by Michael Ford
“I know if we stand around talking much longer, we’re asking for trouble,” said Kobi. “We can’t waste time. We need to keep moving.” He began to walk down the ramp toward several concrete slabs ten feet tall, which lay across the entrance. Dad had said they tried to close some of the roads when the infection took hold, to quarantine the city. Way too late, of course—the airborne spores of the Waste didn’t care about roadblocks. He jumped and gripped the lip, then hauled himself onto the top. The other two followed reluctantly. Kobi reached down and helped them over.
As they dropped to the other side, Kobi took out his flashlight. The view picked out in the flashlight’s beam wasn’t inviting. Giant shrubs with ghostlike branches and thorns spanned the tunnel, growing in and through cracks in the walls. Bulbous yellow fungus sprouted from abandoned cars. Everything gleamed with a slimy moist sheen. Kobi wondered if his dad had ever come this way and what he would have made of it. No—he would never have done anything so stupid. Then again, he never had dozens of Snatchers on his trail.
But we can’t turn back. It’s the only route out of the Snatchers’ view.
“Stay focused and we’ll get through this,” he said, trying to sound confident. He took out his crossbow and handed it to Fionn. The young boy held it without much conviction. He’s more likely to shoot himself in the foot than anything else. Kobi nodded to the dart gun hanging around Asha’s waist. “Is that set high?”
“D-Nine,” said Asha. “Lethal dose. I don’t know how many shots it will give though.”
Kobi began to walk, picking a path between the cars. It looked like there’d been crashes down here, because among the vegetation in the cars sat raggedy skeletons, still coated in fragments of clothing. Strange tropical-looking flowers sprouted from eye sockets and crumbling skulls. Kobi heard Fionn’s and Asha’s steps falter whenever the flashlight beam fell on another horrible sight.
“It’s all right,” said Asha. “They can’t hurt us.”
Kobi kept the flashlight moving. He wondered how acute Asha’s telepathic senses were. She’d picked up on the Chokerplants a moment before the ambush near the hospital, but there could be plenty of other things lurking down here. Things Kobi couldn’t even imagine. After all the years of careful planning and execution, all the lessons his dad had drilled into him about being cautious, here he was breaking every rule in the book. Rushing headlong into the unknown.
Up ahead, the center of the tunnel had collapsed, with plants growing at strange angles as the ground dipped. Kobi crept toward the lip.
“There’s definitely something down there,” said Asha. “I feel it.”
The only way across the hole was the trunk of a tree lying over the center. It was wide enough to climb over, and Kobi thought it would take their weight easily, even if they all crossed together. Still, the idea of walking over the abyss was risky. If there were Chokerplants lurking below—they’d be sitting ducks during the crossing.
Kobi shined his flashlight over the edge. Below was another road, with the remains of a couple more vehicles. Something was moving at the dim edges of the flashlight’s beam, but when he tried to pin it down it was gone. He shrugged off the backpack and took out the flare gun from inside. He had only three spare flares, so he had to be careful.
“Let’s see, shall we?” he said.
He aimed the flare gun and fired into the abyss. The green light spilled over the debris of the car and the knotted plants. From several places at once, cockroaches the size of cats swarmed to get out of the brightness. They scuttled off into holes and gaps and grates.
Asha jerked back, letting out a short hiss of breath. “It’s all right,” said Kobi. “They’re ugly, but they’re harmless.” He took the crossbow back from Fionn and handed him a Taser from his belt instead. “This is better at close range. If anything comes near you, just point and shoot.”
They crossed the trunk to the far side without incident. Kobi took out the city map from the emergency bag. It wasn’t as detailed as the map back at the school, but at least it had all the city’s roads. He traced their tunnel into the city—where it branched off in several directions. “We can cover a lot of ground down here,” he said. “I don’t think the Snatchers will be able to follow us.”
They continued through the abandoned tunnel, flashlight beam playing over the eerie swamplike growths. The plants down here were less vibrant than above, the air slightly rotten. Even Waste-infected plants did better in the sunlight.
