Reunification

by Timothy L. Cerepaka

  Chapter Five

  Ah! How good it felt to have a weapon with which to defend myself. For a while there, I had felt as naked as if a thief had stolen all of my clothes and hid them where I could not find them. 'Twas a relief to have this blade, even if it was an ugly piece of Xeeonite tech that felt awkward and strange in mine hand. I would have taken a sword, but the Checrom—who said his name was Resita, an odd name, to be sure, and different from other Xeeonite names I had heard—had said that there were no swords of any sort held in the Foundation's cache.

  What a roaring disappointment that was! I had hoped to be armed with a sword, but now I had to rely on this pitiful energy knife. Again, I was pleased to have a weapon at all, even though this blade may not have been much. Resita offered me one of those infernal laser guns, but I refused, as I did not know how to use them and had no interest in learning how.

  Once we were both ready, I stepped carefully through the gap between the door and the frame and looked both ways. The occasional flickering of the lights showed nothing, save more corpses. I saw no sign of those lizard-like monsters that Resita claimed had attacked this place, but perhaps they had moved to the upper floors.

  As Resita followed me out of the room, I said, “How many floors does this place have? One? Two?”

  “Eleven,” said Resita.

  I started. “Ye mean ten and one? And they extend underground?”

  “Yes,” said Resita, nodding. He pointed at some strange markings on the wall opposite us. “This is Floor Number Five. Unless there are a bunch of obstacles between here and Floor Number One, where the Command Center is, we shouldn't have any trouble getting out of here.”

  “I hope ye are right, because I wish to leave this place as quickly as a rabbit leaves its burrow,” I said. I shuddered. “Look at all of this death. 'Tis like the battlefields of Saljamor, where death greets you at every turn.”

  “I don't know what the battlefields of Saljamor are,” said Resita, shaking his head. “But I do know—”

  He stopped speaking when he noticed the corpses on the ground. He made a strange choking sound, which I at first did not understand, 'til I realized he was shocked at the sight of so many of his deceased friends. His eyes in particular were focused on the dead human I had noticed before, the one with the burnt skin and the missing hands.

  “'Tis indeed a grim sight,” I said. I patted him on the shoulder. “But we cannot simply stand here and do nothing. Lead the way out of here, or at least tell me in which direction we must go.”

  “To the right,” said Resita, turning his face away from the corpses of his allies, nodding in the direction which he had indicated. “We'll reach an elevator that will take us to the next floor. We'll be passing by the Command Center on our way out, so we can stop there to see if anyone is still alive.”

  “How will this 'Command Center' of which ye speak show us that?” I said, tilting mine head to the side.

  “There's a map of the entire HQ in there,” Resita explained. “Assuming it's still functional, it should be able to show us the location of every Foundation member who was in here when the attacks started, assuming no one has left the place since then. We can also send a distress message to the other members who are out in the field, and to the Delanian branch.”

  “Ye mean to say that not all of ye Foundation people are in here?” I said, gesturing at the dark hallway in which we stood. “And what is this 'Delanian branch' ye speak of?”

  “No one told you?” said Resita. He gestured at the hallway. “The Foundation has two branches; one here on Xeeo, another on Dela. We don't communicate often due to the difficulty in communicating between the two worlds, and I've never been there, but I've seen footage of it and met some of the agents who work there.”

  “Why does your organization have two branches?” I asked. “I thought ye were working to stop Xacron-Ah's plans.”

  Resita blinked when I mentioned that name. “Who?”

  “The current Mayor of Xeeon,” I said, frowning. “Lanresia told me that ye Foundation people are keeping an eye on him. He is planning something sinister for Xeeo, yes?”

  “Oh,” said Resita, realization dawning in his voice. “Him. Well, yeah, he's one threat, but … well, I don't think I should be telling you about anything else. It's not really relevant and I don't have permission to blab about all our secrets to you anyway.”

  Did seem exceedingly relevant to me. After all, I still did not know as much about the Foundation as I would have liked. They had reassured me that they fought on the side of light, but what if this was all a lie and they were indeed trying to do something sinister? After all, Lanresia had not told me about the Delanian branch, which made me wonder what other major secrets these Foundation agents were hiding from me. 'Twould not be the first time that I was fooled by someone pretending to be mine ally, that was for certain.

