About the author and series.
This book is part of a series, written by IP Spall, consisting of 22 short stories in total. To find out more about this book series or any of IP Spall’s other publications, head to https://linktr.ee/ipspallbooks
Many of these short stories are free, and if you enjoy reading this book, you can even buy a total collection of all the short stories for a low price! Follow the link above to find out more.
This story can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2VEGTOI
An uncomfortable foreword
It has been said that a series of short stories must emanate unexpectedness and a sense of chilling surprise. Such a collection of stories would require a character framework that is present throughout the whole book; from tale to tale, offering the reader a chance to relate to the individual characters — their pain, their horror, their paranoia. Such a collation would also contain an underlying subplot, so all of the stories connect and relate to one another, in a weblike manner, allowing each entry to follow on from the last with some continuity, while still retaining individuality.
I gave this some thought and decided to do the complete opposite. For me, each story should be read as an individual tale of terror, and certainly not as a collective.
Each of my short stories should evoke thought, emotion, and hopefully, leaves the reader wondering what the hell happens next. Let’s face it; not everyone looks for a happy ending in the stories they read. With this in mind, let your imaginations run wild, and enjoy the unpredictability; often an uncomfortable ride.
The Tunnel
The catastrophic events of the previous night had forced them to run. They fled in fear for their lives, knowing that most, if not all of their colleagues were dead or eaten, by the only god know’s what. A creature from the depths of hell came looking for something, just as they all sat down to eat.
It must have been about 8 o’clock when a horrific scream rattled through the camp, as everyone was sitting and eating. The cry understandably put everyone on edge, but when another followed only minutes later, everyone jumped to their feet. A third scream, followed by banging and crashing sounds just exaggerated the situation, as that was the point when they knew that whatever it was, it was coming straight through the jungle towards them. A few of the men ran to get guns, while the others just backed up, manoeuvring themselves away from the direction of the sound, backing themselves up towards the edge of the jungle. With an angry an aggressive growling sound, they all heard it rush towards the camp, smashing its way through anything that stood in its way. As they turned and ran, amongst the chaos that ensued, only a fleeting glimpse was caught, the panic and fear set in, as they disappeared into the darkness of night. The image, which will stay with them for life, was of a large blackish creature as big as a house. It had a gloss look, almost as if it was wet, as it thrashed about madly. It all happened so fast; they ran for their lives, only stopping to take a breathe seemingly miles away from the camp.
As they caught the current, a sense of relief was felt by both of them, as they floated off downstream. The further from the village got, the better they felt, as they hadn’t realised just how close they got to the creature, whilst they sought refuge in the ram shackled hut.
The river had widened significantly and was flowing at a good pace, so although he just sat there, with a paddle in his hand, neither of them had much to do now apart from dodge the odd fallen tree in the river. This was a cue for Sarah to finally relax a bit, sitting back on her arms; she leant back to take in some sun. The threat had seemingly diminished; they convinced themselves that on the boat they would have a safe passage and would no doubt find another village soon, the further they went down the river. Watching the banks for signs of life, they both calmed down and just sat back in the kayak waiting for an indication of civilisation to emerge, as their eyes scanned both sides of the river bank for any signs of life. For now, they took the opportunity to relax; hungry and exhausted from the chase, let alone the expedition. They did worry about their colleagues, knowing that they were probably still out there somewhere, but they were alive, and so their priority must be to get to safety. As the hours passed, the vast treeline just continued along the riverbank in a never-ending the stream of green. Sarah started to doze off, and it wasn’t until Jack suddenly broke her sleep that she realised something was wrong.
“Sarah, Sarah, wake up,” Jack said, turning around to look at her, from the front of the kayak.
“What” she replied, all bleary-eyed, struggling through the tiredness to wake up quickly.
“I think we must have hit something, as the boat’s filling up with water. Can you see anywhere its coming n from?” She looked down to see quite a significant amount, filling the whole length of the dugout kayak. She thought it was strange that she hadn’t felt up rise up, but then she was exhausted, to the point that she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. She leant forward and started to look and feel around, while Jack grabbed his backpack, pulling it around to put between his legs. He quickly undid the top and rummaged around until he found one of their cooking tips, which they reclaimed from the crashed aircraft they walked past. He frantically started to scoop out the water, but it was a slow process as the tin wasn’t that big. Sarah started to move, looking along the edges of the boat, desperately trying to find the leak, as the water was eight to ten inches deep now, causing serious concerns amongst them both. Using her hands, she lent down and moved her hand around quickly, and it wasn’t until she got right in the centre, she found that the old boat had a long crack that had opened up right at the bottom, which was now letting in a fair amount of water. The break wasn’t that wide, but it seemed to run most of the length of the boat, with nothing to seal it, it was too long to fill. They both struggled to rid the vessel of water, but it was a losing battle, and they both knew that at some point, they would inevitably have to have that unwanted discussion, as the crack was slowly widened the heavier the boat got.
