chapter 5:The start to a not so epic journey

With a threat from the past creating havoc for Michael,he must now try and figure out how to save not only the city but himself

When Michael arrived at the city gates he was greeted the face of Albert Ingleton.His face appeared in a puff of smoke,but somehow seemed more demonic than human."State your business."

Michael still had his weapons with him,he always did."I wish to leave the city!"

"No one leaves this place.Be gone!"

"But I must travel to the island of dark creation!"

"No one may travel to that island.It is forbidden."The face looked like it was in pain for a brief moment before speaking again."There may be one way for you to leave."

"Name it."

"Too pass through these gates you must pay a small fee."

"Of what?"

"Diamonds."

"But those no longer exist in this world."

"Go to the old mine and find three diamonds,only then shall I allow you to pass through these doors."

"S**t." Michael watched the face fade away before turning and leaving."Why do I have to stuck with the s**t jobs?"He marched across town to the dilapidated doors leading to the mine.They were boarded up with big sheets of metal and wood to secure nobody getting in."What happened here?"

Many years ago when the mine was fully operational,a strange virus broke out killing the miners.The mine was evacuated within minutes of the outbreak finally securing the shut down.No one spoke of it,no one thought of it.It was as if it was a blip on the map of human history.Some would speculate that the virus mutated people in to a half human half lizard state.This was never confirmed.

Michael grabbed hold of a piece of wood barricading a smaller door to reveal safe passage.He stepped through the small doorway and out onto a long bridge stretching all the way over to a mountainous looking form of rock.It stood high above anything else in the city perimeter which made it ideal for mining.But sadly Michael found no sign of life.He roamed aimlessly across the bridge before coming across the first skeletons scattered everywhere.He found one of them holding some sort of key shaped like a sun with fire protruding out of the sides.And the flames appeared to be able to move in an anti clockwise and clockwise,movement.But they would only move so far before stopping with a click.

With the object in pocket,Michael made his way over to the mine entrance.He stood at the tunnel opening with a sense of emptiness."What really happened to this place?"But inside of the entrance were two elevators.One for going up and the other down.For not being in use for so long,The power was out so now Michael had to find a way to restore power.

With the mines immediate shutdown years before,the facility was cut off from power from the inside.The city declared that it was too much of a health risk to simply let power keep running to the mine and allow the virus to escape.This provided for an even harder task for Michael was he now to reestablish an electrical current between the city and the mine.He found a thick cable running along the edge of the bridge and followed it back to its origin.It lead back to a small power box attached to the wall of the city just beneath the bridge,so Michael scaled the wall and reconnected the circuit.Once done he heard the distinct sound of electricity returning to long forgotten items.Doors,lights,and mining cart tracks.

Michael made his way to the elevators and got inside one of them.He read the buttons giving details of what floors he could descend to.He chose the B5 button as this was the below level 5.The elevator groaned and choked as it burst in to life.The cables,the gears,and even the elevator itself all seemed to sound as if it were going to break at any moment.But for Michael they didn't.They came to the 5th level and allowed him to leave the elevator to explore the dead mine tunnels.He roamed round tunnel after tunnel trying to find a room or wall chocked full of diamonds, but he came up empty handed each and every time.

After wandering round aimlessly for almost an hour,Michael came across an unlocked room.Inside of it was a huge cavern lit up with strange looking lights on the walls.But what made it appear different to the rest was the fact that the far end finished with a brick wall.This sparked Michael's curiosity so he walked over to it and plunged his sword deep into it.He charged a small amount of energy down his arms and into the sword making it glow.Then once he had charged it enough he ripped it from its confines,blowing the wall backwards revealing more of the room,this time filled with diamonds...and dead bodies.

"My god,What could have caused this?"Michael walked over to a small pile of diamonds then pocketed them.But as he turned to walk off he froze.Standing idle in the center of the room was what appeared to be a half human,half reptilian creature."Hey!Are you okay?"

The creature's head was flicking back and forth erratically like some kind of seizure were taking place.It heard Michael's words then shot up to look at him."Human?" It spoke,almost dazed and confused.

"Yes.I am human,more or less."

"It has been a long time since we had anything to eat."

"We?Eat?"

"We love the taste of human flesh..."The lizard man smiled and evil grin across at Michael."me and my brothers and sisters." More of the lizard creatures came out of the shadows,all of which appeared to be thin and malnourished.

"Stay back okay.I don't want any trouble whatsoever."

"But we are so hungry."

"Then you can stay that way."

"But we need to feast."

"Then you can feast. Just not on me."

"You have freed us from this prison and now we can escape to feed."

"Unfortunately for you,no.I can not allow such a species to escape and cause harm to any human."

"You don't get a say."Hissed another lizardman.

Michael pulled out his shotgun and blasted one of them.The lizardman flew back against a rock wall and died."Looks like undernourishment has affected your abilities to heal or survive."

The first lizardman glared at him."You will die!!!"He ushered the rest of the lizardmen attack.One by one they lunged at Michael but found themselves either stabbed with the sword or shot with the shotgun.Either way,they all met their deaths.Not before long only the first one remained.

"Looks like it's just you and me."

"You will pay dearly for this."It ran then jumped through the air to attack.But it too was stupid.Michael blasted it with the shotgun forcing it to go flying across the room and landing on the pile of bricks left from the broken wall.

Michael walked over to it with the sword in hand."Looks like the banquet is off."He stabbed the lizardman in the forehead killing it instantly."Not I need to get these little beauties back to the guardian."He left the mine and returned to the guardian of the city gates."Is this payment enough?!"

The face appeared once more to judge."Do you have payment?"

Michael pulled out the diamonds."Three,just like you requested."

A strange beam of yellow light erupted from the guardians eyes levitating the diamonds.They were sucked inside of a small slot before disappearing."Payment has been received.And you also destroyed the lizardmen.They were the cause of the mutation in humans.Once bitten you became them.So you have made payment twice." The face disappeared not long before the gates began to open outwards towards the ocean.They revealed a long strip of beach running from the entrance down to the sea.This was Michael's ticket out of there.

Author's Note

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