Serenity and Justin followed the water, stepping carefully to avoid slipping on the wet stone walkway. The tunnel sloped gently downward and curved to the left, making it impossible to see where the canal would lead them.
"Justin, we'll never make it to the old church at this point," Serenity said nervously. "I'm very glad we found the vitamins, but I don't want to spend another day hiding in fear. Where are we even going?"
"I'm not sure," he said, squeezing her hand gently. "I think we're about to find out, though. I hear voices ahead and that fried chicken scent is a lot stronger."
She had been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed the smell. Now that she was aware of it again, though, her stomach growled fiercely.
Sure enough, after another few minutes of walking they found themselves standing in a large, dome-shaped room. Sand-colored bricks formed the walls of the room and the canal was channeled into several pools of water. Complicated machines were positioned around a few of the pools, while others were being heated and giving off steam. A few men and women were busily working at the machines while several more were bathing in one of the heated pools. It seemed, at first glance, to resemble a crude underground spa.
Justin cleared his throat and all eyes turned toward the couple as they stood at the edge of the room. Clearly, no one had noticed them arrive.
"Who are you?" demanded one of the machine workers. He was an older man, with wild grey hair and a bushy grey beard, and was wielding what appeared to be a potato hook. "How did you find this place?"
This freewrite is part 6 of an ongoing story. If you would like to read more, use the links below to navigate.
As always, thanks go out to @mariannewest for providing this prompt. If you would like to see her original post, you can find it here.
Image sourced from Pixabay.