The noise echoed between the buildings and I only made it a dozen steps down the street before a lumbering behemoth of a monster stepped from around the far corner at the next crossroads.

I froze in panic, looking for an escape as the beast reared up on its back legs and turned its head towards me. When it dropped back down I felt the entire street shake. Then it started charging down the street.

With no other options, I bolted across the tree-choked road and past broken and rusted piles of metal that must have been carriages. I had seen a thin alley between two buildings that I thought I could squeeze between.

While I was furiously pumping my legs, the first demonic beast had continued its nerve-shattering wailing and it felt like my head would explode from the discordant sound. Given what I had seen so far, I wouldn’t put it past these creatures to have an ability like that.

The only other sounds were the furious beating of my heart, the pounding of my footsteps, and the crash of the large monster as it barreled straight through the piles of debris and trees blocking its path.

I turned to see if I would make the alley in time and bit off a scream as the horror was almost upon me. In a last-ditch effort, I dove for the alley, clipping my shoulder against one wall just as the creature swiped at me with a massive paw.

My shoulder hurt from the impact and I thought I had made it safely into the tight alley but the beast's paw tore through the stone exterior of the building like it was hot butter. Its claw caught the side of my calf and left a ragged gash as I scrambled to get away from the opening.

This time I failed to suppress the scream that ripped its way from my throat. My scream seemed to excite or enrage the monster even more as it frantically slashed at the wall and into the alley to try and get at me.

Chunks of stone were being torn free with each swipe and the thing pushed itself deeper into the tight space to try and rip me to shreds. I kept inching back but I knew if I didn’t get up and run, I was going to die.

Using the tight wall to my advantage, I managed to lever myself up and limp down the alley. My leg was bleeding freely but I needed to get to a safe spot before I could wrap something on it. Thankfully the gash was only long and not all that deep. It would slow me down but as long as I kept it clean it would heal.

Then came a new problem. The alley turned to the right and ended forty feet later at a dead end. It may have been open at one time but with the pile of rubble at the far end, it may have always been blocked off by another building. Why anyone would want to build a dead-end alley that was this narrow was beyond me but here it was.

I searched around frantically for a way to get over the rubble. There was no way I was climbing over it with my injured leg. There were windows facing in from the buildings but they were a few floors up and I wasn’t going to be able to press myself between the close walls to shimmy up with only one fully working leg. I doubt I would manage even if I was unhurt.

Then I spotted what looked like discolored bricks near the ground. I hobbled over, cognizant of the noise of the monster still trying to force its way deeper into the alley. More monsters could show up at any time so I needed to figure this out quickly.

When I got to the section of brick, I saw that the building had shifted at one time and there was a slight gap. I pulled at one of the bricks and it was loose.

Setting my pack down, I quickly started pulling loose bricks out from the wall. The noise of the monster tearing through the stone was getting closer so I moved as quickly as I could, not caring about the noise. When I hit a brick that wouldn’t budge, I knew this was all the room I was going to get.

The crack I had opened up was tight. Tighter than even the chimney I had hidden in. But it seemed to open into some underground tunnel.

My pack had to be pushed through as there was no way I would fit while still wearing it. Even that was a challenge as the pack got stuck a few times on the bricks that I couldn’t remove. I eventually had to kick the bag to get it the rest of the way into the building. I took a quick glance toward the bend in the alley and spotted dust starting to reach it from the monster’s efforts. My eyes went wide and I wasted no more time as I scrambled headfirst into the hole, using my arms to grip the inside wall and pull myself inside. I had to shift sideways to fit and push with all my strength but I eventually pulled my body through the tiny hole and fell a few feet onto a dark ramp with a painful grunt.

The tunnel was pitch dark and I had to let my eyes adjust for a moment before I could see anything. I looked in both directions.

Indecision weighed on me about which way to go until I heard a loud crash coming from outside.

Seeing as one choice was as good as another, I grabbed my pack and rushed down the ramp towards the basement. My hope was that the buildings connected underground. Or at least I could find a place to hide until the monster gave up.

I had remembered reading that the ancestors liked to build massive underground road networks and aquifers. This was a proven fact in some of the smaller cities that had been abandoned by the ancestors and not subject to the Father’s scorn. If I remembered correctly, the prevailing theory was that the Father spared these cities his wrath after the people willingly gave them up.

I hadn’t ever met a person that willingly gave up their home though so I wasn’t sure that theory held much weight. But I wasn’t about to argue with theologians.

