A World To Lose

by Frances Ellen

  “All right, John, we will, all right? I’m Lian. And that’s Matu and Nathan. This here is Sophie, and the pain in the arse over there, that’s Sky,” Lian said, pointing at his siblings. Sky rolled his eyes, but Lian’s words had the desired effect. John, and a few of the other humans, chuckled slightly, despite everything. Then Lian continued, “These guys here were going to kill you. Or have you fight for survival. Or fight each other. However the story ends, you would’ve died. We’re trying to avoid that. We’re going to get you out, all right? So just listen to whatever we direct you to do, and don’t question us, because we’re your best and only shot at getting out of here alive.”

  John stared at Lian for a moment, and then nodded stiffly. Lian smiled and patted him on the back. “Good man,” Lian said.

  Sophie had made it to John’s ankles and freed him from the shackles.

  “Thank you,” he whispered.

  Sophie didn’t look up at him. She looked at Matu instead. “There is no key for their hands. Can you break the handcuffs?”

  Matu stepped forward and placed his hands on the cuffs of the woman last in line. The Band on his wrist started glowing. The woman inhaled sharply. Matu’s hands tightened around cuffs and he pulled.

  Orange sparks jumped up from where Matu had touched the handcuffs. He shouted and retracted his hands immediately. He held his hands open so that they could all see that his palms had started blistering.

  “What’s wrong?” Nathan asked.

  “They’re magic-proof. I can’t break them,” Matu hissed, and muttered a few Swahili words afterwards, for good measure. Sophie was next to him in an instant, having passed the keys on to Sky. Sophie’s Band glowed golden and the blisters on Matu’s palms vanished into nothing.

  Lian frowned at the group of humans. “But they’re not magical.”

  “They’re not. But we are.” Sky unlocked the ankle shackles from the teenage girl at the back. “All right. I need everyone to gather around and take a hold of someone. We’re getting out of here.”

  “Are you sure that’s going to work?” Lian asked. “If Matu can’t use his magic on those shackles, how are you sure you’ll be able to shimmer them anywhere?”

  Sky was busy herding all the humans closer together. “Because I’m not actually touching the shackles, now, am I?”

  The seven humans now stood huddled closely together, the Asters around them. They were all holding on to someone else, making sure that no one would be left behind. Sky closed his eyes and pictured the platform where David and his sons had dropped them off. He could feel the Band on his wrist starting to pulse, and he could feel the blue light build up inside of him, ready to engulf anyone he was touching. As the blue light surrounded them all, Sky held on to the picture of the platform in his mind. But the picture was starting to fade. Something white and cloudy was blurring the image of his destination. It reminded him distinctly of the cloudy veil that Mitrik had put up around the Grand Canyon.

  Sky felt the blue light drain away around him.

  “No, no, no, no,” Sky rambled, looking desperately around him. They were still in the damn Underworld corridor close to the metal door.

  “What happened?” Sophie asked.

  “Is it the handcuffs?” Matu added.

  “It’s not the handcuffs, it’s the veil. I can’t shimmer through it, only within it,” Sky growled. He stepped away from the group and looked around the corner of the corridor. No Disciples were coming yet, but he knew they would be coming soon.

  “But I put a hole in it. Are you sure?” Matu asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure. See,” Sky snapped. He put his magic to work and pointed at the human called John. Blue light appeared all around John and the man vanished momentarily. Then a second later the same blue light appeared right next to Sky, and John was standing there instead. John reached for his head, clearly dizzy, his eyes wide. He stumbled to the side in shock. Sky gave him no further attention.

  “Crap,” Lian muttered.

  “What are the odds you can shimmer all of us somewhere within this veil where there are no Disciples but which is close enough to it that we can get through?” Matu asked.

  At that moment a wailing siren shattered through the silent corridors. Sky strained his ears and could distinctly hear running footsteps in the distance.

  “Zero,” Sky sighed.

