Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (10 page)

The snakes approached from the adit ahead. He turned and saw
a couple slide through the opening above the rubble. Soon there were dozens of
them surrounding him, waiting for his light to go out. He held the lantern up
so he could examine it. It was banged up from the fall, but it was still
working.
Don’t give out on me
, he thought.

How long will it take Deem to find me?
he wondered.
And will she get
here before the protection wears off? Death by scorpion is not how I wanted to
go.

He looked down and saw the arrival of the scorpions. They crawled
over his shoes and used their pinchers to grab at his laces and pant legs. He
kicked them off but they just swarmed back. He began to feel a sense of panic –
it was bad enough being in a tight, confined place, with earth and rock above
you, waiting to come down at any moment. Any little earthquake, and the entire
mine could be gone, with him in it. But now he was trapped – rocks behind him,
snakes in front of him, and he couldn’t move to save himself. He had to wait for
Deem.

What if she gets lost and doesn’t find me?
he wondered.
What if Tonnaquin
traps her?

He checked his watch. It had been four minutes since Deem’s
alarm had sounded. He resolved that if she didn’t appear at the five minute
mark, he’d have to start walking to keep the scorpions from stinging him. He’d
walk back and forth in the adit. If she didn’t come by the ten minute mark, he
was going to try and find his way out.

He tried to focus down the adit in front of him, but the
number of snakes continued to grow, and their volume was beginning to block his
view of the tunnel. He decided to try slipping into the River, to see how they
looked from that perspective.

He was assaulted by the sound of them: the hissing, rattling,
and slithering. The pop of an occasional strike at him. Their skin didn’t look
like the normal scaled surface he associated with snakes. It had an old,
leathery, rotten look to it. It reminded him of how the ghost that attacked
Steven at St. Thomas looked. They looked like corpses of snakes.

I wonder if Winn’s EM gun would work on them?
Roy thought.
Not that you’d need
one, given that simple light keeps them away. Simple light, right! If only I
hadn’t dropped the lantern!

He checked his watch again, dropping out of the flow.
Time’s
up
, he thought.
It’s been five minutes. Any second now I’m going to feel
a sting if I don’t start walking.

He picked up his feet and marched ten feet down the adit, carrying
the lantern with him. Then he turned and walked back to the rubble pile. The
scorpions at his feet had a hard time attaching themselves to his shoes as long
as he kept in motion. The snakes continued to back off, the red light of his
lantern deterring them.

He walked back and forth, back and forth. Every time he
walked in the direction of the adit, he strained to see if Deem was coming. She
wasn’t. He checked his watch – it was now eight minutes. Two more minutes and
he was heading out on his own.

As he turned to march in the opposite direction, his lantern
flickered for a second, and then went out.

Shit!
he thought, raising the lantern and patting it with his other hand while
continuing to walk in the dark. He tapped at it for a couple of seconds and it
flickered back.

The snakes, just an inch away from his face, neck, arms and
chest, pulled back to their former barrier.

“Deem!” he yelled. “Deem! I’m in trouble here!”

He kept walking, kicking his feet as he lifted them, knocking
scorpions as he went. The snakes continued to move away from his light. Then
the lantern failed again.

Roy raised the lantern once more and tapped at it. It
flickered back, and he saw the snakes retreat as before. Then it went back out.
He tapped again, but it didn’t light. He shook it. He turned the switch on and
off. Still no light.

He felt the first set of fangs strike and sink into his right
cheek, just below his eye. It didn’t pull back, it left its fangs in him, its
body hanging. Roy reached up to try and remove it with his left hand but there
was nothing to grab – he was waving at the air. The next stab hit him in his
left side, just below his armpit. The third his right leg, above the knee. Then
he felt so many bites that he couldn’t place them all. He banged his hand
against the lantern, trying to will it back to life. It sputtered for a moment,
and he saw the snakes hanging from his body. Then it went back out again.

