August 2012

The team proceeded as a group into the cavern, flashlights flared out like the spokes of a wheel. The chamber was similar to the others they had crossed in their journey here. Stalagmites littered the floor, stalactites stabbed downward. Except for one new feature. Ashley rubbed a snowflake from her eyelash. "Damn. It's snowing in here." A small flurry of flakes fluttered through the light beams. Maggie held out a hand and flakes settled on her palm. "They are not cold or wet." Lisa shouldered her way to Ashley's side. Brushing at the sifting of flakes.

"This is bad."

"Why?"

"It's not snow. It's gypsum crystals."

Lisa pointed her flashlight to the branches of gypsum crystals festooning the ceiling of the chamber, like twenty-foot white chandeliers. "They are fragile, delicate structures. Body heat can cause them to weaken and flake away."

Ashley brushed flakes from her shoulders. "I still don't see the danger."

"For this snowfall to be happening now, a lot of body heat had to recently pass through here."

Ashley's eyes widened with the implication.

"We're not alone down here."

Perhaps a few of you readers recognize the above opening excerpt from the thriller novel SUBTERRANEAN by author James Rollins, published in 1999.

I had fun adapting his story into an short "adult" thriller minus the bloodshed and adding the gratuitous sex.

By the way, I highly recommend James Rollins thriller novels as a great read. All his stories are full of adventure in outdoor settings involving modern day explorers, geologists, archaeologists, lost temples with powerful artifacts etc.

Now, on with my adaptation of his story...

Maggie and Lisa met at the university they attended and quickly became lifelong best friends having so much in common. Both Maggie and Lisa loved strenuous weight training, mountain biking, extreme winter sports, camping, backpacking, horseback riding and jogging which keeps them in peak shape with toned bodies and well defined and ripped abdomens – all of which came in handy as both were also very experienced cave explorers. On a lark while in university, both women had entered the Miss Hawaiian Tropic contest and both were selected as Hawaiian Tropic models whose company activities and promotions they performed during their undergraduate university years until the job pressures interfered with their beginning graduate academic work and their scholastic studies were more important.

Lisa earned her advanced degrees as a geologist while Maggie earned hers as a biologist/botanist.

Maggie – is five feet eleven, stunning dark cinnamon-red auburn hair, bright sparkling emerald green eyes, dark skin complexion, with very firm high set full large breasts with a very pronounced European up-tilt to them as befitting her Irish-Nordic ancestry, and a tight shapely muscular ass.

Lisa - five, feet nine, has long beautiful blonde hair that shimmered like yellow-white gold, and sparkling bright almost unnaturally blue eyes. Her breasts likewise are large yet very firm, lovely slim curvy hips and a small tight shapely muscular ass

In the small spelunking community, both women were widely known for their exceptional caving skills and their advanced degrees enhanced their reputation. In the caving community they met two others whom they quickly became good friends with – Linda and Ashley. Linda was another geologist while Ashley was a small invertebrate biologist.

Linda and Ashley were similar to Maggie and Lisa – tall, statuesque, extremely attractive women with generously well endowed firm breasts and highly toned physiques as benefiting their active lifestyles and cave exploration activities.

The four women were selected as an exploration team to explore an extensive deep cavern network in a region of the Transylvania Alps. It was thought to rival in extent the Mammoth Caverns in the United States. The exploration is to include mapping, cataloging, collecting samples and recommendations on preservation.

As part of their preparation they immersed themselves in Romanian since their above-ground support team would mostly be Romanian.

Due to the rugged mountainous terrain and the very sparse population, which never recovered after World War II, and in fact declined drastically as the post-war population trended to move from rural to urban areas also affected this remote mountain realm, the government saw the importance of protecting this beautiful rugged area of the Transylvania Alps and recently designated the mountains as a National Park. Part of this was to map and catalog the underground natural resources so it could be protected, as well as developing as a tourist attraction under strict controls.

For centuries myths and legends abounded in these still sparsely settled extremely rugged mountains. Even during World War II the German's feared to go deep in these mountains.

