With the leaves finally falling, I decided to write down what happened last autumn. I know my family has demanded answers all year and most people have created a distance when I refused to give them. What I saw would simply not be believed. I risked them locking me up for ‘my own good’ if they knew the truth. I needed to be free, to prepare for this year. I refuse to give up on the hope my son is still out there. I hope this provides some warning for others.
Two years ago, my wife left for no reason I could understand. She was just gone the one day leaving our son behind. As kids do, he blamed himself. He was only five, how could he just accept he’d never see her again? We pushed through it the best we could. After a year he finally seemed to be dealing with her missing in our lives.
It was hard becoming a single parent, but that doesn’t mean I regret it. I love my son more than anything. I gladly picked up the extra shifts and made sacrifices for him. Last year we planned his Trick-or-treating route unaware he wouldn’t be able to enjoy Halloween as expected.
I had a rare day off on a perfect autumn day. It wasn’t too chilly; the wind blew through the trees. Everything looked so golden. Carson played in the backyard without a care in the world. I needed to clean the massive number of leaves in the yard, so I asked him to help. He enjoyed being useful, even if he wasn’t. By the end of our chore, we had amassed a huge pile. And what should you do with a pile of leaves? Carefully toss your son into them.
He giggled until his face was red. I tossed him a few times to see his little body squirming with joy. He decided to see how high he could jump on his own. I watched his small legs do an awkward running jump, and him tackle the pile. I heard the giggles for a second, then a sound no parent ever wants to hear. A scream for help.
For some reason, the scream sounded too far away. I stood shocked for a second, which was far too long. I dove in, my hands out looking for him. My hands felt nothing, my body lurching forward. I tossed aside leaves to see the most confusing sight my brain didn’t understand. There was a hole so dark and deep I couldn’t see the bottom of it. There was no way this had been there a second before.
I didn’t care the reason the hole appeared, only that my son was down there. I carefully put my legs over the edge, calling for him and saying that I was on the way. I let myself drop down, my brain a mess and not thinking clearly. All I wanted was to see if my son was alright.
I lost track of time. The air felt hot and suffocating. I had no control over my body as I fell. When I did hit the ground, I expected it to kill me. Instead, I landed on something soft and slightly warm. To say it felt disgusting was an understatement. I reached into my pocket for my phone to find it was not there. I cursed myself for leaving it to charge inside the house before I started to rake leaves.
I took a moment to look around. The walls were made of thick tangles fleshy vines. The vines quickly closed over the hole I dropped from causing my only path to be forward. I didn’t see any sign of my son. An odd almost tangy smell hovered in the air. My eyes took a few minutes to get adjusted to the light as I stumbled along the uneven ground. I knew it wasn’t wise, but I shouted for Carson hoping he would hear me.
First, I needed to find him, then I could figure out where the hell I ended up and how to get out of here. As I moved, the walls got closer until I was just barely squeezing by. The vines made my skin crawl. I swore I felt some sort of pulse go through them when I pressed on through the narrow pathways.
The path opened into two options. I stood debating on what to do. I didn’t have anything to mark the way with. If I picked the wrong way, I risked never getting back here again. Which way did Carson go? I shouted his name again down each tunnel. I waited for an answer and then shouted again.
A noise came after I paused calling for him. I held my breath hoping he finally heard me. Instead of a familiar voice a gurgling noise echoed down the right pathway. I strained my eyes to see what could be the cause. Something started to come into focus. A figure not entirely human, but not like any kind of animal I’ve ever seen. Just as I started to take a step closer, a hand wrapped around my wrist making me jump.
“What the hell-” I started as I struggled to get my hand back.
Something shot out from the darkness. The stranger that came out of nowhere moved faster than I could see. He caught the whip that nearly took my head off, then cut it with a very large knife. The thing in the darkness let out a screech. I didn’t need any more convincing or prodding. When the man started to run down the left pathway, I was right behind him.
