Humpty's bones

Four

Adam lagged back in that corridor of chains. ‘I’m not going. There’s something bad about this place. Can’t you feel it?’

‘Trust me,’ Pitt called as he clattered down a staircase. ‘You’ll remember this until the day you die!’

Jenny went through the door. I followed. Blue lamps lit the stairs making our skin glow strangely.

‘Daylight bulbs,’ Jenny explained. ‘They’re used in places where people stay indoors for months at a time.’

We ran down the steps after Pitt. Even so, I felt cold. As if instinct warned me danger lay ahead.

‘Don’t leave me alone!’ Adam shouted. He realised that once the door swung shut he’d be alone in that dark corridor with its hooky chains.

A second later we pushed through big double doors into… well… I couldn’t believe my eyes. I just stared.

Pitt whistled. ‘Look at this. It’s all twenty feet underground. And it doesn’t smell like poop. There’s air-conditioning.’

I struggled to take it all in. ‘There’s a kitchen. A lounge. Sofas. And is that a TV?’

‘The screen’s six feet wide,’ breathed Jenny in awe. ‘Look at all those DVDs.’

Adam walked in, gob-smacked. ‘A house underground? How weird is this?’

Jenny said, ‘Last year we went on a school trip to an old military bunker. It had stuff like this. Bedrooms, kitchens, offices. If there’s a nuclear attack that’s where all the generals would stay so they could run things. This one must be kept unmanned until there’s an emergency.’

I checked out the DVDs. A lot were new movies. ‘Maybe the government will stay down here if there’s a war. When they aren’t working they’d come here to relax.’

‘We shouldn’t be in here,’ Adam said. ‘We’re trespassing.’

I shrugged, ‘The door’s open.’

‘We could get into trouble.’

‘Scared?’ Pitt grinned. ‘Let me take your mind off going to jail. Da-dah!’ He swung open a fridge door. Packed with chocolate! Every shelf had neat stacks of chocolate in bright blue wrappers. Right at the front of the confectionary was a single bottle of tomato ketchup, with a dried dribble of sauce stuck to the label. He opened another door to reveal frozen chickens. ‘People could live for months down here.’

Adam followed us in a daze. ‘But that door upstairs? Something clawed at it. Then bust it open. What happens if it comes back?’

Only we were too excited exploring to listen to his warning. But we should have done. We really should. Because what happened next was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced.