Yoongi looked at the ceiling once again. The sands were still pouring down. They tied the handkerchief around the nose already. But the amount of sand was too much that it was almost suffocating to stand in between the sand showers. The torches were even of no use in these heavy curtains of sand.

Everyone got busy with the order of Yoongi to dig themselves up and stay above the surface of the sand. The pace of raining down sands was so fast that even within a few seconds of distraction caused the feet to sink in the sand quickly. They were working to stay alive for a few minutes more, though they knew this will end with them drowning under the sands. The death was raining down in the form of sands.
The sand came so high that they even can't stand straight for the ceiling above the head.

Girls were doing better than the boys. They got above the sand surface every time with their light body and even helped others to get up from the sand trap.

Nabi pulled out Yoongi's leg right now from the sand. But Yoongi didn't give any heed towards her, rather he looked at Taehyung, "you know for sure that this chamber is under the beach?

"Yes. It was the prior flood chamber. See the titanium walls?...but why hyung?"

"Then why we are thinking like idiots? Formula says 1.6!" Yoongi chuckled.

"1.6? What is it this time?" asked Yara.

"1.6 is the fifty percent of the over-engineering factor's figure," said Nabi from the side, brushing sands from her torchlight.

"Right!" Taehyung was giddy like a teenager, "why didn't I think it before?"

"Can anyone explain? I don't know the alien language for god's sake!" Yara's voice raised this time. "We are dying here, it's not time to solve math problems!"

"Everything in life is a math problem, Yara-sshi." Taehyung sighed like a philosopher, "just because..."

"Shut up!" Yara growled, "don't calculate your life equations when I'll strangle you to death, boy!"

"We are in this chamber beneath this beach, right?" Yoongi smiled a little, "this chamber was made to flood with the seawater whenever necessary. Now that the sea level shifted and restrained with a sluice gate, all we have above our head is just sands."

"So what, Yoongi-sshi?"

"The volume of sand is heavier than the volume of water by 1.6." Taehyung supplied from the side.

"So what?" Yara looked at the IT specialist with annoyed eyes.

"You didn't get it? The brick wall is ready to take the weight of the water. But the chamber is being filled with sands now. Will that wall take the extra 1.6 sand weight now?" Taehyung fired back.

"Any good engineer keeps fifty percent safety margin. So no matter how strong the walls are while making them, the ten percent extra weight will break the wall for sure." explained Yoongi, "the question is when? Before we die or after?"

"Don't worry, Yara-sshi." Nabi smiled a little, "we all are experts in tactics and Yoongi sir has his degree in defense engineering. They are not wrong."

Yara looked at three of them one by one. Three of them have sunk quite a bit, but none of them had any worries on their faces. She sighed heavily.
Why should she be terrified if they are not even afraid?

The sand was still raining above the head. A few moments passed, but the wall was still standing where all of them were in crawling position now, the ceiling almost touching their head. Their backs were pressing against the ceiling now.
Only eighteen inches gaps were there in between the sand pile and the ceiling. If the wall doesn't break in time, they all will suffocate till death.
That will be a horrible death.

After a few moments, they were almost sure that they were going to die this time. Luck wasn't going to favor them this time.
They tried to keep themselves afloat by digging themselves up from the sands. After trying for a few seconds more, Yara gave up.
They heard her quiet sobs even among the hissing sound of sand rains.

"Fuck! So this is it!" frustrated voice of Taehyung was heard, totally forgetting the presence of Yoongi there. His cheek was now touching the ceiling, trying to make an air pocket to breath, but that too filled up real quick and sand covered his head.

But the extra weight of hundreds of tons of sands has already created fissures in the brick wall, the coatings crumbled down first and then the wall was flattened like a damaged dam. A wide path was created up to the chamber next to this one and the whole sand wave flowed towards that vacant chamber. Everyone already has bid goodbye to dear life.

