Wind whipped up around the group of villains. Without the constant stream of water, they could walk right up to the edge. It was surprisingly sturdy in most places. And below it was a vast abyss leading down to the massive purple ball of light. It seemed to pulse with raw energy as they glanced down over at it.

Bakade tossed a rope towards Sid. He nodded. "Ensure that your harnesses are secure. Since Bakade is down an arm, I will lead the way. Once I call out, follow the order and take things slowly."

Don't worry guys! I'll be on lookout and be sure to grab you if you start to fall. Death said proudly as he twirled around a shepherd's crook.

BONK!

Death stumbled back as he managed to slam the wooden staff into his head.

Ted sat down with his feet dangling over the edge. He remembered doing things like this when he was younger. Something dangerous and dumb in equal measure, though this at least had a good reason for it. But as the final preparations were made, his mind drifted back into his past.

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"Don't chicken out on us now!"

"Hmm?" Ted nearly jumped as he was called out. He looked up and saw Diante with that sly grin he usually had. "No, no...I'm...I'm game."

Diante slapped him on the back. "Awesome! This is going to be great. Who knows what's down there, right?"

"Oh yeah, could be anything, maybe even some lost pirate treasure," Filip chuckled.

Ted looked over to see that all four of his friends were there, and all of them looked excited. Filip, with his slim body, and passionate eyes. They looked like he always knew something you didn't. Qahir with his impossibly square jaw and threateningly bushy unibrow. He scowled almost constantly, but that was only surface deep. You'd be hard pressed to find a more loyal and kindhearted friend. Jorge was on the portly side, but he was the only one who had already started to grow facial hair. Sure they were a few strands on his upper lip, but that alone gave him quite a lot of social status as a twelve year old. Of course, Diante was there, confident and seemingly ready for anything.

And there Ted was amidst them, like a rabbit among lions. He always felt like he didn't belong, but they all actively sought out his company. Just like this time. All five of them were standing just outside of a concrete tunnel carved into the hillside.

"Treasure? Pretty sure at best we'll find some skeleton from whatever idiot tried this before us." Jorge said as he brushed his fingers through his wispy hints of a moustache.

"Does that mean you want to leave?" Diante asked.

"What? Are you afraid?" Filip snickered.

Qahir slapped his hand down on Jorge's shoulder and squeezed a little too tight. "Hey, even Ted found the courage to go through with this, but if you don't have the balls to come along...well, we could always use someone on the lookout for any cops."

Jorge shifted his body to throw Qahir's hand off of him. "I'm not scared! This just feels like a dumb idea."

"Why? It's not supposed to rain, we'll be fine." Diante declared with a smile. "Besides, imagine how great a story this will make to girls."

The rest of them all smiled as they drifted into their own imaginations for a moment.

"Alright!" Diante called out to gather their attention again. "This should let out somewhere else, so no matter what we can't turn back, okay?"

"Well duh, we'll already have seen everything the way we came in," scoffed Filip. "I'd never be able to sleep again wondering if we were just a few short feet away from something life changing."

Ted gulped. It was pitch black inside the concrete tunnel, and if anyone knew they were here, they'd definitely have tried to stop them. "Y...yeah, it'll be fun. Definitely not going to get us killed."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Without a word, Diante turned around and pulled out a flashlight. He shined it into the tunnel and walked forward. It was a little short, so they all had to duck.

The five of them continued onward and as the silence got more and more eerie, they started to make jokes along the way.

"Eats, shoots, and leaves!" Ted said with impressive timing.

Filip let out a snort while Qahir lurched forward as he burst out laughing. Jorge tried to hide his smile as he let out a sigh.

"Ooh, that was a bad one," Diante said with a smile. "I can almost feel my very soul fading away from how terribly punny that was."

"Uh huh," Ted retorted with a big smile. "Well, if you're so funny, why don't you tell a better joke?"

"Well, maybe I don't feel like it." Diante replied as he turned his nose up.

"Bawk, bawk, bawk," Ted mocked as he flapped his arms at his side like a chicken.

"I don't think he won't tell a joke because he's afraid," Jorge said.

"Of course not. It's because he's not funny!" Filip called out.

"Whoa, ganging up on me? Where is the loyalty?" Diante said overdramatically, with clearly fake hurt in his voice.

"Is it really ganging up on you when it's just the truth?" Ted asked.

The five of them all continued on and on. First it was ten minutes, then twenty, and then thirty. The tunnel seemed to go on and on.

"Man, I figured we would have found something by now," Filip sighed.

"Even if it takes all night, I've got some extra batteries in my pocket, so we should be good." Diante said.

Drip.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Qahir asked.

They all stopped in their tracks and strained their ears. It was a slow dripping sound.

"Must be a leaky water pipe." Filip reasoned.

"Or maybe someone left a faucet on." Jorge added.

Slowly, the sound started to increase in frequency.

