Chapter Four: Unnoticed Followers/The Guess what? More Exposition! Chapter
A/N: Sorry 'bout the wait. I had Writer's Block From Hell. ; School didn't help much either. Oh, well...
The pipes Randall was now skittering through were the last barrier between the two cities, the monster one and the human one. This far up, most of the tunnels had been made by humans. Their original uses may have once been maintenance tunnels for subway engineers, some even for sewage drainage, but they had long fallen into disuse.
Now, they were monster territory. 1
Randall nodded silently to the two guards at the end of the pipe. They were merely sentinels for Haven's limits, a precautionary measure. They were the first ones to sound the alarm in the improbable event of humans accidentally stumbling upon the city. The last time that had happened had been nearly a decade previous to Randall's arrival in Haven, and it was extremely unlikely to happen again. The monsters didn't clean these pipes free of rubble, like they did in the tunnels closer to home, and deliberately made them look almost ready to collapse. It was a rare human who dared to brave this area.
Randall remembered his last vigil as a guardian; extremely boring work, in near pitch-darkness. It had been winter at the time, so the puddles of water underfoot had been freezing. He'd been extremely glad when his relief had come.
He didn't envy these monsters.
After passing them, the pipe opened out into a much larger one. A small torrent of water ran along the bottom of the pipe.
"'Must be raining aboveground." He muttered. Great.
It was nearly a month since his scare apprentice had given him that flier. He hadn't been able to get it out of his mind; he had finally given in, and had decided to 'play hero'. He'd been given his assignment less than a week ago. Apparently there had been reports of an animal of "an extremely unusual nature" being caught by an old farmer up in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada. The 'animal' had been sold to an as of yet unknown buyer. Randall was supposed to locate this creature, verify that it was indeed a newly banished monster, and if it was, to help it escape, and return back to Haven.
It sounded a lot simpler than it was. He didn't have a whole lot to go on; he was supposed to head to a little backwater town a few hours drive from Saskatoon, and see what he could find.
Once he left Haven, he would be cut off from monster society, away from any possible help. Ellen served as messenger in Haven, but her tentacles only stretched so far. Actual telephones would increase the chances of a security breach immensely, and even if they made their own radios, it would involve sharing radio signals with the humans, which meant they could get tapped, which meant they could be overheard, discovered... and it'd snowball from there.
So, long story short, no communication with Haven.
All Randall had, all his supplies, where on his back and in his trench coat pockets. Rudimentary first aid kit, some portable food supplies, a small hunting knife and a handmade wooden spork, an old fashioned tinder-box and flint for starting fires, his tool kit, as well as several road maps with his destination and all the possible routes there outlined in pen. He didn't need to burden himself unnecessarily with clothes; he needed nothing but his trusty duster.
A brownish apple-core floated past him, carried along by the current of water that was slowly turning - to Randall's disgust - more opaque as he continued on wards. The first real sign of human 'civilization'.
Huzzah.
He walked in silence for several minutes, until a sign on the wall caught his eye.
"Beware! Gators in the sewers!" Randall stared impassively at the words. After a few moments, he just snorted and continued on the way. Oh yeah, the irony was killing him.
Coming to a junction in the pipes, he brought out a browning piece of paper, a monster-drawn map that showed the layout of the tunnels, and where they led -or didn't lead. Many of the tunnels lower-down (ones too close to the human city and too far away from their own to be of any use) had collapsed, and they hadn't bothered to repair them, which resulted in more than one dead end.
Finding the correct route, the lizard monster stuffed the map back in his duster's pocket.
He didn't notice the quiet splashing footsteps following his from a distance behind him.
Looking at his map, then casting his eyes towards the ceiling above the scum-line, Randall determined he was at the right spot. High above his head was a small circle of pale light... surface light. Drops of rainwater dripped downwards and landed at his feet, creating small ripples. Ignoring the rusted out ladder on one side of the tunnel, the lizard monster simply put one hand on the slick surface of the wall, testing it to see if he could stick to it without sliding. He frowned. He could probably make it... if he was fast. The excess water made it difficult. He placed his remaining hands on the tunnel wall, and in one fluid movement, he almost flew upwards, towards the surface. Soundlessly, aside from the faint whoosh of displaced air, he climbed the fifteen-foot pipe in seconds. Randall paused just below the manhole cover, cocking his head to one side, listening for any sounds above him.
All he could hear was the steady patter of raindrops. A raindrop dripped into one eye, he blinked it away, but didn't move, continuing to listen for any possible sound of danger. Aside from the rain, he only heard the sound of one car driving on a street much further away from him.
