Chapter 57: Rumbling
At first, the rumbling started low — just a slight vibration in the ground that could barely even be felt unless you had enhanced senses like Elane or were already on the lookout for any changes or suspicious activity like Rohan.
"What is that?"
After Elane’s sudden question, Norm stopped his work to quieten the lively environment down, allowing him and everyone else in the tunnel to hear the low rumbling starting to shake the ground all around them.
"It sounds like it’s coming from above."
Liam uttered from behind, bringing everyone’s attention above.
Rohan’s face changed immediately. His earlier impatience and internal complaints vanished in an instant, replaced by a level of alertness that made his whole body tense up.
’Is whoever’s behind this whole mess finally making their move?’
The rumbling wasn’t natural. Not in a place like this, where even the most seasoned veterans who’d been running this gate for years had never encountered something like it.
Not when every Spike Beast had practically vanished from the face of the earth ever since everyone gathered at the centre.
"Stop digging."
Norm ordered at once. That order travelled faster than anything else they had done all day. Nobody questioned it either, and no one tried to squeeze out a last strike. The low rumbling under their feet took all of their attention away.
The whole tunnel fell silent; everyone strained their ears to listen in.
The low vibration continued, subtle at first, but now that everyone stopped working, it was much easier to make out. It wasn’t coming from the walls, nor from beneath their feet.
Liam was right; it was coming from above.
And with every second that passed, it grew slightly louder, slightly harsher.
"I can’t tell what or where it’s coming from. Someone ought to head back up to the surface to check." Liam offered up.
Rohan tightened his grip on his spear.
’Above...?’
His first thought was that somebody had finally made it through into the other side of the lair and started fighting the Elite inside, but that was far-fetched. If someone had actually managed to do that already, they would have informed everyone else and led the whole group inside rather than risk their lives against it with just the small group they dug the tunnel with.
No, what he felt was much more likely was that whoever or whatever was inside that lair had finally noticed their excavation and was moving about to put a stop to it in a frenzy.
’If that is the case, it means we’re moving in the right direction this time!’ Hope started to spark inside of him. Before now, only the thinning walls of the lair as they dug deeper kept his hope of leaving this place hanging by a thread — but this reinforced it massively.
Still, the idea wasn’t comforting.
Whatever was behind this had the power to destroy hundreds of waystones all in rapid succession and even apply further enhancements to the government’s membrane covering the lair.
The rumbling grew stronger.
Tiny bits of packed dirt trickled down from the tunnel ceiling. A few loose fragments of stone shifted underfoot.
Elane frowned. "It’s getting louder."
Norm turned on his foot, growling urgently.
"Everyone out. Now!"
A growing concern for the rigidity and structure of the tunnel spread throughout the group.
The whole tunnelling team abandoned their positions and began making their way back out, quickly but not recklessly stumbling over each other in a panic. The last thing any of them wanted was to start a panic and crush each other in a narrow, sloped tunnel and have the whole thing collapse around them.
Rohan stayed at the front with Elane while Norm helped Liam, Gerty and the others from behind.
The farther up they moved, the clearer the sound became. It wasn’t one heavy impact repeated over and over like some giant creature stomping on the ground inside the lair, so that cleared up one of Rohan’s suspicions.
Nor was it a grinding vibration of a collapsing structure.
It was continuous, rolling even, like the whole land above them had come alive and was surging in one direction.
By the time they reached the surface and climbed out into the dead open air again, plenty of other Awakened were already doing the same.
Heads and shoulders emerged from tunnels all across the perimeter around the lair. Men and women covered in dirt, sweat and grey dust climbed out with their weapons in hand, all wearing the same confused, tense expressions.
"Does everyone feel that?"
"Where is it coming from?"
"What the hell is going on this time!?"
The whole basin had changed.
Before, even with all the Awakened working like mad around the lair, there had been a sort of organised frenzy to everything.
Now everyone was ripe with uncertainty. Dozens upon dozens of people stood still, just listening.
’It’s much louder out in the open.’
Rohan could feel it in the soles of his feet, in the air, even faintly in his chest. The blackened ground of the dead world trembled in irregular pulses, each one stronger than the last.
All of the Awakened stopped their work by this point to join the others. The mining effort had come to a complete halt.
Nobody dared to continue their work now that something new and unknown sprung up.
Rohan stepped farther out from the tunnel entrance slowly, trying to locate the source.
Right at the moment it seemed to be coming from everywhere. The sound bounced and rolled across the hills, reverberating back at his position so that he was unable to pinpoint the original direction.
Until it grew loud enough, and supposedly close enough, that he could finally tell.
Far off, beyond a ring of dead trees and cracked earth leading away from the basin — in the opposite direction of where he, Elane and Norm’s group had arrived — dust began to rise.
A lot of it.
Rohan’s eyes narrowed.
"...Over there."
Elane moved to his side, following his gaze.
Norm did too, and many followed along after seeing others doing it.
"What is that?" Liam whispered.
"Gasp!!"
Rohan looked over at Elane, only to see her face curled up in horror.
"What do you see?" He asked, knowing she had far better eyesight than him.
"Hundreds... Thousands of them..." Elane muttered, barely audible over the loud rumbling by this point.
"What!?" Rohan had to repeat himself, loud enough for her to hear.
"...We’ve found our answer to why all the Spike Beasts disappeared."
This confused Rohan, until he saw her point at the wall of dust approaching their position.
He could see it himself now.
A horde of Spike Beasts.