Gin looked around at the empty dorm room where he spent half his life and sighed. He was finally free. It was his birthday, eighteen years old. He picked up the TV remote. Every day at the same time, there would be a segment on the Spirited Generation talking about Missing people. He watched the segment a few times. He even memorized the names and faces because he knew what it was like to miss a parent. The sing-song voice of an older woman echoed from down the hall.

"Ginn?"

He turned off the TV, plugged it out, and placed it on his wagon.

"Ginn?"

"I'm coming. Mrs. Aldon."

"Your taxi is here."

"It's an Uber, not a taxi, Mrs. Aldon."

In heels, Mrs. Aldon met Gin eye-to-eye at six feet tall. She was one of the most manipulative people he's ever met. She also downplayed the intelligence so that children had the chance to correct her. The problem with Gin was that he wasn't a talker. They quickly rushed into the elevator.

"Did you get everything you need?"

"Yes."

"How about your favorite scarf? It is pretty cold this time of year.

"I'll be fine. Thank you for everything. Miss Mrs. Aldon."

She smiled. It wasn't fake like all the times he'd seen in the past years.

"Oh, this is still your home. You can come back and visit anytime."

Her smile faded.

"I was hard on you because people don't care out there, and if you can't stand on your own and keep your feet planted, life will sweep you off your feet. My only advice is… that you get back up and keep going."

Ginn stared at her momentarily, seeing the wrinkles and the grey in her hair. Somehow, he felt this was the last time he would ever see her, so he nodded.

"Forward always. Got it."

He packed everything into the Uber and watched the orphanage disappear in the rearview mirror. He had already missed the place but was also relieved that he was about to start a new life.

The Uber stopped at his apartment building with the front entrance under construction. He had to use the alley entrance. He held his bag on his back, looked at all his luggage and the five-story building, and groaned.

He would have to leave the TV and come back and get it. He looked around, realizing that it was the darker side of town. The TV was going to disappear. He thought about calling one of his foster siblings and changed his mind for the three hundredth time.

He looked around, and in the alley was a broken cart with only three legs. He packed everything inside the cart and lifted the front wheel, then plucked in his headphones and pulled. Suddenly, everything went dark.

Gin froze for a few minutes, waiting for the lights to turn its self back on. Then he rubbed his eyes, stepped forward, and stumbled, holding his hand out to meet cold, jagged rocks. He reached into his pocket, and his phone light lit up the dark. The good thing was that he wasn't blind.

He didn't know how he would have handled that. The bad thing was that he didn't see the apartment building. He turned to see the cart full of luggage. He took his jacket and gloves from his bag. It was cold.

Gin had no idea where he was, but he was still alive and refused to panic. He's watched plenty of horror movies where yelling for help in the darkness usually called unwanted attention. He shone the iPhone light up. However, he couldn't see the ceiling.

He unpacked everything and took all the essentials and enough clothes for five days. He tried not to let the cave and the pitch black darkness get under his skin. He read a lot of books about camping, bushcraft, and surviving in the wilderness. In all of the books that he has read, panicking is never a good idea. So he panicked in his mind. The kind of animals who hunt in a quiet and dark place tend to be attracted to noise or body heat.

His iPhone had no signal and seventy-five percent power left. Gin frowned and turned off the iPhone light. He put on his backpack and began to move.

He quickly decided to leave all the essentials behind. Extra clothing, TV, and his Xbox, which was hard to do; all he could do was double back for his stuff if he found a way out. He needed to be ready to run at the drop of a hat.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was so dark that he had to move in slow, measured steps. He slowly moved along the wall in the darkness. Half step, reach for walls, wider step. Stop, listen for movement, and repeat.

Hours passed as he followed a path through the darkness. Gin turned his eyes, and the bright light disoriented him as he looked at the time. It was four o'clock in the morning. Gin looked up and sighed.

He was thirsty. If he didn't find water in a day or two, he would die from dehydration. He zipped up his sweater, used the backpack as a pillow in a corner, and tried to fall asleep.

The silence continued, but he couldn't help but feel that he had forgotten something important until he fell asleep. He awoke, but it didn't matter whether his eyes were open. There was nothing but darkness. His stomach growled. He opened the bag, pulled out a snicker bar, and began moving.

The endless darkness and the constant tension of potential danger around every corner slowly drained him of energy.

Gin wondered if he was going the right way, and then he suddenly had an idea: his iPhone had a compass. You could also check the elevations to see if he was too high in the mountains or deep underground.

The iPhone's battery life had drained down to 60%. He had to stop and use the phone light to see what was in front of him.

Sometimes, the cave got smaller. Sometimes, the cave grew into large caverns. Still, there was nothing but stone surrounding Gin, and he looked at the Phone Compass app and then sighed. Of course, it wouldn't work. He stared at the completely black screen and sighed.

"Fuck!"

His voice thundered in the darkness, echoing for miles, and suddenly, everything felt different. Something changed, as if something had just started paying attention to his presence. He didn't know what it was, but he just turned and kept moving forward one tiny step at a time in the darkness. His eyes never adjusted to the darkness. He figured it was because there was no small amount of light for his eyes to adjust to. The cave narrowed down into a small aperture of a crawl space.

He shone the light up and realized the cave wall was close enough to reach, and the jagged stone pointed out like natural handholds he could climb. He turned to look where he came from to up Gin turned his iPhone light on, placed it inside his running armband, took a breath, rubbed his hands in the dirt, and reached.

Step by step, he climbed up the rough surface, steadily reaching higher. He used his hands to yank handholds to test for stability. The wall slanted, and the higher he went, the less likely he was to fall.

Gin figured the trick to moving forward was to not dwell on what he couldn't and never to hesitate, but deep down, he was afraid that he might die in this place, and it made him angry. Fear is for those who are waiting for someone to save them. No one knew where he was, which meant by the time anyone found him, he would be dead if he waited around for someone to save him.

