Survival (Sorrowfeld Academy Book 1)

by Bob Dattolo

  “Okay, what the fuck is this?”

  There are 12 paths across the space. Six are huge and smell of dragons, so those must be for kids that are shifted. The other six are smaller. Hmmm…affinity paths. That has to be it. I see a bundle of sticks in one. An open barrel in another. It looks like you have to work your affinity and summon what you work with.

  Interesting.

  How the fuck did people get through this without being turned on? Damn, good for everyone in front. Sure, there’s more blood here, I’m just hoping it’s from people standing around and not actually bashing in skulls and feasting on the goo inside.

  Which to take?

  I’m not sure what some of the paths are asking for with the affinity, so I head to the fire one and light the first bundle of sticks on fire and progress to the next section of stone.

  Now there’s a huge vat looking thing and a spout coming out the top. It looks like a kettle, so…umm…heat it up?

  More fire, intense heat, making the spout thing spit out steam, then whistle. Once it does, I’m allowed to move to the next section of stone.

  With the move to the next, everything around me fades a little, and there’s a wall of metal ahead of me. Umm…okay? I can’t move that with my metal affinity, at least I don’t think so. So given what this is, do I have to melt it?

  Can’t hurt to try, right? Until huge spikes or crushing magic destroy me.

  So, I guess it can hurt to try and be wrong.

  The wall takes more heat than I was expecting to glow, but it does start glowing, turning white hot before it starts bubbling and dripping. The opening that forms grows slowly, but once it’s past 50 percent, the entire thing disappears, and I can move on.

  That was the last one in this challenge.

  Good!

  My run slows as I hit another physical challenge, which just required that I roll a huge, heavy cylinder from one spot to another. This would be a joke for a shifted dragon, that’s for sure. Then it slows more as I round a corner and find a semi-familiar face.

  Naomi.

  Damn, someone did not like Kaylee’s roomie. Her face is slashed and slashed again. I only recognize her by her hair and size. Certainly not her face.

  Is it wrong of me that I kinda want to eat parts of her? I never did get to tell her to stop being an asshole. Now I guess it doesn’t matter all that much.

  Two more turns, and I hear voices arguing down an opening to the right. Kaylee’s scent didn’t go that way, so I bypass it.

  Another challenge slipped by, this one calling for colored light.

  The scent of the groups seems to be together, at least more than not. Some kids slip into side passageways, but the main group seems to stay together.

  Another challenge appears ahead, and there are three bodies on the ground. All three have their throats slit from behind, and they look like they’re in line to get into the challenge.

  Fucking hell, so someone behind them decided to harvest them? They don’t look like they fought, which means the one in the back was attacked, then the next two, and it was done so quickly that none of them managed much at all.

  Damn, that probably means that someone sucked them all down.

  Who the fuck is that bloodthirsty? I don’t smell Levi here.

  So far.

  This challenge is a narrow opening, at least here, with a wide opening over to the side. We can’t see the other end; it looks like the start to a mini maze.

  Fucking hell, this is a total nightmare. You adult assholes that create this stuff need to be murdered.

  Nothing happens as I move into the challenge, other than the space behind me where the bodies are going dark. I can’t back out now it seems.

  The hallway narrows until it’s just barely wide enough for me, then it turns and abruptly opens up to a larger room. The floor and ceiling push back 20 feet, meaning this hallway opens in the middle of a larger room.

  What the fuck?

  The bottom here looks like a fucking pincushion, and there’s a body down there to the side. No clue who it is. I can only see their legs sticking up, and I can’t say they look familiar. I can’t smell who it is, either, because this place fucking reeks right now.

  I don’t get it. So you can’t go down. Yet how do you get across?

  Nothing to swing on. Do you pick yourself up with magic and move yourself? I can’t fly yet, so I can’t try to do that. So…what’s the deal?

  The patterns on the wall to the left don’t look like they make a message. Nor on the right. Nothing on the far side. Nothing up.

