Chapter 196: Heal or Perish
The decision was made without toasts or blessings.
A few minutes later, Dylan was descending into the city’s bowels, wrapped in his moth-eaten blanket like a fallen king off to wage a crusade. Behind him, Julius led the way with the confidence of a drunken mountain guide, while the three other soldiers brought up the rear, weapons shaky but eyes resolved.
Their entry point? A manhole cover behind an abandoned butcher shop, still reeking of rancid grease and half-washed memories. Julius lifted the grate with disturbing ease, like he’d done it all his life—or had simply stopped pretending he was headed anywhere but down.
"If anyone thinks it stinks, congratulations, you’re still alive. Enjoy it," he said before vanishing into the black maw.
Dylan followed. The iron ladder was freezing, each rung biting into his bare feet, every motion reminding him that his body wasn’t built for this. Not yet. But he went down anyway. Because the dead don’t walk, and he still had things to do.
The first thing that greeted him was the clammy, forgetful air. The tunnel stretched before them like the gullet of a beast that never stopped chewing its prey. Hanging wires brushed their hair, cobwebs crackled under their fingers. The floor was slick... and the walls oozed an ancient sweat, and the sounds... weren’t all theirs.
Somewhere above, the city was still alive. But here, it was rotting.
Each step dragged them deeper into oblivion. Their shadows danced along the walls like lost creatures, and the flickering, pale light of their portable torches made everything look like a stuttering nightmare. Dylan clutched his blanket tighter around him—not against the cold, but against that inner gaze, the one that opens too wide when the outside world falls silent.
Julius stopped abruptly and raised a hand. Everyone halted.
"Listen," he whispered.
At first, there was nothing. Then... a splashing sound echoed from afar. Slow. Rhythmic. Far too measured to be natural.
"Something’s coming down," murmured the youngest soldier.