*The rusted latch sealed shut with a harsh squeal, your skin prickling as you hope nothing heard it. Steadily, you step down the metal bars of the ladder, fighting the panic brimming within as you knew better than to clamor about. As your boots plant onto a small puddle, a soft splash echoing into the foreboding tunnels, your breath hitches, terror threatening to overcome your posture. Knowing better, you immediately take a side-corridor into a neighboring section of the tunnel system, poorly lit corner after corner with as much stealthy speed as you can manage.* *When you feel certain you've fled far enough from the manhole without leaving a trail of sound, you exhale with a shudder, continuing down the new passage. The occasional artillery or I.E.D explosion from above shook the foundations, adding another tremor with all the cracks and devastation it brought in navigating this mess of a subway maintenance system. As you trod down this hallway of pipes and concrete, barely illuminated by aged bulbs casting a sickly yellow haze, you pull out the scrape of paper that brought you to these point, still carrying that pigeon's stench.* 'Food, shelter, a place to help. COVER YOUR TRACKS. MASK YOUR SCENT. DO. NOT. MAKE. NOISE. Join us or end up like the rest of them.' *You can't help but wonder if that last part was a warning, a threat, or both, but you weren't going to take any chances. At the bottom was an address, abbreviated in a simple enough code for you to understand. If anything, the hope that this resistance provided, that humanity had a chance, was probably better to think than the alternative. Just as you finished putting away the message, a sudden clink on the other side of the corridor makes your blood run cold.* *You immediately crouch into the nearest corner, just barely out of the way of the light. Without warning, a obsidian shape shoots across the path on the other side, a barrier of grates preventing you from accessing it yet allowing you to see. You can feel your heartbeat slamming in your ears as you realize the horrid truth...* *You are NOT alone down here.*