by Brenna Lyons
Kyla backed away to the cool, tile wall behind her. After her time in the claustrophobic tunnels, the room seemed to spin around her. She broke out in a cold sweat, closed her eyes, and tried to still the pounding of her heart in her chest. Kyla had to keep moving.
She opened her eyes again and finished her assessment of her surroundings. The locker rooms were across the room, and a stairwell up lay to her left through a glass door. Kyla touched the glass, then glanced back at the locker rooms. Prophet or not, she was human, and she needed a bathroom.
There was no water, of course, and Kyla cursed her luck. She was thirsty. She had been thirsty since she woke. It was like what Sarah used to call cottonmouth. Kyla wondered if Harris had drugged her. It was possible but not worth the time to figure out.
Kyla was headed back to the pool when she caught sight of herself in the dusty bank of metal mirrors. She gasped at the image reflected back. It didn’t seem that Kyla was looking at herself.
Her entire body was smeared with dark mud and slime. Her hair was matted and dirty. Her left cheek and nose were swollen and discolored. Dried blood spread out from her nose to below her right ear. She smelled horrible.
What Kyla wouldn’t give if these showers actually worked. She considered washing off the blood streak, at least, but she didn’t have the spit to spare.
Kyla sighed and headed out. This was one image she wouldn’t send to Joe on a bet. Vain? Maybe, but he didn’t need to see this anyway. There had to be a way to get cleaned up before then.
She gave the pool a wide berth and headed up the stairs. The door at the top was locked with a double key deadbolt. What Kyla wouldn’t give for Eric, right now. She was out of the tunnels and still trapped.
Kyla peered out the windows and sucked in her breath. Tears of joy ran down her face, and Kyla was surprised she still had enough water to cry.
She knew where she was. She should have remembered the stories about the old tunnels, but in a city as old as this one, there were a lot of old tunnels. She wouldn’t have wanted to send Joe to the wrong ones before she was sure.
There was no chance that she was wrong. As many times as she could, Kyla had lain out in that garden and read a book. The library was to her left. The math building was straight ahead, and the convent was to her right.
As she glanced right, Kyla ducked. Her heart skipped a beat. Two men were heading directly for her. They were halfway through the garden between the gym and the convent when she saw them. They knew about this exit. Kyla scurried back down the stairs to the pool level and crouched next to the tunnel door.
She reached out excitedly. “Joe!”
“What’s wrong?”
She shouldn’t have yelled that way. “I have some good news and some bad news. I’m out of the tunnels.”
“You still don’t have any clue where you are?” Joe was disappointed.
“Yes, I do. I’m at Galway College.”
“Galway? Where is that?” he asked.
“Fifth Avenue in Oakland.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“I have to go back into the tunnels.”
“Why?”
“They’re coming. They know about this exit. That means they’re looking for me.”
“Keep your head down. I’ll be there soon.”
“They’re in the convent at the top of campus. You’ll have to figure out a way in. Maybe the woods northeast of campus—”
“Let me worry about that. You stay out of sight as long as you can. No crazy chances.”
“This whole thing is a crazy chance. I have to go.”
Kyla pressed against the wall and listened. She might not have to go back in, if all they needed was to guard the exit from the outside. Her hopes were dashed as she heard the door creak open.
Their voices wafted down to her. “It’s pointless. Does Harris really think she’s going to find her way out of that crumbling maze?”
“Can it. At least, he just wants us to stand guard. He’s going in there himself. Glad to hear it too. They’re not paying me enough to get caved in down there.”
“Guess you better get down to the new residents’ hall and watch that one.”
“Hey, Timms. What’s that stuff?”
There was a long pause and footsteps overhead. They weren’t on the stairs.
Yet.
“Mud, and it’s fresh.”
Kyla glanced around. She’d dragged in mud, all right. Everything she touched, her shoes. So much for them giving up there. She looked at her handprint on the glass door.
“Should we search?”
“You lock me in, and I’ll search. She may still be here, and we don’t want her slipping out an open door.”
“What about me?”
“Get to the residents’ hall door fast. If she’s been here and left already because she couldn’t find a way out, she’s probably headed that way. Make sure she doesn’t get out. I’ll radio Blake to let him know she was here. Move.”
That was enough for Kyla. She slid back into the tunnels and switched on her light. She hurried back around several corners so she would be out of sight if he looked in. He wouldn’t follow her. Harris was the only one willing to actually go into this mess.
Kyla stopped and pondered her situation.
Joe would be here in an hour and a half. It was Sunday, but the safe house was in North Side, and he had to sneak onto campus.
All the known exits were covered, and Harris was in the tunnels. That variable frightened her the most. Did Harris know the tunnels, or was he running blind like Kyla was?
Does it matter? If Harris found her, what did it matter if he knew where he was going?
She decided to take no chances. Kyla had no destination in mind. Why not waste time wandering? She would attempt to stay toward the center of campus. From what she saw and heard about the tunnels, they reached the whole four blocks north to south and three blocks east to west of the campus. That was twelve square blocks to lose herself in. That was all she had to do, play a game of cat and mouse with Harris long enough to get help.