Gin's arm grabbed something, but its surface was smooth, nothing like stone. He looked up, and then he saw Brown charapaste the size of a boot. Gin froze at the size of the giant Roach's mandibles, and Gin moved his arm away before he found out exactly how sharp those mandibles were.

He looked around because where there was one Roach, there was bound to be more. His heart pounded in his ears. He tried to step down, but the Roach followed. He froze and tried to reach higher, but the Roach's mandible opened. Gin frowned and moved to the side, but the Roach skittered closer with its mandibles open. Gin pulled his right arm back and slapped the Roach off the wall. Then he picked up the pace. He did not want to meet a nest and was slightly worried the nest might be nearby. He looked at his bruised palms, clenched his fist, and climbed.

"This is not where I die."

He found a fissure in the wall's center and climbed into a cave. The cave opened into a cavern. Gin turned off the open light, stuck to the wall, picked up a rock, tossed it before him in the darkness, and heard the rock skip. He stuck to the wall and continued moving. Standing in the open darkness made him feel like a sitting duck.

The steady drip of liquid stole his attention. His steps moved faster, forgetting about being cautious. Hugging the wall, he moved closer, turned a corner, and heard scratching on the stone floor.

The low squealing of Rats Gin slowed down. His heart pounded as he slowly pulled out his iPhone. He had no way of seeing what lay around the corner. His only choice was to use the flash from the light from his iPhone camera to take a picture and run away.

He covered the light from the phone, turned on the camera light, and leaned the iPhone around the corner. The flash of the light of the iPhone camera shone in the darkness for only a second.

Long enough for him to see what was in the center of the cavern and a path back to where he came from. When the squealing and scratching stopped, then a flurry of movement began. Gin took off running through the cave. Behind him, he only heard scratches and the loud cries of Rats. He looked down at the picture and began to move faster.

"Shit shit shit."

He shines the phone light in front of him. The walls began to grow narrow, and Gin began to climb because what he saw in those pictures was big enough to be trouble.

Frantically, he reached higher, and then something clamped down on his shoes and pulled hard enough for his sneakers to come off. Higher, he climbed while the sequencing grew to a frenzy.

Rats, giant pitbull-eating Rats, what was even stranger, and he looked at the picture again to figure out what he was looking for. Then, he needed a minute to catch his breath and pinch himself a few times to figure out whether or not he was dreaming.

Until his arms grew tired, he stretched out his leg to brace his back against the wall to give his arm some rest. What he saw in that cavern changed everything.

He had never lived in New York, and even if he did, he had no idea Rats got so big, and what they were eating was disturbing. He looked at the picture again.

The creature was green with long ears and red eyes. It stared lifelessly into the ceiling. It looked like a goblin from the anime, fantasy, and books. Except there was blood and viscera. In the cavern's center, Gin only saw bone, a tiny Hill of bones, and chewed-through leather and armor. Armor. Like medieval armor.

"That's it. I think I'm going crazy."

His stomach growled, and he could feel the paper cuts on his dried lips from the lack of water.

It was strange like he was in some sort of fantasy world. He stared at the photo and tried to laugh it off but only stared into the darkness. Surely, someone would have discovered this underground cavern, and he would have heard about it. He traveled for almost two days, and no end was in sight. His back began to hurt.

Gin looked up and squinted through the darkness, but he saw nothing and started climbing. He didn't remember seeing any water back there, but he heard something. It wasn't like he had a thorough look.

He thought about returning for a few minutes, but the giant Rats. He looked up, maybe if he kept going. If it were a single Rat, it wouldn't be a problem, but it was at least a half dozen, and they ate people.

Gin sighed and decided to go back. If he left in search of a safer place to find water and ended up dying of thirst, he would be disappointed in himself. This situation marked life or death. Finding somewhere further up with water wasn't a guarantee. It took a day and a half to get to where he was, and who is to say, the possibility of finding water somewhere else might be nonexistent.

Gin sighed, looked down, and began to descend. His heart danced in his chest as he thought about how he would deal with the Rats. Maybe if he asked nicely?

He flashed the light to see how far the ground was from where he leaned, and he saw one of the Rats staring at him and retreating when Gin flashed the light in its eye.

"I guess I already ruined the surprise."

He entered the cavern with a simple plan. The iPhone camera flash gave him an idea. Gin landed, grasping for stones or rocks. The iPhone light flashed, and light reflected in the eye of the Rat Gin charged and swung down with all his strength. He felt when the rock slammed into the bone.

He brought the rock up and down over and over again. He flashed his iPhone light. Four eyes peered back at him, and something slammed into his chest.

It scratched and bit down on his chin. It felt like the Rat's jaw closed like steel clamps. Gin grabbed the Rat by its neck and squeezed. He then used the rock to beat its head in. The other Rat bit into his arms and legs.

There were too many, and he realized that he couldn't win. With grim determination, he stood and slowly walked back to the fissure.

He grabbed the Rats while they fought, biting and squirming one by one as he tossed them through the fissure. They nibbled and tried to drag him back, but he no longer felt the pain. He grabbed the last Rat. He fell to his knees, exhausted and shaking from the adrenaline.

He beat the Rat into a smudge. Was it with his fist? he didn't know as he slowly fell asleep.

[Depth Explorer class obtained]

[Depth Explorer level 5]

[skill- sneak obtained]

[skill- sense surrounding obtained]

[skill- climbing obtained]

[spell- light flash obtained]

[grappler class obtained]

[Grappler level 1]

[skill-hammer punch obtained]

[skill-iron grip obtained]

Gin’s eyes opened.

“ What the..”

Slowly fell back to sleep.