by E S Richards
Since reaching the CN tower, Harrison had drawn a crude map of the city in the notebook he carried, cordoning it off into various sections of his own making. Thus far, he had only made it through three of them, with over twenty still to go. At his current rate, he knew it would take him nearly six days to cover the full expanse of Toronto. Six days he felt like he didn’t have.
From where he stood, there was at least a faint breeze that came off Lake Ontario, bringing with it a familiar smell that Harrison had grown accustomed to during his time traveling along Lake Michigan with Len. The memory made Harrison miss the companionship, a thought he would’ve never entertained a few months prior. He was a changed man from the one who lived in the underground bunker; a changed man who, when he thought about it, Harrison much preferred.
He was still equally dedicated and meticulous though, and only allowed himself a quick fifteen-minute break to have some food and water before he continued his search. He wanted to make it to Scarborough before nightfall, something in the back of his mind telling Harrison that that was where Nina had been living. He couldn’t be certain of it, but it was as good a hunch as any and at that moment, hunches were all he had to go on.
A part of Harrison also hoped that the farther he moved from the epicenter of the destruction, the less severe it would become. It only took a quick look around for him to know that wasn’t true, but he held on to the hope all the same. Every building he walked past was entered, every shell of a vehicle inspected, and every potential hideaway turned upside down in an attempt to find his daughter.
By the time he properly entered the division of Scarborough, Harrison’s emotions were threatening to run high. With gritted teeth he forced himself to continue searching, looking out for any small sign of life. Though what suddenly caught his attention wasn’t the sight of anything, but a sound. He nearly missed it at first, the tiny scraping noise almost disguised by his own footsteps until he heard it again. Turning his head and standing perfectly still, Harrison listened carefully, trying to identify where it was coming from.
It wasn’t a familiar sound—something like a small animal scratching on a door to be let outside, or a teacher writing on a chalkboard. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound natural, and that told Harrison it was coming from something special. Something alive. He’d heard sounds all day as bits of buildings grated against each other or rocks fell in the street, but this was something different. Finally locating the source of the noise, he walked toward it with his breath trapped in his lungs.
There was an entrance. An old metal door that led—at Harrison’s best guess—down into the sewers of the city. Pressing his ear up against it he listened carefully, waiting for the scraping sound to return. As soon as it did, he made up his mind. Something was alive in there and whether it was Nina, a complete stranger, or simply a lost dog, he had to find out. After everything he had been through, Harrison was going back underground.
Chapter 20
Harrison made short work of tearing away the manhole cover, revealing an entrance to the Toronto sewers below. It was expectedly dark and dingy inside, with a smell so foul it made Harrison’s eyes water. Pulling a flashlight from his rucksack, he inspected the immediate area in front of him. It was a fairly narrow tunnel, just wide enough for his frame to walk down, though he would likely have to leave his rucksack behind.
Assessing what the best way was to approach things, Harrison continued to listen carefully. He was sure the noise of him breaking the entrance open would have been heard by whatever had been making the scraping sound. He just hoped he hadn’t spooked them too much; the last thing he wanted was a chase through the tunnels as he attempted to find and rescue whoever was down there—if it was even another human being.
That was something that worried Harrison slightly. He could be walking into what had become a lair for any kind of animal. After everything he’d witnessed so far on his journey, he couldn’t even rule out escaped zoo animals now living in the sewers. A vision of a congregation of alligators flashed through his mind and more than ever he wanted to find his daughter and put an end to all this madness.
Stepping back from the sewer by a few paces, Harrison looked around where he was in Scarborough and picked out a half-burned shell of a delivery van across the road. He quickly walked toward it and placed his rucksack inside, taking only the most important items for his trip through the tunnels. He didn’t expect anyone to appear from nearby and steal his bag, but years of preparedness and training told him to hide it anyway. When he finally ventured into the sewers, he wore a much smaller rucksack on his back. Within it was a spare flashlight, extra water, food, a spool of climbing rope, and a selection of weapons. He didn’t know what he was going to find, but as always, he wanted to be prepared for anything.
“Here goes nothing,” Harrison muttered to himself as he pulled the manhole cover back over half the entrance, disguising it as best he could. Then he put his best foot forward, his boots splashing slightly in the small river of water that ran through the sewer. Within a minute he came to a set of iron rungs built into the wall, with the only direction to go being down. Clenching his flashlight between his teeth, Harrison began his descent into the main network of sewers below, his stomach turning somersaults inside him as he wondered what he was going to find.
***
Len spotted it just as the sun was started to set over the horizon, the most beautiful sight he had seen in some time. There, poking out of the entrance of a lonely standing building was the rear wheel of a bicycle, a bicycle that looked very familiar to their group.
“Over there!” Len exclaimed, pointing toward the bike with childlike enthusiasm to make sure he received Amy and James’s full attention. “That’s Harrison’s bike. We’ve made it.”
