spotted with the first splash of teenage acne. He sniffed deeply his movements closely mimicking those of his escaped prey. "Can you smell that?" he asked. "Smell this!" Grant said raising his leg and farting loudly. Clive spun around breathing in great lungfuls of the fragrant forest air. He stopped and pointed off towards a break In the woods. "Look over there, smoke. Lets go and check it out," he said, heading in the direction of the thin trail of black smoke. They pushed through the undergrowth swatting flies from their faces as they marched on. The trees began to thin out and Clive raised his fist and drew it down in a quick motion. "Commando style," he said, laying down on his belly and crawling through the thick undergrowth. "Fuck that shit, I'm walking," said Grant as he bulldozed through the undergrowth. Clive felt stupid and childish laying on the ground crawling like a worm. He stood up and brushed himself off and hung back as his red face returned to a normal colour. "Check this out," bellowed Grant from up ahead, his voice was already breaking and would switch in and out of a scratchy baritone and a schoolboy squeak. The two boys stood in poorly kept back yard behind a small rundown shack. In the middle of a patch of freshly dug earth a pipe stuck up and a thin wisp of black smoke trailed from the mouth of it. "What do you think it is?" Grant asked. Clive's eyes went wide as he realised what he was seeing, "It's an underground meth lab," he said, unable to hide the fear in his voice. He had seen the end of a news program about these labs. The image of the roof being ripped off and dirty bedraggled men spilling out into the sunlight amidst a ring of cops had given him nightmares for weeks. Grant turned to him and could see he was afraid, that only bolstered his own bravado as he marched over to the metal pipe. "Don't be a pussy all your life," he said laughing cruelly. Not wanting to look totally cowardly in front of his new friend Clive slowly moved towards the pipe. "Anybody home?" Grant shouted into the opening of the pipe. "Are there any toothless meth heads down there?" "See nothing to be afraid of" Grant said mockingly. As soon as the words left his mouth his jaw dropped agape and his face went pale. One knee slightly buckled under him and he half stumbled and half fell away from the pipe. He landed hard on his ass in the dirt as he tried to scramble away backwards. Clive surprised himself and instead of running back into the woods he ran towards his friend to try and help him. "What is it, what is it?" "I heard a voice coming from below," he stammered the words barely escaping his lips. "It said help me." Clive approached the pipe slowly and peered into the dark maw sticking out of the earth. A sickly sweet smell filled his nostrils as he tried to see as far down into the gleaming metal pipe as possible. He angled his head back and forth to allow as much sunlight in. Something moved at the bottom, a slight shift in the darkness was the only thing he could make out. Clive felt kind of stupid and was hoping that Grant wasn't setting him up to look like a fool, he whispered into the pipe "Hello is anyone there?". Very faintly came a voice sounding like the burnt pages of a book rustling in the wind. "Help me. Dig me out" came the voice from the bowels of hell. The two boys began to dig.
FURTHER READING IN THE CHROME & LEATHER SERIES:
Chrome & Leather: Infiltration - A short prequel to Liars tomb - Out Now CLICK HERE TO GET IT FOR FREE
Chrome & Leather: Liars Tomb Novella - Out Now CLICK HERE TO BUY IT
Chrome & Leather: Deranged - A short prequel to Sandstorm CLICK HERE TO BUY IT
Chrome & Leather: Sandstorm The 2 nd Novella CLICK HERE TO BUY IT
The final Chrome & Leather short and Novella will arrive September 2014.
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