Chapter 7
“Sorren I’m
hungry,” Willy said for the umpteenth time as the two stopped at the end of the lit tunnel. “Can we have pancakes?”
Sorren gave a light sigh at his friend’s childish behavior. “We can talk about food after we get out of here,” Sorren replied. “For now, you should focus on getting to the other side of the channel without falling in the water. We don’t want a repeat of earlier.”
“Is fallin’ down together really that bad for you?” he teased, a light smirk playing across his face.
“Will, do I need to answer that question? Instead of spending your energy joking around, spend it getting over to the other side of the tunnel.” Sorren shoved his friend forward with his right hand, and then crossed his arms waiting for Willy to go.
“’Yer really gonna force me across first?” Willy said, turning with a fake look aghast. “What if I fall?”
“You’ll be fine.”
With one last sigh in protest to the situation, Willy gathered himself, made sure Fiore was hanging on tight, and took off at a sprint. Because he had more room to gain speed and momentum this time around, he was able to make it across without a problem.
Once Sorren had joined Willy on the other side, they set off to find the small opening they had come through. Willy, who had been the second one to descend the ladder, had left the manhole cover off thinking the small amount of light coming down would make it easier to find when they made the return trip.
However, when they reached the area they had started at, there was no light. Had it not been for Muzu’s short caw or Fiore’s ‘mew’ to indicate they were back at their starting point, the two likely would’ve missed it completely.
“I’m sure I left that off,” Willy muttered as he glanced up the small ladder.
“They may have closed it after we passed through,” Sorren said with a slight frown. Once again, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Sorren suspected that they either had an ambush waiting above and would attack as soon as the manhole cover was lifted, or the Ouroboros group were routing them to another location where they would make their attack.
“Will, give me your sword, with the sheath.” Sorren demanded, holding out his right hand.
“Eh?? Why?”
“Because I said so.”
With a bit of mumbling and grumbling, Willy did as he was told.
“Stay down here.” Grasping the sword in his left hand, Sorren scrambled back up the ladder. Once near the top, he pressed himself against the side of the narrow space, and then pushed at the metal cover with the tip of the sword. When it didn’t budge, Sorren moved up the ladder a bit further and pressed it with his hand. No matter how much strength he put against the metal, it didn’t give an inch.
“So it was the latter huh?” he mumbled to himself.
“Care to explain now?” Willy questioned as Sorren reappeared at the bottom of the ladder. “Why’d ‘ye needed my sword.”
“There was a high possibility that our enemies covered the hole back up, so that when we opened it again, we would leave ourselves open to attack,” Sorren answered. “A precisely aimed arrow could travel through the crack of the cover and hit a person straight in the head if they weren’t careful. Or they could’ve taken a blade and cut off your hand as soon you pushed on the cover to raise it. Both scenarios can be avoided by using an object, but I don’t have anything on me that's long enough.
"Although instead of setting up an ambush here, it appears they've merely cut off this escape route. They’ve trapped us again,” Sorren muttered under this breath. “No doubt they’ve got some worse trap planned at the larger exit the village leader told us about.”"
“Then we go the other way?” Willy suggested, pointing the opposite way down the tunnel. “Can’t hurt to at least look for an exit in that direction right?”
Sorren gave a slow nod. “There may also be a few smaller tunnels along the way that have exits.”
With that, the two started off back down the dark tunnel. Sorren had sent Muzu ahead of them to watch for anything of interest, but thus far, everything remained quiet. At some point, after they had been walking for quite a while, the tunnel became noticeably older. Rather than being composed of cement, the sides and floor were made of smoothed stones.
Willy gave a low whistle as he ran a hand over the stones. “Looks like it could fall down any second, eh? Like one lil’ push could collapse the entire tunnel.”
“Then don’t touch it,” Sorren replied in a blunt tone. He continued forward for a few more steps, but when he failed to hear Willy following him, he turned around to see the man poking at a few particularly loose rocks in the wall. “Will –”
“Wait! Before ‘ye start a lecture, come look at this.”
