Chapter 4 - The First Extraction Attempt
Adrenaline surging through his veins, Ryan ignored the creeping dread and hitched his body forward, sliding his upper torso into the narrow metal conduit. The claustrophobia was immediate; the curved steel walls pressed tightly against his shoulders, and the air tasted heavily of ozone and decay. He clicked his tactical flashlight on, sweeping the beam across the metallic walls, which were etched with bizarre, frantic tally marks carved deep into the sheet metal. Hundreds of them, grouped in fives, covering every square inch of the interior tunnel. Leo’s distant cries echoed from the kitchen behind him, muffled by the metallic resonance of the pipe. Crawling forward on his elbows, Ryan’s heart hammered against his ribs as the duct sloped downward into a pitch-black descent. He reached a junction where three different metal pipes intersected, each leading deeper into the subterranean foundations of the suburban neighborhood. Suddenly, his phone vibrated violently in his pocket, lighting up the dark tunnel with a text message from an unknown number: “Don't pull her out, Ryan. She belongs to the walls now.”
Before Ryan could process the warning, the heavy metal grate behind him slammed shut with a thunderous bang, cutting off the light from the kitchen and trapping him in absolute, suffocating darkness.
