3.

"You got lost!"

"I did not get lost!" Ryan protested "I was just trying to get us to sneak around the pumping station. They probably had set an ambush there!"

"If the WRO is not going to kill us" Shane commented, after letting out a powerful sneeze "Sure the cold or these king-sized rats will!"

After their escape from the broadcasting building, the trio had made their way inside the town's sewage system, a thick network of tunnels that ran under Kalm and that, according to the original plan, should have granted them a safe passage to the outside of town.

Ryan had managed to snatch a diagram of the medley of conduits after a quick raid at the city planning office. Down there the air was becoming heavier and heavier as they descended, the walls rife with moss and moisture as they walked through passages left unkempt by years of neglect.

The echo of their steps was the only constant noise, sometimes accompanied by the ticks of the drops of water falling from leaking pipes or the squeaking sound of critters emerging from their nooks to behold these unexpected visitors

"I've got the impression that we've already been here…" Char commented

"That cannot be!" Shane shook his head "Did you see the mark on the wall?"

Ryan had thought that marking the cornerstones of the passages already visited would have helped them. Apparently unbeknownst to the rest of the party, though, the surfaces of the walls were not dry enough to leave a lasting mark on the bricks. Ryan hoped that his mates were oblivious to this detail, as he frantically tried to plot a course on the diagram he was holding before himself

"Then if you haven't" Shane continued "that means that we are somewhere new. Right Ryan?"

"You got that" Ryan distractedly replied, as he scoped the space in front of him with the beam of his torchlight

"Do you think we are going to make it?" Char asked, with a hint of worry

"Of course" Shane frowned upon Char's doubtfulness "We merely stumbled upon that patrol. I bet they were just a bomb disposal team combing that sector…"

Some metres back and minutes before, the party had a brief encounter with a WRO squad who happened to stand on their way. Although armed enough to try to throw the gauntlet and try to force their way through, the group had opted to take a diversion to avoid being spotted at all. That diversion had the undesired effect of making them straying even further from the original path. The ensuing fire-fight was made even more dramatic by the hammering barks of the rifles as they thundered in the secluded spaces of the conduits, echoing all the way to the surface.

As Shane tried to reassure Char, Ryan pointed his flashlight upward. The vault of the conduit abruptly finished there. He took point, distancing themselves from his companions, trying to scout the road ahead. The space before him opened further and further

"Anyway, I'm going to be deaf if I even cock my rifle, let alone…" Shane interrupted himself as he and Char finally closed the gap with Ryan. They all stared upward.

They had come to a wide room, metres and metres high and wide. The centre was occupied by a giant column that ran from the bed up to the invisible ceiling and sat on a block at the centre of the floor, all surrounded by staircases and catwalks

"Where are we now?" Char asked

Ryan took a quick look at the map "This is one of the main shafts of the aqueduct" he said "were all secondary pipes and conduit stem from"

"That means that we can go probably anywhere from here…" Shane guessed

"I think you are right" Ryan agreed "Just let me find the shortest path to…"

They were forced to point their heads upwards again. A sinister noise came from the upper floors of the room.

Boots were treading the catwalk and combat gear was clicking as WRO soldiers were slowly but inevitably descending all around the column, swarming through the staircases. The environment was far from pitch black but it was dim, nonetheless. The shadows were pierced by the laser sights of the rifles of the soldiers. As they began to came closer, their thunderous yet quite voices, made of orders and warnings became audible and discernible

"Fuck!" Char bit his tongue "They have intercepted us!"

The group quickly ran in an indentation in the wall

"C'mon Ryan!" Shane pressed him "We have to get away from here! Fast!"

"They are going to cut us off from the surface!" Char warned them "I bet some of the are on our tail as well!"

"Shut up" Ryan waived them "I'm trying to think!" he said, as he returned to the map. Apparently, there was a passage that could lead to a collector conduit that finally opened up in the outskirts, where WRO presence was minimal. The only catch was that the passage was across the room, and the WRO soldiers were coming down fast

"All right then!" he exclaimed, keeping his voice low "The tunnel over there!" he pointed

"Are you sure is that one?" Shane cautiously asked

"Are you sure this is the time to ask such questions?" Char countered

"Whatever…" Shane gave up

"Be quiet!" Ryan cut them short "Now, if you move fast and light, those bastards up there might not even notice us. At three, all right?"

"I'm ready" Shane nodded

"I'm ready too" Char nodded back

"Ok, then. One… two… three!"

They all made a dash through the room towards the designated opening on the wall. The blue flashlights of the rifles were casting globes of eerie blue light on the floor.

As they reached the half-point, Ryan felt something with his foot, something that interrupted his sprint and nearly made him stumble. The metallic and echoing sound that stuff made immediately chimed throughout the entire chamber.

Apparently, he had just happened to kick a spent lantern on the floor, left there by some absent-minded city worker.

He swore. Just as the same time as multiple rays of light centred on his party

"Contact!" a soldier from a catwalk shouted

A hundred rifles, or seemingly so, clicked altogether

"Don't move!" someone cried "You are under arrest!"

"On your knees!"

"Do it! Do it now!"

Orders where repeated mercilessly. At some point, the soldiers expected Ryan and his company to comply.

Instead, he exchanged a look with his mates and again, he ran for cover.

The rifles shouted, spraying the floor with bullets, chipping clay and sand from the walls.

As Char had somehow managed to produce his pistol and shoots round in the soldiers' general direction, Ryan led the group into the tunnel. The wrong one.