Frauleinstein

Chapter IV: The Underground

Chapter IV
The Underground

Roddy awoke.

Looking about, Roddy found himself to be confined in a narrow space at the bottom of a deep, thin breach which led to the surface. He could just make out the night sky, but other than that all appeared to be dark and silent.

"Just my luck," he thought to himself. "The explosion must have opened this underground fracture beneath me, and dropped me straight into it. But then, I've already fallen ten thousand feet in various stages. Why shouldn't the universe conspire to drop me another thirty?"

Roddy attempted to climb out of the hole, but the soft earth made this impossible. He only managed to bring more dirt down upon him as his hands found nothing to support his weight.

Roddy bent down to better inspect his predicament. He was standing on solid rock, and as he felt around in the dark he soon realized he was at the end of some sort of fissure. It was damned narrow, but as he bent down to peer into it he was amazed to see a faint light. Roddy bent as low as he could, and squeezed himself into the narrow stone tunnel.

Thirty feet of anxious crawling later, the fissure began to widen. Another twenty feet and Roddy could walk. Another ten and he was standing upright as he discovered the source of the light.

Roddy pushed himself through the last narrow gap, and found himself in a long tunnel lined with walls made of cut stone blocks, like something out of a medieval tale of castles and dungeons. This tunnel appeared to be unused, possibly for centuries, but it led to another that was the source of light.

Roddy made his way quietly to the next tunnel, which crossed the first at a T-junction. This one was much the same construction as the last, except it had electric lights and wiring bolted to the ceiling. It appeared to be used for storage, as dozens of wooden crates lined its length. Each crate was marked with German writing and insignias, and Roddy would have loved to get a look at the contents, except he didn't have a crowbar. And even if he did, making a lot of noise opening boxes like it was Christmas morning didn't seem like a particularly smart idea.

Roddy explored the tunnel quickly, finding it narrowed down to an impassable gap at one end like the tunnel he had just left but led to further passageways in the other direction. He followed the winding, intersecting tunnels, looking for any way out.

As he proceeded, Roddy began to hear hints of activity ahead. Voices speaking German drifted down the corridors, possibly still several intersections further on, but Roddy realized he was going to have to come up with some kind of plan. Something better than strolling directly into a German operation in a filthy British uniform.

There is an old saying about the best laid plans. And seeing as this was hardly the best laid plan, or even a plan at all, it was hardly a shock to find it immediately went astray. Roddy was making his way down a long winding corridor as a door opened to the side, leaving him standing face to face with two German officers.

"Hier kommen!" Roddy heard one of them yell at him from behind, as he was already in motion and well on his way to the next intersecting tunnel. He was beginning to understand that 'Hier kommen' was German for 'stand still so I can shoot you better'. He made it around the corner just as the officers began to fire.

Roddy made it to the next corridor, only to find it filled with German soldiers. Their momentary confusion at finding themselves interrupted by an RAF pilot in a filthy uniform waving a gun allowed him to pull back into the previous corridor with hardly a shot fired in his direction. He immediately noticed the two officers rounding the last corner, and fired a shot to keep them back. They retreated, but Roddy assumed they hadn't gone terribly far.