  I could tell, however, that Resita, at least, was an honest fellow, though it was not easy to do so, as his lack of human facial features made deciphering his feelings nigh impossible. I resolved to keep a careful eye on him until I could be certain that he was a friend and not a foe.

  Before we went anywhere, however, I first asked, “But why should we head to the first floor? Why not check every floor between here and Floor Number One for any survivors who may be able to tell us more about what had happened?”

  “Because I don't think there are any survivors,” said Resita. “If there were, they'd have made an effort to contact us by now. No, I think everyone is either dead or has left. Which means it's probably just us and the monsters now.”

  “What luck,” I said in the most sardonic voice I could muster. “But I will not argue the point. I have no great love for this place and would like to get out of here as soon as possible, for the quicker I leave, the quicker I can be reunited with mine sister.”

  So we began walking down the hallway, to the right, but carefully. Though the flickering florescent lights above did not show any threats, the sheer silence of this place made me instinctively wary. I half-expected a vengeful spirit to come flying out of the shadows, wailing a terrible song, ready to gouge out our eyes and crush them betwixt it's teeth.

  We found more corpses the further we walked. Resita identified them all: Jonark, Cadax, Ijir, Foxah, and others. He did not tell me much about them (for I was not interested enough to ask), except to identify their occupation within the Foundation every now and then (Jonark was a technician, for example), but even I could tell that their deaths must have affected him greatly. We did not dally too long on any of the deceased; we had to keep going, because the only way not to end up like them was to do what we were already doing. That, and none of the corpses had any shoes I could wear, which only added to my frustration, as though the Old Gods were intentionally keeping mine feet bare like some kind of cruel and unusual form of punishment.

  As luck would have it, we did not run into any of those lizard creatures, though we did find several scratch marks on the floor and walls that indicated that some kind of monster must have been through here. There was also the stink of slime, which Resita told me was most likely left behind by those beasts. 'Twas a terrible smell that almost made me wish I could not smell anymore, especially when it mixed with the slightly smoky stink that already permeated the hallway.

  We arrived at the end of the hallway, in front of the strange contraption that Resita called the 'elevator.' I had heard of these strange lifts before, which were said to be even more convenient than stairs, but this was the first time I had seen one in person.

  Or would have been, if the accursed door would have opened. Like with the door to the weapon cache, this one was also jammed shut; only, unlike the previous door, this one did not have even once inch of a gap between the door and the frame for me or Resita to use to force it open.

  Resita attempted to open it by pressing one of the dozens of buttons on the wall next to it, but as soon as he pressed the 'up' arrow, the elevator made a loud, groaning noise
that reminded me of the shriek of a dying monster. 'Twas enough to make me back up and pull Resita with me, though after only a few seconds the machine went silent.

  “Great,” said Resita, throwing up his feathery hands. “The elevator is broken. I should have expected this. I just hope no one was on it when it broke.”

  “What terrible luck has befallen us,” I said. “Tell me, Resita, is there any other way we could get to the higher floors? I do not wish to be stuck down here forever, where I could die of hunger and thirst or be choked to death by smoke.”

  “Yeah, there's a set of emergency stairs we could use,” said Resita, gesturing at a door not far from where we stood. “I would have mentioned those before, but I figured the lizards might be hiding inside them, so they wouldn't be safe for us to use. But if the elevator really is broken … well, it seems that we don't have much of a choice now, do we?”

  “No, we do not,” I said. I held up my energy knife, which blazed to life. “But fear ye not, my comrade. We shall fight any monsters that attempt to stop us on our way up. To the death, if necessary.”

  There was no mistaking the look of terror on Resita's birdlike face now. I had almost forgotten that Resita had not been trained in combat, unlike myself, but 'twas not a problem, as I would be leading the way and therefore would be the first to run into any creatures lurking in the stairs. Whilst I had never fought any of these lizard creatures he spoke of, I doubted they would be much of a threat to my combat prowess, for I had been trained in the way of the Knights of Se-Dela, and the Knights of Se-Dela were hardly weaklings.