Or at least, mostly right behind him. I struggled to move as fast as he did. I nearly twisted my ankle a few times trying to run across the lumpy ground. At least he was decent enough to let me catch up.
He stopped inside a larger room with at least ten different openings to different paths. I gasped for air as he waited for me to recover.
“What the hell?! Just in general.” I said, my face still red from running so hard.
I looked the stranger over. He was taller than me and well-built. His eyes were a steel grey that matched his hair. A small pack was strapped to his waist. Aside from a water bottle and his knife, he was light on supplies.
“Little voice.” He replied in such a thick accent it was almost hard to understand.
I found someone who might be able to help and yet we might have issues because of a language barrier. I figured he wanted me to talk lower so whatever we ran into before didn’t find us.
“I’m looking for my son. He’s seven. Looks like me. Have you seen him?” I half whispered.
The man was in the middle of turning away from me when I spoke. He paused to consider my question. At least he seemed to understand what I was saying. Finally, he shook his head which hurt my chest.
“I need to find him. I don’t care about anything else. Can you help? You act like you know what’s happening.”
He shook his head. I wasn’t sure if he just didn’t want to talk or knew as much as I did. I heard a sound from down one of the tunnels. The man started to jog away and I followed him. The damp air made it hard to breathe as we moved along. I desperately wanted answers. In the back of my mind, I thought this was all a dream. Maybe I hit my head when I jumped into the pile of leaves. But if I treated it as a dream, then I would doom myself if it was really awake.
We silently moved along and thankfully we didn’t come across any more of those creatures. I started to notice scraps of fabric tied to the fleshy vines that made up the walls. This man must have marked his way. Just how long had he been here?
At some point, the tunnels became so dark it was nearly impossible to see. The stranger didn’t appear to have any issues. He silently made me hold onto the back of his shirt, so I didn’t get lost, which was a bit embarrassing. We stopped at another fork in the tunnels. One pathway was marked. For some reason, we went into the opening that didn’t have a piece of clothing as a marker.
I kept my eyes open for any signs of my son. I wondered if I should have just stayed in one spot waiting for him to find me. If I did that, would one of those creatures find me first?
Soon we came across something that showed just how dangerous this place was. A dim light sat on the floor of the tunnel we started along. A battery-powered lantern cast a weak light, alone and forgotten. I doubted the body near it was the person who owned the lantern at some point. But there was no sign of who left it behind. The rot and wear on the body showed they had been down here for a long time. The closer we got, the more the smell grew. I looked away, not wanting to see the dead. My stomach turned at the sight.
The man didn’t stop. He walked over to start searching the body for anything useful. I was horrified but understood why he did so. I turned my eyes back to see him pull out a small gun from the half-rotten coat. The small weapon looked like a toy. The metal a bright blue. The man removed part of the gun and it appeared it had a spot for a USB cable or something of the sort. Did the gun light up or something like that? Why bring a toy here?
Even though the gun was useless, he still put it away in his small pack. He retrieved a small knife which was better than nothing. But he also found a notebook that had somehow avoided the rot. He was going to leave it behind but paused. He handed the notebook to me, which I accepted fairly confused about how this may be helpful.
The cover had some sort of company symbol I didn’t recognize. I felt disappointed when I opened the book to see a language I also didn’t know. It almost appeared like English making me assume it was written in some sort of code. A bit of writing almost looked like 2136 was at the top of the page. But if I squinted the scratches could have been anything.
“I can’t make sense of this. Hey, is it safe to head back to where we came from? I really need to find my son.” I pressed as I dropped the book back to the ground.
He stared at me with a stone-cold gaze that gave nothing away.
“What’s your name? I’m Mark.” I said as I held out my hand.
Since we met in such a frantic manner, we didn’t have a chance to talk. I thought that maybe getting to know him better would make him listen to my request.
“Ivan.” He said and started back down where we came from.
I collected the lantern. I found a scrap of fabric to tie the handle to my belt loop, so I had my hands free.
“Are you from Russia?” I questioned as we walked.
