Old Magic

“What are we doing here David?” Melody asked, starring as the vine coated, grated door, “it’s not like this place is 'high priority'. I mean, it’s barely even on the map, more of a curiosity.”

“I just had a feeling,” David said, his hands grazing across the bars.

“You and your feelings, and here I thought it was girls who were supposed to make that excuse.”

David smiled.

“You’re just jealous that my hunches have paid off, whereas yours haven’t produced so much as a stray line of code.”

Melody rolled her eyes. He was right though, he’d managed to find some of the greatest anthropological sites in generations; they’d already discovered a ton of magnificent artifacts for the museum. They’d developed great renown amongst the Grave Diggers and it was all thanks to him.

“One of these days David, it’s going to be my turn,” she said.

“And one of these days you’re going to realize that you’ve been in love with me this whole time and regret the fact that you never took me up on my offer,” he replied.

Melody chuckled.

“Yeah, you wish,” she said, “and we’ve been over this. I’m just not attracted to you.”

David raised an eyebrow at her.

“You mean that you won’t admit that you’re attracted to me,” he said, “that’s not the same thing.”

“How you can be so delusional, I’ll never know. So, are you going to get that thing open, or are we just going to stand here all night?”

David squatted down by the grate and ran his hands around the edge.

“To be honest,” he said, “I’m not even sure this thing opens. Maybe there’s another entrance somewhere?”

Melody activated her holo-map and pulled up the schematics.

“Not that we know of,” she said, “I suppose it’s possible. But while your instincts have worked thus far, do you really think you possess the power to find an entrance that the drones didn’t?”

“Probably not,” David said, “we could pry it open.”

“Oh, talk dirty to me,” Melody said, playing up the idiocy of his last words, “you’re such a bad body to risk damaging precious anthropological artifacts. It’s hot.”

David scratched his chin.

“I supposed you’re right,” he said, “I mean an iron grate shouldn’t even exist here. This site is over 800,000 years old and I’m pretty sure they didn’t have the technology to make something like this.”

“Are you serious?” Melody asked, walking over to examine the grate herself, “800,000 years? Are you sure?”

David held out the reader.

“I mean, yeah, that’s what the gauge says. And then you’ve got these markings…”

He pointed to several marks on the grate and Melody switched to a magnified view. Sure enough, the markings contained particles that they shouldn’t. This gate alone was a find so rare that they both could go down in history books just from discovering it.

“Damn it,” she said, slapping David’s arm, “you just had to do it again, didn’t you? The find of the century and you found it with a freaking whim. This is ridiculous. You’re getting insider information, right? Who’s your contact?”

David chuckled and Melody wrapped an arm around his shoulders as she stared down at the grate.

“You know we have to get down there,” she said, “we would be idiots not to. Do you have your laser-blade?”

David rolled his eyes.

“Most people just call them knifes,” he said, handing her the tool.

“Yes,” Melody replied, “but most knives are used for cutting vegetables these days, and one of these bad boys would turn a vegetable to ash in milliseconds. These are laser-blades.”

She spun the blade in her hand a few times before tilting it toward the stone surrounding the grate. She pressed the starter button and sliced through the wall. It was slow work, and very hot. As she reached the last side, she wrapped a cable around the bars and harnessed the other end to a tree before making the final cuts.

“Heave-ho,” she said, switching the laser-blade off.

David shook his head at her phrase but wrapped his hands around the cable. Melody joined him and together they strained to pull the grate from the rock face.

“This would be so much easier if we didn’t have to be gentle,” David said.

“That’s so like a man to say,” Melody quipped, sweat dripping down her forehead.

“Are you sure you cut all the way through?”

“Oh, my god dad, stop pestering me.”

Inch by precious inch, the grate slid from its stone casing. As the grate drew clear of the wall, Melody got her first look at just how thick the stone was and her eyes widened. She glanced back at David and saw his furrowed brow too.

With the grate finally clear, Melody let go of the cable and went to inspect their find.

“This shouldn’t be possible,” David said, bending down next to her, “they shouldn’t have been able to cut through the stone. It’s almost four feet deep.”

“It shouldn’t have been possible, but clearly it was. Who were these people though, they are so far ahead of any other group from their time. How is it that we haven’t seen anything like this before.”

“Maybe they lived underground?” David offered, but looking at his face, Melody knew that he doubted that theory just as much as she did.

There had never been a humanoid creature that could survive in complete darkness before. Even now, they only survive due to technology and all signs indicated that no historical humans had reached their current level of tech before. But there was the grate, so maybe it had?

“We really shouldn’t be here,” David said, backing away from the new hole in the ground.

“Are you kidding?”Melody said, “we can’t leave now. Just imagine what else could be down there.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” David said, “who knows what could be waiting for us down there.”

Melody waved away his concerns. They’d all been well trained for these missions, they all knew how dangerous these places could be, and they’d all agreed that it didn’t matter.

“You know you’re not going to run away from this,” she said, “so stop fooling yourself. We’re here because you said you wanted to check it out, so let’s check it out.”

As she spoke, she placed a protective sheet around the grate before moving down to stare into the hole they’d just made. Her flashlight reflected off the floor of the cave below. It didn’t seem like too far of a drop, but she decided to attach a rope anyway; at the very least it would help them get back out.

