The Fallen - Ch. 3

More to Explore

With a renewed sense of excitement among the group they pushed on, down another flight of steps through the dark. They reminded themselves (and each other) that they weren’t exactly burying themselves since they were basically following the same path as the steep hill they drove up to get there. Every now and then they’d see a divot in the wall with a ladder leading up, and a manhole cover at the top. This gave them the comfort that even if they got turned around (or worn out) they could take one of these exits and be back on the streets. Though with this group it’d be a game of chicken for who suggested it first.

They kept walking for some time, though their enthusiasm hardly faltered, now they were determined to find the bootlegger’s hideout, or maybe another Japanese refuge. From what was remembered it housed waay more than 4 people and unless they had thirty people in that one room, there was bound to be other things to find; they just hoped the residents emptied their makeshift toilets.


Eventually they came to another tri-tunnel decision. Without hesitation they stuffed their lights under their arms and threw for who picked the direction. Rosie beat Jack and Lee beat Ben, Prudence just tied so it was between the three. Rosie beat Lee and again tied with Prudence. She was having fun but didn’t expect the decision to fall on her shoulders, but when she threw rock and Prudence threw scissors they all looked to her.


“So Rosie the Riveter, where to?” Jack said with a smile. He was always making puns with her name, but she didn’t mind. It was good to have friends. “Um...well I’d say we should go down more, it’ll bring us closer to town- but I’m already dreading the hike this is going to become on the way back...so that way I guess?” She chose the path on the right. The two daredevils wanted to keep going down, but they follow their code seriously.




After a few twists and turns down that pathway it seemed the hesitation to descend was null and void; the tunnel lead to its own set of stairs. Prudence took joy in this and Jack started to, but realized she was right about the uphill battle they would be facing later. Oh well, if we end up in town we could always just pop out there. Prude would have to hike back to get her car, but that doesn’t mean WE have to. I’ll just rest my feet and have a cuppa joe. Let the ladies do the legwork.


At the bottom of the slope there was another hole in the ground. Prudence eyed it carefully and then turned to Jack with a look of concern, seriousness but concern none the less.

“No more sliding.”
“Alright.”
“I mean it! I don’t want you to break your legs in one of these things. Who knows if we’d be able to fish you out.”
“Yes mother…”
She crimped her lips and knew he couldn’t take anything seriously. She could only hope that he listened, as opposed to doing the opposite of whatever she asked just to get a rise from her; or in simpler terms, be himself.


There was an odd odor wafting at them, not nearly as strong as before but definitely noticeable. It was a musk of dust. This didn’t hurt their nose so much as make them feel like there was another area that was aged considerably. They were right.
“Oh man, here’s another one!” Ben pointed out.

It was without a door so the stench didn’t have a chance to build up like the other room, they all counted their blessing on that one. If the adventure turned out to be them opening a series of chambers and getting blasted with death-farts all day it would be a total bummer. There was more to this room than the last, eight mattresses on four double-story bunkbeds. No one dared touch them (much less lay on them) for fear that dust wouldn’t be the only thing to come out.

Throwing their lights all over the room they looked at the writing on the walls, the pinned up photos of loved ones or bikini girls, letters that were carefully displayed even though none of them could read it. There were two coffee cans in the corner, nobody but Jack dared to look inside. They were empty, though heavily stained from use. Rosie became fascinated by the history she was stepping into, it was almost as though she could feel the stories in the walls. The nervousness was left far behind and she now was just as happy as the others.


They stayed in that room for quite some time, there was considerably more to look at and no foul smell to drive them away. Eventually though they had turned their eyes on everything in there and yearned for more. Jack exemplified this on his way out of the room.


“This is cool and all, but I wanna see those distilleries!”
“Me too!” Rosie piped up, causing everyone to look at her. “What? It sounds cool.”
“All right Rosalita!” He gave her a sharp high five that echoed through the tunnels.
“Did you guys notice how perfectly everything is preserved?” Ben asked. “I could swear that it hadn’t been touched since people were actually living here.”Prudence thought about it, “We very well could be the first ones since then!”
“Well my dad and his friends came down here…”
“Oh yeah.”
“But that doesn’t mean they touched anything. They could’ve done what we’re doing. Checking it out but leaving it be.”
Rosie calmly stated before leading the way, “It’s the best way to deal with things of great age.”
She walked bravely as the rest of them trailed behind, not sure what to think of this new Rosie. Ben merely smiled, he was proud of her and for once didn’t have to feel bad about dragging her into things she was scared of. She was leading the pack, down more stairs, deeper into this labyrinth.


