Spectrum

by Adam Cairney

  Chapter 9.

  "Oh god, we can’t just leave him!" Exclaimed Elijah, frantically looking around the tiny storeroom they had run into at the back of the building. They had run past several rooms that had not been around the last time they had been there, (an effect of the ether below the city, no doubt,) glancing in on the way past, but there were not the rooms Noah had been referring to. Elijah was now desperately running his hands along the walls, trying in vain to find what he vaguely remembered would be a secret passage of some sort. Nothing. No luck. There were odd shelves here and there filled with pots and jars, a pile of candles in one corner, and some sheets and bedding in another. Where was it, was it even through here?

  "There's nothing in here Molly, I don't understand. Why..." He trailed off, confused. Molly touched his arm and pointed downwards.

  "Calm down, it’s going to be alright. He wouldn’t have sent us through here without having a plan. Look." She said simply, indicating a small trapdoor set into the floor. It was designed to blend in and even now that Molly had pointed it out Elijah's eyes struggled to hold onto it. He quickly knelt down and gripped the tiny handle, pulling as hard as he could. As he did so the hinges squealed and moaned, a cloud of dust billowed upwards followed by a blast of stale air, causing him to cough and splutter. The back exit had clearly not been used for quite some time. Before Elijah could recover and say anything else they both heard a loud banging noise from back where they had come from, accompanied by roars and yells.

  "Go! Just go!" Molly urged, practically pushing him down the hatch into the gloom below. He didn't need a second telling, and descended as quickly as he could. He felt guilty once again, this time about leaving Noah behind, but he knew the reasons behind it. Noah knew what needed to be done. He climbed down the ladder, Molly following right behind him. As soon as she was low enough she pulled the trapdoor back down again, cutting off the light from above, and leaving them in almost total darkness, save for one tiny sliver of light coming through from above. She finished climbing down and joined Elijah at the bottom, in the darkness. They were in a small brick lined tunnel. It wasn't made of dirt, as it had been the last time they had used it, many years ago, so she assumed that it must have been finished some time ago. She told Elijah to turn around, and retrieved a torch from the pack that he was now wearing.

  "That thing must be killing you, surely?" She whispered, indicating the huge bag Noah had packed.

  He explained "Its fine, it looks much heavier than it is. Noah left plenty of room inside, probably for whatever we picked up on our way to the library"

  She nodded. That made sense. Molly asked him to, and Elijah turned and conducted a touch just to light the torch. Molly held it out in front of them, and watched as the flames cast all different shadows along the tunnel. The effects of the ether must have been strong in that particular area, because the flame on the torch keep changing colours, all different blues, greens, purples and so on. Despite the situation, Molly couldn't help but admire how pretty it was. They pressed on, whispering to each other as they moved as quickly as they could through the passage.

  "If I remember correctly this leads to the sewers, right?" Elijah asked as they walked. The two of them talked in hushed tones the entire time.

  "I hope so. If it does we can find the nearest exit and head back up to the streets. I'm not overly fond of being down here." She thought for a moment and then added "On second thoughts maybe we should wait before heading back up. What if Percy is there? Elijah, what happened to him?"

  "The same thing that seems to have happened to everyone else. I don't know, it's like he’s been brainwashed or something. What I can't figure out is why Percy is different. Everyone else we've seen has been, well...braindead I guess. He's become this awful, malevolent force. It's all linked to Azrael. We need to get up there and fix whatever has happened, we're the only ones left who can."

  Molly nodded and agreed. They continued on in silence for a little while. The bricks that made up the tunnel started to dwindle, and the passageway slowly turned from brick to dirt as they progressed. The atmosphere was incredibly tense, with every distant, echoing noise or nearby drip of water making the two of them either flinch or stop completely still and strain their ears. The flickering torch didn’t help either, the shadows loomed like monsters, waiting in the dark to snatch them away. Nothing was following them though, as far as they could both tell. Elijah mentioned Noah to Molly, and they both hoped he was alright. They didn't want to think about the alternative for their old friend. They both felt a crushing guilt over having left him, almost as heavy as the atmosphere in the tunnel.

  They continued on for a while through the dirt, until Elijah stopped them.

  "You feel that?" He murmured. Molly stopped, unsure of what he meant, and then she felt the breeze against her face. She also wrinkled her nose up at the same time. They were near the sewers, they had to be. Just ahead of them the tunnel widened, joining onto a large cylindrical tunnel, with water and waste running along the bottom of it. There were small walkways built into either side here, and they started following the one that (as far as the two of them could tell) led towards the house. There were ladders set into the walkways every now and then, but they decided to stay under the streets for as long as possible. It was the same down here as it had been above ground earlier, deathly quiet. Besides the water dripping in the distance, and the occasional breeze rattling down the tunnel there wasn't a single noise, not even the sound of rats scurrying around.

  It was difficult to tell how much time had passed since they had been down there, and it was incredibly frustrating. They walked along in silence for the most part as well, leaving each other to their thoughts. What would happen to the city? What had become of Noah and Percy? Perhaps most pressing of all, was there anything they could actually do about it? There were so many more questions than answers, and all they really both thought they knew was that it was linked to Azrael back up on the Cloud. They had to get back there.

  After a short while Elijah began to hear what sounded like rushing water. The water at the bottom of the tunnel was flowing past quite quickly, but nowhere near fast enough to create the noise he was hearing. Molly heard it as well, and was just as confused. Their confusion didn’t last long, however. Rounding the next corner they came to, they could see what was causing the noise. The sewers were ancient, almost as old as the city itself, and the multiple earthquakes over the last few days had weakened them structurally. There was a large split in the tunnel ahead of them where the old sewers couldn’t take the strain, and the water from the sewers was pouring down into it, creating a waterfall of sludge.

  They approached the edge of the platform they were on, and peered over the edge. The torch that Elijah was carrying didn’t give off much light to begin with, and the chasm the water was sloshing down into looked bottomless. He backed away from the edge a little and looked across. The gap had to be at least seven feet wide. They could try and jump it, or they could go back and try and find another way round. There hadn’t been any access points up to the street yet though, meaning they would not only have to backtrack to where they started from, but also go the completely wrong way. That or head back into Noah’s inn. And if Percy was still there…

  “We have to try and jump it.” Elijah had to raise his voice to be heard over the noise of the water. “We can’t go back, it’s our only choice!”

  Molly looked at him, and then to the gaping chasm, and then back again. “You’re joking, right? You might barely make it. Me? No chance. These walls and walkways are completely smooth as well, we can’t even tie a rope to anything.”

  “Look, we can’t waste the time going back. If your graphs, your predictions are right, then the earthquakes are getting progressively stronger. The next couple will finish this place off. We have to do this!” Elijah could see the doubt and fear in her eyes as he tried to convince her. “Look, I’ll go first. When I’m over, you jump. I’ll catch you. You can do this Molly.�
� He wished he felt as confident as he sounded. Elijah took the pack off that he was wearing and threw it as hard as he could. It landed on the walkway on the other side of the hole, clearing the gap easily. Molly could barely stand to watch as he took a few steps back and prepared himself.

  “Elijah!” She suddenly called out, just before he started running, “Make it. Please don’t fall.” She had visions of him falling, down into the water, sewage and eventually the ether below. Not a nice way to go.

  He smiled at her, continuing to feign the confidence he didn’t feel. “Piece of cake, I promise. As soon as I’m over I’ll get ready, and then you go. We’ll both make it, and then there’s an exit not too far ahead if memory serves.” He turned to face the pit again, and psyched himself up. He backed up another couple of steps, and then took off, not giving himself a chance to overthink anything. He just went, his feet pounding on the walkway. He ran towards the edge, closer and closer, until his last step, his toes right on the edge of the gap. He leapt with all his might, the darkness looming below him, stretching on forever. If he didn’t make it…The distance seemed so much further now that he was in the air. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for the moments that he was over the blackness.

  He landed. He hit the walkway, hard, clearing the gap by maybe a couple of inches, rolling forwards as he hit the floor. He allowed himself a moment for his racing heart to calm and slow down, vaguely hearing Molly cheer and holler in the background. Alright, now to get Molly across. He raised himself to one knee, and then stood. “Piece of cake!” He shouted back to Molly. She still looked nervous, but he hoped that between his encouragement and her seeing him make it across she would be happy to make the jump herself. “I’m ready whenever you are. I won’t let you fall!”

  Molly shouted across to let him know she had heard him, and then started backing up, preparing herself to jump. “Ok,” she said to herself, “You can do this. You’ll be fine. Don’t even think about it, just go.” She had backed up as much as she felt necessary, and was standing there, trying not to panic. With everything in her, she willed herself to start running, throwing herself into it, hurtling towards the edge. Three steps to go, two steps, one…Just as Elijah’s had before, her foot hit the very edge of the walkway, and she leapt with all her might. She was soaring over the gap, the other side moving closer and closer.

