Tunnel W Read online

CHAPTER 3

  Rebel walked up next to Stash. “How many of you guys are there?”

  “Our crew 51,” Stash said. “We are a tight-knit group. No traders among us. We are the closest you get to family.”

  “The other tunnels?” Rebel asked.

  “I only heard stories,” Stash began.

  “I'll take it. Tell me what you heard,” Rebel said.

  “Well, anything below us X, Y, Z is every man or woman for themselves. The ones above us it is different in each one. There is one common denominator,” Stash said.

  “That is?” Rebel asked.

  “We are all going crazy one day at a time,” Stache said. “We don't go anywhere alone because that is when the Tunnel Rats get ya'.”

  “Tunnel Rats?” Rebel asked.

  “That is what we call when someone goes and disappears or is injected with something,” Stash said. “The officers, Swabbies, scientists or whoever grab a Relo and torture them or inject them with something to see how they react. It is hard to survive after the Tunnel Rats get ya'. And if you do, you wish you hadn't.”

  “The trackers,” Rebel said. “That is how they know you are alone.”

  “That is what we're figurin' too,” Stash said.

  “Ya' ever try taking them out?” Rebel asked.

  “Tried that,” a Relo said. “What she think we stupid?”

  “Hop, hang,” Stash said. “This is Rebel's first day in W.”

  “Sorry, I don't mean any disrespect,” Rebel said. “I am just trying to understand.”

  “I get it,” Stash said. “We tried to dig them out. Every time we tried, the guinea pig would die a screaming death. It seems once tampered with it self-destructs or something. We stopped trying after three people.”

  “How about getting into another tunnel?” Rebel asked.

  “Sometimes you can make it, sometimes something changes in the tunnels and you get shot, zapped, sliced every which way,” Stash said. “If you make it, tunnelers are not too keen on tunnel jumpers.”

  “Got visitors!” Betty yelled ahead of her.

  “Visitors,” someone about 50 yards yelled.

  “Visitors,” a few other people repeated.

  They walked up to an alcove off to the side of the tunnels. Torches decorated the walls and lit the area. The walls curved in and the ceiling went 50 feet up. Several people were sleeping on the ground. Relos picked-up their heads and sat themselves up as they approached. All the faces looked similar dirty, thin, and hollow.

  “She's Rebel!” Betty yelled. “Really Rebel!” Laughter filled the tunnel. “No really she is Rebel.”

  “Another skull for the wall!” someone called out.

  "Zip it,” Stash yelled. “It is Rebel.”

  People used small boulders, and the wall to pull themselves to their feet. Rebel, Vizio, Sindi, and Stash found themselves in the middle of a huddle of Tunnel W's Relos. People stood and whispered to each other. Rebel took this time to look at all the people. They were all dirty, and had scars or scabs on their face. Each of them were flesh pulled over skeleton. Rebel was busy gawking at the Relos that she had lost track that they were looking her over and waiting for her to speak.

  “Hello,” Rebel started. She looked around her at the crowd just nodded a hello back. “It is nice to be in your presence. Well, not nice to be down here, but here I am.” Rebel chuckled. “I am sorry you are down here. I am sorry I could not save you all. I did try.”

  "Look she is closer than 10 feet!" a voice yelled.

  "Yeah, I am not tagged or tracked whatever you call it," Rebel said.

  “How do we know it is you?” a man's voice called.

  “Who asked that?” Rebel asked. A man was pushed forward. “I guess you have no way of knowing it is really me. As we already established earlier with your scouting team, I don't have a concrete way.”

  “Except for kicking our ass,” Stash chuckled as he looked around at the Relos and pointed to his own scrapes and swollen hands.

  “I guess that is the pluses and minuses of staying under the radar,” Rebel said. “No way to identify me.”

  “You saved my sister,” a small voice came from the crowd.

  “Who said that?” Rebel asked. Another man stepped forward. He was tall and had long hair fastened into a braid.

  “I have been here a year or more maybe,” he said. “But before I was in here, I was in charge of my family I had three younger brothers and a sister. She was youngest and nearest to my heart. She was only 18 for a month, and they came to bucket her,” he paused.

  Rebel briefly looked at Vizio and Sindi who put their heads down, “Yes, go on.”

  “Well, you, if you are Rebel, stopped them. You stopped those, those Swabbies from taking her. It was a bunch of rough and tumble Swabbies and I wasn't around to save her. I was out somewhere causing my own trouble. Rebel saved my sister, and I am forever thankful for that,” he said.

  “What is your point man?” Stash asked.

  “Well that day my sister said she gave you something,” he said. “It was my father's. She said that told you it was her father's.”

  Rebel put her head down and then said, “Many people offer me things, and I usually deny it, but there was something about her. She was persistent.”

  “Yes, she is,” he said. “If you are Rebel . . .”

  “A belt, a brown belt,” Rebel answered. “I am not wearing it today. I have black boots on, and it wouldn't have matched." Rebel chuckled. "But I still have it, and it is things like that that keeps me going.”

  “Well?” Stash asked.

  “That is right,” he said. “I never told anybody else in here that story. She might be Rebel.” Relos were brought into an uproar in conversation. Stash raised his hand and in a few seconds the talking ended.

  Then someone yelled, “If you are the great Rebel, what are you doing here with the Relos?”

  “Good question,” Rebel said. “I guess everyone has an off day. I would love to say I have a plan, but I don't. At least I don't yet.”

  “Why did they throw you in here and not keep you and torture you? You aren't a normal Relo,” someone else asked.

  “She wasn't thrown in she ran in,” Vizio answered.

  “Who is he?” someone yelled.

  “A Swabby,” Betty answered.

  “A Swabby?” several voices yelled. Voices raised again and the acoustics amplified it. In the chaos, a man holding a club surged forward toward Vizio. Others waived boards and sticks toward Vizio. Vizio held up his fists ready to fight. Rebel jumped in front of Vizio and kicked back several Relos. She kept her knives tight in her pocket and boots, and used her fists, arms and elbows to fend off the Relos.

  “Enough!” Stash yelled. “Enough!” Everyone stopped. “Last I looked, I am in charge. If anyone wants to challenge that, you are welcome. Until then, I say she is Rebel and these are her guests. Anyone that has trouble with Rebel has trouble with me.”

  “And me,” the man who's sister Rebel saved stepped beside Rebel.

  “Hey, the way she just kicked our asses, I am convinced,” a large man said as he released a deep, raspy laugh. Everyone erupted in laughter.

  “Okay, we have questioned Rebel enough,” Stash said. “Let's disperse and give her some room to breath and some time to settle in.”

  "You two stay with me," Rebel said to Vizio and Sindi. The two followed without a word. The three of them sat with their backs to the against the alcove wall. Vizio and Sindi were careful not to be within 10 feet of anyone else. Rebel surveyed the Relos in the alcove. Most of them laid back on the ground and either stared at Rebel or into nothingness.