I had to split the prologue into chunks 'cause it was ridiculous. Hopefully it's easier to read now ..
The boy ran across the damp lawn in his boots, he hadn't had much time to put them on so he had failed to tie the laces. The moon almost failing to light his way as he waved his arms around in front of him. His beige dressing gown failed to keep the cold out and he shivered.
"Big Brother!" a female voice called from somewhere behind him, hidden by the trees.
The boy shrieked and started oving faster. He slipped a couple of times but continued to press on.
"Big Brother, I want to become one!" the boy's little sister called.
The boy shrieked again as the ground beneath him gave way. He tumbled down into the gap in the floor and grabbed a tree root that stuck out of the side of the gap. He hung there with both hands for a while until his little sister found him. She knelt down and tried to grab his hand but he wouldn't let her.
"Big Brother, give me your hand!" she pleaded.
"No way!" her brother yelled back, shaking his head slightly.
The tree root started coming loose from the ground and the boy edged downward.
"Ivan, I'm being serious!" she screamed "Give me your hand!"
He held his hand up toward her and she grabbed it. But, the ground underneath her gave way also and she ended up dangling beneath him. At that point the tree root came completely out of the ground and snapped. The two siblings plummeted down into the earth. Natalia landed first and Ivan landed on top of her. The ground beneath them was swampy and almost liquid, which was the one thing that prevented them both from being killed.
For a brief moment, Ivan considered leaving Natalia, but he quickly changed his mind when he noticed her slowly sinking into the squelchy mud. He hefted her up onto his back and looked around.
The narrow tunnel they'd fallen from was at least ten metres above them and there was no way to get to it, let alone climb back up the tunnel itself. Ivan squinted in the semi darkness and spotted a tunnel in front of him, leading down into unappealing darkness. He looked over his shoulder and past the unconscious Natalia and sighed as he saw nothing but solid wall.
Why were there caverns underneath his back garden? Ivan wondered, his boss had never mentioned them before and nobody else had said anything about them either, were they keeping it from him or had they just not known? He wondered if Natalia had known about them, though judging from the shock on her face when he was dangling from the tree root she probably hadn't.
He realized he wasn't moving and that his feet had sunk several inches into the mud. He dragged them out of the ground and started forward. The mud was a lot like quick sand, as long as he kept moving he wouldn't sink.
So Ivan started walking down the tunnel, pausing occasionally to adjust his grip on Natalia. The further from his landing spot he strayed, the darker the tunnel became, but his vision soon adjusted to the darkness and he was able to tell the difference between open space and wall, though occasionally he did brush his shoulder against the walls by mistake.
"Big Brother?" Natalia groaned, wriggling slightly on Ivan's back.
"You're okay, da?" Ivan said worriedly. "You didn't hit your head, I think you passed out because of the shock and not head trauma so that's good."
Natalia looked around, struggling to see anything in the darkness.
"Where are we?" she asked groggily, weaving her arms around his shoulders to secure a better grip on him and snuggling into his neck.
"We're in some sort of cavern" Ivan replied, and then he added; "can you walk?"
Instead of replying, Natalia released his shoulders and slid off of his back, and then she clutched onto his arm and walked beside him. Ivan stiffened as she grabbed his arm but then relaxed into it, glad of the physical reassurance that he wasn't alone.
"What's this cavern doing here?" Natalia asked him.
Ivan merely shrugged and remained silent.
They trudged on for a while until they hit solid ground and were able to walk normally. Ivan hadn't minded the liquid mud that much, considering it had saved both he and his sister's lives, but it was annoying having to put so much effort into just lifting his feet and lowering them again. They walked in complete darkness and silence until they came to a fork in the road.
"We should split up" Ivan said, shaking her loose "The first one to find a way out can go get help for the other, da?"
Natalia hugged him momentarily and then hurried down the left tunnel, leaving Ivan with the right.
Ivan walked on in silence for a while with his hands shoved into his beige dressing gown pockets. He wondered how the caverns had gotten there. The tunnel edges were too even and smooth to have formed naturally.
He continued to move until he felt strange warmth beat against him. He noticed that the ground had got lighter. He looked up and realized there was a faint light coming from a few metres away. He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as he broke into a sudden run.
But, much to Ivan's dismay, the light wasn't coming from the sun. He stopped running before he fell off the huge underground cliff side. At the bottom of the cliff, there was a huge crater being formed by various drills and other heavy machinery. A large wood cabin sat out of the way of the machinery which told Ivan that the men who worked the machinery had been living there.
He wondered if he should go and explain how he'd fallen into the cavern and wanted to get back. His initial thought was to find Natalia and tell her what he'd found, but he didn't know how hostile these men were, so he decided against it. He noticed a series of shelves jutting out of the cliff side that formed a ladder.
He dangled his body off of the cliff edge and started to descend the cliff side. He heard shouts from the men below as he climbed his way down to them. He quickened his pace, desperate to assure them he wasn't a threat. He felt a sharp needle pierce the skin on his right shoulder blade.