The water level in the room was even lower. It came up to my groin. However, the current here was a bit stronger than in the drain we exited. You could feel that if you weren't careful with your steps, it started to drift you a little, and your feet slightly slipped on the floor.

Finding the way out wasn't too difficult. I asked for a lighter, then lit it and carefully watched the flame. An ancient but still effective way to find an exit in any enclosed place, unless you're in space or in a well-sealed house.

However, theory is one thing, and practice is entirely different. Because standing in the center of this room, I couldn't see the flame moving at all. I had to approach each pipe in turn to understand which direction we should go. Moreover, I was doing this with Syringa, as I was unable to notice even the slightest fluctuations myself.

It didn't work.

Thus, the only choice was to move away from the city and follow the current until we ended up somewhere. In the worst case, we could always wait a few days and return the same way. We had plenty of water here, and it wasn't sewage.

"So where to?" asked Geezer.

"That way," I nodded my head towards the large left channel where the water was flowing, tucking Malu's trusty old Zippo lighter into my pocket. We would need to repeat such a search for exits more than once, so let it stay with me for now.

"That way? Are you sure you're not lost? We seem to be wandering aimlessly," I sensed a slight challenge to my authority in his voice. Not the best place for it, but I didn't refuse him. I was a bit irritated, tired, and excited.

"Lost? Did I ever say I knew where we were going?" I wasn't aggressive but asked louder than necessary, with a hint of forcefulness. "Geezer, is there something else you want to know?"

"You're leading us god knows where. Yes, I want to know why the hell we're running around aimlessly."

"Alright, fine," I stepped aside. "Go. Without me, of course. If someone agrees to go with you, be my guest."

"Do you think you're the smartest?"

"Hey, Geezer, keep it down," Malu immediately intervened. "Don't overstep."

I hardly knew Geezer, but right now he seemed like a man who likes to blame others for misfortune - to vent his anger. In another situation, I wouldn't have paid attention to it. But not in the company of those who can easily kill a man. Here, such behavior was only a sign of weakness.

"Hold on, Malu," I raised my palm, showing that everything was okay, and turned to Geezer. "I'm leading you all away from the police. Actually, I managed that already. At this moment, I want to get us out safely and get my share. If you knew how else we could escape, you could have said so in the car."

"So you're going to lecture me now?"

Geezer wasn't talking sense. He was just attacking, trying to find a fault, a pretext for attacks. To twist everything so that it was me who did wrong, not him sitting with his tongue buried deep. And to have every right to attack and vent his anger and tiredness on me.

"I'm not trying to lecture anyone. I'm not trying to lecture you, Geezer. You're complaining that I led you guys god knows where. So I'm asking, if you had any suggestions, why didn't you voice them then?"

"We thought you knew where you were leading us."

"Not 'we thought,' you thought. I said I didn't know where the path was leading and where we were heading. You kept quiet then."

"Well, I didn't hear!"

"Then what's your gripe with me?" I threw up my hands.

Checkmate. Now, all he could do was keep quiet or let it slide. No one would judge him - we all understood what we'd been through and how everyone was on edge. But Geezer clearly wasn't used to feeling slighted.

"Don't dig a hole for yourself, fatso," he said quietly.

"What did you say?" I asked, though I heard his words clearly. It was a very blunt hint, but he didn't get it.

"I said, you think too much of yourself, fat..."

He swallowed the last letters as I pointed my automatic at him. Everyone else was immediately alarmed. They asked what was wrong with me, practically ordered me to lower the gun, pleaded with me to calm down, and so on. But I wasn't even trying to listen to them, focusing solely on Geezer. When he reached for his weapon, I beat him to it.

"Don't even think about it unless you want me to blow your old brains out, Geezer," I said calmly.

"You think you can scare me, fats..."

The gunshot was so loud that it left me deafened. As well as everyone else, in principle. It also blinded me, but unlike the rest, I had time to close my eyes. Geezer now had the face of someone who couldn't believe what I had done. He also lacked the courage to say anything at this point.

"One more word and your body will flow down the canal. I swear."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Crowbar raise his gun.

"Don't bother, Crowbar. I have no quarrel with you and hold nothing against you, so let's not spoil our relationship," he hesitated a bit, then lowered his gun. "As for you, Geezer, I don't remember giving you the right to call me fat."

"If..."

"One more word I don't like, and I'll shoot," I threatened with my gun.

He kept quiet. He strained, wheezed a little as if he were feeling unwell, but remained silent.

"I've never called you anything other than what you introduced yourself as. So don't dare call me anything else. I didn't give you that right."

I gave him some time to think. I didn't press, humiliate, or make him lose face in front of others. Otherwise, I could have made a hundred percent enemy who would strive to take revenge for the humiliation. The worst enemy is the one who has been publicly humiliated or thinks they have been.

