The Earth After Rebirth

According to the texts his grandfather left behind, there were only two entrances to the underground ring. One was directly through the Blakeson building, another was kilometers away from town. Deep underground.

There were old sewage drains that connected to the underground ring, and they decided that was the best option for them. They couldn\'t just walk in through the front door, it\'d be too daring and reckless.

They drove towards the end of the town, parked the car there and carried on, on foot. They decided to leave it there, because a car out of town would\'ve been really suspicious to anyone who saw it.

"Ahh, it reeks." Ishaan complained as they pried the sealed tunnel open.

They didn\'t bring tools for this, but the weapons, the batons which the president gave them were strong enough to open the thing. Warm and disgusting air wafted, attacking their every senses.

"What did you think it\'ll be? Breakfast on Christmas morning?" Felix, with his nose wrinkled, giving Ishaan a peculiar questioning look.

Everybody else laughed a bit. They one by one entered and started walking towards their goals. Despite not being used by their country for many years, the tunnels were moist, they could hear rodents scuttling about.

Moss was embedded deep within the walls, the stone wasn\'t visible anymore. The ground was riddled with very stubborn vines that grew through the concrete ground.

"Homey." Kiro joked.

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Though nobody laughed, the darkness left much to be desired. Most of them weren\'t scared, but it was still unsettling. The dark was a friend to no one, and the game left a scar or two in their mental. And they didn\'t have armours and skills here.

They had flashlights though, but decided to walk a good distance before turning them on, they didn\'t want to risk being found out. As expected, Ishaan was the one who was mostly paranoid.

They walked a good distance and turned on the light, the vines weren\'t green as they would\'ve expected. They were darkened, maybe because they grew in these darkened tunnels. Within minutes of being inside, they encountered their first obstacle.

There were simply too many tunnels. Each going to their respective direction, it was unfortunate that his grandfather didn\'t draw out the exact map of the underground. Kiro was a little pissed, but glad nonetheless that they had at least the whole day to look through each of them.

"We can always split up." He suggested.

"That\'s a terrible idea! Tell him guys!" Ishaan countered.

"I mean, that is a splendid idea, we would cover more ground." Nikolai said thoughtfully.

Ishaan was at the brink of tears. Going inside this place with other people was one thing, investigating it alone was something else entirely.

"Okay guys, quit teasing him." Hiro said. "We should start with the first one."

The farther they walked, the less it resembled what they left down there. They could also see train tracks, something that they\'d ever seen in history books.

They must\'ve walked for an hour when they stumbled upon a big boulder closing the path tightly. They didn\'t want to risk tearing it down lest the whole underground came crashing down, they figured if they didn\'t find any other way they\'d come back here.

It wasn\'t a race against time yet, they still had a whole day and another if it came to that. They could leave on Sunday night if it forced them to.

One by one they entered the different tunnels, with nothing great but the terrible smell happening. If they weren\'t trained, even as evolved humans this would be a hard thing to do within two days.

"I\'m hungry." Ishaan complained.

"Eat the chocolate bar then." Nikolai advised.

"Man, I\'d do anything for roasted chicken." He said dreamily.

"How can you be thinking about food, in such a disgusting place?" Kiro asked him, Ishaan seemed less and less of a young master the more he knew him.

"How can I not? The last thing we had at your company was snacks!" He shot back.

They were entering their fifth one while arguing about this. Then a foul stench hit their noses like a ton of bricks. It was only Ishaan who was oblivious to what it could be.

As kids who grew up in the lower district, they knew that distinct rotting smell, they could pick it out from any. Nikolai and Felix had their fair share of a hard life, they were a little familiar too.

At first it seemed like another boulder. The closer they got the clearer they could see the mountain of corpses. Some old, some new, some already nothing but bone, some still with flesh that was eaten away by the second.

"What the f*ck—" Ishaan didn\'t get to finish his sentence, as bile made its way to his mouth and he just let it go.

"I thought your stomach was empty?" Felix teased him. "Why, never seen a rotting corpse before?"

"Of course I haven\'t! What kind of lives have you guys lead—" He was interrupted by another round. It went on until there was nothing but translucent liquid coming up.

"I think we found our way in." Kiro pointed at the small hole that was enough to fit the tallest person in their world.

Kiro lead the way, with Hiro at his heels. Ishaan was helped to walk by Felix and Nikolai. They walked for many hours and finally reached a well made underground arena.

People were making so much noise, their sudden appearance drew no attention. They quickly blended in the back of the crowd. Even as far as they were, they could see well the ruthless fight going on in the ring.

A very strong and well-built warrior was absolutely destroying a kid that looked to be a few years older than them.

Hiro stood, transfixed, shocked at what he was seeing. There was no way, there was absolutely no way that was who he thought it was.

"That\'s my dad." He said softly, sound already escaped his ears. He couldn\'t hear anything.