Aumeha Chronicles: The Expedition

Chapter 8

They trekked slowly. The trek which should have taken less than half an hour took a full hour for them. They finally reached. It was a small entrance which could barely fit Favian's 6 feet frame. But, they switched on their torchlight and queued up to enter the cave. Ethan leading the way, entered the cave followed by Andrea, Favian, Alvis and Cassini at the end. Just upon entering they had to take a right, then went forward which curved leftward then there was a sharp left. And there was light coming out of it. For a moment it felt like it was an exit. And they rushed to it. And what they saw next was shocking!

It was an entire civilisation. Living in a gigantic cave. It was at least 4 to 5 storeys high on an average curving down at the ends. There were houses of 3-4 storeys on either side of a straight track inside the cave which bifurcated to left and right. The houses were majorly built of mud and stone. The whole complex was illuminated by incandescent bulbs.

They saw eyes staring right back at them. Small innocent eyes of kids to disgusted and disgruntled eyes of the adults. All staring as if they were seeing something out of the world.

A loud shout from the above came "Utter a word on the radio and you are dead."

There were three people hidden in camouflage hoisted to the top of the cave entrance tunnel. All of them having guns on them.

"remove all weapons"

They removed all the knives, knuckles, and other equipment. But, Ethan did not take out his gun. His gun was a rescue gun which is the most sophisticated equipment on the complex. No detector even while checking with hands could detect the gun. The gun's location on the body is only known by the wearer and the loader. The loader attaches the gun to the personnel's body under a camera so no misuse would be there with a weapon that sophisticated.

A man with his face covered emerged from the crowd. Looked them at their eyes giving a death stare to each one. Then he turned back and started making a way through the crowd.

"Follow me" he ordered.

They silently made a group and followed him. And behind them the crowd followed. Eyes were looking, some hidden behind screens, some cross-eyed, some with tears, some with intrigue but, all had a sense of traumatising fear.

After walking for some time they saw three people approaching them. They roughly made the formation and kept walking. There were three of them. Ethan slowed his pace a bit and toughened up his body. The person in the middle did not cover his face. He was old and was walking leisurely. The other two had their faces covered and were young and strong walking like bodyguards. Presumably it was the leader in the middle.

Slowly, the two groups met. The guards accompanying the intruders gave way for the groups to meet.

"Hello"

'Click'

BANG!