by D Haltinner
“Where are we going?” Audrey asked when they reached the dining hall.
“The library,” Darren said.
“The hatch there?”
“Yeah.”
“What if they know we’ve been using that one?”
“I don’t know if we have much of a choice though.”
“What about the gym?”
“I don’t think this is the best time to stroll into the woman’s locker room, do you?”
“Perhaps not. What about Rosch Hall though?”
“If it’s really engulfed in the void, we won’t be able to find our way into the hatch anyway.”
“I think we could,” Audrey said. “I think there will be enough sunlight in the hallways that if we keep the door open we can see.”
“Even if we did get into the hatch, then what?”
“I think we’ve been down there enough to find out way to the main tunnel below the road.”
“Yeah, I suppose we could.”
Audrey stepped in front of Darren, facing him and blocking his path so that he had to stop. “There’s something else bothering you.”
Darren shrugged. “There’s a lot bothering me today.”
“I mean about going in through Rosch Hall.”
“Yeah, there is.”
“What?”
Darren sighed and looked around at the campus around them, trying to avoid Audrey’s gaze. “I don’t want to see you hurt like Jack was,” he said. He looked back into her soft eyes. “I don’t think you should be stepping into the void at all.”
“There isn’t much of a choice anymore,” Audrey said. “It’s going to take both of us to stop this, and we’re going to have to go into the void at some point today. We both know that already, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“But Jack-”
“Jack was careless, foolish. I think we can handle it a bit better than just charging in like he did.”
“How’s that?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“You sure about that?”
“We don’t have much of a choice.”
“I suppose not.”
Audrey reached out her hand toward Darren as a gust of wind blew a chunk of hair across her face.
Darren took her hand in his, used the other to brush the wavy tendril back behind her ear. “I wish I didn’t have to worry about you so much.”
“Then don’t.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
“It shouldn’t be. Not when there are so many people whose fates depend on us.”
“But it’s not them I’ve fallen in love with.”
Audrey’s eyes opened wider. “What?”
“I love you Audrey.”
“We just met.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t change my feelings.”
“It’s not the time, not with all this going on.”
“I can’t just change my mind.”
Audrey sighed, her eyes never leaving Darren’s. “Well, try to forget that at least,” she said. “At least for today.”
Darren shook his head.
“You just had to pick today to tell me that,” Audrey said.
“Sorry, but it’s true.”
“Would you worry if I told you that I love you too?” she said. “Because I do.”
“It only makes me worry more.”
“Well, stop.”
“I’ll try.”
Audrey shook her head and her perma-smile rose back to her face. “You just had to pick today.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“We can pretend it didn’t happen.”
“We might have to.”
“Let’s get going then. I’m sure the tunnel can be a good distraction.”
Her perma-smile wavered then vanished from her face again. “Yeah, it can.”
“We’ll take your suggestion and go in through Rosch Hall, but what do we do then?”
“Hit the main tunnel and start west. We'll have to figure out where the hatches open in the buildings, but I don’t think that will be an issue.”
“We can’t get to McCormick Hall.”
“They’ll clear out once word of a pair of gunmen on campus get to them.”
“I hope so.”
“Come on, let’s get going.” Audrey said, squeezing Darren’s hand. “We’re wasting time.”
“I didn’t think it was a waste.”
“On a normal day, no, but today it is.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“Come on.”
Audrey pulled Darren along at her side south, toward Rosch Hall and the growing void.
Chapter 58
Audrey held the door to the women’s bathroom of Rosch Hall while Darren tried to find the handle for the hatch in the dim light that cast down the hallway from the door leading to the paths outside.
“See it?” she asked.
“No, but I think I feel it,” Darren said as his fingers found the indentation in the metal. “Yeah, I got it.”
Audrey poked her head out the door and looked both ways along the hall. They hadn’t seen anyone in the building when they stepped through the door, but the voices of at least two people could be heard echoing down the hall. Maybe students wondering why their professors were late, or maintenance men trying to get their flashlights working so they could take a look inside of a transformer.
Darren opened the hatch and guided the metal door back so that it made as little noise as possible. For a moment it looked like there was something moving on the surface of the tunnel’s walls, but Darren passed it off as a trick of the sunlight. Who knew how light would act inside of the void.
“How do we do this?” Audrey asked.
“Is there something you can prop by the door to keep it open?”
“I suppose I can grab one of those chairs in the classroom across the hall, but we can’t leave it like that.”
“Why not?”
“Someone will wonder why the door is blocked open and come exploring.”
“I don’t think it really matters anymore,” Darren said. “No one’s going to climb down into the tunnel without light, and after today, I don’t think it really matters if these tunnels are discovered anyways.”