  The emergency stairs which Resita described were located only a few feet from the elevator's door. The door to the stairs had already been knocked off its hinges by something, likely by one of the monsters, based on the deep, long claw marks we found on its metallic surface. That almost made Resita faint, but I told him we would be safe so long as we kept our wits about ourselves and did not allow ourselves to be taken by surprise. Still he tried to faint, so I slapped him instead, which appeared to wake him better than any reassurances on mine part (though based on the way he rubbed his face, he clearly was not happy about how I hit him).

  Upon entering the stairwell, a powerful stench, like rotten eggs mixed with melting rubber, assaulted mine nostrils, making me cover my nose to protect it. So too did Resita cover his face, though I could tell by the watering of his eyes that that gesture did little to aid him.

  And by the Old Gods' three hundred names, what a narrow and dark stairwell this was! The hallway outside at least had the occasional flickering of light to allow us to see the path before us, but 'twas as pitch black as a vampire's heart in here, with a sticky, humid air that reminded me of the tropical jungles of the Trinity Isles. Where this humidity came from, I knew not, although I guessed this, too, was from the lizard creatures.

  Looking up, I could not see anything, save for a handful of pinpricks of light that appeared to be the windows on the doors of the next several floors. But they were too small to show us anything of the upper levels. Indeed, for all I knew, the stairs had been completely destroyed by the lizards, which would undoubtedly make our escape from this place that much more difficult.

  “Maybe we should rethink this,” said Resita, his voice slightly muffled behind his feathery hands. “We don't know what's up there. We could try to repair the elevator instead. I mean, I've never actually repaired an elevator before, but I think I know—”

  “Nay!” I responded, my voice echoing in the narrow stairwell. “We go up and into the darkness, whatever lies ahead. Unless ye would like to spend the rest of your short days inhaling the stink of your deceased friends, that is.”

  Resita held up his hands. “Fine, fine. But let's be quick. I don't like the darkness at all.”

  “Neither do I,” I replied. “Yet I will not allow it to conquer me. I shall lead the way.”

  It was thus that I began to ascend the staircase, which felt like concrete under my bare feet. 'Twas still too dark; I heard the clicking of Resita's claws on the steps behind me as we climbed higher and higher into the shadows.

  We had to ascend carefully, for though the stairwell seemed empty 'side from us, that did not mean that there were no lizard creatures hiding above us, perhaps lying in wait. Granted, I knew virtually nothing about the habits and practices of these beasts, but if they were smart at all, they would do just that.

  As we climbed, I could not help but think about mine sister, Kiriah. Somehow, I knew she was connected to all of this. I did not know if she was currently aware that I was trying to find her, but I knew she had to miss me as much as I missed her.

  After all, Kiriah and I had been the closest of siblings prior to her sudden disappearance. How I remembered our youthful days, when we would explore the deepest and darkest corners of our family's mansion! Even as a young child, she had been radiant, with her yellow blonde hair and her pale skin. I well remembered how she had always told me that she wanted to be a princess when she grew up, though 'twas an impossibility, for King Waran-Una had no children and we were not wealthy enough for that dream to ever be anything more than the whimsical desire of a child.

  Yes, we had become somewhat distant when we grew up, but that was simply the normal passage of time, which erodes all things eventually. Even so, our bond had been strong, strong enough that her sudden disappearance had left a lasting scar on my mind that was unlikely to ever go away completely until I found her again.

  It was the thought of reuniting with her that spurred me on toward greater heights. In this case, quite literally, for Resita and I had to keep ascending higher and higher on these stairs to reach the first floor, and, eventually, freedom.

  One other thing that crossed mine mind was my fellow Knights. I still did not know for certain how much time had passed since I had been cast into sleep by that she-elf Lanresia; however, I could guess that it had been more than a few hours, which meant that Sir Lockfried was most likely expecting me to report for duty any minute now. That I had not, was as obvious as the sun was round, which no doubt meant that Sir Lockfried had noticed mine absence by now. In all likelihood, he would send someone—perhaps even my friend and closest ally, Sir Alart—to mine home to find out the reason behind my delay.

