Chapter 15: After The End

Chapter 9: The Tunnels

Begin!

~Normal POV

Klaus and Isadora met up with Quigley and Fiona first. A quick look inside the teachers' lounge told them that Quigley's theory was correct; their culprit had gone inside but there was no sign of him within.

"What's taking Violet and Duncan so long," Isadora asked.

"No idea, but I hope they're ok," Fiona replied.

"Should I try texting them again," Quigley asked.

Within moments of him saying that Violet and Duncan came walking towards them from the other side of the hallway. This time they appeared to have something with them.

"We stopped by the cafeteria to grab this just in case." Violet showed them a jar of wasabi before putting it in her bag. "Sorry it took a while to find it, it was also the only one."

"We also found that the trap door under the cafeteria is still open. Why there's a trap door under the cafeteria I have no idea," Duncan added.

"Probably for plot convenience," Klaus said, offhandedly but nobody seemed to hear him.

Fiona made a comment about the wasabi being a very good idea. They went into the room and looked around for the secret entrance. After several minutes of searching Violet found what they were looking for. She flipped a strange switch she found behind one of the tables in the room, and it opened a secret entrance in the wall with a set of stairs leading down.

"These tunnels must be ancient," Fiona commented shining her spyglass light inside, "I'm surprised it still functions."

Violet took a closer look at the door mechanism. "It's old but it's been recently repaired. See, the gears are brand new. It probably didn't work well because of the age. He must have a good knowledge of mechanics."

Isadora checked the time on her phone. "It's 8:02 now so we've still got time before the assembly lets out. You said your volunteer friends can buy us more time right?"

"That's correct, if we need it I'll call them," Fiona said.

With that they set off into the tunnels. Much like the tunnels that had been under Dark Avenue these looked roughly the same. Fiona used her spyglass as a means to see while the others followed closely. After some time, they started up a soft conversation.

"Since we're on the way, can you tell us anything about the guy we're going after," Quigley asked.

"Unfortunately not," Fiona replied, "Other than what you already know, he poisons children and we need to stop him. We asked around after the break in, but nobody knew him."

"You don't even know his name," Klaus said quizzically.

"We tracked him through the reports of poisonings happening in a few other locations. I assume somebody got on his bad side, or he just wanted to test it out. There were also some reports of stolen science equipment along the way. I guess he needed it for his plan."

"The tunnels usually have small light fixtures don't they," Violet said. "But this place looks like it was cleaned out."

"Probably by him if he thinks he's the only one who knows about it." Fiona then paused and turned her spyglass towards something on the wall. "Violet what do you make of this?"

Violet took a step closer and examined what she had found, an indent in the wall with bits of metal sticking out. Every side of this part of the wall was like this. Fiona bravely volunteered to take the first step forward, just in case it was some sort of trap. Everything seemed fine when she did.