Suddenly a strong pull pulled them down like they were falling into an eternal abyss.
There was nothing to do but after five seconds, they sensed that the sands were gone and every one of them was sprawled over the floor entangled altogether.

"Holy crap! We are still alive!" Taehtung let out a tremendous howl and got up first. His voice echoed from this huge chamber just opened a few seconds ago.

Yoongi got up and Taehyung hugged him instantly, "brilliant, hyung! I would have died long ago just in fear if you didn't tell it earlier!"

"Get off me!" Yoongi pushed him away and started to brush off the sands from his clothes, "find yourself a girlfriend if you want to hug that much."

"You do it first, then I'll consider." Taehtung grinned, a little playful with the sudden freedom from death.

"I wasn't sure though." Yoongi picked up the previous conversation.

"I did not doubt first." Nabi helped Yara to get up, "but at the end..."

Yara bowed to Yoongi after getting up, "thank you so much Yoongi-sshi. Like Taehyung-sshi said, if you didn't assure us before, I would have died in heart attack in panic."

It took half a minute to find their weapons. Assault rifles were not made thinking about this type of sand attack, so they had to clean the barrels and the receivers as well before they again set for the road.

They entered the second chamber after their works were finished. Like the previous chamber, this one also had one way out, and that was ten feet above the ground, on a shelf carved on the wall.

"There can be booby traps here," said Yoongi. "They didn't close the outside entry means they have enough protection to keep people away inside. At least that's how I'd do if I were in their place." Yoongi stopped in front of the first shelf-like a stair, "I'll go first, after me will be Nabi-sshi, then Yara-sshi and then Taehyung. We will not go here and there. Nobody will be curious about anything at all. Everyone will follow the person in front of them blindly. If you see anything unusual, no matter how small that is, inform me."

They climbed up the steep shelves with a long tunnel ahead. It was so narrow that it was easy to scratch the skins of both shoulders if they were not careful. After starting walking in, the tunnel seemed like closing in even more. Walking fast was impossible.

Yoongi's alertness paid off.

The tripwire was on the ground. Made to be triggered with any contact.
It was a thin copper wire, one end joined with a nail in the wall, the other end went in the dark tunnel.

Yoongi carefully evaded the copper wire and held the torch for others to do the same.

After going further hundred yards, the tunnel was finally ended and that opened in another chamber.
The copper wire stopped in a metallic lever of a device. The device would be triggered if the wire was pulled.
A huge stone ball was placed in a small stage, triggering the device will release the ball and the thousands-pound ball would slip right into the sloppy tunnel and will just smash anyone in the tunnel triggering that wire.

"Should we trigger it?" Taehyung asked excitedly as if he couldn't wait to see the ball rolling.

"Leave it." Interjected Nabi, "we shouldn't change anything here. It is so early technology, we don't know what could happen if we change anything here."

Yoongi didn't give any heed to Taehyung's words and took two small stones from the floor and pushed those carefully under the big ball. Now if someone triggers the wire, the ball will not move anymore.

After the chamber, there were again three tunnels in front. They went towards the tunnel at the right at first. There were no booby traps this time, but the end of the tunnel was closed.
After going in halfway in the tunnel of the middle, Yoongi's feet touched the hidden trigger on the floor.

The floor sank a little and Yoongi knew he fucked up.
The floor of the tunnel was covered in sand, below that was a hidden platform.

Yoongi's step on that rubbed the steel flint which ignited the fuse.
The hole had mines inside. If explodes, it would have been the end of their stories.

Yoongi jumped back and after turning around, he pushed on Nabi's shoulder, actively trying to push out everyone behind him like a mad shepherd.
They stepped back hurriedly, haphazardly, and then lost balance and fell on the floor all at once and Yoongi fell on top of them.

But the mines never exploded.
Rather the fuse burnt down for a few seconds and then the fire went off. The tunnel filled with heavy smoke and smell.