Tales abounded throughout the German regiments of squads that had gone missing or been found mutilated. Superstitions spread as many of the German regiments had conscripts of people native to the area.

Some of these tales were of the Blajini - creatures in Romanian lore, creatures that could be kind – or malicious. Of pale-skinned monsters, powerful goblins and huge wolf-like hell hound creatures from the underworld that during the deepest nights raided small villages and isolated farmsteads for food, but also did unspeakable despicable things to womenfolk...

Upon first discovery the caverns were found to be linked by a mysterious features that were dubbed "worm holes" - smooth narrow circular passageways just large enough for a person. The were uniform in size and polished to a remarkable smoothness. For the exploration by the four women, someone had come up with a great concept of using individual skateboard like devices they were modified to expand and retract that could be laid upon and act as transport sleds to rapidly traverse the wormholes.

The caverns were also warm. And they got warmer as the cavern depths increased. To help combat the heat the four researchers/explorers had to restrict the amount of supplies they had to pack in and this included a very limited change of clothing. They had to sensibly choose a very few items of lightweight clothing that would help them shed heat and perspiration as well as protect them. For each of them the clothing consisted of one Kevlar thread reinforced lightweight overalls, one thin wicking athletic bra, two thin ribbed athletic tee-shirts and two silk panties.

Several days of exploring the passageways and caverns that went deeper and deeper left them all with barely serviceable Kevlar reinforced overalls and tee-shirts. The remainder of the tee-shirts they all wore had multiple rents in it from being snagged during the numerous narrow passages they had to squeeze through. Two of the researchers had an overall strap torn loose and Lisa had a large rent in her tee-shirt and athletic bra that had almost completely exposed one large firm breast. Even the overalls they wore were holed and ripped despite the Kevlar reinforcing thread. They had previously joked they would have to call ahead once they got back to their starting point or found another exit so someone could bring them some more clothes or else the support staff were going to get more than an eyeful! As they had proceeded deeper underground it continued to grow warmer.

Then they came across an amazing discovery in a cavern. Large translucent cave pearls, while not uncommon, the sizes were. But what the cave pearls contained inside that had acted as a seed to build up concretion shells like what a seeded oyster does that forms a pearl was the startling thing – humanoid skulls, with heavy protruding brow ridges. The geologists discussed this must have happened hundreds of thousands of years ago to have cave pearls of this size but exactly how the skulls became the seeds eluded them, except the former beings must have been cave dwellers.

As the two geologists studied a particular interesting crystal formation, Ashley thought she saw something move at the edge of her helmet light. Startled, she almost lost her grip on a muddy rock. Swinging her light in the direction of movement, she searched but saw only the usual twisted stalagmites. Nothing was there.

Maggie noticing she had stopped, turned to her. 'Do you need a hand?"

"No, I just thought I saw something moving over there, but it was nothing, just shadows moving with my lamp, I guess.

Suddenly a frantic hissing from Lisa drew their attention over to her and Linda. They had frozen into a crouch. Maggie pulled Ashley down beside her keeping hold of her hand. Lisa held a finger to her lips and motioned them to come forward ... quietly.

There is something else in here with us, more than one. All I can tell it sounds like they are large. We need to move as quietly as possible to the next wormhole entrance. As the four women slowly and cautiously proceeded they could begin to hear guttural, rasping sounds. A primordial fear began to arise within each of them, wanting to cower and flee.

Just as they neared the wormhole loud bellows erupted. As one they all swung their helmet lights and hand-held lights to the source and they momentarily froze at the sight that was unveiled by the light.

Monstrous creatures! They ranged in size from seven to ten feet tall with thick torsos, long muscular arms and legs, smooth slick oily skin. Their thickly muscled arms ended with long hands taped with long claws. Their eyes were black as polished obsidian. Their nostrils, open wide, snorted the air, searching. Each of the researchers could not help immediately noticing the creature's nakedly exposed prominent genitalia – most of the creatures were all very obviously male with huge thick penises the width of a soda can with lengths that ranged from fourteen inches to horse-size eighteen inches, each with equally huge dangling testicular sacks the size of a large bull!

