Sarah and the Steam Dragon
Chapter 12

Carmody grabbed Achmed’s hand as they ran, fleeing the unseen creatures in the approaching darkness. They both heard Eric’s gun shooting then it went silent, leaving only the sounds of awful groaning coming closer.

The corridor they were in led to the main computer room for the school, but it was a long one with many storage rooms on each side. The darkness had reached the corridor junction and began creeping along this one, snuffing out each overhead light as it came.

“I don’t know if I can open the security door at the end before those things reach us” Achmed said as he staggered along with Carmody.

“Maybe we can hide someplace?” the girl suggested, “And hope they pass us by”

A doorway to their left was already open, the sign on it proclaiming it to be a Sports Storage Room. By mutual assent they rushed inside and pushed the door closed behind them. A single red emergency light flickered on, bathing the small room in a ruby glow.

“There is no lock on the door” whispered Achmed. Outside they could hear the groaning coming closer, the sounds of shuffling feet getting louder. He braced himself against the plastic panel door while Carmody frantically searched for something to wedge the door shut.

An box of old sports gear was at the back of the room and she saw a long, leather wrapped handle sticking up from it. With a feeling of elation she grabbed the handle and pulled hard. It was stuck on something in the box, which the red light seemed to reveal as old cricketing gear.

A scratching could be heard from the door now and then a sudden thump as someone or something pushed against it. Achmed leaned all his weight against the flimsy door and called over his shoulder to Carmody to hurry up! The groaning intensified and Achmed felt himself being pushed inexorably backwards, his feet sliding across the floor.

“Carmody, I really need your help!” he wailed in terror. Clawed fingers, the nails long and dirty, had appeared around the edge of the door, questing for Achmed’s shoulder.

Carmody braced one foot against the box of old equipment and with both hands on the handle, yanked with all her might. The object came free all of a sudden and she tumbled back onto the floor, holding a well worn cricket bat in her hands. It had a nice heft to it and she could not help but grin to herself. This was just what she needed!

Achmed was hurled back by a violent shove on the door and he stumbled to a stop beside Carmody. He looked at the now open doorway and Carmody craned her neck around to see it as well.

Moving slowly into the room came shambling forms that looked only man-like in that they had two legs and two arms, with a head on their shoulders and eyes that regarded them hungrily. Dirty grey flesh, riven by scars and old wounds, was barely concealed by filthy rags held to their emaciated bodies by chains and ropes.

Long clawed hands reached towards the terrified children and their black pits of mouths opened to show wicked canine teeth. All the while, deep from within their chests the awful groaning issued, freezing their blood in their veins.

“I think we are going to be eaten by Zombies” wailed Achmed and was frantically looking for an escape route. The room had shelves of old sports equipment but no obvious way out.

“Get behind me!” ordered Carmody as she got to her feet, hefting the cricket bat in her right hand. She slapped it menacingly into her left hand and eyed off the advancing horrors. The girl had gone so far into pure terror she felt like she had come out the other side, with no fear left in her at all.

“Who’s first?” she taunted the creatures and as the closest rushed forwards, she sidestepped and delivered a cracking blow from the bat. It exploded into a thousand pieces of rotten flesh that scattered over its companions before vanishing in a greasy black vapour.

“Holy crap!” shouted Achmed in stunned disbelief. The zombie-like creatures paused for a moment too, as if in awe of what she had just done. Then two came at once, reaching for Carmody.

She screamed a wordless battle cry and swung mightily, clipping one across the snarling head. The aforesaid head exploded into chunks and the body staggered on three steps before crumbling to pieces. As before, the body turned to an oily vapour that vanished in the air.

The second creature grappled the bat, its long claws sliding across the old wooden blade. Carmody pushed it violently into the creature’s chest, catching it by surprise. Even more astounding was how her blow shattered its ribcage, hurling it backwards before it too turned to smoky dark vapour.

“Hey Carmody, when did you learn to play Cricket?” Achmed asked with praise, his terror forgotten.

“First time I ever held a Cricket bat” she replied. “I must be a natural!”