Hopeful and excited looks were exchanged between Len and Amy, both increasing their pace a fraction as they walked towards the building. James hurried along beside them, equally excited to reach the building. Len wasn’t sure whether Harrison would be inside or not, but just knowing that his friend had been there was a huge boost of energy for him. They didn’t need to continue walking and they could finally rest inside for the night; it was something Len was looking forward to a great deal.
“Hello?” He called as they stood just a few feet from where the bike was. “Harrison, are you in there?”
Silence greeted Len’s call, but it didn’t worry him. The father walked forward, gesturing for Amy and James to stay back until he had checked inside. The full sweep didn’t take very long. The place was empty, but there was evidence that Harrison had spent the night there. With Toronto so close, Len believed his friend would’ve stayed here overnight before making the final trip into the city. In that regard, it made perfect sense that this was where the three of them should wait; he was sure it wouldn’t be long before Harrison returned.
“Come on in,” Len called. “It’s all clear.”
“He’s not here?” James asked as he looked around the vacant building, the insides giving away very little as to what it had been before the solar crash. Len didn’t imagine very much; it looked like the old building had been left to weather the years long before the power went out.
“No,” Len shook his head, “but Harrison will be back soon, I’m sure of it. We’ll just set up camp here and wait for him to return. How’s that sound to you?”
James shrugged and nodded in response, dropping his rucksack onto the ground and sitting down cross-legged beside it. After a few seconds Amy joined him, and then Len too. Neither of them really knew what to say to each other, resigned to just wait for Harrison to return. Amy had her concerns and doubts that he ever would, but Len remained faithful. He knew Harrison would come back eventually; his only worry was whether he returned alone, or with his daughter.
***
The sewers didn’t disappoint. Once Harrison was down on the lower level, he was forced to paddle through the dirty water with every step he made. There was the faint sound of running water
that filled his ears, though they remained honed on the scraping sound in the distance. Due to the shape and design of the tunnels, Harrison couldn’t tell if he was getting closer to the source of the noise or if it was just continuing to echo. He’d started now though, and there was no turning back.
Slowly but surely, Harrison’s eyes started to adapt more to the darkness, his flashlight only providing a very dim crescent circle of light in front of him. When they did, he began to notice little things on the tunnel walls that seemed unusual to him, spirals drawn in chalk or pieces of material hanging off the jagged rock. Now that he was able to see more clearly, Harrison grew more certain that these markers had been left on the walls for a reason, to guide someone or leave a marker of some sort.
Then a noise broke through the silence that chilled Harrison to his very core, a noise that made his mouth grow dry and his heart almost skip a beat. A voice. A female voice. It was just for a second, a sound so short that Harrison couldn’t even figure out what the voice was saying, but in the gloomy silence of the sewers it was unmistakable. There was someone else down there with him.
Picking up his pace, Harrison immediately pressed forward, his boots causing the water to splash loudly around his feet for a few paces before he stopped suddenly. He had to approach this with caution. Whoever was down in the sewer almost definitely didn’t know he was down there too. If he was just to go running up to them without taking the necessary precautions, he could scare them off, or even worse, push them into taking action against him. The last thing Harrison wanted was to end up in a shootout underneath Toronto. That was one place he could guarantee their bodies would never be recovered from.
With a deep breath, Harrison forced himself to slow down. He continued walking at a steady pace where the water barely rippled around his feet as he moved, skulking through the darkness like a lion stalking its prey. Though, that was another problem Harrison immediately thought of: he didn’t want to seem like a threat. There was a fine line between revealing himself while not coming across as dangerous, and revealing himself and not becoming a victim himself. Of all the doomsday scenarios Harrison had trained for, dealing with people was sadly not one of them.
As all of these worries rattled through his mind, he heard another voice break the silence. A man’s voice this time, speaking just above a whisper. Thankfully, due to the design of the tunnels, the sound carried over to Harrison as if he stood next to the man, the words he was speaking ringing out as clear as day in his ears.
“Come back inside now, please. The kids are getting worried.”
Harrison froze, listening carefully for the voice that might reply. Sadly, more silence was the only response he received, joined by the sudden stop of the scraping sound. With that gone, the sewers suddenly felt darker and more dangerous around Harrison. He didn’t dare move in case he made a sound, but internally he begged for the scraping sound to start up again. It didn’t. Instead, he heard the dim sound of shuffling, followed by a stifled crash and a strange grating noise. As the tunnels then plummeted into a complete hush, Harrison grew more unnerved than ever.
There were definitely people living in the sewers, or somewhere underground that connected to them. There was definitely a man and a woman and they had kids. Plural. Harrison shook his head to himself in disbelief as he imagined children living in the tunnels he had just walked. It was almost unfathomable, had he not just heard the words spoken himself. Urging his body forward, Harrison continued to move. He desperately needed to find out what was happening now.
Caring slightly less about the noise his footsteps made, Harrison quickly traversed the tunnels in the direction he thought the voice had come from. He angled his flashlight at every wall, searching for any sign of human life, for any indication that someone was nearby.
