2225 AD Prologue - The Search

2225 AD Prologue - The Search

            In the dreary foggy downtown of New London, North Britain, the rain sprinkled the already water-soaked town.  A few people in black raincoat walked the street to get to the other side of the street. 

            The stoplights hung on the wires blinked red in both directions.  The stores and houses are closed and in a bar called "Workers' Retreat" loud guffaws echoed in the dimly lit bar room of the second floor.

            The coal-covered faces of the men in overall leaned at the third floor's railings, smirked, and watched as a drunken fight took place.  Off to the side directly opposite the smirking miners the bet taker called off the names of the combatants.

            "At one side is 300 pounds third shift foreman with arms the size of a bull's leg.  He is a loyal frequent customer who came here fresh from making love with his multiple mistresses.  Here he downed five bottles of fermented wheat."  The bet maker announced.

            "On the other side is an estimated 210 pounds newcomer who just came in here.  He ordered water of all the things!  Don't we have enough of water eh men?" The bet taker squinted his left eye and widened his right eye toward the miners opposite of him.

            Laughter echoed again.  The newcomer peered through the smoky darkness at the doors.  Four armed men stood guard in front.  He sighed and coughed as the smoke constricted his throat.  He focused his attention on the large man in front of him. 

            He's about 5'7 in height but the man across him has to be about 6'4.  He's covered by coal dust so dark he looked almost black.  The miner's black eyes squinted at him.  His hands flexed as if they are capable of crushing rocks just by holding them.

            "Go get 'im!" One of the lackeys, a tall thin one, called from the rails.  The large foreman grunted and leaned his head to his right, a crack sounded from his neck as it popped. 

            Silence held sway as the two combatants faced each other.  The newcomer stood there with his hands out in combat stance.  The bet maker watched the clock for 10 seconds until it struck 6pm.  He signaled for the fight to begin.

            With a bellow the foreman launched himself at the newcomer.  The newcomer stood stock still as the large man approached him.  He deftly stepped to his left and struck his foot out at the foreman's leg and sent him stumbling into a table. 

            Both the foreman and the table crashed into the bar table.  With a growl he got up and turned around to look at the newcomer.  The newcomer was nowhere to see.  He grunted and look to his left and right.  The lackeys shouted at him, "Come on!  You can do it!  Clean his clock!"

            With his back toward the bar the foreman didn't see a silhouette of the newcomer raising a bottle and crashing it against his head. 

            The foreman grunted in surprise, his eyes blinked rapidly but he didn't pass out.  He shook his head against the shock and pushed himself onto the bar and flailed out to feel for the foe.  He took hold of the bottom of the newcomer's raincoat.

             He withdrew the raincoat that the newcomer was wearing.  He lifted it up to his face to look at it closely. 

            A flash of light and a thundering sound emanated from the corner of the bar and struck the foreman in his guts.  The foreman howled in pain and dropped the raincoat.  He dropped to the ground and rolled around as the pain rippled through him.

            Minutes later the lackeys swarmed the bar with clubs and knives.  They scourged behind the bar but the newcomer was nowhere to be seen. 

            Outside in the back alley a figure snuck into the fruit and vegetable shop's side door.  The inside of the store is dark except for lights that came through the closed windows.  The containers containing both fresh and spoiling fruits and vegetables are covered by a plastic tarp tied to hooks on the ground. 

            The newcomer crept up to the counter and laid against the side of it with his laser stun gun.  He waited to listen for sounds of others in the room.  He waited a minute.  When silence answered him, he pushed his body up onto the counter and over the side. 

            Behind the old cashier machine is a thin carpet covering the trapdoor leading to the basement.  The carpet was rolled out of the way and he pried open the lock with an iron bar he stole from one of the thugs' vehicles.

            He dropped into the basement, there is no ladder allowing easy descent so he landed and rolled to absorb impacts.  In the morning when the leading shop worker comes in they will notice that the lock had been opened so he has to be long gone by then.

            The newcomer stood up and sniffed.  The basement stank of damp mud.  The square room is unlit so the newcomer switched his wrist flashlight on and swept it around the room.  Throughout the brown mud covered room old reinforced cement pillars set in intervals supported the building on top of them. 

            The beams atop the pillars are set in a grid system supporting the building on them.  Throughout the four walls is a system of water channeling aqueduct.  Rainwater gathered from the roof was directed to the gutters at the bottom of the roof and they drained to the brown marble stone aqueduct.

            The rusting pipes were inclined to force water into the aqueducts.  The inclined aqueducts flowed toward the center of a wall directly to the west, which the newcomer is looking at.  A small arch of 4 feet height directed the flow of the water into the next room.

            A rat scurried away from the newcomer's flashlight into the dark arch.  The newcomer waited to hear for other people.  He can only hear sounds of running water and a gurgling sound coming from the arch. 

            He walked cautiously, his heart beating as he looked around the room for anything out of ordinary.  He reached the arch.  He directed the light into the other room.  The other room is a small square room. 