She pulled on the rope a couple of times to make sure it was secure and then turned back to David.

“Come on,” she said, “are you really going to leave me hanging? You’re going to let a poor, innocent young girl drop down into a dusty, scary cave all by herself?”

“Innocent my ass,” David said, but he moved over to join her by the entrance.

“Want me to go first?” Melody asked.

David looked like he wanted to say yes to that, but his sense of honor got the better of him, just like she knew it would. He dropped into the cave without another word. She didn’t leave him hanging though, dropping down beside him the moment he’d cleared the line.

Melody coughed when she took her first breath. It was strange, the air shouldn’t be this stuffy this close to the entrance. She aimed her flashlight further into the cave and found that she could barely see through all of the dust particles collected there. Shouldn’t the dust have settled by now?

“Do you think someone’s been in this cave recently?” she asked.

But before David got the chance to answer, the iron grate slammed back into place overhead.

Melody’s heart leaped in her chest as she looked up at it. They’d left the grate more than two feet away from the hole and the entire thing was ridiculously heavy.

“What the hell?” David said, shining his flashlight up at the grate.

Melody didn’t speak, unease finally overwhelming her curiosity. Either someone above them was inhumanly strong and wanted to trap them inside, or something in here had. And while she didn’t like the idea of facing some monster above, it was the second notion that filled her with dread.

A cold sweat broke across Melody’s face as she realized that they had no way out now. Just pulling the grate clear the first time had taken most of their combined strength and a lot of leverage, there was no chance in hell that they would be able to push the grate clear again.

Still, nothing had happened yet and there was a chance that there was another entrance; she just needed to focus on that. They’d packed more than enough supplies to last them for at least a few days, and if all else failed, they would probably be able to cut their way out.

“You still have that laser-blade, right?” she asked.

“Mmhmm,” David hummed.

“Alright then,” she said, taking a deep breath.

But the suddenly clean air didn’t help calm her. The air had been swirling with dust before, what happened? She aimed her flashlight at the ground, wondering if the dust had somehow settled during their distraction. But the ground was clear too. She could see shining, polished stone now.

“David,” she said, her voice shaking, “what’s going on here?”

David didn’t respond. His flashlight was pointed up at the ceiling and when Melody followed the ray she saw the shimmering, swirling mass of particles overhead.

“This is impossible,” he whispered.

“Yeah, you’ve been saying that a lot today,” Melody said, her voice shaky.

“Come on,” David said, grabbing her hand and dragging her further into the cave.

“Are you crazy? I’m not going in there.”

David rolled his eyes.

“Says the girl who wouldn’t stop pestering me to take a look down here. Well, we’re here now, and the only known way out is blocked.”

“We could cut our way out.”

David gave her an incredulous look.

“Seriously,” he said, “that grate didn’t just wind up there all by itself. Do you really think that whatever put it there is willing to allow us to escape?”

He had a point, but what had happened to the scared David from above? Why wasn’t he freaking out right now?

“How are you so calm? You should be running like a scared little girl!”

“Well, I’m not.”

Melody huffed.

“Why,” she yelled, “tell me why!”

“Fine, I’m terrified,” David said, his eyes burning as he turned to look at her, “are you happy now? Does it make you feel better to know that I’m not comfortable? We’re trapped in a freaking cave, Melody, with no way out and no idea what could possibly want us trapped down here. Is that useful for you to hear? Do you feel better?”

Oddly enough, she did. Knowing that David felt just as scared brought her comfort, and glancing over at David, admitting his fear had made him feel better too. They stood in silence for a few moments, just starring at their surroundings.

“Kind of makes you feel alive, doesn’t it?” Melody asked.

David let out a chuckle.

“Yeah,” he said “kind of does. Guess we’re just a couple of crazy weirdos, huh?”

“Definitely.”

Her heart was still pounding a bit, but something about the uncertainty of it all made her mind absolutely clear.

She pulled up her hand display, called up the mapping drones, and sent them out. It would take a few minutes for them to find all the crevices, nooks, and crannies, but that would have to be okay.

“You know David,” she said, walking slowly forward, “sometimes I wish you weren’t so good at this.”

“That makes two of us.”

They scanned the walls and floor as they walked, checking for booby traps, but as they went further, Melody started to notice odd carvings in the stone. They weren’t pictures, per se, more like symbols or runes. None of them looked familiar though.

“Hey, David,” she said, crouching down to get a closer look, “check this out.”

The symbols seemed to morph even as she looked at them, but the second David leaned down to see, her flashlight went out.

“What the heck,” she mutter, hitting the light against her hand, “try yours.”

David’s light flickered on, but right before it hit the mark, his flashlight went dark too.

“That’s weird,” he said, “it’s fully charged.”

“Yeah,” Melody said, whacking the device against her hand again, “mine too.”

After several more failed attempts to turn it back on, she gave up.

“Whatever,” she said, “this is why we have backups.”

She tapped the side of her head to switch her vision sensors.

“God, I hate using night vision,” she said, “it’s makes everything look inverted.”

She looked over at the symbol and froze.

“What the heck-”

The thing was glowing, and not just glowing, it was putting off some kind of purple glittering smoke; she didn’t even know that night vision could pick up that color.

“What?” David asked.

“You don’t see this?”

