Chapter 8 – by Tallulah

Falling, falling, down into blackness that clawed at her face. Cold. She struggled to call out, groped around trying to rip the dark from her face. Her voice echoed, and moonlight roared in through the grating.

The full pipe.

"Beat!" she yelled. "Where are you?"

Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?

Echo, echo, echo.

She began to run. Had to get out of here. Had to get out or they'd all laugh at her and say she liked the stupid skate park. But she'd never been here. She didn't know her way out. She was trapped.

"Beat?" she called again. "Cube! Combo! Where the hell are you?"

A wave of shivering broke over her, leaving her breathless. The pipe was getting longer and longer, the moonlight casting a freaky green glow over the scene.

Had she come here to find Garam? Yes, she remembered now, Garam had gone too, and she had to find him. Had to. Garam was smart and kind and he made her feel safe.

And then she heard it.

"I hate you too."

Not a voice in her head this time. It reverberated around the walls of the pipe, and she froze, pressing herself against the wall.

"And you hate me. Don't you?"

It mustn't find me, Gum thought, tears stinging her eyes, it mustn't.

"Answer me!"

Someone screamed.

It's only a dream, part of Gum's brain told her. But the rest of her knew it was real. Her thumping heart knew it. Her neck, prickling with terrified sweat. Her lungs, shrinking to the back of her ribs, making it impossible to breathe.

"I can find you. I can find you."

Slowly, the footsteps came closer. Gum wanted to run, but moving, escaping, dashing into the dark…that would only make it worse. It could watch her struggle and then squash her flat.

"You do hate me. I can hurt you. So you hate me. I hate you and all your friends."

Another scream.

She knew that one.

"Gum! Help me!"

"Beat!" she yelled.

The footsteps got faster.

"Hate you, hate you, hate you…" Rough breathing rasped on the walls. "Want to hear something else?"

"Gum, we're in here, we're –"

Cube, cut off, suddenly. Gum pressed a hand to her mouth, feeling tears run over it.

"Nearly got you."

"Gum! You gotta…" And then Combo was cut off too, with a groan.

And the thing turned the corner, and Beat and Cube and Combo screamed, "Run!"

Gum screamed. Screamed, "Garam! Help me! Help me!"

It's a dream…wake up…wake up!

And suddenly she realised her eyes were closed, and she tore them open, tore a hole in the dream, and rushed out, back into a pool of water on the bus terminal roof.

She crouched there, shivering, then scooped up some rain water and splashed herself in the face with it. She could feel her eyes closing, and every time they did she saw…she saw…what?

"Gum?"

Gum sat up, and looked over the edge of the roof. Yo-Yo and Mew stood there. As soon as she saw their faces, she knew she didn't want to hear what they were going to say.

"Don't tell me," she said. "Just don't."

"Slate," Mew sobbed. "He's gone, too. He – we – we were all at the end of the full pipe, and – and something just – just snatched him away, I mean…if we'd looked, we would have seen who it was…"

"We know who it was." Yo-Yo's face, missing its normal smile, looked like it had lost some vital structure. "It was Scorn, or Kell, or both. Look, the Jammers are looking after them. It'll all stop now."

Gum hunched her shoulders as her teeth rattled in her skull. So someone else was gone now. She knew she should be crying as hard as Mew was, but she couldn't. Instead there was a dull ache in her throat that made her feel tired.

"You okay?" Yo-Yo said at last, shading his eyes against the damp sunlight. "You're soaked."

Gum nodded, and slid off the roof to stand next to the other two.

"I'm going home," she said. "You?"

"I'll come with you," Mew said, as another tear ran down her nose.

Yo-Yo nodded, and the three rudies skated away.

Kell and Scorn lay slumped in a small concrete room in Kogane-cho sewers. It was speckled with Poison Jam tags, empty paint cans, and broken horror movie tapes.

Kell groaned, and opened her eyes.

"Oh, shit," she muttered, and closed them. She sat up, touched the bruise on the back of her head, winced, and groaned again.

