Finding Humanity: Book 3 in the Saving Humanity Series

CHAPTER 5

The dirt crunched under Caleb's shoes as he stepped off the ladder and into the tunnel. The stench of rotting flesh grew in intensity—powerful enough to gag him. No denying the rotting beasts had made their way through here. Ophelia hopped off the ladder next to him and shone her light into the tunnel. The space wasn't overly huge. He could touch the ceiling by raising his hand over his head, and touch both walls by extending his arms out to his sides. It would have been a tight fit for an RBZ to walk through, and that was apparent with the amount of clothes and body parts littering the floor and stuck to sharp rocks on the wall.

"Where do you think it goes?" Ophelia whispered.

Caleb shook his head. The beam from the flashlight penetrated as far as it could, then it morphed into darkness. Irritation flooded through his body. He had no doubt this tunnel led out and Dr. Maudas and the RBZs had used it to escape. In reality, it didn't matter where it went because the end destination was freedom—and that really irritated Caleb to no end. All he'd wanted when he was at the lab was to find a way out. He'd searched the other cave desperately for an escape and found nothing. If only he'd taken the time to scrutinize this one.

But by then you'd given up. You'd resolved yourself to your fate.

Caleb sighed inwardly. He had given up at that point, and was willing to let Dr. Maudas do whatever needed to be done to understand his immunity. He wouldn't have said he had been happy about the decision, but he hadn't had a choice. He had been trapped and—if he was truly honest with himself—part of him did want to know what he was capable of, if he could help others. The other part was tired of running. In reality, it was easy to see now how faulty his thinking had been. If he had just found the strength and courage to search the area more, things could have turned out differently. But he couldn't go back and change things now. This was his chance to make things right.

Knowing that he was expendable added fuel to that fire. He'd assumed he was special, and the only one who could help Dr. Maudas with his research. Samuel had made it sound that way. He'd constantly told Caleb he was "like a god" and could help the entire world. Caleb had hated when Samuel said that. It made him feel uncomfortable, like he would be expected to do things he was incapable of doing.

Standing in the tunnel and breathing in the remnants of rotting flesh, it became apparent those words had been a lie. They were just another tactic to manipulate him. If he was honest with himself, he would admit that they'd worked. As long as he'd believed he was irreplaceable, he'd assumed he was safe.

His chest tightened, and anger flared through his body. If he was expendable, how far would Dr. Maudas have taken his experiments after Caleb was comfortable in his false sense of security? He could only imagine. At least he'd spared himself that torture. Now, he had to do what he could to save everyone else from Dr. Maudas and his army of big undead. He had no doubt the pair had hurried down this corridor with their undead horde, to freedom. It would be easy to pretend that he hadn't found this place and turn around and disappear, but he owed it to himself, and all of those poor souls who were turned into RBZs, to get justice. With determined steps, Caleb moved forward.

Ophelia quickened her pace to keep up with him. "Do you think we'll find them at the end of this?"

"No." Caleb's voice was soft and low. He didn't want her to hear the anger he had coursing through him. "I'm sure they're long gone. But maybe we can find some clues as to where they went."

Sweat beaded on Caleb's forehead as his quick pace and the confined tunnel took their toll on his body. He had no idea how long he'd been walking, but the burn in his legs indicated it had been a while. With darkness in front of and behind him, it was difficult to tell how much progress he'd made. For all he knew, they could be in the same place, but he knew better than that. He knew eventually the tunnel would end.