Project ELE (12 page)

We stare at each other for a second and then, Alec wakes up from whatever trance he was in. He removes his hands from my waist.

I clear my throat and turn away from Alec so he doesn't see the red flushing my face. I watch as Connor helps Claire down in the same way. I can see the baby pink blush fill her cheeks from having physical contact with Connor. The tunnel is fixated with a slight awkwardness that runs thick in the air.

I grab my flashlight out and turn it on. Connor picks his up from the ground too. We look around at the 'sewage tunnel' in front of us and stare at it for a few seconds realizing that this tunnel is missing one thing: sewage. Back home when I was younger, I would go to the sewage tunnels near the creek by our house. They were about the size of the ones we're in right now, but that's where the similarities stop. The ones by my house always had dirty water running out from somewhere. They also had this distinct smell that would intensify the further in you went. This tunnel just smells slightly musty, like nothing really.

I look to the others who seem just as confused as I am. "This isn't like any sewer I've ever seen," I say aloud. The others furrow their brows and nod in agreement.

"Maybe if we walk further in, things will start to change," says Alec. Leave it to Alec to make sense of a confusing situation.

"Well, Willow, lead the way," Claire says ushering me forward.

Girls in the front and guys in the back; that's how we walk down the long, never-ending tunnel. Strangely, the scenery never changes; it's just cement tunnels, clean as a whistle. I keep listening for dripping water, or some sounds that a typical sewer would make, but come up short. No rats, no sewage, nothing.

As we walk, Claire leans in and whispers to me, "I think he likes you."

I nervously peak behind me to make sure the guys didn't hear. "Who?" I ask her.

She gets a mischievous grin on her face. "Alec, that's who. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

I gawk at her. "Uh, no he doesn't. Besides, I see how Connor looks at you. Now, he's the one that's got it bad!" She smacks me on the shoulder playfully and we giggle.

I turn back to look at the guys and find that we have definitely sparked their attention.

"Something funny ladies?" Alec calls from behind us.

We try and stifle our laughs. "Nope, we're good." I call back to him. Claire elbows me in the arm and I return the favor.

We walk for another ten minutes or so. Claire and I tease each other back and forth, "Does too." "Does not." The guys just roll their eyes at us.

Claire stops suddenly, staring ahead like a deer caught in headlights, not moving. "Do you hear that?"

We all look around exchanging glances of confusion. "Are you hearing things again Claire?" I jab at her.

She doesn't blink an eye. "No, listen. It's like water rippling or dripping; I'm not sure which. Don't you hear it?"

I look to the guys. We shake our heads in unison. "Uh, no Claire, we don't hear anything."

We walk a few yards forward and then the faint sound of something ahead penetrates my ears. Like Claire said, it sounds like water dripping.

"I hear it now," I say. We make our steps lighter as we edge closer to the source of the noise.

It seems dimmer all of a sudden and I look up to see that Connor's flashlight went out. "Good thing we brought extra batteries," He says.

I shine my light on Connor as he digs through his bag to get more batteries. I stifle a chuckle at Connor's appearance. He looks goofy since he's the only one still wearing the goggles.

Alec moves to pull out his flashlight but I say, "No, lets save the other two flashlights for later. Obviously they kill batteries quickly so we should have backups."

Alec nods.

Connor's light flickers back on as he snaps the battery cover back in place. We start moving again. This time Alec is by my side as we walk. The further we go the louder the dripping sound becomes. In fact it doesn't sound like just one drip but several drips of water hitting different surfaces. If you listen just right and open your imagination up you can nearly hear a melody playing out by the inconsistent drips.

We keep walking and I realize that I'm no longer leading us by my memory because the recorded map of the tunnels has already ended. I wonder why the map stopped if the tunnels keep going. I can tell we are moving uphill by the burn and strain my calves are feeling. The dripping sound starts to get muffled as we move upwards. We walk higher up for a few more minutes until our flashlights hit a brick wall up ahead.

"Ah, lame!" Connor calls back from behind us. He rips off his goggles and throws them on the ground.

Disappointment washes over me as I stare at the brick and mortar that blocks our path signaling the end of our journey.

"Hey, it's okay. This was still fun." Alec rubs his hand on my back in a comforting gesture.

I look up at him and realize that we are standing only a breath apart. Alec looks radiant in the dim light and I can see that he really means what he said. He did have fun. I still feel let down that we didn't find something amazing in here but I have to admit that the sense of adventure was still worth it. It was something to do and I got to do it with Alec; a guy I probably never would have hung out with in another life.

"Yeah, it was fun." I say in a whisper as I stare up at his glowing green eyes that seem to be pulling me hypnotically toward him.

"Ahum!" Connor clears his throat loud enough to break my daze. We turn in his direction to see him standing over Claire who has her ear pressed to the ground.

When we walk back over to them she sits up and says, "It's down there. Listen." She puts her ear back to the ground and we all get down following suit.

I groan when I move to my knees. It feels like they are covered in a thousand bruises.

"Shh!" Claire says.

I put my hands up and whisper, "sorry."

"Listen." She gestures for me to put my ear to the ground. I comply this time and I hear the dripping sound. We are right above it! I look up at her with wide eyes.

"How can we get down there?" Alec sits up and asks.

"I don't know but there has to be a way. Let's retrace our steps." We all get up. This time we pull out all four flashlights and bounce them all around the tunnel walls as we walk slowly.

"Got it!" Alec calls out a minute later. I run a few feet ahead to where he is. His flashlight is illuminating a circular metal grate on the floor. It's less than three feet in diameter. We must have walked right past it earlier. We can hear the dripping much clearer from the holes in it.

"Hey Connor, want to give me a hand with this?" Alec asks.

