Containment in Skyscrapers chapter 13

[tankicola 111]

Chapter 13

 

There was a resounding smashing of rock, and Redman, Rose, and the other survivors looked up, frozen with terror, to see the ceiling above them crashing to the ground, bodies, metal and wood descending upon the crater into the fumbling mass of people. Most of the debris and rubble caused a wall that blocked the middle of the crater; Redman quickly shoved everyone into the left tunnel just as the entire building collapsed, bringing everything down with an almighty crash. Breathing heavily and clutching the dusty wall for support, Redman tried to think of a plan, though the fear and adrenaline rushing through his body made it impossible to think of anything. As he fruitlessly tried to gather thoughts, a silence fell upon the place, eerie and unnatural. There was a quick scrambling close to the tunnel entrance, which was blocked by rubble. Rose pulled a gun from her pocket at the blocked entrance and asked in a voice of forced calmness: “W-who is there?”

Then she leapt back as a hole was made in the rubble, and Grant’s shaking figure was revealed. His pallid face was covered with dust and dirt; there were deep lacerations on his face, his hands were striped with blood, and his trousers were ripped, revealing skin torn off of his legs. His eyes locked onto Redman pleadingly, desperately. 

Redman flinched as he was pulled out of sight and his screams started to fill the air. 

 

As they travelled further into the labyrinthine tunnels, the air grew even hotter and humid. 

The tunnel walls gleamed oddly in the torchlight, and they seemed to stretch infinitely until Redman stopped, and Rose walked into him.

“What is it?” 

A gargantuan crater, stretching further than the eye could see, and as deep as a sinkhole, had replaced all of the tunnels and where they lead, with only worn and damaged pipes protruding from different holes in what was visible of the walls. Redman looked helplessly at the mess of pipes and then spotted something. “Hey! Over there! Hand me your binoculars, Rose!” 

Rose fumbled inside the small pouch inside her pocket and pulled out a pair of black binoculars. Redman surveyed the place again through the binoculars, and saw, once again, another part of the tunnel, but this time lit up by lights. Then he spotted some strategically cut pipes, which created a pathway right into the only lit tunnel. 

“Hey, can you see that?” asked Redman. Fear swept over him. Bill was standing on one of the pipes, walking towards him. 

“Redman!” shouted Rose, as Redman started firing his gun madly at one of the pipes. 

“Redman! What the hell are you doing?!” 

Redman stopped, breathing fast and then sank to the ground. 

 

He stared at the body of the man. Water still gushed from the split pipe, spilling onto the ground, mingling with the blood and wetting his shoe. 

“What? Who-”

 

Redman whirled round, as the person let out a scream of terror. 

 

“Redman!” shouted Rose. 

Redman sprang to his feet and almost fell down into the crater. 

The rest of the group, except for Rose, were all staring at Redman, alarmed by his behaviour. “What happened?” he asked, shaking his head confusedly. 

“Nothing! You just fell to the floor!” said Rose, observing him suspiciously. 

“It was nothing,” he said awkwardly. 

Rose still looked like she wanted to berate him, but Redman quickly interrupted her. 

“Do you see that tunnel? I think that we should get there,” said Redman, pointing. 

Rose looked to where Redman had pointed and nodded.

“Can we at least get a drink?” piped up one of the recruits. 

 

After getting hydrated again, and jumping precariously from pipe to pipe, they had made it to the new tunnel. Once there, Redman instructed them to follow him. As they ventured further into the tunnel, they spotted desks, water bottles and mouldy food. 

Redman jumped about a foot when he saw a skeletal figure lying on a bed. 

“Don’t worry, it’s dead,” said Rose, pointing at the figure’s face, which was eyeless. 

The figure’s trousers were yellow, it’s the shirt a light shade of grey, and a damp hat was neatly placed on his head.

“Wait, you see these metal things?” asked Cherry, pointing to a twisted metal weapon that was lying next to the body. “These could have been used to break the pipes!” 

“So what?” asked Rose, tearing her eyes away from a dusty photo that was lying on the floor. 

“So, the pipes, they all lead to...to the power plant…”

“What?” asked Redman, turning to look at Cherry, who’s eyes were wide. 

“All of these pipes and tunnels lead into the power plant!” she said, pulling out her map. 

She pointed next to the SPP, where, indeed, there were several main pipes that lead directly underneath into it. But then those pipes split into two different pipes, all criss-crossing underneath the entire city of Skyscrapers. 

“Wait a minute…” said one of the recruits. “The main pipes all stop at the place where-”

“The original attack happened!” interjected Cherry. 

“So you’re telling me that the destruction of the passage underneath the SPP caused the explosions?” asked Redman, looking skeptical. 

“Well, that does make sense,” said Leo, picking up the photo that Rose had been examining. 

Then Redman did something strange. He grabbed the photo that Leo had just picked up and then tossed it into one of the fireplaces that littered the area. 

“Hey!” exclaimed Leo indignantly. 

Rose, too, was looking at Redman, shocked. 

“I’m sorry,” he added hastily. 

As they further progressed into the winding tunnels, the edges of the photo curled and blackened, and all that could be seen was two hands shaking; one in front of a chunk of lemon-yellow fabric, the other thin and adolescent-looking. 

[Person_Random 4,991]

Approved.

Awesome story! There's so much description and plot; and oh, it was tempting to keep reading this during class, but I'm a good kid so I don't. Anyhow, I just found some comma errors here and there, not too much to fix but make sure that you put commas before "and" only when it's connected to another independent clause. Can't wait for more exciting content from you. Keep up the good work!

Edits: comma fixes

[AncientFire 1,894]

i've been following this for quite a while, great one as always!

please please next time use a normal font, this one really hurts my eyes if i keep reading it for too long

[tankicola 111]

11 hours ago, Person_Random said:

Approved.

Awesome story! There's so much description and plot; and oh, it was tempting to keep reading this during class, but I'm a good kid so I don't. Anyhow, I just found some comma errors here and there, not too much to fix but make sure that you put commas before "and" only when it's connected to another independent clause. Can't wait for more exciting content from you. Keep up the good work!

Edits: comma fixes

Thank you for approving and giving tips, I will try not to make comma errors in the next chapter. 

11 hours ago, sarim2345_the_master said:

i've been following this for quite a while, great one as always!

please please next time use a normal font, this one really hurts my eyes if i keep reading it for too long

Thanks again, but I'm not quite sure what you mean. 

Do you mean the default one or just this one?

[AncientFire 1,894]

7 hours ago, tankicola said:

Do you mean the default one or just this one?

default one, which im using right now