Published: 2025-10-02

Even for two men, the weight of the body bag was too heavy. They were instructed to throw it into the sea, but moving it in broad daylight proved difficult. An idea popped into one of the men’s head, “We’ll throw it in the old city tunnels.” The tunnels were desolated, and most entrances were sealed; it was an effective way of disposing of a cadaver. “We’ll report that we threw it into the river. Nobody will know.” José was the kind of man who always looked for an easy way out. A dead man is a dead man, and as long as his body is disposed of, everything should be OK. The other man, Luis, was less eager to disobey his orders: “I don’t know, man, this can come back to bite us in the ass.” After a few minutes of back and forth, he was convinced. They would abandon the idea of throwing the body to the sea and use the tunnels instead.

The two men drove to one of the unsealed entrances. They used to do business in that part of town; therefore, they were familiar with the tunnels. They entered the tunnel carrying the corpse; it was as heavy as they remembered. They swung the bag and let it drop. It was a 10-foot fall; the man in the bag would die a second after touching the ground.

“It’s done, man. Now let’s get out of here.” Luis said.
“We gotta seal the tunnel first. We don’t want nobody finding the body. We take no chances.”

The two men started weakening the structure of the adit. In a cruel twist of fate the entrance of the tunnel crumbled in front of their eyes before they got a chance to exit. They were trapped. The two men stood in place and watched how a one meter thick wall materialized in front of them. The next second they were filled with rage; they kicked the walls and swore at their disgrace.

“I told you this would come back to bite us in the ass.” Luis said.
“Oh yeah? You have 50% of the blame for going along.”
“I’m gonna kill you.”
“Shut up, you idiot. We’re trapped; don’t waste oxygen.”

The two men sat on the floor and started thinking of a way out of their predicament.

“The phone. The phone!” Luis said.
“Oh yeah? What do you plan on doing? Calling a taxi?”
“I’ll call the guys; they’ll come and get us.”
“And what are we gonna tell them? We were having a picnic here? What if they see the body?”
“Look, man, I’m doing my part here. You think of something to tell them.”

Luis flipped his phone open and called Alberto, one of the low-ranking members of the gang. José sat next to him, tapping his foot on the dirt passage. “So?” He said.

Luis flipped his telephone shut and, looking at José, said, “There’s no signal in here.”

“I knew so.” José said as he stood up and walked towards where they had thrown the body.

“What are you doing?” Luis asked.
“Getting out of here.”
“And how do you suppose you are gonna do that?”
“There’s another open entrance on the west side. All we gotta do is get there.”
“That’s like 10 kilometers from here!”
“You got a better plan? I’m listening.”

José started descending the ladder that led to the lower level, where the corpse was. Luis hesitated, he believed staying next to the door was best, but he preferred not to separate from José. He gave up and ran after him.

Luis descended to the lower passage. It was dark. Even after squinting he could barely see in front of him. A couple of meters ahead there was José standing with one hand in his left hip while scratching his head with the other. Luis walked up to him, “it’s pitch black in here, there’s no way we can walk 10 kilometers under this conditions, we would be— what are you doing?” José kept scratching his head and looking at the floor; he was bewildered.

“Luis.” He said.
“Yeah, what?”
“Didn’t we just throw a body over here a couple of minutes ago?”
“Yeah, I think so, yes. Why?”
“Then, why is the body bag empty?”
“What do you mean is emp—”

Luis looked at the body bag next to José’s feet. It was empty. He took both his hands to his head and started pulling his head. “Maybe rats took him out and are chewing on him right now. Yeah, that must be it.” He thought.

As the two men stood in total disbelief, something cold fell onto one of their shoulders; it squeezed them, it was alive. Neither man dared to turn their head; they preferred to stare at the darkness and pretend this was not happening. After a deep breath, Luis reached into his pocket, took his cellphone out, and flipped it open. Like a beacon of light, the cellphone’s screen illuminated the entire tunnel. Rats ran to hide as the light burned their retinas, but the men still didn’t dare to turn their heads. They looked at each other and gave themselves a nod of acknowledgment. Their heads turned slowly towards their shoulders and then looked up. The man they thought to be dead, there he was, smiling at them. He was pale as a ghost, and his breathing was heavy. Even the grip from his big, calloused hands felt feeble. José looked at the man’s chest, where five shots had impacted him earlier that afternoon. He bled; his Hawaiian shirt was soaked, and yet, he had enough strength to stand by himself.

“Boss, we didn’t do it; we owe our loyalty only to you. They used us to dispose of you. We didn’t even know.” José said.

The man patted him on the shoulder, then he looked at Luis and smiled. He walked closer to them and hugged them. José and Luis felt relieved and patted his back. He seemed glad to see them.

A cracking sound resonated in the tunnel, and the men tried to gasp for air. Their bodies twitched as the man embraced them tighter and tighter. Luis's cellphone fell to the ground as both men finally stopped struggling. The man picked up the cellphone as rats ran away from the light.

“There’s no signal in here.” He said.

THE END.