song_tra_bong | In-country with Julian: day two

'Yes, fine.'

He stands easily and shoulders his bow, straps on his belt with his sword.

'What is it you're looking for there? Possible places they might attack or more suitable places for ambush?'

She'll probably say both but that's fine with him.

"A little bit of both, but more than that."

She checks her pistol. "On a supply run a few weeks ago, I overheard mention of something there. My guess is a tunnel complex; it'd be worth checking out."

'Tunnels?' he asks drily. 'Enemy or friendly?'

He's kind of hoping it'll be enemy because then there might be things to kill.

He twists shadows to replace the arrows he used yesterday, making sure the quiver is full. Then watches her checking her pistol and when she seems to be done says, 'Lead on then.'

She throws a glance over her shoulder, grinning. "Enemy, of course. Some of them stretch for miles."

She throws a glance to the sky to check their position, then starts walking.

He smiles a bit back at her, even if it is a touch cold. 'Of course. Then hopefully we'll find some enemy in there.

He follows in silence. He's enjoying the trip, despite having not slept the night before, but he doesn't really want her to know that he is.

"Hopefully. Or at least enough other things to keep it interesting. Stake pits, rigged explosives, etcetera."

She lets her words trail off into nothing, pausing now and then to check their direction and angle further south.

And then they've arrived--at a hole in the ground.

He looks down into the hole, having been perfectly happy to walk in silence. He'd been more interested in the surroundings anyway, and watching how Mary Anne navigated through them.

'This is the entrance?'

"Mhm." She crouches low next to the hole, studying it with head cocked.

"If we're lucky, it'll open up not too far in." She slips the rifle's carry strap over her head, swinging the gun around to lie on her back. She draws her pistol and slips a flashlight from her bag, shining the beam down into entrance.

"Looks like this actually is a way in. No stake trap that I can see, but if I start screaming, you pull me out quick, yeah?" With that, she sits briefly on the lip of the hole before dropping out of sight.

He doesn't even have time to nod before she's gone and he sighs, because what if he was going to say no? But no screams come anyway, so it's irrelevant. He just crouches by the entrance.

'Mary Anne?'

And when no answer comes straight away he digs his fingers into the earth by the entrance and jumps down, dangling by one hand with his legs drawn up in case there are spikes.

'All clear?'

She's crouched low in a tunnel extending from the drop shaft. "All clear," she calls back over her shoulder.

She shuffles forward, the ground squelching from last night's rain. She doesn't get much farther before the ground drops out from under her.

There's a second of stabbing fear, where her mouth opens to scream because God only knows what's under her feet--but then her boots impact dirt and she sighs in relief. "Careful!" she yells back up the shaft. "There's another drop down in about a dozen yards."

His vision is very good in the dark, so he sees it fairly clearly as he steps towards it. He drops easily and stands next to her, saying casually, 'Are you alright?'

She nods. "Fine. It just startled me a bit." Almost as much as your question.

She looks around the chamber. Aside from the shaft they entered by, there are three other tunnels heading off in various directions--one a shaft angled up through the ceiling, one extending horizontally and another angled down through the floor. "Which way should we go?"

He shrugs, even though she probably can't see it. 'It depends in which direction you want to go Mary Anne. Do you have a specific destination in mind?'

She laughs a little. "You kidding? These things could go anywhere; they could double back and take us halfway to Cambodia before we knew it. Only way to know where they go is crawl through them."

She sweeps the beam of her flashlight around the chamber, eyeing the exits in turn before looking back at Julian. "Come on--gentleman's choice."

He points at the one that heads downwards. To his mind, it's more dangerous to head downwards and that's what he feels like at the moment.

'That one. I want to see where it goes.'

"Alright." She smiles in the dark, for once liking the way his mind works.

"You want to go first then, or should I take point?"

He draws his sword. 'I'll go first.'

There's not a second of hesitation in his voice. He turns and starts walking, seemingly casual - but he's alert, eyes scanning and looking for more drops, spikes, booby traps, whatever - and his ears are sensitive, listening for things that shouldn't be there.

She nods and follows after, switching her flashlight for her knife.

The farther they go, there's a sense of claustrophobia, of being buried in damp earth. She inhales the smell until it makes her head spin. Her eyes focus more sharply, trained on Julian and what of the tunnel she can see beyond.

Claustrophobia has never bothered him, he never considers it. He hears her breathing in and it continues long enough for him to slow a little and glance back over his shoulder.

'You're not about to go crazy and start screaming are you? That would be most tiresome.'

She laughs softly. "No screaming, I promise. As for crazy, it's possible I am already."

The breathing isn't about fending off claustrophobia. It's about absorbing this place, carrying it away with her. It smells like life.

"Don't worry about me," she assures. "Just keep going. I'm fine."

'No, you're not crazy.' He says it without thinking. And if he knew the reasons for the breathing, he'd tell her to stop trying so hard. Whether she would take it the way he intended it or not, would be quite another matter.

He keeps going. All clear so far.

Under different circumstances, she would throw out a witty remark about how he should have met her a few years ago, back when she was still making necklaces.
Out of human tongues.
As it is, she just smiles slightly at his remark and follows him deeper underground.

He would think necklaces far more crazy than what she's doing now. He moves on though - and after another hundred yards or so stops dead, listening.

There's nothing to be heard. But there is a change in the air, suggesting that the tunnel changes somehow ahead. He turns his head to her and murmurs quietly. 'What do they normally keep down here? It opens out about two hundred yards further down. Is it likely to be guarded?'

Julian has good senses. He knows he's not wrong about it - but also knows that just because he doesn't hear people, doesn't mean there aren't any.

She almost runs into him when he stops, but checks herself in time.

"They keep everything down here," she whispers back. "Could be their infirmary, ammo storage, officers' planning room--anything. If there's anyone down here, a guard is likely. All we can do is stay quiet and move fast once we're out in the open."

He thinks about it. 'It's likely to be the ammo storage. They wouldn't keep that near the surface because it'd be likely to ignite if an airstrike came. Safer to keep it below. Too far down to transport injured people. Officers planning place could be viable I suppose.'

He pulls a knife from his belt with his left hand, to go with the sword in his right. 'Keep your ears open then. Lets go.'

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