The Tunnel War

by Kevin George

  Not that he’d feel the same, she thought with a frown, grateful that his death had been quick and painless, and that he’d been consumed after being put out of his misery, unlike so many others.

  She ended up in the largest hallway again, glad to be out of the elements yet still far from the barracks. The hallway was empty, far less activity than when she’d been there earlier. She glanced toward the tunnel entrance at one end of the hall and considered heading to the elevator, not that she could access it. With the prisoner being sent Below earlier, she fully expected a squadron of teens to be waiting for some type of response from King Edmond. That thought made her want to run far away, but she turned in the opposite direction instead, where she saw the Dome’s airlock door still wide open.

  A test, she thought, knowing she should push the Dome out of her mind. But she couldn’t help considering the warmth, and the garden, and the shelter, and the beauty within, all of which she felt herself yearning for. Shame filled her as she made her way toward the airlock, but she hesitated to enter when she reached the opening. She’d spent so long as a prisoner in the Dome. . . so long wanting to get out. . . risked her life to leave. . .

  Footsteps echoed behind her and she spun, shaking her head in denial, wondering how she could’ve considered returning inside.

  “I was just out checking on the beasts,” she said, scurrying away from the airlock at the sight of one of Henry’s pelted teens.

  It took a few seconds for the teen to come close enough for Julietta to recognize her. Dani, one of the few girls that had survived the attack from Below, her father once one of Louis Jonas’s closest confidantes, a role Dani had since assumed in regards to Henry. Dani had been quiet the few times Julietta was in her presence, contemplative, though her eyes always bore holes into Julietta. Julietta had no doubt Dani would rush to Henry and tell him exactly what she’d seen.

  “Please,” Julietta said when Dani didn’t respond, “it’s not what you think.”

  “And who cares if it was?” Dani asked, her voice flat. “There’s nothing inside the Dome for anyone; nothing outside, nothing anywhere. It’s pointless. . . all pointless.”

  Julietta’s brow furrowed. She sensed something seriously wrong with the girl but couldn’t decide if that made her more dangerous or less. Julietta took a few steps forward, her eyes never leaving Dani’s spear.

  “Still nothing from Below?” Julietta asked.

  Dani shook her head, turning toward the airlock for the nearby beast enclosure, staring at the corresponding keypad. “It’s all pointless.”

  Somehow knowing what was about to happen, Julietta tensed her legs to spring toward the girl, whose hand reached for the glowing keys. But Julietta didn’t take a step before she heard yelling from the tunnel. She stayed away from the Dome’s airlock but also steered clear of the girl and whatever drama was about to play out.

  “Get back here!” a voice called.

  Dani also glanced toward the tunnel before hurriedly pushing buttons on the keypad. The loud click of the airlock’s outer door locks disengaging filled the hallway. She started to pull the large door open when the first Pelted—and the most important Pelted—emerged from the tunnel.

  “Please, Dani, you have to trust me,” Henry said, slightly breathless, his eyes finding Julietta before focusing on Dani. Dani looked away from the airlock door for the briefest of moments.

  “I can’t. . . it’s all pointless. . . everything up here. . . everything Below,” Dani said. “I’m so hungry. . . I just can’t. . .”

  “But we’re so close,” Henry said. “You need to keep faith. Patients will be delivered soon and it won’t be long until we have plenty to eat again. I promise, once Below comes through for us, we’ll slaughter a beast and have a feast in celebration.”

  Dani turned to Henry, who held up a hand to slow the pelted teens running behind him. Dani’s shoulders sagged, and for a moment she nodded. Julietta watched Henry sigh and start to walk toward her. He barely took two steps when Dani started shaking her head again.

  “That’s never going to happen. . . things will never go back to the way they were.”

  “Stop her!” Henry yelled.

  It took Julietta a second to realize Henry was talking to her. That moment was all Dani needed to throw the airlock door open. Julietta and Henry rushed toward her, converging on the airlock door from both sides. Julietta stopped well short, knowing she’d never reach the door on time. She watched Henry arrive seconds after the door clicked shut. Henry pounded on the thick glass window, shaking his head as he yelled. The other pelted teens reached them a moment later.

  “Don’t do this! Don’t open the other door!” Henry called out. “I know times seem rough but we’re in this together! All of us! We can make things better! We can make things like they were when we were kids!”

  From where Julietta stood, she couldn’t see inside the airlock. But based on the way Henry kept pounding on the glass—based on the looks of desperation from every pelted teen behind him—Julietta could tell Dani wasn’t responding the way they hoped. A moment later, Julietta could see the outer airlock door slowly opening to the beasts’ enclosure. Several teens sprinted to Julietta, who couldn’t back away quickly enough to avoid being grabbed.

  They dragged Julietta toward the hallway’s closed airlock door, pushing her face against the glass. She watched Dani walk into the cage, her hands raised in defeat. A pair of beasts emerged from the darkness, stepping into view in the moonlight, splitting up from each other as they circled their willing victim. The teens yelled for Julietta to call off the beasts.

  “I wish I could but I can’t,” Julietta said, the words nearly choking her. Knowing what would happen at any moment, she desperately wanted to look away, but her eyes wouldn’t budge. “That’s not how it works.”

  One of the teens began to push buttons on the keypad.

  “You’d better make it work like that!”

  “Enough,” Henry said, his voice eerily calm.

  He stared out at the beasts getting closer, his face expressionless. Julietta had never seen him so calm. The pelted teen squeezed Julietta’s arm so tightly that she let out a tiny groan.

  “But if we send her in there right away—”

  “It won’t make a difference,” Henry said. “And you’ll risk one of them getting in here.”

  The pelted teen released Julietta, who didn’t budge as several of Henry’s followers paced up and down the hallway, yelling for their friend to run, yelling for the beasts to back away, yelling that this was what happened when they tried to deal with the devils from Below. As the beasts converged on Dani, the girl lowered her hands and looked side to side, her body suddenly tensing. She shook her head and backed away, clearly changing her mind. Groans filled the hallway, turning to gasps of horror when Dani started to run, only to be caught and inundated by the beasts. Only a whisper of screaming reached the hallway, but everyone heard it before watching the resulting carnage.

  Henry’s jaw clenched. He didn’t blink a single time as his friend was reduced to a puddle of blood and gore. Two more beasts arrived and the four fought over every last bit of what had once been Dani. When Henry turned to Julietta, she expected anger or rage but couldn’t have been farther off.

  “You were right,” he said, surprising Julietta. “About Below. . . about not trusting them. We reached out to make the deal—we sent them food and the prisoner they required—but we’ve still heard nothing. Dani couldn’t deal with the thought of. . .”—Henry stopped and shook his head, his eyes narrowing—“. . . you were right.”

  “I know what King Edmond did to me. . . to my boyfriend. . . to so many other important people from The Third,” Julietta said. “I’m sorry to be right about this, too.”

  The corners of Henry’s eyes creased as he took a final glance toward the enclosure and the feeding beasts. When he headed back toward the Dome, Julietta expected the others to follow, expected this to be the end of their interaction. But
Henry stopped and looked back, his eyes momentarily finding Julietta before staring beyond her toward the tunnel at the far end of the hallway.

  Henry turned from one of his followers to the next, nodding at each of them, his silent commands being met with nods in return. Julietta didn’t know what Henry meant, though her racing pulse told her it couldn’t be good. When she tried to walk away, Henry snapped at her to stay still. The Pelteds whispered to one another, their focus turning to Julietta, their panic and sadness replaced with anger. Julietta tensed and considered escaping, running back to the barracks to grab her packed bag, rushing out to the Nothingness though that would almost certainly seal her death. Instead, she stayed in place and watched the teens disperse around her, walking out of the airlocks attached to the walkways, blocking every path Julietta could take.

  Trapping me in the hallway. . .

