"IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT!?" Hrurim calls out as I find my footing after the latest load of aftershocks.
"Yep..." I mutter, a few not-so ignorable details about our current depth going through my head. We're nowhere near the surface and the closest tunnels, chambers or anything above us are too far for us to feel something small scale. Whatever that was, it was massive, so very damn massive. Gods and goddesses above, indeed.
"Focus on getting what we have left." Pops orders as he slinks out of the darkness and back into the open. Metal bangs into the tunnel and our light source returns. I wince at the shift in brightness and click my tongue at the mess we're dealing with. There's nothing natural about what just happened. Nothing travels this deep with that kind of power.
Can we even travel far enough to avoid it?
"I don't think we're going to find anything. Nothing at all." I remark under my breath as I focus on gathering my spilt munitions. Thankfully, going by the lack of buzzing, Pops already has his blood wasps in order. That's certainly one way to make this freak earthquake worse!
"Well, good news is. We got one wagon still intact." Hrurim says as I wander his way, following the trail of bullets and rations. Kicking much of it along, I prop my gun on a nearby rock and unclip my bag, slinging it around. My padded knee hits the ground and my paw gets to work, grabbing and pulling it all in.
"We're going to have too much for the wagon." I comment, already struggling to account for everything. If our inventory is spilling out like this, it means the containers and locks are broken. A damaged box might be useable, but not if it's lost its shape. One crumpled corner and an inward slight and we're looking at an unstackable container.
"If there's a rope around here, we can improvise with a slope." Hrurim suggests, and I bounce his words in my mouth. His hand slips into his pocket and he pulls out his lighter, flicking the flame on and off. He shuts it up for a final time, and I watch Pops as he paces about.
"Seems to be the least of our problems..." I mutter, putting a paw to my face and rubbing it into my eye. The fingers of the other one trace the same side's eyelids.
"I've known Ivahstar for a long time now. But, I admit, I'm a bit stumped as to what he would want." Hrurim is careful to whisper.
"We should focus on getting everything sorted. As you said, Hrurim... He's been around a long time." I say, sealing one of my bags and acclimating to its new burden. I stuff a finger down my side, pushing one bullet out of the way so it's not digging into my leg.
"Never said he's been around for a long time." Pops' human friend jokes and I huff a smirk up at him.
"Don't get clever with me." I let out, a subdued giggle accompanying it. Getting up, my eyes go even higher and I follow the trails of cracks. I've not spent a whole lot of time underground, but I'm still a hwardgon. I have that sixth sense when it comes to the earth and all its rocky instability.
We're not going to want to linger here, but we're fine for the time being. Whatever is going on up above, however far above it is, it's stopped. Somehow, this is the better end of things. A force strong enough to reach this far down must have devastated the land above.
I shiver uncontrollably for a split second. This might've actually happened on the surface. Gods and goddesses, whichever one can hear me... What is so powerful as to reach this far down?
My head shakes and my quills rattle off of each other. Whatever it is or was, I should keep my focus on what we have before us. A mess we cannot clean up. Pre-emptively, I sigh my exhaustion.
Hrurim's focusing on our last wagon and getting that sorted. Pops is letting out his anger on whatever broken things he can get his paws on. So, that leaves me with any crate, box, or container that looks like it can still manage a beating. Even though I know I shouldn't bother with what's near the fallen boulders, I still poke around.
Most of the cargo was small, anyway. Our largest supplies and inventory are probably gone now. Blocked off by a pile of rocks that needs a full team of heavy machines to handle. Or a rampaging monster. Whatever comes across us first.
"Right... Monsters." I click out, my eyes bouncing from the ground and back to a level view. Who knows what has been disturbed in these tunnels now? We'd be impossibly lucky if this was the only tunnel affected. Yet, in the great irony of things, luck would be us not being in this tunnel.
Guess me and Pops are never meant to be lucky. We wouldn't be survivors if we were. A deal going bad is one thing, a rough patch is another. Us being trapped underground by crime bosses and the literal earth is something else entirely. We've certainly upset someone who is divine in state and nature.
Yet Pops will always be there for me. And I will be there for him, no matter how bad it gets. Me and him. It will always be me and him.
I eye Hrurim, "Even with people like you."
The former enforcer looks my way, stretches his arm out, and smacks it down. I smirk and do the same. If all the rocks in the world want to try and flatten us, then we're going to make a mockery of them. Like any hwardgon worth the spikes on their backs. Besides, as if any god or goddess has a right at being mad over some crass hand gestures.
Still, we have a mess to deal with, a right big one. Thankfully, there's enough here to tide us over. My back straightens with pride. It was my idea to more evenly distribute our supplies!
Admittedly... I didn't exactly plan for this. I was more so thinking of gangs or raiders or something attacking us. A wagon or two might be lost, maybe one would have its wheel destroyed. How can anyone plan for the surface trying to force its way underground!?