He felt the new bites, adding to the pain of the old bites.
On his arm, on the top of his hand, on his neck. He felt one try to sink its
fangs into the top of his head, hitting his skull. He swung his body around,
trying to dislodge the snakes, but most held firm. He tried grabbing at them, running
his left hand over his body, trying to wrap his fingers around one of them, but
they were ghosts – untouchable.

The pain was beginning to overwhelm him. He was going into
shock.

He fell onto the ground, unable to stand. He felt the scorpions
swarm him, sliding in between the snakes. He felt their legs walking over his
face. He raised his hands to swat them away, and instead he felt their stingers
lash out at his fingers.

He felt the overwhelming need to go to sleep.
I’m going to
pass out,
he thought. Then he lost consciousness.

Steven checked off the last item from the shopping list Eliza
relayed to him. He’d found a small medical supply store in Mesquite and was
finishing up his purchase.

As he drove back to Overton, he wondered how Roy and Deem
were doing. They’d been gone over two hours, so he figured they must be in the
heart of the operation. Hopefully they’d return before lunch.

He also wondered about Michael. He hadn’t seen him since
yesterday when they’d first found Jason. He wondered if Michael was in his
motel room, trancing to St. Thomas, filling Jason’s mind with bullshit.

Then he wondered about Aka Manah. Deem mentioned that demons
didn’t care for the downwind area. He wondered if Aka Manah tried to stop by
his house, as he promised he’d do, to leave his list of objects that Steven was
to obtain. He would not find Steven at home, and he wasn’t likely to travel
into this area looking for him.
He might think I’ve skipped on the deal,
Steven thought. It gave him a little anxiety. He didn’t want to have Aka Manah
mad at him. He didn’t know if his promise to protect him from Vohuman would be
needed or not – Aka Manah said Vohuman would be pissed, but who knew if that
was true or not. Still, he wished there was some way he could just let Aka
Manah know that he wasn’t ditching the deal. He had to focus on Jason’s
kidnapping – if that’s what it was. Aka Manah would have to wait. There was no
Eximere trip in the immediate future.

He pulled into the motel parking lot and took his supplies up
to the room where Jason was still lying peacefully on the bed. He called Eliza,
put her on speakerphone, and she walked him through the steps he needed to get
the IV properly set up and hooked into Jason’s arm.

When it was all done, Steven stopped and looked at Jason,
lying in the bed. Seeing him with his arm stuck out, wired to the IV, he lost
it. He began to cry.

“Steven,” Eliza said from the speakerphone, “you still
there?”

“Yes,” he said, wiping his eyes. He was glad Roy wasn’t
around to see him crying – he assumed Roy would just make fun of him if he did.
“I’m here.”

“You OK?” Eliza asked.

“Yes, no,” he said. “I don’t know.” He started to lose it
again, then stopped himself by becoming angry. “I just feel so goddamn responsible
for the trouble my son is in right now. That fucking IV in his arm is my
fault.”

“It sounds like you have a plan,” Eliza said. “You’ve met
some good people. My friend says Deem is very good at what she does. I think
you’re going to be OK. Do you want me to come down?”

“No,” Steven said, “no, you’re right, Deem and Winn seem to
know what they’re doing. I don’t know what you could do to help, other than
emotional support, which you’re already excelling at.”

“Alright,” she said. “Check that IV every hour, OK? Just to
make sure the needle is fine and there’s no infection. If anything looks wrong,
call me.”

“Will do,” Steven said. “Thanks Eliza. You’re a lifesaver in
so many ways, I can’t thank you enough.”

“No need to thank me,” Eliza said. “We’ll have a drink on
that back porch at Eximere when it’s all over, alright?”

“Sounds good,” Steven said. “Bye.”

He hung up, feeling a little better. Eliza always made him
feel better.

◊

“Roy!” Deem yelled, setting her lantern down and kneeling
next to him. She watched as dozens of snakes released their grip and slithered
away from her light. His hands and face were covered with scorpions that had
attached themselves with their pinchers. She held the canteen to his lips,
pouring a little of the liquid into his mouth. A scorpion that had attached
itself to Roy’s lower lip released its grip as the liquid passed by. It
scuttled off.