"What the hell" Ashley began, but Linda silenced her with a hand over her mouth. She whispered in her ear "slowly move to the wormhole and prepare to jump in." Maggie and Lisa noticed Ashley and Linda easing over to the wormhole. Luckily they all had their transport sleds out ready to dive in the wormhole once they got to the entrance.

One of the creatures bellowed sensing their quarry was about to escape and started advancing. Quickly each of the four women launched themselves into the wormhole. After several hundred yards they came to a small cavern where they quickly discussed they should push on non-stop for the next several hours to try to get as far away from these creatures as possible.

But after only two hours they had to briefly stop as they came into a wondrous cavern. They stood stunned. Before them opened a chamber the size of a ballroom. Iridescent crystals, some as small as thumbnails, others the size of watermelons, encrusted the walls and floor, casting back the lamplight in scintillating sparks. Rainbows reflected everywhere. Maggie crossed to the center of the chamber, her mouth hanging open.

"Do you know what this is?" Lisa stated.

"We are in a gigantic geode," Lisa said. Linda, the other geologist numbingly agreed. Then Linda let out a loud gasp and inhaled deeply.

"This is not quartz!"

"What!" Lisa said.

"It's diamond, look at the angle of crystal fracturing."

Thunderstruck, everyone looked again at the pure mass of stone around them.

Lisa wondered aloud, "I wonder how many other, similar chambers there are down here? This much wealth! This one alone would ruin all the major diamond corporations!"

Linda's sharp excitement dulled with concern. She shook her head.

"Before everyone starts counting their pennies, we still need to get out of here. Let's map these coordinates and get the hell out of here, we are still not far enough from those creatures as I would like to be!"

Lisa was examining one large particular flawless specimen next to a wall with a small laser. She turned off the laser and then she became aware of something just before she turned her helmet light back on, the crystal was still reflecting light...

Lisa yelled "Everyone, turn off your lights for a second!"

But their lights stayed off longer than that. As the helmet lights and flashlights were turned off the small cavern glowed with light.

Maggie said "Bloody hell, it coming from the walls, reflecting off the diamonds."

Maggie crossed over to a wall and using a knife scraped with the edge of the blade, she studied the rock, then turned to them with the blade upheld. It glowed yellow. "It's a fungus. What a find! This makes the fifth phosphorescent species I have found so far down here but this species far outputs more light than the others. This is almost worth being chased by the monsters."

With this pronouncement everyone became somber and quickly agreed to push on for a few more hours. They came across several more diamond caverns and oddly each succeeding cavern had more ambient light.

As they exited into another cavern they shot through a stream of water which soaked them all. While not another diamond cavern it did contain a lot of large crystals, some up to fifteen feet in length and up to a few feet in width, like the other caverns, this one was also illuminated to an extent they did not need to use the flashlights, similar to a dim twilight. They reconnoitered the cavern for other entrances/exists and determined none other existed except for three, the wormhole they came through, another wormhole on the far side, and a hole high upside the cavern wall about one hundred feet high which the stream poured out of in a waterfall which had soaked them as they exited from the lower wormhole.

Determining they were far enough from where they got ambushed by the creatures, and the only entrance in the cavern the huge creatures could utilize was the one high up on the cavern wall that the stream of water poured out of, they made camp near the wormhole they would have to traverse the next day. They removed their wet clothes to dry out leaving them in just the silk panties they all wore. They lit a small fuel pellet fire to heat their dinner and help dry out their clothes.

The conversation centered on the creatures. Determining they all saw at least eight, two they believed were females as they did not have any external genitalia that could discerned except for what clearly appeared to be large firm breasts.

Maggie said " I can't figure out what were those things. The zygomatic arch was wrong and the pelvic structure was odd. And did you notice the way they moved?

Ashley shrugged, sweeping her light across the boulders and large crystals in the cavern they were holed up in. "Hell, they been isolated here for centuries. No telling what evolutionary pressures created these monstrosities."