Kobi measured their progress roughly in his head, picking markers every one hundred feet or so. Soon he was sure they must have reached the other side of the river, and as the tunnel branched, he took the leftmost junction.
“Wait!” whispered Asha. She closed her eyes for a moment. “I sense more Chokerplants. I think they’re up ahead.” She raised the rifle.
They slowed down, and Kobi drew his machete. “Let’s check it out.”
Neither of the other kids argued, but Kobi sensed them a fraction behind him as they crept farther, rounding a bend. Asha was right. Two hundred feet up the tunnel was almost entirely blocked with a monstrous explosion of pale roots, some more than three feet thick. They grew from the floor and into the tunnel roof, where the concrete was broken apart. Kobi’s flashlight beam played over the tangled branches. There was a way through to the other side, but it would involve clambering between the knotted limbs. At any point, the Chokerplants might stir to life and wrap around them like constrictors crushing the life from their prey.
“I think we have to double back,” Asha said.
Kobi realized she was right. He checked the map again and saw there was another way. A much longer route. We just have to hope it’s not blocked too.
They’d taken a few steps when Asha stopped again. “Oh no. Something’s coming.”
Kobi heard it too, and his heart pumped harder. Something mechanical—the hum of hydraulics. Snatchers. “They’ve found us,” he said. He began to move back toward the Chokerplants.
“Wait!” said Asha. “We can’t.”
Kobi’s dad had always had a theory about Chokerplants. Time to test it. Kobi crouched and picked up a lump of shattered concrete from the floor. Drawing back his arm, he hurled the block as hard as he could. It thumped into the pale limbs, then rattled down to the ground.
The Chokerplant didn’t move an inch.
“Perhaps we can make it through,” he said.
“Are you insane?” said Asha.
“My dad always said Chokers were most sensitive to vibrations toward the tips of the vines,” he said. “The roots not so much. If we’re careful, I think we can make it.”
“You think?”
“Trust me,” said Kobi.
Fionn nodded his pinched face bravely, and Asha let out a grunt of frustration but came as well.
The clanking of the Snatchers was echoing closer. Kobi imagined them flooding over the car wrecks—sensors scanning the darkness for signs of human life. Once they locked on, that was it. There’d be no hesitation. We don’t have long.
Kobi tried not to let his fear show as they approached the gargantuan root system. He shined his flashlight to show the others the way, and hopped over a horizontal twisting trunk. Asha helped Fionn scramble onto the top, and Kobi lifted him over the other side, then followed. The rest of the structure didn’t move at all. Asha was trembling. “I can feel it,” she whispered. “It’s all around us.”
They had to crouch under a looping branch, then squeeze between more of the thicket. Kobi couldn’t help feeling they were entering the stomach of some massive beast, which wasn’t far from the truth. But as he shined his flashlight through the shadows and coils, he could see the other side, maybe seventy-five feet away. Not far.
Suddenly more light trickled through the roots around them. Kobi glanced back and saw a Snatcher rounding the bend of the tunnel. It picked up its pace, scurrying toward the Chokerplant roots.
12
“QUICKLY!” HE SAID. HE stopped b
eing careful and pushed further into the morass of branches. Asha and Fionn pressed close behind. As he jumped between a forked trunk, the lights from the Snatcher intensified. He didn’t need his flashlight anymore.
“It’s coming this way fast!” cried Asha.
Kobi looked back and saw the metal contraption picking its way through behind them. Its shell bashed into the Choker roots with brute force, and Kobi heard one of them snap. At the same moment, horror gripped his chest as the branches around them stirred to life. The thick roots squirmed and flexed like the tentacles of some giant squid. Kobi ducked as one swept overhead. It’s searching for prey.
The Snatcher continued after them, knocked this way and that by the snaking roots but coming on relentlessly. Shafts of blinding light cut across Kobi’s path as he struggled on, checking Asha and Fionn were still on his heels. He’d head one way, then see it closing off, only for another gap to open. He heard the crunch of metal and saw the Snatcher tip to its side. Its legs were being trapped by the strangling roots, and one of them broke off in a shower of sparks. Still the thing pressed on. Kobi reached the far side at last, diving through a space just before the roots tightened. Fionn came out on all fours, scrambling through to safety as well. The Snatcher was almost on them. Asha was still a few feet inside. She tried to run toward them, only to be tripped. The flash of the Snatcher closed in suddenly, reaching out an arm that clamped over her lower leg. She let out a scream. “Help me!”
