Free Beckon by Tom Pawlik Page A

enough to joke, bleak as their circumstances were. “Maybe I can carry it with something or at least drag it along.” He unpacked his rolled-up wet jeans and knelt down to slip them under the spider.
    Suddenly the carcass jerked and erupted into a seizure. Jack leaped out of the way as the spider bumped and jittered on the ground. Rudy and Ben jumped back as well.
    The creature growled and hissed, kicking in violent spasms. All of its legs thrashed about, stretching out and digging into the mud as if trying to flip itself back over.
    â€œI thought you killed it!” Jack heard himself scream.
    â€œI did,” Ben shouted back at him.
    â€œApparently not all the way!”
    â€œShut up and kill it!” Rudy yelled, hobbling backward. “Kill it! Kill it!”
    Jack was scrambling in the dark, searching for another rock, when he heard the hisses and growls turn into high-pitched squeals. He turned back to see that Ben had pounced on top of the animal and was ramming his knife deep into its center. He plunged it over and over into the soft underbelly as a viscous yellow fluid spattered his arms and face. The animal’s legs thrashed and clawed in furious tremors but gradually slowed until at last the only movement was a slight twitching in one of the rear appendages.
    Jack stared at the grotesque sight, not sure what to say. His heart was still pounding. Finally Rudy spoke up from his vantage point several feet away. “Is it dead this time?”
    Ben stood over the animal, wild-eyed and grimacing. He wiped his face on his sleeve. “It better be.”
    Jack inspected the carcass and cringed. The underbelly was a mass of shredded flesh and yellow goop. Its legs had contorted and curled inward but were finally motionless.
    â€œYou must’ve just stunned it before,” he said after a moment.
    â€œNo way.” Ben shook his head. “I hit it three or four times. And that rock weighed a good thirty pounds. No way it survived that.”
    â€œWell, that shell must be harder than it looks.”
    Rudy snorted. “Or maybe it was just playing possum.”
    Ben glared at them. “I’m telling you, I killed that thing.”
    â€œGreat,” Rudy muttered. “Giant zombie cave spiders.”
    Ben swore. “Y’know, if it weren’t for me, both of you guys would be dead by—” He stopped his rant short and looked around the cavern, cocking his head.
    â€œWhat?” Rudy whispered. “What’s wrong?”
    â€œShh!” Ben snapped his palm up and tilted his head the other way.
    Then Jack heard it too. Somewhere in the darkness, an eerie clicking sound echoed off the cavern walls. It was soft and indistinct at first but growing steadily louder.
    Ben turned. “We need to get out of here now !”

Chapter 10
    â€œWait!” Jack grabbed his camera out of his pack. He couldn’t leave without recording what they’d found. “I have to at least get a shot of this place. I have to document—”
    Ben clutched him by the back of his shirt and tugged him away, but Jack shrugged himself loose. Ben yelled, “You idiot, we have to get out of here!”
    Rudy’s breath was growing labored. “Which way?”
    â€œUp,” Ben said. “We need to get out of this pit.”
    â€œUp . . . up where?”
    Jack pointed the camera around the chamber. With the night-vision setting, he could see a couple of side passages leading off the main room. One looked big enough to stand in, but the others were barely large enough for them to crawl through.
    Jack got a quick shot of the giant spider and then panned over to the bone pile. In that shot, he could see Ben in the foreground shining his light up the cavern walls. Rudy was bent over and holding his side. Beyond them both, Jack could see a wide ledge just above the heap of bones. It looked maybe twenty feet high or so, but it wasn’t that far from the