Sewer Rats (5 page)

“We want to talk,” Micky said.

“Buzz off,” she said.

“But—”

“Buzz off,” she repeated. “Or don't you understand English? Maybe I should tell you in French.”

I smiled a little. Her bicycle spoke more French than she did.

“I came here to be alone,” she said. “I wanted to go where nobody would bug me. So in case you haven't figured it out, I don't want to talk.”

“You have to talk,” Micky said.

“Why?” came her voice.

“Because we know about you and Carter.”

Silence from inside the tunnel.

“We saw his Dad in the hospital today,” Micky told her. “It's the same guy in the photo at your house.”

Silence—but only for a second. I saw her outline as she got to her feet and turned
away from us. As my eyes understood what was happening, my ears heard the pounding of her feet as she ran deeper into the tunnel.

“Lisa!” Micky shouted. “Lisa! Stop!”

She didn't. The echo of her footsteps faded. Then there was nothing but the blackness of the tunnel—with Lisa somewhere inside.

“Nuts,” Micky said. He kicked at a rock. “Dumb girl.”

Before I could say anything, a crack of lightning caught the corner of my eye. A crash of thunder rolled over us.

And it began to pour.

“Now what?” I yelled above the rain. Heavy hard drops pounded my skull. Within seconds, my hair was soaked like I had just taken a shower.

Micky didn't answer. He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the tunnel. He popped open the cage door and pulled me inside.

“At least in here we'll be dry,” he said.

Not for long, I thought.

I looked outside. The sky had disappeared. All I saw were gray sheets of water. Already there were puddles in the drainage ditch. Soon the puddles would join and begin to flow. Soon water would be flowing beneath our feet from this tunnel.

“We've got to get her out of here,” I said. “If it doesn't stop raining...”

“She's got a brain and two feet,” he said. “She can get herself out.”

“Come on, Micky. Of all of us, she's the one who gets lost the easiest. Remember the day we had to go looking?”

I was telling the truth. We both knew it. Lisa had a terrible sense of direction. After one paintball war, it had taken her two hours to find her way out. Since then, she has stayed with one of us during the paintball battles.

“Look,” Micky snapped. “I'm no hero.”

“Oh.” I knew better than to say anything else.

We waited five minutes in silence—at least silence from talk. All the noise came from the rain. It was like an army of drummers.

A small stream of water began to trickle at our feet. Not from our wet hair and wet clothes. But from the streets and gutters that fed these tunnels.

I started walking up the tunnel.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I turned.

“Micky, I'm no hero either. But Lisa knows as much as we do how important it is to clear out when the water starts to run. If she hasn't made it here by now, it's because she can't.”

“How are you going to find her?” he asked. “There are dozens of smaller tunnels she could have taken.”

“I don't know,” I said. “But I've got to try.”

I knew if something happened to her and I hadn't done my best to help, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life.

“Even if it kills you?” Micky said. “Heroes are stupid. Dead heroes are even stupider.”

“Getting killed is not part of my plan,” I said.

I began to walk farther into the tunnel. The stream of water was now deeper. Already it had started to push over top of the toes of my shoes.

I repeated my words to myself.

Getting killed was not part of the plan.

I should have known I'd become afraid. I had been so worried about Lisa and the water that I forgot what happens when the darkness closes around me.

Now, in complete darkness, I felt so lonely that my chest hurt. When I was a kid and had to be in the dark, I used to believe that people and sunlight and laughter did not exist. I felt the same now.

Except there was one thing that made me feel different: the sound of the water— water that grew faster and stronger as all the streets above poured water into these tunnels.

As the spiders of panic wriggled, I turned myself into...

Zantor!

The soldier of the galaxy will never die. He bats away danger as if it were a pesky fly. His legs are so strong, no river can sweep him away. And he will save the beautiful woman. She will wrap her arms around him and pull her face close. She will—

“Jim!” Micky shouted from behind me. “Hang on!”

Someday I would have to tell Micky not to get in the way of Zantor and his beautiful women. But this was not the day.

Zantor was glad to have help
.

“Micky,” I said as he caught up to me. “Thanks, man.”

“Don't thank me for being stupid. Maybe it's my fault she ran away. You know, because I talked about Carter and her dad.”

“It's not your fault,” I said. “She can't run away from that stuff forever.”

Micky put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. It made me feel a lot taller.

“So,” he said. “Where did she go?”

“My guess is she stayed in the main tunnel as far as possible. If she was trying to get away from us, it's easier to run in this tunnel than in the smaller ones. Besides, she's probably afraid of getting lost in one of the side tunnels.”

We passed beneath a tiny waterfall from the street grate above. We stepped through the gray light from the grate. It showed the water at our feet collecting into a small stream.

“What if she took a side tunnel?”

“If she is trying to get away from us, she wouldn't have gone in too far. She should be able to hear us.”

Ahead, the wall of the tunnel was a little darker, showing where a smaller tunnel ran into this one.

I stopped. “Lisa!” I yelled into the side tunnel. “Are you there?”

We waited a couple of seconds. No answer.

We moved on. By now, the stream had risen to our ankles. Water splashed halfway up my shins.

“Lisa!” Micky yelled at the next tunnel. “Lisa!”

That's how it went for the next few minutes. We stopped and yelled into every tunnel that branched into the main tunnel. I was so scared for her that even Zantor, soldier of the galaxy, was getting afraid.

We reached the mousetrap place where the three other tunnels joined the main tunnel. Water poured through the holes in the manhole cover above. The place where I had been lying beneath plastic pipes was completely covered with water. The stream was halfway to our knees and sucked at our legs with every step we took.

“Think about it,” I said. “We waited about five minutes before going after her. Running at full speed, she could get this far, but not much farther.”

