Ok, Who Got Bitten?

Ass Dialing and Other Unfortunate Happenings

Rushing water and a putrid smell, the slick rungs of the ladder squishing underneath my palms, some sort of weird algae growing there. Everything I could sense perfectly except for what lay below— I could smell, hear, and feel. I could even taste the bitter tang hanging in the moist air, some sort of earthy mildew making my tongue burn. I just couldn’t see for shit.

Their voices had quieted as they waited for me to climb down. My foot brushed the bottom of the long tunnel before I heard their ragged breaths— the noise of the dripping water had drowned them out until I was right next to them. Above I could hear the scrabbling of the dead.

I carefully lowered myself down and felt something wet squish under me. A hot, humid mist seemed to permeate the air, and I instantly began sweating. Down here it was at least ten degrees warmer than outside and a film formed quickly on my body, the dirt and blood all mixing with the sweat. I yearned for a hot shower and some shampoo. My body ached all over, sore in every imaginable place, and a rash had formed on my inner thighs from all my running. I needed a rest.

But with the sounds of zombies above, we couldn’t stop here.

“I can’t see a thing,” the voice of Madison drifted over, off to my left. “It’s so dark down here.”

“It’s spooky,” Savannah’s voice echoed a distance back. “How are we going to find our way out?” It sounded like we were in a fairly large chamber, the floor covered in a shallow pool of water, that steady running drip drip drip plinking into even more water somewhere further down the tunnels. From the sounds of it there were multiple channels and pipes branching off in different directions.

“Sam,” Rachael’s distraught voice called out, and I felt a hand extended and grab my arm. “I’m so scared.” She wrapped her arms around me and I felt her entire body shaking. “I wanna go home. We never should’ve left.”

“I know,” my own voice came out, screechy and hoarse, my throat feeling raw from all of the screaming I’d done. “I never should have brought any of you here. We should have just holed up in one of the houses and stayed. At least then… then Amanda and Cassandra wouldn’t have…”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Madison said, edging over to me. Suddenly a hand whacked me in the face.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry,” she laughed nervously, “I can’t see a damn thing in here.” She felt around in the darkness once again and gently laid a hand on my shoulder. “You couldn’t have known this would happen. It’s not your fault. Besides, we all wanted to get out. At least Amanda and Cassandra aren’t down here…”

“Guys,” Savannah called, her voice further away. “Come over here. There’s a huge tunnel.”

“Hey, don’t go wandering off!” I yelled, my voice reverberating off of the walls amid the splashing and that annoying drip. I pulled away from my sister and walked toward where her voice had come from. “Stay with the group. Who knows how many branches this sewer can take us down.”

“That’s right, brat,” Madison said behind me. “Don’t get lost or I’ll kill you.”

“Come here then.”

We followed her voice until I bumped right into her, accidentally stepping on her foot, my own feet sliding over the slick ground. I grabbed her arm to stay upright— I didn’t need to get any more dirty, nor did I want to fall into the sludge— and nearly brought her down with me.

“Hey, watch it!”

“Sorry. If it’s any consolation, I just got pimp slapped by Madison,” I joked. Or tried to— I didn’t even smile, in all honesty.