The Lair by Brian Jackson

Billy Bright was disgusted. He was disgusted with his wife, his job, and his life in general. As usual he had begun the day by having a fight with Lucille which started promptly at five o'clock as he rolled out of bed. It was as if the alarm bell was sounding the opening round in a heavy weight bout the way she had lit into him. And again it was the same old thing. She was beginning to sound like a broken record. You stayed out too late, Billy. You drink too much, Billy. When are you going to loose some weight, Billy? Why don't I just shoot myself in the head, hey Billy?

Then there was work. Somehow he had gotten on Bert, the boss's, shit list and now he was assigned to this thankless job. He and a handful of other losers had been trying to find the source of a gas leak for the last week and a half now. We knew it was here somewhere due to the drop in pressure in the line, we just couldn't find it. Finally, things had gotten so desperate that we ended up having to canvas the neighborhood on foot looking for signs. Looking for signs? Like we're going to stumble into someone's basement and find a gusher right there before our eyes. Yeah, right.

Entering the back door of a Chinese restaurant on Fourth and Elm, Billy managed to get the attention of one of the cooks. Talking slowly, he tried to explain what he was doing there.

"I need to inspect your cellar."

The china man looked back at him like he was speaking Greek. Billy waited while the guy sauntered off to find his superior. As he was waiting he noticed a rickety set of wooden stairs in the corner of the kitchen that were headed down and decided that he'd take a look. Hey, it's easier to apologize than it is to get permission, he thought as he walked down the staircase.

Failing to lower his head in time, he barked it painfully on the floor above as the stairs descended steeply. Swearing under his breath, he flipped on the light and a bare bulb came to life illuminating the food storage area for the restaurant. Billy didn't blame them for storing their vegetables down here. It was as cold as Siberia.

Sniffing at the air, the only thing that Billy caught was the scent of soy sauce and ginger. Then he sensed something more. It was the vague scent of natural gas and it was coming from somewhere deeper in the cellar. Turing on his flashlight, he descended the rest of the way into the room and then started walking across its rough hewn, stone floor looking for the source of the smell.

"Ah, hell," Billy thought out loud. "It's probably a leak in their gas line instead of the main." Never the less, he knew that he would have to find and attempt to repair the leak before he left. Oh lucky day.

Slipping further into the cellar, Billy thought that the scent was strongest near a stack of boxes resting against the far wall. Slowly unstacking and restacking the boxes out of the way, Billy was shocked to eventually uncover a large hole in the wall big enough for a man to easily pass through. Dropping to his knees and shinning his light through the hole, he saw that it led to what looked like an old, abandoned sewer system below street level. Shining the light back and forth he saw that the tunnel system extended far into the darkness in either direction.

"Gotcha," Billy exclaimed as he pulled his walky-talky from his tool belt. "Hello Central, this is Bright down at Fourth and Elm. I think I've located the source of the natural gas leak, over."

Releasing the button on his walky-talky he soon became frustrated at a lack of any response. In fact, all her heard was static.

"Why, of course. Why should I expect to get any help," he muttered in disgust. Noticing the rock wall around him, he then realized that the lack of response was probably due to a lack of reception buried this far underground.

Looking back through the hole, he noted that it was an easy two foot drop down to the old rock floor of the tunnel beyond. Realizing that he could really irritate his boss by playing the hero and coming back in with the exact location of the leak, he stepped through the hole and started to walk in the direction in which the smell seemed strongest.

Almost immediately upon entering the tunnel he was sorry he had done it. The place was pitch black and oh so cold. A gully down the center of the floor directed a steady flow of putrid water away from his feet, but the walls and air were still slimy and damp. Within fewer than twenty paces he came to an intersection and had to jump over the gully to follow a tunnel that led off to the right. The further he traveled the stronger the smell of gas became and the more nervous he was at leaving the entrance of the tunnel so far behind.

