PART 34 - READY?

 Azoe eye's were sculpt into a stare, deep into the space between us, for a century, before, any joint in his body moved to fold any part of his, old, and heavily stained clothes, that swung loose threads, like a torn spider's web from the wall. "I said Trakus" I replied, gesturing my hands, by shaking them to affirm my answer. "Uhhm, uhm, uhm, kind of sounds familiar but I can't pinpoint it" He said, scratching his head, a lot more and shaking himself back to reality. "Do you know anything? I'm sure there's much you can try to fill me in on?" I asked, holding Azoe by the shoulders and shaking him. "Hahahaha! Ahhh, you can't even push around a poor old victim of a tyrannt, c'mon follow me, with the little bravery that sparks you" Azoe said, and bolstering himself with a jump into a walk further in the tunnel. The little droplets of water, from broken, thin and rusty pipes, which protruded from the brick walls, become a tone, we were accompanied with, which, tuned together with the chirps of insects, as we raised dust unintentionally from the large thick vegetation that covered the ground. We walked through the tunnel for a few meters before reaching a corner, piled with a varied size of heaps of wet and dried mud. A large fence, covered in barbed wire, and a faded and scratchy sign posts, that read "Destroy" "No way through" and "Warning: Electric fence". "So what now?" I asked, looking at Azoe. "It's a rough journey, what do you expect!" He told me, shrugging his shoulders, and twisting his hands.

I held the torch, in one hand, which, scattered its rays, into the net-like pattern of the metallic wired fence, and squeezed barb wire, and illuminated parts and objects in the horizon. My other hand, got busier, into the pockets of my jacket, and I finally got something, to try get past the fence. "Ey, what are you doing?" Azoe asked, clenched his eyebrows, creeping in caution. I threw the small vial, into the air, closing my eyes, struck with tension in my nerves, and Azoe followed soon after, almost running a great distance away from the tunnel. Clouds of smoke, smoothly poured into the air, wafting themselves, into the vicinity of my nose, causing me to aggressively cough, in my attempts to stand up. I staggered to get on my feet,with tears, dripping on the surface of my face. " Wow! What in..?" Azoe asked, inhaling deep breaths as I heard  his footsteps explode in my ear. The corroding metal, slid on to the heaps of mud, and some of the clouds, disappeared into the darkness of the roofing of the tunnel. In the midst of covering my face, I happened to press the side of my goggles which switched on another night vision feature. "Aaah!" I shouted, in shock and surprise from the light. "What? What?" Azoe asked. "It's just night vision" I replied calming myself.

"Wha... What are you?" Azoe asked, slowly stepping away from me. "What's next?" I asked. "Uhm, Uhm, we go forward" Azoe replied, as he leaped from heap to heap of mud, covering his nose, through the fence. Azoe continued to walk in a careful manner, after I switched off the night vision, and we continued with the torch. He held his trousers trying to keep the mud away from him, and we walked through a boulder filled path. The further we got, we stopped at a place, that had a lamp and some sacks of sand. "Where are we?" I asked. "We stay here" Azoe replied, as he pointed his hands to the sacks. "I need..." My words were cut short, when Azoe, clamped my mouth with his hands, and I heard faint chatters and steps, echo a few meters away from us.