The next morning the operation finally began.

A cold fog hung across the forest while workers unloaded the final crates near the mine entrance. The abandoned structures surrounding the hillside looked even worse in the morning light. Rotting beams leaned dangerously while collapsed mining carts sat half buried beneath dirt and moss.

And from deep inside the tunnels—

SCRATCHING.

Faint.

Constant.

The sound alone made several workers visibly uncomfortable.

Finn adjusted the rifle slung across his back while staring toward the entrance.

"I still think this is a terrible idea."

I crouched near several explosive satchels while carefully attaching fuse lines.

"It is."

"That somehow made me feel worse."

Garrick meanwhile directed several workers carrying steel rails toward the edge of the clearing while others unloaded the two steam engines from reinforced wagons.

The workers themselves still looked nervous, though seeing the rifles helped slightly.

Even if most of them clearly didn’t fully understand how the weapons worked yet.

I eventually stood and looked toward the mine entrance.

"First we collapse the side tunnels near the entrance."

Garrick nodded slightly.

"Keep the rats from surrounding us."

"Exactly."

The three of us then cautiously entered the upper tunnels again alongside two workers carrying tools and explosives.

This time the atmosphere somehow felt even worse.

The darkness deeper inside the mine no longer felt empty.

It felt occupied.

I could hear scratching echoing faintly through the stone while occasional distant shrieks echoed somewhere deeper underground.

The workers kept nervously looking around every few seconds.

Eventually Garrick raised one hand.

"Here."

He pointed toward a smaller side tunnel branching off the main passage.

"That connects deeper into the eastern nest areas."

I immediately handed an explosive satchel toward one of the workers.

"Set it against the support beams."

The man swallowed nervously before obeying.

Several more side tunnels received the same treatment while I carefully mapped the main pathways we intended to preserve.

After around twenty minutes we finally retreated back toward the entrance.

I lit the first fuse myself.

The sparks rapidly disappeared into the darkness.

Several seconds passed.

Then—

BOOOOM.

The explosion violently shook the mine while dust and stone burst outward from the tunnel deeper inside.

Then another explosion followed.

And another.

Entire sections of the upper mine collapsed inward with deafening crashes while dust clouds surged through the tunnels.

Then came the shrieking.

Loud.

Angry.

Dozens of rat screams echoed from deeper underground.

Finn immediately raised his rifle.

"...That sounds bad."

My eyes narrowed slightly.

"It means they’re moving."

Moments later the first rats appeared from the darkness.

Then more behind them.

The creatures burst from partially collapsed tunnels in frantic swarms while shrieking echoed through the mine entrance.

"FIRE!" I shouted.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

The rifles thundered through the clearing while several rats immediately collapsed onto the dirt.

The workers fired while Garrick’s oversized crossbow punched completely through one rat and embedded into another behind it.

But the numbers kept growing.

More rats poured from the tunnels while dust and smoke still drifted from the recent explosions.

Finn fired again before swearing loudly.

"WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!"

I grabbed one of the explosive satchels from a nearby crate.

"MOVE!"

I threw it directly into the densest part of the swarm.

The explosion tore through the front ranks instantly.

Blood and smoke burst across the entrance while several surviving rats scattered briefly in panic.

That gave us enough time.

"Push them back!" Garrick roared.

The gunfire continued while the workers slowly stabilized near the entrance defenses.

After several more minutes the remaining rats finally retreated back deeper into the tunnels.

Silence returned slowly afterward aside from ringing ears and heavy breathing.

One worker stared at the rifle in his shaking hands.

"...What ARE these things?"

Finn immediately answered proudly.

"The future."

I ignored him while studying the tunnel entrance.

The upper eastern passages had collapsed successfully.

Good.

Now the rats only had fewer usable routes toward the surface.

Which meant the next phase could begin.

By midday the workers started installing the first railway sections into the cleared upper tunnel.

The rails themselves were relatively small and crude compared to what I envisioned for the future, but they were enough for the minecart system.

Workers hammered steel spikes into the ground while others carefully lowered the tracks into place.

Nearby the first steam engine continuously hissed while workers attached thick steel cable onto the cart system.

Garrick still occasionally stared at the machines in disbelief.

"I still don’t understand how these things move."

"Boiling water."

The hunter slowly looked toward me.

"That explanation somehow raised more questions."

Meanwhile the second steam engine powered the smoke system.

Large pipes slowly extended into the mine beside the rails while workers sealed the joints carefully using treated cloth and resin compounds.

Once enough piping had been installed, I finally nodded.

"Start it."

Workers immediately began feeding the smoke furnace with sulfur, damp straw, pitch, charcoal, and oil.

Almost instantly thick black smoke began pouring through the pipe system and deeper into the mine.

At first nothing happened.

Then—

Shrieking.

Loud.

Constant.

The rats started reacting almost immediately.

Some burst upward from deeper tunnels directly into prepared firing lines outside the mine while others fled farther underground away from the smoke.

Gunfire echoed continuously through the clearing.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

Each rifle shot tore through the swarming rats with horrifying effectiveness.

The workers themselves slowly became less afraid once they realized the rifles truly could stop the creatures before they reached them.

Still—

The sheer number of rats remained horrifying.

At one point dozens burst from a side tunnel simultaneously only for Finn to immediately throw an explosive shell directly into the middle of them.

The blast shook the tunnel while blood sprayed across nearby stone.

One worker slowly stared at Finn afterward.

"...You people are terrifying."

Finn looked oddly proud hearing that.

Hours passed this way.

Smoke forced the rats.

Rifles thinned the swarms.

