All Thomas and Teresa could do was follow Brenda deep into the tunnels, hoping she knew where she was going.
"Where are you leading us?" Teresa asked, looking behind her for a second, no one was following them.
"There's loads of ways out, we'll find one and meet back up with the rest. Better for everyone to split up anyway."
They ran until Brenda stopped in a dead end. The darkness was almost complete, and the only sound was heavy breathing that thankfully didn't smell.
"You hear anything?" she said through huffs.
Thomas listened, but all he heard was their own breathing. Everything else was silence and darkness. "No," he told her. "Where are we?"
"A bunch of tunnels and secret passages connect the buildings on this side of town, maybe across the whole city―we haven't explored that far yet. They call it the Underneath."
"The Underneath?" he repeated. "Sounds stupid."
"Well, I didn't name it."
"How much of it have you explored?" He didn't like the idea of running around down there without knowing what was ahead.
"Not much. We usually run into Cranks. The really bad ones. Way past Gone."
This made Thomas turn in a circle, searching the darkness for he didn't know what. His whole body tensed with fear as if he'd just jumped into ice water. "Well ... are we safe? What happened with that explosion, anyway? We need to go back and find my friends."
"What about Jorge?"
"Huh?"
"Shouldn't we go find Jorge, too?"
Thomas hadn't meant to offend her. "Yeah, Jorge, my friends, all those shanks. We can't leave them behind."
"It won't be too hard to find them Tom." Teresa smiled, tapped her head. The telepathy of course, they could talk to Aris and Rachel and meet up that way, he was an idiot for not realising that.
"What do you mean?" Brenda asked, Thomas wondered how she would react to the telepathy.
"No idea how it works, but those other two: Rachel and Aris, we can talk to them in our heads. Telepathically. We don't know where it came from but it's useful."
"Seriously." Brenda looked between them both and laughed. "Whatever, try it."
Rachel, Aris, where are you? Thomas called, he could feel the buzz that indicated the other three were somehow using the system.
Somewhere Jorge's leading us. Where are you? Rachel's reply was instantaneous.
Underground, figure out where you're heading, and we'll meet you there.
Sure thing.
"They're still figuring out a destination. When they get one they'll tell us so we can rendezvous." Thomas explained quickly. It was odd that Brenda didn't question that they were telepathic, just accepted it.
There was silence for a few moments.
"I want you to promise me something." Brenda was looking between both Thomas and Teresa again, Thomas was glad he couldn't see her face.
"Um ... what?"
"No matter what happens, even if we have to go alone, you'll take me all the way back. All the way to WICKED, to that cure you promised Jorge―he told me about it in the storage room. I can't stay here and slowly go insane. I can't do it. I'd rather die."
"Okay, we promise. Now what are we gonna do?" Teresa was obviously trying to sound reassuring but her apprehension about the whole situation was obvious.
"Me and Jorge are gonna help you get through the city and in return you're going to take us back to civilisation. He told me, but I'd guessed it before then."
"But what are we going to do right now?" Thomas cut Brenda off. They had to stay focussed, the cure and safe haven were a long time goal, the current goal was getting out of these tunnels and meeting back up with their friends.
"If you came up with that so quickly, don't you think some of your friends did, too?" Teresa voiced what Thomas had been wondering.
"Exactly." Brenda smiled, somehow it was slightly disconcerting.
"What do you mean exactly? Sounds like you figured something out."
She reached out and placed her hands on his chest. "I think that's what happened. At first I worried it was a group of longer-gone Cranks, but since no one chased us, I think Barkley and a couple of his buddies rigged an explosion at the Underneath entrance, tried to kill us. They know they can get plenty of food somewhere else, and there're other ways to get down here."
"So there're other ways to get out. Let's go find one." Thomas was eager to get out of this strange dark tunnel, and very glad Teresa was with him.
"We need to go back." He continued, "maybe we could get over that slab, meet up with the others pretty quick."
They made their way back to the store room and looked at the slab of the ceiling, even with clear heads there was obviously no way of getting around it. But there were no bodies, that was definitely a positive sign.
