Rock Bottom (Dragon Within #4)

by Dune, Kyra

  “I think I’m okay.”

  “Good. That’s good.” But Frank wasn’t looking at me anymore, he was staring at the bodies. His face was slack and ashen. He looked liked a corpse. The thought made me shiver.

  “We...” He wiped a trembling hand across his lips. “We have to do something.”

  I didn’t let myself follow his gaze even though some part of me wanted to. We never want to see something terrible, but sometimes it’s so hard not to look. “We should find Megara. Or... or maybe we should wait for the others.” Where was Zack, anyway? I really could have used his help right then.

  “Yeah.” Frank swayed slightly. It was only then I saw how his left arm hung limply at his side. Blood dripped from his fingertips.

  I frowned. “You’re the one who’s hurt.”

  “Am I?” Frank looked down at his arm. “Huh.” His eyes rolled back and he fell face first to the ground.

  I jumped back with a little yelp. From his left shoulder all the way down to his waist, Frank’s back had been shredded. It looked like raw hamburger meat. Bile rose up in the back of my throat, but I clamped my mouth hard to hold it in. I kept repeating to myself over and over that I was not going to throw up again. I needed to try and help Frank, though I had no idea how to go about it.

  A dull whomp shook the earth. But it wasn’t like an earth dragon attack. It was more... I don’t know, organic maybe? Like a tree falling over. The sound was muffled, but still loud. And it didn’t come from the direction we’d been going in. It came from behind us.

  “Oh god, no.” I stepped out into the path of destruction, where the broken canopy gave me a good view of the sky. Smoke rose over the trees. Part of me wanted to believe it was the bunker, but I knew better. It was too far away. Coming from behind the bunker. Where the hidden entrance lay. Thoughts of Frank and the battle and everything else flew out of my mind as I broke into a run.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The woods had turned gray with smoke. Screams sounded all around me. I had no idea where they came from. I had no idea of what direction I was running in. All I knew was I couldn’t stop until I found my friends.

  I had enough thought in my head to keep the air in my general area moving in a circle around me so I could at least breathe. But it didn’t do anything for the heat. Tree roots rose out of the ground to trip me up. I stumbled, barely caught myself from falling, and decided I was going to have to stop before I had an accident.

  I stood with my head hanging, dragging in deep breaths, my hand pressed to my side where a burning pain had started. My body didn’t appreciate all this running. The soft sound of coughing caught my attention. I froze, trying to orient myself toward the sound. I should have been afraid. After all, it could have been an enemy dragon. But I wasn’t.

  Moving to the left, I pushed the air further ahead of me so I could see. A little, dark haired girl of maybe nine or ten was huddled at the base of a tree ten feet away from me. “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She cringed away from the sound of my voice. “Hey,” I softened my tone further as I approached her, “it’s all right. I’m a friend. I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Abigail.”

  The girl looked up at me with big, dark eyes. Something about her was familiar, but I couldn’t fit her face to a name. “Abigail? The hybrid dragon?” She shifted slightly, letting me see another, smaller girl behind and kind of beneath her.

  “That’s right.” I smiled. “You know me?”

  “My brother is friends with your cousin.”

  So that’s why she looked familiar. She did resemble Luka, now that I thought about it. And the smaller girl was most likely Bailey. “What’s your name sweetie?” I knelt down beside her.

  “Serene.”

  “What a pretty name.” I looked her over. She was splattered with blood but I couldn’t see a wound, and she was still hiding Bailey too much for me to get a good look at her. Kid that small, she must have been really scared to stay so quiet. “Are you hurt?”

  Serene looked down at her shirt. “Not me. Bailey. A big rock hit her on her head and made her fall down. So I dragged her over here where it was safe.”

  My heart stuttered. “Let me see if I can help her.”

  “Okay.” Serene stood and stepped off to the side.

  Bailey lay flat on her back with her dark curls framing her face. Her chocolate brown eyes stared straight at the sky. I didn’t even have to touch her to know she was dead. I bit my lip, determined not to cry even though I could feel myself wanting to.

  All I could think was, why? Why attack them? It had to have been obvious they were mostly kids. So why? Because a couple of them were hybrids. That was why. A flash of anger burned back the teary feeling.

  “Can you make her wake up?” Serene clutched my arm. Her voice held a hint of desperation that was heartbreaking to hear coming from a child. “She’s sleeping with her eyes open. Everything was really scary and loud, but I took care of her. That’s my job. Luka said so. I’m the big sister.”

  I looked at her and saw the tears rolling down her cheeks. And I knew that she knew. I almost broke down right then. The only thing that stopped me was knowing this little girl was hurt and terrified and she needed me to be an adult for her. It wasn’t something I had much practice at, but I had to try.

  “You did a good job,” I said, standing. “But we have to go and find your brother.”

  “What about Bailey?”

  Oh, god, how I hated this. I took Serene’s hand. “Bailey can’t come with us. You understand that, don’t you?”

  Her chin quivered as she nodded. Well, good on her. Because I sure didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand any of it. Hand in hand, we walked away from the tiny body laying at the base of the tree.

