Creepers

"If they spend their lives down here, they're blind," Conklin said. "They're not reacting to the lights but to the sounds we make and the scent we give off."

Balenger heard their claws scratching along the pipe. The rats vanished into a hole through which an adjoining pipe emerged from the wall on the right.

A rectangular opening appeared on the left. Their wavering lights revealed a wide rusted pipe that blocked the lower way.

"We go through here," Conklin said.

Vi

"Normal," Vi

Rick breathed hard. "The methane's still borderline."

The professor kept his light aimed toward the rusted pipe. He asked Balenger, "Did you take my advice and get a tetanus booster?"

"You bet. But maybe I should have gotten something for rabies or distemper."

"Why is that?"

"The rats are back."

Five feet farther along, several glared from a pipe. The headlamps illuminated the red at the back of their sightless eyes.

"Are they checking out the new neighbors," Rick wondered, "or figuring how to bite a chunk out of us for di

"Very fu

"That big one looks like he could eat a couple of fingers."

"Rick, if you want sex in this century…"

"Okay, okay. Sorry. I'll get rid of them." Rick pulled a water pistol from his jacket and stepped toward the rats, who remained in place, refusing to budge from the pipe. "Here's the deal, guys. It's either my wife or you." He frowned. "For God's sake…"

"What's the matter?"

"One of them has two tails. Another's got three ears. Some kind of genetic defect from inbreeding. Get the hell out of here." Rick squeezed the pistol's trigger, spraying liquid over them.

Balenger heard several shrieks that tightened his spine as the misshapen rats stampeded into another hole beside a pipe. "What's in the water pistol?"

"Vinegar. If we get caught, it seems a lot more i

Now Balenger smelled it. His nostrils felt pinched.

"I don't suppose anybody took a photograph," Conklin said.

"Shit." Vi

Vi

Spiderwebs filled the space above the wide pipe. Rick's gloved hands brushed them away.

"I don't see any brown recluses." Balenger knew that Rick referred to a hermit species of spider whose bite could be fatal. The young man squirmed over the obstacle, his legs briefly straddling it, hence the description of these kinds of pipes as "ball busters." His shoes crunched down on the other side, where he rose, knees bent, and aimed his helmet's light along the new tu

"What?" Balenger asked.

"Of an animal. Can't tell what kind. But it's bigger than a rat."

Vi

"How do you know?"

"The low forehead and the slightly forward shape of the jaw. Plus, the teeth aren't big enough to be a dog's."

One by one, the rest of the group squirmed over the pipe, their clothes scraping on rust. Conklin came last. Balenger noticed that the elderly man breathed with effort, his weight making it difficult for him to get over.

"How come you know so much about animal skeletons?" Cora asked Vi

"Just cat skeletons. When I was a kid, I happened to dig up one in my backyard."

"You must have been a charming kid, digging up your parents' yard."

"Looking for gold."

"Find any?"

"An old piece of glass."

Balenger kept staring at the skeleton. "How do you suppose the cat got in here?"

"How did the rats get in here? Animals find a way," the professor said.

"I wonder what killed it."

"Couldn't have been starvation, not with all the rats around here," Vi

"Maybe the rats killed it," Rick said.

"Fu

"Well, this isn't fu

Their headlamps flickered over the numerous bones.

"What the hell happened here?" Balenger asked.

The tu

"The hurricane," Cora said.

"What do you mean?"

"The professor said the hurricane flooded the tu

"You think these bones date all the way back to 1944?" Balenger asked.

"Why not? There's no earth to help them decompose."

"Cora, if you were still in my class, I'd give you an A." The professor put a hand on her shoulder.

Balenger noticed that the hand stayed longer than necessary.

9

The new tu

Vi

"Isn't there an easier way to get in?" An echo distorted Balenger's voice.

"The windows are sealed from the inside with metal shutters, remember?" Conklin said.

"But the doors…"

"The same thing. Metal. We could try to pry something open, I suppose. We have a crowbar and Rick's strong arms. But there'd be noise, and if a security guard came around, the damage might be obvious."

The tu

Rick checked his air meter. "The methane's still borderline. Anybody feel sick?"

Vi

As they turned the corner, Balenger stiffened, confronted by gleaming eyes. Heat shot through his nervous system. The eyes were a foot above the tu

Vi

Vi

"Damned big animal." Cora got over the shock. "Maybe he stuffed himself on rats. Seemed to me he could see our lights. He must have a way in and out. Otherwise, his optic nerves would have stopped working."

"His hind legs," Balenger said.

"Yeah." Vi

"Do you see this sort of thing often?" Balenger asked.

"Mutations? Occasionally, in tu

"'Parasite'?"

"Fleas. When you got your tetanus booster, did you tell your physician you'd be traveling to a third-world country and wanted to take antibiotics with you, just in case?"

"Yes, but I didn't understand why."

"A precaution against plague."

"Plague?"

"It sounds like a medieval disease, but it still exists. In the U.S., southwest areas such as New Mexico see it in prairie dogs, rabbits, and sometimes cats. Very occasionally, a human being contracts it."