Running With The Horde (Book 2): Delusions of Monsters by Joseph K. Richard Page A

turned the handle and eased the door open. A cold, damp breeze greeted her as she stood in shocked silence on the threshold of the room. Only it wasn’t a room, it was a long, dark, earthen hallway lit by the occasional torch.
    The wavering light seemed to go on for quite a ways into the distance and she couldn’t tell just how long the hallway was. The immediate area by the door was wider than the passage beyond and did indeed appear to serve as a secondary storeroom filled with barrels. The air was almost tangy with an aftertaste of dead fish. The sound of running water amplified as she stepped further inside. A quick investigation revealed a large pile of burlap sacks moldering in one dark corner behind the barrels. The sacks would suit her intended purpose for Manny. She took a few steps further down the passage before she realized she should go no further. It was only a matter of time before someone came looking for Manny or for her. After all, that prized customer wouldn’t wait all night for his libations. With a sad sigh she turned her back on the passage and hustled back out to the body. Kicking off her shoes, she did her best to avoid the spill and the glass, grabbed Manny with both hands around the shirt collar and began tugging him toward the open door a few torturous inches at a time.
    By the time she had dragged him through the door and sufficiently hidden him under the pile of burlap sacks she was an exhausted sweaty mess. Eva took a moment to breathe and thank her lucky stars nobody had come down the stairs or through the mysterious cave-like passage yet. Back in the main storage room she snagged a big push broom from a dusty corner and hastily swept the glass and the goop under the nearest shelf. The hard packed dirt floor looked damp from the blood and the liquor but perhaps nobody would notice unless they looked closely. Another moment was spent retrieving the second bottle of absinthe and her shoes. Then she stopped at the base of the stairs and fixed her hair the best she could under the circumstances. One hand held her dress closed while the other held the liquor bottle in a death grip. After one last look of longing toward the door at the back of the room she inhaled and began hustling up the stairs. It was time to act the part of a timid, but fun-loving cocktail waitress, at least for a few more minutes.
    I popped out of my Eva trance with a profound sense of triumph and more than a little melancholy, startling Mark, Sam and Jacob in the process as I scrambled out of the easy chair. I would have dearly loved to see how Eva Goldstein got out of that speakeasy in one piece. Clearly she did as she was a very old woman before the Sickness turned her into a zombie in the very same neighborhood she’d once shilled drinks during prohibition. I was triumphant because my hunch had been right! There was a tunnel under the river or at least it was very likely. There was really only one way to find out.
    I wished I could have willed Eva to obey her desire to follow the passage so I could know for sure but then maybe she would have been killed way back then. The thought of that made me feel bad. I wondered at this. Wondered what effect these memory movies were having on my psyche. Just like with Linus the Pharmacist and Tegan, I now felt a close kinship to Eva. These thoughts were assailing me as I struggled into my boots which I had taken off for comfort. My watchers huddled close by waiting impatiently for news.
    “I think I was right, Mark, there is a tunnel,” I told him with a cheesy grin. I was way too excited over the prospect of a passage under the river connecting Northeast Minneapolis with downtown.
    “Yeah?” he said. He didn’t return my smile. I think he was not so secretly creeped out by me.
    “Yep!” I said.
    “I guess we’ll have to go check it out then, huh?” he asked.
    “Oh, you bet. You should have been there, Mark, she was incredible!” I said as I got to my feet and headed for