Season 02 - Episode 18

‘silence he opens’

Ty hears boots.

Then a door slams.

Then silence.

He opens his eyes.

He is still lying in the tunnel beside the meeting hall. To either side of him the tunnel is now densely crisscrossed by slender beams of dusty light. Each glowbright trail traces the path of a bullet that has passed through first a person, then the wall.

Ty doesn't move. Nothing seems to hurt. He tries moving. Everything seems to work. He carefully runs his hands over himself. No holes. No blood. He is fine. It takes him a while to realise he is sitting in shadow.

Finally he notices that instead of a vent before him, there is now a thick sheet of heavy metal. It's an emergency fire shield that must have dropped into place and sealed the vent in the last possible instant before the firing squad's bullets struck.

For a while Ty sits and stares at the blank metal. Eventually, his back and legs stiffen and he begins to crawl away, passing through the glowing beams, making them blink in turn. As he goes, he glances through one of the bullet holes. He sees bodies, lots of bodies. His stomach clenches up. He doesn't look through any more holes.

He crawls blindly through the dark until he reaches a four-way junction. He looks at each of the three choices in turn then sags against the metal wall of the tunnel. All the energy drains out of him. He feels as if he will never move again. There is no point in choosing, in moving, no point in trying. He is lost forever. Fast or slow, he is going to die in here.

He doesn't know how long he sits there before the lights come on. At first he doesn't react but then, gradually, the lights draw out his interest. The light immediately above him comes on for a few seconds. Then, just as that light goes out, the light above the first section of the tunnel to his left comes on.

Then that light goes out and the next one along comes on. The lights continue like this, a slow pulse, running away from him down the left hand tunnel. The lights disappear around a corner and darkness returns. Only to be broken a few seconds later as the sequence starts all over again.

Giving up had felt good, it had brought relief and peace. Now however, his curiosity won't allow him that peace. The sequence flashes through a full three times before he wearily shifts back to crawling and begins to follow the lights.

After a while he realises that the sequence of lights is changing. As he moves, the tunnel behind him remains dark. Each time the sequence restarts, it does so from his location, leading him on and on.

When he pauses to rest the lights wait, flashing off ahead again and again until he is ready to follow once more. Finally, he rounds a corner and finds a small section of tunnel constantly lit. The flashing lights cease altogether and he approaches his destination.

He looks around, trying to work out what is so special about this section of tunnel that looks like all the rest. Then he sees it, just beside the light, the weird hatch in the ceiling. He is back where started! Ty slaps the rough rubber conveyor belt beneath him and squeals his frustration.

He turns to leave but suddenly the light beside the hatch flashes, strobing violently. He moves back beneath the hatch and the light calms, returning to a steady glow. Ty is very tired and very confused.

Without really knowing why, he reaches up and grips the filthy handle. He has to grip it with both hands and just about hang from it with all his weight. Eventually though, the handle eases out. Ty twists it and as the handle turns a strange hissing sound comes from the edges of the hatch.

Finally, the whole thing swings down on hinges, blocking the tunnel. Looking up, Ty finds a tall vertical shaft with a metal ladder that stretches up into darkness. He looks back at the tunnel behind him and thinks about all the time he has been trapped in here.

Ty begins to climb.

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