Page 39 of What Remains

“Coming with you, man. You’ll never find your way on your own.” Snapping on a flashlight, Flowers used the beam to point the way. There was no one in the chamber John had used that morning. That room was also a blind alley with no access to any other part of the complex except into Roni’s room with its three apertures.

“Like a quiz show,” John said. “Is it behind door number one, number two, or number three?”

“I got an excellent sense of direction,” Flowers said as they stepped into another large chamber with two more openings, one at ten and the other at three.

“Ah, and here I thought you were half-bat.” As Flowers went for the entrance at three, John asked, “You know for certain they’re down that way?”

“Have to be. One on the left is a dead end.”

As he followed Flowers, John felt more than saw the space opening overhead. Craning his head back, he couldn’t see more than ten feet or so. “How far to the top?”

“About a hundred feet.” Aiming his light, Flowers speared the darkness. “Way it curves? We’re in the main trunk of the old aqueduct now. See that hole up there?”

The aperture in the rocky ceiling was almost perfectly round and reminded John of an empty light socket. “That one of those maintenance wells?”

“Yup. Come on.” Flowers jerked his head. “Let’s pick up the pace.”

They jogged for the next ten or so seconds in silence, their echoing footfalls clopping against the rock and on loose bits of stone which squealed a protest. Then, as John’s knees began to ache, he said, “Is it my imagination or are we—” His right boothit a patch of scree and he did a pratfall, coming down on his rear end so hard he felt the impact blaze a hot trail up his spine.

“You okay?” Bracing himself, Flowers hauled him back on his feet. “You hurt?”

“Just my dignity,” he lied. He was pretty sure he’d have one hell of a bruise come morning. “Are we going downhill?”

“Yeah. Sorry, man, I should’ve warned you. Anyway, there’s a fork up ahead and the tunnel levels out for a bit.”

“Only a bit?”

“What can I say? You going to be okay to walk?”

“Yeah, yeah.” He shooed Flowers on ahead and after a few steps, the pain was only a dull ache. “Weird that we’re headed downhill,” he said. The incline was steep enough that he was leaning back and braking with each step. Slip now, and he’d probably skid a good ten, twenty feet. “Instead of straight, I mean.”

“Oh, I think whoever carved this out did it for a good reason.”

“How you figure?”

“Stop a second and listen, you’ll understand.”

He did and in the stillness heard that same faint rushing noise as before.Except…He craned his head back to stare at the ceiling. “No.Aboveus?”

“Yup. Limestone’s porous. That’s why so many cavesarelimestone, right? Actually, this whole place reminds me of my dad,” Flowers said as they started walking again. “He worked construction, and people would get leaks in the damned places. Like there’s water coming out of a light fixture on one end of a house and the leak’s from a pipe all the way at the other end. He said water follows the path of least resistance. Same principle here.”

Two minutes later, they were at the fork. John said, “I could say something smart-alecky like when you reach a fork in the road, take it, but I won’t.”

“Except you just did.” Holding up a hand, Flowers cocked his head. “Hush.”

“You don’t know where they are?”

“I get a little turned around sometimes.”

“You’re telling me this now?”

“Hey,” Flowers rapped, “it’s been kind of stressful day, all right?”

“Easy,” he said. Butupperswas what he thought. People got pretty irritable on the way back down. “You got an extra light, I can go right, and you go left.”

“We shouldn’t separate. We don’t know the exact layout and I do not want to explain to anyone how I lost your ass,” Flowers said, though he dug out another flashlight. “Just give me two seconds, okay?”

“Sure.” Slotting the flashlight into a pocket, he waited. Now that they weren’t moving, he was starting to shiver.Colder down here.Probably from the millions of gallons coursing just alongside these caverns. His ears picked up a faint but crispspat.And then, a few seconds on to his right, anotherspatas a fat droplet broke against a stone. Terrific.“May I make an observation?”

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