Snippet #2823718

Margaret nodded, and she rejoined the others in searching out the basement room. It took another ten minutes of thorough and careful search: their target was so well hidden, that it almost escaped Sonia's notice. But she was the first to notice a series of odd scratch marks etched on the floor near a bookcase built into the wall. Her eyes narrowed, and she started pulling at books in a hurry: it was on her fifth try that a soft, sudden 'click' echoed through the room, and the wall partially opened as the bookcase suddenly swung out, revealing a secret tunnel carved through the hotel's foundations.

"Well, they are a cult...I suppose secret entrances and tunnels only makes sense for them," Margaret remarked.

After peering out into the darkness, and seeing no one in the immediate area, they cautiously made their way into the tunnel, Anna leading the way with a candle taken off of the table in the room. The small, paltry light was not nearly enough to illuminate the otherwise darkened tunnel, but it provided enough light to guide them forward, illuminating the path ahead through the barest margin as they traversed through the tunnel.

They traveled for some time: at least ten minute's worth, until they reached a central juncture through the tunnel system. Stretched out before them now where several branching paths: one to the right, one to the left, and one in the center. And, of course, there was the path behind them that led back to the hotel.

"A series of secret tunnels that stretch under the town?" Sonia murmured to herself, eyeing her surroundings warily. Every flicker of shadow had her spooked, and she couldn't help but wonder if and when someone or something would jump out at them. "They must have an extensive operation here. But, if a cult like this has been able to operate in a city like Abernathy, undetected this entire time...well, that only makes sense."

"The question is, which path do we take?" Margaret questioned. "There's no way of knowing which path leads where....I don't see any markers here. Perhaps..."

She trailed off, an idea sparking to her mind. She gestured for Anna to lower their candlelight closer to the ground, and once she did so, Margaret spotted what she was hoping to find. They were faint, but she could see a trail of footsteps leading toward the rightmost tunnel path. Unfortunately, a second set of footprints verged off toward the central tunnel as well, throwing an unfortunate wrench into her discovery.

"Not bad," Sonia complemented. "Assuming these tracks are from those bastards from earlier, then it seems we have their trail. But...hm, no way of telling which set of 'prints is most recent. Hell, for all we know, they could have split up, and gone down different paths..."