Lisa then stated what was on everyone's mind but was afraid to broach the topic

"My god, did you see how huge their cocks and balls are!

With a relief by all, this opened the topic discussing the grossly oversized genitalia of the huge creatures that had chased them. The biologists of the team, Maggie and Ashley, postulated the creatures were "overcompensated", just like a majority of cavern species competing for scarce resources, with a seemingly lack of females. When a male was fortunate to get a mate, the "overcompensated" genitalia would ensure a successful fertilization due to both the size/length of the penis and the huge testicular sacks that would produce a large quantity of semen.

Lisa snorted "just like a typical male who does not think their "package" is big enough and overcompensates!"

A couple of hours after they had finished dinner, Lisa and Maggie went over by the wormhole to check on their drying clothes where they had hung them to catch the breeze blowing from the wormhole. Suddenly they all heard a loud splash. Ashley and Linda grabbed their flashlights and shined them over to the small pool that had formed by the waterfall from the stream pouring out of the hole high up on the cavern wall but nothing was revealed.

"I guess it was just a rock that got dislodged by the stream that fell" Linda stated.

As pounding hearts started to settle and the girls gave each other nervous looks. Maggie collected their athletic bras and took them over to the fuel pellet fire. They were proving more difficult to dry than the other clothing, then Maggie went back over to help Lisa still by the wormhole sorting thru the packs.

A horrified scream whipped Lisa and Maggie around. What they saw almost made them scream as well but an immense sense of preservation prevailed not to bring attention to themselves...

Two of the monstrous creatures were between Lisa and Maggie and the other two women. The creatures were staring at Linda and Ashley in just their skimpy silk panties as both women slowly backed toward a large boulder. A nearby snuffling brought Lisa and Maggie's attention to two others of the monstrous creatures sidling their way on an intercept course to Lisa and Maggie.

Linda and Ashley were cutoff from any escape by the wormhole and Lisa and Maggie instantly realized that in a few more seconds the other creatures would be upon them as well!

Lisa whispered "we have to get out of here, we can't help them!"

Lisa and Maggie were able to quickly grab their overalls and tee-shirts and then barely had time to grab their two transport sleds and get to the wormhole.

As Lisa and Maggie jumped onto their sleds, they could hear their two colleagues began screaming, then ominously their screams turned to even louder hysterical shrieks which propelled them down the wormhole, Linda's and Ashley's piercing shrieks continuing behind them and diminishing with distance and time.

After a few hundred yards Lisa and Maggie came into a very small cavern where they stopped and quickly got their clothes on. A faint renewed shriek came down the wormhole. With a quick shaken glance at each other, both jumped back onto their sleds and continued down the wormhole.

Quickly both noticed their speed picking up. The wormhole not only led downward, but at a frightening steep slope! Maggie and Lisa attempted to slow themselves down by braking with their heels of their gloved hands and the toes of their boots, but succeeded in only slowing down slightly.

Lisa shouted "It's like a slide. Let's see those bastards try to catch us now!"

Maggie did not respond, too shook up as to the fate of Linda and Ashley.

By now their rate of descent was such that the friction burned their hands to brake. And as they flew farther down the wormhole, the glowing fungus began appearing in large patches on the walls.

"We're in a big corkscrew!" yelled Lisa. "Can you feel the centrifugal force?"

Maggie did. Her transport sled climbing higher on the walls as their speed increased and the tunnel's curves tightened. To try to brake now was impossible. During their flying descent, the fungus had grown thicker and thicker, its glow almost blinding now in the close confines of the wormhole. The fungus had also made the walls slick so even the tips of their boots dragging across the floor failed to offer any significant breaking.

The tunnel exit appeared around the next bend. No time to brake! No time to slow down! Only time to cover their heads and cringe. Just as they exited the wormhole the two women shot under another stream that soaked them as they rocketed out of the wormhole into the cavern.

Blinded for a moment by the bright light, they jolted and bounced across the slightly rugged vegetated floor. When Lisa's eyes adjusted, she saw herself barreling toward a solid wall of yellow vegetation. Closing her eyes, she slammed into the thick stalks of growth. Her collision tumbled her from her sled, but the field cushioned her fall as she rolled for several yards.