  I kept Serene close by my side as we made our way through the woods. Though I had no idea where we were going, it felt good just to be moving. To be thinking about what might be waiting ahead instead of what lay behind. Light flickered through the smoke every now and then. I figured it was fire, so I always made a point of staying away from it.

  A shadowy figure moved into our path. I stepped in front of Serene, more than willing to kill to protect her if it came to that. The figure hesitated. “Abby?”

  I let out the breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. “Hannah. Oh my god, I can’t even begin to tell you how glad I am to see you.”

  “You’re not such a bad sight yourself.” Hannah stepped into the circle of my air. “Man, it’s good to be able to breathe easy again.” She looked around me. “What you got there?”

  “Her name is Serene. She’s Luka’s sister. Where is everybody else?”

  Hannah shrugged. “Not a clue.”

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “Oh, man, it was crazy,” she said. “I ran into Jonah’s group on their way out and I came along with them to help look after the kids. Jonah said he figured we wouldn’t have any trouble. Nobody knew about the exit. No reason for anybody to be hanging around on this side of the bunker.

  “We got the kids up the ladder and out into the woods okay. Jonah started us down the path toward the stream. And then they were on us. It was so quick and we tried to fight back, but there were too many of them.

  “Jonah said for us to run and we did. I don’t know if it was such a good idea, us splitting up like that, but I guess he thought it was the only way for any of us to get out.”

  “Was it a coincidence, do you think? Them being back here?” I already knew the answer, but I needed to hear her say it so I couldn’t deny it to myself.

  Hannah shook her. “No way. They were waiting on us. They knew about that entrance for sure. I think somebody sold us out.”

  I found I could no longer look Hannah in the eyes. “Was Zack with you?”

  “No. We better get moving on out here. The longer we stand around chatting, the better chance we end up...” She glanced at Serene. “Well, it’s just not a good idea, is all.”

 
“Right.” Was this my fault? Was Bailey and who knew how many other kids dead because I didn’t speak up about Zack? Could he have betrayed us? Betrayed me? No. I couldn’t believe that. “Where are we going?”

  “I say we follow Jonah’s plan and head for the stream. If we can find it,” Hannah said. “Jonah told us we could follow it down the mountainside to a town.”

  We must have moved away from the fire, because the smoke got steadily thinner until we finally came out from under the trees and into the open space beside the stream. It wasn’t the spot where Jonah and I trained, which was probably a good thing.

  I moved away from Serene and Hannah, going down to the water’s edge. I looked to the left and saw nothing but the long line of water and trees. “Did Jonah say--” Something hit me in the back of the head. Hard.

  I splashed into the stream, scraping my hands and face on the rocks along the bottom. The shock of the cold had me rolling over quick. The water wasn’t deep so all I had to do was sit up to break the surface.

  A knee landed in the middle of my chest. I gasped, inhaling a mouthful of water. Through a shimmer of light and a thin film of dirt, I saw Hannah smiling down at me. I didn’t have time to wonder what was going on. I was drowning.

  I pushed the water up into Hannah’s chest hard enough to lift her off me. Once her weight was gone I sat up, breaking the water’s surface and gasping for air. I blinked the water from my eyes.

  Hannah was already getting to her feet. She was still smiling. “Surprise.”

  “You?” I clamored out of the water. “You betrayed us?” It didn’t even occur to me to wonder how she could have known about the hidden entrance. I was too deep in shock.

  Hannah laughed. “Betrayed? No. You haven’t been betrayed. I was never with you. I was a plant. A spy. Your grandfather sent me to keep an eye on you and report back to him. Man, I really missed my calling. I hooked you with that made up story about my brother and I’ve keep you on the line ever since. Not even your little brainiac could see through me. I should have been an actress.”

  “But... but...” My head was spinning. “Why?”

  “To get us here, of course,” Hannah said. “God, you’re dumb. Alastair knew Megara was hiding out in these mountains somewhere, but not an exact location. And he sure didn’t know about all these other dragons. Imagine his surprise when he got that news.”

  “So this... it was all to find Megara?”

  “Yup,” Hannah said. “You made such tasty bait for her. All me and Zack had to do was stick with you until she took a bite.”

  My whole body went cold. “Zack?”

  “Yeah, he was pretty good too, wasn’t he? Had you fooled into thinking he could ever have feelings for a hybrid. I mean, who do you think passed on word about the secret entrance? Showing that to him was exactly the kind of mistake we were waiting for.”

  It’s kind of hard to describe what I was feeling right then. Pain, yes, and anger, but more than that was this deep seated sense of the unfairness of it all. The pointlessness. There was Hannah grinning at me like she’d done some grand thing, and really it was all so stupid. All this killing for no good reason at all.

  Air whipped past me, tossing my hair around my head. Hannah laughed as she pulled up a shield of earth to protect herself. “You’re going to have to do better than that. If you can, that is. I’ve seen you in action and I gotta say, I really don’t know what all the fuss is--” A concentrated blast of air hit the center of the shield, snapping it in half with such force it slammed into Hannah, knocking her back. She took the fall with a roll and came up on one knee, glaring at me and spitting blood.

