***** Vol.5 Chap.27 Laser obstacle *****

Kristin has been following the underground stream all along. The progress is slow. Sometimes she had to squeeze herself through narrow passages. One time, she had to crawl on her knees for quite a way through a low passage.

She passed a small cave and thought she would stop and take a break. She found a good size boulder and sat down. She was mesmerized by the gentle beating of the water flowing past her feet.

She shone her flashlight around the cave and was surprised that there were some cave paintings on one wall. She was wondering how those paintings got there. Perhaps some early settlers found an entrance to the cavern and took refuge in it.

She thought that she must be close to the surface and so, must be close to the compound as well.

Sure enough, as she squeezed through a narrow passageway, she could see some flashing lights coming from the entrance at the far end of the cave. She tramped through the cave and got to the other side.

As she got closer, she could see that the lights were sparks coming from her side of the cave entrance. She scraped off some sand from the cave wall and threw at the sparkling lights.

Her worst fear was now confirmed. The passage way was guarded by laser light. The sparks came from the water splashing on the laser beam. Throwing sand and water on the opening, she soon mapped out the locations of the laser beams that completely covered the entire opening.

She thought of finding another way around. She searched the cave carefully and found no other way to get through. If there was indeed another way, she would have to backtrack quite a bit and she had no idea how much she had to backtrack. She could very well be lost forever if she tried wandering around the underground system.

She had to find a way to bypass the laser system and get to the other side. She had no mirrors to deflect the light and would not be able to deflect the light accurately enough so as not to trip the alarm any way. She went back to the passageway and marked all the spots where the laser light touched the rock.

The entire entrance was covered by horizontal beams crisscrossing from one side to the other. She could not see nor touch the mirrors. But she was sure that the mirrors were installed on the other side of the entrance.

She tore a small piece of cloth from her clothing and tested the laser beam. The cloth burned up instantly giving off a foul smell.

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These guys certainly don’t fool around. Kristin muttered to herself.

In desperation, she laid down on the floor. She turned her flashlight off and listened to the sparks. It was rhythmic and melodic. She tried making up songs to go with the rhythm. She turned around and saw that the sparks were at eye level.

Suddenly she sat up. She threw some sand at the bottom of the entrance and noticed that there was a gap at the bottom. The gap was still fairly shallow, but if she could dig a little at the bottom to widen the gap, she might just be able to slide through.

With renewed energy, she took her travel shovel and started to dig. It wasn’t hard work, just tedious. She worked up quite a sweat deepening the gap. After about another hour, she figured that she had deepened the gap. Just to be sure, she measured the depth of the gap and set up some stones with the same depth to be sure that she could pass through.

When she was satisfied that she could pass through the gap, she took off all her gear and tied them together in a string of bundles. She then took off most of her clothes for extra insurance. Besides she doesn’t want to have tattered clothes on the other side.

She was debating if she should face down or face up as she was sliding through. In the end, she decided to face up so that she could see what was happening. She gathered a bunch of sand around the passageway and even some on the other side.

Carefully, she lied down on the ground and slowly pushed herself through. As soon as her head was through, she threw some sand up to check for the clearing. So far so good, she thought to herself. She continued to push herself with her legs a little bit at a time and trying also to keep her upper torso flat on the ground.

After about two more pushes, she was getting the hang of it. She tried to push a little harder with her legs. Instinctively her back arched up and the laser beam cinched off a part of the clothes on her arm and left a searing scar on her biceps. The burn was painful for a short while, but the beam had cauterized the flesh and burned through the living cells so that she felt nothing.

After the mishap, she slowed down and concentrated on working her way slowly one step at a time until her whole torso had been pushed through the gap. She sat up. Then with one mighty push she was over. She paused for a second to catch her breath. Then she quickly scanned the cavern. Most of the cavern was dark except a distant light illuminating a door into what she assumed to be the compound.

Quickly she pulled all her stuff over. She dared not turn the flashlight on for fear that she may be discovered by a guard on watch duty. She groped her way through the cavern floor using the distant light as a guide.

It did not take her long when she arrived at the door. Unsurprisingly the door was locked. She looked around, that was the only door into the compound. She saw a pipe near the edge of the wall where the discharge water comes out. But the pipe was far too small to crawl in. The only way into the compound was the door.

“Kristin, how is progress? We are about to descend.”

“Fine. I am at the backdoor. Hopefully, the door would lead into the compound. Where are you guys?”

“We found the air shaft. But I could not get into the security system from the shed. I have to go down into the compound with May-Ling.”

“Okay, be careful.”

“You too, wait till we get inside the compound and disable the security system.”

“Ok. Kristin out.”