“Ukraine.” He replied then refused to say more.
Since this was a year ago, I didn’t understand the difference between the two countries. We kept our eyes out for signs of the creature we encountered and for my son. This place felt endless. No matter how long we walked, it didn’t seem as if we made any progress. I started to get thirsty. A horrible fact dawned on me, there was nothing to eat or drink down here. Couldn’t a person only live for three days without water? If Ivan was still alive, he either had only been here for two days or knew where to get something to drink. I put the issue to the back of my mind to focus on looking for Carson.
We came across a new body. As Ivan searched for something useful my face got hot. We weren’t heading back to where we came from since we hadn’t seen this body yet.
“I thought we were going back to look for my son.” I hissed trying to whisper.
I was mostly ignored. Ivan paused to point at a patch on the dead man’s jacket as if that meant something.
“Same.” He said but that didn’t mean anything to me.
So what if both bodies were from the same group? What did that have to do with anything?
“My son is very young. He’s all alone and scared. I need to get to him as soon as possible. Whatever you’re looking for can wait.” I said, my tone rising.
Ivan shushed me which didn’t calm my anger in the slightest.
“If you told me what’s going on or what you’re looking for I could help! Whatever it is can’t be more important than-”
He didn’t need to warn me about my voice being too loud. A sudden hot flash came from my shoulder causing me to stumble forwards. I turned on my heel nearly tripping on the uneven ground. Blood started to soak my shirt showing I had been cut by something. In the darkness of the tunnel, more of those creatures waited. They howled, each voice echoing down the tunnel causing my blood to turn cold.
“We need to get the hell out of here!” I shouted ready to run.
For some reason, Ivan didn’t get up from the body. He still looked for something in the pockets. Soon the creatures came into view. They looked like human figures made up of those fleshy vines that covered everywhere else. One of those vines snapped outwards missing my face by a hair.
I started moving while I begged Ivan to come with me. He found what he was looking for just as the hoard of monsters charged forward. He stood up, the ridiculous plastic gun in hand. He didn’t flinch as he pulled the trigger.
A blast of light shot out, burning away the entire tunnel. The creatures were gone in a flash of white leaving nothing behind. The walls of vines were nothing but a charred mass. A terrible roar echoed through the tunnels that nearly deafened my ears. Within seconds more vines came to cover the damaged areas. I stood; mouth open in shock over what I just saw.
“Body, one shot. Lucky.” Ivan said, his voice as steady as ever.
“But… how… what…”
I didn’t add much to the conversation. I just followed behind him as we started to move. He let me take some time to think over what I just witnessed.
“Where are we?” I finally asked.
I didn’t expect him to answer but he did.
“Stomach.”
That horrible thought sank in. I ended up in the belly of a beast. Not just myself but poor Carson as well. What kind of beast? This was more like hell than the stomach of a monster.
“What year?” Ivan asked.
I shook my head not understanding his question.
“2022.” I answered unsure of why that was important.
“2035.”
His reply made me stop in my tracks. He also stopped studying my expression. I didn’t want to believe him, but I also didn’t want to admit I was stuck inside a monster that appeared out of nowhere. If I hadn’t seen that gun wipe out so many creatures, I wouldn’t have believed him. He had gotten stuck in the same monster but from years into the future. Not only that, but people with far more advanced tech also ended up here. And they died. I wondered why someone would have died with one shot left in such an impressive weapon. Then I realized he might have been able to avoid the monsters but not the lack of water.
I took a deep breath gathering myself after everything I learned in such a short amount of time.
“Ok. I have answers now, I just need to focus on two things. Finding my son and getting us out of here.”
My goal stayed the same. As long as I was alive, I refused to give up on him. Ivan raised an eyebrow giving the most amount of emotion I’ve seen from him.
“Think boy Is alive?” He said but his tone wasn’t cruel.
