by Lola StVil
While the team is getting off the boat, I take a look at the isle. It’s a stark, rocky place filled with green-tinged air, and just looking at it makes me think of death and destruction. The radiation won’t affect us, but the somber feel of the place certainly will.
There is no sign of any plant life. Everything is bare and barren. No birds sing, and no crickets or bees buzz through the air.
“Lovely place huh? I can’t see why it isn’t a major tourist trap,” Perry says as he comes to stand beside me.
“I’m guessing the same reason you asked Sadie to have lunch ready—the food must be awful,” I say, and he laughs.
Everyone is onshore and beside us now, and Regal pulls out the smoke-filled bottle. He uncaps it and takes a deep breath of the smoke. His face instantly flushes, and I can see he’s fighting hard not to cough. He passes it to Langston, who takes a lungful and presses her hand over her mouth.
I inhale a breath of the stuff next and instantly I’m seized by the urge to cough as I’ve never coughed before. It feels as though my lungs are melting and the burning sensation is spreading through my full body. If this is the antidote, then all I can say is the acid must be even more potent than I feared.
I concentrate on counting to ten, trying to ignore the awful burning feeling. As I reach ten, the feeling is gone as quickly as it came. I count an extra five seconds just to be safe and then I breathe out.
Only Saudia still holds the smoke, and within three seconds, she breathes out.
“Well, that was intense,” she says.
It was. And it’s only going to get more intense.
We’ve barely stepped off the tiny beach we landed on and onto the rocky ground when a strange humming sound fills the air.
“Here they come,” Langston says, nodding to our right.
I look and see swarms of Banacores emerging from tiny, almost unseen holes within the rocky outcrops. The humming sound is coming from them as they all chitter angrily at our intrusion.
Within seconds of us spotting those first ones emerging, the air is full of them. Langston throws up a shield, and the acid that rains down from each of their four paws lands harmlessly on it.
“It won’t last forever, guys. Let’s just get moving and get through their territory,” she says.
We move as one, walking briskly but not quite running. The uneven ground would make it almost impossible for our tight-knit group to move any faster than we are. It would be too dangerous, and if anyone were to fall and come out of the shield, they’d be a skeleton in minutes.
We clamber over piles of rocks and duck beneath others, always pushing forward. The Banacores follow us as one big swarm, a swarm so large it blocks out the sunlight, for the most part, making it dusky and even more dangerous. A broken ankle is a very real risk at this point.
They continue to pour their acid down on us, and because there’s so many of them, it isn’t the little squirt I imagined. Instead, it is a deluge of acid that pours off the shield like it’s a giant umbrella and we’re caught in world’s most deadly rainstorm.
“Look,” Saudia says, pointing up ahead. “The ground flattens out there. Banacores live in crevices in rocks. Once we reach the flat ground, we’re safe from them. They have no interest in us. Once we’re out of their territory, they’ll forget we ever even existed.”
I look at the shield. Tiny hairline cracks are beginning to appear in it, and I know it’s taking a lot out of Langston to hold it, but we’re so close to freedom.
Twelve paces. Ten paces. Seven paces.
Perry reaches up a hand and fires into the Banacores. A big group of them rain from the sky, dead.
“What the fuck, Perry?” Langston says as the Banacores’ chittering gets louder until we can barely hear each other over the sound of it.
They intensify their attack, pissed off at losing some of their own.
“I just wanted to teach those pesky little bastards a lesson,” Perry says sullenly.
The tiny cracks in Langston’s shield are becoming great chasms now, and the acid is penetrating it. I feel a drip on my shoulder, and I cry out at the intense, biting pain as the acid cuts through me.
“Run,” Langston shouts as her shield evaporates into thin air.
Four paces. That’s it. I run as fast as I can, and sure enough, as soon as I’m on the flat ground, the Banacore attack stops. I look down at myself. I am covered in tiny burn holes, and I am a riot of pain. I turn and see Saudia beside me in a similar state.
