Diamond

by Tigris Eden

  Lip bumped her on the shoulder, and she bumped him back. Talking to Lip made her feel a little better. If he thought Diamond could deliver on his promise, she’d made the right decision. The closer she got to Diamond, the closer she’d get to her true goal. They walked deeper into the thickening foliage and ran into another downed tree, this one covered in bright pink flowers with blue spots. The flowers themselves were massive, the size of an adult male. The petals opened slowly and a smell worse than death scented the air.

  “Everyone. Take a step back, and do it slowly,” came Diamond’s tense voice.

  Their entire group halted. Nadya didn’t breathe. Those bright pink flowers were a precursor to what would surely end up being their demise. Lip was the first to move, trying to retrace his steps. One wrong move and they were all going down. The flowers weren’t flowers at all. They were pods, and they held a type of skin-eating acid. The damn things were also sentient, using the vibration around them to catch their prey. They were large, smelled horrible, and they were hungry.

  “I should have stayed at the Quarry, but oh no, I had to come out here into crazy land. Fucking man-eating flowers,” Lip growled. “Nadya, start coming toward me and try to walk the same path.”

  Like she remembered every single step he took. She’d been so caught up in their conversation, she’d not been paying attention, like she normally would have.

  “I’ll try.”

  “No, do it.”

  “I said, I’ll try,” she hissed.

  Sweat ran coldly down the sides of her face and the middle of her back. Her heart raced, and she swore each step took forever. She looked over to see that Diamond and Lindy were doing the same. Before she could warn them, she witnessed the oncoming nightmare in slow motion. Lindy got stuck in the mud. Her heel sunk low, and when she tried to pull free, she lost her footing. Nadya watched as Lindy held her breath and struggled—and failed—to keep herself upright. Her body fell forward, and Nadya reacted, reaching for the clumsy female. What she should have done was let her fall. She’d already delayed them once.

  Lindy wasted no time grabbing hold of Nadya’s outstretched hand. A lot of good that did because now they were both falling.

  And falling.

  When had the ground opened up?

  V

  The ground swallowed all of them.

  Diamond hit the ground with a wet splat. Mud.

  Lots of thick mud and water. It would take them under if they struggled. To get out, they needed to move slowly and not waste unnecessary energy.

  “You’re fucking joking, right? We got death from above and below?” Diamond looked over at Nadya and yelled, “I swear, if we make it out of this alive and I don’t get my Wave’s worth, your ass is mine.”

  “You think this is my fault? Talk to your high-heeled wearing bed partner. She’s the one that keeps fucking shit up!” Nadya yelled back. She was right. Lindy was fucking it up for everybody.

  This was some bullshit. Today was not his day to die. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.

  “Lean back. Don’t struggle,” Lip told their group.

  “Shut up, you’re not making this any better,” Lindy cried.

  “Everybody shut the fuck up and focus.”

  Diamond moved slowly on his back. The mud doing its best to pull him under as he tried to distribute his weight. He looked to his left and watched, stunned, as Nadya pulled herself free. She stayed by the outer edges where the ground was solid and firm. Was there nothing she couldn’t do?

  “Hey, you want to give us a hand?” Lindy snapped.

  “Lins, concentrate. You’re sinking.”

  That got her attention. She’d been concerned about everyone else. Wasn’t focusing on herself. Lip pulled himself up after Nadya. She walked as close to the edge as she could, her backpack now at her feet.

  “I’d ask if you wanted help, but I know you got this handled on your own,” Nadya said over her shoulder to Diamond.

  She turned to the pack and began to strip out of her clothing.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Lip questioned.

  “I’m getting out of these muddy clothes. If we don’t, we could chafe to the point we end up with pus-filled sores. Strip to your undergarments and shake off what you can. We have to keep moving.”

  “Doesn’t look like we can go anywhere!” Lindy shrieked.

  She’d started to struggle, and Diamond was getting sluggish as he battled with the mud.

