The Beneath (13 page)

“I can’t see anything,” said Will, but there was a hint of panic in his voice and I knew that he could smell them too. “Where are they?
What
are they?”

“I don’t know but we have to go. NOW.”

“Where the hell are those stairs?” he shouted. “They have to be here somewhere. Think. Come on, stupid! THINK!”

I realised then that he was talking to himself. He paced up and down in front of the lift shaft a few times, torch beam sweeping backwards and forward as he struggled to control Foggy. I turned to face the chamber, holding the stick up in front of me, not wanting to be attacked by something I hadn’t seen. Foggy was straining to get past me. Whatever it was, he thought that he could give it a good fight.

From the corner of my eye I was conscious of the shadows starting to move, but every time I tried to shine my torch towards them, they were gone. The noise was all around, and I knew that we were surrounded. I stepped
backwards to be closer to Will. If this was going to be it, I could at least go holding his hand. The slithering noise I remembered from before was getting closer, and the smell made me want to gag.

“Get away from us!” I screamed, as Foggy erupted into a frenzy of barking.

I took another step back and heard a gasp, followed by a sudden draught of air behind me.

“Will?” I called. “Where are you?”

I spun round, waving my torch to and fro, but all I could see was the empty shaft. Foggy shot past me, his lead dragging on the floor, before coming to a sudden halt. He growled menacingly but started edging his way back to me.

“Will?” I whispered into the darkness. “Will? Where are you?”

The blood drained from my face and I felt instantly cold. As Foggy reached me I automatically stooped to pick up his lead, not wanting to believe what I suspected. But I could see with my torch that Will was gone. He must have stepped back over the edge in the dark.

I had killed him.

My heart contracted in a vice-like grip. In the distance I could hear a low moaning, and it took a few more seconds to realise that it was me. I’d fallen to my knees and was rocking, hanging on tightly to Foggy’s comforting neck.

What had I done? He’d only been trying to help me,
to rescue the girl he fancied. He didn’t deserve to die. If the Crop came to kill me now, then I truly deserved it.

“But you don’t deserve it, Foggy,” I gulped through my tears, holding on to the dog. “I’m so, so sorry.”

The route back to the landing was now a seething mass of shadows, and there was no way back. Nan would never know what had happened to me.

I was suddenly very, very angry. I stood up straight and pulled Foggy close to me.

“Leave us alone!” I hissed into the darkness, just as Foggy let out an ear-splitting howl and something grasped my arm. Spinning round I saw Will, grinning in my torch beam. My heart leapt in relief.

“Where did you go?” I spluttered, outrage instantly overtaking the relief.

“No time. Quick, come with me, but stay very close.”

He dragged me towards the side of the lift shaft, and, standing on the edge, reached around
inside
the shaft and pulled himself out of sight. Stifling a gasp of horror, I peered around with my torch. The shaft wasn’t just a straight column up and down – from about a metre below me the side wall had been dug away to make a small ledge that ran the width of the shaft from front to back. Will was standing on a ladder built into the wall, his torch in his mouth. I lit up the ground below him with my beam, and could just see that at the far end there was a metal door. It was very well hidden – it would be utterly invisible when the lift was stopped, and when
the lift was gone the vast drop down the shaft would stop the Crop – whatever it was – trying to leap across to the ledge.

“Quick,” called Will. “Pass Foggy to me.”

“Are you mad? He’s far too heavy – I’ll drop him!”

He hesitated for a moment, frowning.

“OK, you get down there and I’ll let him down to you.”

Will scrambled off the ladder and grabbed hold of Foggy and the stick while I reached round to find the stone steps. Although Will was shining his torch in my general direction I was very glad that I couldn’t see the drop. The stone was warm and slippery, and as I tried to hold it I could feel my hands start to slide. The musty-smelling air coming from the depths of the shaft swirled around me, and for a second I had a vision of letting go and tumbling head first into the blackness.

“Don’t think about it,” I told myself. “Just hold on…”

I looked over at Will, who was holding on to Foggy’s lead tightly.

“No rush here, Lily,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “You take your time.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

I took a deep breath and forced myself down the steps on to the ledge at the bottom. It was wider than I thought, running towards to the back of the lift shaft, where I could just see the door. I put my torch on the floor so that I could see without having to hold it.

