Dirge Danorum

Chapter 10

"I understand there was a time when this route was well-known," Ever said, picking his way through the debris that littered the floor. We were in a big room, far under the building we'd broken into, and it was finally starting to look like we were on the right track. There were big metal doors at the far end, wedged and rusted open, and this big space must have been for staging freight to go through the tunnel.

"Then how'd it get like this?" I was trying to keep a conversation going because it was genuinely creepy in here. It was clear from the undisturbed dust and silt that it had been a while since anyone had come through this way. Not necessarily years, but still a while.

"How does anywhere in the Zone get forgotten? It's not like there's anywhere with nothing worth remembering. But it does happen. Fewer and fewer people come back until the only people who know of a place are the ones who know better than to go there."

"And it makes sense," Velvet added. "That this would lose significance now that the Cordon's been extended. Nobody comes this way anymore, there's no point. That those people were doing their tournament in this area proves it."

"So this is it?"

"Presumably." We all pointed our lights down the tunnel. They didn't show us much. It was bigger than expected. Not huge, but maybe around the size of a subway tunnel. There were rusted tracks in the ground for some kind of substantial cart, but we hadn't seen anything like that.

"Just a straight shot across?" Venge sounded hopeful.

"Straight would be the most practical," Ever mused. "But one never knows in this part of the world. It's over a kilometer in the best case. While we're in there, try not to think about how there's a billion tons of water between you and the open."

"Yeah, troll us down here too," I said. "That'll help."

"I live to serve."

I was curious to talk to Venge – it's not every day you see another Asian in the Zone, and I wanted to know what his story was. But this wasn't the time. All we were doing was walking, but my hand was telling me to stay sharp. And that was odd, in light of what we were about to find. We heard the water before we saw it.

It wasn't the ceiling that had collapsed, but the floor. Water poured from cracks in the ceiling, but not in an urgent way. There was a lot, but it wasn't like the cement was breaking apart in front of us.

All the same, it was a bad sign. The tunnel could've been in this state for a while, but it couldn't hold up forever. The fact that it hadn't flooded was more disturbing; all that water had to go somewhere.

"This is unexpected," Ever said mildly.

"It's impassible." Velvet had her light pointed at the other side. The gap was much too wide to jump, and there was really only darkness below. I didn't see any way to climb up the other side. This was what my hand had been warning me about? What amounted to a hole in the ground? I told my hand to shut up and stop bothering me. It did. I flexed it a few times. It was refreshing not to have it buzzing danger warnings at me.

The others were talking, and I tuned back in. Velvet was crouched at the edge, looking down. They were all looking down, and I watched their lights play over the rocks leading into the dark.

Well, it wasn't like I didn't already know there was a system of caves under the Channel – but we were already far down, and this was even farther. This was as deep as I'd ever been while I'd been lost and wandering in the dark, and that meant that these caves were unfamiliar to me. Well – of course they were. Even the ones I'd been through were unfamiliar. But you know what I'm saying – these were not the same caves that I'd encountered. This was something else. Who knew the Ukraine was so porous?

Velvet cleared her throat and stood up, giving us all a smile that could've melted even the Biker's heart, and unbeknownst to me at the time, would. Sooner than I thought, too.

Still smiling, she stated this flatly: "We're going back."

"Aren't you curious?" Ever was trolling again. He didn't want to go down there any more than I did.

"Nothing you or anyone could say would convince me otherwise," she said cheerily, and this forced cheer was probably an indication that she meant business.

"What did she say?" Venge asked.

"You don't speak Russian?"

He shook his head without looking up, then froze. "I think there's a kid down there," he said, sounding puzzled. It took me a moment to process that, and everyone else heard it too. I saw from the look on Velvet's face that in that instant, she had been forced to confront the possibility that she was about to eat her words. Then her smiled widened, and she laughed.

"No, really." Venge got to his feet, looking puzzled. "I think there really is a kid down there."
"I will push you off this edge," Velvet said in English. "And laugh."

"I'm being serious," he said, and I couldn't believe it, but it was true. He wasn't lying. I didn't know if he'd seen what he thought he'd seen, but he believed it. I could tell.

"Where?" Ever stepped back to the edge and angled his light down. "I don't see anything at all down there."

"It was down there," Venge said stubbornly.

"It?" I repeated.

He shrugged. "Well, what did he look like?" Grigor pressed. He was taking this well, compared to the rest of us.

"Not sure it was a he," the little Asian said, chewing his lip. "I didn't get a good look, all right?"

We were all exchanging glances over the short Asian's head, thinking a lot of things. We'd only just met this guy; was he crazy? It wasn't unheard of in a place like this. And yet I had a feeling I knew where this was going. And I couldn't blame it on Velvet, either.

Besides, even though we'd just met him, we all knew Venge was weird, and there probably would've been some debate about his sanity, but I don't think anybody genuinely suspected him of being the seeing things kind of crazy.

More than anything, Velvet looked annoyed. And I didn't blame her. I'd been all set to go back topside; I didn't like it down there any more than she did.

And yet, we were all still looking dubiously at Venge, who was picking up on it. A child? In the Zone?

Women were one thing. There were a couple out there running around in disguise, and there was Velvet, who was a special case – she was only allowed to exist as a female because Freedom had found her before she got into trouble, and some kindhearted officer had decided to protect her – and there were the girls at Kevorich, also protected. And that boiled down to something like twenty females in the entire Zone, and they're all accounted for by someone, because they can only survive by being attached to a group. It's sad, but it's a fact of life.

So the thought of a kid in the Zone, especially in a place like this, was understandably hard to swallow. If you leave the Zone and watch the movies that Hollywood likes to make about it, you'll always see the 100 pound, yet still tough and independent female stalker (and master martial artist/gymnast) all the time – but even if such people existed, which they don't, they'd have the good sense to get out if they got pregnant. This isn't where you deliver, much less raise a child.

No matter how I looked at it, that was what I got.

So this kid probably didn't exist. And yet, we'd probably feel awful if we left without at least taking a look. I decided to cut the red tape.

I took off my pack and handed it to Venge. "I'm going to climb down real fast," I said. "Five minutes and we're gone."

Velvet nodded, looking approving. Venge looked a little guilty. I could see he was starting to doubt himself. That was probably a good sign.

It wasn't that bad of a climb, but it was a long way down, and I had to make sure not to go down anything I wasn't confident I could go back up. Water splashed onto me from one of the breaks overhead, and it was freezing.

It was what I'd expected – there were caves here, under the tunnel. I hadn't expected them to be so large. I didn't know how big they were, but I knew my light was only showing a fraction. I'm talking big, cathedral-style caves, with pointy things on the floor and the ceiling. Stalactites from the ceiling? Right? Because stalagmites might hang from the ceiling, but they don't? So they're on the floor, and the stalactites are on the ceiling. I think. Whatever. Don't ask me to ever use those words again.

I had to do some climbing to get over to the area Venge had indicated, but I managed it. Above, I could see everyone's lights. The caverns had remarkable acoustics, and the noise of the falling water echoed and dominated the space. I'd have to really shout if they were going to hear anything up there.

I got ready to call out anyway, because how else were we going to know if there was someone down here? Not that they could've missed our lights and our voices – but then I saw the tiny wet footprints on the stone.