Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here, Sony Pictures Animation does. OCs are mine.

Chapter Eight

Greem's hard blue eyes were fixated on the monitor of his personal computer. A cold glass vial sat on the black surface of a sensor plate, which was connected to the PC via USB cable. The sensor plate was another one of his designs.

The ex–agent pulled up data sheets and saw the plate icon in the bottom left corner tab; the computer was ready. He looked over the screen at the strapped count. All there was to do now is to get a sample of the dark king's blood.

Drac was still unconscious. He slumped in the straps of the hand truck, head limp.

Greem chuckled at the figure, he reminded him of a drugged inmate at Guantanamo Bay all ready for experimentation.

He looked down and grabbed the object next to his hand, a steel hypodermic needle. The key to a body of secrets. He pulled back and pushed the piston on the syringe.

Greem got up and was making his way to the unconscious vampire when his communicator buzzed on. His arm swooped up and tapped it in frustration. Damn can these guys do anything by themselves!?

"What's going on?"

"The fucks got through the barrier!"

Greem didn't recognize the voice as Bela's and assumed it was one of the other cronies, only a handful of other monsters had communicators. He pounded his fist on the desk at the news, "Dammit!"

"Hey!"

"Hold on," Greem then walked over to the long table at the center of his room and settled in his chair behind one of the monitors. He looked to the outline of a building which was labeled with LPN Embassy and noticed the jammer was off. There were several 'friendly' dots moving around it. "I'll get Wasilei's pack on them."

He tapped off his comm and switched to a different output. "Prime Alpha, you there?"

"Da, I think that's the first time I've heard you address me."

The ex–agent thought he heard a chuckle at the end but ignored it. "Did you get her?"

"Nyet!" Wasilei's voice shot through the comm. "just nothing but my charred young bloods, little mongrel–lover must've jumped the window before the flames were up. That or we haven't found what's left of her."

"I know," Greem slid in his chair to the other monitor witch had the city's magic field status page pulled up. "It's because she escaped with the rest."

"And how was that?" The prime alpha asked just below a yell.

Greem could sense his extreme annoyance even through the communicator. This was supposed to be a perfect plan, a plan that would catch the Guardians for sure and prevent any outside interference. It was a chance to show off his proven strategics to the brood but the kids somehow found a way, or there was something else.

Feeling his own frustration, Greem couldn't pull himself to answer the question. He had to give orders now before they were far gone.

"Look, I need you and your hunting party on them now, if they get too much of a head start I'm not certain if even you could track them down."

Greem placed his hands down on a keyboard built into the table top and looked over to the other monitor. On the screen, he pulled up operation sight the city's magic barrier and signed in. After a quick status check, he then pulled up the dome's gate and power settings, and clicked the small 'open' tab. His hand moved over to a button next to the keyboard and pulled back the safety lock, pressing it. A nice feature that didn't involve powering the whole field down.

"There should be an opening at the main gate, enough to get your ANAC's through."

There was a short pause before Wasilei growled, "on it now." The communicator line cut off.

The turned vampire felt only slight relief, he didn't look forward to meeting the alpha when he returned. He only hoped that finding and ending those punks would take the heat off just a little, or maybe a true sample of the count's blood.

Speaking of which, he stood up and walked back to his desk where the needle still lay. He grabbed it and his gaze returned to Dracula, "now, where were we?"

"Oh yes," he mockingly chuckled. Step by step Greem paced, just a few more steps from the future. He almost felt giddy.

Now standing over the hand truck, he found his mark right on the exposed neck of the slouched count and steadied the ultra thin needle. Pushing the piston of the syringe in and with careful aim, he pricked the count's neck and immediately began to draw.

Greem watched carefully as the dark crimson liquid gradually fill the glass tube as he worked the piston back. He looked in astonishment at the blood, even for a vampire's blood it was rather dark colored, almost black. His hand slightly trembled at the energy radiating from the tube, the blood of a Dracula right in his hands, the secret waiting to be unlocked.

