Echoes in Cold Tunnels

"What... what was that?" Neri's whisper echoed, and even she cringed.

Dray couldn't hear anything under their own breathing, just a faint drip. Just something he wasn't sure was a feeling or not, like silence creeping closer, cotton-wool fuzzing his ears—

"I can hear breathing." Erold's voice shook. "It's here— it's ahead of us."

But that sound had come from behind. From... from the skid. He snapped his gaze forward, straining to see eyes glowing in the pitch-black, every hair raising on the back of his neck as the shadows crept closer in the corner of his eye.

A guttural click echoed from everywhere at once, freezing them.

"Oh no," Neri whimpered.

"Keep going." Dray pushed them all forwards, Stov already lurching for the edge of another gaping tunnel mouth flickering at the edge of the light. "We need to get out of here. We're in the warrens, it's not far."

Another click echoed from everywhere at once. Multiples or just one? From both sides?

The cold drifted up from his feet to wrap around his neck, and Dray swallowed hard. "Does that sound like more than one to you?"

"Could just be the acoustics." Stov's voice was as tight as his.

There shouldn't be more. There couldn't be more. One slipping under the force's nose somehow was already something that just didn't happen. But an entire kinmit—

"Fold it. I don't care if there's a shrihking legion. We're ixnaying to Hahll—sluhking out of here." Stov picked up the pace, ducking under dangling roots, wildly-flickering lights throwing horned shadows across the walls. "I have better things to do than get eaten by a horde of sluhking shaerrolves."

Dray tried to laugh, a shudder crawling across his shoulders, phantom breathing on the back of his neck but nothing there when he glanced back. "Hey, shaerrolves don't exist—"

A wet rattle that felt like it shook the walls stole all the air in his lungs, a shadow shifting past roots and crumbled stones.

It came from ahead.

The lights ducked down a left, Stov's swearing echoing strangely, but Dray couldn't see any eyes as he ducked a veil of hairy roots. Just sliding shadows, and glints on narrow walls. Just that sound fading away.

The shadows messed with him, strange fungi on the walls and roots winding through them twisting into claws crawling at the edges of his MIP's pale glow. And all he could hear was the quick squeaking plip-plap of rubber soles on wet squish under his own breathing.

"Stov, I think we've...." He trailed off as a chill brushed the side of his face, and threw a glance back. Nothing. But it almost— for a moment something like a sigh resonated down the tunnel, tingling at his ears.

"Where in Hahll is it?" Stov ducked down another crossroad, almost breaking from a jog into a flat-out run, and Dray had to snatch the scruff of Erold's shirt to stop him from falling as he slipped on something.

"That sound was behind us," Erold hissed.

"No it was ahead. I saw eyes."

Dray threw a glance back. "I can't see anything."

"This place is playing tricks on us," Neri panted.

Another soft rattle haunted them, like a clicking cackle, and they took another random turn down a right. The wrong way. Out towards the old crumbles, not the nearest maintenance basement. Wasn't it?

A rusted grate flashed by, something glinting in the shallow water. No, this was definitely the branch-off. If they kept going down here they'd wind up all the way outside the city.

"Stov! Take a right!" he called ahead, pulse pounding in his ears. He swore he could hear splashing behind them. There was nothing there when he looked.

“Shihk! Back! Back!”

What—? He stumbled to a halt, twisting to avoid crashing into Erold as Stov pushed at Neri, shoving them all the other way. Why the—?

A rumbling click, like a cackle, echoed. From ahead.

Shihk. Every hair lifted on the back of his neck, and he launched back down the way they'd just come. How—?

Resisting to urge to glance over his shoulder, he swung around into a side route nearly overgrown by roots. A pipe like this should lead down to one of the basements. But only blackness stretched in front of him, lit haphazardly by his MIP. Couldn’t see anything yet.

Another hole on his right, but there should be one soon on the left—

A shadow stretching through the darkness with glinting yellow eyes jerked him to a halt. He’d thought it was behind—

Erold crashed into his back. “Nghf!” He stumbled into the wall, turning and pushing him back the other way. “It’s here! Tunnel— back on the left.”

"How is— is it—?"

"Just go!"

"No no," Neri whimpered, her voice echoing under the splash of their feet. More cackling rumbles rang off the walls, mocking them.

We’re not going the right way. If they kept heading down here they could get herded into a dead end. No way out. It’s like it’s trying to—

Oh shihk. It probably was. If it could get them contained anywhere, it could do whatever it wanted— No. No. No. He shoved back images of them all getting mauled, bringing his MIP up.

He stabbed at the glowing keys, managing to bring Stov's contact up. We are not getting mauled here. If they could play it right— We can outsmart it.

Had to get out of here, had to get back. They still had a damn floffie to give to Atia, they couldn't die here.

Dammit, just because of a— He choked an excuse for a laugh, sending something he hoped was intelligible to Stov, the ping echoing back instantly.

Stov yelled something incoherent. In response, Dray slapped a "left" symbol, ducking a mutant fungus and squishing right on something. It was the closest basement, all they needed to do—

“Ngh-hf—” His shoe slipped, a feeling like mud stuck to the bottom.

—was get to it.

“You’re crazy!”

That one rang out loud and clear.

Gritting his teeth, he yelled back, “Just don't let it herd you any other way! Follow Stov!”

We’ll be there for Atia’s moving up. They wouldn’t die here underground, surrounded by the damp smell of mildew and rotting plants.

Ripping a lump of squishy mushroom off the wall, he put on a burst of speed, ducking past Erold and sliding into the open space of a four-way junction just as a cackling rumble churred from ahead. From— from all sides.

The darkness curled along the edges of the light, shadowy fingers crawling like living roots out of the tunnels, a shuddering, gurgling clicking freezing the breath in his lungs. Like the walls themselves had grown teeth.

Feet splashed shakily away from the yellow glow approaching, away from the shadow stalking through the dark, and back towards sharp jaws.

Dray seized a hissing breath and hurled his handful of muck.

The rumbling cut off with a yelp, and he might've found it funny if the shadows hadn't immediately snapped straight at him.

"GO!" Lunging to the side, he felt sharp edges hiss a hair away, his heart in his throat.

Wild splashing and ragged gasping rang out, shadows rippling as yellow eyes snapped away from him, to a frozen Erold.

Dray's breath strangled. What the kritz was Erold doing? The thyre’s muscles tensed in a slowed fraction of a second, and his fingers snatched for something sharp. “Stov! GET HIM THE SLUHK OUT OF HERE!”

Dray launched it with a hoarse yell, and the shadow twitched fluidly away, yellow eyes locking solidly on his again. Shihk—

Dark glinting edges slashed straight for him.

He threw his arm up, twisting out of the way. Not fast enough to avoid the flashing heat that lanced across his skin. “Nhha—”

The light of his MIP scattered like a firework and burned out, leaving him throwing himself blindly into the dark, diving to skid straight down a slope.

Rolling into a splashing tumble at the bottom, he stumbled up again into an uncoordinated run, lights glimmering up on a ladder.

Could barely see—everything flickering shadows and shades of black. A ledge loomed above him and he threw himself up, hauling over the top. Dashing up after bobbing lights, he half-tripped over dark steps, catching up just as a door slammed open.

Cold, fresh air brushed his face as his hands slammed into a metal rail, one slick and red. Stars and lit, jumbled houses stretched in front of him. The surface.

Lish. We made it.