Perry bursts to our side dragging Langston with him.
“Where’s Regal?” Saudia says.
I look back, and my stomach sinks. Regal is lying on the ground, his flesh being eaten away at an alarming rate. His mouth is open in a silent scream, the pain overwhelming him so much he can’t even cry out.
I take a step towards Regal, instantly assaulted by the acid again, but a hand grabs me and drags me back. I stumble backward, not expecting the motion and being caught wrong-footed, and Perry runs past me.
“It was my stupid fault. I’ll…” His words end in a scream of pure agony as the Banacores all focus on the newest intruder.
It gives Regal a reprieve, but it’s doing nothing for Perry. I can’t bear to watch, and I look down at the ground. Langston and Saudia stand on either side of me. I can feel the tension coming off Langston, and I remember the kiss she and Perry shared. I imagine how I would feel if it was Atlas running through that acid, and I reach out and squeeze Langston’s hand.
She doesn’t try to shake her hand loose from mine, and we stand like that, heads down, hands laced tightly together, trying to ignore the screams of pain coming from Perry.
I force myself to glance up. Perry is almost back, dragging Regal by his armpits. I try not to look at the line of red smears that trail behind them where Regal’s melting flesh is being torn from his body. He’s found his voice now, and his cries of pain will haunt me for a long time to come.
I pull my hand gently from Langston’s and jump into the Banacores’ acid rain. I ignore the burning and run around Regal, scooping up his ankles. Between the two of us, we have Regal on the flat ground in seconds.
The minor burns on the rest of us have stopped giving us much trouble. They have burned to the bone, but they’re all pretty small. Even Perry is mostly just superficial damage. Regal, on the other hand, still wears a wet layer of acid over every inch of his clothes and body.
Saudia begins pouring water from a bottle she carries over his body, trying to wash it away. His screams calm down in their intensity, but they don’t stop.
“We have to give him the mixture. This is for sure life and death,” Langston says.
The flesh is melting off Regal, rolling down him like wax off a burning candle, and I know she’s right. I can see the bones around his eye sockets, and his nose is just a small bony protrusion.
I steel myself and dig into his pocket and clutch the bottle there. As I pull it out, I feel another wave of flesh sloughing from his body.
“What do I do with it? Pour it on him or make him drink it?”
“Pour it on him,” Saudia says.
“No,” Perry exclaims. “Sadie said it was one dose. Doesn’t that mean you have to swallow it?”
“I don’t think anyone is in the mood for another one of your bright ideas after the last one,” Saudia says to Perry.
He hangs his head, but I’m torn. What if he is right and all I do by pouring the mixture onto Regal is pour away his one chance? We’re going to have to make a decision soon though, or he’s going to die the most horrible death imaginable.
Regal is making a croaking sound, and I think it’s his last gurgling breath. I realize he’s trying to talk.
“It’s okay, don’t try to talk. Everything’s going to be fine,” I say.
He croaks again, ignoring me, and I can see the panic in his eyes. He wheezes in a painful sounding breath and croaks again. This time I hear it.
“Drink.”
I p
our the contents of the bottle into what was once his mouth and is now just a row of teeth in a jawbone. I send up a silent prayer that that’s what he meant, not just that he was asking for water.
The liquid runs down his still reasonably whole throat. And nothing happens. I exchange a horrified glance with Langston as we kneel on either side of Regal’s broken body.
I think someone should say something to Regal, even if it’s a lie, just to comfort him, but I don’t have the words to say, and it seems no one else does because none of us speak. Saudia has knelt beside me, and Perry kneels beside Langston, and we stay that way, keeping vigil while we wait for Regal to take his final breath.
“Guys, look. It’s working,” Perry says.
I look at Regal and although I have to really squint my eyes to see it, Perry’s right. Regal’s body is covered in a thin layer of red, and beneath that the flesh is growing back on his bones. Once the process gets started, it becomes faster and faster.