Realistically, they had no choice but to abandon ship, so reluctantly, they pulled the boat off to one side, drawing up onto the riverbank underneath a huge tree.
The thought of spending another night in the jungle scared the living hell out of both of them, but they had no choice, and with little options, they tried to think of ways to make themselves as secure as possible. The pulled the kayak out as best they could before they managed to tip it over, emptying the boat into the river. They then pulled the heavy dug-out canoe up and onto the sandbank, as Jack thought it would be the safest way to shelter through the night, especially as they had no idea what the hell was lurking in the jungle nearby.
They knew that the boat was probably their best bet, but they also knew that yet again, they would have to go hungry, as the light and smell would attract anything lurking nearby, which they didn’t want. They both desperately hoped that their time spent on the river had put enough distance between themselves and the creature, but as darkness fell, everything began to change.
Amongst the undergrowth, far to close for comfort, they heard a great deal of movement in the jungle. With bouts of unearthly screaming rippling through the river valley, fear kept them awake that night,with both of them on high alert for the hours that followed. They huddled together, reassuring each other as sleep to be a long way off; hour after hour passed slowly, as they painfully waited for morning to come.
At first light, their inspection of the canoe was a definite no-go, as from the outside, the crack ran almost the whole length of the boat, and was there probably due to the age of the vessel. The canoe had just seen better days, so there was little anyone could do, without basically rebuilding it from scratch.
They abandoned the boat and headed south, following the river as it flowed. The jungle floor wasn’t too bad at the moment, with little use of the machete, they generally made good headway, walking with real confidence in their stride. Again the hours passed with not much change in the scenery, they did find the odd boat still tied up and hidden away, but they were all ancient and ruined, so they had no choice but to just keep on walking.
Hour after hour, in the hot sun, in the damp, humid jungle, they walked. Starving hungry and exhausted, they had only one aim, and they walked towards it, where ever it was. It must have been mid-afternoon when everything changed in an instant. The jungle looked healthy, with plenty of movement and bird sounds, and as such, the thoughts of the monster and all those weird black mould blobs had pretty much gone from both of their minds, when suddenly, out of the blue, they heard an ungodly stream close by. It was the same unnatural and scary scream they had heard during the night, except this time, it seemed like it was only about twenty or thirty meters behind them. The two of them quickly looked at each other before they began to run. They are hurtling themselves through the jungle as fast as they could. Dodging trees, small tributaries, rocks and boulders, they ran for their lives, as they soon realised that whatever it was, seemed to be following them. The screams it emitted continued, almost as if it was running parallel to them, as they frantically tried to escape. Jack turned to look, but he couldn’t see anything, but now they could definitely hear the rustling noises of something moving through the jungle floor towards them, and it certainly wasn’t a peccary this time. Their fear pushed them to their limits, with them both falling and stumbling a few times, cutting themselves on the hostile plants of the jungle and running without any clue as to where they were going. Before long, the river bank had raised itself into a large rocky area, which they both ran towards, but they got nearer, they soon realised that there was no easy way to climb up it. It would take far to long, plus there was an area almost vertical, which would have been difficult anyway, at the best of times. So their running quickly changed direction, and they both headed off at speed, back into the deep jungle again. As the noises increased slightly, they were desperately taking the easy options, running in the areas with little or no brush so they could continue going as fast as they could. This, in turn, was making them steer away from the river altogether, directing them both into the deepest and darkest parts of the jungle canopy, both of them have no idea where they now were. The chase continued for about an hour or so, as the noises gained momentum and jack and Sarah began to slow, totally exhausted. They had to keep going, they had no choice, but their age, stamina and the heat, were all against them, as they struggled on, using every ounce of energy they had. Then up ahead of them, finally some light shone through the trees as the jungle opened up. They ran out of the forest and back into a rocky area, full of long grasses, big unfriendly bushes and small trees. The terrain had again become rocky, and for a brief moment, Jack thought that they had run in a full circle back to where they had been, although it wasn’t. Up ahead, there was a cave, and as they had very little energy left, they both reluctantly went to its entrance and climbed in. They made they’re way down a few large boulders, to what seemed like a small cavern, where they found a tunnel leading off somewhere.
