The ladder seemed endless. The further they descended, the damper the air became. Above them, the sounds of pursuit had faded, replaced by that ever-present pulse.
"Wait," Shen called urgently. "I'm picking up Hayazaki's signal. It's moving - fast."
They hurried down the ladder, no longer caring about the noise. Riley's Zelion frame made the metal groan dangerously with each step.
"Which direction?" Kayode asked between breaths.
"East... no, north... it keeps changing." Shen's fingers moved frantically across his terminal. "Something's wrong. The signal's erratic, like he's being transported."
They reached the bottom of the shaft, finding themselves in a wide tunnel lined with pipes. Distant sounds echoed through the passage - wheels on stone, voices, and something that might have been struggle.
"This way!" Angela suddenly broke into a run, following some intuition the others couldn't grasp. They chased after her, their borrowed bodies protesting the exertion.
The tunnel branched repeatedly, but Shen's terminal guided them, following Hayazaki's increasingly unstable signal. They passed loading bays and storage rooms, glimpsing workers who barely paid them notice - everyone down here seemed focused on their own urgent tasks.
"The signal's getting weaker," Shen warned as they ran. "Like something's interfering with it."
They burst into a larger chamber filled with parked carriages, just in time to see one pull away - a sleek, black vehicle with tinted windows. Through the back window, they caught a glimpse of something being loaded inside - a hospital gurney, straps hanging loose.
"There!" Riley started forward, but Angela grabbed her arm.
"Too late," she said quietly. "They've got him."
Shen's terminal confirmed it - Hayazaki's signal was fading rapidly as the carriage disappeared into another tunnel.
They stood there, breathing hard, watching their first real lead slip away into Sveethlad's depths.
They followed the carriage's tunnel until it sloped upward, eventually emerging through a concealed exit into an alley. The transition from underground to street level was jarring. Gray light filtered through a perpetual haze of ash and smoke. Around them, Sveethlad revealed itself in fragments.
Towers rose like crooked spines into the smog-filled sky, their surfaces bristling with pipes and vents that leaked steam into the perpetual gloom. The streets were crowded with the sick and dying - some walking, others being carried or dragged. Many wore masks, ranging from simple cloth wrappings to elaborate filtered devices.
Shen checked his terminal one last time. "The signal's gone completely. Whatever transport they used, it went out of range."
They moved to the alley's entrance, watching as the black carriage disappeared into the city's maze of streets. Around them, life in Sveethlad continued its grim procession. A group of masked figures hurried past, carrying someone on a stretcher. Nearby, a woman coughed blood into a stained handkerchief while her children tugged at her sleeves.
"Now what?" Surya asked, his voice tight with tension.
Before anyone could answer, bells began to toll somewhere in the city - deep, resonant sounds that made the sick around them pause and look up with expressions of both hope and fear.
"We need to find shelter," Riley decided, her massive red frame drawing wary glances from passersby. "Figure out our next move. We're too exposed here."
They stepped fully into the street, their first real steps into this world of sickness and ash. Above them, the city's towers disappeared into the smog, while more bells joined the chorus, their sound rolling across Sveethlad like a wave of judgment.
The presence of it all, as dull as it was overpowered them, and so they grimaced under its gray light.
Whatever had taken Hayazaki, they would find him. But first, they needed to learn how to survive this world, if they were to get any luck in saving their friends.