Revolution (Replica) (21 page)

“No reason to wait,” Shrimp agreed. “Y’all don’t hafta get all dressed up or anything, ’cause we’re gonna hafta get to the sinkhole without anyone seein’ us, but you might want sleeves and long pants. Like I said, it’s nasty down there, and we might get a little scraped up trying to get through the opening.”

Agnes’s relief at not having to go out in public in her Basement regalia was palpable, almost enough to make Nadia laugh despite her terror of what they were about to do.

*   *   *

The
last time Nate had set foot outside the building had been for the execution. The eighteen flights of stairs discouraged casual meandering, as did the fact that there was nowhere to go and nothing to do. Any fresh air he’d gotten, he’d gotten by sticking his head out the window, and though he’d seen from there how changed the Basement had been since the blackout began, it was nothing like being out on those darkened streets himself.

Despite the Basement’s usual nocturnal hours, there was hardly anyone out on the streets at night these days, at least not in Red Death territory. Nate assumed there were more people stationed around the borders, but he was perfectly happy not to see for himself, and the fact that the overpass and the sinkhole were firmly in the middle of Red Death turf—and that there was nothing of interest there to most people—heightened the chances that they would be able to explore without being seen and reported to Maiden.

It was oppressively dark out, the moon and stars hidden behind clouds. Here and there, candlelight flickered from windows, but it was too dim to illuminate the streets themselves. There was some ambient light thanks to the glow from the city, but it was slow going without flashlights, which they weren’t going to use unless absolutely necessary. In this instance, darkness was their friend, even if it did mean they were constantly tripping over cracks in the sidewalk.

The weather was unseasonably warm, and Nate was sweating beneath the thick thermal shirt he’d put on under his tee. The smell of rotting garbage was strong in the air, and there was a faint hint of smoke, possibly from the bonfires burning in the free territories. It had rained a few days ago, but the gutters were so blocked with rubbish that there were still filthy puddles everywhere, adding to the overall ambience.

The now-familiar sound of distant gunfire made everyone hurry their footsteps. It occurred in sporadic bursts, but if Angel launched her all-out offensive, it was likely to intensify. And the tanks might start advancing. People were already dying, and with the barricades keeping everyone and everything trapped, the dead would most likely rot in the streets.

In short, as awful as the Basement seemed now, it could get a whole lot worse in the blink of an eye.

It didn’t take long to reach the dilapidated area surrounding the abandoned overpass. With the high-rises not looming so close, it was possible to see over greater distances. Enough to see the glow and flashes of the fighting in the free territories. They all paused a moment to look.

“The blimps are gone,” Nadia commented, and Nate could see she was right.

Shrimp followed their gaze. “Might not be safe for them anymore. Red Death doesn’t do a whole lot of arms deals—we just supply our own people—but some of the other gangs have serious military-grade stuff. Kinda shit that’ll take a blimp down.”

Nate had already seen the kind of military-grade equipment the Red Death’s enforcers had. That there were other gangs with deadlier weapons was not a comfortable thought.

“We’re no match for them in the end,” Shrimp continued, “but if those tanks start rolling, they’re gonna be in for a rude surprise.”

“Let’s see if we can find a way to keep those tanks from rolling,” Agnes said. “Where’s this tunnel?”

Shrimp led them through the overpass and out the other side, where sure enough the pavement had collapsed. They played the beams of their flashlights over the sunken area, and all Nate could see were broken chunks of concrete and asphalt, along with litter and weeds.

“It’s at the bottom,” Shrimp said, moving cautiously toward the lip of the pit. “Watch your step and don’t put your full weight on anything till you’re sure it’ll hold you.”

For safety’s sake, they scrambled down one at a time. More than once, Nate put his foot down on a piece of rubble that looked solid, only to have it rock precariously under his weight, but despite a couple of stumbles and near misses, they all made it to the bottom without incident.

When everyone was down, Shrimp laid his flashlight on the ground, pointing it at a section of rubble that looked just like all the rest. He shrugged off the backpack containing the phones and the rest of their supplies. Squatting, he began pulling pieces of rock away, throwing them carelessly aside, along with the layers of litter that had gathered over the years. Nate grimaced when he saw Shrimp toss aside a desiccated used condom and wondered who in their right mind thought this was a good location for a hookup.

