“Ah…” He took a breath and his eyes opened wide. Water splashed over his face as he coughed. He slowly sat up and stared at his dark surroundings. ‘A dream, it was all a dream.’

He found himself on a patch of sand with the water splashing against his face. He coughed up a mouthful of water before gathering his thoughts.

“This must have been the rushing water I heard, it seems I travelled down the river.”

He tasted the water and was surprised to learn it was clean and fresh. He quickly helped satisfy his thirst when he heard his stomach start to rumble.

“Urgh, I was so preoccupied with other things that I never bothered to hunt for food. Life has been so easy recently. All I did was work and eat using meal tickets and such.”

“I can’t hunt for food now, I have to find out where I am.”

He walked across the sand as he followed the wall. The wall was made of some hard black stone that was unfamiliar to him. The river itself didn’t look man made but Lucifer had a feeling it was.

After a few minutes he came to an opening. If he wasn’t stranded here then he might have walked passed it but he needed to dry off and this place was elevated from the river bank. He could attempt a fire using the cotton and dry himself off. It was getting late and he was already shivering so he needed warmth immediately.

He climbed up the ledge and took off his bag.

“Shit, the cotton is wet.”

It’s true when they say that bad things come in threes. First was his housing crisis, the second was the previous near death situation and now he was going to turn into a Popsicle. He felt a shock go up his arm and it started to ache.

“Ah, damn… So I did get hit by lightning.” His nerves had been damaged and he would probably experience short burst of pain randomly for the next few months.

At first he thought it may have been his imagination from the lack of oxygen. People tend to hallucinate when they have no oxygen. But that electric pain he felt just now was very real.

Although he couldn’t see any scars on his body due to the lack of light, he could tell there was definitely some scaring there. He just hoped that the burns weren’t too serious.

“This black rock, it might be flint. I need to break some off.”

He grabbed his axe/mallet thing and began to smash the rock. But the rock proved to be very resilient because the iron rock he attached to the stick broke and the stick shattered. Following that was a strong pain from the backlash that spread up his arm. He was still injured and his muscles were sensitive at the moment.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He cursed and yelled a few times into the darkness as he screamed at the wall.

“You stupid fucking wall, I’ll kill you.” He proceeded to kick the wall and punch it which just served to hurt him more but it was definitely helping him relieve some stress whilst also frustrating him even more.

After a few minutes he finally stopped, his fists were bleeding and bloody and would fester if he didn’t apply some ointment onto it soon. His actions also didn’t match a once great, legendary mafia boss but he didn’t care in the slightest.

‘Damn, what am I supposed to do? I wish I had a torch or something similar.’ As this thought crossed his mind he could vaguely smell a petroleum like scent in the air. It was faint but it was definitely from crude oil.

“Hmm, actually… Its better that I don’t light a fire. That oil smell is very strong now that I think about it. If I want a fire I might as well commit suicide.”

His mind was visibly calmer now as he thought over the events that had just transpired.

“That red lightning didn’t seem to be a natural occurrence. That means something was creating that red lightning, but what could it be and for what reason?”

As he analyzed his memories he thought back to the cave and tried to remember each and every detail but his memory was foggy. He was in such a rush and he passed out not long after escaping.

“Shit, do I have to go back to that death zone?”

He scratched his head and continued to think of a plan.

“Wait…No, that’s not it. There is a hidden river here. Perhaps it leads somewhere.”

He started to look around and tried to get a view of the river, but he could just barely see it and he couldn’t see where it went to because it suddenly went underground. The light inside the cave was very thin and he could only see the surface of it.

“Too dark, no idea where it goes. But maybe…”

He turned around and started to analyze the wall. “This is a fantasy world after all, so maybe it is like that.”

He started to rub his hands over the wall but couldn’t find a lever or anything. His thoughts were along the lines that the manhole was placed there as a secret entrance that would lead to a mad scientists lab or something similar. The red lightning was a security system to kill intruders. This is the future after all and crazy things like that could happen.

But this line of thinking appeared to be wrong. He couldn’t feel anything out of place on the wall except for a small thin hole that was probably created through erosion. That small hole was too small to fit a button, key or a lever in there.

He sat in contemplation for a long time while he thought it over again. He reached his now shattered axe and took a thin long stick off of it. “It couldn’t be this could it?”

He poked the stick into the small hole. As it went in he heard a clicking sound followed by a rumbling sound.

“No bloody way!”

He quickly jumped back as the wall started to part ways which revealed a tunnel behind it. He stumbled forward and threw the wet bag of cotton in the door. He waited for a few seconds but nothing happened.

‘Okay good, there are no traps.’

He was very wary as he made his way in, as he entered the door it rumbled again and closed behind him.

The light from the hallway lit up and on his arms he saw various Lichtenburg figures. They spread down his right arm and up his left.

“Damn, look at the damage. It’s bearable at the moment but it’s bound to fester and puss.”