Wasting no more time, Greem rushed back to his desk with the sample. He resisted the trembling in his hands and guided the side of the needle on the rim of the vial. The dark blood began to fill the bottom of the vial as Greem pushed the piston in, the vial was filled halfway once the syringe was empty.

A light on one of the corners on the censor plate started to flash blue, signaling the sample was being analyzed. Greem darted behind the computer and watched the monitor.

The boxes on the sheet were blinking blue and Greem felt a new ping of excitement once some of them were solid green showing the words 'complete'. "Just a few more," Greem half talked, half breathed out. His composure was starting to fail.

The data buffered, and then outright froze. An error tab popped in the center of the screen. The excitement immediately fled him and was replaced with a mixture of dread, confusion, and boiling anger. Glaring at the screen, Greem closed the tab.

Greem stiffened at the sight happening before him. The formally green boxes were turning red with the words 'sample unreadable', from top to bottom. They all changed and he furiously looked over the monitor at the vial. The blood was now completely black with a shade of green, giving it the appearance of sewage water.

"FUCK!" The ex–agent swiped the keyboard to his right, it smashed into pieces against the wall by his strength. He got up and stormed over to Drac after he grabbed the needle.

This time, Greem violently jabbed the syringe in his neck and almost busted the tube at the rate he was drawing blood. He pulled the syringe up to his face and watched the dark blood carefully with his vampiric vision.

This vision allowed him to see something as small as blood cells if he focused hard enough. In the tube, it wasn't but a few seconds when he noticed a change in the cell's behavior. One by one the undead cells were becoming non responsive to the rest, then they were dark husks that were truly dead. It was almost like they were coordinating their own destruction, Greem had never seen cells kill off that fast outside of the body with either humans or monsters.

The tube was now a blackish green color just like the vial. Dumbstruck, frustrated, Greem just pushed the piston in and squirted the dead fluids on Drac's cloak.

Now he knew for certain the Dracula family had a secret worth dying for. It was a defense mechanism, it had to be. Probably passed down from his demonic heritage, maybe from Lilith herself.

Greem knew one thing though, when he woke up he was going to have some answering to do. Through any means necessary he was going to find a way around this.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dennis didn't dare look behind him as they ran down the covered road to some two story town buildings. He thought he felt some vibrations from the vehicles but couldn't distinguish it from the storm.

He tried to focus on his squad but the dust pelting his face through the harsh gusts of wind made it near impossible. He saw who he assumed was Val dart into one of the buildings and could make out Winnie helping Wally not far in front.

He pushed himself harder and immediately caught up to the two werewolves. Winnie was really pushing Wally and by the grimace on his face from the dust seeping into his wounds showed he won't be able to take it much longer.

"Come on! Not much farther!" Dennis rushed the two.

He decided to take one glance over his shoulder. A cluster of dark silhouettes from ANACs came to a stop right at the city's entrance, shadowy figures started to dart out behind them. It was time to book it.

Luckily for the three, the open building wasn't too far away and they were able to reach it in just a few long leaps. Winnie allowed Wally to lean while she maneuvered through the doorway and Dennis came in behind then. Val immediately shut and locked the hardwood door while Jake lugged up a store shelf, empty glass bottles fell from the shelf. He used his strength to lodge one end in the floor and the other he propped against the door.

The Guardians piled in the back of the store, unsure whether to wait or try to retreat to another building. Dennis studied the surroundings for anything that could help them, he saw stairs leading down to a basement. He assumed this was a liquor store of some type with all the empty bottles and alcohol ad posters.

As Wally low growled in pain, Winnie kept eying the basement. She felt around the outside of one of her dress pockets and patted it once she found the object she was looking for. "Basement," she stated as she began to walk with her brother to the stairs.

"We go down there we're trapped, you know that right?" Dennis swiftly moved in front of the two, blocking their way.

"Well we're trapped either way Dennis!" Winnie near shouted in frustration. "I have something that might keep them off us, you just need to trust me."

Dennis hesitated, he was not about to take an unnecessary risk. "Winnie.. I, no." He couldn't get all of the words out.

"You mean you can't trust me like I couldn't trust you for that stunt in the carrier!?"

