Note: This is 2020 F-K. I have just run a basic correction for this chapter. I am almost certain there are more errors, but I have cleaned up the most heinous ones. Since I began this story just 2 years ago and through various complaints sent to me, I decided to clean up the entire story a little at a time. This message will appear up to Chapter 44 based on what has been corrected.

Damn, I was unsure whether or not I would get this out as quickly as I did after my small break. I beat Christmas (for those who celebrate it), which I did not at all anticipate.

Welcome back people to Chapter 42 of Finding Balance. I didn't mean to keep you all waiting as long as I did, but I needed a small break to get the semester finished and have a little time to catch up on sleep. Obviously, that is all over and I can now continue the story where I left off.

I really hope things are going well with all of you guys. That is great if things in life are as smooth as can be. If things are a little down, I hope this chapter does what it can to cheer you right up.

I don't have much else to say. We might was well get this started.

Chapter 42: The Cave

My tired eyes looked through the blinding white scenery. It wasn't typical for the snows to reach this far south, especially with the ferocity we were experiencing now. I couldn't be entirely surprised; we were up in the mountains from what I could gather from the slope. The cold brushes of air hit my cheeks, causing them to turn a darker tint of red. I was far from comfortable in our current predicament.

A full week has finally passed from when we started this journey to this point. We have gained no new breakthrough knowledge of where we are heading or where the tigers could possibly be. Not only that, but we could only follow whispers of where they might be, nothing definite. There was nearly nothing on the lost human civilization It wasn't taking long for my body to start breaking down from the lack of sleep and nightmares that I have endured since we left the Jade Palace.

I turned my head to look over my shoulder. Tigress trailed not that far behind me. She was stepping in my fresh prints, using my form as a windbreak. I was willing to do this for her; she had been my rock on this journey so far. Every time I woke up with cold sweat and labored breathing, she would rest me back into her warm embrace. I am not sure I would be able to undertake this struggle along.

Tigress's voice cracked through the chaotic breeze, "We are going to need to find somewhere to rest out the storm. I can tell you have slowed your pace."

I could only nod and breath out heavy breaths. I could not form any words beyond those few sounds. It was just my way of agreeing with her. My gaze narrowed to a pin as I looked for anything that would be a suitable place to rest and wait out the storm. All I got back was the blinding white of snow in my face.

I found something that was darkened compared to the rest of the surroundings. A small amount of excitement settled within me as I picked up pace to get a look at it. My delight was soon replace with irritation as I came upon a stump that had yet to be fully covered by the snow.

"Right over here! I think I see something." I turned my gaze over to Tigress as she began to trudge through the deepening snow to somewhere I couldn't see. I followed behind as I finally caught a glimpse of what she was referring to. A small, gray blob distinguished itself from the white landscape and I was able to catch a small hole in the feature.

"Good spotting. Climb in before we both freeze out here." Tigress was the first to enter after throwing her back in first. I soon followed out of the freezing conditions in a slightly more enjoyable area. It was only 'slightly better' because it was out of the wind.

I couldn't see a single thing as I waited for Tigress's voice to direct me. "Just hold there for a second. I need to get a fire started before we can really settle in."

I stood there in the darkness with only the slight sounds of rustling to keep my company. I waited for a moment before the small light of sparks were visible. A few smacks with rocks later, a small fire bloomed from the dried debris under the wood Tigress settled down. "I bet you are happy I suggested to carry some stuff for the fire."

I smiled before moving closer and resting myself against the bag I had just been carrying, "It was an odd suggestion. I didn't think about carrying any burnable material because we were surrounded by it an hour or two ago."

"Well, I saw where we were going and thought it might be wise to have it available."

I looked at her questioningly, "Why did you think about that? It isn't usually a person's first instinct to look into the future like that. It is more so 'did I bring enough layers.'"

Tigress shrugged while going through her things, "Just from experiences with the Five before we had even met you. You would be surprised by how unprepared we were for our first mission outside the Valley of Peace…"

I was surprised, "Really? I didn't ever think of you as the unprepared type, or even Viper or Crane… Even if I think of it, Mantis or Monkey. I kind of want to hear about what that must have been like."

Tigress shook her head, "It is a long story."

I looked outside to see it still blowing with the same ferocity as before, "I don't think we are going anywhere anytime soon. Might as well find something to pass the time." I looked back to Tigress, "So, tell me, what was that first mission like?"

