by Pia Philip
“Oh so you don’t want us to be ripped apart, but you want us to die of hyperthermia,” Alex said as she raised an eyebrow, “Besides, we don’t even know what’s in the water.”
“True, “Sam said as he tried to estimate the depth of the water before finally giving up, “I think they’ve got a point.”
Max gave a frustrated sigh before kicking sand into the water and stomping away. Alex quickly followed him but they were barely 100 meters away when Zara stopped. She began to shake in fear, her eyes wide and her pupils dilated.
“It’s coming,” she said quietly, she kept repeating the same words and Alex got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something bad was coming. Something really bad. She grabbed Zara’s hand and without even thinking of what she was doing, she ran into the woods. She could hear Sam and Max’s footsteps behind them pounding hard on the ground. They kept shouting at them, telling them to stop, but neither of them did. She felt like they should get as far away from the water as possible and her thought was justified as only a mere seconds later, an ear splitting shriek erupted from behind them. It hadn’t come from a human being though, Alex was not that naïve, she had watched enough movies to know where it had come from and she was scared mindless. A Kraken.
She felt a shiver run down her body as she heard the shriek again; Max and Sam were no longer telling them to stop. They were pushing the girls in front of them as a cold breeze started whipping around the group. Alex didn’t want to look back but she knew something was happening. They climbed over a fallen tree and hid behind it. Alex was panting so hard she thought she was going to have a heart attack. Sam was about to say something but she put her hand up to stop him. She pointed in the direction of the lake. She remembered a Kraken couldn’t live in a river it could only survive in a big lake or the sea. But the krakens child, now that was another story.
“That’s either a Kraken or a Kraken’s child, and I’m pretty sure it’s angry by the way its screaming,” She whispered between pants of breath, “we need to get as far away from the water as possible or it might get us.”
Sam pulled out the map and tried to locate were they were again. Alex felt a drop of water. She looked up but the sky was perfectly clear, not a single cloud to be seen, she looked at Zara who was looking at her in the same horrified way. They had come to the same conclusion.
“It’s coming, we felt the spray of water,” Alex hissed at Sam, “We haven’t got time, just keep running in a straight line, if we are more than 300 meters away, hopefully it wouldn’t be able to get us but I’m pretty sure its arms could reach us out here if it wanted to and trust me, it wants too.”
Sam looked at the map and nodded. They ran around trees, trying to make it as difficult as possible for the kraken to get us. After a while, certain that they were a safe distance away, Max finally conceded and let them stop for a break. Alex took out a bottle of water and gulped it down in half a beat before lying on her back. She was absolutely knackered.
“Eh, guys, I think we have a problem,” Sam said nervously, Alex looked at him warily. Whenever Sam got nervous, there was always something wrong.
“What now?” Max cried his rage barely controlled, judging by the expression on his face, she guessed he wanted to smash somebody’s face in and that somebody would probably be her.
“The lakes a round-about so we really do need to cross the water or run back and take a different road,” he said. Alex could tell he was leaving out something. She grabbed the map from him and searched it for clues. Then she saw it. Her map reading skills might not be amazing but she knew it the moment she saw it and it spelled trouble. If they decided to go back and take another path it would mean going through a desert with the creatures underground, or up a mountain with creatures attacking them from the air, all she knew was that coach Mandziska had planned for there to be at least one monster at each place. They hadn’t even passed the first section; Alex muttered a curse word under her breath before pointing to the mountains. She preferred seeing the creature that would be attacking her so that she could at least try and defend herself unlike not being able to predict an attack and almost certainly getting killed.
“Are you sure about that?” Zara asked quietly as she looked over her shoulder, Alex gave her a questioning look, “I mean, winged creatures are known to be the most dangerous and high ranked.”
Alex didn’t really get the ranking things but she definitely understood the dangerous bit. She remembered the Black Midnight Dragon and the Manticore and shivered. she still felt pain whenever she moved too fast or got in an awkward position.
“I don’t care, I rather face something I knew was there than get swollen alive by something I didn’t,” Alex said stubbornly before handing the map back to the guys, pulling her rucksack up and walking ahead. They tried to keep to the middle of the path. Although the trees surrounding did well to conceal the lakes to both sides of them, you could still hear the kraken, it was becoming restless. They forced themselves onwards until they reached the junction. In front of her was probably the steepest mountain Alex ever seen, probably bigger than big ben, or was that a clock?
The higher they climbed the more tired she got and the thinner the air got, Alex thought they were about to die of lack of oxygen when the path took a downhill spiral until they reached flat ground, they were still pretty high when they stopped for a break. Alex went over to the side and peeked over. The scenery was beautiful; the deep golden color of the afternoon sun framed the greenery beneath them like a Konstantin Bogaevsky painting. She could make out the kraken; another group had got tangled up in a fight with the kraken. She was almost certain that they would be in the ‘nurses’ office’ very soon. Alex pulled her legs round so that they dangled in front of her and her thoughts returned to her mother. She had no idea how she kept the secret that the last head of the Angels was her mum and that she was part Dark Angel for so long, but she was prepared to do anything to keep it that way. She wondered where her mother was now, did her father have her as hostage or had she escaped from their slimy hands. Was she looking for her like she promised?