Satisfied that there were no humans lying in wait to capture him as soon as he set foot out of the tunnel, he raised one hand and carefully lifted up the manhole cover, peering out at the human city. It was dark; nighttime. Almost no chance of a human seeing him. The monster raised the cover higher and, taking care to be as silent as he could, slid it to the side. Taking a deep breath, he glided out onto the human street.
He didn't bother to disappear; he could only make himself invisible, not anything he was carrying. It wouldn't do for a human to see a backpack being carried by a disembodied coat. Besides, even if he was naked, the rain would still bounce off his body, rendering the illusion useless. He would call far less attention to himself if he hunched up in is duster and stuck to the shadows.
Doing so, he started on his way. He knew what direction he had to go in; if he were to walk all the way to Saskatchewan, he'd probably a) wouldn't get there for several months and/or b) freeze to death...eventually. It was about mid-September, so it was more than likely he'd be spending his winter away from Haven; meaning outside, in the snow and the cold. The Canadian snow and cold. Made him shiver just thinking about it. He may not be a true reptile (being warm-blooded), but his trench coat wouldn't do him much good in a blizzard, especially if he was caught out in the flat open spaces of the Saskatchewan countryside.
So, he was going by train.
Eying the interior of the train car critically, Randall finally sighed in defeat and hunkered down against one wall. This baggage car had been the only one left that had been loaded, but not secured by the humans yet, aside from one containing some passengers; two dozen pigs. He'd wisely chosen the one without living cargo. It wasn't exactly first class, but it would do for the journey. Besides, at least it got him out of the damn rain.
He had no idea how long the ride would be; the city above Haven was along the coast of the St.Laurance river, near the border between the provinces of Ontario and Québec. All he knew was that the ride would be a long one.
And it should be beginning at any minute. He'd found and boarded the train rather hastily; all the other departing trains were heading in directions that frankly wouldn't do him any good.
The door to the train car he was in was still open a crack. Hearing footsteps outside, Randall ducked behind several particularly large suitcases, assuming that it was a human coming to lock-up the train car. All he could see of the door from his position was the slit of light from the doorway on the floor in front of him. Soon enough, a shadow blocked the doorway. Randall tensed when it didn't move to close the door. It was strangely short for a human...
"Mr.Boggs?"
For the love of- it couldn't be...
"Kid?" Recognizing the voice, Randall slapped a hand to his forehead. The shadow scrambled through the doorway towards him.
It was.
Pin's grinning face peered through the suitcases at him, obviously pleased at finding him.
"What the hell are you thinking, following me?" The lizard monster hissed angrily.
"Haven's boring without you, Mr.Boggs, so I decided to have an adventure!" Pin chirped.
Randall growled "Not now you won't. I'm taking you back home right now."
The younger monster's face fell. "But -"
"Not 'buts'." He growled, picking up his supply bag. "You shouldn't have followed me. How'd you get past the sentinels, anyway?"
"I said that I'd gone back to get something, and that I was going to catch up with you."
Exasperated, Randall ran a hand through his fronds, a nervous habit of his.
"What am I ever going to do with you?" He muttered to himself.
"Let me stay?" Asked the twelve-year old hopefully.
"No."
"But-"
"I already said no 'buts'!" Randall grabbed his apprentice by one arm. "We're getting out of here right-" At the sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel outside, he fell silent. Thinking quickly, he pulled Pin with him into his hiding place.
"What-" The kid started.
"Sh-sh-shht!" The lizard monster hissed, clapping one hand over the younger monster's beak-like muzzle, watching the distinctly human-shaped shadow on the floor not two feet from his nose.
With a screeching, grating sound from the door, the human pulled the sliding door shut. A clunking from the other side of the wall indicated that it'd been locked.
Randall cursed under his breath as not ten seconds later, the train car jerked into motion.
Running any possible courses of action through his mind, he finally sighed in defeat. It wasn't as if he could just jump (inconspicuously) from a moving train with Pin in tow, even if it was raining out. And that's assuming he could somehow unlock the door...
Looks like he was stuck with the kid.
"You're mother's going to kill you for this." Randall said shortly after releasing Pin from his death-grip, searching for a comfortable suitcase to lie on.
Pin seemed ecstatic, but that didn't stop him from making a comment in passing. "Naw..." He waved one hand dismissively. "She's gonna kill you for letting me come along."
The lizard monster couldn't argue with that. Still growling as he settled down on a pile of duffel bags, he thought. 'And I thought I might get bored in this part of the trip... Dammit.'
1 Oooh... I got a shiver from just typing that... :)