The floorboard began to melt under Sean's feet, a black, crude oil bubbling up from underneath.
"It's under the car!" Sean shouted.
Agent Johnson immediately stomped on the brakes. The anti-lock brakes kicked in, the transmission brrrr'ing loudly as the BMW rolled to an instant stop. All four doors flung open, and all four bolted out, Fury scrambling behind them. Sean stopped for a split second, reaching back inside to snatch Ava's cell phone off the seat.
And narrowly avoiding the black goo climbing up and out of the floor.
"This way!" Agent Leigh yelled.
Sean and Sophia followed her to behind and past rear of the BMW. Agent Johnson strode quickly behind, reloading his shotgun. He stopped at the back of the SUV, reaching inside to grab a tactical bag and breacher bar. He tossed the bar to Leigh, who immediately took off down the middle of the street, stopping at a manhole cover.
The black blob began to pour out of the windows of the SUV, filling the entire interior and squeezing everything inside.
Go! Sean's mind yelled.
He snapped himself out of his horror and inaction, grabbing Sophia's hand and running to Leigh—she was standing in the middle of the street over the manhole cover. She inserted the breaker bar into the heavy cover, then pulled back with all her might.
The cover flipped over like a giant iron coin, landing with a giant metal clang, revealing a gaping, black hole—
And a black, rusted metal ladder led straight down into the darkness.
"Hurry," Leigh urged, helping Sophia start her way down the hole. Fury came skittering up, sliding to a stop at Sean's feet and looking up.
There was a giant BOOM! from behind them—Agent Johnson's shotgun.
"You can't come this time," Sean hissed at Fury. "Go!"
Fury whined.
"Hurry up!" Leigh said.
"There's no way for you to get down there. Get out of here!"
Fury began urgently tippy-tapping around.
There was another giant repercussive blast: BOOM!
"Officer, if you don't get your ass down there, I'm going to—" Agent Leigh started.
Sean hissed at Fury, "Meet us at Morgantown Mall, alright? Now get the hell out of here!"
Fury barked once, then darted away.
Thank God.
Sean swiftly clambored down the metal rungs, his boots clunking and tapping as he nimbly skipped steps. Agent Leigh came sliding down the ladder right after him, gripping the siderails with her hands—Sean's boots had barely splashed the unseen water on the ground when Agent Leigh suddenly fell right into his arms.
She was surprisingly light, and... nice, to hold. He breathed in scented drifts of something very nice, very pleasing—maybe lotion, or a mix of light, sweet fragrances.
Bro, now is NOT the time for this. You're as bad as Ava.
"You can put me down now, Officer," Agent Leigh said.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Sean set her down.
Agent Johnson's face appeared above, blocking dim light was coming from the opening of the manhole. He dropped the tactical bag down to Agent Leigh.
And then the manhole cover slid back over them, throwing them into total darkness.
"Wait, what about him?" Sean said. "Isn't he—"
The shotgun began to fire again.
"He'll meet us there," Agent Leigh's voice floated out of the darkness, along with the sound of her digging into the tactical bag. "We need to move fast. There's some flashlights in here..."
Sean realized he had lost his own flashlight somewhere—he pulled Ava's phone from his pocket, aiming the screen so Leigh could see inside the bag. The phone was stuck on full brightness, unable to lock or be turned off.
There was a sudden loud, heavy THUMP! from above—too short and percussive to be from the shotgun.
Was that—was that a GRENADE?
The manhole cover above began to drip a thick black substance.
Agent Leigh quickly flicked on a flashlight, pointing it down the long tunnel. "This way—north."
Her beam swung around as they hurried down the tunnel, revealing the slimy curved sewer walls covered in a dull, green sludge. Thick drops of water dripped and plinked from the mossy stone arched ceiling, the flashlight reflecting back the puddles of shiny, dark slime on the ground. Their shoes and boots made little splashes in the muck as they ran.
Agent Leigh tossed her flashlight to Sophia, reaching into the bag to pull out a bunch of papers—it took Sean a moment to realize they were maps.
They stopped at a giant junction, panting and trying to catch their breath. Leigh unfolded one of the maps, and Sean held Ava's phone light up for her.
"Drainage map," Leigh said, breathing heavy as she traced her finger across the map. "We can cut straight to Morgantown down this east main. Can that phone make calls?"
"No," Sean said, trying to tap the screen. Sophia was right about the operating system on the phone—all Sean saw were words floating on a white background. Still in English, but plain—like a text document. He swiped, and the phone loaded some text about a Honda manufacturing plant.
"Definitely not," Sophia said. "It's only powered because it modified itself to be immune to its own EMP field—and taught itself how to program with its own programming language."
Leigh flashed her light to the tunnel to their right, where a slick, mossy trench of filthy water ran down the middle of it like a river. "Was there anything you saw that could tell us why Morgantown?"
"Nothing that stood out," Sophia answered.
"What about you, Officer Mather?"
Sean kept tapping at the phone. "I don't know why it would want to go there, but—" His voice hitched. "But Ava was supposed to be at that America's Voice show."
Agent Leigh froze, her flashlight aimed at Sean's face. "Wait—your sister was supposed to be there? That Ava?"
"Uh... guys?" Sophia said.
"She was going to try out for the show, yes," Sean said.
"And you didn't think that maybe might have been a little important to tell me?"
"Guys?" Sophia said, a little more urgently.
"I forgot," Sean said. "I'm sorry, okay? There was a lot going on."
"I realize that, Officer, but it should be pretty obvious even to you—"
"Guys!" Sophia shouted.
Sean and Leigh both turned. "What?!"
Sophia pointed behind them.
A huge tidal wave of black, viscous liquid was flooding down the tunnel towards them.