Once stopped, she pushed to her knees. She was almost up when Maggie tumbled into her with a wild yell. She fell in a tumble of arms and legs.

'Well, that was different," Maggie stated, speaking to Lisa's left knee.

They untangled themselves and stood up with groans. Bruised everywhere, they glanced around. The field of yellow vegetation, like wheat, stood chest high and spread for thousands of acres across the rolling cavern floor. Thousands of acres in a brightly lit cavern!

The cavern was monstrous!

The walls stretched for hundreds of feet above them. The cavern roof, far overhead, glowed with thick fungus, some patches glowing as bright as sunlight! They glanced across the smooth fields that undulated across the wide plain, broken only by tiny groves of spindly trees.

"I don't think we are in Kansas anymore," Maggie stated, with her mouth hanging open. Lisa, being a geologist, was dumbfounded by the magical sight, not even the barest comprehension how a cavern like this could be. Knowledge that this was the largest cavern ever discovered, all others around the world insignificant in comparison, not even mentioning the vegetation or the amount of ambient light given off by the fungus.

A rustle of vegetation drew their attention from the panorama. From several yards away, something was working through the field towards them, maneuvering around clusters of trees. Too low to be seen except for the wake of bending stalks, like a shark through water...

Lisa and Maggie backed away, then Maggie pointed off to the left. Two more wakes arrowed toward them. She studied the field more closely, now noticing three other trails moving in their direction. Six in all. Maggie backed away, pulling on Lisa's coverall.

They stumbled backwards until they stood by the wormhole opening. Their sleds lost somewhere in the field. They stared at the six trails inching slowly toward them. Not good. The nearest one was only ten yards away now. It had stopped and held its position. Waiting. Soon the others had drawn even with it.

The two women frantically looked around for something to use as weapons, but there were no large sticks anywhere and even the loose stones were too small except to be annoying.

"The wormhole?" Maggie asked.

"Sounds good to me" Lisa replied.

Their words seemed to jar the stalkers in the field. They rushed with lightening speed. With their sudden movement, both women froze crouched by the wormhole, like a deer in headlights.

The six creatures burst through the wall of vegetation, then stopped in unison, hunkering on all fours, haunches raised, ready to spring, tails slashing. They were huge! The size of Great Danes but thick in body like Mastiffs. They were over three feet tall at the shoulder and appeared to weigh at least 225 pounds. They looked like a cross between a wolf and a lion. Amber-furred, a cowl of thick mane around their necks, huge eyes, slitted pupils, long jaws bristling with fierce teeth, and like the other cavern creatures - grossly oversized genitalia the size of a stud pony.

"Freeze," Maggie whispered. "No sudden moves."

Lisa wasn't about to move! Still frozen in her crouch, her eyes glued to the six sets of unblinking eyes that stared at her. And she was willing to stay that way for as long as it took, until something shot from the wormhole and grabbed her ankle. A high-pitched scream in her throat.

With Lisa's panicked scream, the furry grip tightened on her ankle, like a closing vise. What the hell? Lisa sprang to the side, yanking her leg and breaking the hold of her attacker. She collided with Maggie.

Damn It Lisa! Maggie blurted, her eyes still glued to the pack of slathering wolfish creatures.

"Something's in the wormhole. It g-grabbed me." Lisa stammered.

Maggie darted a look toward the hole. Nothing was there.

"I don't see any --Bloody hell!" It was Maggie's turn to hop away from the wormhole as something crawled out of the passage, No, two somethings! "Shit!"

Maggie thought at first they were dirty children, naked and covered in filth. But when they stood up and turned to the two women, she knew she was vastly mistaken.

