Zac splashed through the water at the bottom of the tunnel, taking deep breaths, slowing from a blind run into the darkness to a walk. He couldn't see anything at all, and so he reached out to touch the wall to guide himself.
The dirt and stone that made up the wall of the tunnel was warm under his palm, if it had been even the slightest bit hotter, Zac wouldn't be able to keep his hand there.
Zac wanted to sit down and rest, but the tunnel was narrow, the entire width of it damp thanks to the stream of water that ran through it.
'I'll keep walking, surely this tunnel will be wider further up ahead.' Zac thought to himself, as the energy seemed to leave his body completely, this was due to the fact that his adrenaline was fading away.
This also meant that the pain from his screaming muscles, overburdened lungs and the countless tiny scratches he had gotten while crashing through the forest was starting to hit him.
Tears of pain filled his eyes, which Zaxc wiped away with his one free hand, while the other remained in contact with the wall of the tunnel.
Now that he was relatively safe, hunger and thirst also made their appearance, Zac's stomach was completely empty thanks to his vomiting when he had seen the first casualties of the Transition Zone.
But what was even worse was the fact that he was walking in a source of water, while suffering the heat as his thirst only grew worse and worse, yet he could not risk drinking the water without being sure it was free of contamination.
'F*** Transition Zones, f*** Augmentations and f*** these b****** Magical Beasts!" Zac's was beginning to hit his limit, and his frustration was starting to boil over.
Right now, his entire body was just a mess of pain, and he was tired, hungry and thirst. He couldn't drink from the water that soaked his cheap trainers and made it unbearable for him to keep walking, as he made squelching noises while walking further and further into the tunnel.
Continuing down the tunnel, Zac felt the air growing warmer and warmer, the water bubbling around his feet turning to steam that started to fill the air. Zac started to feel uncomfortably hot, since the steam and heat worked together to make the tunnel feel like an enormous sauna.
Zac started to think about turning back, at this rate, the heat would soon become unbearable, and he felt that if he continued, he would end up dying of thirst in this ridiculous sauna tunnel.
But even as he turned around, Zac noticed that something was off. He hadn't realized it when walking deeper into the tunnel, but once he had turned to face the way he had come, it became clear to him.
There was the faintest hint of a pale, glowing light coming from further on in the tunnel.
'That'll be the outside!" Zac thought, he knew that any hint of light had to be coming from the outside, and so his face brightened up. as he regained hope.
This logic would have been completely fine if he had been within a tunnel on Earth twenty years ago.
But in his hungry, thirst and pain filled state, Zac had failed to account for the fact that he was in a Transition Zone, and that Altima, the world which was colliding with Earth, operated under completely different rules to earth.
The glow grew stronger and stronger, and now, Zac could see the thick white steam that filled the air, strands of it curling around him.
He could now see a few meters ahead of him, but no further, due to the thickness of the steam, he was also becoming damp, as droplets of water condensed on to him from the steam in the air.
If Zac had looked frail and gloomy before he had found himself in the middle of a Transition Zone, then the way he looked now was completely wretched.
His cheeks were sunken, and his usually bright eyes were dull and glassy, his short brown hair was plastered to his head, and his gas station uniform was completely drenched.
Zac constantly stuck his tongue out to try and lick the droplets that would condense from the steam, thanks to the heat, his thirst was only growing.
Stumbling onward on autopilot, Zac realized that the light was no longer a pale white color, instead different hues of light were appearing in the steam.
A soft orange glow, a bright harsh purple, a cool blue shine and countless other colors of varying intensities.
'No way, it couldn't be.' Zac was in disbelief, this tunnel was definitely not leading to an opening to the outside, but it might just be leading to something even better.
Zac's slow stumbling walk turned to a stumbling jog, almost tripping over the uneven ground and sending himself face first into the damp ground below.
The heat grew more and more intense, but the steam in the air grew thin, and after half running and half falling down a steep slope, Zac found himself in an enormous cavern.
Zac's jaw dropped open, and he stood at the bottom of the slope, completely and totally shocked. Slowly turning on the spot, taking in the sight of the gleaming walls of the cavern.
'No f******* way! There's enough Mana Crystals here to buy all of Tridna!' Zac couldn't believe his eyes, the walls of the cavern were studded with shining crystals of every color imaginable, each one of them glowing with Mana, the mysterious energy that permeated Altima and had spread to Earth along with the Transition Zones.
The cavern had a shining clear pool in the center, which reflected the countless shining crystals all around, giving the entire cavern an otherworldly beauty.
'Alright, I've got to take at least one of these with me.' Zac's mind turned from survival to greed, sure, he would get a finders fee if he reported this cavern to the ITC, but the sum he would get would be a mere fraction of the auction price for a single crystal.
If the Augmented that would be sent to mine these stones could profit off of them, then why shouldn't he? Zac told himself, as he gathered the courage to steal a crystal..
Taking from a Transition Zone without the permission of the proper authorities was considered as worse than smuggling all over the world. But the money from one crystal could change Zac's life, he could finally take time off work and try and turn his life around.
His mind made up, Zac looked for the smallest and brightest stone nearby, that would be the stone with the most concentrated mana, and so would be most valuable.
There! Zac spotted a shining green Mana Crystal, jutting out at around his shoulder height from the wall.
Zac walked over to it, and wiped his damp palms off on his bright red trousers. In one smooth motion, Zac placed both hands on the stone and pulled as hard as he could.
And at that moment, every single fiber of Zac's body was filled with excruciating pain.