The lizard-man leans down, opening its maw wide to take her head off. My heart beats hard in my chest and I let my rage take over. A battle scream echoes off the walls, catching its attention for a split second. It’s enough to for me to jump in. I swing my sword hard, cutting clean through the lizard-man’s gut. Like any wounded animal, it lashes out at me and nearly catches me in its snapping jaws.
One remains. When it opens its mouth to bite me, I jam my arm down its throat and loose another shockwave before it can clamp on. It’s ripped apart from the inside. Guts explode outward.
Eve moans in pain. I put my sword away and grab her up. She’s heavy, but I run back to the safety of our cave. She’s bleeding bad and has lost consciousness. Pressure builds in my eyes, but I fight my emotions back. When I’m there I bring her straight over to the tribal girl.
“Hey! I need you to heal her!” I yell, setting Eve down near her.
I rip Eve’s shirt open to check the wounds. Without realizing it, I’ve begun putting pressure on to try and slow the bleeding. A normally awkward situation is replaced by the need to keep her alive. Eve’s chest rises and falls, laboring to pull in the air she needs. The girl joins me and her hands glow green. Eve winces at the touch, and the wounds begin to close, but she coughs up blood. I turn her head to clear her throat. I look at the tribal girl for signs of hope, but she’s lost in her chant.
The green glow disappears and the girl pulls Eve’s eyelids up to look at her. Her breathing is weak and she’s unresponsive. Worry overcomes me.
“Eve! Come on. Wake up!” I shake her shoulders.
The girl slaps my hands away and shakes her head. She turns to her tribesmen and speaks to them. They come over and pick Eve up to move her toward the wall. One retrieves a mushroom that has been filtering water and they force Eve to drink. On my knees, I watch helplessly as they take care of her.
A few moments pass and it dawns on me that the scout escaped. The fear that more could be coming puts me back into action. It takes me only a few moments to run back out of our cave into the tunnels. At the bodies of lizard-men I consider continuing to find the scout, but the idea of running into more is disheartening. Aiming my hands up I release a single shockwave and it quakes the walls. The roof starts collapsing, and I have to retreat. Large rocks stack, and dirt fills in the holes until the tunnel is mostly blocked. Growling and hissing can be heard from the opening at the top, but the gap is too small for them to fit through.
If they start digging through, maybe I’ll hear it. They’ll be easy targets trying to crawl through.
Eager to return to Eve, I wait only another few moments to see if anything tries to get through. When it remains clear, I run. Back at her side, I wait and hope that she’ll be all right. She’s breathing normally now, but she’s still not awake.
Next to her I sit, feeling impotent. The cave is quiet, except for random shuffling or water droplets hitting puddles. It’s possible that hours pass and I don’t even know it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Mmm. Rain.”
My eyes open and I’m face to face with Eve lying on the hard and uncomfortable ground. She’s resting her chin on my chest, half her body on top of mine. There’s a seductive look in her eyes.
“It’s awful sweet of you to keep me warm. What happened?”
My normal instinct to push her off of me in these kinds of moments falters, and I let her lie there.
“You almost died. If it wasn’t for the little girl, you would have.”
“Liar.” She grins mischievously and pulls herself up more on me. “You just wanted to tear my shirt off.”
Though she’s still wearing a bra, it’s shredded. I can’t see anything at this angle, but now that my attention has been called to her chest that instinct kicks in. I’m on my feet and away from her before she can do anything. Turning away from her, I remove my tattered, but more intact shirt, and throw it over my shoulder at her.
She shuffles and her arms wrap around my chest as she presses her chest into me. I blush heavily and try desperately to keep my voice in check.
“Eve, please put the shirt on.”
“Don’t deny me this moment.”
Every time Eve pushes herself at me, all I can think of is Ami. I can’t hurt Ami. I won’t.
Perhaps I was too hasty to tell her we needed to wait until I stopped the vortex before furthering our relationship. I need to try harder so we can all move forward.
