October 14th, 1946 written to Randolph Hodgson by someone named Aline Journeau, and an old tape recorder. They read the note, which talked about workers refusing to go into the mountains due to having superstitions of being possessed by demons.
"Oh, please! Demonic possession?" Eric scoffed, having never been a believer in such things.
"Well, whatever caused the locals to be spooked by these mountains, can't say I blame them." Rachel commented.
Rachel and Eric turned to the tape recorder to see if it still worked, but saw that the tape was tangled up.
"I can fix that." Rachel said.
As Rachel began to untangle the tape, Eric looked at the wedding ring on Rachel's finger.
"Looks like that ring still means something to you." Eric said.
"I don't see you wearing yours." Rachel replied.
In response, Eric pulled out the chain necklace holding the ring from under his shirt.
"Always close to my heart." Eric said.
Rachel grabbed onto Eric's ring and looked at it.
"You were always a good guy… Maybe too good for me." Rachel said.
Eric reached up and grabbed onto Rachel's hand.
"I haven't forgotten what this ring means to me. I want you back, Rachel." Eric said.
Rachel smiled as she thought of their earliest days together.
"We were pretty damn good together." Rachel said.
Eric attempted to lean in for a kiss, but Rachel turned her head away. Eric was getting the wrong idea; yes Rachel couldn't deny that they had been happy in the beginning, but so much has changed. Rachel had moved on and leading Eric on would be cruel and she had to let him know that. She was about to explain to Eric that he had to let go, but he spoke first.
"I knew it." Eric said.
"What do you want from me, Eric?" Rachel asked.
"The truth would be a good start." Eric said.
"What does that mean?" Rachel questioned.
"I know you better than you think, Rachel. You lied to me about that lighter and it wasn't about a secret smoking habit." Eric said.
"Eric… please." Rachel tried to diffuse.
"Tell me the truth." Eric demanded.
"Don't do this!" Rachel tried to demand back.
"Admit it! There's someone else, isn't there?" Eric accused.
Before Rachel could even decide whether to confess or deny, the tape record suddenly powered back on to life as a woman's scream came from it.
"The bones of this temple are drenched in blood." came a man's voice from the tape recorder, the sounds of gunfire and more screams in the background. "We have set foot on an uncharted shore and roused something ancient and wicked. A blasphemy that comes in indescribable shapes and forms…"
Rachel flinched as a woman's loud scream of horror came from the tape recorder.
"For eons, we lived as children in this world, unaware of the horrors that slumber beneath our feet." The voice said, the sound of a woman sobbing along with a bone chilling screeching in the background. "Now, we have blindly thrown open the gates to madness. I fear being taken, but I must do what I must. We must seal this place for eternity… For all mankind. Mary… I'm sorry."
The recording ended with the sound of a gunshot and a body hitting the floor. Rachel and Eric looked towards each other; the previous conversation completely forgotten due to how frightened they were by that recording.
"That, that guy mentioned Mary. That was Randolph Hodgson." Rachel said. "From the sounds of it, something big definitely went on down here and I don't know what it was, but whatever it is, I don't like it."
"What was that you said earlier about climbing out of the cavern being the smarter move?" Eric asked.
"Let's get the Hell outta here." Rachel said, agreeing with where Eric was getting at.
They walked away from the tape recorder and back towards their climbing gear and as they did, they heard something from above.
"Hello?" Eric called up.
Rachel and Eric saw a figure beginning to slide down one of their ropes, it was one of the Iraqi soldiers and he was aiming his rifle at them.
"Shit!" Eric shouted as the Iraqi began firing at them.
Rachel and Eric ran for the large door on the other end of the temple, narrowly avoiding being shot. As they ran, Rachel turned on her radio, attempting one last call to the other marines for help.
"Any call signs, this is King. Contact, contact! Taking fire! Does anyone copy? Over." Rachel called out desperately, hoping to reach someone.
Meanwhile, not too far away from where Rachel and Eric were, Jason and Nick were still running from the monsters that had taken Clarice and Merwin. The two marines stopped and crouched down, getting ready to fire at their monstrous pursuers.
"The Hell is going on here?" Nick said as he and Jason ran.
"I don't know, man. It was not supposed to play out like this." Jason stated, truly shaken up by everything that has happened ever since they fell underground.
Nick turned on his radio to see if anyone was trying to make contact with them.
