The warriors’ ride arrived at a tunnel that forked into two more tunnels, and Leo was paying attention to the road. ‘Is that Airvalner, on the right?’ he asked.

    ‘No, that’s the tunnel leading to it,’ answered Erick, but then Josephy, surprisingly, sped up and missed the turn.

    ‘Chief, what are you doing? You should have taken the right tunnel.’ Erick was angry. ‘Turn the horses we can’t be late!’ 

  In the second wagon, everyone could feel the carriage moving faster as Ursula and Claudia were still wondering about the group of riders following them.

    ‘They look like pirates on horses,’ said Ursula. That caught Neil and Virginia’s attention.

    ‘They look like gangsters,’ said Neil.

    ‘Look! They’re speeding up too,’ said Linda looking out at the riders.

    ‘Oh No,’ said Oliver who was watching the riders too from the open rear of the first wagon, and then he called at the top of his voice, ‘CAPTAIN ERICK! WE’RE BEING CHASED!’

    When Erick heard that, he readily suspected that Josephy had missed the turn on purpose, because the tunnel they took was leading to a whole different route, far from the entrance to Hozafia, and the coachman didn’t seem like he was about to slow down. Without a warning, Erick grabbed Josephy by the collar, pushed him off his seat and threw him on the road. Leo was startled.

    ‘Why did you do that?’ asked Leo.

    ‘That can’t be Chief Josephy. He’s with them,’ said Erick angrily taking the reins.

   All the warriors, in both wagons, noticed the group of gangsters that were shouting and coming towards them at full speed, and they panicked as they saw weapons in their hands. Two of the riders split from the group and gained on their carriage.

      ‘Where are we?’ asked Leo as he noticed that the tunnels became unusually dark.

    ‘We’re in Kroncheck. Gangs control this area,’ said Erick. ‘They’re chasing us deeper into it. We can’t turn around now.’

     ‘Kroncheck?’ Claudia read the sign they passed as they entered the left-side tunnel. ‘The tunnels of the gangs,’ Claudia told Ursula as she recalled her childhood stories.

      ‘What do they want?’ Leo asked.

    ‘They’re thieves. They attack travellers, beat them and take everything they have, that’s what they do, and we’re in the part of the tunnels they occupied long ago. No one will stop them here.’

    The gangs’ tunnels were dark, humid and smelled of dust and garbage. The place looked as if it had not been cleaned for years. There were no directional signs. Kroncheck was wide and empty of all travellers. The warriors were all alone with their chasers. Anywhere they looked, there were broken carriage parts, thrown in the corners and old carriage wheels hung on the pillars.

    The riders kept gaining on the warriors until two of them were just beside the back horses of the carriage where Leo could see their faces. ‘Stop the carriage,’ shouted one of the two riders who looked ugly with many scars on his face. Leo felt insecure. Some of the warriors started screaming.

    ‘No way,’ Erick shouted back.

    ‘There is no other way out. Now you stop your horses or I will,’ shouted the gangster, but Erick was never going to stop the horses. ‘Alright then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.’ The two riders drew out axes and sped closer to the two leading horses away from the wagons, targeting their harnesses. They hit the shaft holding the horses, and in a few determined strikes, they managed to cut them free of their straps. The front horses ran loose and the warriors’ carriage was left with only two horses, but as they were running down a slope, the carriage still seemed to be picking up speed.

    ‘Now stop!’ the rider ordered, but Erick didn’t comply.

    ‘Alright then,’ said the rider. He was not lying, he was truly going to free their carriage of its horses. The rider managed to cut another horse loose. With only one horse left, the wagons were unbalanced and panic broke out among the warriors as both wagons began to swing from one side of the tunnel to the other.

    ‘HEY, YOU! Why didn’t you release that horse?’ the rider shouted at the other one who was on the right side of the wagon. ‘Do it now,’ the rider next to the attached horse, moved closer to it at once to do as the other one had told him.

    ‘Oh no, this isn’t happening,’ said Leo as he stood up and balanced himself over the seat.

    ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ asked Erick in shock. ‘Stop!’ but Leo didn’t even hear Erick as he jumped off the coachman’s seat, to the back of the last horse. The rider kept trying to cut the straps but Leo made sure the rider missed every time he tried, closely moving his leg away from the path of the rider's axe.

    ‘No,’ shouted Erick as Leo pulled the reins from his hands. ‘Don’t you stop that horse,’ Erick warned. Leo had never done this before, but all that he could think of right then was how to get rid of the rider before he would cut the horse free while he was still on it.

      The wagons were still swinging and shaking hard especially when they met loose rocks on the road, and the warriors were falling over each other. Neil held to the wagon’s covered top to prevent himself from falling while holding Virginia with the other hand. Virginia, feeling protective towards Linda, held her up with all her strength, while Ursula and Claudia stayed close to each other.

    ‘What’s happening?’ asked Neil.

    ‘Just hold on and try to balance the wagons,’ Erick shouted.

      Meanwhile, Leo was still struggling with the situation that he willingly put himself into. He tried to kick the rider off his horse, but Leo was not much of a horse rider. He could barely sit straight on the back of a running horse—many of his attempts were ineffective, but then eventually, he got lucky. Leo finally found a chance to kick the rider. One strong kick in the stomach made the rider slide on the side of his horse, but the rider kept clinging to the horse’s saddle. Fortunately, the axe had fallen off the rider’s hand. Leo seized the opportunity and kicked him one more time. The rider was thrown off the horse and he fell on the road where he was squashed between the wagons and the legs of his own horse. After what happened to his friend, the other rider retreated to the back where he joined the rest of his group.