Dennis was taken aback, she got him there. With everything he'd almost forgotten about the quarrel with the Wraith.

"Move boy… let her do her… thing." Wally grunted between breaths.

The hybrid stepped aside for her brother's sake, he could tell he wasn't willing to go out in that storm again. Once they were down the stairs he motioned for the other two to follow.

The siblings were both consumed in darkness as they descended down the basement and had to allow their eyes to adjust before going any further. The first thing Winnie noticed was a wooden support beam in the middle of the room. She went over to it and eased Wally on it before pulling out the object for her plan; a small engraved bottle containing a yellowish liquid.

Winnie waited for the others to clear into the basement and regroup at the back of the room, she pleaded for Dennis to grab Wally. He tried but the aggravated werewolf growled and waved him off, he stressed he could move himself.

Dennis led the others to the back of the basement and filed behind a door to a supply room.

Winnie paused until Wally limped into the back room then popped the lid off like it was one of her perfumes and began to pour the lime fluid on the floor. She covered her muzzle with the neck of her dress as she poured from the center beam to the set of stairs. The unknown fluids began to react and boil on the cement floor and produced a smell best described as a mix between mustard, metal, and bananas, oddly similar to Agent Grey.

The bottle was almost empty when Winnie started to pour near the walls, a loud crash on the ground floor froze her. She began to panic at the sound of heavy footsteps and dropped the bottle before bolting for the small room.

The door was cracked open which allowed her to open it, get in, and shut it as quietly as possible. She found herself cramped against the others, the supply room was more like a closet.

Jake being closest to the door was the first to notice the stench blowing through. "Gah–lee," he winced and held his nose, "what the hell was in that bottle Win!?"

"SHHH!" Winnie lowered her voice to a whisper, "they're here."

The door smashed into splinters and the lock flew off the hinge at the impact from the brute werewolf, the shelf that was propped against the door fell back against the floor. Wasilei strutted in and sniffed the air, they were just here minutes ago. His sharp green eyes shot to the back of the room.

Loud scratching came from the storefront as black–furred lycans struggled past each other to get through the door on all fours.

Wasilei pointed to the back room with his shiny pointer claw, his fangs bared with his devilish smile. "Bring me their heads or hides!"

The small pack continued on all fours to the back room. Soon after the last wolf, Screeching against wood could be heard. Wasilei cocked his right ear and stared at the back room, wondering why it became quiet.

A rather scrawny member of his hunting party walked cautiously out of the room. He kept his head down when he approached the alpha, already feeling his heated stare.

"Problem?"

The werewolf slightly jumped but quickly answered in a weak voice appropriate for his appearance. "Grey Spores are down there, guys could practically smell it before we got to the stairs."

It took a moment for the alpha to comprehend the reply. "Strange… the underground of this city was cleared of them two years ago."

"That's what I thought too alpha," he choked and snorted. "There's no mistaken the stink."

The runt yelped as Wasilei shoved him aside and marched towards the back room. The aroma hit his nose as soon as he was in the doorway, he locked up for a second. His blood chilled as memories from the early days of the war. He looked over to his right at his underlings which were huddled on the floor near the wall. They appeared to be nauseous as they were leaned over and a few of them vomited.

Wasilei growled and motioned for them to leave the room, they didn't hesitate to leave once he sidestepped. He started to take steps towards the stairs, the scent only got stronger. He stopped at the first step and peered down into the darkness, he then kneeled down and focused his right ear for any sound.

Everyone was dead still, the only sounds were of their own heartbeats. They tensed as scratching sounds came from the stairs and then ceased.

Winnie's fur stood up at the sound of a meek voice above her and she shivered, it was one of the wolves who tried to grab her back in the embassy. She eased some though as they stayed on the ground floor which hopefully means her makeshift repellent was working. She looked around in a vain attempt to see what her paw was brushing against, it felt like twine but the darkness made it impossible for her to see what is.

Heavy steps came over them, causing dust to sprinkle down on them. They still didn't budge even when it got in their eyes, thanks to the hours of disciplinary training.