The farther I moved down the ramp, the darker the tunnel became. To the point that I could barely see the walls. Even the sounds of the monster had faded into the distance. I decided to stop. My leg felt like it was on fire and I could still feel the blood dripping into my boot, causing it to make a slurping sound every time I lifted that leg.

Gently lowering myself to the ground, I slipped my pack off. I had to blindly dig into it to find what I was looking for. But my shaking hands eventually found the needle and thread I packed for making repairs to clothing. I was glad I had decided to keep the lightweight kit with me.

Threading the needle in the dark and with shaky and bloody hands proved to be a difficult endeavor but I managed after a few minutes. I gingerly lifted my torn pant leg and hissed in pain as it brushed the wound.

In the silence and darkness of the tunnel, I began to stitch the wound closed. I had to stop after the first jab as I almost screamed. After that, I placed a rolled-up section of my pack between my teeth and bit down hard.

The leather helped muffle my grunts and occasional scream as I stitched the wound closed. It would leave an ugly scar once it healed but it was far better than the alternative.

After what felt like half an hour, I was finally done with the stitches. It had taken a total of forty-six to seal the wound. I would have to take it easy so as not to rip them out. These were thread, not catgut so they weren’t nearly as durable.

With that out of the way, I put the needle and thread away and dug around for a bandage. I had three bandages in my bag for emergency use but hadn’t ever thought I would need them.

I fished the first one out and unwrapped it. I placed the absorbent linen against the cut and I could feel blood soaking into the material. I wrapped the loose ties around my leg a few times before I tied it off. I would change it in the morning and make sure my wound wasn’t infected.

With that done, I collapsed against the wall and sighed in relief. I didn’t stay that way long before I sat back up.

Gingerly I pulled my boot off, wincing as my muscle flexed against the bandage and stitches and made the pain flare-up.

With the boot off, I tipped it over and listened as the blood drained from it and dripped on the floor. I removed the blood-soaked sock next and wrung it out, using it to wipe the boot on the inside before wringing it out again.

It didn’t seem like these monsters could hunt by smell, and if they could I was already dead so taking a moment to make sure I wasn’t making noise every time I moved seemed like a good idea.

While not ideal, I placed the slightly wet and sticky sock back on since I didn’t have a spare. That was sitting back in the camp along with the rest of my spare clothes. It was highly uncomfortable but it was better than getting a blister from my boot by not wearing a sock.

With my boot back on, I pushed myself up using the wall as leverage. Then I grabbed my bag, took a deep drink from my waterskin before putting the cap back on, and continued down the corridor.

My eyes had adjusted better to the darkness now and I could see the faint outline of the baren hallway as it led steadily downward. I hadn’t noticed any landings or doorways which seemed odd to me since I knew I must be deep below the ground by now. Unless my sense of the distance I traveled was way off. What I did notice was the ramp curved slightly. So I must be going in a circle. That didn’t bode well for when I emerged above ground again.

I almost decided to stop then and there and head back up the ramp to see what was at the top. But with the monster up there, I decided to keep moving.

As I moved down the hall, I felt my sheath lightly slapping against my leg. It wasn’t damaged in the altercation with the monster but it felt like it was a useless weight as I hadn’t even had time to draw it when the creature attacked me. Not that I thought it would have helped much against a monster, whose claws could rend through stone without slowing what was my brittle sword going to do.

Honestly, I lucked out that it wasn’t one of the more crazy monsters like that flesh-melting cat. The fact that I was relieved that I got attacked by a monster five times my size that could tear through stone with little effort, instead of one barely longer than my arm made me realize this city had wildly skewed my thinking in only a day.

The farther I moved down the corridor the better I could make out the walls. It took me a while to realize why and I stopped and drew my blade for the first time since entering the city. I also checked to make sure my throwing knife was where it should be and it was.

I stopped because there was a blue glow that was coming from some way far ahead. My first thought was another monster but it wasn’t the normal red glow I had seen. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a monster though.

With no place to hide, I slowly inched down the inner wall as the tunnel curved out of sight.

Eventually, I came to the bottom of the ramp as it opened into some tall open structure. I saw more piles of rust and figured this was some sort of carriage or wagon storage. The smell of stagnant water and mildew was thick in the air. I looked around and spotted the source of the blue glow coming from a room at the other end of the structure. The building didn’t look all that sturdy so I needed to be careful with what I touched.

I stepped off the ramp and my foot splashed into the shallow water that I now saw coated the entire area. I waited as I held my breath while the ripples of my footstep raced away in the silence.

After waiting a full two minutes and not hearing anything coming to tear me apart or melt my flesh off, I took my next step.