The Cave Runners

“Hey, it’s time to get up,” a voice said, jarring Ellie out of her sleep.

      “Says who?” she grunted, looking up at Dimitri’s shadow on her tent’s wall. 

    “The sun,” he laughed. Ellie sat up, pulled on her clothes, and opened her tent’s door. Dimitri was sitting by a fire, “cooking” some sort of flavorless camping food over a fire. Sure enough, the sun was beginning to rise above the horizon. 

“Nice view, huh?” Dimitri said, pointing towards the sun with a fork. 

     “I guess,” Ellie replied, grabbing a piece of bread from a bag. 

It was their third day stuck in the wilderness. They had both been heading out for camping trips, when their cars had broken down. In the same spot. Of all possible things that could have happened to Ellie after her car had broken down, someone else’s car breaking down right where hers had half an hour later was certainly the strangest. Also the most suspicious.  

    How could that happen?

Dimitri cleared his throat, pulling Ellie out of her thoughts.

    “Want some breakfast?” he said, gesturing at the pan he held over the fire. 

    “Sure.”

After breakfast, they packed up their gear, and headed out with the intention of finding water. They hadn’t explored the area around them much since they had only arrived the previous afternoon. They walked in a southward direction, hoping to find their way to the town they knew to be near where their cars had broken down. After a few hours of walking, they found themselves on the shore of a lake.

    “As good a place as any to set up camp, right?” Dimitri asked, ever the leader. 

Ellie grunted an agreement, looking out across the water. There was a cave about 200 meters away from where they were standing. 

    “After we’re done setting up camp, how about we check that cave out?” Ellie suggested, pointing. 

    “Fine by me, but we’d better get started,” he replied. 

Once they were done getting everything ready for habitation, they walked over to the cave. It was quite the cave, apparently extending far back into the hill when they shined their flashlights into it. 

They walked into the cave, shining their flashlights around so they could see. The cave cave really did extend very far into the ground. It gently slanted down gently, twisting, turning, and forking. They wrote down their path on a little notebook so they could find they’re way out again. 

Soon they were deep in the cave, and came across a sharp turn to the left. After that, the cave branched off into a few passages. They chose a path, only finding more passages branching off after that. 

    “It’s like a maze,” Dimitri noting, looking about.

    “Does something about it feel...man made?” asked Ellie. It was true, something did seem man made. It all looked natural, but it didn’t really feel natural. 

    “I don’t like this,” said Dimitri, worry seeping into his tone.

They tried to retrace their steps, but all they found was more passages. A feeling of dread permeated the air. 

    “What is this!” shouted Ellie, her voice echoing back at them with a sound like laughter. 

    Something shifted in the shadows at the far end of the cave.. “More like what was that?” Dimitri muttered, sounding more afraid.  More shadows shifted. Something metallic tapped the floor, sending sharp echoes reverberating throughout the cave. A glint of metal appeared for a second, then vanished, shortly followed by more tapping. Then, all was still. Dimitri and Elli wondered if it had happened at all. 

    Ellie shifted her left foot, accidentally knocking a small rock over. It made a tapping noise when it hit the floor. The noise felt like a cannon blast in the silence of the cave.

An unearthly shrieking came from the far end of the cave, drawing a shout from Dimitri. And then something shot out of the shadows. It was tall, skinny and vaguely humanoid, sprinting toward them. As it drew closer, they could see that it wore tattered rags that fanned out behind it as it ran. An angular face sat atop a skinny neck, which sat upon a skinny body. Everything about it was skinny.  It clutched a knife in it’s left hand, which it raised as it drew ever closer. 

Ellie glanced at Dimitri. He was just standing there, staring at the thing, horrified. Soon it would reach them. Ellie tried to pull Dimitri away to a safer position, but he just stood there, transfixed. 

It was only ten meters away now. Ellie could see the drool flying from its mouth. And it’s beady, glinting eyes. It closed the distance between them quickly. Ellie tried to pull Dimitri out of its path, but only succeeded in tearing his sleeve. Then it was there. Ellie saw the thing’s left hand come up with the knife. She shouted at Dimitri, but he still stood transfixed. She saw the knife pierce his chest,the blood spurt from the wound. She knew that the thing had stabbed him right in the heart. 

It picked up his fallen body, and turned and ran back into the darkness. Ellie stood there, shocked at what she had just seen. Dimitri was dead. His blood still shone on the cave floor. 

She heard a noise from the darkness behind her. Turning, she saw that there were more of them, creeping out of the depths of the cave’s shadows. Ellie ran. There was no helping Dimitri now, but maybe she could save herself. 

She felt something hit the back of her leg. Something sharp. Warm blood flowed from where she had been hit, making it hard to run. But she persisted. More sharp objects pummeled her from behind, and she could hear footsteps behind her. She sprinted through the cave’s passages at random, hoping to find a way out. Sure enough, she had found her way past the strange maze that had trapped them. Something hit her in the back. Pain flared where it hit her. She felt an extra weight, like something was stuck to her back. 

Light appeared ahead of her. The cave entrance! The footsteps weren’t following her anymore. 

Maybe they were afraid of light, she wondered. 

She collapsed at the cave entrance. She could see the moon reflecting off the lake. She felt on her back for a wound. She found the hit of a knife. In a daze, she pulled it out from where it had lodged itself and looked at it. It was small, only five inches from end to end, it was made entirely from metal, and rather crudely at that. She felt herself drifting off, into a sleep form which she would never wake. She looked at the moon, so beautiful. It’s a shame I’ll never see it again, she thought.