Connor runs up and sees what we’re looking at. "Score!" He says with excitement. He pulls out his knife yet again and starts working on the screws. This grate takes a while longer to pry loose. He has to pull out over twenty screws. Once they are all out both he and Alec work to remove the cover.

We all stand shoulder to shoulder around the now open hole in the ground. We shine our flashlights down into the pit and find another nine-foot drop to a new tunnel. We look back up at each other and silently ask the question of who should go first. Connor volunteers by raising his hand and waiving it around excitedly.

"Wait, if we drop down there, how are we going to get back up?" I ask.

"Good question," Alec answers. "I think we need to plan this through a bit better. Plus, I think it has to be getting close to dinner time."

My stomach growls loudly in response to the thought of dinner. We got so caught up in what we were doing that we didn't even stop to eat our granola bars.

Claire nods her head in agreement. "I think that's wise. We should head back and perhaps try again next Sunday..." She looks up at Alec and asks, "Wait, do you think we will get another day off together next Sunday?"

Alec smiles and says, "I schedule the time off so I don't see why not." We all smile at his answer.

"We could probably find some sort of make shift ladder to bring with us next time." I add.

Connor looks really disappointed but then says, "I guess if we are all going to be sensible then we ought to head back." He places the metal grate over the hole but leaves the screws off. Hopefully nobody will come down here and find it tampered with. For good measure he puts the screws in his pockets so they aren't as noticeable.

We turn and start heading back the way we came. Claire calls out, "Wait!" We all turn back to her. She's still standing by the grate and I'm wondering if she changed her mind about taking on this adventure later. She grins really big and pulls at her giant rubber waders. "I say we leave these here. Just in case we need them next time."

We all start laughing as if we all just remembered how ridiculous we look. "Good idea Claire bear." Connor says. We all stop laughing just long enough to give him a strange look over his new found nick name for Claire. I look over to see her icy blue eyes smiling up at him. I guess she likes it.

I'm the first to start stripping off all the unnecessary gear. "Yep, no use in bringing all this back with us." Alec stares at me and I suddenly feel self-conscious taking off the rubber wader pants. I have my scrubs on below it but it still seems a little weird. He recognizes that I must feel awkward because he averts his eyes and then starts taking off his gear.

A few minutes later we have a giant pile of gear, minus the flashlights, stacked in a neat pile. "We should probably hide this stuff. I mean, I'm not sure how often people come down here but there's no reason to raise a red flag."

"Yeah that sounds good." Alec says. He and Connor pull the grate off again. We shove our stuff clumsily down the hole then re-cover it again.

"Let's go." I lead them out of the tunnels. We get stuck at the platform where we jumped from earlier. I guess we should have thought of the same how are we going to get back up plan before we made this jump..

We shine our lights around looking for something to aid us in climbing up. I know the guys can lift us up but how are they going to get up there.

After finding nada, we decide that Connor will give Alec a boost up and then he will go in search of a rope. Connor gets down on all fours and Alec steps onto his back like he's a human step stool. Connor lets out a grunt as Alec's weight hits him. Alec still has to jump even with the boost Connor gave him. He jumps, then quickly grabs a hold of the ledge and slowly starts pulling himself up. For a second he struggles and I wonder if he's going to fall but eventually he makes his way up.

"I'll be right back." He says mostly to me once he's safely on the platform. He leaves and we wait.

Thirty minutes passes by as we twiddle our thumbs at the bottom of the platform. "I should have gone with him." I say. "I don't know if he will remember his way back or not."

"I'm sure he’ll be fine." Connor says. He pulls out one of the granola bars we packed and opens it up. We all take a small piece of it and chow down gratefully. My stomach still feels hungry.

Two more granola bars and another thirty minutes later Alec still hasn't returned. Both Claire and Connor are sitting on the floor leaning against the platform wall. They look on the verge of falling asleep. I pace back and forth as a worrisome nausea grows in my stomach. I think of the possibilities of Alec being lost out there. Or worse, maybe he got caught.

"I need to go." I look at Connor who is nodding off. "Help me up." I shake his arm to wake him.

"Huh?" He says then clears his vision.

"Help me up." I say pointing to the top of the platform. "I'm going to go find him."

"Um, okay." He stands up slowly. I guess today's adventure took a lot of energy out of him. Or it could be the lack of protein. "How do you want to do this? Do you want to stand on my back like Alec did or do you want to get on my shoulders?"

I gauge the nine-foot distance and try to remember my tree climbing skills from way back in the day. I'm not sure if I have enough upper body strength so I opt for the shoulders.

"Okay then." He leans down really low to the ground. "You stand on my shoulders and then slowly I will raise you up. Just stay close to the wall and use it to balance yourself."

"Okay." I say nervously as I stand on his shoulders. I'm a little more than a foot off the ground and he hasn't even started to stand yet. I'm already feeling wobbly. "Just go slowly please."

He complies and moves slowly off his knees. He inches up to where he's halfway standing. "Can you grab the ledge?" He asks through grunted teeth as my hand gets closer to the top.

"Almost there." Claire calls in support from behind me.

The ledge is just above me so I inch up on my tippy toes and grab ahold of it. Connor stumbles in that second and I start to wobble. "Crap!" I feel like I'm about to fall so I make a last ditch effort to grab at the ledge that is now just above me. I miss and start falling sideways slightly. Connor's hands grip onto my feet and it slows my fall for a second but then gravity takes its ultimate toll and pulls me down to the cold hard concrete with Connor on my tail. It feels like slow motion as I reach my left arm out in front of me to break my fall. No use, it snaps under the weight of my body. I feel my ankle twisting as Connor falls awkwardly on top of me and it all ends with a teeth chattering slam of my head into the concrete. Stars burst in my eyes and the air is knocked out of me as the world goes black.