Chapter 27: The Floodgates
"We're here," Bill announced as his ragtag team emerged from the pipes into a large flood room. They stood on a metal catwalk above a rather deep pool of grimy water that covered the entire floor. No one wanted to think about what might be lurking below the surface.
"Great," Louis said, still rather shaken from the grisly discovery he had unwillingly made not so long ago. He was now very eager to get out of these sewers. "So, where are these tunnels that we have to go down?"
Bill consulted the map, and then pointed across the room. "Over there."
Zoey looked. "Um, I don't see 'em Bill," she pointed out.
"This doesn't make any sense…" He pored over the blueprints. "Unless… Ah, shit."
"What?" she asked, with a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"The pipelines are underwater."
"…Can we swim through them?" Louis asked, feeling sick at the thought.
"I ain't swimmin' in that shit," Francis growled.
Bill shook his head dejectedly. "These drains go on for hundreds of metres. There's no way we'd be able to hold our breaths for that long." He was bitterly disappointed with himself, having led his people into a death-trap, with no foreseeable way out.
Zoey, however, found herself looking thoughtfully at the large floodgates on either side of the room. "Do you think the machinery in here still works?"
"I think so," the war veteran said, scratching his scraggly beard. "According to these notes, the army installed some generators to be able to control the flow of water throughout the drains. They were probably trying to turn it into some kind of defence mechanism."
"That's it!" she said excitedly. "If we lower the floodgates to drain the room, then we'll be able to access the west pipelines."
He looked over at the floodgates and considered this course of action, impressed with the student's intuitive thinking. "You know... that just might work."
With that, they climbed up a steel ladder to a higher catwalk, and then made their way over to the control panel. Bill stepped forward and flicked the master switch. The panel came to life, lights flickering on all over the display.
Well, looks like those generators are still up and running… He looked over at the others. "Here goes nothing..." With that, he pulled the lever.
A loud rumbling reverberated throughout the room as the floodgates began to lower into the ground. Zoey saw the water level immediately begin to lower as it was released from the room.
"It's working!" she called out.
At that moment, the loud rumbling was accompanied by ominous roars and howls echoing throughout the sewers.
"Oh, SHIT!" Louis shouted over the deafening noise. "They can hear the floodgates!"
Zoey gripped her Uzi nervously, while Francis pumped his shotgun in anticipation. He took up position near the ladder, to make optimum use of his shotgun's effectiveness at close range while minimising danger to himself. Louis and Zoey got themselves into positions that gave them a commanding view of the room, and checked their submachine guns. The din of bloodthirsty growls drew closer, seemingly emanating from all around them.
Bill jogged over to her. "How are you for ammo?"
"I still have an Uzi and some M1911 clips left," she replied.
The old man offered her his combat knife. "Here. Just in case."
She blanched. "Oh, I... don't know. I already have enough trouble shooting them as it is. I don't know if I'd be able to..."
"Take the knife, Zoey," he persisted. "They have no qualms with getting in close-quarters with you, and you have to be prepared for that."
"What about you?"
"I'll find another one."
Louis was the first to open fire on the hordes of Infected that began spilling out of side tunnels, drains and pipelines, murder on their minds. The others followed suit as the Common Infected drew nearer. Francis blasted the top half of a man's head away as he attempted to climb the ladder, and his limp body toppled back down, knocking down several people below him.
Gufire rippled throughout the large room, accompanied by wild, bloodcurdling screams. Zoey looked down in alarm to see several hands clawing over the edge of the catwalk. She redirected her Uzi downward and riddled the attackers with a hail of bullets at point-blank range, sending them shrieking from the platform. A loud CLICK informed her that she was out of ammunition.
"Crap…" she muttered irritably as she drew her M1911 from its holster.
She fired her pistol wildly, taking down several more Infected and consuming another clip. She had just finished reloading when she felt something slimy and wet wrap itself around her, pinning her arms to her sides.
"Shit!" she cried, struggling against the tentacle-like appendage. It started to pull her away from the others, toward a side tunnel. "GUUUUUYS! HEEEEEEELLLLLLP!"
However, the others were fighting for their lives, and did not notice that one of their own was being dragged away.
"HELP!" Zoey screamed again.
The disgusting, wet tentacle dragged her into a dark pipe and around a corner. Barely managing to stay on her feet, she struggled with all her might, but could not break free. Suddenly, she remembered the knife that Bill had given to her earlier. She fumbled her hand around her belt and grasped desperately for the knife-hilt. With an awkward twisting of her wrist, she managed to manoeuvre her hand upward and then sawed through the slimy appendage.