  “All right, we don’t have much time,” Sophie said. She had come up beside Sky and was scanning the adjacent corridors. “We need to get them out of here and to the tear in the veil.”

  “I can make a narrow hallway in the walls close to the corridor leading back outside,” Nathan said.

  Matu nodded. “Good. How long will that take?”

  Nathan shrugged. “Not sure.”

  “Then you need a distraction.” Sky looked over to Lian and Sophie. “You two, you’re with me. Matu, find a place to hide them while Nate makes a tunnel.”

  Matu turned to Sky. “Give me the keys.”

  Sky tossed the keys to his brother and looked around the corner again. The footsteps were growing louder by the second.

  Matu ran past the humans and towards the large metal door. He fumbled with the keys momentarily before finding the right one and unlocking the door. He pulled it open with a creak, revealing a large oval room with absolutely nothing inside. He turned back to the group of huddling humans. “Get in.”

  “Woah, woah, woah, we’re going in there? You just killed all of them to avoid us being put there!” John exclaimed.

  “What did my brother just tell you about questioning us?” Sky snapped.

  The other humans bowed their heads and followed Matu’s instructions. John was the last to step in; he hesitated in the doorway and looked over his shoulder. “You’ve done this before?” he asked Sky.

  Sky hadn’t the faintest clue why the man was asking him in particular. He opted for a cocky grin and said, “Getting humans out of the North American Underworld while being surrounded by a dark veil that won’t let us use our magic optimally while an alarm is going off and a murderous King is nearby? No. Getting out of tight situations alive with hundreds of Disciples coming after us at once? All the time.”

  “We’re good at this, sir. This is what we do. We will get you and your family out,” Matu assured.

  “This is not my family.”

  Sky blinked at this news, and tried to not let the weight of his words sink in.

  “They separated us down by the river. You have to save them, too.”

  Nathan jumped beside Matu and placed a hand on John’s back, guiding him through the metal doorway. “One thing at a time.”

  Matu followed, but as he stepped through the doorway Sophie stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. She looked back to Sky as she said, “Take the backpack. If you run into trouble, you’ll need my blood for healing.”

  Sky undid the straps of the backpack and handed it over to Matu. His brother took it and immediately slung it onto his back, first loosening the straps to accommodate his larger frame, and then fastening them tight. Before he stepped into the other room, he cast one last look at Sky.

  Sky understood what Matu meant and nodded. “We’ll find the other humans. Just get them out.”

  “All right, we need to move now,” Sophie pushed.

  Sky took one more look at Nathan and Matu. They were pulling the metal door closed. He met Nathan’s frozen stare for a second before the door thudded shut. There was a distinct sound of a lock clicking into place.

  Sky turned his attention to Lian and Sophie. They were waiting for his signal. Sky waited a few more seconds, listening to the footsteps that were coming closer and closer. When they were in perfect range, he gave a short nod, before dashing out into the adjacent corridor, where he knew the Disciples would see him, and then running further into the depths of the North American Underworld.

  There was nothing for Matu to do but wait. Nathan had actually created a tunnel in the wall of the room they had hidden in, and
he had vanished inside, closing the tunnel up behind him. Matu couldn’t see what was happening in the corridor outside without opening up the metal door.

  So Matu waited for Nathan to return. In the meantime, he’d put in the effort to learn the humans’ names. He had to keep them calm throughout this horrible experience, and Matu found that being able to call them by their names settled them down a bit. John was a hiker from Canada, and he’d come here with his wife and older son, who were being kept somewhere else in the Disciple camp. Then there was the German family, Frank and Karina and their twin children of sixteen, Otto and Ella. Ella had started shaking quite badly and her father had started talking soothingly to her in their native language; Matu couldn’t understand a word of it. Finally, there was the Chinese man and woman; Niu and Lin. They had come to America on holiday with Niu’s wife and Lin’s husband. The husbands apparently were close friends and they had come here as a group of four. Their respective spouses were in the same other group of hostages as John’s wife and son. Matu kept asking each of the humans all kinds of questions, just to keep them thinking of something else and to keep their breathing under control.