He was moving at such a speed that, had he not trained himself over several years to observe the unobservable, even Harrison would’ve missed it. There, just above his head, was a ledge that jutted out wide enough for someone to sit on and just behind that there was a grate. A doorway. An entrance. A passage to…something. Harrison almost let out a cry of joy when he saw it, a little voice inside of him telling him that was exactly what he’d been searching for.
In between heavy, anticipatory breaths, Harrison backed up slightly and stood on his tiptoes, allowing himself a couple of extra inches of height so he could just see onto the ledge and into the dark grate behind it. The grate wasn’t what caught his eye, though. Instead, it was the pointed rock that sat on the ledge and the chiseled patterns in the rock wall that it had caused. The source of the scraping sound. Someone’s drawings. Someone’s drawings that looked very, very familiar.
With complete and utter disregard for whatever noise he was making, Harrison stuffed his flashlight back into his mouth and hoisted his body up onto the ledge. It was a near impossible task, but somehow Harrison’s strength increased just when he needed it, adrenaline coursing through his veins and giving his muscles the extra boost they needed to lift his body.
Once he was on the ledge, he pointed the flashlight straight into the grate, noticing immediately that it wasn’t sealed shut. In fact, it looked like it was opened and closed on a regular basis, the small tunnel behind just wide enough for a human to wriggle through. For Harrison it would be an extremely tight squeeze, but he knew he was going to make himself fit one way or another. After discarding his smaller rucksack and leaving it behind on the ledge, his frame could just move through. With the flashlight clamped between his teeth, Harrison crawled through the tunnel like an Army Ranger, his heart pounding in his chest at what he was about to find.
The air in the tunnel grew less damp the farther he crawled, the smell of the sewers fading away into the background. Gradually it was replaced with the smell of dirt, of soil and fertilizer, weirdly combined with the fragrance of smoke and campfires. Harrison furrowed his brow but didn’t stop moving, his confusion only pushing him on harder to reach whatever lay at the end of the tunnel.
Voices. After a few more seconds of crawling, Harrison heard them clear as day. They were muted and quiet, muffled somewhat, but they were there. He forced his body forward, desperation welling up inside of him like a pipe about to burst. Then light. Light at the end of the tunnel. There was another grate, one that seemed to open out into somewhere safer, somewhere that the voices were coming from.
Harrison pushed on, crashing his arms into the grate as soon as he was in touching distance and hurling his body through to the other side. That’s when he fell. The sharp drop on the other side of the grate came as quite a surprise to Harrison, as his body tumbled through and eventually smashed into the hard ground below. His head turned foggy and his eyesight blurred as Harrison tried to make sense of what had happened. Then he heard a noise again. A voice. The most beautiful voice he had ever heard, and just as suddenly as he had fallen, everything was okay.
“Dad?”
Epilogue
Squinting into the sunlight, Len wished Harrison had left the binoculars behind. He was sure he could make out several figures walking toward them, and were it not for the angle of the sun as it rose over the city of Toronto, he would be certain. As it were, he was forced to just continue watching, desperately trying to make out who was approaching.
Harrison strode back toward the small abandoned building where he’d left his bicycle with a huge grin on his face. He couldn’t believe what had happened; every time he looked to his right and saw Nina walking beside him, he had to pinch himself to remember that it was real. Her appearance had changed a fair bit, her face aged several years and her body broader and stronger, but underneath it all, she was still Harrison’s little girl. She was still his daughter.
Looking at Nina, Harrison couldn’t be prouder of the woman she’d become. She was strong, independent, and determined, but even more than that, she was everything Harrison had failed to be. She was a role model. She was a parent and she was doing an incredible job of it.
After tumb
ling out of the sewer tunnel, Harrison had found himself in the underground parking lot of an apartment building. An apartment building that just happened to be home to his daughter. Harrison didn’t want to think about luck or any other factors that might have contributed to him finding his daughter, he just knew that it had been meant to be and that was enough for him. After the apartment building had started to crumble due to the impact of so many fallen planes around it, Nina and several of the other residents had rushed downstairs, hiding themselves underground so they were protected from the falling building. The only downside to that action was that they all became trapped down there, the only possible way out through the tunnels of the sewers, none of them ever making it out without fear of losing their way. Nina had carried faith with her, though. Despite everything that had happened between her and her father, something had told her that he would come for her. She had marked their location on the sewer walls, never giving up hope that Harrison would find her. Find her, and the rest of their family.
For it wasn’t only Nina that Harrison walked beside. He was also joined by her husband and their two children, a boy named Andrew and a girl named Sophie. When Harrison heard the two children’s names, he was unable to hold back the tears. Andrew had been his late father’s name, and Sophie was named after his late wife, Nina’s mother. It meant the world to him that the children had been named after family members—it was so much more than just history; it was a promise that Nina had never given up on him. A promise that she had stayed faithful all these years, much more than Harrison could have ever asked for.