The Disguised Assassin

John crept into the manhole with the help of the ladder and helped Justin climb down the ladder. Justin landed with a grunt and dusted the pieces of moss on his shirt.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

The whole place was damp and mosty. Moss grew everywhere on the walls and the lights that had been built to light up the sewers was broken. The air was thick with smell of poop and it made John gagged.

Justin scrunched his nose as the smell of the sewers hit him hard and he shouted, “holy buffalo wings! What is that pungent smell?”

John chuckled and said with a grin on his face, “you’re in the freaking sewers bro. How else did you expect this place to smell. Besides, you’re the one who brought the idea of searching the sewer tunnels. Now you have to face the consequences of your choice.” He dug his hands into his pockets and brought out two pairs of nose plugs. He handed one to Justin with a smirk on his face and said, “I got you covered though so there will be no need for that. I came prepared for the both of us.”

Justin collected his pair of nose plugs and stuck it into his nose. He breathed the fresh menthol scent from the nose plug and let out a deep sigh. He smiled and said, “you are a life saver, John.”

John nodded and said, “yeah, I know I am.” He dug his hands into his back pocket and brought out a large mapping of the sewer tunnels.

“What’s that map for?” Justin asked as he walked up to John and looked at the map.

“This is a mapping of the whole sewer tunnels,” John replied as he ran his eyes on the paper. “We will use this to navigate our way through the tunnels.”

He pointed to three dots and said, “this are all different exits where she could have taken. There are actually up to a hundred that are scattered throughout the city. But only five actually lead to exits that are not easily accessible. The rest lead to the streets and she would never get out of a manhole in the street. It will make a lot of people suspicious and we would have been alerted. Three out of the five exits that are not easily accessible are gate passageways that lead back into the city. They lead to the library and the big clothing factory that’s down main street. I don’t really think she used those exits so we won’t search there.”

“Why do you think she won’t use the gateways that lead to the library and the clothing?” Justin asked. “Those places might be where she had used.”

“With the way everything went before we lost her, I’m not really sure she’d go back to the city at all,” John explained. “She knows we will be searching for her so there is no way she’d have used those exits. The other two on the other hand lead to different locations. One ends at the border of the city and the other ends at the Ferncliff forest.”

“Alright then,” Justin muttered. “Where among these two exits do you think she used?” John stared keenly at the map as different thoughts ran through is mind.

“I an thinking of us actually searching the two,” John answered as he folded the map and shoved it into his back pocket. “We might see clues that’ll steer us in the right direction.”

Justin paused as he stared at the wall behind John keenly. He walked up to it and placed his hands on it.

John walked up to him and asked, “what is it?” Justin chuckled before turning to John.

“Hand prints, John,” Justin said with a smile. “There is a bloody hand print on the wall.” John walked to the wall and stared at it. Justin was right. There was a hand print, bloodied one, on the wall. John knew that no one had been to the sewers since they left.

“You’re right,” John said to Justin with a smirk on his face. “This just keeps on proving that she was down here. And we are going to find her.”

“Yeah, we are,” Justin said as he nodded. “Let’s get going then.”

John and Justin began their walk to the tunnel exits using the tunnel map John had brought with him to guide them.

They saw lots of hand prints amd foot prints that also guided them on their quest. They then reached a cross road in the tunnels: one leading to the border of the city and the other leading to Ferncliff forest.

“Where do we search now?” Justin asked and John pointed to the one leading to the city’s border.

“I think we should follow that one,” John said and Justin nodded.

They walked down the tunnels for some minutes before John noticed something. The hand prints and foot prints he usually saw were no longer there anymore. They had just… stopped.

John motioned for Justin to stop and Justin paused on his tracks.

“What is it, John?” Justin asked John who stood, eyeing the environment for more prints.

Finding none, he turned to Justin and said, “something’s wrong, Justin.”

“What’s wrong?” Justin asked.

“The hand prints and foot prints aren’t here anymore,” John muttered. “She didn’t use the path. Let’s try the other.”

John and Justin walked back and turned to use the other part they had only walked for a minute when John found a footprint. That was proof that it was the right way he was using.

John and Justin arrived at the exit that led to the first and paused. It was there the tracks ended.

John pushed open the gritted gates and walked out of the tunnel before helping Justin out of the tunnel too.

He looked around him and muttered, “where do we go in from here?”

Suddenly, they heard a loud booom as they saw a large trail of smoke, rising to the sky and they both ran too see what had caused the explosion.