  Wait…what the fuck?

  The pattern on all three surfaces is somewhat repeated. It’s just that…the one on the left is closer. It looks like a bullseye. Annnd…yeah, thin spikes are all around it. I missed those. Same on the other wall and ceiling.

  “Oh my fucking God, you have to change gravity and land on the pads?”

  That’s what they are. They’re landing pads. You jump and change gravity and land on the one on the left, then the one across the huge space on the right. Then you have to land on the ceiling!

  “You evil motherfuckers! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

  No one is there to answer, although I think they’re watching, so I gather my magic and focus on what I want. I have no idea how the others did this. I know this is one of the spells they covered at one point, but I also know that it’s pretty high level for the first year. Do all of the paths have this one? If so, I’m shocked there’s only one body here.

  My magic grabs me as I jump, and I land on the pad without much of a problem. I set the spell up to be changeable, which I doubt anyone else did. Or not many of them. That gives me a bit more control as I do this.

  This being jump and fluctuate gravity to get me to the far wall, standing on it like it’s the floor.

  Then to the ceiling.

  Then to the final landing spot on the ground on the other side.

  “You have to be kidding me. I fucking hate you adults. I hope your loved ones tie you down and make you insane from torture before they let you die.” I looked up at the ceiling, “I’m not joking. I’m not. I. Hope. You. Fucking. Die. None of you deserve to live after this kind of bullshit. Why the fuck is it okay to kill your own children? Your students?”

  No response. Again.

  So I run.

  More openings as I follow Kaylee’s scent, with a ton of others joining up.

  Oh my God, they said the paths would connect, but I have a feeling they all end up connecting at the end. We started together at the beginning, so they connect at the end.

  I passed four bodies along the way, with one being partially shifted. Someone got lucky there.

  Two more challenges, being more puzzles than brute strength or technical spells. I did fuck up one and ended up lucking into not being impaled. Again.

  But I passed them.

  Then utter chaos erupts from around the corner. I passed through a sound spell without realizing it was coming, and there’s a ton of something happening up ahead.

  The room is just as big as the one we started in. There’s a platform on the far side with maybe 20 kids on it. Another 20 on this side.

  And they’re all fighting as the group on the other side calls for them to stop and join them.

  What the fuck?

  There’s a massive clock on the wall that shows a countdown. It’s at an hour, which means that I lost way more time than I expected in that mess.

  There’s a dragon to the right, a fire dragon, and he has ten of the kids trying to stop him. Or kill him.

  Parece, Angelica, and Samantha are in that group. They’re each bloody, but still standing.

  Paige, Riley, Gage, and Kynal are in another group, fighting back-to-back to keep others off of them.

  Kaylee is on the floor in the middle, with a body partially on her. She’s moving but looks stunned.

  She also has an earth mage heading for her holding a massive mace.

  “Kaylee, w
atch out!”

  She jerks to look at me, then sees him coming. Her magic flows out, stronger than ever, yet the expected happens and it falters just as he reaches her.

  Unlike my spell, which drives stone spikes into him that drop him to the ground right at her side.

  She huddles away, nearly curling into a ball and screaming, so I run to her and pick her up, holding her as I watch everyone.

  It’s like a fucking free-for-all.

  “What the fuck is happening?”

  She sniffs and won’t answer me for the longest time as I move in a circle, trying to watch for anyone getting close.

  “We have to get to the platform over there. But…no one is willing to do it because someone else will attack them!”

  Her voice breaks again and again.

  “Is there a challenge?”

  “No! Just a narrow path. Someone went when we first got here and tried to use magic to help them. When they fell, their magic triggered…and the spells tore them to pieces! So we have to go out there without magic, which means anyone behind you can attack and knock you off!”

  Oh my fucking Lord.

  The room practically shook with my voice as my magic pushed it, “WILL YOU STOP FIGHTING LIKE FUCKING SAVAGES AND GET THE FUCK TO THE FINISH LINE!”

