They allowed the stone block to lift almost a metre above their heads before cautiously moving forward. The opening was a natural geological formation that took them through a narrow passage, which ended by opening into a domed room that welcomed them with faint light and the sound of water. Within this chamber, carved into the stone, there were stairs leading down to a platform littered with burned and broken globes, some still connected by wires and metal scraps of equipment, the functions of which they could only dream of guessing. Within the wall, there was a desolate arched pathway that surrounded them almost completely. The walls probably used to have decorative carvings, but many of them were blackened from soot or burned out, with just faint details visible. The explosion must have caused some of the stone cave ceiling to open from this side, allowing water to leak down here, meaning they were closer to the surface than it previously appeared. Small waterfalls poured down the walls, gleaming in the faint light, filling the podium slowly with dark muddy water.
The centre of the podium was cracked, with a large, torn, globe-like metal object lodged in its centre. The archways must lead somewhere, but Pax was more interested in the podium. Her computer indicated this was the explosion epicentre, perhaps even the strange globe that was hard to recognize and describe. The structure around her also showed that something happened here, with blast marks, cracks, and melted metal.
“It would make sense that there was some sort of gas pocket here that allowed the explosion to travel up the tunnel to the building back there,” she said as she entered the dark, thick water, which reached barely above her ankles.
“We won't find any bodies here, will we?” Jason decided to stay out of the water and circled the structure, walking on the stairs, scanning everything he could.
“Seeing what happened to that poor fellow back there, and how thick with mud this water is—” She turned around to him with an unsettled grimace and hurried to the steps.
“Wouldn’t the power of this bomb cause this whole place to cave in?” He resumed after a moment of deliberate silence, checking his oxygen levels; they seemed stable for now.
“Maybe that was the plan, but something went wrong, and the pressure found a way to move. The ceiling of this chamber must have been some strong stone, or it just fused partially because of the heat and stress forces present. Still, it’s not safe here. But why would you set off a bomb in a place like this? It feels ancient.”
“I wouldn’t call it ancient… Just forgotten,” Jason alluded.
“Let us take some last quick scans and get back before the ceiling gives—” She was interrupted by a shallow metal echo of something falling on the stone floor.
Both Jason and Pax went silent, looking at each other, listening. The sound came from inside one of the passages beyond the archways. They waited for a few moments, but there was only silence. This single noise made Pax suspicious enough to take the gun in her hand, lifting a finger to her lips while looking at Jason. Slowly, she moved towards one of the openings on the side of the chamber. Once the faint daylight from the dome stopped reaching into the corridor, it was pitch black, and their lights danced with their every move.
They found themselves in a strange oval pathway with many rooms connected to them. Almost all had a pile of unrecognisable and destroyed equipment that danced in the blaze of their torches—things that didn't seem of any interest to them until the third room in a row they looked into. As the light pierced the darkness, a messy row of tables with distinctive human shapes on them came into view. Pax didn't need to inspect them to know they would be the same as the ones they found before. She counted eight of them in total, and the last table had collapsed with its front a pile of thick, grey dust—quite likely another body.
In the fifth and sixth rooms, they found the same thing. In total, twenty-seven bodies. It was a staggering number that weighed heavily on her shoulders. This number could have been even higher if she actually knew how many died in the domed room.
“That noise we heard, shouldn’t we hurry to investigate who it was?” Jason’s voice sounded tired when he spoke. Pax had to admit they had been here for a long time, and she also felt her body slowly demanding rest.
“No heroics today. There is toxic gas here; we don’t have any protective gear, and I only have one gun.”
“You mean that archaic thing?” He laughed heavily, pointing at her side. “Besides, look at the armour I'm wearing. I could probably make a hole in the wall.” He boasted towards the nearest flat surface. This made her lock her lips, trying not to smile, only showing some lines around her eyes. Pax was pretty sure Jason noticed.
“This archaic thing has a velocity of 780 metres per second, so it can kick some ass. And when it comes to your hero armour—” She teased. “You are fine if you fall down the steps but helpless when faced with any type of projectile or energy weapon. Let the professional do the hard work here.” He huffed back in pretend offence. Both of them tried to lift the mood slightly in the only way they knew while still pushing on.
There was a lot of trash and scraps of metal and other burned materials on the floor. It felt hard for them to move forward until they reached a surprising dead end. It was another wall with the same planetary carvings they had seen before, but this one was made of metal. Covered in oxidation and dirt, it felt very different from the previous one. Menacing and cold.
“Earth?” Pax whispered keenly to Jason.
“Earth,” he answered and let her press the discus. The mechanism worked straight away, but this time all of the planetary orbits started flashing in a harmonised unison, creating a pulsating pattern that flashed with a pale blue light, highlighting their faces for seconds and throwing unnatural shadows around them. It felt like a warning. There was a hiss of pressure, and the wall started moving, and a ray of light seeped in on the floor, growing slowly, inch by inch with every second.
“I think those are some sort of blast doors,” Jason mouthed, touching the surface of the moving metal.
“You probably are on the right track—”
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Suddenly, in the cloud of light, Pax noticed a movement, a shadow, and a swear followed by an echoing rustle of someone’s shoes in the distance. They still had to wait for the mechanism to open a path and couldn’t do anything to speed it up.
Once it was above their shins, Pax rolled under the wall and jumped up, only to be suddenly hit by a blinding flash of light that hurt her eyes. She collapsed painfully on her knees, covering her face in pain. It felt like the sound cacophoned, then went mute for a few seconds. Someone's hands touched her shoulders, and she jumped in panic. But the hands didn’t go away and grounded her calmly.
“Are you okay?” Jason's voice slowly crept through the high-pitched static she heard. Pax felt she was talking but wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination and his voice kept coming.
