by Spencer Baum
“Insecticide,” said Lou. “For years, Tom has experimented with the most potent concoctions. When Gretchen’s demons break into this room, they’ll get a deadly shower. We will be long gone by then.”
Lou took a final swig of espresso and stood up.
“And now, my friends, it’s time to go,” he said. Possibly sensing that Jackie was already about to press him further about where they were going, Lou continued, “Don’t ask questions, just follow me.”
Kevin stood up and put on his backpack.
“Unless there’s something really important in there,” Amy said, “I suggest you leave it behind.”
“What’s in here is very important,” Kevin said.
“May I keep this espresso cup?” Joseph asked, “as a souvenir.”
“I said no questions,” Lou called from the kitchen, “and the answer is yes.”
“I’m putting this in your backpack, okay, Kevin?” Joseph said, unzipping Kevin’s backpack and dropping the cup inside.
Jackie put the photograph of Gretchen Brinkley on the coffee table.
“That comes with us,” said Tom, grabbing the picture and putting it in his breast pocket.
“Come on!” Lou called.
Kevin, Jackie, and Joseph hurried to the kitchen, where Lou had opened the doors of his avocado green refrigerator. Inside there were no shelves, no food, no drinks. Instead, there was another stairwell leading deep into the darkness. Stuck to the refrigerator’s inside front door was a flashlight. Lou grabbed it and shone a beam of light down the corridor.
“I’ll go first,” Lou said. “My dear guests, Tom, Amy, and I have trained for years for this day. We will move quickly.”
“Don’t worry about us,” said Joseph. “We can keep up.”
Chapter 15
The stairs inside Lou’s refrigerator descended into what might have been an abandoned sewer pipe. When they reached the bottom, Lou pulled on a lever that slanted from the wall and a path of lamps along the ceiling flickered to life. A long, straight tunnel lay in front of them. Hanging directly underneath the lights and stretching the length of the ceiling was a steel ladder, the shadows of its rungs striping the floor, which for some reason, was covered in a thick sheen of yellow goop. At the other end, at least a hundred yards ahead, the tunnel ended with a wooden door on a concrete wall.
Lou reached across the width of the tunnel with both arms, forcing the group to crowd behind him.
“Amy, tell our guests about your special carpeting,” Lou said.
“The yellow liquid on this floor is made of self-assembled molecular nanolayers,” Amy said. “The lights overhead are curing it as we speak. In a few seconds, it will become the stickiest substance on earth. Touch it and you’ll be stuck for the rest of your life.”
Lou pushed on a panel of the cement wall with both hands, and it slid back, revealing a small closet. He reached inside and removed a wooden barstool.
“Do as I do,” he said. He climbed on the bar stool, then jumped and caught one of the rungs on the ceiling. He began swinging from rung to rung, crossing the ceiling like a child on a jungle gym, his feet dangling over the sticky yellow floor.
Amy jumped next, followed by Joseph, then Kevin.
“Go ahead,” Tom said to Jackie.
“I go last,” Jackie said. “I don’t want to slow you down.”
“Ms. Silver, I insist you go first,” said Tom.
“Do as she says, Tom!” Lou shouted from the front of the pack. “We’ll wait as long as we can for all to cross, but the slowest must be in the rear.”
Tom sighed, stepped onto the barstool, and jumped to the nearest rung. Kevin heard Jackie follow, and knew without seeing that she had foregone the stool altogether and jumped from floor to ceiling.
Kevin listened to six pairs of hands swinging from rung to rung. If the slowest really were in the rear, Kevin, Joseph, and Jackie would lead this group. Lou didn’t know the truth about his guests. In the midst of all the crazy stories told over espresso, they never got to the story of three kids who ate the sap from a fallen elm tree and found themselves able to jump tall fences, run as fast as cars, and in Joseph’s case, fly. As Kevin watched Lou move at the front of the pack, his arms swinging with great agility, particularly for an old man, he thought about some of the strange things he had seen on the way down to Lou’s mansion. A stairclimber, monkey bars on a high ceiling, a climbing rope -- in the minds of Lou, Tom, and Amy, three outsiders, even young, healthy outsiders, couldn’t possibly keep up with people who have spent their lives preparing for this moment.
