“Yeah, okay,” he said. There was a hint of relief in his voice, like he too had been waiting for an excuse to get away from the canyon.
Their feet still on the sunken shelf of dirt, Jason and Stephanie stood up. When they did, Jason felt the ground begin to sink away from him. For a split second he had a chance to turn and leap away, but he saw Stephanie lose her balance and fall forward.
He tried to grab her, and in doing so lost his chance.
Jason remembered hearing Bradley and Frederick’s yells receding above, and the feeling of falling. He and Stephanie were still on a flat section of ground but that ground was sliding down into the canyon. The falling sensation ended for a moment and then he was face-first in the mud, and still they were sliding. The only thought going through his mind was a kind of wonder, thinking with certainty that he was now going to die.
It seemed to go on and on. Jason had plenty of time to reflect on what was happening. The section of dirt slowed a bit and hit something, which split it into sections and made it disintegrate. Still they continued downward, rolling now, mingling with the damp soil. They crashed through some dark, slippery branches and plunged tumbling into warm water.
Dirt was still coming down on top of Jason while he was underwater, but then the current carried him away from the slide.
He was thrashing and kicking, not knowing which way was up, not knowing how to swim. Never in his life had Jason been in water deeper than a bathtub. He had no idea what to do.
His knees scraped rock and he pushed up, breaking surface. He gasped for breath and looked around in terror. He could see clearly – the mist was above him. It hung like a ceiling several meters over the water, and below that the air was crystal clear.
He could see black plants, water, and boulders. He grabbed desperately at the boulder near him before the current could pull him away, and crawled on top of it. It was rounded and smooth, very unlike the porous and abrasive rocks he was used to – it stuck out like a little island about seven meters from the West bank. Jason sat, hugging his knees, not knowing what to do. He couldn’t believe he was still alive.
Then he realized he was alone. “Stephanie!” he shouted.
A ghostly imitation of his voice called back: “…
Stephanie … Stephanie … Stephanie …” It was his echo, but he’d never heard one before. It scared him and kept him silent, thinking that the monsters were mimicking him. Indeed, far across the water, near the opposite bank, Jason could see long dark shapes moving against the current. The sight made him shudder, and he remembered what his father had told him: “If the fall into the canyon doesn’t kill you, the monsters certainly will.”
He looked around frantically, wanting to get away from the water and up onto the bank. It didn’t look possible, as the rocks didn’t lead to it, and the water looked deep. He glanced back toward where he’d fallen in, and only saw dark rubbery plants.
Despite his fears, he called out Stephanie’s name once again.
Again the echoes came back to haunt him. There was no reply, and she was nowhere in sight.
There was a loud splash, and Jason turned to see a long black figure in the water next to the rock. Five times as long as Jason was tall, it slid through the water with an eerie undulating movement, two bulging eyes protruding from the water each the size of a grown man’s fist. The eyes were black on black, with no hint of pupil. It came edging against the current toward the rock where Jason was huddled. Jason screamed and leaped headlong away from it, jumping as far as he could toward shore. He floundered in the water, splashing, keeping his head above the surface. The current helped, carrying him closer. He managed to catch hold of a rubbery plant and pull himself to the bank, scrambling out of the water.
Tiny, multi-legged animals skittered away from him, and a couple odd-looking things with spring-loaded tails launched themselves into the air. The gooey mud and the plants smelled horrible, but Jason scrambled through them without a thought. It was all a desperate tangle until he stumbled into what looked like a pathway made by something very large. There were thousands of huge claw marks in the mud at his feet.
Jason called out once again for Stephanie, and followed the path back toward the place they’d come sliding down the canyon wall. It was easy enough to find. The plants were all torn up and half buried, the path wiped out entirely. Jason searched through the mud and the plants and looked out across the river, but saw no sign of her. He turned around and headed downstream, hoping to find her there.
Every once in a while he called out her name, learning to ignore the ghostly echoes that followed. The path led up and away from the river, up into the mist. The mist slowed him down. At one point the path widened and he stopped, peering through the swirling white. The path split and lead two ways, one heading down to the water, one up toward the canyon wall. Jason chose the path that lead toward the water.
The rush of the water grew particularly loud, but above it Jason heard something odd. It was a high, hard snorting sound. He stopped, turning around and staring through the mist. It was there, a looming shadow in the path, a huge head on a long thin neck with thick, whisker-like feelers. The body stretched out into the mists and disappeared, too big to see all at once.
Snorting air through nostrils at the top of its head, it moved forward, feelers tapping at the ground and waving in the air in front of it. Jason gave off one startled yell and ran headlong down the path toward the river. At one point he stumbled and fell in the mud, and while scrambling to his feet chanced a look behind him. The creature was following, waving the feelers blindly in front of itself. Jason had a sudden inspiration and jumped headlong through the plants, away from the path, and up against a large rounded boulder. Pressing against the boulder he waited, hardly daring to breathe. He could see the beast through the tangle of glistening black branches. It continued on past, waving its feelers and moving along with a bobbing motion, it’s serpentine body going on and on. The legs were thick but short, and Jason saw the long, bony claws that had made all the tracks.
Each claw was as big as his arm. By the time the body was past, he had counted five pairs of legs. The tail was held up in the air, away from the ground, and had a long ridged fin.
After it had passed, Jason cautiously made his way back out to the path and followed along behind it, ready to turn and run if the beast stopped. His fear had diminished considerably, as he thought of the creature as stupid and probably blind. It was big, though, and that made him feel comfortable. He couldn’t imagine anything attacking it. Walking behind the big dumb creature was probably the safest place he could be.
As Jason neared the river he passed below the mist line, and for the first time he saw the whole creature at once. The sight chilled him. It was twice as big as his house.
The monster walked in its serpentine way down to shore and plunged into the water, disappearing under the surface. Jason stood as close as he dared to the spot it had gone in, then realized he was out in the open, and turned to walk back toward the foliage. His foot caught on something and he tripped, and as he stood back up he looked to see what had tripped him. It was a metal cable, half-buried in the mud.
He stared at it, concentrating. It was part of the fence. It looked like one of the creatures had gotten tangled in it and pulled it down into the canyon. Jason followed it with his eyes down to the water, saw it had been haphazardly strewn about here and there, then saw something that made him shout. Stephanie was out in the river, clinging to the fence.
Jumping into the warm, dark water, he pulled himself along the fence out to where she was. The nearer he got to her, however, the less he liked what he saw. Only an arm and a leg were out of the water, and as he reached her he realized she wasn’t clinging to the fence at all. The current was holding her pressed up against it. Jason grabbed her arm and pulled her head out of the water, grimacing as it lolled about, liquid dripping out of her open mouth and nose. “Stephanie?” he said.