greetings from the underside

 "Oh, not another path," Sadie practically screech. Why couldn't they have stayed in the well-lit area where the power was? they were way off the beaten path now. They'd left the cemented area long ago. She was sure they might as well be following a spider web as narrow as the tunnel went. But she kept going. There was no slowing her great tour guide Mannie.

Although, her legs were quite tired and she needed sleep. He said they were nowhere they needed to be. From time to time he would check the map on her back. It only made her shiver between the cool rock formations. She hated to ask if there was any end in sight. She doubted it. She was full of doubts. 

Mannie reached back and took her hand, not her wrist. This was new, she thought. But maybe after all this time and solitude, they were more than strangers who drank from the same water bottle and gave each other protein bars. Honestly, nothing exciting had happened.

"Really, it's best if it is boring," he told her.

"Oh, is that so?" She begged to differ. She'd love to be watching a Chinese drama about now with deities and heavenly realms. She was expecting a treasure a ways back there, but no, they went into darkness, trudging along as if they needed to inspect the entire place.

"See, this is why so many don't do what we're doing," he explained. "It's quite tedious, but you never know what you might find."

Sadie took a deep breath. Yes, she wished she was anywhere but on this boring trail. This was no fun at all, and then there was an opening, as a window of some sort. Was that sunlight she sought?

No, a canyon. And there were rectangular wooden boxes hanging from the cliffs. The sight chilled Sadie to the bones.

Those were coffins. They'd made it to the burial ground.