The company reached the mine in good time and found the entrance to be a fairly narrow shaft carved into the base of a cliff and supported by wooden beams. Col. Freeman urged his horse to trot right up to the entrance but the horse turned its head and whinnied loudly. Freeman continued to kick the horse with his boot spurs but it started to buck up and nearly dismounted him. The horses of his men gradually repeated this action until the cavalry was all but turned around.
“Somethin’s got them horses spooked.” Jonah Hex said wryly.
“Might it be better to go in on foot?” Sgt. Jarvis suggested.
“Half the men stay here and watch the horses.” Col. Freeman ordered, “Sergeant, you’re in charge of them. The half of you that aren’t cowards will follow me on foot. The Confederate saddle bum and the two horse-shaped abominations must follow as well.”
“I ain’t tha kind ta take orders from Yankees.” Hex said.
“Perhaps not, but you are outnumbered and outgunned.” Freeman replied.
“Point taken...fer tha time bein, at least.” Hex relented.
“Applejack, I really dun wanna go in that cave.” Apple Bloom fretted, quivering with fear, “I think there’s somethin’ really bad in there, sis.”
“Sorry, lil’ sis, but I dun think we have much of a choice in tha matter.” Applejack confessed, “Just stay behind me, I’ll protect ya.”
“Ok-kay, Ap-applejack...I t-trust ya...” Apple Bloom managed to sputter.
A soldier urged the two ponies forward at gunpoint as Freeman rounded up Hex and half of the men to follow him. The trek into the mine was uneventful and crowded for the first twenty minutes. The sunlight from the entrance grew dimmer and gave way to a larger section that lead into two dividing sections of mine cart rail. One of those sections gave off an unnatural green luminesce.
“The source of the town’s disturbance is in all likelihood the source of this green lantern.” Freeman surmised, “We move forward.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Hex said.
As the men and ponies pressed on, the cavern walls became more and more heavily secreted with a viscous fluid and the green light became brighter and brighter.
“I have a bad feelin’ about this.” Applejack couldn’t help but say.
All too swiftly, the men and ponies reached the large middle section of the tunnel where large piles of dynamite and TNT lay on opposite sides of the blasting wall. However, near the rear of the cave, dozens upon dozens of townsfolk lay glued and cocooned against the wall, all with gaping holes in their chests with burst hearts and split-open ribcages. The faces of the corpses had bloodshot eyes and open mouths frozen in a silent scream.
Almost everyone present developed a churning in their stomach and more than a few of the men, not to mention Applejack and Apple Bloom, threw up at the gruesome site. Freeman and Hex maintained their composure but strongly began considering turning back.
“I gotta drain mah lizard, folks.” Hex commented, “Too much whiskey, ya see.”
Freeman groaned in irritation as Hex hid behind a cubby in the rock and did his business. Hex’s attempt at humor did little to ease the men’s spirits.
One soldier shifted over to a dark greenish mass that appeared to be in the shape of three eggs.
“Is this tha thing that did that to ‘em?” he wondered, poking the eggs with his rifle.
The soldier screamed as a one of the “spiders” as seen in the saloon, latched onto his face. The soldier tugged in vain as the facehugger shoved its tail down his throat. The man fell to the ground, shaking violently before he fell into a deep sleep.
Before the other soldiers had time to respond, more facehuggers leapt from their eggs and latched onto them. The few remaining soldiers raised their rifles and began shooting at the dark blurs running across the walls. Bloodcurdling screams echoed through the cavern as the blurs revealed themselves as large, vaguely humanoid creatures with black exoskeletons and protruding jaws dripping with saliva.
“They’re comin’ outta tha walls!” one soldier screamed before he was impaled by one creature’s prehensile tail.
Blood spurted from the man’s mouth as the creature pulled back its tail and the man collapsed to the floor. The creatures avoided attacking the men who had already been sedated by the facehuggers.
“Run, everypony, RUN!!” Applejack screamed in terror.
Apple Bloom shrieked in abject horror and galloped after her sister away from the creatures. Hex had managed to retrieve the six-shooter from around his gunbelt and frantically began shooting at the creatures as fast as he could draw. The creatures made guttural shrieks as they were shot and corrosive green blood spurted from their wounds. Hex shielded himself with his coat as the acid blood ate holes in it.
One creature opened its jaws wide and leapt straight at Hex only to be brought down with a swift stroke of a cavalry sabre against its neck. The corrosive blood split the blade in half and Freeman frowned as he sheathed the remaining half of his sword.
“Still reckon this was a good ider, colonel?” Hex commented.
“Still reckon that Pickett’s Charge was a good idea, rebel?” Freeman replied.
“Never said that it was.” Hex answered.
Freeman, Hex, and two other survivors followed the two ponies into another section of the mine where the mine cart rail lead away from the creatures. Applejack struggled to push Apple Bloom up into one of the mine carts and bucked the cart down the track. Applejack started to gallop after the cart but Hex suddenly grabbed her.
“You’d better get in the cart with us if you wanna save yer hide, darlin’.” he chided.
“But I gotta save Apple Bloom!” Applejack protested, “She’s in tha other cart! She’s mah sister!”
“Yer sister, eh?” Hex surmised, “I guess you can’t really fit in the cart anyway.”
