Pipes

"Eliot to base, can you hear me?" After a few seconds the walkie talkie sounded off and a woman's voice spoke. "Roger Eli, we're getting you loud and clear. How are your visuals?" I reached up and turned on my head lamp. It illuminated the small room around me. It was the service tunnel entrance to the sewer piping. Ahead of me was a huge pipe, just big enough for me to crouch through. Several pipes hung on the wall leading from the entrance down into the large pipe. Water dripped down from the roof of the pipe into a knee high river, and the tunnel continued as far as I could see. "It's manageable, I have a flashlight I can use to increase visibility if needed." "Roger, report back what you find." This time it was a man's voice, my boss's. I hooked my radio to my belt and approached the barely human sized pipe. It would be a tight squeeze but I could make it through. I lowered my legs into the liquid and tried not to think about what was in it. As my feet hit the squishy bottom I tried to think about why I was doing this. "I really hope my boots keep my feet dry..."

About a week ago I was just coming into work when I heard two of my coworkers having it out. "...the strangest thing. The PH balance shouldn't be this high." One of my female coworkers was talking with my boss. She was waving a stack of papers around in his face. "Look Ann, a high PH is the least of the worries, we've got more important things to worry about." I set my bag down at my desk and listened in. "Jim there is clearly something big down there, why else would the PH be so high?" He sighed and put his hand to his head. He squeezed the bridge of nose and scrunched up his face. "Look I can't authorize what you're asking. It would be too dangerous." "Why would it be dangerous?" I interupted them, wondering what was going on. They both turned and greeted me. Ann gave me a smile and a small wave while Jim gave me an exhausted 'hello.' "We were doing tests on the sewer water, these are the results." She handed me the stack of papers and I looked them over. "She's right, these readings would be normal back when dinosaurs were around." Jim threw his hands out in frustration. "I know but we can't just force someone to go down there. If someone gets hurt imagine the repercussions. Especially if there is something big down there." I handed the papers back to Ann and thought about it. I'd always wanted to find a new species, in fact I promised someone I would. "Tell you what, I'll go down there." Jim sighed and Ann was all smiles. "Really? You'll do it?" I nodded. "On one condition; I get to name whatever I find down there." Ann agreed while Jim walked off toward his office. "I guess I'll start writing up a contract..."

I'd been moving through the slosh for about a half hour before I found a fork in the road. "You should be coming up on where they took the samples do you see anything weird?" I pulled out my flashlight to increase visibility. I looked around and it was just a big old pipe that split into two directions. "Nothing I can really make out here Ann, but which way should I go?" After a few minutes of uneasy silence Jim responded. "Well, to the left leads to a room with a few access panels. The right continues on." I thought about it for a minute before trudging to the left. "I'm going to check out the access room, did they check it when they took the sample?" "No, naturally they rushed out after getting the sample." After traveling in their boots I could understand why. Even wearing a nose pincher barely kept the smell of sewege and sludge out of my nose. "Yeah the smell is pretty bad." Eventually I came to an opening with some stairs. I climbed up and out of the soup. I brushed as much of it off as I could before I continued. I flipped the switch next to it and the light above us flicked on and immediately off. "Well, electricity is shot." I tried the doorknob and it opened without a problem. I pushed the door open slowy and pointed my flashlight in. "Hey Ann, what is supposed to be in the room?" "A few consoles, screens, closets. You know, those sorts of things." I pushed the door open and got a full view of the room. The screens were smashed and the consoles were torn apart by vines. They covered almost all of the walls and wrapped around onto the floor. I relayed the sight to the people above. "Are the consoles operational? They control the bulkheads in the area. They might be useful if you run into something." If I run into something? Wow, Jim might be starting to believe. I approached the computers and tapped a couple buttons. I fiddled with them for a few minutes without anything to gain. "Negative, it looks like the vines have cut through most of the electronics." I looked around for a few minutes and found nothing of value. I turned back around to go back into the liquid, but I paused. Why? Because the smooth surface was disrupted by a huge ripple. I backed into the room, slowly shut the door, and relayed what I saw once more. "Get out of there." "Well of course Jim, but yeah seriously Eli you should probably snap a picture of it and come back up." "If it is making waves as big as you say they are, then don't bother. Get out." After a few seconds I haerd the metal door creak like something was leaning against it. "No Eli make sure you..." ".....Shhhh stop talking you two." I said this as quietly as I could while still being able to get picked up by the microphone. The coms went silent. The room went silent. I covered my mouth in an attempt to be silent and ducked under the consoles to the left.

I watched my sister round the corner of the kitchen. "Hey Mom do you know where Eliot is?" I heard my Mom laugh from outside my field of vision. "I don't know honey. Do you hear him anywhere?" From my hiding spot I saw her tilt her head and then her eyes slowly turned towards me. "He's in here!"