“Will we don’t have time for this,” Sorren said with a deep sigh. Nonetheless, he moved back to Willy’s side.
“See? There’s a small draft when I move the stone. Like there’s an openin’ on the other side.” After wiggling the stone just a little bit more, it popped out of it's space in the wall. As Willy predicted, through the opening they could see a small open space, though through the darkness they could make out no further details.
“Maybe it goes out,” Willy suggested. “We could go explore an' find out!”
“We are not knocking down the wall!” Sorren hissed back at him. “For all we know there is a reason for it being covered up. Our best bet is to at least take a look at the end of this tunnel. If there really is no other option to get out, then we can come back, and
maybe,” he paused briefly to be sure the last word stuck in Willy’s head, “see if there are any possible escape routes from this spot.”
Grumbling, Willy allowed Sorren to push him forward down the tunnel. As they went, the air became noticeably damper. Water clung to the walls and covered the ground, making the footing dangerously slippery.
Then, breaking through the utter silence, Fiore gave a low growl as she dug her claws into Willy’s back. “Oww! Fiore, stop that. What’s got yer fur all ruffled?” he asked the serval, turning around to look into her narrowed golden eyes.
“We’re probably under the sea now,” Sorren said slowly. “That’s my hypothesis at least based on the moisture. I hoped that the tunnel would curve at some point, but obviously not.”
Again, Fiore released a growl, like a cat ready to fight to defend its territory. Willy drew a breath to address her again, but Sorren shushed him before he could utter a sound. Releasing his held breath, Willy listened for whatever it was his friend must have heard.
After a moment, he could make out a small fizzing noise that was steadily growing louder. “What’s that?” he breathed, more to himself than to Sorren.
His question was answered a moment later when an earth-shaking ‘boom’ rocked the tunnel. A small light sprung up at the end, and was rushing in their direction with astonishing speed while it grew in size.
“Run!” the two shouted simultaneously at each other before turning around and bolting back in the direction they’d come.
“Why’s it spreadin’ so fast? Willy demanded as they ran. He had turned his head around just enough to see that they’d never outrun the fire. They likely wouldn’t even be able to make it back to the lit side tunnel. “With all the moisture in the air, it shoulda’ slowed down, right?! But it seems like the fire is speeding up instead.”
Although the raging fire was still a decent distance away, he could feel the heat from it washing over him, and burning the exposed skin on his arms and face.
“Petroleum,” Sorren answered, pointing at the water on the ground. It had been impossible to notice until now with the darkness, but with the fire lighting the area from behind, an oily substance could easily be distinguished on the water's surface.
"If they dumped a large quantity into the water channel as well then the petroleum has likely spread throughout this entire tunnel already.”
“So what’re we gonna do?” Looking at his friend, he could see Sorren’s brain working in overdrive to come up with a solution to the current predicament. “Hey Sorren I’ve gotta idea! The loose rocks! We should be coming up on ‘em. It would be a perfect little hidey hole.”
There was a pause before Sorren gave a short nod. “Alright. It’s the only possible option with the speed the fire is spreading at. Muzu, can you find the spot?”
With a short caw, the crow leapt off of Sorren’s chest and sped down the tunnel. It only took a second for Muzu to locate the spot just ahead of them.
Grabbing Fiore, Willy tossed her none-to-gently to the ground. Under normal circumstances, the serval would’ve physically and vocally protested the rough treatment, but even she could understand that time was of the essence. The fire was almost at their backs now. They only had a few more seconds before they’d all be burnt to a crisp.
“Ready?” Willy asked, backing up to the side of the water channel, putting as much space as he could between the wall and himself.
“Ready. Go!” Launching themselves forward, the two hit the fragile rock wall with as much force as they could muster.
