by G. R. Lyons
A few of them shifted, and Benash's eyes widened in awe.
Silence filled the cavern for a moment, until someone called out, “That's it, Hawk. You can do it!”
He strained again, staring at the keys, and for a brief moment, he actually saw the air, down to the very atoms that made it up. Holding on to that image, he shifted things around, building a current that was just enough to push the keys closer.
Stretching his fingers, he tried again, and the keys came closer still.
Come on. Almost there…
A strained growl escaped his throat as he tried one more time, and the keys shifted again, putting them just within his reach.
He snatched them up, triumphant, while the prisoners cheered.
“Hush!” someone called in a loud whisper. “That boy could come back any moment!”
Jumping to his feet, Benash grabbed the right key, felt around for the lock, and opened the door.
“Yes!” someone cheered, but Benash didn't look to see who it was. He left the door standing open, went back to Vorena's side, and brushed her hair away from her forehead.
“Benash?” she whispered, only half awake.
“Shhh. Just rest.”
“What's going on?”
“We're getting out of here,” he murmured. “We've got a few hours until the Collision hits. I want you to rest, and I'll be back for you, I promise.”
She nodded weakly and fell back into a fitful sleep. Benash trailed his fingers down her cheek one more time, and rushed from the cell.
He darted across the cavern and went first to the cell that held the lovers. Taking the right key by feel, he unlocked their door and handed them the keys.
“Get everyone else out of here,” he instructed, and pulled out one of his guns, handing it to the partner who wasn't wielding the keys. “Use this only if you must.”
“Where are you going?”
Benash looked around, judging time and distance.
“To warn my family, if they're still there. I'll be back before the Collision hits.”
“But Hawk!”
He stopped, halfway across the cavern, and turned back to look at the flabbergasted prisoners.
“Why?” one asked.
Benash straightened up. “Because it's right.”
With that, he turned and ran.
* * *
BENASH WAS halfway across the main cavern when he realized he was still trapped in the prison. Sliding to a halt at the bottom of the tunnel, he started to turn back to get the keys so he could let himself out the main gate, but froze as he glanced toward the outside.
The damn fool boy had left that gate open as well.
Stupid, he thought, but didn't question his good fortune. He sprinted up the tunnel, shoved the door all the way open, and took off through the forest.
The path was a blur under his feet as he ran, ignoring the burning of his lungs and the sweat dripping off his forehead as he rushed toward the city. Breaking free of the trees, a few eyes followed him, questioning glances on their faces, but Benash ignored them, continuing his mad dash toward his quarters.
The few people who were out didn't seem the least bit concerned about what was coming. They went about their tasks, as they surely did every day, with their usual slow gaits and stooped postures.
He wanted to scream at them.
Breathless, he kept going.
Rounding the corner to his street, he projected a message to his wives to gather everyone together. A moment later, he practically broke the front door down as he hurled himself into his apartment, and saw all his wives and children assembled there, as ordered.
He stopped to catch his breath while they stood there, calmly and silently watching him, but all projecting thoughts of confusion as to his presence—so suddenly in the middle of the morning, and after having been gone so long.
“Must…go,” he panted, looking from one face to another. “Collision coming. We must leave now.”
Ashyn leapt to his side, but no one else moved.
“Did you not hear me?” he roared, and took a few more deep breaths. “There's a Collision coming. You're not safe here!”
Still, no one moved.
Benash looked down at his youngest wife, who looked back up at him with fear on her face but trust in her eyes. When he looked back at the others, all he could see were the living dead.
He stared at them, even down to the youngest child, and felt his heart sink.
“Will none of you come with me?” he asked in a murmur.
They all remained silent and still.
Benash took a deep breath, drew himself up, and turned away.
“So be it.”
He took Ashyn's hand, and they ran out to the street.
“We have to hurry,” he explained as they ran. “We won't be coming back here. We're going very far away, and…”
“I trust you,” she said.
Benash offered her a quick smile, then turned his eyes back to the street as they reached the corner.
Then a dull rumble met his ears, and the few people who were out all came to a stop, listening.
“What is that?” someone asked.
The rumble grew louder, and a vibration built under their feet, growing stronger with each passing second.
Benash looked down one street and saw the cracked pavement turn into a rolling wave.
“Gods, no, no, no! It's too soon!”
The wave came toward them, bringing along a tremendous roar as two Isles collided. Benash threw Ashyn to the ground and crouched over her as the very air exploded all around them.
Benash tried to brace himself on all fours over and around his child wife while the ground shook beneath him and the tearing sound of destruction filled his ears. Chunks of debris pelted his back and legs and skittered past his hands.
When the ground stopped shaking, Benash took a deep breath before lifting his head to look around, still covering Ashyn just in case it wasn't quite over.
Then came the screams.
Benash got to his feet and helped Ashyn stand, and as they looked around, he hardly recognized anything.
