Ch. 1 The Encounter
Ian was walking through the mines towards the bar for these levels. He had just finished his shift(and had put in some overtime) and was going to meet up with some buddies afterwards for some R&R. He was at Intersect 6.0 and heard footsteps. He looked around and saw a flash of green out of the corner of his eye. Looking around again and not seeing it, he shrugged and continued on.
The next morning, Ian, being the early riser he is, headed to Intersect 37.0 to start working on the tunnel early. As he exited the elevator,he walked past the locomotive engineers linking up the electric to its first power car. Lack of space down here required them to pull an CESU Power Cart in behind the loco to power it. After he went past them, he put in his earbuds and clicked the start button. "Ah, I just love the sound of G&R in the morning." he thought as he walked towards the construction zone.
At Intersect 6.0, he stopped and looked around. He took his earbuds out and listened. 'Nothing but the soothing sounds of the mine." he said as he kept walking. He got over to Intersect 35.0 and there was caution tape over the entrance. Not very unusual, they closed the tunnel to perform maintenance on the tracks once and awhile. Except for the fact that there were guards there and a pile of rock.
"What happened here?"
"The tunnel collapsed overnight."
That couldn't have been possible. Even the littlest children knew that the tunnels never collapsed. At least under normal circumstances.
"What caused it?"
"I am not not at liberty to discuss that, sir."
He sighed.
"Look, you and I both know that these tunnels don't collapse under normal circumstances. So tell me, what caused it? Sabotage? Someone crashed a jeep? Accidental TNT cart detonation? What was it?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Why not?"
"Sir, please go around to reach your work area."
He sighed again.
"I know what you have going."
"What?'
"You know, moving illegal stuff through the mines. Uranium, cocaine, guns.."
"Alright, alright, keep your voice down." He paused for a moment, looked around, and whispered "Look, word in the tunnels is that some monsters got in last night. Creepers, I heared."
"Ahhh, so that explains the tunnels."
"Look, the boss man is trying to keep this under wraps. If word gets out, he'll have my hide."
"Don't worry, it's safe with me. They bringing in Bertha?"
"Yup, soon as they get her ready, they're bringing her down here ."
"Ok. Well, see ya around."
"See ya."
It was a slight detour around the collapsed tunnel. And by slight, I mean a large way. He got to Intersect 36.-1, and that intersection was closed off to.
'If there were actually creepers, there must have been a lot of them.' he thought to himself. He finally got to Intersect 37.0, where he made his way to the construction zone. Well, this must be serious if they're trying to keep it under wraps.
It was about five to noon when the lunch horn sounded. Lorenzo was headed the the bar when he saw a Ian walking there to.
"Hey Lorenzo!"
"Yo, Ian!"
"What's cracking choomba?"
"Nothing much, was just headed to the bar for lunch. Hey, did ya hear about what happened to the tunnel at Intersect 35.0?"
Ian stopped and stared at him for a sec.
"What?"
"Do you remember where in the mines I work?"
Lorenzo blinked. Then it hit him. "Oh, right. Silly me. I forgot you were working on 35.1."
'THWACK!'
"Ow, what was that for?"
"For being a doofus, choombatta."
"Aw, stuff. Punk."
"Whatever. Hey, let's grab the tram."
"Hey, did ya get to see Bertha?"
"Oh did I. I got to see her run."
"You lucky bastard."
Someone came up behind them.
"Hey, mind if I sit here?"
Ian's eyes lit up. He knew that voice. It had been a while, but he remembered it.
"Yo Drake, what's kickin'?"
"Not much. I just got back from that business meeting in Xing."
"How'd it go?"
"Well, they're on board with it, now I just need to get approval from the boss man to get a mine going there."
"Hey, did ya hear what happened last night?"
"No, what?"
"The tunnel between Intersect 35.0 and 37.0 collapsed last night."
"Really? What caused it?"
"No one really knows. Some say it was sabotaged by Drachma, others say it was a horde of creepers."
Drake, after hearing that, looked at them, snorted, and chuckled.
"Creepers, eeh? And I suppose an ender portal was found in the mines and a dragon came out."
"Like I said, who knows."
"Let's just finish our lunch and get back to work."
Ian had just gotten off work, putting in more overtime, as usual. He was walking through the tunnel in between Intersects 37.0 and 36.0.
'Whistle' "Bertha did a good job cleaning out the tunnel."
As he walked through, he admired the clean work that Bertha had done on both sides of the tunnel. As he neared Intersect 36.0, he thought he heard whimpering. Stopping, and not hearing anything, he continued on. Right as he entered the intersect, he heard the whimpering again. He looked around, and saw someone to the left of him in the tunnel between Intersect 36.0 and 36.1.
"Hello?"
He approached… whatever it it was, and saw it was a woman. More specifically a woman in nothing but a green hoodie and matching underwear.
"Excuse me, are you okay?"
He approached her and she turned to him, fear in her eyes, and she tried to crawl away. As she tried to crawl away, he saw her hair was as red as fire, definitely a ginger. Her eyes had a fire like the sun in them. Her figure was thin and looked like an hourglass.
"St-Stay away from me." she said
He got a little closer and looked at the hoodie.
His eyes widened.
She was a creeper.