Walker couldn’t believe his eyes.

Sonya had dropped on all fours and was smelling the sludge that pooled at the bottom of the sewer. He flashed her face with the lightbulb, and a serene smile gilded her face: like she was having a pleasant dream.

“What’s wrong with her!” Walker yelled through his muffled sleeve, the sewer’s stench burned his throat.

“Nothing’s wrong man, relax.” Zach’s voice was as relaxed as an ice cube sliding across a wet table.

Walker shined his flashlight at the origin of the voice, Zach was swaying to an invisible metronome. His eyelids were half-closed. The rifle he’d talked about so much treaded the sewage.

“The fuck…” Walker mumbled and stepped back, further into the darkness, and tripped.

Cold liquid splashed against his entire backside, soaking him. Darkness prevailed. He’d dropped the flashlight.

Walker cursed and plunged his hands into the slow current. Nothing. He pulled his hands out and gagged. He wiped the viscous liquid on his already wet pants and hastily searched his pockets for his phone. He’d left it in his bag.

However, his hand found something else. A lighter.

He pulled out the small cylinder, held it in front of him, and attempted to light it. His wet fingers slid right over the ignition wheel. After a few more failed clicks, the lighter ignited and the meager light illuminated the lump.

Matted fur. Walker waved the lighter. The animal lay on its side, its belly was ripped open, and blood stained its fur. He squinted. The flame glinted off something stuck in the wound: metal.

Walker gagged again, and the lighter clicked off. Bile had clawed into his throat. He spat it out and reignited the lighter. Mushrooms had bloomed from the wound and ran down its side following the blood trail. Pustules dotted the skin of the mushroom’s flat head. It reminded him of popcorn.

Small movements, wiggling, caught his attention. Hundreds of maggots crawled through the fur, between the fungi, and burrowed into the skin. The lighter trembled in his grip as he moved it to the right, toward the head.

Stalks of mushroom grew from every orifice. The dog’s eyes had grown to balloons, two bulbous mounds of bunched fungi. Fungus stretched out of its nostrils and reached for the ceiling. Walker’s eyes watered as he glanced at what remained of the jaw. It had detached from the bone, and vines of stalks had torn it apart. Teeth mingled in a tangle of white.

He screeched and scrambled away from the thing until his back hit the curved wall of the sewer.

A growl emanated from inside the tunnel, and Walker went still. His mind raced. He needed to get up.

The rhythmic slap of flesh on the water grew louder.

Walker scrambled to his feet and barreled toward where he assumed Sonya was. It was still dark, both of Sonya and Zach’s flashlights had fallen and illuminated separate parts of the wall. Walker grabbed one and flashed it in Sonya’s face.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Her chin had dipped in the sewage.

Walker pulled her up and she struggled against him, “Sonya!” He hissed.

She groaned and tried to push him off.

“Wake up wake up wake up,” he pleaded as he slapped her cheek.

Sonya, relaxed in his grip and fell on his shoulder. He struggled to stay silent as his shoes slid on the concrete.

Hot breath engulfed his neck. The stench was nauseating, and for a moment it almost overtook him. Walker kept his body very still. He raised the lighter to his face and ignited it.

The slobbering snout of a mastiff was mere inches from his neck. Like its friend on the ground, mushrooms had erupted from its eyes and nostrils. Its mouth was much more barren, only the occasional stalk from between a tooth, or its jowls. Warm saliva dripped from its tongue and landed on his neck. Its body was pointed directly forward: stiff. Walker waved the lighter in front of the snout. It hadn’t recognized the two people directly in front of it. It had to be blind, no way it could see through those infested eyeball sockets.

“Run…” Sonya murmured, then she slumped.

Her body weight finally fully fell into him as she succumbed to whatever sickness had overcome her. He grunted; his left arm still clutched around Sonya, his right heel slammed into the sludge. Something tickled his ankle. The dog lunged and the lighter went out as his thumb slipped off the button.

A crushing pain emitted from his ankle. He screeched and blindly grabbed the beast with his right hand. His hand slipped over wet fur that thinly veiled thick bone. It’s skull. His palm slapped against it as Walker clawed at it. He gritted his teeth, a warm feeling had enveloped his ankle.

His fingers dug into a soft mound. Finally. He drilled as much as he could through the soft, moist mound, seized as much as he could, and pulled with all his might. Walker ripped the chunk out of the beast, it let go of his ankle, and its silhouette hobbled away.

Walker let out a guttural cry.

“Walk… Er?” Came a sullen voice.

“Zach, listen!” Walker yelled, “Shine your flashlight toward me!”

“I need you to open…” He mumbled.

“What?” Walker yelled back.

The mastiff choked behind him like something had clogged its throat. The sound bounced off the walls in erratic rhythms. How did it not see his hand move in front of its face but could tell his foot slipped? He needed light but he dropped his lighter.

“My…” Zach continued, his voice barely a whisper, “eyes…”

Walker glanced back at the Mastiff, its visage shook, a violent storm of seizing movement. With whatever leverage he still had in his left leg, he through Sonya over his shoulder. He breathed through his mouth; the rotten stench licked the back of his throat.

Walker limped as quickly as he could the few feet that separated him and Zach, who Walker realized was on his knees. His feet drudged through the muck. The cackling from behind him paused and choked to a stop. Walker couldn’t even hear its shallow pants anymore.

“I… will fall… soon…” Zach said, he dropped the flashlight that hung from his grip.

It fell with a splash, its beam pointed parallel to the ground, illuminating the tunnel. Countless mushroom stalks peaked through the sludge-like roots in a swamp, or cilia on a bacterium. The light illuminated the full form of the animal. Its ribs poked out of its abdomen. The beast’s fur appeared shrink-wrapped around the animal like it was made two sizes too small for its body. Lumps underneath the skin threatened to burst at any time. Worst of all, a fist-sized crater had replaced its left eye. White stalks peeked out of the socket like cables out of a television.

A crack shook the tunnel and water geysered inches from the dog. Sonya’s body tensed at the noise.

“How close…” muttered Zach.

“Bit to the right and a foot higher,” Walker said, careful not to move his feet.

Walker kept his eyes on the dog, its body convulsed, foam smeared its whiskers. Zach flinched, and the rifle that sat loosely in his shoulder recoiled.

The beast’s skull exploded. Juices splattered against the walls and all over Walker’s front. A splash of modern art. Zach too slumped forward, whatever willpower that was keeping him upright faltered, and he plunged into the cesspool below.