There has to be someone who can help. Chase was fast. The girl can heal. Surely there’s someone out there that can break the cycle besides Evalyn.
I step away from her grasp, leaving her to put the shirt on.
“I’m sorry, Eve. The most I can offer is friendship.”
She’s silent for a few moments. The feeling I’ve hurt her is almost tangible and it nags at me. She shuffles back to the wall and there’s some murmuring from the tribal people, but I don’t have the fortitude to turn and face anyone at the moment. Instead, I move to the entrance of our cavern to guard.
Resting my shoulder on the wall, the cold rock is a shock to my system and I stay alert for a while. I try to let my mind go blank, but end up thinking of the one person who might help me understand my violent nature better. The woman who jumped into a hole to die with me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our only way to mark the time passing is through our sleep patterns, or trying to see the sky above. It’s impossible to keep track of how long we’ve been below ground. Eve is sure it’s only a couple days, while I am sure it’s been at least a week.
The mushrooms grow fewer in numbers because of their dual purpose. What once was a plentiful stock has now dwindled to covering about half our chamber.
We may have to move and look for more if the girl can’t figure out if that thing does what we hope.
I tread lightly, making my way back to the safe chamber from the one we’ve dubbed the ‘bathroom chamber’ down the opposite direction from the collapsed tunnel.
Nearing the chamber in which the others are, I don’t feel like going back in just yet. The tension between Eve and I is almost palpable, and waiting for something to happen makes me anxious. But because I have nowhere to go I enter anyway, staying just at the entrance of the tunnel. I duck to the side, not wanting to draw the attention of any lizard-men that might wander by.
Save for a few stragglers, it’s been too quiet. We’ve had time to heal, but how much more can we take if there’s another big wave?
Lonely and bored, I go into the cave and over to the young girl. Hovering over her latest scribbling, which has spiraled outward from where she originally started, I look on for a few moments before she shoos me away. I linger, looking at the others, huddled together. They seem content to talk, eat, and sleep. One of them calls out a word at the healer. ‘Taki’. The girl looks over and she speaks with them. A woman nods and they all look at her with anticipation.
Is Taki her name?
Eve has moved to the wall near the exit and is lying down. I sit first, then lie down next to her to share body heat. There’s no hesitation as she puts her arm over me to draw me close.
“Eve…I–”
“Stop. I don’t want your pity. I’m just cold.”
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”
“Rain, I knew I was in a losing battle back in my camp.” Her voice waivers. “I’m used to getting what I want, and it sucks…”
I can’t see her face well, but I know she’s crying. It causes my chest to tighten, and I feel terrible. She makes an attempt to wipe away tears, but she can’t stop them. Because she’s taller than me, I am forced to scoot up in order to pull her into my bare chest. My fingers find her hair and I run them through her curls.
“What if we found you someone from another time and brought them along?” I suggest.
“It’s not just about ‘someone’. It’s about getting what, or in this case who, I want.”
This d
eclaration shuts me up.
Why are you making this so difficult, Eve?
As if she senses my thoughts, she looks up at me. We stare at each other for a few moments before she breaks the silence.
“It’s not what I want, but if we do die, at least I have this moment with you.”
“I have hope we will see the light of day again. And you should too.”
She nuzzles back into me for a moment. Before we can relax, a noise comes from down the tunnel. I’m quick to my feet, sword drawn. Eve is by my side with her crystal ready. We peer around the corner but nothing has breached our boundary. The noises grow louder beyond the tunnel.
We pass through our short tunnel to the main junction. Low guttural growls and the sound of claws scratching against stone becomes a frenzy of noise from down the corridor. It draws closer. I imagine hundreds the lizard-men passing through. There’s distant rumbling from the other direction, and the distinct sound of rocks collapsing to the ground.
The blocked tunnel!
“Eve, go cover them. Maybe they’ll pass over us.” I want her out of harm’s way, knowing there’s only one place they could be going.
