The moment the group started to head deeper into the subway, everything around them changed, becoming darker and more dangerous.
Darian was holding his phone and was taking different pictures of everything around. "By the way, Darian… in the end, why are you taking this many pictures?" asked Vane, walking next to him.
Darian, together with Vane, was walking in the front, while Liro and Lily were staying behind; the root that created the small light was standing between the four of them.
"Yeah, I've wondered that too…" said Liro, as the trashy things Darian took a picture of some minutes ago were returning to his mind.
"Well, I've already told you the first reason," said Darian as he started to explain the reasons. Snowy was curled up on his shoulder, sleeping.
"You wanted to actually use the phone, right?" asked Lily, remembering what he had told them the moment they headed deeper into the subway.
"Exactly, but you see… in my time, everyone used a phone to take pictures of everything around them." While talking, Darian remembered the times when he was on different holidays, he would always use the phone to take some pictures and send them to his grandmother, who was always happy to receive them.
Everyone remained silent, waiting for Darian to keep explaining. "It was mostly because to remember… you see," said Darian while walking non-stop and glancing around with his eyes. "Since I've gone away from Earth, I've seen a lot of different things, and as time passes, I've started to forget some of them; only the memory is remaining in my mind."
"Well, I can understand you, I've seen a lot of beautiful things too that I wanted to look at forever…" said Vane. Liro and Lily looked at him, a bit dazed. Vane, realizing their looks, murmured annoyed, "I've got things I like too, hey…"
Darian, next to him, laughed softly. "Yeah, I totally get you, Vane," said Darian while looking at the phone in his hands. "If I had this phone since the start of my travel, I would have been totally happier. Now I realized that if anything happens, everything around might be lost forever. That is why I think that the documentation is important too. Why do you think I have a diary?" asked Darian, a sort of rhetorical question, at least for him, the others didn't have the same idea as him.
"So that humanity can know their weakness and win against them easier?" asked Lily, confused by her own words, wondering if they were the right ones.
"Yeah, that is a reason too, but also because we will have something to tell everyone that these things have really happened, so that the future generations will know about what we have been through." Darian has always enjoyed history in school, if everything related to chemistry was his favorite subject, he loved history a lot too, as it was able to make him understand more of everything he had around him.
"Eh… it would be nice to make someone in the future see about this." Liro started to wander with his mind about the future generations checking something like Darian's diary and all the documentation he was creating. "During your time, you had museums too, right?"
Lily and Vane looked at Liro confused, not knowing what a museum was. "Exactly…" The moment he started to answer, he looked at the faces of his confused friends, realizing that none of them knew what a museum was. "Let's just say that a museum is something that helps people learn and remember about our past."
"And so, in something like this, your documentation will be exposed, right?" asked Lily as she started to wonder if Yalemba too, if it would be still intact, might be exposed too. Before Darian could answer, Lily asked about Yalemba. "So the city might get exposed too? If Yalemba was still there, would it receive the same treatment?" The moment she spoke about Yalemba, Lily was feeling sad; remembering about the destroyed city that she had to get revenge on was making her sad.
Darian stopped one moment and positioned his hand on Lily's shoulder. "It would have definitely been placed… and that is why we need to document everything, so stuff like this will not happen anymore." The moment Darian finished speaking, Vane called them.
"Guys, I've found other stairs!" The others immediately rushed towards him. They had already seen other stairs that would bring them to the surface, but every entrance was locked with a huge boulder. Even if they tried to destroy it, they couldn't do it as it was too hard.
"C'mon, Darian, let's try this!" called Vane while turning into a buffalo. Darian walked towards him while Snowy jumped into his arms and transformed his body.
Lily and Liro could only hope that Darian and Vane would be able to destroy the rock, as their powers couldn't help them in any way.
"Whenever you're ready!" called out Darian as he had already charged up a strong shard that was only waiting to come out. Vane nodded with his head and rushed with his powerful horns against the rock blocking the entrance.
After the impact, everything was still the same; only a small scratch appeared over the rock. "Damn, another dead end…" murmured Vane as he returned to normal while his head was still dizzy because of the brutal impact.
"How much will it take us to go out…" said Lily, getting a bit sad. "I'm sure we will find something; we just need to search," said Darian in a reassuring tone while returning to normal again.
