Primeval - A Grave New World

8. Tunnel

Jason jammed his hand through the gap in the rod iron fence. The cool air chilled his fingertips. Beyond the metal fence was black nothingness. He and his sister discovered this gate around the time the pandemic began. Now that they were finally allowed out of the house, they could explore it fully. The tunnel marked the end of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. According to Jason's research, there were plans to expand the bike trail beyond here but some sort of legal obstacles prevented them from doing so. Now, this tunnel sat abandoned, a ghostly reminder of what could have been.

A particularly cold draft brushed against Jason's arm causing him to yank his arm back. He spun around on his heel and kicked up his penny board. About twenty feet away, his sister Sophia looked on. Her short black hair was slightly tousled by the spring breeze. From behind her pink mask, she stared, petrified, at the darkness. Jason smirked and kicked his board up into his hands.

"See, nothing to be afraid of."

Sophia started to back away as her brother approached.

"C'mon Soph, stop being such a baby."

The girl scrunched her nose and crossed her arms. Jason couldn't believe it. All she had done during quarantine was blab on about this tunnel and now that they were finally here, she was chickening out. Typical Sophia. Jason cradled his board under his arm and walked towards her.

"We going in or what?"

Sophia's body visibly tensed up at the utterance of these words. Jason bit down on his lip. This was it, looks like they'd be turning around again. Next time he'd have to return without his sister. He paused in his step as dug through his list of friends. None immediately came to mind after a few seconds. Now it was back to his sister.

He ran up to the bars again and peered through.

"I bet you five bucks you won't go in there" said Jason, pointing between the bars into the blackness.

"Are you serious? We'll get caught!" replied Sophia.

She pointed above them. Situated on a light post was a blinking round security camera.

"Don't be such a wuss Sophia!" snapped Jason. "They barely check those things."

"I'm not a wuss, we'll get in trouble!"

Jason smirked, "not if we don't get caught."

"Jase, we will get caught!"

She pointed a finger to the main road above the tunnel. Cars whizzed back and forth over them causing slight rumbles to echo from within. For a moment, the tunnel was the mouth of some massive beast. Each growl was one of hunger. This gave Jason enough chills to slightly back off from it but he didn't go far. The last thing he needed was Sophia to see him scared.

Jason tossed his penny board aside, "what if I made it ten?"

Her eyes widened slightly as she uncrossed her arms. Jason smirked. He'd hooked her. This would be it, this secret tunnel would be explored today.

"Fifteen," she grinned so wide that it was obvious under her mask.

Jason hesitated. Did he even have that much? He tried to think about what money he had in his piggy bank at home. Maybe he could scramble some change together and it could come out to be this much. Maybe. Right now, that didn't matter. He was so close to a yes that logistics did not matter.

"Deal," he barked.

She started over. Her step contained some lingering hints of hesitance but the money seemed to lessen the worry. For the first time, Sophia approached the gate and closed her hand around one of the iron spokes. It groaned like a pained beast as she pushed the gate in and out. She finally gave a proper pull and the metal groaned loudly before everything came to a halt. Jason moved his vision to the centre of the gate. In between the large slabs of metal, was a giant rusty padlock. He kicked his board across the path causing it to crash into the nearby bushes.