The Resistance soldiers that were available in the room headed to the basement of the high school. They were armed with better and finer rifles now, and some only carried a square bag and a handgun.
It was just like every other basement, a parking lot with many other ventilation systems, but it was abandoned, with water flooding the entire basement.
The only path that could be used was the air duct and the railing designed for the exhaust system. The water was so viscous that dust didn't seem to move.
Carina immediately climbed to the red pipe and clung to the air duct, moving themselves to the top of the duct while crawling forward. Then the rest of them followed.
“You guys sure this place's where we are heading?”
Ezra asked, clinging on the air duct, crawling behind Adit.
“This is the safest entrance.”
Rasyid answered. Whenever he crawled, the air duct shook.
“Man that water is so still…”
Stan gasped.
As they reached almost half way, they climbed out of the air duct to the top of a wall. The right side, below, was an abandoned toilet with a green floor and broken wall paintings. Then, they crawled through the wall and headed to the destroyed exhaust fan.
The fan had 6 blades, the diameter looked roughly 4 feet. The cage that surrounded the fan was already destroyed by nature.
As they snuck their way through the fan, they went down to a more comfortable path, though the ground was still flooded with water about as deep as their ankle. It was from a leaking drainage and manhole.
“Looks like the laws of nature don't apply here.”
Ezra said as he watched so many damaged structures leaking water.
“Yeah, below the surface any damaged structures don't regen back.”
Oliver answered him.
Suddenly, everyone in front stopped as they saw the totally dark tunnel with no lightning at all.
Carina walked alone into the darkness, started a flashlight, and opened a steel trapdoor. The joints cranked as she opened it.
Everyone gathered around as Carina directed her flashlight into the borehole below. Even the light from the flashlight couldn't flash the depth inside.
There were no footholds, it was just a crude borehole with a few thin slippery bulging rocks.
“6500 meters on the drop.”
Carina mumbled, lighting a piece of cloth and dipped it into a transparent bottle filled with alcohol, then throwing it into the hole.
The fire illuminated every single inch of the hole as it faded into the distance, as everyone waited. In 40 seconds, suddenly, the sound of the bottle shattering thundered out of the entrance.
“No leaking gas. Safe to go.”
Carina immediately locked a hook to the steel structure above the hole, then pulled a cable from somewhere and tied it into the hook.
Immediately, she threw the end of the cable into the hole, then clung into it with her hands and feet, and slid down the hole quickly.
Without waiting, the rest of them followed her down.
"Oi, oi, are you guys seriously jumping in without gloves?!"
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Ezra's voice was more shrill than he intended as he watched his friends dive into the dark hole.
"Relax, princess."
Oliver smirked, grabbing Ezra by the arm and yanking him forward. Together, they plummeted into the abyss.
Ezra’s hands latched onto the cable instinctively. His grip was so fierce his fingers turned white, but the plunge was relentless. The friction screamed between his palms and the cable. Only seconds in, his palms started to roast.
"Holy SHIT!"
He yelped louder than the squealing cable. He had a split second to decide between letting go, or clinging to the cable with his entire body.
His face won.
Skreeeetch.
The cable slid mercilessly across his cheeks, turning his face redder than a tomato.
"AHHHHH!"
Ezra hollered, his face practically smoking.
His body gave out, and he let go.
He fell on Oliver's head butt-on, as Oliver combined with Ezra's weight fell into Rasyid.
Both of them fell as their limbs flailed.
Rasyid collided with Franklin, who’d been blissfully unaware, staring down the hole with a smug grin... until he saw three bodies hurtling his way.
Franklin barely had time to brace himself before-
thud-thud-thud-CRASH—
Everyone barreled down the hole, screeching and yelping as they piled on top of each other.
The walls echoed their misery, each shout reverberating down as one more body thudded into the heap.
Finally, Carina slid down, kicking the bottle away as she landed with the ease of a gymnast.
She dusted off her hands, blowing on them as they smoked faintly. Her face was annoyed.
Seconds later, everyone came crashing down simultaneously like clogged toilet waste popping out.
Adit had landed first, followed by Stan, then Davin, and Franklin head-first into the concrete floor. The concrete floor cracked like stone, and his skull cracked like an egg.
Franklin let out a dazed groan as he tried to crawl to safety, only to spot Rasyid belly-diving right at him.
“No, Rasyid! NO—!”
Franklin's scream cut through the air like a siren, and—splat—Rasyid nailed him right in the face.
One by one, the others slipped and toppled onto Rasjid, each new addition piling onto the human tower.
Rasyid twitched under the weight, half-conscious, while Franklin struggled to move even a single finger.
“Good grief, can you people not even fall correctly?”
Carina sighed, shaking her head as if her friends were as organized as falling dominoes.