Alex’s hand took hold of the pendant her mother had given her and she felt tears well up in her eyes and start to fall. She was an emotional wreck and she didn’t like it. She was normally never like that. Guess it takes you a life threatening situation for you to realize just how much you love your mum. Strong arms engulfed her from behind in a warm embrace. She leaned back against Sam’s chest and silently cried for her mum as he clasped his hand across her abdomen and held her closer. They sat in silence for several minutes, he let her try and compose herself before helping her up. He gave her another tight squeeze and was about to say something when they heard a squawk. Alex groaned to herself.
Not again.
She was getting sick from all the drama.
Chapter 15.
A gust of wind, almost flung her over the edge, she grabbed at Sam’s waist and he dived to the side as a bolder came tumbling down the side. ‘Why now of all times, couldn’t it wait until we were on soft grounds’ Alex though miserably,’ I mean seriously, there was hardly enough room to walk on let alone fight’.
Grabbing her hand, Sam ran after Max who had taken Zara’s hand and was just meters ahead of them. Alex heard a low rumbling and tried to quicken her pace. Zara turned round, her eyes wide with fear, she held out her urgently. She was shouting at Alex but Alex couldn’t hear what she was saying because of all the rolling boulders. She turned round in time to see one heading straight for them. Instead of doing what a normal human being would’ve done in a situation like that, her feet suddenly decided that they were too tired to run anymore. She covered her head with her hands as the Boulder reached them, They were flung off the mountains and for a brief second she thought they were flying then reality hit and gravity took control dragging them down to the ground, the boulder behind them. She grabbed Sam’s hand and prayed. she never understood why girls always started screaming in situations similar to he
rs, what did that do to save you, did they think that if they scream loud enough, time would reverse itself, or that you might land gently like a cat. Unlikely. Alex felt a jolt in her hand and she stopped falling, she looked up and arched her back as the boulder went flying behind her, but not before it had caught her leg. She screamed in pain, she had already injured both her arms, then her sides, now her legs. What next, her ears?
Sam was holding her very tightly as he tried to pull her up, She didn’t know how, but he had managed to perch himself on a little branch. It looked like it would break at the slightest change of weight and she grimaced at the thought of falling again but this time instead of landing on luscious grass it would be a big hard boulder which would probably crack her skull open. Sam finally managed to pull her up and she dangled precariously between his legs, he rapped an arm tightly around her waist before pulling himself up once again. He rolled onto a cold flat surface and she rubbed her eyes to see if she was dreaming. She patted herself down before she bowed down to the ground several times before rolling on it, then kissing it twice. Ground, beautiful ground, never again would she ever take her feet of solid ground. She looked up to see where they actually where and her heart sank again. They were at the mouth of a cave, probably already inhabited by millions of bats and creepy crawlies but it was better than being flattened. She looked over at Sam whose face had turned ashen white. He hated bats, creepy crawlies, insects anything small and one too many legs. She took his hands and smiled at him reassuring him that everything that would be alright the way he would do to her. Tugging on his arm, she dragged him through the cave. It was more like a tunnel as they seemed to be going lower. The cave was probably a mineshaft of some sort in past times and it was probably abandoned now. That thought gave her peace of mind and she dragged Sam further down. She guessed that they were going to the exit, because every tunnel had to have an end right? Alex saw a flicker of light and she ran ahead of Sam whose face had now turned putrid green when he saw a bat fly past his head. Sometimes, Alex really felt for the boy, his dislike of stuff like that had always hindered him when they were growing up. He couldn’t go to little school trips that included a dark place with any kind of insect, he was even scared of small dogs, and he didn’t mind big ones, just small dogs. It didn’t make sense but whoever said life was predictable.
Alex was about to run out of the shadows when she heard voices, instantly she backtracked, bumping into Sam. They hid in a corner of the runnel as they peered round the corner. She could make out the shapes of several men sitting around a little fire. They were discussing the upcoming war and what was happening. Alex had thought the forest was the property of the Academy but it appeared like they never really guessed what kind of strays could get in there, which meant there was ways for the academy to be penetrated. It was like a ready-made home except with a lot more deadly creatures. As she was about to step out and tell them they were students from the Academy and that they were lost, one of them said something that got her attention.
“I hear that the Dark Angels are waiting on something, they want a girl with a key or something,” he said, “if I ran this place, I would probably kill her so that they wouldn’t have their key and be able to destroy us.”
“Don’t be stupid, if we did that then we’ll probably ensue there rage and they would come attacking at us full army and everything, we’d get crushed,” guy number second said, “No, I’ll wait until our army’s created then kill the little girl before attacking the Dark Angels, that way, they won’t have their key and it would be a fair fight and we will be able to crush them.”
“Or, they could train the girl or ask her what they key is, I mean if they only wanted the key, they wouldn’t have asked for the girl right?” the third guy said before chucking something at the wall, “I mean she has to have something special about her, right?”
