The True Colours of an Empire_Ch:1_Dragonborn 7

Iriel walks beside Drachma. They swing open the door. The metallic sound of the door’s opening echoes throughout the underground bunker. After a few moments of silence Drachma begins to walk inside. Their every step echo throughout the big bunker. Iriel, with some hesitation, walks down behind Drachma as she keeps turning on the lights of the bunker. The old lights flickered with the buzz.

“These lamps shouldn’t have oil in them. They haven’t been used in hundreds of years.” Comments Iriel, slightly coughing.

Its old stairs make creaking noises as the two walk down. They start to have problems breathing as they walk through the dust-covered room. After taking every step, they pause to listen to the environment around them. Arriving at the room, the two look around the seemingly abandoned location. Drachma moves some debris away exposing something that seems to be long-abandoned blankets. “Interesting,” he says as he grabs the fabric and holds it close to his face to look at it better.

“Those are just some old blankets. What are you searching for so carefully in that?” Iriel asks. As she looks away from those blankets, she sees some old sacks lying open on the floor in a corner of the room. After brushing off the dust what can be seen in those sacks are half-wasted rations. Beside them, Iriel also sees some opened burn healing ointment containers and some fresh oil lamps and beside them some used oil on the floor. She pauses for a moment before slowly bending down to get a closer look.

“Seems like these lizards have found their little burrow,” Drachma comments while removing some soot from the blankets.

As Iriel looks around further into the bunker, she notices some more signs of life. Walking into a weapon storage room she notices a small doll on the floor. She picks up the tiny figure. It is made with some small metal pieces, and some ramshackle fabric is haphazardly placed around those, creating a vague shape of a bear. Iriel holds the doll close to her as she gets lost in her sweet childhood memories.

Drachma sees a pile of old books. Moving that stack of books, he discovers a route for a cargo ship. “So, this was their little escape plan.”

Suddenly, a gunshot is heard throughout the bunker. It causes the two investigators to run a bit deeper inside. Then, the sound of harsh footsteps approaching is heard. Drachma and Iriel can hear someone coming closer to them with every single footstep they hear. The bullets of a gun blast off in the hallways. It forces the two to find quick cover.

“There aren’t many places to run down here! Make it easier on all of us and stop firing!” Iriel screams, targeting the shooter.

The firing pauses momentarily. The fine-tuned ears of both Drachma and Iriel hear the sound of the chambers of the gun popping open, followed by the clattering of bullets being reloaded. Taking the opportunity, both of them start to run toward the culprit.

Iriel sees a bright blue flash standing right in the middle of the hallway. It shoots out a bolt of lightning toward Drachma. He dives out of the way and the lighting strikes the used oil that was lying on the floor behind Drachma. It began to erupt in flames.