Down Deep

Chapter Forty Three - Zdana

The water running in the ditch at the edge of the tunnel was ice cold making her shiver. She kept drinking anyway knowing she would need to keep hydrated. They had stopped to rest under one of the few lights in the tunnel that still worked. It was dim, but enough for Mores to see a little.

'Drink.' She told Mores who looked appalled at her actions. 'It is clean and cold.' He shook his head and she just shrugged taking another drink. Once she had her fill she started to dig though Newly's pack to see what kind of supplies they had. There was no food, but two water rations. She threw them at Mores before pulling out a heat log. It was the only thing that would help her survive. It was cold in the tunnel, but it was also too early to use it. She would save it for when they stopped for the night.

The second item she found would be of great use as well. She had been wondering what to do with Mores when she decided to stop for the night. The restraints she found in the pack would serve her well.

'Is there any food?' Mores asked trying to see into the pack. She glared at him and he backed off.

'No. Even if there was, I would not give any to you.' She told him. 'No point in feeding a dead man.' Zdana stood and grabbed the pack. After motioning Mores to move, she followed the man watching the walls for signs of the panels her grandpa asked her to look for. She had found one a short time back and made sure it was not active. They seemed to be fifty feet apart and according to the terminal, they were there to report any tunnel collapses.

'If you plan to kill me, why not just let me go?' Mores demanded.

'I am not planning to kill you.' Zdana told him unmoved by his anger. 'Personally, I do not care one way or another if you live or die. My mate on the other hand craves your blood for what you did to him and his family.'

'I did noth,' Mores started, but she smacked him in the back of the head cutting him off.

'You murdered his parents.' She snapped. 'Then you denied his family the joy of raising Pyra's child. All we had down in the mines was family. It was the only reason we woke each day and fought to survive. You took their family from them Mores.'

'You will pay for this animal.' He growled earning another blow to the head.

'Animal?' She snapped. 'We are not the ones who damned generations to slavery and starvation. We did not lie to our own people for personal gain. It was not us who tortured and maimed innocents in sick twisted experiments. You and the rest of those cowards are the animals. Now shut up and keep walking or I will break your jaw. I am sure my mate will not mind.'

They moved on in silence only stopping to check the terminals they passed. Zdana had to fight the urge to check where her people were in their digging. She had pushed herself to far today and needed to avoid reading the stone until she could rest and recover. As tired as she felt, she was ready to set camp and sleep until her people broke through. First, she needed to make sure where they were digging would not set off any alarms.

They heard the beeping long before they found the terminal making the noise. It was warning them that the seismic system had been shut down and was asking permission to reset it. Frowning, she looked into the system data base to see who had last accessed the panel.

'You sly old boy.' She chuckled seeing Daily's name in the log in. He had locked the entire system to allow digging around the long walk.

'What is it you're doing there?' Mores demanded.

'Getting ready to set camp.' She told him before pushing him away from the terminal. 'Walk.' She did not want to camp near the work station. Judging by the coding in the small terminal, it held the power to run all the sensors and lights. It was not something she wanted Mores to have easy access to if he managed to break free of his binds.