“Here, take Foggy,” Will urged, a hint of panic in his voice.

He was leaning over, the dog in his arms. Standing underneath I could just get my fingertips to him, but Will was going to have to drop him. Foggy didn’t like it at all and started to wriggle and whimper.

“Foggy!” shouted Will.

He let go and Foggy dropped into my arms. My knees nearly buckled, but I held on the thrashing mass of fur and claws for long enough to lower him on to the ledge, holding tightly to his makeshift lead.

As soon as he was safely down I looked back up at Will. He was no longer looking down at me, but over his shoulder, his torch beam swinging wildly.

“Don’t look, Will, just jump!”

I grabbed the dog and backed carefully up the ledge towards the door so that there was room for Will to land.

“Jump! Come on!”

The old, rotting smell of the Crop was almost overwhelming.

“What the hell are these things? Get back!”

I heard a scuffling noise and he jumped. Foggy leapt towards him, blocking most of the light from the torch. Will thumped down next to me and swore loudly. As I hauled Foggy back I could see Will hadn’t jumped far enough and was teetering on the edge of the drop. I lunged forward, grabbing his hand and wrenching him towards me. We fell backwards, a jumble of arms, legs
and dog, then he leapt up.

“Quick, Lily, we’ve got to get out of here!”

He threw open the door and the three of us tumbled through, slamming it shut behind us.

CHAPTER 12

The sudden silence was disconcerting. The old metal door was really solid, studded with rivets, and nothing like the flimsy chain-link one that led upwards. I sank to the floor in relief, and Will sat down beside me, leaning back against the rough stone wall. Foggy was bouncing around with the excitement of it all, leaping between us and trying to lick our faces. I felt as if my heart was about to burst through my chest, and tried to breathe steadily to calm it down.

“Whatever that is, they don’t want it coming down here,” said Will, examining the door with his torch before turning the beam on to his own feet. “I must have caught my ankle on something. It really hurts.”

He leaned forward and pulled up the leg of his jeans.

“You’re bleeding,” I said. “Let me see properly.”

I put my torch on the floor so that I could use both my hands and see what I was doing. On his ankle was a deep scratch, and as I tried to look at it he winced and flinched away.

“It looks really painful. How on earth did you do that?”

“When I was jumping I felt it catch on something. I didn’t stop to see what it was.”

“I don’t know what I have to put on it,” I said, patting my pockets. “Ah no, hang on, I’ve got a tissue.”

I pulled the slightly fluffy tissue from my back pocket and folded it open before pressing it on the scratch.

“There,” I said, leaning back. “You should be able to pull your sock up over that to keep it in place.”

“Thanks,” he said, smiling. “All better now.”

“Don’t be so sarcastic,” I said, laughing in relief and playfully thumping him on the arm.

We sat in silence for a moment, catching our breath.

“What are they?” I asked. “Did you actually get to see one of them?”

He shook his head.

“No, nothing, but they were very close as I jumped down. I thought I was done for, but Foggy must have scared them off.”

I glanced around.

“Where’s the stick?” I asked.

“Ah, sorry. It’s still up there. I think I threw it at one of them.”

We were now completely defenceless with only Foggy
to help us. Would he be enough? I pulled the dog closer to me and he gave a little woof in response.

“How on earth did you spot this door?” I asked.

“To be honest, I was panicking,” Will said. “With the Crop getting closer I knew we had to escape, and the lift shaft was the only guaranteed way down. I looked over the edge to see if maybe there was a ladder down the shaft when I saw the ledge and the door. I had to check it wasn’t locked, so I jumped over. It practically blew open with the rush of air from down there.”

“I felt the air,” I said in a small voice. “I thought you’d fallen … or jumped.”

“Don’t be daft! You’re not that scary.”

He nudged me hard with his elbow as he laughed.

“Ha ha.” I was still too traumatised to be able to laugh about it. “I just can’t believe how close that was. I mean, if you hadn’t found the way out we’d be dead by now.”

“I’m sure they’re not that dangerous, not really. I mean, they can’t possibly have that many, whatever they are. And how would they breed them to live in the dark?”

