by David Irons
Alison, somehow mobile whilst dowsed in flames, ran towards the collection of coffins and hit the floor, rolling over and over, pulling at her clothes, using the small pools of water from the dripping ceiling to try and put herself out. Staggering, crying out in pain, she stood half naked, her breasts covered in the smouldering webbing of her dress as they fused with her flesh; her head looking like a skinned Halloween mask that melded over her own features, as fleshy vapours poured from all over her. The creatures' glowing eyes all slowly moved towards her. With a never-ending scream she jumped into one of the old open coffins, and then pulled down its lid shut, instantly entombing herself within, dead and buried all within a minute.
The gas pipe’s flames flowed along the ceiling like an upside-down orange river, an inverted lava that suddenly spat and groaned as its roaring flame reversed, back drafting down the pipe it came from with a deep disturbing rumble.
'We've got to go!' Jennifer screamed, grabbing Matt and Kelly, pulling them into the darkness behind. Then, as the creatures lunged forward, fangs bared, a huge earth-shaking white hellacious blast exploded out, as the gas pipe brought down the ceiling of the coffin room in thick folding slabs of earth. Its weight smashed the brittle caskets to shards as if they were made from matchsticks. Any night crawlers still backed up by the flames were stomped out like bugs under the heel of a great boot, swiftly eradicated and exterminated from existence with a splattering gush of pus and gore.
Feeling the blast of heat behind them, the final remaining three of the original seven funeral guests ran on; not looking back as anything living was quickly obliterated in the chaotic burst of carnage.
CHAPTER 30
With hearts thumping insides their chests, they ran like people possessed, their faces stark white phantoms that haunted the graveyard catacombs. Matt slowed down when he reached the next widened section of the tunnel; Jennifer and Kelly halted beside him as he sunk to his knees exhausted, gasping for air, staring at the pair in front of him who huffed and coughed as much as he.
'What was she trying to do?' he wondered, in between wheezes.
'I don't know,' Jennifer coughed out. 'I think she was trying to... trying to turn the pipe towards…'
'Towards those things,' Kelly finished for her.
'Yeah, right, towards those things.' Matt's eyes flitted from Kelly to Jennifer. The quick glance told Jennifer that he shared her belief; that Alison's movements had been deliberate; that her final moments were of treachery, not heroics. Her ushering them through the boarded door first put them in a tight place for an act of subterfuge. But Kelly could not comprehend this. There had been far too many negative experiences for one night. Her mind couldn't compute that one of the grown-ups could have been as devious and malevolent as the stepfather who had put her down here in the first place.
Either way, it didn't matter anymore. Alison: the once nightmare boss to Jennifer; the gushing, almost useless fellow funeral attendee to Matt, now lay in the hellish room behind them, burned alive before performing her own impromptu burial.
Jennifer had known Blitzer was cheap when it came to a funeral: flowers on the verge of dying, coffins on the verge of being condemned; never would she have imagined that the manager of the funeral parlour would end up performing the most budget burial of them all. If her intentions with the gas pipe were as they suspected, Alison was finally where she belonged.
'That explosion,' Jennifer pondered, standing upright, 'if it back-drafted down the pipe and made it towards the mains in the city, it should trip some kind of alarm, someone will come out here to see what's going on, try and shut it off, right?'
Kelly smiled for the first time in hours. 'And they would bring the fire brigade and police, right? We could be saved tonight!'
Matt tried to pull a convincing smile, but the truth in his eyes couldn't conceal the feeling behind them. He gave up the charade, the smile dropping from his face as he answered in dry honesty. 'I don't think so.'
Putting her arm around Kelly, Jennifer squeezed her tight, feeling the child's whole body sigh. Feeling sadness ripple through the girl as she closed her eyes and stood in silence.