In this world of crime, it was essential not to lose face, or else you'd lose respect next and then your life. Here, they're constantly testing you, and if you're weak or just show weakness, they'll first try to crush you, and if they succeed, they'll just kill you in the end.

But I didn't have such a goal. I needed money, that's all.

"Now, I suggest we get out of this dungeon, split the money, and go our separate ways," I lowered the barrel of the automatic rifle but didn't let it out of my hands. "We're all tired and on edge here, so it's not right to argue over nonsense. Worst case scenario, the water here is relatively clean. We'll wait a few days and return the way we came."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yes, it's not the time. We need to leave," he agreed after a second's pause.

I nodded, slung the rifle over my back, walked up to him, and extended my hand. He hesitated for just a second, but then shook it. At that moment, I leaned slightly towards him and spoke so only he could hear.

"One more time, and I won't say anything. I'll just kill you. If you want to screw me over, remember that my team knows me, but they don't know you. And I'm not threatening, I'm just clarifying our business relationship."

Without listening to anything more, although I doubt he wanted to say something, I turned around and headed towards the left sewer - the one where the water was flowing.

"Maybe we'll get lucky over there," Syringa sighed, as if trying to gloss over the uncomfortable moment.

"Maybe. Although it's quite cozy here, isn't it?" Alex immediately started.

"Then why don't you stay here?" she glanced at him.

"I'm afraid you'll be bored without me."

We continued our journey along the underground rivers.

***

We didn't get lost. You can't get lost where you can't see anything and don't know where to go. We just kept going further and further.

As Alex noted, we had already spent about six hours here, which had exhausted us all. The task wasn't made any easier by the flow of water, a bag with thirty-three kilos on everyone's shoulders, or the fact that we always had to be on our feet here, as there was nowhere to sit - water was everywhere. And then there was the cold, humid air, which made our faces wet and turned all our clothes that could absorb moisture damp. But we kept going anyway.

Several times we passed through pipes of various sizes, from one meter to two meters, trying to follow the current, encountered forks and large galleries, choosing where to go.

And in the end, we came out to another, even older sewer network.

As far as I could tell, this place was the oldest of all. Probably the oldest part of the entire underground complex. The wall that was here had long lost its original appearance, being completely uneven. Stones protruded from it, like stumps of teeth from a jaw, as if everything here was built haphazardly. Naturally, this wasn't the case, or it wouldn't have lasted so long. How long exactly it had stood could be judged by the inscription on the stone that we found. It was hard not to notice the carved numbers on the huge cobblestone that had been inserted into the wall.

"1899," Syringa read aloud. "Wow..."

"Our city was founded in 1863," I reminded her. "They rebuilt it thirty-three years later. Presumably, when they were renovating and finishing it with concrete, they just didn't reach this far."

"So, there might not be an exit there?" Geezer began immediately.

"If there isn't, we'll come back. But it might be the opposite. Besides, there definitely won't be any police there. By the time they dig up the archives and find out about the existence of this sewer, we'll already have gotten out of here."

"Or we'll die," Alex added, earning a stern look from Syringa.

We moved on for about another hour. An hour of adventures underground, if you could call the monotonous view adventurous.

The sewer sometimes partially gave way to a regular cave, which loomed above us with sharp stalactites. In such places, usually, one wall was made of cobblestone and the other of natural formations; in some cases, even the floor was natural: slippery, polished by centuries of water flow. Here, the water level was often higher, sometimes reaching almost to my chest, barely not spilling into my rubber pants. In such places, I had to raise the automatic higher and carry the bag on my shoulder. As for Syringa, we had to take her on our shoulders. But we managed to overcome such stretches successfully.

One question bothered me - where was the water flowing? I hope not into a bottomless abyss or a vertical well, at the other end of which, mockingly, there would be an exit - anything is possible in caves. Although, that was not scary, as we had encountered other pipes to which we could return. True, they were far away, but still, there were options for retreat.

Soon, the sewer turned into a cave, where the water level remained the same - waist-high. However, now both the walls and the ceiling were natural, of smooth stone.

The only thing that made us keep going was the draft. Upon reaching the end of this sewer, I checked the airflow with a lighter, and Syringa noticed that the flame was leaning in the direction we were heading. This meant that somewhere there was an exit we needed. And if there was an exit, there was no point in looking for another way.

And we didn't make a mistake with our choice - soon our group came out to an underground lake. A small but far from tiny, it was plunged into darkness. Judging its area wasn't easy, but the flashlight reached the other side of the cavern. I would say it was about twenty meters, approximately. On the other side, there was an entrance to some other passage, from which a mountain river also flowed out.