* * *
Joe grabbed his radio. “Here’s the drill. Eric, you and a truck need to move here on the double. Jason, you and Liz are eyes and ears with the other truck ready. Move guys. We switch in ten minutes. Oh, and make sure you didn’t skimp on the armaments in either one of those trucks.”
Eric’s voice cracked to life. “We have a destination?”
“We’re pointed in the right direction. Just get here and we move.”
“You got it. I’ll pick you up at the far door. Are we carrying a passenger?”
Joe glanced at Stacie. The young woman sat miserably in the corner.
“Yes, Eric. We are.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just important that you go with me.” Joe crossed the room and pulled the knife from behind his waist. Stacie cringed, but he placed the knife between the strips of plastic and cut them cleanly.
Stacie stared at her hands, then at Joe. “You trust me?” she asked.
“Not in a million years, but someone does.”
“Who?”
Joe shrugged and walked away.
* * *
The truck seemed to move in slow motion, and Joe fidgeted as he watched the scenery pass. He could never seem to get to Kyla fast enough to suit himself.
“Okay, we’re approaching Route 376. Where to from here?” Eric asked.
“Fifth Avenue in Oakland.”
“What part? That’s a long stretch of road.”
“Ever heard of Galway College?” Joe asked.
Stacie spoke up. “But that’s closed. Duh,” she smacked her forehead. “Which makes it the perfect hiding place.”
Eric smiled at her statement. “So where is this place?”
“Right up the road from the hospital. Use the same exit,” she offered.
Joe adjusted the gun on his back. “Don’t use the main entrance. G
et as northeast as you can on the other side of the trees, and we’ll hike in to avoid their sentries.”
“Good thing this is four wheel drive,” Eric commented.
Stacie leaned forward between them. “If you don’t mind my asking, where exactly did you get all of this intelligence information from? I mean, it didn’t come over the radio, or I would have heard it. It didn’t come in on one of Simmons’s phone calls, or it would have had to be radioed to you. So, inquiring minds want to know.”
Joe grinned back at her. He decided to let her worry a little. Stacie didn’t need to know the truth.
“I had divine inspiration,” he lied smoothly.
Stacie looked at him in shock. “You have some exhausted delusion and you’re dragging us halfway across the city on a wild goose chase? What if you’re wrong?”
“Hey, if you can’t trust divine inspiration, what is faith for?”
* * *
Harris muttered a curse under his breath. She had already reached the gym building and left again before he even set out. That little witch was fast. She would be heading for the other opening. Cason was on his way, but Harris was still going in to intercept her if he could.
“When I catch her—” Harris sobered. If he caught her, he was going to make her very sorry for putting him through this hell on Earth.
Catching her was the rub. The mud was fresh, but that still meant she’d navigated the tunnels to that point in anywhere between fifteen minutes and an hour. There were miles of tunnels down here, but if she actually knew where she was going, Kyla could be out the other end in minutes.
Worse still, the residents’ hall had lots of standard windows she could crawl out, unlike the gym building with its high, permanently closed windows. If she got free, he was going to have to cut and run. Kyla would go to the police this time to save the old woman, and Harris would spend the rest of his life in jail with no questions asked.
He stopped and shined his light down on the map. The others didn’t know about the map, and they didn’t need to know. Let them continue to fear what he was capable of. Soon, it would be the only edge Harris had left. Already, they were faster, stronger, and had more stamina than he had. Most of them referred to him as “the old man” now, and they were starting to treat him that way too.
Harris had requested the map as a condition of using the site the first time Jessup had suggested it might be useful. That hade been over twenty years ago. The map itself was easily thirty-five years old, but it included the original design. It was highlighted for the tunnels that were capped off or that were already collapsed at the time it was made. It showed the new tunnel, which was not accessible from the old ones, and the exits. Harris supposed the man who really had balls of steel was the one who’d used the original map to do this survey and update it.
Years ago, Harris had worked out two routes to each exit and marked them in different colors on his map. That way, if more tunnels collapsed, he would still have a chance to reach his destination. He scanned the map. The blue line was the shortest route to the residents’ hall exit. He started following the series of twists and turns that would lead him out the other side.
Why was he doing this? Why not wait for her to come out? Kyla would have to come out for clean water and food, eventually. But Harris knew time would run out before she gave up and walked willingly into his hands. Kyla was right, after all. It wasn’t going to be easy.
* * *
Kyla wanted desperately to sit down. After all, did it really matter if she was moving when Harris found her? If Kyla crossed paths with Harris, it was over, whether she was moving or not. He would see to that.
She turned another corner and stopped short. “What is that?” Kyla jumped, her voice sounding far too loud in the darkness. She edged closer, until her outstretched hand contacted the smooth metal wall that cut directly through the tunnel. She laid her head against the cool metal and grimaced. More slime. She closed her eyes and ignored the sensation for a moment.
Suddenly, Kyla heard footsteps on one of the dry sections of the stone floor. She switched her light off and backed into the corner, hoping the sound was traveling long distances through the tunnels. The footsteps came closer, and Kyla could make out the faint glow of a flashlight around the corner.
