entrance she was skeptic that she may have gone too far. Unfortunately, she could hear Robert’s feet in the distance approaching the direction he’d heard her depart and she could hear his changing voice calling her name. Having suddenly run out of options, she decided to disappear behind a large tree and wait to be found as these were the conditions to determine who was to give and receive their first kiss.
Robert observed his surroundings and quickly discovered the large tunnel as well. Deciding that Alice might think that he wouldn’t have the gall to enter such a dark and foreboding cavern he plunged in with little forethought. Alice grinned to herself with satisfaction. Robert would no doubt have his digital device with him which would allow him some light in the darkness. There was very little to be concerned about in Second City so she had no need to be alarmed about him wandering into the cavern. In the interim she could wait for him outside and surprise him when he returned. Alice sat and looked about her to see what wonders nature would bring to her.
She wasn’t aware of the time until her wrist vibrated, she’d set it to silent while she waited in order to avoid detection, with a note from her mother.
“Mind the time Alice,” it stated and Alice felt a pang of panic as she’d still not received nor given her first kiss. Alice reviewed her memory and was certain she hadn’t heard Robert leave the cavern. Bracing herself, she entered the dark edifice and switched on the flashlight application of her digital device. The path she took was long and seemed to curve gently from left to right, then right to left. She cautiously scanned ahead occasionally calling softly for Robert as she was too afraid she may disturb someone else who had snuck away to engage in their first kiss. At least this was Alice’s reasoning as she was quite afraid of her surroundings and seemed to get a sense of general foreboding.
Unbeknownst to Alice, Robert was searching for his way out or Alice, but by of far more importance to him was finding his way out as he suspected Alice was not there at all. He’d become quite confused in the cavern and his digital device didn’t seem to be getting a good signal. Robert lamented that he hadn’t had the good sense to download a maze tracking device prior to entering the runoff cavern; however he couldn’t be concerned with such novelties at a time like this. He decided to stick to the left hand side of the cavern and see if he couldn’t retrace his steps.
Alice’s heart raced. She had long ago abandoned any notion of finding Robert. The tunnel seemed to overwhelm her and at this particular junction she decided that Robert’s foolishness far exceeded his desire to give her the first kiss she required for good consumermanship before taking her vow of chastity until marriage. Frustrated, alone, and feeling a sense of abandonment she concluded it may be best for her to depart the cave all together.
Robert’s heart leapt for joy as his digital device’s beam caught a figure before him.
“Alice?” he called to the feminine figure before him that stood unsteadily yet in a dress similar to Alice’s. Then Robert coughed and covered his mouth and nose. A mephitic essence had struck his senses in short order nearly causing him to double over. As he contended with the maleficence, the figure before him turned around and Robert gave a muffled cry as something strong wrapped around his torso and restricted his lungs capacity to inflate.
Alice heard a sound similar to Robert’s voice. She plunged ahead with renewed vigor. Perhaps Robert had hurt himself. She was running low on time as well and didn’t wish to return without her first kiss as she wasn’t sure when she’d have another opportunity. She concluded that should they make it out of the runoff tunnels together, she would scold him first then give him a kiss. A section of the tunnel loomed ahead and she could hear scuffling. Scritch scratching echoed in her ears along with the sound of wetness and… and was that chewing? She couldn’t be sure. She did however see the faint light of a digital device beam. Deciding that she should extinguish her torch app, Alice crept closer with the possible intention of repaying young Robert for his earlier surprise.
The walls of the cavern were smooth and clean, no doubt the industrious work of Second City mechanical assistance and the water that ran at this point was clear. Alice knew because when she’d had her torch lit earlier, she could see to the bottom unassisted. The clean impression she had of the tunnel was compounded by the fact that in this particular section the lights were very dim but as her eyes adjusted she could still see. She realized now that her torch was off that there were lights in the center section of the floor where the water was, and she could run on either side with ease as there was a walkway that extended a meter and a half or two meters from each side.
