“I don’t know much about it, sorry. However, I can guarantee you that even though what I know about this place is only a little bit of what’s there to be discovered, everything I am going to tell you is a fact. A proven fact. Because I have seen them with my very own eyes. I have heard them with my very own ears,” Allen Mar continued as he shrugged the detective’s hands off his shoulders. “Before I was brought down here, the officers in charge of taking care of me had to take a long route around the entire City Reserves first. With my hands being cuffed, and with my mouth being taped, I was able to witness every single cultish thing that happened in every building that we walked through.” Detective Deib Anchorman and Well were already engaged in the conversation, likewise, they were also convinced that whatever it was that they were about to hear from Allen Mar, it was going to be a big reveal. To Well, it will serve as another note-worthy pointer to be added to his long list of reas
“Now, how do we get out of this place?” Well asked after a brief silence that broke the momentum of the three’s conversation. “Please don’t tell me there is no way out other than that secret door or else I will be losing my mind,” he added, his heart skipping in overwhelming beats. He had enough of those goosebumps and chills and fear of being caught. This time, all that was Well had been asking for was a peace of mind. But by the looks of the situation, it seemed like peace of mind would be very difficult to obtain. "How is not the question that we should be answering here. Where is not either," Allen Mar replied in an instant. "The biggest question that we need to find an answer for is When. When do we get out of this place— that, that is where we should be focusing for," he added as he stepped out of his cell and finally, after more or less thirty minutes, he was able to catch a glimpse of light from the torches. " Are you trying to say that there is already an exit from this pl
“So, basically, the plan is to go all the way to that tunnel one after another and hope that we don’t die above by the time the soldiers would be alerted that three invaders have just infiltrated the place? Is that the ‘only’ plan the two of you are talking about?” Well confronted the two, his eyebrows were having a close match against one another as if entering a duel to see who among them would win. “Yes, Well. That is the plan. Unless you have another thing in mind, we are going to be sticking to that. We can’t just be stuck down here. We do not have all the night. And in case you did not know, we have to make it out before four o’clock in the morning because soldiers are going to be doing their first inspection of the day to check in their inmates are still on their respective cells. If that time comes and we have not gotten out of this place yet, we are surely gonna end up inside those empty cells. And take note, I’ve been into one– although it was a no-brainer because I had a d
“Euthanasia? And what the heck is that? I hope you excuse my ignorance, but I have not heard of that word yet. I do not even know what kind of thing is that!” Well said as he shrugged his shoulders and stared at Allen Mar long enough for him to realize that he was being honest when he said he did not know a single thing about it. Allen Mar only nodded his head and massaged his eyes with both of his hands. Shortly after rubbing his eyes, his fingertips roamed around his whole face. He could feel his sweaty skin in every touch. “He sighed. “All right, all right. Let me explain it to you while the detective is not here yet,” Allen Mar said. “The quickest way to understand euthanasia is by recognizing that is it lethal– mercy killing, to be exact. It is a process of the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. The practice is illegal in most countries, but because that old man is expert enough to know the best way to hide i
If only overthought memories could kill, Well’s cold and lifeless body would have been on the floor for hours by now. The questions, the what-ifs– he could not brush them off his head. Ah, overthought memories of all sorts. Like what if they would be busted by the soldiers just before they even made it to the tunnel? Like what if there was no opening by the end of the secret exit Allen Mar was talking about? What if all there ever had was a trap? What if there were no other available options but to recognize the end of a life lived worthy? “It is giving me anxiety, goodness!” Well exclaimed as he flashed a quick look through the dark and narrow tunnel spread wide inside of the door ahead of them. “We have no choice, kid. It is either we die without doing anything at all, or we die trying. Choose your faith,” Detective Deib Anchorman said as he swung the door wide open and stepped his left foot first inside. “To put an end to our debate, I am going to give this tunnel a dry run. I
“That is the most gruesome revelation I have ever heard in my entire life,” Well said as his jaws dropped to the floor. “You know what, I am now starting to believe that this city is indeed a devil’s den. It seems like everyone here are lunatics! Like, really! I am not gonna lie, but at first I thought it was partly hard to believe all of those accusations you and other strangers I have met thrown to the city of New Bill. I mean, how would I believe it? This has been the city where my old man grew up. This has been the city that made him decide to pursue his dreams of becoming the person he had always aspired to be.” Well paused as if a sudden realization had struck him to the core. “Maybe there are just things that are not for us. I have been wanting to follow the same path that he had taken that is why I chose to study here, but look at me now. Instead of me chasing my dreams, it’s the nightmares that chase me.” He sighed and it was so deep Allen Mar could feel the exhaustion his fr
And so, their journey of escaping the tunnel commenced. Detective Deib Anchorman led the way, and behind him was Well, while behind Well was Allen Mar. The tunnel was all dark; pitch-black, even. Nothing could have been seen by a naked eye, except for the glow of the dog tag that the two men in navy uniform were wearing. It took them a good while venturing the narrow but long tunnel. Prior to the start of their walk, Allen Mar believed fifteen minutes was enough for them to make it to the end. However, now that they were on their way, they realized fifteen minutes was actually short. That had been proven because they were in the tunnel for about twelve minutes already, but they were yet to reach the middle of it– that was according to Detective Deib Anchorman, the appointed leader of the three men group. “When will this walk be over?” Well complained as he started to feel itchy on the knees. “Really? Well? We have not even reached halfway yet,” Allen Mar answered. He was holding W
Detective Deib Anchorman was the first to make it close to the manhole. When he got there, he drew his ear closer to the ground floor. “I don’t hear anything,” he said after five seconds of focusing all his hearing senses on the ground. “I am supposed to be hearing footsteps and cranking guns and indistinct chatters coming from the soldiers, but I don’t hear anything right now.“Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?” Well asked, his heart had been pounding so fast and so strong it was no different compared to a jack hammer used in smacking a hardened soil. Allen Mar chimed into the conversation and then corrected Well, “It is supposed to be a good thing, I believe. The detective not hearing anything from above only means that the soldiers have not returned from the search yet. That means we will have enough time to make it out here and perhaps even out of the vicinity as well. Although the latter would be so dangerous, and I don’t think our chances of success are that h