Through the unlit tunnel, filled with debris, broken rails, and dreams.
Once ago, people rode the subway cars up and down the rails, going from station to station, until they reach their destination.
There used to be crowds of people waiting for their subway on the platform, talking amongst themselves. The subway coming up to the platform with the doors sliding open and people calmly filing into the subway cars as they passed people filing out of the subway cars, heading up the staircase to the surface.
People standing around the wall-mounted phones as they talked with people from different parts of the city or even the whole country. Casually shoving coins into the slots as they continued their never-ending conversations until they see their subway cars pulling up.
At one point, things used to be normal here, everyone went about their daily lives without any regard to what's going on outside their lives. Only when the news rang out that the peace talks broke down and the high tensions in the air started rising as people circled radios, listening to the news reporter describing the peace talks breaking down.
The agitated countries unable to come to peace finally pushing the red buttons, sending nuclear misses at each other, and the frightening realization that there's nothing anyone could do to stop the misses from hitting them.
What used to be a normal day, broke down into chaos instantly as people ran astray, trying to return to their families, trying to find shelter, doing what they think's right, as the doom grew, and the skies grew bright.
Only for a few times, one for each missile landing at different areas, and the mushroom clouds that rose above the area. The shattering effects causing the destruction of buildings close by, killing people caught off-guard as they're unable to react, forced to watch in horror as they're unable to escape their own deaths.
Those fortunate to survive the initial missile launches, found that their very world ended, and that from then on, they'll never have a normal life ever again. More, their children and their children's children won't know what a normal world looked like before the missiles dropped. Only by stories shared around pits, by their elders, and only then, they're reduced to stories, as years gone by, the life before the missiles, or why they even dropped at all, became just that, stories.
Very quickly, the survivors of the missiles realized that their new world's ruled by savagery and beasts borne from the radiation. Their neighbours, their friends, the unluckiest ones of them all, becoming beasts themselves by the radiation, unable to remember the humanity they once held, only relying on the animalistic instincts that beasts relied on.
Fresh waters became scarce, too many bodies of water became irradiated and dangerous to consume.
Food that wasn't at risk of irradiation increasingly becoming scarce with wars between factions trying to secure enough parcels to last.
Areas forever uninhabited because of the radiation that'll linger long after the last human perishes in the ashes of the former world.
Mutated beasts poised to take over as they're growing resistant to the radioactivity in areas.
Humans desperately trying to cling on to whatever they have left, trying to pass on the stories from their elders to their children, and praying to whatever entity survived that they'll live to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.
Fears of the Long Night returning, heightened since the very first exposure during the early years after the missiles dropped.
How quickly people learned the dangers of the Long Night, since it reared its head the first time.
Many didn't survive their first Long Night, those surviving it learnt very fast the new normal. Planning for the next Long Night.
A resurgence in the fears came when people realized that year by year, the Long Night lengthened by a week. Every year, another week, and the fears mounting that in time, the Long Night becomes permanent.
When that happens, nothing but darkness, perpetual snowfall, and bone chilling cold that'll kill anyone foolish enough to leave the safety of their camps.
Once the Long Night strengthens its hold over the world, some speculate it'll be the final end for humanity, once the light goes out for good.
Some say that outside the ruins, it's safer, others say that it's a fool's errand, as they're not even sure what's outside. For all anyone knows, the beasts roam everywhere, and there's nowhere safe for the remaining humans to hide from them.
Eventually, those beasts that only come out in the Long Night's going to come down on the camps, and they'll all die, that's the grim reality for some and they don't have anything telling them otherwise.
Perhaps, camps like Omega act as they do, because they knew that there's nothing anyone can do, they're all going to die once the Long Night becomes a permanent fixture in their new world.
Even with group efforts, they can't fight off the incursion of the beasts, nobody can, and with the weapons and ammo as scarce as they already are, the tensions among camps high, they'll never accomplish anything.
So, they do as they please, because in their minds, there's no point in hiding from reality, their numbers called, so they might as well enjoy the depravity of their own doing, before they're killed by each other or by the beasts they fear most.
Hopefuls, those becoming rarer by the day, think there's a chance for prosperity out west, beyond the mountains, but nobody knows for sure, and with the resurgence of fears, perhaps it'll drive someone to take the first plunge.
When that day comes, nobody knows, but what's known's that the Long Night's coming again, soon, the days grow shorter, until the sun never comes up again.
"Up here," Cyrus tells the men as he shines light near the corner of the tunnel as they've walked through kilometers of tunnels for what felt like an eon.