Workers slowly extended the rails and pipes deeper into the mine.

And whenever distant shrieking suddenly grew too close—

The workers immediately jumped into the minecarts before the steam engine outside violently pulled them back through the tunnels to safety.

The system actually worked.

Messy.

Dangerous.

Chaotic.

But it worked.

By evening we had already secured far more of the upper mine than Garrick believed possible.

The hunter stood near the entrance staring into the now partially cleared tunnels while smoke drifted from deeper underground.

"For thirty years..."

He looked toward me slowly.

"...And you people start taking it back in one day."

I wiped soot from my hands tiredly.

"We’ve barely started."

Because deeper underground—

The colony still waited.

The operation continued deeper into the mine over the next several hours.

Smoke constantly poured through the steel pipes while workers extended the rails section by section farther underground. Every newly cleared area immediately got reinforced with barricades, lanterns, and fallback positions while collapsed tunnels helped narrow the number of pathways the rats could use.

At first the system worked almost perfectly.

The smoke forced the rats to retreat.

The rifles killed anything rushing upward.

And whenever the workers heard shrieking growing too close, the steam engine outside rapidly pulled the minecarts back toward the entrance before the rats could overwhelm anyone.

But eventually—

The colony adapted.

I noticed it first.

"They stopped retreating."

Finn looked up from reloading his rifle.

"What?"

The shrieking deeper underground sounded different now.

Closer.

Angrier.

Then suddenly—

SCRATCHSCRATCHSCRATCHSCRATCH.

The sound erupted from multiple tunnels at once.

Garrick’s expression immediately changed.

"...Move."

Then the rats came.

Not dozens this time.

Hundreds.

The creatures burst from side tunnels, cracks in walls, and deeper passages simultaneously while shrieks echoed violently through the mine.

One worker physically froze.

"There’s too many!"

"FALL BACK!" I shouted.

Gunfire exploded through the tunnels immediately.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

Rats collapsed across the tracks while smoke and blood filled the air, but the swarm barely slowed.

The confined tunnels made everything worse.

The shrieking echoed endlessly while claws scraped across stone from every direction.

Finn fired again before immediately grabbing another rifle from one of the workers to continue shooting.

"WHY ARE THEY FASTER NOW?!"

"They’re panicking!" Garrick roared.

The rats surged over their own dead while more continued pouring from deeper inside the mine.

One leaped directly onto a worker before Garrick split it apart midair using the oversized hunting knife at his waist.

Another nearly reached the rails before I shot it directly through the eye.

Still—

The swarm kept growing.

One worker looked back toward the minecart desperately.

"We need to leave NOW!"

Then suddenly more shrieks erupted behind us.

Everyone froze.

A second swarm had begun circling through one of the partially uncleared tunnels.

We were getting surrounded.

Finn looked genuinely panicked now.

"...Leon."

My eyes rapidly moved across the tunnel system.

Too many rats.

Too many tunnels.

The rifles alone wouldn’t hold them back long enough.

Then my eyes snapped toward the rear.

"ROWAN!"

The bulky worker immediately looked up from beside the carts.

"NOW!"

The man instantly grabbed the strange metal weapon I had kept hidden for weeks.

Workers scrambled aside while Rowan lifted the heavy fuel tank onto his back before gripping the steel nozzle tightly with both hands.

Finn’s eyes widened slightly.

"Oh no."

I pointed directly toward the largest swarm charging through the main tunnel.

"Burn them."

Rowan immediately opened the pressure valve. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

FWOOOOOOOSH.

A massive stream of burning liquid erupted through the tunnel.

The entire mine instantly transformed into hell.

Flames surged across the narrow passage while burning oil splashed across stone, rats, and tunnel walls alike. The creatures shrieked horribly as the fire clung to their fur and spread through the tightly packed swarm.

The heat hit everyone instantly.

Several workers physically stumbled backward.

The rats behind the burning front ranks immediately panicked, crashing into each other while trying to retreat deeper into the tunnels.

But there wasn’t enough room.

The confined passage became a furnace.

The smell became unbearable.

Burning fur.

Burning flesh.

Burning oil.

Finn stared in complete disbelief.

"...Leon."

Another burst of fire erupted down the tunnel.

The flames rolled across the swarm like a wave while thick black smoke rapidly filled the chamber ceiling.

The rats were dying by the dozens now.

And for the first time since entering the mine—

The swarm actually broke.

The surviving rats fled deeper underground in complete panic.

Silence slowly returned afterward aside from the crackling fire still burning along parts of the tunnel.

Everyone stood there staring.

Even Garrick looked stunned.

"...What in the hells is that thing?"

Rowan slowly lowered the nozzle while smoke drifted upward around him.

I stepped forward calmly.

"Primitive flamethrower."

Finn looked horrified.

"You made liquid fire."

I crouched slightly near the fuel tank while explaining quickly.

"The tank carries a mixture of oil, pitch, resin, and alcohol."

One worker stared at the burning tunnel walls.

"...Why is it sticking to the stone?"

"Because I thickened the fuel."

I pointed toward several pipes connected along the weapon itself.

"The pressure chamber forces the liquid through the nozzle while the ignition flame lights it as it exits."

Garrick still looked half shocked.

"You weaponized boiling oil."

"Essentially."

Finn slowly looked between me and the burning tunnel.

"You built this specifically for rats?"

"No."

That answer immediately worried everyone again.

I looked deeper into the mine while flames still illuminated sections of the tunnel.

The rats had numbers.

Darkness.

Tunnels.

But now—

I had fire.

And underground—

Fire was far worse than bullets.