Twelve hands grabbing and releasing steel rungs, each handhold sending vibrations through the ladder, vibrations that were silent to the normal ear -- for Kevin, the vibrations rang their way into the hum, and got lost in the sound of approaching annihilation.
They’re close now.
Kevin chose not to say anything. Speaking it aloud might make it real, and he wanted it all to be in his mind. They had come to this strange place on a whim, listened to this unusual story…
An explosion and a cave-in sounded nearby. Wood, brick, stone, and glass were destroyed.
“They’re here,” Tom said.
Lou, the leader of this hanging-monkeys line, was only half way across the tunnel. Kevin considered working his way to the side of the ladder and passing to the front, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sound. A cacophony of shrieks, the sound above them was like a thousand fingernails on a blackboard.
“They’ve reached the main room. The insecticide shower has started,” Tom said.
“Everyone go easy, and be careful not to fall!’ Lou called out. “Our first line of defense is working. We have plenty of time to get across.”
The echo of Lou’s shout was interrupted by another explosion of concrete, this one inside their tunnel. Kevin turned his head for only a second. The glimpse of a scene taking shape behind Tom and Jackie matched the sound in the hum so perfectly that he didn’t need to see it. He knew what it was. A black and red mob, flooding the tunnel, a shadow inside a cloud of dust and rubble. The demons were here. They had to move faster.
“Don’t panic!” Lou shouted. “They cannot cross this floor!”
Kevin turned back for another look. The demons emerged from the dust cloud. Giant ants with waiving antennae, shiny legs that crackled at the joints, their heads were blood red, their bodies were black. Each monster had two machete-like jaws that hung in opposing directions, two curved blades that snapped open and shut as the creatures piled into the tunnel. They opened their jaws and screamed, then charged like a stampede of wild horses from hell. They would reach Jackie first.
Strength, agility, speed, the hum, flight – it all seemed so quaint now. For a brief time, Kevin had imagined himself a superhero, but in the face of monsters straight from a comic book, he wanted to run away, and could only hope Lou’s sticky floor would work as promised.
The charge was immediately cut short. Like quicksand, the yellow goop swallowed the bottoms of the demons’ legs, and they were stuck. Seeing the relief in Kevin’s eyes, Jackie turned back for a look herself, just in time to see the monsters break free. Chunks of concrete and sticky yellow goop went flying as the creatures tore their legs from the ground and kept on coming.
Jackie turned forward and flew across the rungs, crowding in behind Tom, who could not move fast enough.
“They’re still coming!” Kevin yelled.
Behind them, the demons trudged through the tunnel, tearing chunks of concrete from the floor with every sticky step. Yellow gunk collected on their legs, slowing them down, and the demons in the front succumbed, falling forward, their entire bodies laid flat in the yellow muck. Still the horde charged forward, those in the rear trampling their fallen counterparts in a continuous stampede. Even with the sticky floor giving them difficulty, the demons were gaining ground, and would be on Jackie in seconds.
“Joseph! Jackie needs help!”
“Keep going!” Jackie sh
outed.
Kevin turned back to see Jackie facing the wrong direction. Her back was to Kevin. She was looking directly at the charging monsters and swinging backwards along the rungs.
The leaders of the ant pack screamed again, and began piling one on top of the other, as if they had run into an invisible wall. One broke through at the bottom, until Jackie turned her gaze toward it and it slowed again. She was pushing against them with the force of her mind. Between the sticky substance on the floor and Jackie’s own power, the demons had slowed enough for her to put some distance between herself and the horde.
Ahead, Lou was nearing the tunnel’s end. Kevin didn’t know where Lou’s underground hovel went next, and he didn’t care. For now they just needed to reach the end and go through the door. Salvation from this nightmare had to be on the other side of that door.
Lou reached the end and jumped to safety. “I’ve made it!” he called back.
He was the only one. Something crashed into the ceiling, sending a violent shock across the ladder. Amy screamed, and fell from the ladder.
