I almost fall out of the sled and I snap out of my deep and ill advised sleep with a jerk.
I’m such a loser. Here it is my mission and I’m the one who falls asleep and nearly crashes us.
Pathetic.
We’d gone almost sixteen miles when we start to see the sun shining through the storm drains above. Well, the light anyway. We must be close to Vancouver! My skin is tingling with anticipation. I’d never been to the city before and the excitement is overwhelming. I mean, I’m not a total idiot. So part of me is frightened. You know, the part that believes the stories of Lyssa’s dad. Those horrible tales of cannibalism and murder. But the rest of me yearns to see the giant buildings, the parks, the architecture.
You know, everything.
Even if her dad was telling her the truth, which I’m not sure he was mind you. After all, I have no doubt her mom was killed by cut throats, but a pack of organized cannibals seemed a bit of a stretch to me. Besides, I doubt the cannibals could have lasted that long, just living off people. First of all, they’d run out of people—fast. Secondly, I read an article once that said a tribe in South America died out because it practiced cannibalism. They got this disease called Kuru. It mentioned something about prions, I didn’t really understand it, so I don’t know if it’s true. I mean, I only read about it on Wikipedia and you just can’t trust anything written on that place.
Especially not these days!
“Dorian, stop!”
I slam my feet down and pull on the brake as hard as I can and we come screeching to a halt. And there in front of me is a giant wall of debris. It looks like the ceiling collapsed ahead of us and the building that was above the pipe came crashing through the hole it left.
“What do we do?”
She sighs, “The only thing we can. We go topside and try to make it past the cave in I guess.”
I swear under my breath, “How? The last storm drain we saw was a mile back.”
“Exactly. Wait, let’s look at the map, what does that number say?”
I spin my light to the orange lettering, “C35-41b in Section thirteen. Thirteen, bad luck.”
Lyssa groans, “Don’t be such a ninny, my map says there is an access pipe over to the rest of the drain system, about three hundred feet back on the right.”
I frown, “I don’t remember an access pipe.”
Lyssa huffs, “Well, it’s there. I’m sure you were too busy falling asleep to see it.”
I totally deserve that, but I get defensive anyway, “I only did that once!”
Lyssa laughs out loud, “I felt you fall asleep at least four times!”
“No way I fell asleep more than three times!”
“Ah ha! A minute ago you only fell asleep once. Which is it, enquiring minds want to know.”
I glare at her, “You know, nobody likes you.” It’s something I’ve heard her say a million times now.
She turns, “Well, your tongue said otherwise.”
“My tongue didn’t say anything!”
She turns and looks at me seriously, “I wasn’t talking about your words, I was talking about how it kissed.”
And that was that.
End of discussion.
Man, she was really good at ending those. My mother was too. Is that like a genetic thing with women? Like, do they just instinctively know how to put an end to any conversation without even breaking a sweat? Because Ellie was a freaking champion at it, as well.
Of course, maybe it’s just that I’m stupid.
Yeah, that’s probably it, now that I think about it.
Lyssa walks back towards the bypass and I grab the lead rope on the sled and follow with my tail planted firmly between my legs. It is becoming clear to me that Lyssa is not going to forgive me. Suddenly a bolt of fear strikes me, what is Ellie going to do if she finds out?
Holy crap! I’m dead.
I mean, Lyssa is totally going to tell her. I just know it. She’s probably counting the seconds before she can tell her.
Or will she?
She might want me to do it. In fact, I’ll bet she is certain I’ll do the right thing and tell her myself. So if I don’t I’ll disappoint her again. Yeah, I’ll bet that’s it.
I shake my head. I have to stop thinking about this! I mean, I’m going to drive myself crazy.
Of course, maybe that’s what Lyssa is really after—
I walk right into her back, “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”
She shakes her head walks to the wall where there is a hatch recessed. It was difficult to see, unless you were looking for it. She walks over and spins the release and pulls the door open. There is a dark passageway beyond the opening, that stretches on for what looks like infinity.
Did I mention it smelled? Well, there was horrible smell. It was like a doorway opening into hell.
There was no way I was going down that hallway.
Lyssa stepped right through the door and started down the passageway before I could protest. So now I’m stuck. There is no way a girl is going to out bravado me. She’s walking down this passageway, then so am I.
“There is no way I’m walking down that tunnel.”
I’m such a loser.
Lyssa’s hand reaches through the doorway and grabs my jacket and pulls me in. I have to tell you, I thought it smelled bad from the doorway. But that was nothing to what it smelled like on the inside. The light from our flashlights barely penetrated the blackness in front of us. The ground under my feet felt gooey. It felt like every step took more effort than the last.