With that, the group headed deeper into the subway until they finally seemed like they had found something. "Ahhh!" shouted Vane as he suddenly positioned his feet not anymore on the ground but on the empty void.
"I'll get you!" Darian next to him immediately grabbed him. There wasn't enough light to see, but Darian understood immediately why Vane had missed the step. "Damn… what even is there?" asked Vane while the root created by Lily went in the front of everyone just to show everyone a path with some rails on it.
Everyone at the sight of that was confused. "I told you this subway is to connect the parts of the city… well, they used a train to move around." Darian, after he finished speaking, made a small jump and landed without any problem on the train's path.
"Wait, how did this train work?" asked Liro. He was the last one to jump, Darian was followed first by Vane, then Lily.
"You remember the shape of the Krukdill and how they can move?" asked Darian. Everyone behind him nodded with their heads. "Well, they work in the same way; the train moves around with the same type of wheels… even if they are at least 100 times bigger and go more and more fast." Hearing that, Vane felt for a moment scared.
"Wait… then if it is something like that… isn't it still moving?" asked him, getting scared. Hearing his words, even Lily felt that something like that must still be working.
Darian, hearing that, laughed softly. "C'mon, there is no need to worry; all the trains have stopped working, probably after the collision with the planets." Hearing that, both Vane and Lily felt more reassured and began to walk into this endless path.
After some minutes of walking, Darian's feet suddenly touched something. "What's this?" whispered him, confused. The light created by roots soon lit up some extremely old human bones.
"AHH!" shouted Liro, scared at the sight of that. Darian slowly kneeled down to check. "I guess they were hiding here after the collision…" said him while inspecting all the old bones; in front of him, the path was full of them.
"Damn, I guess they were a lot…" The path in front of them was completely full of old bones and, seeing that, the group started to feel a bit tired. Realizing that it might be night, they decided to sit there and rest.
Darian, the moment they sat down, picked up the phone from his pocket and started to see if he had received any text from Rusty, until he realized that he was completely underground and that the signal would never arrive.
"Any text from Rusty?" asked Liro as he got closer to Darian with his head trying to look at the phone. Darian shook his head and closed the phone, putting it back again into his pockets. "Sadly no; the signal will never arrive here." The moment Darian finished speaking, he noticed Liro having a confused face.
"I wish I could explain it to you… but I'm extremely tired," said Darian as he yawned at the end of the sentence. Now that Darian had mentioned it, even Liro was feeling a bit tired.
"Guess we should rest so that tomorrow we can go outside this path…" said Lily while looking at the horizon, trying to spot some light, even if it was impossible; the tunnel was extremely long and for now you could not see the end of it.
"Are we sure that train monster will not arrive?" asked Vane, feeling still a bit scared.
Darian laughed another time before answering, "I'm 100% sure." With that, Darian turned around with Snowy curled up next to him and fell asleep.
The following day, the first one to wake up was Liro, who simply remained awake sitting, waiting for the others. Sometimes he gave some looks at the countless bones next to him, curious, then he moved again his eyes.
When everyone hadn't already awakened yet, he tried to touch one of the skulls. It was under a pile of a big mountain of bones; the moment he removed the skull, some bones fell down and created a strong sound that could be heard from all over the tunnel. Everyone else, hearing the sound, immediately opened their eyes, scared.
"Are we being attacked?" asked Darian as he immediately opened his eyes; Snowy next to him did the same. "I'll use the roots to block every enemy!" said Lily as she opened her eyes too.
Vane remained with his eyes closed and shouted, "AHHH, IT'S THE MONSTER TRAIN, I'VE TOLD YOUUU!" Then everyone noticed Liro nearby the fallen pile of bones, watching the others awkwardly.
The tunnel had already become brighter; in fact, after some steps they were finally able to see some light. "I guess we're finally out!" shouted Darian. Everyone else behind him started to run as they were finally able to reach the end of the tunnel.
The moment they came out, a strong light pressed over their bodies. In front of them, a big sea could be seen; it felt like that the rails could still go, only if the sea hadn't swallowed them.
"C'mon… I feel like we aren't really far from the rocket," said Darian while looking at the empty horizon in front of him. The others remained amazed by that sight and nodded with their head, ready to keep going with their small journey.