The Fright
The next day came quickly as Ellie woke up at seven in the morning. Joel was already gone with Tommy to continue helping out with the harvest and other daily activities. Ellie stretched getting herself some milk from the jug they had in the small icebox they had which for some reason wasn't working. She quickly dressed after washing up and rushed down to the corner building where their school lessons were conducted. When she arrived she found a note on the door which said lessons would be cancelled today due to the high yields of harvest. Luke arrived ahead of Dusty and his teasing goons.
"No school today, you may as well go home" Ellie said with a bit of disappointment.
"No school?! That means we'll have to help with the harvest" Luke echoed Ellie's sentiment slinging his back pack on the ground.
"I have a feeling the harvest isn't the reason why the Professor isn't here" Ellie explained.
"Dad was complaining because the power went out late last night…but I guess we better go help with the harvest" Luke sighed.
"Well no one ever said it would be an easy life kid" Ellie nodded hearing the sound of laughter from Dusty and his gang.
"That says no school?!" Dusty exclaimed a bit excited.
"You can read can't you?" Ellie replied sarcastically.
"Hey guys! No lessons today!" Dusty sounded jubilant.
"That's too cool!" one of the boys shouted.
"Yea!" another added.
"Hey, what about yesterday's dare?" the third boy brought the topic back up.
"Oh that's right! So big sis, are you going to go in the west side of the dam or not?" Dusty started in.
"First of all, I'm NOT your sis! Second, would you shut the hell up about that?! Plus, we got to get down and help with the harvest" Ellie countered.
"That's ok, we can understand why you feel that way if you're chicken shit" Dusty taunted.
"I'm about to show you who's chicken shit if you don't shut your trap!" Ellie threatened with her fist up then turned around and started walking away.
"Where you going Ellie?" Luke ran after her.
"Going home to get some supplies, I'm going in the west side of the dam to shut that fat fucker up and his butt buddies" Ellie replied.
"We'll meet you down there!" one boy shouted.
"Yea, unless she's chicken shit" Dusty said loud enough for Ellie to hear.
"One of these days he's going to really piss me off" Ellie said quietly to Luke.
"He would deserve it" Luke agreed.
"Na, I can't…I don't want to make problems for my dad, he and my uncle have enough riding on them" Ellie shook her head in frustration.
The compound only had a few people going about their business taking care of other daily chores. When they arrived at the house Ellie noticed something a little strange.
"Whoa! Ellie check out your pumpkin patch!" Luke pointed out on the side.
"Yea I know, dad planted them there no more than a month ago and they just seem to sprout really quickly…wait right here I'll be right back" Ellie acknowledged then stepped in her house.
Luke waited only a couple of minutes before Ellie popped out with a knapsack and a flashlight.
"This is going to be creepy, who knows what we'll find in there" Luke commented as they made their way to the west side of the dam.
"What is this 'we'?" Ellie looked at him funny.
"I'm going with you—" Luke started.
"Na, it's too dangerous, something happens to you, my dad and I will catch all kinds of hell" Ellie disagreed.
"But Dusty and the others will continue to pick on me if I don't go" Luke argued.
"They're always going to pick on you! That's just the kind of people they are" Ellie shook her head.
The two of them quieted down as the approached the grate entrance that led into the lower side of the west part of the dam. Dusty and his three stooges sat low near the grate.
"So maybe you aren't so chicken shit after all" Dusty said absently.
"Would you just shut the fuck up!" Ellie said feeling her temper rise.
"Oooooo!" the other three boys sounded egging it on.
Ellie took a flashlight and a pistol out of her knapsack.
"Your dad lets you use a gun!?" Dusty asked in disbelief.
"Yea! What's it to you!?" Ellie replied sarcastically as she slowly opened the grate shining the flashlight inside. It was dark and damp as the tunnel led inward, but from what she could see nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She took a deep breath then in she went. After a few steps she felt a presence and spun around almost blinding Luke.
"Luke! Come on man! We already agreed!" Ellie complained a bit annoyed.
"Please!" Luke pleaded.