More of the creatures shambled into the room. Carmody yelled exultantly and charged them, swinging her bat into their midst like some kind of ancient warrior. Their bodies exploded from the powerful blows, filling the room with thick vapour before it too faded away.

In short order the creatures were destroyed, at least all those willing to come within range of Carmody and her deadly bat. Once the darkness faded, Carmody went to the doorway and looked out into the corridor.

The blackness was rolling away down to the junction, letting the dim emergency lights flicker back to life.

“I think we are clear for now” she told Achmed. “Let’s try and get to the computer stacks”

=====

“It’s the tunnel right here!” Sarah said in confusion, standing in front of the opening that gaped above her head height in the concrete wall. Eric and Lilly moved closer, their eyes straining to see what Sarah was describing.

“I believe you Sarah” said Eric, “But the tunnel must be hidden from us the same way that Stanley is. We just can’t see it”

“Maybe that is why the Guard were not able to replace it either” suggested Lilly, her eyes watering as she blinked hard. Despite her best wishes, the wall still appeared solid to her eyes. Or at least, her eyes refused to acknowledge there was a hole in the wall.

“Okay, so how do we go inside?” Sarah wondered. All of them spared a worried glance to the corridor outside of the Lost and Found room. Groans and the shuffling feet sounded much closer now and the lights were getting dimmer.

“Maybe if we close our eyes and just let Sarah guide us?” Lilly wondered. “How about it Sarah?” She proffered her right hand to Sarah and Eric slowly did the same.

Sarah looked at the hands of her two companions, then at Eric’s eyes. With a dramatic sigh she grabbed both of their hands and pulled them along with her. Eric’s hand was remarkably warm and firm in her grasp, making her insides feel funny.

“Close your eyes!” she demanded and then plunged into the tunnel mouth, pulling her friends with her. As much as she kind of hated Eric, she realised she also liked him a lot. Sarah was not sure how someone could be her worst enemy and best friend at the same time. It was a question she would have to ask her mom about if they made it out of here alive!

The tunnel mouth in the concrete wall led to packed earth, shored up with bits of school tables, benches and shelving pieces. It was uneven footing and they all stumbled, breaking the grip they had with each other.

Eric and Lilly opened their eyes by reflex as they fell, catching themselves with outstretched arms before they hit the tunnel floor.

“Hey, I can see!” Lilly cried in delight. “Me too” responded Eric.

All three of them stood up and looked about themselves. The tunnel mouth was visible to all of them and the way ahead was lit by a glow from another opening a good twenty meters in front. The view from the Lost and Found room vanished as the lights in there faded, the sounds of the groaning filling that space. By unspoken agreement they fled down the tunnel, headed to the other end.

The tunnel sloped downwards quite steeply and ended at another hole carved through reinforced concrete. All three of them stopped once they reached the opening and surveyed the area that lay beyond.

It was big, a long cavernous tunnel running to their left and right, vanishing out of sight as it curved in a broad arc. The walls were lined in concrete and the floor had raised dual tracks set in them, the same ones they used for the underground train network that lay beneath Pan City.

“This is part of the Metro line they are still working on” breathed Eric. “The works were put on hold about a month ago and have not restarted yet”

Down below them, construction lights on stands had been arrayed in a circle, shining towards a strange device set between the two unfinished rail beds. It was like it was made of shining lights and dark spikes of metal, all twisting and turning around a central point. Sparks of blue light arced up from this device, piercing the concrete ceiling above them, rising up into the earth beyond. The vibration came from this device also, setting their teeth humming painfully at such close range.

There was no sign of Albright, however at one edge of the circle of light Sarah saw a boiling cloud of shadows that stayed in one place. She remembered a comment she must have overheard from Albright and Creepy Bob when they captured her. Something about binding Stanley in shadows.

“That must be what is going to make the opening for the Traveller” said Sarah, “And I think Stanley must be held captive in those shadows.” She cast about for some way to get down to the tunnel floor and saw holes had been hacked into the side walls like an improvised ladder. Without a second thought she swung herself out into the open and started to climb down.

