CHAPTER FIVE– ESCAPE INTO THE UNKNOWN

The Underground Tunnels

The tunnels were suffocating, damp, and filled with the stench of rust and decay. Dim emergency lights flickered, barely illuminating the cracked concrete walls.

Tunde moved cautiously, gripping a rusted metal pipe. Max, his dog, padded beside him, ears perked at every distant sound.

Darius, the group's de facto leader, held his rifle tight. Sarah, their tech expert, was glued to a salvaged tablet, scanning for Titan signals.

Darius whispers, "No noise. No light. We stick together."

Tunde glancing around "How much further?"

Sarah: taps the screen "The tunnel stretches for another mile. If we stay undetected, we should reach the city outskirts in thirty minutes."

Darius: "If we stay undetected."

Then—a mechanical whir echoed through the tunnel.

Red lights blinked in the darkness. A shrill, synthetic voice spoke.

Drone AI: "Unauthorized lifeforms detected. Initiating capture sequence."

Metallic clanking filled the tunnel as spider-like drones skittered toward them. Their sleek black frames gleamed under the flickering lights, and electric tendrils sparked from their clawed appendages.

Darius: "RUN!"

The survivors scattered as the drones fired stun pulses, sending blue arcs of electricity crackling against the tunnel walls.

One of the survivors, Malcolm, panicked. He froze in place, hands raised.

Malcolm: "Wait! Don't shoot! Maybe they won't—"

Before he could finish, a drone latched onto his leg, injecting a paralyzing agent. Malcolm screamed, his body stiffening.

Sarah: "They don't take prisoners, idiot! MOVE!"

Tunde swung his pipe, smashing one of the drones into sparks and debris. Darius unloaded his rifle, tearing through three drones before they could advance.

Sarah yanked a small EMP grenade from her belt, tossing it toward the horde.

Sarah: "EMP out! Cover your eyes!"

BZZZT!

The explosion sent a pulse of energy through the tunnel, short-circuiting the drones. Their glowing red eyes flickered and died as they collapsed into lifeless heaps.

A tense silence followed. Smoke curled from the shattered drones.

Tunde turned to Sarah, who checked her tablet—her face turned pale.

Tunde: panting "Are they dead?"

Sarah: horrified "No… we just made it worse."

She turned the tablet toward them—a blinking red icon flashed on the screen.

Sarah: "These things weren't just hunting us. They were relays… and they just sent a distress signal."

A deep, mechanical voice suddenly boomed through the tunnels, coming from the drone wreckage.

Titan AI Broadcast: "SIGNAL RECEIVED. REINFORCEMENTS EN ROUTE. PURGE ALL SURVIVORS."

The entire tunnel vibrated. A deep metallic clank-clank-clank echoed in the distance. Something bigger was coming.

Darius: "Shit! GO! GO!"

The group grabbed Malcolm, barely able to carry him as they sprinted for the exit.

The crackling campfire cast flickering shadows over the group's exhausted faces. They had lost Malcolm, barely escaped the city, and now trudged through the endless, dark woods with no real plan—except for what Sarah had just revealed.

Tunde sat apart from the others, staring at the fire, his mind racing. Omega's headquarters was the key. If he could get there, he could shut the Titans down.

Darius ran a hand over his tired face, shaking his head.

Darius: "Shutting down Omega's system? That's suicide."

Sarah: "And waiting here to be hunted is a better idea?"

Tunde: flatly "Malcolm didn't die so we could just hide."

The group fell silent.

Sarah's eyes were red-rimmed, but her voice was steady.

Sarah: "I worked on some of the early prototypes. Omega's HQ has the primary AI core. If we reach it and find the mainframe, we can trigger a manual override—shut them all down."

Darius: "You think it'll be that easy?"

Sarah: "No. But it's our only chance."

Tunde stood, stretching his sore legs.

Tunde: "Then we head for Omega."

Darius sighed, rubbing his temples.

Darius: "Lagos is a graveyard, filled with Titans. We can't just stroll in."

Tunde: "We're not. We need a path—something no Titan would expect."

Sarah's eyes brightened as she pulled up a map on her tablet.

Sarah: "The old Monk School."

Darius: "The what?"

Sarah: "A monastery was built in the mountains near Lagos a few years back. If we cross the mountains, we can reach the city unseen. The monks built underground passageways—they might still be intact."

Darius groaned.

Darius: "We're really trusting ancient monks over a city full of Titan patrols?"

Tunde: "Unless you want to walk straight into Omega's front door, I'd say monks are our best bet."

The decision was made. They would head for the Monk School.

The woods were dark, humid, and eerily silent. Every rustling leaf made the survivors tense.

Max, Tunde's dog, suddenly stopped, ears pricked.

Tunde: whispers "Max hears something."

Sarah: muttering "Please don't be more drones…"

Then came the growl.

A pack of cyber-hounds emerged from the underbrush, glowing red eyes scanning the group. These weren't regular dogs—they were reprogrammed police K-9 units, their bodies reinforced with steel plating and retractable claws.

Darius: "Shit. Everyone—"

Before he could finish, the lead hound lunged.

Tunde barely rolled aside as the mechanical beast's jaws snapped shut where his throat had been.

Gunfire erupted—Darius unloaded his rifle, ripping through two hounds. But more came.

Sarah swung a metal rod, cracking one hound across the head. Sparks flew, but the beast didn't stop.

Sarah: "They're armored! Aim for the joints!"

Tunde grabbed a sharpened metal pipe and drove it into the neck seam of a hound, prying it open. The beast convulsed, sparks flying, before collapsing.

Max leapt onto a smaller cyber-hound, sinking his teeth into its exposed circuitry. The machine glitched, whined, then powered down.

The last hound snarled and lunged at Darius—

BOOM!

A shot rang out, and the hound collapsed, a bullet hole smoking in its skull.

Tunde turned to see an old man standing atop a rock, holding an ancient bolt-action rifle. His robe was tattered, but his eyes were sharp.

Old Man: "You seek the Monk School?"

Tunde: panting "Yeah… You know the way?"

The old man nodded slowly.

Old Man: "Then follow me. If you wish to survive the Titans… you must first learn how to fight them."

The group exchanged glances. They had no choice.

As they followed the stranger deeper into the mountains, they could hear the distant sound of Titans moving in the ruined city below. Time was running out.