Hiiro threw his night vision goggles in the dirt and continued on. They were totally smashed from the fall, so he turned on a flashlight he had hooked onto his pants when they had taken the control room.
Shiris fell into step with the boys.
"Look, Duo, I think you were right about Damian. Thing just don't add up with him."
"No kidding! What have I been telling you all along? Maybe you'll learn to listen to me now!" he muttered, tossing his own goggles.
Shiris sighed. "Yes, I know. But now what do we do?"
"I'm sure we're being led into a trap," Duo began, but Hiiro interrupted him.
"We don't know anything. Lets just go along with him for now. He might actually lead us to the laptop."
"And then ambush us! Hiiro, don't you get it? He's been getting us in trouble the whole time!"
"And what about just now? Do you think he wanted to commit suicide?" Hiiro demanded.
Duo sighed in frustration.
"Hiiro, that might have been an accident, some guard that got out of hand," Shiris said, then immediately smiled at him when Damian turned around.
"Mine are broken too," she said and threw her goggles away. Damian turned back around.
"Come on, how long are we going to follow this fake?" Duo demanded in a hushed voice as they scrambled over loose rock.
Hiiro didn't answer.
"Fine. We play his game until we see an opening. Then we beat it." Duo answered himself.
"Look!" Julie exclaimed excitedly, pointing ahead of them.
The ceiling was intact.
"Yes! Finally!" Mayumi cried and rushed down the mountain, her face angled upwards.
"Please let us find that damned block!" Trowa whispered, following closely behind his flashlight aimed at the ceiling.
"After we find this exit, are we almost done?" Julie asked Mayumi.
"Yeah. We only have a few more rooms to go after this one. And I think if we make it out of here alive, we can handle anything."
"Don't jinx us," Julie warned, but with a smile on her face. It felt much better to have concrete above them.
After a few more minutes of walking, all three flashlights fell on one spot at exactly the same moment.
No one dared to say anything. Then Julie let out a screech.
"We did it! We're outta here! No more stinking sewer!"
She danced a circle around the block and grabbed Trowa and Mayumi's hands.
"We did it! We did it!" she chanted, swing them in a circle.
"Yeah, great, so lets get out of here!" Mayumi said, and Julie released her, sending her flying into the wall.
"Oops, sorry!" Julie giggled, then hid behind Trowa as Mayumi stood up and leapt at her.
"Come on, we made it through that alive. Lets not kill ourselves at the exit," Trowa reasoned, and motioned for Mayumi to climb onto his shoulders.
Once she had steadied herself, she carefully pushed the block up and peered out with her flashlight.
It was a super small but un-inhabitated room with one door directly in front of her. She couldn't see what was behind her, so she pushed further and shot up into the room as the cement block hit the ground with a crash. Sweeping the room with her gun, she found they were in a closet.
"At least we're safe for the moment," she told Julie as she lifted herself into the room. Then they both grabbed Trowa and pulled him in.
Once all three were standing, they had about two feet of extra space.
"Its just a tad tight in here," Julie murmured, trying to turn on her flashlight but couldn't move her arm.
"I suggest we move outside," Mayumi offered, getting two nods in response.
She clicked her flashlight off and gripped the doorknob. At the same instant it began turning. She backed up, hit Julie, and they fell in a mass of arms and legs and much shouting as Julie almost fell back down the hole.
Above them, the light clicked on. They blinked in the light, and saw the face of a man looming over them. The startled guard didn't know what to make of the three people in front of him for a moment. Then Julie shouted.
"Trowa, pull me back up!" her upper body was dangling into the sewer with Trowa holding tightly to her kicking legs.
The guard's eyes snapped and he began shouting at them to get up, prodding them with his rifle.
Mayumi stood up and Trowa pulled Julie back up.
"Thank you! Finally! What took you so-" she turned and ran smack into the angry guard.
"Whoa! Where'd you come from?" she cried, reeling back and almost stepping into the hole again.
"Get out! No talking!" the guard ordered, pulling them out of the closet and into a hallway.
There were two doors on either side and one at the end of the hallway made of glass. They could see what looked like a research lab, with many white-coat scientists wearing gasmasks and lifting flasks.
"What the hell goes on down here?" Julie murmured as they were ordered to move forward.
"Wait, does he really think he's going to get us anywhere by himself?" she added in an incredulous voice..
"I think he does," Trowa concurred, smiling.
"Well, he's dead wrong," Mayumi muttered, swing her elbow back and smashing the guard's nose and sunglasses. He fell down, holding his bleeding nose, and Trowa kicked him in the head.
"Mayumi, was that a joke?" Julie said in an amazed voice, grabbing the guard's holstered gun.
Mayumi checked the ammo on the rifle, and Trowa grabbed the knife under his pant leg.
"Now we go through the lab room, down another hallway, and we should be at the room," Mayumi said, starting forward.