Chapter 2 - Very Not Good

With a grunt, Jinxy struck the flint for the fifth time. This time the sparks caught, igniting the candle. Its tiny, dancing light did little to calm her imagination as the shadows swayed on the tunnel walls around her. Slipping a knife from her belt, she pried off the catches holding the busted lamp to its strap, loosening the buckle of the leather band somewhat as she did so.

Burning with an open flame wasn’t exactly wise this far underground, but with her lamp beyond repair the gnome had calculated that she had an approximately 3.47% chance of finding her way back safely without light. The tunnels were large enough here that the oxygen consumption and smoke generated wouldn’t be a problem. *Probably.*

With a hollow laugh, she wrapped the leather headband around the candle and fastened it once more, tucking the excess strap behind her ear. *Bet I look like a Cog-damn Kobold now.*

It was slow going, but eventually Jinxy made it back to the Guard post, only to find it deserted. Grumbling to herself, she looked about the makeshift tents for any clue as to the whereabouts of her comrades but nothing revealed itself. A flick of her buzzbox returned only static – not surprising, she was still pretty far down.

Squinting at the map once more in the dim candlelight, she was so busy grumbling that she didn’t notice the rumble at first. Like an approaching train, its intensity built until a shockwave knocked the gnome clean off her feet.

“What in Cog’s name was that!?” Jinxy groaned, hauling herself to her feet once more. She spluttered as the dust in the shockwave’s wake filled her lungs. *An explosion, and that was no mining blast. Something wrong in the labs?* She cast her mind back of the recent munitions reports. If anything, they were running low. They’d have had to light up every shell they had to cause that kind of blast. *Unlikely. Something else then.*

She was running now despite her burning lungs, map clutched in one hand and simple metal shortsword in the other. Cornering too quickly, she skidded as the floor shifted from bare rock to metal plating and sent her careening hard into a steel bulkhead. Groggily, she pulled herself to her knees, pawing at her forehead where she felt something sticky and red. *Blood? No – candle wax.* Ears ringing, she gingerly felt around the leather strap tied about her head, only to discover her candle had all but burnt out. Bleep.

*Not to worry Jinx, whatever that blast was it doesn’t seem to have knocked out the lighting in the lower levels.* Rolling her neck, she used the bulkhead to pull her aching 3’5” frame to its feet once more. *It’s weird they used green bulbs though.* Bleep bleep.

Something about the word ‘green’ cut through her muddled thoughts like a bonechopper through trogg flesh. Standing bolt upright, she squinted down the corridor ahead. Faint tendrils of green gas could be seen snaking around the corners at floor level. Judging by the lighting though, there must have been a faint haze in the air as well. Bleep bleep.

“Well that is extremely very not good.” The gnome observed the gas for a moment or two longer. Other than rising to fill the air of the corridor, it didn’t seem to be advancing too much in her direction. The scanner at her belt became more insistent and decidedly more irritating in its bleeping. With an irritated sigh she drew the device, studying its readouts.

“That…is a lot of radiation. What the heck happened up there?”

Picking her pack up from where it fell, the gnome quickly backpedalled the way she came, feeling her way along the rock wall as the green-hued light faded and the darkness enveloped her once more. There was no time to think about what she’d seen; she was too busy counting steps as she headed further down into the Deep Levels once more.

*Guess I’m sleeping at the camp tonight.*