'God chews up liars and spits 'em out Who is it?' 'I don't know,' he said, and he began to back away again. He could feel the slimy excretion in his hair, and a strand of it was sliding slowly down his neck. There was no telling how far this tunnel went-probably all the way under the river to the black pyramid-but Rhodes had seen and heard enough. The noise of either digging or tunnel travel again faded away. And first of all, she had to be found-he hoped by himself and not by Stinger. There was no way to know what its intent and capabilities were until Daufin explained why it was after her. Heading where, and for what reason? If Stinger was digging tunnels like this one under the entire town, then it was either wasting a lot of energy or preparing for a major assault. Maybe it was the sound of something digging, or the sound of a massive thing moving through an already-dug tunnel. The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere to his left. Little scurryings of fear ran in his belly. Or a subterranean bulldozer, he thought grimly. It ceased after a few seconds-and then there it was again, a rumbling like a subway train somewhere beyond the walls. There was a distant rumbling noise, and a slight vibration in the tunnel floor. After a few more seconds, it stopped in midphrase, and the silence descended again. The singing had a metallic undertone, and it drifted past him like a half-remembered Sunday school song from a tinny record player. There was silence, except for a slow dripping noise.

An old woman's voice, singing: 'Jeeesus loves the little chillllldren, allllll the chillllldren in the worrrlllld.' 'Who's there?' Rhodes called. 'Let me see you.' 'Hot hot hot' It occurred to him that it might really be an old woman, fallen down here and gone crazy in the darkness.Īnd then a voice. 'Praise the Lord' 'Step into the light,' Rhodes said. Who's the guardian?' It was the question that Vance had told Rhodes the Dodge Creech creature had asked, and now the colonel knew for sure it was no crazy old lady down there in the dark. 'God don't like naughty boys,' the old woman's voice answered. He sensed a figure, standing just beyond the light.

'I'm Colonel Matt Rhodes, United States Air Force' he said. 'Naughty, naughty boy' The thing sounded like a demented grandmother on speed. He retreated, the light's beam spearing along the tunnel in front of him. He aimed the rifle's barrel down the tunnel.

The Sims Castaway Stories