Chapter 2 The mines

Humphrey awoke suddenly and without warning, springing upright yelping as his injuries were reopened. Gasping with the sudden pain he quickly stopped moving to ensure he wouldn't cause anymore damage to his bruised and battered body. Humphrey put a paw over his blood soaked side and stared up into the darkness above. The crevice he had fallen into was far to deep for natural light to reach into, there wasn't even a hint from where he had fallen from.

Humphrey began to panic as he turned to observe his dark surroundings seeing nothing but the rocks only a few feet in front of him, the claustrophobia beginning to overwhelm him. He stumbled forward catching his paws on the many obstructions in the cave system wincing as each one made unexpected contact with his unprotected paws. Blindly he continued making his way forward the air seemed to press him to the floor as he nervously called, "Hello?"

His echo could be heard deep within the cave bouncing throughout each crevice and cavern alerting any of the nightmares that lied dormant within. Humphrey making no progress sat roughly on the hard stone and whimpered to himself, "What do I do?" Receiving no answer he buried his head in his paws crying softly waiting for death to try and take him once more in its steely grip.

Humphrey sniffled and wiped his muzzle with his paw only one thought racing through his mind, "Is Kate really alive?" Even though she had betrayed him he could never hate her, he had loved her as a pup and even now in the deep caves feeling hopeless and scared he wanted to be with her more then ever. To feel her soft pelt against his as they cuddled in the moonlight together, sharing a kiss in Jasper and admiring the view from the mountaintops.

Once again Humphrey's longing to be with Kate ripped at his soul causing him to choke and stumble into a wall clawing at it to gain his balance. Trying to calm himself Humphrey took deep long breaths breathing in and out of his nose listening when a peculiar sound alerted Humphrey to the danger. A distant dripping sound of water amplified into a constant, Drip, Drip, Drip. He stared not understanding when the wall cracked and a tiny hole appeared.

The sound then quickly turned into what could only be described as a gushing stream. Humphrey looked up dazed staring at a tiny crack in the cave wall examining the possible danger, but it was simply a tiny hole of light being casted onto the cave floor. Warily eyeing the ray of light Humphrey started to get up when he heard a grunt coming from the other side of the wall.

With an enormous BOOM the cavern shook violently causing the rocks to tumble all around him, the tiny hole of light exploded inwards forming a massive hole that the beam streamed through eager to illuminate the damp claustrophobic space. Humphrey looked carefully at the hole and saw a stream of water that was coming from a cylindrical tube inside the rock. It had been going through the cave and had bursted open along with the wall.

Humphrey confused looked for the source of the explosion watching the pipe gush water into both spaces half expecting to see nothing. A grunt of satisfaction was suddenly heard followed by, "Damn, told those idiots the war would kill em." Humphrey gasped silently inching backwards into the cave as ever so slowly a tall figure clambered into the cave splashing large amounts of water into a bottle.

The creature seemed to be wearing a kind of mask and light streamed from a device strapped to its head fully focused on the water pipes. Before Humphrey could make out any more details the creature stopped as if sensing a disturbance. Humphrey remained frozen hidden in the shadows watching the creature grumble shrugging to itself finishing filling its bottle.

The light clicked off as it retreated back into the other chamber not seeing the terrified wolf only a few feet away from the its grasp. Humphrey let out his breath creeping towards the other chamber praying that it was truly gone. As he observed the other cave he noted it was large and shaped like a tunnel supported by wooden beams and carefully carved through the earth shooting both left and right into the darkness connected only by chance to the cave system he had fallen into. The light flickered turning Humphrey's attention as he spotted it and saw the cave was illuminated by a large lantern carelessly left in the dirt slowly burning itself out.

The figure had disappeared completely leaving no trace and as Humphrey looked around he spotted a familiar sight. With a massive surge of excitement and surprise he fell backwards onto his rear end muttering, "Train tracks?" Staring closer at the iron rods that extended in each direction he noticed that they were much older and smaller then the train tracks that ran through Jasper. Humphrey confused thought to himself, "A full sized train could never fit on these."

Shrugging to himself he retreated into the darkened cave pondering if he should risk taking one of the tunnels and the risk of running into the human. Thoughtfully he whispered to himself, "Maybe I can use these to get back home...If it still exists." Struggling to remember the direction of Jasper Park Humphrey's hopelessness began to return with every minute he sat attempting to think clearly. His longing to see Kate one last time and share a kiss with her completely occupied his mind undermining any effort to make a plan.

Desperately Pushing away the love that pounded in his head and that threatened to break him Humphrey chose the right tunnel walking through the oppressive darkness straining to see as he left the light behind. Moving quickly now and trying to leave his emotions behind the light soon became lost behind him. Now in full darkness not being able to see anything Humphrey Winced at every echo and rumble above and around him his fear causing his mind to wander and attempt to forget the danger he was in.

He remembered his entire adventure with Kate, being captured and led home by two strange birds. First the truck where they had spent a night and then after when he blew their ride over a cupcake. Kate had tried to stay mad, and had tried to leave him but Humphrey had caught her saving Kate's life from the mudslide. When she had left him Humphrey knew she wouldn't really have abandoned him but every betrayal stuck out to him constantly causing him to debate with himself over if she would ever want to be with him.

