Within the deep dark

Chapter 5-Water required.

Izuku woke up with a jump, his hand grasping his chest as he tried to steady his breathing. The dreams, or rather, nightmares had been getting worse. It would be scenarios like that, where he would be all alone, surrounded by shouts and screams while bombarded with objects. But this time had been the worst in the three weeks he had been here.

He never understood why he was the one being yelled at. Why was he at the center of the hate? But right now, he had his problems.

WATER

He had finished all the water he had brought for the "camping trip" about a week into getting trapped in the cave. He had noticed some large puddles of water nearby but had decided not to risk it due to possible contamination. After all, he was raised not to eat food from the ground. And in his case, not to drink water off the ground.

During his first week, all he had done was try to decipher the book's language while increasing his little farm of "glow berries", as he had nicknamed them due to their glowing ability and berrie-shaped structure. Then in the second week, he had the bright idea of trying to exercise, like doing squats or push-ups. But after a week, he had to give up due to being very hungry. He didn't have much food and the berries weren't a good source of nutrition. So he had to stop exercising.

Then he thought of stocking up on the grow berries, only to find out they wither within a day. Great. So now the option of survival he saw was gathering fresh water he could drink, which was hard to find in a dark cavern alone.

Izuku sighed as he exited his tiny shelter. He looks deep into the cave, covered in the darkness that seems to be endless. But in reality, there was something within the cover of that darkness.

Beyond the darkness were structures, built of unknown materials, but structures never the lease. There could be supplies he could use there, but there was one problem. A large one.

The distance between him and the structures was roughly a mile or two(1.6 km to 2.4 km) away, with plenty of moss, floating seaweed, and shirkers along the way. Meaning getting there was like running through No-Mans land during a war. Except, instead of bullets and quirks being thrown, giant blind green figures emerge from the ground to beat you dead.

Honestly, he didn't know what to do now really. It's been three weeks since he fell down here, still waiting, hoping the heroes would come to his rescue. But he doubts it. A tiny part of him hopes that Kachan and Izumi when to inform his parents of what happened to him. But his parents barely notice him, and his sister, no, Izumi had said that they weren't siblings anymore. Kachan, well, if he was the one who inform his parents about his disappearance. Well, he'll doubt it. But at least help would come.

After all, which hero won't want to save him? Think about the headlines they'll make. "HERO SAVES QUIRKLESS BOY FROM CAVE AND DEFEATS VILLAIN IN HIDING! READ ALL ABOUT IT!" or "HERO FINDS ANCIENT CITY WHEN SAVING QUIRKLESS BOY!". That is if they knew where to find him.

Izuku stares out into the vast darkness again. Dark, cold, and all alone was all the poor boy knew within the days he spent here. A single sound could mean his death. Plus, rocks would fall from the ceiling from time to time. Most of the time they would be pebbles, but sometimes they would be the size of his palm. But falling rocks weren't really the biggest problem.

See when these rocks drop, they make noise. Those seaweeds would then pick up this noise and possibly alert the shirkers. Through several short (and dangerous) experiments, Izuku counted that it requires three shrieks needed for the giant figure to emerge from the ground. Meaning a single stone falling would most likely trigger a shriek. And if he was unlucky enough, some stones might even fall three times in a row within a short span of time, resulting in one of those figures emerging.

When those figures are wandering about, all Izuku can really do is remain in his only shelter and stay as quiet as possible and wait for the figure to wander away aimlessly. Or disappear. As most of the figures, he heard near his hut would suddenly vanish. He never knew where they went, but at least he was glad to be saved once again.

He wondered what kind of villain would have such a powerful quirk, or what kind of quirk it was. The quirk would obviously be some sort of plant quirk that controlled moss, some sort of slow long-term or long-game quirk. Meaning he would be the one who guarded the base, which was the abandoned structures. This would mean he would have some accomplishment who would do the dirty job like robbing and stealing. Or maybe this was some sort of illegal drug production base.

Oh how Izuku hope a hero would come to his aid and take down the villains, then reclaim any stolen things or shut down any bad things going on down here. Because based on how much the moss has grown, or how the villains had some sort of trap to take care of intruders without them addressing the issue themself, must mean that they have been down here for a long time.

But what about the books, if the cover was made out of leather, then that could possibly mean that they were made during the stone age, a time older than the quirk era. But that shouldn't be able to explain the weird moss growth. The language written in the book was foreign to Izuku, but with time, he could possibly decipher the text in Japanese.

Izuku slowly creeps into his sleeping bag, exhausted. He had to find a reliable source of water soon. The glow berries couldn't provide a steady source of water, so he had to venture out into the darkness in search of clean water. If he couldn't go straight toward the structures, then he'll go for the sides near the edges of the cave.

The moss hadn't reached the sides of the cave's walls so there could be some water not contaminated by the moss reserve within the walls. He drew one vertical white line next to another one on the wall.

Day 22

And with that, Izuku when to bed snuggling deep within his sleeping bag. As he zones out from one nightmare to another.

Sorry for the late updates, changed from 3 in a go as I realise how unmotivated I am in doing it. Updates are when I'm free. Sry for the long wait.

Best regards;

BMXK7669