The black tidal wave rushed down the tunnel of the sewer, splashing up the walls, flooding towards them faster than seemed possible.
"Run!" Agent Leigh shouted.
Sean and Sophia were already three steps ahead before the word even finished leaving Leigh's mouth. All three sprinted down the grimy sewer tunnel, the filthy water splashing under their feet as they ran, the sound of rushing water building and echoing and crashing as the giant tsunami gained on them.
This is it, Sean thought as he ran. We're dead—for real this time.
Agent Leigh tripped.
She fell hard, hands out in front of her, a short, sharp report coming from her mouth as she splashed into the muck-water. Sean clearly heard the crack of a bone breaking, so loud that it sounded like a gunshot, echoing all around him.
Shit.
Sean immediately slid to a stop, reversing direction. He froze for a split-second when he actually saw the giant wall of black, viscous slime sloshing down on them.
It's moving so fast—no chance.
He fell clumsily to his knees next to Leigh, Ava's phone still in his hand, projecting its light onto where Leigh was holding her ankle.
Her eyes got big when she saw Sean.
"What the hell are you doing, Mather?" she said incredulously. "You need to—"
Sophia collided into Sean, falling against him.
Leigh's eyes got bigger.
"What the—both of you, get out of here now!" she shouted.
No time, Sean wanted to say. In fact, he wanted to say a lot of things, have the time to think about them, to come to peace with them—
But nothing came to him.
The giant swell of thick obsidian liquid was almost on top of them, pouring and splashing and filling the entire tunnel behind. Sean put his arms around both Sophia and Leigh, pulling them close until their heads were touching, the three of them huddling and embracing each other.
"Don't look," Leigh whispered.
The phone slipped from Sean's hands. He caught one last glimpse from the bright, white light of the phone falling, reflecting the giant wave of black ooze raising up above them like it was pouncing, rising all the way up to the ceiling before falling, collapsing and crashing down on top of them—
Sean suddenly heard Ava's voice.
Singing.
The giant dark blob suddenly flared back, up and away, losing its cohesion and splashing down in a volcanic eruption all around them—
But not touching them.
Sean slowly looked up from where the three had their heads bowed together, their arms around each other. The black liquid sloshed around them, giant splashes circling in a ring around them, splitting and melting back into itself, slithering up the walls and dripping and pouring from the ceiling—
Ava's voice continued singing from the phone that had fallen on the ground.
"What's going on?" Sophia whispered.
"It's Ava," Sean whispered back in awe.
The black sludge pooled around them, now slowly swirling and undulating in the dim light of the phone. The liquid crawled up the tunnel walls, over the ceiling, and flooded everywhere in front of them—
But still did nothing.
Sophia gingerly picked up the phone.
"It started playing an audio file on the phone," she whispered, trying to peer through the sludge on the screen without touching it. "There's a bunch of them on here—no real filenames or labels."
"It's Ava singing," Sean said, his eyes huge as he watched the black mire swirl above them and listened to Ava's voice drift over them. He even recognized the song she sang—it was from that stupid group she was so into, that one dumb song in particular being one she had been constantly singing for the last three months—
Practicing.
"She's been recording herself," Sean said quietly, pausing to take a deep breath. "Was, I mean. She heard somewhere that if she listened back to herself, it might help her—help her to—"
He suddenly squeezed them both tighter, not knowing what else to say or do.
"Thank God she did," Leigh said, her voice in wonder as she watched the black goo.
"Not yet," Sean said. "Can you walk?"
"Yes," Leigh responded gratefully. "Just give me a hand."
She immediately collapsed as soon as Sean got her to her feet.
"No," Leigh said.
"Here," Sean said, throwing one of Leigh's arms over his shoulders. Sophia slipped under Leigh's other arm, making sure to keep the phone secured in her other. Ava's voice continued swirling up and down the tunnel.
"There's an access point back up to street level a few hundred yards ahead," Leigh said, her teeth grit.
They slowly made their way through the tunnel, Sean and Sophia helping Leigh hobble along on one leg. The black sludge patiently continued flowing and mixing around them, circling and climbing the walls but never getting too close. Walking through it was eerie, disorienting—like walking into a hypnotizing spiral, reminding Sean of a carnival funhouse he had visited once as a kid, the black residue stretched on forever in front of them and endlessly behind them.
Ava's voice continued on, ebbing and flowing as it rolled and drifted up and down the tunnel.
"What's it doing?" Leigh asked under her breath, her eyes still locked to the roiling wet mass above them.
"It must be reacting to the electro-acoustical waveforms from the phone," Sophia whispered, her voice still in awe as she watched the circling ocean around them. "Incredible."
"Reacting to what?"
"Variations in air pressure," Sophia said, her voice low. "God, I wish I had my oscilloscope right now—can you imagine if the longitudinal waves were somehow rearranging themselves into transverse parallel—"
"Music?" Leigh said incredulously. "It's reacting to music?"
"Sh!" Sean hissed, trying to keep their path straight in the dark. The light he could see was disorienting, like walking into a hypnotists pinwheel.
"I don't know about that," Sophia said. "But it's definitely reacting to the voice of Sean's sister."
Ava? Sean thought. Why the hell would it react to her voice like THAT?
Ava's voice suddenly cut out.
"Oh, no," Sophia whispered.
