Page 7 of Shadow of Death
Beneath her feet, she felt as if the ground changed. It had been rocky and solid. Now slippery dirt seemed to be covering it, and the ground itself seemed to be headed on a downward slope. She moved more slowly, then—only wincing slightly at the concept of the mud—she went down like a snake to slither forward.
And she was glad. The earth would have given way beneath her feet.
Amy threw the slim but powerful light she held down into the hole.
She’d seen so much.
And still...
She’d seldom seen a sight quite so horrible.
“Hunter!” she called. “Hunter, careful, it’s slick, it’s almost a trap—maybe it is a trap. Come, quickly, please!”
As she called him, she realized she’d inched closer to see better; the slick mud was taking her down. She didn’t fall. She just slid down to lie next to a body.
Her gag reflex went into motion, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t been warned earlier by the smell of death. Running her light over the muddy hole in the middle of the cave, she could see bodies were in different stages of decomposition.
Some of the dead lay with their eyes, or what remained of them, open in horror.
Some no longer had eyes. Cavernous sockets seem to stare out at her.
Hunter was there, somewhere near her. “Hey!” she called. “We need a team, Hunter. I can’t even count. I don’t know how many people are here.”
“Lord!” he exclaimed, and she could see he remained by the ledge, looking down at her. “Calling for help. I’ll be right with you,” he told her.
She was trying desperately not to breathe through her nose. She almost dropped her light; when she did so, she saw there was a woman near her. She didn’t appear to be decomposed. Amy reached over to touch her.
She was cold. For a moment, Amy thought there was no hope since the woman’s limbs were so cold.
Still, she sought a pulse at the woman’s throat.
And it was...there. Faint, but there.
“Hunter! We have a living person!”: she shouted. “I think it’s Carey Allen!”
He was back with her in seconds, sliding down the strange embankment, rolling next to her, then making it to his feet and drawing her up to hers.
“She doesn’t appear to be injured, just...”
“Finding herself here, it’s amazing she didn’t have a heart attack,” Hunter said, looking around.
“This is...really crazy. How are all these people here? They don’t appear to have been shot or stabbed, though it’s hard to tell,” Amy murmured. “The black horse,” she added thoughtfully.
“Trapped—and starved. Hunger and famine,” Hunter said.
“Starved. Oh, my God, you mean they were purposely trapped here and left to starve to death?”
He nodded. “You can tell,” he said quietly.
“Okay...”
“Amy, look at that man. Look at his leg.”
She did. Again, she fought her gag reflexes. The man’s pant leg was frayed and mostly gone. So was his flesh.
He’d been gnawed.
“Rats,” she murmured hopefully, looking at Hunter. “It’s a cave, and if not rats, Colorado is known for its wildlife. Creatures chewing on these poor people.”
