New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 515 Underground Homeless Camp

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Alexander and Kary both climbed down the ladder into the maintenance lines, instead of acting stupid like David and jumping down. Even if the risk of injury to their tougher bodies was minimal, they preferred the cautious route.

When they arrived in the underground tunnel, Alex quickly noticed this wasn't a small sewer line. The maintenance tunnel was as large as a metro tunnel and extended out of sight in three directions.

Kary made her way down soon after, and the lack of light creeped her out.

"Want me to make some light for us?" she asked, raising one hand to her face.

David looked at her, smirking.

"Just don't burn yourself and don't drain all your mana before the fight. You would be useless if all you did was to be our torch until there, and then become a burden."

Kary lit two fireballs in her hand, the size of softballs, her face morphing into a mask of anger.

"Or maybe I incinerate you here and deal with this alone with Alex. That sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?"

David backpedalled, his smirk quickly disappearing.

"Whoa! Chill out, woman, before you turn into a human torch."

Alex grabbed Kary's left shoulder while snickering.

"Don't listen to him, Kary. You know he's just a jerk. Yes, I would love some light on our way there. I don't think this idiot brought flashlights."

David frowned at the insult.

"Hey, you live closer. I would have stood out with a backpack full of tunnel-crawling supplies. Couldn't you bring flashlights?"

Kary clicked her tongue at him, extinguishing one fireball in her hands and reducing the other to a smaller flame.

What direction are we heading? Straight, left, or right?"

David pointed to the left, keeping his mouth shut, lest she get angry again and actually try to burn him. Once he had pointed, Kary walked next to him, ignoring him entirely, as she walked down the left tunnel.

Alex started following behind, an enormous grin on his lips. He stopped a moment next to David, turning his head towards him.

"Isn't she hot when she gets mad?"

David just looked at him like he was the biggest dolt in the universe.

"You're a world-class idiot. You know that, right?"

Alex shrugged before resuming his walking behind Kary, catching up with her in a few steps.

David soon caught up to the pair as well, since he was the one that was supposed to guide them.

"How far until we reach the nest, David?" Alex asked, his nerves tensing up in anticipation.

David didn't even turn his head to reply.

"We are quite a ways away. We first need to get down to the second level. On this level, we'll have only the tunnels to the sewers and the surface-level metros. The rats are most definitely at the second layer, where the tunnels are larger and there is less passage. Those are the maintenance tunnels for the metros' electrical systems."

Nodding his head, Alex looked forward again. He wondered how they would go down to the next sub-level.

Was it going to be another ladder? Or would it be a branching tunnel?

The trio came upon a bend in the tunnel, and David raised his arm to stop them.

"Around this corner should be a small underground regrouping of tents and makeshift huts that the homeless use as a haven. Kary. You should stop that flame of yours.

"When we pass through, they might bug us, since we don't look like them, but ignore them and keep going. The tunnel that leads down to the next level is just beyond their camp."

Kary immediately extinguished her flame, sending them back into complete darkness. Their eyes rapidly readjusted, if only faintly, allowing them to see a dozen feet in front of them, where some light came from around the bend.

As they resumed their walk, David in the lead, they went around the corner, coming face-to-face with a small camp. The camp comprised close to a dozen huts and about three times as many tents, in a ramshackle layout, that would make any city planner want to tear their eyes out.

Many homeless people were wandering about, some lazing around large steel drums, in which a weak fire burned, with god knows what material burning in it. Others were sitting in the huts and tents, eating food out of cans that looked barely edible.

Kary's heart pinched, as she looked at all these people in such an unfavourable position. She knew the homeless situation in Montreal was bad, but she had never imagined it was this bad.

As they started wandering across the settlement, many eyes turned in their direction. Some were curious, others scornful, some even envious.

But David and Alexander's menacing glares were enough to keep most of these moochers at bay. But only most of them.

A group of four larger-looking homeless walked up and blocked David's path. Their dirty clothes reeked of alcohol, which who knew how they got hold of it, and their teeth were rotted yellow and black, visibly lacking any form of care.

The one in front, a large-statured man with a fat stomach and puffed-up cheeks, stepped one foot closer to David. Already, Kary could see a lot of the homeless men and women had looked away.

These four meant trouble, and even the locals knew.

"You look lost, little man. Maybe you need me and my buddies to escort you out of this place, at a fee of course," the big man said, snorting in laughter.

David looked at him with his most dreadful stare.

"You better get out of my way, chump. You are way out of your league here."

The three men behind the fat one were eyeing Kary with lustful eyes, their mouths watering at the thought of getting a moment alone with her. Alex was already feeling a mix of disgust and hatred toward them rise as he stepped in front of her, staring them down.

The fat guy, however, didn't look impressed with David's glare and threat.

"What are two scrawny-looking dudes, and one lady, going to do to me and my boys? Call the police maybe? They never come down here. You are in the wrong part of the city, to be making threats, 'chump.'" The fat guy replied, taking another step forward.

The three men behind him started circling around David, trying to bar the path back for Alex and Kary. The situation was rapidly going from bad to worse.

'Do we need to fight them off?' Kary wondered.

She wasn't against teaching the gross men a lesson, but they were still human. And she knew Alex and David wouldn't hesitate to kill them if push came to shove.

'Is there anything else we can do?'