We retreat to the cave. She moves to the back and I lie in wait at the mouth. My already shaky hopes that they would pass by our hideout are quickly nullified as the first one appears through the door. I swing up hard, sending its head into the next one behind it. A roar resounds, followed by a multitude, becoming deafening. A few rush in, claws extended to grab me. I dodge and lunge with a few more decisive strikes and two more fall.
This isn’t going to work. If there are half as many out there as I think, we’re dead no matter what I do.
Doing the only possible thing I can think of to spare our lives for the moment, I unleash shockwaves at the entrance. One after another connects. Large chunks of rock fall to block the way of the other lizard-men and give me an opportunity to kill the other few that found their way in. I hit their legs, arms and chests to keep them from tearing me apart.
The rest scratch and tear at the debris, trying to break through. For good measure and a few more minutes of safety, I unleash additional blasts to bring the roof down directly above the mouth. It cracks, and several chunks crash down, but not enough to keep them out for long.
Breaking any more might cause a cascade effect and bring down more ceiling across the cave. I’ll have to pick them off like I planned at the other cave-in.
Patiently, I wait for the first one to dig through. I’m startled when I feel something brush my hand. The tribal girl tugs on my wrist and points to the metal object. Shaking my head at her does no good. She insists. I sheathe my sword and she leads me forcefully over to the cylinder. Positioning herself in between my arms, she manipulates my hands. Moving my fingers across several symbols it shocks me, and I pull away. The girl looks up and scowls, then places them back forcefully.
What feels like electricity sets my hands aflame for a few moments, but she runs her fingers over a few of the runes in a few different places and my hands go numb. She moves my right hand down and repositions my fingers on new symbols, then returns to tapping on certain ones. With a triumphant final tap, she turns around and smiles, but only momentarily.
The cavern begins to quake heavily and we’re thrown from our feet. I let her land on me so she isn’t hurt, but I hit my tailbone hard. I have no time for the pain, though, when the quaking begins tearing down my rock barrier. I’m ready to fight again, but my footing is unsteady. The lizard-men claw at the top of the pile. I step forward, but I’m yanked backward. A piece of the ceiling falling nearly crushes me. Eve smiles when I look over my shoulder and she points up. The whole ceiling is fracturing.
I knew there was a reason I didn’t hit it again. Now I can use it to my advantage.
Several shockwaves tear from my palms, aimed at the ceiling above the cave-in. More rock piles on, but they’re digging through faster than I anticipated.
A cracking sound resounds over the noise the earthquake is causing. The cylinder has begun to drive itself upward by means I can’t distinguish. It disappears, leaving a gaping cylindrical hole in its place.
“Taki?” I yell over the noise. She looks up at me with wide eyes. “What was that supposed to do?”
Rocks fall toward the group of tribals, and Eve. I quickly shock them away and they’re safe for the moment.
We’re dead.
The quaking stops and the sounds of the monsters finally breaking in alarms me. Their roaring echoes across the cavern and they’re rushing toward us. They close in from a few hundred yards away. Looking back, I see the scared looks on everyone’s faces.
If I kill the people now, they won’t suffer being eaten alive.
The little girl begins yelling, and a literal ray of hope appears. A white, sparkling light beams down from inside the hole left by the cylinder. Too bright to be daylight, I am left to assume that it’s the cylinder above. ‘Taki’ jumps and yells, pointing at it.
“Get in!” I yell and point at the doorway.
Eve jumps into the light and disappears in a barrage of bright particles emanating from the beam. The tribal people, clearly frightened, hesitate. But when I point to the girl and then toward the light, she leads them in. I am left alone with the beasts.
Lizard-men close in, and I begin shooting shockwave arcs across the ceiling, collapsing in huge portions of the weakened cavern. A lizard-man draws close and I quickly grab up a loosed crystal. The point enters under its ribcage, causing it to hiss and growl in pain. It attempts to slash me anyway. Hoping to use it like a bullet, I unleash a shockwave on the crystal to push it all the way through.