  After a short while there were three knocks on the door, followed by a silence, and then another single knock. Matu jumped to his feet. The keys were still in his hands and he unlocked the metal door. He pulled the door back an inch and peered around it. Only Nathan was on the other side. Matu turned back to the seven humans and said, “This is it. We have to go.”

  Frank hauled his daughter up to her feet and kept a hold of her hand. They all came close to the metal door. When everyone was ready to come out, Matu opened the door completely. He looked at Nathan for a moment. The Band on his wrist was still glowing, though Matu couldn’t see what he was using his magic for.

  “Follow me,” Nathan said. He turned away from the group and walked quietly to the end of the corridor, which led to another corridor running perpendicular to it. To get back to the entrance of the Underworld they would have had to turn left here and then the corridor would start to bend to the right. Nathan was careful to avoid treading on the Disciples the Asters had killed earlier. He stopped at the intersection and peered in both directions. Matu strained his ears and could detect the sounds of fighting to his right. That must be where Sky, Lian and Sophie were, keeping the Disciples distracted while they could make their escape. There were footsteps coming from their left, but not close enough for them to be at risk of detection.

  Yet.

  Nathan tiptoed across the corridor and placed his hand on the wall. A large oval shape on the wall started shimmering slightly, and then turned black. Matu realised that the wall hadn’t changed colour, but that the tunnel inside was just so dark that it looked black. Nathan moved away from the opening of the tunnel that he had created, and grabbed one of the lanterns that hung on the wall. Matu did the same.

  Nathan looked back at the group of humans. “There won’t be more light. Please tell me none of you are claustrophobic.” He scanned the group. Every one of them shook their heads. Even Ella, the sixteen-year-old German girl, was convinced she wasn’t.

  Nathan’s eyes revealed no relief or any other emotion as he said, “Follow me.”

  He was the first to step inside the tunnel. Karina, the German woman, was next to step in, followed by her son, daughter and husband. Then came Niu and Lin, and finally John stepped inside.

  Footsteps were getting closer. Matu scanned the corridor one more time before stepping in after the Canadian human.

  “All in!” Matu called all the way to the front. He couldn’t see Nathan; only the light of his lantern that he held above his head. There was a low moan, and next to him, Matu saw the corridor vanishing and turning back into sandy rock. The tunnel was no wider than a single person, and Nathan was basically creating it with every step he took.

  Matu was extremely glad that none of the humans were claustrophobic. This was a brilliant way of getting out of the Underworld without much detection, and with the Disciples running after Lian, Sky and Sophie, hopefully, they could get these humans out without much of a hassle.

  Up ahead, Nathan started to speed up. They didn’t need to jog to keep up with him, but they had to keep a steady pace going.

  “How is this possible? How can he do that?” John asked. Matu weighed his options. He decided not to be cryptic like Sky and tell John the truth.

  “He has magic that connects him to the earth. He can manipulate it in any way he likes,” Matu explained.

  “And you?”

  “I am strong, sir. I can make these tunnels, too, it would just make a hell of a lot more noise.”

  “And the other three?”

  “They all have their own magic, too.”

  “How many of you are there?”

  “Just us five. There are many others who have affinities for specific skills, but only the five of us have actual magic.”

  “How come no one knows about you?”

  “We make it our business to remain undetected. These guys down here want nothing more than to have control of the Surface of the earth. To have control over humans and all of us, too. All we do is make sure that doesn’t happen, and leave you humans to live in peace.”

  “And the other one—the arrogant one—he said we won’t remember?”

  “It’s protocol to wipe the memory of any human who has seen this part of the world.”

  “And what will I remember then?”