Zoey heard a loud shriek of pain from somewhere nearby, undoubtedly the owner of the tentacle. It was still wrapped around her body, but she had now managed to free one of her arms. She twisted her body around and brought her knife hand down viciously, slashing through it again. Another howl of pain echoed throughout the drain, and Zoey managed to free herself completely. She looked around fearfully for the monster to which the appendage belonged, but the creature was still out of sight, around the corner.
Just how damn long is that tentacle…?
The rubbery appendage twitched, visibly wounded. However, it was still dangerous. It lashed out at Zoey again, tripping her. She landed on her back and gasped as the wind was knocked from her lungs. She looked up to see it lunging at her again. She rolled to her feet, gripping the knife tightly with both hands and slashing at the tentacle whenever it came near. She engaged in a desperate fighting retreat against the snaking appendage and finally, when she felt that she was far enough, turned and ran headlong into the pipe system in a desperate bid to get away.
She could have sworn that, in the wild swinging of her flashlight, she saw the monster emerge from around the corner – a tall, gangly figure, its upper body tilted over to one side. But there was no way in hell that she was sticking around. The tentacle chased her for a short distance, but then stopped short – its owner must have been out of range.
Zoey kept on running for at least five minutes after that, ignoring the searing pain in her side and her shortness of breath. She did not dare to stop – terrified that the moment she did would be when the tentacle shot out of the darkness at her again. It was only when her lungs felt like they were about to burst from her chest did she stop, taking a moment to catch her breath and regain her wits.
The direness of the situation hit her like a brick wall – she was separated from the others, and completely alone in a dark sewer system, filled to the brink with the Infected. She needed to find her friends as quickly as possible.
She cupped her hands to her mouth. "BILL! LOUIS! FRANCIS!" There was no reply, but she tried again. "GUUUUUUUYS! WHERE ARE YOU?"
The only response that she received was dead silence
Several more gunshots rang out in the floodgate control room, and the last few Infected toppled over, their blood seeping into the thin layer of water that was left covering the floor of the large room. The rest of the water had flown away into the side drainage tunnels.
"Everyone alright?" Bill called out, shaking his head and trying to catch his breath. "Sound off if you're still alive."
"Over here," came Louis' voice from across the room.
"Psssh, they never had a chance," Francis said cockily, coming up behind Bill.
After a few moments of silence, the old man looked around. "Zoey?" There was no reply.
"Hey, Zoey, this isn't funny," Louis said nervously.
"Zoey!" Bill called again, feeling sick to the pit of his stomach.
The three of them searched every inch of the room, and even took to checking the dead bodies to see if she was among them. However, they came up empty-handed. She was gone.
Zoey crept through the drains, calling for the others. A quaver of fear crept into her voice that became more and more pronounced each time she did not receive an answer.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
She snapped her gaze toward a horrible scream from behind her to see an infected woman running at her, covered in slime and muck from the sewers, and loosely resembling Zoey's mental image of the "Boogie Man" that had tormented her when she was a little girl. Three panicked shots felled the beast and silence descended upon the drains once more.
...Except that this time, it was not completely quiet. Zoey heard a muffled sob nearby, which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. More sobs followed, causing her to involuntarily recall the similar crying that she had heard in an alleyway back in Fairfield. The same crying that had drawn her, Bill and Louis into a room with a wraith-like woman who had nearly torn them all to shreds.
Her sense of déjà vu proved correct. With a trembling hand, she slowly turned her flashlight toward the sound to see the dark outline of another gangly, thin and menacing figure crouching hunched over, crying. Zoey recalled the other woman they had encountered back in Fairfield, who had looked very similar to this one. The extremely thin figure, greying skin, white hair and cruel-looking claws. The Blair Witch Project was one of the first horror movies that Zoey had ever watched, and for some strange reason, the figure she saw hunched before her was how she had always envisioned what the Blair Witch would look like.
Zoey switched off the flashlight and crept away down the drainpipe in the opposite direction, hearing an occasional sob from the "Witch", before she heard footsteps in front of her. Terrified, she turned her flashlight back on to see a pale, blood-covered man approaching her rapidly. Without thinking, she raised her pistol and splattered his brains across the side of the pipeline. Dead silence descended over the drain system.
Zoey's skin crawled as she took in the silence around her. With a shock, she realised what was so wrong. She could no longer hear the Witch crying. Zoey found herself nearly paralysed with fear. She slowly turned the flashlight back around to where the pale wraith had originally sat, weeping. There was nothing there anymore. The Witch had disappeared.