“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.
25
“Shit,” Reno said. “What are we supposed to do now?”
Although the tunnel hadn’t yet been flooded, the water level was rising fast enough that they wouldn’t be able to retrace their steps before drowning in raw sewage and rats.
Maya looked at the map again, hoping they could get into a tunnel that sloped upward instead of downward. Jack had been so meticulous that he’d even marked elevation levels at the tunnels’ edges.
“Let’s head this way,” Maya said. “There should be a turn up ahead, and maybe that’ll take us to the surface.”
The water lapping above her knees made it more difficult to trudge through, but she waded as fast as she could, wanting desperately to find a way out of the tunnel before it filled. They came to the turn and took it. Maya looked at the map again, but now the lines confused her, and she couldn’t tell exactly where they were or in what direction they were headed. The water level had risen to her thighs.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Reno asked. “What’s the map say?”
She felt a crawling in her throat, and the sound of rushing water rang in her ears. She swung the penlight in wide arcs, hoping the weak beam would help her discover something. And against the far wall of the tunnel, something caught her eye—something metallic.
“This way,” she said to Reno.
A ladder clung to the left side of the tunnel and stretched up into the darkness. The rusted rungs had been mounted into the stone.
“It looks old,” Reno said.
“I don’t think we have much of a choice but to climb it.”
“There’s no light above. I doubt it’s a way out of here.”
Maya shrugged. “You want to stand here debating that while this disgusting water continues to rise?”
“No, I definitely don’t.”
Maya folded the map and stuffed it into her pocket.