by Ike Hamill
Penny shook her head. Isaac frowned.
“I know you don’t believe me, but I’ve seen pictures. You would too, if you knew where to look. What was your grandfather’s explanation for why the sun turned?” Addison asked Harper.
“What do you mean? It was physics,” Harper said.
“It was The Wisdom,” Addison said. After she said the words, she turned her head and spat.
“Regardless,” Jacob said. “We really should get going. I don’t think there’s any more we can do here.”
From the look on her face, Harper wasn’t so sure. She stared at Logan and then looked to Brook and Amelia. Nobody else seemed eager to go.
“You stay,” Addison said, pointing at Amelia. “You’ll help me take care of him. The rest of you are excused after you help us move him to a more comfortable place.”
They all nodded. It seemed like a good compromise.
# # # # #
It was difficult to move him up the stairs on the stretcher, but Addison insisted. She said that the only comfortable place for him would be the guest room.
Addison led the way. Brook backed through the doorway as Isaac peeled off to the side. Addison flipped on the lights. The window had been blacked out and the room was wired for power. Brook caught her breath. It was a little girl’s room, and it was perfectly clean. She had the urge to take off her shoes before going any farther.
As they lowered the stretcher to the edge of the bed, Brook looked around for a towel or something to cover the perfect lavender bedspread. It was too late. Logan’s blood was already soaking in.
“Lift him,” Addison said. She arranged the pillows so that when they leaned Logan back, he was resting with his head propped up. “It would be nice to elevate his leg also, but I don’t think that would be comfortable.”
After folding the stretcher, the others moved backed to the doorway. They all seemed share the same reluctance about sullying the room.
“You’ll be okay?” Brook asked Amelia.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Come back here for me before dawn, if you can,” Amelia said to Brook.
“I will,” Brook said.
“You people remember one thing,” Addison said. She pointed her finger at Jacob, who stood with Harper near the doorway. “You can’t always win. Sometimes you have to accept defeat because it’s the only way to live.”
Jacob looked at Harper.
“We’ll be back,” he said to Amelia.
Chapter 34
{Steam}
“WHY IS THE LIGHT on?” Jacob asked. As they crested the hill, they saw the light shining from the top of the bell tower.
“It’s standard procedure. Whenever there’s a call to the rally points, they turn on the light. Don’t worry, it’s not close to the entry point of the tunnels,” Penny said.
“Seems dangerous,” Jacob said.
They kept walking.
“I think we can assume that the Hunters are still in control from the bonfire,” Penny said.
“Bad assumption,” Isaac said. “The fire wasn’t maintained. I think it’s out.”
They turned the corner and Isaac pointed. The familiar orange glow no longer lit the horizon.
“Let’s move faster,” Brook said. They started jogging. Penny led the way.
“Who was supposed to cover this rally point?” Jacob asked.
“Finn,” Penny said. “He’s young, but he’s capable.”
“Let’s hope,” Isaac said. “He seemed a little flustered at the library.”
The area around the gym was relatively clear. They paused at the edge and then sprinted across the open space until they got to the side of the building. Jacob leaned around the corner and glanced across the way. The buildings were separated by at least a hundred meters. The light on the other side of that space might attract anything. He didn’t like being that close to it.
“There’s no light inside,” Penny said. “You go through the door, turn right, and then there are stairs that lead down to the tunnel. Everyone stay close enough to touch the shoulder of the person ahead of you. No talking once we go in.”
Jacob lined up behind Harper and took the rear position. His heart beat faster as he saw Harper pass into the darkness.
“We have to stop doing this,” Jacob whispered.
“Shhh!” someone said from the dark.
He trailed his hand on Harper’s back and followed her as she followed Isaac. When she dropped down he knew the stairs were coming. The walls sounded like they were closing in around him. Reaching to his side, he verified that they were. Finally, after another turn at the bottom of the stairs, he passed through a doorway and someone reached by him to close it.
Penny turned on a flashlight.
“These tunnels connect the two schools. There’s a gathering space halfway between. What are you people expecting to find?”
“We don’t know,” Brook said. “It has been different every time. There was that ghost at the library, wolves, and the chasm.”
“I saw little elves one time,” Harper said.
“My aunt saw an enormous goat man and angry ghosts,” Jacob said.
Penny took all this in with no expression.
“They don’t seem to want to kill us right away,” Harper said, “if that makes it any easier.”
“That’s true,” Jacob said. “They require a certain amount of suffering.”
“We’re wasting time,” Brook said. “People might need our help.”
Brook pulled out her own light and led the way. They moved down the tunnel single-file. Jacob looked up at the old pipes above them. There had been similar tunnels in Oslo, where he had grown up. It had sometimes been cheaper to share utilities between buildings, so they were connected with underground umbilicals to pass power and fluids. It was like the way fungus grew at the base of the tree. Mushrooms might look independent, but underground there was connective tissue. He reached out and trailed his fingers down the wall. It felt damp.
“Is it getting warmer?” Harper asked.
Isaac turned and nodded.
