The Shadow Above The Flames

by Daniel Swenson

  These small side tunnels twisted and turned, making the men travel in the opposite direction from where they were headed and dumping them back into the tunnel, which was packed with vegetation and other impediments that blocked their way. It was difficult and frustrating, but they continued to push on. Jacobson was on point, and it wasn't long before he called to the others on the comm, notifying the team that the water level was starting to rise.

  McAvoy asked Jacobson to warn him once the water level reached above his knee because they may need to search for an exit or an alternate route. Jacobson confirmed the order and set out once more. Several minutes pasted, and Wells flipped around, shining his light down the tunnel behind them.

  McAvoy clicked on his comm. "Wells, what’s going on? Why did you turn around?"

  Rick watched as Jacobson rushed past him and McAvoy. Wells lifted up his mask and said something to Jacobson. Wells replaced his mask, and Jacobson rushed down a side tunnel.

  The comm buzzed in Rick's ear.

  "I apologize, Sergeant,” Wells said. “I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye lurking in the shadows behind us. I’ve been seeing something for some time now, but I wasn't sure if it was a root or the gloom of this place playing tricks on me."

  Rick glanced over at McAvoy and saw the concern in the sergeant’s eyes.

  "Did you see anything?" the sergeant asked.

  "When we spun around,” Wells said, “I could’ve sworn that I saw a pair of eyes glittering in the light and staring at me. But as soon as I saw them, they were gone. Either my eyes were playing tricks on me, stoned off my ass from this sewer gas, or something is down here with us."

  Rick heard a faint sound as though something had splashed in the water in a side tunnel near him. He flashed his light down the tunnel to see if he could see anything.

  "Do you think it could be one of those creatures we saw on the streets back in town?" Rick asked with a little more concern in his voice than he'd have liked.

  Wells shook his head. "No, whatever those eyes belong to, they were far too large to be a squirrel—even a mutant one."

  McAvoy cursed over the comm. "Wells, Jacobson, take point. Morgan, I want you guarding the rear. And, gentlemen, I don't need to remind you to be on your guard down here."

  Wells and Jacobson rushed past both Rick and McAvoy to take point. Rick dropped back to keep an eye out for anything that might come upon them from behind.

  "Sergeant, not to be a downer here, but I really hope it’s just the sewer gases that are playing tricks on Wells’s mind and not some over-sized mutant alligator that is hunting us in the dark."

  The sergeant wasn’t amused. "Damn it, Morgan! Why did you have to go and say something like that? Here we are up to our ears in mutant creatures and, of course, you want to add a mutant alligator to the mix!"

  Rick scanned down the side tunnel making sure nothing was there. The comm buzzed back to life with Wells reporting that his tunnel was clear and Jacobson reported that the side passage he’d traveled down was a dead end due to a cave-in. Rick reported that there was nothing down his tunnel either.

  Wells chuckled in relief over the comm. "It must have been my imagination playing tricks on me."

  "That's the last thing in the world we need down here is some insane monster that wants to make us their lunch," remarked Jacobson. "Seriously, this trip has been bad enough with those nasty looking canines and freaky squirrel things."

  McAvoy jumped on the line. "Everything checks out here on my end as well. Let's connect back in the main tunnel and proceed on. Jacobson, are you able to get a signal down here and figure out how much farther we need to go?"

  The line was silent for several moments before Jacobson came back on. "Sorry, Sergeant, it appears I can't get a clear signal down here. But from my estimation, we are probably a mile or two away from the storm drain access."

  "Sounds good!” McAvoy said. “Head back to the main tunnel, and be careful."

  Rick turned around and headed towards the main tunnel. As he travelled, something in the water caught his attention. He leaned down and scooped up the object that floated on the surface of the water.

  Rick held up the translucent piece of freshly shed reptilian skin before him. The chunk of skin was roughly two feet long and eighteen inches wide. Rick's throat went dry and a knot grew in the pit of his stomach. Cold beads of sweat trickled down his neck and brow.

  The light of his flashlight glinted off the semi-translucent skin that dangled from his fingers. He knew this belonged to something big that had passed through there recently. He flashed his light down both ends of the tunnel, afraid of what he might find. As he did so, he tried his best to control his composure and racing heart before clicking on the comm.

  "Sir, we need to get the hell out of these sewers now!"

  "Why? What's going on?” McAvoy asked.

  A large splash echoed down the tunnel from where Rick stood. He gripped his gun tighter and shined the light down the tunnel to see if something was there. The knot in his stomach grew tighter. He felt as though something was watching him from the shadows beyond his light.

  The comm crackled. Rick squinted ahead in the darkness as he slowly backed out of the tunnel. He never let his gaze waver from the dark beyond.

  "Sir, my brother and I used to raise reptiles growing up, and, well, I’ve just found one of the largest reptile skin sheds I've ever seen, and it’s fresh."

  Another splash sounded farther down the tunnel. Rick felt the panic rising within him. If it hadn't been for all of Rick's extensive military training, he would have bolted. When McAvoy returned on the comm, Rick breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You don’t think it’s from the Beast, do you?” McAvoy asked.

  “I honestly don’t know, sir. I assume it is reptilian, but I couldn’t say. All I know is my gut is telling me we need to get out of here fast!”

  “Damn it! This is the last thing we need right now.”

  “Agreed,” said Rick. “Something down here is giving me the creeps.”

  “What was that?” McAvoy asked.

  Another splash echoed in the distance from somewhere down the tunnel.

  "I'll explain when I return," Rick whispered over the line.

  Something was out there, but what was it? Rick turned tail and bolted back down the tunnel to pair up with the rest of the team. With the knot in his stomach growing worse, he remembered how Henry used to explain to him what his gut feelings meant. When Henry talked about it, Rick passed his feelings off as gas or bad Indian food. However, after feeling the sensation he felt right now, he was a fool for not listening to Henry more closely and pushing him away.

  Rick rounded the corner and slammed into Wells, causing both men to crash into the dark murky water. Wells was the first to get to his feet, and Rick thrashed around momentarily, acting as though he was under attack. McAvoy grabbed him by the arm and yelled at him to stop. It took several moments before Rick calmed down and realized that he was okay.

  "You scared me there for a second," McAvoy remarked. "All three of us thought something was closing in on us fast. Hell! Wells almost opened fire on you. You're damn lucky he didn't, or you'd have a few more holes in that body of yours than God intended."

  Rick noticed the reptile skin was gone. It must have fallen in the crash, he thought. He frantically splashed around searching for it.

  "What the hell is wrong with you?" McAvoy asked.

  Rick spun back and forth in search of the skin. "Where is it?"

  Jacobson whistled a long and slow note. Then he bent down and snatched up a piece of reptile skin floating near his leg. "Is this what you were looking for?"

  Rick looked up to see what Jacobson held, and raced across the expanse between the two to snatch the skin out of Jacobson's hand.

  The other three men gawked at him. Rick tried to steady his breathing even though his heart raced at what felt like a hundred miles an hour.

  "What’s gotten into you?
" McAvoy asked again.

  Rick yanked off his mask and gasped for air. The world around him seemed as if it was spinning. He felt as though he was going to be sick. The contents of his stomach started to rise, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Rick bent over and vomited near the wall of the tunnel.

  Wells laughed. "Looks like something he ate didn't agree with him, Sarge."

  McAvoy turned and silenced Wells with a glare. He walked over to Rick, placing his hand on his back. "Are you okay?"

  Rick vomited again, emptying the remaining contents of his stomach into the foul-smelling water. The smell of the sewers permeated his nose causing his stomach to lurch even more. When there was nothing left in his stomach, he wiped his lips on the sleeve of his jacket and looked up at his sergeant.