  “Please stop,” I said. “Don’t make me kill you.”

  “You’re pathetic.” Hannah wheezed as she got to her feet. “Worse than pathetic. All my life I’ve heard stories about the big, bad hybrids and look at you. You’re nothing.”

  Earth erupted all around me, rising up so high it blocked the sun. I hit my knees and drew a dome of air over my head. Rock and dirt crashed down on top of me. My shield shrank under the pressure. I could feel it like the weight was on my shoulders, forcing me down, trying to crush me. But Hannah couldn’t push as hard as I could.

  My shield exploded, sending bits of earth and rock sailing through the air. I didn’t know where Serene was. I could only hope she’d gone back under the cover of the trees. I couldn’t bear it if I accidentally hurt her in the middle of all this.

  Hannah stumbled back, raising her arms as if they could protect her from the pelting debris. I reached out for the moisture in the dirt beneath her feet and set it in motion. Quicksand formed much faster than I would have thought it could.

  Hannah tried to take a step toward me, only to find her feet mired in the muck. All the color drained from her face as she stared down at the quicksand. “No.” She tried to work against me. To firm the dirt and use it to push herself free.

  But I didn’t let her. I kept a tight hold on the water and used it to undermine her at every turn.

  “No. No.” Hannah had sunk up to her knees by the time she stopped trying to fight. She lifted her head and her gaze met mine. “Okay. You win.” Up to her hips. “Let me go. I... this is over. Let me out. I’ll go. You’ll never see me again.” Halfway up her abdomen.

  Tears rolled silently down my cheeks. Watching her sink into the earth was tearing something up inside of me. I would have given anything to let her go, but I knew I couldn’t.

  Up to her chest. Hannah reached out for the solid ground near her, digging her fingers into the dirt. “Please, stop. Stop.”

  People like her don’t go away. Not forever. She’d get over the fear, and then anger would bring her after me again. Showing mercy to her now would cost me something later. If I could have been certain I was the one who would have paid the price I think I would have let her go. But it was as likely to be someone else, and that I couldn’t allow. My mistakes had caused too much death already.

  I stood there crying without a sound long after the earth had cut off her screams. Does killing her that way make me the monster stories said all hybrids were? I don’t know. But if so, then it was a monster of their making. My grandfather and all the others like him. I can see now, how Megara became what she was.

  I wiped both hands across my face and looked for Serene. She was there at the edge of the woods and I thought she might run after all she'd seen. Instead she came to me and threw her arms around my waist.

  I hugged her back, wishing with all my heart she could have been spared seeing Hannah die. I wished she didn’t have to be another life scarred by this madness. What’s that saying? If wishes were fishes we’d all live in the sea? I think that’s how it goes. Anyway, wishes were about as useful as fishes in the situation we were caught up in.

  I took Serene’s hand in mine and we followed the stream.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Fire flickered through the trees closer and closer the further Serene and I followed the stream. The air smelled like smoke and fear and death. Screams echoed. Shadowy figures moved through the gloom.

  It was so hard for me to keep walking when I knew there were people in the woods who could have used my help. People who were hurt and lost. People choking on the dirty air. One of those voices crying out could have belonged to my brother, Brandy, or Curtis. Or they could as easily have been the enemy.

  Funny thing is, I would have been willing to help even if it was one of my grandfather’s people. Crazy, I know. I’d just killed Hannah because of the danger she posed, but I felt guilty for abandoning others equally as threatening to me and mine. Things weren’t exactly running straight in my mind right then. If they had been I probably would have fallen to pieces.

  The nightmare abruptly ended as Serene and I cleared the trees and found ourselves standing at the top of a hill overlooking a small town. I had to squint my eyes against the sudden brightness. I hadn’t realized how dark it was in the woods until that moment.

  Serene started forward an
d I could almost feel her about to break into a run. I caught hold of her shoulder to stop her. I didn’t know why, but I had this little warning bell going off in the back of my mind telling me something wasn’t right.

  She looked up at me. “Can we go, please? I want my mommy.”

  “Wait.” I frowned, trying to get my sluggish brain to catch up with the feeling of wrongness in my gut. I stared down at the silent, still, little town. Silent. Still. Something clicked inside my head.

  The woods were on fire. Somebody in town had to have seen the smoke, not to mention heard all the commotion. And yet, no alarm had been raised. Nobody was running around down there or standing in the street gawking like people do in a crisis. As Brandy would have said, it simply wasn’t logical.

  “Where are the people?” I muttered. “There should be people.”

  Serene clutched at my hand. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.” Or maybe something. Either way, I was not going to take this little girl down into that ghost town. No way. But where else could we go? I had myself set on the town as a safe haven, now it was no longer an option I had no idea what to do. Panic was trying to sink its claws into me again.

  I told myself to get a grip. So I was tired and scared and kind of freaked out. So what? This wasn’t about me, this was about getting Serene somewhere safe. So long as I concentrated on that, I didn’t have to think about anything else. Which was fine with me.