Zone Zero (Book 1 of 3)

Chapter 6

A strong piercing pain in the back of my head wakes me as I struggle to open my eyes. My neck feels stiff and I note that the pain gets worse if I move my head around too suddenly. Slowly I sit up and try to take in my surroundings. There is nothing but darkness as my eyes gradually adjust and confirm where I am. I am underground.

I stand sluggishly and try feel my way around in the obscurity but my eyes feel fuzzy and I am having a hard to time even keeping them open properly.

My head begins to spin instantly from the movement and I am forced to use the dirt walls around me to stabilize myself. I try to see anything amongst the darkness that will give me insight into what has happened but without some sort of light, there is no knowing exactly what happened.

My only guess is that I have fallen into one of our traps that we set along the fence, but it seems strange that I was able to trigger it from inside the wall. These sort of mechanisms are only supposed to be triggered from the other side of the wall.

I look up hoping to see what could have set off the trap and remember hearing the soft click before I fell through the ground. I must have triggered some sort of pressure plate mechanism that opens up a trap door, allowing me to fall and hit my head. I run my fingers through my hair and check for any cuts or blood but don't feel anything. Next I begin checking my arms and legs for any cuts or even a broken bone but I don't feel anything. There is a dull pain in in my left rib cage but nothing too serious. Maybe just some bad bruising.

I try to think back to my first initial training day and to recall the different types of traps that we have laid along the wall over the years but can't recall anything quite like this. Surely the engineers who designed these traps wouldn't be foolish enough to place a trap on this side of the fence where someone on fence detail could accidently set it off?

The more I think about the trap and just how it works, I realize that I am at the end of a very dark tunnel that I can only guess leads underneath the wall. This whole thing is beginning to sound like it wasn't even designed by our engineers at all.

But if our engineers from inside the wall didn't design and install this mechanism, then there is only one other explanation as to how it came to be.

The realization sends instant terror through my entire body as I begin frantically searching for some sort of exit within the narrow tunnel.

I begin clawing at the dirt to climb out the way I fell in but the dirt is packed so densely, that it leaves no room for me to stick my boots in and climb.

I try not to panic and figure that there has to be some sort of way out. Maybe if I head down the tunnel there will be some sort of weakness or even a ladder that I can climb to and get help from.

I begin to make my way down the tunnel and let my eyes fully focus when I notice that in the darkness there is a small light that seems to be flickering. Some sort of light or torch maybe? Maybe even an exit. I brace myself and keep venturing forward.

I grasp the walls of the tunnel and walk steadily closer to the light as it grows in size. I think about screaming for help but the closest person to our side of the fence is at least 3 kilometers away and there is no hope they will hear me down here. It was coming up to dark when I tripped the trap door and I would have had to been unconscious for a little while, which means even if I manage to escape this trap, it is dark outside now. No guard will step foot beyond the sector gates at night and any vampire that catches my scent will surely chase me down and tear me limb from limb before i can make it back to the gates.

I finally reach the source of light and see tgat it belongs to an old battery operated camping lantern as it hangs against the wall. I rip it down and clutch it to my chest for dear life and make my way back down toward where I fell.