  "Sir . . ." Rick felt another wave of nausea coming on so he replaced his mask. The filters immediately began working and the smell of the sewers faded. Rick could already feel his stomach starting to settle. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to startle you." Rick could see the concern in McAvoy's eyes. Rick straightened up and held out his hand to show McAvoy the reptile skin he was now desperately clutching.

  Rick clicked his light on and shined it at the skin. "I found this down the tunnel floating on the water. As I was saying, we need to get out of here now!"

  McAvoy and the others exchanged confused looks.

  Wells said, "So it's a piece of skin. What does that have to do you with you running out of the tunnel like a scared little girl?"

  Rick ignored Wells. "Henry and I used to raise reptiles, and we observed that skin from an average reptile or snake has a particular pattern for both the upper and lower scales."

  McAvoy stepped in closer to examine the large chunk of skin.

  "As you can see, there is only one pattern on this piece of skin, and it is a fairly large pattern. I don’t believe this is from the Beast. From everything I’ve heard, that thing’s scales are like hardened iron. This is from something else, and I think its stalking us."

  The other two men leaned in to see the pattern that Rick was talking about. McAvoy nodded his head and did a quick survey of the tunnel.

  "Wells, how fast can you get us out of these sewers? Are we close to an exit?"

  Wells shook his head. "No, sir, I can only guess that we are probably a good two or three miles to an exit large enough for us to get out of. I have a couple of auto probes that I could send out to try to map out the sewers down here. Also, with the depth of the water and the debris floating in the area, it’s more than likely going to take us twice as long as it normally would to travel that far."

  “Wonderful!” Jacobson muttered as he glanced back down the tunnel where Rick had emerged.

  McAvoy turned to Rick. "Are you certain you know the size of this creature by that shedding and that it’s stalking us?"

  Rick nodded his head grimly. "Yes, sir, I'm certain."

  McAvoy nodded. "That's good enough for me. Wells, I want you to send out the drones and get as much of the area ahead of us mapped out. Then I want you and Jacobson to take point, and stay within eyeshot of each other. Morgan and I will take up the rear. The four of us will stay in constant contact with one another. Keep the comm silent but check in every five minutes. We're going to pick up our pace and get to that exit a little faster than planned."

  Wells and Jacobson nodded.

  Wells swung his pack off his shoulders, found the drones, and went about synchronizing them to the control device he placed on his left forearm. Once completed, he commenced the mapping program, and the drones zipped off down the tunnels.

  "One more thing,” McAvoy said, “if any of you see anything out of the ordinary—I don't care if it's a rat surfing on an old piece of driftwood—call it in immediately."

  As soon as McAvoy ordered the men to move out, a resounding splash echoed off the walls. With the cacophony of sound rebounding and bouncing off the hard stone and cement walls, it was hard to determine which direction the sound came from. All four men jumped into formation with their backs to one another. They shined their lights down the tunnels trying in vain to see what had created the racket.

  "Dive for cover!" Jacobson shouted when he spotted a large wooden beam hurtling towards them from one of the side tunnels. The beam slammed into the wall of the tunnel, creating a web of small cracks and fissures, before it splashed into the murky water.

  Rick gulped. He could imagine what might have happened if it had hit one of them. All four men raced as fast as they could down the corridor, making sure to watch for anything lurking in the shadows. Rick tried to keep an ear out for anything unusual, but the persistent dripping of water that echoed through the tunnels grated on his nerves. Something was out there stalking them, something powerful enough to crack the thick cement wall of the sewers.

  The darkness of the sewers hindered their progress as they continued down the tunnel that Jacobson had chosen. Even with the lights on their weapons, whatever stalked them always remained barely beyond sight. It seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Just when one of the men thought they had seen the creature and knew its position, someone else spotted it elsewhere.

