Duskwood After Story

Descent

** Michael Hanson's house **

"Okay, here goes nothing!"

Dan grunted as he lifted the trapdoor in the bunker, revealing a shaft descending down into complete darkness.

"Oh my god, I don't know if this is a good idea..." - Thomas sneaked a peek into the hole and exclaimed. A drop of sweat rolled down his face.

"There's nothing to be afraid of when we are well prepared." - Jake said as he signaled them to come closer to him.

Jake gave Dan and Thomas each a headlamp, a Bluetooth earbud for communication and a set of climbing gear which included a climbing harness and climbing rope.

"What's all this?" - Dan asked.

"Our safety insurance." - Jake answered - "First of all, please give me your phone. I need to install something."

"What is something?" - Dan arched an eyebrow doubtfully.

"It's for our communication in the mine. There's hardly any cell signals down there so we have to resort to radio signals via the earbuds instead. And they only work with the app I developed." - Jake explained.

"Alright." - Thomas nodded and handed his phone over to Jake after unlocking it.

Jake took out his phone as well and started installing the application into Thomas' phone. Once done, he handed it back to Thomas and looked at Dan.

"I don't want no virus in my phone." - Dan grumbled.

"Trust me. This is necessary." - Jake insisted as he held out his hand to Dan in anticipation.

"Urg fine." - Dan yielded. He took his phone out from his back pocket and placed it into Jake's hand.

"Please unlock it." - Jake told him.

"Urggg fine, fine. Thought you were a hacker. Can't you just hack it open?" - Dan continued complaining as he retrieved the phone to unlock it. Though he didn't mean it literally.

"That will take too much time." - Dan placed his phone back into Jake's hand. He frowned at Jake's reply, feeling a bit more nervous now that he had given a hacker full access to his phone.

Dan folded his arms in front of his chest while he waited for Jake. He cast a glance at Thomas, who was fumbling with the equipment Jake had given them.

"Ok, all done." - Jake gave Dan back his phone. Dan instantly opened it and examined to make sure there was nothing unusual inside.

"I'll explain how these work now." - Jake announced. Thomas stopped fiddling with the gears on the ground and came close to where Jake and Dan were standing.

"To begin with, switch on the earbuds and insert them into your left ear. You'll need to link it to your phone using the app I just installed. The app's name is V0X. Simply activate Bluetooth on your phone, launch the app, and you should receive a notice indicating that the V0X-Earbud is connected."

Jake paused. As they gave him confirmation that they were done, he continued.

"To join our primary group channel, tap the "Channels" option in the app's upper left corner, then select "Channel 4". You will hear anything spoken through the Channel in the earbud. To speak with the group, just press on it and maintain pressing until you finish speaking. Is everything clear?"

They nodded in agreement. The group then put the earbuds to the test. After some initial difficulties, they eventually got everything to function properly.

"Man, who would have thought we would need this much technology to go down a mine?" - Dan commented as he examined the earbud in his hand.

"It's pretty exciting though, isn't it?" - Thomas laughed and nudged Dan on his back.