The Tunnel - Short Story

This is my final writing piece for university. I haven't got my marks back for this one yet.

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Danny sat on the edge of his banana seat bike contemplating the dark tunnel before him.

“Hurry up wussy!” a boy with dirt on his face called out from behind him. There were half a dozen boys about 10 feet back, sitting in a semicircle on bikes waiting for Danny to chicken out.

Danny retorted, “The only wussy here is you Jake!”

Holding his breath, Danny inched his bike closer to the old railway entrance.

“Danny!” His young sister called out as she pedalled towards the boys with all the speed she could muster. “Don’t do it!”

“Aw how cute, your little sister is here to rescue you.” Jake said with a smirk as the small girl rode passed him.

“Please don’t go in there Danny!” Nancy said with a huff as she reached his side.

With bright red cheeks Danny whispered through gritted teeth, “Go home Nancy.”

“No! I won’t let you get eaten by the monster!” She said with a stomp of her foot.

The boys behind the siblings began to snicker, giving Danny the final push of determination he needed. Pursing his lips together and pushing forwards with his foot, the young boy rode his bike into the dark opening without another word. Jake and his cronies dropped their bikes and ran up to the edge of the tunnel alongside Nancy. Silence fell as the children stood and listened until they couldn’t hear the sound of Danny’s biker anymore.

Noticing Nancy was quietly sobbing, Jake put his arm around her.

“Don’t worry Nance, if he gets eaten by the monster, I’ll be your big brother.”

With an expression of disgust Nancy shoved Jake off her.

“I won’t let him get eaten!” Nancy gripped her handlebars tightly and pedalled forward following Danny into the tunnel.

Without looking back the small girl peddled as fast as she could to try to catch up to her big brother. After turning a corner, and confident Jake could no longer see her, Nancy leaned forward and turned on her bike’s headlight, illuminating the dank cement, old train tracks and trash littering the ground.

“Danny?” She said in a loud whisper.

The only response she got was from a rat skittering away.

“Hello?”

Nancy slowly peddled forwards.

“Danny, are you in here?”

Small stones flicked up from under her tyres.

“Danny?”

Beginning to feel well and truly alone, Nancy let out a sigh.

Nancy felt the hot breath of someone sighing into the back of her neck.

“Danny!” Nancy cried out, as she turned around her bike fell to the ground with a clatter and the headlamp switched off.

In the darkness Nancy stood hugging her brother as tightly as she could.

“I thought the monster got you!” Her voice was muffled from pressing her head against Danny’s chest.

A long raspy sigh came out of her brother’s mouth and she released him.

“Sorry,” Nancy sniffed, “I didn’t mean to squeeze so hard.”

Danny didn’t respond. Squinting her eyes Nancy tried to make out her brother’s face in the darkness.

“Danny? Are you ok?”

Danny sounded like he was straining to inhale, the raspy breathing was interrupted with a cough as the boy started to convulse. Realising something was not quite right with her brother, Nancy jumped back to collect her bike. She switched the headlamp back on before picking the bike up and turning it around to face Danny.

“Danny? Where’d you go? Danny!”

Nancy turned the bike left and right lighting up the path, but Danny was gone. He must have gone to the exit, she thought and started walking her bike back the way she had come.

No longer willing to call out for her brother, Nancy quietly walked with her bike and scanned the tunnel before her. As she turned the corner, the light from her headlamp fell on a figure standing ahead.

“Is that you, Danny?” A familiar voice called out.

“Jake?”

“Nancy? Nance!” Jake hurried towards her the light from his torch shaking wildly as he ran. Before she had a chance to react Jake picked up the small girl and was hugging her tightly while her bike loudly fell on the cement ground and the lamp turned off again. “Holy cow Nance! I can't believe I found you!”

With all her might the small girl tried to push the bully away.

“Put me down! Get off of me!”

Jake complied, stepped backwards and shone his torch at Nancy’s feet. “I'm sorry Nance, I shouldn't have sent Danny in here. It's all my fault I've got to find him”

“Why are you acting so crazy? We've been gone like 10 minutes.”

Jake's facial expression dropped. “Are you kidding me right now? “

Bewildered, Nancy shrugged.