“I suppose.”
“Grab that chair, and let’s go.”
“I’ll be right back,” Audrey said. “Don’t get sacred. And don’t fall in.”
“I won’t.”
Audrey stepped back into the hallways and the door swung shut, leaving Darren in the absolute darkness of the void.
Darren closed his eyes, trying to make the blackness feel more natural, but that wasn’t enough. Goosebumps came and spread across his skin, and a moment later he found his armpits beginning to sweat.
The door swung back open and Darren’s eyes shot open by their own accord. Audrey had a plastic chair hanging from one hand and was positioning it at an angle below the handle of the door. When she got it to stay she came toward Darren-a silhouette that was dimming with each step.
“I can barely see you,” Audrey said, reaching out and grabbing Darren’s arm when she was close enough.
“I’m here,” Darren said.
“At least I can still feel you.”
For now, is what Darren almost said.
“Here, let me help you down into the shaft,” he said and held onto her hand as she found the cement footholds and lowered herself into the tunnel.
“I’m coming, so don’t let me kick you,” Darren said when she reached the bottom.
“I'm out of the way.”
Darren sat himself on the edge of the hatch and found the same footholds Audrey used. He shifted his weight to the foot he thought had the strongest hold, but his shoe slipped, and he fell into the darkness, landing on his knees.
“Are you okay?” Audrey asked, feeling around until she found Darren’s shoulders.
Darren hissed at the pain shooting into his kneecaps. It
wasn’t as bad as it could have been landing on the cement, but it still felt as if he was clubbed by a five year old trying to learn how to bat. “I think I’ll have some nice swelling later, but I’ll survive.”
“You sure? You didn’t break anything?”
“I only fell a few feet.”
“It sounded like you fell the whole way.”
“Nah, I just slipped off the foothold.”
“Here, let me help you up.”
Darren used Audrey’s arms for balance and stood up, slow to extend his legs to make sure that his knees were operating alright. It didn’t feel as though it had been hurt too badly, but running was going to be out of the picture for a while.
“Thank you,” Darren said when he got up.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Her arm went around his shoulders. “Mind if I hold onto you while we walk though? It’s kind of creepy in the dark and I don’t want to lose track of you.”
Darren winced at the extra pain her weight caused. “No, it’s fine.”
“Thanks.”
Darren reached out to the wall in front of him, felt the cold concrete beneath his finger tips, and once he got his bearings, he turned Audrey toward the branch of the tunnel leading to the large stretch below the road.
“Wait,” Audrey said after a second. She stopped without warning, pulling Darren off balance just enough that he had to back step.
“What?” Darren asked.
Darren stayed silent, but he didn’t know what Audrey was getting at. “What is it?”
“I heard something a moment ago.”
“What?”
“It sounded like a voice.”
Darren’s heart skipped a beat. If someone was down there in the void, there would be no way to tell where they were until crashing into them. If one of the faculty was moving through the void, to try and find Darren or Audrey, they would have no problem doing that in the pitch black if they stayed quiet.
“Shit,” Darren said.
“Do you think they know we’re down here?” Audrey asked.
“I’m sure they expected us to show up at some point.”
“We’ll never see them down here.”
“Which way did you hear voices?”
“Behind us, back toward the library.”
“We might be safe since we’re moving away from them.”
“I hope so. But let’s hurry anyway. Just in case.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Darren slid his hand down Audrey and found her arm. He wrestled his fingers into hers, put his hand on the wall beside him, and led Audrey through the dark, deeper into the void.
After a minute of feeling his way down the concrete wall, Darren’s hand hit a turn, and he felt along cold steel.
“We’re at the room,” he said.
“The other tunnel isn’t far.”
“Let’s keep going.”
Darren fumbled in the dark with his arm, reaching across the gap where the steel door stood open. He adjusted their trajectory to stay parallel with the tunnel, and led the way down to the turn, stopping when he felt the change in material that signified the start of the steps.
“Be careful,” Darren said as quiet as he could. “The steps are in front of us and I don’t want you to trip or anything.”
“I won’t,” Audrey said at a normal volume.
“Stay a little quiet at least.”
“Why?” She lowered her volume.
“I think it was our voices that let the thing in here know that we were here,” Darren said. “All of our yelling the first time, when we got away, and then when Jack was attacked, I think it heard us.”
“Heard us?”
“I think if we get too loud, we’ll wake it up or whatever and it will come after us.”
“I’ll stay quieter than a mouse then.”
“Anything to keep our presence unknown to this thing, the better.”
Audrey lifted Darren’s hand, pinched his fingertips together, and made a zipper motion across her mouth.
Darren pulled her hand to his own mouth and kissed the back of it. He reached back out to the wall and took small steps forward until he found the first step, and stepped down.
