Tunnel Vision

He had lost all track of how far he had come down the tunnel. What began near the surface, with sunlight pouring in, illuminating the stairway had quickly become a winding, wet darkness that just seemed to stretch on forever.

The smell stuck with him the most. It was invasive. Choking. It reached its hand deep down into his chest and squeezed, forcing out all the air. He hadn't smelled anything similar in some time - not since he was a child in his basement. That moldy, mildew-ridden odor that just clung to everything - the closest smell to death without any loss of life. He swore he could hear it seeping from of the bricks that surrounded him, see it pouring out from between the cracks. The spores floating ahead of him in the air.

The initial group of calls that came in to the office were about how phones and electrical circuits were cutting out around the city. At first, no one thought anything about it. With the storm that had just rolled through, a few problems were bound to arise. But as a few days passed and more calls began flooding in, it became clear that something was seriously wrong. Paul had been sent down a couple hours before to check things out but no one had heard from him. Everyone assumed it was some major problem since Paul was known to have a fix for everything. His lack of contact was shrugged off. It could have been a number of things, dead batteries, poor reception, he was busy fixing something. The boss decided to send someone else down to see what was going on and it was just luck that he was next in line.

It had been some time since he had last been assigned to go into the tunnels - at least a year. They had been built long before, when the city was really just beginning to flourish. Usually, the lights that hung overhead would be on, but much like the rest of the city, they were out as well - just dangling glass shells, useless to him now.

There was something about walking deeper into the tunnel that was making him uneasy. It wasn't just the absence of light, but the slight breeze that kept playing with the hairs on the back of his neck. It wasn't constant, but almost pulsing, and warm. Sticky. Every time he'd feel it, he'd turn around, illuminating the path behind him, only to find nothing. There was also a faint sound that kept echoing along the walls around him, resonating from further ahead. It was a combination of what sounded like something heavy being dragged across the floor and nails running along a rough surface, stopping every couple of seconds as they got caught in a groove.

As he continued on his way, he had only made it a couple more feet when he heard the scream echo towards him. A scream that resonated from the pit of one's chest, as the last available air rushes out of the body - unlike anything he had heard before. So foreign he wasn't sure if it was even human. It came towards him, bouncing off the bricks, hitting him and continuing down the tunnel, echoing until it finally dissipated. When it was just about gone, his lights started to flicker.

He instinctively hit them, but knew it wasn't going to solve anything. He had made sure before he left the office to replace the batteries and to secure the lids. All he could think back to was when he was a child and he brothers and sisters would scare him at night telling him ghost stories. Specifically that the bogey man lived deep within burrows in the Earth and had the ability to absorb light, plunging the world into darkness. Fear attractive him. The flesh of humans fueled him.

Scared, he pushed his childhood memories and fears out of his head and continued on. He knew the type of man his boss was, and if he were to return to the office without and answer, he knew he'd never be able to live it down.

The deeper he went, the more his lights flickered. The spaces in between on and off grew.

Light.

Dark.

Light.

Dark.

It wasn't long before he was just walking forward, not expecting for his lights to come back on, hands gliding along the walls for guidance. When his fingers touched something wet, he stopped. It was warm. Praying, he smacked his headlamp. For a brief second, it turned on, revealing a large smear of blood that continued along the bricks. As the light flickered off he heard breathing not far up the tunnel from where he was standing. His heart dropped. Before he was fully aware of what he was doing, he was turned around, running as fast as he could through the blackness, hoping he didn't fall. Somewhere behind him he swore he heard a snarl and the smacking of feet against cement.

Whatever it was - it was gaining on him. Fast. He didn't know what to do. To cry, call for help. To turn around and face it in the dark.

It wasn't until he felt the breath directly on the back of his neck did he realize that screaming was the correct answer.
______________________________________________________________

If the slamming of the phone didn't convey how angry he was, the deep crimson color of the Boss's face certainly did.

"Jerry! Get in here. I don't know what these boys are doing down there, but they're not answering their damn phones! You're next. Strap on your gear and get down there!"

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