The sewers were a lot cleaner then they normally would have been. The heavy rain did a good job of that. Moving through the sewers was slow. Water was up to Eru’s waist and they slowly trudged through it. The sewer was dark and the water was cold, they would have to get out soon or risk hypothermia.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. One foot in front of the other, they moved in tandem. Only rushing water could be heard. It even drowned out the storm and maybe the attack too. Eru wondered if they had stopped shelling the place yet. He just wanted to get out of the sewer, they hadn’t seen an exit yet. It was possible they had missed one, the dark didn’t help with that. The roar of the water was getting louder up ahead. Probably not good, he laughed to himself.

Minutes later they could see the cause of the noise: multiple lines like the one they were in were combined into one large tunnel. There was no room to walk in the large tunnel, it was full of water and about 12 feet deep judging by markings on the side. There was a large pool in the center that they could go in and maybe get to one of the other tunnels. The flow was pretty strong and it would be uphill. If they did that which tunnel would they go in? Would it lead anywhere that they could get out of? They discussed this as they sat on a ledge out of the water and had a chance to warm up a bit.

Charmalina looked around. Maybe there was some ledges they could take to get to the other tunnels. Then she spotted a ladder hanging from something in the middle of the deep pool. Was she hallucinating? She pointed it out to Basq and Eru and they could see it too. If they went in the pool they might not be able to get out of it. The ladder was quite high above the water, could they reach it? They decided it was worth the risk and jumped into the cold water.

As they got closer to the ladded they could see it was about six feet above the water level. They still couldn’t see where the ladder went to. Eru decided that he would get pushed up first as he weighed the most and could help them up to the ladder once he was on it. “Any of you know synchronized swimming?” he laughed. It would have been helpful but none of them knew anything about it. It wasn’t exactly required for their jobs most of the time.

Swimming underneath the water the grabbed his feet and pushed him up out of the water and he fell over and splashed in the pool. I’ll get it next time he thought to himself. Charmalina and Basq caught their breath and then went down underneath him again.

This time was better he came up straight. He could see the lowest rung just above his fingers and grabbed on in time. His feet dangled in the water. “See that wasn’t so bad”, he called down below. They helped push him up a bit higher and he pulled himself up slowly and got his feet onto the ladder.

He took a few deep breaths and then went up the ladder. There was a manhole cover at the top. Some water was dripping out of it. He tried to push it up with both hands but it was too heavy. He climbed up higher and used his shoulder and one arm to push it up. The cover moved a little bit. Taking a deep breath he pushed again, it slid over a little bit more. Rain started to come in the hole that he created.

“What’s up there?” Charmalina called up.

Eru grunted, “A manhole cover I think I can get it off eventually.” With a groan he managed to slide it halfway across, the hole. The rain was still coming down hard. A flash of lightning illuminated Basq and Charmalina way down below. Eru laughed, he preferred when he couldn’t see how big a drop it was down.

The cover got easier and easier to move as he went. Eru huffed and puffed and slid it fully off. He went to look out when he heard the roar of and engine and ducked. A vehicle zoomed over top of him. He slowly went up this time using a hand to cover his eyes from the rain. They were in the middle of a freeway of some kind.

Eru climbed down the ladder and told them that they could get out but they had to be careful as they were under some freeway. They talked about how they would get everyone onto the ladder. Basq was next to go up.

Eru put his legs through the rungs and hung upside down with his arms down. Charmalina helped push Basq up. Basq grabbed onto Eru’s arms and with help from Eru and Charmalina he climbed up over Eru on to the ladder.

Basq climbed up the ladder and peered out the hole. He thanked them for their help and said that he had to go but they would see him again.

“Where are you going?” Charmalina yelled up at him but it was no use. He was outside somewhere now.

Eru sat up letting the blood rush out of his head before going upside down again. Charmalina would have to jump out of the water as high as she could and grab onto him. On her first attempt she came out of the water and grabbed his hands but they couldn’t connect and she slipped down back to the water.

They caught there breath and tried again this time she managed to hang onto Eru. She dangled below Eru and he held on tight as she slowly inched her way to a better grip. He sat up slowly struggling with the weight and holding onto her. She was now high enough that she could reach the ladder and climbed over top of him and up the ladder a bit. “Thanks”, she said and they carefully climbed out of the sewer onto the freeway above. Basq was nowhere to be seen.