Chapter 78: Accident II

The light from Leon’s lamp only reached a short distance through the dust.

"Mr. Lex!" he shouted.

Leon remained quiet and listened for a response.

A faint shout came from somewhere beyond the passage, but it was too distant and muffled for him to understand. He couldn’t even tell if someone was answering him or if it was another person calling out from a different part of the gallery.

"Caleb! Nolan!"

Something scraped against the rubble.

A hard impact followed, along with several voices that were too muffled for Leon to understand or make out what they were saying.

At least there were still people alive on the other side, but nobody answered him clearly enough for him to know who they were.

Leon moved towards the entrance.

The Great Swordsman followed closely and took position beneath the edge of the overhang before allowing him to stand. If anything else fell while Leon was outside the cover, it would be able to shield him again.

The part of the gallery where his group had been walking was now filled with fallen stone. One enormous slab had dropped at an angle, while smaller pieces were packed beneath and around it.

Dust continued to trickle through a narrow gap near the top, the only source of light being his lamp.

Leon could see a pale line of mineral light beyond the obstruction, but he couldn’t see any of the others through it.

"Can you move some of that?" he asked.

The Swordsman stepped forward and pulled one of the loose stones away from the near edge before placing it aside. When it tested the larger piece behind it, several fragments shifted above its shoulder.

"Stop," Leon ordered, raising his uninjured hand.

The Swordsman immediately went still.

A stone dropped from the upper gap and struck the floor beside its boot.

Leon looked at the tilted slab and the amount of loose material resting on it.

’Pull out the wrong thing and the rest comes down.’

The Great Swordsman was probably strong enough to remove many of the smaller pieces, but that didn’t mean the damaged roof would remain in place while it worked. If the entire thing collapsed again, the Swordsman might survive, but Leon definitely wouldn’t.

There also wasn’t enough space for him to avoid another collapse.

Leon stepped away from the rubble.

A faint electronic hiss came from somewhere near the blocked entrance, causing him to direct his lamp towards the sound.

A radio was lying partly beneath several pieces of broken stone on Leon’s side of the collapse.

"Bring that."

The Swordsman picked it up and handed it to him.

The casing was badly scratched, but the display still lit up when Leon pressed the control.

"This is Leon. Can anyone hear me?"

Only static answered.

Leon waited for a few seconds before trying again.

"Lex? I’m inside one of the side passages. The gallery is blocked."

He released the button and listened, but nothing he could understand came through.

Leon directed his lamp around the broken entrance and soon found part of the relay unit that had been fixed high on the gallery wall. Its mounting had been torn away during the collapse, and the casing was now lying split open beneath a long piece of stone.

’That explains it.’

Leon looked back at the radio. It still had power, but that wasn’t particularly useful if the damaged relay prevented it from reaching anyone.

...

On the other side of one of the collapsed sections, Lex pressed the control on his own radio.

He repeated the call, listened for a response and changed the setting before trying again, but the radio only hissed.

Lex lowered his radio as another piece of stone shifted across the blocked route. It was too dangerous to start clearing the rubble without knowing what parts of it were supporting the damaged ceiling.

...

Leon tried the radio one more time before clipping it onto his bag.

The main shaking had stopped, though loose pieces of stone still fell into the gallery from time to time as random distant rumblings were felt through the walls. Laso, someone beyond the collapse was striking something hard, and a shout followed shortly after before disappearing beneath the sound of moving rocks.

There were definitely people alive on the other side, the problem was that Leon had no idea who they were or where the different parts of the group had ended up.

"Anyone close?" he asked the Swordsman.

The Swordsman turned its skull towards the blocked gallery.

Leon followed its gaze.

It could sense living beings beyond the rubble, which meant that the voices he had heard weren’t his imagination. Unfortunately, it couldn’t tell him who they were or how he was supposed to reach them.

’Well, knowing they’re alive is better than nothing.’

Leon lowered the beam of his lamp and examined the collapse again.

The entrance to the side passage was almost completely buried. Even the few gaps he could see were too narrow for him to pass through, with loose stones hanging above them.

Going back meant digging into an unstable blockage, and judging by what had happened when the Swordsman moved only one stone, that wasn’t a good idea.

Leon turned away and checked the passage behind him. ’Hope it doesn’t lead to a dead end.’

It continued beyond the shallow section where he had taken cover. A short distance ahead, the passage bent and divided into two routes, with another white survey plate fixed beside the nearer branch.

’At least I’m not sealed in.’ He said in his mind.

Leon walked far enough to bring both openings into view.

One sloped down until it disappeared beyond the reach of his lamp, while the other curved around a thick section of rock.

He stopped beside the Great Swordsman and thought back to the approved route shown on the diagram. He remembered the general path, but he hadn’t learnt where every surveyed side passage led. Either of these routes could connect to another part of the gallery and lead him back to the others.

They could also both end against a wall, which would be a nightmare.

Leon looked back towards the rubble and listened for another voice before turning his lamp towards the two passages.

’Which one gets me back to them?’