  “Lip, help Lindy.”

  “Fuck that. It’s her fucking fault we’re down here. I say let her ride it out. Maybe she’ll make it, maybe she won’t. Besides, she’s supposed to be a bad bitch, right? If Nadya can get herself free, Lins should be able to do it in a snap.”

  “Do it!” Diamond looked to Nadya. She had her back turned to him, and there were large, bulbous worm-like things stuck to her skin. Fuck! Things were going from one disaster to another. She stood and turned towards the group, a strange look on her face.

  “There’s something on my back, isn’t there?” She wasn’t freaked, just resigned to whatever he would say. Still trying to pull himself free, Diamond nodded his head.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

  “Um, Lavarious, this is some seriously fucked-up shit.” Lip was able to pull Lindy from the mud, she was covered in the creatures, but Lip only had a few. “What the hell are those things?”

  Nadya didn’t answer. Instead, she went into her pack, looking for something.

  “Did any of you happen to pack a lighter? Anything?”

  “There’s one in my pack along with a small torch,” Lip said, tossing his bag over to Nadya, as he and Lindy began to undress.

  Something was wrong.

  Diamond felt sluggish, more so than usual.

  “Lip, a little help.”

  “Now you want help.”

  “Something’s wrong.” He had a feeling he knew what, but didn’t want to say until he was sure. He felt drained. Past the point of exhaustion, but he also felt like he’d been wounded, and had lost a lot of blood. Lip reached forward to help Diamond maneuver his way out of the mud. When he was pulled from the sludge, a very large, and very hungry worm was trying to engulf his entire leg. He was knee deep in the thing’s mouth—a mouth ten times larger than its entire body. It looked like a goliath beetle grub, only much larger. A mutation for sure. The teeth in its mouth dug into his flesh, refusing to let go.

  Lindy complained about the worms on her body. She started yanking and pulling on them, making it worse. Each worm she pulled from her skin latched on harder, making it hard for her to remove them. Nadya tried to help, but Lindy jerked away hissing, “I got this. I don’t need your help.”

  “Lindy, they’re mud leeches. We have them back in Inwood at the marsh, you don’t want to pull on them. You want to burn them off so that their teeth retract.”

  “Nadya, toss me the torch, I need to get our man over here.”

  Nadya handed over the small torch that Lip had packed. It was a prototype Onyx was working on, meant to work as a tool and a weapon.

  “Don’t burn my fucking leg off. “

  “Quiet. I’m trying to concentrate.”

  Lip bent, lit the torch, and put it directly on the mud leech. Diamond could feel the jagged teeth retracting from his leg as the worm recoiled from the fire.

  “What about me!” Lindy screeched. The leeches on her torso and back were growing. Again she tried to pull them off, but the more she pulled the harder they latched on.

  “You need to calm down and let Lip burn them off,” Nadya shared. She’d taken off her mud leeches and was shaking her clothes of all the mud. She was efficient and resourceful.

  “Lip.” Diamond was through fucking around. “Help her. Now.”

  The male glared in his direction before making his way to Lindy. The mud, now back to its original shape, looked undisturbed. The top layer looked like a dirt floor. Their only problem now was getting out of the hole they’d fallen i
nto.

  “We obviously can’t go back up. I don’t see how it’s even going to work, the walls won’t support our weight, and I don’t even want to think about what could be between us and it, especially as there are man-eating flowers up there. The roots can grow deep, and those are just as bad, if not worse.”

  “Lip, is your communicator working?”

  “Nadya, toss my pack.”

  The bag sailed through the air into Lip’s arms. He pulled open his sack, reached in, and pulled out his communicator. He pushed a few buttons, shook it, and pushed a few more buttons. Nothing.

  “I’m not feeling so well,” Lindy complained, holding her gut. She’d lost a lot of blood, and so had Diamond. There was movement above them, and Diamond put his finger up to his mouth, calling for silence. They all moved as close to the side walls as they could. Not sure who was above them. It could be one of Zira’s girls, or it could be someone else. Someone worse. The Den was safe, but there were still intruders to deal with.

