Three days after the Collapse, the tremors stopped.
No more quakes. No more light leaking from the cracks.
The fissure was sealed, welded shut by layers of steel and reinforced faith.
To the Overseers, that was proof enough that the Nova had forgiven them.
To the miners, it was a warning — the kind that didn't need to be spoken.
Luke still woke to the sound of groaning pipes and faint whispers in the vents, half-expecting the ground to shake again. But the air had gone quiet, almost too quiet. The Undercity was breathing carefully now, as if afraid to disturb whatever had gone back to sleep beneath the stone.
Elias said it best: "Feels like the city's holding its breath."
---
The work shifts resumed with twice the caution and half the people. Barricades lined the collapsed sectors, and patrol drones buzzed day and night. Survivors were given reassignment orders — salvage crews, sanitation, re-stabilization detail.
Luke and Elias got the latter.
"Guess they didn't trust us with shovels anymore," Elias muttered as they hauled repair crates through a dim corridor. Sparks popped overhead where techs patched the light tubes. "I'd take digging over patching pipes any day."
Luke smirked. "At least the pipes don't scream."
"Not yet."
They reached the edge of Section Five — now a sealed district. The once-bustling tunnels were silent, littered with the remnants of machinery and scorched rock. Signs bearing the Nova's symbol marked the barrier:
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. LIGHT ABOVE ALL.
Elias leaned against the railing, staring down the dim length of the sealed corridor. "Hard to believe we were just down there."
Luke adjusted his gloves. "Feels like another lifetime."
A pause. Then, quietly, "Do you ever think we're not supposed to see all this?"
Luke looked at him. "What do you mean?"
Elias shrugged. "The cracks. The light. The things the priests call holy, but we saw what it did to people. Maybe it's not meant for us."
Luke hesitated. "Maybe. But saying that out loud could get you strung up."
"Good thing I'm whispering."
They shared a tired smile — the kind built from too many near-deaths and not enough sleep.
---
By the end of the shift, most of the crew had cleared out. Reina's voice came faintly through the comms, giving orders to pack up and head back before curfew. The lights dimmed to the evening cycle — pale amber, soft and distant.
Luke and Elias were the last to leave, double-checking a pressure valve deep behind the barricades.
That was when Luke noticed the draft.
A faint wind, whispering through a seam in the wall. Cold. Different from the recycled air of the Undercity — cleaner, sharper, like air that hadn't been filtered a thousand times over.
He ran his gloved hand along the wall, finding a thin fracture between two panels.
"Elias," he murmured, "help me with this."
Together they pried the metal aside. The seam gave way with a groan, revealing a narrow passage hidden behind old reinforcement plating. Dust and stale air poured out — the kind that hadn't been disturbed in decades.
"Maintenance shaft?" Elias guessed.
"Maybe," Luke said, though the design didn't match anything he'd seen. The walls were smooth stone, not steel — remnants of an older construction, lit faintly by the glow of embedded veins of Nova energy.
"Doesn't show on any map," Elias said, tapping his wrist console.
Luke glanced down the narrow way. It stretched into darkness, but there was a faint shimmer ahead — like distant light refracted through water.
"Only one way to find out."
"Luke," Elias warned, "if Reina finds out—"
"She won't," Luke said. "We're just checking it out. Then we tell her it's blocked."
Elias sighed. "Famous last words."
---
The tunnel twisted upward, climbing in slow spirals through stone and silence. Their footsteps echoed softly, boots crunching over ancient dust. The higher they went, the more the air changed — lighter, less oppressive. There was even a scent: faint traces of greenery, impossible this deep underground.
"Smell that?" Elias whispered. "It's… fresh."
Luke nodded. "Haven't smelled real air since—"
He stopped. The tunnel ended in a slanted wall — half-collapsed, but not sealed. Beyond the cracks, faint light spilled through — not gold or filtered white, but pale blue.
Elias pressed closer, peering through a gap. "Is that… the Mid City?"
Luke couldn't tell. He saw movement — faint silhouettes, high walkways, maybe windows. The sound of wind, real wind, drifted through.
He felt something stir in his chest — not fear this time, but wonder.
Elias turned to him, eyes wide. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Luke smiled faintly. "If this leads where I think it does… we just found our way out."
They sealed the passage behind them before heading back — silent, careful, as if guarding a secret too fragile to speak aloud.
Neither of them mentioned it to Reina.
Not that night.
Not yet.