Kobi reached in and found her arm, but when he tugged, she didn’t move. “Fionn, grab on too,” shouted Kobi. At any moment, he expected the roots to seize on Asha. If they did, it was over.
Fionn took Asha’s other arm, grimacing. The rifle was just visible, but Kobi couldn’t see a way to reach it. And still the Snatcher wasn’t letting go. The tendrils of Chokerplant were lashing across its carapace, and as each did, Kobi saw them tighten with immense power, denting the metal as they squeezed. The contraption was trying to move but could only shift a little—its sensor arrays jerking this way and that as its robot mind tried to work out what was happening. It made Kobi think of a fly trapped in a web, when every move only worsened its fate.
Kobi’s grip began to slip on Asha’s arm, and he knew he was seconds from losing her. The terror etched on her features told him she knew exactly the same. Please . . . , he thought. Not like this. . . .
Then Fionn let go. Asha screamed, but Fionn thrust his arm deep into the roots, gritting his teeth. A moment later the vines jerked and recoiled, and suddenly Kobi was falling back, crying out with a mighty heave. Asha slid free. They hauled her together out of the writhing plant and didn’t stop dragging until they were well clear. A single metal arm reached out after them, before a terrible crunching of metal and fizzing of sparks. The arm flopped, and the rest of the Snatcher disappeared completely in the constricting Choker branches.
For a moment they all breathed heavily, in shock. Then Kobi realized what must have happened. Fionn had managed to pull the rifle’s trigger, discharging a dart into the Chokerplant. Not enough to kill an organism so huge, but enough to slow it down for just long enough.
“You saved her!” he said, and Fionn, pale and sweating, nodded grimly.
Kobi stood up, regaining his senses. With any luck, and he thought they were due some, the Chokerplant would stop any more Snatchers from coming through from that direction, so they’d bought themselves some time at least.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Asha was saying as Fionn looked at her leg. Apart from a tear in her blue shorts, she looked unhurt.
Kobi turned his attention farther down the tunnel—and felt his heart sink into despair. It was completely blocked by another massive Chokerplant. It looked like the roof had collapsed as well, mixing with blocks of masonry and tangled rusting vehicles.
“We’re trapped,” he said simply.
They walked slowly toward the looming mountain of roots and debris. Kobi stared at it helplessly. Even with his strength, there was no way they could even begin to shift enough to find a way through. We’re going to die down here.
“What is it, Fionn?” asked Asha.
Kobi saw the boy had drifted off toward the edge of the tunnel and was peering at a swathe of lianas. He shined the flashlight that way and saw that the vines were actually half covering the mouth of a side tunnel. Fionn scooped some aside with his hands. The opening was a flattened circle about four feet across and three feet tall. From the rough gouges in the solid layers of concrete, it looked like it had been chipped away rather than bored mechanically. Whoever had dug it had left the jagged ends of pipework and wiring frayed at the edges.
Kobi shined his flashlight inside, and saw the tunnel led slightly downward, roughly straight. Looking at his map, he couldn’t figure out where it could possibly go.
“We have no idea what’s down there,” he said.
“We didn’t let that stop us before,” Asha reminded him. “Besides, we have no choice. I’ll go first.”
She took the flashlight from Kobi’s hand and climbed in, shuffling down feetfirst. Fionn went next, with Kobi following at the rear. The passageway had a few smaller branches at odd angles, but they stuck to the main route. No way people made this, thought Kobi. They wouldn’t even fit down some of those offshoots. He pushed the anxieties aside. The concrete of the walls gave way to bare earth, with occasional fragments of what looked like beams of timber. It was hard to judge the distance in the tunnels, but Kobi guessed they’d gone about a hundred feet when the way ahead opened up, and they found themselves huddled in a room with collapsed shelves along the wall and what looked like a filthy pane of glass opposite. There were only a few small patches of plant life—almost nothing.