"Any call signs, this is King. Contact, contact! Taking fire! Does anyone copy? Over." Rachel's desperate voice said over the radio.
"That's Rachel." Nick informed Jason.
"King, this is Mailman Two-One Actual. Say again. Over." Jason said into his radio, but Rachel didn't reply back. "King, this is Mailman Two-One Actual. How copy? Over."
Still, Rachel didn't reply back.
"Damn it!" Jason cursed.
Jason and Nick stood back up and continued to run through the caves, hoping to find Rachel and Eric and help them out of whatever trouble they were in before it was too late.
After opening the large temple doors and running down a corridor away from the Iraqi soldier, Rachel and Eric came to a chasm with nowhere to run, except a narrow ledge.
"Is nothing simple in this Goddamn place?" Eric said.
Eric looked and saw a rope and a climbing pick on a crate and picked them up.
"You're not serious. That looks decades old." Rachel disapproved.
"It's all we have." Eric reasoned. "Can you see him?"
Rachel looked and saw the Iraqi beginning to approach. He hadn't seen them yet, so Rachel took the chance to distract him, picking up and rock and throwing it in the opposite direction away from them. The Iraqi took the bait and ran off in the other direction. Rachel and Eric began to shimmy their way across the ledge, but when they made it halfway, another tremor happened and caused Rachel to lose her balance. Eric quickly grabbed onto her, stopping her from falling. They made it to the other side of the ledge, but another tremor once again caused Rachel to lose her balance and this time fall, sliding down the ledge towards the chasm.
"Rachel!" Eric shouted as he tried to grab her.
Rachel grabbed onto a large rock to keep herself from falling down further. Eric quickly got the old rope, tying it to himself.
"I gotcha Rach, I gotcha!" Eric assured as he threw the other end of the rope down to her.
Rachel tied the other end of the rope to herself just as another tremor shook the earth, causing her to slide further down, dragging Eric along with her. Rachel grabbed onto another rock, hoping to stop herself, but was only able to hang on for a moment until she finally fell over the ledge, screaming. Eric was dragged down towards the edge of the chasm, but was able to brace himself against the ground, stopping himself from falling into the chasm as well.
"Help me!" Rachel shouted up to Eric.
"You gotta stop struggling." Eric shouted back down.
Rachel tried to keep herself still, but her body still swung over the dark chasm, making it hard for Eric to hold on.
"Rachel, grab onto something!" Eric informed.
"I can't see, it's too dark!" Rachel said.
Rachel reached back into her bag, pulling out and popping a flare. She looked to see if there was something she could grab onto, but there wasn't anything in reach for her to grab onto.
"Dammit, Rachel, will you hold still!" Eric shouted down.
Eric tried to pull Rachel back up, but with the position he was in, there was little he could do and the sharp rock edge of the ledge was starting to cut into the rope. Very soon, the rope would either snap, causing Rachel to fall into the chasm or Eric would lose his grip, sending both Rachel and himself falling into the chasm unless he cut the rope.
"I'm so sorry, Rachel. I'm so sorry." Eric said, as he pulled out his knife.
Eric put his knife to the rope, climbing protocol saying to cut the rope in situations like this, but he couldn't bring himself to do so and stuck his knife into the ground. Suddenly, Eric and Rachel heard the sound of gunfire and looked to see the Iraqi soldier firing at them, having heard their shouting.
"Shit!" Eric said as he flattened against the ground to try and make himself harder to hit.
A bullet from the Iraqi grazed his arm as he flattened himself.
"Eric!" Rachel shouted up.
She looked to the Iraqi soldier and knew this was bad. They had no one to help them and Rachel didn't know if her call earlier had gotten through to anyone and even if it did, who knew how close they were and Eric was basically a sitting duck from where he was. Knowing it was only a matter of time before Eric got shot and seeing no benefit in them both falling, Rachel grabbed her combat knife, cut the rope, and felling into black abyss of the chasm.
"Rachel!" Eric shouted as he felt the burden of Rachel's weight suddenly disappear and looked down into the chasm as she fell.
Meanwhile, from the other side of the chasm, Dar walked away, feeling satisfied with what he had just witnessed. Eric made his way back up the slope and fell down to his knees as he looked into the chasm. He couldn't believe what had just happened; none of this was meant to happen, but it did and it was his fault. He was the one who brought everyone, brought Rachel here and all because he had been confident on the readings of Caelus' scan, the thing which he had built. It was supposed to help end this war, to help get Rachel and him back together, he had assured everyone, assured Rachel that it was guaranteed to work and nothing would go wrong, but everything, EVERYTHING had gone wrong, he got everything wrong.