Tigress looked at me with a sly look, "Really? I could get kind of boring."

"I doubt that. I mean, you are no Po when you tell stories-" Tigress lightly punched my arm, "Ouch! Okay, you are pretty great. Not as much of the epic feeling, but you get the feeling right."

She just rolled her eyes at my comment and took a seat next to the fire. She looked deep into the fire as if she were reading from it. "It was in the winter. We had just been announced as the Furious Five, Protectors of the Jade Palace and Valley of Peace, not too long ago. Master Oogway believed we were ready for a real mission, nothing like the misunderstanding that led to the Boar incident."

"I remember hearing about that. Kind of funny hearing how you all were a bunch of misfits that happened into each other's paths. Well, except for you." Tigress's gaze told me to quit my commenting. It didn't take me long to get that, "Sorry, sorry."

She just let out a huffed laugh, "As I was getting at, Master Oogway believed we were ready for more. While Master Shifu was a little hesitant. He seemed… pleased with our progress as students, but he thought that only true masters were capable of protecting beyond the reaches of their province. I kind of get that, it is a big responsibility and a big risk traveling somewhere else to deal with a major issue."

I cut in with a more serious note, "I doubt that was the case at the time."

She nodded, "I knew that we were ready for something more. We weren't masters yet and we had just begun finding our way as a group, but this was a step that we needed to take as his students. After Master Shifu and Master Oogway discussed for a while, Master Shifu finally came to that conclusion. He was never one to speak outside his master's wishes. We were told that we were going north to deal with a rouge warlord that was plotting alongside the Mongolian Hordes."

I raised my brow at that, and she diverted, "That is a conversation in itself that we can talk about later. Just know that was very bad." I nodded in understanding, "Anyways, we were told to travel north to deal with this issue. I remember Crane being extremely jumpy while Mantis had his impulsiveness. All I could remember feeling was determination to not let Master Shifu down. To somehow make him proud."

I could sense a bit of bitterness in her voice as she said this. I knew she still felt a little resentful about what happened, but it was interesting in how she dealt with it all. She no longer blamed Master Shifu as she had already forgiven him in her heart. It never got rid of how she viewed her childhood and adolescence as lousy.

I seemed to have gone off on a thinking tangent as I brought myself back to Tigress's soothing voice, "That didn't stop us from setting out that same day. Regardless of what we were feeling, doubt or determination, we still knew we had a job to do. We left as quickly as we were permitted and began to head north." Tigress blanked for a moment before smiling at me, "I guess we can skip most of the journey. It was uneventful other than us not being used to traveling long distances for missions."

I let out a light chuckle, "I want to head about that."

Tigress playfully glared at me before skipping anyways, "We got stuck up in the hills right around where the border when a snowstorm hit. Viper, Crane, and Mantis struggled through the wind and snow while Monkey and I did our best to drive the group forward. We would have stopped anywhere until the storm passed. We found nothing, not even a cave."

"You found nothing? How did you guys get out of the storm?"

Tigress continued to look into the fire as if she were trying to envision what its warmth would have been like in that situation, "We didn't. With some quick thinking from Crane and I, we found a rock that we used to shield from the winds, and we dug into the snow. We all allowed the snow to bury us, some shared like Viper and I to keep us collectively warm."

I mused, "That must have been an awful situation. You almost froze to death on your first major mission away from the Valley of Peace."

Tigress shook her head, "I would have been fine. The others looked worse and I had a duty to look after them as the most senior student at the Jade Palace. I took it upon myself to make sure we didn't end up in a situation like that again without some type of contingency."

Silence fell between us with only the crackle of the fire and the howling winds of the darkening outside. I checked to see if it had calmed somewhat. I was slightly disappointed when it still seemed to be the same outside. I guess we would be spending the night in this cave.

My gaze shifted from looking out through the hole back to Tigress, "What happened after that."

Tigress looked up briefly and got up from her spot. She slouched against me and waited for me to embrace her where we sat. "We survived and finished the mission. The entire thing wasn't that memorable, just the journey on the way there. We defeated the bad guy and came back to more intense training."

I nodded, "Based on how it was when I first came to the Jade Palace, that seems about right."

With that short story out of the way, there seemed to be nothing of interest to talk about. It was natural, Tigress and I had talked about many things while were walking from one place to the next. There seemed to not be much more we could talk about.

"Has it crossed your mind what how Crane and Viper wanted to get… more intimate?"