Freeman, Hex, and the two soldiers scrambled to fit in a nearby second cart and Applejack dutifully bucked them on their way. She galloped after the humans frantically as the creatures climbed the tunnel overhead.
“Hurry up, darlin’!” Hex shouted, “They’re movin’ in close!”
“Tha name is Applejack, sugarcube!” she protested.
“Tha name is Hex, horsey!” he insisted.
Hex again drew his gun and managed to shoot one of the creatures right through the brain just as it lashed out at Applejack. Both mine carts toppled over as they went too fast on a curve. Apple Bloom skidded across the ground and the four humans collapsed on top of each other. Each man tried to regain his composure but Applejack barreled right through them. She embraced her sister and they cried into each other’s legs.
“Not to stop this sweet lil’ family reunion but those varmits are still on our tail.” Hex warned.
“Stack one cart on top of another.” Freeman advised, “We’ll form a barricade.”
“It won’t hold up long.” Hex said.
“It’ll buy us a little time.” Freeman answered.
The four men picked up their cart and placed it against the narrowest section of tunnel they could find. They then placed the second cart on top of the first. They had trapped themselves inside a small curve that lead to a pile of dynamite resting against a yet to be blasted section of wall.
“No food. Not much water. Barely any light.” Hex commented, “Monsters on one side ready to eat us alive. The other side over here could blow us all ta kingdom come.”
“Thank you for improving morale.” Freeman said, taking a swig from his own canteen.
“And worst of all, no womenfolk.” Hex concluded, swiping Freeman’s canteen, “Well, maybe some womenfolk...”
Hex gave Applejack a sly look as he drank Freeman’s water. Applejack chuckled nervously and backed away.
“Get your own water, Johnny Reb!” Freeman ordered as he took back his canteen.
“Ya know, I been thinkin’.” Hex pondered, “I’m guessin’ that you wanted me to come out here so you could scapegoat me for whatever happened in town.”
“I’ve never seen you in my life, before today.” Freeman said, “What gives you that idea?”
“I don’t reckon that a man of yer stature doesn’t know a good scapegoat when he sees one.” Hex explained, “I’m supposin’ you thought that the townsfolk were holed up in this mine hidin’ from armed bandits. You pin me as a captured bandit and the townsfolk stop frettin’. I was actually after a bounty myself, Jake “the Snake” Curtis. Jake might’ve well run half the town into this mine, but I reckon the other half went after ‘em and they all got killed by these monsters. Where’s yer plan, now?”
“I’m not sure.” Freeman replied, “Do you have any other ideas than insulting, accusing, and stealing from me?”
“As a matter a fact, I do.” Hex said with a laugh, “I take a match and blow up this here wall.”
“You’ll kill us all, you lunatic!” one soldier spoke up.
“Half-faced Johnny Reb nut!” the other soldier agreed.
“We blow the wall without killin’ ourselves and we all get out.” Hex advised, “But that’s tha real trick. Tha best we can do is hide under these carts and hope we aren’t crushed to death. But if anyone else wants to be ripped apart by tha monsters...”
“Do it!” Freeman relented.
The four men and two ponies tried their best to squeeze in under the carts. Every so often, the passing snarl or swipe from a creature made them cringe. Hex slipped a matchbox out from under his sleeve and struck one against the side of the cart. He held it under his palm and struggled to light the entire matchbox. The other matches soon caught on fire and he threw the entire box as close to the nearest fuse as he could. The fuse sparked up and the six survivors all huddled together and shielded their ears.
The ensuing explosion rattled the ground and temporarily blinded and deafened them. Rocks fell all around them and one man screamed as his exposed leg was crushed by a boulder. The scream fell on deaf ears as all anyone could hear was constant ringing. They tried to speak to each other but all they could do was lift up the side of the cart and struggle to crawl between the boulders. A narrow gap had been created that lead into another section of tunnel. One by one, everyone except the injured man carefully squeezed themselves into the gap and out the other side.
“Please, no, you can’t leave me here to die...” the wounded man begged.
“You’ll only slow us down, son.” Hex said.
“That’s my decision to make!” Freeman asserted, “Never leave a man behind.”
“We could sever his leg and drag ‘im.” Hex suggested.
“We have no choice.” Freeman agreed.
Hex and Freeman squeezed back through the other side. Hex placed the handle of his bowie knife between the man’s teeth and retrieved a small flask of what little whiskey he had left. The man spit out the knife and drank the whiskey and then Hex put the knife back in place. Freeman lifted the remaining half of his sabre and Hex almost gave a look of regret.
“This is gonna hurt son, I’m sorry ta say.” he lamented.
The soldier screamed through gritted teeth as Freeman hacked away at the man’s leg right below the knee. The man struggled to hold back his tears but was reduced to a blubbering mess as his leg was reduced to a bloody stump. Freeman and Hex cauterized the wound by cutting off the man’s pants leg and wrapping it as a tourniquet. They lifted the man onto their shoulders and pried him back through the gap almost like a game of tug-of-war.
Once all six individuals had made it to the other side of the collapsed tunnel they examined their surroundings and their jaws dropped in horror, wondering if they would have been better off blowing themselves up.