Within the next several paces, Billy heard a noise. It was a soft skittering sound coming from directly behind him. Turning and shining his flashlight at the floor he found that he had just waded into a sea of rats congregating at the end of a drainage pipe. High-stepping it out of the throng of vermin he was left to wonder whether he really wanted to proceed any further.

"Jesus. I wonder if anyone even knows these tunnels are down here," Billy asked himself as he came to a decision and turned to continue on. With every step he took he felt like he was getting nearer to the center of the earth and leaving the world of sunlight he knew and loved far behind.

Stopping again, Billy was about to return to the entrance of the tunnel when he heard another, loader shuffling sound coming from behind him. Once more turning and expecting to find rats, Billy was shocked to have his flashlight violently slapped from his hand. Trying to see through the gloom cast by the spinning flashlight beam, Billy thought that he caught a glimpse of something very large and black. He was then lifted off the floor by a powerful blow to his chest that sent him reeling through the air and landing on his back in the stagnant water of the drainage gutter.

"Jesus, what was that," Billy said out loud after he had caught his breath. In response he heard a chittering sound as if a massive insect stood before him in the passageway. Rising to his feet he sensed rather than heard a huge presence rushing toward him. Swept off his feet Billy lost his breath as he was carried away further through the tunnels by who knows what monstrous presence.

Reaching down to his waist and trying to loosen the grip the creature had on him, Billy felt only a protective armor like the shell of a massive insect. His attempts to loosen the grip his assailant had on him failed and within a few giant strides he had passed over into unconsciousness.

Billy awoke to find himself once more in darkness lying on his back on what felt like a cold stone floor. Pushing himself upright, he moved to wipe the dampness from his face only to smear what felt like mud across his cheek. Then he remembered the creature that had swept him off of his feet and panicked. Digging his heals into the floor he scurried backward in search of safety until he was brought up hard against a stone wall.

"Hey, watch it," Billy heard a voice to his side exclaim as he once again came close to losing consciousness from the impact. "Settle down. Believe me there's nothing to be done." Reaching a hand to the back of his head, Billy felt dampness there but had no way of telling whether it was blood or mud from the cold wall at his back.

"Where am I?" he managed to utter. It was only when he attempted to speak that he noticed his teeth were chattering against the cold.

"Nowhere, mate," the voice whispered. "Just stay quiet or you'll get us both in trouble."

Fetching himself up more comfortably against the wall, Billy did as he was told. Reaching into his pocket to retrieve the light attached to his key-ring, he was surprised to find that his pockets were completely empty. As he remained sitting in the dark wondering what was going to happen next, he found that he couldn't stop his body from shivering.

"Are you cold?" the voice asked.

"I'm f-freezing," Billy answered.

"Here, pull up closer to me so we can share our body heat," the voice advised.

Billy did as he was told, sliding down the wall in the direction of the voice until he made contact with another body. Huddling as close as he could he found that within a few minutes he was actually beginning to feel warmer.

"Where are we?" Billy repeated, insistently.

"Somewhere underground in an abandoned section of the sewer system, best I can recon," the voice replied.

"How did I get here?"

"You were brought here, like the rest of us."

"What brought ue here?

"The guardians."

"How many of us are there?"

In response to this question, Billy heard a chittering and then an extended hissing, but nothing from the voice in the dark.

"How many?" he repeated, louder.

This time in response to his questions Billy heard a scraping sound as something rushed across the floor. He then felt an impact to the side of his head that sent him sliding across the floor. Again, he righted himself and backup up against the wall. This time after he slid back down the wall to make contact with the other's body he remained silent, simply waiting for what ever would come next.

Billy waited until his ass and bones started aching from sitting in the same position for so long. Then he shifted and continued to sit and wait. He waited for hours until he finally fell asleep, and then when he woke he waited some more.

It wasn't until Billy was ready to take a chance at speaking again, primarily out of sheer boredom, that things finally started happening. At the sound of what could have been a massive horn blast echoing through the underground, the body against which he leaned rose. Billy rose to retain contact with the body.

