by Dan O'Brien
The end of days had begun for the Fallen.
I CRAWLED for what seemed like hours. My legs ached and a musty odor infected every corner of the ducts, infiltrating and assaulting my senses. I couldn’t hear the progression of the Umordoc. They seemed to have an understanding of the structure that we did not and there was no doubt in my mind that they would pick up the trail again.
Fredrick bumbled behind me. His ragged breathing and constant muttering tested my patience.
We crested a small incline and I stopped. We had reached an intersection.
I closed my eyes, trying to recall the duct mapping the computer had provided.
“Seth, what’s the matter? Don’t you know where we are going?” Fredrick had hardly spoken a word since we had entered the ducts.
“I am trying to remember. The plans were quite lengthy and in the heightened situation we found ourselves, I am afraid I am having trouble remembering. Although, if you were to shut up and keep your thoughts to yourself as you have been doing, then I imagine it would go considerably smoother.”
He shrunk back from my outburst.
His face was only partially visible in the emerald hue. The longer we were here, the thinner it seemed he had become. Soon, he would be nothing more than a skeleton.
I moved forward again, ignoring Fredrick and blindly finding my way in the dwindling light. The schematic showed the eastern path climbing and then leveling out with the original docking chamber. This tunnel was wider than the others. The stale odor of the dead air had been replaced by something much fresher.
“Seth?”
“What now, Fredrick?” I responded angrily.
“They aren’t going to allow me to return, are they?”
“Who?”
“The warlocks and Higald: they want me dead. They don’t want me back there,” he replied slowly, sorrow bleeding through into his voice.
“Does that really matter right now?” I replied with a knowing sigh.
“It does to me.”
“They….” I started, but was unable to finish.
“You’re a good man, Seth. Your father would be proud of you.”
I turned to say something, but Fredrick had already bowed his head. He lowered his chin almost to his chest as he crawled forward, death hanging over his head as he marched into the unknown. My mind was a canvas of emotions and thoughts. If the Umordoc found us here, then it was likely they had found the Fallen. There was indeed a demi in our midst and it could be Summer. It angered me that it could be Summer. I had my doubts; and if they proved true, then I had endangered everyone by not pursuing an investigation.
“Was Summer the demi?” I queried angrily.
He didn’t respond.
“Well? Why the apprehension?”
“I’ve no idea, Seth. I just felt that something was wrong.”
“No mind games, Fredrick. There is a profound chance that the Fallen are already under attack.”
“I know this,” began Fredrick, his voice calm. “I told you they would come. There’s another demi in the village. I don’t know what Summer is, but she’s not human.”
“Not human, but not a demi?” I mused.
“I believe the one responsible for the attack on the Fallen is someone that evaded all of us.” The finality in Fredrick’s words was unnerving.
I moved forward as fast as I possibly could. I bumped up against the walls of the ducts, making a loud clambering noise. I shifted my bodyweight as I prepared to negotiate the turn in the duct; the floor beneath me gave out. I could feel my breath leave me for a moment, as if I had already passed on. The pressure on my chest returned as it had in the elevator shaft. I felt structure, support. Looking up into the darkness of the ducts above me, I saw that Fredrick had reached down and grasped my wrist.
“I got you, Seth,” he called. His chest heaved as he tried to pull me up.
I smiled. It felt awkward to me.
Then, I heard it: the chortling, snarling call of the Umordoc. I saw their blood-red eyes beneath me. Farther beyond them, I could see the crack of the bay doors at the entrance to this labyrinth. I struggled, trying to gain more of a grip on Fredrick’s arm, but I could feel him slowly letting go. The realization of my impending fall was mirrored on his face as well. I kept looking back down at the roving eyes beneath me. Their strangled speech sounded so hollow in the silence of the chamber.
“Let go, Fredrick,” I called.
I could see the confusion on his face. He shook his head vigorously. “No.”
“You cannot hold me forever and my hand is slipping. You have to get back to the Fallen and tell them what has happened.”
“Fine, I’ll do that. You aren’t going to die here, Seth,” he replied urgently, redoubling his efforts to hoist me up.
I shook my head as I pulled my hand free of his, falling toward the snarling beasts below me.
I fell for what seemed like an eternity. My body turned in the freefall and the cold steel I held in my hands comforted me in what I felt was my final endeavor. Their eyes were unwavering as I fell. Their silhouettes grew clearer and clearer as I neared the floor. Trails of the energy bursts from my sidearm illuminated their figures slightly. They howled in frustration and pain as a burst caught one squarely in the chest, the eruption of its cavity sending it back against the closest wall. The other reared back, dodging the second blast purely by luck.
My feet were beneath me as I landed, an utter impossibility considering the fall I had taken. I grasped the handle of my blade along my back in my right hand and drew it in one smooth motion. The sidearm was still held tightly in my left hand. The final set of eyes watched me suspiciously.
“Seth, are you okay?” called Fredrick from above.
His voice drew the Umordoc’s attention from me for only a fraction of a second; but, it was more than enough time for me to bridge the distance and drive the point of my blade deep into its chest. I pulled the edge free as it swung its massive arm at me. I dodged easily. The beast howled. It did not fall as the other had, but instead moved forward with its pike brandished toward me. I holstered my sidearm and held my blade with both hands.
Fredrick’s voice came again, this time I could not make out the speech.
The Umordoc was not so easily distracted this time and leapt forward.
The blow tore some of the wraps from along my ribs. I reeled. The pain was immediate and I swung my blade twice in response. The first strike sailed wide, but the second found its mark. The slash drew another startled cry from the beast.
It charged again and I rolled beneath its wild flurry of strikes. The point of my blade was tucked close to my body as I did so; and as I felt the massive frame of the Umordoc pass over me, I thrust my blade into its body up to the hilt. A final strangled howl echoed in the empty chambers accompanied by a heavy thud as it collapsed to the ground in an unmoving heap.
I exhaled and sank to one knee. My chest was on fire from both the fight and the wound at my side.
After a few short breaths, I collapsed to the ground. I held my blade loosely in my hands.
“Seth!” Fredrick’s voice was close now. I tried to push myself up, but my arms barely supported my torso.
He slid to a stop beside me.
“I am here, Fredrick,” was all I could muster.
“By the Believer, I didn’t think you were going to survive.”
“Nor I.” It had been an intervention of the fates, it had to be.
“We have to get back to the village. We have to warn them,” he reasoned with a hard look. I could feel his urgency.
The pain had become euphoric; it consumed me. My mind was drifting, far away from the logic I knew I had to obey. “I am so tired….”
I slumped from a sitting position, looking up at the ceiling above me.
Smack.
The sting of the blow woke me slightly. I shook my head. The hit came again; this time, the pain was more real than before.
The darkness took form. I cou
ld sense the strike coming again and I extended my hand, catching Fredrick’s swinging arm.
“I am awake. Just barely, but aware.”
“You were fading, Seth.”
“I know.”
The unfamiliarity came again.
The world blurred at its edges and I slumped again.
This time, the darkness claimed me; and no matter how many times Fredrick struck me, I would not respond.
