The Time of The Cat 34

CARLSBAD

Liz and I came out into a dark cave. The place echoed weirdly when we spoke and even more so when Jefferson let out a meow. We immediately reduced our volume to whispers in case there was something lurking in the darkness that might hear us.

We couldn’t see anything and it really freaked us out for a moment. Then I remembered that I still had one of the high-intensity lasers in a belt clip. I pulled it and adjusted it to its broadest beam, shining it around to examine our surroundings.

There was no doubt that we were in a cave. There were stalagmites rising from the floor with corresponding stalactites pointing down from overhead. There was a large curtain-like formation in the distance and when I looked down, there were bat skeletons lying around on the floor. I could hear water dripping in the near distance and the air was a cool sixty degrees or so with high humidity.

This was a part of the cave where people didn’t normally come. There were no pathways for tourists, but after looking around for a little, we did find some strips of yellow plastic tied around stalagmites, obviously put there as markers.

We set off following from marker to marker and soon crossed the room. It was a little over one-hundred feet in width, so it didn’t take long, even though the floor was uneven and the footing was slippery. As we approached the far wall of the room, a dark hole came into view in the wall. The markers led directly to that hole.

I whispered to Liz, “Here, hold Jefferson. I’m going ahead to check that opening. It may be the way out.”

She took the cat, who’d been very quiet. I started towards the hole, when Liz quietly said, “Watch yourself! Jefferson is bristling up.”

I looked back and saw that she’d put him down and his hair was standing up on his back and his tail looked like a bottle brush.

“Get your gun out and put him down! We’re in for more spiders unless I’m misreading him.” I followed up on my instructions by pulling my splinter-shooter and readying it. I still had my .45, but I was low on ammunition and it was so confined in the cave that I was fearful of letting it off. The explosion would have probably deafened both of us.

Liz pulled her splinter gun and started to unsling the eraser gun which she’d been carrying since we entered the cavern. I motioned her to stay there and observed that Jefferson was crouched at her feet, trying to look fierce while attempting fruitlessly to keep his feet dry in the moist environment.

Listening carefully for the spiders’ clicking and rustling noise, I approached the opening. There wasn’t a sound.

I kept close watch for moving shadows and walked closer. As I reached the dark opening, a huge shape lurched out, scrabbling in my direction while emitting a moaning, multi-toned shriek with a disconcerting beat frequency.

Liz screamed in response and at the same time Jefferson let out a screech and darted off into the darkness.

I had my splinter gun up and was poofing away, but the creature didn’t seem to be very vulnerable as some of my shots skidded off its hard carapace. We’d seen one of these things in DC and it had proven to be hard to kill there, confined in a cage as it was. This one was jumping around violently due to the splinter-gun’s toxin, but it still came toward me with evil intent. All of its movement made a killing shot right down the mouth even harder.

I backed up and dodged behind a massive stalagmite as it reached me. That was nearly a fatal mistake. It reached around both sides of the stone formation with its front appendages dripping some noxious fluid from the claw tips. I reasoned that if it were related to the spiders, the fluid would be deadly and I rapidly backed around a nearby, second stone column that was nearly as large as the first.

The thing gave up its effort to reach me and came around the first stalagmite, but it hung up as it tried to go between the two. It moaned again so loudly that I felt almost paralyzed by fright. Then it rapidly moved around the second column. As it came, I could see that my splinters had eaten holes in its carapace, but that wasn’t slowing it down.

It made a lunge at me and I jumped back. As I landed, my foot went into a hole beside the first column and I ended up flat on my back on the rocky floor. It moaned in a lower tone and moved towards me more slowly as if convinced that I couldn’t get away. As it neared me, I could see its dull eye pits focused on my chest and it raised its front legs for a killing strike.

At that juncture, Jefferson leaped out of nowhere and landed on my leg. It didn’t help that he had all of his claws out at the time, but the creature actually backed up slightly as the cat screeched his battle cry. It moaned again, louder and raised its front legs, flexing the claws back and forth. What would have happened next was mercifully forestalled by a crackling noise as the entire rear of the creature’s body dissolved.

Liz had finally gotten the eraser gun unslung and into play.

Jefferson leaped off of my leg and disappeared again as the front of the thing collapsed. It made a couple of twitches with its remaining legs and then all was still, except for the cat who was still making a throaty growling from the darkness somewhere nearby.

I shakily climbed to my feet and made a wide path around the remains of the creature.

“Keep that weapon out and ready, in case there are more of those things in here,” I managed to stammer out.

Liz let out a kind of shaky laugh and said, “Now you really owe me one.” Her voice wasn’t very steady either.

“You can collect any time,” I responded.

“I thought for a moment that I wouldn’t be able to,” she breathed. “Don’t take risks like that again!”

“Don’t be mad at me! I didn’t know the thing was going to jump out like that!” I responded.

“Well, don’t do it again, anyway!”

You simply can’t get the last word in with most women and she was one of them. I shook my head in agreement and turned to get the light.

My laser was lying on the floor, still illuminating a large part of the cavern with its bright light. I retrieved it and we circumnavigated the creature’s corpse again and approached the dark opening. As we reached the opening, Liz cried, “Jefferson!”

We couldn’t hear him any longer and no matter how much we called, he wouldn’t come. We spent a long while trying to find him, but it was no use. He’d disappeared.

We had spent more time than I thought we had, being afraid that some more Pugs would follow us through. After nearly thirty minutes we finally gave up.

I tried to reassure her, but didn’t have much luck, “He can find us anytime. Cats can see in the dark and he’s probably waiting until he feels secure. I’m sure he knows where we are.”

“Oh, Dec! He’s our kitty and he’s... This is a horrible place! I hate caves!”

She was distraught, but we had to move on, we felt like the future of the world depended on us. In my mind, I realized that if we were the world’s only hope, it had a pretty slim hope of salvation.

We both felt miserable. Losing Jefferson was, in some mysterious way, a real blow, but we couldn’t wait any longer.

After one last look around the room, we entered the dark opening.