Down, down, down, Keagan plunged below the city.

His heart was racing and his hands were sweating. This wasn’t at all what he had expected. He assumed he would be going outdoors, not underground.

Looking up he could see the tiny square of light that led to the city above. A shiver ran through him. He had been eager to leave the weird world of clones … but a dark, underground world wasn’t where he wanted to go either.

The floor lurched again and stopped. Keagan was in a room a bit like a concrete bunker. He stepped off the smooth, white platform that had brought him here, and it rose, pushed up into the shaft on a hydraulic metal pole. An acute sense of loneliness hit Keagan as his access to the world of clones was taken away.

The area was lit by a dim panel of glass set into one of the walls. There was an old rusted hatch in the floor … and nothing else. It reminded Keagan of a submarine hatch. The room was quite a contrast to the gleaming city above.

Sighing, Keagan tucked the tech-screen inside his shirt and tried the hatch. It was rusty and it took a lot of effort but, after grazing several knuckles, he managed to turn the handle. Pulling it open, a loud clang reverberated through the room and a bad smell hit him.

A rusted metal ladder led into darkness. Was it a sewer?

What am I getting myself into? he wondered.

‘Well, here goes,’ he said out loud, trying to ease his loneliness. He then lowered himself through the opening, which widened out into a spacious shaft.

There was no handle on the inside of the hatch, so he left it open. Even though this was supposed to be a one-way journey and the platform had gone back up, he felt better knowing he could return through the hatch if he needed to.

He climbed down, one tentative step at a time, led by the desire to return to his own world. Just as there had been a yearning need pulling him towards the doorway to this world, a new need was now leading him home … or so he hoped.

The dark descent was scary. The rungs were slippery and it seemed to take forever. But, after a while, Keagan realised that he could see. There was a dim light filtering up from below. He could see that the ladder ended in a few metres. He quickened his pace and, skipping the last few rungs, jumped down.

Foul-smelling water splashed up around him. He was standing in a couple of centimetres of stagnant liquid and it stank like a public toilet.

I hope it doesn’t wreck my new sneakers, he thought. Then he laughed. Given all that had happened, his sneakers were the least of his concerns.

In the gloom he could see a high concrete tunnel extending to either side, water dripping from the ceiling. Lights were placed at random intervals in little alcoves chipped out of the concrete walls.

Keagan was about to pull out the tech-screen to check the map, when he had a sudden urge to go left.

Can it be this easy? he wondered. A kind of feeling leading me home?

A sound echoed in the distance and he froze. He couldn’t tell which direction it came from. He gulped and continued on, jumping at shadows as he went.

Another, closer sound. Keagan stopped. The sound stopped also.

Wet, splashy footsteps? Was he being followed by someone … or something? He hoped it wasn’t rats. A vision of a giant rat roaming sewage tunnels, searching for food sprung into his mind. He pushed it away and continued, trying to keep his movements as quiet as possible … which was a bit difficult when walking through water.

CLANG! Keagan froze again.

Up ahead, he saw a metal hatch slide back in the ceiling, releasing a torrent of water and waste. The stench slammed into him like a wall. By the time it had finished, water was flowing past him at calf level. He held his breath, trying not to gag, as it subsided down to a couple of centimetres again. His shoes and pants were soaked in something he didn’t want to think about.

He sighed and continued on.

CLANG!

The sound came from above him, but before he could look there was another sound from behind him. Splashing footsteps. Keagan whirled around.

There was a flash of movement. Keagan was shoved forward and pushed further down the tunnel until he tripped and crashed to the wet ground.