"Rachel!" Eric shouted. "I messed up Rach. I'm so sorry. For this, for everything. God!"
"Colonel? Is that you?" a voice suddenly said.
Eric looked to see Nick and Jason, who had just arrived from down a tunnel.
"What happened to Rachel?" Nick asked as he pulled Eric on his feet.
"We… we were ambushed by the enemy… I think he's still here." Eric informed.
Nick took a quick look, seeing no sign of the Iraqi that attacked Eric and Rachel or thank God, any more of those things he and Jason had been running from.
"He opened fire on us and… Rach… she fell. I held on. I held on as long as I could." Eric struggled to explain.
"Rachel!" Nick shouted as he looked down the chasm.
Jason looked away from the tunnel he and Nick had just come from, to Eric and Nick. He couldn't hear any of the clicking or screeching of those things that had chased him and Nick and killed Merwin. It looks like they had either lost them, or the creatures gave up, but Jason wasn't going to stay around to find out, nor would he let Nick or Eric.
"We gotta move!" Jason said, slowly backing away with his rifle raised. "Colonel, we're sitting ducks! We need to fall back now!"
Jason, Nick, and Eric made their way to the entrance of the temple entrance.
"Look at that." Nick said as he saw the entrance.
The entrance to the temple was a small stairway that lead into a small entrance hall and just outside the hall were columns and statues of bearded men with, what looked like a lion's body or something. At any other time, it would be an impressive sight to behold, but neither of them had any time to admire the architecture and began to enter the temple.
"Slow down. He could still be here." Eric warned as they entered the entrance hall, keeping an eye out for the Iraqi.
"Right now, Colonel, the Iraqis are the least of our problems." Jason said and then took a look backward, still not hearing the creatures. "They're not following."
Jason turned on his radio, trying to contact any other call signs, but no one replied back.
"Joey, report in! Over." Jason said.
"Joey's dead." Nick said.
"The fuck you talking about?" Jason asked, looking towards Nick.
"The Iraqis tore right through him. He died in my fucking arms." Nick revealed.
"Aw no, not Joey." Jason said in disbelief.
Jason wondered how they all were going to get out of this situation with Rachel, Merwin, Joey, Clarice, and who knows how many more of the squad was dead and those creatures he and Nick had encountered attacking them on one side and the Iraqis attacking from the other. Jason couldn't think about that right and turned around and began to close the doors they just came through to slow anyone or anything that might come this way down.
"We gotta lock this place down. Form a defensive perimeter and buy ourselves some Goddamn beathing space." Jason said.
"Lieutenant." Eric addressed. "What did you mean when you said the Iraqis are the least of our worries?"
"Do you believe in God?" Jason asked.
"Absolutely not." Eric said bluntly.
"Well start believing. We are under attack by… I don't know what. You wouldn't believe me even if I tried. Hell… I don't believe it and I was there." Jason said, unable to hide the uneasiness in his voice.
"Monsters." Nick said.
"Monsters?" Eric repeated, not believing any of what Jason and Nick were saying. "Come on. You're jumping at shadows!"
"Sir, with a due respect-" Jason tried to explain, having felt the same way earlier when Nick told him.
"Lieutenant!" Eric shouted, not in the mood for Jason and Nick to be talking about monsters like young children, after what just happened with Rachel. "We're trapped down here with an enemy Iraqi, maybe more. Whatever you think you've seen – it's bullshit!"
Jason wanted to try and push the truth to make Eric understand, but doing so would just be wasting time they could use to prepare for more attacks or finding a way out, so kept his mouth shut for the moment.
"These statues." Jason heard Nick, who was looking at them say.
"Nick! Take a mental picture and snap the fuck out of it!" Jason commanded.
"What is this place?" Nick asked.
"It's not the silo, that's for sure." Jason said before looking to Eric. "This mission's a bust."
"I can fix this…" Eric suddenly said. "The satellite. I'll go over the data to improve the algorithm."
Jason couldn't believe that Eric was still so focused on his satellite program after they had been attacked and many good marines had died, especially when he had just seen his wife fall to her death.
"Understood, Sir." Jason said, restraining himself for chewing Eric out, knowing fighting amongst themselves could get the rest of them killed.
