Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

31

As they raced back through the tunnels, trying to find a way out, Maya couldn’t get Cassie’s face out of her mind. While Maya knew the young girl’s death wasn’t her fault, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was more she could have done. It wasn’t the first time she had lost a patient, but this situation was different. The innocent girl hadn’t deserved to die in a sewer tunnel. She hadn’t deserved to live in a sewer tunnel. Maya cursed Janine and her clan of misfits for bringing children down here in the first place.

They came to the main intersection where Janine had made a wrong turn—or, at least, where she’d said she’d made a wrong turn.

“Shit,” Reno said. “I don’t know which way we’re supposed to go.”

Other than the tunnel which led back to Janine’s camp, there were two other options. Maya pointed to the tunnel on the left and suggested they take that one. As they approached it, voices came from around the corner.

“There y’all are,” a familiar voice said.

It’s Mitch.

Mitch stepped from the darkness like a ghoul—his bright white eyes floating on ashen skin. Greasy hair fell in strands from beneath his filthy baseball cap. He had two other tunnel people with him.

“We heard a gunshot,” Mitch said. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” Maya said.

“Where’s Janine and Cassie?” He’d asked the question with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, as if he already knew something was terribly wrong.

“They’re resting for a minute down there,” Reno said, looking back toward where the two dead bodies lay.

“Resting? The exit is this way. What are y’all even doing in this branch?”

“We took a wrong turn,” Maya said.

“No shit,” Mitch said.

“Janine is very distraught,” Maya said. “She’s not thinking straight, and she led us the wrong way. She sent the two of us this way to backtrack and try to figure out what direction to take, while she stayed with Cassie so they could have a quick break.”

Mitch looked at the others. One of the men shrugged, but another raised his eyebrows.

“And now they’re having target practice? One shot?”

“Go check on them yourself,” Reno said, pointing back to where Janine and Cassie were. “They’re that way.”

Mitch narrowed his eyes and looked down at Reno’s bloody hand. Reno thrust it into his back pocket and Maya aimed her penlight away from her partner.

Damnit.

“What’s up with your hand, man?” Mitch asked. He reached toward Reno. “Let me see that.”

Reno glanced at Maya with big eyes.

Ducking his head and lowering his shoulder, Reno ran straight ahead and barreled into Mitch. He hit him hard enough to send the man into the two people behind him. They knocked into each other like bowling pins, but somehow Reno managed to stay on his feet.

“Go!” he yelled at Maya.

Maya turned around and Reno grabbed onto her arm. They ran down one of the tunnels. She didn’t look back—she just ran.

Heavy footsteps and grunts came from the dark tunnel behind them.

“Get back here!” Mitch said. “You ain’t gonna outrun us in the tunnels.”

“This way,” Maya said, pulling Reno into a different tunnel.

As soon as they turned, she ducked into another passageway. Maya pulled Reno along, hoping they could get the men off their trail.

When they came to yet another tunnel, they turned again. Maya could still hear the footsteps, but they sounded more distant.

Reno’s hand slipped from Maya’s and he cried out. She turned around in time to see him hit the ground and grab at his foot.

“What happened?” she asked, kneeling next to him.

“My ankle—I twisted it.”

Maya looked up as she heard the men coming closer. She had a feeling they knew exactly where they were, and that they didn’t need to hurry. They’d eventually capture them both. She wrapped Reno’s arm around her neck and helped him to his feet.

“We have to keep moving.”

Reno grimaced, but he balanced on one foot. They stumbled into the next tunnel and turned. Maya’s eyes went wide.

“Light!”

At the end of the short tunnel, she saw a ladder leading up to a round opening where sunlight shined down.

“You’re not getting out of here alive,” a voice shouted from behind them.

“Come on,” Maya said. Reno’s weight pulled her to the side, but she pushed forward with all she had.

They reached the ladder and Maya looked up. The light came through the opening, and Maya now saw that someone on the surface had slid the manhole cover halfway off, making it look like a partial solar eclipse at the zenith of the tunnel.

“Do you think you can climb up first and push that manhole cover completely out of the way?” Maya asked Reno.

“I think so,” he said. Reno climbed the ladder, pulling his bad ankle along as it dangled on the rungs. He reached the top and used his right hand to push the edge of the manhole cover.

“Is it heavy?” Maya asked.

“At least one hundred pounds. I’ve just got to—”

Reno got a good grip on the top rung of the ladder and put all of his muscle into the manhole cover. He groaned and gritted his teeth. Maya heard the sound of metal scraping on metal. He hadn’t pushed the cover completely out of the way, but it looked like the opening was now big enough for them to squeeze through.

“We’re coming, bitches!” Mitch said, his voice now closer.

“Go!” Maya said. “They’re coming!”

Reno climbed out of the tunnel, and Maya hurried up the ladder and out.

“Help me get this cover back on,” Reno said.

Maya grabbed one end of the iron manhole cover and together they dropped it back into place. She didn’t think Mitch would even try pushing on it—they’d had no plans on coming to the surface for any reason, and she doubted revenge alone would draw them out.

They seemed to be alone in the middle of an empty parking lot.

“No more tunnels,” Reno said.

“No argument here,” Maya said, catching her breath.