Aguero didn’t wear a guard uniform, but he kept his armored buggy pants and reinforced boots. Instead of a dark blue tank top, he wore a white one, and to partially cover his armored pants, we wrapped a grey hoodie around his waist. Navia took a moment to come up with a comment, but she decided to hold it. “He will stand out like a sore thumb…”
Before leaving the Golden Zone, Navia took Aguero to the second-hand store where she bought her clothes and gave him a dark cape. “Take this.” She said and left the store, leaving him alone at the cash register. The elite guard left the store with a dark cape on; it was a short one, but at least hid his upper body.
Aguero was the one leading the way; they were moving away from the gates, but Navia didn’t question that. She trusted the man in front of her, at least enough for him to lead the way. Near the city docks, there was a thicker part of the wall with a tunnel protected by iron bars and an iron door. Aguero had the keys for them and opened the door, gladly gesturing for Navia to go first.
“What is this secret? Tunnel?” Asked Navia, not entirely sure if the secret was the right word for it.
“It’s actually a vent. Since many buildings are inside the city itself, covered by the buildings, they need better ventilation. That’s why there is a special ventilation system. The bottom floors are the biggest, hence the size of the vents. Some of them lead to the other side.” Aguero’s explanation echoed through the tunnel back and forth.
“How did no one realize that there is such an easy passage between the zones?” Navia asked, seeking the reason why no one used that vent to escape the Red Zone.
“First, it’s a maze, and you don’t know where you could end up. Second, there are fans that constantly push the air and make noise, so people are scared of them, not wanting to be sliced up.” At the crossroads, Aguero pointed to his left, where four massive iron wings were placed in the middle of the tunnel. “Currently, they are turned off, so we could pass through, but in twenty minutes, they will be turned back on, so the path will be broken. And third…” He prolonged his words until there was another turn where the tunnel was getting narrower and smaller. “They would have to crawl an unknown distance in this narrow space. This one will take us five minutes of constant crawling.”
Since Aguero was taller, he was the first one to bend his back and start crawling. Navia followed behind him, it was utter darkness. She could barely see her own hands and could only hear Aguero swiping his legs and arms forward.
“If shadows could get denser when it gets darker, we could literally grab it.” Aguero shared his thoughts to break the silence and to pass the time.
“How much longer?” Asked Navia, worries slipped into her voice as she didn’t like that tight space, and especially the darkness.
“We’re almost there. I can already smell the sea. The exit is near the docks of the Red Zone.” Heard Navia as she pushed forward as instructed, not sure how close or how far Aguero was.
“Is he really trying to help me? The president doesn’t fully trust me… What if it is a trap?” Navia questioned the help from the elite guard, but then she also began to smell the sea air. “Is it close?” Asked Navia, but there was no answer, only her echo. “Aguero? Hey!” Navia shouted, but there was no answer. “Was there another path? Did he mislead me so I would get lost? Should I turn around?” Her second-guessing stopped after hearing the waves mashing against the shore and the walls. She didn’t even realise it, but the tunnel was slightly turning, and it was getting lighter; the exit was close.
Navia picked up the speed, and she finally saw the light from the outside. Before she left the tunnel, she stopped and looked down. It was a fall into the water from thirty feet. “Was he so far away that he already jumped?”
Not wasting any more time, Navia jumped headfirst into the water. It was deep enough for her to safely dive down. Once she emerged from the water, she saw the end of the wall where the Red Zone was beginning. A sandy shore, a dirty one with bottles of booze visible from far away.
“You finally made it!” Gladly shouted Aguero as he sat near the wall on the sand with a fire in front of him. Using the pieces of wood that were thrown onto the shore. “I prepared a fire to dry our clothes. Wasn’t sure how far away you were since it was so dark.:
“Couldn’t you use your powers to shed some light on that dark tunnel?” She asked as she sat beside the fire, extending her hands forward to warm them.
“I could, but the journey would take much longer. My gate doesn’t simply create fire. I like to call this gate a Fire Dancer. My rapid movement creates a fire that follows my limbs. So I would have to at least constantly wave my hand around to create a fire.” As he was explaining, Aguero waved his hand around, and a speck of flame followed his hand, but once he stopped and the flame touched his hand, it disappeared.
“I see. It would slow us down. Sorry, I didn’t know how your gate works.” Navia apologized, feeling bad about her earlier thoughts about the young man.
“No problem. If you don’t mind me asking, could you explain how your gates work? It would be helpful later on when we’ll have to cooperate.” Calmly asked Aguero not to sound imposing.
“There is not much to explain. My body regenerates faster, but it doesn’t mean instantly. And the other gate allows me to control my own blood and change it into armor or a weapon.” Navia explained as if that wasn’t any secret at all, and she didn’t think it was since the ability itself was simple.
“I understand, so the amount of blood is your limiter…” Ageuro trailed off as he imagined how Navia’s ability worked.
“Actually, the limiter is my current control over the gate. I can only control a certain amount of blood, so two swords is the most I can make, but I usually end up with knives and bits of armor.” Navia bit her finger, and from a small wound she extracted enough blood to create a rough sword.
Aguero was shocked with amazement, stunned to speak as she admired how fast she made that sword, but after a moment, a question landed in his head. “Why is it black? Isn’t blood supposed to be red?”
Navia cursed under her nose as she hadn’t thought of an excuse earlier. “Might be… It’s a hard topic… You see…”
“Oh! Sorry for scratching something so uncomfortable, forget I asked.” The young man grunted in shame and turned away from Navia. He would rather avoid making anyone uncomfortable because of his question.
They sat there awkwardly for two different reasons, Aguero out of shame, and Navia because of her lie that didn’t sit right with her. It was an uncomfortable topic, but she wasn’t about to tell the truth; she took her time to come up with a lie.
“We should get moving. We can’t waste much time.” Navia stood up, and Aguero did the same, following her at first to the pavement and then leading the way as they entered the city.
The streets were mostly empty as many people still feared the monster lurking in the city. The information didn’t reach them, or they were cautious, not wanting to risk their life to find out if the monster was gone or not. All of them didn’t know that the monster was walking freely right under their noses.
“So, where are we gathering the information?” Asked Navia, a bit caught off guard by how watchful Aguero was as he stopped her before she could step on a glass shard. His eyes were all around, watching closely, even the minor details.
“Like I said… It won’t be a pleasant place…” Answered Ageruo, lowering his voice in a bit of embarrassment.
“I’ll manage it, I went through hell, fought in a brutal pit, and survived the horrors of this world…” Navia was confident this whole time until Aguero turned toward the doors, and as he opened them, a lot of smoke came out through them, and she could see the red lights shining inside the building. “Is that…”
“Yes… It’s a brothel.” Admitted Aguero, with no pride in those words, he would rather not tell Navia what place he was going to gather information. In the Red Zone, brothels were the only place where any words passed from mouth to ear all day.