Chapter 11

Through the Tunnels

The room echoed with an eerie clicking-noise that came from the creature's mouth. It had no eyes or skin, its entire body pick with exposed muscle. Its mouth was wide open with its tongue sticking out and wrapped around Bridgette. Her eyes were closed, and her body was limp.

"Bridgette!"

Geoff, DJ, and Ezekiel were standing in the doorway, shocked by the creature and its hold on the surfer girl.

DJ's eyes grew wide, and his breath started getting quicker. Panicked and afraid, the big guy looked like he was about to turn and run off. Ezekiel was also starting to back away, scared from the horrific creature's grotesque appearance. He was also still for to weak to do anything.

Geoff didn't let his fear conquer him. He couldn't. His girl was in trouble and he had to save her, no matter what.

"Hang on! I'll save you!"

He looked around, and couldn't find anything he could use s a weapon. He still had the metal pipe from when he had first found Bridgette, and pulled it out. Geoff threw it at the creature's face, and managed to land a solid hit. The creature flinched, and lost its grip on Bridgette. She fell to the ground, and landed with a thud.

"Bridgette!"

Geoff ran over to his girl to make sure she was okay. He lifted her up and called out her name. She slowly opened her eyes, still dazed and confused.

"Geoff…?"

Geoff felt a pang of relief, and smiled. He didn't realize, however, that the monster had made its way behind him. Its tongue extended from its nasty mouth, and made its way for the party-animal. Geoff felt its tongue rub against his shoulder, and froze.

"Yaaaaa!"

Someone started yelling loudly, and it startled the monster. It pulled its tongue back, and looked behind itself. Before it could get a good look, it screeched out in pain. Geoff picked up Bridgette and carried her over to the side. After setting her down, he looked to see what had happened.

Standing over the creature was DJ, holding a piece of broken glass. His hand was bleeding. Geoff could see that one of the mirrors by the sinks was shattered. The big guy grasped the glass firmly with his hand, and drove it back into the creature. It shrieked again, and tried to stab its tongue at DJ. The linebacker quickly took the piece of glass, and swung it down, piercing the tongue and pinning down to the ground. He grabbed another piece, and jammed it into the monster's head. It screamed one last time before falling to the ground, dead.

DJ fell to him knees, exhausted. Geoff called out to him.

"Dude, are you okay?"

"Yeah man… I'm fine…"

The big guy looked at his bleeding hand.

Ezekiel finally piped in, saying, "Uh guys, I think we should get out of here, eh?"

Everyone agreed, and they made their way out of the bathroom. Geoff took Bridgette's arm over his shoulder and escorted her out.

"Where are we gonna go? The surface isn't any more safe than down here!" DJ said, as Bridgette was bandaging up his hand.

"The tunnels!" exclaimed Geoff. "We can use the tunnels to avoid the chaos up there, and maybe find a way out."

The others didn't like the sound of it, but it was better than staying put or going back up to the surface. They all agreed to it, but felt they needed something to protect themselves with first.

Luckily, that found a maintenance closet. Inside were plenty of broomsticks and mops, as well as plenty of tape. They removed all of the mop and brush heads, and replaced them with whatever they could find. DJ had taken a long, skinny shard of the mirror he had broken and taped it to the stick like a spear. He had also found a large rock. The big guy fitted it onto another broomstick with tape, and decided to use it himself. Bridgette settled on using just a simple mop with no attachments, and Geoff decided to use the metal pipe he had been carrying the whole time, feeling that since it helped save the surfer girl twice that it could do it again.

The group stood at the end of the subway platform and looked down the tunnel's dark length.

"This way will take us downtown. That might be our best bet for finding help." said Bridgette, holding tight to her weapon.

The three boys nodded to signal that they were ready, and they all jumped down onto the subway tracks. The tunnel echoed every time someone landed on the tracks.

"Lets go…" Geoff said as he started walking into the tunnel.

The others followed.

After having walked for a short while, Geoff called to DJ.

"Hey DJ… Thanks for what you did earlier. I should've thanked you sooner. You really saved my butt, man."

"Hey, don't mention it. I know you would've done the same thing too."

Geoff looked at the big guy's hand wrapped up in bandages.

"But your hand-"

"Look, I wasn't about to just let you and Bridge die. You guys are my buds." DJ said with a smile. "Seven years of bad luck is better than dead friends."

Bridgette gave DJ a big hug, and then walked over to her boyfriend and hugged him even tighter.

"Thank you both for saving me. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you guys."

Geoff put an arm around her and held her close.

Ezekiel was feeling guilt inside. He hadn't done a thing when they were fighting the tongue monster in the bathroom. He just stood there, away from all the fighting.

"I'm worthless…" He thought. "I can't save anyone…"

He thought back to Katie and Sadie and how he wasn't able to anything to help them either. He slumped his head and frowned, just before suddenly getting very dizzy.

"Ugh… Guys, I don't feel too good, eh?"

The others shine their flashlights, which they had also found in the maintenance closet, on him. He was even paler than normal, and his eyes were sunken in.

"Dude, you don't look so good either. You're lookin' really sick."

"C'mon, lets hurry to the surface. Maybe we can find someone to help you." said Bridgette.

The prairie boy nodded as they continued their trek through the darkness.

Then they heard a loud squeaking noise. Everyone stopped.

"What was that?" they all asked in unison.

It sounded like something was squeaking, and hopping towards them. There were loud thumps that followed after every squeak. They were getting louder, more numerous, and closer.

"Guys, lets get out of here!" yelled Geoff.

DJ picked up Ezekiel and carried him on his back. Geoff and Bridgette stayed close to each other as they ran through the tunnels. Bridgette looked back, and gave a small whimper at what she saw.

There were giant creatures jumping at them. They looked like giant fleas. They were big, and there were lots of them.

No rest for the weary. After escaping from one dire situation, can Geoff, Bridgette, DJ, and Ezekiel survive this one?

Next episode: Not the Only One