"Hell! Perks of not replacing the the the technology for years!" Taehyung chuckled nervously.

"Everyones ok?" Yoongi got up first and stepped on the fuse, making sure it doesn't get ignited again.

"I am ok..." Yara was coughing inhaling the smoke.

"Those bastards!" Nabi cursed under her breath, "How many times do I have to be disappointed after getting ready to die?"

Yoongi smiled a little, "but the booby traps are saying that we are on the right path!"

After five minutes, they were again on their track. This time the tunnel was going upwards. There was no way to know how deep they were inside the mountain.

This tunnel has been used so many times before. The footsteps on the ground said it all.

Yoongi stopped the team again two times to examine the floor for booby traps but it was clear this time.

The tunnel turned a hard right in front. Yoongi took a careful glance at the end of the tunnel taking position carefully.

There was nobody, but a steel door to the end of the tunnel. There was no system for any locks in it, even the handle was on the opposite side of the door.

Yoongi knelt in front of the door and started to scour through his backpack.

"Should we say any magic words to open the door now?" Yara smiled.
"Magic words should work."

"Don't know about magic words," Yoongi got up from the floor with a piece of plastic explosive in his hand, "but this magic will definitely work!"

He took a cardboard box from Nabi's first aid box and tore a part from it.
He slipped it through the tiny slit between the door and the stone wall to locate the handle opposite to the door.

It took three minutes.

After he was done, he took two time pencils of two minutes and attached those to the door.

After the timer started, Taehyung smiled sweetly, "you all coming?"
Without waiting for anyone, he ran like a lunatic passing Yoongi.

Yoongi and Nabi passed him easily in sprint inside the wide tunnel. Even Yara wasn't far behind this time.

Yoongi stopped after fifty yards and everyone also halted seeing him paused.

The sound of the explosion was muffled due to the distance in between but the pressure wave blew hot air towards them giving back a little taste of their own medicine.

They got back to the door again.
The door was no more there, even the doorframe was gone.

The tunnel ended five minutes later and ended into a giant chamber this time. So vast that even halogen lights were unable to cover the whole pod.

There was a wooden platform at one side of the room, on which now was lying a titanium alloyed slim beauty.

"Trident type III," Taehyung whispered, still bewildered with the fatal beauty in front of him.

The fins were perfectly shaped hydrodynamically to cut the water smoothly, the body was metallic blue titanium, slim, tall with a bulge at the end for the thruster and the chamber in the middle for the explosive.

The missile had nothing except a deadly aura all around, but they all admitted without a doubt that he who has invented this missile was an artist himself.

It was a beauty.

One by one they got on the platform.
The Trident was lying on two supporting struts there.

"Why it is here? Why not in the missile pod?" Yoongi was frowning hard.

"Possible that the pod still needed repairment and other things as it was an abandoned base. This room-" Taehyung explained, "it is the antechamber, always used for testing and experimenting on missiles for flaws and errors before launching."

Sensing a little movement towards the right corner of his eyes, Taehyung suddenly became hyperaware. He turned his torch towards the exploded doors at once.

And he saw a man slipping away from the frame for a millisecond before he shout to inform others, the deafening sound of the assault rifle tore the silence of the room. The muzzle flash came from ten feet away from the man he saw.

He shouted his lungs out, he just saw a few other men in the muzzle flash. The militaries were not alone!

Bullets were raining around them, again a few riffles joined the bullet fest a minute later.

Yoongi looked at him immediately after ducking from the bullet streams.
His hands already had the Glock automatic even before he sat down.

Yoongi bit down his lips, how the hell did these men find this cave? And this fast?

They were not dreaming.
Tripple military compared to their manpower was surging inside and of course, they brought unlimited ammunition to fight.

The door opening in the next room supposed to be the actual missile pod was locked and a chunk of armored plate titanium protected that.
No plastic explosive was useful in that door.

And the bad news was- the military has blocked the only path to exit this hell hole!