We walked side by side, each holding hands while we extended our free hand out into the darkness. It was all we could do to determine if we passed by anything. We listened to any sound that echoed in the darkness, stopping every so often. Neither of us talked as we walked. Now and then, I would hear the dripping of water coming from above us. 'The ceiling of the carve must leak water. That means there might be an underground pond or lake here. I don't hear any running water, so it must be stagnant water,' I thought as the ground dipped downward slightly.

 

"I think there might be water down here. The ground is angling downwards, meaning all the moisture and water are going to run downhill," I announced.

 

"I know, but we don't have another choice. If we reach the water we can throw rocks in it. We could use the sound to determine how big the body of water is," Diane explained.

 

"Couldn't we do that with the rocks now? I mean, we become good at hearing really well. Couldn't we do that right now? The sound would vibrate through the cavern and we could use that to determine where to go," I countered.

 

"That's a good idea. Kinda like how we determined if the path ahead was safe. Give me some rocks," Diane replied.

 

"Here," I responded as I brought my free hand to my other, holding her hand.

 

She took the rocks from me.

 

"Here goes!" she states, throwing one rock as hard as she could. As we had suspected, we heard a splash off in the distance in that direction. 

 

She heaved another rock as hard as she could in the same direction. We heard a loud thump that echoed through the cavern.

 

"There must be a small sized pond between us and the other side. That might be a good thing, or that pool of water could be a deep chasm. We don't want to go that way, especially with your exoskeleton on. You would sink like a rock, so swimming across that is out no matter how brief it would be," she explained.

 

"I agree. Throw a rock to our left then," I replied.

 

"Okay, here I go," she answered.

 

She made a humph. I heard her hurl the rock into the air, and we heard the rock thump hard off of something, then fall again.

 

"That must be a wall," I shouted.

 

"Yeah, it's close, but it also leads to the water. It might lead back the way we came. I know behind us is where the scorpions were. Let me try the right side before we pick a direction," she announced.

 

"Yeah, alright. Here are some more rocks," I answered as I handed Diane the last of the large rocks we had. All I had left were pebbles. If we needed more, we could find more.

 

"Okay here I go again," she replied.

 

Again, she made a loud humph as she threw the rock to our far left. Several seconds passed before we heard the rock fall in the distance.

 

"The cavern is open in that direction," she stated.

 

"We were going the right way until those scorpions caused us to run away," I replied.

 

"That just means there could be more of them in that direction. If the scorpions are blind, then sound attracts them. They could zero in on us right now. They were large!" she explained.

 

"I didn't need to know that last part," I responded with a sigh.

 

"If we go that way, I thought you should know. If we go left, we might run back into them. They seem to follow the wall like we were. They probably only come out here if they have too," Diane explained further.

 

"Let's go right then. As far away from them as possible," I added.

 

With our direction decided, I took the lead since I was on the right. I could also crush any scorpions I ran upon with the metal boots I was wearing. The metal boots covered my entire legs, protecting them from being harmed. Plus, I had pants on, so they would have to crawl up to my waist before stinging or biting me. If my senses were like Dianes, I would know they were coming long before they got on me.

 

We walked toward the direction in which Diane had thrown her rock. After about twenty minutes of walking, I noticed there was a change in the ground. We weren't walking on rock anymore, but a thin layer of dirt. I saw we were going uphill. I tugged on the rope, signaling Diane to stop.

 

"Let's check the ground and look for a few rocks," I announced.

 

"Sure, we need more anyway," she answered.

 

We both bent down to our knees, scoping up rocks to put in the makeshift bag Diane had made. We didn't have to search long until we filled the back up again with more rocks. 

 

"Alright, I am going to take the lead now. Same as always right?" I asked.

 

"Yep, same as always," Diane replied with a light laugh.

 

'I didn't blame her for finding our situation was funny. They trapped us in a dark cave with no light source. Werewolves were herding us towards some unknown destination and we had to worry about huge scorpions. Our escape was brilliant,' I laughed at the thought of our situation.

 

I wondered what Kristonia and Rachal would think of our failed escape attempt. 'Geez, you fucked that up big time, Kris. Way to fucking go!' I could just picture her making fun of me.

 

Thinking about leaving them behind made me sad suddenly. 'I guess we won't be bringing back help. For all we knew they were dead and they probably thought the same thing about us. This was a disaster. Was it safer to just stay at DNA Labs? I didn't know. At this point it was too late to turn back,' I thought as we walked.

 

I tugged on the rope again, signaling Diane to stop. 

 

"I am going to throw another rock," I announced as I pulled a rock out of the bag attached to my exoskeleton.

 

I picked a large one, chunking it with all my might ahead of us. Only five or more seconds passed before it hit something and then bounced, rolling to a stop.