Jennifer revelled in the comfortable darkness of her own lids, a quick and peaceful moment cut away from everything around her. But in that moment, another feeling ran across her body; something from the outside interrupted her silence. A wave of coldness caressed her skin, but not the clammy, wispy coldness that radiated from the hellhole. It was a different type of cold, one with a genuine frosty bite to it; one that she could feel draping over her body like a soft, invisible net. She raised her head; the icy draft touched the exposed skin of her face. Jennifer opened her eyes and there, in the darkness above her, she could distantly see something that made no sense in their buried confines.
'Stars,' she said in a simple confused tone.
Matt looked at her then turned his gaze to match hers.
Looking upwards, he too could see a distant twinkle, a far away flash of light. There above them was the night sky.
'My God,' he whispered, 'a way out.'
CHAPTER 31
Kelly clung to Jennifer; her young eyes wanted some kind of salvation to balance out the bad of this situation. In a book that's how things generally went, the good outweighs the bad in the end. Her mother had gone, Alex, the priest and Alison had all gone. Now was the time things would go right; too much had been lost, now things would go the other way. That was the way these things were supposed to work. Fantasy was not reality, but reality at times could be more fantastical than fantasy. The things behind them had proved that.
Now looking above, she too could see a distant million twinkles of light all smashed together and sprinkled across a sea of black. Their eyes adjusted as natural starlight and moon glow fell delicately down towards them.
'There's an opening,' Matt almost whispered, quickly whipping his phone out.
'Is it working?' Kelly squealed, 'Can we call for help?'
He shook his head, looking at the small "NO SERVICE" logo in its top right hand corner.
Touching the flashlight function, he fired its beam. There, embedded in the earth ceiling, was the opening to a long concrete squared tunnel that reached upwards. The sides of it were covered with dangling roots from the roses outside, dense cobwebs filling any space the roots hadn't. The concrete tunnel's height became unfathomable as his beam lost its illumination; from quick estimation, the tunnel seemed to be about thirty feet to its star twinkling peak.
'It must be some kind of flue, leading up into the graveyard,' Matt said.
'I can't believe we're still in the graveyard, we must be spiralling in circles down here,' Jennifer puzzled.
Matt, his eyes ablaze with hope looked at Jennifer. 'We have to get up there, this is the only way out that we've seen.'
'Those roots, those things are like vines; I could pull myself out by them.' She smiled in panic.
'Who the hell said you were going?' he frowned.
'I went rock climbing last summer in Colorado. I've got experience with this. Plus I'm lighter than you. If anyone can get up there, it’s me.'
'Don't go, Jennifer,' Kelly fearfully grasped at her. 'There must be another way we can get up there?'
'You stay here with Matt,' she said as reassuringly as possible. 'I'll get up there, get out and find a way to pull you up.'
'We don't even know how safe that thing is or if...' Matt began but Jennifer cut him off.
'But we know it isn't safe down here. And if anyone has got a chance of getting up there, it's me.'
'Why, because you have a days worth of experience rock climbing on vacation? Be serious, if you—'
'—If I can't do it, then I get back down and figure something else out, but right now we're wasting time, so help get me up there.'
Worry filled Matt's eyes and he shook his head.
'Come on, let's just keep going, there's gotta be—' he barked.
'—No,' she barked back, 'I'm doing this — I can d
o this.'
'Jennifer, be careful, please be careful,' Kelly cried with an anguished whine.
Jennifer moved down to her knees, making herself almost the same height as the girl, and wrapped her arms around her in a loving embrace.
'I will sweetie, I'll be okay, just stay close to Matt.
'Boost me up,' Jennifer said to Matt, her face filled with adrenaline.
He paused for a second, his instinct biting into his good sense. Then quickly making a cup with his hands, he offered it to her. She put her hand on his shoulders, coming face to face with one another again; a mutual fear passing between them. Then, breaking the look she jumped up, elevated that few extra feet by his push, and grabbed ahold of a batch of dangling roots. Easily they took her weight as she pulled herself up into them.