“The first step,” he said. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
Darren moved down the steps as slow as he dared, never loosening his grip on Audrey’s hand. After the first few stairs, they both seemed to get a hang of the spacing between steps, and were able to fluidize their movements downward.
After a minute of walking down the steps, Darren reached the bottom step, and his hand fell off the wall as it vanished on him. His hand knocked something off the wall, as it slipped off the corner-probably an insect that found it’s way in over the last couple of days and from all the activity and open hatches.
“Think we’re out of the void yet?” Audrey asked at a whisper.
“Only one way to find out.”
“Turn around and bend down.”
Darren did as she asked, wincing as his knees protested the bending they were submitted to.
Audrey unzipped his backpack and reached in, feeling around until she pulled something out and felt her way back to the zipper and closed it up. “Okay, got it.”
Darren stood back up, having to use Audrey’s hip bone to keep his balance. “Turn it on.”
“I did.”
There was no light. “We’re still in the void then.”
“It would appear that way.”
“Should I leave the flashlight on while we walk? So we know when we’re out?”
“Maybe we should save the battery life. It is our only flashlight left.”
“Kay. I’ll stick it in my pocket.”
“You closed up the backpack all the way, so nothing will fall out?”
“Yep.” Audrey said. “Which way now?”
“Well, we can go across the trench and head up toward the science building,” Darren said. “Or start by the admin building and Painter Hall.”
“I don’t know if we should go to the science building. They might be in that lab, and we’d walk right into them.”
“I know,” Darren said. “But it is the closest building that’s not already in the void as far as we know.”
“Maybe we should do it last anyways,” Audrey said. “Maybe they’ll clear it out if word travels from Painter Hall fast enough.”
“We can only hope.”
“I just want to stay as far away from those men as possible.”
“Me too.”
Audrey sighed. “So, we save the T. Sommers building for last then?”
“Yeah.”
“Then how do we do this?”
“Let’s just walk north until we get out of the void. Then we’ll find a way across the trench when we can see again.”
“Fine by me.”
Audrey’s fingers climbed into Darren’s hand and interlaced with his. Darren brought them over to the wall and walked with his finger tracing the concrete, keeping them as far away from the trench as possible.
Every once in awhile as they walked, Darren heard Audrey fumbling with the flashlight in her pocket, probably trying to see if they had made it out of the void yet. It had enveloped a much larger area than the day before, and Darren was beginning to wonder if they would ever get out of the void when he stepped into light.
Audrey gasped and yanked Darren back into the void before he could get a good look at what they stumbled upon.
“What?” Darren asked.
Audrey clamped her hand over Darren’s mouth.
He reached up to pull her hand off so she could step back out of the edge of the void to see what she saw, but a voice froze them solid.
“Did you hear something?” A man’s voice said. It sounded like Professor Coleman.
“No, did you?" The balding man’s voice.
“I’m not sure,” Coleman said. “Did you yawn?”
>
“I don’t know. Must not have been anything then.”
A sigh and a loud grumble came from the men. They sounded like they were only a dozen feet in front of Darren and Audrey.
Audrey’s grip grew tighter on Darren’s hand and the hand covering his mouth dropped away.
“Man this is boring,” the balding man said.
“I know,” Coleman said.
“Do you actually think they’re going to show up? Or do you think we’re standing guard for no reason?”
“Who knows? You can’t predict what those Arabs are going to do.”
“They’re all terrorists, aren’t they?”
“It would seen that way. This one sure fits the bill.”
Darren’s teeth mashed together and began to grind as he listened to the man talk. It was impossible to escape his ethnicity, no matter what they did. After this is all over, maybe he should move to Saudi Arabia and finish college there. At least there, no one would call him a terrorist-and actually mean it.
“Bush should have just killed them all before he left office,” the balding man said. “Obama won't do shit, and we’re just going to end up with another nine eleven.”
“I’m surprised the kid hasn’t been more of a problem.”
“Arabs are a lot like insects, aren’t they?”
Audrey’s hand tightened on Darren’s. She tried to pull Darren away from the voices, but Darren stayed put.
“Nothing but vermin,” Coleman said. “They bring the whole place down in value.”
“We need to talk with the chancellor about keeping them out of here.”
“Bah, he wouldn’t do it. He’s too afraid of all those damn equality activists.”
Darren closed his eyes. He was starting to get a headache.
“Come on!” Audrey said into Darren’s ear. “Let’s go!”
Darren tried to ignore her. In fact, it was pretty easy at the moment. He could feel the anger growing in the pit of his stomach, but it wasn’t as strong as he was expecting.
Audrey tugged on his arm.