Travelling With The Enemy | BL

Chapter Twenty Six

Nakai leaned over the steering wheel tiredly, he had just finished the thirtieth tunnel with no luck. The time showed it was close to mid morning, and Nakai figured Wang Bao would be waking up soon. As Nakai drank the last of his cold coffee he pushed forward to try the next tunnel, and like he had expected, Wang Bao came out of the bedroom. His hair was a mess while he looked around the dark room with squinting eyes, his voice was still thick with sleep when he asked.

"Why are the lights off?"

Nakai was busy driving through another long winding rock tunnel, and he answered with a hint of annoyance.

"It will draw too much attention. Make breakfast, I'm starving."

Wang Bao overlooked Nakai's sour mood, thinking he was tired from driving all night and day. In the small kitchen, Wang Bao made baked potatoes in the small oven then fried vegetables and meat together to go on top. He left his small plate on the bench while taking Nakai's large bowl over to him. Wang Bao held the bowl patiently while Nakai weaved through the tunnel that looked like every other one he had gone through. It was only now that Wang Bao felt something was off with their location, and he stared ahead with a look of doubt before asking.

"Where are we?"

Nakai couldn't help but let out a long yawn before answering Wang Bao tiredly.

"Labyrinth, you don't remember anything from last night?"

Wang Bao shook his head slowly, he saw that Nakai was focused on driving and spooned a large portion of meat and potato into his mouth, easing Nakai's tiredness by a small fraction. Once Nakai swallowed, he briefed Wang Bao on what had happened. Hearing what he had done, Wang Bao prepared another spoonful and tried to apologise, but Nakai only shook his head while saying.

"There's nothing to say sorry for, you had no control over the situation, Wang Bao. Only apologise for things that you purposefully chose to do."

En. Wang Bao felt something stir inside when listening to Nakai, and he quickly fed Nakai another mouthful of warm food. Nakai was barely finished with his mouthful, when he clenched the wheel in his hands firmly before releasing it. Wang Bao watched with a worried face as Nakai leaned back with an exhausted expression. Just like every other attempt, they were led back to the heart and it was taking a toll on Nakai mentally. Wang Bao saw Nakai wanted to eat instead of driving, and handed over the bowl of food. With time to kill, Wang Bao decided to have a proper look at the heart of the labyrinth, just in case he could help Nakai in some way. His eyes squinted painfully into the dark water while he stared at the dome shaped cave filled with hundreds of holes. Wang Bao's eyes darted across the glass in front of them, hyper focused on what he was looking at until he saw Nakai push the accelerator. Before Nakai could move too far, Wang Bao shouted.

"Wait!...There is a pattern to this. Look, that tunnel has the same curvature and texture as this bottom tunnel there. That must mean they were made from the same creature, and therefore are probably connected. If we look at all the tunnels you've already tried and locate the tunnels with similar details, then we should be able to find at least one that differs and leads outside."

Nakai forced his tired eyes to focus on the small details being described through the dark water. Once Wang Bao finished explaining, Nakai couldn't help but be amazed at Wang Bao's ability to notice something so small. Leaning back in his chair, Nakai complimented Wang Bao honestly.

"Huh, very clever."

Nakai flashed Wang Bao a genuine smile, something that was rare to see on his serious face. Wang Bao already knew Nakai was a handsome man, but seeing such a soft and affectionate expression made his heart flutter uncontrollably. Muttering out that he was going to eat his breakfast, Wang Bao quickly walked away with red cheeks. During Wang Bao's meal, Nakai used his phone to take pictures of all the holes, using different marker points in order to not get mixed up. With the entire dome photographed and Wang Bao's breakfast eaten, both men started linking up different holes at the dining table. To cross out the tunnels that Nakai had gone through and their pairs, they edited the photos with a marker tool; it took over an hour to decipher all the tunnels but once they were done, there were only two tunnels left. Wang Bao looked at the messy photo with excitement from having figured out the puzzle, while Nakai sat in his seat at the control panel with a dark expression. Wang Bao wanted to ask what had made Nakai so angry, but before he could ask, the submarine drove forward. Nakai turned the submarine around toward the very first tunnel he had checked, laughing to himself manically while thinking. If I had just killed this fucker, we could've been out of this shit hole already! Wang Bao was already worried about Nakai's condition, but he felt something was wrong once the Giant started laughing to himself. Wang Bao walked over to Nakai because he wanted to ask Nakai what was going on with him, but when they entered the tunnel his words were caught in his throat, and his blood ran cold. In front of their dimly lit submarine was the sleeping beast Nakai had run into twelve hours ago. Wang Bao felt the beast looked very similar to a weedy sea dragon, only one hundred times bigger and much uglier with thick white scales.