Kam and Bert.

This place was dark but it was fairly lit with Laz's torch that he was holding. He turned to the pipe that the ladder led to. He proceeded to give me the torch instead. His facial expression did not change and decided to stay silent. I looked at the torch for a while in confusion inspecting it as if it had some sort of special message on it. But there wasn't. Laz pointed upwards. I assumed he wanted me to go up, but I wasn't too sure. But I did it anyway. 

After what happened just now, I was more anxious than before. Quite literally anything could happen. I stepped onto one step of the ladder. I had tilt my head up at the pipeline above me. I couldn't see anything at the end. The ladder faded into the darkness. I turned behind me to look at Laz, but he wasn't there anymore. I sighed and hoped for the best outcome. 

I placed the torch in my mouth and I began climbing towards the top. The ladder was so rusty that it sliced my bare skin on the corroded metal. I tried to ignore it as I continued to climb up.

One step after another. There was a missing step on the ladder. I started sweating due to the heat that the pipe contained. I looked up and caught sight of a turn within the pipe. That was the only thing that motivated me to reach further. I stretched my arm to the step above the missing one, almost ripping my arm off in the process of extension. I made contact and immediately I felt a cut that dug into my skin. 

I retracted quickly and tried to find a smooth spot where there was no sharp metal standing out. I ended up climbing past and landed on the side where the pipe turned. I placed my body flat on the metal surface and crawled to regain my balance again. The extension of the pipe I was in now was significantly much larger than the one I was in before. I wasn't able to fully stand but I was content with the spacious change. I took out the torch and crawled further. The feeling of metal below me was uncomfortable, and the friction was creating heat up the bottom of my clothes. The tunnel seemed long. There weren't any signs of life the more I crawled. 

After what I could assume was twenty minutes I had reached a point. There was a hole below where the tunnel pipe stopped. I looked down and there was a platform for where I could stand. I turn around to position myself allowing my legs first through the hole and then the rest of my upper body. 

I landed on a metal floor in some sort of sewage system. I was in a higher place than where the sewage water was. There were many connections that led to different parts of the system. But there seemed to be one path that I obviously had to take. A small bridge that led to an electrical box that led to another ladder above. A staircase right next to the electrical box was for the lower level assuming technicians. The water stream was uncomfortably loud. For a moment I stopped to think. Was I in that water sewage? I smelled my clothes and they didn't have an odd scent to them but I was still suspicious. 

I stepped onto the bridge that connected to the other side of the system. I heard someone or something down below as I began to walk. 

"Yeahhh everything is good down here, nothing- uh yeah nothing too problematic,"

A worker?... I stepped off the bridge to have a clearer understanding of where the person was. But I couldn't see anything that stood out. It was just a warehouse for sewage. It wasn't long until another person appeared. A leg came out of the hole on the other side of the bridge where I should've gone. 

"No one here Kam. All clear." They descended the ladder. I climbed back up the hole where I just came from before they could land their eyes on me. I wiggled around to get comfortable being in the pipeline waiting for the people to leave. The sound from the pipe tunnel was hollow and somewhat loud. I stayed frozen in my position. The shuffling did create unwanted noise which I was worried about. 

"Did you hear that?"

I started to sweat profusely. My eyes widened, and I started to think of solutions of how to get out of this situation swiftly. My heart palpitates at a weird rhythm. 

"What? I can barely hear you over the stream pal!," 

"Okay!" the other worker shouted. 

I was safe for now. I should use the advantage of the noise coming from the stream and somehow scoot between them and make it to the hole across the bridge. I was soggy sitting in a pipe waiting for the right moment to make a run. It wasn't doing me any good sitting here so I chose to climb back down. When I made an impact on the metal surface of the floor, it made a loud clap that alerted anyone who was nearby. I swung the hood to conceal my face from any witnesses. 

"You okay Bert?"

"Yeah, I'm okay…?" But it wasn't okay, because Bert was on the bottom level, while I was on the level above that only had a metal surface. If they caught on I could be screwed. 

I ran onto the metal bridge, which made a clear indication of sound from my footsteps. They were both silent on both sides. They seemed busy but they tried to scout out if it was them or was it someone - me - on the bridge. 

"Hey Kam." 

"Yeah?..." 

"Are you sure there's no one else here?" Said Burt with a unsure voice. "I'm going to turn off the stream for a moment to hear if there's anyone else because somethings fishy…" 

"Okay." 

I was on the other side right beneath the hole I needed to exit through. It looked locked. But there was a keyhole. The water stream started to come to a halt and the entire room became extremely quiet. So quiet that I could hear my laboured breathing from the run. No one moved an inch. I was silently dying in the corner hidden. 

"Hello? Anyone here?"

"I don't think anyone would make it here… it's negative sixty… so i don't think anyone could be here with us." 

"Bert, go check… just in case." 

Damn, my cover is about to get blown. There isn't anywhere else I could go but up, but the key! I needed the key! That's all I needed. The electrical box I was standing on felt warm, I looked down and it had a sign saying "Do not stand for long periods of time - only when the machine is off." 

Someone on the steps was approaching. I had a plan…

As soon as the worker appeared wearing a red high-vis jacket with safety glasses on, I immediately attacked. They looked left, at the bridge, then they turned right towards me and my fist. I made contact with him, which left him knocked out for a short time. The impact of his body falling onto the surface made a clunking sound that I needed to resolve before the other worker made his way here.

"You good Bert?"... a moment passes by and no response is given. A small cry coming out of the mouth of the unconscious worker startled me. Was he not unconscious? His eyes fell onto me while in his state of shock. I pressed my finger against my lips to make sure he wouldn't do anything rash and reveal where I was. I knelt down to the floor while I had a strong gaze at his face. I come closer to his face.

"Give me your keys to that hole, and I won't kill you." I whispered to the helpless man. 

He was skinny, wearing a dirty grey shirt, his eyes looked lifeless while I spoke to him. His body did not move but his eyes did. I didn't want to wait any longer so I swung another fist at his face. It wasn't hard to hurt him. It was clear I did a good deal of damage. But he isn't reacting. I tried not to kill him completely but just a light threat. I forced his head up by pulling his brown hair which was messy so I didn't care about ruining it anymore. His eyes dropped and stopped following me completely. I knew what deceased people looked like. And after a short assessment of the face…i think…

"Bert!" Kam shouted from the other side of the stream. 

I dropped the head of Bert slamming him into the metal surface and took the keys out of the pocket to continue further. I looked back at the body of Bert and I honestly felt bad about what I did. But it didn't matter since everyone thought I was a villain to Kresa. I climbed through the hole and onto the other side, closing the lid. I started to hear weeping from where I originally was before. It was Kam. His best friend. 

"No! No! No!" His screams were of terror. A raging storm of emotions reigned upon the troubled man watching his closest pal lying dead in front of him. 

"Whoever you are- I will make sure…" He was stumbling on his words but it was clear what he wanted to do. Kill me. Luckily he didn't know what I looked like, so it was all good.