"Y-yeah… right." Eryndor muttered, glancing back toward Shado and Liora before jogging ahead to catch up with Riven.
Shado watched the two disappear further down the ruined passage before letting out a tired sigh.
"I guess we should get moving too…"
Liora nodded faintly and pushed herself off the wall, wincing as pain shot through her shoulder. Still, she walked past him without complaint, slowly catching up with the others.
Shado watched, looking at Liora with pitiful eyes, before following too.
"Damn…" Eryndor muttered as he looked around the warehouse. "We seriously wrecked this place."
"You're only noticing that now?" Liora said softly, a weak laugh escaping her. "I guess it only makes sense... you guys were a little busy trying not to die..."
Riven chuckled quietly.
"I mean… after fighting something like that? I'm surprised we escaped with our lives..."
His gaze drifted toward the charred remains of the forgeling.
"Mmm…" Liora murmured.
She slowed for a moment, taking one last glance behind her.
The warehouse was quiet, something that seemed so natural but eerie considering the events that happened not to long ago.
Fire crackled weakly across the oil-soaked floor, casting dim orange lights to cross broken shelves and pieces of twisted metal. The forgeling's corpse remained collapsed where it fell, its frame twitching faintly as heat bled from its ruined core.
The group kept walking, Keeping a steady pace as they passed by the battlefield.
The far side of the warehouse was less damaged than the entrance, though "intact" would've been generous. Entire support beams leaned crookedly against the walls, and scraps of metal littered the concrete beneath their boots.
"So…" Eryndor exhaled, staring at one of the faded station signs overhead. "Exactly how far are we from the gate?"
Liora brushed a strand of hair away from her face before answering.
"Considering how deep underground we are…and the station number..." she said slowly, "probably another thirty minutes on foot or so..."
Eryndor stopped walking entirely.
"T-Thirty minutes?" he said, staring blankly ahead before dropping dramatically to his knees. "Maybe dying back there wouldn't have been so bad..."
"Oh, shut up." Riven rolled his eyes, grabbing the back of Eryndor's shirt and hauling him upright again. "You're the healthiest one here right now, I don't see why you're complaining."
"Yeah, and that is deeply concerning!"
"Stop being so whiney, we already rested," Riven continued. "At this point we either keep moving or all of this was for nothing."
Just ahead of them, the corridor stretched darker the further they walked.
"Yeah…" Shado muttered quietly from the back of the group. "Assuming there's even anyone or anything left to save."
Riven sighed, letting Eryndor take the lead again. "You're such a pessimist Shado, if you keep thinking like that you'll stay sour forever."
"Well I'm merely just stating the facts" He replied, walking behind Liora carefully. "We still don't have a full grasp on the situation."
"Right..." Riven muttered, looking ahead. "Anyways... it Shouldn't take too long before we get to the service room, just try not to do anything stupid for the time being..."
"You make it sound like we started that mess back there..." Eryndor said beneath his breath, continuing to tread through rusty metal flooring and creaking pipes that lined the walls.
The group walked in silence for a while after that.
The deeper they moved through the maintenance corridors, the more the station seemed to change around them. Exposed pipes snaked overhead in tangled clusters, dripping warm condensation that echoed softly against the metal floor below.
Every now and then, the corridor would crumble around them slowly cascading dust down onto the path. The walls were in no better condition, missing bits and pieces of concrete, exposing the rebar inside.
The scene was enough to remind them that the sector above was still in chaos due to the events of the train and everything that followed.
Their footsteps echoed endlessly through the tunnels, Eryndor glanced toward one of the old maintenance mirrors built into the wall. But nothing but his own reflection stared back at him.
He looked away almost immediately.
"So…" he said quietly, mostly just to break the silence. "What exactly are we even looking for once we get there?"
"The service room should control the gate locks as you should already know," Liora answered weakly from the middle of the group. "If the emergency systems and lever are still there and active, we might be able to force the gate to close again."
"Might?" Eryndor repeated.
Liora gave a tired shrug. "No warehouse or station was exactly designed to survive a full outbreak."
"Well that's comforting..."
Not too long after, the corridor split to into two ways, the hallway now opening up on their left and right. The sign overhead hung crookedly from the ceiling, rust crawling along its edges. One arrow pointed left. While the other pointed right.
<< TO WAREHOUSE 18/SURFACE EXIT.
GATE SERVICES. >>
Eryndor stepped forward carefully, peering down both hallways.
The left corridor stretched upward at a gradual incline, dim emergency lights flickering weakly overhead that illuminated the path.
The right path continued forward, with no real twists or turns. Sharing those same emergency lights.
"So," Eryndor muttered, "what's the plan?" Stepping back towards the group.
"The answer's obvious, we all head towards gate services and then back to the surface." Riven said lowly, leaning against the wall.
"For someone with tons of combat experience," Shado said quietly, "Your critical thinking is pretty bad." He too now taking a look out from the corridor.