The moment my shockwave touches the crystal, I feel it reverberate. My power is amplified through it, knocking both me and the lizard-man away from each other. My body collides with the wall and I narrowly missing impaling myself on another crystal. An idea is quick to assert itself.
I can’t let them follow me through the door. I might be able to collapse the whole cavern!
Placing my hands on the crystal directly next to me, I muster as much energy as I can and unleash power into it. Crystals all around the room resonate and the cavern buckles. The wall explodes outward directly in front of me. The earth splits and a deep crack tears across the ceiling, causing the cave to collapse.
With no time to spare, I snatch up a dislodged crystal and jump into the light.
A strange tingling sensation overwhelms my body. My vision goes completely white. Like in the elevator, I can feel myself being projected skyward, but at a much faster rate. A heavy sense of gravity pulls on me, but only for a moment. The stop is sudden and I squint at the area around us: we’re on the plains, lit by a setting sun. A bit dizzy, I step forward from the cylinder onto the soft dirt Eve is there.
“This isn’t good!” she yells, pointing behind her.
On the decimated plains, numerous cylinders have arisen from the ground, a couple hundred yards apart each. From each one come lizard-men in droves – dozens quickly become hundreds. Acting on impulse, I shove Eve out of the way and, before any appear from the one we just came through, I place my hand on the crystal and send a blast through it. The amplified shockwave propels me backward. I impact and roll a few times in the dirt. I recover. The back of the machine is blown out and sparks shower outward. It fizzles and the light disappears.
“Get them to safety! I don’t care where it is!” I point at our survivors who are gathered nearby.
“Aye!” She nods and rushes them along while I follow behind.
The house is a speck on the horizon. We’ve traveled much farther than originally thought. Returning to it seems a daunting task with the landscape littered with cylinders and the lizard-men army. In numbers we hadn’t seen down in the caves, they amass battalions around the individual cylinders they came from. It terrifies me.
Eve takes the group into an open area between cylinders while I head for the nearest one. The lizard-men are barely aware of my presence befo
re I tear through the cylinder to keep more from pouring out.
Some are knocked aside. I have their attention and they fixate. In the daylight I can see their harsh features better. Their dark scales, spikes, and sharp claws are glossy black. There’s no soft spot that I can pinpoint and, while technically naked, they have no outward reproductive system. I’m left guessing where I might strike to quickly disable them, rather than having to tussle with each one.
A flawed plan to take them head on comes to mind to keep the attention on me, and not the fleeing group. I run into them like a charging bull, yelling. I gore the first one with the crystal’s sharp point. Feet planted and grip firm, I lean in and release a small shockwave through the crystal to send the creature flying into a few advancing. They aren’t deterred. The fallen lizard-man is tossed to the side. Sharp claws swing wildly at me.
I dodge and roll, stabbing one from underneath. Before it can grab me, I leap away. I stand with my back to the cylinder.
This is going to be a nightmare to contain.
The lizard-men circle me. A shockwave-leap puts me over their heads, and out of their grasp. I hit the ground with a roll and I’m back up on my feet, but they are already upon me. Another group from the next cylinder over has taken notice too and are running to engage.
Not knowing how far the crystal will amplify my power, I wait until they are a few feet away. In a defensive stance, I unleash a powerful shockwave through the crystal. It engulfs the ground in front of me, and I’m sent flying backwards despite bracing myself. The last thing I see of the nearest group approaching is their insides becoming their outsides.
The landing from the kickback hurts tremendously as I land on my neck and shoulder blades. I skid to a stop in the dirt. Nearby roaring keeps me alert. I get back up to see more converging on me from multiple directions. The ground trembles with their stampeding.
Good. I have their attention. Eve and the tribals should have an opportunity to escape. I just need to draw these things away from the house and tribal people.
R.E.solve (Rain Experience Book 2) Page 26
