The Lost Chronicles Of Pangea: Apocalypse

David had to run all the way back to the beginning of the tunnel and back into the vault. As soon as he was through Minerva closed the door behind him as he gasped for breath. Neither one of them could say anything about what they just experienced, maybe it was because they were all still shaken from it, or they just didn't know what to say.

"We have to find another way?"

Minerva suddenly said, with her eyes wet with panic and fright. She was the one who seemed to be most affected by everything, of course David would like to believe his trauma was on an entirely different scale, there was just something about the way she shook and shifted her body that made David suspect she had seen something like this before.

"I agree we have to find another way, but that tunnel is the only way to get to the base. Anything else would put us in more danger, and not to mention there's no sign of any mutated animal or monster down there. Which means it's our best bet, we...."

"You don't understand do you?"

Minerva suddenly cut Lilith off, she paced around the enclosed space of the vault when she suddenly threw a case of money to the floor. She was panicking, frustrated, but for some reason she was also angry. But David and Lilith just gave her the space she needed until she was ready to tell them what was going on, and why there was a terrifying amount of undead in that tunnel. Eventually she calmed down, then she sat on the floor, right in the middle of a pile of money.

"That tunnel lease to one place, and one place alone. A necromancer's burrow."

Now it was both David and Lilith's turn to be shocked. David had hid memories of Pangea so he knew exactly what this meant, and it was something almost every household in Pangea was incredibly familiar with.

"But that's impossible, necromancer's are already extinct. They have been wiped out for almost two hundred years right?"

David asked with a puzzled expression on his face. Because none of this made sense, and it was especially so when Lilith started talking.

"So it's true."

"What's true?"

David asked with a confused look on his face. But Lilith was in a sharing mood so she starts explaining what she meant.

"When I still worked for the government I had heard rumors of a secret division that was created for the catering, outfitting, and training of any dark magic class. And in that list, there are necromancer, warlocks, witches, blood mages, and soulmancers. Even with my high level clearance I was only entitled to hearing rumors, rather than having anything concrete to fully prove that such a division exist. And the last I heard of them, was that the division, had gone rogue."

David was surprised, and very scared. Growing up in Pangea children would be told stories about how dangerous necromancers were and the extreme atrocities they had committed. The stories would tell of the long years of war where brave soldiers and heroes would have to fight, swarm after swarm of undead, and even have the misfortune of facing their fallen friends and loved ones in battle. Necromancer were the boogie men of Pangea, they were even more feared than demons which went to show how dangerous and feared they were.

But it also came as a surprise that there was even anyone of them left, as the cities had gone on a planet wide crusade to purge Pangea of necromancer's. The whole world thought they had succeeded, and here he was finding out that the government had actually weaponized them. Wow that was quite, or would have been quite an achievement if the whole damn division did not go rogue. But something did not make sense, if Lilith only had enough clearance to hear rumors, then how did Minerva who David was sure was way below Lilith in rank catch wind of it, and was even knowledgeable enough to recognize a necromancer's handwork.

"What doe's this have to do with you, and how come you know so much about this, when Lilith only has rumors."

David asked with an accusatory tone, Minerva did not look like she wanted to answer that question. Her face shifted into a scowl, but immediately changed back to normal as she knew she could not escape giving them the answers they needed from her.

"The reason why I know so much about necromancy is because my mother is a member of that division. She's actually one of the leaders, and the main reason why the division went rogue in the first place. She was.....she is crazy."

"I did not see that coming."

David muttered out loud while lost in his thoughts.

"Neither did I."

Lilith replied in a cool voice.

"So does your mother have anything to do with the gazillion zombies waiting in that tunnel?"

David asked her.

"I doubt it, but I can't really be sure. I know some secrets of the military are kept in places very secure, and the division was sometimes ordered to set traps and employ extreme security measures like some sort ancient burial tomb. If the zombies are there, then there's bound to be other traps in place. And there would also be the normal standard military traps, like lasers and poison gas. But I'm sure of one thing though, after being chased by zombies...."

David immediately interrupted, he felt the need to correct her and put everything in order.

"Correction you ran away from the zombies, leaving me behind without any sort of warning."

"But I told you to run."

"You told me to run? Run where? That does not count as a warning when you were not specific about which direction or what we're running from."

