Free Clickers III by Brian Keene, J. F. Gonzalez

the basement. Keoni was right behind her, closing the trapdoor behind them.
    Jennifer had never been in the basement of the research center. Cast within the glow of the flashlight, her initial glimpse of the basement was that it comprised a small room. She didn’t have time to take in her surroundings, though. She had more pressing concerns.
    Namely, trying to shut Susan up.
    Susan was lying on her back, crying in a hoarse, loud voice. Wade and Ed were grouped around her, trying to calm her down. Wade was checking her for injuries. Ed cast a glance of disapproval at Jennifer. “Did you really have to push her down like that? You could have really
    hurt her!”
    “What would you rather have?” Jennifer asked. “A dead anthropologist, or a banged up and bruised one?” Jennifer settled down beside Susan, ignoring the men. Keoni stood behind them. From the first floor and outside, the sounds of the Clickers and Dark Ones grew closer, closer, until—
    There was a loud crunch followed by a shaking of the earth. Jennifer felt her heart lodge in her throat but tried not to be too visibly frightened. That would only feed Susan’s negative energy. Frankly, she didn’t have the time for that.
    “Susan,” Jennifer said. She reached out, grasped the woman’s face with her fingers and turned her head so they were facing each other. “You need to get in control of yourself.”
    Susan could only cry louder.
    Keoni sounded worried. “If they hear her—”
    “They won’t hear her,” Jennifer said. “I promise. Can I borrow your shirt, Keoni?”
    “My shirt? Okay.” Keoni quickly pulled his billowy T-shirt off and handed it to her. Jennifer took it by both ends and begin rolling it up, as if she were going to make a tourniquet.
    Wade was finished with his brief physical examination for injuries. “She looks okay. Just some scratches and bruises.”
    Susan wasn’t acting like she was okay. Her breath was coming in gasps and hitches. She was still crying, and her sobs were only gaining in volume. In a moment, she was going to start braying louder.
    “She still needs to shut up, though,” Jennifer said. With Keoni’s T-shirt wound up, she quickly wrapped it around the other woman’s face and shoved it in her mouth, muffling her cries. Susan’s eyes flew open in surprise.
    Wade and Ed gasped, too stunned to stop her. Jennifer tied the makeshift gag around Susan’s head.
    A moment later, the front door upstairs burst open.
    That was followed by another splintering crack that sounded louder.
    It was definitely not the sound of a tree splitting in half.
    Upstairs, something big and heavy tore through the lobby and smashed into a wall. Jennifer, Ed, Wade, and Keoni jumped in surprise. Susan stopped crying briefly and looked up from her position on the floor. With the gag stuffed in her face, she looked like a hostage. Plaster dust drifted down from the basement ceiling.
    Amid the sounds of destruction, of furniture being smashed and walls being broken down came the sound of the Clickers, their claws snapping together in a frenzy. CLICK-CLICK CLICK-CLICK CLICK-CLICK!
    “If they find that trapdoor…” Ed whispered fearfully.
    “They won’t,” Keoni said softly. He stepped back toward the far wall and ran his hand along what Jennifer took to be a makeshift bookshelf. “Besides, we have this.” He pulled a wooden panel out from the shelf and the entire wall seemed to open up. A dark passageway yawned before them. Cool air drifted out of the blackness.
    “Come on,” Keoni urged them. He stepped aside as Wade took a step forward.
    “What the hell?” Dr. Steinhardt marveled. “I don’t remember anything about this building having any kind of underground passage.”
    “It’s part of an old network from when Naranu was visited by various European countries,” Keoni said. “The Tribal Chiefs, they had tunnels like this one secretly built for years. Every time some well-meaning nation tried to colonize here, the