  “There’s someone down there,” a voice above said.

  “Yeah, well, check it out.”

  “No, you check it out.”

  “Fuck that, we shouldn’t even be here. What if it’s a Rager?”

  “What if it isn’t? We should help.”

  There was a loud noise. It sounded like some sort of machine, but Diamond couldn’t tell what it was. Someone cursed, then another person was calling someone to aid them.

  “I told you to stay away from the flower buds. There’s acid in them. Cas, get him a bandage.”

  A light flashed on them, illuminating the hole they’d fallen into. But Diamond couldn’t see who was above him.

  “Looks like two males and two females,” the voice said to someone else. “We’ll get you guys out.”

  “There’s mud down here. Better to throw something down for us to climb up on, instead of trying to come down here yourself.”

  “Are there any mud leeches?”

  That was an odd question to ask.

  “Yeah, there are a few dead ones down here.”

  “We need them alive.”

  “Let us up first and then the hole is all yours. We have no use for mud leeches.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re an idiot then.”

  Lip laughed and Diamond glared.

  “That’s a matter of opinion. You gonna help us out?”

  “What you got to trade?”

  “I have some protein bars and some medical supplies I can part with after we bandage ourselves up,” Nadya tossed out. Diamond glared at her. He hadn’t said she could trade anything.

  “Cas, toss me the rope. Ya’ll move to the other side. Gonna toss the rope down. It will hold all of you, but you need to make it fast. You must not have been down there too long. The mama leech hasn’t come up looking for blood.”

  The mama leech?

  The rope was tossed, and just as he went to grab the rope, the wet mud vibrated.

  “We need to get out of here. Now,” Nadya breathed.

  That was easier said than done. The ground began to shake, jostling the four of them around. Nadya almost went back into the mud twice but was finally able to find purchase in the rock wall.

  “Nadya, grab the rope, place your weight at an angle, and use your feet to climb up the wall,” Diamond instructed.

  “I know how to do this.”

  She did exactly as he said, making her way up. Lip went up next, with Lindy following. He went last, just as the mother of all mud leeches made an appearance. The creature was long, wide, and not in the least bit slow. It moved up the wall at such a pace, Diamond was sure if he hadn’t had assistance from Lip, he’d have been lunch.

  The crew at the top waiting on them wasn’t much better than the leeches. They were from an inner-city gang. Three men and one woman. They were all dressed for scavenging, complete with crossbows and knives.

  Lip turned just as the female shot an arrow into the mouth of the mud leech. As it fell back below, she gave the men a salute and dove in after it.

  “Is she crazy?”

  “Nah, Villa just gets excited. Those worms have a lot of protein, not to mention healing qualities. How did you get inside the Den? We came over the wall, just there,” the male, who must have been the leader of the group, said as he pointed to a large tree close to the wall.

  “We came from another direction,” Nadya answered for their group. Diamond turned, arms crossed at his chest, wondering when she’d become leader of their expedition. It was because of her and her need to get to those she was loyal to that they were in this mess in the first place. She’s worth more alive than she is dead. That was true. He wasn’t going to start thinking crazy. When he did, things got a lot worse.

  “Well, be careful. Amethyst and her thugs are brutal.”

  “Yeah, they are that,” another male said, his gaze on Nadya the entire time.

  “Cas here doesn’t care too much for the females. We try to avoid fights by simply sneaking in. We don’t have much food, and while that fucker Diamond gets to sit on his mighty throne of pussy, letting us all perish under his rule, we’re out scavenging for supplies and sustenance.”

  “How do you figure?” Lip questioned. Diamond could tell Lip was past his breaking point. The rebels didn’t know whom they were talking to. They should just make the trade and get out. Let them have their worm. One less leech was okay with him.

  “I don’t figure anything. I know. If food wasn’t so sparse, I wouldn’t be out hunting for worms.”

