90 The Tunnel

An arm came out of the hole on the wall, full of cuts and bruises. The man was trying to crawl out of the hole.

"I will try to force the door." Cansu said. "Get me closer."

I walked back and leaned towards the door on my back. Idil was waiting in the far corner of the room, trembling.

"Come on!" I said to Cansu.

"I'm sorry." she said. "They are stronger than I imagined. There is no way I can open this door."

"Well?"

"Well, my teacher, we are done for." Cansu replied. "It was fun being with you."

Our chances were not good, but I wasn't going to give up without a fight. I got away from the door and approached the hole, staying out of the man's reach. He was trying to get his head through the narrow crack on the wall.

I stepped back and attempted to kick him. Just as I hit him, he suddenly grabbed my leg and pulled me closer to himself. I cried in panic, trying to get my leg back. Idil saw my struggle and ran closer. She held my upper leg and tried to pull me away, but it didn't work.

I heard a menacing laugh. There was no doubt our situation was entertaining The Community. And, if we died here, we wouldn't get any rest after death either.

"It isn't us who the evil manipulators are..." the voice spoke, like she had just read my thoughts. "It is you who betrayed the deal."

She wasn't entirely wrong, but this didn't change the greater picture; THEY were the evil manipulators. We were simply trying to protect ourselves, using any means necessary, which included deceiving. They have exploited our naive nature for too long, but they no longer had the chance.

It was also possible that they have seen through our lies, but pretended to believe and let us proceed; just so they could strike us back with it.

These thoughts passed through my mind in a few short seconds as I was trying to free myself and get away from the crack on the wall. I was in no position to reply to the evil voice, not that it would make any difference in the first place.

Idil stopped trying to pull me out. She stepped back, and kicked the man's arm at full strenght. The man didn't release me, and in the end, this attempt only hurt my leg. I screamed in pain and fell to the ground.

The hole widened, and we could now see inside clearly. The cavity was large enough for a man to fit inside now. There was a tunnel going far back into somewhere I couldn't see.

The man began pulling me inside the hole. I was being dragged on the ground. Idil held me by my arms this time, and tried pulling me back. Unfortunately, she wasn't powerful enough.

"Don't let me go!" I yelled.

"I'm trying!" she yelled back.

I was scared like never before. Until now, either me or someone else close to me had an escape or rescue plan of some sort, but this time, we were caught at our worst moment. We had nothing to do, and no one could come to our rescue anymore.

My head passed through the crack, and eventually, Idil could no longer hold me. Instead, I tried to grip the sides of the tunnel, but it didn't work. The rocks came out of their places without helping me. My body was cut in a few places by the sharp edges of cement and rocks.

As I was being pulled further inside, the light at the end of the tunnel was getting smaller and less bright. Idil was helplessly looking at me from there. Suddenly, she fell down with no apparent reason. I saw her being dragged away from the hole. We were both caught.

The man stopped dragging me when we reached a relatively wide part of the tunnel. This part was wide enough for me rotate myself easily. I took the risks, pushed myself up and swung a punch towards the man. It was right on target. The man released my leg, which allowed me to kick him as a next move. He was disoriented, and possibly in pain.

I grabbed on of the rocks at the tunnel's sides and hit the man in the head with it countless times. With every hit, a lot of blood splashed everywhere. The man tried to turn back and hold me, but he wasn't fast enough.

He was no longer moving. I was feeling... tired. I could feel nothing else.

After I caught my breath, I tried crawling back out of the tunnel. I crawled for a while, trying to ignore the pain of the cuts on my body. After a while, I finally reached an end. There was no hole, my way was blocked. I couldn't reach Idil anymore. With no choice, I crawled back in the other direction.

The man was still laying there, where I attacked him.

"This can't possibly be this easy." I said to myself. "The Community wouldn't let me go this easily."

The rest of the tunnel was slightly going upwards.

I kept crawling and climbing through the tunnel for many minutes, and finally saw the other end. I slowly got to there and peeked out of the hole.

"What in the world is this!?"

It was a somber room that had lots of pipes running through. I slowly climbed out ot the tunnel and got inside the room. I looked around, as my eyes tried to get used to the darkness. I couldn't see much around me. I tried to find my way using my hands. As I was walking around, my right hand hit something on the wall next to me.

After a buzzing sound, the fluorescent lamps flickered for a few seconds, and a few of them actually managed to light up completely. Although poorly, the room was now illuminated. I looked back into the room to understand where I was. The pipes inside the room was connected to some large pieces of machinery, and there were valves at the connections. Some electric lines were running along the corners of the ceiling.

There was a green door next to the switch I accidentally pushed. On the door, there was a plastic label.

This was the boiler room, the heart of the school's heating system. I was out of the underground facility, back inside the actual building on the surface. I couldn't decide if this was a curse, or a gift.

I walked further into the room to explore. I could hear water running through some of the pipes. There were a few electrical switches and colored lights on the wall, a few small digital displays... But nothing worth noting.

How, and more importantly, why did this tunnel that brought me here existed?

Just then, I noticed something on the floor. There were blood marks, leading to somewhere in between the large metal cylinders ahead. I kept walking to follow the marks. As I went further, the marks got more visible.

There was something behind those cylinders. My heart was beating like crazy.