They eventually rounded a corner and found another room with no door; another hiding spot for the refugees. It still had the musty smell and was preserved in a time stasis. Though there was something eerie about this one. The walls were lacking in photographs, letters or graffiti and in their place were dark brown smears. Some in handprints but mostly splatters against the wall.


“Is that more crap? Please tell me it’s not.” Ben whined. He was quite squeamish when it came to bodily functions, he hardly liked going himself and would choose not to if he could.
Jack leaned in close, shining his light to get a better look. “No...it’s not crap.” His light flickered on and off several times. “Damn thing.” He smacked it and it returned to order.
“What is it then?”
He looked at the group, half somber and half intrigued. “It’s blood.”
“What? How can you tell?” Ben got nervous. Rosie stepped up, inspected it and confirmed.
She pointed it out, “There’s a layer of dust on top, but if you shine the light at the right angle you can still faintly pick up some of the pigments.”
“But...but that’s brown.” He said, almost wishing it had been feces.
“Blood stains brown dude.”
His heart rate picked up dramatically, “I don’t know guys, maybe this isn’t such a good idea to hang around here.”
“Relax babe.” Rosie pet his arm and smiling up at him, “It’s been dried there for a long time. Whatever caused it is not only gone, but probably dead by now.” He felt odd being the nervous one, but she did have a soothing voice that eased his tension.


“C’mon, let’s go find the booze hounds’ brewery.” Jack said no longer lingering on the stains.
“Yeah, these rooms are getting kinda old.” Prudence said with a shrug, following him.
“I bet we’re close. We’ve gone pretty deep we must be reaching town soon.” Lee smiled.
“Let’s go….baby?” Rosie went to pull Ben but he was motionless, just staring at the blood spatters and hand prints. Like how she could feel the history behind those walls, he did too; but it was violent series of imagery that flashed through his mind.
“Baby?”
He snapped back to focus. “Huh? What?”
“Come on, the others are going.”
“Oh, sure.” He followed her out but let his eyes fall on the walls one last time before leaving.


They followed the path that lay before them, heading steadily downhill but not steep enough to need more stairs. Without fail another series of tunnels became options as they reached another fork. A few of them sighed and put their lights under their arms, ready to do the thing when Prudence took charge. “Let’s just go this way, they all seem practically the same- who cares which direction we pick?”
Jack whined dramatically, “But I wanted to go that way…” He smiled.
She didn’t care. “Tough shit.”


She headed off to the tunnel on the left and gave the others no choice but to follow her lead. Jack was stunned but eventually he came jogging up behind them. She took a small amount of pleasure from not giving him his way. I swear he’s like a child sometimes. Always needs to be in the spotlight, always needs to make the decisions. I can’t believe I actually fell for that. Whatever I can’t be blamed, I was young and dumb, he was charming...is charming. When he’s not being a brat he can be a blast- it’s just that I haven’t seen that side of him in a long time. Not since we dated. She couldn’t help but let her mind wander as she scanned her flashlight back and forth in front of her.


Eventually she picked up a shape on the ground. It was distant so she couldn’t quite make it out until she got up to it. “Huh.”
“What is it?” Lee asked closely behind her.
She picked it up and held it in the light. “It’s a stuffed lion.” Sure enough it was that, about the size of a pear with puffy fur around its neck and a goofy cartoon face; though thoroughly caked with a layer of grime and neglect.
“What would those refugees want with a toy?” Ben asked.
“Or the bootleggers…” Rosie added.
Prudence crumpled her face, “No, this is much newer than either of those.” She didn’t know why but this toy disturbed her slightly. It was just so...out of place.
“It probably washed down from one of the storm drains. Who cares?” Jack took one look and decided that he didn’t; he just kept walking forward. The others followed leaving Prudence a moment to mull it over. It seems like it was just left here, it didn’t wash down. Regardless she set it back down and came running up behind them.