Following him, there's a service door up ahead, and as they're walking towards it, they stopped dead in their tracks as there's silence in the air.
Glancing around, Theodore's confused why they stopped, he's seeing Artyom slowly moving his MP5 as Boris cocked his shotgun while Vodka held a modified P911.
"Wh-what's going on?" Theodore whispers Cyrus as he's filled with sudden dread, the kind that best described as something straight out of a horror movie, and he sees Cyrus' eyes through his gas mask, narrowing towards the corner of the tunnel.
Following his eyes, Theodore sees something slumped against the wall of the tunnel adjacent to them.
Cyrus ordered Artyom to investigate, Boris following him, Vodka and Theodore with him.
Following his orders, the men did as such, and Artyom slowly walked towards the slumped figure, with his light, he sees a body of a man adorned in body armor.
Glass around his gas mask completely shattered, blood pooling underneath him, his makeshift gun laying in his lap, spent shells scattered near his feet, and long claw marks jaggedly dug deep into his chest.
Upon Cyrus coming over and checking, he says the body's been here for a couple of hours, at most.
"What killed him?" Theodore wondered as he's horrified at the sight of the dead man.
None of them had any answer, saying any number of things with claws could've gotten him, and whatever did it's long gone. It would've eaten him if it was hungry, but it didn't, so they think he might've gotten on something's bad side.
When asked what camp he came from, Theodore sees the men check his body, until Boris found a pin for Camp Alpha on the lapel covered in blood.
"Camp Alpha, this far?" Boris' shocked that they found the body of someone from Camp Alpha.
From what he said, the scavengers from the camp never went far from the camp, having no reason to travel this far since they're one of the better off camps. They don't spend resources unless there's emergencies and those rare enough, they never have to spend a resource.
"Maybe Camp Alpha's helping us?" Theodore tried finding reasons for why the man's this far from his camp and none of the men believed the camp sent someone to help them. Doesn't make sense that they wouldn't have mentioned it prior and they wouldn't do something like this without a reason.
Nobody could've acted on their own, the men think, because nobody's stupid enough to go out on their own, not without permission, and camps have punishments for breaking the laws.
"What do we do, now?" Theodore looked towards Cyrus as he looked over the body.
There's internal thoughts going on in the man's head, before he said that they'll take what they can from the body, take the pin as proof, and when they get back, they'll return it to Camp Alpha.
Theodore's mortified at Cyrus telling him this, Cyrus looked at him with those eyes, as he said that it's foolish to waste supplies, and the man would understand why they did it, as it's ingrained early on that they're not in the position to choose.
Everything mattered and everyone knows that once they die in the Ruins, their possessions become someone else's, and it continues from there.
Unable to push himself to help the men, Theodore watched as the men silently went through the pockets, taking things from the body, and one of them yanked off the gas mask to check the state of the filters inside it.
Underneath the gas mask, there's a young man, about twenty-five years old, baby faced, blond hair, blood dripped from his mouth as his head slumped over as Boris removed the gas mask.
Checking the gun, Vodka said it jammed, likely the cause for his death. He rapidly cleared the chamber as he checked the gun, commenting that it's shoddy than he expected from someone from Camp Alpha.
He tossed it to Boris who checked it and he agreed, saying that it's possible that this man didn't get permission from his camp's leader and took what he could.
"Why would he be out here, though, on his own no less?" Theodore furrowed as he uneasily watched the men go through the body, taking what they find, before stuffing what they took into their pockets.
Makes no sense why anyone would've snuck out of the safety of their camp with a shoddy gun on their own, especially from what the men described Camp Alpha.
The men talked it over, but they couldn't answer Theodore, they've no clue why the man went out on his own, but they know he met his end in the tunnels, as countless did before him.
Whatever his reason for doing so, only known to him, and hm alone, they'll return the pin when they come back from the power plant. Maybe they'll learn something when they return the pin, maybe they won't.
Moving on from the looted body, they head towards the service door, and opened it inward.
Darkness loomed inside before the men flashed their torches through the doorway, before they filed into the long-cramped hallway.
Their Geiger counters barely clicking as they walked, affirming that there's no radioactivity, letting them travel safely through the cramped hallway until they reached the corner of the hallway.
Turning the corner, the hallway opened to a large room with wide pipes in the walls with metal covers on them and a service ladder leading up to the topside.
Checking the map, Cyrus said that once they reach topside, they'll be a block away from the power plant.
Taking point, the men waited as Boris went to open the service ladder, their eyes focused on the pipes.