“No.”

Melody reached out toward the symbol and a strange tingling feeling seeped up her arm and she shivered.

“You seriously don’t see this?” she asked.

“No,” David said again, his voice rising in pitch, “but I can see those.”

Melody’s eyes flicked up toward David and then toward whatever was causing his eyes to bug out. She was certain that he was overreacting, but you could never be too sure.

“Holy shit!”

David was pulling at her arm, trying to help her up, but Melody’s body wasn’t responding very well as the desire to backup fought with the vertical movement; her eyes fixed on the skeleton walking toward them.

She managed to gain her feet at long last and the two of them ran back the way they’d come, glancing back as they went.

“What are we going to do?” Melody asked, remembering the fact that they had no escape.

She looked back again and was relieved to see that the distance between them and the moving skeleton had grown.

“I don’t know,” David said, staring up at the grate that had blocked their way.

Melody heard a zipping sound and turned toward it, grateful to catch sight of the mapping drones. They settled back into their casing and Melody pulled up the new blueprint.

Starring down the passage, she watched as the walls were lined with a translucent green display. Several feet down the cave, the display diverted at a strange angle on David’s side.

“How did you miss that?” Melody said, grabbing David’s arm and setting the display focus on an exit.

“Miss what?” David said, “wait, what are you-”

His voice cut out as she dragged him through the gap.

“My God,” he said, his voice awestruck.

“What?” Melody asked, switching off the display for a minute to get a better view.

Looking back she no longer saw the gap, but a solid wall in its place. She shook her head.

“You know what,” she said, taking David’s arm again and switching back to display, “I’m getting tired of these constant surprises.”

And while the living skeleton didn’t appear to be moving very fast, she still didn’t like the idea of letting it get too close. The display indicated a way out not too far ahead and she was determined to reach it.

No doubt that headquarters would be interested in this place, but David and she just weren’t equipped to handle it on their own. Collapsing buildings and stray robots were one thing, but inanimate objects that weren’t supposed to move on their own were out of their wheelhouse. This whole place was complete insanity and who knew what else might be waiting for them.

“Do you have any weapons in your pack?” Melody asked, for the first time irritated that she didn’t carry any tools herself.

If they made it out of this, she would definitely have to rethink her strategy of making David carry everything. The problem was, he was so much better at keeping track of his possessions.

“We have the machetes,” David said, “but I’m not sure how useful they will be against bone.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather face them with a weapon in hand than without.”

The light started to shift around them and Melody scowled when they turned a corner and saw a lit area ahead. The exit was still projecting further down the passage, so what was causing the light?

“Is that the exit?” David asked.

“I don’t think so.”

The light flickered as they drew close and Melody slowed her pace. The light didn’t seem to grow, but the sinking feeling in her stomach didn’t help alleviate her fears.

“Give me a machete,” she said, pulling David to a stop before the last turn.

He handed her the little metal tube and she pressed the button to turn it on. She knew these lasers were somewhat less powerful than the laser-blades, but they gave her a longer reach, which seemed preferable.

David followed her example, his own machete glowing white alongside hers.

“On the count of three,” Melody said, and David nodded.

“One… Two…”

They both rounded the corner, but when Melody caught sight of the cavern before them she turned right back around, her heart racing as she stared at David.

His eyes were wide too as he stared right back at her.

“There must be hundreds of them,” she said, her gaze flickering to the cavern again as if of their own accord, “maybe even thousands.”

David nodded and ran his free hand over his face.

“This isn’t good,” he said.

“No shit,” Melody said, heat rising through her chest as his idiotic comment broke through the haze of fear, “any other brilliant insights you want to share? What are going to do?”

David popped his head back around the corner as Melody looked for signs of their pursuers. She didn’t see anything, but the skeletons had to be getting closer.

“There’s got to be something causing this,” David said, at last, coming back into the shadows, “anything highlighted on the blueprint?”

Melody pulled up the overview display and searched for a power source of some kind. She expected to find some kind of control room, thinking that the skeletons were powered by some kind of microbot collection, but the only thing highlighted was a small pit on the other end of the cavern.

“That’s weird,” she said, lost in the data.

“What is it?” David asked.

She sent a copy of the blueprint to him while she continued to study the pit. There didn’t seem to be anything underneath it, or something protected was under it because the mapping drones hadn’t been able to get through. The pit contained a tar-like substance but it also put off a strong electrical charge.

“That is weird,” David said, “but it’s also our best chance.”

“Assuming we can get to it,” Melody said, switching her view back to overlay, “or need I remind you that there is at least one living skeleton, that’s already aware of us, standing between us and our prize. Unless, of course, you would prefer to fight our way through the mass hoard. We don’t even know if these things can die, they are certainly not alive.”

David rolled his eyes at her.

“Any more brilliant insights you want to share?” he quoted.

“Shut up.”

“You shut up, this is the only hope we have. Something trapped us down here and I, for one, would rather test my blade against one skeleton rather than a hundred. So, if you are done wasting time…”

He started walking back toward the fake wall. Melody watched him go and then popped her own head around the corner again to look at the hoard.

Now that she knew what she was looking for, the pit wasn’t too hard to pick out. It looked so mundane but entirely foreign at the same time. The skeletons were keeping their distance from it, but she wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

They’d need to come up with some sort of plan before they got down there, but try as she did, she couldn’t think of any course of action that would be even remotely useful.