Jack’s patience was wearing down. He didn’t care about the Japanese or their hiding spots; he wanted to see the good stuff. He may not have paid much attention in History, but there was one decade he was fascinated by. The roaring 20s. With their money and their flappers and their gangsters and their boozers. He wanted so badly for that part of Lee’s story to be true. His face was furrowed as he kept walking, hoping to catch just a glimpse of a sign, any sign- that they were close, or at least going the right way. This place was getting larger and larger the more they walked. With all the paths they didn’t take there had to be TONS of stuff here. Why they kept running into variations of the same thing was beyond him.


They reached another fork but this time he took the lead, not even bothering to check in with the others, just saying “This way.” Prudence would have called him out for it, but quickly remembered herself doing that not too long ago. It was another series of stairs with a slope pulling them even deeper underground. The air was starting to get a little cold, though since they all had jackets they didn’t notice it too much.

With an act of defiance Jack took a running leap and slid down the slope as he did before, hearing Prudence yelling the whole way down.
“Damnit Jack! What did I say?”

Suddenly the echoes of his screaming came rumbling back up to them. They couldn’t see down into the depths so they could only assume that he had in fact, fallen into a hole.
“JACK?!” His wailing continued.
“JACK!!” She began to run down the stairs, hardly bothering to light her way, just rushing to him.
“I’M COMING JACK!”



When she got closer his yells slowly morphed into laughter. She landed at the bottom and stared at him, illuminated by her light as he laid against the slope in a giggle fit. She kicked him several times.
“You ASSHOLE. You almost gave me a damn heart attack!”
“Aww… you really do care.” He began snickering again.
She was fuming, she slapped him a few times but his jacket was too thick so reverted to kicking him again. The others came barreling down the stairs but found that everything was okay. At least with him, Prudence looked ready to stab someone, someone laying on the ground with a shit-eating grin.
“Come on….it was funny.”
“You’re such a child!” She stormed off down the hall.
Lee gave him a hand but said nothing. Ben and Rosie followed Prudence.


They walked a little farther and came across another hiding spot, Jack whined.
“Oh my god! I don’t care…”
Prudence was still pissed so she just ignored him and walked in. No longer really caring about the room either but not wanting to deal with him yet, not until she calmed down. Ben and Rosie followed in while Lee and Jack stayed outside.


“You know, you really shouldn’t do that man.”
“Whaaat, it was just a little fun. I was getting bored.”
“You really freaked her out man. She thought you were really hurt.”
“I was fine, she can’t take a joke is all.”
“But you leapt before you even knew what was at the bottom, what if it had been another hole?”
“Relax man, it wasn’t. I knew what I was doing.”
“Did you though?”
“I mean I had a pretty good idea. I would’ve figured it out on my way down.”
He shook his head. “I think you need to apologize dude.”
“For what? I thought we were supposed to be having fun?”
“We are. That wasn’t fun.” He paused, “For any of us.”


Lee stepped inside leaving Jack to ponder that against the wall. They just can’t take a joke. But he’s right, I guess I should say something to her. Don’t want her to be in this pissant mood for the rest of this shin-dig. As though she heard him thinking about it, Prudence stepped around the corner both arms crossed. Jack shined the light under his face, trying to be clever.
“Hello my dear.”
She glared. “Are you done?”
“Depends on what you mean by that.”
“Are you done being a jackass, scaring me and the others and risking your safety for a joke, that wasn’t even funny the first time.” Her eyes were cold and locked on to his. He couldn’t help but feel a soft pang of guilt, though he didn’t want to admit it.
He sighed out, “Yesss.”
“I mean it. ARE. YOU. DONE?”
“Fine! I’m done, stick a freakin’ fork in me.”
“Promise?”

It was in that moment that he dropped his persona and looked into her eyes the way that he used to, they were standing so close it almost made her forget that anything had happened between them, they were once again in that beautiful summer where he was kind and she was happy.

“I do. I won’t do it again. I’m...I’m sorry.”
She searched his eyes and finally decided that he was telling the truth. She didn’t know how long this honest, kind eyed man that she once adored would stick around so she tried to enjoy it while it lasted. She no longer felt angry at him so her smile returned.

“Good. Then I have something to show you.”
“What?”
She grabbed his hand and lead him into the room. “We found it.”

⤝  ⛛ ⤞