"What's happening," he whispered.

"It's a gathering," the voice replied.

"A gathering of what?"

"Just put your hand on my shoulder and follow me," he heard the voice say. Billy obeyed, putting his hand on the shoulder of the body standing next to him and waited while he heard others shuffling across the floor. Finally, his time came and he shuffled after the body keeping an arm's length behind.

The line of humans, in which Billy formed the tail, continued to shuffle across a wide space, and then entered the tunnels in which he had been captured. Billy could tell that the line was moving into the tunnels by the change in the sound of shuffling feet. He recognized the tunnels by touch, running his hand along the wall and eventually become brave enough to dip his toe into the gutter that ran down the middle of the tunnel. Having been blind for only a few hours, his other senses were already developing to compensate for the loss.

The one sense that nagged at Billy was the constant smell of natural gas. As the line shuffled through tunnel after tunnel, turning this way and that, the smell became stronger and then steadily weaker. Then they entered a portion of the tunnels that contained nothing but clean air and Billy saw light at the head of the line. They were apparently headed outside.

Billy felt his heart leap at the prospect of being outside in the fresh air, away from the cramp dank tunnels in which he'd spent the last several hours. In response to the wafts of clean air he smelled, he began to push in an attempt to speed the line's advance. Of course, the line continued to move at its own pace and Billy was rewarded with some enlivened swearing and a violent shove backward.

"Hold your horses, newbie," the voice said. "We'll get there soon enough."

It required a force of will, but Billy succeeded in slowing his pace to match that of the line. Eventually he shuffled to within sight of a metal ladder up which individuals were climbing toward the light streaming down through a hole in the ceiling. When his turn finally arrived, he dutifully climbed the ladder to the outside where he greedily filled his lungs with fresh air.

Having finally arrived on the outside, Billy was surprised to find that it was nighttime. From the light streaming into the tunnel through the hole he had thought that it was high noon. Apparently his eyes had already become so accustomed to darkness that any light at all now appeared blinding.

Looking around himself, Billy was surprised to see dozens of hunched bodies milling around what appeared to be a deserted alley. The pack, he thought. Again, a horn blast prompted the wandering souls to action. Shuffling down the alleyway, the other bodies from the line started digging through the trash lining the alleyway and picking up what appeared to be random bits of trash.

"Gather food, newbie," the voice ordered. Billy turned in an attempt to see the voice, to be able to put a face to it, but the voice had already moved on to become part of the milling crowd of strangers.

Billy shuffled down the alleyway digging amongst the piles of refuse hoping to find a morsel to eat. He had no idea how long he had been under ground, but he was beginning to get hungry. During his foraging he noticed several unusual things. Beside several of the doors leading into the alley were piles of food and clothing, left as if the people within knew we would be coming and they were making an offering. Indeed, Billy saw a face peeking out of a window on the second floor in the corner of his eye, but by the time he peered up to get a better look the face was gone and all that was left in its place was a moving curtain. Still later, Billy was considering making a run for it when he noticed a shadow crawling across the side of the building near to him. Then the shadow hissed as if it had read his mind and was giving warning. Billy decided to remain with the pack and continue foraging.

Periodically, as Billy foraged, one of the members of his line would walk by holding out a dirty sack to collect what had been found. After finding the remains of a sandwich, Billy tried to horde it and nibbled at it as he foraged, but eventually he was found out and swatted to the ground where he had the food taken away from him by one of the collectors.

All too soon, foraging time came to an abrupt end. At the sound of another horn blast, the pack reformed into a line and headed to what turned out to be a manhole. Climbing back down into the darkness, they once more shuffled through the sewers to the holding room. Billy found himself again at the tail of the line, but this time as he shuffled he listened and could clearly hear the skittering of something following close behind.

Finding himself once more leaning up against a cold wall, Billy huddled against the body next to him. This time the body felt different, possibly larger.

