The walk felt like an eternity, even though Lee's watch showed it was only 6 a.m. A couple of times they reached a dead-end, but after some climbing, always managed to find another pathway leading further. It seemed that the crevice was almost never ending. Occasionally it did grow smaller, essentially becoming an underground crack, at most five feet tall and a footand a half wide, but soon after it once again began to resemble a chasm with the top disappearing in the darkness.
It was hard to tell the direction they were going or whether the path led up or down. But no matter how they looked at it, as long as there was a direction to explore to, it was a safer gamble than going back.
When Lee was about to suggest a break and split one of the four protein bars they had left, they stumbled across a hole, less than two feet wide. Learning from the earlier mistakes, he approached it crawling commando-style, pushing himself forward with elbows and knees, while Lisa was ready to grab his leg at any time if something went awry.
Luckily precautions turned out to be unnecessary, but the reward was unexpected. Through the hole Lee could see a cave hall, evidently men made. The floor was only nine, maybe ten feet below and they could safely jump in, first he and then Lisa.
The place wasn't bigger than their bedroom, and contrary to the cave halls they saw earlier, there were no murals on the walls. In the middle of it was a couple of yards wide, slightly elevated stone platform and it had something written on it. The sentence was carved on the surface and consisted of seven words, but neither Lee nor Lisa recognized the language.
After quickly copying the text, Lee hid the notebook in the backpack, and the two proceeded towards the exit. It was another man made tunnel, big enough for them to comfortably pass through side by side. And these were good news. Clearly the labyrinth was much larger than they initially anticipated, and it meant they had a chance to sneak by Smirnoff's men and escape.
Both their headlamps ran out – Lee's first and Lisa's a short while ago. But their flashlights still worked, and for now there was no need to find their way purely by touch. Watching his old memories, Lee grew excited knowing what was about to come. It was only a minute later when they met the first superhuman.
Back then they were in panic mode though. The tunnel led to a room, twice the size of the previous one, but instead of a platform, in the middle of it lie mutilated body of a person. Their head had been severed as well as one of the hands that still tightly held a weapon.
"Is this why they had guns and grenades?" Lisa whispered, but Lee didn't have an answer.
He got closer and inspected the person that seemed to have died not so long ago. Apart from a tight leather suit and boots, they didn't have anything on them. The sword in the cut off hand did look like a masterpiece though. Lee weighted the option to grab it along, but neither had an idea whether it was actually worth anything. He was already carrying the bag with the night vision goggles and any additional luggage was a burden. Currently they were trying to escape, not find ways to get richer.
Including the tunnel they arrived from, this room had three exits. Following the example Smirnoff's men set, they marked the tunnel they arrived from and went into the next one. To their big surprise, disappointment and even despair, after a minute they found a copy of the first room with a similar platform. They were so alike, even the platform had the same text written on it, and Lee had to check several times whether there was a hole in the ceiling to make sure this was a different place.
The biggest problem was that if the third tunnel led to a similar room, they were fucked. Well, not per se, but they kind of hoped they found the backdoor to the labyrinth that somewhere had an actual exit, not a dead end consisting of three dead ends.
Fortunately it wasn't the case. At the end of the third tunnel, which was twice as long, there was a room, but a larger one and without a platform. And this one also had three exits, counting the tunnel they just arrived from.
This time there was no mutilated body, but the thick stench of blood made the pair feel they entered a butcher's shop. It was obvious that people were killed here, but by whom or what was unknown.
"Should we go back?" Lisa whispered.
"No idea." Lee softly replied, "I don't think anyone is around. With us flashing light all over the place we would've been noticed long ago."
"Should we wear the goggles?" Lisa asked.
"Mhm. Good idea." Lee nodded, "Although I have no clue how they work in a complete darkness … and how long the battery lasts."
"Ok!" She said, "My turn to lead!"
Lee let her pick the goggles from the bag with a slight smile on his face. Lisa becoming adventurous again meant she was back to her old self.
It took them a bit of effort to get the thing to work, but the moment Lee turned his flashlight off and Lisa's sight adjusted, she whispered 'what the fuck?' and rushed over to the opposite side of the room.
Lee followed, holding her by her shoulder, but when she stopped, he asked, still whispering, "What is it?"
"No idea. It's sticky … can't you see? Isn't it emitting light?" She said.
Indeed, there was something giving off blue hue in her hands, and to see it better Lee turned on the flashlight. While Lisa cursed him for trying to make her go blind because of the effect the sudden bright light had on the goggles, Lee was almost paralyzed by the sight.
She was currently holding something, but both her hands were dripping with blood. When she realized it herself, with a loud yelp she jumped in scare, throwing away the item, but Lee commanded, "Hold still!"
He grabbed the water bottle from the backpack and only after her hands were more or less clean, Lisa calmed down. Turns out there also was a dead person in this room, except their body was mangled beyond recognition.
"Damn it!" She cursed, "I wasted water."
"That should be the least of our worries, don't you think?" Lee said with a smile, and went to pick up the item she dropped.
It was still emitting blue light and he hoped they could use it as a light source to conserve the battery power. This was the first time Lee held a spark, but back then he didn't even know the term yet. It was in a size of a plum and it's shape was that of a droplet of morning dew on a stem of grass – oval and glossy.
Unexpectedly, after Lee cleaned it up, it was still shining blue, but there was something captivating about the item. Both of them stared at it, touched it, but it wasn't enough. It had this strange attribute of alluringness and the item made them feel they wanted it to become a part of their body, to become one with it. It was a strange sensation that finally disappeared when Lee, with clenched teeth, threw it in the bag.
"We should go." He said and marked the tunnel they arrived from, "Let's see where the next one leads to. Do you want to lead or should I?"
Lisa shuddered, hearing the question, instinctively glanced at her hands and said, "You go first!"
As it turns out, the next tunnel led to a room with another dead body and there were two more exits that lead to dead ends with stone platforms in the center. If there were doors instead of those platforms, one could think that a person entered each of them, then proceeded to fight and the winner was allowed to advance further only to fight to the death again.
And it was so. After grasping the pattern, Lee and Lisa followed the bizarre and depressing trail of bodies. There were all kinds of people killed – tall and short, fat and skinny, and all of them had one thing in common – they were killed in a brutal fashion. But on the most mutilated bodies they managed to find more shining stones. And not only blue, there were a couple of red ones, and a pretty green one too. The green was slightly flat, disc shaped, but the red one resembled a graphic depiction of a flame. The only common thing about the stones was they were more or less the same size – smaller than a peach and a bit larger than a walnut.
Observing his own memories, Lee felt himself inwardly smiling. It was funny to see how the two of them were almost dancing from happiness after finding a gourd of water, but were oblivious to the treasures in their bags. After all, the value of any item always comes down to the perspective of the owner.
It was around noon when the fun suddenly ended. After entering another room, Lee pointed the flashlight towards the middle of it only to see another dead body. The problem was – there was a huge person sitting next to it, cross-legged. Either way they were asleep or in deep meditation, thus they didn't move when the couple arrived. But when Lee pointed the flashlight in their face, their eyes, burning in crimson color, sprung open. Before Lee could blink, the person disappeared. Purely on instinct, Lee stepped in front of Lisa only to see two flaming blades pointed at him.