Humpty's bones

Twelve

But as I sat in the truck, waiting for the monster to lunge through the plastic then drag me, howling, out of the cab, something else happened. Something unexpected. And somehow so worrying that at times I thought the shock would make my heart stop dead.

The pain in my head, the dizziness, the strange attack of exhaustion — I knew the monster did this to me. A sixth-sense inside of me warned that it had the power of mind control. That it could induce paralysis along with the headache and tiredness. Then came something extra. A weird sensation crept into my brain. It arrived in invisible waves from that figure, with the squirming back shapes, at the other side of the plastic cover.

At first I thought it was because I was so drowsy. Yet all of a sudden images flashed through my head. They seemed like fragments of a dream. At the time, I couldn’t say for sure if they were dream or not. Or whether the monster fired these pictures into my head.

The weariness grew worse. I could hardly focus my eyes the headache was so painful. But creeping through my skull like cold, menacing phantoms came images — these images were of my friends. Jenny, Pitt, Adam. Wide-eyed. Anxious faces beneath harsh lights. I grew tense. Maybe it would be like when I imagined the police in those white forensic suits? Only there was something different about this. Although I sat behind the steering wheel in that truck I seemed to be able to see my friends in another part of the tunnel. However, I didn’t see all three at once. This wasn’t like watching CCTV. This was seeing through their eyes. One moment, I looked through Adam’s eyes, then Jenny’s, then Pitt’s. When my vision was channelled through them I caught snatches of their thoughts. Adam’s, especially, resonated with fear. Cold, cold terror crept into his heart. It’s not good down here… bad things happen in these tunnels… danger… horror… people have cried down here… with loneliness… fright… despair… they were chased… caught… hurt… badly hurt… I want to go home…

Jenny and Pitt were entering a warehouse. Even though they were deep underground the roof must have been nearly twenty feet above them. Lining this cavern of a place were huge steel shelves that filled one wall.

I tried to stop the stream of pictures gushing through my head. Yet this didn’t seem like a dream, or imagination. By some telepathic power I knew I was seeing what they were really doing… and through their eyes. But what if it turned bad? Really, really bad? My heart lurched as I imagined their fate.

With all my will power I tried to snap out of this trance, but I couldn’t. What’s more, I couldn’t move a muscle. All I could do was sit there, frozen. Using all my strength, I managed to turn my eyes to where the creature stood. At that moment it moved away. The plastic blurred everything. Far too blurred to make out any detail. Yet I saw squirming objects appear to ride on its back. Call it intuition, but I sensed the creature had noticed something that needed a closer look. Then I slipped into that trance again. With an uncanny clarity my friends’ actions were recorded by my mind’s eye. Their thoughts pierced my nerves. Deep down I knew exactly where the monster was headed. Worse, I couldn’t do a thing to warn the three. This is what I saw inside my head — and through their eyes:

‘How do they reach the ones higher up?’ Adam asked. He was staring at the shelves. But his thoughts clamoured: Want to go home… Not good here. Something might hurt us…

‘See those ladders set on runners?’ Jenny pointed. ‘They can be rolled to wherever they’re needed.’

Pitt said, ‘I’m not bothered about shelves full of boxes. Where’s Naz?’

Adam shivered. ‘First, where’s the exit? Remember that thing we saw?’

‘Did anyone see what it looked like?’ Jenny asked.

Pitt shrugged. ‘Too far away. Just a speck in the distance.’

Adam said. ‘But you could tell it was huge. It nearly filled the tunnel.’

‘And it was fast,’ Jenny added.

Pitt looked back. Tunnel lights gleamed on vehicle shrouds.

Jenny’s eyes widened. ‘What’s wrong. Pitt? What have you seen?’

‘Naz?’ asked Adam, hopefully.

‘It’s not a person. Too big.’ He suddenly hissed. ‘It’s coming this way.’

Jenny whirled round. ‘Hide on the shelves. Get right behind the boxes.’

Adam groaned. ‘It’s bound to find us.’

‘Once you’ve found somewhere keep absolutely still. Don’t make a noise.’

The lights flickered. A breeze blew along the tunnel. Discarded pieces of paper and old gum wrappers slithered along the floor. They knew it raced toward them.

Quickly, the three found their hiding places. Jenny climbed the ladder up fifteen feet to a shelf full of packed rice. There, she hunkered down behind dozens of boxes. Pitt hauled himself up to a shelf as high as his head. Engine parts, dozens of them, all wrapped in polythene. For some reason they made him think of human skulls in polythene bags. Adam went low. He wriggled under the bottom shelf then lay with his back on the concrete floor. Its coldness seeped through his clothes to touch his skin. The steel panel of the shelf was just two inches above him. He remembered how crabs lodged themselves into gaps between boulders on the seashore. For him this seemed the safest place.

A moment later the light died away until it was so dim Jenny could only make out indistinct box-shapes on the shelf. She winced. A pain flared up over her eye. Like when you drink ice-cold milk too fast.

On the shelf just at head height Pitt lay still. Then he realised that it wasn’t will-power keeping him immobile. He found it hard to move. A strange paralysis gripped him. When he heard the pad of feet in the tunnel he tried to shuffle even closer to the wall for protection. But he couldn’t lift his arm never mind move his body.

On the floor under the bottom shelf Adam found even moaning beyond him when the pain started in his forehead. His strength vanished. It was all he could do to turn his head to one side. When he did a dizzy, woozy sensation made him feel as if he was falling over the edge of the cliff. The moment he closed his eyes the vertigo grew even worse. I hope it doesn’t see us… if it does it will hurt us… blood will be shed…

All Adam could do was lie there as some enormous form entered the tunnel.