  The thing taunted them by throwing objects their way but never quite striking them. Several times Rick or one of the others would have to stop to move around the thrown object, which slowed their pace considerably. Rick was amazed at the amount of junk that was sent crashing around them. An old broken chair had nearly struck Wells. McAvoy and Rick had to dive into the dank water at the next intersection to avoid being crushed by a broken table that had exploded into a shower of splinters near them. After which, they climbed out of the water, spitting out the foul liquid that had collected in their masks.

  Wells and Jacobson frantically checked all the connecting tunnels for whatever it was that hunted them. They found nothing.

  When McAvoy finally got himself situated, he gave the order to run. But as soon as he did, he spotted an old broken “For Sale” sign hurdling towards them from the tunnel Wells had just confirmed was clear.

  With his sides burning, Rick panted for breath, but he didn't dare slow down. Rick's gut twisted and turned, warning him to get away as fast as possible. Whatever this creature was that stalked them, it had a twisted sense of humor. It only wanted to play with them.

  When the tunnel behind them grew silent, the team quickened their pace. Rick could see Jacobson and Wells desperately trying to find any tunnels or emergency accesses that they could use to escape the dark recesses of the sewers.

  As they ran, something popped up on the control device on Wells’s left arm.

  "Turn here!" he shouted into the comm. "There is a storm drain access not too far from here."

  Rick wasted no time in bolting down the tunnel, with Wells in front and the other two behind them. The mad dash down the cramped tunnel caused the stitch in Rick’s side to burn so badly that he almost had to stop running. He passed through a large metal doorway and stumbled to a halt. He noticed Wells pushing against the large rusted hatch. Jacobson and McAvoy soon entered the chamber and joined Wells. They pushed on the iron hatch until it sealed shut behind them.

  Rick slumped down, sucking in large gulps of air in order to slow down his heart rate. He could hear the beat of his heart pounding incessantly in his ears. Slowly, his heart found a normal rhythm. The stitch in his side eased, and the knots in his stomach began to fade. McAvoy walked over to Rick asking if he was okay. Rick looked up at him and smiled.

  "Give me a moment, and I'll be good to go," he said.

  McAvoy knelt down next to Rick. Rick saw the concern in the sergeant’s face as he turned towards the massive metal bulkhead—the only thing protecting them from whatever it was that chased them. Rick turned to see Wells and Jacobson scanning the drones for a way out of the sewers.

  McAvoy clapped Rick on his back. "Take a moment to catch your breath. I want us moving again in the next ten minutes."

  With that, he stood and walked over to
the other two soldiers. Rick reached into his pocket and pulled out an old photo of his brother, his grandfather, and him. Rick smiled. He remembered catching the large fish that he held up in the picture. Thankfully, the photo was on a waterproof polymer paper or it would probably be a wad of goo now.

  In the photo, Henry had his arm wrapped around him with a huge smile on his face. Everyone was so happy that day. He wished he could go back to those days when things were simpler. Unfortunately, because Henry blamed himself for their grandfather's death, he watched after Rick as if it was his only purpose in life.

  Rick had grown to resent his brother because he was always there hovering over his shoulder. That is why Rick chose to reenlist and stay in the military after Henry left. The memory still left a bitter taste in Rick's mouth.

  He gingerly tucked the picture back into his pocket and then reminded himself that he needed to call Henry when they got back home.

  McAvoy called from across the chamber for Rick to join them. Rick climbed to his feet and ambled through the water towards them.

  "Did you find a way out of here?" Rick asked as he approached.

  "Yes, we have," Jacobson replied. "The drones found a tunnel that runs parallel to this chamber. If we set a small charge, we can punch through the wall and make our way to the original exit point. From what we've been able to discover, this tunnel doesn’t connect with the main tunnel, so we should be able to avoid whatever is out there."

  Rick glanced down at the specs showing on the tablet. "Not that I doubt you guys, but you saw how many collapsed tunnels were out there. Who's to say that a charge won’t set off a chain reaction and cause the ceiling to collapse down on us?”

  Both men glanced over at McAvoy.

  "We're just going to have to chance it," he said.