For a long moment, she held her breath. Then, the light and the footsteps started moving away again. Harris had taken another turn. Kyla let out her breath slowly. She sat down, shaking and hugging herself, abruptly cold.
That was too close.
Kyla ran her hand over the metal wall and shook her head. She had to keep moving. But which way had Harris gone? It was impossible to tell down here, but it would be better to encounter him where she could run than cornered like this.
She got to her feet. Had it been long enough? Was Harris waiting outside the passage for her?
No, if Harris knew where I was, he wouldn’t play head games like that. He would have caught me.
How far away is he? Kyla could see his light, but not if her own was on. She shook her head. She couldn’t wander around down here in the dark.
Maybe she could manage it to the next corner. Kyla felt her way along the wall. There was no light and no sound. Kyla sighed in relief and turned her light back on. She inched around several turns, then stopped in dismay.
The tunnel ahead of her was caved in. It was still partially open, but it was obviously unstable. One wall and part of the ceiling had collapsed onto the floor of the remaining section. Kyla brushed the wall as she looked at it and jumped back as more of it crumbled.
It was definitely time to backtrack. She turned back the way she’d come in time to see Harris rounding the corner into the passageway. She looked around frantically for another way out, but there wasn’t one. It was either Harris or the cave in. That was a hard choice.
Harris advanced on her. His eyes were like stone, though his face showed all the malice he had in mind for her, and Kyla felt her heart start pounding. This was the type of toying Harris liked.
“You almost got lucky.” Harris said it quietly, but with amazing strength. “I left when I found this tunnel collapsed. I only turned back when I heard the rocks falling. You almost made it, you know.”
Harris was barely more than an arm’s length away when Kyla moved. She turned and launched into the rubble at her back. The rocks skidded crazily under her feet and she pitched forward onto her hands and knees. No time to waste. She scurried forward.
Kyla heard him swearing and his feet pounding toward her. His hand closed around her ankle. Kyla threw all of her weight onto that knee and thrust her other foot out sharply toward him without aim. Her foot connected, and Harris released his grip as he grunted and landed heavily. Free again, Kyla surged forward.
A shower of dirt and rocks came down around her. She hesitated, then moved forward. The tunnel or Harris. The tunnel or Harris. Keep remembering it. The shower got heavier, but Kyla pushed on despite the fact that she was coughing mortar dust.
Harris grabbed her ankle again, but this time, he yanked back before she had a chance to kick him off. Kyla felt herself being dragged backward over the rough surface. She screamed at a tearing sensation in her side. Kyla clawed desperately at the passing rubble, but nothing slowed her slide toward him. Her right hand closed on a fist-sized rock, and she held onto it for dear life.
The rubble disappeared, and Harris halted his pulling. Kyla flipped onto her back and kicked at his face. He grabbed her leg effortlessly and slammed it to the floor next to the other one, but Kyla wasn’t done yet. If Harris was going to kill her, he was going to have to fight her every step of the way.
Harris dropped his weight onto her legs, and he was close enough for her to throw a punch with her left hand. He deflected it easily and started to smile a vicious smile at her. Kyla brought up her right hand with the rock. As she expected, the original punch distracted him long enough for the right to connect, complete with its payload. Her hand ached as the rock smashed into his
cheekbone.
He reeled onto his back, but as Kyla tried to launch herself to her feet, she felt herself pulled down over Harris by the handful of her shirt he held. The shirt tore, but the force succeeded in keeping her there. Harris wasted no time. He rolled his weight over on top of her, and Kyla was pinned to the floor.
Harris locked his left hand onto her throat as he had that first night and brought his right up with a handgun. Kyla closed her eyes as the gun settled in front of her chest. She hurt all over and she was exhausted. If this was it, she had done all she could.
“Open your eyes,” Harris ordered.
Kyla looked at him calmly. Something told her that this wasn’t the end, and she reached out to Joe.
* * *
They were halfway up the wooded slope. At first, Eric had balked at Joe handing Stacie loaded guns and ammo, but he’d made it clear that there was to be no more discussion.
Finally, Eric gave the traitor his solemn oath. “You so much as twitch, and I’ll blow you in two. Don’t make me prove it.”
The convent building was in sight. Ten more minutes and they’d be out of the woods. Joe wished he knew how many guards he had to contend with and where they were. Not knowing if they were facing three or twenty made planning impossible.
The radio cracked to life. Liz’s voice called out, “Joe, we’re moving. Simmons got a call from his eyes. The bishop is moving, and so is the whole parade.”
Joe grabbed the radio. “You know the drill. Stay on them and keep open. We need to know where the players are.”
“We’re out.”
Eric grimaced. “It’s gonna get crowded. By the way,” he tossed Joe an ear jack, “you better cork that before someone hears it at an inopportune moment.”
Joe nodded and plugged the earpiece in. He hooked it around his ear and started up the slope again.
Joe had only walked two more steps when the force of Kyla’s transmission hit him. He stumbled and landed awkwardly on his knees. He could vaguely hear Stacie asking if he was okay. She touched his shoulder, and Joe pushed her away. Eric’s question was almost unintelligible, from far away.