The Fallen World

Chapter 5: The Tunnels

We pass through the hanged bodies and keep moving forward, the silence of the place bothers me the most. We kept walking straight with my map at hand, then I found the escalator leading down to the trains.

"There's our ticket out of here," I said. We both descended down and realized it gets darker and it has a foul odour, "Should I turn on the flashlight?" she asked then I nodded, she took out her flashlight from her backpack and turned it on.

The walls and the floor are surrounded by coral, the atmosphere is thick and hard to breathe. The railways are flooded and covered in algae before it reaches the platform gap. "Shit, we gotta go back!" Chase said, "Agreed!" I replied.

As we tried to come back up—we heard voices, we crouched and listen. "I saw two of em' walking by here a while ago!" a man's voice said, "Well, find them both and hunt them down!" another voice came, also a male. "Jean, Chad, go!" he commanded.

"Oh shit, what should we do?" she asked as we hear the rustling leaves and footsteps coming closer, my chest pounded rapidly. I quickly pat Chase's arm and ran back down there.

As we came back to the dark subway station, I only have two ideas, hide or swim. "Darwin, now what?" she asked anxiously, "We'll have to swim, the flooded railways can lead us to another station, c'mon!" I said without hesitation.

Chase turned off her flashlight and quickly store it in her bag so we won't get spotted. We slowly enter the algae-filled water and swim towards a rusted train to hide.

I heard unsettling groaning and growling noises coming from the dark corners of the platform—the Reefed are lurking down here and the footsteps are coming from the escalators, I found a glass bottle floating in front of me and got an idea.

I threw the bottle at the escalator and the vessels' corals brightened up, they started to roar and chased the two strangers. "Oh shit!" A female voice shouted, all I can hear are the gunshots and screams of both sides, "That's our cue." I said, we both got out of the train and swim away undetected.

We swam for almost fifteen minutes, we got tired so we rest by grabbing on the train handles. There were no corals around here—then everything gets brighter from of a large, collapsed ceiling up ahead.

I can see sunlight and sunbeams from above touching the waters. Lily pads appear everywhere around that spot, drooping vines are growing from above. We continued to swim, touching lily pads and feeling the warmth of the sun, most of the tunnels are now brightened up—then we found a platform.

I got a sigh of relief and told Chase: "We made it." she then smirked at me. I looked at the platform, the sunlight slightly faded—I was frightened from what I saw, there was one thing that gives me the chills the most. "Shit. there's another Reef in here, there are two lurkers and... something else."

The corals on the platform only gives off a faint glow, then I look at the disgusting Reefed, two dogs merged together with moss-like coral and glowing green bulbs and cones—their eyes and mouths are also glowing, It's a 'spitter'. I've seen this kind before—but not combined by two! But I did encounter three a few years ago, it was in a library killing a group of survivors with its dirty tricks.

The spitter's bulbs will explode corrosive acid when bursted out. Then the acid cones, those cones spit out acid that can reach around ten feet. I can't use melee attacks or shoot the spitter when I'm too close or else its flesh will spray out acid all over me.

We hid ourselves behind one of the trains, "Darwin, what is it?" she asked, then looks at the spitter—she startled. "Fuck, don't tell me we have to fight that thing." she whispered.

My first idea was to distract them, but I have nothing to use so I dive underwater to try and find something, I swam to the bottom and grabbed a brick from the sunken train tracks.

I emerged and swam closer to the platform, I aim at the corals on the farthest spot of the platform. "Chase, as soon as I throw the brick we both climb up and run to an exit, I'm gonna count to three, so get ready." She nodded quickly.

I counted my fingers, one... two... three! I threw the brick against the wall. The Reefed made a roaring hiss, the spitter's body glows bright, the roar it makes are almost similar to sobbing—they all rushed to the brick, Chase and I climbed up the platform and ran quietly to the exit and realized we're gonna have a bad time.

The exit is covered in debris, so we ran to the other exit but it's also covered. The Reefed spotted us. The spitter made a roar and they're all coming for us. "Oh shit!" Chase shouted as she shot the spitter with her pistol, it screamed with its flesh spraying out acid on the two lurkers beside it.

The lurkers made a high-pitched screech and collapsed to the floor, but the spitter remains. "Chase, don't get too close!" the spitter stopped chasing and started to shoot acid from its cones at all directions. We took cover behind a bench and wait for it to stop.

The spitter stopped spraying acid, we stood up then it charged towards us, we dodged its attack and it collided to the bench, it's down.

"Chase, we need a way out of here!" I said, she looks around on all directions and stares at the train and pointed above it, "There! We have to go on top of that train and climb to the surface!" I too saw the opening above the train, I quickly nodded.

We both ran to the train, the spitter got up. I keep shooting at it with my rifle as she climbs up, "Chase, go!" She finally reached the roof of the train, I then aimed at the bulb beside one of the heads of the spitter and it bursted out.

It collapsed then started to jerk and shake with an eerie crunching noise, I knew what's gonna happen so I jolted and quickly climbed the train to Chase. "We have to go! They're gonna blow!" I shouted, "C'mon then!" she lend her paw.

We climbed the fallen debris, grab onto vines and finally reached the opening and escaped. The spitter's cones and bulbs blew up and made a large blast of acid, the whole place started to hiss from the acid and got misty from touching the pool of water.

Hours later, it's nighttime. We take a break by resting inside the convenience store of a gas station far away from the city and beside the freeway. "Tough day isn't it, Darwin?" Chase said while leaning on a shelf with her arms crossed, I sigh. "Yeah, a tough day indeed, kid." I said as I sat on the chair of the cashier counter, drinking water from my steel bottle.