Asha shined the flashlight across the glass, where back-to-front letters read “Candy’s Haberdashery.” Wasn’t that an old word for some sort of store?
There was a door, slightly ajar, and they walked through it, all speechless. Kobi’s frown deepened. There were paving slabs beneath their feet, and they were standing in an actual street, with brick arches and walls, and a row of small storefronts like some sort of old-fashioned shopping mall. It made no sense, because the roof was supported by a mixture of brickwork, metal stanchions, and beams.
“Where in the world are we?” said Asha.
They walked on. The remains of furniture sat in some of the rooms they passed. Kobi spotted counters, walls of decorated tiles. A few signs remained. “Mr. Bunting’s Confectioners,” “Black’s Ironmonger,” a funeral home with a coffin still sitting on a bier. Mostly, though, the place was empty and abandoned.
After a while, Kobi realized his feet were crossing timber floorboards. They climbed three steps onto an elevated walkway.
“It’s like a buried town,” said Asha.
Her words snagged at a thread of memory—and a moment later Kobi placed it. A book he’d read in the school library.
“This is the old Seattle Underground!” he said, trying to recall. “In the past, maybe the nineteenth century, it was at ground level. There was a fire or something and it all got built over.”
His flashlight flickered a little, and Kobi realized right away the one thing he was missing. Spare batteries.
In one of the abandoned stores across the way—a butcher’s shop judging by the old model of a pig—were a few bundles of more-modern clothing. Kobi’s skin prickled. Did that mean someone else had come down here? More survivors, maybe. He found it hard to believe people could be living down here anymore. But then, anything seemed possible now. He entered the shop, which Kobi could tell at once wasn’t quarantined. There were moldy camping mats and rolled-up sleeping bags. A stove and some empty cans of food lay on the ground, but spiderwebs covered most of them. Not promising.
But someone had been sleeping here, at some point.
It was the same story in the next room, and Kobi was about to leave when his flashlight beam fell on something bright. Bile rose into his throat as he realized it was an arm bone, with skeletal
fingers still attached, sticking out from under a blanket.
“Don’t let Fionn in here,” he called. He didn’t want the younger boy getting scared.
“What is it?” answered Asha from outside.
“Just give me a minute.”
Kobi moved the sleeping bag with his foot and saw the rest of the skeleton was small and clothed in a dress. One hand still clutched a teddy bear. His stomach lurched, and he turned away and left quickly.
“I don’t think we’re going to find anyone alive down here,” he told Asha and Fionn. “People must have been trying to escape the Waste, but it didn’t work.”
“Do you think they made that tunnel we came down?” Asha asked doubtfully.
Kobi shrugged. “Maybe.” He breathed a heavy sigh, scanning about. His eyes fell on a backpack. “We might be able to scavenge some supplies, though. You want to take a look around and meet back at the haberdashery in a few minutes?”
“Sure,” said Asha. “I’ll shout if we run into any trouble.”
Fionn went with her, and Kobi opened up the backpack. Not much—lighter fluid and matches, an old paperback book, a pack of playing cards, a water canteen, a sweater. He took the fire-lighting stuff and left the rest. He thought about taking one of the sleeping bags as well, but it felt a bit wrong. Aside from the one small skeleton, he didn’t come across any other human remains. They might have moved on before they died, of course, but from the back of his mind a more worrying option surfaced. If they’d tried to change camp, why hadn’t they taken anything with them?
What if something took them?
He told himself he was being paranoid. Apart from the spiderwebs, there was no sign of any other living thing down here.
He found some candy bars in a drawer, along with some bottles of soda. They might still be okay.
When he emerged and returned to the meeting spot, Fionn and Asha were waiting. Asha proudly held up a small hatchet in one hand and a flashlight in the other. But the ax didn’t look all that sharp, and when Kobi tried the flashlight it was dead. When theirs failed, the darkness down there would be absolute. Fionn had an old smartphone in his hands, inspecting it.