My eyes widened and I looked back down at Tigress, "Umm, not really. I think that they should definitely have that option available to them and have the freedom to do as they want. I thought we already talked about this."

Tigress nodded, "We did… Did it ever cross your mind if we…" Tigress trailed off at the end, her insinuation was clear.

It didn't stop my jaw from dropping, however. "Uhh, I-I have a little. I mean, I have put a fair amount of thought into it-" I let out a sigh to try and calm myself from these difficult thoughts, "Look, I don't think we are quite on that level yet. We both kind of have our own barriers to get over before we share that kind of intimacy."

Tigress smiled slightly, "I completely agree." Tigress leaned into me and kissed me deep on the mouth. That took away the awkwardness instantly as I fell into the completely natural feeling.

That feeling was instantly shattered when Tigress pulled away from a note, "That feeling might disappear sooner rather than later." The smoothness of her voice indicated that she was trying for be playfully seductive. My face turned a deep red even though it was just Tigress and me. I never thought she would be the one to initiate this talk. She smiled, "But that is another day. Come on, we should prepare a meal, it is getting close to our dinner time."

I shook myself out of my stupor, "Right… That is probably a good idea."

Tigress's change of mood greatly scared me. It was completely out of character for her to say something so risky. I could only smiled to myself; I was going to get back at her one way or another.

The tiny pot containing our soup was lightly bubbling as we both looked onto it with hungry eyes. We had assumed that we wouldn't be staying in inns the entire trip so we got something that would be suitable to cook soups and rice. We just filled it up with snow and started from there.

Tigress began to pour into two wooden bowls before handing me one. "Thanks."

Tigress sat down next to me, "So, what is our next course of action. We have been traveling around with no solid lead on where we should be. We don't know where the tigers have gone, if they still exist." He voice softened into a depressed tone when she said this. She didn't hesitate to continue with her usual voice, "And we don't know where this lost place of the humans is. Without finding the tigers, we don't really stand a chance at finding what the humans left behind. Not to mention we are currently sitting out a storm that could take a day or two to clear up."

I thought for a moment before answering, "Perhaps we have been approaching this wrong."

Tigress seemed confused, "How have we approached this wrong?"

"Maybe we have the order of things screwed up. We have been bidding on trying to find the tigers first and have them potentially lead us to what human civilization still exists. It is kind of hard finding a group that doesn't want to be disturbed in the first place. However, human relics aren't going to be as deceiving, we just need to look closer and find what we are missing. The question is what are we missing…"

Tigress thought for a moment, "I don't see how changing what we look for first is going to change our luck, but I understand how we may have been too focused on finding my people that we have narrowed our sight to not include what yours may have left behind. The only thing is that we can't find anything that would indicate humans even existed."

My eyes widened before a smile formed on my face. I lightly spoke to myself, "That is because we have been looking in the wrong places."

Tigress nodded, "Yeah, that was what I was kind of inferring."

I shook my head, "I know, but I mean we have been looking from the trails, the rivers, the woods, and even from some of the vast landscapes. What we failed to look was what was beneath it all. Everything from my time would have corroded and broken down by spending eons in the weather and climate."

"So, you are suggesting that we go digging."

"In a way. That is what Shen did. It took him decades to come back with anything worth all that searching, but he only knew of humans as legends. You have the benefit of having a human with you." I thought for a moment, "We know when human disappeared. Given that, we need to search caves like this one."

"You think that we should search this cave out? We will be stuck doing this forever if we are just going around searching for cave."

"That is true, we might be looking around for a while. However, we are going to have a greater chance at finding something if we are going to be searching. I don't think that asking the locals is going to be very effective. Even if they found something, they may not know the importance of it."

Tigress looked down for a second, "You do have a point. Checking out where this cave might lead and what it might hold inside might be our best bet at finding anything." Tigress looked at the entrance to the cave to see that the light had progressed to darkness. "It would be best that we conserve whatever energy we have and get some rest right now. I have a feeling that the storm isn't going to clear up tonight."

The wind howled outside with a gust of wind making a whistle by the entry. I nodded, "You may have a point there. I guess we will check out what secrets are buried here tomorrow."

Without words being said to me, Tigress snuggled against me while still keeping an eye on the fire. I just embraced her as we enjoyed the relative closeness between us. Just then, Tigress spoke, "I have to say, being stuck in a cave isn't so bad when it is with your boyfriend."