Riven looked over at him.
"And why's that?"
"Because we're low on ammunition," Shado replied. "And moving as a group only makes us easier to track if something hears us. Especially in these narrow hallways."
Riven narrowed his eyes.
"I suppose you're right but, why suggest this now of all times though? We've been could've have been moving in pairs in the past."
Shado didn't answer immediately. He simply adjusted the strap on his rifle before looking back towards the split corridor.
"Riven, I think Shado is right about this..." She said softly, placing her hand on his arm, looking into his eyes.
Shado looked up, tilting his head.
"Hey, you both still have these right?" He said, tapping the side of his ear.
"Yeah... why?" Riven replied, raising his fingers reluctantly to tap his own earpiece.
"Good, then that means we'll still be able to communicate with each other over long distances."
Riven scoffed, pushing away Liora's arm.
"You can't seriously think splitting up is safer."
"If we spilt up we'd have a better chance at surviving this." Shado replied back calmly. "One team could secure a escape route for us while the other handles the gate."
"And if at least two of us have the opportunity to escape, then we're taking it."
Liora walked over next to Shado, unslinging her pistol, to check it's magazine.
"And you talk about my combat experience... How could you expect everything to go so smoothly? For all we know that exit could be filled with forgelings or even blocked off."
"I'm not, I'm simply just assessing our current situation and coming up with the best outcome for us all."
Riven sighed, adjusting his mask, turning to face Eryndor. "Then me and this idiot will head for the gate, while you two secure the escape route." Placing his hand on Eryndor's shoulder.
Shado nodded. "Alright good, We'll stay in contact, and If worse comes to worse we can always regroup."
"Wait, hold on." Eryndor suddenly spoke, "Liora, don't you knows how the mechanism works more than anyone here does? wouldn't it be better if Me and her went together to the gate instead?"
Everyone paused.
Liora looked toward Eryndor, while Riven slightly frowned.
"Yeah that-" Liora spoke
"Absolutely not." Riven said, cutting in without hesitation.
Eryndor blinked in confusion. "huh? Why not?"
"Because she's clearly injured," Riven replied flatly. "Besides, would it really make such a difference? She hasn't even seen the system in person, there's a difference between reading about something and actually doing it."
"That may be true, but it's better than just going in blind..." Eryndor protested his voice sounding calm, but his appearance seeming tense.
Riven crossed his arms.
"And if something goes wrong? It's much safer if we have someone capable of fighting besides her to go down there."
Shado watched on, standing quietly from the sidelines before finally speaking.
"Eryndor does seem to have a point. I can't believe I didn't consider that option till now."
"If we consider Liora is the only one who understands the mechanism." Shado continued calmly. "Sending her anywhere else would be a waste."
"Like I mentioned before, what if they run into forgelings? That pistol she has wont even manage to scratch their armor." Riven added on.
"We wont."
Eryndor blurted, sounding certain in himself.
"How can you sound so sure about that?" Riven gaze met his, looked down at him.
"If we consider our journey so far, we haven't encountered any sort of normal forgelings..." he paused. "we're already pretty deep into these passageways too, so I'm quite sure forgelings wouldn't have the capabilities to find its way to the operating room. "
"On-top of that, if we do encounter any of those bastards, I can take them on..." Tightening his hand into his fist.
"Your talents would only be a waste down here too... Since you two have the most combat experience, and are most likely to encounter some sort of trouble while making your way to the surface, it'd be better if you guys fought alongside each other..." Eryndor said, glancing at Shado and Riven.
"It's not a bad idea... but have you consider that we're both out of ammo..?" Shado said in a low and curious tone.
"I have, but I'm sure some grunts wouldn't be able to stop you two... and besides, you have all sorts of Knick knacks with you Shado, I'm certain you could come up with some sort of strategy.
Shado smirked faintly, adjusting the bag he carried on his side.
"Didn't think you paid attention to the things I carried."
"uh... well I don't" Eryndor replied, rubbing the back of his neck smiling weakly. Shado frowned almost immediately after he said that.
"But you do seem like the techy type so I just figured you could make something out of nothing."
"that's just being called prepared!"
"Anyways, So let me get this straight," he muttered. "You want me and Shado heading toward the surface with almost no ammunition while you take the injured girl into the gate's control room to have her close it."
"When you say it like that it sounds terrible," Eryndor admitted.
Liora rested her shoulder briefly against the wall.
"This is our best option" she said quietly. "And Eryndor's right about one thing… if the gate systems are damaged, someone has to know what they're looking at."
Riven stayed silent, then clicking his tongue.
"Then you two head for the controls, and if anything goes awry then you better report it."
"Yeah, you too..." Eryndor says, giving one last nod to Shado and Riven before hurrying down the right path.
"H-hey wait up!" Liora yelled to Eryndor, quickly chasing him.
Shado looked to Riven. "I guess we should get going as well." He chuckled, raising his hand to tap his earpiece.