The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All

Chapter 20 - The Tunnel People

“It said this way to Sick’s Stadium on the sign.” Zach offered meekly.

“So?” Zoe snapped.

“So, remember last summer, that plaque by home plate?” Penny looked at Zoe, “Oh, you wouldn’t remember, cause you guys weren’t there. But there’s a drug company where there used to be a baseball stadium. We’ll tell you all about it on the way. We can definitely get home from there.”

They gathered Gabe and Cassie and started walking down the tunnel. As they saw the next station approaching, they doused their flashlights.

“I’m gonna run ahead and scout out the station. Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Zoe turned and ran in a crouch toward the dim lights of the next station.

It took a minute for her eyes to adjust but when they did she could see human shapes on both sides of the tracks. Some looked like they were sleeping. Some looked to be in conversation in small groups. The large tiled letters on the walls read “Jackson Street”. Zoe snuck back to the group.

“This station is filled with tunnel people and it’s not our station anyway. I say we walk right down the tracks. If we stay low and quiet, nobody will notice us.” Zoe reported.

“What do we do if there are tunnel people in our station?” Binny asked in a considerably more conciliatory voice than she had reserved for her brother.

“Let’s worry about one thing at a time.” Penny said.

With Zoe in the front, and Zach at the back of the line, the kids made it through Jackson Street station unscathed. Binny worried that Cassie might be too loud, or fidgety to follow Zoe’s plan, but the old man who had yelled at them had apparently given Cassie plenty of reason to follow instructions.

“Did you see any exits in the last station?” Penny asked.

Zach took another tentative step back into the discussion. “There were stairs on each side of the tracks in both of the previous stations.”

“So all we have to do is figure out how to get up the stairs in the Sick’s station without attracting any attention.” Penny concluded.

The six children walked in silence for several minutes as they contemplated the challenge ahead.

As they approached the now familiar hazy yellow light of the ad-hoc light bulbs the tunnel people had strung up in each station, everyone turned off their flashlights.

“I’ll run ahead and scout again.” Zoe volunteered.

But before she could leave, Binny grabbed her arm, and put her finger to her lips. Binny made sure everyone saw her signal, and then motioned everyone to crouch. 

In the distance, from the center of the upcoming station, a hazy outline of a human being was moving in their direction.

Bunched up against the side of the trench where the trains would have run, the kids tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. Each watched the shape as it moved slowly towards them.

Binny had ventured briefly into the minds of the tunnel people as they’d passed the last station. Their minds were like nothing she’d ever seen. She felt bad for having looked. For many of them, something was clearly wrong. Their thoughts were a jumble as if she was looking through a greasy crystal. Images were distorted and misshapen. For the few who had clearer images, they were coated in a dingy brown and grey. Everything Binny saw was either sad or scary.

Binny focused on the shape coming towards them, first with her eyes, and then with her inner eye. The figure was small – under five feet for sure. Binny guessed it was a woman though she wasn’t entirely sure why other than her size. The woman was wrapped in maybe half a dozen blankets. Wisps of long white hair escaped her makeshift hood in various places. Binny looked upward in her mind.