The Belly of the Beast

Ch. 67, The Eel

"So, where exactly are we going?" Dagger bent low to duck under a section of piping. We'd left behind the hallways and grandeur of the Highs, for the background machinery that even the highest levels still needed, tucked away so that the Highs didn't have to bother themselves with seeing all the ugly metal pipes and circuitry that made life possible on the Beast.

"Do you know what an eel is?" I climbed over one of the smaller pipes, and waited for Dagger to catch up.

Dagger paused. "I think I've eaten one."

Of course you have Dagger. "On Old Earth it was a long slippery fish that lived in dark places, like underground caves and tunnels, and only came out at night."

"So?"

"So once a Belly rat, always a Belly rat," I whispered. Dagger followed me as we made our way through the increasingly darkened tunnels, the pipes and machines roaring and thrumming around us. I laid my metal hand on each of them, listening to the story whispered from metal to flesh to bone.

"Here," I finally said, stopping beside one of the pipes nearly as high and wide as Xyla. So big even Dagger could have stood upright within it. "This is one of the water pipes. The higher levels have two water systems, should one fail, which means one is an extra set." I turned back to Dagger and gave him a slight smile, "There's no water running through this one."

He stared at it. "How can you tell?"

I took his hand, ignoring how my stomach tightened at the touch, and set it next to mine. "What do you feel?"

He paused, his body so close to mine I could have leaned into him. "Nothing."

"Exactly. You can feel the vibrations in the others from the water. Not this one. Now all we have to do is find a junction where they could have made an opening." Dagger followed me as I began to trace the pipe through twisting tunnels.

"What made you think of this?" Dagger said as we walked.

I shrugged. "It's exactly what I would have done." And I should have guessed it earlier.

Then I stopped, a dark smile in place as I waited for Dagger to catch up to me. There, snuck tightly in between a narrow opening, a hole had been cut into the massive pipe. A hole just large enough for an adult to crawl through. Proof that water couldn't run through this pipe, and that it was being used for something else. Once a Belly rat, always a Belly rat.

Dagger caught up, and followed my gaze to the narrow opening. His voice tightened. "What now?"

I pulled a flashlight from my pocket, and shone it one way down the hallway, then the other. Memories of the Jackal Letter Trial had made me jumpy in public space. "We go eel hunting." I knelt before the opening, but instead of drawing forward, Dagger pulled back, his entire body stiff. Too late I remembered how he hated tight spaces.

"You could wait here? Keep guard?" I suggested gently. If I was right, and the Eel had made himself a hideout in these pipes, it wouldn't be hard to find. The massive pipe only led in two directions, and any offshoots would be too small for a person to fit.

Dagger shook his head. "No. I'm coming.We go together. Or not at all." His face was pale, but he followed me as I crawled into the pipe. Inside, it was just big enough he could stand straight, his head almost brushing the top. I shone my light in each direction.

"This way," I whispered.

We'd walked for some time when I paused, the deep, unsettling feeling something was wrong rising in my gut.

"What's wrong?" Dagger whispered instantly, voice on edge.

I pressed my metal hand to the ground, feeling the vibrations running through the pipes. Fear wrapped a cold fist around my chest. There couldn't be water in these pipes. It wasn't possible... unless someone had lured us here and turned the water on?

"Run."

With no other explanation, I took his hand, pulling him back. But we'd barely gone ten feet, when I froze, his body crashing into mine, arms wrapped around me.

"Z?" he shouted.

The ground, it's shaking, I wanted to say. Before I could a wall of metal slammed down in front of us. I spun and another one slammed behind us.

"What's happening? Z?!" Dagger stood so close I could almost feel his ragged breathing. His flashlight spun in wild circles. Then I smelled it. The same gas I'd smelled in the dead level.

"It's a trap," I said, in complete disbelief. I'd led us straight into a trap. Straight to our death. I'd thought I was so clever finding the Eel's hideout... but I hadn't considered that some people didn't want to be found.

After all we'd gone through, after all we still had left to do, we were going to die in a pipe—like a true Belly rat. I might have laughed if not for the sheer overwhelming horror that my mistake would kill Dagger too.

"The gas from the dead level?" Dagger whispered, putting it all together a few seconds after me.

"I'm sorry, Dag," I choked out, even as I spun my light, trying to find where the gas was coming in. Maybe I could plug the hole, stop it, save us. But it was too dark, there was too much, coming in from too many points. Too late, too late, my heart pounded... I turned to Dagger, unable to speak.

He stared at me, those dark eyes seeing the truth. And then, he stepped closer, all the way up to me, his voice hoarse, breathless, when he said, "Then we may as well die right."

He tilted my chin up and my heart stuttered. Then he bent forward. His lips met mine, not gentle. I kissed him back, unable to separate the euphoria rising and bursting inside me from the gas, swirling thicker, twisting around us, drawing us closer till we were one being. He pulled back, his eyes drifting out of focus.

"Z..." his voice came from far away.

The world slipped away, warm and consuming as his lips on mine.