  “You were right about the prisoner; I never should’ve gotten rid of him,” Henry said once he and Julietta were alone. He slowly approached her, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes never leaving her. “I’d never met a man so contrite for what he’d done. For a long time, I expected him to try killing me in retaliation for what I did to his son. But he insisted that committing further violence would be a discredit to his son’s memory.” Henry snickered. “We almost learned to forgive each other. In the end, he insisted I follow the king’s order to send him Below, though he knew it would cost him his life.”

  “You’re in charge,” Julietta said. “You don’t need to explain your decisions to me.”

  Henry nodded. “You’re right, I am in charge, and I’ve never felt the need to tell the others why I do the things I do. But you. . . you’re different. I don’t know why. Maybe because you don’t blindly follow orders or you speak up when the others are afraid, but you make me second guess myself. You’ve always warned me never to trust Below. . . that more drastic action needed to be shown to them. . . and now I realize you’re right.”

  Henry tossed his spear from hand to hand, spinning it dramatically before finally thrusting it toward her. Julietta recoiled until realizing he was offering her the hilt. She took it slowly, watching Henry reach around his neck for a keycard. Julietta immediately recognized it as the keycard to access the elevator. When he offered it to her, she was much slower to accept.

  “What do you want me to do with that?” she asked. “Fight Below by myself?”

  Despite Henry being unarmed, he forced the keycard into Julietta’s free hand. Henry shook his head before backing his way toward the Dome.

  “You don’t need to go down. . . unless you want to,” he said. “No, you just have to be an escort to the elevator.”

  Julietta turned slowly, still finding the hallway empty. A chill rushed through her that no pelt could’ve prevented. She was almost afraid to speak the next two words.

  “Escort who?”

  Henry stopped and turned, nodding toward the beasts feasting on Dani’s body. He reached into his pelt and tossed a short length of rope at Julietta’s feet.

  “For the airlock door,” he said, noting the confusion on her face. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

  Without another word, he walked through the Dome’s airlock and closed the door behind him.

  Julietta hummed, or at least she tried to. Her heart pounded heavily and she couldn’t breathe deeply enough to hum a steady rhythm. The wind howled, drowning out any noise she made, though the crunch of snow beneath her feet sounded louder than any tune she’d ever made. The snapping of bones and slurping of blood didn’t help either.

  Henry’s spear shook in Julietta’s hands. Even if she could bring herself to use it on the beasts—which she didn’t think she could—Julietta doubted she had the strength to inflict any meaningful damage on them. After what felt like hours—but may have only been a few minutes—she shuffled forward a few more feet, ten feet away from the open airlock door. Though her head remained turned toward the feeding beasts, her eyes flitted to the far side of the enclosure fence, where a pair of teen Pelteds waited and watched, ensuring that she did as she was told.

  Julietta had watched Henry enter the Dome and had no doubt he—along with other Pelteds—now watched her from somewhere inside. Not the first time they’ve seen me in here, she thought, though this time she’d known what she was getting into. Nearly an hour had passed before she’d punched in the code and entered the enclosure, an hour spent pacing the hallway and tunnel, looking out at the armed Pelteds blocking her every escape. During that time, heavier clouds had rolled in, blocking out most of the moon’s light. She’d considered escaping Below without any beasts—and had gone as far as entering the elevator and pushing the down button before rushing out and blocking the door open—but the prospect of coming face to face with the beasts wasn’t as unsavory as doing the same with King Edmond.

  She took a deep breath and hummed louder, finally causing one of the beasts to tense up and step back from Dani’s remains. It turned its head slowly, grunting as it did, a fine mist of Dani’s blood spraying off the beast’s snout. It stepped forward to continue eating when its eyes suddenly found Julietta. She squinted to see if she recognized the particular beast, but not enough light reached the ground. Though instinct told her to turn and run—an instinct she desperately wanted to follow—Julietta raised a hand and waved to make sure the beast saw her.

  It did, as did two others that looked up and spotted her. The beasts lumbered in Julietta’s direction. Fighting the urge to sprint and slam the airlock door behind her, Julietta backed up slowly, reaching the airlock within moments, stepping inside but continuing to wave so the beasts would follow. Once Julietta was inside, she picked up the rope she’d tied to the door handle of the outer airlock, holding it in the same hand as her spear. With her free hand, she hovered her fingers over the keypad, which currently glowed red with the outer door still opened.

