Loud mechanical clanking echoed up from the depths as the convoy continued its descent.
Above them, massive gate mechanisms locked shut in sequence, one after another, sealing away the ruined city with a series of heavy, final booms. Along the tunnel walls, rows of industrial lights flickered on in stages, stretching deeper and deeper into the underground like a spine of white fire. The reinforced concrete around them was thick and scarred, marked by long black streaks of corrosion and old impact damage, but it still held with grim, immovable strength.
The deeper they went, the less real the surface world felt.