"Would you just key me finish?"

"Oh...sorry. Well carry on."

"Thank you."

Lilith was completely silent for the entirety of the exchange between Minerva and David. From her point of view, it would probably be as if two kids were arguing about something inconsequential. But the truth of the matter is, David was becoming different. Lilith had been very observant of David since they met, and she had been able to see his different characters, but she was also able to see the birth of the David in front of her.

David of earth was manipulative and knows how to be friends or gather people around himself. David of Pangea on the other hand was very much a loner and viewed the world through a key hole. He was afraid to live. There was also David of the arena, a monster born from hardsh.i.p.s with a taste for blood and carnage.

Three distinct personalities that were slowly blending to form this new David in front of her. He was still coming into himself, and Lilith knew he had no idea who he really was, and that was probably because this David needed time to grow. He was sincere, he joked every opportunity he got, he was smart, sharp, and kind when he wanted to be. But he was also ruthless, realistic, straight forward, and cunning. Thus new David was complete mishmash of all three personalities. Lilith was not sure he had noticed it yet, but he's true self was being born, and someday soon, there would be no David of earth, or Pangea, or the arena. There would just be David.

"As I was saying, after running away from the zombies and checking out that map again, I have come to a conclusion that the map was just another deflection. There's no military base there."

David was stumped, if there was no military base there, then what were they doing here in the first place. But even if there was no military base there, why would the map say there was one.

"There's something else there isn't there."

Lilith said with her hand under her jaw. She wiggled her missing left arm and David felt a twinge of guilt. He originally wanted to take her to the city of iron so that they could get her arm healed or replaced with a prosthetic. But so far life and Pangea just kept throwing one obstacle after the other in their face.

"I have no idea what is there Lilith, but I'm sure it's really important and it's in one of those tunnels. But we will have to clear each and every single one of them of any traps before we can discover what truly lay beyond."

Minerva's explanation put a lot of things into perspective. But they all realized now that any hope of leaving through the military base was now put in jeopardy. They had to find another way out of this town.

"The tunnels are completely isolated from the outside world, if we can keep the police station secure, we can have a safe base to properly explore those tunnels and see what they hold."

David turned to look at Lilith thinking she might have hit her head or something. They were in no position to go exploring the unknown, and he was going to explain it to her.

"That's a venture I'm not sure we should be undertaking. We've run out of supplies, an even with her knowledge about thus secret military division, I doubt Minerva had any idea how to completely disable the traps set. We've just ran from a group of God knows how many undead. What if we encounter a bone dragon or a demon next. We need to think about our immediate needs before running off on some adventure."

"David has a point Lily."

Minerva backing him was okay, but that pet name was getting on his nerves. It was as if this two had a relationship that had existed long before he came along. If that was true it would explain why Lilith was so adamant about bringing Minerva with her when they fled the arena.

"I know he has a point Minerva, but now that I know the military has something hidden within those tunnels, and it has to be something really important for such extreme security measures to be implemented. The bottom line is I'm curious and I will never forgive my self if I don't find out what. Besides David, we're wanted by the military, or have you forgotten what happened when we left Victoria island. If we get what's hidden there, we could have some leverage over the military and barter for our freedom. Unless you want to live your life as a fugitive, your father might not be able to save you, you know."

Damn it, she was right. David knew things were not as simple as going to the city of iron, healing Lilith, finding his family, and then everything will end up okay. To get technical he had committed multiple capital crimes with the inclusion of aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive, assaulting officers of the state, and causing quite a few deaths too. If he was caught they would execute him without question. He really did need a leverage.

"But Even then we're not fully ready to explore those tunnels. Our supplies are depleted, and we really have to prepare for the worse."

"Well then we have to take a risk and get those supplies. We need them anyway."

David had no idea what to expect. But now they had to face what they wanted to avoid, to get the supplies needed to face something they could also just as easily avoid, all for an idea of holding the military by their balls. For all intents and purposes, they were trapped, moving around the town to look for a way out would be suicide, because in a world filled with evolved animals, who more or less had the same abilities as humans, escaping unseen would be impossible.

There was no way forward and behind them were tunnels filled literally with the power of death. Monsters at the front, monsters at the back. Eventually they had to choose which one to face, and what ever choice they make, it's still going to be dangerous.