Geoff North - How the World Ends

“Where’s she taking him?” Louie asked.

“There’s over three hundred miles of tunnels down here,” Grace said. “Who knows where she’ll eventually dump him?”

They were sitting at a fold-out table next to the pallet Louie and Roy had dragged out of the elevator. Louie’s insidious magic had appeared to have worked on the women—at least Grace. They hadn’t killed him. They had kept him. And that’s all Louie needed for the time being. “So are you going to tell me how you guys found this place?”

Grace had boiled them two cups of instant coffee over a hotplate. She handed him one. “We didn’t find it… we worked here.”

“You’re miners?” Louie asked. “Seriously?”

“I worked topside in transport. Made sure the trains picked up the potash in a timely manner. Twice a day, four in the afternoon, four in the morning, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.”

“What did Fiona do?”

“She did everything. Fiona owns Odessa.”

Roy opened his eyes to darkness. He could feel his body vibrating, bouncing up and down. Moving. I’m in a vehicle. The pain in his left leg hit him next like a sledge hammer. He cried out.

“Good morning, Piggy,” Fiona’s voice called from somewhere ahead. “I didn’t think you were going to make it, but Grace did a great job wrapping up that knee—what’s left of it.”

The vehicle started to slow. Roy struggled to sit up. They were in some kind of open transport.

“Watch your head, Piggy. There’s maybe half a foot of clearance.”

Roy looked up and saw rock passing by in the shadows. If he’d straightened up any further, his skull would’ve ripped open like cheddar against a cheese grater. Bright headlights shone ahead illuminating the sparkling pink tunnel they were traveling down.

Fiona brought the six-seat work buggy to a halt. “There’s three-hundred and twenty miles of tunnel down here.” She tossed a plastic bottle filled with water out onto the ground, and started moving again. Half a mile on she stopped again. “You like pork and beans, Piggy?”

Roy didn’t answer.

She threw the food can out, and they sped away once again. The tunnel curved left, and the tunnel turned right. Roy saw other tunnels joining up with the one they were in slip by. There were dozens of them. Fiona stopped every mile or so along the way, tossing out water bottles and tins of food. “I’m taking you to the furthest point away from Shaft 168. That’s about twenty-four miles. I’m leaving you a trail of food and water to live on. Don’t go thinking it’s a sure trail back to where we started. I’m going to drop a whole shit-load off on the way back through a bunch of other tunnels.”

Roy’s hands were tied to bars attached to the doors. He started to cry and beg again.

Fiona ignored him for the next half hour, dropping bottles and tins along the way. They finally came to a solid rock dead-end. She turned the vehicle around and shut it off. The headlights died out and Roy was suddenly in the blackest black he’d ever experienced. The sudden silence was overwhelming. He jumped when Fiona spoke again a minute later. “Scary as hell, hey? It can drive you frigging crazy… this all-encompassing dark. It presses in on you real fast.”

“Please… I’m so sorry for the things I said.”

“Did you really kill a bunch of defenceless people, or did your buddy make that up?”

Roy paused. “It’s bullshit, all of it. He’s a dirty little fucking liar.”

“That’s what I thought.” She fired the buggy up again and the tunnel ahead lit up. “I would give you a flashlight and some extra batteries if we could spare them, but you know how it is… times are tough.”

Fiona exited the vehicle, the big rifle in one hand, the knife in the other. She cut the ropes. “Get the fuck out.”

Roy tried to stand, but fell onto his side in the dirt when his knee gave out.

“Have a nice winter, Piggy.”

The buggy sped away and Roy coughed on the dust. The headlights started to dim. Seconds later they disappeared altogether.

The blackness pressed back in.

All-encompassing.

Two weeks later

Fred cast out again and watched the hook plop into the still water. He hadn’t caught a fish in days, but it didn’t much matter. They had enough food to last for months without his contributions. He sat at the end of the dock and fished because it made him happy. Soon the lake would freeze over, and Fred’s casting days would come to a close. He wouldn’t bother fishing during the winter. Sitting on the ice, dangling a line into a three-foot deep hole didn’t appeal to the old doctor. Besides, he hated the cold.

Caitlan sat down beside him. “Hey, Doc. You gonna catch me a big pickerel for supper?”

“It doesn’t look all that promising.” He reeled his line in. “How’s the book coming?”

“It isn’t. You’d think living in a spooky cabin where a couple of folks offed themselves would be inspiring.”

“Does it have to be a horror novel?”

“It’s what I write.”

“Maybe you should be keeping a journal… a record so to speak of everything we’ve been through and what’s to come.”

“Real life horror? Nah, that’s too depressing.” The sun poked out under a heavy orange cloud in the west. “Look, doc! A sunset. I haven’t seen once since before Brayburne.”

“Brayburne. Don’t remind me of that place.” He cast out again. Plop.

“You think that disease will be wiped out when we leave this place?”

Fred shrugged. “We can hope.”

“Yeah… Hope. It’s all we got left.”

Roy pulled himself along in the darkness. His hand fell on something cold. A can! The third one in two days. He giggled and crawled towards the tunnel wall. He smashed it repeatedly against the rock until he felt the mealy juice inside spill over his fingers. He sucked at the rip in the metal. Tomato paste. Again. Hopefully he would stumble upon another bottle of water in the next few hours to wash the acidity down.

Roy would survive. It’s what he did. He would crawl and claw his way back to Shaft 168 and meet up with Louie Finkbiner again. And the women. The woman . Oh, what he would do to them all. He sucked on the tin again and cut his tongue.

Fucking bitch. She could’ve at least left me a can opener.

Live Again (Out of Time Book 1)

Last Contact (Out of Time Book 2)

Lost Playground (Out of Time Book 3)

All Inclusive (Out of Time Book 4)

Ambition (The Long Haul Book 1)

Retribution (The Long Haul Book 2)

Annihilation (The Long Haul Book 3)

Thaw (CRYERS Book 1)

Burn (CRYERS Book 2)

Twisted Tales

Copyright © 2019 by Geoff North

www.geoffnorth.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.