Jack Nasty had long ago given up trying to see anything in the darkness of the tunnel. He had taken the only route he could find that had fresh tracks, but along the way his only source of light had ended, and he was forced to fumble his way along one particularly dark tunnel as if utterly blind. Despite his expert tracking skills, there was no way now to find out who had made those tracks. And he had since come across one tunnel branch that was much smoother than the other one, except for the odd ridge every couple of feet.
“Fucking shit cocksucker!” Jack shouted as he stubbed his left toe in a ridge for the third time in fifteen minutes, despite his best efforts to keep from doing just that. “Who the hell put ridges in this fucking tunnel?”
His anger cooled just as suddenly as it had arisen when a blue light began distantly illuminating the tunnel just as a slight whirring hum began, getting louder and louder.
Jack Nasty was only able to mutter, “What the--?!” before instinctively throwing himself against the wall of the tunnel, just as a glowing blue cylindrical object shaped like a pill flashed past him, disappearing as suddenly as it had come into view. Jack had only seen it for a brief moment, but he could have sworn he saw silhouetted figures within it.
He looked back behind him in the tunnel where the object had disappeared to for several moments. Finally, he shrugged and kept walking in the direction in which he had been going before it had appeared.
After awhile, he noted with some trepidation that the angle of the tunnel seemed to be steadily moving upward, and as he kept going it became more and more difficult to keep going. The angle was almost 45 degrees by now, and it was only the ridges that had earlier irritated him that now enabled him to keep from sliding several feet back down the tunnel.
Jack's muscles, stronger than a normal man's thanks to a top secret project that had transformed him, kept him moving further and further up the tunnel even as it became more and more steep. After what seemed like an eternity, he was finally able to see a dim light that he hoped came from the surface. He grinned broadly, proud of himself.
He stopped suddenly as he heard voices.
“—not Earth tech, Hero.”
“I know.”
The voices then became too difficult to make out, as if they became more distant, finally disappearing altogether. After several moments, he resumed his climb.
It was then that a bright LED flashlight cut through the darkness, and Jack stopped once more as he listened for voices.
“—brought a flashlight. It's very dark, even with our enhanced vision.”
He heard a few other muffled sounds that he couldn't make out. Finally, there was one sound he now heard that was unmistakable. Sliding.
Jack opened his mouth to shout, but instead received a nasty kick to his face, sending him backwards down the tunnel, two large men atop him. The fall—which was more like a roll down a very long, very steep hill—seemed like an eternity before it finally ended. It was a miracle that Jack had not broken his neck, despite his tougher-than-normal skin.
He was now very pissed off.