  The fighting stopped, with every eye turning towards me.

  “What the fuck is wrong with all of you?!? Someone get the fuck out there and get across! The rest of you? Stop trying to murder your fucking classmates! Is that too much to ask?”

  Samantha stepped away from the dragon, “You’ve seen what this school makes us. Who can you trust? That beam is narrow as fuck. If you fall, you die. People can weed out stronger competitors without much of a problem.”

  “Oh my God! Why, though?!”

  “Because that’s how it’s done!” Bob, a boy I haven’t talked to at all shakes his head, “I don’t want to fucking die this close to the finish line, but…it’s kill or be killed.” He has blood dripping from his sword and looks to have been hurt more than once.

  “It doesn’t need to be this way!”

  “So says the freak dragon?” I didn’t catch who made that comment, but something about it started the fight again.

  My nerves frayed, and I had enough. Kaylee screamed for me as I ran at the larger fight with the dragon, pumping my legs like a madwoman as my magic went to town. Two people took swings at me that missed, while four spells hit me that shattered against my scales, but I only had eyes for the huge fucking dragon trying to kill my roommate. My ally. And…Samantha.

  Okay, she’s not much to me, but she did have a heart to heart with me. She slept over. That’s something, right?

  And that huge fucking dragon is trying to bite her and only failing because others are keeping it busy with attacks and magic that is mainly making it hard for it to successfully kill someone.

  None of them were prepared for me to jump over the line of attackers as my spells went off.

  Ice encased the dragon’s body, leaving its huge neck free. Five feet thick if it’s an inch. Underneath the dragon, spikes rammed into it of solid stone. Air sucked from its lungs.

  And I landed on its neck, near its head, and I rammed my claws into its throat from behind and squeezed, “Stop trying to kill everyone!”

  Air rushed back into its lungs, and it roared, sending a gout of fire into the air that then lowered as he tried to hit the other kids.

  Spells blocked the fire, then it cut off as I squeezed harder, crushing inward. “Stop trying to kill them! Shift the fuck back and I’ll protect you! Then we get across and we fucking graduate first year!”

  More power flowed out of the dragon and the ice began to crack as it tried to break free even though it’s being stabbed from beneath.

  “Stop fucking fighting!”

  It eeped out a roar as magic triggered. I was expecting fire for some reason, so the changing gravity that yanked me from its neck and rammed me into the ceiling and then down to the floor in an explosion of shattered cement and broken bone came as a complete surprise.

  I didn’t miss the huge mouth closing on me, ramming massive teeth into my ribs and stomach that made me scream and spray blood from my mouth as he whipped me back and forth.

  I was still alive when he rammed me into the ground and roared to the ceiling, sending another gout of fire into the air.

  Oh my fucking God, I hurt. I can feel my lungs filling with blood, and I don’t like that. My heart feels fucked. I don’t think it was stabbed, but it was close.

  My magic goes off as I shift and shift again, just in time for him to come down and hit me with the fire from maybe two feet away.

  It’s like being in the center of a blowtorch as my scales slough off the fire without him being able to see it happening.

  Thank God, because my injuries are still healing, and they’re going slower than ever before.

  I feel ravaged.

  Between the stress and the running and no food or water and the repeated use of magic and fighting, I feel fucked.

  And just like that, I’m done.

  I gave this asshole a chance. I did.

  Fire engulfed us again in a huge explosion as I jumped up and landed on his face, legs clamping down and around his snout. I was close enough to see the shock in his eyes, then I rammed my arms into them up to the elbows, driving my fists into his brain, and I sucked him dry for everything he had.

  We hit the ground as the fire around us faded, and I pulled my arms free from his skull as I stood, kids staring at me in horror.

  I just killed a dragon with my hands.

  Bare hands, from their standpoint.

  “Here’s how it’s gonna fucking go!” My voice pushed out again. “I’m gonna go stand by that fucking path. Whoever wants to go first will get on that fucking path and walk the fuck across! Anyone that tries to knock them off or hits them with magic? I’ll kill you where you fucking stand. You got me?”

