Children of The Underground

Chapter 14: The Belly of The Beast

When the tunnel collapsed behind them, the party was shrouded once again in darkness. Drazhek felt his blood turn to icewater. They had travelled through the caverns below Koshei's Peak, its tunnels coiled and winding like the intestines of some colossus. And with the cave–in, they were trapped in the belly of the beast.

Vera's lantern sparked to life, and that brought Drazhek back to reality. The light, heat, and warmth of the lantern held his anguish at bay. But their situation was still grim. In their fight against the Creeping Shadow, they had managed to survive the fight against one monster, but condemned themselves to a slow, most probably painful death of starvation or suffocation.

"Is anyone hurt?" Asked Misha. The rest of them shook their heads. "Then I say we take a break for a bit. Anybody have a watch?" Everyone turned their heads towards Vera, who fumbled in her bag for a small, brass pocketwatch. She opened it and peered intently.

"It's about eight o' clock. Whether morning or night, I do not know. But I know that we need to sleep. Maybe taking shifts." Vera placed her pocketwatch back into her bag, and then unrolled her bedroll off of it. She laid down on it leisurely, and before anyone could say anything, Vera began snoring lightly.

The remaining four looked dumbfounded at one another, removing their rucksacks and sitting down. Boris was cleaning her gun. Lena was reloading her pistols. Drazhek and Misha just sat there cross-legged, leaning against a wall.

"She isn't paying us enough for this shit." Lena sighed, and stole a glance at the sleeping Vera. Everyone chuckled, but softly. There wasn't enough air in their lungs for anything beyond that.

"How are you holding up?" Drazhek asked Misha. He curled an arm around her waist, and wished desperately that he could look at her face, without the gas mask on. It might be the last time that he could. There was the night before, where they kissed under the moonlight. And if need be, he could squeeze enough comfort out from that memory. He just hoped that she could do the same.

"I'm alright." Misha replied. She was audibly tired, and slumped limply against Drazhek's shoulder. "If you're too afraid to ask, I'll tell you: I think we'll make it out of here. Even with the cave-in. She turned to look at him, the eyes he saw through the gasmask's lenses almost feverishly bright. "But that was one hell of a day. I can't believe shit like that existed. But then again, I couldn't believe it when I first entered the zone."

"Yeah," Drazhek replied. "It's one thing to read about them in a book, like the volcanoes of Zephyros, or the deserts of Allany. But to see them with your own eyes..." Drazhek trailed off. Despite Misha's reassurance, he couldn't quite believe that they'd make it. They were too lucky. But for now, they had time ponder such things. "But imagine if we found that underground lab."

Misha chuckled. "The lab of Tsar Koshei? I wouldn't call it bullshit, but I'd certainly be surprised. Sure, there's been some real strange things under the mountain, but nothing that you couldn't see topside. Maybe the monsters. But still, no sign of a 'lab'."

"You think they're the 'Children of The Underground?'" Drazhek asked. Misha shrugged.

"Who knows? It'd make sense. Thaumaturge mixes flesh and magic to make monsters, monsters turn on him and run amok. Misha shifted on her seat. her eyes narrowed and grew predatory "But I'll tell you what. If we do find that laboratory, we'd be the richest Vedmaks in Vladigorsk. Maybe even in all of Mednagora."

"Would we get payed up front?" Drazhek asked. He didn't bother wondering if they'd get out alive now. That wasn't good enough. He needed real hope. Something that he could cling to beyond simple survival. Misha's smile was warm, but a little knowing.

"No, not that instant. First, we need proof. An artifact or something to show that something's there. The Vladigorsk Institute pays well for artifacts, but if you want to make real money the location's what you have to sell."

"The location?" Drazhek asked. He was surprised by the roundabout path from discovery to payment. But it made sense to be this complicated. After all, this wasn't a fairytale, where the hero got half the kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage for slaying the dragon. Being a Vedmak was a job.

"Yep. It's a lot of legal bullshit that I've yet to fully understand. But I'll tell you this: Vedmaks get paid best for either two things: finding new locations, and finding new anomalies. The Vladigorsk Institute and City Government bought the legal rights to The Bald Mountains Zone. So anything found there can be sold only to the Institute or the Vladigorsk Forestry Lodge."

"But they haven't bought the rights to Koshei's Peak." Drazhek concluded.

"Exactly. And whoever gets location rights gets to sell it to the highest bidder. Or who knows? Maybe we can set up a Vedmak's guild. Monopolize rights to the territory and tell the Institute or the Forestry Lodge to pay us as much as we want."

Drazhek could see a couple problems with the plan. Namely that Mednagora had an army and the Vedmaks did not. But still, he could see her delight in that plan, and that made him smile.

"Looks like they call you'Magpie' for a reason," he teased. But Misha did not respond. She had fallen asleep, the side of her head leaning against Drazhek's temple. She was snoring softly.

Drazhek, smiling, held her and gently laid her upon a bedroll. It seemed as though he was the only one who was awake.

He checked both the blunderbuss and his pistol, seeing that both were cocked and loaded. He holstered the pistol and held onto the blunderbuss, his finger curled carefully around the trigger guard. He realized with astonishment that he'd yet to fire the damn thing. In fact, when push came to shove, it was his ass that ended up being saved more often.

Despite the warmth of the fire, a chill ran down Drazhek's spine. He suddenly imagined a sneak attack by some filth prowling the tunnels. Like clockwork, he began solving the grim equations of combat.

A blunderbuss fires a spread of ten pistol-caliber bullets, usually in close encounters. It's a single shot weapon that'll take fifteen, maybe 20 seconds to load. If there's one target, no matter how big it is, I could hurt it, maybe even kill it. And besides, it'd wake up the others, and they could help me. Lena and Boris especially. If there's more than one, I can use the axe in my rucksack on them. A blow to the head would surely waste the sorry bastard that tried to screw with us. And if that doesn't work...

Drazhek glanced at the pistol strapped to his thigh. It held a single shot, enough for one last shot at survival...Or for delivering the coup de grâce.

Drazhek felt a draft blow through the tunnel, and his gaze snapped back to its gaping, black maw. The darkness beckoned with malicious glee. Come on in, it seemed to say. Come on in and see what I have waiting for you.