"We have to go through the Underneath," Brenda announced after a long moment; she'd probably been contemplating their options just like Thomas. "If the others went up top, then they'll be long gone by now. Plus, they'll pull any attention toward themselves and away from us."
"And if they're down here we'll find them, right?" Thomas asked. "These tunnels all come back together eventually, right?"
"Right. Either way, I know Jorge will have them moving toward the other side of the city, toward the mountains. We just have to make it so we can meet up and keep going."
Thomas looked at Brenda, thinking. Maybe only pretending to think, because they really had no option than to stick with her. She was probably their best―maybe only―bet of accomplishing anything other than a quick and horrible death at the hands of long-gone Cranks. What else could they do?
"Okay," he said. "Let's go."
Brenda found two backpacks of food, gave one to Thomas and kept the other for herself, retrieving a flashlight and shining it down the tunnel.
Thomas held onto Teresa's hand as they followed Brenda through the tunnels, they hadn't heard anything more from Aris and Rachel yet so had no idea where to go to find them.
They walked for hours through identical tunnels, Brenda seemed to know the way and neither of them questioned her.
They stopped for a meal after a while, the cold canned mix wasn't anywhere near as good a second time.
Then more walking, Thomas hated the tunnels, the damp, oppressive darkness.
Eventually they entered a large room with quite a few exits branching off to the left and right, more than he'd seen previously. It almost seemed like it could be a gathering place joined by tunnels from all the buildings.
"Halfway to the other side of the city." Brenda announced with a flourish. "Well, technically this is the centre."
A loud pop startled Thomas, like a glass bulb breaking.
Brenda immediately shone her light back in the direction from which they'd come, but the hallway disappeared in shadow, empty except for a few ugly streaks of water on the walls, black on gray.
"What was that?" Thomas whispered.
"An old light busting, I guess." Her voice held no concern. She put her flashlight on the ground so it shone on the wall opposite them.
"Why would an old light just spontaneously break?" Teresa was staring around, as if expecting a crank or something worse to some leaping at them out of a tunnel. Thomas didn't want to think about how that was a definite possibility.
"I don't know. A rat?"
"I haven't seen any rats. Plus, how would a rat walk on the ceiling?"
She gazed at him, a look of total mocking on her face. "You're right. It must be a flying rat. We should get the hell out of here."
A small, nervous laugh escaped before Thomas could stop it. "Hilarious."
Another pop, this time followed by the tinkle of glass sprinkling on the floor. It had definitely come from behind them―Thomas was sure of it this time. Someone had to be following them. And it couldn't be the Gladers―it sounded more like people trying to freak them out. Scare them.
They were gathering up their things, Brenda whispering which direction to head in next when Teresa tensed beside Thomas. At some point she had gained possession of the flashlight and was pointing it at an utter horror of a man.
He was like an apparition―there was something unreal about him. He leaned to the right, his left foot and leg jiggling slightly, like he had a nervous tic. His left arm also twitched, the hand clenching and unclenching. He wore a dark suit that had probably once been nice, though now it was filthy and tattered. Water or something more foul soaked both knees of the pants.
But Thomas took all that in quickly. Most of his attention was drawn to the man's head. Thomas couldn't help but stare, mesmerized. It looked like hair had been ripped from his scalp, leaving bloody scabs in its place. His face was pallid and wet, with scars and sores everywhere. One eye was gone, a gummy red mass where it should have been. He also had no nose, and Thomas could actually see traces of the nasal passages in his skull underneath the terribly mangled skin.
And his mouth. Lips drawn back in a snarl, gleaming white teeth exposed, clenched tightly together. His good eye glared, somehow vicious in the way it darted between the three of them.
Then the man said something in a wet and gurgly voice that made Thomas shiver. He spoke only a few words, but they were so absurd and out of place that it just made the whole thing that much more horrifying.
"Rose took my nose, I suppose."
A/N: Sorry this is short, it's late and I needed to post. Next chapter will be up by or on Friday.
