Clang..! Continued..part 6

A/n: felt bad about leaving ms jones and chief smith wandering in the dark. So I set aside the "wax paper" piece in favor of updating their little adventure.

--oo--

"You said there are others...more..?" She heard herself say.


Chief Smith sucked in a cheek.


"Ye--ap." He scowled as he looked to the floor. "They..uh.. ain't all, y'know. Like us. Promise me not to stab anyone..?"


Her hands felt too empty, and she flicked her eyes about the ground. As swiftly as she visually swept the broken concrete, a fluttering butterfly of sheer panic quickened her pulse. The precious knife was not where she could easily see, and with a horrible realization she was certain her only defense had utterly vanished. She stared off beyond the beast to the familiar broken wall, and thought that the darkness never felt so heavy. Worse, she suspected that some rather sharp and unpleasant teeth were hidden within its all concealing folds.


She was getting nowhere this way, she knew, and took in a stuttering breath. A heartbeat passed. Perhaps two. The chief had been here longer, she reasoned, and slowly, the fluttering butterfly in her chest stilled.


Cecilia swallowed, and climbed to her feet. She tore her eyes from the quivering whimpering beast before her and looked to Chief Smith as she fisted her empty hands and frowned.


"As long as none of 'em crushes me beneath them, then yeah." She said tightly. "Deal?"


He narrowed his eyes as he watched her. Then tilted his head towards the looming darkness.


"Come on then. I'll introduce ya."



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Clang! Continued.. Part 5

Cecilia swung madly with the blade in her hand, and with a savage grin, it thunked into something meaty.

She heard a deafening bellow, and something struck her fingers so hard that they went numb. She lost her grip on her blade and she heard a clatter of metal skipping across stone.

With a muscle straining lurch and a hearty shove of her feet against the cracked concrete wall, she squirmed away from under the weighty thing on top of her.

"Miss Jones..!" She heard Chief Smith say, and watched the flashlight beam angle at the low ceiling before the man's face hovered into her view. She took in a breath in the dimness, and huffed freely a few more moments before she rose to her elbows to look at what had trapped her.

Flaccid pale flesh with tufts of brown fur thrown in odd patches. Four knobby legs that ended in hooves. She eyed the boney skull, and the squiggly pulsating mass upon which a small weeping wound dripped a dark liquid. The thing had no eyes, no mouth, and yet it sounded like it was whimpering.

"What is.." She breathed.

"Mind cow." The Chief said tonelessly.

"Mind cow." Cecilia repeated dully with a wrinkled nose, finding herself unable to tear her eyes away from the thing for several breaths. She then took in a sharp breath, noticing just how large the creature was. The hole it fell from should be at least as big, she thought hopefully, and darted her glance upwards.

The low ceiling was just as smooth as ever.

"How in the world.." She began, and glanced towards the chief. "That thing fell on me.. But there's no opening.. no.. "

The chief's gaze fell, as if he were examining his shoe with great interest.

"Chief." She snarled. "You said this was your lab.. How did it get here? To squash me..?!"

"Um.. I didn't know.." He said.

"You don't know?"

"I didn't know what it would do.. I think I.. Well I love gadgets, see? I found this thing in a shaft by my garage that seemed to be made from all sorts of bits and, well, pressed a few of its buttons and...uh.."

Cecilia narrowed her eyes.

"I found myself here. All sorts of..Things...people.. have been popping in down this old corridor ever since." The chief continued.

Cecilia swallowed thickly, and turned her attention back to the whimpering beast. She recalled the blinding flash she had been enveloped by before the world as she knew it became this damp hall of broken concrete and darkness.

"This isn't on my property, now is it?"

"No." He answered softly. "I suppose it's not. Nor on mine."

"Where then.?"

"No idea." He said. "I'm sorry."

She nodded stiffly.

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Clang! Continued.. Part 4.

She wasn't sure how much time has passed as she trudged along in the dark. When her fingertips felt clinging slime on the tunnel wall, Cecilia quickly wiped the sludge on her jeans with an air of disgust. She glared at the shadowy form of Chief Smith as he darted the flashlight beam about, highlighting great jutting cracks here and there in the wall as his echoing steps crunched against the stone.


She decided then that the darkness beyond the man was enormously volumous.


"How far does this go?" She asked.


"Hmm?" He paused, and chewed on his cheek as he appeared to think. "A few miles at least."


"Great." She said, fingering her knife.


A buzzing noise wafted into the chamber, slowly rose in volume, and in the space of a few breaths, made her teeth rattle. She hunched down, and cupped one ear with her hand as the light seemed to spin. She chanced a glance to the chief. He held both his hand against the sides of his head, and squinted his eyes closed tight.


A blinding flash later, and she sprawled on her belly against the cold concrete. The sudden weight on her back kept her pinned and breathless, and she bucked upwards by pure panic. Arms tangled with too many legs, forming a hopeless struggling knot.


"Miss Jones!" She heard chief Smith call out, voice thick with some emotion she was beyond being able to decipher. She swung madly with the blade in her hand, and with a savage grin, it thunked into something meaty.
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Clang!..continued.. Part 3

With a sudden flickering much like a bolt of lonely lightening, the darkness vanished.

For a heartbeat, Cecilia blinked dumbly at the man crouched before her. She then slid her gaze about the dull gray concrete walls that appeared, and rose her eyes to the low ceiling with her top lip curled back. She glared at the mess of dough splatter there, and noticed it was hardly the only one up there. They looked like mud puddles, hanging side by side with the exposed floresent lights.

The ceiling looked like solid concrete should. Not that she held much of a hope of climbing out, but there should have been something. She could see no opening there to show how she had fallen in.

