"Shh"

  "Listen, I'm trying, alright. It's not my fault the water is up to my thighs and is weighing down my boots."

  ‘I said shh,’ Mark whispered.”

  The tunnel was dark, and only the light of a single torch cast shadows on the walls. The smell of stagnant water filled Seth's nostrils.

  “Do you even know what we are supposed to be looking for? What if we already passed it up?” Seth said, slogging through the water. Trying not to make the water go any higher on himself than need be.

  " Jack said we would know we found it when we see it."

  Seth frowns, not liking the answer, “And we can barely see five feet in front of us. How do we know we didn't pass it up already?”

  "Didn't I say shh?"

  “Aye, you did, but that doesn't change my concerns."

  Mark switches which arm he's holding the torch while turning to Seth, ”I trust Jack. When he says that we would know we found it when we find it, then we will know we found it."

  Seth lets the water settle around him. Looking at Mark, " I'm glad you can follow someone so blindly when we just met the guy."

  "Seth, you heard the stories about Jack and all that he's accomplished, right?"

  " I have heard the rumors, yes. Doesn't make them true or make Jack the hero he's pretending to be." Seth starts waddling through the water again.

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  Following the same tunnel for what seems like forever. All the stones that make up the tunnel look the same, except for the ones with cracks and dark green moss weaving through them. The only sounds that are heard are the water being splashed through, the breathing of the two men, and the small flicks of the flame from the torch. The shadows and the two men attached to them seem to be the only things in the tunnel.

  How long have they been walking, Seth thinks to himself? How long has the stench of bad water been in his nose? Thirty minutes? Hour? Hours? Feels like days. The water making it very hard to make progress.

  Suddenly, the sound of a chain moving and something heavy being lifted fills the surroundings of Seth and Mark. The water slowly starts moving in the direction they were walking.

  “Either that is a very good sign or something very, very bad.“

  Seth remains standing still, letting the water flow past him. “Man, I don't know, I got a very bad feeling about this.“

  The sound of something clicking into place bounces off the tunnel's walls, making an echo.

  Hesitantly, the men take small steps forward.

  After a minute or two, Mark says, “Hello,” as his light from his torch combines with another light. Illuminating the tunnel and the small opening, the men discovered..

  On the wall across from Seth sits a torch. Each direction shows the opening to another tunnel. One opening a few steps past is a hatch that has been lifted. Letting the water recede into it. The other two tunnels show nothing but the stone that the two men have been looking at since they started this adventure.

  “Hello,” says a voice from the left tunnel.

  Mark and Seth turn towards the voice, looking for the lips that have just spoken to them.

  The sound of someone or something blowing into a tube makes itself known from the right tunnel.

  Seth suddenly reaches towards his neck after feeling like something bit him. His vision goes blurry as he sees Mark drop his torch and unsheathes his sword. The light from the torches makes the metal shine. Seth's hand fondles his neck till he finds a dart protruding from it. He pulls the dart out as he falls to his knees. The same blowing sound happens again. Falling face-first onto the wet stones, Seth sees Mark drop his sword. Mark was reaching for his neck the same way Seth had just done. Then everything goes dark, and the sound of Mark hitting the god forsaken stone they have been walking on reaches Seth's ears.