The Cardinal Directive: Mission Log #19

Deep beneath the world, as above so below...

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The footage returns to seemingly endless stretches of a manmade tunnel under the watchful gaze of two flashlight beams. They swing slowly from side to side, scanning the way ahead and bobbing as their wielders walk.

Their pace is sluggish, yet determined, clearly tired but having no option other than to press on.

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There was no way of knowing how far the pair had traveled in the many hours that had passed since their encounter with Sloan. The tunnels were nondescript — never the same as the tunnel before, but never very different either.

They passed several metal supports built into the walls — some with unlit lanterns and others not. For the many twists and turns that their journey took them on, they never once saw a lit tunnel again. They’d resorted to using the flashlights they’d picked up. It was a dead giveaway, but they stood no chance at finding a way out if they kept wandering around in the darkness.

Sebastian had done everything he could think of to find a way out. Choose paths that went uphill. Listen and feel for any air circulating through the tunnels. Turn away from anywhere that the air felt thin.

It never worked. Upward paths led to downward ones, no air moved besides the volume they displaced, and the air never gave any indication that they had strayed far from the oxygen produced in the biodome.

And so they kept moving.

The only stop along the trip so far had been to assess any damage Sloan’s blade in his chest had caused. It was thankfully minimal, not hitting anything major. He eventually concluded that Sloan had tried to hit him in the throat, but had been thrown off by everything with the zombie and missed. The knife was now in his bag, his chest bandaged and a patch applied over the tear in his suit.

Alison had been no help in any of that. She’d just paced and mumbled and wiped away at her tears while he fixed himself up.

She’d gone quiet eventually. They both had, he supposed, as the hours stretched and hope of seeing the sun any time soon grew slimmer and slimmer.