Moving down the long Tunnel, Jimmy switched on the light. Playing the beam along the southern wall, they both traveled about a hundred feet. Tony could see a square of light a ways up ahead, the exit, he assumed. Suddenly, Jimmy stopped and knelt down. "Here."
At first Tony didn't see anything. Then he saw Jimmy pushing on a fist-sized rock sticking out a little ways about a foot off the floor. "Crap...Must be frozen", Jimmy said, uttering a curse. Sitting down on his ass and bracing himself against the opposite wall, he gave the rock a couple of hard kicks. As he pulled back his leg for a third kick, a low 'CLINK' was heard. Jimmy got to his feet, and before Tony's amazed eyes, pushed open a cleverly camouflaged secret door. The opening revealed was small, only 4 feet high by 2 feet wide, and as Jimmy shined the light inside, Tony could see a long corridor snaking away into the darkness.
Jimmy motioned Tony to follow, and the boys bent down and went through the hole. Jimmy turned and indicated that Tony should close the fake door, and when he did, Jimmy shone the light on the back and showed Tony the release mechanism on the back side. Then, they walked forward, hunched over, for a distance Tony estimated at about 60 feet. All at once, Jimmy stood up, and Tony found he could as well.
The flashlight revealed a large chamber. Jimmy shined the light around, and found a small Lantern on an old, sturdy-looking table. He asked Tony for his lighter, and lit up the Lamp, which soon burned brightly. Jimmy hung the Lantern up on a nearby hook, and said, "Welcome to Casa Jimmy."
Tony gazed around the cavern. Besides the table with two chairs, it was furnished with a full-sized bed and a Wardrobe-sized cabinet. There was a large Woodstove with a metal chimney rising up through the ceiling at the far end of the cavern, with stacked cordwood nearby. Near that was an open cabinet stocked with canned food. By the spot where they had entered the cavern were two drums marked 'Kerosene', presumably for the Lantern. Against the wall nearby was a large metal bin, secured with chains and a combination lock. Tony could also hear the sound of water trickling, and looking down along the left wall, saw a small running underground creek.
Tony glanced at Jimmy, amazed. "How did you ever find this place ? This is like, Super-Cool !!"
Jimmy laughed, and motioned Tony to a seat at the table. Jimmy sat down as well. "I was running the Go-Kart through the Tunnel one day, and it always bangs the walls, 'cause it just barely fits. Well, it banged into that rock that controls the release latch, and the door sprung open, and I found this place !"
"Wow, this is like, the ultimate hideout !", Tony exclaimed. "A guy could hide out here...Well, like, forever if he had to. Who made this place ?"
"I think the cavern is natural....When the miners dug these tunnels, they must've ran into it. They mined Granite in this valley, you know."
"How would you know that ?", quizzed Tony, still looking around.
"There's nothing to do in Statesville", Jimmy sighed, referring to the State Prison where he had been held on and off for the past 6 months, with brief exceptions of being transported to the Bullworth Jail for Legal Hearings contesting his case. "So...I started reading outta the Prison Library. Wasn't much there, but there was a history of this place....'The New Coventry Valley'....Nowdays, it's called the Vale Valley. About a century ago, there was a big mining concern, harvesting Granite....Most of it was used to make Tombstones."
"What's in the big box over there ?", asked Tony, pointing at the large metal bin.
Jimmy hopped up and went over to the bin. Running the combination, he undid the lock and the chains, and opened the bin. Tony came over and looked in the bin. Inside was every weapon that Tony was familiar with from Bullworth....Slingshots, Bottle Rocket Launchers, Spud Guns, M-80 Firecrackers, Stink Bombs.....And something he had never seen before. "What is that ?", he asked, pointing.
Jimmy plucked a Soccer-ball sized object from the bin. "This, my friend, is a Rubber-Band Ball", he said. "Made from many rubberbands of a particular type, picked up around in various places all through these fine Towns. Stretched tightly around in this ball, their tension make this a formidable weapon. You can knock people down with this, but it's best use is inside a building, for it will bounce off nearly any surface with a force equal to that of the old-time Super-Balls."
