Tom Murray finished work and began to walk to Belsize Park station to catch a tube home. It was nearly 11.45 on Sunday evening and he was very tired. It had been an unusually busy night at the pizza restaurant where he worked as a part-time waiter and he had stayed behind to help his manager do the weekly stock-taking. Tom got on quite well with him and had even had a couple of bottles of beer with him before he left. He liked working at the restaurant and as a full-time A level student with limited funds he appreciated the extra money.
It was a cold and wet October night but despite this and the fact he was tired, Tom was happy. This was because he would not be working until the Sunday after next and it was half term at college. He also had the house where he lived only with his mother in nearby Golders Green to himself. She had gone to visit her sister in Essex for the week, partly for a holiday and partly so that he could catch up with his studies in peace. But he was more interested in having a lazy week off with lots of lay-ins and dvds rather than any serious studying. He was looking forward to it very much.
He passed several houses and then shops in the near deserted high street of this mainly upper-middle-class area. He was not hurrying, for he knew he had plenty of time before the last tube went just before 12 a.m. He felt the wind and rain against his face. He would normally have enjoyed this but tonight he was too tired to care; he was also very slightly intoxicated.
He reached the station at about 11.50 p.m., got past the barriers, and began to walk down the stairs to the platform. He would have taken the lift but there was not one ready and he could not be bothered to wait for one. As he neared the bottom of the stairs he heard the rumble of a tube coming. He felt the cold wind of its approach and forced his tired body to run for it.
But he just missed it.
As it moved away, he quickly checked the tube-time-display board to make sure it was not the last one. It was not: the final northbound tube was in about five minutes. He walked over a little out of breath to the last bench on the left of the platform and sat down. He noticed there was no one else on the platform, yawned, and slowly fell asleep...
He woke up suddenly. The tube in front of him was about to close its doors. He quickly jumped up and half ran/half staggered towards them.
He just about made it. He self-consciously looked around him after the doors had closed behind him and the tube moved off. He was in the last carriage of the tube and there was no one else in sight in this one or the next.
He sat down and looked at his watch: it was 11.59 p.m. exactly. He looked around him, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep again. He half woke up when the tube stopped and departed at the next station of Hampstead. He did not want to fully wake up because he felt comfortable in this state, but noticed that no one else had got in the carriage with him. He knew he had a few minutes before the tube reached his stop of Golders Green. He then fully went back to sleep...
‘AAAARRRGH! AAAARRRGH! HELP! HELP!’ Tom suddenly woke up again but this time to the distant screams of a female. He got up bleary-eyed, still not fully awake. He looked around him. The tube had stopped and its doors were open but only onto an enclosed tunnel, which allowed no space to get out.
The screaming continued and Tom moved quickly into the next carriage, nearly stumbling in his just-woken-up state. There was no one else around. There was also no way out of this carriage, the way this time being blocked by some kind of metal railings, though this area was lit.
He went to the next carriage in the direction of the screams. In this one he could see the last doors on the right opened onto the now widened tunnel. He rushed towards it, still hearing the screams. Where’s the driver? he wondered as he left the tube but could see no one.
‘AAAARRRGH! AAAARRRGH!’ The screams beckoned him on, and he found himself in the dark shell of what seemed like some kind of disused station. But there were no tiles on the walls; only concrete. He could see on the right the partitioned, lit, area, which had blocked his way. But the screams were coming from the left. In this part of the tunnel there was hardly any light and it was cold and a little windy.
His heart was beating very fast; his body full of adrenalin. He continued to run towards the screams. He was so focused on them that he only half noticed that the tube was leaving alongside him.
He briefly hesitated, not knowing whether he should try to stop the tube to get help or carry on. He was still in shock. What in the hell was going on? he wondered. But the screams continued, leaving him with no choice but to follow them, away from the tube.
The floor of the station had a lot of stones and rubble on it and he nearly fell over in his disorientated state when it went down a little to another level. Up ahead to his right the screams were coming from an entrance to a passageway, which he could make out from the disappearing light of the departing tube.
He approached the passageway with caution, looked through it, and saw that it led to another tunnel, running alongside the one he was in. Visibility was now quite poor. The screams still continued from the right. He entered the passageway and rushed towards them but was more careful now that he was fully awake, more aware of the possible danger.
As he got to the end, Tom’s pace slowed. His adrenalin was still high but his instincts told him to be careful. In the background he could hear the slightly squeaky whine common to all tube stations and could feel the wind from the tunnel in front.
He also noticed that the screams had stopped.
At the end of the passageway, Tom carefully peered around its corner on the right. It was indeed another tube tunnel with tracks, like the one he had come from. This tunnel was also quite dark but further on there was some light coming out of another passageway on the right. Tom saw some figures now moving into this light. His heart froze with fear as they became clearer. He pulled back his head a little more into the passageway.