“Nance, you’ve been missing for two days. None of the other guys were brave enough to come in here.” Seeing the dubious look on Nancy’s face Jake continued, “Let's just get you out of here then we'll tell your parents about Danny exploring the tunnel by himself.”

“Exploring? You dared – “

Before Nancy could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by the sound of a cough followed by shallow raspy breathing coming from behind her.

Nancy gasped, spun around and pressed her back against Jake who dropped his torch and put his hands on her shoulders. The children stood motionless, looking back into the depths of the tunnel, listening to the strained breathing getting louder. It was pitch black except for the low beam of light coming from Jake’s torch illuminating the floor. A foot stepped into the light; Nancy recognised the shoe as Danny’s. Another foot came forward, this one was bare.

“Danny?” Jake whispered as the feet limped closer to them, shins and knees now visible in the light.

Nancy bent down, picked up Jake’s torch and aimed it straight into the face of her brother. Before she had any time to react, Jake was pulling her wrist and running as fast as he could back towards the entrance.

“W-what was that?” Nancy sobbed.

“I don’t know, but it sure as hell wasn’t Danny,” Jake yelled.

Eventually the two had to stop to catch their breath. Jake panting with his hands on his knees said, “Give me my torch back Nance.”

Nancy complied. “My. Bike.” Nancy said as she caught her breath. “We. Left. It.”

Jake stood up and shone his torch around in all directions, surveying the area before it landed on a wooden wall.

“Where are we? The entrance should be here,” Jake said as he frantically felt the wooden panels.

“I don’t know but I don’t want to wait for that monster to come and get us,” Nancy said as she put her hand in Jake’s.

Jake looked down at the small hand in his and then back up at Nancy, “I won’t let it get you.”

As the two children shared a moment, the cave suddenly became dark again.

“Shit!” Jake said as he shook his torch.

“Swear!” Nancy scolded.

Even though the light had gone out, it wasn’t pitch black like before.

“Hey look,” Jake said, pointing out a fine beam of light coming from above them. “Quick, climb up on my shoulders and see if you can see out of the crack in the wood up there.”

Jake knelt down and put the torch on the ground. As delicately as she could, Nancy climbed up Jake’s back and stood on his shoulders. Jake held Nancy’s ankles and stood up slowly.

“Geez Nance, you’re getting heavy.”

“I can’t quite see it!” Nancy said as she strained to reach the tiny opening in the wood.

“Hold yourself really stiff ok?” Jake said and with all his might he lifted Nancy by the bottom of her shoes above his head. Gritting his teeth and straining Jake tried his best to hold Nancy up.

“I see it! I see it!”

That was all Jake needed and he let go, Nancy squealed before Jake caught her on her way down and put her safely on the ground.

“Gimme a minute,” Jake said as he sat down with his back against the wooden boards.

“Jake, I saw it, that’s the outside,” Nancy frantically tried to explain.

“Wait, what?” Jake said with a shake of his head.

“It’s a door or something. This is the entrance!”

Jumping to his feet Jake began feeling his way around the wood.

“What are you doing?” Nancy asked.

“I’m looking for a latch, a handle, something, anything! So, we can open this and get outside!”

“I’ll help!” Nancy said and knelt to look down low, “Maybe it’s like a garage door?”

Feeling around the bottom edge of the wooden wall and the ground, Nancy found a half-buried rope.

“Jake, look at this!”

He took the rope from her and began to pull. The wall creaked.

“Gimme a hand Nance.”

Just as Nancy walked forwards, she heard a cough and froze in place.

“Nance, c’mon!”

The small girl snapped herself out of it and grabbed the rope. Together they pulled and the wooden door flipped up toward the ceiling of the tunnel. Another cough. Nancy dropped the rope and ran outside; Jake moved towards the exit and, with all of his body weight behind him, pulled the rope down closing the door again with a loud clang.

“Jake!” Nancy cried out as she hugged him. A loud thudding sound came from the other side of the door and the two broke apart.

“What the hell?” Jake said, his own face staring back at him.

“Jake look!” Nancy exclaimed as she pointed towards damaged posters plastered over the wooden door to the tunnel. The sun-bleached smiling faces of Jake, Nancy and Danny accompanied by the word “MISSING” haunted the entrance. Another hollow thud came from the other side of the door.

Nancy turned to Jake, “How long were we in there?”