I smiled and placed my head in the crook of her neck. I laced my words with a little sarcasm, "Yeah, there are definitely worse things."

Tigress then turned around and wrapped me in a hug, "I am going to let that comment slide. It is just that we don't get to spend these kinds of moments together at the palace. Even though everyone knows about us, it is just difficult having to constantly keep intimacy in private. I never thought that I would see myself in this kind of position."

"People grow and change. When I first left home to when I came here, I never really settled anywhere. I didn't really date that much or make deep connections with people other than the odd friend here and there. Then, I didn't think I would ever find a place to call home, and friends I would have viewed as family." I took a moment to think about that life while staring off. Tigress patiently waited for me to finish my thought. I continued, "But then I met you guys. I met you, and we became good friends and then it developed into more. You are still this strong warrior; you have just opened yourself up to feel more."

Tigress sighed as she sunk deeper into my hold, "You really do have to rationalize everything. I do have to argue that it seems that you haven't changed that much since I met you."

I laughed, "I have been broken, beaten, and have gained some scars along the way. I have very much changed. I just choose not to let any of that make me bitter and cynical about everything." She didn't see, but my smiled was slightly declining. While I am neither of those things, I am worried and scared. Shen showed me the possibility of what could be if we don't get some clue as to what happened to humans.

Tigress shifted lightly against me, "We should get some sleep. While I am definitely comfortable, we might benefit with just a little more space."

"What are you talking about? I am definitely comfortable." My hand shifted and groped her butt. Her body tensed up, but I could tell she wasn't entirely opposed to it. I growled in her ear, "Yeah, I think I could get comfortable like this."

Tigress's face started to turn red, "I-Is that so?"

I whispered to her lightly, "Relax. I am just getting back at you from embarrassing me. Now we are even…" I thought for a moment, "But I am enjoying this."

I instantly regretted my last words as a sharp jab was delivered to my abdomen. I chocked to breath in that moment as I looked up in shock at the angry Tigress. He face was very red. I could see it clearly through the dark surroundings and from under her fur. I guess I push a little too far.

"Using that as a way to get 'even', not smart. You better watch it, or you are going to lose that hand. We clear." He growl showed that she was indeed angry, but it wasn't from the action. I guess I did push it a little far.

I let out struggled, hoarse words, "Alright. Message received. I think I would enjoy some rest now." I was hoping the slight joke would ease the tension.

Tigress's strained look of anger relaxed as she rotated around, grabbed my arm, and placed it around her waist. "Agreed. Glad we are on the same page. Now, get some rest."

I let out a slight breath to try and ease the dull pain left behind. Note to self, don't try anything like that again.

Cold sweat dripped down my forehead, my body jolted upright as I got a glimpse of the dark surroundings. I looked at where the fire was. All that remained were the dark embers from the long-spent fuel. A cold shiver rolled up my back putting my body in an alert state.

I looked down to see Tigress resting peacefully. I lightly shook her to see if she would stir, but no response was met. The signs were all there, and I seemed to be trying to ignore then. I was stuck in a nightmare once more. However, the impending terror wasn't immediate. There was no source of misery or anything I could relate back to my mission. It was just dark, and I was in the same cave that Tigress and I were currently resting in.

I looked deeper in the cave. Light whispers emanated from the deep chasm. It was calling me to investigate further. Before I could force myself to go further, I attempted to get myself to wake from my dreams. Wishing myself to wake up, I opened my eyes in disappointment to see nothing happened.

I groaned, 'I guess my only hope of waking up from this is checking out where those whispers are coming from'.

I got up and began to walk slowly through the cave. I would drag my feet against the ground so that I would know where to go. I was mostly blind to everything. The only thing was that the walls were black and the air through the tunnel was less black. Even though I had trouble seeing, I could 'sense' where I was going. It was as if the voices were directing me.

The further I walked, the louder the voices got. It wasn't much, just different levels of whispering. Even now, I couldn't tell what they were saying. I don't think that what they were saying was all that important.

I stopped for a moment to get a glimpse at the crossroads I had come upon. There were three split offs that I had the option to check out. I let out a huff, "Now what?"

I looked at the far left, center, and then the right way. The whispers got louder when I looked down the right side. I guess that was my only indication that this was the way to go. Other than that, they all seemed to be the same.

I continued to walk through the darkness. Even with the constant nonsensical voices, I felt deeply alone. I guess I would have felt better if Tigress were coming on this little adventure with me, even if it were all in my head.

