Chapter 85: Journey to the Center of Elderwood

After Arlen and Bront were done with their pest control, Rhos met up with them and told them what he had seen.

Even as Wild Beasts, animals retained some semblance of their natural behavior. In this context, locusts were voracious feeders, so watching them strip the district’s vegetation didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

What caught Rhos’s attention was when some of them began tearing through things that shouldn’t have interested them as food at all, only to abandon the destruction and move toward the exact same location which was beneath the ground.

That was what brought Rhos, Arlen and Bront to the northern edge of the district.

The opening sat between the remains of an old building and a cluster of enormous trees whose roots cracked through the surrounding pavement.

From a distance, it could’ve been mistaken for an ordinary maintenance entrance damaged during the infestation, but standing beside it made the scale difficult to ignore.

It was large enough for a small car to drive through and the ground around it had been scraped raw by countless insect legs.

Rhos crouched beside the entrance, examining one of the marks in the soil.

“They all came through here. I watched at least a dozen go down, and I can sense more beneath the ground.”

Arlen stood beside the opening with Longwing resting against his shoulder. He stared into the darkness for several seconds before releasing a long sigh.

“Well, this is becoming complicated. I was hoping we’d spend the morning burning oversized pests, collect our pay and get back to the station….Ah man”

“What do you think?”

So asked Rhos, looking at his senior, who crouched and picked up a piece of wood lying beside the entrance. Half of it had been chewed apart.

“Aberrant”

He said, turning it between his fingers before tossing it aside. He stood again.

“Potentially, anyway. Don’t treat that as confirmation until we actually find one, but Wild Beasts suddenly displaying abnormal behaviour usually means something is influencing it. It’s either another human or an Aberrant. If an Aberrant is mixed into this infestation, then simple pest control just became more troublesome”

Rhos stared into the darkness.

“Damn it all”

“Look on the bright side. I called for backup before we started. I’ve got great foresight, yes?”

“No, it just makes it look like you expected something like this to happen. If not wanting to make it somebody’s else’s problem whenever possible”

Arlen laughed loudly as he said:

“You’ve got a good head on your shoulders. But now you’re making me sound like a coward. But here’s the thing, I pride myself on cowardice… Actually, let’s not call it cowardice. Let’s call it excellent workplace delegation”

Rhos couldn’t argue with that so he just kept quiet.

The scion turned toward Bront and slapped the enormous eagle affectionately against one bronze-feathered leg.

“You’re staying here, big guy. Keep watch over the entrance while we’re underground. If anything comes out that isn’t human or isn’t either of us, destroy”

Of course, the eagle couldn’t understand his words. To get his message across, Arlen supported his words with gestures.

Bront lowered his enormous head and released a low cry.

“No destroying buildings unless you have to. Garrick already complains whenever I bring you on urban assignments”

With that said, Bront spread his bronze wings and launched himself upward.

The resulting gust scattered leaves and dust across the entrance before the eagle climbed above the surrounding buildings, circling once before settling into a wide patrol around the area.

The two Exterminators watch him go before focusing their attention on the opening.

“After you”

Arlen stared at the red haired young man offering him up to the hole.

“Making your senior go first?”

“You’re bigger. If something eats you, I’ll know not to continue”

“I thought we were brothers in arms”

Arlen laughed again and switched on the torch near his shoulder and descended. Rhos watched him for another moment.

‘Here we go’

Darkness swallowed him as he followed the scion underground.

The first several meters were steep enough that Rhos kept one hand near the wall for balance. His own torch illuminated damp concrete, exposed pipes and scratches left behind by giant insect legs.

As they continued deeper, something quickly became apparent. They swept their torches across the walls and discovered that the tunnel was unmistakably man made.

The walls were reinforced with aging concrete and metal supports. Narrow drainage channels followed both sides of the floor, while electrical cables ran overhead toward dim lights spaced at long intervals.

Some bulbs were functional, flickering weakly, but enough to illuminate portions of the underground passage in pale yellow.

“What is this place?”

“Old infrastructure, probably. Elderwood has layers upon layers of things buried beneath the modern districts. Drainage systems, maintenance tunnels, old transportation routes, abandoned shelters, storage facilities, a lot of them. Give government workers enough centuries and eventually they’ll bury an entire second city beneath the first”

Rhos looked farther ahead.

“Comforting”

“That’s the government for you”

The mention of it briefly reminded Rhos of those two intelligence agents. But those thoughts were quickly overtaken by the visible signs of the locust infestation everywhere.

His senses extended while Arlen walked beside him. Their footsteps echoed through the underground passage, accompanied by the distant dripping of water and the occasional electrical hum from the bulbs.

So far, their conversations were mainly focused on the assignment. However, without warning, Arlen introduced a new subject.

“So, Rhos, what kind of women do you like?”

The question caught Rhos off guard. He slowly turned his head to stare at the smiling scion who continued to walk normally.

“What?”

“Your type. What kind of woman catches your eye?”

“Where did that come from?”

“We’ve been walking through a dark tunnel listening for giant insects for a while now. Conversation keeps morale up”

Rhos snickered and looked ahead again.

“Why is talking about women the first thing that comes to mind for you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with passing the time. Besides, we’ve been working together for three weeks and I barely know anything about you outside of work. A man should know his brother in arms”

There he went with the brothers thing again.

Well, he should have expected something like this. But really, what was his type of woman?

Apologies for not uploading. I ran into some technical difficulties