Chapter 31: Trail of bodies.
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 foot and 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.