42 The next five came out of the tunnel

Aaron inhaled deeply and entered the tunnel once Zinna was a few feet away. When he went to get water, Adan had asked him about the wound on Zinna's legs.

"Doesn't the wound look like a bite mark on her legs?"

"Whose legs?"

"The woman who you recused…"

"Oh! Zinna? I did not see any wounds on her legs." He said as he was irritated that everyone is trying to portray her as a bad person while they are disguising themselves as good people around here.

They have let one innocent girl roam around this place by herself and they were not even interested in trying to find her. All they were worried about was themselves and no one else.

"Are you sure? She was limping with one leg when I supported her before while trying to bring her away to where others were!" Adan said while thinking hard.

Being a fool is ok, but being ignorant just because whatever he was thinking was correct is definitely wrong. From the time Aaron came back, he kept on nitpicking Ura and treated everyone like they were his enemy as they did not help him rescue the damsel in distress.

"All I am saying is just take a look at her legs and you will find out if Ura did lie or not." Adan looked at Aaron once and said while walked forward.

Aaron immediately rushed back but met Ura on the way.

"I found a tunnel, maybe we can all escape using that..." Ura paused and looked at Aaron.

She was not sure if he would even listen to her or would just start to find faults at her once again. He just stared at her but did not say anything.

Adan who came behind him said,

"Good, then let us all try to find out if that tunnel would take us out or not. I will go get Upton while Aaron will bring Zinna."

They waited for a few minutes but Aaron and Zinna did not come back. So Adan decided to go bring them.

Aaron noticed the wound on her leg when he reached the place where he left Zinna. But at that time, he still could not believe anyone would lie with the circumstances they were under.

Once Aaron entered the tunnel, he looked at that wound on her leg and the way she was trying her best to not let that leg touch the ground, his expression became complicated.

When Ura almost reached the end, she noticed that the tunnel was split into two. She was unable to decide, so she stopped and sat inside the tunnel.

"What happened?" Upton asked.

"The tunnel is splitting into two. I am not sure which way to choose." Ura said.

As the two of them stopped moving, Adan asked with disappointedly,

"Is the way ahead blocked? Should we now go back?"

"No, the tunnel got divided into two and Ura was not sure which way she should go," Upton explained.

"Move back, I will try to go ahead and check," Adan said to Upton

And then he turned towards his back and uttered,

"Looks like you guys need to stay here for the time being. I will go ahead and search for a possible route as the tunnel split into two. Ura is unable to decide which way to go."

"I told you this would not be the way out! No one listens to me and everyone believes what Ura says, all the time. Now, look at us being stuck in this nasty place. I am unable to breathe because of the stench around us." Zinna started to complain.

Aaron got irritated this time and shouted, "That's enough Zinna. Stop it! It is not like it was better outside the tunnel. Our first priority is to escape from this awful place... "

Adan just shook his head and tried to cross Upton, but Upton stopped him and said,

"Why don't I go first? I will go to one side of the tunnel while you go to the other one. Let us keep counting to five hundred and once it is over we will come back if we cannot find a way out in any of the tunnels." Upton suggested.

"Ok"

Upton went ahead of Ura and took the left side while Adan took the right. Adan did not have to go far as once he counted to a hundred, he heard water flowing nearby. He rushed towards the direction and saw the tunnel exit behind a waterfall.

He came back and informed others but Upton was still not back yet.

"We might either need to jump down the waterfall or try to hold the edges of the rock and climb down. That might really be dangerous as the rocks might be slippery and one false step could turn to be fatal."

All of them hoped that Upton might find the best way out of there as jumping down the falls would be unimaginable or even trying to climb down holding the wet rocks.

When Upton came back after they waited for a few minutes, his face clearly looked unsettled and disturbed.

"...." He lifted his head up and then lowered it again. He even feared to take a breath or close his eyes as the image of what he saw flashed in his head!

"Let us all leave using this side of the tunnel that Adan went…" He declared.

After looking at his expression no one had the courage to ask what he saw or why he wanted them to go the other way. They started to move towards the waterfall, hoping that it would not turn to be the last breath they were to take while trying to escape this ordeal.

Adan jumped into the falls while closing his eyes. Ura, who was behind him, hesitated as she never learned how to swim. Adan noticed that the waterfall was actually not so tall and the tunnel was just a few meters away from the groundwater. The water level was too shallow and no one really needed to worry about jumping into the water.

"There is no need to worry or fret. The water below does not even have too much depth and the waterfall is tiny compared to what we anticipated it to be! It hardly reaches my knee, so just jump." Adan shouted from down.

But due to the sound the waterfall emitted, they could only hear, worry, water, depth, and jump…

Ura held her dirty skirt tightly and shivered. Upton noticed her change and asked, "Are you afraid?"

"I don't know swimming. Are you really sure, we cannot go the other way?"

"No!" Without hesitation, Upton shouted.

Whatever he saw made him realize that this place was not somewhere anyone would want to come to, even for a haunted place experience. On the other side of the tunnel that he went, he saw the rats had pulled the human remains and hid them inside the tunnel.

No one can crawl into that space without touching the decayed organs of the once alive humans. The odor of putrescent flesh covered the whole area while the rotting remains covered the tunnel's ground.

Forget about crossing those disintegrated parts to reach the end, it would be even difficult to imagine touching those decomposed particles with bare hands while moving ahead.

"If you are scared, I will jump down first. And then I will catch you along with Adan when you jump. Do not worry, I will save you and not let you drown. I promise!"

Upton then crossed Ura and jumped into the water. His body hit the water below and splashed at Adan. Zinna made an ugly face when she heard him shouting at Ura,

"Come on, Ura, you can do it! Just jump! I will catch you!"

"Yes, jump! It is not too deep. We are just standing right below the waterfalls." Adan shouted along with him.

Ura still hesitated and looked down with shaky legs and trembling hands. Zinna got annoyed and kicked her down without any warning using her uninjured leg. Aaron noticed that and he lost any hope that he had left for Zinna. Thankfully, Ura did not hit the rocks on the side and fell down directly into the water.

Adan and Upton jumped into the water and brought her up. She gasped for air and coughed vigorously. She did not expect that she would fall so suddenly.

"You are fine! You are fine! It's ok! Everything is ok now!" Upton patted her back slightly while Adan held her hand to make her stand steadily inside the water.

"You take her to the side and let her rest. Try to clean your bodies, you both stink a lot...." He splashed the water on them both. Then he added, "drink some water to stay hydrated. The water is really tasty over here."

Adan then shouted for Zinna to jump while standing a little away. Zinna acted like she was scared and tried to gain more sympathy from Aaron.

"Aaron, I am too afraid. If I jump down now into the water, I fear my wounds may get infected. What should I do now? Can we really not go the other way? Maybe that might even..."

"Zinna can you please just jump, I don't want to leave anyone and go anywhere. I might just be lucky to not see any creatures till now and I have no wish to encounter one alone while being with someone who can't even walk." Aaron said despite being piqued with her attitude.