But she had kissed him then, she had thanked him and kissed him. He hadn't understood why she never spoke of it afterwards but he knew now, one wolfs name…Garth. Then came the train ride, he was sure he could steal her heart then get her to forget all about the no mating law between alpha and omegas but it hadn't worked. Or at least he hadn't targeted the right problem.

Humphrey gave a wry grin of remorse thinking then that he had indeed stolen her heart at the time, but she had jumped off the train. He wasn't sure if Kate had heard him say the three most important words in any wolves life, "I love you." It echoed in his mind, hollow sounding, unimportant and lost to time.

Soon after he followed her she had told him she was marrying another wolf, to unite the Western and Eastern packs and avert a war. It was a noble bold gesture of her, but it broke his heart tearing all reason from his mind. Forcing him to run, to run far from anything and everything. Reason had abandoned him, an omega could not survive in the wild without a pack but he hadn't cared.

To simply jump on the train and forget everything, never think of the heartbreak again seemed to be the only course of action erasing the remaining reason in his mind. But it was never that simple, she would haunt him forever. He could never love anyone but her and his heart knew it. Broken and bleeding it would never heal until he held her again. Smelled her scent and kissed her, her golden pelt reflecting the sun and moon shining brightly. The image caused him to choke up, crying to himself wanting to believe she was still alive. But he had seen the force of the blast, the tearing of metal and rock, but instinct told him she was alive.

Still nothing on the surface could survive the blast, but maybe if she had been in a den or underground like he had been. But there must be other dangers. Humphrey wondered what else the bomb had done, it must have had more to it. Shaking off the fear of the unknown he came to a different portion of cave, the walls had begun to change and turn from rock and stone into wood and brick.

Curiously his aching heart momentarily repressed Humphrey put a paw on the brick and was surprised when it fell away into the darkness behind the walls. Hopeful now he clawed desperately at the wall slowly making a hole through the bricks as they crashed around him echoing down the tunnel. Suddenly a light clicked on in the distance. Humphrey stopped and stared uncomprehendingly at it still pawing away the bricks.

The light gradually began to grow, loud footsteps and yelling could be heard. Humphrey came out of his shock and dug into the bricks whimpering. When the light was only a few meters away he clawed the last brick away from the wall and pushed through. The hardened broken concrete dug and bit into his fur slowing progress and putting pressure and pain onto his already beaten body.

Sounds could be heard behind him as he dug into the dark room pushing his way past the last section of brick and concrete. He whirled around staring at the hole as a hand shot through groping at the dirt attempting to crawl through after him. The sounds of shooting could be heard as muffled thumps. "Silencer." Humphrey thought fearfully. He had been warned that hunters sometimes used them to poach and escape undetected in Jasper.

The hand grabbed at the rocks as Humphrey whined tears dripped onto the dirt, death had attempted to take his life many times in the last few hours and all the wolf wanted was for it to end. Suddenly the hand became ridged and spasmed on the floor and a muffled cry could be heard through the wall. Humphrey backed up afraid the human would finally make it through.

Unexpectedly the hand slowly closed and stopped moving, Humphrey still more terrified then he had ever been in his life stared at the hand and dully thought, "Its human, but it wasn't trying to get me. It was trying to escape something." Humphrey could not imagine anything that could kill a human, but the hand lay as proof unmoving, dead and cold on the ground.

Pushing away the images of something so strong as to be able to kill the man Humphrey turned and observed his new environment. It was metallic smelling and small. Humphrey was unsure of where he was underground or even what direction he was facing. But every moment he stood immobile was giving the monsters in the tunnel the chance to find and kill him.

Humphrey grimly realized that if the bomb had caused things to change then evolution was choosing the worlds new dominate species. Moving forward without realizing it he roughly slammed into a metal obstruction. Humphrey groaned and rubbed his throbbing head and reached out his paw and touched iron rusty bars, they were stacked each a foot apart from one another.

Unsure of what they were for Humphrey clawed his way upwards using the bars to reach higher. The bars seemed to go on endlessly and just as he was going to climb back down to find another way once again Humphrey slammed his head into metal. Howling in pain he pushed upwards when unexpectedly the metal gave away. He pushed upwards again with his paws desperately trying to move the thing and see what was above him.

The circular plate like piece lifted up as he heaved it aside clawing his way onto the surface. Humphrey half dead with exhaustion simply let himself lye on his side observing his new environment. The hole he had emerged from was on the side of the road and the plate had three words written on it. Danger Mines below. He laughed as he remembered hearing about caves and mines from Kate, she had always enjoyed exploring them with him but he had never let her take him any deeper then where the light could reach.

Humphrey continued smiling and thought, "Maybe I can get to Jasper after all." Seeing that he was in a mountainous area Jasper couldn't be to far. But the landscape had changed, the trees were blackened and dead. The ground looked sickly and everything had a strange sick tinge to it. The setting sun drew his eye towards it as an icy feeling overwhelmed him but he was unsure as to why when suddenly he realized that darkness would be dangerous. And he had a suspicion that the monsters underground preferred the dark.

CHAPTER OVERVIEW There's chapter two done and hopefully three will be completed within the next few days or so. Once again please review tell me what you think and any ideas and enjoy the rest of the story.

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