Underground Redemption

The red irises were like two fiery embers staring into her soul. The whites of the eyes shone in the darkness, reflecting the glow of Regina's flashlight. She reached for the gun on her waist, pulling back the slide with a sharp click as she aimed at the feral figure standing before her. She hesitated for only a moment and then fired at it, watching it collapse in a heap.

"What was that?" asked Raul from behind her, his voice cracking with fear. His voice was muffled by his gas mask, but Regina recognized it well enough. He had been traveling with her for the past three days, but there was no escaping their differences in social class now - she was alone.

"Whatever it is, I doubt they want to be our friends," she said as she looked around at the dark tunnels. "You should get back to camp."

"I'm not leaving you here alone," he replied defiantly. "What if you get attacked?"

Regina's lips curled up in a wry smile amidst her fear and anxiety. She had invested too much time in this operation to let him stop her now. "I'm going to do my best to avoid that," she said as she turned to continue down another tunnel, stepping over the dead body of what seemed to be a large dog. A silver necklace it was wearing glinted in the light from her torch, and Regina bent down to pick it up, hoping it could have some value when sold back home. As she stood again, something caught her eye - a set of teeth marks on its neck where blood flowed freely through its veins and flesh. Something like this would fetch a good price in an open market somewhere overseas.

She continued on as Raul followed closely behind her like a puppy who knew better than to leave its owner unattended. Her flashlight bounced off the rough walls and ceiling of the tunnel as they walked deeper into the bowels of the earth beneath Africa. They made slow progress, but there was no turning back now; not after all the trouble they had gone through to get this far.

Raul's head bumped against Regina's shoulder as he reached forward for his own flashlight, which he had dropped during their hasty retreat from whatever had appeared at their feet earlier that night. The tunnel ahead of them seemed brighter than usual, as though some unseen light source was shining from within it. Regina shined her own light towards that same direction but found nothing out of place - just rock and soil leading to an impenetrable wall of dirt. Strangely, the bright light seemed unconnected to any physical object yet somehow still existed; how could that be?

"Look!" Raul whispered urgently as he pointed towards their right with an outstretched arm, holding his flashlight outwards so that both of them could see whatever it was that he had seen moments ago while they were in mid-conversation. The light showed something crawling across the floor towards them - something large and with four legs, similar to a cat or dog except much larger than either one of those animals could ever hope to be unless they were several hundred pounds overweight! Raul's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he watched it climb onto its hind legs and stand tall before them; nearly half as tall again as Regina, who herself stood well above six feet tall! It looked up at them, sniffing at their clothes with its pink nose before baring its fangs at them menacingly and letting out a deep growl from deep within its chest that resounded through many miles of tunnels before fading away into silence once more. Its size did not intimidate Regina, but she remembered seeing something very similar to this creature earlier on - that one had been quick enough to dodge bullets! How many more were there? Could they take down one without alerting others nearby? To see this one here must mean something significant; would some other creature know about this one being found dead here? What if they all came looking for revenge?!

She raised her gun slowly and aimed it straight between its eyes once more, watching both Raul's face turn pale while his hand was still gripping his dropped flashlight tightly enough that his knuckles were white beyond recognition! She fired; this time without hesitation, as though afraid even more for his life than her own! The bullet entered its skull between its two glowing red embers and exited out of the back of its head in a spray of blood which covered both lead humans standing before it! It collapsed onto the ground with a thud which echoed throughout every nook and cranny of the tunnels far above them, possibly alerting something else even closer by!

She stared at the creature lying motionless beneath her feet for a moment longer before turning around abruptly and running full-speed towards camp with Raul following close behind her like she hoped he would earlier on when they first entered these tunnels! She didn't turn around until she saw their tents ahead - luckily