"No, I'm not taking another step until you step back outside of the grate" Ellie said firmly.
"Ok…guess I'm going to get beat up…" Luke sighed trying to put Ellie on a guilt trip as she watched him step back outside as the grate squeaked open.
"What's the matter big baby?!" Dusty taunted immediately grabbing Luke by his back pack as soon as he came out.
"She didn't want me going with her!" Luke tried to explain as Dusty pushed him against the wall.
"Hehehehehe!" the other boys laughed.
"What's so funny?" Luke asked as Dusty cracked a smiled still with a hand on Luke's shoulder pinning him to the wall.
"Even Ellie sees how worthless you are!" Dusty taunted.
"Dusty it's the wall police!" another boy whispered low.
"Shit! That's all we need! Come on, we'll just stand inside by the entrance!" Dusty motioned for everyone to step inside the grate shoving Luke in first. Everyone was quiet for a moment then all was at ease.
"It's dark back in there!" one of Dusty's friends commented.
"Oh shut up! Ellie's back there, and if there is something there it will get her first" Dusty laughed.
Luke took a deep breath and took off running into the darkness with his back pack.
"Where do you think you're going!?" one boy shouted after him.
"Yea that's right, go follow her you wimp! That should ensure nothing will get to us. That will be two people we can't stand that we'll be rid of" Dusty laughed haughtily.
Luke kept running until the light filtering inside the bottom of the west side of the grate was no longer present. He blindly opened his back pack taking out his hand crafted sling shot and felt for one of the rounded stones he had collected near the river. His heart was pounding but he didn't want to start crying out for Ellie. He was afraid the others would hear his voice echoing and give them another reason to make fun. He began feeling his way by the wall taking each step slowly. At this rate he figured he wouldn't catch up with Ellie. He could hear every little noise that sounded, including the sound of scurrying little feet he hoped were only rats. Part of him really did want to turn back, but he couldn't bear the shame he would receive so he blindly kept going.
XXXXXXXXX
The corridor underneath seemed to go a long way, but Ellie knew it was the part of the perimeter of the compound stone wall. Once she advanced further, she noticed small ventilation shafts near the ceiling that allowed some daylight in. Then almost several minutes later she came to a metallic ladder that was bolted to the wall with a sealed hatch at the top.
"Great! How am I going to open that?" Ellie thought not really seeing any tools whatsoever that would help her do so. Ellie carefully climbed the ladder and tried to push the seal open but it was too tight for her to budge.
"Shit!" Ellie thought until she heard a noise not too far off in the distance that alerted her.
Ellie became quiet and shined the flashlight behind her as she jumped down off the ladder. She quietly crept back the way she came until she heard more shuffling.
"Whose there?" Ellie said in a normal tone holding up her pistol and light at the same time as she heard a sudden thump on the ground.
"Don't shoot!" Ellie heard Luke's panicky voice.
"Luke!" Ellie sighed in aggravation.
"Sorry, but Dusty and the others pushed me in the entrance and I couldn't take them pushing me around so I took off ahead" Luke explained as Ellie helped him up.
"What did you trip on?" Ellie asked looking around until she saw a crowbar.
"Just what I need!" Ellie changed her tone quickly picking up the crowbar.
"Oh cool, we have evidence we came all the way back so we can go back now?" Luke said hopefully.
"Are you kidding? I want to go up in the abandoned side so I can see what the big deal is about this place. Come on, give me a hand with the hatch so we can go up" Ellie motioned for him to follow.
Luke and Ellie were both small enough to get up and place the crowbar in the crack of the hatch.
"Ok, when I say pull, pull!" Ellie instructed.
"1…2…3 PULL!" Ellie prompted as they started pulling down. Within a few second the hatch flew open.
A sudden dry coldness began filtering down through the hatch giving both Ellie and Luke a chill.
"Who left the cold air on!? Sheesh!" Ellie commented as they climbed up into the main west side of the damn.
"I don't think there's any power here" Luke shook his head.