  It wasn’t enough. Elijah saw it at the same time Molly realized it. She was starting to lose height already. Elijah was already at the edge of the walkway, and it wasn’t going to be enough, he wasn’t close enough to catch her! He grabbed the pack as quickly as he could and in one fluid motion swung it around and out over the gap, holding one set of straps, the others swinging out towards Molly. She was falling, stretching her arms out, flailing wildly for something to grab onto, and her hands managed to connect, just barely, with the straps of the pack as they swung out towards her. She hit the side of the gap hard, driving the air out of her, and Elijah grunted with the effort of holding her weight as she hung there.

  “Molly!” He shouted, “You alright?” A stupid question, he knew, but it was asked in panic. She grunted up at him, trying to indicate that she would live. “Pull yourself up! I don’t know how strong this bag is!”

  That was all the impetus she needed to start dragging herself up. The cracked, jagged edge of the chasm, while not enough to have caught when jumping across, provided enough tiny handholds to begin clambering up, and as soon as Molly’s hand appeared at the edge of the walkway Elijah grabbed it and began to pull her up. Before too long they were both sitting, panting on the walkway, both incredibly relieved that that particular trial was over.

  Eventually they decided to move onwards, and before too long the echoing sound of the water was far behind them. Molly stopped Elijah, leaning in and whispering “Thanks, by the way. I think I’m going to start losing count of the number of times you’ve saved my life." And then she leaned to look around the corner of the gently curving tunnel they were now following, and said “I think I can see the access tunnel to the street above. I think we’re nearly there!”

  The look of relief of Elijah's face was clear. “Oh thank goodness. It feels like we've been down here for days, it can't be much more than a few hours though. Let's head up then, there's some ladders over there. Oh, and don’t mention it!" And with that he turned and walked towards them. They had lit a torch after crossing the ravine, and it was burning very low now, and it cast ominous, creepy shadows everywhere. It was almost as if the darkness itself was closing in on them. Molly thought to herself that she would be extremely pleased to be out of here. Elijah was at the top of the ladders, prizing the sewer grate open as quietly as he could, as they had no idea what would await them on the other side of it. Molly followed him up, and reached him just as he managed to get it open. Despite being as careful as possible it still made a horrific, screeching noise as it ground open. He flinched, waited an agonizingly long time to see if anyone or anything had heard them, and then lifted his head to see what was happening above. Molly waited with baited breath.

  After a long, tense moment Elijah whispered back down to her. "Seems quiet, come on." He climbed out, extending a hand back down for her to take as she climbed out. They breathed the fresh air for a moment, relieved to be out of the oppressive, quiet darkness of the sewers. Looking around, Molly realized they were roughly four or five streets away from her house, depending on what route they took. After that it was only another half dozen across to the Great Library. Molly told Elijah this and he invited her to lead the way. She did, remaining almost as quiet as she had below ground. As they walked though, she whispered to Elijah. "I wanted to ask, by the way...I saw what happened back at Noah's. Why didn't your conducting work? I've never seen that before."

  He shook his head as they weaved their way through the countless blue crystals full of people that littered the streets. "I have no idea. I've never had that happen either. The only thing I can think of is that it was something to do with the armour Percy was wearing. I've never seen armour like that. It had a kind of ethereal, unreal look to it don't you think?"

  She agreed that it did, wondering where such a thing could have come from, and if that was what had changed Percy into the monster he had become. “I think I have a fair idea of where it came from, actually,” She said after a moment, “Who else could it possibly be but him up there?” She kept vigilant as they spoke, as did Elijah, glancing every which way to see if there was anyone around. Her nerves were completely frayed, and she swore several times that she spotted dark, hooded figures in the distance, only to have them disappear behind crystals or buildings when she froze and tried to focus on them. The worst part was that she didn't know whether it was all in her imagination or whether there really were people out there in the night.

  Still going at a cautious pace, Molly lead the two of them down the last street before they reached her house. She was halfway through turning the last corner, Elijah following behind her, when she suddenly turned on her heel, changed direction completely and dragged Elijah back with her, hiding behind the house on the corner. Gathered in front of her door, were a dozen figures in cloaks and rags. A couple turned their heads as Molly dived out of view, but none of them moved. They were all standing completely still, in a semicircle facing outwards. Watching. Waiting. Molly, without a word, nodded around the corner. Elijah craned his neck around the edge of the house as carefully as he could, seeing exactly what it was Molly had hidden from. He saw, and moved back out of sight completely. Molly indicated her bandoleer. She had nothing left to fight with, no vials. She hadn't brought any of her latest inventions out with her either, so there was nothing she could do.

  There was nothing for it. They needed to get into the house for supplies, and Azrael must have known that. Elijah began to conduct the ether, drawing as much of it into himself as he could, concentrating hard. He was going to have one hell of a fight on his hands.