Immediately, without resistance, the wall gave way, and the two men tumbled into the small space. Willy fell face first onto the pile rocks they had just brought down, while Sorren just barely managed to keep his balance. Fiore, with Muzu perching on her back, darted into the small space just behind their masters.
Seconds later, the wall of fire shot through the main tunnel, blasting the group with smoke and hot air. And slowly, it began to spread into their newfound space.
“What now?” Willy prompted, backing up a few steps to stand next to Sorren. "Looks like we can't stay 'ere for very long."
“There’s some sort of metal door,” Sorren responded, running his hand over the engraved metal on the back wall. “It’s got a lock and is a bit rusted, but opening it should be possible.”
“’Ye’d best figure it out quickly. We ain’t got much time,” Willy said, eyeing the flames that were spreading ever nearer.
Sorren didn’t turn to respond. Instead, he pulled out a few small metal rods from one of his many pockets and went to work on the lock. With just a few movements, it sprang open with a click. Forcing the strange door open with the rust was a bit harder. It took the both of them hauling on the lever before the hinges finally began to give way.
By the time they had wretched it open enough to squeeze through, the flames were almost on top of them once again.
Willy, with Fiore once again placed atop his shoulders, forced himself through the narrow gap with Sorren on his heels.
“It feels very open,” Willy observed as he glanced into the dark void before them.
“An old mining tunnel most likely,” Sorren commented, running his hands over the roughly carved rock. “They may have had further plans to extend the main tunnel, but never completely finished the project.”
“Or maybe they were diggin’ for treasure!” Willy said.
Sorren responded with a good-tempered roll of his eyes, though with the total darkness it was impossible for Willy to see it.
“Shall we go then?” Without waiting for an affirmative response, Willy started slowly down the tunnel with his hands outstretched to feel for obstacles.
With Muzu scouting ahead for traps, boulders, and other obstacles, the two worked their way down the path at a crawling speed. It turned and twisted, shrank and grew in size, and finally, began to lighten ever so slightly.
Another few minutes of walking put them at the mouth of a tunnel. Looking out, they could see the sea in front of them, the outskirts of the city to their left, and forest to the right. The harbor that they had started at was nowhere in sight.
The sun was beginning to set over the buildings of the city, casting a golden and pink hue across the water. Without even realizing it, the two had spent the entire day trekking through and fighting in the tunnels.
“Ahhh it’s so nice to be back outside again,” Willy said, taking in a deep breath. “And now that we’re back, we can think about important things, like dinner and pancakes.”
“Is that all you can think about?” Sorren mumbled in response as he started back in the direction of the city.
“Ah come on Sorren! At least think about it!” Willy shouted, hurrying after his friend.
“We’ll see.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Are you sure they’re dead?”
“Very sure sir. There is no way they could have escaped the fire. We’ve been keeping an eye on all of the exits, and there has been nothing of interest thus far.”
“Have you searched for the remains?”
“With the fire still burning, it makes it difficult to –”
“Do it. Now.” Zar’s eyes narrowed on the man in front of him. Under his intense gaze the man quivered, not daring to look into his eyes. “Well? Why aren’t you moving?”
“Y-yes sir!”
Turning back to the wine glass in his hand, Zar swirled it twice before taking a sip of the red liquid. He found his mind drifting back and sorting through the events that had happened thus far. There were a few unexpected occurrences, but nothing that would truly hinder his plans. Everything was on track, as long as
those two were out of the picture.
The others that surrounded him were nothing but tiny insects, incapable of acting or thinking on their own. If it weren’t for him, they never would have gotten this far. But those two they were different. They had the potential to ruin everything if not dealt with properly. Because of that, nothing could be overlooked. Not one small detail.
A/N ~ I apologize for rough editing on this. My mind was function enough to finish writing, but clearly doesn't want to cooperate with the editing process. Still, I wanted to go ahead and put this chapter up. I hope you enjoy. ^^