The Unflushables by Ron Bates

Author:Ron Bates [BATES, RON]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2018-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Monday, 3:44 p.m.

After school, I enter the Underworld through a manhole behind the old abandoned Thirty-Eighth Street amusement park. The cover looks like it’s sealed, but if you get under it with a pry bar, it pops right up.

I head down a long, winding passage. At the far end of the tunnel, glowing red eyes flicker in the shadows. It’s probably sewer rats; they’re everywhere down here. After a while, they become like ugly wallpaper—just part of the background. You get used to—

“Eeeeeee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!”

Uh-oh. That was no sewer rat. The high-pitched laugh echoes through the shaft, and the sound crawls over my skin like a million spiders. There’s a second laugh, and a third, and a fourth. And then a long, terrifying howl.

Suddenly, something fast and wild-looking streaks at me out of the darkness. It’s… it’s…

“Run!”

It’s Izzy Cisco.

Behind her is a pack of laughing byenas. If you’ve never seen one, a byena looks a lot like a hyena, except it’s bigger, meaner, and has two heads. That’s right, two heads—which means one can laugh at you while the other one eats your face.

“I can’t believe you followed me!” I yell.

“Well, I wouldn’t have had to if you’d brought me like I asked!” she yells back.

We race down a side tunnel and manage to put some distance between us and the pack. I’m not sure where the nearest exit is, but I’m determined to find it fast. The sewer might be the size of the city, but there’s no way I’m sharing it with Izzy. I make a quick turn down an alleyway, and she tries to follow me.

“Owwwwwww!” she yells.

“What happened?”

“I think I twisted my ankle.”

Oh, perfect. I help her to her feet, then hear the howl of a byena coming down the tunnel. We’ll never make it out.

“This way,” I say.

Izzy’s limp slows us down, but we finally reach the spot: a stretch of wall that looks just like every other stretch of wall.

I whirl around and press my hands against the concrete.

“What are you doing?” Izzy asks.

I don’t answer. My palms move up and down and across in a desperate search. Where is it? I hear another howl, and a bloodcurdling laugh.

“They’re coming!” she says.

I force myself not to panic. My hands are a blur as they tear at the wall, because it’s gotta be here, it’s just gotta. I feel Izzy grab my shoulder.

“Sully!”

Just a couple more seconds, that’s all I need, and…

There’s a click, and a creak, and the wall opens.

“Whoaaaaaaa!” Izzy gasps. “How did you do that?”

I’d tell her, but I’m not real sure myself. The truth is, I got lucky.

“Come on,” I say.

We walk down the narrow alley and stop in front of the heavy steel door.

“What is this place?” she says.

“A friend of mine lives here.”

“You have sewer friends?” she says, scrunching up her nose.

I ignore her and bang on the door. I have to, because there’s no doorbell—the Moleman doesn’t get a lot of visitors. Or want them. A terrible thought crosses my mind.

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