Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

24

Maya glanced down at the map and then back up again. “The entrance should be right around here somewhere.”

She had followed a line on the map that had led them to a string of vacant factories. Grass had sprouted through the cracks in the asphalt parking lots. Kudzu covered the front of the building they faced, and junk trees grew out from the broken windows. The whole place smelled bitter—a strange mix of decaying leaves and ammonia. In front of them, a slope led down to a narrow creek littered with old tires and at least one doorless refrigerator.

“The entrance has to be down there,” she added as she spun the map and looked at it from a different angle.

“Great,” Reno said. “That’s exactly where I want to go.”

“What did you expect? You knew we were coming to find an entrance to an underground tunnel system.”

“I know. But I have something I haven’t told you.”

“What?” Maya asked, feeling a sudden chill on the back of her neck. She wasn’t sure if she could handle another complication.

“I’m afraid of snakes,” Reno said with a nervous chuckle as he waved his hand at the tall grass that had overtaken the parking lot. “Walking through here freaked me out enough.”

Maya didn’t care for snakes either, and she hated rats even more—images of a pack of thousands scurrying through an underground tunnel made her gag.

“I’ll fight the snakes if you take on the rats,” Maya said, flashing a wide smile at Reno. “Deal?”

He took a deep breath and nodded, although he didn’t appear to be thoroughly convinced she’d triumph over snakes. Then again, she wasn’t so sure of his rat-killing abilities.

She took a step down the steep decline and her foot slid on some loose gravel.

“Here.” Reno put out his hand, and Maya took it.

Together, they walked down the hill, using each other as leverage to maintain their balance. They reached the bottom without falling and stopped at the edge of the creek. Maya heard a rustling and she looked over at the other side of the creek just as a dark-colored snake slithered from the water into a bush. Her hand was still in Reno’s, and she felt him shake. She gripped his hand tighter.

“If you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone,” Maya said.

“Right, Mom.”

“I’m just trying to help.”

“But what about when we’re inside the tunnel and we can’t see? That looked like a Water Moccasin. Do you know how poisonous those things are?”

Maya did. Like Reno, she was a paramedic, after all. They had both treated snakebites.

“Let’s keep moving,” Maya said. “According to this map, we should reach the entrance to the tunnel once we go around that bend up ahead.”

Releasing each other’s hands, the two walked along the edge of the creek. After a few minutes, Maya heard the footsteps behind her fading, and she turned around to realize she was walking much faster than Reno.

“Pretend it’s a stroll in the park. And don’t look down.”

Reno walked faster, catching up to Maya.

They turned the bend and, as the map had depicted, the entrance to the tunnel greeted them.

A utility drive went above the creek, the railing rusted and broken like the rest of the industrial park. Maya thought that, at one time, delivery trucks had rumbled over the old bridge. It had been constructed of stone blocks that created an arch over the creek. But instead of seeing daylight beneath the bridge, only darkness filled the space. The creek ran into it as if flowing down the throat of a giant beast—down into the old tunnels. A thin strip of dirt ran along the left-hand side, which had been tagged with graffiti as deep into the tunnel as Maya could see. The bottles and cans littering the ground were all missing labels or partially submerged in the creek, which Maya thought was a good indication that not even rowdy teenagers came through here anymore.

Nobody except Jack, she thought.

Reno was still scanning the ground for snakes, though, so Maya didn’t think it was the right time to remind him that maybe crazy Jack wasn’t so crazy after all.

She took five steps into the tunnel’s entrance and then stopped to wait for Reno. The air felt colder already, and it smelled even more strongly of ammonia.

Reno stopped at her side, breathing heavily.

“This is it,” Maya said. “Now’s the time to turn back if you don’t think you can do this.”

“No way. I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

Maya glanced down to see his hands trembling. His eyes flickered, and sweat had begun to form on his top lip. She looked at her friend and then into the darkness.

“You rock,” she said.

Reno pulled out the penlight from his back pocket and turned it on. He shined the beam into the tunnel, but his hand shook so hard that it created a strobe effect like they were in some trendy dance club. If you didn’t look at the ground.

“Do you want me to hold onto that and go in first?” Maya asked.

“I’m cool either way,” Reno said, although she knew he wasn’t.

Maya took the penlight. “I’ll go first. You watch our backs.”

She looked at the map once more before entering. The tunnel system seemed more extensive now that they stood at the threshold. But if Jack had been accurate with his mapping, Maya believed they could travel through the tunnels and beyond the known edge of the dome—assuming the dome didn’t extend too far underground.

There’s only one way to find out.

She walked into the darkness wielding only a single beam of light.

Rats.

Maya pretended she hadn’t heard them squealing or splashing through the filthy water lapping at her ankles. Between her own fear and the overpowering chemical odor in the tunnel, she didn’t even have time to worry about Reno and the snakes. Making matters worse, Jack had told them that the Davidson Metro sewage system had crisscrossed the old tunnels in certain places, and the stench of rotting garbage and human waste confirmed that for Maya.

“You still back there?” Maya asked.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Reno said, stifling a cough as he gagged.

Every time Maya opened her mouth now, she could taste the sewage. Clamping her lips closed, she decided that perhaps it was best not to speak unless necessary.

According to the map, the first turn they’d need to make would be roughly forty yards from the entrance. The accuracy of Jack’s map would be tested soon enough.

She counted 120 steps and estimated that they’d gone forty yards, arriving at an intersection of tunnels, just as the map had shown.

Maya wished she had brought something to mark the path they’d taken—like some of those spray paint cans the teenagers had used at the entrance. She saw only rocks and clumps of wet, rotting trash surrounding them, and neither would be of any use in marking their turns. They’d just have to rely on the map. On Jack.

They kept walking, which led them deeper into the tunnels. Maya did her best to ignore the ever-growing presence of rats. But she couldn’t ignore the fact that she saw nests made from garbage, the vermin’s slick, oiled bodies roiling over the piles. She reached out and grabbed for Reno’s arm, trying not to look at the creatures crawling around at her feet.

“Hold up,” Reno said.

“What?” Maya asked. “Let’s keep—”

“Shh.” Reno was looking away and listening intently. “You don’t hear that?”

Maya stopped to listen. Rushing water.

“What is that?” she asked.

The air current changed, and it brought an overpowering wave of sulfur mixed with human waste. A horde of rats scurried by, squealing as they ran past.

“You see that?” Reno asked. “They’re trying to get out of the tunnel.”

Maya looked down, and felt the cold bite of the water at her knees.