Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Boston Tunnel Affair - Into the Tunnels

Part 4
The Boston Tunnel Affair: Beneath the City, the Tunnels are Alive!



There we all stood, looking down into the depths of the open pit. Horrid fumes wafted up into our faces as we aimed our torches about trying to get an idea of what was down there. Miss. O’Reilly was the first to notice a glint of metal in the shine of one of the lights, inquiring, and “What was that?” And of course we all flashed our lights around even more trying to find the reason for her question.

Off to one side of the tunnel sat an open can – the kind you can purchase paint in – of about a gallon in capacity. We couldn’t quite make out what was in the can from our position in the laundry room, so Mr. Long gracefully let himself down into the tunnel and handed it back up. Mr. Rasicci accepted it, setting it safely off to one side, positioned so that it was almost completely out of sight. The contents looked to be viscous in nature and smelled faintly of something petrol-related. I must admit an eagerness to get it to a lab somewhere and try to puzzle it out.

As Mr. Long had so easily demonstrated, it looked as though we would all have to enter the tunnel to continue our investigation. One by one we passed through that dark opening into the foul smelling space beyond, carefully avoiding the questionable liquid running in a narrow stream down the middle. Being the shortest present, I needed help from one of the gentlemen below to get my feet safely on solid ground once more. Getting back out of the tunnel would prove to be interesting and I hoped we wouldn’t be in a great hurry when it happened.

             Miss. O’Reilly was without a torch, so I passed her mine to use and instead activitated my other, aetheric sight with which to see our surroundings. They proved to be other than expected for being in a sewer tunnel. I fully expected to see smooth clay walls or even perhaps rough bricks, and these walls were smooth, but they also appeared as though they would be rough to the touch. Not that I wanted to touch them, mind you. I got the distinct impression that they might even quiver or give under the pressure of my hand. While I really didn’t want to really think about what those walls might have been made of, that curious little voice in my mind started pondering just that. Of course. Not what I really wanted to be thinking of while in the belly of the beast, so to speak. (Actually, given the growing smell of stomach acid, that observation might not be all that far off the mark.)

Things only continued growing more and more bizarre as we continued down the tunnel. I would have thought it was the growing affects of the acid fumes were it not for how vivid and bizarre my observations. Every-so-often, embedded in the material of the wall, one would see a random body part. At first, about 6 feet in, I noticed what appeared to be a small hand protruding in relief from the side of the left wall. It appeared too small to be that of an adult and yet it wasn’t small enough to be that of a youth or child. I realize that statement makes little to no sense, but there was just something wrong about it.

The next odd protuberance appeared to be that of a shoulder, sticking slightly out from the background material. However, one side of it was grotesquely large while the other was of a more normal size and shape.

I’m sure these observations will be haunting my dreams for weeks to come, especially since I reached the conclusion that the walls were indeed living tissue. This was at about the fifteen foot mark and it nearly sent me scrambling back for the opening in the laundry room. I saw many things in France to shake my sanity, but this experience had surpassed them in a matter of minutes. I was nearly done in again a few moments later after noticing a bat trapped against the roof of the tunnel. Its wings were held splayed open by some sort of webbing which looked to be much thicker than what a spider spins.

Added to the strange organic parts embedded within the tissue of the walls was the increasing need to press closer towards touching those walls as the channel of liquid in the center of the tunnel continued to become deeper and wider. Not a one of us was eager to discover just how strong that acid might prove to be and yet we were all loathe to actually touch the walls. How did we know that we wouldn’t be stuck fast and at risk of being absorbed into whatever that repulsive tissue comprised?
 
It wasn’t very far past where the bat was so horribly trapped that we caught sight of Labana. We simply rounded a bend in the tunnel and there she was in all her awful glory. Even with Mr. Smith’s warning of her true nature, there was no way the majority of us were prepared for what we now saw there ahead of us. She had shed the flesh worn earlier in the day and now stood before us a being made entirely of a silver-colored metal. Those who came on our excursion armed now pulled their weapons and began firing upon the monster. Mr. Long proceeded to engage her in hand-to-hand combat, a sort of martial arts of sorts. I suspect there is more to his heritage than the evident Native American blood.
 
He proved to be an impressive master of his particular art. Glancing back, I watched more than once as he launched himself from against those grotesque walls to land a kick or some other leap driven blow upon the vampire - a description that I was now more than prepared to accept.
Mr. Smith and Mr. Rasicci rained shot upon shot in her direction, thankfully missing Mr. Hand time and again. As for the rest of us, we made our way as quickly as possible back towards the opening. Fortunately the men weren’t far behind us and quickly helped boost us up and clear of the tunnel. Mr. Long seemed extremely loathe to give off the fight, but something in Mr. Smith’s tone of voice persuaded him otherwise and he quickly joined us as well.
 
Back safely in the laundry room, we took a quick moment to regroup and gather both our breath and our wits before deciding on our next course of action. Mr. Smith had a few choice words with which to describe the woman in the tunnels. I suspect he forgets that there are women present, although at the moment I really didn’t mind. My mind was focused on returning to my room where I could have a good stiff drink to help calm my nerves.

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