Every building was damaged, some with walls or ceilings caved in while others were nothing more than a pile of rubble on the ground. All manner of unrecognizable chunks of material were littered across the streets, while splintered light poles lay at odd angles.
He looked back down his street, trying to make out his apartment, but they all lay in utter destruction.
“Gods,” he choked out, staring at what was left of his home. “Why did they stay? Why didn't they run?”
Beside him, Ashyn quietly took his hand.
That simple, sympathetic touch jostled him back to reality.
“Vorena…”
He caught the understanding in Ashyn's eyes as he turned toward the forest, and they both broke into a run.
All around them, people sprinted madly and without direction, panicking and unsure what to do. The screams continued as the injured tried to extricate themselves from the rubble, and crowds of citizens swarmed the streets, fleeing aimlessly from the destruction.
“Move!” Benash shouted, forcing his way through the crowds, his heart racing with panic at the delays.
No one seemed to hear him, too caught up in their own fear, so Benash clung to Ashyn's hand and made his way toward the forest in short bursts and dashes, finally free to move once the streets gave way to a dirt path.
When they were just inside the shelter of the trees, the ground rumbled again. Benash lurched to a stop, his boots sliding on the dirt. Without a word, Ashyn dropped to the ground again with Benash sheltering her, and again they rode out the trembling earth while leaves and branches rained around them.
They were on their feet the moment it stopped, hands clasped as they ran down the forest path. Benash sped right past the fork, sparing a brief thought for what that choice had done to his life, and kept running.
Please, not a third, he prayed as he ran. L
et that be the last of it.
Benash clung to Ashyn's hand as she struggled to keep up with his long legs, desperate to dart ahead, but also afraid to leave her behind. It seemed an age before they finally broke free of the trees and found themselves in the small clearing before the prison gate.
The prisoners, looking dusty and bruised, all huddled in the midst of the clearing, staying as far away from the fallen debris as possible. Benash stopped and planted his hands on his knees to catch his breath, then looked around.
“Where is she?”
From the midst of the crowd, the two lovers limped toward him, one supporting the other, who had a bullet wound in his shoulder.
“What happened?” Benash asked, his eyes wide as he took in the crowd and the injured man.
“The Collision came too soon,” the man's partner said. “We got a few people out, and then that boy of yours came back while we were trying to make sense of the keys–”
“He shot at us!” someone else shouted.
“But then the Collision hit,” the man continued. “The boy was crushed. Hawk, I'm sorry–”
“Where's Vorena?” Benash asked, cutting him off.
The man grimaced. “We couldn't get her out. I'm so sorry. The first collapse was right in front of her cell. We couldn't get to her–”
But Benash didn't hear the rest of what he said, because he turned away and sprinted down the tunnel, plunging into darkness.
The main cavern was eerily quiet, other than a few pops and groans of rock still settling and the hiss of dust still falling from the ceilings. Benash picked his way carefully once the light outside the tunnel gave way to shadows, and had to keep his hands out in front of himself as he made his way toward his cell cavern.
A blinding light stopped him in his tracks, and Benash threw an arm across his eyes, blinking rapidly. The light went away, then flickered back to life, growing and fading intermittently as he tried to get his eyes to adjust. The overhead lights buzzed and popped as they struggled to come back to life, and Benash used the little flickers of light to climb over the strewn rocks and debris.
The door to his cell cavern stood wide open, though the gate itself was mangled and half crushed by rocks. Right beside it, a pile of rubble covered a body.
Benash looked down and saw the slate grey of a Hawk uniform sleeve.
Foolish boy, he thought, feeling tears sting his eyes. Benash shook his head and crossed the cavern toward Vorena's cell.
The rock had collapsed so that the cell door was bent and partially blocked the opening, while piles of rock made the cell even more inaccessible. Benash grabbed one rock and hurled it aside, then went after another, straining with all his might to move the heavy pieces.
With the sound of raining dust heavy in his ears, Benash managed to make an opening just large enough for himself to squeeze through, and he shoved himself into Vorena's cell.
“Vorena?”
By some miracle she was untouched by the fallen debris, but as she woke she began to cough violently.
“Breathe!” he cried, turning her over as she spat up blood. “Just hold on. I'm going to get you out of here.”
She shook her head. “Just leave me.”
“No.”
“Why did you come back down here, you idiot?” she stammered as she gasped for breath.
Growling, Benash grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to sit up so he could look into her eyes.
“Because it doesn't mean anything without you!”
Her eyes went wide for a moment before she swayed dizzily, collapsing against him.
“Vorena! No, stay with me!”
I'm here, she said, then added, Barely.
Hold on. We're getting out of here.
Benash shifted her toward the cell door, crouched down to crawl through the space, then reached back and grabbed her by the hands, pulling her through as carefully as he could. Once out in the flickering light of the cavern, he easily lifted her slight body in his arms and made his way slowly back toward the tunnel.
Halfway across the main cavern, he heard the dull rumble rise up for the third time.