“Swallow!” she said, shaking him. The scorpions attached to
his head began to loosen their grip and drop away, but the ones on his hands
and fingers remained firmly attached. She could see them repeatedly stinging
him with their tails.

Roy swallowed, and she let another small amount dribble from
the canteen into his mouth. He swallowed again, and Deem saw the rest of the
scorpions dislodge and fall off his body.

She continued to pour small amounts into his mouth as he
seemed prepared to swallow. After a few moments she figured she’d poured at
least two good mouthfuls, and she sat back, waiting for the protection to take
its full effect.

Roy’s eyes fluttered open, and he looked at Deem.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said. “I thought it might be God.”

“No, you’re still alive,” she said. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been bit a hundred times by snakes,” he said,
propping himself up on one arm.

“Don’t forget the scorpion bites,” she said. “They were all
over you too.”

“I can see why you don’t like to come down here,” Roy said.
“Winn is a chicken ass shit. You should make him come with you next time so he
appreciates what you go through.”

“That’ll never happen,” she said, standing up. “Can you
stand?”

“I think so,” he said, rolling to his knees and pushing
himself up. Deem held his arm.

“What took you so long?” Roy said. “I was just starting to
enjoy the bites.”

“Tonnaquin,” she said. “He caused another cave in, and I had
to take a third route which meant going all the way back to the first junction.
What about walking? Do you think we can start heading out?”

“Nothing would please me more,” Roy said, turning to face
her. “You lead, I’ll follow. But don’t go too fast. I need to stay in your
light.” He raised the broken lantern and showed it to her. “I supposed it can
be fixed. The glass isn’t cracked.”

“Maybe,” she said. “Bring it along. There’s a chance it’ll
come back on.”

She started down the adit with Roy in tow. Roy was moving
slowly, his ability to move his muscles returning gradually. The route back
took them deeper into the mine, then back down another adit towards the first
junction. The tunnel they were following was harder to maneuver through, with
many fallen boulders and uneven floors.

“I can see why you were late to my party,” Roy said. “This
isn’t easy going.”

“Just watch your footing,” she said. “Don’t want you to take
a tumble. How are you feeling now?”

“Better,” Roy said, “but sore. Those bites felt real, even
though there’s no marks. I suppose there’s no poison.”

“Not normal poison,” Deem said. “Not like a regular snake or
scorpion. You’d be long dead by now if they had been real.”

“Why do you suppose there’s so many here?” Roy asked,
struggling to keep up and hoping his question might slow her down a little.

“Don’t know,” she said. “For some reason, every snake for
miles around comes here when it dies. No live snakes in here, you’ll notice.
Just dead ones. It’s like the live snakes are as scared of ghosts as people
are.”

“Do you think it’s the topaz?” Roy asked.

“Could be,” Deem said, “but I don’t think so. I think it’s
something else, something in the mine that no one’s discovered. There’s a lot
of crazy creatures that live deep in the mines in this area. Some of them were
released by the mining, but most of them were created by the radiation. Some of
them actually live in the rock itself. Red Hills mine number 3, you can get the
spirits to come out of the rock and talk to you if you know how.”

“You’ve done it?” Roy asked.

“A couple of times,” she answered. “My dad taught me. That
mine is a lot easier to get into than this one. Regular tourists go in and out
all the time. They know something creepy is in the mine, but they don’t know
what. I’ve called it out, I’ve seen it. There’s shit like that all over down
here.”

They paused for a moment when they reached the final junction
on the way out.

“Hear that?” Deem said. Roy stood quietly and listened. They
could hear the tap of the pickaxe in the distance, coming down the shaft.

“He’s ahead of us?” Roy asked. “Is that coming down the shaft
that’s the way out, or from this other one?”

“The other one,” Deem said. “Come on, let’s hurry. We should
be able to speed up now that we’re past all the rocks.”