  “Probably something like you came here to hike, but all the trails were closed off so you never went down, and you opted for playing games in and around your cabin for the past few days, until your holiday resumes elsewhere.”

  John nodded in front of him. “Good. I don’t think I want to remember any of this.”

  Matu chuckled at the lightness in John’s voice. Somehow the man had managed to turn his fear into something calm and sensible. And almost humorous.

  The light from the lantern in Nathan’s hand stopped moving forward. Chains clattered as the humans didn’t detect the sudden halt and bashed up against each other.

  The lantern light bobbed as Nathan turned around. “We need to follow a left corridor, while the one we’re trailing is heading even further right. Stay here while I check it out and create the next tunnel. Give me two minutes,” he said. Nathan turned back around, there was a low moan and a rocky wall came up in between Nathan and Karina. Matu waited with the humans in the flickering light of his single lantern. He could hear one of the women crying softly, but Matu couldn’t tell who it was in the near darkness.

  Matu tried not to worry about Nathan. He glanced at his watch. Two minutes was all Nathan had given him. Supposedly if he wasn’t back by then, he would’ve been found out. It would then be up to Matu alone to get these humans out. It wouldn’t be hard for him to break out of this tunnel, but to get seven humans all the way out of the entrance and through the broken veil to where the Disciples wouldn’t follow… That was another matter entirely.

  Matu needn’t have worried. There was a low grumble again, and the rock wall in front of Karina disappeared. Nathan was on the other side, motioning them to come. “Quickly, come on, come on,” he was saying.

  Karina jumped out into the corridor. Matu looked past John and the other humans ahead to see that Karina had already dashed across the width of the corridor and into the new tunnel entrance that Nathan had created in the wall opposite. This time Nathan didn’t go in first. He was standing in between the two tunnel entries and ushered every one of the humans inside.

  Matu stepped out into the corridor behind John, who immediately hurried into the tunnel on the other side. Nathan quickly followed. Matu glanced around him once, just to see where in the Underworld they were now. He estimated that they were about three quarters of the way to the entrance. If Matu remembered the path they took on the way in correctly, they wouldn’t have to jump through open corridors again. He quickly followed Nathan into the tunnel. The second he was in, the tunnel closed be
hind him and they were once again engulfed in darkness, save for the two flickering lanterns.

  The first part of this tunnel was slightly wider. Nathan stepped past the humans, taking up his place at the front of the party again. “This tunnel will lead us to the trail outside. There will be a few steps upwards in this one; I want to get onto the trail above the entrance, instead of come out through the entrance like they will all expect.”

  Nathan resumed his fast pace through the tunnels. The steps slowed them down a bit. The light from either lantern didn’t reach far enough to show each step of the staircase that Nathan was creating. Carefully, each human followed in Nathan’s wake, up the steps, until eventually each of them had reached the top. Then Nathan continued moving straight ahead. Matu knew that Nathan wasn’t exactly sure where on the trail he’d end up. He could connect with the earth enough, but to know its layout exactly was difficult, even for Nathan. Before, he’d just been following the corridor right beside the tunnel. Now, he was making his own path through the rock of the Grand Canyon. Matu only hoped that the Disciples that were sent into the Underworld to find them were being kept nice and busy by their siblings.

  Suddenly Nathan stopped and turned around. “The real entrance is about thirty-five feet below us, to our left. If there are any guards, they will see us and come immediately. The second you step out onto that trail you run to the right, do you all understand me? You will find a white wall with a crack in it. Go through there and you will be safe, but do not stop there. You keep going. There will be people at the top that will help you. Matu and I will take care of the Disciples. None of you look back and worry about us. Just get yourselves up to the top.”

  Matu smiled at his youngest brother’s assertiveness, his strength. Nathan looked at every single one of the humans. There was such a cold focus in his eyes. Only in situations like these was Nathan all soldier. There was no kindness in his face, no compassion. Just the soldier, and just the job at hand.