Joseph’s reaction was fast, and superb.
Kevin saw it all as if it were in slow motion. Amy falling. Joseph letting go of the ladder, flying forward, catching her from behind, carrying her to safety at the other end of the tunnel.
Kevin turned back to see a pile-up of giant ants, the one on top having clamped its jaws around the width of the ladder. With a smooth, scissor-like motion, the demon bit through the steel beams, snapping the ladder in half.
The clang of broken metal echoed through the tunnel, and the demon wasn’t done. It reached forward, clamped its jaws around the ladder again, and began to pull.
The metal posts that held the ladder to the ceiling stretched like toffee. Kevin could see what was going to happen, hear it even, but could do nothing to stop it. With one strong tug, the metal posts nearest the demon broke, and one end of the long ladder was off the ceiling and entirely in the creature’s grip. Like a puppy with a shoe, the demon shook its head from side to side, ripping the entire ladder loose from the ceiling.
Kevin’s body and legs thrashed in ways they weren’t meant to go. He held on tight, but for no good reason. The ladder fell. The last steel post holding it to the ceiling snapped. Kevin’s stomach lurched as gravity took hold. In a few seconds, he, Tom, and Jackie would all land in the yellow gunk and the chase would be over.
Kevin moved without conscious thought, doing what his instincts commanded. As he fell, he pulled his body through the rungs, bringing the ladder beneath his feet milliseconds before it landed in the muck. Kevin’s knees bent slightly to absorb the impact. He caught his balance and stood straight, both feet centered on top of a rung, the rubber soles of his shoes just centimeters removed from the yellow floor beneath.
There was an ominous second of silence. Kevin looked forward to see clear space in front of him. Lou and Amy lay against the door on the far wall, safely clear of the fallen ladder and the yellow goop. Joseph was flying back through the tunnel, headed for Kevin.
Behind him, the demons screamed again.
“Get out of here!” Jackie yelled. “I’ll hold them back!”
Kevin turned to see Tom and Jackie, both stuck in yellow muck, its gooey surface rising over the bottoms of their shoes.
“Your boots, Tom!” Kevin yelled. “Unlace them!”
Tom was looking at Joseph, his eyes open wide at the boy flying through the tunnel. “What in the world?” he mumbled.
“Unlace your boots, Tom!” Kevin shouted. “Bend down and do it now!”
Still mesmerized, Tom did as he was told.
“Jackie,” Kevin whispered.
Jackie couldn’t bend down to untie her shoes. If she broke her concentration from the oncoming horde, even for a second, they all were finished.
Wishing he had time to be cautious, Kevin stepped to the right, aiming for the thicker, outside beam of the ladder. His foot landed on the metal and slipped to a stop a hair’s breadth from the yellow muck. He took two more quick steps, placing one foot directly ahead of the other, the side bar of the ladder now a balance beam that separated him from certain death. He stepped past Tom just as Joseph, flying in from behind, grabbed onto the tall man’s shoulders.
“I’m coming up behind you Jackie,” Kevin said. “Stay focused.”
“What are you doing?” Jackie said. “You need to get out of here.”
Kevin passed Jackie and ducked low, careful to stay out of her line of sight. He straddled the ladder in front of her, and with a horde of bloodthirsty monsters mere feet away from him, he crouched down and untied Jackie’s shoes.
Behind Jackie, Joseph had pulled Tom from the muck, leaving behind a pair of dirty black boots.
“Go Joseph! I’ll get her out of here!” Kevin shouted.
“Get me out of here? What--”
Kevin didn’t let her finish. As soon as her laces were untied, Kevin wrapped his arms around Jackie’s waist and lifted her out of her shoes and clear of the yellow goop.
The distraction was just enough to break Jackie’s concentration, and she lost her push against the demons.
Kevin didn’t run so much as jump from rung to rung on the fallen ladder, his feet landing on the center of each bar, barely clearing the muck below. Behind him, the monsters were gaining. He wanted to go faster, but if he lost his balance for even a second he was dead.
