Chapter 264: Underground Bunker?

We pulled open the trap door and peered inside, finding a ladder that descended to the darkness down below.

I looked around at my Guardians, giving them a nod to make sure they were prepared before I moved to prepare to descend down the ladder.

My Guardians pulled out flashlights that they attached to their hips, illuminating parts of the darkness and allowing us to see in the darkness.

Dan descended before me, his shield strapped to his back as he swung himself onto the ladder to start his descent.

I followed after him, Maylene still opting to stay on my shoulders even at this point.

The good thing was that I didn’t really need to climb the ladder itself since I could just float myself down the shaft instead, so I didn’t need to worry about her hitting herself on the rungs of the ladder.

The ladder stopped at the end of what looked like an underground tunnel system like those you might find in military bunkers, the path forward bathed in darkness.

The light that hung on the side of Dan’s hips managed to penetrate a few feet into the darkness, illuminating the path ahead and revealing pipes and wires leading deeper down the path.

The air was stale and dry, giving off the feeling like we had just stepped into a tomb.

Dan took a look at the darkness ahead of us and equipped his shield on his arm again, shooting me a pointed look.

"I dunno leh... The place look like this, I don’t think there’s going to be any survivors, bro."

I moved aside to make space for Olivia and Liliac to join us as well before speaking, "It’s better to find out that there aren’t any than to abandon them if there actually were survivors. Maybe they left the message running and hid themselves down here to avoid the Anomalies. Also... The fact that the message is still being broadcast means someone must be ensuring the radio was still powered, right?"

Dan shrugged but didn’t look too convinced though he did not voice it out either.

We continued forward down the path with Dan leading the way, his shield raised up in front of him in case of any attack coming from the front.

Ironically, this suddenly felt like we were a bunch of adventurers diving into a Dungeon right now.

I mean... Our party technically feels like it...

We have Dan as the tank, Olivia as the brawler, Maylene as the rogue, Liliac as the druid and I guess I’m sort of the battlemage?

That was an interesting thought.

I half expected skeletons or goblins to appear from the darkness but obviously that didn’t happen.

The tunnel was just a straight path and it ended on an armoured door that looked to be at least several inches thick with a mounted console on the wall beside it.

We went up to the console to inspect it, tapping on the screen to see if it would respond.

The screen remained dark but there were buttons below it so Dan tried pressing one of them at random, prompting the screen to flare to life.

Hmm... So that isn’t a touchscreen... I wonder if this world had touchscreens invented yet?

I leaned forward to try and see what the screen was displaying, only to realise that there was just a single ’Connecting’ word on it.

I’m guessing Dan hit the call button to contact whoever was inside this facility.

Well... That’s convenient I guess?

We waited in front of the console, waiting to see if someone would answer the call.

But after a whole minute of waiting, the screen still showed the same word with no change.

Dan turned back to raise an eyebrow at me, "I tell you liao. They confirm die already."

I turned back to the armoured door and gave Olivia a nod.

She didn’t need me to say anything else as she stepped forward and braced herself before punching her fist forward.

The impact shook the entire tunnel as we watched the armoured door fly off its rails to crash inside the room behind it.

I would also just like to point out that the armoured door was supposed to be a sliding door and not a swinging door so the fact that she could punch it out like that...

Olivia brought up her fist and blew off the dust on her knuckle before stepping aside, allowing Dan to take her place to enter with his shield still raised.

Surprisingly, the moment we stepped inside, the lights came on and we found ourselves in a rather large space that looked like a garage of sorts.

Heck, there were even two vehicles down here with one looking like a normal pickup truck and the other being a large mover van.

Both of them looked eerily similar to the cars back in our world too.

I was just wondering where the cars would even enter this place until I noted a road leading to a shuttered door at the end and I assumed that road must lead to another hidden entrance meant for cars.

But... The shutter had a large hole in it which looked like something had crashed into it from the outside to enter this facility.

Now this is serious...

Even Dan wasn’t making any jokes now because that broken door meant there could me Anomalies that broke into the facility and they could still be somewhere in here.

"Should we just leave?" Dan asked, tightening his grip on his mace.

I thought about it for a moment, "I think it’s worth the risk to at least explore the place. Even if we don’t find any survivors, there might be things inside this facility that are worth something. Who knows? Maybe the Gatekeeper is here... Or maybe this has become the hideout of the Commander Class Anomaly, seeing that there were Anomalies guarding the road to this place outside just now..."

Olivia nodded, "I agree... We should at least scout this place out instead of leaving it alone as well. It might turn out to be a problem later on after we decide to clear the rift. Better to find out now than later."

Maylene leaned on my head, "Do you want me to run through the facility for you, Qing? I could probably map this place out really quickly and scout it for you!"

I shook my head, "Let’s stay together. Last thing I want is somehow getting you stuck in a trap somewhere with us not being able to get to you in time."

Maylene giggled at my worry but did not dispute it.

My Guardians turned off their lights since we didn’t need them anymore before heading deeper into the facility, walking past the cars that looked like they have not been touched for a while.

Interestingly, there were no plants growing here which I suppose wasn’t really that surprising considering what this place was. Unless those pants could also grow without sunlight or something...

At the end of a garage was another armoured door and this one had been left ajar, though more because the door itself was bent out of shape and unable to close properly anymore.

Dan moved in front of it, allowing Olivia to pry the door open from behind him as his shield was placed in front of the opening to block any attacks that might come from the gap.

The door swung open with a metallic groan, revealing a surprisingly comfortable looking interior where it looked like those western diners from the sixties with the colourful interior, barstools and bubblegum coloured countertops.

There was even something that looked like a jukebox in the corner and despite the hole we saw outside... This room was relatively untouched... Aside from a broken table near the door and what looked like blood splattered on said broken table.

Despite the blood, there was no body to be found either...

We found another large sized door at the other end and this one wasn’t a high security door like the ones we found outside.

Despite how dated this place looked, the door leading out of it looked pretty high tech with how it hissed and slid open when we got close to it, revealing a ramp that led further underground.

On the surface of the ramp was a trail of blood, which looked like something was being dragged across the ground before the blood trail abruptly ended a few steps down to change to splatters of blood like whoever was dragging it decided to start carrying whatever was dripping the blood instead.

The blood drops continued all the way down the ramp so whatever it was that happened here... It continued deeper into the facility...

My Guardians and I shared a look and even Maylene had climbed down from my shoulders, joining the rest to walk alongside me.

We’ve already come this far so... I guess we’re going in to find out what exactly this place was and whether there were really any survivors here...