Jenna found herself moving. Before her head could catch up and tell her how stupid this was, she was already swinging her bat with all her might.
She would never in a million years describe herself as an athlete, but she ended up landing a surprisingly solid strike on the ghoul’s shoulder. It didn’t appear like she’d hurt the thing, but the creature stumbled sideways a couple feet. But at the same time, the bat vibrated violently in her hands, numbing her fingers. It was like she’d hit a brick wall.
Still, the thing fell back, and the other two ghouls hesitated, clearly not sure how to handle this kind of attack. That was good enough for Jenna.
“Head down the tunnel!” she yelled, turning that direction to give Owen and Esme a shove. “We’ll never make it around these three ghouls on our own. We need help.”
As one, she and her new friends ran down thetunnel, nearly tumbling out of control on the inclined floor. But no matter how fast they ran, the ghouls were right there behind them, their claws scrabbling on the rough stone of the tunnel floor.
When they didn’t run into Trevor and Hale after a few hundred feet, Jenna worried that they’d accidentally turned down a side tunnel in the darkness without realizing it. But then she heard snarling and growling from up ahead of them. The next thing she knew, Trevor and Hale were in front of her and the others, going toe-to-toe with a handful of raging ghouls, fighting them off with nothing but their bare hands.
Jenna didn’t slow down to think but simply surged past a stunned Trevor to swing at one of the equally surprised ghouls with her aluminum bat. While she didn’t hurt it, she sure as hell freaked it out so badly it stopped attacking, instead quickly backpedaling and staring at her in confusion.
“The ghouls are behind us!” Owen yelled to Trevor and Hale. “They came out of the holes in the walls and cut us off from the rendezvous point.”
Jenna wasn’t sure what Owen meant about a rendezvous point, but getting cut off from it didn’t sound good.
She didn’t have long to think about it before Trevor appeared at her side, swinging an aluminum bat that he must have gotten from Esme or Maya. He used it to much greater effect than Jenna evercould, that was for sure. When he hit the ghouls, it still didn’t seem to injure them, but they definitely flew through the air.
“Go with Hale,” Trevor said without looking at her. “Help him clear a path back up the tunnel.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he said. “Go!”
Jenna hated the idea of leaving Trevor even for a minute but did as he asked, scrambling up the passage. Hale had a bat now, too, while Esme and Maya stuck close behind him for protection. Trevor’s friend was going after the three creatures who’d chased them down from higher in the tunnel, swinging the bat hard. As she watched, he caught one of the ghouls in the ribs, sending the creature bouncing off the nearest wall. The sound of impact was stunningly loud, even above all the shrieking and yelling going on.
Running up the tunnel was like something out of one of the horror movies Jenna worked on. Strobing lights combined with screams of panic and fear that were punctuated by thuds as she, Trevor, and Hale took their bats to the ghouls again and again. Even scarier were the occasional grunts of pain Trevor and Hale let out. It sounded to her like they were being clawed by the ghouls, but in the darkness, she couldn’t see enough to know for sure. Even with the stupid headlamp she was wearing.
Jenna hadn’t realized they’d made it to the Y intersection where the tunnel had split into twopassages until she heard shouting, and then her brother was in her face, looking pissed off as hell.
“What the hell are you doing down here?” he demanded, yanking the aluminum bat out of her hand, shoving her behind him, slamming the metal weapon straight down onto the head of the nearest ghoul. The thing fell down but was back up again less than a second later.
“You guys were gone too long,” Jenna shouted over the noise. “Esme and Maya started getting worried, so they came to get me to help.”
As he swung the bat again, her brother grumbled something about stubborn sisters who refused to do as they’re told and trying their damnedest to get themselves killed.
“Well, if that’s the way you’re going to be about it, give me my damn softball bat back, and I’ll take care of this myself!” she yelled back.
Connor ignored her as they continued to make their way through the passage, which was starting to get smaller as they approached the entry to the man-made sewer tunnels. Even Jenna had to walk hunched over now. The fact that Trevor, her brother, and their teammates didn’t have flashlights completely boggled the mind. Why the hell had they come down here without them? She could understand if one or two of them had dropped their lights during the struggle, but certainly not all four of them. Had they dropped them?
It was in the middle of this conundrum that everything suddenly went quiet. One second, it was pure bedlam, and the next, complete silence. It was creepy beyond belief.
“Where did they all go?” Mike questioned suspiciously. “There were easily a dozen of those things surrounding us a few seconds ago, and now they decide to give up and run?”
The silence continued, broken only by the sounds of heavy breathing. But as Jenna glanced around, her headlamp taking everyone in, she realized she and the HOPD peeps were the ones gasping for air. Trevor, Connor, and their SWAT teammates didn’t even look winded, even though they’d borne the brunt of the burden when it came to fighting off the ghouls.
Jenna was still regarding Trevor, trying to make sense of that when she saw the blood. His shirt had been torn along one shoulder and was soaked through with something dark that glittered in the beam of light. There was even more along both forearms. Crap, he’d been hurt by one of those creatures and hadn’t said a word.
She’d taken a single step in his direction, heart pounding out of control, when the rumbling started. It was like thunder rolling in the distance. A split second later, pebbles and dust drifted down from the ceiling of the tunnel around them.
“I don’t like this,” Isaac murmured.
Jenna didn’t like it, either.
But the rumbling started to fade and she allowed herself to breathe again. Then a large boulder fell from the ceiling, missing Esme’s shoulder by an inch. Esme screamed and jumped back even as the rumbling resumed and more pieces of the ceiling fell.
“They’re collapsing the tunnel!” Trevor yelled. “Everyone move—fast! We have to get back to the sewer entrance before they drop the whole thing on our heads.”
