Another Way

The brick wall was cold and damp with the constant condensation that everything else in the Underground had. It was a constant problem the area had, but no one cared enough to try to fix it.

Daven peered over the side of the brick wall and could see someone standing outside. They wore a black T-shirt, pants, and a black armored vest to match. Just to make the whole thing uniform, they wore a black hat. A security guard.

He tried to look closer at the figure to see if it was a man or woman but it was so dark here he couldn't tell as most of the lights in the Underground ceiling were broken around here. Probably on purpose, didn't want anyone to be able to see well when attacking old Howard.

Though, for a notorious slum lord of this district, the security of Howard's warehouse was actually pretty small. All there was was this sole security guard and a camera attached above the door, monitoring everything. He guessed that was all they needed as all of his searches for an alternative way were uneventful. There wasn't a single other door, vent, or even window in this place.

There has to be another way in.

A thought came to him and immediately, he felt a pit form in his stomach. He looked over into the road he stood in and could barely see it from how much gravel and grime had formed on top of it, but it was there. Just as there was one in every street of the Underground. A manhole cover.

Daven gave a long sigh and gave a serious, long ponder about how much he needed this hyperflux driveshaft. If he was trying to repair any other ship, perhaps he could get away with not installing it and just not going into hyperspace, but for the classic models, they required them to run.

And he wasn't going to save up again to get another one. He had made up his mind. He went to the manhole cover and scraped away the gravel off of it with his foot. He bent down and put a finger into both holes on the sides of the cover. He lifted with his legs, expecting the thing to give, but was sorely disappointed.

Damn thing is a lot heavier than I expected.

He took a breath and tried once more. He pushed up with his legs and his back immediately began to hurt. As the metal cover slowly lifted, he tried his best to not make any noise from the seemingly herculean task. The cover was almost off. He forced it up as much as he could and saw the bottom of the cover go just above the lip of the street. He took a step to the side and tried to set it down onto the ground gently but it slipped out of his hand. It hit the ground with a loud metallic clang.

“Who's there?” He heard the guard around the building said. It sounded husky, but he was pretty sure it was feminine. It didn't matter, Daven looked down in the hole and saw it was a mere five feet deep. He jumped down and grabbed the corner of the manhole cover sticking out of the hole. He pulled it and it didn't come loose. He pulled again as hard as he could and felt gravel it must've been stuck on give way. As the manhole cover went back to its original place, he hadn't ever expected to be so satisfied with being able to close something.

He pressed his ear onto the cover to listen for the guard. He heard her footsteps crunch on the gravel street, silence. He waited for a while. The footsteps started once more but this time they were going away from him. He was in the clear.

He looked around at his surroundings, the place was musky and the only light that came through was from the cracks in the half-repaired ground of this old water system before becoming pitch black as the tunnel went underneath Howard's warehouse. From the looks of the rusted and broken pipes lining the walls, he assumed this manhole wasn't in use any longer, though, that made him wonder who was making the repairs on the ceiling. Looking at the ground, he saw tracks of several footprints that went both ways down the tunnel. They seemed fresh. This tunnel was being used for something.

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I just gotta slip in there, steal the drive shaft, and get out.

He slowly walked through the tunnel. The damp darkness quickly enveloped him and he felt the slightest bit of confidence he had left leave him. The musky smell became deadly and he felt his stomach churn.

What the hell am I doing? If I were in a horror movie I'd be dead already.

He put out a hand to feel for anything coming and put the other on the wall to feel for anything upcoming. At any moment he was sure he'd feel something slimy, something that would grab him, something that would take him into its gaping maw, something that would kill-

His outstretched hand hit something coarse and solid. As he patted the object down he realized it was raw wood. He felt something cold and hard sticking out of it and realized it was a handle. A door. Why the hell was there a door down here? Not to mention right under Howard's warehouse.

He gripped the doorknob but couldn't get the courage to open it. Whatever was behind here, he had a bad feeling about it. Nobody put a door somewhere like here unless it was for something illegal. But what illegal good would be worth going through all the trouble to set up this kind of tunnel? Certainly, not any kind of drug, those were dealt right in the middle of the streets. Organs? People?

He stopped thinking about it, he tried to twist the doorknob. There was no lock, it simply began to swing open. He opened it slowly, trying to keep the hinges from squeaking. It was no use, the whole thing groaned as if in pain the whole way. He just had to hope no one was on the other side.

There was. But it wasn't someone dressed in a guard's uniform. She only had on a bra and underwear and stood facing away from him inside of a glass cage. Other than that strange fact, she was also blue with one long black tattoo that went from her arms, down her back, and wrapped around her legs. They were of two dragons, entangling themselves in the middle of her back. A long, plastic tube snaked from a small IV bag held up on the wall, went through a hole in the glass box and into her arm.

What the hell is going on?

The woman slowly turned to face him, her face was human but her eyes were green with catlike pupils. He saw her long black hair part at two spots near her ears, revealing small horns that came out and went back along her head.

They should've been longer, but they had filed down the Xanthar's horns.

He didn't know how he knew that fact, or how the hell he knew what a Xanthar was. He nudged that thought away, it didn't matter. At the moment, all that mattered was that he had just found a woman in a cage. He had to get her out.

He went to the glass wall that separated them and felt along it. There were small holes, just enough to let air circulate but that was all.

“Why are you in here?” He whispered to her.

She stared back at him, looking almost calm but not saying anything.

“Come on, I'm trying to get you out.”

She opened her mouth to say something but he didn't hear her. All he heard was the sound of the ground shaking, breaking apart. Everything was falling apart. Buildings collapsed, cars fell into cracks in the ground, and people screamed all around him. He could hardly see, there was so much ash and dust all around him. The sun's rays split through the smoggy air into his eyes. He stared back at the bright light. It wasn't the sun, it was a massive ship, its bright lights shining down on him.

There was a bright yellow flash from the ship before the entire thing was gone, replacing it was a massive ball of flame and smoke. The scene was so violent, yet at that moment everything was silent. Everything was peaceful.

Then the shockwave hit him harder than a moving car. He fell onto his back, broken glass and jagged rocks dug into him. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move. He looked up at the sky and moved his arms toward it. His arms. They weren't the familiar pasty white anymore, they were a golden brown. Someone grabbed his arm, a blue woman with long black hair with two long horns that curved along from her ears to the start of her neck. She looked so worried. She was saying something. He couldn't hear her. He strained to listen but was greeted with a loud thud and pain rushed into his head as he hit the ground.

Wait, he was just on the ground, how could he have fallen onto it again? His eyes looked around quickly, he was in the basement with one single light bulb on in the middle of the room. The woman stood in the box, looking at him as if in disgust. And standing over him, was Tim.

“Howard, we've got a visitor!” He called out, pulling out and flicking open a six-inch-long switchblade.