I took a deep breath, before taking my first step, and as we all expected, the underground passage was without any lighting at all, so I took out Ryan's flashlight to light our way ahead. Once the flashlight was turned on, all three of us started going deeper into the passage. Since I was the one holding the only source of light among us, I had to walk in front of everyone. Walking behind me was Ryan, and Jonathan followed Ryan from behind him.
The underground passage must have no more than 6.5 feet in height, since Jonathan's hair nearly reached the ceiling at each time he walked. It was also narrow in width, probably no more than 4 feet because there would be barely any space left if two of us forced ourselves to walk together in one line. If I had to assume, perhaps some long time ago in the past the underground passage was built as an emergency exit towards outside should an unwanted dangerous event took place.
It had already been some time since we started walking that I realized I had not checked the time again. I flashed my watch, which showed the time at the exact 9 a.m. Jonathan then asked what time it was, as if he was aware of what I just did.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Exactly 9 a.m." I answered.
"I guess you do not really feel the flow of time when you are covered in full darkness, huh…" Ryan responded.
I gave Ryan a nod as I looked back to see him and Jonathan behind me, and I found out that they still had a considerably fresh expression. As I turned my attention to the road ahead again, Ryan started to talk again.
"By the way, I have been sniffing a sweet smell for a while now. Please tell me that it is not only me who also smell it." Ryan said.
When he said that, it also made me realized of the same smell that he mentioned, a faint molasses-like aroma from the direction behind me so I looked back again to them both.
"No, it is not just you." Jonathan responded as he walked while looking at the tip of his garden fork.
"I have also been wondering if that smell came from this black viscous liquid at this fork's tip."
"Wait, what? Black viscous liquid?" I said as I stopped my steps and turned my attention to his garden fork almost immediately. It also seemed that my actions made both Jonathan and Ryan stopped walking.
I was instantly reminded of the exact same aroma that I smelled back in the sewers when I took down the slender alien. When I took a closer look at the fork tip, I was cleared of any doubts in confirming that it was the same liquid as before – the alien's blood.
"I guess that is the result for stabbing that alien earlier, Jon." I said to Jonathan as I pointed my finger to the fork tip.
"Really? Well, if only I was still in the basement then to see you speared that creature. But, that means that it happened when the boiler was about to explode too, huh…" Ryan commented.
Jonathan was then silenced for a moment, before looking at me again and said his words.
"In that case, do you think that the explosion that was caused by the boiler in the basement was bigger than you though it would be?" he asked.
"Because I only expected hearing a normal explosion sound, not as loud as some group of people inside a building from several blocks away could still hear it very clearly, when some flying objects might also noisily circling above them at that time." he continued.
Both Ryan and I spontaneously looked at each other as I was trying to grasp what Jonathan was trying to convey.
Just then, it made me realized on what might had happened so far regarding the explosions that had taken place in the sewers and in the basement. Back in the sewers, the beam rifle might be exploded because it received damage from my submachine gun rounds, not because of any random causes.
When I tried to remember again, the alien at that time was indeed holding the rifle as it was attempting to reload it. I was not completely paying attention to which part that of the alien that would get hit by my rounds at that time, and therefore I did not realize of the possibility.
In the case of the huge explosion from the boiler, on the other hand, was perhaps caused by the dropped rifle getting into contact with the fire from the exploding boiler, resulting in more massive explosion. The wounds that the alien receive when it was pierced by Jonathan using his garden fork might in fact was considered barely a scratch to it, and the huge explosion was what supposedly really killed it.
This would also mean that back in the sewers, the alien might already be dead after it was exposed to its exploding rifle, or at least severely dying, before it collapsed to the ground, and got its face hit by multiple rounds fired from my submachine gun at near point blank range.
If all of that were true, then there was a high chance that the aliens' beam rifle were very sensitive of fire and explosions, not to mention that the aliens themselves might also be weak against fire and explosions from their own rifles. Then again, I also did not pay attention on how loud the explosion was in the sewers since I was really distressed, and even if I did, it would be hard to determine because the noise would also echoed.
I was about to convey my thoughts to Jonathan, when he also cut me off my sentences before I was able to say it.
"Yeah, I think you also realized of what I just came to…" he said.
Ryan however, was still kept in the dark, so Jonathan decided to fill him in about our thoughts. When he finally realized of the possibility, another question occurred to him.
"Okay, so long story short, the aliens and their weapons are weak against fire and explosions?" he asked, "But… that is as far as an assumption goes, right?"
"Look at the bright side, now we know more on how to face them." I responded. "However, now we have another problem – we do not have any firearms whatsoever."
"I will not take the chance of scavenging any police stations. Most of other survivors must have gotten there first and took whatever they can use as a weapon anyway." Jonathan responded.
All of us were put to silence once again, until Ryan came up with an idea.
"What about a historical or war museum?" he asked, "We will not know for sure, and it is only a small chance, but is it possible that we can find some old firearms that are still working there, somewhere in the storage?"
"Better there than nowhere to go, I guess." Jonathan responded, almost immediately.
At first I had my hesitation of going there, but I did agree with Jonathan's words so I said no objections to the decision.
"There are other things that still confuse me, actually." Jonathan said, again.
"Why did the three armed guys was attacked first, rather than the guy with the crowbar? Is it really because they posed more harm compared to the crowbar guy, or is there something else…" he said.
"And if like the church man said, the crowbar guy was dragged away by one of the aliens, then where the hell are the bodies of rest of the other three… Is there anything else that we should concern about the sudden dense fog…" he continued, as if asking to himself.
Neither Ryan nor I were able to suggest another possibility of what might cause it.
"Guess we will have to find out along the way, like just now." I responded, hesitantly.
Heavy silence then filled the whole underground passage as we continued walking ahead. Fortunately, the silence was short-lived as we started to see a dot of light ahead of us, which indicated that the exit was already near. We quicken our paces as the light was getting bigger, and eventually, we arrived at the exit leading directly to the canal edge path outside. We had finally reached the surface again.
As we embraced the surface once again, we realized that the fog was still present, however with a seemingly a bit lighter in intensity. I looked at my watch again, which showed the time 10.12 a.m., and suggested that we follow the elevated railway path to get to the museum. I assumed it would prove to be an ideal path since many normal roads might be blocked with ruins of buildings and houses which would force us to find other alternative paths.
Both Jonathan and Ryan did not give out any objections, and thus we began to head for the nearest elevated train station, which was less than 3 miles from our current location.