Dante tried to help—which belatedly Nate realized he should have offered to do himself—but Shrimp waved him off. “I got it. Almost there.”

Shrimp dug down to a warped, rotting piece of wood that looked like it might have been part of a crate in a former life. When he moved the wood aside, a hole appeared, just large enough for a person to fit through if he or she wasn’t too big. Nate eyed Dante and wondered if those shoulders of his would make it.

They gathered ’round as Shrimp shone his flashlight into the hole.

There wasn’t a lot to see. There was more rubble down there, and the air in the beam of the flashlight swam with dust. A dank, musty smell wafted out, and a pair of rats skittered away from the light with indignant squeaks of protest. Nate glanced over at Nadia and Agnes, wondering if the girls were now having second thoughts. Nadia wrinkled her nose in distaste, and Agnes looked grim, but neither of them showed any sign of screaming or fainting at the sight of a rodent.

“In we go,” Shrimp said, then lay flat on his belly to crawl through the hole onto the slope of rubble directly below it. When his feet were through, he wriggled around and stood up, edging his way carefully down to the bottom.

Nate wasn’t looking forward to crawling facefirst into a dark tunnel filled with rats, but he was damned if he was going to show that reluctance in front of Dante, so he leaned into the opening.

“Hold up a minute!” Shrimp said, raising one hand in a stop sign. “Gimme the backpack first.”

Nate didn’t appreciate the delay when his nerves were so jittery, but he grabbed for the backpack anyway and tossed it down, meaning to follow it immediately.

“I said hold up!” Shrimp repeated irritably as he dug through the backpack and pulled out one of the candles they had brought. “Told ya I don’t know ’bout the air down here. No sense both of us breathin’ it till we know it’s okay.”

Nate rolled his eyes at the precaution. He didn’t doubt that there could be bad air in the tunnel, but not this close to the surface, and not when there was a hole for fresh air to get through. But it had been Nadia’s idea to use candles to test the air quality, so he waited impatiently while Shrimp lit the wick. When it caught and burned easily, Shrimp finally gave the go-ahead for everyone else to follow him in.

If the air that wafted out of the hole was dank, the air inside was a lot worse. When Nate stepped aside to make room for Nadia to come in, his foot came down in a scum-covered puddle that immediately soaked through his shoe. He turned on his own flashlight and shone it around, picking out more puddles. The stink in the air was probably mildew, although there were undertones that were even fouler. The scent of wet rat, maybe?

He decided not to think about it as he moved farther from the hole and into the tunnel proper. By the look of it, the entire street above and the remnants of whatever building had been built on it had collapsed into the tunnel, completely blocking it off on one side. It wasn’t until about twenty yards in that the rubble thinned enough to make out the ancient, rusted subway tracks on the floor, disappearing into the darkness beyond.

Nate had thought the city was oppressively dark with the power off, but that was nothing compared to the light-eating dark of the tunnel. The setting reminded him of something from a horror movie, and his lizard brain was telling him in no uncertain terms that he should turn around and get the hell out of here ASAP.

When everyone was through the hole and down to the tunnel floor, they took a moment to assess the situation, flashlight beams streaking all around as each of them examined their surroundings. More than one beam caught sets of glowing eyes.

“I can’t imagine why you and your brother wouldn’t want to explore this place for hours,” Nate said to Shrimp, trying for something like dry humor to hide how creeped out he was feeling.

Shrimp snorted. “This’s nothing. You think we don’t got rats on the streets ’round here? Wait’ll we get a little farther in. You’ll see why Maiden and me decided not to keep going.”

Not exactly the kind of statement that made Nate anxious to proceed, but there was no way he was going to act like a wuss in front of the girls and Dante.

Nadia designated herself as the candle bearer, and she and Shrimp led the way into the darkness of the tunnel. The combination of darkness, rubble, and subway rails made the footing treacherous, and it was slow going. The stink of mildew grew stronger, as did the mysterious something else Nate had noticed at the entrance. Cracks in the walls and ceiling made it feel like the tunnel might collapse on them at any moment. Patches of slimy green stuff Nate presumed was algae of some kind clung to the walls and lined the floor, making it slippery. Just ahead of Nate, Dante’s foot found one of those patches, and he went down, twisting his ankle and breaking his flashlight.

