Something was coming for him. Aksel could feel the slight shift in the air around him and just when a hand was about to touch him he grabbed hold of it and twisted it to the side sitting up at once.
"Ow Ow, dude it's me," he heard a familiar voice speak to him but since the room was still dark he couldn't see anything making him keep his grip tight still. It was only when the lights were turned on did he let go of the hand at once looking at Mort with an apologetic expression.
He was still groggy with sleep even though his survival instincts had worked and rubbing his eyes he asked in a hoarse voice as he said, "I am sorry. Did you need something from me?"
He didn't know for how many hours he was sleeping but it was definitely not enough as he felt the need to sleep again. His body was aching in different places and he wanted to cuss Mort for disturbing him from his mindless dream world.
"Hey, did you forget that you said you wanted to come with us to get the supplies?" Mort accused as Aksel was slowly drifting back to his sleep. His eyes felt heavy and though he had heard the words he could hardly make sense of them. It was only when Mort said that he should get more sleep and that he could go another time to the forest that Aksel's eyes snapped open and immediately getting to his feet he almost fell off the bed while climbing down.
"No, I want to go! I am still a bit tired so," he left the sentence hanging as a form of apology, and laughing Michael shook his head at him and led him toward the showers where he gave him the necessities and a set of new clothes to clean himself and wear making Aksel thoroughly grateful.
Going in a few steps Aksel realized that this tunnel itself had a dividing wall that segregated the tunnel for the two genders. Two doors led to either side of the tunnel and were marked as men and women, with men being the one on the right and women on the left.
Going into the men's he noticed that as soon as he opened the door there were three small basins with a decent-sized mirror attached in front of each of them. Just beside the basins were five shower stalls that were each divided by metallic sheets that worked as walls running from top to bottom and doors that covered the entirety of the person inside except for their feet.
In front of these stalls were five toilet stalls with a similar layout and Aksel was reminded of old public washrooms as he looked at them. Thankfully they were kept comparatively clean and finishing his morning business as soon as he could he changed into the new clothes and emerged from the bathroom around fifteen minutes later.
He had washed his hair and body with the soap that was available there and with the clean cloth that somehow fit he felt like he was born as a new person again.
He had dumped his dirty clothes on his bed where Mort was waiting for him and taking his sword Mort wore it on his back as he asked, "Ready to leave?"
Aksel nodded and the two moved out of the hall and towards the exit where Mort typed the password in and the door opened again.
He didn't know who else was going with them but he was pleasantly surprised when he saw Yve standing there in the small group as well. The opening of the door had garnered the attention of the group to them and they greeted him with a smile.
He noticed familiar faces among the group of five people standing there. There was Renee glowering at Mort and the gruff man that he had learned was called Grant was talking to another woman. While another man who had been there yesterday with him passed him a smile when Aksel met his gaze.
They were all wearing almost identical clothes that encompassed of full black sleeves t-shirt and a pair of black cotton joggers that covered them all the way from top to bottom. No one was wearing a mask as of yet but as Mort had given him to carry one with himself he knew that others must have them as well.
The other thing that he took notes of was the fact that each and every one of them had been carrying some form of weapon on them. It made him wonder if the place he was going to was a risky one to have everyone this prepared.
"You are late Mort," Renee huffed eyeing him with hatred, and then turning to look at Aksel she said, "Just let me know if he annoys you I will tie him up and hang him from one of the bars in the training room."
Mort only stuck his tongue out at her as Grant led the group through the tunnel and towards their destination.
"I knew you would want to come here," Yve sighed as she walked beside Aksel following the group. Aksel could tell that she was annoyed but the fact that she was there made him feel better among all these new people and in response he thankfully grinned at her.
"So what do you think? Are they going to the same place?" She asked the thought irritating her a little. They had gone through a lot of struggles to escape from there after covering the long distance only to go back to that wretched place.
"Well I can't say for sure but we didn't see anything else even close to it so I have a feeling it's the same one," he replied back noticing that they were taking a different route than the one they came from.
He wondered how the people remembered this maze-like structure that this vast sewage system comprised of as he noted that almost all tunnels and walls looked identical to him.
At last, the team of seven people stopped below a manhole and Aksel hadn't noticed how the hole opened but he watched it move open on its own as the previous one had. He wondered if the manhole had a sensor fit to it as he watched the people climb up to the surface.
It was the same layout as the last one he noticed as he stepped foot into the big box-like structure that had a secret holographic room. When he finally shuffled out in the open he noticed that the sun had barely even risen properly yet. Following the line, they all ducked out of the hole in the wall and were out of the boundaries of Novus at last.
Here Aksel was pleasantly surprised to find that a forest was visible to him not very far away. It was only around half a kilometer at the most and walking there wouldn't be a hassle at all.
The distance as Aksel had guessed was quickly covered and looking back Aksel noticed that the towering buildings of the city looked further away from this side of Novus as more industrial factories were visible here.
As soon as they had stepped foot into the forest Grant instructed all of them to wear their masks and sharing a look with Yve they followed the group staying essentially behind them.
Suddenly Yve noticed Grant who was walking in front of them disappear from her site. It happened one by one to all of them who walked before and gulping she got an ill feeling in her gut witnessing this.
'Could it be-?'
She wondered and as she stepped foot in her worst fear was proved true.
It was the same forest, it was the same place, and like before it was filled with drones everywhere.