by Sonador Snow
“Follow me,” Carolina said to her father. The two of them made their way around the wall of the room towards the far end. She was explaining as they made their way, “The whole city is charged with powerful explosives; the detonators are at the beginning of the evacuation tunnel. The timers are set for thirty minutes, which should give us time to move far enough away. The charge is designed to destroy everything here.”
“What if in this half an hour whoever is attacking us reaches the detonators?”
“Once we enter the tunnel, we'll blow the entrance to block it. They won't have time to clear all the rubble and deactivate the bombs.”
She led him to a round tunnel through which people were already running. After a few steps, they stopped and knelt on the cold stone floor. She lit a solar lamp, and two niches close to each other were easily visible then.
“There are three detonators in each niche. Just lift the glass lid and press the green button. A timer should start. Make sure you close the lid after that; it's designed to block the sound of the clock,” she said as half of her body disappeared in the shallow niche.
Ademar Gamejro reached into the other niche, but his trembling hands forced the lid of the first detonator too much and he broke it.
“Damn.”
“What?” Carolina asked.
“My hands are trembling, and I broke one of the glass lids.”
“I doesn't matter, just make sure that all three timers start.”
They'd done it in less than a minute, and at that moment through the tunnel approached Fabiana, MacGeady, Grossmayer and Fukuzawa. Carolina nodded that everything was done and they helped with the few computers that Fukuzawa insisted to take as he was going to need them later.
Back at the entrance of the tunnel, they recognized the tall figure of John Masterson, the architect who had built this underground city.
The last people made it round the first corner when a small bang, followed by the sound of falling rocks, was heard. Shortly after, Masterson caught up with them. His eyes were red.
Their pretty large group of survivors was advancing slowly through the winding tunnel, but at least for now the terrain was flat and they didn't have to climb or descend. They used solar lamps to light their way, but they knew they needed to be economical with their use, because the tunnels in front were tens of miles long. The elderly leaders of their organization made their way to the front of the group, while MacGeady, the minister and the two women dropped right to the back of it to make sure that nobody got lost or dropped behind.
“How did you build this tunnel?” Ian MacGeady asked.
“We didn't,” Fabiana answered him. “At some point, lava made it, and after that one of the underground rivers we deviated ran through it.”
“That's why the surface is so smooth.” Ademar Gamejro joined the conversation. “Where will it lead us?”
“Soon we'll reach a big chamber from which four different tunnels run out. Two of them are dead ends, while the other two wind for miles and miles. They go under the swamps, the forest after that, and reach the surface at the foot of the mountains, but there waits a real cave labyrinth.”
“Are we entering it?” Ademar Gamejro continued with the questions.
“Yes, our goal is the heart of this complicated cave system. There is an old temple, this is our rally point, and everyone that has survived and escaped knows how to make their way to there. However, I doubt we'll stay there for too long. We have a plan to complete.” Fabiana stopped to tie her shoe.
“So, there's no turning back or delaying things?”
“No, Pa. Everything must happen in less than two days. This is the only time the virus can be activated. That's why we need to move faster.” Carolina increased the tempo, urging the slowly moving women carrying kids in front of them to do the same.
At the front of their group of about two thousand people walked the four founders of their organization. Their mood was grim. and without talking they simply made sure to set a good tempo for the rest. All computer simulations made showed that once the bombs detonated, all these tunnels that leads to the cavity splitting in four would disappear under tons of rocks. Nobody caught in it would survive.
The four white-haired men were occupied with their own unhappy thoughts, all of which gravitated around the thousands of people that were about to die in the explosion, if any were still alive.
“Do you think Jinhun and Taylor will be able to escape?” Masterson broke the silence.
“Let's hope they do. We can't wait for them more than twelve hours after we arrive,” Fukuzawa said.
“They'll make it,” Apalikov said firmly and upped the tempo, causing everyone behind him to hurry too.
After about twenty minutes, they were nearly at the place where the tunnel was splitting in four and Grossmayer said, “We don't have to stop and rest. We ought to decide if we'll all continue together or if we'll split the people.”
“I say we split. It gives a better chance for some of us to make it safe to the temple,” Masterson gave his opinion.
“Agreed,” The other two men said.
“All right then,” Masterson said. “Me and Vladimir will take half of the people and go through the first tunnel, you two and the princess take the rest through the other. Any objections?”
The following silence meant that nobody had anything against this plan. Five minutes later they reached the spacious cavity at the other end of which four dark tunnels were leading out. Their solar lamps were hardly able to reach the high ceiling above. They stopped until everyone gathered. Slowly but surely, the stretched column of people piled up near the four tunnels.
There were still at least a hundred people in the tunnel behind when a loud explosion, followed by a serious tremor, showed that the bombs had detonated. Only seconds later, a heatwave hit their faces, and the last few of the escapees started running out into the big cavity amid screams of fear and panic. The people started pushing each other and very quickly chaos overtook the situation.