Dirt encrusted cobwebs dragged through her hair and over her skin. In more civilized surroundings, she could have afforded to be squeamish about such things. But here, that was a privilege she wasn't allowed when trying to escape the subterranean horrors she had experienced. She knew that some of these webs were still used: their occupants scuttling angrily over her body, burrowing into her hair, her bare sweaty skin caressed with the faint tickling touch of creeping legs.
That old song returned: 'Night Creepers, Night Creepers…'
She ignored it, ignored the creeping feeling on her flesh, thinking only about escape as she ascended.
Determination drove each reaching grasp as she pushed up further, knocking lumps of concrete and stone free from the rough walls.
'Be careful!' Matt called up, shielding his eyes and pulling Kelly in close to him as debris peppered down.
The draft from outside was more prominent on her skin as she climbed. Sensing the outside world closer now.
She began to laugh, then called back down, 'There is a way out up here! It’s covered by an old grill.'
Matt smiled. Kelly saw his grin and took comfort in it, a warmness flourishing inside her.
'Do you think you can get it open?' he called.
'Maybe,' she yelled back, her voice echoing down below. The tunnel thinned as it reached up to the iron grill, becoming more boxed into a smaller, four-foot by four-foot stone cube. On two of its four sides, adjacent to one another were a pair of old hinged square wooden doors. The dangling roots that pulled her up like Tarzan's vine, had now become the hanging thorn tendrils of the roses from above.
Jennifer stretched up; scratches from thorns were ignored like the layer of web she was covered in. It felt like pushing her way through a cluster of razor wire as white-hot slashes opened over her arms. Not caring, seeing only freedom, she endured the pain as escape now dominated her senses.
Grabbing onto the edge of one of the wooden doors, she pulled herself around so her back was against one set; her stretched-out legs pushed against the other, suspended thirty-feet in the air in this perilous position.
'Be careful!' Kelly cried.
'I will!' Jennifer replied.
She snapped the worst of the thorny vines away from her, red holes appearing in the tips of her fingers and palms; still ignoring pain, dropping them down to the ground below. With a clearer path around her she considered the grill. It was human size, enough to escape, the same diameter as the end of the tunnel she was perched in. The roses from outside had grown over it, weighing down upon it with their mass.
Feeling around the cold grill's lip she found something.
'I think I can get this open, there's hinges.'
Both were rusted and rough, but a good sign that this thing might actually budge.
'Just take your time,' Matt shouted back to her, knowing they had anything but time to spare.
Swallowing hard, Jennifer reached up to the grill, pushing her fingers through its bars, gripping a hold of them in two clenched fists. Then, holding tight, sucking in a deep fearful breath, she dropped, legs dangling straight down. Matt and Kelly cringed and gasped, looking from below at her torn stocking covered legs, swaying like fleshy clock pendulums.
'What are you doing?' Kelly screamed.
Breath firmly held, her arms feeling her full weight, Jennifer swung herself around, positioning herself back in a mirror image of how she was dubiously perched before. Reaching up with her finger through the bars, she found what she was looking for.
'It's bolted shut!' she shouted down.
Curling her index finger around the corroded bolt, she pulled; nothing shifted, just the rubbing feeling of rusted metal wearing into her soft skin.
Gritting her teeth, she concentrated on her actions rather than the pain her scratched body felt. She accumulated all the strength she could in her fingers, trying to pry the ridged bolt open.
Not caring right now if she broke her finger in two, she tried to slide the unmovable object with everything she had. Suddenly with a harsh snap, in a quick jarring motion, the old bolt shot across, making her stumble, her feet losing their grip, slipping downwards, dragging a cloud of stones down to the pair below.
Kelly screamed as Matt shouted up 'Jennifer!'
'Yeah, I think I got it.'
Regaining her balance and repositioning her feet on the door opposite, she reached up again, pushing against the old grill. With a metallic whine, one side of it came free, pressing against the roses above. Feeling around the bars, Jennifer found another bolt to her right.