Dennis with his vampiric vision was the only one of the group able to see in the surrounding darkness. Winnie, Jake, and Val were in front of him and he looked down and right to see Wally sitting against the corner, he was close to being out of it.

He was alerted to some movement coming from the ceiling, he saw webbing bounce around, spiders. There were at least a dozen of them all over the room the size of his hand with sharp legs and bright colored abdomens that bounced with their every step.

Painful pricks brought his attention to his left leg. Six bright eyes stared up at him as the spider made it's way up his suit, it's legs piercing through the synthetic fibers. With one gentle motion from his fingers, Dennis used his levitation power to lift the arachnid and place it back on the webbing.

Val was struggling and twisting in front of him. He saw she had two spiders crawling on her torso and the tear streams beneath her closed eyes told him it was taking all her fortitude not to scream in pure terror. Knowing her arachnophobia, the hybrid lightly waved them off with his power.

Close one. He felt relieved to see her straightening up.

Splat!

Everyone jerked behind at the sound of the audible smack. Dennis was the only one who could see Wally with a paw full of spider bits, legs twitching out of the sides and yellow fluids leaking down his guard sleeve. His uncovered eye stared apathetically straight, not caring for the mistake he might've made.

Wasilei's good ear twitched, he didn't think much of the wet sound. He stood up as the scent of the chemicals were now too much for his nose and made his way back to the storefront.

"Fall back to the carriers, we're leaving this dead heap!" Wasilei ordered as he pointed to the door.

Most of the pack dispersed outside while the scrawny lycan approached from the side. "You sure it was this building alpha? They could have–"

"You doubt my hunting abilities, da?" The alpha cut sharp look right in the runt.

"Oh no!" The lean werewolf went back on his words in panic. "Just input from a young blood."

Wasilei grunted at him and shook his head, "without permission, it was." He looked around and took in the atmosphere of the raging storm. "They are still here, that's for certain. Whether they're playing smart or a puddle in the basement, they're not deeper in the city."

"In any case, we'll withdraw from the hunt for the time being." He reached around the side of his hide outfit and unhooked a bundle of grenades, then tossed them over to the runt. "Their vehicle, you know what to do?"

"Absolutely!" The runt caught the bundle of high explosives, feeling giddy at the fact he got off easy with making his alpha feel and insulted.

"Off you go then."

The young blood tossed the bundle over his shoulder and began on all fours out of the store. He made straight for the toppled ANAC.

Wasilei watched him as he vanished and then looked back to the basement. He didn't really believe the Guardians were dead and knew they were somewhere in the Bistrita underground, but with the storm and possible spores he would give them some time to get ahead. After all, with their vehicle gone they can't get very far in the wastes and it adds more thrill to the hunt. The alpha smiled at that thought before leaving the store after his pack.

The group still didn't make peep even after the heavy steps ceased above and the ground floor became quiet. Winnie leaned forward and cocked her ears for anymore unnatural nose, she flattened them at the sudden rumble coming from the city's entrance. She couldn't tell if it was thunder or an explosion.

"Yeah, I ca…!" Winnie and Jake felt themselves being shoved aside as Val squeezed herself through them and out of the door. She stopped and leaned over against the wooden beam, looking as if she was trying to vomit. She breathed in and out, trying to get her bearings.

"What the hell?" Jake was the first to walk out and the others followed.

"Oh… that's why she freaked." Winnie turned and saw the webs along the ceiling and floor corners, with the help of her CaDRU light. "Wally!" She dove in after her brother.

"Get off me!" Wally's annoyed moan echoed out of the closet.

Dennis walked up to the heaving doppler. She quickly wiped her face before looking up to her leader. "Sorry, I couldn't hold it anymore."

"No need to apologize," Dennis reassured. "You held up longer than I expected, might've saved our lives."

"Yeah," she panted out. Her eyes widened when she looked back to the closet and she pointed, "Dennis! Burn it out."

"What?. . No." The hybrid shook his head.

"You have that ignite power don't you!?"

"Yeah but I'm not gonna burn them down for being creepy."

