~James~
I helped my best friend open the cover, but when I had thought it will just budge like a regular driving wheel, no. It was tight like it hadn’t been opened for years.
John smiled as he said, “Are those scratching sounds from the door I hear?”
Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, they had seen us going here.”
We turned the wheel harder, and then it budged. John looked so happy for himself. “Yes, I know I’ve been hearing water flowing.”
I thought sewers are just stinky, but when we finally indulged the smell of the hole, it was smelling like a lot of bodies were rotting and flowing amidst the waters, mixed with other dirty, foul-smelling things I can’t name. It’s worse than the stinkiest socks ever. And probably the place you won't want to return to.
John looked amused seeing all of us cover our noses and mouths. “What, you all expecting daisies and roses? Come on, let’s get down.”
If our lives weren’t at stake, I’ll choose detention with Mr. Riggins than going down the school’s underground sewer. I tried not to look on the flowing wastes—consisting of human excretions and toiletries and other things being flushed down the toilet. Rats are squeaking from nowhere, and I was very vocal for my phobia on rats.
John was the very first to go down, so he’s on the bottom of the ladder. Yes, I forgot to mention the ladder—under the other side of the cover door was a ladder extending down to the sewer’s floor. I bet it’s about my knee-length, but Jimmy told us that on one full day, the water’s higher than us.
The ladder’s steps smell like rotting diapers, and they were very oily. I told myself not to try smell my hands after this climb. John was chuckling on the very bottom, and then I realized how big and wide a twenty-meter radius pipe was.
When we were all finally down, we cursed every curse we knew as we wipe the grime from our hands. We’re now amidst of the flowing murky waters. I feel slightly lukewarm water trickling our legs.
“John!” Sophie yelled warningly, “I swear if we got out of here alive I’ll flush you down on my toilet!”
John laughed. “Seriously?”
I was right—the water was in level of our knees. But for someone tall like John, the water didn’t even reach his knees yet. My shoes soaked up everything, and I still didn’t count substances dripping from the high ceiling of the pipe. The current was assisting us, but I will never, ever swim in this water. I swear I felt something assembling by my submerged knees.
Then Andrea suddenly screamed as if her hair’s been cut. “JOHN! I swear my feet caught up something soft and smelly bomb!”
John chortled. He went to her, and he pulled her hair from its ponytail.
“John!” Andrea cursed.
Rich was having a hard time taking his balance on as the current was going fast. I noticed something bothersome.
“Hey, John,” I beckoned my best friend.
John raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Those holes—the other pipes,” I said, pointing to the smaller holes on left and right of the pipe we are in.
John’s eyes widened as if he saw something I can’t.
“Guys hold on to me!” John suddenly cried out.
Bewildered, the others held on each other. With Rich and our overall weight, the current carried us no more. Of course when John gets serious, all of us get worried.
“What’s the matter, John?” Suzanne asked.
“The main pipe had branches,” John explained. “We need to choose the right way to the treatments.”
That was imperative.
We walk arm in arm as we check each hole attached on the sides of the main sewer pipe. The way continued endlessly, and it was hard to decide where we should go.
I felt like my heart was about to burst in nervousness.
John frowned. “T-The z-zombies are down here, too,” he mumbled.
* END OF CHAPTER THREE *
YOU ARE READING
Last Dawn of a Horde
Teen FictionThere are two things we were absolutely afraid of: Getting killed by the dead, and getting killed by the living. All we have to do is to choose. I am John. Friends are my greatest strength. As long as they live, my life's eternally happy. I am James...
