Chapter 5: First Detonation
At last, I could finally concur that significant progress has been made. I sensed that my frequent intermissions might bore whoever read them. As to not disperse your attention from the important points, I've decided to postpone my writing pauses until I have made some more progress. With that settled, these are the events which transpired since my last entry.
Apart from the lighter, the key and the notes, the rest of the storage room still held some valuable secrets within. I inevitably found the 'non-vital' organ which the guy amputated, swollen and discolored from the ingested toxins, but I also discovered a dissected spider which, coincidentally like the tongue, was bigger than anything I've seen. In one of the drawers were pieces of beef jerky. Despite being unqualified for food, a hunch told me to hold onto it, in case I needed to bait the weird creatures away from a point of interest.
Stepping out of the storage room, I snuck around the tunnels, lighting any paraffin lamps along the way. My eyes were strained from giving me an acceptable picture of the darkened halls, and needed some rest. To my surprise, the growling ceased since last I've been in the tunnels, and that instilled confidence in me. I came across a metal gate that, however crude it looked like, didn't budge. The old key from the storage room fit nicely into the keyhole, and the already lit tunnels beyond the gate appeared in my grasp.
A few steps in and my ears picked up a faint growl from behind me. I closed and locked the gate, and as a precaution barricaded it with two heavy barrels just left to me. I rushed to the northern area of mine. To my dismay, the notes depicting the cave in were right, but before I could scowl at it, my heat skipped a beat following a deafening crash. I backtracked a little and leaned out to see my defensive efforts have been in vain, as the debris laid scattered on the floor around a disgusting creature. Unlike the last one I saw, this one was thinner and its figure actually resembled a quadrupedal creature, rather than the incapacitated bipedal hedgehog monster from earlier. Nevertheless, its black and red skin peeled off to reveal some of its dry, rotten flesh, and his teeth gleamed with gluttony.
Despite the sense of dread, I let out a sigh of relief as there was an unlit tunnel leading to my next objective, and I knew well I could completely evade the encounter with one of these beasts. I wasn't sure in what relation they were with the big monster. Were they his thralls, subordinates or simply the consequence of his existence, I couldn't tell, but I concur that their origin is one in the same.
The door on the far right when facing away from the now disintegrated metal gate lead to the workshop. I entered the room, hoping to find demolition tools that would clear my path. The entry room was spacious, apart from a single shelf filled top to bottom with boxes. The book instructed on how to make a fuse, by applying gunpowder on a cotton string coated in adhesive. The office already provided me with the adhesive, and the lighter from the storage room allows me to ignite the fuse, so all I had to find was string, gunpowder and an explosive. The entry room provided me with the foremost, as I grabbed a string from one of the smaller boxes. Checking the other rooms, I came upon several useful items. There was a room with prehistoric machinery, way past their due time, however it was not the symbols of another era that glimmered below the stones.
Rather, the rays of light shined down on the crumbled rocks that came from the ceiling, and the sunlight was reflected from below the rubble. I moved them out of the way, and my effort was rewarded with a magnificent pickaxe, the most practical tool of the mines. Of course, its glory was accommodated with a place in my backpack. But it wouldn't be soon before I took it out of there, as one the hallways in the workshop denied passage with its numerous wooden planks. One mighty swing of the pickaxe, and the obstacle vaporized before my dark brown eyes.
The narrow hallways of the workshop were in a terrible condition. Unnervingly, time and use didn't seem to be the cause of the mess. Deep giant holes in the wall, gates broken off their hinges, everything alluded to a deliberate act of destruction. The cobwebs protruding through the holes and lingering in the corners simply amplified the twitchiness of my whole body. Still, even with my neck concealed and my fur standing on its end, I looked back and forth for some gunpowder.
Thank Chaos for keeping my composure, as I hit upon a half filled keg in a corner of a room. I couldn't dip the string into the gunpowder, as the opening on the top of the keg was too small for me to cover the whole string. I didn't need the barrel anyway, so I just struck it with the pickaxe, and the fate of this barrel imitated the fate of my barricaded gate. I covered the cotton with the gunpowder delicately, but not before dipping the string in the adhesive from the office. With the makeshift fuse in my possession, I scoured the rest of the room before leaving, the only thing I was able to find was a single stick of dynamite.
Dynamite wasn't going to cut it, I needed a much more powerful explosive if I was to make a dent in the rubble. I did check the far right of the area, and the tunnel leading to the cave-in, but there was one tunnel I had yet to venture into. Unlike the first time, the creature patrolling the lit center of the area still remained present, and it was a matter of time before its weakened senses of smell picked up my odor. Sweat was dripping from my forehead, despite the cold air that flows through this underground maze. I would have to pass by the cautious creature lurking behind many crates.
I quickly thought out a plan. I rummaged through my pockets and grabbed a beef jerky. I tossed it from behind the crate, aiming as far as I could from the still unvisited tunnel. I was fearing that the creature's ears might not have picked up the sound, but it lifted its head and ears in surprise and went in the desired direction. I snuck past the crates into the tunnel.
Jackpot! Among many ordinary barrels and a concrete mixer, one barrel differentiated itself from the others with a red label 'TNT' written in a stencil font. It took me by surprise that I could actually pick up and carry the barrel, whereas I could only muster the strength to either just push or pull the other ones. And so, I carried the barrel, sneaking back to the cave-in, careful not to cause any disturbance to the creature devouring my beef jerky bait.
It was finally time for a blast. I positioned the barrel as close as I could to the rubble, inserted my makeshift fuse, and lit it on fire with my zippo lighter. I sprinted to cover behind some boxes, and seconds later everything violently shook as a roaring blast dispersed dust all over the mines. I was about to excitedly run and admire my handiwork, when rational thinking halted my feet. Obviously, the noise this made spread across every single tunnel, and it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that a certain someone might abandon its feast and take a peek.
I hid behind the crates and observed as the monster entered my line of sight into the unlit tunnels. It took its time staring at my accomplishment, and after that, it slowly walked in the opposite direction, where I was hidden behind a set of crates. I held my breath and pushed my arms onto my chest hoping to muffle my heartbeats as the beast's growling became louder. I closed my eyes for what seemed like an eternity, I was twitching like a deranged person. It was such a relief when the growl became quieter, and I opened my eyes to see that the creature passed me. I snuck to the epicenter of the explosion.
I was slightly disappointed by its efficiency, since the opening it created was only as wide as one person. Still, it was better than there being absolutely no opening. I crawled into the tunnel, glad that I was able to open up a path forward.
I was avoiding coming face-to-face with these creatures. Chaos knows how long until I make a slip up and direct the attention of their ominously glowing eyes. I wonder how many blows from a pickaxe could they withstand.