Scene 1: Alpha Site

"Don't got a stretcher, maybe you can rig up a travois. But if it's just a broken leg I can carry 'em out in the worst case. As far as gators go, never needed to use Rita. They don't like goin' this deep." Lauman patted his handgun affectionately and pointed to a set of ropes leading into the dark, a cyan colored glowstick was already at the bottom, it looked to be about 20ft down again. The air was now hot, about 82 degrees farenheit.

Someone was moving down there, you could see the silohuette wave. It was most probably Justice.

The descent wasn't too difficult, now near 500ft below the surface of the earth it was now quite warm approaching hot. The humidity was stifling, Justice waited at the base of the deadfall and continued steadily downhill. Into the depths of the earth. "About fifteen minutes at a hustle down, watch your step." Justice cautioned and he stayed to the lefthand side of the stream. "Careful of cave water it can carry disease." The man seemed quite familiar with the tunnel. His familiar step carried him surely. "We will need to swim though." The water level was rising as the passage narrowed, soon they were ankle deep, then knee deep in water. A single furrow of light cut through into the subterranean grotto. A bend in the tunnel quickly vanquished the moonlight.

The tunnel narrowed, it was now cramped Justice had stopped and began to crack glowsticks. He was tying them off at intervals on fishing line, every ten feet or so. "Alright buddy system now. Follow the lights, do not deviate, there are hundreds of miles of tunnel down here. This is the worst leg of it. There's no air for one hundred fifty feet, or about one minute at a good pace. I will mark it with red glowsticks so it doesn't ruin your night vision." After tying off fifteen lengths of his fishing line Justice hung the line from a old rusted piton just over the mouth of a tunnel that lead into the water. He turned on his headlamp, and a handheld flashlight. "Questions?"

The water was warm, not yet body temperature but enough that it didn't cause a shock when immersing in it. It smelled mildly alkaline, clean though. And whike it appeared murky from above, under the surface it was crystal clear.

Traversal though not easy went rather smoothly. Donahue managed to get a clear indication of depth as he caught many glittering geometric shapes at the base of the fissure. He could see stress fractures, in concentric octagonal protrusions from the rock. Some immense force had split a vein through the rock which created the channel they were diving in. He wasn't far from the bottom and could easily grab one of the glittering triangles from the recess.

Rodriguez had no difficulty in the dive. Training and discipline served her well, following the string of glowlights to their end brought her up into a fissure, and a high vaulted limestone recess in the rock. The air in the recess was sweet, and she could feel a current, it was still hot, now uncomfortably hot. She could see Justice at the far end of the recess. And behind Andrew looked at his dive watch. Donahue emerged, followed by Kowalsky. Messer came up last clipping the line as he did, breaking the strand free.

Tense seconds passed and there was still no sign of Elias...

"Lost one, I'll get 'im." Andrew dived before anyone could respond.

Elias had a tough time of it, when he followed the line his hand brushed the thin filament, and he felt it go slack. The string drifted in the water, neutrally bouyant it curled in on itself. The way forward was no longer clear. Elias's lungs began to burn as he ran low on air. The vein had many branches running off. It was a labyrinth. He could feel something heavy disturb the water as his sense of time became distorted. Just before he committed to a path Andrew's flashlight near blinded him. A powerful hand on his shoulder set his bearing correct and he could feel himself being pulled. Tense seconds past, another minute. Elias' lungs felt like they were on fire, his blood burned like battery acid. That first breath as Andrew and Elias broke the surface was the sweetest of his life.

Justice whistled for everyone's attention. "Feel alive yet?" Andrew whooped in response and guided Elias to the wall waiting for him to catch his breath. Messer swam to Elias and checked him briefly.

"You'll be alright, just catch your breath." Messer reassured Elias, the Doctor's Without Border's patch on his soaked utilities adding some credence to his diagnosis.