Roy kept a sharp eye on Deem ahead of him as he picked up his
pace and tried to stay within the protective radiance of her lantern. He
listened for the sound of Tonnaquin behind him, and he thought he heard it once
or twice, but he didn’t dare turn around to look or stop to listen. Deem was
moving very quickly, and one pause would place him too far from the lantern and
subject to bites from the snakes closely following him.

They didn’t stop until Deem emerged into the opening with the
ladder. Roy followed, and took a moment to catch his breath. He turned around
to look back into the adit. The sunlight made it hard to see back into the
tunnel. Deem went straight for the ladder, climbing up rapidly. Roy followed,
going a little slower, rechecking each rung on his way up. The creatures that
followed them hadn’t entered this opening; he figured they must not like the
sunlight.

Deem extended an arm to him as he topped the ladder, and she
helped pull him out. Then she replaced the plywood covering.

“God, I hate that place,” she said, adjusting the plywood so
that it completely covered the hole. “So fucking boring!” She looked up at Roy
and shot him a quick smile.

Roy laughed.
She’s alright,
he thought.

◊

Winn lay on the other bed in Steven’s room, the one not used
by Jason. He adjusted himself a few times until he felt comfortable.

“If he agrees to leave,” Winn reminded them, “make sure you
tell him he has to go back and play along, not give them any indication he’s
planning to go. I’ll talk to him, too.”

“And if he says he won’t?” Steven asked.

“Then that’s that,” Winn said. “So do your best.”

“Alright,” Steven said, worried.

“I’ll help,” Roy said, seeing Steven’s concern.

“Here I go,” Winn said. “It should take about ten minutes
before he comes back. If I come back before he does, that means I couldn’t get
him to even listen to you.”

Deem stepped over to Winn’s bed, holding a Big Gulp cup,
sipping from the straw. She placed the cup down on the nightstand next to the
bed. Winn closed his eyes, and after a few seconds Deem pressed the palm of her
left hand onto Winn’s chest and held it there. She watched as his eyes moved
under his eyelids, and after a couple of minutes she removed her hand and
picked the Big Gulp back up. She looked up at Steven and Roy, who were standing
at the foot of Jason’s bed. “He claims it helps him trance deeper for going
into St. Thomas,” she said. “Could be total bullshit and his way of getting me
to touch him.”

She walked around to where Steven and Roy were standing.
Steven checked his watch. It had been four minutes.

“You know what you’re going to say, if he comes?” Roy asked
Steven.

“Not sure exactly,” he said. “I’ll have to wing it.”

“Well, whatever you do,” Roy said, “don’t get all bossy like
you do. That’ll just piss him off and he’ll stop listening to you.”

“You’re one to talk,” Steven said.

“Maybe
I
should talk to him,” Roy said.

“You jump in if it looks like I’m failing,” Steven said. “I’d
like a chance to save my own son first, if you don’t mind.”

“You two always like this?” Deem asked, looking at them.

“He is,” Roy said, nodding at Steven. “I’m not.”

Deem turned back to look at Winn. He was motionless. She
walked up to him and checked his pulse, then she walked to Jason and checked
his.

Steven sighed and began to pace the room. After a couple of moments
he checked his watch again. Eight minutes in, two to go.

He walked to the side of Jason’s bed, looking down at him.
What
a mistake not to talk to him when he wanted me to,
he thought.
We’re
going to correct that tonight.

As if on cue, Jason’s eyes began to flutter, and he slowly
opened them. He squinted, the light of the room appearing to be too bright.

“Turn off the overhead light, will you, Dad?” Steven asked. Roy
fumbled for the wall switch, and at the same time Steven turned on the
nightstand light.

“Dad?” Jason said, rising up on one elbow.

“Careful,” Steven said. “Don’t get up. You’ve got an IV in
your arm.”

“Why?” he asked, a little disoriented. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the same motel that you came to with Michael,”
Steven said. “We’ve moved you into my room so we could keep an eye on you, make
sure you’re safe. The IV is to keep you hydrated. You’ve been out of it for a
couple of days.”

Jason sat up in the bed, resting his head against the
headboard.

“Hi Jason,” Roy said.