My heart stopped.
"Chloe."
The flashlight bleached Kevin's face a ghostly white. A strange smile hung on his lips, like a vengeful ghost from beyond the grave.
My brain buzzed, and my lips wouldn't stop trembling. "Are you alive or dead?"
He gently pushed my flashlight hand aside. "Chloe, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."
I seriously suspected Kevin had some Japanese blood — the man never stopped apologizing.
My heart had taken so many hits today I was surprised it still beat at all.
I punched him in the arm, only to find my own hand had gone weak.
"Do you have a death wish? How many times are you going to scare me?!"
Then something bubbled up in my chest — a rush of joy I couldn't contain. I laughed out loud.
Kevin was alive. Thank god.
The fact that he'd survived was the only good news all day.
Marcus poked his head out from behind me, his grin stretching ear to ear.
He threw his arms around Kevin. "Kevin!! How'd you escape?"
Kevin smiled and patted Marcus's arm. "That thing was too fast. I fell into a hole, but I grabbed the edge and hauled myself out. Ran for it."
"I don't know where I ended up, but finding you guys is great."
He said it was great, but his face betrayed no real excitement.
Marcus and I were too swept up in the relief of reunion to notice.
"You took this path too? I thought this direction looked better."
He kept his head low, frost-dusted hair falling across his face, his expression unreadable in the dim light.
"Yeah!" Marcus babbled. "We did rock-paper-scissors. Chloe won, so we went right!"
"Did you?"
Kevin smiled.
His face was so pale — not just pale, corpselike. It reminded me of those bloated, preserved things in the jars.
A chill ran through me without reason.
In the darkness, his voice was so soft I almost couldn't hear.
"Chloe, your luck really is something."
"Chloe, what's in your bag?" Kevin suddenly asked, frowning.
Something made me instinctively tug Marcus closer. "Nothing special. We just have Professor Marshall's pack."
"Oh." Kevin nodded and didn't press further.
The three of us walked together through the cramped ice tunnel.
Kevin took the lead.
"Kevin," I ventured, "do you know what those creatures are?"
Kevin's stride faltered slightly.
"No idea. Maybe Marcus was right about subterranean humans."
"Or maybe this place leads straight to hell, and the monsters from hell crawled out."
His tone was light, but there was an edge of ice beneath it.
I shuddered involuntarily.
Hell? For the people who'd been used as experimental subjects, this place probably was hell.
Except the demons weren't monsters — they were humans far worse than any demon.
At several forks, Kevin chose directions without consulting us, guiding us with quiet certainty.
I asked carefully, "Kevin, how are you picking which way to go?"
Kevin considered. "Chloe, none of us know the way. Going anywhere is the same, right?"
"My luck's always been pretty good. Follow me and maybe we'll get out."
Something felt off.
Kevin showed no hesitation about which path to take. He moved through these tunnels with an ease that was too natural, too familiar.
It was as if... he'd been here before.
At the next intersection, I pointed in the opposite direction from Kevin's choice.
"Kevin, my luck's decent too. Let's go this way."
Kevin had always been easygoing. He never argued with us about anything.
This time was no different. He turned to look at me, his eyes curving.
"Sure."
"I'll follow your lead."
I exhaled in quiet relief.
Good. Kevin wasn't like Professor Marshall — he wasn't trying to lure us somewhere specific.
I was probably being paranoid. Professor Marshall had made me suspicious of everyone.
Honestly, we'd been together for two years. How could I doubt a fellow student?
I managed a lighter smile. "Let's go."
The three of us pressed on. In the cold and dark, we completely lost track of time, and our feet had gone almost entirely numb.
I grew more and more exhausted. More drowsy.
My eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached. I could fall asleep standing up.
"I can't!" I waved my hand. "I need to rest. I can't walk anymore!"
Crushing fatigue nearly swallowed me whole. A sense of helplessness rose within, my legs completely drained of strength.
Was there any point in walking?
Would we actually find an exit?
I felt like we were going deeper. If we were going to freeze to death regardless, I'd rather rest than die of exhaustion.
But this time, Kevin didn't indulge me.
He looked ahead and said softly, "Hold on a little longer."
The rest of his sentence was too quiet to hear. Something about:
"We're almost there."
"What? What did you say?"
"Nothing. Chloe, just a bit further. Maybe we'll be out soon."
I pursed my lips but had no choice but to keep following Kevin.
After a bit more walking, a faint light appeared ahead.
My heart quickened. My feet moved faster without conscious thought.
Marcus saw it too. "Is that — is that the way out?!"
I didn't answer, but hope swelled in my chest.
What other source of light could there be in this underground ice?
It had to be sunlight from outside. This was definitely the way out!
In an instant, exhaustion, cold, and fear vanished. We practically jogged toward that sliver of hope.
But when we reached the light, we found it emanating from a hole in the ground.
The opening was about a meter wide, glowing with an eerie white luminescence.
My hope evaporated like water on a hot skillet. I stood there in stunned silence.
This light was absolutely not natural.
And natural light certainly wouldn't come from below ground.
The three of us hesitated at the edge, staring at each other.
"What do we do?" I spoke first. "Do we go down?"
Marcus didn't say anything. He looked to Kevin.
Kevin didn't hesitate. "Let's go down. There's light — maybe there's a clue to getting out."
Actually, I didn't want to follow Kevin's suggestion.
Something about him unsettled me.
Marcus and I had been scared out of our wits, but Kevin hadn't shown the slightest trace of fear.
He moved through here like he owned the place, always saying odd things.
Not to mention he'd been captured by a monster and came back unharmed, moving faster than we did.
Now he wanted to go down, and I had a feeling something terrible was waiting below.
I thought for a moment, then stepped back. "I don't think we should."
"What if there are more monsters down there?"
Kevin nodded and also stepped back.
"You make a good point. Then let's—"
I saw the horror on Marcus's face. He reached out toward me. "Chloe—"
A tremendous force hit me from behind!
I was shoved hard into the hole!
In the split second before I fell, I heard Kevin's voice — the malice he could no longer contain.
"Chloe, you need to go down."
"'Mother' needs you."
Mother?
I fell through the void, mind blank: What mother? Whose mother?
Kevin's mother came too?
Didn't see her.
My brain was tangled knots — or perhaps entirely empty.
But soon I had no capacity left for thought.
Below the opening was an underground space more than ten times larger than the ice plaza above. I shot out of the tunnel like a cannonball, plummeting toward the ground!
A fall from this height would break at least eight or nine ribs — maybe kill me outright!
I squeezed my eyes shut. I'm dead!
I braced for the crushing impact, but instead hit something soft and spongy.
It was whitish, like cotton waste, a limp, yielding mass. I bounced once without feeling any pain at all.
Where did cotton waste come from underground? I reached down to feel it, about to stand up.
"Move!!!"
A roar came from above. I didn't even think — I rolled to the side—
Marcus slammed into the ground an inch from me like a human asteroid, letting out a grunt.