"Besides," Winnie cut in, sitting her brother on the wall. "They were nice enough to not bite us for disturbing their webs, I even bumped a few."

Val shivered and shook her head, "whatever you guys say." She turned to get a better look at the basement, and went wide eyed again at the sight of Jake handling one of the spiders.

Dennis noticed as well and approached the golem. He got a better look at it in his pad light and saw it had a dark brown body with yellowish–white patterned abdomen. It's six eyes glowed light red off the light. He watched as the legs penetrated the skin of the golem as it skittered around on his forearm.

"Hah! This shit tickles!"

"You know what kind of spider that is?" Dennis asked.

"Yeah, False–widow Spiders. We have them in England, can leave one nasty bite." Jake moved his arm up and allowed the spider to crawl to his hand, it cast a web and spun down to his other hand. "Though these are like twenty times their size, Coven product maybe?"

"Wouldn't surprise me, those witches tried to weaponize every animal against the Coalition." Dennis began pacing back to the group, "I need you over here once you're done playing with it."

"Got it, boss." Jake let it go on the floor.

"So what's the plan?" Val asked.

Dennis sat down on a stack of cinder blocks and cradled his head, he honestly didn't know the move to make at this point. They could try to go get their vehicle, but he didn't truly know if their pursuers were gone, and he had a good feeling their vehicle was trashed for good. A part of him wanted to defy the order from this 'Stone Cold' guy and go retake the city, but the barrier would make it near futile. He could feel eyes on him, he needed an answer now.

"I… I guess I could go up and scope out the situation, see if we still have our ride."

Val gave him a concerned look, "how do you know they're not up there waiting for us?"

"Because we're still alive."

All eyes fell on Wally. He was lazily slouched on the floor against the wall, he used his good arm to play with some loose gravel. Dennis shot him a 'what do you mean look' and was about to speak when Winnie spoke.

"He's right, those were Wasilei's goons."

Dennis raised an eyebrow at her, "you sure?"

"Positive, I recognized one of the voices from the embassy and heard the alpha himself."

Dennis hung his head low in a new sense of confusion and stress. It was troubling to know that Wasilei was in on whatever this was, the very lycan that cost him his lifelong right. He picked himself back up and returned his gaze to Wally, "you served under him, didn't you?"

"Sure did," Wally grunted. "For the first half of my service at least. He was always so thorough and ruthless, nothing could kill him. One thing frightened him though." He smirked at his sister.

"Agent Grey," Winnie returned his smirk as she finished his sentence.

"I guess there's a history to that?" Dennis inquired.

"There is," Wally straightened himself. "Stuff wasted a lot of his pack and my brothers, nothing like seeing your former comrades scream like they haven't before and get turned to a biological slush before you. That's why I suggested Winnie have that stuff made considering she works for him, smells just like it."

"Uggh." Dennis was glad he didn't witness that. He looked down near the steps to see that the pools of the deterrent had since stopped bubbling. "What's that stuff made of anyway?"

"Witch's paste, rabbit blood, and some other household chemicals." Winnie answered.

"And just like Val, seems like Winnie just saved all our asses." Dennis gave her an admirable smile which contorted into a sly grin. She looked down, her light blush concealed by her cheek fur.

"Well," Dennis' eyes followed the staircase, feeling creeping anxiety about his next move. "Guess I'll go see the situation up there."

"I'll go with." Winnie got by his side as he hopped off the stack of cinder blocks.

Of course you will. Wally let his head fall, this was going to be a long skirmish for him.

Dennis proceeded cautiously up the stairs with Winnie creeping behind with her ears cocked. He looked back down at the rest, "you guys get out and head for the church if we're not back in half an hour."

The other Guardians gave affirmative responses while Wally's head slumped. The two stepped up past the basement door and disappeared from sight.

Wally tracked their footsteps with his ears before they stopped at the storefront. He let out a weak sigh, he felt like absolute shit. He felt a tingling all over his body underneath his fur no thanks to radiation, his wounds wouldn't be able to heal for quite a while and they still sent tingling pain with each slight shift he made, and it was past his lunch break now. A hungry lycan is an aggressive one.