I stopped once again to see two tunnels diverging from one another. I pinched the bridge of my nose, "What the fuck? What is the point of going down all these tunnels?"

Beyond the light complaining, I collected myself and looked down each pathway. It was the same thing as before. The left direction held the louder whispering compared to the right, so I walked down the left entrance.

This continued on for what felt like a few iterations of ending at a crossroads and having to choose between the different routes. This cave was far larger than what I expected. I was just hoping that I wasn't wasting my time with all this and that this was actually going somewhere.

I groaned as I passed through another decision. However, the cave seemed to get even darker. It seemed like the ground also smoothed out and echoed with every step. The whispering stopped. I wasn't sure if I felt relieved that the constant noise was gone or if I felt nervous as to why it stopped.

I stopped moving forward as if to try and get information as to where I was now. A loud click was followed by a bright flash. I covered my eyes from the bright light emanating from above. Wait, what the hell was creating the light?

I looked between the spread-out fingers to see a flat ceiling light above. It emanated a small buzzing that was common with this setup. I was just surprised to see one after so long, and for it to be powered up put me in a state of shock.

I looked forward to see a hallway in shambles. The other ceiling lights were hanging from wires, the panels that would be part of the ceiling were on the ground an left the pipes and supports bare. I turned around to see that the cave was gone. It was like I was traveling through a hallway the entire time.

I just stood there. I was confused as to what I should do next. There was darkness in either direction and I had no idea where I could possibly go. There was no indication on where I should go. This was more like a confusing dream than a nightmare.

I felt something wrap around my leg and whip me forward. I didn't even know what happened before I was dragged down the dark hallway into a dark oblivion by black sludge tendrils. I made no sound as was taken.

My eyes shot open as I shot up into a seated position. This felt the same as before except I had Tigress reacting to my motion. She looked over at my sweaty and heaving self, "What is wrong? Did something happen?"

I took a moment before resting back down, "I-I don't know. I have been used to the nightmares that I don't even know what to make of this dream. It felt real. It was as if I were given direction to something, but I don't know what to."

Tigress laid with me and placed her head on my chest, "Interesting. I am glad that you didn't experience the same horrors you have been dealing with, but you still seemed to have struggled with this. Would it make you feel better to talk about?"

I looked up at the upper surface of the cave with a thoughtful look, "Not really. I think we should talk about something else briefly before we get a little more rest."

Tigress hummed in thought, "I would talk about the weather, but we both know how that is."

I laughed at that, "Very funny. I think we are both past that as a conversation topic." I thought momentarily, "What are we going to do when we get back to the palace?"

Tigress rolled over and looked at me with confusion, "I don't quite understand the question. What are we going to do when we get back as in… what? We go back to training and back to are normal lives."

"I don't think it will be that simple. I can already see that things are going to be different. This trip is meant to be life altering. Sure, we will go back to training and to our usual lives to some extent, but we will be different after this." I grabbed onto her paw and rubbed it with my thumb as I held onto it, "Seeing as we are going through this together, I was thinking that we request of Shifu if he will allow us to share a room."

Tigress's eyes widened and before she looked at me, "When you said we should talk briefly, I thought you meant something not so serious. If I knew we were going to talk about this, I would have suggested you meditate."

I instantly began to backtrack, "I didn't mean to put you on the spot. Look, forget I ever suggested it-"

Tigress put her paw over my mouth. Her demeanor was calm, "We can talk about something like that in the morning. We should get back to sleep seeing as it is going to be morning in a couple hours at most."

She took her paw away and laid back down. I let out a small sigh as I laid back down myself. After the confusing vision I had just experiences, I don't know if sleep is going to come naturally. I might as well try anyways.

The last few hours were spend looking at the ceiling of the cave. Tigress's heavy breathing was soothing to my ears. I would watch her sleep, but I learned the hard way not to do that. My butt still ached from being thrown out of bed that morning.

Even though I was lacking those little hours of sleep, I was able to relax myself and refocus on what needed to be done for the day. The wind and snow had not calmed at all since yesterday, so we would be secluded to the caves for the rest of the day. It wasn't pleasant knowing we were stuck here, but it was manageable with the idea that we had stuff to do here.