“No, no, no, gods no,” he breathed, looking around wildly as the cavern shook around him. He ran toward the bottom of the tunnel, seeing the daylight blocked by prisoners who were watching out for him, but just as he stepped inside the tunnel, the ground shook so violently that he fell to his knees.
He crouched over Vorena and rode out the shaking, hearing the pops and crashes of rock snapping apart and collapsing all around him. Dust rained down heavily on his back as he shielded Vorena, and both of them were coughing when the movement finally stopped.
Thrice damned, he thought bitterly as he shook the dust from himself.
Then he looked up, and saw the tunnel was caved in.
“What's wrong?” Vorena asked, struggling to open her eyes.
Benash held her close, looking from her to the tunnel gate and back.
“Gods be damned,” he whispered. “We're trapped.”
Chapter 38
BENASH EASED eased Vorena to the floor and ran as far up the tunnel as he could get. Little streams of sunslight filtered through between the fallen rocks, and he could just make out a few prisoners straining against the cave-in.
“Hawk!” one of them shouted, spying him between the rocks. “Are you alright?”
“We weren't hit,” he called back, and ducked as someone moved a small rock, causing more to fall.
“Careful!” someone growled.
“Here, this one,” another said, indicating a large rock on top of the pile. “Push from there and we'll pull.”
Benash braced himself against the rock, and all together they tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge.
“Come on, again!”
He strained, muscles screaming against the pain, but nothing happened. More prisoners joined in, but even with their combined efforts, they couldn't even begin to clear the cave-in.
Benash slammed a fist against the rock.
“Gods damn it all, I have to get her out of here!”
“Is there any other way out?” someone asked.
“No,” Benash sighed. “No, this is the only way.”
“Are there no other openings anywhere?”
“No, there's…” he began, then stopped, remembering his conversation with Vorena after that horribly tempting situation in the washroom.
Doesn't mean that's the only way out of here, she'd said. Not all of us are as big as you, Hawk.
“Wait!” he shouted, leaning against the rocks. “There is another way. Go 'round the hill to your left—I mean, your right. Listen for my voice.”
“Got it, Hawk!” they called back, and he saw them dart away.
Benash ran back down the tunnel toward Vorena.
She was unconscious, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Benash lifted her carefully and carried her back to the cell cavern they'd just escaped.
Gods, I hope this works.
He crossed the cell cavern, skirting fallen rocks, and stopped before the low tunnel that led to the washroom.
It was pitch black, as usual, and he had no way to tell if it was blocked at all.
If they got inside and the Isles struck again, there would be no getting out of there.
Benash took a deep breath and ducked his head, creeping along slowly, step by trembling step, as he wound through the long, dark tunnel.
It seemed an hour before he came out the other side and stood up, finding the washroom mostly intact.
He shook his head. The damned Agori had bested them again.
Benash gently set Vorena down in the middle of the room and dragged the bench over toward the outer wall, where the three small openings allowed the sunslight to filter down into the space.
“Hello!” he called, repeating the word every few seconds until he heard voices in response.
“There! Down there!” someone cried.
He spied Ashyn in the background
as a few prisoners came toward the openings and crouched down to see him.
“I'll lift her up to you,” he told them, sizing up the holes in his glance. “She should be small enough to fit.”
“Alright,” the men said, bracing themselves on their knees as Benash turned back and picked up Vorena again.
He climbed up onto the bench, shifting Vorena in his arms as he tried to lift her up toward them. The men reached through, grabbed Vorena under the arms, and pulled her up while Benash pushed from below.
Her shoulders were just narrow enough to fit through the hole, and the rest of her slipped through easily. The men turned back and reached through again, but Benash just stepped back down off the bench and shook his head.
“I'll never fit,” he said, glancing between the men to get one last look at Vorena. “Please, just…get her to her people.”
“You've gotta try, Hawk!” one man insisted, still reaching for him.
Benash shook his head. “Please, just go. Get her help. Go. Be free.”
The men sat back on their heels and stared at him, disbelief on their faces. Benash started to turn away when he saw a flash of white, and Ashyn threw herself on the ground between two of the holes, pounding away at the rock in between with a loose stone she'd picked up.
“Don't! It's not worth it. All of you, go! Be free!”
He yelled at them, but they didn't listen, and one of the men took the stone away from Ashyn, taking her place and beating on the rock with greater strength. A few others joined in, but Benash thought it was hopeless, seeing no progress made.
Ashyn caught his glance, and he saw her move away and crouch over Vorena.
Take care of her for me, he begged Ashyn. Please.
With my life, Benash, I promise. But right now we have to try!
One of the men lost his grip on the stone he was using and it fell into the washroom. Benash picked it up, climbed back up onto the bench, and reached up as far as he could, pounding away on the rock from the inside as the others continued to do the same from the outside.
Several minutes passed, and it looked like their effort was going to be for naught, until they heard a splitting crack and part of the rock between two of the ventilation holes gave way.
