章 31: Cavern Camp
As the Humvee traveled through the underground passage the noise was nearly blinding in my bat form. It was so 'Bright' that several bats were disturbed, making me far more comfortable in following along. After all, in the dark who could tell I was a green bat?
I really shouldn't be so surprised by all the underground caverns in Gotham. There are so many stories of them being taken advantage of as far a hidden bases or easy construction routes for projects in the area. I think I remember there was a project to go under Gotham harbor to the mainland before bridge technology got advanced enough for larger loads.
{No worries yet Robin, it's just a tunnel to an underground cavern so far.} I said to keep Robin pacified.
{Just keep this link active and let me know of anything you think is important Logan. I'm looking up all the information in this area that I can find online.} Robin replied
Shortly after our conversation I heard/saw the Humvee heading towards what appeared to be a tent camp with an Airstream camper between it and the ramp to the outside. When I saw Boss Biggis I realized that the Humvee wasn't a traditional low rider it just couldn't handle the weight of this guy.
He got out of the vehicle with a turkey leg in each hand and gravy stains on his shirt. The amount of effort it took for him to just move to the trailer from the Humvee caused sweat to break out all over his face.
The trailer was too well lit for me to approach unnoticed so I settled for doing a quick recon of the area to see if I could figure out what they were doing here. I had hoped I would hear their conversation in the trailer, but a generator overwhelmed any voices I could hope to hear.
{Looks like there is an underground camp here Robin, so far as I can tell all the missing homeless people have indeed been press ganged into working down here for some unknown reason. I don't think rushing down here with a bunch of police would be a good idea. I will see if I can steal some cloths to fit in down here and see what I can learn.} I told him, coming up with the plan as I went.
{This will take a full day minimum so if you need to leave the area, I will search for your mind occasionally and then let you know what's going on. No worries about telling Arnie anything I left a note telling him I was out with a hot chick named Robin and if I didn't come back for a day or two to wish me well and throw a Viagra pill over his shoulder for me.} I wish I was there to see the look on his face right now.
{That is wrong on so many levels dude!} Robin said.
Finding a pile of discarded clothing I grabbed some stuff that looked like it would work and then went to find a dirt pile to roll around in. This would be the painful part of having enhanced senses, I reeked something awful. Being this close to the bay there was water filtering through the walls so now that I had my disguise on, I wandered to a small pool at the back of the camp and tried to clean the clothes at least a little.
I went back to the camp to find a spot to wait until everyone else woke up. I tried to get close to the camper but there were too many guards between the tent camp and it. There were also three fires going with a cook at each one (Well hopefully we get fed well.).
As I watched the camper, I noticed that the cooks were constantly taking food into it and bringing plates back with bones and scraps that they dumped into a 55-gallon drum off to the side. As morning came, I noticed that two cooks moved the drum to a fire and added water to it stirring occasionally. My stomach turned as the thought hit me that the breakfast for the camp was the trash from the camper. This Boss Biggis was a lowlife of the first order.
Shortly after that I see Boss Biggis walk out of the camper and yell to some guards to get the lazy bum's up. The men start walking through the tent camp and shouting followed by a few kicks get the camp up and moving to the breakfast line. As the line moves through and everyone gets a ladle from the trash can as their breakfast, I hear a voice shout "Is this watery crap supposed to be the food I was promised? This is not what I agreed to." a man yelled as he dumped his bowl out.
Seeing the man's action Boss Biggis yelled "You dare waste food from my table you lowly filth. That will extend your work shift by two hours and there will be no dinner for you. Time for you to learn that hunger makes anything taste good. Look at me, I am barely getting any good food and I'm a big guy who needs more food than you, but you don't hear me complaining."
After motioning the guard to take the guy away he yells "Hurry up the line, there is lots of work to do today. Time to earn the housing and food I provide you worthless sheep."
Shuffling along and keeping my head down, I followed the crowd to the tool shed and grabbed a shovel and waited to see where we would go next.
I overheard the guards talking as they looked at a map. "The Boss said the new translation should put the dig spot 36 paces from the entrance and turn right for 25 paces." another one asked, "How far down do they dig before we move then to another spot?" Another replied "Just keep them digging tell we are told to stop them. Boss don't like a bunch of difficult questions first thing in the morning."
(Is this a treasure hunt? How lame is that.) I reach out with my mind to see if I can detect Robin, but he wasn't within the area I could reach without opening myself up to everyone near me. As I was concentrating, I shuffled to my right and bumped into someone knocking them to the ground.
I quickly squatted down to help them up, apologizing profusely. "I am so sorry; I wasn't paying attention. Please let me help you up. I reached out and helped them to their feet, still apologizing.
"No worries child I don't feel pain anymore, in fact it's hard to feel anything these days. Don't fuss over little old me." Came a middle-aged motherly voice.
"How could I push you to the ground and walk on by as if it didn't matter?" I said as I helped her to her feet.
"You are far too polite to have been here long, did you just get here last night?" she inquired.
"Yes, I was in the alley looking around and they were taking people with a promise of food, so I followed along." for some reason I didn't want to lie to her, so I stretched the truth a bit. Maybe it was the motherly feeling I got from her that caused it.
"Ahh it's the same for me, I have been wandering the alleys forever looking for something I lost. So, I came with these men to see if they could help me find it." She told me.
"Well maybe I can help you look also; my name is Gar but I'm starting to like the name Logan better so you can call me either." I told her with a smile.
.
"Hoh you can change your name? In that case call me April, yeah, something important to me happened in April she giggled." April said.
I liked talking to her, she was a bundle of joy in a dark wet cave. Quite literally. We followed the group until the guards stopped us and told us to start digging here.
April went and grabbed a wheelbarrow and made a beeline for me then told me we would be partners. I was amazed at her, for someone who I assumed was middle-aged, she was a hard worker. I say assumed because she wore a jacket that was too long for her and went well past her hands. I assumed it was to help stop from getting blisters on her hands while pushing the wheelbarrow. She also wore a scarf over her lower face and another on her head, when I told her she should take them off so she doesn't overheat she said her teeth were in bad shape and it gave her bad breath and she abhorred the thought that someone would be offended by it and her hair was a mess. She was raised better than that.
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