Alatus's Tunnel

--Alatus's Perspective--

"Come this way!" I shouted down the tunnel underneath the bunker.

From all of the injured civilians in the initial collapse, I decided to take action and use the tunnel that Ruby had us make in case of the worst-case scenario.

The tunnel was filled with various lights to keep the path illuminated. It had enough room for carts to fit through, it was tall enough for anybody of any height to fit in, with about five feet of extra room at the very least, and it was supported enough to prevent anything from caving in.

I took a majority of the bunker's members and brought them down here. At the very least, I wanted to transport every woman and child before the men. Most of the men were in the bunker above, but the rest of us would be heading over to Karia for shelter from Umbra.

"Come in, Alatus, are you there...?" I heard it over the radio. I thought the communication system was taken out in one of the blasts for the bunker, so I was skeptical about the radio call. I answered it anyway, pushing the button and putting it close to my mouth.

"This is Alatus, who is this?" I asked into it as people walked past me.

"Carl. I'm here with Ruby, Umbra, and Lia. What is going on with this big dome? Do you know anything? I mean, I know it's Alexia... but why? Do we have Quake in there?" They asked me.

More people shuffled by, sometimes they would look behind themselves as they proceeded forward to see what I was talking about. I guess curiosity was justified against a threat this big.

"I'm not sure, I'm evacuating everybody to Karia right now..." I said. I shortly looked up to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For the most part, everybody had made it through already.

"Get who you can in there, and come back to the surface, we need to stick together. As far as I can tell, Zeka, Austin and Amy, and Kire are down for the count in some way. Cynthia, Cole, and Fico are still out there somewhere, and that's the extent of what I know," Carl told me.

I nodded, as if he could see me, and started to head toward the entrance of the tunnel, running on the left-hand side of the walking people's shoulders while keeping in mind that more people had to get in there before I stopped.

After about two minutes of running, I made it back to the entrance, where more people were already grouped up.

"Alright, everybody goes in. Come on, it's safer this way. Oh, and everybody else who's waiting, please don't hesitate with going inside, it's all open now, even to the men. I have to go, but I'll be at Karia to tell you that we won soon," I said confidently. The people all around me cheered up and looked confident, just as I did, all while moving into the tunnel.

I knew that Hiyochi was extremely held up with various surgeries and keeping people safe and healthy, so I wanted to prevent any more workload on her own case. The girl was only thirteen, an impressive age for a doctor so talented.

"Hey, why is this tunnel even here if this bunker was supposed to work? Seems pretty counterintuitive to me," A man said before entering the tunnel. I looked at him, trying to study his figure... but nothing came to mind. I don't remember this man at all.

"It was a last-minute addition, thought up by Ruby. In case something went wrong in here. You have a problem with fail-safes or something?" I asked him cockily. I don't know how somebody could find the capacity to complain when I was saving their life, but I guess everybody is different.

Right after I finished talking to him, something odd happened. A wave of dizziness and nausea possessed me. I fell to the ground after my legs went weak, and desperately tried to keep vomit down my throat.

It wasn't just me when I started to look up, it was everybody around me... everybody but Aegis...

"What... is that?!" I shouted out through the surges of vomit coming up my throat. It was the most intense pressure I've ever felt, even when that Island thing came down onto the other one I went up to so I could rescue Sky and the others. This was... impossibly powerful!

My radio kicked up again as I held my mouth desperately.

"Guys! What's going on?! What is this pressure?!" Lia asked into the radio. It seemed like she was suffering the same side effects, but nowhere near as intense.

"It's Sky... Sky is the one exerting this pressure," Illya's soft voice came up on the radio next, and I was surprised to hear from her. She purposefully didn't take a radio, so I wondered if she was with somebody else.

"Sky? How is he doing that? And... why?" I asked again. The pressure finally subsided, and everybody in the bunker returned to normal, running through the bunker now to escape the pressure exerted.

"Alatus! It's Fudo, I'm safe... it's weird... something dark is coming from the dome. Something that's like... black in color, blacker than your hair. They're strands I think, I've never seen them before, but what I do know is that we need to evacuate this city, all of us," Fudo suggested.

Before he could finish that sentence, several different people picked up the radio in response.

"Not happening,"

"We're not leaving,"

"You can, I'm not,"

"Only after the fight is over,"

Lia, Dani, Tavian, and Carl all said statements of the sort in rapid succession, not even letting Fudo get a chance to justify himself.

"You guys don't get it... Zealous is falling. What's left standing is slowly cracking, the walls are gone, and this dome is the only thing containing Quake... or maybe, it's the only thing containing Sky," Fudo suggested.