“Yes. No matter what, he’s alive. The moment I think otherwise is when he’s truly dead. Besides, from all I’ve seen so far, there are some good signs saying he’ll be fine. There are other people here, right? If he meets one of those guys with a gun, he’ll be safe. I’m sure of it.”
I know people would call me delusional. I still refused to believe anything happened to my son unless I saw his body for myself. If I accepted there was no chance for him, that’s it. There would be no reason for me to keep going.
“Yes. Good.”
Ivan appeared to be on my side. We walked for what seemed like hours. I think Ivan took breaks for my sake. He appeared to be the type of person to just keep going non-stop. We arrived where I thought I had shown up but with everything looking the same I wasn’t certain. We found no traces of a child had come through here. I considered that Carson was dropped off somewhere else. That somehow the entrance I fell inside had more than one opening.
I finally needed a real break. My body refused to move for much longer unless I got some sleep. Without a working watch, we had no way of knowing how much time passed. Ivan said I should sleep first. He kept watch. When he woke me, I barely felt any better. He trusted me enough to keep watch long enough for him to rest. I think he was only asleep for an hour at most. This man was built far differently than me.
As we traveled, he rarely spoke. He pointed to the scraps of fabric using a few words to explain which knot meant the tunnel was safe. I thought it was impossible to keep track of the tunnels. Somehow, he memorized so many different paths.
He stopped in front of one opening marked with two scraps.
“Very bad. Never go.” He warned.
My skin prickled as my mind raced thinking about just how awful this place could get. And because he warned me meant he thought we might be separated at some point. He led us down an unmarked tunnel for us to find another one of those creatures. Ivan went into action. Within seconds his knife hacked away at the monster’s face until all the vines stopped moving. Thank God he was on my side.
I started to worry the rest of my life would just be following him and standing back as he took care of the threats. More hours passed without any progress. I needed to rest again. When I woke up, I was more exhausted than before I slept.
“I need something to drink. Do you have any water?” I asked.
Not once had I watched him drink from his water bottle. He shook his head and even shook the bottle showing it was empty. I groaned as fear set into my stomach. If I didn’t get something to drink soon, I would end up as one of those bodies we found. Silently Ivan went over to the walls knife in hand. He sliced the flesh open holding his water bottle under the wound. The small cut closed over in under a minute, but he collected enough of the clear pinkish liquid. My stomach turned from hunger and disgust.
“Is that safe to drink?” I asked.
He took a few moments to find the right words.
“Yes. Little sips. Big sips, body is them.”
He tapped his knife against the fleshy wall. My head started to spin over what he said. Those creatures we faced had been people at some point? If we got desperate enough to consume parts of the prison we found ourselves in, we risked becoming a part of it. The cut on my shoulder stung, and my throat hurt like hell. My body needed to eat and drink something soon. I still shook my head refusing the idea.
“I can go without for a little bit longer.”
I didn’t know how much longer, but I needed to put off drinking that horrible liquid for as long as possible.
Ivan agreed but he didn’t dump out his water bottle. He just strapped it back to his waist ready to go. I thought he needed to rest but he refused. At that moment I didn’t know what kept him so motivated. Now I think he wanted to find Carson just as much as I did.
I lost track of time down there. I knew it hadn’t been three days just yet. I was starting to lose the battle against not drinking from the walls. Ivan started to give me concerned looks over his shoulder. He kept the knife in his hand. I soon figured out that wasn’t in case we came across more monsters. He was ready to put me out of my misery if it got to that point. I considered the fact I wasn’t the first person he needed to take care of.
A sound echoed against the walls. I stopped in my tracks. My body prickled with energy again. That wasn’t the voice of the creatures, it was the small cry of a child. I bolted in the direction, Ivan shouting at me to stop. His voice nearly got through to me. I kept running even after I saw that the sounds were coming from a pathway that had been marked with two scraps of fabric. It wasn’t the first path Ivan warned me about. There had been a few of these dangerous tunnels we passed by. Soon I started tripping over bones and half rotten bodies. Again, I didn’t care. I heard the single word that kept me going.
