Breakdown: Season One by Jordon Quattlebaum Read Free Book Online Page B

crash, and ambient light poured in from the hall, blocked only by the large shadow of the intruder.
    “You want me? Come on, then !” Anna shouted and charged.

Chapter 3 — Tunnel Vision

    Thom shouted and clawed and threw his elbows, but whoever it was soon had his arms locked in some sort of hold.
    It took a minute for him to realize that he wasn’t dead yet, and that thought confused him. Thom looked up over his shoulder, trying to make sense of his situation.
    The assailant was an elderly black man, somewhere in his 60’s, but strong. The old man held a finger to his lips, took a revolver out of his heavy coat, and fired two shots around the corner blindly.
    The madman grinned, revealing a few missing teeth, and said, using his best Arnold impression, “Come with me if you want to live.”
    To his credit, it was a pretty decent impression.
    The man pointed to a heavy steel door built into the side of the alleyway that read “Service Entrance, Employees Only.” In a flash, he’d reached into the neck of his shirt and fished out a necklace with a key on it, opened the door, and motioned for Thomas to enter.
    It was pitch black, and Thom had no idea what he was stepping into, but he knew the alternative was to get himself killed, and it didn’t seem right to go and do that after this man had risked himself for him. So Thom rushed in blindly.
    Arnold followed Thom inside and closed the door behind them, leaving the men in near-complete darkness. Thom let out a yelp as one of Arnold’s strong hands grabbed him by the elbow. The old man led them by feel through the corridor to, and through, another doorway. There was a sound of metal on metal from the floor.
    “Turn around, we’re gonna be climbin’ down a ladder with metal rungs. Gotta do it by feel. The rungs are rebar, like if you’ve ever been down a manhole. Careful, might be slippery. Get to the bottom, thirty rungs, all told. Take two steps back when you touch down. I’ll be right there.”
    True to his word, he was right by Thom’s side after he finished the climb and stepped back. 
    The flick of a lighter brought enough light to see for a few feet in each direction.
    Thom, never satisfied, reached into his bag. He’d isolated the contents into different compartments depending on use, so it was fairly easy to find items by touch alone. He pulled out a large glow stick. Cracking the wand, Thom gave it a nice shake and brought some extra light forth.
    Looking around, he was in awe. It looked like they were in an old subway tunnel, made from brick. It was straight out of the Ninja Turtles . The actual brickwork was badly water damaged but apparently still strong enough to support itself.
    “We’re under the city,” Arnold said. “Old tunnel, used to run a trolley back in its day. There’s another tunnel under this one that’s a bit newer. Had to dig it because the original incline was too steep, kept wearing out the trolley lines.”
    Thomas’ mouth just gaped.
    “Name’s Herb, by the way. Friends call me Herbie. You can call me Herbie.”
    Forcing himself to snap out of it, Thom turned to Herbie. He was grinning like a madman. Lord , Thom thought, I hope he isn’t a madman .
    “Pleasure meeting you, Herbie. Thanks for saving my life. This breakdown of society took a lot less time than I thought to kick in.”
    “Well, it was a lot faster than I thought it’d be too, Thom. I’d heard of kids in the city getting killed for their shoes, or for wearing the wrong color on the wrong corner, so I guess a backpack in this case was as good as a pair of Jordans. Bet tomorrow it calms down, though. Those kids probably don’t really understand what’s going on just yet. Just saw some unfortunate guy on his own on their turf with no cops in sight. Tomorrow will be calm. Folks will stay inside mostly, I bet. Give it a few days, and things may be like that all over.”
    Thomas shook his head. “Seems a bit hopeless. Thanks again.”
    “Couldn’t