She supposed the walkway was for maintenance. Perhaps maintenance hadn’t been called to this particular section because the smell that emanated was almost overpowering. Alice’s eyes watered and she fanned her face with no effect as the putrid stench wormed its way to her stomach. She would have forsaken this area entirely had it not been for the thought that she’d seen Robert’s light. She concluded that must be the reason for the odor as there was no doubt a robot would have been called when the olfactory sensor picked up the reek she currently found herself encompassed. With her teary eyes, she was unsure of whether or not she’d seen Robert’s torch cutting through the darkness. She turned her head in the direction she’d trotted and considered returning when she heard the sound again. She hesitantly moved closer to the source.
Yes she had definitely seen a flashlight app. It moved against the wall lazily. Robert must have gotten turned about in the tunnels and had relinquished his pursuit to exit the tunnels all together. It was Alice’s turn to return the charade. She crept quietly closer and prepared to startle her unwitting companion. Easing herself against the Second City tunnel wall, she took a breath and peeked quickly confirming her suspicion but seeing little else. Without the bravado, she took a breath and prepared herself to casually make her appearance and demand a kiss.
Alice turned the corner and froze in shock. Young Robert Cole was lying prone on the ground with several figures bent over him. The arm that held the digital device was being feasted upon and had been detached from Robert all together. Alice took note of a growing pool of blood surrounding Robert and in her state of delirium was more fascinated at how much of the human organism contained liquid. She began to speculate the approximate amount when one of the figures turned in her direction and released a most wicked snarl that brought Alice back to her immediate senses.
She observed, in the most austere manner of which one observes immediate danger, that the wretches that devoured what remained of Robert Cole’s corpse had the sickly appearance and wax like skin of the dead. The veins upon their skin were a dark color and seemed to ooze rather than carefully network like normal veins. They seemed over filled as if the blood that had settled there had turned gaseous and rounded the tendrils into rubbery elongations that would burst upon the slightest agitation.
Their clothes were tattered and blood stained and seemed to be made of fabric instead of ploam. Any bruising that had occurred in life resembled a pustule. Some of the fingers had been rubbed down clean to the bone. The figure that had turned its face to her didn’t have the presentation of an individual from Second City who was healthy and diligent in their grooming. The hair was disheveled and seemed to be caked with detritus. The eyes were sunken and where the orb should have been placed, although Alice granted that she was in the dark, it appeared they were to dark cloudy places over a blackened bulb.
As another detestable creature approached and sank to its knees taking a large bit out of Robert’s calf, Alice concluded that the scritching and scratching sound was the approach of the being. The sound that reached her ears presently was much louder than the approach of the singular diner. It appeared to be a group of the wretches and Robert’s corpse seemed to offer little more sustenance. Alice didn’t want to contemplate the statistical average of the number of cannibals it would take to consume a human corpse. As the other figures rounded the bend she proposed another course of act
ion overall.
"I shan't like to have a conversation with you left and right," she began in reference to her feet,” yet I'd be most appreciative if you moved in the most expedited of manners and carried me swiftly away from here."
Her calm conclusion seemed to ring quite loudly to her feet and they obeyed forthwith. Alice bolted away from her menacing interlopers at a speed with which even she was amazed. Her feet could be heard echoing off of the concrete walls. Her menacing companions gave chase further panicking Alice so that she was unsure of which turns lead where or which direction she was taking as her hostile intruders began to gain ground in the midst of her exhaustion. Chancing a look back as the roof of the tunnel she was in seemed to disappear into the ground in what most would call a wall, but in Alice’s grief and panic stricken state the concept simply eluded her, she saw that the horribly disfigured minions of homicide were mere centimeters from her and seemed to be spurred on by the hunt.
Presently, as she was distracted by her concern of imminent and mortal peril, she slipped and fell into the center of tunnel with a great splash. She was