"Wait a second, there's a generator over there near where the bride of the dam connects" Ellie pointed out in the big warehouse like area. There was also a door that led outside on the main part of the dam.
"That generator over there, dad says it works when it wants to" Luke said as they crept through the place. Only some daylight came through from the windows up above. Spools of cable, toolboxes, and other various items were strewn about the floor. A pile of janitorial equipment lie scattered near a set of lockers. The place looked deserted as if it had been awhile since anyone had come in to do any work. Luke stayed close to Ellie with his slingshot in one hand.
"I don't see what the big deal is with this place" Ellie said when they finally found a little office in one corner.
The office was completely walled in with the door shut. The only window was a small rectangular slit almost near the top.
"Let's go check that out" Ellie said with her curiosity piquing.
"Ellie something tells me we shouldn't go near there" Luke said suddenly feeling a shivering sensation again.
"Don't give me that! You're the one who wanted to come on this expedition" Ellie egged him on.
Luke sighed and followed Ellie through the debris filled floor, but when Ellie tried to open the door it was locked.
"You see, it's locked. Let's go home" Luke quickly replied.
"Why is there a red X painted on this door?" Ellie suddenly asked.
"Probably a warning not to enter…please Ellie" Luke pleaded.
The thin window was too high for Ellie or Luke to see without something to stand on.
"I'm going to boost you up Luke and I want you to shine the light in there and have a look" Ellie said putting her hands together to give Luke a foothold.
"Then we can go?" Luke asked.
"Yes Luke! After this!" Ellie rolled her eyes.
Luke put away his slingshot and took the flashlight and put his right foot in Ellie's hands as she boosted him high enough where he could look into the window. He carefully aimed the light inside the office door window and took a glance. There was an office seat in the middle with a filing cabinet in the corner with no desk. The wall had weird symbols painted in red on the walls. Luke took another look on the floor and saw an upside down pentagram painted in red with halfway used melted black candles at each of the five points. Luke contorted his face strangely.
"What do you see?!" Ellie asked a bit curious watching the expression on Luke's face.
"I see some weird stuff and-!" Luke answered as his eyes suddenly grew wide in horror and he lost his balance dropping the flashlight almost falling on top of Ellie.
"Hey! Are you ok?" Ellie asked looking at Luke as slowly got back up. His eyes remained wide in terror and his face became pale.
"Luke!" Ellie almost shouted getting his attention back.
"I-I saw a shadow move…" Luke said nervously.
"Can we please leave!" Luke begged as Ellie noted something must have frightened him badly.
At that moment both of them felt the temperature almost drop at least ten to fifteen degrees Fahrenheit.
"What the hell!?" Ellie said rubbing her hands together then bending down to pick up the flashlight.
Suddenly the generator turbine began to slowly turn creating an unusual humming sound. Ellie looked at the huge generator suspiciously.
"What was it you saw?" Ellie grabbed a hold of Luke almost shaking him. Luke was about to open his mouth when something not too far that sounded like a box of tools fell crashing to the cement floor.
"Ok Luke you win! Let's get the Hell out of here!" Ellie said grabbing Luke by the wrist with one hand and her gun in the other quickly dragging him along back to the hatch opening. Something else fell as Ellie made Luke go down the hatch first with her gun pointing in every direction until he had gotten down safely. She quickly grabbed the hatch handle and slammed it shut behind them. Both sprinted for a minute as their hearts pounded. After a few minutes of rushing back to the exit they slowed down to catch their breath.
"What did you see Luke?" Ellie asked curiously.
"S-Shadow…" was all he would say obviously traumatized.
"A shadow?!" Ellie asked a bit flabbergasted. "It was probably your own or it belonged to an object in the room?" Ellie rationalized.
"N-no, it wasn't…it looked like it belonged to s-someone… with…" Luke stammered as they continued out the exit.
"Someone?! Who!?" Ellie kept pushing him to describe it more, but their conversation was cut short as there were three workers with safety hats who had Dusty and his friends sitting against the wall outside.
"Oh shit!" Ellie sighed stomping her foot with disgust as Luke just stood there with a blank face.