“There’s enough time to go around. It won’t be too long before we reach the surface.”
I did not know how much time had passed. The weight of my backpack pressed harder and harder, as the exhaustion was consuming me, bringing me closer to the cold floor of the cave.
‘Rest, nobody will complain by you resting.’ It tempted me, it made me want to just give up and succumb to the fatigue. The need to rest was so overwhelming, but I knew that the moment my efforts slipped up, darkness would overcome me, forever.
“Continue! The goal is just right up there.” The guards continue their efforts to maintain the pace and keep the mass body of people walking. The temperatures continued to drop, a sign that the surface was getting closer.
Like a snake watching its prey, the monsters sneaking and hiding in their little holes were observing us. Silently waiting for the weak to drop and get detached from the main group. That way, they would be isolated from the protection of the guards and be easy prey.
“Hold on Roney, if these idiots are not lying, we might see sunlight in just a couple of hours.” The old decaying man next to me said, trying to encourage me to keep going. If it wasn’t for him, I might not have even made it back there on the bridge, for there were too many horrors aiming for my neck, and my will to live was vanishing.
“I get it, I get it. Our goal it’s close by, I won’t faint and drop dead.” I said to Ofar, who by some miracle of life, has become my only light in this dark tunnel.
“There you go boy, just a few steps, and this nightmare will end. No more dead skulls floating in the air, no more dead bodies moving when they should not be. And no more of those damn monsters that linger around these tunnels.”
Like Ofar, I was sick of this. I did not know why I volunteered back then in the clan. My need to see the outside, to try and look behind those heavy walls. If I had not been selected,
But even then, did I have a choice? It was a decision between adventuring to the distant views far away from the clan or dying as a dried-up, cold corpse in the alleys of the abandoned tunnels.
It was never meant to be this way. Growing up, I remembered watching the expeditions come and go, full of hopes and visions of what awaited them on the distant horizon.
They were like mysterious men to me. With their gadgets that performed numerous things, filling up every need that was required for survival.
It was the hope of the clan. The expeditions were the blood required to make us thrive for an uncertain future. The clan specialized in expeditions, as that’s where the money flowed.
But times changed, and fortune moved elsewhere. The expeditions started to bring less and less. The deaths were piling up and people started to dread going on an expedition.
The monsters became more frequent, and the dark ones started to invade our fragile minds. Soon enough, the Lord had to impose a law, ‘Whoever selected avoided the expedition, was to be executed or thrown out of the gates.’
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The new law worked for a while, but not for long. The heroes of the clan, people who I looked for and wished to become, started to leave for other clans within reach. The more unfortunate decided to hide in the intricate network of paths under the clan, to avoid being drafted.
That’s when my father had-
“Roney!”
“Huh!” My eyes became clear again, and what I saw in front of me made my soul leave my body. To the front, was a bottomless abyss, I was inches away from falling to my certain death.
“Oh boy, you sure are a handful, huh.” Said Ofar, while grabbing my body with every inch of strength that He could muster. If it wasn’t for him, I might have just continued going straight and not even know how I died, for death in these tunnels comes too fast to even register in our poor minds.
“Thanks…” I said, taking my time to come to terms with the fact that my death was so close to me.
Ofar held me until I became better, but here, that was just a wishful dream. When the guards took notice of our separation, they ignored us. Instead, continuing their duty of leading the mass body of ‘ungrateful’, as they called it, to the surface and the clan’s walls.
But not everybody was like that. An unremarkable guard took notice of our absence and began looking for us in a frantic manner, luckily for him, He quickly noticed our positions at the end of the group, just a little separated and isolated.
He quickly made his way toward us, and in a young but panicked boy he said,
“What are you guys doing here!? Quickly, get into the group if you do not want to be a dead rat.”
“Oh boy.” Interrupted Ofar, in a slightly annoyed voice, “Is it that your brain can’t process your little friend over here, trying to die? He almost walked into his own grave! Hah! How ridiculous.” Ofar was practically bullying us two with his choice of words, but He could not be more far from the truth. It was my carelessness that led to this situation, and the main group was quickly leaving us behind.
At some point, I started to hear whispers in my ear. It was as if someone was close by but far away at the same time. It creeped me out and felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown over my head.
“We need to go!” I said, feeling my heartbeat starting to accelerate, and my anxiety suddenly jumped up.
‘Roney…’ I suddenly started to hear my name close to my ears, first as a whisper and slowly becoming more loud and clear. Right there and then, I knew we were in deep problems if we did not manage to group with the others.
Alex, the guard, started to notice our predicament right away. Armed with his weapons in hand, He practically shoved us into the front, urging us to keep going ahead while he kept at our back to prevent any unwanted interruption.
The group was a decent meters away, but just this distance was enough for the creatures in the dark to try to show their fangs. From the corner of my eye, I saw shapes in the dark, moving, slithering, like a hunter observing its prey.
Thanks to the wariness of our reliable guard, we were able to make it in time. As we integrated again into the group, a few people kept glancing at us weirdly, and I knew what they were thinking.
“Those damn rats sided together with the scum in armor.”
“Just ignore them, I bet that they do some special favors at night for that protection.”
They were gossiping about us, not even in a disguised tone but right in front of us. It was as if morals were vanishing, our image thrown to the ground like we were trash not even worth it to be looked at.
It was a sight all too frequent, there was a time when a small group got too brave and decided to venture on their own. Their luck was better than I predicted, but it still ran out.
When they came back with half their size, clothes filled with holes, faces pale as a sheet, and blood gushing out of their wounds, it was as if trash just suddenly appeared.
Those same people scolding and giving looks of disgust toward us did the same to them. It was like not a single shed of sympathy existed in their hearts. It was long extinguished the moment they were forced to be part of this expedition.
Alex ensured we did not suffer any hidden damage that was overlooked, and after a few talks of comfort, He soon continued to join the other guards, who by now should have started to deduce his connection to us.
“Don’t mind them, they just don’t know better.” Ofar tried to comfort me, helping me ignore the backstabbers that were numerous in our group. Through the journey, I had already gotten accustomed to this, but a few words of encouragement did wonders.
“It’s nothing, I will just continue my mindlessly walk,” I commented to Ofar, assuring him that I would not take to heart the comments of those idiots.
With the guide of the ‘watchers’ at the front, we silently made our way through the desolated and vast tunnels of this cave. At times, the light emanating from my helmet allowed me to see the strange symbols of the Ancients marking the walls, covering the whole place.
It was theorized that they were text, like messages, that the Ancient left for us. Supposedly it hides knowledge that would greatly help us advance and thrive under these hellish conditions. Nobody knew what it really meant, but perhaps understanding it might lead us to the last shelter, the supposed hope of our current world.