The Fear You Know

4. The Uncanny Valley

Eli held Peter upright. The tunnel before them was dark and humid and the night -- which was still young-- seemed to be stretching on indefinitely. Peter's strength was waning by the moment and his coughing fits were only worsening as he shivered with the cold. He had a hand over his mouth coughing violently as Eli held him upright, trying to keep the other man from falling into the slime that lined the inside of the drainage pipes. Water seeped past his feet: a slow-moving river of sludge that squelched up through his boots and oozed between his toes. Below them, he could hear the roaring of water, but didn't dare take a look.

That pipe drained directly from the pit of Affliction, and he had no idea how likely he was to catch some horrendous disease if he got too close. Luckily none of it had filtered into the drainage pipes, and the rain poured down hard enough that the airborne sickness wasn't likely to reach them.

Finally, Peter stopped coughing. Eli patted his back as the young man reached up to wipe his mouth with a hand stopping and drawing back with a look of disgust at the filth that covered his body.

"Good call." Eli muttered, "Now let's keep going."

Peter's sunken, watering eyes made it very clear that he wasn't in any state to keep going , but it couldn't be helped. Eli was going to save Peter and that was all that mattered to him. Sickness could be treated later, death, or enslavement to the affliction was permanent. He stepped forward and Wrapped one of Peter's arms around his shoulder, gripping him hard around the waist with his other hand to give the man some support as they moved through the pipes. The sludge was slippery, and there were many times that Eli had to struggle to hold them upright as Peter's poor-quality boots slipped on the sloping surface.

They made it to the drainage system, miraculously, without being noticed hiding themselves behind mounds of trash and discarded rotting wood. All around them they could hear the sound of the outbreak ranging through the city in search of their prey. Sitting behind a watered down crate in some ruins near the outer drainage system it occurred to Eli that the intensity of the outbreak's search seemed.... disproportionate.

All of this work for only two people.

Despite these thoughts, Their desperate run through the city gave him no more answers as the drumming of the rain on his face and the exertion made it difficult for him to think. By the time they made it to the pipe, those thoughts were long behind him, the opening to the drainage system was just over the next retaining wall. Peter sagged against Eli's shoulder, and he tried valiantly to keep him up right during him to clamber over the low crumbling stone.

Peter did his best, but his arms shook with tremendous effort as he tried to haul himself up the three feet, but the effort of the night was just too much.

Behind them, Eli heard the slow echo of voices approaching them down the alley.

Peter heard it too and kicked his feet with desperation as he tried to haul himself up. Light flickered behind them, and Eli cursed, Jumping up onto the retaining wall in a single bound and then reaching down to grab Peter under the shoulders and haul him up the last few feet.

With one great heave he managed to haul Peter up with him, though his relief was short lived as he felt his balance begin to slowly shift backwards, a direct result of him having overestimated Peter's weight. His eyes widened and he reached out with a hand snatching at the air in desperation before the two of them pitched over backwards and vanished behind the wall.

They hit the ground with a wet thud just as a beam of light passed over where they once had been. Eli lay on his back mouth opening and closing as he fought to reclaim the air that had been knocked out of him.