“And?”

“It took about five minutes for the water to start. She wouldn't have been much farther than this before she noticed. She would have turned around, right?”

“Right,” he said. He had to raise his voice. The sounds of the rushing water forced both of us to yell. “So why haven't we seen her yet?”

I grabbed his arm.

“Listen!” I shouted.

I pointed in the direction I thought I might have heard noise.

He turned his head that way, leaning in to listen better.

For a few seconds, we heard only the rush of water.

Then...

“Help! Help!”

It was a faint sound. But there was no mistake. Ahead, from the tunnel to our right, came Lisa's voice.

We almost tripped over each other in our hurry to get there.

We left the faint light from the manhole cover and moved into the darkness ahead.

“Help!” It was clearer now. “Help!”

I was in front. So I hit it first. A solid wall where there should have been tunnel.

Micky ran into me.

“Hey!” he said. “Why'd you stop?”

“No choice,” I shouted at him. “Part of the tunnel wall must have fallen.”

I tried to picture it as if I had a flashlight. The dirt above was heavy with all the water from the spring rains of the last month. The concrete of the tunnels was old. I remembered that I had seen dirt near here, beside Carter. The concrete must have been cracking then. Now it had finally fallen.

“A cave-in,” I said to Micky.

He pushed past me. He reached around with his hands. A few seconds later, he spoke to me.

“There's an opening at the top.”

“And she's on the other side, right?”

He didn't answer me.

“Lisa!” he shouted. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

“Are you all right?” he shouted.

“My foot is stuck,” she said.

“We'll run and get help.”

“No!” Even in the confusion of the water and the darkness, the fear in her voice reached us.

“No?”

“The water,” she cried. “It's already at my knees!”

That's when I noticed. The floor on our side was dry. There was no stream running over our feet. No stream adding to the big one in the main tunnel.

And there was only one reason.

This fallen part had made more than a wall. It had made a dam. All the water on the other side was rising. And Lisa was trapped there with a stuck foot.

Zantor thought quickly. Seconds later, Zantor knew what to do.

“Micky,” I said. “The opening at the top. Can you tell how big it is?”

I waited a few seconds as he felt around in the dark.

“Big enough to get through,” he said, guessing why I had asked.

“Then one of us needs to help Lisa on the other side,” I said. “And one of us needs to
go back to the main tunnel to go for help. The ladder there reaches the manhole cover. It's the fastest way out.”

A clump of dirt fell from the tunnel roof and hit my shoulder. Was another big piece going to cave in?

“Good plan,” he said. “But who goes for help?”

Spiders of panic grew big in my stomach again. Whoever stayed behind would have to crawl through the small opening. I thought of the tunnel roof pressing down on me. I wanted to run.

“Who goes for help?” Micky asked again. “I mean, it's not fair to the person who has to stay behind.”

“We'll do it this way,” I said. “I'm going to put my hand behind my back. I'll hold up one finger. Or two. If you call it right, you go for help. Call it wrong, I go.”

“But—”

“Can you think of a better way?”

“No,” he said.

I put my hand behind my back. I made a fist and held out one finger.

Micky waited.

“Come on,” I said. “Guess. We don't have much time.”

“Two,” Micky said. “Two fingers.”

He had guessed wrong. All I had to do was show him my hand—with one finger showing—and I was free.

I brought my hand up with two fingers sticking out.

“Can you see it in this darkness?” I asked.

He reached for my hand and felt both fingers.

“Two,” he said.

A trickle of water ran onto the floor of the tunnel. Somewhere, this wall had sprung a leak. Water from the other side was getting through.

“You called it right,” I told Micky. “You go for help.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Very sure,” I said. “That's what we agreed.”

Micky was too big. I had a better chance of getting through to Lisa. Plus he was
strong enough to push away the manhole cover to get to the street above. As much as I wanted to go, it didn't make sense for him to stay behind. I knew I would never like myself if I ran away now.

“Lisa!” I shouted before I could change my mind. “Hang on! I'm coming in!”

I put my hand on Micky's shoulder. “Give me a hand. Get me up to the opening. Then go for help as fast as you can.”

Micky boosted me high enough for my head and shoulders to reach the hole. I pulled forward. He pushed my feet. And then I was totally into the opening above the wall.

I began to pull my way over the rough dirt and pieces of concrete.

I was breathing fast. It seemed like I couldn't get air into my lungs. I wanted to scream.

Lisa beat me to the scream.

“Hurry,” she cried from the other side. “The water is nearly at my waist!”

It was like a slap across my face.

I pulled myself forward. My fingers dug into dirt. My belly scraped over pieces of concrete. I wondered if I would get stuck. The fear hit me. I needed...

Zantor, soldier of the galaxy. He moves ahead. He is fearless. The odds are against him. Yet because he is so powerful he will—

Stop, I told myself.

I was crawling over the top of a cave-in. The roof might fall on me any second. On the other side, rising water might drown me. And Lisa. It wasn't wrong to be afraid.

In fact, only an idiot wouldn't be afraid.

I didn't need Zantor. I needed me. I needed to get to Lisa and help her. And I needed to lose my fear of being afraid. I needed to keep moving forward.

I pulled myself ahead, keeping my head down, hoping my shoulders wouldn't get stuck.

Then, without warning, my fingers clawed at air.

“Lisa?”

“Here!”

She was so close I could almost...

I did. My hands reached her hands.

“Lisa, Lisa!”

I kicked ahead and began to fall. She kept hold of my hands. I splashed into the water beside her.

It was totally dark.

“Jimmy!” She grabbed my wrist. “Jimmy!”

“Micky's gone for help,” I said. “I'm going to stay with you.”

“He's got to hurry,” she said. “The water. I can't believe how fast it's rising.”