The X-Files: The Truth Revealed

Chapter 54

Underground Tunnel 

Jeremiah and the Gunmen finished setting charges in six of the twelve tunnels. They were working in the seventh when Langly came upon something he'd not seen in any of the others. 

"Guys...what do you make of this?" he asked, pointing to the tunnel wall just above where it met the road. 

"Looks pretty obvious, Langly. It's a hatch." 

"I know it's a hatch, but we haven't seen one like this in any of the other tunnels. Where do you think it leads?" 

"Only one way to find out," Byers suggested. "Open it." 

"Think we should?" Langly looked to Jeremiah. 

"I don't know. All the tunnels have hatches that open up to the smaller spacecraft attached along the walls, but you're right... we haven't  seen one like this in any other tunnel. Stands to reason, there's something different behind it." 

"I've got a really bad feeling about this," Frohike added his two-cents' worth. 

"That's the oyster chowder you ate for breakfast," Langly reminded him. "Does it to you every time. Why you insist on eating it..." 

"Wait a minute. What's that say?" Byers asked, ignoring Langly. 

"Where?" Langly squinted in the low lighting. 

"Right there, you idiot. Can't you read?" Frohike pointed out. 

"Only when my life depends on it," Langly wisecracked. 

"Are you people always like this?" Jeremiah asked. 

"Not always," Byers informed him. "Sometimes we're worse." 

"Seems a near impossibility." 

"It says, Do Not Open," Langly read aloud, turning around to face the group, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Sounds like an open invitation to me." 

"It's not the chowder," Frohike warned, taking several steps back towards the vehicle. 

"Well, here goes," Langly grabbed the wheel. "Let's see... lefty loosey, righty tighty," he babbled on as he turned it to his left. Nothing happened for several turns of the wheel. Then all at once, the sea exploded through the opening, spilling into the tunnel at an incredible rate. 

Langly was first to feel the impact. The force of it pushed him nearly halfway across the road. He landed hard against the pavement. 

Frohike had already high-tailed it to the truck, where he started it up. He hung his head out the driver's side window, watching Byers and Jeremiah help Langly to his feet, dragging him towards the vehicle. 

"Come on!" he screamed out the window, knowing the others were moving as fast as possible but fearful of being trapped in the rising water. 

Before they even had the door closed, Frohike punched the accelerator, pushing the engine to life. Focusing on the road ahead, which was beginning to resemble a rushing stream, he didn't happen to notice was taking place behind them. Had any of them looked in the rear-view mirror, they would have seen the wall around the hatch beginning to crumble and give way to the force of the Atlantic. Within seconds, the wall was breached. Cement and metal succumbed to the incredible force, with the breach expanding rapidly in both directions. 

When Frohike happened to glance in the passenger mirror, his jaw dropped as the tunnel wall imploded behind them. 

Main Transport Area