"Seven minutes!" Axel's voice was a harsh whisper, the casualness gone, replaced by a grim urgency. He was already shoving the rolled-up blueprints into the found backpack, his eyes darting towards the heavy vault door.
"Mia, grab whatever's essential! We're not having a tea party with that oversized paperweight!"
Mia didn't need telling. She was already stuffing the last of their water and protein bars into her own small pack. The archival vault, moments ago a sanctuary, now felt like a rapidly closing trap. The thought of the Juggernaut's piledriver fists against that steel door was enough to galvanize them into frantic action.
"The locking bars?" Mia asked, looking at the heavy mechanism they'd just secured.
"No time!" Axel decided, already moving towards the section of the wall indicated on the ancient blueprints as an entrance to the historical network.
"It'll slow it down by seconds, maybe. We need distance." He ran his Maglite beam along the grimy brickwork. "System, pinpoint that access point. Now!"
[SYSTEM ALERT: Juggernaut ETA to current archival vault nexus: 6 minutes 30 seconds. Historical tunnel access point identified: Behind dislodged stonework, lower southern wall.]
Axel spotted it – a section of bricks that looked slightly askew, almost like a poorly patched repair job from a bygone era.
"Here!"
Together, they pushed. The bricks, loosened by time and perhaps the earlier tremors, gave way with a grating sound, revealing a dark, narrow opening no taller than Axel's chest.
It smelled of centuries of undisturbed dust and something else, something earthy and unsettlingly still.
"Charming," Axel muttered, peering into the Stygian blackness. "Absolutely five-star. You first, Tunnel Queen, or shall I brave the cobwebs for chivalry's sake?"
Mia just gave him a look and plunged in, wrench held ready. Axel followed, wriggling through the tight opening, the Maglite held precariously in his teeth for a moment. The historical tunnel was a stark contrast to the more modern service corridors. It was rough-hewn, the ceiling perilously low, the air thick and stagnant.
"System, Juggernaut update!" Axel grunted as they straightened up in the cramped passage.
[Juggernaut ETA: 5 minutes 15 seconds. It has entered the primary tunnel leading to the archival vault.]
"It's on our heels," he relayed to Mia. "Let's move like our lives depend on it. Because, you know," he added, his voice tight with forced levity, "they absolutely do."
Mia didn't reply, already navigating by what seemed like sheer instinct, her hand occasionally brushing against the damp, uneven walls. The blueprints were a guide, but this deep, it was her "Intuitive Pathfinding" that truly led the way.
Axel stuck close behind, his Maglite beam cutting a frantic path, every shadow looking like a threat, every drip of water sounding like a footstep.
The sounds of the Juggernaut's rampage were fainter here, but a deep, rhythmic thud… thud… thud began to vibrate through the very earth beneath their feet. It was no longer just smashing through obstacles; it was walking. Purposefully.
"It's in the main tunnel nexus where the archives are," Axel said, his voice low. "It'll figure out we're not in the vault soon enough."
[SYSTEM WARNING: Structural integrity of current historical tunnel sector: Poor. Vibrations from Juggernaut movement may cause localized collapses. Proceed with extreme caution.]
"No kidding," Axel breathed as a shower of dirt and small stones rained down from the ceiling ahead. Mia expertly sidestepped a larger chunk of dislodged rock that could have easily brained her.
They came to a section where the tunnel floor had partially collapsed, revealing a dark, narrow chasm. A single, rotten wooden beam spanned the gap.
"Don't suppose your telekinesis extends to amateur bridge repair?" Axel asked, eyeing the beam with extreme skepticism.
Mia shook her head, her face pale but set. "It's too narrow for that thing anyway. We go one at a time. Lightly."
She went first, moving with a dancer's grace across the creaking beam. Axel followed, heart in his throat, trying to distribute his weight, every creak of the ancient wood a small gunshot in the oppressive silence.
He could feel the Juggernaut's distant thuds like a monstrous heartbeat.
They were halfway across when a particularly violent tremor shook the tunnel. The beam beneath Axel's feet groaned, then cracked.
"Axel!" Mia yelled, having just reached the other side.
He didn't think; he launched himself forward in a desperate, ungraceful leap, landing heavily on the far edge of the chasm, scrambling for purchase. Mia grabbed his arm, her grip like iron, hauling him the rest of the way just as the rotten beam splintered and fell into the darkness below.
They lay there for a second, panting, side-by-side on the cold earth, the Juggernaut's thuds now perceptibly louder, closer. He was acutely aware of her shoulder pressed against his, the shared adrenaline, the stark terror.
"Okay," Axel gasped, pushing himself up.
"New rule. No more historically significant deathtraps if we can avoid it." He looked back at the chasm. "That probably didn't even slow it down."
[SYSTEM ALERT: Juggernaut has deviated from primary tunnel network. It appears to be tracking your bio-signatures through vibrational resonance. Historical tunnel network offers minimal acoustic baffling. Estimated proximity: 200 meters and closing.]
"It's tracking us?" Axel felt a genuine stab of cold fear. This thing wasn't just a brute; it was a hunter.
"Mia, it's in these old tunnels with us now. It smashed its way in."
Mia's eyes widened. "But these passages are too small for it to move quickly…"
"It's probably making them bigger as it goes," Axel guessed grimly. "We need to find a junction, something that branches off, confuse it!"
They pushed onward, the sense of pursuit now a suffocating blanket. The historical tunnels twisted and turned, a disorienting maze. Several times they hit dead ends shown on the ancient blueprints as sealed passages, forcing frustrating, time-consuming detours. Each moment lost felt like a nail in their coffin.
Then, as they rounded a tight bend, the Maglite beam fell upon something unexpected. Not a monster, not a collapse, but a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of light from beneath a crudely boarded-up section of the tunnel wall ahead. And with it, a muffled sound – not of a Juggernaut, but something else.
Voices. Faint, human voices.
Axel and Mia froze, exchanging a look of disbelief and dawning, desperate hope.
But just as Axel opened his mouth to call out, the tunnel behind them reverberated with a deafening, ear-splitting CRASH, much closer than before.
Debris rained down. The Juggernaut had just taken a shortcut. And it sounded like it was right around the last bend.