Centiel had been beginning to think that nothing would happen when an explosion finally rocked the mines. This is it! There was a roaring in her ears; at first she thought it was from the aftershock, and then she realised that it was the miners. 

She joined the shouting, rushing to one of the many stashes hidden in the stone. Centiel was not the first there - much of the secreted equipment had already been taken - but she was able to find a crude knife cut out of rock, and the broken handle of a pick-axe, sharpened somewhat to a point. The yelling continued, and now she raced toward the entrance; ready to fight. On her way, she passed the broken body of one of the Sentinel guards; from the look of it, the fight had been fairly one-sided. 

It seemed that the path to the entrance would be clear, but what of the surface? Gratch and Fenrir also prowled the facility, and although they didn't come into the mines (they were far too big for that), up in the open would be a different matter. She clutched her makeshift weapons tighter as she hurried upwards, and suddenly noticed something. The walls and ceiling around her were shaking. How long had that been happening? Had the explosion started a cave-in? All around her, people were scrambling toward the surface, tripping on the shaky ground, covered in dust and soot. 

Hurry! Centiel willed herself. She did not want to get this close only to be killed in the mines anyway. Up ahead, she saw light - but she could also hear roaring again. And this time, it wasn't the explosion or the miners. It was something much worse.