The Underland

I live on a farm outside of a city, that currently has a population of around 1700. It's a small town, that was built along the railroad back in the late 1800s. Most of the original buildings are still standing along main street. Some of them are pretty cool, and over the years I have explored most of them. My favorite, was a large building that was a flower store and phones/service. The flower store took up the entire first floor, while the phones and service used the entire basement. At the time I was around 10 years old, and my father was working with the phone guy over the winter.

After school, I would walk about a mile through the snow, and wait around in the flower shop for about 4 hours, till I could get a ride back to the farm with my dad. I would get extremely bored in there. So, I would come up with shit to do. Usually, I would draw on my sketch pad, or hang out in my little mock office that I had constructed in the back rooms. One day though, I found this door in the basement. I asked the guy my dad worked with, what it lead to. He unlocked it for me, and reviled a very old rope elevator. The kind that you stand on, and pull on the rope, and you go up or down.

He told me to get on it, so I did. He then proceeded to take us up to the upper level of the building. The upper door leads to a hallway with a door at the end of it.

He shows me that the door has a tiny hatch at about adult eye level. I am then told that this place was used for drinking in the days of prohibition. People wanting to get in and drink would have to talk their way in through that little hatch. The room on the other side of the door was huge. It had a long old style bar. There was obviously a dance floor, and other things. There was lot's of cobwebs and dust from the years it hadn't been used. This place amazed me. The history of the upper level of a flower shop. That's what got me started on exploring.

Over the years I managed to get inside almost all the buildings that were located on main street. A couple had been converted to small apartments, so I couldn't look into those. The upper level of the furniture store was great. It also appeared to be used for drinking back in the days of prohibition.

There was one building that I kept wanting to get into, but never could. That building was the old movie theater. It was located on the end of mainstreet.

The theater was used right when motion pictures came out, but caught fire, and was burned pretty badly. Quite a few people died when this happened also. They did fix it up and try to get movies going in it again, but nobody wanted to go to the shows there. They would rather travel the 20 miles to a nearby city. So, the theater was shut down for good. This was around the late 1930's I believe. So this thing had sat with it's door locked for the better part of 70 years. I wanted to get in this building bad. It took me quite a few years to gain access to it though.

Many years later, I was able to get into it. I was older, and ready to give it a shot. The other buildings I had explored, at least were still being used partially, so I would just ask for permission from the owners. This one was illegal to get into though.

I had to wait till about 2 in the morning, when the town was dead. The mainstreet lights go off at 2 also, so that is my chance to get in unnoticed. I use a crowbar to wrench the padlock setup they had on the door off. There was just 1 door in the front, so I had to use it. The door opens up, reveling stairs going down into what I call "extreme" darkness. You know how you can stand in the dark and still kinda see after your eyes adjust. Well this dark, you couldn't see, no matter what. It was like being in a cave, there was absolutely no light source down there.

Thankfully I had brought a mag light and a lantern, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I made my way down the steps, making sure to close the door on my way down. I didn't want anybody to know I was there, since it was trespassing. The stairs led down quite a ways. Soon the hot humid summer air ended, and I was met with cold dank air. It was quite a relief actually. The air was pretty stagnant though. Anyway, the stairs leading down met up with a short sort of hallway, then stairs leading up. It didn't make any sense to me, and still doesn't. I walk up those stairs and come to another door. Thankfully there's no lock on it or handle. I simply push it open and walk into the room. The room I was in, was the lobby. A moderately large room, with a booth for tickets, and some old chairs fixed to the floor. The lobby didn't yield anything interesting so I marched onward.

I walked down a narrow hallway, and came to the screen room. It wasn't large at all. It was about the size of a 2 car garage. The screen was gone, but the seats were all still intact. There was no projector room that I could see, but a fixed metal stand was in the back of the room. So, I could only assume that the film projector must have sat on it. I looked around in there for a while and found an old wheat penny! Finally this exploration was paying off. I walked back to the lobby to check out a doorway that I had saw before.

The light from my lantern shown a padlock on the door. That must mean there's good stuff behind it! I pry off the lock, and open the door. Inside is a small room, that used to be an office. There's an old rotting desk in it, a wooden chair, and newspapers laying all over the floor. I tried to look at the newspapers but the years of humidity had gotten to them. There was nothing of interest in the desk, and the only framed picture on the wall, was a painting of a flower pot.

There was another door at the other end of the office though, so I moved onto it. I tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. The door was warped pretty bad. I had to shoulder it a couple times to get it to pop open. When it did, I almost tumbled quite a ways. Behind the door was steps leading down. I figure it must be the basement.

