Chronicle of Burden

Chapter 18

It's been nearly four hours since the manhunt started. Immortal Blade Valkyries have increased in numbers during the first few hours of the day but they were forced to cut back on their squadrons because of the difficulties they were having with the local authorities. And their acts of violence and the chaos they caused didn't help their situation. For now, there's a limited number of them constantly patrolling the city while the bulk of their forces set up a temporary camp just outside the city limits.
In the subterranean level of a two-level parking lot attached to a nearby mall, the Captain found a good hiding place in a storeroom for staff members only. Once every thirty or so minutes, the Captain can hear someone patrolling the lot. Once every five minutes a new car comes in while others leave.
Confident that the Valkyries won't think of looking for him in such a place, the Captain takes advantage of the secluded spot to rest and rethink his strategy. He lies with his back pressed against a wall while scanning the frequencies with the aid of his built-in device listening in on the Valkyries' conversations.
After listening in on the chatter between the Valkyries, it seems that they did a poor impression on the local authorities that demanded they vacate the city and never come back after causing so much chaos and even shot in public spaces where people could have been injured.
After a difficult series of negotiations, the local authorities allowed the Immortal Blades twelve hours to look for their wanted fugitive and restricted their numbers. This allowed the Captain a lot more space to move around the streets, but since the city was heavily monitored with surveillance cameras for both private and public use; Shicksal took full advantage of the city's system to track the Captain's location.
There were small confrontations that were unavoidable when the Captain had to change his hiding place when the Valkyries got too close for comfort.
Thankfully, the Captain found this place where no one threatened him for the time being, offering him a good thirty minutes of well-earned rest.
The chatter between the Valkyries was nothing noteworthy for the most part. Half of the time they report on their patrols or searches ending with no sighting of their target, the other half was a mixture of them complaining about the pressure of the local authorities and how the Overseer will punish them if they return empty-handed to headquarters.
After paying close attention to the reports, the Captain managed to deduce their patrol routes with the help of a nearly empty pen and a tourist map of the city. There weren't many Valkyries patrolling the area near the port where the Captain had to get to.
After hacking into the local port authority's servers, the Captain found a ship that was heading towards the city where St. Freya was. But the time it was set to depart was within the time the Immortal Blades were allowed to search the city. If the Captain's going to leave the city undetected and avoid the Valkyries, he had to time his movements exactly. After charting down the time and routes, he was properly equipped to make his move.
Fortunately, there was a way to pass undetected right underneath the nose of the Immortal Blades. The parking subterranean parking lot was built right on top of an abandoned metro tunnel. An old map of the city shows the project being abandoned for almost twenty years.
The only entrance into those tunnels was sealed, the only way to get down there was through the use of a decommissioned freight elevator whose doors have been locked tight.
After carefully studying the patrol routes, the Captain managed to calculate the window of time he had to move through the city if he was going to avoid any more confrontations with the Immortal Blades.
Wasting no more time, the Captain descends into the lowest level of the subterranean parking lot and heads directly for the sealed freight elevator. Once he came face to face with the locked doors, the Captain makes use of Shamash's Blade to cut the doors open, severing their inner locking mechanism with one clean strike where the doors met in the middle.
With their locking mechanism severed, the doors easily opened with a strong push. The Captain then descended into the elevator's shaft by sliding down the cable system used to lift or lower the payload.
Once he reached the bottom of the shaft, the Captain forced open the doors and entered the abandoned tunnels. The air was damp and cold, and there was no light nor any lighting system that could be turned on. Guided only by the source of light from the palm of his left hand and the map, the Captain makes his way through the dark tunnels.
After nearly an hour spent wandering about in the abandoned tunnels, the Captain soon reaches the location he marked on the digital map of his built-in device. Unfortunately, the Captain had to climb up a good distance and there was no ladder installed on the face of the wall, only the metal rungs where a ladder would have been attached to the wall.
With a measure of difficulty, the Captain had to pinch-hold the metal rungs and carefully step on them as he made his way up. After nearly slipping off once or twice, the Captain manages to reach the top where a solid metal plate greeted him. On a closer inspection, this metal place was a door once but its handle has been removed and was welded shut to prevent people from getting inside the abandoned tunnels.
As the Captain draws out Shamash's Blade, the metal door offers no resistance as the fiery blade cuts through it. The metal door falls with a loud clatter to the ground and the Captain soon finds himself in the city's sewer system. From there on, the Captain walks a short distance before reaching a set of rusted metal handles attached to the wall. Apparently, these filthy and rusted metal handles are meant to act as a ladder.
After ascending the filthy handles, the Captain pushes open a manhole and peeks into the street above him. The street was empty and hardly anyone stirred. The people were probably locked inside their houses for the time being until the Immortal Blades would leave the city. It was nearly night time so the streets would have been fairly empty at this hour with or without the Immortal Blades.
As the Captain emerges out of the sewer, he takes another careful look around just to make sure he wasn't going to be spotted by someone with a high vantage point before proceeding further down the street towards the port.
There is an odd sound coming from somewhere on the street. It sounds like a high-pitched ring that repeats itself over and over, it is something like an old phone's ringing only more musical and loud enough to get any passerby's attention. Worried that this ringing might get some unwanted attention, the Captain hurries down a sideway alley and onto another street that, fortunately, doesn't make him stray too far from his fastest route towards the port. Unfortunately, the sound returns when the Captain barely made some noteworthy progress. The ringing originated from somewhere further down the street where the Captain had to go.
Surprisingly the noise was coming from a payphone. This comes as a surprise since it was believed that the relevance of these devices worldwide has dropped significantly, bordering on the idea that they have been decommissioned, when advanced mobile phones became accessible to everyone. It turns out that some countries have found a way to update these outdoor telephones; these models, in particular, seem to be equipped with internet web-browsers and are very well maintained.
The Captain decides to ignore this payphone as well and continues to walk further down the street as quickly as he can. Several moments later after he rounds a corner, another payphone begins to ring randomly. This one too was unmanned and had nothing inserted in it.
Out of fear that this incessant ringing might get unwanted attention, the Captain risks answering the payphone and finding out who's responsible for this.
The payphone continues to ring as the Captain steps towards it, throwing nervous glances around in an attempt to find any hidden threats that might attack him at any moment should he lower his guard too much. Even though he sees nothing, the Captain remains guarded as he reaches out and raises the phone to his ear.