Chapter 10: A Journey through the Sewer

By the time the Mercenaries backtracked and reached the fork again, the overcast sky had grown darker. Despite this, they pressed on down the road that led to Double Cross. Their legs were freezing from trudging through all the snow piles left after the avalanche, and they could barely feel their hands, but once they saw the lights of Double Cross's lamps, the Mercenaries immediately broke into a run. However, their motivation was cut short when they saw that the gate to Double Cross was closed in front of them, and an electric humming filled the air.

"Aw, hell," Gavin cursed. "And the gate can only be opened if we know the password."

"But if the guy who runs this place is your cousin, then shouldn't you know the password, mate?" asked Matthias.

Gavin gritted his teeth. "If I already knew the password, then I wouldn't be complaining right now."

"Dammit! We can't just stand here!" Benjamin said, and noticed a keypad with numbers on it. "Let me try."

Immediately, Gavin blocked Benjamin and said, "Don't even think about it, son. If you type in the wrong password, you'll get fried by the electricity that's running through this fence. My pa told me."

"So what'll we do?" Mickey asked.

"I'll ponder over this for a few minutes," Gerald said, walking up to the keypad. "The password shouldn't be too hard to figure out."

But those minutes soon became hours, and darkness had enveloped the area. Luckily, the clouds parted enough to reveal a full moon rising over the valley below them. It was a pretty sight to watch, though it didn't entirely alleviate the situation they were in. While Benjamin paced nervously back and forth, the Scouts ran around to see if there were any other entrances, but discovered that the entire area of Double Cross was surrounded by the electric fence. Gavin wasn't surprised and eventually stood next to Gerald, trying to help him figure out the password, as Matthias kept a sharp eye out on the woods, claiming he was hearing wheels turning.

"You're just letting the moonlight play tricks on you, boy," Gavin said, watching Matthias scan the dark forest.

"I'm serious, mate!" Matthias replied, taking out his Huntsman bow and placing an arrow onto the string. "Listen!"

So everyone was silent, and they did hear a series of screeching wheels being turned, accompanied by a rumbling engine. While none of them saw anything through the foliage, the noise was indeed getting louder like the Sniper said. Gerald wasn't listening, as he was focused on the riddle, when suddenly he started laughing, making everyone turn to look at him.

"What's so funny, doc?" Benjamin asked.

"The password…it's so simple," Gerald said, barely containing himself. "I can't believe I didn't realize it before."

Then before Gavin could ask him, Gerald punched a series of numbers into the keypad, and the gate opened.

"Whew! Glad that's over," Gavin said as the nine companions walked through the open gate. "But what was the password?"

"Pardner, of course," Gerald said.

They were just about to cross the concrete bridge in front of them when the screeching wheels and low rumbling was soon followed by trees being crushed. The Mercenaries looked behind them, and what they saw was unbelievable. It was a tank, blue in color with an electric eye sticking out of the top, and no cannon strapped to it.

"Taank!" Gerald cried, and ran towards the RED base adjacent to the bridge.

The others followed behind them, and the Robot Tank slowly turned in their direction. Once inside, Gerald led the Mercenaries down below where the underground sewer was located. Then above, a loud explosion caused the ceiling above them to collapse, and the stairs were destroyed in the process. Luckily, they managed to get into the sewer before that happened, and stared at the debris in front of them.

"Uh, did the Tank just explode?" asked Patten.

"Does that mean we're trapped down here?" Freddie looked at Gerald with concern.

Gravely, Gerald nodded. "For the time being. Gavin, do you know where this sewer leads?"

"If my memory is correct, the sewer leads to the Train Bridge, which lies below the concrete one, and across that lies the BLU base," Gavin replied.

"Then let us head for there, and hope that the Robot Tank didn't blow up the concrete bridge," Gerald said, illuminating the dark sewer in front of them with light from his Freedom Staff. "If it did, the Train Bridge might be out of commission."

So the nine Mercenaries traveled as quietly as they could through the water-infested sewer, until they came to a forking pipe, which Gerald did not remember. As he pondered over which sewer to take, Freddie couldn't help but notice a pair of glowing eyes constantly staring at him from the darkness. At first, he thought it might be a dog, but the size of the eyes seemed too large. Eventually, Freddie became too nervous and walked over to Gerald.

"Gerald, what's that thing over there?" Freddie asked, nodding his head in the direction of the eyes.

In turn, Gerald looked at where Freddie nodded his head to and replied, "It is Mumble. He's been following us since we turned back from Coldfront. He knows we have the bomb."

Freddie, surprised, immediately took out the Three-Rune Blade Bobbie gave him before he left Mountain Lab. "Shouldn't we kill him?"

"I don't think we should. There may be a part Grumble has to play in this unfolding story that has yet to happen." Gerald turned back to the fork, and then he snapped his finger. "I think we need to go...left."

Relieved, everyone followed Gerald through the left pipe, but were surprised by what they saw. There were many corpses floating in the water. Most of them were Engineers, while some were Cyborgs, which was recognizable by their robotic arms and eyes despite their Engineer-like appearance. One corpse Gavin immediately recognized, and pulled him out of the water.

"Brian," Gavin whispered, glancing at the blood that covered his cousin from head to toe. "What've they done to you? Why didn't you send any messages for help?"

"Maybe this journal will tell us some things," Gerald said, taking a small book that was sticking out of Brian's tool pocket. Unfortunately, some of the pages tore immediately when Gerald tried to turn them. "But the pages have been soaked in the water for a long time, so the information we seek may not be in here anymore."

"I'm gonna kill those metal-armed sons of bitches when I get my hands on them," growled Gavin, then he proceeded to silently cry underneath the dark goggles he wore.

"Ah, I'm sorry, mate," Matthias said, putting a hand on Gavin's shoulder.

Meanwhile, Benjamin and Aonghus decided to make themselves useful by stacking the bodies into two piles on either side of the sewer. One was for the Engineers and the other for the Cyborgs. As for Brian, they lay his body on top of the Engineer mound, then just as they were about to carry the piles out of the sewer, Gerald exclaimed.

"I have it! I figured out what happened to Brian and the other Engineers here," he said, and recited the page he was on. "'We had just activated the sewers again, but we soon discovered that there were Cyborgs creeping around. We tried to fight them off, but their strength proved too much for us' and the rest of the page is faded. But the last page says, 'We're sitting ducks in here. The Cyborgs have got us cornered, but what worries me more is the shadow that seems to lurk on the edge of our vision. Its growl echoes in here, and our bread supply vanishes as our numbers dwindle with each passing night, or day'."

A loud bang got everyone's attention. It seemed Patten had backed into the edge of the sewer and accidentally hit his bat handle against the pipe. This sent a long echo throughout the sewers, which was followed by silence, and then several feet were heard. Angered, Gerald grabbed Patten by the collar of his shirt, and glared at him.

"You are trying my patience!" yelled Gerald, and then he threw Patten into the water.

End of Chapter 10