 

"That must be the far wall! We found it," I said excitedly.

 

"Yeah, maybe one hundred yards or fewer ahead of us," Diane said with an excited tone.

 

"Let's get moving!" I replied.

We picked up the pace towards the opposite side of the wall, then I stopped.

 

"Hey, I am going to throw a rock behind us. If those scorpions find their meals by sound, then we should throw another one," I announced.

 

"Good idea, Kristen. You're getting good at this caving in the dark thing," Diane replied jokingly.

 

"Nah, I learned everything from you!" I said, laughing as I reached into the bag to retrieve two rocks.

 

I turned around, chunking both rocks as far as I could. 'That should throw those nasty buggers off our trail,' I thought as I turned around, walking forward.

 

We walked carefully as we crossed the next hundred yards or so before we reached a wall. We both put our hands on the wall together. The wall was dry and rough to the touch. We started tracing the wall away from the way we suspected the scorpions had come from.

 

After an hour of walking, we ran out of solid walls to trace. Without saying a word, I tugged on the rope for Diane to stop behind me. I felt around the side of the wall, and it kept going.

 

"I think I found another passage. Let me check if it's safe," I stated as I took a rock from my bag and threw it down the passage. Within seconds, I heard a thump on the ground.

 

"It's safe," I announced as I reached back to grab Diane's hand, and we continued to trace the wall down this new passage.

 

I squeezed her hand before we went too far in. I took another rock out, chunking it behind us. Once I heard a thump far off in the distance, I turned around with my hand still holding Diane's. We dashed down the passage, trying to put as much distance between us and the carven as possible. The ground was at an incline now. I knew we were going uphill, which is what we had hoped for.

 

'Good, I don't want to go deeper than we have to. We are going to find our way out of this damn cave and make it back to the forest. Then we will go find help,' I thought as I walked with determination.

 

We kept up a quick pace until we noticed the ground leveling out. Several hours passed by as we walked in the only direction we could. I couldn't hear any of the werewolves in the distance behind us. That gave me the conclusion that this was where they wanted us to go. Neither of us had stopped or slowed down our pace. 'I don't feel tired, which is odd. I bet Diane doesn't either. What does that mean? Maybe we both just want to get the fuck out of this dark cave. A more plausible explanation had something to do with DNA Labs. Whatever the reason, we were taking advantage of the fact neither of us felt tired,' The thoughts came one after another as we hastened down the unseen path we were on.

 

Another hour passed as we came to the end of the wall we traced. That wasn't the end of the path. We came upon a turn in the passage. The wall was smoother than the previous wall we had been tracing.

 

"The wall is changing!" I announced.

 

"It's not as rough as it was before," Diane added.

 

"I think it's manmade," I replied.

 

"How deep underground are we?" Diane asked.

 

"I don't know, do you think this is part of DNA Labs?" I questioned.

 

"How? We left that place behind. None of the plans on the tablet had anything underground for miles. We walked for over a day. There is no way they would have something this far out, right?" Diane questioned.

 

"Someone had to have carved this passageway. It's not natural, it feels like concrete," I answered.

 

"We can't go back the way we came!" Diane replied.

 

"I know,  we should be cautious from this point on," I responded.

 

"I agree!" she stated as we walked in the darkness.

 

Every so often, I could feel things on the wall. Without a light, I couldn't tell what they were. The ground was level, and for the first time since leaving the labs, I didn't have trouble walking. We both had picked the pace up considerably as we both thought we were heading for something that would lead out of the caves.

 

We both kept our ears open for any signs that the werewolves were onto us. Although they could sneak up on us like they did the last time. 'How did that thing get behind us without us smelling it? That was the only time we didn't detect them. Did they transform into humans to throw us off? I didn't know,' I thought to myself.

 

Several hours of nonstop walking brought us to the end of the passageway. I squeezed Diane's hand to let her know to stop. I let go of her hand to search for what felt like a metal door of some sort. It was cold to the touch. I searched the places I thought a doorknob would be, finding none.

 

"It's a dead end, I think. There is some kind of metal door blocking our path. I can't feel any way to open it though," I finally announced.

 

"There might be a panel or button to push like on the elevators at Resident One. Let's look for anything to open it," Diane stated.

 

We both searched both sides of the wall and door for what felt like an eternity. I stopped when I heard Diane let out a sigh.

 

"I found something!" she exclaimed.

 

I was about to give her a big hug when I heard a series of growls off in the distance behind us.

 

"What the fuck! I couldn't smell them and we should have," I yelped.

.

"Shit!" Diane cried as she fiddled with whatever she found, and within seconds, bright lights blinded us both.