Within minutes, his flesh is all back and skin is reforming. His face is recognizable as him again, although it looks pink and tender, but as I watch, even that heals, and he looks as good as new. Better than any of us now.
“What happened?” Saudia asks. “Did you trip?”
He sits up and shakes his head.
“No,” he says. “I stopped to get this. It fell from Kane’s pocket.”
He lifts up his hand and uncurls his fist. On his palm is a single red button.
“Shit,” I say, taking the button back and pushing it down as far as it will go in my pocket.
I get back to my feet and reach down a hand to help Regal up. I keep his hand clasped in mine as I speak.
“You did that for me?”
“Nah. I did it for Atlas.” Regal grins.
The urge to hug someone is back again, and although it still strikes me as a strange reaction, this time, I don’t resist it. I give Regal an awkward hug and step back and clap him on the shoulder.
“Thanks, man,” I say.
It’s not even close to enough, but it’s all I have and Regal smiles.
“Anytime,” he says. “Now how about we get going. Those things are still too fresh in my memory to be happy about being so close to them, even now they’ve gone.”
I glance back and see Regal is right. All of the Banacores have gone back to their nests. The only things that tell us what happened was even real, aside from the burns on us all, are the dead bodies of the few of them Perry took down and the smear of red from Regal.
“Yeah. Let’s see what Perry can piss off next,” Saudia says.
We start walking.
“Remember to stay alert here. We don’t know what’s coming, only that it will come from the ground below us and the air around us,” Langston says.
No one needs the reminder. We’re all on high alert, scanning the ground and the sky and the air all around us for the tiniest sign of anything out of the ordinary.
“What’s that?” I say.
I point into the air. It’s hard to see, but up ahead of us is a small square that shimmers oddly against the rest of the air.
“It’s a sensor,” Langston says. “Like a motion sensor or something. When we pass by it, we’re going to trigger whatever is coming.”
“Is there any way around it? We could maybe climb up there,” Regal says.
The sheer cliff walls don’t look climbable to me, but it might be worth a shot to avoid walking into a trap we’re completely unprepared for.
“No,” Perry says. He points to the top of the cliff walls. “Look. They’re all rocky. That means more Banacores.”
The group has a newfound respect for the tiny squirrel-like creatures after what we’ve just been through, and no one wants to face them again.
“We just have to cross it and hope it’s something we can deal with,” Saudia says. “I’ll go first.”
She doesn’t wait for an answer. She crosses the motion sensor. Instantly the ground beneath us begins to tremble. I can feel myself being thrown off course as I push forward. The trembles turn to violent shakes and the ground around us begins to crack. The cliff walls are cracking too, and giant chunks of rock bounce down them, smashing to the ground.
If any of us get hit by one of them, we’re dead.
“Run,” I shout.
Everyone is running blindly, trying to push through the chaos of falling rocks and the unsteady ground. The ground is undulating now, sending waves across the surface, and it’s almost impossible to stay upright, but we have to try. Falling here would be the end of us.
A howling wind joins the chaos. It blows straight at us, stopping us from moving and almost pushing us back. I hunch forward, forcing myself ahead. I feel as though I can hardly breathe as the wind whips at my face and I am almost blinded by the dust that assaults my eyes, thrown there by the violent gusting wind.
Langston walks beside me. She is the only person I can see, and I just hope it’s because of my blurred vision and not because the others are down.
A loud tearing sound makes me jump, and I look down in time to see the ground beside me, right where Langston walks, splitting in two. The giant tear hurtles towards her, splitting the ground. A fiery pool of lava resides within the split.
Langston freezes as panic seizes her. I reach out towards her.
“Grab my hand,” I scream.
She reaches for me just as the ground beneath her vanishes, and I feel my arm being wrenched downward as she falls. I keep my grip, fighting to not be pulled over with her. With a roar more from anger at this place than from actual exertion, I drag myself backward, and Langston springs back over the top of the chasm.