“What is that sticking to my boots?”
“Not sure, it smells like it’s poop. But it can’t be. The bacteria would have eaten it already. So it’s probably some kind of slime mold.”
“What’s a slime mold?”
“It’s a mold that oozes around.”
“Oh my god that’s disgusting!”
Lyssa rolls her eyes, “Look, would you stop whining! Honestly, you’re so annoying! Do you think I want to be here? If it weren’t for you, I’d be in a nice warm bed. I’d be just waking up right about now and probably reaching for a book. But no! I’m stuck in a sewer pipe with my legs ankle deep in sludge! And if the toxic smell weren’t bad enough, I have to listen to the constant complaining of the most arrogant moron I’ve ever met! Just suck it up and be a man, for once in your miserable life!”
Okay, so even I could hear the difference between our normal banter and that rant.
So I say nothing. Not out of respect, but rather fear. We trudge through the muck in silence.
We reach a junction point, our tunnel moves onward in the same direction we were going. And other takes a hard right and looks to go on forever. There is a right turn as well, but I can clearly see that it ends in rubble like the last one. But there is a ladder that go up to what looks like a manhole cover above our heads. I can see light coming in through the tiny round holes.
Lyssa looks up, “Look, these collapses, they’re beginning to look way too strategic to me. I don’t think we should move forward till we know what topside looks like. It feels like we’re being funneled in one direction. I don’t want to go any further. In fact, I think we should we should go back. We walk to the last drainpipe and then approach this area with some stealth.”
I sigh, “What can it hurt to climb the ladder here and see what we can see, right?”
“It might not. Of course it could be the worst thing we could ever possibly do. There’s no way to know. The point is, we should approach this whole area as hostile and go back to move forward.”
“Yeah, but I mean if a sinkhole developed at the other tunnel, it might have been big enough to cause damage this far away as well.”
“You’re right, but let’s be sure. It’s the smart play.”
“Look, let me climb up, if there is nothing to see, I’ll come back down and we go back. Or if it looks hostile, we go back. But if it looks clear, why wouldn’t we go ahead?”
“Because, if I were going to lay a trap. I’d make sure it’d look clear as I could.”
That made sense. But we were here and I’d kill myself if we went the long way for nothing. Actually, those men probably would.
“Worth a look. Be right back.”
Lyssa crosses her arms and looks really annoyed, but she doesn’t stop me. I climb the ladder, it’s covered in gooey stuff, but not nearly as bad as the ground. When I reach the top, I see there is a storm drain and grate that I can peer through. I’m blown away. There is what looks like a wall, that is made out of buildings that have been knocked over. There is rubble everywhere. I don’t see any people, but there is a clear divide between this side of the rubble and the other side, which I cannot see any of. I can’t tell if the rubble was put there as a barrier, or the result of a massive explosion. In fact, I can’t even tell if there is any rubble on top of the manhole cover. Just for the sake of argument, I try to give it a push, but I can’t make it budge.
So I swear under my breath and climb back down.
“So?”
“I dunno, looks like a bomb went off. Rubble is everywhere. Buildings are knocked down in a line, stretching as far as I could see, which wasn’t far. And that manhole must be covered up, either that or it is way too heavy to move.”
“So, in other words, big waste of time?”
“Only if you consider valuable intel about what it looks like topside a waste of time. Let’s go, we should backtrack to the last drain.”
And I walk away.
Wait, if I’m not mistaken, I just ended that discussion. I’m not quite sure though, since I’ve never done that before. It feels kind of good actually. I wonder if this is how Ellie and Lyssa feel all the time?
We trudge through the muck, till we reach the hatch. Then we walk back up the tunnel, which after the muck and stink, is a relief. I have to tell you, I’m beginning to think my initial view of the outside was right.
It stinks out here.
I have never smelled anything as revolting as that passageway. In fact, I can say without any hesitation, I would rather dunk my head in a bucket of chicken poop, rather than walk down that hallway again.
It takes us about a half hour to reach the ladder up to the drain, that’s when I realized that we have the sled and we’ll never be able to take it with us. So we divvy up as much of our stuff as we can, then start climbing. When we get to the top, we’re in luck, the storm drain is huge. Plus, there are several cars giving us immediate cover. We easily get our backpacks through it and then scamper out ourselves.
Lyssa is the first to her feet and she peers over the hood of one of the cars and pans around. Then she freezes and drops to the ground for cover.
I whisper, “What is it?”
Lyssa looks like she saw a ghost whispers, “ They’re here.”