'There's one more,' she yelled down. 'If I can get it, we're out.' Baring her teeth, trying to pull the bolt upright and away from her with everything she was worth. The insides of her brain now throbbed with the worst headache she had ever had. She could feel her face turn red as sweat beaded down her brow, instantly sticking to her as it dried in the cold air.
The bolt jolted back by a few millimetres. Just a moment's more pain, she thought, her fingers turning blue with the pressure. Tightening her grip to the bars with her left hand, closing her eyes, she heaved. But then, in a quick violent burst, the wooden door she stabilized her feet against… started to push back.
In a hard jarring ram, one foot lost its grip with the sudden blast; she slammed it back against the door, shaking in fear. As from the other side loud sporadic barges crumpled her legs back. Letting go of the bolt, gripping the bars, her breath taken away by a growing terror, she pushed hard with her legs, holding the door in place. The small spiders of the disturbed nests weren't her only creeping problem now. Somehow, the oversized night crawlers had found their way up here. The iridescent glow from their eyes flicked through the gaps in the old door, running over her face in fast flashes, pulsating in quick excited rhythms as if spelling out 'You are what we eat! You are what we eat!', as tumultuous moans escaped their salivating lips.
Moving her head side to side to shield herself from their gaze, her legs compressing back further into her pelvis with their pushing weight, Jennifer screamed in terror.
CHAPTER 32
Kelly recoiled. Matt froze to the spot, his brain racing at max speed. Peering up to see the quick stabbing motions of the door.
'They've found her!' Kelly moaned.
Scanning the room, trying to formulate a plan, trying to think clearly, he spotted another one of the tunnel’s disregarded supporting beams. Almost a railway sleeper sized wooden post. Matt wrenched the beam from the ground, its weight becoming irrelevant with his adrenaline mixed with Kelly's cries and Jennifer's screams.
Throwing the workman's bag to the floor, he pulled his shirt off. Twisting the garment round and round from arm to arm, turning his once smart piece of attire into a rudimentary piece of rope. He knotted it around the lump of wood, pulled its arms around himself tying them up at the front, hanging the beam in a thin twisted sling of material. He threw the bag back around his neck and shoulders, looping the wood through its strap, helping to take its weight. Long and cumbersome, the hefty plank hung down, knifing into his thigh. Filled with urgency, he ignored it.
Matt shot Kelly a glance. 'Stay here!'
He began to scale the wall that Jennifer had, retrac
ing her steps and reaching for the same dangling roots she had. With some quick struggling, he managed to wrench himself upwards into the tunnel, his muscles aching already, a part of him impressed how the nimble girl above had seemingly so easily found her way to the top.
He felt the plank of wood on his back sway from side to side, catching on roots, pulling against the tightly wound shirt teasing its double knot to come undone. But somehow through pure undiluted luck, the tied-up shirt stayed intact. The smashing at the door above became more violent, each quick burst against it sending cold steel pins of pain down Jennifer's legs. The tendons on Matt's neck began to pop, pushing his skin out as if huge telephone wires were emerging from within his body.
Above he could hear the growls and snarls of the disgusting creatures become louder. Sweat protruded from his brow, the roots becoming slippery with his clammy touch; pricks from rose thorns embedded into his bare shoulders, shredded his vest. He looked up; he was no more than six feet away from Jennifer, their eye contact more personal, seeing a sheet white terror in her eyes. His slick bottomed shoes feeling like they would give way underneath him on the crumbling stonewall.
Quickly he climbed the last few feet next to Jennifer, hearing the creatures’ drooling hisses and wanting low growls that seeped from behind the door, up-close and personal now. He knew his time doing this was limited. Being careful not to disturb the precarious angle Jennifer was wedged in, he moved up, sitting in exactly the same position next to her, his legs now taking the vicious attack as the creatures tried to get through. Then, he pulled up the plank, 'Get down, I'll wedge this thing in here.'
'No way,' Jennifer cried, 'we do it together.'
They both raised the plank up, wedging it between the two doors. Matt grabbed Jennifer's hand, catching her attention, 'You go down now.'
'But…'