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B1 Strange Sights in the Omni Tunnels by Bruce Meyer The snow had melted from the campus with the gradual coming of spring, revealing that the grounds had been torn by some rodents over the winter.
"What kind of rodents dig up the ground in the winter?" Nick asked as he and Joram walked across the soggy ground towards the north side of the campus.
"Yeah, don't they go south with the birds and everyone else?"
"No, I think they hibernate or something."
"Obviously not these kind."
They crossed a walk and passed a couple of guys in their Foundations of History class, who acted as if they hadn't seen them.
"Shouldn't we try the same tunnel, I mean, if we want to see that thing again?"
Joram shook his head, "I don't think it matters. They're all connected."
"How about right here, then." Nick had spotted a concrete omni tunnel cover between the business and the social sciences buildings.
"As good as any."
Nick pried the cover up on its hinges with a flat board lying nearby. Joram switched on his light and clipped it to his jeans so that a ball of white light appeared above his head. Then he climbed down the ladder, with Nick following, careful to avoid the light.
It was a long trip down before Joram felt the wooden-board-covered floor beneath his feet. The place where they entered was an intersection of tunnels running in all the four directions of the compass. "Let's take this one," he said decisively when the wooden floor had bounced violently under Nick's weight, pointing to a tunnel going south towards the student center.
They had to stoop in some areas where the rock was not cut well, the wood covering the floor of the rocky hewn passages they traveled. In some places where the rock was lacking, the tunnel was reinforced with concrete. The wood covering the hewn rocky floor, however, had become infested with many varieties of bugs in places, scurrying out of their way as they progressed down the passage.
"Hey, what's that?" Nick asked, pointing up ahead of them.
The tunnel they followed joined abruptly with another, larger one. Clearly visible in his light, Joram saw what looked distinctly like Todd Vals, Briel Gimei, and Harley Impropio passing through the adjoining tunnel.
"What are they doing down here?" Nick asked quietly so he wouldn't be heard in the echoes off the rocks.
"It's the generator," Joram whispered. "Let's follow them." As they passed a crevasse in the hewn rocky wall, Joram saw something that caught his attention. He stopped and backed up, adjusting the device on his belt so that the light above his head shone partly into the crevasse.
"What's up?" Nick asked.
Joram's light revealed a pair of blazing red eyes staring at him from the crevasse.
"Nothing."
He raced after Nick, "Let's hurry and follow them."
They followed them around one corner and then another, eventually coming to a long ladder that led upwards.
"Keep back," Joram whispered suddenly, "in case they haven't seen us." But as soon as he said it, he thought about what might be behind them.
They flattened themselves against the rocky wall watching, trying to stay hidden, waiting until the three had closed the overhead door before they rushed to the ladder and climbed as fast as they could. Opening a door at the top, they eventually found they were in a side passage of the student center, a door they had probably passed every day as just a storage hall.
It was the next evening that Joram had gone down to eat without Nick, who wanted to spend a few more minutes working through his math problems. He had just finished with his dinner and had dropped off his tray when he turned around and saw a familiar smile up too close.
"You may want to stay out of the tunnels," Todd said casually. "There's things down there you don't want to know."
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