The stones of will

Act V - Chaotic

About 00:38 PM.
The air inside the tunnel was surely fresh and moist. Maybe caused by the rain that had been falling, there were constant trickles of water dropping of the ceiling; on the floor there were some tiles that had disjointed from the walls and the top, and were now tricky obstacles to Dan's progress. There also was moss growing on the floor.

And that passage was quite slim; in that claustrophobic duct he was very much like a mouse in a trap, about to get caught..... A gush of wind disrupted Dan of his considerations. He wasn't very far from the exit. It was great. More so, since he was fearing, that due to the length of the wormhole, he'd get lost; in regular gaps, there were placed some detours that would head to dead-ends. In some of these, he found shells of a heavy firearm, hunting weapon, capable of dealing large damage.
In fact, some forty meters [131 feet] ahead, and a few bad turns later, Dan finally saw, in the final section of the pit, again vertical and pointing upwards, the opening he was looking for. He hurried. He could already glimpse rustling branches of trees and the starlit sky.
And climbing by the same kind of spikes he had seen before, he came to an outlet similar to the entrance of the passage.

More deafening silence. Well, not completely.
Clearly audible was the loud cricketing sound, coming from somewhere Dan couldn't quite place, and yet felt so close. Crickets in the field. Where he was, he couldn't say, the tunnel had led him to a field of sorts with few trees, near a harvested hillock, as wide as two swimming pools, side by side, used for unknown crops.
The mound was stately and strategic, he felt.
The rain had totally subsided by now; the clouds had cleared the sky. And the moon was perfectly visible again. A waning crescent.

In one swift move, Dan perched out of the hole, and scanned the whereabouts.
Now he could see a drive way somewhat at far, beyond the mound. He decided to go along it, short cutting by the hillock and try to determinate its destination. And so he did.
As he followed it, he began to notice how the drive was, surprisingly and distastefully, ornamented with what in other occasion would seem elegant, however now it was just spooky.

On both sides of it, there were domineering, fearless, vivid, and even pedantic, pillars resembling the outlook of Byzantine columns, carved out of a silver rock.
Eventually, he caught sight of the finishing line: the road stopped by a declivity, or more adequately, a valley such was its extension, with more facilities, perhaps the real bioengineering facilities. Another lab complex....

As soon as Dan saw the unleveled ground, he had to duck as quickly as he could. Walking near the end of the road, there were two more of THOSE things! -- the centaur creatures that almost dissected him in the plaza. He, who was saved only by a hair's breadth!
Lying there, rigid, observing the monster, he began apprehending a certain pattern these presented. They didn't, properly speaking, "walk" around.
Rather, they now displaced positions with small hops, which looked like their default movement. Good, though, as he was still much far away to be detected by the pair.
Slowly, he doubled back.

It was extremely dangerous to be in that place. He'd go down the mound and go around, or something.
Or maybe return to the tunnel altogether, and risk it.
Perhaps the dogs would be friendlier.
At the base of the hillock, he turned right, and headed to a space filled with containers and voluminous skips. A loading and unloading zone. As he was advancing, passing by garbage, he was deep down in thought.
Those monsters could teleport. What if there were humans with the ability to do the same? Namely Vincent. It'd explain how he had disappeared, despite being to tied up.

Lost in disturbing thoughts, a surprising blow of something solid hit the back of his head. Just over the nape. Instant pain. Helpless, knocked out to the outburst of such stroke, he fell to the ground face first.