Most of the obstacles they’d face up to this point were either alive or electronic. Kill, unplug, or destroy their power source and you were fine, but how exactly were they supposed to unplug a thick, black pond. Could the pond just be some kind of door, would they have to jump into it and hope that whatever waited on the other side would be their fix? What if there wasn’t anything on the other side, what if it was just a pit?

“Are you coming?” David whisper-yelled.

Melody waved his question away but pulled her head back. Something had caught her attention though and she poked her head around the corner again.

Sure enough, one of the walking skeletons stood out from the rest. This one still had something of a body, albeit patchy and discolored. He was something of a zombie, but not. Strips of cloth still draped from his limbs and Melody could make out a few tufts of thick hair sprouting from his head.

She was still staring at him when his head turned to look at her. All white, blood-shot eyes stared back at her and she quickly pulled back her head, heart racing. Nobody with eyes like that could see, but she couldn’t help but think that whatever that thing was, it knew she was there.

She raced toward David, deactivating the blade temporarily for the sake of speed.

“Let’s go,” she said, pushing David in front as she went.

“What happened?” David asked as he moved.

“I think I may have alerted the hoard,” Melody said, “we don’t have much time.”

David scoffed at her but Melody didn’t react, slipping around him and activating her blade again.

“Are you kidding me,” David said, “why would you do that?”

“Well, I didn’t do it on purpose now, did I? Can we just get going? I’d rather not fight the entire group if we don’t have to.”

She could hear David’s feet pounding against the stone behind her and moments later they burst through the false cave wall and into the main passage.

Melody could see the path lit up before her, she could even make out their next turn, but even as she thrilled at the sight of it, the joy didn’t last long when she noticed how many skeletons were now standing between them and their way down.

She froze momentarily, still unsure if the machete would do anything to the skeletons. David didn’t hesitate though, his sense of chivalry no doubt getting the better of him again. He ran toward the first skeleton like a raging mama bear and swung his machete at it, slicing toward the non-existent heart.

The blade didn’t cut through the bone like Melody had thought it would, instead the bones seemed to move out from under the blade before the skeleton body burst apart, scattering bones in every direction.

David froze at the sight, but now was Melody’s chance to take up the call. She ran toward a skeleton mere feet from David’s frozen form and swung at its heart, watching as it too exploded into a rain of bone.

Her heart danced at the sight, a sense of relief flooding through her body and unknotting some of the tension she’d held since they’d gotten trapped. She could do this, this was easy.

“Come on David,” she called, smiling as another skeleton disintegrated under her blade, “you don’t want everyone to know you were bested by a girl, right?”

She couldn’t tell if David was following along, but Melody just kept moving, slicing through skeleton after skeleton until none remained.

She looked around, her chest swelling as she saw the array of scattered bones littering the cave floor. She noticed David moving through them, his own face far less jovial than her own.

“I told you that you should’ve gotten a move on,” she said, shaking her head.

David just looked up at her and then back toward the entrance grate. Melody’s heart sank as she remembered the massive cavern filled with skeletons. How much noise had she made? If the skeleton hoard wasn’t aware of them before, they probably were now.

A soft rumbling started to shake the ground around her and Melody’s eyes went wide as she stared at David. The rumbling grew louder, turning into drum beats that filled their air.

Lights were coming up the main passage toward them now, and Melody was reminded that they hadn’t made it to safety just yet.

She ran toward the hidden passage and ran as hard as she could, accidentally cutting the side of her leg with the machete.

She collapsed to the ground, the blade dropping from her hand, it’s blade retracting now that her hand no longer touched the tube. Her hand shook as she reached to pick it up, but before she was able to grab it, David’s arm was wrapped around her waist and he was pulling her up.

“Leave it,” he said, “we don’t have any time to waste.”

Sure enough, Melody could see a massive line of skeletons running toward them, torches in their bony hands.

Melody wrapped an arm around David’s shoulders and together they made their way toward the narrow offshoot, but as the skeletons drew closer, she wondered if they would make it. But, even if they did, it was only a matter of time before the skeletons caught up with them.

This was all her fault. She’d alerted the zombie man and then bashed her way through the skeleton guard without any regard to how her rash actions would affect the situation. She’d even hobbled herself so that they couldn’t run.

“You should just leave me behind,” she said, trying to push David’s arm off her waist, “you stand a better chance of getting to the pool alone. Take out the power source fast enough and I should be fine.”

“Yeah,” David muttered, “that’s not happening. We have no clue what those things are capable of, you’re staying with me.”

His arm tightened even more around her waist, causing Melody to flinch, but she didn’t argue, glad that David had refused to accept her selfless offer. She didn’t want to die and she didn’t want to become one of those skeleton things either. Or maybe they ate the humans that wandered into their hidey-hole?

Whatever the case, she didn’t want to be left alone with the skeletons, but that didn’t change their circumstances. With her along, they were losing ground with each step.

“Don’t you dare give up on me,” David said, correctly guessing the direction of her thoughts, “I don’t care how bad it looks, keep fighting.”

Melody nodded, but still grimaced as her injured leg took her weight again. She needed her machete if they were going to stand a chance, but they’d already traveled too far to turn back for it.