Alex felt her stomach churn with fear, what if what they were saying was right, what if she was only getting used for time. It would actually make sense. If that was their plan, what would happen if they found out about her father? She was almost sick with fear. She grabbed the wall and leaned heavily against it, trying to gain some composure. Just how many people already knew about the key and her? Did they know her name? How she looked like. A new rush of panic overwhelmed her. Alex was about to have a nervous breakdown when Sam wrapped his arms around her and yanked me away back to the entrance of the cave. She suddenly felt a sudden urge to jump off and she would’ve done it too if Sam wasn’t holding her so tightly. He gave her warning look before grabbing at a rock that jutted out from above them; he dangled precariously before hauling himself up along with her. Alex had really underestimated his strength.
He grabbed her around the waist and flung her over his shoulder like a Neanderthal and started climbing, Alex didn’t complain. She was in shock, she felt like an empty shell. Void of all emotion. When they finally reached flat ground she couldn’t move and stood as she tried to get her body system functioning again. Sam tried tugging her along but she wouldn’t budge so he went caveman on her again as he ran down the rest of the way. Alex didn’t know what he was doing and to be quite frank, she really didn’t care. If it wasn’t for her mum then she would’ve already tried jumping but then Sam would have probably follow her and it would haunt her immortal soul if he died cause of her. They walked in silence, well technically he walked and she was carried but that didn’t matter. The fact that he didn’t say a word the whole way was scaring her, he always had something good to say to try to keep the mood positive at situations like what they were in but here he was walking, silently brooding their dilemma. She opened her mouth to say something when she realized he had stopped they were at the bottom. He gently put her down, she looked up into his eyes to try and work out how he was feeling but his face was an expressionless canvas. She sighed inwardly and turned round nearly to get smothered by a pair of gangly arms. It was Zara. Alex could feel hot wet tears hit her cheek but they weren’t hers,. Alex was instantly concerned about her. What had Max done to her? The questions buzzed around her head like bee hive. Max soon emerged from behind a rock; god knows what he was doing behind there and Alex instantly latched on him.
“What did you do to her?” Alex growled at him her eyes narrowing.
“”Nothing, I don’t know why she’s crying,” Max said obviously agitated, “probably just being a girl, them and their emotions.”
Both guys gave a small but visible shudder at the thought and Alex couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the both of them.
“Just because you hide it well does not mean you don’t have any,” she said pointedly before turning to Zara, “Are you okay now?”
Zara gave a small nod before looking up at Alex with her greyish/bluish/greenish eyes that seemed to change colors. Aqua that was what her eye color reminded her of.
“What happened up there, one moment you were there, the next, Bam! Your gone with the wind,” She said, although she still seemed shy, Alex could feel her coming out of her shell, at least there was some good news.
“What do you mean, what happened? You saw the gigantic boulder almost smother us,” Alex said slightly confused, she was the one who warned her.
“Giant boulder?” Max repeated, his eyebrows raised in humor, he obviously didn’t believe her.
“Don’t look at me like that, I know what I saw and felt, dammit, we were pushed over the edge and Sam had to grab onto this edge and take us to this cave where we heard a few people talking and…” even as she spoke she knew how ridicules she sounded but she was sure it was real, Alex looked over at Sam hoping for reassurance since he was there with her, but she got none. He looked at her like she had suddenly sprouted two heads. What was going on? She looked at each of them hoping that it was some sort of cruel joke that they were playing on her but nothing, they all looked at her concerned. Everything started going fuzzy, something was wrong. She had eaten drank did everything right today, She didn’t even feel sick, Alex felt perfectly fin
e yet her vision was going AWOL. She felt the world shift and she staggered forward. Am I going blind or something? Did I touch something I was allergic to or something.’ The thoughts swirled in her confused mind. That wasn’t it, Alex had no allergies, not that she or her doctor were aware of anyway, Alex frowned then instantly regretted it, Her eyelids felt like they were being weighed down all of a sudden although she was certain that it wasn’t a minute past three. Maybe it was because Latrex had a different time zone, although after being there for over 3 days, Alex was sure her body clock was supposed to have adjusted. She knew she was making excuses, trying to make everything seem normal. She had forgotten how far away from normal Latrex actually was. She knew her mind was getting manipulated but the longer she tried to resist the heavier her eyelids got, she raised her hand and tried to slap herself out of it. She felt the sharp sting but her eyelids refused to get lighter. . Before she could do anything, Alex felt a gush of wind as her body crumpled to a heap on the floor.
Several hours later, Alex was finally able to open her eyes, her vision was blurry but she could see giant pillars of smoke erupting from somewhere vaguely nearby, panic instantly rushed over her and she bolted up right, ready to make a run to safety, until she realized it was only someone having a bonfire. The heat drew her in and the closer she got the more voices started to hear voices and her body froze scanning her surroundings for a place to hide but found none. She was in the middle of a forest surrounding, in the middle of nowhere. Tents were strategically place all around the surrounding area so that no one could come in or leave unnoticed, she was completely surrounded, deciding to use the darkness around her for her advantage, Alex lay low on the grass and shuffled behind a nearby tent, with that of a similar material of what her clothes was made of. The voices from inside were faint but she could just make out what they were saying.
“Why on earth is that girl in our camp,” a man’s voice growled.