I could see that there was more light coming through the opening to the cave. It was dimmed from the sheer cloud cover and the blowing snow. With that signal, I looked over to the dwindling embers of the fire and decided to get stuff started for the morning routine. I shuffled myself to my feet and began stacking thing pieces of wood into the pit. With a little bit of dried forest debris, I was able to get enough of a flame that the sticks would relight.

I turned around to see Tigress stirring. Her eyes opened and looked around before settling on me. I smiled at her as I grabbed the pot, "Morning. I woke up a little bit ago, so I decided to get things started for us."

Tigress smiled at me as I headed to the entrance to fill the pot with snow, "You are lying."

"Umm, what does it look like I am doing? I am filling the pot with snow and the fire is going. How is that not from me?"

Tigress got up and began to stretch, "No, I mean that you are lying about waking up. I know you don't want me to worry but lying is not going to stop that."

I looked at her with light astonishment after holding the pot over the fire, "How did you-"

"Even when I am asleep, I am still aware of my surroundings. Maybe when you train your senses to that degree, you will understand." She shuffled through her belongings as she brought up the porridge ingredients from her pack.

I contemplated that for a moment before realizing something, "Wait, if that is true then you were aware when you kicked me out of bed that time I was watching you. Why would you do that then?"

She looked at me with a deadpanned expression, "Maybe I don't like being watched when I am laying down in bed half-naked?"

I rubbed my stubble, "I guess you have a point there… Alright, bring that breakfast over here."

The water had been boiling for some time, so we added the ingredients to the pot and began to stir them in. I was silently focusing on my task as Tigress crouched. She thought for a moment, "I was able to think about what you said. I think it would be a reasonable think to ask Master Shifu for us to share a room."

I chuckled, "I wasn't asking if it was reasonable to ask him or if he would even accept. I just wanted to know what you thought about that. I know that he has say with how things are done at the Jade Palace, but this relationship is between us. If we want to share a room, he should only have the freedom to express his thoughts."

Tigress rolled her eyes, "Yes, and I will be happy to pick up the pieces he leaves behind when you explain that to him."

"I am glad that you would stand by me through that." My smiled shifted to a more somber expression. I set the pot down so that we could serve ourselves. My tone became more serious, "Is that something you wanted to do? We have already slept in the same bed and are sharing the same sleeping space now. It isn't much of a step to continue doing that when we make it back to the palace."

Tigress smiled to herself as she portioned the porridge. She picked up my bowl and handed it to me before giving me a lick to the cheek, "I would like nothing more than to do that. Anyways, I am sure that Crane and Viper will have already done that by the time we get back."

I rubbed my hand on my cheek. I whispered to myself, "That was new." We continued our morning with small chatter between us. Nothing major, just a normal morning together with some idle conversations to fill the space with noise.

With a torch in hand, Tigress and I had already began our travels down the caves. We were currently stopped as we made it to the first split in the system. Tigress had stopped us as she thought of where we should go. For me, this was already scarily familiar. I had just dreamed about traveling these caves through whatever sleep I got last night. Here, we stood in front of the three different ways. My eyes kept on tracing over to the right tunnel as if I waited for something to jump out of the darkness. The only thing that I could think of was if I should follow the path the nightmare was trying to tell me.

I broke Tigress's concentration with my voice, "Right."

"What?" She turned around to meet my gaze, "Is there any specific reason or are you just randomly saying 'right'?"

I let out a sigh, "I don't want to get to much into it, but this is what my… vision was of last night. I think that we should follow the path that I was shown."

Tigress looked skeptical, "We don't really have any other option, but the last time you had major visions about anything, Po and I had to go searching through you head."

I laughed, "I don't think that there is a demon this time. I think the most likely thing that is going to happen is that we are going to be wasting our time."

Tigress pinched the bridge of her nose before motioning with her paw to lead the way. I guess if we are going to be traveling through a messy tunnel system, we might as well follow some kind of lead. And based on how my dream went last night, it might take a while to get through it all.

We went to the right side and continue to walk deeper into the darkness. The next choice we came to be the same as the dream. So, we went to the left side. With every choice we came up upon, I lead us in the direction that I was shown in my vision. What I didn't expect was how hot and stagnant the air was starting to become. We were diving further into the earth, so anything that was far away from the progressing blizzard outside was going to be warmer.

We finally passed the final passage to where I inevitably ended up at the hallway. Tigress spoke, "I hope all this is for something. We have been walking for the past hour and a half and we haven't made it anywhere."