Fabiana, MacGeady, Carolina and her father were amongst the last trying to make it out of the tunnel. They were trying to run, but the crowd in front was pushing too much and this actually made the movement slower. Suddenly, the monolith rock above them started cracking and, from behind, the deafening sound of collapsing rocks reached their ears to increase the panic even more.
Somebody pushed Ademar Gamejro to the ground in the cacophony, and he hurt his knee badly. The two women tried unsuccessfully to help him. Ian MacGeady pushed them away and simply lifted the minister over his shoulder and ran forward, following the two women.
This small delay saw them left behind everyone else after a few steps. They stopped, their hearts frozen as their eyes lifted up. Right above their heads, a massive crack opened with a horrific sound. Carolina's panicked shout echoed afar as she closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable.
* * *
Shimi Levy was inside one of the Predators heading towards the Yuyuan's hidden city, or at least what was left of it. He was looking through the window at the swamps below him. The area looked very alive, with numerous machines and soldiers scattering around to search every inch of the swamps.
After Lucifer had finally contacted him and gave account of his actions and that of the archangels, he left the eight men do their thing, and only after that allowed the Indian general who was in charge of the local garrison to join in.
The helicopter had nearly reached the lake. Shimi Levy stared at the thin smoke coming off the middle of the water and the huge amount of destroyed or damaged solar panels scattered around. Amongst them, a dozen military boats packed with soldiers were searching the surface carefully. The director of the Agency smiled. He was sure that, at least twice, he had flown right over this lake over the years. He really admired the genius idea to hide in between two of the major world powers. A thought made him laugh loudly; he remembered the remote and obscure places in which he had searched for the Yuyuan's base during the past
two decades.
The helicopter landed on a dry stretch of land on the edge of the lake. Lucifer was already waiting. The young man jumped inside as the machine touched the ground and sat opposite his mentor.
“Report.” Shimi Levy looked at him harshly. Later he was going to analyze and look closely at the blatant disobedience shown by Lucifer.
“They'd built a truly remarkable place for themselves; but once we broke in, we hardly encountered any serious resistance. Obviously, they were hoping to remain unnoticed and did not build a serious defense system.”
“That's normal. After all, most of their founders are only scientists.”
“Whatever. We killed roughly ten thousand of their members,” Lucifer said, without any trace of emotion in his voice, “We also captured over twenty thousand more for interrogation, but nothing useful so far. Most of them are ordinary workers and have never even been to the lowest level of their fortress where all the important buildings are.”
“What about Fukuzawa, Masterson and the others?”
“They escaped for now. At the lowest level, we found an evacuation tunnel they used, but soon we'll clear the way from the deliberate landslide and we'll go after them. They destroyed all computers and useful information before they left.”
“So you couldn't retrieve anything?” Shimi Levy was getting angry.
“Not yet, but we'll see if we can find anything. Now we're trying to clear the tunnel and catch them. I can't see them escaping us.”
“Don't underestimate them. I hope you realize that your future depends on their destruction.”
“Do you want somebody alive?”
“Only Taylor Swansea and maybe Ademar Gamejro. The Brazilian government insists on having him back, but that doesn't have to be a priority.”
“Clear. Anything else? Because I want to join my brothers down there.”
“Yes, the most important thing for me is the information and the data that the escapees carry with them. I need it; but, if you can't retrieve it, just make sure nobody else does and destroy everything.”
“Understood.” Lucifer left the helicopter and, using the last drops of fuel in his wings, flew back to the entrance of the underground city.
Shimi Levy also wanted to see what the Yuyuan had built for themselves. He ordered the pilot to call a boat to pick him up and take him there.
Lucifer reached the communication center, or at least what was left of it, and joined his seven brothers, who were using their unnatural strength to quickly clear the rocks blocking the tunnel. They had done a great job; it looked like any minute now they would be able to go through. Suddenly, Lucifer waved everyone to stop working and listened intensely. His amazing hearing abilities detected a monotonous ticking sound, just like from a clock.
A second later, for the first time in his life, panic crept in his voice as he shouted, “Quick, everyone out!”
Without asking any questions, the seven archangels followed their leader towards the surface.
Suddenly, a chain of explosions made everything collapse, causing a major earth tremor as an aftermath.
Up on the surface of the lake, Shimi Levy was heading on top of a boat towards the entrance of the city when the water under it exploded and lifted the whole four-ton machine high in the air. Shimi Levy's eyes widened in horror.
* * *
Jinhun and Taylor were running as fast they could through the rough field. On one side they had the forest and the constantly growing number of soldiers emerging from the trees, and on the other their retreat was blocked by a wide and very long stretch of open water. They were moving parallel with the forest, and the line of soldiers had fired several warning shots already but were still unable to surround the two men. That said, the distance between the two groups was closing fast, and the two tired men were running out of time.