Lilly and Eric shared a glance then followed her, Lilly first while Eric kept a keen eye out on the view below. He spared once quick glance up the tunnel and saw darkness approaching and then clambered down to the ground with his friends.

“Those things are still coming” he warned them both. “Maybe if we can stop that weird device it will send them back to wherever they came from?”

“A good thought, Mister Hargreaves” said a voice from outside the circle of construction lights “But an incorrect one” Mr Albright stepped forward, seeming to emerge from the darkness as if he was part of it. “They will remain in our world until I send them back, since I summoned them”

In the blink of an eye, Eric turned and fired twice at the teacher, his pistol reports echoing loudly in the big space.

Just as fast, as if anticipating Eric’s actions, Mr Albright gestured and a red circle of light appeared in front of him, catching and stopping the bullets in its glow. The circle vanished a moment later and the bullets fell harmlessly to the floor, tinkling as they landed on the hard concrete.

“As I recall, that means you have a single bullet left in your pistol, Mr Hargreaves” the teacher taunted. “Standard concealable firearms of that size have a fifteen round magazine, is that not true?”

Eric held the gun pointed directly at Mr Albright’s head, his aim not wavering.

“Maybe I reloaded” he said as calmly as ever. Mr Albright gave him an appraising look and smiled.

“I think not, child” he answered smugly. “I am sure you have a spare magazine concealed somewhere on your person, but you have not taken the time to reload yet. A simple enough mistake for a rookie on his first mission”

“What the heck are you, Mr Albright?” Sarah asked, posing the question a moment before Lilly could.

Mr Albright gave the two girls a look that might have been pitying.

“I am an Adept, a wielder of magic” he answered. “More specifically a Summoner, able to call forth creatures from the Dark Side into our world”

“Your kind are not permitted in Pan City” spat Eric, “You are forbidden to use those arts by the terms of the Covenant”

“You really are a stupid boy” Mr Albright sighed. “You think that this city, with all of its Awakened, stands a chance of defeating the Adepts of this world? We are far more numerous than you can imagine and we can summon far more powerful beings to our cause than even Archimedes dares think of”

All this while, Lilly had been stealing quick glances at the spinning spikes and points of light so close to them. It looked incredibly dangerous to put a hand anywhere near those metallic points, yet she did not need to use her hands.

She caught Sarah’s eye while Eric and Mr Albright were speaking so forcefully to each other. She raised her eyes to the ceiling and Sarah frowned at her. “What?” her eyes seemed to be saying to her friend in reply.

Lilly gave up trying to make Sarah understand and did it anyway. What she had been keeping in reserve until she needed it. She was a long way underground, unsure of her exact location, but she knew perfectly in her memory where all the things were upstairs. All those things she had seemingly been touching at random. She fervently hoped she was in range of her ability.

The first thing that appeared over the spinning device was a bright red fire extinguisher, flashing into existence with a pop of displaced air. Even as it fell, another appeared in the air and joined its partner.

With an earsplitting scream of tearing metal the first extinguisher hit the device and was ripped apart. White powder and pieces of metal flew in all directions, closely followed by a second explosion and more billowing white clouds.

Everyone ducked by reflex and then disappeared from each other’s sight as the fire retardant powder was thrown out in a wide circle. A horrible grinding noise came from the device of Albright’s and then it stopped completely. Lilly dropped a teleported bench seat from the school foyer on it just in case it started up again.

“Lilly! Where are you!” Sarah shouted into the fog of powder. She groped forwards, holding her hands in front of her. Something soft and yielding was grasped by her hand and Lilly squealed.

“Hey, let go of that!” she said and pushed Sarah’s hand off her chest. “We are not those kinds of friends”

Luckily Sarah was barely able to see anyone and she hoped they in turn did not see the bright shade of crimson her face went. Lilly took Sarah’s hand into her own and they moved away from the centre. A few steps and they reached the raised rail bed that ran left and right of here.

“Go left” Sarah urged as she was pretty sure that was the direction of the shadowy clouds that imprisoned Stanley. Behind them they heard Eric and Mr Albright shouting, then the distinct sound of a single pistol shot.