I make my way down the creaky old stairs, and walk into a very large room. I'd compare it to a basketball court. Scattered through the room was old brick pillars that made up the support for the building. Some of them were in bad shape, but still appeared to be holding strong. As I'm checking out one of the pillars, I hear the pitter patter of feet off in the darkness behind me. I whip out the mag light and shine it around. I can't see anything though. I chalk it up to my imagination, and continue my exploring.

I first check out what would be the north end of the room, and see a bunch of stuff under sheets. I pull them off and find chairs stacked up. Not too interesting. Next to the chairs is some boxes with old movie reels in them. I really wanted to take one with me, but I didn't. I'm not a thief.

More pattering off in the distance alarms me. I call out if anybody is there, but am met with no answers. I had thought someone had followed me into the theater, or that there was an animal in here with me. The mag light didn't shine as far as it normally would. The light beam would cut out after about 8 feet, so I didn't have a good view of everything that was around me. I was on guard now, since I knew something was in here. I started walking towards the noise with the flashlight and lantern glowing. I reach a wall, and haven't seen anything. I don't know what to think at that point. It's an old building though, so it could just be random noises that old buildings make. I decide to walk towards the east wall and check out anything that might be over there.

I get there and find a ton of wooden boxes piled to the ceiling, which was about 7 foot high. I start grabbing them off the top and checking the contents. There is nothing inside the boxes though. All of the ones I search through are empty. I get down to about 4 feet and see something behind where I had just pulled the box from. It's the outline of a hole. This interests me greatly.

I quickly remove the other boxes that are along the wall, and am soon greeted with a large hole in the wall. It is about 4 feet tall, and 3 feet wide. It wasn't neatly cut out of the wall either. It seemed that bricks were torn from the foundation to reveal this hole.

I shine my light into the hole, and can now see a tunnel of sorts. It is very crudely made. It looked like something you would see in a prison escape movie. Rough walls lined it, and it was kinda circular. The floor of it was flat though. It took me all but a half a second to decide to explore it. A tunnel under a town in Iowa. Hell yes, how often do you find something like this?

I hunched over and stepped into the tunnel. I hear that pattering noise behind me once again. I look over my shoulder and see nothing. I shrug it off and start going into the tunnel.

After about 10 feet the tunnel starts to shrink a bit. It's now about 3 and a half feet tall. For a 6 foot person at the time, that is quite a strain. I hunch over and start slowly moving onward. I was basically walking with my ass on my feet. About 20 feet in, the tunnel takes a sharp turn to the left. Then another 20 feet I think, it opened up into a small room. Well, not really a room, more like a bigger wider opening. I notice 2 tunnels cut off from this one, and I decide to take the one of the right.

I step into the room and hear crunching coming from under my feet. I look down and see skeletons of all sorts of stuff. I'm not a doctor or archaeologist or any of that, but they looked like cat/rat/rabbit skeletons. This spooked me a little bit. Off on the other side of the room near the right tunnel was a decaying cat. Good times, good times. I could only assume there was another way into this system of tunnels, if animals were getting in.

I walked over the skeletons, and went through the right tunnel. It's a winding bastard too. Every few feet, I would have to turn one way or the other. I walk a bit further, and feel breeze on my sweaty face. I must have found that opening I was thinking about. Sure enough, there was a chunk about the size of couple shoe boxes missing out of the ceiling. I shine my light up, and see rounded concrete. I must be under a culvert or something. I walk onward, and am soon met with a collapsed section. Well that's encouraging huh. I turn around and start to head back to the bone room, but feel vibrations. I shine the light around, and see some rocks tumbling from around the collapsed section. A roaring noise then echo's through the tunnel. I recognize that sound though. It's a tractor. He must be driving on the road, near the culvert. I find it strange that this thing is so shallow where I am.

I hadn't even noticed that I was slowly moving upwards when I was going down the right tunnel. I walked back to the bone room at that point.

I look down to make sure I don't step on that decaying cat, but it's gone. Did I miss something? I shine the light around the little room, and it's nowhere to be seen. Alright then, what now. I did the only logical thing. I stepped into the other tunnel branching off from the room. Now, this one was really small. I had to literally crawl through it on my hands and knees.

So, I left my lantern in the room and started crawling. This wasn't fun at all. There was all sorts of sharp little rocks that my hands and knees were going over, and I was wearing shorts.

I crawled about 30 feet in this tunnel, and stopped to take a breather. I was able to sit down hunched over. A minute later, my ears pick up this sound. It was a crunching noise. I stop breathing so I can listen better. The sound is coming from the direction I was heading. I turn the flashlight on and shine it down the tunnel. 2 orange eyes about 20 feet away greet me. This thing...it looks like a hairless skeletal monkey. I let out a hearty "What the Fuck!" It whips up, sees the light, and literally disappears. Like, *poof* gone.

