The Blob

system of aqueducts which dealt with the runoff, and were linked with the town’s sewers.

The helicopter zoomed past, but it kept on going, giving no indication of having found him.

Good.

Brian Flagg looked into the darkness of the aqueduct pipe.

19

Contain the thing!

They must contain the thing, thought Dr. Trimble as the jeep lurched to a stop by the impromptu command post in Morgan City. If they could trap it, it would be just a matter of time before he could find the way to immobilize it. And then he could learn the true nature of this wonderful life he had created. Study it, get to know it, use it to create new mutants. Why, the secrets of life lay below him now in the sewers of Morgan City. How precious, how terribly precious!

“Come on, Doc, over here,” said Colonel Hargis, guiding him to where a soldier was hunched over a folding table, under a bank of lights. “I radioed ahead to get the information. Lieutenant Benton’s got the stuff we need.”

The lieutenant welcomed them, and they declined the offered coffee. Then Lieutenant Benton gestured down to the sheets of schematics spread out on the table in front of him.

“The whole goddamn town’s sitting on a system of aqueducts,” he said. “Runoff from the mountains.”

“Can we trap the thing down there?” asked Hargis.

“There seem to be three main junctions.” Benton tapped three times on the map. “Here, here and here. We close off those valves, I think we got it.”

“Excellent,” said Dr. Trimble. “How fortunate it chose Morgan City to descend upon!”

“Just hope it stays in the pipes, if you want it alive,” said Colonel Hargis.

“I want it alive, Colonel, whether or not it stays down there, do you understand me?”

“I don’t know, sir. Isn’t it just as good to us dead? I mean, can’t you do an analysis from a dead—”

Trimble shot the officer a glare that stopped him talking, fast. “Alive, Colonel. Alive! Now, start getting those valves closed, pronto. And what about storm drains, for God sakes!”

“We’re working on those, sir,” promised Benton.

“So do it!” said Trimble. “A team of soldiers for every valve. Now!”

Colonel Hargis scrambled off to do his duty.

Dr. Trimble smiled to himself. Maybe I should have been a general, he thought.

No, he told himself, thinking about his creation oozing beneath the streets of Morgan City. As a general he never would have hoped to have a night as thrilling as this!

The aqueducts and sewer system below Morgan City were built in the fifties, after perennial flooding problems finally forced the town to raise the necessary capital. The builders had not used stone, as the Romans had in the original aqueducts, but rather huge concrete pipes.

Now Meg Penny walked within one of those pipes, guiding her little brother Kevin and his friend Eddie through the maze of dark, drippy tunnels, slogging through ankle-deep water.

Somewhere in this network of tunnels, she knew, the creature lurked.

Somehow they’d gotten away from it for a time. How, she had no idea. She didn’t even care about losing the hair; she was just happy they’d gotten away. But now they were lost, and she had to find the way out. The only lights they had were dim maintenance bulbs widely spaced along the tunnels.

But they had to keep going. They had to find a way out. Getting back to the street was their only hope. If they stayed down here too long, the monster was bound to find them.

They had to get out.

Eddie was wiping his nose with the back of his sleeve and snuffling back tears.

“Is it still after us?” he wanted to know.

“I don’t think so,” said Meg, noticing how their voices echoed and carried down here, wondering if that thing had ears. “Quiet, now.”

Kevin was in bad shape. She could feel him trembling. “I’ll be good. I swear,” he said. “I’ll never go to the movies again!”

“It’s gonna be okay, Kev,” she said, wishing she believed it. “C’mon. Let’s find a way out of here.”

In another tunnel, not far away, three heavily armed soldiers in plastic suits made their way slowly forward, weapons at the ready. Corporal Dennis Johnstone held in his hands the map that would guide them to the valve they had to close. Private Bill North’s heavy-duty flashlight probed the steamy darkness ahead. He leaned over to speak to Sergeant Henry Washington.

“Sergeant!” said North.

Sergeant North jumped, startled. “What?”

“I think I hear something!”

“That’s the sound of me having a heart attack, you idiot!” said the sergeant. “Corporal, let’s see that map. Christ, we’ll never find that goddamn valve.”

“Uh, Sarge,” said Corporal Johnstone, directing his own flashlight to an area behind them.

The sergeant looked. The beam picked out a bright red valve wheel.

“All right, let’s close it up and get outta here!”

They went to deal with the wheel.

At just about the same time Meg and the boys entered a large chamber.

Several tunnels connected here, up on the walls of the chamber. The floor, though, was a lake of muddy water. At the far end of the chamber was a concrete spill-off ramp.

“Look!” said Kevin. “Look up there, Meg!”

From the top of the chamber there was a spill of street-lamp light! Coming through an open storm drain above.

“How do we get up there?” said Eddie, whining.

As Meg’s eyes adjusted to the increased illumination, she saw the answer. “Those pipes over there. We can climb those pipes!” There was a series of cross-brace pipes running up the wall to the storm drain. “C’mon, that’s our way out!”

But first they had to wade through this fetid lake.

Meg stepped in, and it went nearly up to her waist. But still not too deep for the boys, thank God.

They splashed in after her, revitalized by the sight of a way out.

As she waded, Meg heard the sound of a soft squealing. She looked around and found herself nose to whiskers with a large, grizzled rat, paddling through the water nearby.

“Ugh! Watch out for that rat!” she warned the boys.

She looked away, just as the rat was tugged under the water.

“What rat?” asked Kevin.

She looked back, and there was no swimming rat.

But farther on she spotted another rat, clinging to a floating piece of garbage.

Even as she watched, the rat was sucked under.

The creature! It was close!

She turned to the boys. “C’mon!” she said. “Hurry!”

They hurried, all right, but the trouble was that the concrete bottom of this chamber was slippery as hell with crud and mud.

Meg heard a whirring sound behind them. She looked around, and in the dim light she saw the water… churning!

And the churning was getting closer!

“What’s happening?” asked Eddie, noticing as well.

“Go!” cried Meg. “Go!”