The silence was obliterated by the something slamming into the door. The first time blew the bolts from the hinges. A second one sent the door flying at the other wall. After a few seconds of thew scariest silence I've ever experienced I heard something. Click Click At first I thought it was the sound of dripping water onto the metal plated ground. Click Click It sorta reminded me of the sound clawed feet make againts tile. Click Click I glanced down and in the darkness I could faintly see the flashlight in my shaking hand. Should I risk it all and see what it was? Or should I play it safe? It felt like my chest was going to explode. Click "Eli is everything okay? You've been silent for a while?" Ann's voice rang out from the radio. I scrambeled to silence her. This time I didn't hear another 'click' but in the darkness I thought I heard something even more concerning; something's nose sniffing around. Something was in here with me. Click Click This time it was heading towards me. What do I do? Change it's direction? But how? Click Click I could throw throw something, it might go after the sound, but what? The only things that would make enough noise were the radio or my flashlight. Click Click As the beast's breathe penetrated my nose I decided to hedge my bets. I adjusted my footing to run out of here as fast as possible. Okay, on three. One. Two... Three! I brought my right arm along my body and whipped it back. On the rebound I threw my flashlight. It clattered against the wall before falling to the ground. As soon as it left my hand I launched myself towards the door. For an instant while the flashlight fell light shown what I was up against. Even though I onlu saw a little of it before I left the room it filled me with dread. It had scales but I swear I saw hair near it's ears. Speaking of it's ears, they were pointed, almost like a dog's. And it's size? It was bigger than an alligator. As I sprinted past the, now busted up, doorway my foot hit something sizable and I went down hard. I closed my eyes and held my breathe as I bellyflopped into the water. I struggled to hold in my lunch just as much as I struggled trying to stand. When I surfaced I heard the creature thrashing about. "Eaueauuuuuu!!" It let out this strange sound, almost like a roar. Or maybe it was trying to comunicate? I splashed to my feet and stopped a few yards ahead. I needed to escape but would it follow me out? Would I endanger others? As sudden as it's appearance the thrashing stopped. I trudged as fast as I could through the water to the left, further into the tunnel. After a minute or two I turned my headlamp on. It flickered for a second before illuminating more of what I've known; piping. Ugh, how far does this thing go? Before I could take another step I heard something that sent fear cascading throughout my body. It was a simple noise. Just a small splash, echoing toward me. I returned to trudging through as fast as I could. I grabbed my radio and turned it up just enough to hear. "Ann, Jim, come in. I found the animal but it's chasing me away from the entrance. Is there another way out?" Between my whispers and a response it was only ten seconds. It felt like an eternity. "Eli thank God! We thought you were toast. Jim is looking at some maps for an alternate way out." I continued ,oving, even when the hairs on my body stood up and I could feel goosebumps throughout. It was a sign, that something was following me. I continued moving until I heard Jim's voice. "Eliot if you can make it a little farther there is a manhole covering you can exit." Okay, an exit. I can work with that. "Alright, I'll make my way..." I froze and swallowed hard. "...I think it just brushed up against me." Both of their voices called out from my radio simultaneously. "Get out of there!" I grabbed my radio and snapped at them. "Shhh, what do you think I'm--" I felt large teeth latch onto my left leg and before I could react I felt myself get yanked downwards. Water rushed up my nose and my leg throbbed. I felt myself being thrashed back and forth in the water. With my light I could barely make it out in front of me. In an act of desperation I jabbed my radio into it's ear. It let go of my leg and bubbles erupted from his mouth. With my right leg I pushed off it to surface and thrashed through the water away from the beast. My light flickered on and off as I put distance between the two of us. And then I saw it, my one shining glimmer of hope. A small reflection of light off of a ladder. As I grabbed onto the rung of the ladder I heard splashing behind me. The adrenaline wasn't enough to hide my leg pain as I tried climbing the ladder. Each strand of torn muscle throbbed and the crushed bone collapsed with every rung. When I got about halfway the cover opened up and I was blinded by the light. The splashing got louder and louder as I saw the person who opened it; Ann. Her arms reached out and I grabbed her hand, just as I felt an astronomical amount of pain. Her face pulling me out was the last thing I saw before I lost consciousness.

"Mom, is Meg going to be okay?" We were standing outside of her room in the hospital. My Mom sighed hard. Her eyes had dark circles like she had been crying. "Eliot, I can't lie to you. This is your chance to say goodbye." She put her hand on the doorknob and pushed the door open slowly. Beep. Beep. Beep. I remember the beeping of her monitor. "Eli? Are you there? I can't see you..." Her eyes were covered by the same wrapping that continued up onto her her. The nurse next to her had just finished wrapping her up, yet the fresh wrappings were already stained red. "Yeah I'm here Meg..." Her little mouth curved into a smile. "I guess you're going to win at hide and seek from now on huh? Hee hee." I felt tears welling up in my eyes. "Yeah, I uh. I guess you're right." Beep. Beep. Beep. "Hey Eli, are you going to look for new animals like we said we would?" Tears began streaming down my face. "Mmhmm. Yeah, I'll try..." "Can you name one after me?" Beep. Beep Beeeeep...

Beep. Beep. Beep. "Ann?" My whole lower half was throbbing. I tried to look down but I felt two hands on my chest stop me. Ann's scared face looked over me. "Eli, don't look down. You're not doing so good..." Her eyes reminded of my Mom's. The dark circles, the tears. "Am I?" Beep. Beep. Beep. She nodded slowly. I breathed in slowly, remembering my sisters last moments. "Hey can you name that thing after my sister? I made her a promise." She smiled and nodded, just as everything went dark.