What Lurks Between - A SciFi/Horror Novella - Part Nineteen

michaelkingswood (53)in #fiction • 7 years ago

Running away from a monster down a dark subway tunnel.

Yep. Nothing could go wrong with that.

On to the next scene!

Artwork copyright Revensis and Mikhail Matsonashvili, licensed through Dreamstine

What Lurks Between - Part Nineteen

II’ve seen movies and shows where people creep down dark tunnels, whether subway lines or roads or just plain old walking tunnels. In those shows the light continues for a long time, and even after they round the corner from the light source they can still see, however dimly.

That is not at all how it is in real life.

Within ten paces I had a hard time making out details on anything except for the subway rails themselves. Ten paces further on we came to a bend in the tunnel, and I could barely see anything. The thought of the bunny monster lurking behind us, or just as bad a train running up on us from behind, compelled me to keep running, though. So I did.

And within two steps, I tripped over a rail tie and fell headfirst to the ground.

My chin struck the edge of a tie as I landed and I felt a searing pain as my skin tore. I could not see it, but I knew I was bleeding. Badly.

I lay there for a long several seconds, clutching my bleeding, throbbing chin in my hand. Beside me, I heard Sheila panting heavily, sucking in great quantities of air as quickly as she could. I envisioned her bent over, hands on her knees as she tried to regain her breath, but in the darkness she was just one shadow on top of fifty more.

“Are you ok?” she asked between breaths.

Trying to ignore the metallic taste in my mouth - I may have bitten my tongue as well, though it was hard to tell, as ubiquitous as the pain was right that minute - I coughed and nodded.

“Great,” was all I could manage, but it seemed to be enough. She took a deeper breath and I could almost hear her relief as she took my hand and helped me up to my feet.

I looked around and was surprised that I could just barely make out some details. A dim green glow came from ahead, around the corner. I had not noticed it before; my eyes must have been beginning to adjust to the gloom, but it was still hard to make out anything more than the curve of the rails and the outline of Sheila’s body.

There was nothing for it but to continue on, so we did, more slowly this time. I tried not to reduce us to a crawl, but after that fall I found myself gingerly testing each foothold before shifting my weight ahead, to make sure my foot was on a good surface and not in a pit or on the edge of a tie. It made for slow going. Much slower than was wise in our circumstances, but I could not complain. Sheila did not either.

Eventually we rounded the corner and were rewarded with light that was bright enough to make out the tunnel in detail. It came from a small lamp that looked like one of the stoplights you can see at most street corners. A quick look at it revealed why: it was one of those stoplights. Except it only had red and green, not yellow. Right then, the green light was the only one lit.

I cast about quickly and found what I was looking for. Through a gap in the wall to the left, a gap which led to the southbound track I was sure, I saw a small metal scaffold running along the wall. At last, there lay safety. Of a sort.

I felt my spirits buoy as I strode over to the gap and peeked through.

Looking right, all was blackness except for a dull glow a ways down the tunnel, although right there the glow was red. Probably to signal the proximity of the station and that the conductor needed to begin stopping the train. Although, with the station closed what would be the point?

Regardless, there was no train coming and the scaffold lay just past the southbound rails. The only problem was a lack of stairs or ladder leading up to it.

“That’s you plan?” Sheila said.

I glanced aside at her and saw that she was nodding in approval, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. She no doubt thought as I did, that there had to be a maintenance access between stations. Some of them were miles apart, after all. And if that were the case, the access would almost certainly link up with the scaffold. At the very least, the scaffold would make for much better footing, and safer, than walking the rails. And best of all, the scaffold was lit by dim blue-white lights in fixtures that were set in the side of the tunnel at regular intervals. We would be able to see better as well.

I nodded. “We just need to find a ladder up.”

Sheila sniffed and darted forward, hopping over the rails - missing the third rail by less than an inch - until she stood below the scaffold. Then she bent her legs double and jumped straight up.

My jaw, pained as it was, fell open in astonishment. She must have pushed herself a good three or four feet off the ground, if not more. She grabbed the middle bar making up the guardrail at the scaffold’s edge. There she hung for a second before she swung her legs up onto the walkway. She then shimmied the rest of the way on and rolled to her feet.

I just stood there, feeling like an idiot and no doubt looking far worse.

She just grinned back. “I was on the varsity gymnastics team.”

All sorts of possibilities that were extremely inappropriate in that particular situation sprang to mind, unbidden. “Well,” I said, clearing my throat and forcing those thoughts away, “give me a hand up?”

Sheila’s grin became positively impish.

A few moments later, after much huffing and puffing and with a good deal of help from Sheila, I managed to haul myself up onto the scaffold.

That really sucked. But it sure beat walking the rails.

I got to my feet and we got moving, our pace a lot better now that we had sure footing. Things were looking up, and I began to think we might actually get out of this with our skins mostly intact.

So naturally, that was the precise moment when everything went right to hell.

*****

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