Going Deeper

[Nox]

Nox chuckled at Jay's creative way of talking about their food. He'd never had an MRE. Never lived the military life. This this was his life more so than not. "Not much better here. Grew up on it. And whatever we could forage and hunt in the middle of backass nowhere America." Much of the world was cities now, but there were still places humans had yet to ravage. And Nox had grown up in most of them. There was no hunting down here, you had what you brought with you, and Nox could only hope they had enough to get out of the underground before they starved.

The hoard grew restless. Which meant their pickings were just as slim. Hopefully that meant the end. Whatever hell hole they would find at the end. Something made these tunnels. Something had burrowed deep with in and it wasn't man kind. These were natural walls, like walking through the bowels of some supernatural creature too large to understand the depth and breadth of the thing. It made Nox shudder.

He wanted a nap. But more he wanted to be topside and in the arms of the man he loved. Fucking sleep would be nice, he thought to himself.

Food replenished his energy. And the hoard pulled at that darkness. They wanted out, wanted to hunt. but his control was absolute and they fought amongst themselves. They could end it now. How much deeper did the tunnels go? Would it be worth it? But Nox pressed on again. "I don't know how deep this goes."

And they walked and fought with the hoard until the earth grew warm around them. The air was scorching their skin. They weren't deep enough to reach this type of heat. But there were creatures that burrowed into the depths, few were seen, and fewer had been killed. Most lived in the depths of the ocean far from human eyes, but a few lived near active volcanos, this one was no where near either. Nox had never seen one, but that was clearly a Cherufe.

The cavern was lit by the pool of magma, the small nest of creatures lay on the far side, the hoard hovered near the edge of the pool waiting, wanting to cross but hesitant. They weren't so stupid as to cross the magma, even with food waiting on the other side. There was no other entrance, this was the last place. They had finally reached an end. "I can force them in to the lava. No more fighting. It'll be over." The pain of the remaining hoard might render him unconscious, burning alive was not fun, even if it wasn't his own skin burning and peeling and melting...