“Fall correctly?! Rasyid plummeted on me like a cow!”
Franklin huffed, attempting to shove Rasyid off, only for him to topple right back down, crushing Franklin again.
“Oh, please, it wasn’t me! It’s this muppet Oliver!”
Rasyid grumbled, shoving Oliver off of him.
Oliver, not to be outdone, retorted,
“Hey, I got crushed by Ezra!”
Ezra, nursing his red, half-cooked cheek, waved a shaky hand.
“Sorry, guys... the cable turned my face into, like, fried bacon."
“Alright, enough!”
Carina rolled her eyes, adjusting her jacket and marching forward.
“Save the melodrama. Let’s keep moving.”
The rest of them continued walking as Carina began to disappear into the shadows. They walked deeper into the shaft, with the only thing that lit up the path being Carina's flashlight.
"Wait!"
Carina suddenly raised her hand, her voice low and tense.
"Someone’s here."
The beam of her flashlight landed on a lone figure standing a few paces ahead.
It was Senu, dramatically posed, his head turned just slightly away, clutching a brand new KSG-12 shotgun like he was starring in his own action movie.
Oliver furrowed his brows, muttering,
“This idiot again…”
“I have not accepted you as one of our members yet, Ezra!”
Senu declared, whipping around to face him, punctuating his words with an intense pump of the shotgun.
“What’s the point of even bothering here?”
Franklin sighed, his patience wearing thin.
“He has a knack for making big deals out of the smallest things. Motherfucker could even pick a fight with his own shadow.”
Adit replied with a shrug.
“Doesn’t make any sense…” Carina mumbled, shaking her head.
Ezra turned his head to the side, trying to look as intimidating as he could muster. “I don’t care whether you accept me or not.”
"Bitch!"
Senu spat, striding forward with a grin that screamed “wannabe villain.”
He lifted the muzzle, pointing it at Ezra.
“How about I kill you twelve times today?”
Just as he got within four feet, ready to make some overdramatic move, something shiny caught their eye—like fate itself had decided to roll its eyes at Senu's theatrics.
Out of nowhere, a massive, spiked mace plummeted from the ceiling, crashing down directly on Senu. The spikes tore through him, his body was censored in a grotesque blur, as his fancy shotgun went flying, clattering away into the darkness.
The group froze, eyes wide, watching as Senu’s body swung helplessly from the mace, pinned to the wall like some brutal piece of modern art.
A few loose rocks tumbled down, crashing onto what was left of him as if the cave itself was sealing his fate.
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Oliver muttered,
"Well... guess the cave didn’t accept him either.”
“Everyone! Battle position!”
Carina exclaimed, pulling her M1911 out.
All the people behind Carina immediately pulled their rifles out, pulled their charging handle and checked on the magazines.
Ezra picked up Senu's KSG and pulled the forend a little, looking at the 12 gauge shells inside the chamber door.
“Why are the traps still on?!”
Franklin exclaimed, taking his machete out of his blazer.
“Vietnamese booby traps?”
Ezra mumbled as he saw the mace with spikes connected to a string that was attached to the top of the shaft.
Suddenly, Oliver pulled him further away from where he picked up the shotgun. Even though Ezra was at a safe distance from the trap that killed Senu.
“Don't get too close with that.”
Oliver mumbled into his ears.
“There are many kinds of booby traps inspired from the Vietnam War and every single one of them is active now.”
“I don't understand, why are they still on?”
Franklin exclaimed again.
“Maybe Pungkas forgot to turn it off?”
Adit answered.
Carina stood in her place, closing her eyes as she listened to the conversation while thinking of a possible answer.
“No!”
She interrupted.
“Pungkas intentionally turned it on.”
“What?!”
Everyone behind her exclaimed.
“There are 2 entrances into this shaft. One was from the school's basement, and another one from the Northern part of the map. Overall, it's like an U shape. But our access is the closest to the arsenal.”
Carina answered.
“What's the correlation, though?”
Oliver asked.
“The second entrance had been blocked by collapsed rocks for a long time. When the rocks collapsed, Pungkas felt an earthquake. That means, the Retribution has breached into this tunnel.” Carina explained.
“God damn…”
Oliver exclaimed.
“Pungkas did the right thing. But now it's just a race between us and them before we get to our secret location. Let's go!”
Carina immediately took a step forward.
“Hold on! Are you planning to kill us all?”
Franklin exclaimed.
“Yeah, moreover the traps are on right now. How are we supposed to walk through them?!”
Oliver added.
“Do you guys remember our initial goal of entering this place?!”
Carina yelled as she pivoted her body 180° to the back.
“We need more weapons!”
“Damn…”
Oliver mumbled.