They all looked down, as the fairly dry concrete was now replaced with a thin layer of water. Diante's eyes grew wide. "I thought it wasn't supposed to rain tonight?" he said as he turned back towards Ted.

"It...it wasn't!" Ted cried.

Everyone started to get visibly anxious as they all looked around for the source of the water.

"Alright, look. We're alright," Diante said calmly. "We press on. A little water isn't a deal breaker."

The only problem was that it wasn't just a little water. the floor quickly began to fill with more and more water, and the dripping sound changed to be more similar to a shower on full blast.

"Run!" Diante called out.

They did. Pressing forward as quickly as their legs would take them, but they kept their pace just slow enough to make sure no one was left behind.

"We should turn back!" Ted cried out as he felt the water up to his ankles.

"That'll take too long," Qahir said calmly. "We've got to hope another way out comes up soon."

"Yeah, I don't really think we have an hour, or whatever it was, to make our way back." Filip added as he couldn't hold back his excited grin. "Besides, we agreed to press forward no matter what."

"But we know that way at least leads to a way out, what if this doesn't?" Jorge brought up.

"It will." Diante declared firmly. "I just know it. We...we just have to hurry. Come on!"

Before long, Diante's flashlight came up to a wall.

"It's a dead end!" Ted cried out.

"No, look." Diante said ominously as he moved his flashlight down to shine the light on a much smaller tunnel to the right. It was less than half the size of the one they were in. The only way they'd get through it was if they crawled on their hands and knees.

"Are you crazy? We'll drown for sure," Ted screamed. "Help! Help! Somebody! We're trapped down here!"

Ted's cries were drowned out by the sound of rushing water.

Qahir grabbed Ted by his shoulders and turned him, so they were facing each other. "Ted. I have seen you do crazier things than this and survive. You'll be okay. We'll be okay." He sounded so confident. So sure. Like there was not even a fraction of a percent of a chance that they wouldn't make it out.

"We're in this together." Diante said calmly. "But look." he shined his flashlight on the tunnel, and it was clear the water was heading away from them, further down into the offshoot.

"The water is flowing out!" Jorge called out.

"That's right. This is an exit. We will go down it, and we will make it out of here." Diante grinned. "Besides, escaping by the skin of our teeth like this? Pfft, what girl could resist a story like that, huh? Better than those guys that supposedly spent the night in that mausoleum."

"Yeah, besides," grunted Filip as he pushed past them to climb into the tunnel first. "I think they were lying about that. No way Sebastian could've lasted that long without his comfy bed and pillows."

"Hah!" snorted Qahir. "Right, he isn't really known for roughing it."

"Ted, you go next. We'll be right behind you," Diante said as he ushered ted towards the hole.

Ted gulped as he got down on his hands and knees. It was dark. It was wet. And, despite everything they said he was sure he would die here. This was going to be it for all of them.

As he hesitated, Jorge kneeled down beside him. "Come on man, I need you to check if I'll even fit in that thing. Besides, we'll be right behind you."

Ted nodded and, shaking, he crawled into the small tunnel.

It felt like hours while he crawled in the darkness, but with how quickly the water had been rising, if that was the case he would've been completely submerged. Turns out flashlights don't tend to work that well when they're drenched in water. As time went on, it got harder for Ted to keep moving. Crawling wasn't exactly comfortable, and the water was slowly rising more and more which added even more resistance to each of his attempts to press forward.

Water rose more and more, and he had to hold his head up as he crawled along the pipe. His mind was panicking, but Ted managed to keep pressing on. Not because of some survival instinct, but because he knew his friends were behind him. If he stopped, they for sure would not be able to make it.

He closed his eyes as his mind flooded with regrets. His hesitation and apprehension displayed at the forefront, as he had not acted out of fear and anxiety far too often. He wished things could have been different, that he had made better choices. Then, he felt a hand on his arm and he was pulled forward and tossed to the side and out of a deluge of water.

"Glad to see you made it!" Filip laughed as he helped Ted stand back up. "Things were getting pretty hairy there, huh?"

"I...we made it?" Ted asked as his mind tried to process what was happening.

A streak of lightning flew across the sky and illuminated the scene. Rain was coming down so hard and thick, it felt more like hail and threatened to push them both back to the ground. The concrete tunnel was pouring out water like a faucet right into a jagged pile of rubble. Ted's eyes grew wide as Filip smiled, and Ted noticed that Filip's arm was covered in blood.

"Just gotta be ready to catch them when they get close. Otherwise, they'll be in for a nasty surprise, especially as the pressure builds." Filip said nonchalantly, as if he was talking about what play to run in football. "Now come on, help me grab them as the other guys make it out."

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"Ted, your harness? Is it secure?"

Ted shook his head. "Huh? sorry?"

Trizel sighed as he grabbed the rope harness around Ted, and inspected it. "Might want to get your head out of the clouds until after we make it back from this, huh?"

"Right, sorry," Ted said with a smile as he pushed his memories back down into his subconscious. "Time to strap in for this mad adventure."