I nodded, "I agree. However, this is where it ended. I don't know what lays before us now." I looked over my shoulder before continuing, "If we have another choice, I don't know what we are going to do."

Tigress stopped in her tracks as she looked forward. I looked at her with confusion before whipping my head around to look forward. I was scared that the hallway was actually going to be there, and Tigress was just reacting to that, but I was wrong. Ahead of us, a cave-in must have happened. The large rocks and boulders blocked the way.

"NononononNONO!" I ran up to the rocks and just gazed forward. I searched for any sign that there was any human sign, anything at all. All I was met with was the dull faces of rocks looking back at me. "This can't be it."

Tigress tried her best to contain her frustration, "Why didn't I see this coming. Following visions without interpreting them is not a good idea. It could have referred to the confusing and difficult path you were going to have to travel."

I shook my head, "No, it wouldn't have been as detailed as to which ways to go… There has to be something here."

Tigress's gaze softened, "Look, I understand you want there to be something here. I know exactly how you feel, but we have to accept that there is nothing here." My look turned from sadness to determination. I began to dig into the rocks. I could sense that Tigress looked at me as if I were crazy, "Uhh, what are you doing?"

"Maybe there is something hidden under here. I just need to dig deeper." I flicked a large rock behind me.

Tigress's tone became one of worry, "I don't think I have seen you like this. You are usually relaxed, but you are getting worked up about a dead-end. We knew this was going to happen."

I looked over my shoulder, "Yes, but I feel kind of cheated right now…" The rocks under me began to tumble. Without hesitation I jumped off and landed in Tigress's grasp. We both took a few steps back a looked at the wall of rocks. They soon fell away and kicked up dust. I covered my eyes to protect them from the small particulates.

When it settled, I looked forward to see that the collapse was even larger than I anticipated. The rocks still reached the ceiling of the tunnel. My disappointment was apparent as I just looked at the mess in front of me. Tigress just stood there to the side, "I am sorry that it ended like this. Come on, we should head back to the cave entrance. Maybe we could tell some stories when we get back."

I bobbed my head slowly, "Yeah… I guess we could do some of that."

I turned around and almost started walking before Tigress's paw landed on my shoulder. "Wait. What is that?"

I looked over my shoulder before to see something black seeping through the bottom of the rocks. I approached slowly, walking carefully as I was certain what was coming from under the rocks. I dipped my fingers into the black sludge and pulled it up to my nose for a small whiff. The smell was unpleasant, but I knew what it was. "Petroleum."

"What? What is 'petroleum'?"

"Something used in my time. We used if for quite a lot of things and it is kind of hard to explain. However, it means one thing." I stood up as I began to roll rocks off the pile.

Tigress asked, "What?"

I smiled at her, "I was right. There is something down here." I motioned her over, "Come on. We need to see if we can find something else to tell us what we are searching for."

Tigress walked over and began to help me with the rocks. It was tiring work. The oil seeping between the cracks made it difficult to hold on to them and move them. It definitely slowed our progress at what rate we were moving the heavy material.

Tigress stopped me, "Wait, something is different, I see something made of metal back there."

An astonished look became plastered on my face, "Impossible. Any metal that was made by humans should have mostly corroded to the point of being worthless, dull objects."

Tigress looked at me with an annoyed expression, "Are you going to help me with this or not?"

Not wanting to bring the tigers fury on me, I began helping with the rocks. The last rock slid away to show a large, metal sign deformed and broken underneath. I grabbed it slowly and was happy to see that a message was imprinted on the surface. However, I was upset with the message it gave me.

"What does the sign say?"

I just handed it to her. A stoic appearance was all that I could express, "Doomsday Bunker: Sector 3."

I began walking back the way we came without a word. I was closer to the answer that I so desperately craved. My only question was is I really wanted to know the answer once this was all said and done.

Another chapter done, and on magical 42 no less. This chapter was longer than the initial 6K words I initially had planned, but I just powered through the last 2.5K-3K to get this all done. It is worth that small pain for you to get this faster.

I am going to keep this message short. Please, if you are enjoying the story and wish to keep up with it, follow or favorite it. Please leave a review if you get the chance and I will be more than happy to respond to it. PM me if that makes you feel more comfortable. I also have a discord that would be happy to welcome you as a new member. Just message me if you want an invite.

If you just want to keep silently reading, by all means continue to do that. Next Chapter Should come out around the new year.

If I don't get back you all by then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Until Next Time,

Forsvaret-Komandir