However, Nick didn't seem to think the same.
"You got us into this mess, you better get us out." Nick said angrily.
"Do you want to repeat that?" Eric said, getting in Nick's face.
Nick didn't say anything.
"That's what I thought. I'm still in command here, so you better remember your rank, sergeant." Eric said.
Suddenly, the lights went out, leaving the three of them in the dark. They raised their weapons, ready to shoot anything that came out and tried to attack them. Nothing did and Jason and Nick decided to investigate.
"Stay and guard the entrance. We'll check it out." Jason said, looking towards Eric.
Eric nodded and stayed back, allowing Jason and Nick to enter the temple and see what caused the lights to go out.
"So, this is Saddam's chemical weapons silo, huh?" Jason joked as he and Nick entered the temple. "Run for the fucking hills. We're all doomed!"
"So much for Eric's 'pioneering thermal satellite system.'" Nick said resentfully. "Eric's gonna have some pretty tough questions to answer."
"I wouldn't like to be in those shoes." Jason replied.
Jason and Nick swerved around their rifle's lights, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. As they searched around the temple, they heard something that sounded like the crackling of electricity. Following the sound, they came upon the generator, which looked like it had been damaged by something or someone.
"Someone's taken a serious dislike to this thing." Nick observed, seeing the wires cut.
"Sabotage?" Jason asked.
"Looks it. Watch my back." Nick said, as he tried to see if there was anything he could do to fix the generator.
Nick was able to reconnect the wires together, bringing the lights back on.
"Good job, Sergeant." Jason said as the lights turned on.
Suddenly, from the right came the sound of what sounded like breaking glass and crackling of electricity. Jason and Nick immediately knew that it had to be the Iraqi that attacked Eric and Rachel and made their way over to the right-side passage of the temple.
"Dropkick, this is Mailman Two-One Actual. We're heading deeper. Over." Jason said to Eric over the radio.
"Acknowledged, you be careful in there. Dropkick out." Eric replied back.
When the entered the passage, Nick noted that the cables split, one further down the passage and one into a side room. Jason and Nick entered the side room, which had more archaeologist gear in it and there was a giant hole in the back of the room. Jason found a book titled "Gods of Sumer" on a table and picked it up, flipping through a few pages. Like the book's title said, it talked about the Sumerian Gods, all of it, Jason didn't understand, but what really caught his attention was it's talk about the underworld.
"An eternity eating dust?! You gotta be shitting me." Jason exclaimed.
"What was that?" Nick asked.
"This book. It talks about the Gods these people worshipped and it's underworld and how you had to be buried to even have a life after death and a bunch of other crap I don't understand. Oh, and get this, this mountain is apparently the stairway into Hell." Jason explained.
Nick took the book from Jason and read it for himself. He saw on the page about the underworld, there were certain things underlined with notes next to them: Zagros Mountains – Zagros Mountains!, seven gates – the catacombs?, the underworld – Temple built over gates to the underworld.
"So, this temple is built over a gate to Hell. What the fuck?" Nick exclaimed.
"Given what we faced earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if this place actually is the gates to Hell." Jason said. "But weather it is or not, that's not our problem right now, what is, is the Iraqi that shot at Rachel in the Colonel earlier."
"Yeah, let's find that bastard." Nick said, eager to find the Iraqi and make him pay for what happened to Rachel.
Jason and Nick walked out of the room and followed the corridor down further. They turned down to another corridor, which led into another room. Jason was just about to step through the doorway before he suddenly noticed something at the edge of his vision. He stopped and looked down, seeing that he had almost stepped onto a tripwire.
"Fuck! Watch your step. There's a tripwire." Jason said, holding Nick back.
Jason and Nick carefully stepped over the wire and bent down to examine it to see if they could disarm it safely.
"Counter explosion?" Nick asked.
"Nah. Just need to cut the trigger." Jason said, snipping the wire with some scissors in his bag. "Gotta be the guy who shot at Eric. Motherfucker's hunting us."
Jason turned on his radio and spoke to Eric.
"Dropkick, this is Mailman Two-One Actual. Do you copy? Over." Jason said.
"Dropkick receiving. How's it going out there, Kolchek?" Eric responded.
"Your friend sprung an IED on us. We're good, but you'll want to keep your eyes open in case he's left any more love notes. Over." Jason informed.
"Copy that. Moving up. Dropkick out." Eric replied.