He still felt guilt for leaving his fellow guards behind, even though he couldn't stand most of them. No one deserved that fate, to be torn apart by the despicable creatures you've kept locked away from the public. A couple of the guards were even close to retirement.

The wounded werewolf decided to look up at what the other two were doing in order to clear his head. Jake seemed to be keeping himself busy with feeling alongside the brick walls for whatever reason and Val glanced away as soon as his uncovered eye fell on her, he studied her. Was she really just staring at me a second ago?

Wally faintly recognized her as his older brother's ex. From what he saw, she grew from that scared girl they found in the testing facility. Not physically but her overall hardened appearance. Guess since her and my brother couldn't be a thing now she looks at me, he joked to himself. He thought it wouldn't hurt to strike a conversation with her. "Hey, horrible driver."

Val turned at that, her expression puzzled with a slight pull of annoyance for the last part. "…what?"

Wally stretched, wincing in pain. He was trying to say something but he didn't even think this through before getting her attention. "So… you hate spiders?"

"Yeah I do, in fact." She stared at him strangely, not knowing where this was going.

"Why?"

She paused at the question. "…just an incident that happened on my world, I'd rather not get into it."

"Hmm," Wally nodded. He glanced over at the closet door. "Seems like Dennis has a thing for his fellow bloodsuckers."

"Yeah I can't believe he didn't torch that nest."

Wally smiles and faces her, "don't worry, I would've squashed those bugs if my body was worth a damn."

"Um… thanks?" Val couldn't remain serious anymore and snickers escaped from her mouth. Wilbur sure was right about him, he could make anyone laugh in some way.

"No problem." Wally lightened a bit, feeling the ice melting between them. He looked back over to Jake who was still moving along side the wall, looking rather foolish with the bulge on his stomach. "What's he doing?"

"That's a good question." Val was bewildered as well. "Hey, whatcha doing Jake?"

"Feeling," Jake answered. "This city has an underground that connects all the basements, it was dug out by the populace before the war really got serious."

"O…kay." Val still didn't understand.

"Some of the basements have tunnels that go under the city, and one of them leads to a scrapper stash."

Val thought about it, "so you think they might have supplies we could take?"

"Sounds better than staying here, considering Wasilei and his pack have an idea where we're at." Wally had to agree with him.

"Right, and those gremlins most always leave food behind for other scrappers." Jake answered Val.

The golem continued along the wall, lightly pressing his hands against the bricks. He was right next to the stairs when a brick pushed in the wall against his hand. He pushed it harder and it fell behind the other end of the wall, exposing a brick–sized crevice showing a dark room.

Jake peered inside and pulled back when he couldn't see anything. He took in a breath and fisted his hands, and slammed the wall with all the might of his two fists. A section of the wall shattered on impact, sending bricks into the next room.

"Well I'll be damned," Wally said, surprised.

Jake took a step in the other building's basement and saw it wasn't much different from this one except for the storage room being on one of the sides and not the back. He looked left at the steps and saw a dark hole just below the staircase, it was big enough to fit him.

"Looks like we found the underground." Jake stepped back out.

"You serious?" Val asked.

"Just a hole, looks like it goes pretty far in and it's big enough to fit all of us," Jake reported. "Only one problem though, has webbing all around it."

Val immediately went pale, she was feeling sick again. She let out a pained sigh. "There isn't another way?"

"I'm not going back out there again and staying here isn't very smart." Wally was quick to shoot that down.

"So I assume we you guys have something?" Dennis questioned while heading down the stairs, Winnie close behind.

"I found what looks like a tunnel that goes pretty far in, could be the Underground that connects to the scrapper stash," Jake answered. "We have a vehicle?"

Dennis and Winnie both shook their head. "ANAC'S trashed, just like I expected and there's no sign of Wasilei so that's something," Dennis answered. "It's a good thing you took everything out of it."

"I always prepare," Jake stated

"So…" Dennis looked around at the others. "We all agree with the tunnel?"

"I'll have to pass," Val spoke, keeping her head down.

Dennis shot her a glance.

