Free The Thrones of Eden 3 (Eden) by Rick Jones Page B

different.
    These hallways and corridors led to the Chamber of the One .
    But who was the One?
    What were these halls so diligently protecting?
    And who could be more important than those who were discovered within the crypts deep inside the chamber of Eden?
    If Alyssa survived, she knew she would eventually find the answer.
     
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER FIFTEEN
     
    Kaya had checked in with Demir twice. The second time there was more white noise, an indication that Demir and his team were moving deeper into the facility, the signal growing weaker as they moved out of range and, eventually, he knew, would die off until there was nothing but the cold sound of continuous static.
    After eating an MRE, he tossed the empty package into the abyss, watching it as it seesawed out of sight and into darkness. He then lay back with his hands and fingers locked behind his head as a makeshift pillow, and mused about things that didn’t matter, of anything that would simply rush the moment of time.
    He thought about women.
    He thought about riches.
    And he mired himself with romantic fantasies as he closed his eyes and brought his lips up into a measure of a smile.
    Pleasant images rolled through his mind, creating vivid dreamscapes of summer nights where sunset skies were red and orange and mauve, where palms swayed on white-sandy beaches as creamy tides rolled softly in.
    The sound of cicadas lulled him, a soft melody, almost dreamy.
    Then it suddenly became a loud disharmonious chattering of teeth. But they weren’t teeth at all.
    Mandibles clapped together in metered tapping, the pace quickening and growing towards a crescendo.
    Kaya’s dreamscape shattered like the myriad pieces of a kaleidoscope, the images and bright colors became fragmented, and then disappeared all together as true darkness swallowed him whole.
    He quickly gained his feet and snapped on his shoulder lamp.
    From the upper edges of the room an oily darkness that was blacker than black began to slide down the funnel-shaped floor and toward the choke point. Carapaces shined against the light, the shells possessing a natural polish to them.
    And Kaya found himself pushed to the edge of the abyss, the inky mass hoarding in with mandibles clacking, striking, the noise growing to deafening heights.
    So Kaya lowered his lip microphone . . .
    . . . and called out to anyone who would hear his pleas.
     
    #
    “ Mulazim awwal Demir! ”
    Demir lowered his lip microphone. “Go!”
    “ Demir, the floor . . . it’s . . . ” Then a long trail of white noise.
    “Kaya!”
    “ The floor, Dem . . . ir . . . the floor . . . is . . . alive! ”
    Demir cocked his head. What? Then: “Repeat?”
    “ The floor . . . is alive .”
    Alyssa fell into Savage, who corralled her close with a sweep of his arm. They both knew that Kaya was a dead man. Whenever Eden came alive, the odds were usually for the house and against the player. 
    “Kaya!”
    “ No . . . where to go . . . no . . . Deeeeemiiiiiiiiir . . .”
    Then there was a long and anguishing scream of complete agony that was summarily cut off by a constant stream of radio static.
    “Kaya! . . . KAYA!”
    There was nothing but rolling static.
    Demir raised his lip microphone and cast his eyes to the floor.
    He sighed: Kaya . . .
    Then he allowed himself a moment of undisturbed quiet, acknowledging the loss of Kaya with a quick prayer, and then with subdued emotion, he said, “He said the floor was alive.” He faced off with Alyssa. “What does that mean?”
    She sounded sorrowful, almost apologetic for his loss. “One of two things,” she said. “It could mean that he might have triggered something within the room, causing it to change . . .”
    “Or?”
    She swallowed. “Or because there was something else in the room with him, which is the most likely scenario.” She then looked ceilingward. “And it appears that it’s coming our way.”
    In unison everyone looked up, as if to spy the glimpse of the shape that