A humming sound came from behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, Jinhun saw that the origin of the noise was a military speed boat equipped with deadly machine guns. The two men squeezed the last resources of energy left in their bodies to increase the tempo but their legs were no match for the machine's engine. It was only a matter of seconds before they were within range of the deadly weapons.
Taylor pulled Jinhun's sleeve to the right and, without waiting to see if his Chinese friend would follow him, jumped in the water. With two energetic kicks, he disappeared for the time being from the view of the soldiers and the boat in between a small cluster of bamboo. Jinhun's head appeared next to his only seconds later.
“Correct me if I'm wrong, but for the last few yards of our run I felt the ground under us moving,” Taylor said.
“You're right. We were not on solid ground. Just a thick layer of branches, leaves and mud forming a floating surface on top of the water.”
“So if we swim under it, we might be able to find an opening on the other side? By my calculations, this stretch is no longer than thirty feet. If we succeed, we'll be behind the soldiers too.” Taylor was talking quickly as the sound from the boat was increasing.
“Yes, but what you're suggesting is extremely risky. We don't know at all if there's a way out on the other side, plus the visibility down under will be near zero with all the mud.”
At this moment, a trace of bullets ripped the water surface just inches away from where they were.
“I'll try my luck.” Taylor grinned to the other man and, without further discussion, dove under the water. Jinhun took a deep breath and followed him, a second before another line of bullets ripped the bamboo to pieces.
What they were trying to do was extremely risky and nearly impossible, and all Jinhun was able to do was to try and not lose sight of Taylor's legs. They went under the motor boat, and after that the light disappeared and visibility dropped drastically. Due to the huge amount of rotting waste, Taylor was lifting a lot of mud from the bottom, and eventually Jinhun had no choice but to close his eyes and continue making progress in darkness.
His lungs started to burn. He opened his eyes to orientate, but apart from mud and swimming pieces of plants, he wasn't able to see anything. There was no trace of Taylor. Jinhun felt that he was about to open his mouth and breathe in a deadly amount of water when a hand appeared from above him, grabbed his collar and pulled him upwards.
A second later he was gasping for air and spitting mud. Somehow, this crazy plan succeeded. After restoring his composure, Jinhun's senses returned. He saw Taylor sheltered right next to a tuft of grass, watching intensely the Indian soldiers and the boat searching for them in the water on the other side.
“We must move, soon they'll figure it out. Are you okay?” He turned towards Jinhun.
“Yeah, thanks to you.”
“No problem.” Taylor turned his attention back to the search party that was spreading up and down the other shore as they talked. “Very soon, they'll call for air support and more boats and we'll be found. We must be out and away before that.”
Jinhun had the time to look at their surroundings. He said, “I suggest we follow the shore while in the water for about quarter of a mile west. There I can see mangroves. Their roots and leaves should provide us the needed cover to retreat. If I'm not mistaken, the mangrove forest will take us right to end of the swamps and it's the woods after that.”
“Sounds like a good plan. Let's go.” Taylor led the way, holding one hand to the shore and diving underwater in the passages where the grass was too short and they could have been seen.
It took them half an hour to reach the mangroves, but they did that undetected, and after pulling themselves out of the water, they continued forward through the indescribable tangle of branches.
The very difficult conditions between all these entangled branches made their progress very slow. With them trying not to make noise, they were nowhere near the end of the swamps when the first choppers flew over their heads.
The two men were also very tired after all the effort of the last few days. Once Taylor slipped and dropped with a splash in t
he water for the third time, they had to stop and rest.
“We can't continue like this, we'll never make it,” Taylor said.
“You're right. Night will fall even before we make it out of the mangroves, and we can't risk traveling in darkness through this chaos. Not to mention that even if we reach the woods, we'll be left with no energy.”
“How far are we from the mountain and that cave?”
“I'd say around ten miles.”
“By any chance do you have any other transport hidden somewhere around?”
“I'm afraid not.” Jinhun forced a smile despite their grim situation.
“We must think of something else,” Taylor said more to himself.
“I'm afraid that we won't make it even if we keep going. They won't wait for us in the caves forever, and I can't see us covering all that distance in time.”
They stopped talking as a slow moving military boat glided near them, out in the open water next to the mangroves. They froze in their places not to be noticed and soon the boat passed them.
“I have an idea. Follow me.” Taylor started making his way carefully towards the edge of the mangroves.
The two men sheltered themselves just on the edge of the trees, finding branches that hung only inches above the water. About ten minutes after they did, the same boat came back their way, still moving very slowly and observing the cluster of trees for the runaways. At this point, Jinhun retreated back in amongst the trees.
The five soldiers in the boat livened up when they spotted the red-haired man they were looking for. Taylor looked as if he had just climbed on the end branch when from the boat came a shout for him to freeze. He simply obeyed as they quickly made their way to him.
The man maneuvering the boat picked up a radio and started shouting something while the other four soldiers moved to the side nearer to the mangroves and pointed their weapons at Taylor. He lifted his hands high in the air as the boat slowed down and moved close to him.