Lily made her way over to the location of the criminal she was tracking with her hive scout. The man was moving, but he was far slower than she was— plus, he had the tendency to stop and talk to people he met along the way.
This gave her enough time to catch up to the man with relative ease. Thanks to her speed and flexibility, she reached him in a matter of minutes.
Arriving at the location of the man, she didn't outright approach him since he was still in a relatively populated area talking to people— for now, she planned to watch him and follow him until she got a chance to meet him alone.
Lily remained camouflaged and followed the man from a slight distance; she didn't get too close in case he somehow found out about her, but he never left her sight for a second.
Finally, the man entered what looked like a worn-out and abandoned building— it was three stores in height and looked like it was originally an apartment complex or something similar.
She followed behind the man, expecting him to use one of the rooms for whatever he was here for— but to her surprise, the man did not go up the stairs but rather down.
They were already on the base floor of the building, so going down would lead them to only one location— a basement. A basement in such a place couldn't possibly be stable.
But she followed him down anyway because, at this point, she was just curious as to where he was going.
The man quickly made his way down to the basement— every now and then, he would look back and peer over his shoulders to make sure he wasn't being followed. Unable to see her following him, he carried on.
Eventually, he got to the end of the steps— but what stood there was a locked metal door.
The man knocked on the door three times, stopped, then four more times— a pattern of sorts.
As he finished knocking, a slit in the door slid open, and a voice rang out from inside— a male voice addressing the man.
"When a man is faced with his own death."
The man Lily had followed continued the sentence upon the other man stopping.
"He finds the impossible less of a barrier."
With his sentence finished, the slit closed shut, and after a few seconds, the door slowly opened and allowed the man to come inside.
Throughout this entire interaction, Lily simply observed. A password, a secret underground area, multiple people— it seemed like she had stumbled upon something bigger than she had planned.
What it was was the only question— but now she was far too invested to simply pull out.
Maybe this could benefit her— her current goal was to get to the Savage Lands, but she had no reason to rush just yet. She could spend a few days, maybe even weeks here.
With the thought of finding out what all this was in mind— she quickly followed behind the man before the door was shut.
"Welcome back, brother. Did you encounter any trouble?"
The man who had been guarding the door spoke as soon as the other man had entered— shutting the door behind him.
As Lily listened in on their conversation, she peered around the room they had just entered. It wasn't anything impressive; it was an underground room that was seemingly dug out from the ground and stabilized using pillars of iron.
Pipes ran throughout the room, allowing air and coolness to stabilize the room so that people wouldn't suffer from just being under there. This one room was relatively small— but it seemed to only be an entrance room as Lily could see other doors leading elsewhere.
If this was made by these people— it could be called impressive. Especially if they did this without being caught or found out by the government or local authorities.
The two men spoke casual conversation— what he found while out, if anyone followed him, how people were doing— the likes of things Lily didn't care to hear about.
Taking this chance, she decided to explore this place a little further; taking one of the doors, she made her way down a dimly lit hallway and arrived in a large room.
Weapons, people— lots of them. The room was much bigger than the previous one; it could easily house over a hundred people at once with its size.
Inside it were roughly two or three dozen people of varying ages, genders, and looks, some of whom were carrying weapons while others did not.
But from just a glance, Lily could tell that this place was much more than just some simple underground hideout for a small gang— these were heavily armed people with the means to cause a lot of chaos if they wanted.
What stood out even further was— some of them were mutants.