    ‘Keep going!’ Erick told Leo. Indeed, there was no choice for Leo but to keep riding forward, especially since he didn’t even know how to stop the horse. With the other riders still chasing them, Erick and Leo were determined to get everyone out of Kroncheck with only one horse. Feeling sure that they had them trapped inside their net of tunnels, the riders slowed down a little to regroup.

    Leo could see that the tunnel they were speeding through was turning right, which meant that, with only one horse, the wagons would flip over and so Erick instructed the warriors to sit on the right side of the wagon. The warriors did as they were told without question. After the turn, Leo kept to the side of the tunnel, just beside the wall, so that no rider could come from their right side again.

    ‘Where should I turn?’ Leo asked as they were approaching a dead-end preceded by two opposite tunnels. Erick flipped through the map, but then when it was time for the turn, Leo couldn’t miss it. He made the turn before Erick could tell him which was the right one. Leo chose the right turn only to find that it was a trap. A sudden sound of smashing glass surprised everyone and showered Leo and the horse with broken glass pieces, as Leo had turned into a reflection of the real tunnel that was on the other side. The horse stopped and turned away from the broken glass, and the wagons shook hard because of the sudden stop. Luckily, no one was severely hurt. 

    ‘We’re in their trap tunnels,’ Erick clarified. ‘There are mirrors here that reflect the real tunnels, posing as diversions, but the mirrors are not shown on the map so we have to be careful.’ Leo looked up at the place they thought was a tunnel; it was just an empty wall after the mirror had fallen off. Leo could swear he saw no reflection of himself or the horse inside the mirror, otherwise, he would have stopped.

    The glass shatters on the ground started shaking as the riders, who were picking up speed again, were eagerly approaching, and Leo knew it was time to move. They were attempting to turn the direction of the horse towards the opposite side where the real tunnel was, but even with Erick’s directions, Leo wasn’t quick enough. Two riders outran the rest, caught up with the warriors and managed to jump on their ride; one rider managed to enter the second wagon as the other managed to climb on top of it, yet Leo succeeded in entering the other tunnel and gaining back speed.

    Neil held the intruder by his shirt and tried to throw him off their moving wagon, but the rider held on to him. He would take Neil out of the cart with him if he fell. All the warriors in the second wagon flung to Neil’s aid. They tried to push the man away from him, but the man was too big and too determined not to leave the carriage, and during that struggle, Ursula received a blow on the face from the gangster. Ursula’s fears were suddenly replaced by anger—flames burst inside the wagon, and the wagon’s cover caught fire. The warriors believed that one of their lanterns caused it but Ursula could tell that her friend knew better. The fire was Ursula’s doing and Claudia had seen her do it before.  

      On top of the first wagon, the other rider could hardly balance himself over the swinging ride. He planned to jump on the coachman’s seat and free the horse from there. Leo and Erick struggled to find the right way, but then Erick saw their way out of Kroncheck on the map. They only had to take one turn, but there were no turns; there was a solid wall at the place where they were supposed to turn right—or was there? As they moved closer to the turn, Erick gratefully realised that their way out was only concealed by another trap mirror that reflected the wall in front of it, and the reflection that moved as they went closer to it confirmed it.

     Leo tensed when he learned that there would be another crash and prepared himself for it as he listened to Erick’s instructions. Suddenly, a swarm of rocks flew from the ground up in front of them and sailed with speed ahead of their carriage. ‘What’s happening?’ asked Leo suspecting that the swarm of flying rocks was Erick’s doing, and it was. Erick’s move was meant to break the glass barrier that blocked their way before they would reach it. It was Erick’s best plan against another collision. Leo didn’t know exactly where he was going, but following Erick’s directions, their carriage, preceded by the swarm of rocks that hit the decoy mirror, went through the deceiving wall and out the other way. After they ran over a short barricade on the other side that framed the entrance to these dark parts of the Tunnels Net, there were lights and traffic once again, the sight of which made Leo feel relieved that they were finally out of the gangs’ area. Luckily, the rest of the riders that were still chasing them, got delayed by the movement of the traffic. As for the net travellers, they were mostly startled by the sight of the burning carriage that was still moving with speed.

     The fire in the second wagon moved to the first one, and all the warriors started screaming. The gangster, whom they were unable to throw out of the second wagon, jumped out on his own when his clothes caught fire. However, they could not shake off the other gangster who was still hanging on top of their wagons, even after he was severely cut in the face by a shared piece of glass from the smashed mirror. He was barely moving and seemed scared to jump.

 After many guided turns, Leo could see the word Airvalner written on a sign across a one-way tunnel. They crossed the tunnel to Airvalner and, in the act, stopped three other carriages that were running at full speed. Eventually, they managed to enter the tunnel of the warriors—despite the attempts of the tunnel guards to stop them. Airvalner was an extremely long tunnel. Soldiers stood on both sides of it, in full metal armours. Fortunately, theirs was the only carriage inside the tunnel.

    Once the chasing riders saw that their target had entered the tunnel of the warriors, they withdrew from the chase. The man on top of the wagon called out for his friends, but they were long gone, and he never had a chance to jump. Leo kept the horse running until they saw the huge entrance to Hozafia. They were heading towards a tall barred gate, behind which they could see the sunlight. They were expected to stop at the gate, where many men in the same old-fashioned military uniforms blocked the way to Hozafia, but Leo didn’t know how to. They darted through the officers and were nearly crushed by the shutting gate.