Underground travel plans

(Continued from the previous story)

Jeff has given up on Tommy. He is struggling mightily to free himself from the turnstile. It isn’t working. He tries to lower himself, and squeeze out that way. It’s no good, the turnstile opening is too small.

Then he tries to climb out of it. As he begins to make a little progress, a furtive movement from a few feet away, catches his eye. He stops his struggling, and looks at the area where he saw the movement. There is nothing. However, he feels certain something was there a moment ago.

Underground travel plans

Now he looks back toward the token booth. Tommy should have pushed the turnstile switch a good while ago. He can’t see anything through the window of the booth. It’s too far down the mezzanine. He decides it’s time for every option and he shouts out Tommy’s name.

The sound is sharp and echoes freely around the underground area. Jeff holds his breath and listens. He hears nothing, and somehow that makes all this much worse. He starts the struggle to climb out of the turnstile again. His panic is starting to turn to aggravation. He pushes against the turnstile.

Movement again to his right. This time close. He spins around while in mid struggle. This time he sees a tail of something, quickly vanishing from sight. Stopping cold, he feels the blood drop to his feet. He feels a primal shiver of fear trace up his spine.

Travel plans

Meanwhile, Tommy has tried the turnstile switch several times. He feels sure that Jeff has been free long enough to come to the booth and check on him. Furthermore, he has been unable to get the door to budge. Not only is it stuck tight but also it is locked.

Additionally, the window glass is made of hardened materials. Therefore, he won’t be breaking his way out that way. He pulls against the jammed doorknob again. The door must have jammed itself when it slammed so hard. He sees a strange flicking movement outside the door.

Stopping cold, he feels a primal chill race up his spine. He tries to angle his face against the glass of the door to see more. However, the mezzanine beyond the door appears to be deserted. His hands are sweaty on the knob of the door now.

Underground

He goes back to the window, to see if Jeff is anywhere nearby. However, the entire mezzanine looks empty. As well as, the part of the turnstiles that he could see. Reaching for the switch on the wall he pushes it again. And then twice more for good measure. Then he crosses back to the door to try it again.

This time the movement is deliberate and Tommy sees something that looks like a tail. Deep primal waves of alarm ripple through him. He drops to the floor to hide. Now he knows what happened to Jeff.