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“It can sense our body heat,” Camil e said, wrinkling her nose. “Just don’t touch it or we’l al be in trouble.”
Sometime back, Delilah had gotten a green viro-mortis slime attached to her hand and we had to have Smoky freeze it off. He wasn’t with us now, and the indigo varieties were far more poisonous. The creatures acted a lot like the Blob—growing as they enveloped and assimilated their victims. Being digested alive by a living pile of snot was not my idea of a good time.
“Just leave it be, and watch what you touch.”
As we headed along the tunnel, I kept my flashlight sweeping from side to side. The fact that there were viro-mortis slimes around meant that we probably had to watch out for other nasty creatures. Al sorts of denizens hung around in the dark, waiting for the next unwary traveler to come along: ripe pickings for dinner.
More boxes and another cubbyhole to the right. I briefly shone my light in the niche, checking it out, but once again it looked like a long-abandoned basement. A thick layer of dust covered everything, and in some spots moisture had worked its way down the wal s to leave trails of mold
—the regular kind—and mildew.
“The city should come down here and clean this crap up,” I muttered.
“Who’s going to pay for it?” Chase said. “Seattle is having budget woes as it is. No, I have the feeling most of the city doesn’t even know this place exists. It isn’t common knowledge that the underground sections comprise more than just what’s shown to tourists on the little jaunt that’s offered.”
The soft cadence of water flowing caught my attention. “Sewer?” I asked after a moment. The others listened, and then Chase shook his head.
“No, sewer wouldn’t make that kind of noise. Underground stream, perhaps.” He paused.
“What’s that? Over there?”
I turned my flashlight to the direction in which he pointed. Another cubby, but this one had something else in it. A cleft in the rocks that made up the sides of the tunnel beckoned.
“I don’t know. Let’s take a look.” As I crept over to the alcove, I motioned for everyone to be silent. The cleft wasn’t as wide as a passage, but definitely wide enough to go single file. I flashed my light down the blackened passage but couldn’t see a thing. “Shal we try it? Just be very careful not to brush against the sides, which means try not to trip or stumble.”
As I entered the narrow passage, I hoped it wouldn’t go on for too far. I didn’t want to get lost in a maze beneath the city streets. Camil e hated close quarters, and I knew this wasn’t easy on her.
The darkness closed in around us as we continued on, and the only spots of light were the muted beams of our flashlights. I kicked the floor ahead of me as I stepped, scooting loose pebbles to the side so the others wouldn’t twist their ankles on them.
“The air here is thick,” Camil e said from the back. “How much farther, can you tel ?”
I squinted in the dim light, trying to gauge how far we had to go. “I don’t know, but—wait . . .” Up ahead, the cleft ended in a turn to the left. I peeked around the corner. The opening led to a large room. “You’re in luck.”
As I stepped into the brick chamber, I immediately began scoping out the area. The others filed in as I took in the man-made cavern. It was a good fifteen feet tal , and as wide as our house, it looked like. There were dark maws opening at regular intervals around the periphery of the wal s, and I began to realize this was just a hub in a large tunnel system.
“Damn, look at this. We could so easily get lost down here. What the fuck went on in this freak city?”
“As I said, there was a fire back in the late 1880s. It destroyed over twenty-five blocks of the city.
What you see down here are the remains of the original city streets and buildings—” Chase ducked. “Shit! Spider! Crap,” he said, brushing something off and stamping on it.
We spread out in the room.
“What do you suppose this was? An intersection?” Morio flickered his light at his feet. Wooden slats, broken and rotted through in places, lined the floor.
“Probably a little market square or something,” I said, as a sudden gust blew by. “There’s no wind down here, is there?”
“Not that I would think,” Vanzir said. “Why?”
“Because if it wasn’t a breeze, then something just flew by me and jostled my elbow.” I was about to explore one of the side tunnels when another gust hit into me, only this time it was square in the back and hard, like hands shoving me forward. “Who the hel is that?” I whirled around.
Camil e shrieked and went sprawling to the floor. “Fuck! Somebody just knocked me down.”
She scrambled to her feet.
“Quick! Back to back!” I rushed over to her side and the five of us formed a circle, covering our backs. “Who’s there? What do you want?”
But there was just a loud echo as laughter ricocheted off the wal s. And then, our flashlights went out and we were plunged into darkness.