“Daddy!”
I didn’t see Carson, but I knew his voice. A body rose from the ground, face torn and filled with vines. I kicked it as hard as I could to keep it down. The lantern I tied to my pants hit the back of my leg hard as I ran. I was still thankful for it. I turned it on to see better in the dark tunnel. My heart stopped when I saw the first dead end I’d come across in this place. At the end was Carson, crying and surrounded by those monsters.
I screamed at them, drawing their attention in my direction. My son wailed from fear. I didn’t blame him. My knees shook seeing all those creatures facing towards me. A vine shot out catching my arm. I fought through the pain to get free. Within seconds more of those vines came down lashing at my exposed skin. I covered my face with my arms, so they took most of the damage. When the creatures paused in their attacks, I looked up long enough to see my son leaning into a small hole in the wall that hadn’t been there before.
“Carson!” I shouted at him.
He met my eyes and hesitated. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he turned to run. My little boy disappeared into the new opening. It was a smart move but it hurt to see. I forced myself to charge forward. I punched the first creature as hard as I could. The thing went down but two more took its place. I turned into an animal. Thrashing, screaming, and fighting for my life. I used the lantern as a blunt object. I’m certain I killed one of those monsters after bringing it down into their face repeatedly.
Those monsters screeched backing up. I wasn’t going to win this fight even if they were now a little scared of me.
“Move!”
I listened to that order just in time. Another blast of light came from down the tunnel, cleaning out the remaining creatures in front of me. The entire area shook as a massive rumbling scream tore through the air. I looked up to see Ivan racing towards me. He must have searched the bodies I ignored when I ran past them to find one more shot. My heart sank when I saw more of those creatures behind him. So many were on his heels they filled the entire tunnel. He reached me and grabbed my arm. He hauled me to my feet to drag me back to the dead end.
“The boy?” He asked out of breath.
“He was here. He went into a new pathway that closed.” I explained as I was dragged backward.
“Good.”
For the first time Ivan smiled. I may have found Carson alive, but we were facing too many of those creatures. I looked over my shoulder seeing something I hadn’t noticed before. The blast tore open a hole just large enough for us to fit inside, but it was rapidly closing. An opening that had specked sunlight coming through.
“Go. Live for son.”
I felt his large hand on my chest. With a push, he shoved me backward into the opening. I felt my body falling downwards as I reached for him. I couldn’t leave him behind like this. But I had no control over what just happened.
I tumbled out of a pile of leaves, the clean air filling my lungs. I scrambled back to the pile the moment my body let me move to look for the hole. No matter how hard I looked, it wasn’t there. I was covered in injuries and dehydrated. I didn’t have much strength left, and yet I pounded my fists on the cool grass. Tears flooded my vision as I thought of Carson and Ivan alone in such a terrible place.
I calmed down and went inside. After I grabbed my cell phone, I froze not knowing what to say. No one would believe me. Not only that, but I saw just how long I was missing. Three minutes.
The gears started to turn in my head. If I was down there for days and yet it was only three minutes out here, then how long was a full year? Could Carson and Ivan live that long?
I put my phone back down. After treating my wounds as best as I could, I headed back outside looking for another strange hole. I must have been in shock. I stayed outside for a full day wandering, looking for something I never found.
Almost a year has passed since that day. There isn’t a single moment I don’t think of those two. I reported my son missing. There was no proof I harmed him, so the police didn’t arrest me. There were a lot of questions though.
I started working out. If I had been just stronger and faster, then maybe I could have reached Carson in time.
I haven’t been able to dig up any kind of details about the horrors I encountered. But I have noticed an increase in missing pets lately. A little girl who lived on this block went missing two days ago. Her father said he looked away from the yard for a few moments. Everyone assumes she was taken by someone but I know better.
I’ve used every moment for the past year to prepare for this. I know that my son is alive. I know I’m going to find another hole to be able to save him. I’m positive about all of this.
After all, the moment I give up on hope is when he really dies.