I had seen enough. I quickly shuffle around, and am met face to face with this thing. It lets out this horrible...what I can only describe, as a bark at me. I jump up, and slam my head into the ceiling above me.

I am now writhing in pain, and feel blood pouring out a cut in my head. I must have hit a sharp rock. I start crawling as fast as I can towards the bone room. I get to the little room, and shine the light back into the darkness. About 10 feet away is that fucking thing. It's licking the ground where my blood had trailed. It keeps licking away, but eyeballs me and growls. Oh isn't this just dandy! This thing likes blood. I'm getting the fuck out of this place. I try to run through the bone room, but trip, and am now scrambling to stand up in all these dead animals. I run to the tunnel and duck so I can head right into it. I didn't duck good enough. Pow, my forehead smacks into the wall. That knocks me on my ass. Now my head is in some serious pain. I can't tell if I'm bleeding from my forehead, because my face is already covered in blood from a minute earlier.

I ignored the pain as best as I could and made haste down the tunnel. I'm breathing extremely hard. This shit is too much for me.

I burst out of the tunnel, and into the basement of theater. I started flinging wooden boxes in front of the tunnel, in a vain attempt to block whatever was in there. I get a bunch piled in front and start hustling for the stairs. Oh no, it's not that easy though. I get there, and the stairs are gone. It's just a wall. What in the name of god is going on! As it turns out I had just ran to the wrong wall.

A quick sprint to another wall reviles the staircase. I start to run up it, but hear boxes smashing behind me. I'm hauling ass up the stairs now because right after the smashing boxes, came the sound of loud pattering. Like a dogs paws on concrete. I get into that office I was in and slam the door. I kicked and kicked at it, till the warping did it's natural locking effect.

Not even a second later the door started thumping as if something was banging into it. Then a clawing noise started happening. I ran over, and shoved the desk in front of the door. I'm doing all this while holding my poor mag light. If I had brought some plastic piece of shit, it would have been dark by the time I scrambled out of that tunnel. I step back and watch the door and desk shudder, as something kept pounding at it. The pounding stopped as soon as it started though. Then there was just silence.

The silence didn't last too long though. I heard a clicking noise off in the distance. It sounded mechanical. I walked out into the lobby, and the noise grew. What the hell is that noise? It was coming from the screen room. My curiosity got the best of me, even after all of that. I walk to the hallway, and see the glow of light from the screen room. "Is someone in there?" I ask myself.

The second I enter the room I see a huge light square where the movie screen would be. It's coming from a nonexistent projector. The light just started from midair, and cast itself onto the brick wall where the screen would be. I stood in amazement, watching this unbelievable thing.

Soon I could hear the sound of crying all around me. I snapped out of the hypnosis the light seemed to have over me, and glanced around. There was no one there, but the crying was still happening. It wasn't distant, or weird. It just sounded like people all around you were tearing up.

I start to walk backwards to the hall. As soon as I reach the door leading out of the screen room, I hear something different. The cries had quit, and erupted into screaming. The light from the nonexistent projector turned blood red, and coated the entire room. That was enough. I ran back into the lobby and towards the way out. I glanced over at the office as I ran past it, and see the door fly open, and desk go skidding across the room. Shit, that thing had gotten out at a bad time. I ran down the steps to the exit. Behind me I could hear a sound that was a mix between a snarl and a gurgle. The thing was chasing me. I soon was running up to the door leading outside. I sprinted up the steps and flew through the door into the outside world. I look back in time to see the thing leaping towards the door at me. It disappeared as soon as it hit the doorway though.

I fell down to my hands and knees, trying to catch my breath. My kneeling turned into laying on the sidewalk. My head was pounding, and my face was sticky from blood. My hands and knees were covered in cuts and scrapes from my rapid exit out of the tunnel. I stood up and shut the door to the theater. Nothing was going to get me to go back in there. I walked back to my vehicle, and remembered that I had left my lantern in the bone room. Oh well, it was a 30 dollar Coleman, easily replaceable. I then drove home and nursed my wounds.

About a year later, the town council decided to demolish a building that was 2 down from the theater. After destroying the foundation, they found a branch to the system of tunnels I was in. It was quite the big discovery, and hit the newspaper soon after it was found. The newspapers said that the tunnels were not even known about by any current living resident of the town. They were old and decrepit. The part of the article that caught my eye though, was their speculation on why there was a modern day lantern in the tunnel. I just chuckled at that. The branch they discovered must have been the one I was heading down when I saw the creature.

The tunnels are still there. The town council decided to leave them be, since they presented no danger to the buildings around them. However, they are now watched over very well, since they don't want any meddling kids getting into them. That doesn't matter to me though. I'm not going back in them.

By Onic of SomethingAwful