Tony took the ball from Jimmy and gave it a bounce on the cavern floor. It rebounded with such force that it smacked Tony in the face, knocking him on his ass. Jimmy quickly grabbed the ball on the rebound, and stood there laughing at Tony laid out on the floor. Tony rolled up on his elbow, holding a hand to his bleeding nose. After a while, he began to laugh with Jimmy.
"That thing's got some kick, now !", said Tony, wiping his nose.
"Told you", said Jimmy, putting the Rubberband Ball back in the bin. He reached out and pulled Tony upright. "It's damn cold in here...I'd better heat this place up."
Jimmy went to the Woodstove and began piling wood into it, then tore up some papers and stuffed them in underneath. "Lemme see your lighter again."
Tony handed over his lighter, and Jimmy lit the paper on fire. Soon enough, the dry wood caught, and in no time the fire was burning warmly.
The boys sat back down at the table. Tony had still more questions.
"Where's that Tunnel go to ?", Tony asked.
"Comes out at Happy Volts Asylum", Jimmy replied. "The Nuthouse. I busted a couple of people outta there....One was a teacher, Mr. Galloway."
"No Shit ?", Tony said. "The English Teacher ? What was he there for ?"
"He's a drunk. Went there to get dried out. Miz Phillips had me get him out." Jimmy mulled a bit over that. "Don't know what she sees in that alkie, anyway. Good pussy going to waste there." He was silent a bit, then..."That's probably where they'll take our little fat friend Algie."
"But....He's a Juvie", Tony said. Won't they just send him home ?"
"That's not the way things work around here", Jimmy said. "The Harringtons and Spencers would never allow that. If they don't keep him in the can, they'll ship him to the nuthouse. If he went off whacked the way you told me, that's what'll happen."
The boys sat in silence for a few minutes, staring at the fire in the wood stove.
"Won't somebody see the smoke from that ?", Tony asked.
"There's only one place it can be seen from, and you have to really look to notice it", Jimmy said. "Checked it out last summer. Even so, it just looks like it comes outta the top of the mountain."
"Huh...Somebody went to a lotta trouble to fix this place up", Tony said.
"I think it was a Nerd named Piff, about 30 years ago", Jimmy said. "Dragged all this stuff in here, fixed up the fake door, all that. I found some old papers here with that name on them when I discovered the place."
"Piff ?? Piff The Skull ?" It was Tony's turn to be shocked.
"Yeah, that's him....I don't know his real name....But he was some kind of Super-Nerd...Legend has it he was the one who seeded all those G&G cards all over that those weenies love so much. He's some kind of hero those piss-pants idolize....Funny thing is, he took that name from a Comic Book. I seen it over at the Dragon's Wing." Here Jimmy laughed. Tony just stared at him. Finally Jimmy stopped laughing. "What ?", he said.
"That's the name Algie used while he was doing the attacks on the Cliques", Tony revealed.
"The Hell you say !" At this, Jimmy burst out laughing once more. "Seems the Nerd never strays far from the Herd." His laughter slowly dribbled away. "Kind of hard imagining pee-stain carrying that whole thing off."
"Them little pussys are smart", Tony observed.
"That they are", Jimmy agreed.
Tony rose to leave. "I gotta go. I'll be stopping by to see you, once I can get things worked out....The plans, you know. We gotta figure out a way to unite the Cliques. Pete was right....We'll never get anywhere as long as everyone is fighting themselves."
Jimmy sat looking up at Tony. "I want to bring down the real criminals. The asshole pricks responsible for all this....Those Harringtons and Spencers and all their lackey friends."
"That's a tall order, Jimmy", Tony said.
"That may be....But I'll never be really free until they pay for what they done", Jimmy said, slowly. "Pete and I knew too much, and look what's happened. Soon enough...." Here Jimmy paused....."They'll be coming after you."
___________________________________________________________