They stood four feet high, very compact, very well muscled, and unclothed. From the exposed grossly oversized genitalia, they were very obviously male. Their oversized monstrously large genitalia was especially contrasted given their small but extremely muscular compact size, their soda can thick penises were restrained upright against their bodies and over their hips, held in place with a leather penis ribbon around their waists. The length of their penises appeared to be approximately fourteen inches, with testicular ball sacks the size of a bull dangling to their knees. Clearly both women could see the penises were ribbed along the length but also had large bumps evenly spaced along the penises. Their compact bodies were thickly solid with corded muscles, with oversized thickly muscled disproportionate long arms with powerful hands with long powerful fingers. The black hair of the two creatures was tied back from their faces with a leather ribbon. Their chests and legs were covered in coarse matted hair.

Maggie's first thought was that they faced a hominid or protohuman. Maybe some type of dwarf Neanderthal. Several of the features supported her supposition: the thick bony brow bulging above huge eyes, the wide blunt nose that sniffed in their direction, the protruding jaws and maxillary bones that created a muzzle-like countenance.

Maggie, though, had studied the fossil record of all the hominid and protohuman species. And these breathing specimens conformed to none of them. The closest might be the Australopithecine species, but these creatures were vastly different., The bodies, though thick with corded muscle, was not as bulky as the early hominids, and the neck was too long and slender. Their ears too were striking: slightly tufted and pointed, they actually swiveled back and forth, wary. None of these features matched the fossil record of any ancient protohumans! And lastly, what researcher would have projected any protohuman in a pictorial representation depicting such hugely oversized penises and testes! They would have been the laughing stock of the community!

Suddenly one of the creatures stepped toward them causing the two women to stumble backwards a step. The creature turned away and waved a muscular arm toward the pack of beasts and grunted toward them – "Unkh! Unkk!" Like a precision drill team, the six huge wolf-like beasts all turned and vanished back into the field. The creature turned back toward the two women, crossing his arms.

Lisa spoke out of the side of her mouth. "What do you make of this, Maggie?"

"I'm not sure," she said with wonder in her voice. " But I think we've just met another species of our cave dwellers."

Damn! What's with all these cave creatures and their oversized cocks and balls!" Lisa harrumphed.

One of the creature's ears swiveled away from them. They both seemed to be listening, their eyelids drifting closed. After several heartbeats, their lids snapped back open, then both creatures began walking away with a rolling sort of gait.

Maggie watched them, dying to run a hand over their pelvic structures. It didn't appear right either, matching none of the hominid species. Who was this? What was this?

The creatures walked several yards, then stopped and turned to them, one crossed his arms again. Waiting.

"I think they want us to follow," Maggie said, stepping forward.

Lisa touched her elbow, stopping her. "We don't know where in bloody hell they are taking us," she whispered. Lisa raised her voice, calling to the waiting figures. "Hold it right there, hairy buddies. Where are we going?" The creature glanced at Lisa, then both turned and resumed walked away.

Maggie stared at the retreating figures. She had to find out more about these creatures. Deciding she had nothing to lose, she started to follow, calling over her shoulder, "I think it's safe, Lisa. They could have let those wolf things attack if they meant us harm."

Lisa shook her head, but she followed cautiously.

Trailing several yards behind their guides, they were led to a thin path in the field of yellow vegetation. Before the creatures started down the track, each took a long dagger from their leather penis wraps, which was the only article of clothing besides the leather headband ribbon. The blades were long crystal shards. It was diamond!

Lisa held a restraining arm against Maggie's chest, obviously worried that their guides were about to attack.

"Dogaomarubi," one of their guides said, as if explaining, hefting up the knife.

Lisa nodded. "Uh-huh. Whatever, little fellas. Just keep those little pokers in your belts."

"My god," Maggie said, "he's trying to speak with us. Verbal communication! It's incredible."

The two creatures swung away and led them into the yellow fields. The grain-like seeds at the tip of the stalky vegetation waved above the heads of their guides, while reaching only chest-high on the much taller women. They had to push down the narrow path, shoving their shoulders through the barrier of vegetation on either side, while their guides seemed to glide down the path without disturbing a single stalk. After an hour they both stumbled more than pushed through the growth. Lisa followed, grunting with effort to haul through the dense growth. "I'd love a machete," she said huffing. "Or a four-wheeler," Maggie added. 'I need a rest."