“I told you that you should’ve taken me up on my offer when you had the chance,” David said, his breathing labored.

“I thought you said that we shouldn’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up, I’m merely stating that the odds of both of us making it out of here alive are pretty slim, I could do with a little motivation.”

Melody couldn’t help but laugh at that, although the laugh came off a bit hysterical.

“Working every angle you can, I see,” she said, “it’s actually kind of impressive.”

“Does that mean you’ll think about it?” David asked, his free hand reaching out to grab the edge of the hidden passageway.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop,” Melody said, turning her head toward the approaching mass again; the skeletons were so close already, what chance did they have?

Two more shuffling steps and they passed through the false wall guarding the passage. Melody’s vision sensors went wild at the sudden shift in light and she stumbled forward out of David’s embrace.

Her hands landed in something wet and she tried to withdraw, but her hands wouldn’t pull free.

“David,” she said, her voice rising in pitch as she spoke.

“I know,” he said, “I’m stuck in it too.”

Melody turned back toward the passage entrance and waited for the hoard of skeletons to break through. But, even after several seconds, nothing happened. In fact, even the drumming had died away ever since they’d pass through the false wall. And while Melody felt a slight sense of relief with this knowledge, she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d stumbled into something worse.

She glanced down at her hands, her vision sensors having finally settled down, and tried to work her hands free. But, instead of loosening, every move seemed to make the stuff even stronger; then the stuff started creeping up her arm.

The goo tugged at her down and she could feel her body stretching as the stuff pulled at her arms.

“A little help,” she called.

“I’m working on it,” David called back, his voice muffled as if he had something in his mouth.

Melody risked a glance over at him and saw a looped coil in his hands. She also saw that he was being pulled by the sludge, although his descent seemed far more controlled than hers. She wondered what he was planning, but before she had the chance to really think, the slight pull increased and she found herself half falling and half flying through the cave.

Wind whipped past her ears as the goo whipped her body back and forth. Her leg banged into a wall and she screamed as a flash of pain ripped through her injured limb.

Where was David? Why wasn’t he helping her?

The goo let go and Melody found herself directly on course for the wall. She held her arms up to shield her head, but the force was still strong enough to make her eyes cross.

“Hold on,” David called, his voice strangely distant.

Melody was still blinking the stars away when she was hurtled through the air again. She managed to clear her vision just in time to see the massive line of spikes ahead of her.

There was no way she would survive this one; her body froze and the world seemed to slow as she hurtled toward her own doom.

David had been right, they weren’t both going to make it out of these caves alive, and while she’d known that on a conscious level, seeing her end made everything so much more real. She shouldn’t have listened when David told her they should come, she should have told him to stay away, but now it was too late.

The world snapped back into place as something cut into Melody’s side, diverting her path. She slammed into the ground, the wind knocked from her lungs, but at least she was alive. She coughed.

“I’ve got you,” David said, “don’t worry.”

The words didn’t help much as sludge lifted her again, but this time, when it tried to throw her, David pulled her back to the ground in seconds.

Her body ached as she slammed back down, but she caught sight of David and he appeared a lot closer than he had before. It was small comfort though as the goo changed tactics, slithering over her arms and legs, encasing her in the sticky mess.

In seconds, she could already feel the sludge climbing up her neck. Her body started to shake as she tried to pull her head away, but it was a useless endeavor.

The black goo covered her mouth first before climbing up around her nose as well, cutting off her air. Her lungs burned as she tried to catch a breath, but she was completely incapacitated, she couldn’t fight against it.

Tears leaked from her eyes as she continued to struggle against the mess, but as her vision started to blur, her hope faded.

Something hot smashed into the side of her face, the force so great it would have knocked her over had she not been held by the goo. The burst ripped through the sludge though, freeing her face, and she gasped for air. She’d never truly appreciated air before, but nothing compared to how good it felt to finally breathe again. Her whole body seemed to relax.

Several more energy burst zipped through the air, slamming into various parts of her body, but Melody didn’t care, still unmoving even though her limbs were clear of sludge again. Moments later, David’s arm wrapped around her and she was standing upright.

He hugged her tight, his hand snaking around her back and into her hair as he pulled her closer.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” he said, “I didn’t know what to do, I thought you were going to die.”

Melody didn’t respond at first, allowing her body the chance to recover from oxygen deprivation. Her limbs were heavy and dragging, and her eyes kept threatening to close of their own accord. She needed to sleep, to allow the medics in her blood the opportunity to heal the damage. This wasn’t the place though and she knew it; she needed something else to focus on.

“Did you shoot me with a plasma gun?” she asked, her voice groggy.

David looked abashed and Melody chuckled, but the sound turned into a groan as her muscles complained.

“I didn’t have a choice,” David said, “you were suffocating. I didn’t know what else to do, I couldn’t move. I knew that it might kill you, but if I didn’t do anything you would have died anyway, so…”

He trailed off and Melody chuckled again, trying to stand before her legs collapsed beneath her again.

“It’s fine,” she said, “and it worked, so no harm done.”

“Do you think you can walk?”

Melody looked down at her legs and took stalk of her pain level.

“Maybe,” she said, “but I’m going to need help.”