“Quick, get your torch out; we’ll have to hide out in there until it goes,” he said, fumbling around for his torch, as he lowered himself into the hole. Squeezing himself between rocks, he pushed his body in further and further, hearing Sarah clumsily follow behind him. The tunnel wasn’t very wide; they probably had a few inches spare, but that was all. Fear made them both push and squeeze themselves ever deeper, crawling as fast as they could, as they heard the muffled scream of the beast this time a lot closer, probably near to the entrance to the cave. With a bolt of fear, stoking their adrenaline, it was enough to push themselves even further. As panic now dictated their actions, a brief moment of thought as to how the creature had found them, before they both scrambled deeper into the hole, forcing themselves into the dark, damp crawlspace. With tears streaming down the cheeks, the grunts and groans of the beast behind them were far too close for comfort. Through the wet mud, vines and who knows what else, using only knees and elbows, they scrambled for their lives.
“Jack, it’s behind me” Sarah screamed out, in a mixture of shouting and crying; she was clearly panicking. Unable to look back, their limbs went into overdrive, pushing and digging ever deeper. As the fear pushed them forwards, and the excitement of the creature grew, Jack began to see some light u ahead. He shouted out to let Sarah know, even though he had no knowledge as to whether she could hear it or not. They pushed and pushed until they suddenly reached a section of the tunnel that opened up a little, giving them an opportunity to get to their feet. Jack stood up and turned to help Sarah, as she pushed herself through the mud, scared and frightened. Jack grabbed her hand and helped yank her out of the tunnel, but just as she took a step forward, bending herself upwards, to stand, the creature screamed and grabbed her ankle. In a frenzy of excitement, it pulled at her, but as it was still in the tunnel, it couldn’t do anything except keep hold of her, whilst it struggled to free itself. Sarah screamed really loudly; the scream said everything. She reached out for Jack, who started to pull her forward. In the poorly lit tunnel, among the wet mud and roots, a moment of tremendous panic filled the enclosed space. Within just a few seconds, even whilst the beast was still mostly enclosed in the crawlspace, it bit her, taking off her right leg from the calf down. With Jack still pulling at her, she violently fell forward, onto her stomach, in a fit of screaming. Jack again pulled at her, shouting at the top of his voice, but as he did, the beast reached out and grabbed her again, this time by her other leg. The creature screamed in excitement, as it pulled at her, slowly pulling its own body out of the hole. Jack had no choice; he let go. The beast, still on the ground, slowly started to eat her, whilst she shook violently, screaming, shaking and panicking amongst the mud and blood. Jack turned and looked. The light and tunnel continued on; he had no choice, so amongst his tears and a brief moment where he watched her suffering, he turned towards the light, dropped to his knees and crawled frantically back into the narrow tunnel. The beast ate noisily, occasionally drowned out by Sarah’s screams. Fear pushed him to his limits, as he chased towards the light, hoping and praying he could somehow free himself from this nightmare.
In a fit of panic, he tried to gain pace by grabbing onto the vines, as the light grew closer. He was only a few feet away now, so with an exerted push, he finally got to the opening. Wiping the mud and sweat from his eyes, it had all been a waste of time; the end of the tunnel led to an opening on the side of massive sinkhole, hundreds of metres deep. He pushed his head through the vale of vines and roots, to see the huge drop-off. His stomach dropped in disappointment. For a moment, he thought about his limited options, of which he didn’t really have; to be eaten alive or jump. He pushed himself to the very edge and looked out at the vast open space; he then looked down, which just filled him with dread. He did, however, notice the huge amount of vines hanging down. Crazy as it was, he suddenly had the idea of trying to climb up the vines, so with both hands, he grabbed them tightly as he slowly pushed himself awkwardly out of the hole. The beast screamed with excitement and with a rush of air pushed towards him, Jack felt the beast come for him. So, with one exerted push, he fell from the side of the sinkhole, just as the beast lunged for him. Jack swung off to one side, as the creature launched itself for him. Clambering and desperately twisting to grab him, the creature missed its opportunity and flew out the hole and fell, hundreds of metres below. A brief and momentary sense of relief flooded Jack’s system, just before his hands slipped, pulling the leaves and skin off the vines. Bit by bit, he dropped a little, then a bit more and then, with a snap, the vine he was holding broke, and he fell backwards. As time slowed down, he floated and fell, as Jack watched the crater wall increase and the tunnel hole get smaller and further away.
He fell slowly and effortlessly towards the hard rocks below, smashing down so hard, his body dismantled, breaking like an egg.
About the author and series.
This book is part of a series, written by IP Spall, consisting of 22 short stories in total. To find out more about this book series or any of IP Spall’s other publications, head to https://linktr.ee/ipspallbooks
Many of these short stories are free, and if you enjoy reading this book, you can even buy a total collection of all the short stories for a low price! Follow the link above to find out more.
This story can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2VEGTOI
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