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Mark was waiting there, well, waiting on his brand new cell phone, texting away. He ignored all new arrivals for a good minute, and finally looked up, and that was only because he was trying to figure out the pixel aspect ratio of his camera and suddenly got a camera full of not him in the background.

"Uhhh," he began intelligently, finally turning to stare at Jake and Sherry. The mere inkling of why he was even here was slowly formulating in his brain. "Hello." Nope, it wasn't coming to him.

He would stare at them blankly for another moment longer before sending out more important twitters before looking back up again. "Equipment! Stuff! Okay, like, check out these bad boys." He pulled out a pair of flashlights. "They'll light up dark places. Yeah. And these guys." A pair of headphones followed. "They do headset things. Like, put them on, and if anything important happens, I'll shout really loud into them and stuff." Long pause. "Where are you guys going again?"

Jake only gave a tired sigh at Mark's lacking response at their arrival. To be honest, he didn't really know what to expect anymore, and had already worried himself ragged on the way here. Headsets were an asset (he wasn't so sure about the part on Mark screaming), but flashlights? They really WERE going to infiltrate some horsemen lair, weren't they? Well, at least there wasn't a fear scanner or some equally heavy and delicate equipment he would probably be blamed for breaking.

"Probably some dark, dinky cave." he muttered.
Given their luck though, he really wasn't sure WHAT to expect anymore.
Optimism was over-rated.

Sherry had long, long ago stopped wondering how Mark got any work done. He always seemed distracted by something, though she reasoned he had to be good at something, even if that something was just surviving, or helping others survive. She tossed him a quick "Thanks" as he sent them on their way, finally. Even if she really didn't think she wanted to see what was waiting for them.

The moment they arrived she really wished she could see what was waiting for them. The arrival itself did not bode well for the rest of the trip, much less the all encompassing dark and that smell. She glanced around, hoping for some light, while she fumbled with the flashlight she must have shoved in her pocket like an idiot. Of course she'd need it right away.

Her other hand instinctively reached in the direction Jake would be, should be, as her brain did what it could to translate the noises into things that were understandable. Dripping was innocent enough, maybe, usually, but buzzing...and what was that under her boots?

"Where are we?" she whispered, even if it seemed like a silly a question. Mark had just told them where he was sending them. The fingers of her left hand gripped at Jake's arm while the flashlight in her right hand clicked on.

Sherry's flashlight turned on, enough to reveal a black ceiling that parted, hundreds of tiny insects scurrying away from the light.

The thudding noise came from long ropes, each one suspending a sandbag. No bodies, no blood or bones or littered tablets, just sandbags slowly hitting each other side to side, hanging from high ceiling rafters and shallow water below them.

There were two paths forward. One path had a spiral engraved clockwise on it, the other counterclockwise.

It still felt like someone was watching them from behind.

Jake grimaced at the sight of the bugs, but if that was the worst they were going to put up with, he would have gladly accepted it. The sandbags however...

Frowning deeply, he pulled out his own flashlight, slightly weary. Sandbags and ceiling rafters? Was this even a horsemen base? He had always thought they were a bit more... primitive, though the spiral pattern was somewhat recognized.
"I don't know, but it's still too early to say."
For all he knew, the horsemen could be JUST down that path. Still, they should probably survey the surroundings a bit more before deciding what to do.

Since Sherry got the area in front, Jake turned, swinging his flashlight behind them. Just where WERE they?

"You could have said no," he muttered, still scanning the area.
He was pretty much screwed either way.

Jake sighed.
"It was kinda a spur-of-the-moment thing."