She looks like she’s about to collapse to the ground and I catch her.
“We have to keep moving,” I yell into her face.
It rouses her from her panic, and she gives her head a little shake and then nods. She faces back to the front, and we begin to force ourselves through the wind again. A particularly strong gust catches me, and I lose my balance. My arms pinwheel, but it’s too late. I go down, landing heavily on my back.
A giant boulder is coming straight for me. It’s inches from my face. I roll to the side quick enough to stop my head from being crushed, but the rock smashes my arm, shattering the bones and pinning me to the ground, up to my shoulder. More rocks crash around me, and it’s pure luck rather than any sort of reaction on my part that they don’t kill me.
I give up. I lie there, face down in the dirt, my arm in agony, and wait to die. I picture Atlas’s face, her smile, her kiss. I can die happy if I die looking at her face one more time.
No, I can’t. Because it’s not her real face. She’s still in danger. I can give up on me, but I can’t give up on her.
With a force of sheer will, I pull my body to one side, dragging what’s left of my mangled arm out from underneath the rock. Tears of pain stream down my face as I hear the tendons and muscles stretch and tear as I rip them from under the heavy pile of smashed rock. And I cry out over and over again as I swim in and out of consciousness.
I force myself to see her face again, twisted in pain and confusion because I didn’t come for her. It’s the boost I need, and somehow, I drag myself to my feet, ignoring the searing pain that grips me, and I push into the wind again.
I stumble along on shaky legs, and I think I am alone. Has no one else made it even this far? The thought fills me with dread, but it makes me even more determined to push on. If I’m the only one alive, then Atlas needs me more than ever.
Suddenly, the wind stops, and the ground stops moving. Everything is calm and still again and back to normal. I did it. I got through the Arna Strip.
All around me, the falling rocks begin to move in reverse, and within seconds, they’re all back in place, and the cracks in the ground are gone. The whole place is deathly still and as silent as it was before we stepped through the motion sensor.
It’s disconcerting how as soon as we clear somewhere, it’s like it never happen
ed.
“Kane,” Langston shouts.
She comes running towards me.
“I thought you were dead. That rock. It landed on your head. How are you here?”
I pull my shirtsleeve up with a grimace.
“It got my arm,” I say.
Her eyes go to the bones that poke through my flesh and the strangely flat wrist beneath them. Her eyes fill with tears.
“Oh my God. I…I left you.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “You thought I was dead. If I were dead, I would much rather you go and make sure Atlas gets saved than stick around and die with me.”
She gives me a watery smile.
“Where’s Regal and Perry and Saudia?” I ask her. “Did they make it?”
She points behind her. Saudia lies on the ground, Regal and Perry kneeling over her.
“She took a nasty hit from a rock in her hip. Smashed her whole pelvis open, but Regal has just about fixed her. Come on; he can fix your arm next.”
I shake my head.
“No. It’ll take too much out of him. He’s already fixed Saudia.”
Langston laughs.
“Are you kidding me? You think it’s tough or something to keep your arm broken?”
“Or something,” I say.
She laughs again and shakes her head.
“Come on.”
I don’t offer up another protest when Regal has finished with Saudia and comes to heal my arm. He’s just finished when I sense rather than see or hear a presence behind me.
I turn and find myself looking into the bright red eyes of the Black Unicorn.
I am immediately seized by the urge to reach out and touch it. The red eyes of the Black Unicorn are filled with a loathing so strong I can feel my insides withering up at its very look. But I can’t move. I am mesmerized by those eyes. They hold a power like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
The creature is about the size of an average horse, but that’s where the similarities to a horse or the unicorns I’m more familiar with end. The thing is muscular to the extreme, and its sleek black coat sits atop thick armor. Its horn is three feet long and made from thick black pearl. It is wickedly sharp.