“It was some sort of flash grenade, I’m not sure. It went off the minute you disappeared under the blast doors.” Pax tried to open her eyes, but the light still hurt badly. “I called the local security; they will be here shortly. There are people coming in from outside. I think we are somewhere in the market.” She could make out the sound of shoes, just a few, and voices—people asking if everything is alright, what happened, what are we doing here. Jason took the initiative, telling them they are conducting a bombing investigation and this is a secure area. She was glad he did; the last thing they wanted was for civilians to get hurt or contaminate the site.
“Is she alright?” There was a different kind of voice, an older woman with a very strong highlands accent.
“Some kind of flash grenade or device blinded her temporarily. There is nothing I can do to help without medical aid.”
“Let me help.” The woman said slowly with a tired, raspy voice. Pax could hear her approach and kneel heavily in front of her.
“What are you trying to do?” She could finally hear her own voice, one of her hands still covering her eyes. Jason was talking to the other people, and his voice was resonating around them.
“It’s Eyebright. It will reduce any swelling and help clear out the light,” the woman responded, waiting for Pax to remove her hand, which she did after a moment of hesitation. Two warm, wet patches touched her face. At first, it felt uncomfortable and unpleasant, with water drops going down her cheeks, but once the liquid found its way under her eyelids, a wave of relief overcame her. The older woman told her to keep them on for a couple of minutes, then disappeared, as did the others once they knew she was going to be fine.
Here's a revised version of the text:
“Talk to me,” Pax requested.
“About what?”
“Try and revise what we found. It will help my mind work.” But she actually wanted him to fill in the silence, which she hated. Together with the fact she let herself end up blinded by acting hastily. “I’m glad you were here to help.” That sounded flat. Damn, I need to try differently next time.
“How about I tell you what I learned from the people just now? It’s mainly folklore, but it may be interesting.”
“Let me guess, it’s something about monsters coming out from the darkness?” She wasn’t impressed, and her patience was wearing thin.
“Actually, they mentioned something called Kakodaimonos that would lure people into the caves. It’s a strange folklore where they say that only the smartest and talented hear the calling. So some people here stopped sending their children to schools to protect them.”
“That’s an interesting way of scaring your kids so they never leave home or the city. What happens to those who respond to this calling? Anything about our mystery person who wants me blind?”
“Nothing, nobody seemed to see anything until the device went off. And the people? They never come back.”
“It sounds like a story my aunt would definitely tell me to scare me from leaving the village. And then Protau came along and filled my naïve head with so many tales of heroes and distant worlds of knowledge and adventure, I found this place too small.” Pax pondered for a second. “From what we saw, I’m going to speculate—although we shouldn’t until there is enough evidence—those people down there may have been those trying to learn, and that was their hiding place from the local community that doesn’t like anyone reaching their fullest potential. There is a connection here.”
“Is there?” He was sceptical for a change.
“Of course. Think of it, on Mars, it was the engineers and security forces; on Iapetus, it was the brightest minds to be promoted; here, it was probably the same. There must be a group trying to sabotage us from the inside, remove the smartest, and the mob will be under your control.” Her head was spinning from the theory. However, it was just that. “But, until I have solid proof there is any connection, I’m going to stick to doing my job, not spinning wild stories.”
“Wild stories are definitely more fun than dusty, dark caverns filled with dead bodies. How’s your eyes?” She could feel his hand on her shoulder again but didn’t twitch this time.
“Better, thanks. I should try and take this off and see if I can see.” Pax replied and slowly reached for her face. The herbal patch had gotten cold and felt off when removed. The sharp pain had disappeared, but her eyelids felt heavy and tired. Once she opened her eyes, the bright light was gone, and a blurry image of shadows slowly started to sharpen. She finally was able to measure the large room they found themselves in. It was archaic and abandoned. The windows were blocked from the inside, with some patchy holes letting the sunlight in. The floor was littered with what looked like posters and bulletins, all advertising a Spectacular Cosmic Experience In the Planetarium. And then it hit her—what they saw below must have been the main room with the projector; the globes were probably a model of the solar system, transformed into some grotesque nightmare. All destroyed now.
Pax slowly stood up and started wandering around, only now realising she needs to holster her weapon. There wasn’t much to look at; this place was cleaned by looters of anything valuable. Within a few minutes, the security force entered from the outside.
“Sorry for our slight detour; it looks like we have encountered more than just a few problems—”
“Detective, there seems to be more than just a few problems. Minutes after we lost connection with you in the shaft, we received communication that one of the Head nurses had been brutally attacked in the hospital where you were doing your morning duty.”
She automatically clenched her fist and tried to control her inner emotions as a wave of anger and sadness mixed together in a turbulent struggle arose within. It’s her fault.
“Do you know who? How is she?” Maybe I could try and… A thought crossed her mind swiftly, but she crushed it immediately. No. She tried that before, and it never works.
“Akese is in critical condition. At this moment, there is nothing anyone can do to help her. We have reason to believe whoever attacked her could be the same person who attacked you.”
“Where is this assumption coming from?” Jason jumped into the conversation unwanted. The security officer measured him harshly for a few moments and then answered, “The body of the bombing victim was destroyed, and all of the medical records have been erased. The head nurse and the detective were the only people discussing the topic to our knowledge.”
“There was a medical intern in the morgue. He was agitated because of me being there.” Pax recalled breaking her fingers. “He grabbed me when I was leaving. It was unpleasant, but both me and Akese shrugged it off.”
“The man you are talking about is missing. We are trying to get more information. I really hope you had better luck down there, detective.” The man was tired; it seems his boring security job suddenly got too interesting and busy.
“Unfortunately, it’s not the news you would like to hear.”
“More dead?”
“More dead and questions I don’t have answers to.”