"So, how do I get out of here?"

"Believe me, you don't want to get out of here," he heard in reply. This time it was a different voice that spoke. Billy had already lost the only contact he knew in this faceless menagerie.

"No, I want out," he pleaded.

"Shut up before I punch you one," the new voice replied.

Billy remained silent and eventually fell asleep. After several hours of blissful sleep, during which Billy dreamed that he was with Lucille, picnicking on a grassy field next to a stream, Billy was roughly woken by the body next to him. Then a plate containing something that smelled distasteful was thrust into his hand. Ah, feeding time at the zoo, Billy though as he reached his hand into the plate and felt a piece of bread amidst the hot gruel.

Billy wolfed his meal greedily. Of course he found the food unsavory, but he was too hungry to turn it away. Soon after he had finished, he was nudged by the body beside him. He interpreted the nudge as a request to pass his plate along which he did. Things then became silent again and he slipped back into sleep trying to recapture his dream.

The next time he awoke, it was to the sound screaming. Having no idea what was happening, Billy huddled closer to the body next to him. The screaming continued but at the same time died away, traveling down one of the tunnels out of the communal cavern.

"What was that?" Billy whispered.

"That was someone being harvested," the new voice replied.

"Harvested for what?"

"You tell me."

Again, Billy fell asleep. He was roused to wakefulness by the sound of the horn. This time he rose without further prompting. Reaching out a hand to touch the shoulder of the body in front of his, he eagerly shuffled his way to the outside. This time, the exit from the tunnels was different. Yes, it was another manhole, but this one opened to a different alley. Again the pack dispersed at the sound of the horn and foraged for food. Again, people had left food and clothing outside their doors for the pack to collect. This time Billy found something useful during his foraging.

He found it while digging through the garbage at the bottom of a can outside a sleazy dive of a bar. The moment his fingers touched it, he knew what it was. After years of smoking, its shape was unmistakable. Lifting it to his face while hiding it below the rim of the can, Billy cleaned the muck and grime off the body of the disposable lighter. He then gave it an experimental flick and was delighted when it burst forth with a weak flame. Instantly he dowsed it.

Pounded on the back by a collector, Billy was so shocked that he dropped the lighter back into the can. Standing upright, he dumped his accumulated collection into the bag and waited for the collector to move on. Once he was gone, Billy buried himself back in the can and once more finding the lighter pocketed it before he could lose it again.

This time when the horn sounded for them to return, Billy did so with a smile on his face. It wasn't much, but it was something to know that he could now make fire. Although he'd probably choose to hide the fact forever, it was something to know that he could now make light.

Huddling against the wall in the communal room, Billy continued to smile. In fact, he was so excited by his discovery that he was unable to sleep. So there he waited until a skittering sound followed by mumbling and groaning from the pack indicated that another harvest was about to begin.

Again Billy heard the ear piercing scream, but this time he didn't realize that it was his own until he found himself being dragged across the rough floor into the tunnels. He continued to scream as he flopped on the floor trying to get away. At one point his floundering became so severe that he rolled himself into the gutter and almost drowned himself before he got to face his intended demise.

As Billy was dragged further into the labyrinth of tunnels, he started to calm down, possibly even resigning himself to his fate. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew his lighter and kept it clasped tightly in his hand. The last sense he had before he was thrown into the middle of another large room was the overpowering smell of natural gas. In this room, the smell was so strong that he could barely breathe. He then heard skittering coming from all around him.

Billy intended to use the lighter to get a look at where he was before he died. And indeed, he did obtain a brief peek at his surroundings before all was flame within the concussive explosion that ended his life.

From the Herald Gazette:

Massive Explosion Rocks City

The city awoke this morning to a huge underground explosion as a gas main ignited to shatter windows and send manhole covers flying for several city blocks. The city utility company says that it had been trying to locate the leak for several weeks with no success.

© 2009 by Brian Jackson