She tried her legs again. They burned as she applied weight, but they held and she took that as a good sign. Her medics were working hard to repair her body but it would still take a while for her to regain full strength.

With David’s arm wrapped around her waist once again, she found that she could navigate through the cave. Her face remained scrunched in pain, but the realization that the goo was reforming around her spurred her on to greater action. The skeletons were scary, but they hadn’t come as close to killing her as the goo.

“So did that stuff attack you too?” she asked.

“No,” David said, “it didn’t, it just kept me stuck in place while it threw you around.”

“I wonder why it did that?”

David shrugged.

“I have no idea. I think the skeletons wanted us to come this way though, why else would they stay outside?”

“If that’s true,” Melody said, “I hate to think what else might be waiting for us at the end. Or maybe we weren’t supposed to get to the end.”

“I’m guessing that you weren’t supposed to make it to the end,” David said, “the question is why.”

Melody didn’t have any answers, but even though she knew they were about to enter the massive cavern, the thought brought her relief because it meant that she wouldn’t be stuck in here with the sludge.

“It’s crazy to think that two minutes ago, the skeletons were the things that scared me the most,” she said, “but now I’m practically delighted at the prospect of facing them instead.”

“Can’t say that I agree with you, but I’m not the one who was almost choked by living tar.”

Melody frowned. Living tar. It was an apt description of the goo but, like the skeletons, it wasn’t supposed to be alive and conscious.

“Is that what is keeping the skeletons alive?” she asked.

David’s lips pinched together as he thought and Melody could practically hear the gears turning. The mapping drones had indicated that the pit may be the source of the skeletons' life force, had they somehow stumbled into the source of the pit?

“I guess we’ll find out,” David said, drawing them both through the final opening on the cave.

Light accosted their eyes as they stepped through the false side wall and Melody had to blink several times before her vision sensors readjusted. They were located in a tinny alcove, still in slight shadow compared to the rest of the cavern, but even hidden away, more than a hundred skeleton eyes were on them, and they looked angry.

Melody knew that she didn’t stand a chance against the bulk of the main hoard, and as she stared them down, every ache and pain reminded her of her own fragility.

“What are we going to do now?” she whispered.

David just shook his head, his eyes wide as he stared around. Melody faced the hoard and the hoard glared right back at her. For several long seconds, nothing happened, but Melody felt her legs shaking. The second she dropped to the ground, the skeletons surged forward.

David swung into action, his machete blasting through one skeleton after the next. Bones flew through the air in every direction, clattering off the remaining skeletons like enormous hail.

And while David was doing an amazing job of subduing their attackers, Melody could see the exhaustion in his body. He’d exerted so much energy just trying to get her to this point and now his strength was waning.

Fighting her own exhaustion, Melody grabbed a femur and started her own attack. The skeletons didn’t break apart as they had with the machete, but at least she was keeping a few of the skeletons distracted.

“Grab the boy.”

Melody froze as the deathly cold voice echoed through the cavern and she looked around to see where it had come from. But it wasn’t until she spotted the strange zombie man that she realized that he’d been responsible.

David had frozen for the briefest of seconds after the voice had called out, but now his efforts had redoubled. Melody saw the fear in his eyes as he swung his blade, knowing that the skeletons were after him.

It didn’t make any sense, despite everything that had happened in the passage. Why did these skeletons want David specifically? It had seemed that whatever this consciousness was, it didn’t mind, and even wanted, to get rid of Melody, but it didn’t act the same with David.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard something emerge from the passage behind them. David was too distracted to look around, but Melody was hardly considered a threat, so when she turned to look, the skeletons she’d been fighting return their attention to David.

“Son of a bitch,” Melody swore when she spotted several more lines of skeletons.

It would seem that the skeletons from above had decided to join the main force and cut off any chance of escape. It was a good plan, and one that they’d expected, but that didn’t make it any less annoying.

Whoever had lain this trap, they’d done their work well, leaving no chance for escape. Overwhelming numbers, resurrecting troops, and few exits pretty much guaranteed victory.

She couldn’t keep up, there were too many, David couldn’t keep up either. They would die here, trapped in a stupid cave because they’d both been too stupid to realize the danger.

David screamed and Melody turned to see the machete falling from his hand.

The skeletons took full advantage, their bodies swarming over David’s. Melody swung the femur but she just couldn’t match the speed of the onslaught. Several skeletons grabbed her arms and forced them behind her back.

“David!” she screamed, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to help.

She could hear his cries as the skeletons hoisted him into the air. She tried to pull free, and even made it a few feet, but she couldn’t reach him.

She looked up at the zombie man, tears streaming from her eyes.

“What are you going to do to him?” she asked.

The zombie man looked down at her, his eyes dead but aware. He didn’t say anything though, just watched her for several seconds before turning his attention toward David’s flailing body.

“Melody,” David called, his voice cracking, “I’m scared.”

She turned her gaze back to David and could see his face through the tangle of bones. She knew that David would never admit such a thing if he didn’t think that he was about to die, and as his body was lowered toward the pit, she knew he was right.

“It’s going to be all right,” she yelled, “I promise.”

It was a lie without a doubt. Everything had led them here, to this moment, and there was nothing she could do. Her stomach clenched and her heart raced as she watched the skeletons force David’s face toward the pit.

“David,” she called, wanting to bring him comfort.