"Baaah." I let out, shifting to the tongue of the wind-people for the brief moment.
A crate enters my paws, and I get to shifting it up to Hrurim. The well-built human takes it into his hands and I go back and forth a few more times. He separates what is broken and what is merely damaged. What is neither gets the privilege of being loaded up first. And each trip from me only leaves me wandering further in search of something to bring back.
Not that it matters, as the wagon is now getting loaded in its entirety. Whatever's left might not even be worth going back for. So, I should go and check with Hrurim directly. Wouldn't want to spend a few hours under these cracking tunnel roofs.
"How's it looking?" I call out, louder than normal. Hrurim rises and bends his gut out, a pop likely satisfying his peace of mind.
"Well... We're certainly not looking at an issue of essentials," he explains, and I look some of it over, wondering already what we might do. We never packed any big bags for this kind of situation, but we might be able to jig up some makeshift back supports. A frame or two to ease off some of the weight or free up space.
Unlike on the surface, weather's not really a problem here. Any water is predictable and avoidable and we'll know if a tunnel is harbouring dangerous winds. All we need is space on the wagon and the strength of our bodies. At least, long enough for us to get to the next town over. Agadton or something, I think it was.
I'm being too optimistic, though. If the tunnels have collapsed like this, who knows what the town's entrances look like? Maybe the town even got flattened. A dead driver might be around, with his keys still on him, hopefully.
"Cheer up, Heiya. We've got no injuries. A wagon, too." Hrurim huffs as he claps his hands free of effort. A tailor-made slips into his grip and the lighter comes back out. The orange light flicks in and out of existence, remaining only as a dot on his flaccid stick. My button nose sniffles at the shift in smells.
"Yeah. But how long until we can ditch the circumstances?" I ask, heaving my way up onto the wagon's back. It'll be free only for a moment longer, so might as well take the time to rest. Spent enough energy and state of mind handling that freak earthquake. My eyes go up, again.
Hrurim takes a long puff and blows it out like the dragon he wishes he was, "Which ones?"
"You know what I mean!" I snap, pulling out one of my precious quills so I can stab at him with it. He holds his own, but still flinches. I meet his smirk with a mocking scowl and tuck the natural point away for later teasing.
"Obviously the ones regarding your lack of feminity. It's about time the girl's got herself a man," he lets out without a care at first. His expression shifts to one of laughter as he realises what he's just said. I slip the quill back out and go straight for his side. Acupuncture might not be a hwardgon thing, but we're certainly naturals at it!
"SHUT UP!" I can't help but scream as my fur otherwise hides my blush. Hardly my fault there're no boys out there about my age with the mentality for this kind of work. I know it's a lot to ask, but it's not like they'd have Pops' approval if they weren't willing to have a lot asked of them.
"Daddy's little girl has to grow up at some point." he chuckles, looking away as my quill slips across his cheek. His chuckling gets out of control and he chokes on the smoke of his ciggie. I roll my eyes as he hacks with a warping gut, the laughter still not going anywhere.
"Daddy's little girl has the marksmanship to make you shrink." I mutter, realising too late I left my gun elsewhere.
"I'd love to see you hit a target a mountain away without a gun," he smirks out, his lips parting for another huff of his favourite stress relief. He chokes on another cloud, his chuckling getting the better of him. Again.
"Shut up..." I let out again, sliding the quill back into its makeshift pocket as my eyes find Pops again. My brow settles as my expression fades away into the fog of thoughtfulness. Pops... Dad... He has a lot on his mind right now. It's all been there for years and he's only cracked it all out in recent months.
He brought us back this deep underground for a reason. He wants to put the gravestones up as they should be. A hundred dead for each sibling I no longer have. A thousand more for the mother I watched bleed out. The blood that soaked him dripping wet...
The Ovskabino. The Braves in the Dark of the Underground. The Mafia. *Gamtambo's* mafia.
They're the reason we took this job. Go through enough layers of underworld bureaucracy and we can land a job that gets us close. Setting us right up to gun the bastards down. And now, thanks to these quakes, we've got to deal with new consequences. Something that will no doubt draw Gamtambo's eyes to us.
We were on the surface because we knew it was reliably out of his reach. But skirting through all these out-of-reach towns with rough reputations is going to put us right in view. Someone's going to go digging for why our goods were not delivered. Even if they set aside the problems because of the 'quakes, they won't let out names slide. Not Pops'.
Never a name like his... Thank the god and goddesses he cannot read my mind. He hit me hard enough in the past for speaking, alluding, or whatever to it. In my thoughts, he cannot hear me, he will never hear the name... Tunnel's Darkness again.
"So childish sounding, but the weight is there..." I mutter so fearfully under my breath.