"We made it..." Alex muttered, looking around.

Here, on our side, there was a small stone beach, about three meters from the edge of the water to the wall, which went up about five meters. It ran along one side of the lake, and if you followed it, you could reach a small crevice, through which we were likely to be able to get outside. However...

"Let's sit for a bit," Crowbar exhaled tiredly. "I doubt ten minutes will make a difference now."

"Maybe in the fresh air?" Alex sighed, nonetheless settling down next to him.

"Better here. I'm tired of carrying this bag on me. I never thought money would be so heavy."

"Hell, I thought we'd stay there," Geezer muttered. "Now we're like those people exploring caves."

"Yeah… But look, what a cave…" Crowbar shook his head.

"And it's so quiet..." Malu muttered, looking at the crack. "I can't wait to get out of here... Box, do you know anything about this cavern?"

"Not a clue. I'm not into spelunking."

Yet, I must admit, it was beautiful and cozy here in its own way. This place had a certain charm. It was like a little world, fenced off from the rest of the universe.

I walked up to the lake's edge and looked at it carefully, then shone a flashlight. The bottom... Well, the bottom is visible, but it's deep, that's for sure. Given that it's January now, and nothing here froze, it's safe to say that the surface will definitely be much higher. Perhaps we've been walking down a barely noticeable slope this whole time, which made us go deeper.

I watched the lake until Syringa tapped my shoulder. Somewhere there, the guys were chatting cheerfully about something, clearly engrossed in their conversation.

"We need to leave," Syringa's voice was firm, insistent, and slightly excited, which made me turn around immediately.

Yes, Syringa was excited. And her eyes... It's hard to explain, but if I were to describe the impression of looking at them, they were predatory, like those of a hunter. Moreover, she no longer hid her ears. They stood up as if listening to something or searching for someone.

"What's up?" I frowned.

"Did I tell you that if I exist, there are others too?"

"Yes, you did," I replied without hesitation.

"Well, there are others here specifically. So we need to get away while we can."

"But if they are the same as..."

"Not exactly the same. You know too little about the world. And even I don't know much about it. But I know more than you do, and that's enough to understand its diversity. Now let's go."

I didn't ask twice. I immediately walked up to the guys, picking up my bag.

"We need to leave, urgently," I immediately announced.

"What happened?" Alex jumped up instantly, while Malu, after looking at Syringa, just nodded.

"If we need to, then we need to. Okay, guys, let's go."

"The police?" Crowbar asked.

"Just get moving!" Malu raised his voice. "Quick!"

In the meantime, I turned my face towards the cave, pulling out my gun. As did Syringa. But while I just turned around to control our rear, she did the same because she felt someone. As the guys crept into the gap one by one, she was clearly ready to fend someone off. Gun at the shoulder, knees slightly bent, as if she was prepared to jump at any second.

By the time Malu was squeezing through the crack - and doing so with a thirty-kilo bag was not easy - I, too, heard sounds. Besides the quiet cursing of Malu, the rubbing against the stone walls, and the bubbling of the rivers flowing into the lake, I heard something like claws clicking on stone. Only they were not coming from where we arrived but from another cave. The one on the other side of the lake.

At some point, they disappeared. It became quiet again, as if nothing was there, only the sound of the river. We continued to shine our flashlights around the cave, trying to find the threat, but... it wasn't there. Just a cave with an underground lake.

"Are you coming?" Malu called.

I exchanged glances with Syringa, and she nodded.

"Move on, Box; if anything, I'll cover you."

"Alright."

Given my size, the first thing to do was pass the bag so the leaner Alex could drag it to the other side. Only after that, taking off my gun, I began to squeeze through the crevice, feeling a slight surge of claustrophobia. Because if the stones suddenly shift, I'll just be crushed here. This thought made it even scarier, and without realizing it, I started squeezing through faster.

But I had barely crawled a third of the way when I heard the very distinct sound of something submerging in water. Not falling but precisely submerging.

I literally froze in place.

"Syringa?" I quietly called out and immediately started crawling backward. "You there?"

"Yes," she answered quietly. "I heard it."

"Do you need help?" I asked just as quietly.

"No, crawl faster, while..."

The sound of something hard hitting something soft was heard even from here, despite the water bubbling. And I dreaded to think that the 'something soft' was Syringa herself. I crawled back between the walls much faster, forgetting about claustrophobia. And very soon, I forgot about everything else, too.

And Syringa was right; I really don't know my own world. My world is everything I see in front of my own nose. But take a closer look, and you realize that our imagined stability and routine are just an illusion, a reluctance to dig deeper. There, under the layer of daily dust, truly amazing things dwell, as much as Syringa herself.