"Hey, renegade," she called. "Wake up!"

Scorn stubbornly remained unconscious. Kell glowered, got to her feet, and tottered towards him. Prodding him with the toe of her skate, she yelled, "Wake up!"

Scorn blinked. "Ouch. What was that for?"

"I just thought you'd like to know we're trapped in the sewers. Probably by the Poison Jammers. Who are probably even now planning to re-enact their favourite slasher movies. Have you seen House On 13th Street II?"

"No."

"Well, I have, and so have they, and it's not a pleasant sight."

Scorn stretched his arms above his head. "I've seen I Know What You Screamed At Last Autumn's Scary Movie Project IV. Is it as bad as that?"

"Probably."

"Nuts."

Both rudies sighed.

"Any way out of this place?" Kell asked at last.

"Hey, you woke up first."

Kell skated over to the metal door, kicked it a few times, and rattled the handle. "Well, that ain't gonna open."

Scorn stared around. "And there don't seem to be any convenient air vents, secret passages, or trapdoors."

"You thought there would be? Even the Jammers aren't that stupid."

"That's generous of you. Seriously, this doesn't look good."

"Well, don't blame me," Kell snapped. "You didn't have to get involved. Could have kept your mouth shut."

"Hey, I was trying to help you."

"Why?"

Scorn shrugged. "I'm sick of people jumping to conclusions and picking on the first person they see."

"So you think it wasn't me?"

"Why would you kidnap your own gang?"

Kell shrugged. "How do I know it wasn't you?"

"Why would I kidnap a renegade? Look, what the morons out there aren't getting is that none of us would snatch rudies like that. Ten-tag them, yeah. Ambush them and beat the crap out of them, yeah. Force them to watch hideously trashy slasher fics, yeah. But knock them over the head when they walk into the full pipe? What sort of revenge is that?"

"An effective one," Kell said, and smirked. "You saw little miss kitty-kat getting all teary-eyed over the GG leader? That Noise Tank doing a neat impression of a wolf? Us two sitting here with our heads bashed in? Everyone's getting jumpy."

"But…come on," Scorn said. "If I thought of doing what this person's doing, I'd slap myself round the head for being idiotic."

"But someone's done it."

"How?" Scorn got to his feet, stumbling slightly. "Where're they putting everyone? That Combo guy's big, it's not like you could just stash him behind a rock."

"Somewhere in the full pipe," Kell said. "Duh. Anyway, why are you bothered? I thought you couldn't care less about gangs and stuff."

"I don't," Scorn said. "But I do care about angry mobs and getting myself knocked out. I'm getting a little pissed off."

"Well, I searched that pipe," Kell said. "The night the two GGs disappeared. And…it's long. It's concrete. It's dark. It's a pipe, basically. That's it."

"Oh, so you were hanging around when they vanished?"

"Yeah. I thought…I thought I remembered something. I thought I knew who it was…not that I told the GG that. But I was wrong."

Scorn gave her a long, thoughtful look. "Really?"

"Yes, really!" Kell's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"

"Just makin' a point."

"I thought you said you knew no rudie would have done it."

Scorn shrugged. "Yeah, but it's fun pissing you off."

Kell scowled at him, then dropped down next to him, resting her chin on her hands. "If those two idiots did see someone in one of these…" She indicated her tank top. "I'd sure like to know who."

"You sure you can trust your gang members?"

Kell snorted. "Member. Dash is the only one left apart from me. And I don't trust her, but I don't think she'd do something like this."

"What about the other two missing ones?"

"Give me a break. Why'd they do something like this?"

Scorn sighed, and lay back, pushing a shattered copy of Scream At Hannibal Blair's Summer House On Elm Street VI out of his way. "I dunno. Looks like we are the most likely suspects."

Kell lay back as well. "Great."

She listened a moment, then said, "Can you hear footsteps?"

Scorn thought.

"Yeah."

"Uh-oh."