Ahead, Brook and Penny stopped. They pointed their lights at the wall. The mortar had been chipped away from between some of the bricks. There was a loose pile of it on the floor. Brook reached out with a careful hand and pressed at a brick. It slid easily. She looked back at the others.
Brook and Penny held the lights while Jacob and Harper moved forward. They used their knives to pry out a couple of the bricks at eye-level. When they pulled them free, they found a dark hole behind the wall. Jacob and Harper made eye contact for a second and then moved back so the others could shine lights into the space.
The light caught something. Glassy eyes reflected back. Brook gasped and stumbled backwards. Jacob and Harper moved in to pull the bricks away. Soon, they were tumbling away and hitting the floor. They cleared a hole about a meter in diameter before they hit bricks that were still cemented into place.
“Get him out,” Isaac said.
There was a person embedded in the wall.
Penny reached forward and wiped some of the dirt from the man’s face.
“That’s Luke Miska,” she said.
They all jumped when the eyes turned to look at Penny. Everyone rushed in to start pulling him through the hole in the wall. The dirt was encapsulating him like a cocoon, and they could only dig out his torso. His dirt prison held tight onto his legs. When they pulled at his arms, Luke began to groan.
“Luke,” Penny said, “you’re going to have to wiggle your legs free so we can get you out.”
“Maybe we can find something to break the bricks?” Harper asked.
Luke opened his mouth.
“Luke?” Penny asked when he didn’t say anything right away.
His whisper was barely audible.
“Please kill me.”
The request froze the group for a second and then their hands began to work twice as hard to free him.
“Don’t be silly, Luke,” Penny said as she tried
to reach through the hole in the bricks to dig him out. “We’re going to get you out of there and you’ll be fine. Now try to wiggle your legs.”
“It’s inside me,” Luke said with a sigh of breath.
Jacob and Harper got their shoulders under his armpits. They pushed upwards with their legs, grunting with the effort. Luke moaned, but began to rise. The others rushed in to help lift. Soon, his torso was through the hold and his legs were coming. They pulled him forward as the dirt slowly gave up its hold on him.
Another brick tumbled as they liberated his feet. One of his shoes was still buried. They other one was pulled halfway off. The shoe flopped to the side as they sat Luke down on the floor and leaned him back against the wall.
“Luke,” Penny said, “open your eyes. Look at me. What happened to you? How did you get in the wall?” She shook him gently until he looked at her.
Luke looked down at his own hands. He lifted them and stared at them like he was trying to remember how to use them. He pulled at his shirt. The buttons gave way and revealed his stomach. They saw a vertical red line that ran from his navel to the bottom of his sternum. Luke stared at it for a second and then began to claw at his own flesh. His fingernails scraped the skin away. One caught the edge of the scar and the skin began to break.
“Luke!” Penny yelled. She grabbed his hands, but wasn’t strong enough to restrain him from mutilating himself.
Isaac moved in and took one hand while she concentrated on the other. When they held him still, Luke looked up into Penny’s eyes.
“It’s inside me,” he said. The corners of his mouth were turned down in a sad frown. “Inside.” He looked down at the scar.
Brook reached out and touched his skin.
“It’s healed over,” she said. “This must be days old.”
Luke shook his head.
Brook jerked her hand back and they all saw what she had felt. Something bulged under his skin and moved. It was at least the size of a fist. They saw its black color through his skin.
Penny let go of Luke and her hands flew to her face. “What is it?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.
“It hurts so much. Kill me,” Luke moaned.
# # # # #
He wasn’t trying to hurt himself, so they backed away a few meters to discuss.
“We have to cut it out,” Brook said. “It put something inside of him and we have to cut it out. I have these.” She held up a handful of wraps she had brought from Addison’s stash.
“That might kill him,” Jacob said, stealing a glance at the man. The thing moved under Luke’s skin again and Luke moaned.
“It might kill him anyway,” Harper said.
“I thought you said it didn’t kill people,” Penny said.
“Not right away, usually,” Harper said. “The theory is that it wants you to lose all hope first. But you saw back at Flower Street. Obviously, not everyone makes it.”
Penny began to pace in a tight circle, looking down at the floor.
“Brook is right,” Isaac said. He took out his knife and wiped it on his shirt. “We cut it out as fast as we can, kill the thing—whatever it is, and then we slap a wrap on the wound and hope it heals back up. It’s risky, but we have to do something.”
“One wrap is not going to stitch together someone’s abdominal muscles,” Penny said. “You need equipment to treat a wound like that. His guts will fall out.”
“It might not be under the muscle,” Brook said. “It looked like it was just below the skin. Maybe it’s between the skin and the muscle.”
“No,” Harper said. “It can’t be. We would be able to see it right now.” She glanced over at Luke.
Harper broke from the circle and ran back towards the man. She stopped short before touching him and pulled her hands back. The others joined her just as it happened.
The shape under Luke’s skin bulged and pushed.
Isaac came forward with his knife, but not before the scar on Luke’s belly began to tear. The skin came apart where Luke had scratched it. They saw the black mass below, stretching the skin as it tried to get free. His scar gave way all at once with wet rip. They saw the thing’s head emerge. Its cloudy eyes folded in a strange blink and then went clear. The snake had black scales, black eyes, and even a black tongue that darted from its mouth.
