I jerked my knee up hard, pulling my leg toward the rest of my body, just as the beast’s jaws snapped shut. Had I hesitated, even a fraction of a second, it would have had me in its death-like grip, and I would have been dragged back down the escape tunnel, back into the Chamber of the Golden Sky…and at that point, I would have met my certain doom. Adjusting my position, I pushed my shoulder hard against the backside of fellow fleer, D’Rontré Williams, trying to get higher into the tunnel. “Move your asses!” I yelled, half crazed with terror. “I’m doing the best I can, Judy!” Sylvester Brown yelled back from the darkness above me. “I didn’t know you’d have me spelunking tonight, so I’m not wearing the right shoes! For a gay man, you are horrible at planning!” As we climbed higher, I looked up to see Sylvester struggling to keep his grip on the slick walls. This was made more difficult by D’Rontré frantically pushing at his thin frame, urging him to go faster. It also didn’t help that D’Rontré was screaming in fear, sounding somewhere between madman and eight year old girl. Between the man’s screams, I could hear the low, primeval growls of the beast and its companions, accompanied by the thrashing of armored flesh against the rusty steel walls of the tunnel. The beasts were trying to get into the passageway…the beasts were trying to get their dinner…the beasts were trying to get us. Unsure of how far we had climbed, I shifted my attention downward, seeing if I could spy whether or not the tunnel entrance had been breached by one or more of the beasties. In the pit of my stomach I was hoping they were too large to fit…maybe we could get away…maybe…. “Hand me the torch,” I nudged D’Rontré. “And shut the fuck up!” The man covered his mouth with one hand, as he passed the torch down with the other. He hadn’t stopped screaming, just muffled the sounds. Wedging my body against the ancient, metal walls so that I would not slip, I stretched my arm out as far as it would go, plunging the shaft of the torch into the darkness like a primitive spotlight, hoping the light would reach far enough down the tunnel to show just how much danger we were in. I was shaking slightly, terrified of what I might see…. Wait…. A flash of red in the darkness…. A horrible, bulbous red eye, sitting atop an armored hide of pinkish-white skin. One of the beasts had managed to get partway into the tunnel…well, its head, at least. The tip of the creature’s nose was only a few feet from me…one wrong move, and I was dead. The beast opened its mouth, releasing a menacing hiss. “Fuck me,” I muttered under my breath. The beast lunged at the fiery tip of the torch, snapping its massive jaws so loudly it sounded like a gunshot. In fear, I instinctively drew my hand back to my body, dropping the torch in the process. The tip of the flaming stick struck the creature’s head, causing the beast to jerk violently, and pull out of the tunnel completely. I watched in horror as the torch hit the soggy soil of the chamber below, and in an instant, was extinguished. We were plunged into pitch blackness. At this point, all three of us were screaming like madmen….

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