Back by the helicopter, Haji was standing out in the field observing what was happening in the distance. He pressed his finger to his ear piece, "Two, can you read me? Zero? Can either of you copy?"

The pilot poked his head out of the helicopter as a bright light suddenly reflected off his sunglasses. "Sir, was that an explosion just now?"

"Yes. Looked like a ball of flame. My guess is Two had something to do with that." Haji replied.

But he knows not to do such a wide area attack like that in a forest, Haji thought to himself. Then why?..

"Should we fly over and check it out, Sgt. Haji?"

"No. If another one of those went off we could get caught up in it. I'll stick by what I said and give them 48 hours. We don't move until then."

Meanwhile, Two and Zero had begun the slow trek through the black out zone. Two held his blade out in front to a very low output setting so that they could see, but not draw too much attention to themselves.

Zero walked beside Two. He took a look over at Two and all of his injuries.

"Did you get those in the fall?"

"Yes. They should heal up in a few hours."

Zero noticed that aside from being really sore, he himself didn't have any such injuries. Did Two protect me during the fall? He thought.

Two stopped walking and looked down at Zero. "Listen. From here on we keep talking to a bare minimum. Only if necessary. I don't know what's down here, but there could be Reapers as strong as you and I, if not stronger. And more of them than us. If they find out we're here there won't be an escape."

Zero felt his heart sink a little at Two's warning. He nodded his head.

They continued to walk for several more minutes through the cave system without catching sight of a single Reaper. The eerie silence only made things worse. It was like Zero could hear his own heartbeat as it started to race.

When are they going to find us? He thought.

Where will they come from?

How many are there?

Can we even survive this?

He felt a cold sweat running down his back as his mind raced with the possibilities of how they might meet their end down here.

"Zero."

Zero suddenly snapped back to reality and looked at Two. It wasn't hard for Two to see the fear as it set into Zero. He didn't blame him for it. Two didn't want to admit it to Zero, but this was the first time he had even set foot in a black out zone. He made a habit of making sure this exact scenario would never happen. Deep inside he felt a twinge of fear himself.

"Calm down, Zero. We have to remain alert down here."

"R-right." Zero took a deep breath. This was probably the first time Two had even shown a sliver of concern for him.

They continued their walk. Small *squishies* could be heard as they would sporadically step on some of the goo that was littered everywhere. It was impossible to avoid all of it with such little light to follow.

Finally the tunnel they had initially followed opened up to a new area. There were now 4 openings around them that led to different sections of the cave system.

"How are we even supposed to know which way is the right way?" Zero said softly.

Two glanced at each entrance. I honestly don't know, he thought to himself. He decided to try one trick that he had read about once.

Two walked up to one of the entrances and held his sword partially through it. Nothing happened.

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He walked over to the next one and the next one and repeated the same thing. When he got to the fourth opening he held his blade out through the threshold. Very lightly, almost easy to miss, the flames on his sword swayed to one side.

"It actually worked.." Two said, as relief washed over him. He looked at Zero who seemed completely confused by what he was doing.

"Supposedly air currents can be an indication of the direction of the exit. So if that's right, this way should get us there." He said pointing towards the opening.

Zero smiled, "Nice!"

Two quickly put his fingers to his lips in haste. "Shhh."

Zero complied and didn't say another word. They continued down the path chosen by Two.

*Drip* *Drip*

As they walked, they started hearing the drip of water around them. This passage was definitely more narrow than the previous one. They still had room to walk side by side, but there was probably a foot between them and the wall.

It honestly felt to them that the path got narrower the further they walked.

Zero touched his finger to the cave wall and noticed how moist it was. He had only hoped that it was water he just touched.

"We might be under a body of water," Two whispered. It made him realize how thirsty he was getting. He hoped that there was possibly a natural drainage somewhere up ahead that some of the water above trickled down through.

Thirst wasn't the only issue however.

Reapers have heightened senses compared to humans. Hybrids maintain those same senses. So the mixture of the horrible stench combined with the low oxygen levels, were slowly but surely getting to them.

"Hey, Two." Zero whispered.

"Hm?"

"If these zones are such a big issue, why doesn't the military just bomb them? Then they wouldn't have to go in themselves."

"Reapers in black out zones behave differently than those we see day to day. They usually stick to the zone and only emerge to get food. Still, no one is sure why this is so. But bombing the zone could change that and release a bunch of powerful Reapers into the open. So the best option is…to just leave them be. For now."

Two looked in Zero's direction. "Now no more questions. I don't wanna-"

That's when Two stepped on a pile of bones that the light from the katana didn't catch. "Uh!" The bone under his foot rolled backwards as he stepped which caused him to stumble forward and drop his katana.

*CLANG!*

Zero stayed stock still. Two had caught himself with his arm so that he didn't fall all the way down. But the sound of the blade hitting the ground echoed throughout the tunnel. They dared not make a single move.

They didn't hear anything sound out in the darkness.

Zero peered around for any new sets of eyes, but he saw nothing.

Two slowly picked up the blade from the ground and reignited it. Two nodded his head towards the direction they had been heading. Zero understood and they began walking as they paid extra attention to their footing.

*rrrmmmmmmmmm*

Zero stopped. He had felt a slight rumble underneath his feet. So did Two, but he grabbed Zero's shoulder and kept walking.

*rrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm*

Zero felt it again, but Two only picked up his pace.

*RMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

That's when he looked at Zero.

"Run."

They both broke out in a sprint down the narrow passageway. Two expressed no concern for stealth as he increased the blaze of his katana to give them better sight. Zero didn't know what the rumbling was, but he knew what it meant.

They had been found.

As they ran down the passageway the rumbling only became louder and louder. And the passageway was only getting more narrow. Two chanced looking over his shoulder to see if they were being followed.

His answer was in the form of a group of 4 red eyes a little ways behind them in the darkness. Then 8. Then 12. Then more. A lot more.

This couldn't get any worse! Two thought to himself. He didn't have much choice now.

He reached down and snagged Zero's hand. Zero looked at Two with a confused face as he was focused on trying to survive at the moment.

"Do it. Now!" Two yelled.

Zero knew exactly what he was asking for.

"Chronos Trigger!" He established the time field around them and took off at high speed.

Zero could see the cave walls become a blur as he sped further down the passageway while he held tightly onto Two's hand. The rush of air from his speed extinguished the flame in Two's katana and they were thrown back into the darkness.

"Shit!" Zero couldn't see in front of his face anymore. But if he stopped, who knows what would happen to them. So he pushed forward as he hoped luck would be on their side.

It wasn't.

Since it was dark, Zero hadn't noticed how narrow the cave was getting at this point close. Too narrow for two people to fit down side by side.

"AGH!" Two collided with the wall next to him which threw off the weight balance - Zero stumbled off his feet and hit the ground with powerful momentum.

"GAHHH!!" Like a rock, Zero skipped off of the cave floor several times before colliding with the wall.

Two felt a splitting pain in his left arm and shoulder as he tried to pick himself back up. If he didn't feel beat up before, he definitely did now.

Zero got the short end of the stick. As he opened his eyes the world seemed to turn and spin around him. He wasn't sure what he broke because the pain was radiating through his entire body.

Two hobbled himself up off the ground. "G-get up, Zero. We…have to move."

Zero gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus as he crawled over to the wall and used it to drag himself up. As he became upright he felt a searing pain roll up his back.

"Oh no, that's not good.." He grunted out to himself.

The rumbling was intensifying. The running had also made Zero VERY short of breath with what little air supply was down there. He was having trouble catching his breath.

Two went over to Zero and forced Zero's arm around his neck.

"We have to keep going. Push through it or this will become our tomb."