“Kill it!” Penny shouted.
Isaac drove his knife forward. He was too slow. The head dodged and hissed. Isaac jerked his hand back, afraid the thing would strike. It emerged from Luke’s belly like magic—one meter and then two. Terror gripped the group as they backed away from the snake and man. When the tail finally slipped from Luke’s belly, the thing was off. It shot down the tunnel, out of the circle of light. Brook’s flashlight lost it as it merged with the shadows.
They turned their attention back to Luke.
He groaned.
“Get a wrap on him,” Penny said.
“Wait,” Isaac said. He used the tip of his knife to push Luke’s wound open again.
“What are you doing?” Penny asked.
“What if there are more?” Isaac said.
Brook elbowed him aside and gently separated the skin. She looked for a second at the internal damage and then put the wrap on him.
Luke cried out and gripped her wrist. Brook held her hand steady as the wrap set on the wound.
Penny’s light pointed at the floor as she put her hands on her hips and tilted her head back. She sighed towards the arched ceiling of the tunnel. Harper put a hand on her shoulder.
“We have to look for others,” Jacob said.
“And kill that thing,” Penny said.
“Someone should stay here with him,” Isaac said, gesturing towards Luke.
“No,” Harper said. “We stick together. Leave him a knife. He’ll have to fend for himself.”
They each took a second to put a hand on Luke’s shoulder and wish him well. As they turned towards the depths of the tunnel, Isaac sighed and shook his head.
Penny took the lead.
For a few meters, they saw the bloody trail the snake had left. Penny focused her light on the spot where it disappeared. It didn’t fade out, but stopped abruptly.
“It wasn’t even real,” Isaac said.
They turned when Luke moaned behind them.
“Real enough to hurt us,” Harper said. “Don’t forget that.”
They continued.
Penny stopped again when she reached an intersection. Tunnels led in all four directions.
“This isn’t supposed to be here,” she said. “There are two turns and a wide spot where people congregate, but there are no intersections.”
“How sure are you?” Brook asked.
“Pretty sure,” Penny said. “I just did an inspection of this place two months ago.”
“It seems familiar to me,” Isaac said. He took a step down one of the side tunnels. “Guys!”
They moved to join him. He put his hand out to the bricks. There was another place where the mortar was dug out and the bricks were loose. They started pulling bricks again. A woman was trapped behind them.
“Stella,” Brook said.
On hearing her name, the woman’s eyes flew open. She coughed. Jacob and Harper moved into position and tried to lift her.
“Wiggle your legs to get them free,” Penny said.
Stella nodded and they pulled her from the wall. Isaac and Brook kept an eye down the tunnels while Jacob eased Stella to the ground.
Harper began to pull up the woman’s shirt.
“What are you doing?” Stella demanded.
There was no scar.
“Did you get attacked by anything?” Harper asked.
Stella blinked at her.
“Is there anything inside you?” Penny asked. She put her hand on Stella’s arm and the woman withdrew.
“What are you talking about?” Stella asked.
“How did you get in the wall?” Jacob asked.
Stella looked confused and then cover
ed her face with her hands.
“Can you walk?” Penny asked.
It took a few seconds, but Stella got to her feet. She swayed when she leaned over to brush the dirt from her pants. When she stood back up, she coughed again and her color began to return.
“Keep an eye on her,” Penny whispered to Isaac.
After a moment’s deliberation, they decided to keep going down the side tunnel. A few paces later, they found the next loose set of bricks. Behind them, they found Kurt. He didn’t have a scar either, but he was too weak to walk. Stella volunteered to stay with him, but Penny vetoed the idea.
“No,” she said. “We stick together in case something comes at us.”
“What if it gets Kurt?” Brook asked.
“There are likely other people in here. We have to rescue them from the walls. If they can’t take care of themselves once we get them free, then so be it.”
“I don’t understand,” Isaac said. “What was the point of patching up Luke if we’re just going to leave him to die?”
Stella’s hand shot out and caught Isaac’s arm. For someone who had barely been able to stand earlier, her grip was enough to make Isaac shrink.
“Did you say Luke is here?” she demanded.
Isaac nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” Jacob said. “Why?”
“He’s the one who did this to us,” Kurt said.
Stella nodded. “He said he was going to kill us all.”
Penny pointed her flashlight back the way they had come. Everyone watched the place where the beam ended and gave way to darkness. Penny took a couple of steps that direction, but Brook stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.
“Let’s continue,” Jacob said. “We’ll keep going and find anyone else who is trapped in the walls.”
“And we stick together,” Harper said. “There is safety in numbers. Community is what will save us.”
Several people nodded. Penny could tell they had a majority. She relented.
The next person they found, Timothy, stole the energy from the group. His eyes didn’t meet theirs when they pulled the bricks away. When Penny shook him gently to try to rouse him, his mouth fell open and dirt tumbled out. They checked his pulse and verified that he was dead. After a short debate, they decided to move on without spending the time to excavate him.