"He's moving up." Jason repeated to Nick.
"Shame you warned him about the tripwire." Nick responded.
As they waited for Eric to arrive to them, Jason and Nick took a look around the room. Jason found a stone tablet that depicted a man looking like he was about to sacrifice something that looked like a goat or whatever, he couldn't really tell.
"I'll grade this a… C+" Jason joked.
"Well, what do you grade this?" Nick suddenly asked.
Jason looked and saw Nick holding some clay object. He looked at it and couldn't even tell what it was, just a bunch of lines and gibberish written on it.
"Hmmm. F-." Jason said.
"Really, that bad? I think it's kinda neat. At least a B+" Nick said.
"Fine, F+" Jason said.
"Okay. It's labeled A59 on the back by the way." Nick said.
"If Little Bobby's 59th art project is this bad, I'd hate to see how bad his first 58 are." Jason joked.
Jason suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye on the ground. He looked and saw it was a piece of paper, like that from a journal. Jason picked up the paper and read both sides of it.
"April 2nd, 1946. We have assembled our team. Top of my list was my old comrade from the wars, Captain Sherman Crow, the bulldog of Omaha Beach. We found him in Cairo, brawling for money in a Levantine drinking club. Crow recommended an experienced dig foreman, Arthur Pulman and in Haifa we picked up my assistant, the always inquisitive Aline Journeau. Lady Bradshaw insisted on the presence of her own adviser, Ellis van Huyten, an archeologist I know only from his poor reputation. Our team complete, we shall head to Lebanon and from there by train to Baghdad.
October 21st, 1946. Crow was the first to break into the tomb: an honor he shared with 'Bessie', that damned machine gun of his. It was a beast of a weapon, but it seemed to comfort the fellahin doing the digging. This place has lain undisturbed for centuries. It is not the tomb of Alexander the Great, but a temple of an even older God-King: the Akkadian despot, Naram-Sin. We have been mistaken, but Lady Bradshaw still declares it a find for the ages. A discovery that will write our names in the annals of history. Looking out at this sceptered hall, I have no reason to doubt her."
"Huh, must be the archeologists that were here at some point. Wonder what happened to them? Probably encountered those things Nick and I encountered." Jason thought.
As Jason was reading the paper, Nick was moving a crate that was blocking a passageway, Jason going over to help. As they moved the crate, Jason suddenly heard something from down the passage.
"Shhh! Listen." Jason said.
Nick listened along with Jason and there was definitely sound coming from down the passage and thankfully, it wasn't clicking or screeching. The sound sounded human and it sounded like…
"Is that Joey?!" Jason said. "He's alive!"
"It's not possible!" Nick said, positive Joey had died before they fell down here.
"You heard him just now." Jason reasoned.
"It can't be!" Nick said.
"That is definitely him." Jason said.
"It's this fucking place, Jason. I'm telling you, I saw him die!" Nick said.
"All due respect, buddy, you're not your usual self. Can't know for sure." Jason said.
Jason tried to walk down the passageway, but Nick stopped him.
"It's gotta be the guy who shot at Eric and Rachel. He could be waiting for us down there. It's a trap." Nick said.
"We don't know that and we don't leave a man behind." Jason reasoned. "Semper Fi."
"Semper Fi." Nick repeated.
Eric than entered the room.
"Hey! Somebody want to tell me what's going on here?" Eric asked, wondering what Nick and Jason were talking about.
"We heard Joey through the tunnel." Jason informed.
"We THINK we heard Joey." Nick corrected.
"It was him all right." Jason said, still adamant they heard Joey "We're gonna rescue him."
"Good. I'll lead the way." Eric said.
Eric tried to take the lead down the passage, but Jason stopped him.
"No. I'll take the lead." Jason said.
Eric seemed to be holding everything together, but Jason could tell that Eric was still devastated over what happened to Rachel and that could make him reckless and act without thinking and Jason would rather not explain how they lost both Rachel and Eric when they got back to base. Thankfully, Eric didn't even try to argue and allowed Jason to take the lead. Just as Jason was about to lead them down the passage, Nick spoke up.
"Wouldn't it be better to have him stay behind in case the other units show up?" Nick asked.
"Safety in numbers." Jason simply replied.
Nick gave a frustrated sigh and followed Jason, Eric following from behind. Neither of them knew what else could be down this passage, Iraqis, monsters, or some other horror, they just hoped that when they found Joey that he'd be alright.