“Are you okay?” Nadia cried, eyes wide with concern as she rushed to his side.

“Fine,” Dante grumbled, wiping his slime-slicked palms on his already grimy pants before letting her and Shrimp give him a hand up. “Nothing injured but my pride.”

Shrimp dug a spare flashlight out of his backpack and handed it to Dante. “Be more careful with this one, Captain Studly. We need all the light we can get.”

Dante gave him a dirty look—shockingly, he had not yet warmed to his street name—but clicked on the flashlight without comment.

They continued on even more slowly, everyone aware of the precarious footing.

Nate was almost getting used to the mildew stink, but the other smell, the one that was getting steadily stronger, was another story.

“Gah!” he eventually exclaimed, trying to breathe through his mouth. “What
is
that?”

Shrimp, who had pulled his T-shirt up over his nose and mouth, turned around and said, “Beats me, and I never wanted to stick around long enough to find out.”

“It’s bat guano,” Agnes said, surprising everyone.

Shrimp cocked his head at her and said, “What’s ‘guano’?” at the same time Nadia asked, “How on earth would you know that?”

“Bat shit,” Agnes clarified, grinning at Shrimp. “One of my brothers is into caving, and I went with him a few times when I was a kid. It’s not a smell you forget.”

Great,
Nate thought to himself.
Rats on the ground, and flying rats in the air.
“Hope we don’t all need rabies shots when this is over,” he muttered.

Shrimp didn’t look much happier about it than Nate felt.

“Let’s keep moving,” Nadia said, starting forward once more. “If the worst thing we have to face today is bats, it’ll be a good day.”

Beside him, Kurt gave a low whistle of appreciation and put a hand on Nate’s shoulder. “You were right about her, I was wrong,” Kurt admitted. “Girl’s got balls.”

Nate elbowed him in the ribs, though he was glad Kurt was finally beginning to see Nadia the way he did. Her courage put him to shame, and he tried to ignore the way his skin crawled. And the way Kurt stuck extra close as they continued forward, like he was afraid Nate would burst into hysterics at any moment. Kurt knew him too well not to see that Nate was struggling to keep putting one foot in front of the other. He would have been fine with the critters alone, but add the dark, the stench, and the irrational fear that the tunnel was going to choose this particular moment to collapse, and his nerves were stretched taut as guitar strings. Was he the only one who was feeling it?

“Remember,” Kurt murmured at his side, “Shrimp and Maiden turned back instead of exploring.”

Nate looked at him sideways. “You a mind reader suddenly?”

Kurt shook his head. “Nope. Just know how you think these days.”

Being self-conscious was definitely a new experience for Nate, but he’d been getting a lot of practice at it lately. Hard not to scrutinize his every action now that he’d woken up to how careless and oblivious he’d been in the old days. The old Nate had never had any reason to doubt himself, and he’d certainly never had reason to be afraid. How Kurt could have loved him back then, he’d never understand.

*   *   *

They’d
been walking down the tunnel about twenty minutes when the rubble started getting thicker. Shrimp’s flashlight beam roamed all around, and when he pointed it upward, Nadia saw a large fissure in the tunnel’s ceiling. The stench of bat guano was overpowering, making her feel nauseous, and when other flashlight beams joined Shrimp’s, the fissure practically erupted with squeaking protests and the flutter of wings.

Shrimp uttered a foul curse and dropped to his knees, covering his head, and everyone but Agnes ducked as a swooping cloud of bats surrounded them. Shrimp wasn’t the only one cursing, and Nadia closed her eyes because if she got a good look at what was flying around them she’d probably run away screaming.

“They’re not attacking us,” Agnes said, no hint of fear in her voice. “They’re running away from us. Everyone just stay calm.”

Judging by the continued cursing, Agnes’s words didn’t have much effect, and Nadia’s adrenal glands didn’t seem convinced either. Her heart was racing, and she tried not to picture little furry bodies with leathery wings tangling themselves in her hair.