Chapter 25: The Road Tunnel
Four cones of light flashed through the dark tunnel, illuminating the high ceiling and broken road, which was cluttered with abandoned cars and piles of rubble. The survivors picked their way through the various obstacles in the road.
"Stay close. Nobody wander off," Bill whispered.
Francis led the way through the dark road tunnel, keeping a wary watch for hostiles. So far, they had encountered none, but they were steadily getting deeper under the mountain. Dripping water could be heard around them. Louis looked around nervously when he thought he heard the sound of pattering feet nearby. However, a sweep with his flashlight revealed nothing past the wrecked cars. But he still could not shake the unpleasant feeling he harboured in the pit of his stomach.
"Any idea how far this tunnel goes?" he whispered nervously.
"Probably a few miles," Bill replied.
"Great, just great..."
The survivors carefully made their way through the silent tunnel, stopping whenever they heard a sound. However, the footsteps, moaning and growls that each person thought they heard faded into dead silence as soon as the group halted. Perhaps they were being imagined?
Francis led the way with a grim determination. He hated the fact that they were stopping constantly – he just wanted to get through this damn tunnel as quickly as possible. The burly biker was surrounded on all sides by the shells of abandoned cars, illuminated by his flashlight. He quickly checked over his shoulder to see Bill urgently motioning for him to stop.
"What now?" he sighed heavily.
"Louis thought he heard footsteps," the older man replied evenly.
Francis bit his tongue to keep in check the foul mouthed, and probably politically incorrect, string of words building behind his lips. Instead, he covered the front while the others covered the sides and rear for a full minute, staring intently into the darkness. Nothing came at them, and Francis rolled his eyes inwardly and moved to continue on.
A horrifying, bloodcurdling shriek cut through the tunnel, scaring everyone out of their wits. They stood cautiously and aimed their weapons around, visibly shaken.
Moments later, a second terrifying shriek whooshed by them to the side, but the source of the sound was already out of sight when four flashlights snapped in its direction.
Bill hefted his shotgun and moved toward the wall of the tunnel carefully. He was done playing hide-and-seek with this little bastard. He came up to a wrecked car, took a deep breath, and threw himself around it –
He frowned in surprise. There was nothing there. He rejoined the others, shaking his head. "We've gotta keep moving. This tunnel is a death-trap."
No one objected, and they continued their tense journey through the road tunnel that they hoped would bring them to their rescue in Riverside on the other side.
"Hold up," Bill whispered carefully after a short march.
The survivors found themselves at a scene of total carnage; car wrecks and pile-ups served as testament to yet another horrific crash that had occurred here. Smashed glass covered the ground liberally, as well as a number of bodies, some of which were badly burned. Death lingered in the air. They looked at the strewn corpses sorrowfully. Suddenly, Bill frowned. He could have sworn that he saw one twitch a second ago –
"Um, is it me, or are these bodies moving?" Louis said nervously.
They watched in horror as several of the bodies began twitching and moaning, and slowly rising to their feet. The tunnel was filled with the sound of low, soulless moans. Zoey felt her skin crawling as the people turned their heads and transfixed them in their empty gazes, devoid of any emotion.
Suddenly, Francis lifted his shotgun. "Stay dead, you assholes!" he roared, blasting the nearest one off its feet.
The loud gunshot agitated the other Common Infected, who uttered howls of fury as they charged toward the four survivors. Muzzle flashes lit up the tunnel, and shadows danced across the walls and roof. Silhouetted blood projected across the walls, and several shadows jerked and convulsed as their real-life counterparts were assaulted with a hail of bullets.
Louis and Zoey hung back, flames erupting from their Uzis as their fingers depressed the triggers. The staccato of automatic gunfire was punctuated by the thunderous booms of shotguns going off as Bill and Francis covered the front of the group with expert precision, mowing down the snarling attackers before they could ever reach them.
Zoey presently heard a loud BANG behind her and whirled around to see a couple of Infected bounding across the hoods and roofs of cars toward them. A burst from her submachine gun sent one of them toppling backward over the roof of a car, while the other one crashed headfirst into a windshield in a hail of flying glass.
The snarling echoing off the concrete walls of the tunnel gradually ceased, and the small skirmish was over quickly. Bill wiped his brow with his sleeve and exhaled a whoosh of air in relief.
"We got lucky, but I don't want to hang around to find out how many more there are in this tunnel. Let's haul ass to the exit."
The survivors advanced in a wary silence, gripping their weapons tightly. Their terrifying experiences in this horrible tunnel had strained them all to breaking point. They needed to find the exit, or somewhere to hole up, or they would be in serious trouble.
"Hey, there's a sign!" Louis whispered excitedly. "The exit is just around the bend up ahead!"
Everyone's spirits rose dramatically with the news, and they quickened the pace. However, as soon as they came around the bend in the road, it was clear that something was wrong.
"What the fuck is that?" Francis growled.
Bill's frown deepened at the sight of the tall and impenetrable barrier of cement, concrete and wood that spanned the entire length of the road tunnel. "Son of a bitch!" he cursed, kicking at the barricade. "They sealed off the tunnel into town!"
"Shit!" Louis swore. "Now what do we do?"
"Guys, through here!" Zoey suddenly called, motioning them toward a doorway set into the side wall. "I think it leads to some sort of maintenance tunnel."
"Better than standin' out in the open," Bill grunted.
With that, the former student led the others through the doorway and into a tight concrete stairwell, where she was presented with the choice of the following the stairs up or down. Without a second thought, she went up and found an open door, leading into a pump house of sorts. Through it, she saw exactly what she had been hoping for: sunlight filtered through the cracks between the planks of several boarded-up windows. The murky outlines of machinery and pumping stations could be seen through the doorway.
She made her way toward the room eagerly when she stumbled on something lying on the ground. She looked down to see the strangest sight – a long, rubbery appendage snaked along the floor, deep purple in colour. It looked almost like a tentacle of some sort. One end of it had been severed – it must have detached from its owner for some reason. The rest of it, however, ran away into the shadows.
"Hey, Zoey, what are you looking at?" came Louis' voice from behind her.
Her gaze followed the "tentacle" to where it came to rest near the wall, and what she saw made her gag. The horribly mutilated body of a young man lay slumped against the concrete wall, his head split open like a cracked egg. A foul soup of blood and brains spilled from the opening, covering the entire left side of his face. But even that was not enough to mask the expression of terror and agony forever frozen on his face.
"Ho-ly shit," Francis said gruffly when he saw the grisly sight, bile rising in his throat.
Bill noticed the tentacle-like appendage coiling along the floor and saw that the other end of it was wrapped firmly around the neck of the corpse in a grim noose. "Whatever this thing is, it must have been used to choke this poor bastard."
"Come on, let's get inside," Louis said, ushering the others toward the pump house. "We can find something to barricade the door."
Bill cast one last glance at the tentacle that lay on the ground at his feet. His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts of the anomalies they had encountered back in Fairfield: the strange puddle of green goo, the Hunters, that wraith-like woman that had almost shredded them back in the alleyway. The creature with a fist large enough to pummel the entire side of a helicopter.
Just what the hell kind of mutations were occurring throughout the Infected?