Closed as they may be, nothing will deter a beast from getting to them if it wanted them badly enough.
"What?" Boris' baffled as he's trying turn the large handle, it wouldn't budge, and the more he's trying, he noticed that someone's sealed it.
He brought this to the attention of the men and Cyrus' furious as no one informed him of the changes in the map, but Boris told him that whoever sealed it, did it not too long ago.
Hearing this, Theodore wondered if it meant the man, they found in the tunnel wasn't alone like they thought.
"Why would Camp Alpha send a team out here without telling us?" Vodka questioned the weirdness that Camp Alpha sent a team out without informing Camp Prime.
Boris shrugs and says that all he know's they didn't want anyone going through the service access.
"Can you get us through?" Cyrus asks him and he said he can, just needed time, and Cyrus granted him the time he needed to break through the seal with the gear he brought along with them. He had Artyom help Boris while the others kept watch for any signs of activity from the hallway or the closed pipes.
"Why would they seal it off?" Theodore asks Cyrus the reasons the Camp Alpha team had for sealing their only way to the power plant and Cyrus couldn't answer him.
He didn't know why, but it and Camp Alpha not telling them what they're doing baffled him immensely. Nobody told him anything about the camp sending their own team.
"Maybe they want it for themselves?" Vodka suggested the camp wanted the power plant for themselves and sent a team ahead to grab the spoils before Cyrus' team arrived.
Maybe they're in a better shape than the other camps, but even they wouldn't overlook a chance at bolstering their supplies. Wouldn't make sense using resources like this unless they're sure there's something at the power plant they wanted.
Theodore listened to Vodka before pointing out that it wouldn't make sense to seal off the only way to the power plant if there's something they wanted from there they didn't want anyone else getting their hands on, but Vodka told him that with Camp Alpha's resources they probably have another way getting to the power plant.
Theodore remained skeptical as he stood near Cyrus, his gun pointed towards the hallway, behind him, he hears Boris giving Artyom instructions.
During this whole thing, Theodore hadn't seen a beast, only heard the stories and accounts, but never the actual article.
Cyrus told him that it's cyclical, sometimes they're dealing with nothing but beasts, times like these, they're not, and mostly becomes downturned as they're closer to the Long Night, since the beasts know what's to come.
Not to say it's safer, they'll get worse towards the start of the Long Night trying to hunt everything they're able to get their claws, fins, whatever, in hopes of avoiding coming topside, too.
Once everyone hunkers down in their hovels, nobody wants to stir the pot in fear of drawing attention to the even worst beasts that haven't shown themselves, yet.
"Have you seen one?" Theodore inquired if Cyrus encountered one of these beasts and he pondered to himself before replying that his father had the honour of seeing one shortly before diving into the hole leading down a tunnel when the Long Night started and he almost ended up caught in it after trying to bring back last-minute supplies he found.
He regaled the story to the young Cyrus so many times that he's able to remember it by heart.
Around him, he sees the darkness slowly moving over the ruins, the howls of the frightened beasts as they're fleeing to their burrows, nests, whatever, and as his father rushed to find a direct access into the tunnel leading to the camp they lived in, he felt the ground shake violently.
It wasn't an earthquake, he knows them by heart, knows when it's caused by explosions or the earth, and as he's trying to keep his bearing while running.
Just as he found the familiar hole, he crawled up to get topside, for some reason he turned around, when he looked up, he saw a beast towering over the entire Ruins, shrouded in the darkness above as slowly the light disappeared from the land.
Large red eyes, bright enough that they gave off a hue, tendrils around what looked like its face, and that's all, Cyrus' father saw before he plunged into the hole shortly before darkness encased everything.
"He does not know where it came from, what it is, but he told me, it was as though it knew he was there, but chose to leave him be," Cyrus regaled the story his father told him.
All Cyrus knows' that it's not the only one out there, there's more like it, maybe even different than it, and maybe there's some taller than what his father witnessed.
One shudders where they go when the Long Night ends.
Boris shouts to them that he got it open and they turn around as Artyom helps retrieve the equipment used while Boris prepared to turn the handle.
"Now, let's see what's up there," Boris twisted the orange handle as he spun it before he heard a clunk and pushed the heavy top over.
He's enshrouded in a bright light with a rainbow hue that baffled the men.
When he cupped his eyes to see better, he sees a pair of legs behind the rainbow in the dark.
"Greetings, programs!" Theodore heard a familiar voice call down to them.
To Be Continued… on "On Midsomer's Nightmare"