  The shadows of the beasts approached. Julietta whispered ‘close it’ to herself over and over, yet the rope in her hand remained slack. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, but the airlock interior was quieter and she managed to hum louder, the sound soothing her own racing nerves. The beasts hesitated outside, inching closer to the airlock, finally taking turns stepping in, their eyes narrowed on Julietta. Their faces were stained red and their eyes were heavy, but Julietta recognized the trio that often sat near the fence and listened when she hummed. She still expected the beasts to snap at her—and ultimately devour her—but they sat on their haunches once they entered the airlock, staring into her eyes before looking from side to side, apparently content with listening to her hum.

  Julietta’s hands shook as she pulled on the rope. The beasts’ heads snapped at her, their subsequent growls low and deep, filling the airlock. Julietta realized the beasts were threatened by her spear, which she couldn’t avoid from moving while pulling the rope. She quietly shushed the beasts, laying the weapon down, humming again as she gave a final pull to close the door. The beasts spun toward the clicking door, swiping their paws at the metal once, and then twice, and then several more times, increasing with urgency, their growls turning to frustration. With the other door closed, the keypad turned to green. Julietta typed in the code to access the hallway.

  She pushed the door open and scurried out, tempted to close it behind her and trap the beasts within. But that would only delay the inevitable and frighten the beasts more. Instead, she pushed the airlock door open all the way and hummed, slowly backing her way toward the tunnel, pausing until the first beast poked its head into the hallway and found her. The second beast followed the first, and the third was behind that one, having trouble clearing the doorway with the spear in its mouth.

  The spear I left in the airlock, Julietta thought, watching the beast suddenly chomp down and snap the spear in half, the two pieces clattering to the hallway floor. The beasts followed her, slowly at first but soon faster. Julietta resisted the urge to run, especially once she reached the darkness of the tunnel. A few torches remai
ned lit along the wall and Julietta silently thanked the Pelteds for leaving them in place. Still, most of the tunnel was dark and she only saw the silhouette of beasts behind her, though their grunts seemed to echo all around.

  The tunnel had never felt as lengthy as it did now, but Julietta finally reached the end before the beasts caught up. Her hands shook as she removed the keycard from her neck, but the elevator door opened immediately when she used it. At first, she stepped to the side of the open door, wondering if she could wave the trio of beasts inside. But she doubted that would work and knew they’d never figure out the down button. She slinked in, pushing the button right away, holding an arm across the elevator door to keep it open.

  The first beast arrived moments later, stopping a few feet from the open doorway, proceeding with the same caution as it had used at the airlock. This time, it approached Julietta’s outstretched hand, sniffing it carefully, spraying her fingers with droplets of blood and mucus. Worried the beast might snap and drag her out, Julietta hummed louder. The beast finally licked her hand and stepped into the elevator, which swayed gently beneath its weight.

  “Shhh,” Julietta said in a sing-song whisper. “Everything will be okay.”

  The next two beasts followed, the last one stopping to sniff Julietta’s arm as it entered. She closed her eyes and continued to hum, her entire body tensed, expecting the beast to chomp down on her. Instead, it grunted a final time and stepped aboard the elevator, joining the other two. Julietta inhaled slowly, the stench of blood and wet fur filling the elevator. She resisted the urge to look back at the beasts; she didn’t know if that made her more likely or less for an attack.

  Cautiously, she raised her hand toward the down button, not making any sudden movements, her body numb as her feet felt planted to the floor. She pushed the button. The resulting ding sounded thunderous. The beasts growled and shifted as the elevator door slid to a close. At the last moment, Julietta launched herself forward, sliding out of the doorway with barely an inch to spare. The strength in her legs gave out and she lurched forward, collapsing to the tunnel floor, expecting hundreds of pounds of white-furred beast to land atop her. But the banging and rattling behind her were muffled, and the beasts’ growls echoed in the distance, growing quieter with every passing second the elevator raced Below. . .