Zombies in the Underworld?

They arrived at a yawning chamber where scattered signs of human activity clung to the stone like old ghosts. Rusted tools, a bent shovel, a few broken lantern frames—each object wore the dust of several weeks, maybe months. The tunnel mouth leading in was braced with crude wooden beams, some half-splintered. Clearly someone, likely the miners, had tried to expand or shore up this space. Yet no trace of the workers themselves.

Shen knelt near a discarded pickaxe. "This is definitely recent," he said quietly, tapping its dull metal. "Miners must've set up some kind of construction here." He lifted his lantern and swept the light across the area. Faint footprints crisscrossed the dirt, and a few makeshift columns of stacked stone suggested an attempt at reinforcement.