His eyes shifted toward her, his face mere inches from the pit surface.

“I just wanted you to know,” Melody said, “that I-”

David’s face disappeared into the tar and Melody choked. She hadn’t been able to get the words out in time and now he was going to die without knowing how much she cared.

Her eyes burned as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. Her chest ached and she collapsed to the ground, trying to suck in air, even as her body raged against the pain. He would never know, she’d waited too long.

There had been so many opportunities for her to speak the truth, but she’d passed them all up, believing that she would always have tomorrow.

Through her tears, she watched as David’s body convulsed and jerked. She could imagine the black liquid flooding down his throat even as he tried to fight it. She’d seen it before in training, but this was so much worse.

David didn’t deserve this. He’d always been the best of the Grave Diggers, a shining example of the person they all wanted to be. She couldn’t just let him die.

Fire burned under her skin, fueling the guttural scream that ripped from her throat. She pulled her arms free, grabbed the fallen machete, and sliced through the nearby skeletons, the scream intensifying as dislocated bones showered around her.

She didn’t know where the strength came from, but she rose to her feet and charged the mass of skeletons surrounding David’s body, cutting through the line before they even had the chance to turn.

David lay at her feet within seconds. She dropped the machete and reached for him, pulling his face from the tar.

“David,” she called, “David can you hear me?”

Tiny remnants of the tar stuck to his face, but his face was so serene that he might as well just be asleep. She knew better though, he’d been under the tar for too long.

She tilted his head to the side, fighting the urge to panic as she lowered her head to listen for his breath as she checked his pulse.

But when she heard the consistent breath and steady heartbeat, she pulled back and stared at him in wonder. How was he okay? He’d been under that tar pit way too long to survive without aid, how was he breathing now?

Unsure what to do next, she looked around at the gathered skeletons. None of them moved, they all just stared toward David’s body as they waited. She didn’t know what they were looking for, but she turned back too, relieved to see that, for now, the skeletons were content to mind their own business.

She shook David’s shoulders.

“David, open your eyes.”

No response.

“Come on David, wake up.”

She shook him again, but nothing changed. His body didn’t respond either, almost like he was asleep.

She drew back her hand to slap him but, when she noticed the skin on David’s face starting to droop, stopped. She frowned and let her hand drift back toward the ground as she studied his face.

As she watched, bloody cracks formed in parallel lines down his face, and the pieces started to slide apart, revealing the muscle and bone beneath.

Melody scuttled back, fighting the urge to vomit. But even as she moved away, she couldn’t tear her eyes from the bloody mess.

“He has failed,” called the creepy, cold voice of the zombie, his tone almost sad this time.

Melody watched as more skin, and then muscle, fell from David’s body. The flesh crawled toward the pit in tinny clumps.

“What did you do to him?” Melody whispered, her hand rising to cover her mouth.

But as the shock wore off, the heat rose in her chest and she turned toward the zombie man.

“What did you do,” she screamed as she stomped toward him, “why did you do this to him? What did he ever do to deserve this? How dare you! We weren’t trying to hurt anyone, we didn’t mean to provoke you, but you didn’t care about that, and now-”

Her voice broke and she fell to the ground again, hopelessness sinking into her soul. David was gone and he was never coming back. She looked back at the body, the flesh and muscle almost entirely gone now. As she watched, the skeleton rose from the remains of the body and joined with the rest of the skeleton hoard.

She shook her head a second later when she realized that she couldn’t tell which skeleton was David’s.

Her mouth dropped open as she realized the truth of the situation. How many people had been trapped down here? How many men had lost their lives over the centuries? Why had any of this happened? What was the point? And why hadn’t they done the same thing to her?

This whole place was a mass grave, one that had been luring unsuspecting victims in, possibly for generations. And yet, all the skeletons had a strange similarity to each other, none appearing older than the others, and not a single skeleton appeared to be female.

For a second she felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She’d been rejected, unwelcome to join their hoard and that stung a bit, but the relief she felt about knowing she wasn’t going to become a living skeleton overwhelmed that sense. Still, she shouldn’t be thinking about any of this; David was dead.

Her head spun and her body went numb.

She didn’t know what to do, everything had shifted so quickly. She would have to report this though, she would have to tell headquarters about David, and to do that, she would have to find a way out.

She pulled up the screen overlay and stood up.

There were funeral arrangements that would have to be made. David’s family would have to be notified. So many people would come, what would she say to all of them?

Her body started to go limp again and she shook the thought away. Now wasn’t the time to think about all of that, she needed to get out of this place first, there would be time to figure out the details later.

She grimaced as images of David’s death replayed in her mind. She shouldn’t have agreed to this mission, if she’d just said no then David would still be okay. It just didn’t make sense. After everything they’d done to get to this point, how could he be dead?

How had this happened? He’d been right about everything else, right to the degree that it was almost supernatural, how had it gone so wrong this time? They had been such a good team, how could that be over?

She made her way up a massive staircase carved into the cavern wall, only marginally aware of her surroundings.

To have it all end so suddenly, she didn’t know how to process it. Why hadn’t she listened when David told her that they should leave? Why had she let her curiosity cloud her judgment so thoroughly? Why wasn’t she able to save him? And why did she have this strange feeling that she was missing something?