  No one moved as I flapped, shooting over their heads towards the path. I think the rage made it possible, because I landed like I knew what I was doing and then backed towards the path. “Now, who wants to go first?”

  No one responded, so I physically picked up the closest as they screamed and walked back and put them down. “Now, get the fuck walking! If I wanted to kill you, I woulda done it when I had my fucking claws an inch from your throat. NOW START WALKING!”

  She backed away in fear, then looked to the others. Then, much to my shock, she headed out as I backed up, wings flared as I watched everyone.

  The fighting stopped, and groups formed for protection. No magic flowed out, but plenty had magic moving around them. I just needed to watch for anyone attacking her.

  Cheers from behind me a minute later told me that she made it.

  “Who’s fucking next?”

  No choosers.

  “You!” The guy I pointed to shivered. “Get over here and start walking!”

  “Someone’s gonna kill me!”

  “You have a clock ticking up there. Get across now while I’m trying to protect people.”

  “You can’t stop them from attacking!”

  “But I can kill them if they do!”

  He didn’t move, and I was shocked when a smaller guy raced up and past me, then onto the path.

  Good.

  He made it across in maybe 20 seconds.

  Ten more kids made it across, some had to be basically dragged into it by me, but they made it.

  Angelica, Kynal, and Gage were left on one side.

  Kaylee was in front of me, holding herself.

  Samantha, Parece, Paige, and Riley were to the other side,

  Two other kids that are only semi familiar are by themselves in different spots. The girl is crying and holding herself, “I can’t go across!”

  “Why not?” Seriously, I don’t get this.

  “Someone is gonna kill me!”

  The other solo is the guy I pointed at earlier.

&
nbsp; “Why, though? Why would anyone here kill you?”

  “Because we go to Sorrowfeld Academy!” A spark of anger flashed over her. “That’s what happens here! How many kids are dead already?!?” She pointed behind me at the platform, “How many? How many did we start with?”

  “88,” Samantha called from the side.

  “88 of us. 88. There are, what, 30 kids over there now? 11 of us here? Did more than half of us get killed or die, and you ask who’d kill me?”

  “Look, I get it. I do. This place breeds aggression and I don’t understand why. But no one here is actively trying to kill you. Please, just get across!”

  “I can’t do it!”

  God dammit, “Samantha? Can your group go?”

  They exchanged looks, “I don’t know if any of us feel safe enough to do that.”

  “For fuck’s sake! What would make you all feel safe? Please, for the love of God, tell me, because I don’t understand this craziness! The end is right there. All we have to do is walk across a narrow beam and we get through. We graduate. That means that unless we get killed in a challenge or an accident in year two, we can get out of this fucking nightmare with 25 percent of our power intact. Or try to make it through. What would make you feel safe?”

  Angelica wiped blood from her face, “I don’t know about them, but…I’m not sure I’ll ever feel safe. Not totally.” She gestured to Gage and Kynal, “We haven’t gone after each other. I know we want to make it through together, but we all had plans for each other if it came down to it. We haven’t had to do that, and we’re afraid that if we try to make it out now, the others will get desperate and attack before anyone can stop them.”

  “This is total nightmare fuel. It really is.”

  “What would you have us do?” Parece spread her hands, “You saw what was happening here when you got here. Yeah, you managed to get a good number across when everyone was freaked, but now? With the number going down, perversely, there’s more of a chance that one of us is going to attack. It’s a last-minute desperation thing. Maybe killing one of us will give that person the boost to make year two a breeze.”

  “Even your allies?”

  “Even our allies.” She nodded, “We’ve talked about this. I don’t get why you don’t understand this. None of us really do. Yet it’s pretty clear that you don’t. At all. If Riley goes across, then Paige will wonder if her two dragon allies will attack her. If I go, Samantha will wonder if the other two will attack. And yeah, we get that you’ll attack, but we’ll still be dead.”