Chapter 26: The Drains
Bill lit up a cigarette and surveyed the rest of the team, who had all collapsed where they stood in the dingy pump house. He walked over to the boarded-up windows and peeked through the gaps in the planks at the outside world basking in the morning light, before turning to address the others.
"Well, we need a new plan."
"Sleep," Francis deadpanned, lying face-down on the concrete floor.
"I mean a plan on getting to Riverside," Bill sighed, shooting the biker a scathing look.
Francis wearily sat up and leaned against some pumping machinery. "And what plan would that be?" he snarled. "You saw the barricade. The army sealed off the damn tunnel! I knew coming here was a waste of time!"
"Francis..." Zoey sighed.
He turned his head and rounded on her. "This was your idea, Zoey! You based our plans on a retarded list written on a random wall by some dick who's probably dead by now!"
"At least I had a plan!" she snapped back. "One which extended past sitting on my ass in a deckchair!"
While the others bickered, Louis took the time to look around the pump house. His eyes widened when he saw a service hatch tucked away in the corner of the room.
"Hey, guys!" he called out. However, no one acknowledged him, all too caught up in taking pot-shots at each other. "Guys!" he called again, louder this time. "I think I've found something!"
Bill looked over at him. "What?"
"This pump house, it must serve the drain and sewerage system of Riverside," he said excitedly. "I'll bet that service hatch over there gives access into the drain system, and we can use that to get to the town."
Francis groaned. "Again with the sewers, Louis?"
Bill, however, was considering this course of action. He walked over to a desk sitting at the base of some tall pumping machinery and found some blueprints of the drainage system that ran beneath the town.
"Louis, you beautiful son of a bitch, I think you might be onto something here." He lay the blueprint down on the floor in the middle of the group, tracing his forefinger across it. "That hatch does lead into a service pipe, which we can follow to get to these floodgates. Then, it's a simple matter of following the drains on the west side, and then we can pop up out of any manhole that we choose."
"But what do these red lines here mean?" Zoey asked thoughtfully, pointing out several red scrawls on the blueprints. They crossed a number of westward pipes, and were not a part of the original blueprints. Someone had marked the schematics with them.
Bill shrugged. "No idea," he admitted.
"Am I the only one who doesn't like the idea of entering another sewer system?" the stocky biker quipped. "Especially with the sun up outside. Vitamin D is important, you know."
Louis shot him a look of genuine surprise. "What do you know about Vitamin D?"
Bill extinguished his cigarette butt on the floor. "Unless you have a better idea, Francis, this is the only way into Riverside."
The others looked at him expectantly, waiting for an objection. Although she did not admit it, Zoey secretly hoped that he did have another suggestion; one that did not involve them entering yet another series of underground tunnels. However, he simply lay back down on the floor and closed his eyes.
"It's settled, then," Bill said, folding up the blueprint and tucking it into his pocket. "Louis, you got some sleep on the truck on the way in, so you take the first watch. Everyone else, get some rest. We'll move out in five hours. We all okay with that?"
Francis did not bother to answer, while Zoey nodded unenthusiastically, lying down on the hard concrete floor. She would have liked to have made a pillow with her jacket, but it was a little too cold for her to do that.
"Damn, what is that smell?" Francis complained.
"Take a wild guess," Bill replied.
The team of survivors made their way through a tight, circular drainpipe, which was just large enough for them to stand in without bumping their heads. The passages were narrow, forcing the survivors to advance in single file. The tightness of the tunnels left Zoey with a slight feeling of claustrophobia. She shook her head and tried to ignore it, but every time she pushed the feeling to the back of her mind, it slowly came creeping back.
"How much further are the floodgates?" she asked Bill.
"Not too far. About a ten minute walk, I should think."
Louis walked out in front of the group, aiming his flashlight and Uzi down the dark drain. He hated taking point, almost as much as he hated covering the back.
"These service lines must be the overflow pipes for Riverside," he commented absentmindedly.
"You know what?" Francis said behind him. "I don't care! Lead on."
The deep puddle of water came up without warning, and the former business man stepped right into it. "Aw, shit!"
"Hey, it was your idea to come down here, Louis," Zoey said teasingly.
"It was your idea to come to Riverside!" he snapped back, clearly annoyed.
He made to pull his foot up out of the water when he suddenly felt something bump up against it below the surface. He panicked and ripped his foot out of the water, disturbing whatever was beneath the surface. He looked down in horror to see several unidentified objects break the surface of the rank water.
"What's the hold-up?" Bill called from behind him.
"There's something in the water..." Louis breathed, aiming his flashlight downward.
He immediately wished he hadn't. A number of mutilated body parts had come floating to the surface of the deep puddle. The dismembered limbs of several people were floating in the dark water, waterlogged and well into the process of decay. Zoey gagged, and nearly vomited at the sight, while the others looked equally horrified.
"Those poor people..." she whispered.
Bill momentarily removed his beret, held it to his chest and bowed his head. "Rest in peace."
"More like rest in pieces," Francis remarked. He looked around to see the others staring at him angrily. "What?"
Bill grabbed him by the collar and slammed him hard against the side of the drain.
"What the fuck!" the biker bellowed.
The older man glared at him for a moment, and then marched off without another word. Zoey and Louis exchanged glances, before following Bill, being sure to give the watery grave a wide berth.
"It was just a joke..." Francis muttered as he brushed himself off. He looked down at the grim pool and the dead bodies one last time. Shivering, he took off to catch up with the others.