            On the sides are cobblestones lifted above the muddy water.  At the other side another cobblestone waterfront with an arch directed the water off to the left toward another opening in the wall.

            He got up on the aqueduct's edge and stepped through the small arch.  The arch proved problematic for a man of his height.  He exhaled heavily as his right leg slipped into the water.  The ice cold water flowed up his pants and he grunted as the muddy water soiled his undergarments.

            "There goes my comfort!" The newcomer moaned as he fell into the water.  His body eased through the water with his head under.  He thrashed as he attempted to get a hold of the cobblestones on the side.  The force of the water isn't too great, and the depth of the bottom is only 4 feet.

            His head came above the water and he gasped as he took hold of the cobblestones on his side.  He shivered and lifted up to the left side of the cobble.

            Panting he pushed his lying body into a sitting position and shone the flashlight to take a better look at the room.  The room is old.  The ceiling is void of spider web but strange white fungus grew on them until they covered the entire surface above him.  The walls around him is cold and wet to touch.

            "Water must be seeping through the ground.  I should be careful." The newcomer said worriedly.  He withdrew his left hand from the circular stones set atop of each other.  He looked up at the fungus, shining the flashlight onto them.  After a minute of taking intent study he gulped and shone at the rest of the room.

            The arch is old.  Very old.  It's almost ready to fall down.  A large chunk of stone was taken off.  The arch is a deep brown with some whites inside the cracks throughout the foundation.  The whites glittered as the light shone on them.

            His attention turned toward the direction that the water is taking.  The water took a sharp 90 degrees turn toward the  wall off to the left.

            Still shivering he sidestepped past the arch, his eyes nervously watching the whites inside the cracks.  To him they looked like they're growing.  I hope they're not for my sake! He thought to himself.

            There's an arch outline where the water is rushing.  The newcomer shone a flashlight toward the bottom of the arch.  The water isn't changing depth nor doing anything to suggest that the water is getting deeper.

            He thought of his accidental fall into the water and his skin crawled at the thought of being stuck under water with no way of getting out of it. "No way.  I'm not going under this arch!  There have to be another way of doing it!" He exclaimed.

            He shone a stream of light toward the arch and saw that it's cracked throughout the entire archway.  He pushed on it.  Rocks moved but didn't budge very far.  He shone a flashlight closer into the cracks but couldn't see much.

            Taking a deep breath he withdrew a gray tire iron from his now soggy backpack.  He carefully inserted the iron bar's wedge into the loose rock's top edge.  He tested the strength of the tire iron and licked his lip.  He spat the foul tasting mud out of his mouth and pushed on the iron.

            With a clatter the rock fell out.  The white fungus holding the rock lost their grip on the rock and the wall.  In a chain reaction the wall collapsed into the water.  The loud sound was replaced by strange sounds from the other side.

            The gurgling and grunting sounds echoed around the room.  The newcomer froze as he heard different sounds.  Sounds of something falling.  With the echo it's hard to tell.  He waited for footsteps, but only heard the sound become more and more distorted.

            "Oh right, the rocks I knocked down." The newcomer sighed with closed eyes.  He steadied his breathing and pounding heart.  He shone his flashlight into the adjoining room.  The room is smaller than the one he is currently in.  The ceiling height is still the same, but the wall to wall distance is about 1/3 of the way.

            The walls also have a strange texture to them.  They still have the same brown color to them, but streaks of reflective green shone as if they have their own light when the flashlight struck them.

            The newcomer leaned around the archway to look to the left wall.  Nothing there.  To the right, a large rat hole disfigured the wall.  A cat sized rat's skeleton laid on its back at the hole.

            He focused the beam of the light toward the water and the direction it's going.

            "Oh come on, you got to be kidding me!" The newcomer moaned.  The water gurgled and twisted restlessly as they took a plunge down an octagon opening of 6 feet in diameter.  The angle of the opening is 45 degrees toward the archway.  The upper 2/3 of it is visible while the 1/3 is submerged under the water.

            There is no grates covering the opening.

            "They probably didn't need it at this point." The newcomer surmised.  His eyes looked around, but he couldn't see anything to allow him to bypass the falling water.

            Carefully the newcomer twisted past the archway onto the wet ground on the other side.  He pressed his back against the wall and looked at the opening.  The sounds emanated from the opening and they don't sound pretty.

            Gathering confidence the newcomer waited until he have steadied enough to approach the opening.

            The opening is quite large and the water pouring into it is much shallower at this point.  It's also dark.  He shone his flashlight down the opening.  He saw to his relief that the water isn't falling very far.  Only about 12 feet down.  On the top of the corridor ceiling is sets of rungs leading down.

            The newcomer leaned a little and put a hand on the rung.  He pushed on it.  It felt solid.  Taking a deep breath he swung into the corridor.  Getting his pants wet again he shuddered and closed his eyes.  He swung his body until his boots took hold of the rungs.  He climbed down the corridor toward the bottom.