"Forgot to mention the spiders," Jake answered for her.

Wally grumbled, he hoped she would've kept her mouth shut. "Can't we just cut off the dead weight and leave her behind?"

"What!?" Val almost screamed.

Wally fell over, he couldn't contain himself from the look of her wide eyes. He broke down in a fit of laughter. "Oh! Your damn face!"

Dennis raised an eyebrow. "…no, we don't do that here Wally." Winnie shook her head at her brother's sense of humor.

Jake appeared as if he was confused but on the inside he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

"Sorry," Wally composed himself. "I just had to."

Val glared at him before exhaling.

Dennis looked over at her. "How about this Val, instead of using my pad light I'll cast a vampiric torch with my incineration powers, it should give us enough light and keep the spiders away."

Val took some time to answer, "fine… I'd rather you cast like three of them but okay."

Dennis gave her a reassuring nod and looked to the others. "Everyone up for the Underground?"

"Yeah, let's."

"Sure."

"Nothing to it but to do it."

Val weakly nodded.

"Alright," Dennis drew his sword. "Let's go."

"Hey, you mind using some of that vampire heal juice to patch me so I don't have to be carried by her?" Wally asked Dennis while keeping a weary eye on his sister.

Wally was able to stand up and walk, some of the pain left him after Dennis used his healing spell like he did in the factory.

The rest followed Dennis as they made for the tunnel entrance in the next room, the dhampir stopped and cast a hovering ball of flame that hovered in the air in front of him. They entered the tunnel, it wasn't long before the torchlight disappeared.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The elevated flame was small but the light it gave was bright and any spiders scurried ahead of them or dove in small holes. Small holes and webbing covered the side of the dirt walls causing Val to keep her eyes straight on Dennis' back. She thought she would pass out if she saw eyes staring at her out of the holes.

Winnie had her CaDRU on for extra light and would peer down one of the side tunnels, they were always walls of web in them. Her nostrils were being assaulted by all kinds of smells, mold, decay, dirt, and fecal matter of some kind. "What exactly are we looking for?"

Dennis waited until the next side tunnel to answer her. He pointed at a shape cut into the dirt, it was a semi rectangle with an arrow pointing ahead and a square on the inside of the rectangle. "That's a stash symbol, a gremlin sign for the metal scrappers if they ever got lost down here."

"So does this lead to another basement?" Winnie asked when they started to walk again.

"I hope so, supposedly the stash is in a hardware store of some kind." Dennis looked at all the webbing. "This place mustn't have seen any visitors in years."

Dennis stopped walking when something down one of the side tunnels caught his eyes, piles of human bodies wrapped in webbing. He could see the spiders were more dense than the previous tunnels and egg sacs littered the ceiling above. A husked face stared at them from the back of the tunnel and limbs stuck out from the webs.

The dhampir faced away and continued down the tunnels following the arrows.

"I seriously hope the spiders didn't kill all those people," Jake said aloud.

"Actually," Wally spoke up. "I heard a story from one of the guards about this place, said the humans that hid here were able to stay hidden through the first half of the war." He looked to see if Val was listening. "The magic the witches used made the spiders aggressive to humans and they moved in, covering all exits and the survivors were bitten to death."

"Okay, no more about the spiders." Val sputtered, Wally chuckled in response.

They continued on for about thirty minutes when they walked under some exposed roots. Dennis couldn't help but be reminded of their old times in the Old Underground, playing around in them when they were still kids. "Hey Winnie, bring back any memories?"

Winnie glanced up at the thick oak roots. "Yeah, those times when we used to pretend to dungeon crawl?" She grinned as her childhood came back to her.

"Exactly." Dennis smiled. He stopped when he felt a draft. "Not much further, I bet."

The main tunnel began to curve and they followed it until they reached one of the side tunnels. The next arrow pointed down the side tunnel and the broke off and entered it. It led all the way to an opening.

Dennis stepped down into the floor of a basement and motioned for the others to follow. He couldn't find another stash mark one look around the piles of scrap, coiling, and wires told him there was no mistaking this place.

"We're here."