"Come on, manic-depressive mind..." Chief Smith drolled with a smirk splashed across his face. Cecilia looked at him hard.

He wasn't much to look at by Cecilia's estimation, just one of those guys that was considered handsome only because there wasn't anything wrong with any of his facial features. He wasn't even that tall, because the top of his head almost reached her shoulders. As she watched, he adjusted his grip on the long flashlight in his grubby hands.

"What'd you call me..?!" Cecilia snapped.

"Tch... Ah. Nevermind." He said with an off wave on one hand. He turned to the side and revealed a dark tunnel. He jerked his head. "Let me show you what before you do anything stupid."

Cecilia's brows knitted together. The pit of her stomach knotted as she reasoned that she was underground, in the middle of freaken nowhere, and with a guy she hardly knew. She could easily end up chopped into tiny meaty bits...and no one would ever know.. She took in a sharp breath, and hoped that her folding knife in her pocket was...

"I promise to kill you later, if that's what you're thinking." Smith chuckled.

Cecilia rolled her eyes.

"As I was saying, manic-depressive mind cows're this way." Smith said, and shuffled out into the tunnel. She patted her back pocket, and withdrew the tool. Glancing up at the dough splatters, she knocked the blade against the closest. To her dismay, smooth concrete lay beneath it.

With an unladylike snort, she ducked low, and shuffled along after the chief.
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Clang! Continued, part 2

"Ah.. Welcome." A raspy echoing voice says. "Welcome to my lab-or-it-tory."

Inky darkness swirled around Cecilia, and sprawled on the cold floor, she couldn't tell if her eyelids were open or shut.

She tried to stand, but painfully smacked her head against something low and solid. As she crouched low and hissed, she gingerly touched the bruised area with the pads of her fingers. She felt something thick and sticky amongst the stands, and rubbed her fingers together.

It clumped into a ball quite easily. On impulse, she brought her fingers beneath her nostrils, and breathed in. Sweetness. The ball was strong with vanilla.

She rose her eyes to the mystery black on black spot too near to her skull, and saw nothing. There was cookie dough on the dang ceiling, though, she was sure of it.

"Laboratory." She said with a snear. "For what, explosive snacks? Who are you? And what.."

Sudden white brightness stabbed her. She squinted her eyes closed and curled her lips back to show her teeth as she defended her eyes with a single raised hand.

"I'll ask the questions, since you're intruding in my place and all." The voice said crisply.

She thought it sounded vaguely familiar, and struggled to place where she heard it before. Surely not in the town, she thought. I haven't met that many..

She took in a breath, and lowered her hand back to her side.

Oh.. I know exactly who this is..

"This isn't your property.." She snapped. "It's mine. And has been in the family for.."

"That's a lie!!" The voice said. "You only own what's on top not below..!"

"Nope. Deed's for minerals too. Before you start, it's always been that way, too."

"Minerals?"

"Hello? Something that's usually found in the soil..? Y'know...Dirt?"

She heard an intake of breath, and continued.

"Anyway what are you doing on my land? What does the fire department need me to do now, Chief Smith?"

"Tch." The brilliant light dimmed a little, and she could make out a shadow behind the brightness. "Dammit. How do you know it's me?!?"

"I have my reasons." She said airily.
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Clang..

A/N: spent all day yesterday getting volume one set up for the kindle. Now on with today's piece.--oo--Cecilia Jones watches the squirrel run off with incredulous brown eyes. She sees the final roll of garbage bags trailing along like a shiny black ribbon, and the bushy tail of the furry little thief is halfway up the half-dead mulberry tree by the time she yells out in protest.

"For the love a.." She exhales at the tree's base, and squints upwards. The squirrel leaps fluidly from branch to twig, tugging the black plastic along in its mouth with an unknown purpose, and soon vanishes from sight within the gloom of the canopy of leaves.

Feet sinking down into the soft soil, Cecilia huffs out a breath, and drops the hoe from her gloved hands. She reaches out to the plastic, then jumps in surprise. TING!

She slips on the slick fallen leaves of years gone by, startled by the sharp ringing sound of metal striking metal. The sound she least expects to hear in such an clearly wild area, where a mere squirrel is so bold to burgle around a human being.

"The hell...?" She whispers.

She takes up the rough handle of the hoe, and rises from her crouch. She taps the metal hook firmly down twice:The first gives the expected dull thump of soft dirt; the second, the clean song, "ting!"

With a puzzled frown, she makes quick work and scrapes the dirt away.

Maybe someone left behind a gun? She thinks, and fantasies briefly of ridding the world of at least one rat with a fashion accessory. She then wonders where the nearest pawn shop would be, and her mind whirls in useless circles. She chews her cheek and mulls over the fact she has only been in her new place for barely a week, and doesn't know a damn thing about the one horse of a town she is now a part of.

She raises her brows at the reddish-brown metal square nestled a foot down within the mess of dirt and molded leaves.

"Maybe it's recyclable?" She mutters under her breath, and squats down. She tries to pry it up, but it stubbornly resists the flat of the hoe. With searching gloved fingers, she swipes at the caked dirt, and finds hidden grooves. She tilts her head, and playfully raps her knuckles on the rusted metal plaque before her.

Silence fills the next few moments, and she snorts her derision. Who would put something this stupid out in the middle of nowhere, she thinks as she rises to her feet.

With a stomach twisting nausea, the sturdy ground vanishes. Inky darkness fills her wide open eyes as she lands hard. Her breath knocked out of her lungs, she hears clang of finality somewhere above her head.

"Ah.. Welcome." A raspy echoing voice says. "Welcome to my lab-or-it-tory."

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