As she reached the upper level of the cavern, skeletons shuffled out of her way, their own forms looking dejected and sad for some reason. She scowled at them. It was unfair for them to mourn David when they had been the ones that took his life. And why would they? They’d known what they were doing, they’d certainly done it before.

Melody’s body started to shake as she stared at all the dejected skeletons and she ground her teeth. This had been their fault; they needed to pay for what they’d done.

The sensation boiled through her until it was too much to take and she pounced, landing on a skeleton and beating it until it shattered. She grabbed its femur bone and took to beating more skeletons too, beating one after another until the ground around her was nothing more than a mass of scattered bones.

The skeletons didn’t fight her and they didn’t run, they merely stood there and accepted their fate. It just made her even angrier though and she continued her attack until her limbs refused to cooperate anymore.

Her body had already taken too much abuse and she knew that exerting herself would only make the recovery time last longer, but damn it, David deserved to have his death avenged and she was the only one around to do it.

Her rage was insufficient though, she knew that any of their classmates would have done a better job. Chad alone would have decimated the entire cavern full and then beaten each bone into dust. She wished that she had that kind of fire inside but all she wanted to do was lay down and escape the horrible memories.

She let the femur drop from her hand and turned back toward the exit but, as she turned, something caught her eye. Something had happened to the zombie body, it seemed to be repairing itself, the skin practically glowing as it knit itself together.

Was this why David died, to help this creepy zombie man return to life? Had this zombie king sacrificed all of these lives so that he could leave this place?

“You sick son of a bitch,” Melody screamed, forgetting the fatigue in her limbs as she ran at him.

The zombie man seemed to hear her words and turned toward her just as she smacked into his chest.

He fell to the ground under the momentum of her strike, his arms coming up to protect his face from her punching arms.

“Hey, stop it,” he said, trying to grab her arms, “cut it out.”

He managed to subdue her attack; his hands clamped around each of her wrists like shackles. Melody tried to break free of his grasp, but she didn’t have the strength to fight him off.

The, now glowing, man looked irritated as he glared at the hands that attacked him, but when he looked toward Melody’s face, his mouth fell open.

“Melody?” he said, “is that you? What happened?”

Melody frowned. Something about the man’s voice seemed strangely familiar, enough to give her pause but not enough to stop the rage from burning inside her.

“You killed him,” she said through gritted teeth.

“I what?”

“You killed David!” a surge of power rushed through her and she tried to break free of his grasp again, but to no avail.

The man was momentarily distracted as he tried to retain control of her arms, but once she settled down again he gave her a frustrated look. A look that was so familiar that it took her breath away.

“What are you talking about?” he said, “I am David.”

Melody snorted, unable to ignore such ridiculousness.

“You most certainly are not,” she said, “David was the young man you just had your cronies throw into that pit. You are a monster, an evil, vile monster that sucks the life out of innocent strangers who happen to wander into your cave. And you’ll pay for what you’ve done.”

She fought to get her hands free again and the man grunted as he tried to keep hold.

“Will you please stop doing that?” he said.

“Why?” Melody asked, “so you can kill me too? Oh wait, women aren’t allowed in your skeleton club are they, so not only are you a creep and a monster, but you’re a misogynist too.

The glowing man didn’t give her the chance to fight this time; he rolled them both over until he was sitting on top of her.

Melody was caught off guard, and in that moment of shock, her body reacted to the strange man’s touch. Her stomach clenched and heat rose through her torso. She flushed and turned her face away, ashamed of the involuntary response. David hadn’t even been gone an hour and she’d known how he felt about her, how could she be so disloyal?

“Are you blushing?” the man asked, strangely delighted by the fact.

“What’s it to you?”

“Oh, come on, don’t be so naive,” the man said, “I’ve been trying to get your attention for years and you know it.”

Melody’s blush deepened, but this time with anger.

“You have not,” she said, trying to shove him off, “I don’t even know you.”

The man threw up his hands in defeat.

“Yes, you do!” he shouted, “I’m David! You know, David, your partner. David, the guy who keeps dragging you to digs you have no interest in. David, the kid nobody expected to pass the Grave Digger exam. It’s me, Melody, I swear, what do I have to do to prove it to you?”

Melody pulled up a reflective display on her hand and turned it toward his face.

“You think you’re David,” she asked, “try looking in the mirror.”

The man turned to see his reflection and his eyes bugged out. He touched a hand to his face as he stared.

“This is impossible,” he whispered, but then he turned to give Melody an annoyed look, “I know I’ve been saying that a lot lately.”

He turned back to the mirror, but Melody’s mouth fell open at the words. She shook her head in awe, her hand mirror display dissolving as she looked at the man with new eyes.

“David? Is that really you in there?” she asked, tentatively reaching to touch his face.

He hummed as her fingers touched his skin, making her stomach clench again. He reached up to wrap his own hand around hers before he opened his eyes.

“Yes,” he said, with a chuckle, “it’s me.”

“But how?” Melody asked.

David shook his new head.

“I- I’m not sure exactly,” he said, and then he flinched, “I’d rather not talk about it right now if you don’t mind. Why don’t we get out of here? I’ve had enough of this place for one day.”

Melody nodded and allowed him to pull her up.

“But you will tell me?” she asked.

“I promise,” David said.