I could tell that he was trying to make me feel better about the whole thing.

“Maybe,” I said, not believing a word of it. “But neither of us is going to risk going back out there in a hurry, are we?”

That thought hung between us for a few moments as we caught our breath, and neither of us mentioned the problem that we were going to face going home.

We started down the corridor, which turned sharply to the right and led to a very narrow spiral staircase. This one was a much tighter spiral than the one above the Crop level, and walking down it I very quickly felt light-headed and dizzy. At one point I had to stop Will and Foggy and sit for a moment with my head in my hands, waiting for the world to stop spinning. Will looked equally grateful for the pause, but clearly hadn’t been going to ask, and Foggy seemed blissfully unaffected. All too soon we were on our way again.

After what seemed like an age Foggy started to strain at the lead.

“I can smell something,” I whispered, putting my hand out in the dark to stop Will.

I expected to tap his arm, but I realised too late that it was his waist. Snatching my hand back, I was pleased that he couldn’t see the colour of my cheeks.

As we stood in the dark on the stairs we became aware of other noises – clattering and the murmur of voices. It all sounded spookily familiar.

“It’s the canteen!” I whispered to Will. “It sounds just like the one at school. That’s what we can smell.”

“I guess it makes sense to have the lift with the supplies going somewhere close to where they eat.”

“If it’s just the canteen, maybe there’s not too much security,” I suggested.

“They seem quite keen on security, if you think about it.” He sounded doubtful.

“I know, but perhaps they don’t think that anyone will make it past the Crop. Maybe, anyway,” I finished lamely. My heart was sinking fast as I faced the enormity of what we were trying to do. We were about to launch ourselves into the middle of a hostile community, with no idea of where we were going or what sort of technology they had, armed only with couple of rubber-handled torches and a hairy dog.

“Will…” I started, but he spoke at the same time.

“Well, at least we are at the bottom now. That’s one step closer to Aria.”

He sounded remarkably cheerful.

“Right, yes,” I blustered quickly before he could realise I was getting cold feet. “I guess we need a plan. How are we actually going to find her?”

We listened to the noises of the people below us. There seemed to be quite a crowd.

“If we just march in there we’ll have no chance,” said Will. “Perhaps we can find a back route, or maybe we could mingle with them inconspicuously – what do you think?”

“It’s a tiny community – they’ll spot strangers in an instant,” I snapped. “Sorry,” I added quickly. “It’s just … I’m just getting really worried about how we’re going to do this.”

“I know, and we have to find her soon, or…”

The two of us stood silently for a moment on the stairs, listening to Foggy pulling at his lead to get to the food.
I was just about to suggest that we see if we could bribe someone to take us to Aria when Will breathed in sharply.

“Yes! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

“What? What have you come up with?”

“Foggy!”

At his name the dog jumped back up the steps to stand next to his master.

“How can he help?”

“He can sniff her out!”

“You’re kidding me,” I said, remembering all the times I’d seen Foggy searching for lost balls. “He can never find anything.”

“He’s not good at finding toys, that’s true, but he’s not bad at people. At home we hide and get him to find us. He really enjoys it.”

He paused for a second and I could almost sense him thinking through his plan.

“Do you have anything of Aria’s with you?” he asked.

“No, not with me, but she borrowed this hoodie from me yesterday. She wore it for most of the day – would that do?”

“Well, it’s worth a go, don’t you think?”

As I peeled off the hoodie I braced myself against the cold, but it was warmer than I expected. I just wished that the T-shirt I was wearing wasn’t quite so tight. I handed the top over to Will and he scrunched it up before pressing it to the dog’s nose.

“Here, Foggy, smell this. Find her!”

There was a moment’s confusion as Foggy tried to leap up and lick me, but Will pulled him back down again and gave him another sniff of the top.

“No, Foggy, the other one. Find her!”

There was no way that the dog could possibly understand what he was saying, but he hesitated for a moment before making off down the stairs, dragging Will behind him.

“We still have to keep out of sight,” I reminded him as with each turn the dark of the stairs gave way to a stronger light.

But the two of them were on a mission and had raced ahead. As I turned the last corner I saw them both silhouetted in a small stone archway, and then they were gone.