Andrew stares at the inanimate creature dwarfing him in the subterranean pit. “Hey Wade, I don’t know what this thing is, but it ain’t no car.”

“What’s it look like?”

“Like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s huge, like a giant cockroach, only it’s got big wings and a tail, with a bunch of weird tentacles sticking out all over its belly. It’s balancing upright on a pair of claws. They must be pretty hot, because the limestone’s sizzling beneath them.”

“Maybe you ought to get out of there. Come on, we’ll call the park rangers—”

“It’s okay, the thing’s not alive.” Andrew reaches out to touch one of the tentacles.

A neon blue, electromagnetic shock wave slams him backward against the far wall.

“Andrew, you okay? Andrew?”

“Yeah, man, but this sonnuva bitch is packing a serious charge. Oh, shit—” Andrew jumps back as the creature’s hydraulic, mechanical tail rises, reaching up toward the sky.

“Andrew?”

“I’m leaving, man, you don’t have to tell me twice.” The guide starts climbing up the ladder.

The amber orb along the side of the being’s upper body begins flashing, darkening to a crimson hue.

“Come on, climb faster!”

White smoke pours out from beneath the creature’s talons, filling the vertical shaft.

Wade feels himself getting dizzy. He turns around and slides, headfirst, down the slick tunnel as Andrew pulls himself up and over the ledge.

“Andrew? Andrew, you behind me?” Wade stops his inertia and shines his light back up the tunnel. He can see the guide, lying facedown in the narrow crawl space.

Carbon dioxide!

Wade reaches hack and grabs Andrew’s wrist. He drags him down through the crawl space as the rock around him grows hotter, scorching his skin.

What the hell’s happening?

Wade stumbles to his feet as the passage widens. He hoists the unconscious guide onto his shoulder and staggers toward the longboat. Everything seems to be spinning, getting hotter. He closes his eyes, using his elbows to feel his way along the sizzling limestone walls.

Wade hears a bizarre bubbling sound as he reaches the subterranean stream. Dropping to one knee, he rolls Andrew’s body into the longboat, then climbs in clumsily, nearly tipping them. The cave’s walls are smoking, the intense heat causing the underground river to boil.

Wade’s eyes are burning, his nostrils unable to inhale the searing atmosphere. He bellows a suffocating scream, thrashing about wildly as his flesh blisters and chars away from the bone and his eyeballs burst into flames.

JOURNAL OF JULIUS GABRIEL

JOURNAL OF

JULIUS GABRIEL

Chichén Itza—the most magnificent Mayan city in all Mesoamerica. Translated, the name means: at the brim of the well where the Wise Men of the Water live.

The Wise Men of the Water.