Liminal Spaces and Missing Persons, part two

The tunnel looked to be maybe forty feet long, until they started walking it. Then it became sixty, eighty, half a mile... 

"He stopped here," Chris said, bending down to sniff the ground. "He tried to turn back, but I think--" he turned, moved past the others, and eyed the entrance they'd come through. "Yeah. It just keeps moving away if you do that."

"That could still be a natural passage," Antoinette said, but the tone of her voice suggested that she didn't believe that for even a moment. 

"Some of them are very much one-way," Sherri agreed, sounding equally suspicious. 

Thorin was ignoring them, studying the walls, the ceiling, and even the pattern of the electric lights. Chris turned back, looking at the far end of the tunnel which still seemed thirty feet way. He knelt again, sniffed at the ground. "No blood, no violence, a lot of fear. He's just realized that he can't get back out." He gestured at the wall. "He huddled here for a time, but then he gave up and went on."

"The only way out is through," muttered Sherri. "At least if you aren't a Seeker."

"Looks that way," Chris replied, and started forward again. 

The view of sidewalk and street at the far end of the tunnel blurred, then came back as a blank concrete wall with a lighted Exit sign above it. 

"You have got to be kidding me," Antoinette muttered behind him. 

"He kept going," Chris said, scenting the air. "He had to have seen that, but he kept going."

"He knew he couldn't get out the other way," Thorin said quietly. Then: "Are you single?"

Chris ignored the question and kept walking. Stalking, really; he'd dropped into a wolf's casual, deliberate lope, though he hadn't discarded his human shape. "There," he said after a minute and a half. 

There was staircase off to the left, leading down. He tested the air again, then glanced back at the two magi. "This is it," he said."I can still smell Adam, and he's fucking terrified. Nothing else up here; the tunnel forced him down. The smell from down there is... I don't know. Flowers and decay? A lot of people have died down there."

"Just a moment," said Sherri, and gathered a bit of the Grey into a spell; Chris felt it settle around his head, clearing the air and absolutely destroying his sense of smell. Antoinette inhaled deeply and then released it, nodding to acknowledge the change.

"Just in case there's something bad in the air," said Sherri. 

"I can't track like this," Chris said, but he straightened and turned to make it clear that he wasn't objecting. "When we get down there, you'll have to find the missing man, and get him out if he's alive."

Antoinette nodded. "We'll cover you, and follow after."

"All right," said Sherri. "When we go, stay close; I might not be able to lead you out otherwise."

Antoinette nodded. "We'll stay on your mark."

Thorin grinned. "All right. Let's go see what we're up against."