The sound of boots slapping into the wet sediment at the bottom of the tunnel echoed throughout the passage. The two incredibly unmotivated wastewalkers moved through the system at a snails pace. Selby walked, hunched over, shotgun at the ready. Mary scanned the tunnel ahead with eyes like steel.

“What do you think he meant by it can go through walls? I could hear her shouting, but she didn’t shoot. I’m glad though, I don’t want to die like Lier. All… hollowed out, like that.” Selby asked, looking to the extremely calm senior engineer. Mary scoffed.

“You don’t want to die like that? I would. It was probably quicker than what’ll happen to us. Damn Lier. He didn’t deserve to die like that.” Mary answered. Selby had to process what she had said.

“Wait, what do you me-” Selby started, but Mary cut him off with merely a glance.

“Quickly. He didn’t deserve to die quickly. If there were any justice in this world it would have been slow.” Mary answered, hatred pouring out of the words like a fountain.

“I don’t know if I would go that far.” Selby muttered, feeling a little defensive. He’d never known the captain to be anything short of decent.

“You don’t know much at all. Most of the walkers don’t when it comes to Lier. Or me. Or his family. I’m not going to say more, just know that you should keep your trap shut about it if you’d like to keep all of your teeth.” Mary growled, keeping her eyes glued to the tunnel ahead. They hadn’t found any damn tags. All they’d found were the remains of a stone wall and half of Lier's insides.

The two spent the next few minutes in silence, Dibbuks insane shouting slowly fading into a consistent reverberation behind them. Selby had decided that doing what Mary said made logical sense in his current situation. Mary stiffened as familiar voices began to bounce their way towards them. Three familiar voices…

“Wait… That’s the captain, right? What? Are they playing a recording of him or something?” Selby asked, straining his ears to make out anything coherent. Mary’s face didn’t move. Her legs were a different story altogether.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Wait, so you mean I can’t die anymore? At all? It’ll all just fill in with this… Stuff?” Lier asked, taking another poke at the spongy orange fungus. He was still processing what he had seen and felt. He was beginning to get headaches. It was like he could almost taste the sweat coming off of his own forehead.

“Mycelia, and for the most part, yeah. Ain’t never been incinerated or anything, but gunshots, ant wounds? It all just puts things back in order.” Telio answered, showing Lier a few places he’d been shot over the years. Though there weren’t any scars, the wounds had left spots where the fungi showed through under his skin.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Oh? That’s good. Not horrifying in the least.” Wicksomme chimed in. He’d been through the worst night of his life so far, and it was probably going to get worse. At this point he just wanted to get it over with, whatever it was.

“I agree.” A voice growled. A split second later a shot rang out and Telio clutched his thigh. It had been a clean shot, the round burying itself into the muck behind him.

"Fuck! Save your bullets damn it!” Telio shouted, inspecting the hole already nearly filled in with fungus. Another shot rang out. Another hole formed in Telio’s shoulder. Again the wound instantaneously filled with mycelia.

“Why? You’re going to get us all killed down here anyway. And for what? So you can do to us what you’ve done to Lier?” Mary spat, pulling her arm away from Selby’s desperate attempt to stop her. She leveled the pistol for another round.

The group stood frozen still. Telio held his hands out in front of him while Marys eyes bored even more holes in the man. She was looking for another soft target.

“Twenty years... I should have known. Twenty years, and you barely aged a day.” Mary said, eyes wild with rage.

“Look, I can explai-” Telio started. Another shot boomed through the tunnel. A new hole appeared, then disappeared.

“Twenty years of watching you run away, and leave the others behind, just to save our skins? How many have you let die? How many? How many?!” Mary screamed, leveling the pistol at Telios head. Her finger began to squeeze the trigger.

A fist like a brick sailed out of the darkness and slammed into the side of Mary’s temple. The world spun as her brain bounced from one side of her skull to the other for a moment before she hit the ground. She looked through bleary eyes up at Wicksomme, standing over her.

“You fire that fucking gun again… and I’ll put it down your throat… I don’t care about all of this dramatic nonsense right now. I owe Dibbuk. I’m not going to let you get us all killed before I pay her back.” Wicksomme stated, complete and utter disapproval in his glare. Mary had to wait a second for it all to register, the rage still working its way out of her brain.

“Thanks, ki-” Telio started, but Wicksomme cut him off.

“Shut it. We need to move. We might already be fucked.” The young tankbearer interjected, pulling his tanks onto his back. He pointed down the tunnel. He’d heard something while the shots were bouncing around the tunnel.

“You hear that? He’s right.” Lier added, nodding towards the growing sound of many large and deadly legs moving towards the group.They were still a ways away, but despite the distance the tunnel was filling with a cacophony like rolling thunder. Mary massaged her jaw and begrudgingly nodded her head. A somber understanding rolled over the group.

Their options now were to either shore up and die here, or move and die trying to get Dibbuk back. Accusations, however well earned they might be, were something they no longer had time for. In fact, they had little time for anything save for a few grudge filled sideways glares. It was going to be a long night, or a short one. It all depended on where one was standing…