 

We heard a series of howls followed by growls off in the distance. Behind us, we heard gears and metal grinding as the door lifted halfway up before stopping.

 

"I can't see shit it's so bright," I yelled.

 

"Duck down quickly. The door didn't open all the way. Just close your eyes and go," Diane shouted as she helped me duck under the door.

 

Once on the other side, we both search the wall for the panel or button to close the door. 

 

"Found it!" I heard Diane shout.

 

She pushed the bottom of one of the two buttons on the panel she had found. Again, we heard gears and metal grinding as the heavy door lowered down in place. I ducked to the floor to see if I could get a glimpse at what was chasing us.

"What the fuck!" I yelped.

 

I saw dozens of naked people running at inhuman speed towards us as the door slammed shut just as they reached the door.

 

"Those we fucking people!" I blurted.

 

"Werewolves, not people. We figured they had a human form. That's how they sneaked up on us before," Diane explained.

 

"Let's get out of here before they bust the door down," I suggested.

 

"Right, let's go. I don't think they will follow us now. I think this is where they wanted us to go," Diane explained further.

 

"You're probably right. At least we can see now. You look like shit you know," I said with a laugh.

"Speak for yourself. You look like a cavewoman," Diane replied with a chuckle.

 

We both stood up to walk down the long corridor that was lit with an abundance of light. 'Thank God we are out of that endless darkness. Now we had to figure out where we were meant to go. This is where those werewolves herded us. I wanted to know why,' I thought as we walked with confidence.

 

Walking down the corridor, the walls were concrete with light stripes running down both sides with two light strips on the ceiling. It was so bright my head was hurting. I started rubbing my eyes and forehead. Noticing, Diane touched my arm.

 

"You've been in the dark for God knows how long. I am having the same problem. Look, there is another door up ahead. This probably leads to the interior of whatever this place is. We can find a place to rest and maybe something to help with your headache. I think it will wear off on its own though," Diane stated.

 

"Yeah, I know. I didn't expect it to hurt this much. I'm just glad we can see what's in front of us," I replied with a weak smile.

 

When we came to the door, Diane pressed the button to open it. This one opened all the way. We stepped through as Diane pressed the button to close it behind us. We were in another corridor with three different paths. One to our left and right, with one directly ahead of us. On the walls, we could see writing neither of us could understand.

"I have never seen this text before. Must be old!" I announced.

"I am no historian, but I think we need to follow the middle corridor. I can't decipher the word, but I just have a feeling we should go straight ahead," Diane stated.

 

"Have you seen it before somewhere?" I asked.

 

"I don't know. I only recognize part of what it says. I can't make sense of it," Diane replied.

 

"Straight it is then," I said, heading forward.

 

We passed through several other doors. There were hundreds of doors lining either side of the long corridors we passed through. Each time we came to a door on the opposite side, the three corridors gave us three choices. We just kept walking forward. We only checked a few doors here and there along the corridor, which were all locked from the inside. All of them had the exact weird text beside each of the doors above the doors.

 

Before long, we came to a large opening. As we made our way to the railing, I was in awe of how significant this place was. Before us was an open area to all the floors above and below us. It reminded me of the buildings on the lab tour, our Resident One. Except when I looked over the edge, I couldn't see the bottom. When I looked up, I couldn't see the ceiling either.

 

"Hey Diane, I don't think we were anywhere near reaching the surface," I whispered, looking up and down.

 

"I think you're right about that, Kris. We were way off on where we thought we were," she replied, looking down over the edge.

 

"What is this place?" I asked.

 

"I think it's an earthscraper," she answered.

"What's an earthscraper?" I asked again.

 

"It's a reverse skyscraper. Instead of building up, you build down into the earth. I have never heard of them being built before. The engineering suggested they would cost several times more than a traditional skyscraper," she explained.

 

"Isn't Resident One an earthscraper?" I questioned.

 

"Yeah, but Resident One was built from an existing sink hole. They built resident One on top of an already established cave network. Kind of like the one we were just in. All the builders had to do was dig down half the way they would have. Everything else they built around it then filled in. The cost for DNA Labs would be nowhere near the cost of a place like this," Diane explained further.

 

"How far down do you think this place goes?" I questioned again.

 

"Looks like it could be hundreds of floors deep. I can't tell and none of the text here is readable," Diane answered.

 

"Let's try to find some place with some food and water. Maybe some clothes and something to help your headache," Diane added.

 

"That might be hard if we can't read none of the signs," I countered.

 

"Well, we can't stay out in the open. One of these doors has to be open? Just look how old this place is. Do you know how many people lived down here at one point? There has to be a door left open," Diane suggested in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I know. You lead the way. You might recognise something," I said.

 

"Hey, I can't read this text either!" she said.