A shadow stretched over his head. The demons were right on him now. Something seized Kevin’s back, and he cried out, sure he was going to die. He and Jackie were lifted into the air. He imagined the giant mandible jaws that tore through a steel ladder, now wrapped around his waist. .
He turned to face his fate, and saw Joseph. He had picked them up and was flying them to safety, a tumbling, unsteady heap of bodies in the air, Joseph pushing Kevin and Jackie like a battering ram.
Joseph let loose a shout, and threw his passengers across the final stretch of yellow goop all the way to the far wall and the door, which now stood open. Jackie and Kevin fell through the open door and into darkness. The salvation Kevin hoped to find at the end of the tunnel was a dark, empty hole. He and Jackie were plummeting to the bottom.
Chapter 16
“Grab onto the rope!”
Lou’s voice echoed in the darkness as Kevin and Jackie fell.
From below, Lou clicked on a flashlight, and the hole became an eerie world of light and shadow. As he spun out of control, a hanging rope appeared in Kevin’s line of sight. It was well beyond his reach.
Human figures flew past. Tom, Lou, Amy – they were climbing down a rope, watching helplessly as Kevin and Jackie tumbled through open air.
“I’m bringing it to us, Kev!” Jackie shouted.
Despite Jackie’s warning, Kevin wasn’t ready, and the rope swung past him. He heard the rope snap taught as Jackie grabbed hold. He fell past her. The rope swung back like a pendulum. This time he clamped his hands around it. Feeling immense friction and rope burn, Kevin’s instinct was to let go, but he forced himself instead to tighten his grip. His shoulders absorbed all the momentum of his falling body, giving him the brief sensation of rubber band arms before he came to a stop.
They were in a shaft, hanging from a rope that descended into a void. Kevin couldn’t see the bottom.
“We’re on!” Jackie shouted.
“I’m going to move the rope out of their reach!” Lou yelled back.
Lou pointed his flashlight at the ceiling, and waved it back and forth until he found a diamond-shaped glass panel. He held the beam over that panel for a few seconds, then gears and belts behind the rafters began to spin, dragging the entire rope toward the far wall.
Joseph’s silhouette flew through the open door at the top of the shaft. A monstrous head followed him inside.
Kevin saw only the shadows of its antennae and jaws. Those jaws, which moments earlier had torn through a steel ladder, now reached for the rope, and missed it by inches.
“Ha!” Lou sh
outed. “They can’t reach! Fast as you can now, it’s a race to the bottom!”
The first demon charged through the doorway, an apparent suicide leap. It wasn’t alone. Like a freight train falling off a bridge, a line of demons, their legs intertwined, poured inside. The light beam bounced around the shaft as the group descended, giving only a strobelight view of what was happening. The next time the light caught the demons, they were a chain of bodies hanging down the shaft, already covering half the distance between the doorway and Lou.
“Coming down!” shouted Joseph, who flew past Kevin, Amy slung over one shoulder; Tom over the other.
“I can see the bottom,” Joseph called out. “It isn’t that far. Jump, Kevin!”
Kevin took a deep breath and did as Joseph instructed, landing hard but intact. Tom and Amy stood on either side of him, Joseph having brought them to safety. Joseph went airborne again to rescue the others.
The concrete floor was sloped, like the underside of a giant bowl. Kevin landed at the lowest point in the center. Under his feet was a circular metal plate, surrounded by a ring of glass. Kevin felt like he was standing on the drain of a giant sink. Tom tugged on Kevin’s shirt, moving him out of the way just in time for Jackie to land. She winced when her feet, covered only in socks, connected with the metal plate.
Above them, Joseph had retrieved Lou. It was now a race between two falling bodies. Joseph, Lou slung over his shoulder, was in near free-fall through the open air. A chain of monsters was only seconds behind them.
“Stand aside!” Lou called from above. Tom pushed Kevin and Jackie away from the center of the floor. Lou pointed his flashlight at the ring of glass surrounding the metal plate. The plate sprung open like a toothpaste cap. Inside was another hole, another ladder, more darkness.