MTLNOVEL Chapter 60: Shakey Grounds
The ground rumbled hard, and an inhuman growl came screeching through the land. Quagmire, in a panic-driven confusion, glanced from left to right, trying to locate the source of the disturbance and eventually, the ghoul itself. With each sway of his head, time continued to move, and within the next few moments, he had failed to spot movements anywhere. That is, until the ground shook again, but this time it was far harsher than the one earlier.
The ground seemed to rumble with its increasing madness. With it, Quagmire lost his footing and fell down nose-first onto the ground. He fell, and his nose struck the ground first; thankfully, it was slightly cushioned by the soft ground. However, it still hurt him, and with it, anger welled up within him.
As the ground was moving back and forth with ever-increasing intensity. He was able to stabilize himself and raise his head just slightly enough to be able to witness what was transpiring before him. The ground seemed to ever crack with the sheer amount of movement, then suddenly the ground sank, then rose again, and continued so on and forth, until the trees and nearby stuff were consumed into the pit of despair.
By that time, Quagmire had already stood up and moved with such sluggish movements, due to all the chaos and movements happening. It was only a miracle that he was able to stay balanced the whole time.
All the while hiding behind a tree that was missing its very top, he glanced over his shoulder at the place where he used to be and the large hole before it. It was filled with broken-down trees with bits of soil and bedrock that were raised from the very bottom itself.
Confused about what made it happen, Quagmire, as ever curious as he was, moved a bit closer. Thus, thinking a little differently, he brought out his bolt action and had it pointed to the ground as a resting position and silently moved about into the location he desired in. Which was closer to the hole? He was curious about the middle of it, or what could possibly have caused it.
By this time, an idea was already brewing inside Quagmire. He might have already known about it, but he was still unsure, so he had to make sure about it. With quick and silent movements, he maneuvered through the chaotic scene and was able to gradually move closer and closer to his intended location.
Once a few moments had passed by, he had finally arrived at the edge of the crater, or what it looked like outside. Almost immediately, he looked closer inside, and if it was not enough, he used his eagle's eye, all the while handling his pistol.
With a few curses and a double-take at the surroundings. He had arrived at the same conclusion. It seemed there was a network of tunnels below, which was the same thing he destroyed earlier at his base, which now lies buried.
With such a disastrous discovery, it seemed like he would need to improve his base defenses, which include the ground itself. He initially thought that those burrows he buried were temporary shelters for, like, ghouls. It was then that he remembered one of those fat diggers like the regular fat men, but those know how to dig, and fast ones at that.
Unfortunately, he would not be able to explore the caves, as they seemed to have collapsed due to lack of use and bad maintenance. Not only that, it seemed that there were leftover fat diggers, as the screech and howls of despair seemed to have come from those fat diggers being crushed.
If they were still alive, they could still give him his much-needed gold. So with that in mind, he would go down the hole in search of the fat diggers. Unfortunately, he would survey the area around first as a precaution for what he was about to do.
Not only that, before everything else starts, he glances up in the sky and into his watch, to look at the time he still had left. After a short while of calculation, it seems that he has about two hours left to explore the ruins below, before the light starts to diminish, and he would not want to spend that outside really.
With that in mind, Quagmire set his mind straight to always prioritize safety first from now on. The first preparation he did was to bring out his rifle and pistols, and each individually took out the half-filled ammunition and replaced it with new ammunition. In the nature of the bolt-action rifle, he just pushed new ammunition into the feeder. Once those are full, he starts to clean the external surface of the firearms.
Once all preparations are finished, only a handful of minutes had passed by then, so he would need to scout the locations first, by going around the pit, and not entering it yet. With these methods, he would be able to gather information about things like the point of entry, point of exist, and lastly the point of exit and interesting locations.
With all those in mind, he proceeded to move about and jumped and dashed from one end to another, and along the way, he found a few interesting locations that could have something of interest, or possibly just a bunch of dirt. Anyway, it is not a wasted opportunity. Because, after all, he was scouting his location.
If he had not discovered this by accident, he could have been attacked in the middle of the night, or worse, he could have been overrun by ghouls. Not only was he a single person, but he would not be able to take hundreds of ghouls and dozens of fat men and fat diggers. It would be tough, but it would require him to temporarily end or abandon his base for the meantime, to later reconquer it from the ghouls.
With that in mind, he stretched his body and took a deep breath, and finally step forward to the sunken land.