  “That has nothing to do with Diamond. That’s because of the Ragers.”

  “Maybe so, but I didn’t see the Sovereign offering to help replenish what was consumed.”

  “You want him to pull magic from his ass?” Lindy was now involved. That was never a good thing.

  “No, I want him to contribute. Instead, he takes and takes more. Every year, I have women leaving their men to go and whore for him.”

  “That’s their choice.”

  “Why are you all such big fans of his anyway?” Cas asked. His eyes still glued to Nadya.

  “Hey, I remember you,” Cas said, surprised. Nadya looked up to where the male was standing.

  “You do? From where?”

  Cas shook his head.

  “You haven’t aged a bit. I was just a boy, living in the Outer Rim, close to the Mainland border.”

  “Maybe it was someone who looks like me because I haven’t been to the Outer Rim.”

  Diamond interrupted. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t like where the conversation was going.

  “Not possible. You’ve mistaken her for someone else.”

  “Yeah. Maybe. Anyway, never thought I’d run into supporters of the Sovereign.”

  “We’re not,” Nadya cut in again. “Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts on the matter. Here,” she thrust some medical supplies at them. “For your help. I’m going to patch my group up. I hope you guys are able to get what you need out of that hole.”

  “Thanks.” Cas grabbed the supplies, and Diamond saw the way he was looking at her. He didn’t like it.

  Diamond limped in their direction, making sure to put his arm around Nadya’s shoulder. She stiffened slightly but then relaxed.

  “I need you to work on my leg, doll,” he whispered into her ear, loud enough for Cas to hear.

  “Yup, on it. Lip, you want to give me a hand? Then I’ll patch you and Lins up.”

  The rebels in the group watched as she went to work on Diamond’s leg. She hadn’t been lying when she’d said she could help. She cleaned his wound, packed it full of some ointment, and wrapped him up tight. There was a slight sting, but other than that, he was ready to move again. He helped her with Lip and Lindy, and by the time they were ready to go, so were the rebels.

  “Thank you for your help. What’s your name?” Diamond asked the leader of the group.

  “Corpus, but everyone calls me Core. Where you guys headed?”

  “Inwood.”
r />   “Not much left of the place. You have people there?”

  Nadya perked up at his information.

  “Yes, why do you say there’s not much there?”

  “Attia and her goons. They were looking for some girl. Attia practically tore the place apart yesterday. We’re west of the marsh, by the subway yard. Saw the whole thing go down.”

  Nadya’s form started shaking. Her hands clenched and her eyes were bright with tears.

  “Anyone left alive?”

  Core shook his head.

  The strength drained from her body. Diamond watched as her limbs went liquid and she collapsed to the ground.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Core asked.

  “Her family was there. We were on our way to get them,” Lip said.

  Diamond was on his knees in an instant. Even though it hurt, he was down on the ground, holding an inconsolable Nadya in his lap as soundless sobs racked her body. Her body temperature rose as she continued to shake, or at least he thought it was her body heat. He couldn’t say for sure, but it felt like the air around him had gone up by a couple of degrees.

  “Don’t expect so. They went through the entire camp, took people, and killed the rest. Nothing left there but bodies. And that’s if the Ragers haven’t gone through and picked up the dead.”

  V

  They were not dead. Had to be alive. Attia would have taken them captive to prove a point. She wouldn’t kill them. No. No. No. No. No. Nadya chanted the word over and over in her head until her body started rocking. Only she wasn’t the one rocking. Strong arms were wrapped around her shoulders, a firm chest caked with mud and the scent of something warm and spicy pressed to her back. She could smell sweat, mud, earth, and man.

  Diamond was comforting her. Or was he? His large hands rubbed soothing circles on her back. Nadya wasn’t weak. But accepting his comfort made her feel that way. She wasn’t going to fall for his false charm.

  “She gonna be okay?” Cas asked.

  “Of course, she is. She needs time. We’ll be moving on.”