Gum sat on the sofa, shivering. She'd changed out of her saturated clothes into the T-shirt she wore at night, and she had a blanket round her shoulders, but she was still cold. Or frightened. Or maybe both.

Piranha was leaning against one of the pillars holding up the garage roof, picking at a loose seam on her shirt. Yo-Yo was lying flat on the car roof, flicking through a porno magazine with a blank look on his face. Tab was sitting next to Gum, channel-hopping manically and jumping at small noises. And Mew was curled up on the sound system, head on her arms, lip still trembling.

Garam wasn't back yet. Gum wished he would come. Not that she was being a wimp or anything. But…well, she just wanted to see him. That was all.

Mew stared at the pinball machine, and then started to cry again.

"What's wrong?" Gum snapped as tears stung her own eyes.

"Slate…he…he was gonna challenge me to a tournament…" Mew sobbed. "He said no one could beat his hi-score. And now he's gone…"

"Don't," Piranha said, her own voice growing husky.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" Mew rubbed a hand across her eyes, smearing the makeup away and exposing her reddened eyes. "I just want this all to be a dream…I just want to wake up…"

"Tell me about it," Yo-Yo said, staring fixedly at the magazine, which was upside down. "The garage is way too empty."

"But – but do you think – do you think they'll come back?" Mew said. "What's happened to them?"

"Scorn and Kell thought they'd freak us all out by kidnapping them, that's all," Piranha said. "It's a dumb practical joke. I bet all the missing ones are going stir-crazy, locked up together. Slate'll be getting pinball withdrawal symptoms."

Mew gave her a watery smile, but it didn't last long before it drowned.

"Tab?" Gum said.

Tab jumped slightly. "Um – yeah?"

"Look, when you, well, left the Jammers, had they found out anything from Scorn and Kell?"

"Not that I know. Thing is, they were gonna ask them as soon as they brought 'em back, but then they found me and Thrash. We were onto Last Spring's Psycho Project: Hannibal's Return VII by then…" He shuddered. "And so they all got sidetracked."

"So they all stayed watching until you left?"

"Uh-huh. And let me tell you, horror movies are even less fun when you've got a bunch of rancid Poison Jammers standing a foot away from you, going 'Cool!' and 'Yeah!' and 'Look, his guts are coming out his ass like toothpaste.' Doesn't add anything to the quality of the film."

Suddenly the door flew open, and Garam dashed inside.

"Hey, guys," he called, then stopped as he saw Mew crying. "Oh, man. Guys, what's happened?"

Gum explained about Slate, and about Scorn and Kell's capture.

"And that Noise Tank," Yo-Yo said, flinging his magazine into a corner. "Matrix's boyfriend. What's his name…"

Garam and Gum stared at each other.

"Disk?" Gum said at last.

"Yup. He disappeared same time as Slate did."

Gum clenched her fists. "No. No way."

"Why?"

"He was cool!" Gum said. "He hung out with us! He hated that stupid park! And now Kell and her renegade boyfriend have nabbed him and it's just so bloody stupid and they are a pair of jerks!"

Tab blinked. "So you're pissed, then."

"Yes," Gum snapped, the words hurting her mouth as she spoke them. "Yes, I am."

"He and Slate disappeared at the same time?" Garam whistled. "Scorn had to have moved damn fast."

"Well, it should all stop now," Piranha said. "Once Scorn and Kell 'fess up, and we can go get the others, then everything'll be back to normal. Gum, maybe you and Garam could come hang out in the park a bit –"

"No."

Gum felt hollow inside as Piranha rolled her eyes. Once this was over, everything would be back to normal. No friends again.

She shook her head. At this rate, she'd have no friends now. And at least when they just chose not to hang with her, she knew they were safe.

Anything could be happening now.

Scorn and Kell eyed the door nervously as the footsteps got closer.

"It can't be that bad," Kell said at last. "They're only Poison Jammers."

"Five words," Scorn replied. "House On 13th Street II."