Oblivion - D. Dixon (ON HOLD)

3. Guts (Part 2)

Down inside the building Jacqui, Andrea, Morales, Glenn, and Rick peer down the steep stairwell.

Morales looks at Glenn and Emiko, “This is it? Are you sure?”

   

“We really scoped this place out the other times we were here. It’s the only thing in the building that goes down.” I said.

“But I’ve never gone down it. Who’d want to, right?” Glenn continued.

They all looked at the two. “Oh. Great.”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Andrea said, seeing the look on Glenn’s face

Glenn looked at her, “No, you won’t. Not you.”

Andrea looked at him offended, “Why not me? Think I can’t?”

“I wasn’t –” “He wasn’t - ” Glenn and Emiko started.

Rick looked at us, “Speak your mind.”

Emiko spoke up first, “Look, until now we always came here by ourselves– In and out, grab a few things –no problem. The first time we bring a group – Everything goes to Hell. No offense. If you want us to go down this gnarly hole, fine– But only if we do it our way. It’s tight down there. If we run into something and have to get out quickly, we don’t want you all jammed up behind us and getting us killed.”

“We’ll take one person,” Glenn continued. 

Rick stepped forward to volunteer but Emiko pulled him back by his collar. “not you Sheriff Woody” 

Glenn rolls his eyes, “You’ve got Merle’s gun and I’ve seen you shoot. I’d feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass.” He turns to Andrea, “And you’ve got the only other gun, so you should go with him.” He points to Morales, “You be our backup. Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry.”

Jacqui nodded, “Okay.”

“Okay, everybody knows their jobs,” Rick confirms and reassures Glenn with a pat on the shoulder. Glenn, with a flashlight in his mouth, goes down first, Emiko second, and Morales follows after them.

Water splashes when they reach the bottom. They turn their flashlights down the tunnel. Glenn, Morales, and Emiko follow the tunnel looking for the sewer connection. A rat squeaks and Glenn jumps on Emiko’s back covering her eyes. “Dude! It was just a rat!” she whispered.

Morales laughed as Glenn got off of Emiko’s back mumbling, “Sorry Emi.” She rolled her eyes and continued walking down the tunnel

 »»————-　➴　————-««

Emiko opens a door and Glenn walks into the tunnel with Morales and Emiko behind him. The tunnel ends with a heavily barred gate between them and the rest of the tunnel.

“Yeah, we’ve got ourselves a sewer tunnel. Jacqui was right.” Morales said, out of breath.

Glenn pulls on it but there is no give. “Can we cut through it?” He asks Morales.