The journey through the tunnel bothered Darina more than she had thought. She was a scout, she belonged in wide open spaces, or terrain where she could hide. Here, there was nowhere to go but either backwards or forwards. The impenetrable dark ahead swallowed up their flashlights, the narrow beams of illumination looking pathetic against the shadows, which seemed to take on a life of its own, willfully refusing to reveal anything more than what was a few paces ahead of them. Down here, she could see how easy it would be to surrender to superstition.<br/><br/>But what really got to her was the encounter with the dog. No, not a dog. A mutant rat. It made her skin crawl, how she had mistaken the creature for something else. Dar knew she shouldn’t have been surprised, given their present company and what sort of mutant monsters were on the surface. Shit,<span style="font-style: italic">she</span>was a mutant monster. But they didn’t get a lot of rats like these at their various camps, or at the village where she had come from. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she watched the leader send the creature scampering away. Was there no other outcome waiting for her other than that, to mutate into something subhuman? If the giant golem accompanying them and that large rodent were any indication, she didn’t have a bright future ahead of her.<br/><br/>Swallowing, Darina followed silently, trying to tune out what her augmented senses were picking up: faint traces of blood and decay, sounds echoing, ambient noise amplified by the close quarters. When they reached the end of the tunnel, she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not. Upon instruction, she followed the others’ lead and lowered her pistol before raising her hand to show she wasn’t holding anything else. After they passed through the gates, Darina flinched at the metallic clang of the doors closing. If her faction had sent for help, she was now effectively cut off from any search attempt by a thick wall of metal.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">The Underbelly.</span>Many a bandit or marauder would fantasize about leading a raiding party into this place. The more imaginative of her comrades envisioned some underground utopia of sorts, where life would be relatively easier. She never gave in to these fantasies, but she couldn’t help feeling a tiny twinge of triumph over making it this far. But along with that feeling came another sensation, a faint rumbling in her belly that told her the Hunger would set upon her again soon. [i]No.[i] But she had just eaten those repulsive bits of tortoise earlier. Was it from all the energy she had used up to get here? Hoping the Hunger didn’t manifest too soon before she found a temporary solution, she unzipped her jacket and looked their company over.<br/><br/>The guards had taken pity on the girl. Maybe if she made nice with her, Darina would benefit from some sort of protection, too. Besides, the girl had a distinct scent about her, a scent Dar inhaled in huge doses from the man-monster, from the mutant rat, from other hapless men and women ‘touched’ by the dark energies around them.