The Emerald Key - By Christopher Dinsdale Page 0,55
took a second to gather his thoughts. He figured they only had a precious minute or two before the growing inferno collapsed the entire structure down upon their heads.
“So what’s your idea?” he asked.
Beth was already on her hands and knees, crawling around, feeling the floor. “Help me look for it!”
He joined her on the floor. “What exactly are we looking for?”
“This!” She banged her hand down on a metal grate.
Jamie looked at her, confused. “Why? So we can go deeper?”
“Exactly.”
Jamie shook his head. “But what good is a hole in the ground going to be to us if the building collapses? It will only trap us down here.”
“Or,” she gasped, “it might be another way out of the building. Come on! Help me lift the grate.”
With no choice, he helped her grab hold of the iron rods in the grate. Together, they managed to lift the heavy grate and slide it to the side.
Beth smiled, waved, and jumped into the circular hole feet first. With no other choice, Jamie stuck his own feet into the hole in the floor and lowered himself down as well. He fell almost six feet but landed on his hands and knees in the bottom of what appeared to be a stone well. He was all alone in the pitch darkness.
“Beth? Where are you?”
“Over here.”
Her voice echoed to his left. In the gloom, he could just make out a narrow pipe leading out of the well.
“Come on, follow me!” he could hear her say from inside the pipe.
Jamie lowered his head and followed her voice into the tight confines of the pipe. Crawling and slipping, Jamie made his way through the slimy enclosure as best he could. The pipe suddenly took a turn downwards. Jamie’s hand slipped in the muck. Suddenly sliding head first and out of control, Jamie yelled as he was launched into the air, crashing down hard into a flowing stream of ankle-deep water.
“Jamie! Are you all right?”
In the pitch darkness, Jamie felt Beth’s hands on his leg. He moaned from the impact as his side exploded with pain. Gritting his teeth, he rolled over into a sitting position. Wherever they were, this dark place smelled awful.
“I think I’ll live,” he groaned. “Where are we?”
“I think this is Montreal’s main sewer,” she answered.
“A sewer? You mean an underground canal for taking away rain and human waste? I’ve heard of them recently being built in some cities, but I’ve never actually been in a town with a sewer before.”
“Montreal built their first sewer a few years ago. I know it stinks in here, but it’s safe. My friends and I sometimes hide in it to escape the police, in case they’re in the mood for tracking down orphan runaways. They never bother to follow us in here.”
“I can smell why.”
She gave him a shove. “Hey, at least we’re safe now, right?”
He paused and lowered his nose near the water. He started to gag.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t think we’re safe at all. Gas is heavier than air, and I think it’s building up inside the sewer. The gas line above us must have been ruptured in the fire and now the gas is sinking down into the sewer. One spark from above and this sewer turns into an inferno. We have to get out of here! Which way do we go?”
“We follow the running water,” she explained. “It will take us to the river.”
Jamie felt the water flowing by his boots with his fingertips. “Then it’s this way!”
They reached for each other’s hand in the dark and then ran as fast as their legs could carry them through the huge cobblestone pipe. Luckily for them it was as straight as an arrow.
“When does this thing end?” asked Jamie.
“I don’t know! I’ve never been this far inside it!”
Far behind them, they heard an ominous whoosh! A flash of yellow light was followed by an orange fireball rushing up the sewer towards them at unimaginable speed!
“Run faster!” screamed Jamie.
But it was too late. A huge pressure wave knocked Jamie and Beth right off their feet. Fortunately, they had almost made it to the end of the open sewer. The long, straight underground structure acted like a giant rifle barrel as Jamie and Beth were launched out the end of the sewer like a pair of human bullets. A gigantic fireball burst out of the pipe right behind them, igniting the night sky in a stunning explosion.