Wrath

The woman's return to her settlement at the surface was swift. She and her companions retraced their steps, sure as to the path they needed to take. He was with them as they went. They passed by the long-dead traveler. Partway through the long halls which connected the vertical room and the cavernous chamber where the pale horror had killed their third companion, they used up the last of the fuel for their weak lantern. The woman used the tube which made light then. Its brightness was welcome. It made the journey seem less arduous than it was.

Its corpse was still there. It stank more than it did previously.

The slope which they had descended proved the greatest obstacle in their way. They were careful and methodical in their ascent. The footing was treacherous. They used the rope well to secure their position and test the integrity of the path they hoped to use. Their precautions proved fruitful. More than once their footing shook loose as their weight dislodged precariously stacked hunks of rock. They would bring more rope with them upon their return and use it to create a safe, secure path for their entire community.

The water-bearing tube, the object which had been their initial salvation and the reason which first spurred exploration, now lay on their right as they followed the tunnel back upwards. They moved even more quickly now, eager to reach the place which was their home. A light flickered ahead, around a bend in the tunnel, and the woman switched off her own stick of light to conserve its mysterious power source.

They found others. They were not the strangers in red, but a different group. They bore weapons similar to those of the strangers in red, however, jagged lengths of metal affixed to poles by strips of leather or the tendons of slain beasts. They were brutish and scarred, marauders which had come across the wasteland of wind and earth and metal and had found a trace of their community.

They were as surprised by the woman and her companions as the woman and her companions were by their presence. The shock lasted only a few moments before most of the others which guarded the tunnel mouth fell upon the woman and her companions with ululating cries. One of them turned and retreated upwards, shouting.

The others were skilled, but the woman and her companions were fueled by anger. They stabbed and hewed at each other. The woman proved most deadly. She had been taught arts of war by the strangers in red. Her weapon was stained with the blood of the invaders.

All of the invaders lay dead when it was over. She did not remain uninjured, nor did her companions. One of them was killed. Blood and gasping gurgles emerged from a heinous gash across the throat. The woman bared her teeth as she finished the job.

The other invaders were alerted by now. The woman and her lone remaining companion used their knowledge of the tunnel system beneath their home and the light source she carried to their advantage. They split up to cover ground more quickly. He went with her.

The woman picked off lone invaders, skewering them before they were aware of her presence, leaving them expiring in pools of their own blood.

She came upon some of her fellow residents as well. They were fearful and mistreated. Many wanted for food. She left them some of the packaged bricks of material she had brought along and told them to gather deeper within the tunnels.

When the woman and her companion reunited, they realized they could not overcome all of the invaders. There were too many of them. This also prevented them from rescuing all of their fellow residents. It pained them. They did not want to leave any of them in the invaders' clutches. But they could not stay. They had saved many. They had even secured some supplies from the storage areas in the warren beneath the earth. It would perhaps be enough to bring them to the place they had found.

They turned and fled. The woman used her light-bearing stick to lead the way. The dreadful shouts of the invaders echoed down the tunnels after them.