Drops of black goo began to drop down from above. The liquid around them began to furiously bubble and burble as its swirling sped up, turning into an upside down black crashing ocean. It looked like a slow motion tsunami to Sean's horrified eye—the viscous liquid sluggishly stretched towards them, long tendrils slowly reaching and and aiming from all directions getting closer and closer—
Ava's voice suddenly cut back on.
The black slime that was rushing in immediately flared back, keeping its distance again along the tunnel walls.
"Sophia, what's going?" Sean whispered. Leigh hung heavy on his shoulder, her terrified breathing quietly rushing in his ear.
"I don't know," Sophia said, panic on the edge of her voice, her eyes helplessly scanning the screen of the phone. "I'm scared to touch anything—it may completely quit."
Ava's voice cut out again.
Then flickered back.
"Come on," Sean said, shrugging Leigh's arm up higher onto his shoulder and picking up the pace. "We need to go fast."
They hurried, hobbling Leigh along between the two of them. Leigh groaned and gasped every once in a while, but didn't say anything. The black sea continued circling endlessly, now agitated and frenzied, the giant, black mass seeming to Sean like it was—
Hungry.
He willed himself to continue and ignore that thought, to keep moving forward—to keep it together. His mind kept repeating a mantra with every step deeper through the tunnel; just try and get THEM out of here.
And even though he didn't actually think he was going to be able to save Sophia or Agent Leigh, or himself—
Repeating the mantra allowed him to keep taking that next step.
"There's the ladder," Leigh grunted. Sweat ran down her face, her face tense and tight from the pain.
Ava's voice cut out again.
"Sophia!" Sean shouted.
Sean took Leigh's full weight against him as Sophia let go of her, putting all her attention on the phone and frantically swiping at the screen.
Ava's voice came back on. The mass above them bubbled and frothed.
"I don't know what's happening," Sophia said, still swiping. "The phone is reprogramming itself as I'm using it. We don't have long."
Sean hurriedly hobbled Leigh to the ladder. "Can you get up?"
"I can damn well try."
"Not good enough." Sean put his back against her, his elbows flared out. "Piggyback."
"Officer, I—"
Ava's voice briefly cut out again. Giant black tendrils immediately spiked out of the mass, the pulsating prongs spiking at them—and immediately retracting when her voice resumed.
Agent Leigh hopped up on Sean's back, her arms wrapped around his chest and neck, her legs wrapping around his hips.
Sean turned around, wearing Leigh like a backpack. "Sophia, come on, let's—"
Ava's voice began to cut in and out rapidly.
Sophia's face was tense, her eyes wild, jaw clenched as her fingers flew in all kinds of directions on the phone screen, swiping madly and frantically.
"I can't," she said, her voice tense and breaking. "I can't stop, Sean—or the phone is going to turn off."
Sean's mind was suddenly locked, not able to register what it meant.
Goddammit.
"Give me the phone," he said. "I'll do it."
"You can't, Sean," she said. Sean saw her eyes suddenly filling with tears, eyes that were unable to look away from the screen as she panickedly tapped and swiped. "The file directory structure shifts are increasing at an exponential rate—I'm not going to be able to keep up in a few seconds. Get her out of here."
"Sophia, no—"
"Go!" She suddenly shouted, making him jump.
He immediately hopped on the ladder, forgetting and not even feeling the weight of Leigh on his back anymore, or the tightening of her arms around his neck. He blazed up the ladder to the manhole cover, effortlessly pushing the heavy iron up and revealing the brightening dark sky above the street—
Faster faster FASTER!
He flew up out of the hole, dumping Agent Leigh on the ground and immediately turning around to climb back down into the sewer hole.
"Officer, wait—" Leigh started, grunting in pain as she rolled over.
Ava's voice stopped from below. Sean knelt down in a near panic, hurrying to get back down the hole into the dark depths below, barely even taking the time to look down where he was—
He saw Sophia all the way down at the bottom of the ladder, her face looking up at him, dimly lit from the light of the moon above.
"Climb!" he shouted down at her.
Agent Leigh was suddenly somehow grabbing his shoulders, trying to pull him back. "Mather, stay, there's not time—"
He shrugged her off, and she fell back to the ground. He squatted down next to the hole again, ready to jump and slide down the ladder. Sophia was already a few rungs up; Sean could hear Ava's voice stuttering, cutting in and out as the black liquid splashed and reached up from the ground underneath Sophia, getting closer and closer—
Her terrified face looked up, her eyes wide and scared, tears running down her cheeks.
Sophia reached one hand up as Sean reached down—
A massive black wave suddenly exploded down the tunnel, hitting her like a freight train, and she disappeared, washed away in a sudden massive flood of rushing black river.
"Sophia!" he screamed, his voice cracking and breaking halfway through her name.
The rushing river began to rise and flood up towards him.
"The cover!" Leigh shouted.
Sean immediately reacted, using all his strength to slide the heavy manhole cover back over the hole. It clunked down heavily in place, almost taking his fingers off in the process.
Sophia. Sean remained knelt, completely motionless. Nothing came to his mind; nothing felt real.
Agent Leigh was suddenly there, grabbing his shoulders again. "Officer, come on, we have to go!"
I don't care anymore, he wanted to say. Enough is enough. I can't run anymore.
The sound of screeching car tires suddenly exploded through the night. The sound of a car engine roared throughout the night, and both their heads flew up from where they knelt on the pavement in the middle of the street—
Tosee bright headlights speeding and bearing down on them.