  Though even then, I could not count on Sir Alart coming to my rescue. I had left no note or clue indicating where I might have gone, after all, as I had not expected to be gone from Dela for more than a day. Even if they found out I had gone to Xeeon, that meant nothing, because I was no longer there.

  Thus, aside from Resita and mine faith in the Old Gods of my ancestors, I was truly on my own here. I could rely only on myself to get out of this mess, a very sobering thought indeed.

  At least the stairwell that we ascended was empty of enemies so far. The strong stink of rotten eggs and melting rubber still afflicted my nostrils, and my feet felt cold against the concrete steps, but it seemed as though the creatures that had come this way had long since disappeared, though it would take the faith of a fool to believe that they had left entirely.

  And believe me, despite not being a highly educated man, I was no fool.

  Yet for a while there, I almost believed that we would reach the first floor without any issues or troubles. I believed that, until we reached the door to the second floor. I turned to walk up the next set of stairs, but then mine foot went through a hole where the next step should have been and I nearly fell in.

  Thankfully, Resita's claws grabbed the collar of mine shirt before I could fall into the hole. 'Twas an abrupt grab, which hurt my neck, but it was better than falling in headfirst, which likely would not have ended well for me.

  Resita dragged me back from the edge and then let go of my collar. Readjusting the collar of mine shirt, I said, “Thank ye for saving me, Resita. I thought I was going to meet mine end there.”

  “No problem,” said Resita's voice behind me. “If you had fallen, you would have cracked your head open, which would have been very messy
and would have left me to fend for myself in this place.”

  “Indeed,” I said. “But why are these stairs missing the next steps? On Dela, no staircase is missing even one small step. Is this an example of the failures of Xeeonite engineering?”

  “This has nothing to do with Xeeonite engineering,” said Resita in annoyance. “I don't know for sure what happened, but I can guess that either the lizards destroyed the next few steps on these stairs or maybe the shaking from the explosion knocked them off.”

  “How peculiar,” I said, stroking mine chin in thought. “How come we did not run into these missing steps on our way up? They should have fallen either way, should they have not?”

  “Didn't you feel those little bits of concrete on the steps?” said Resita. “I did. I didn't think much of them at first, because I thought maybe it was just a few bits that had been knocked off the underside of the higher steps, but now I am starting to think that those were the remains of the next few steps. The only one that isn't missing is this one right here.”

  I could not tell which he spoke of, but I did hear his feathery fingers run along a concrete surface nearby. I reached out with mine hands and felt what was clearly a chunk of torn concrete. 'Twas so baffling a thing that I wondered just how strong those lizards must have been, to tear a chunk of concrete off the steps and rest it here like that.

  But dwelling on that thought was not relevant or helpful to our current situation, so without turning to face Resita, I said, “How can ye tell there are a few steps missing? Seems like there was only one missing step to I.”

  “Because, like all Checrom, I have limited night vision,” said Resita. “I can only really see the general outline of things in the dark, but it's enough for me to tell that there are at least three steps missing, maybe four or five at most.”

  “I can jump four or five steps easy,” I said. “Then ye can follow, or perhaps wait here until I can find help.”

  I bent my knees, readying myself to jump through the air like a leaping tiger, when one of Resita's claws fell on my shoulders. Ordinarily, such a move, in such a black place, would have made me grab and hurl the attacker over my shoulder to defend mine life, but as I knew it was Resita, I refrained from doing so.

  “Are you insane?” said Resita, sounding far too much like mine mother for my tastes. “You can't make that jump. Maybe if we had some light in here to help you see, you might stand a chance of not falling to your death. But with this darkness, you'd have to be the biggest idiot in the world to try it.”

  I stood back up to mine full height, shrugging off his claw as I looked over my shoulder at the bird-like humanoid. The light from the tiny window on the door to Floor Number Two showed me only part of his face, enough so that I could see how incredulously he was staring at me.

  “Then what do ye suggest we do, bird?” I said. “Go back down to the fifth floor and die among the dead?”

  “No,” said Resita, shaking his head, causing a few feathers to fall out of it as he did so. “Instead, I think we should go into Floor Number Two. There's another set of stairs on that side that should take us up to Floor Number One.”

  This revelation utterly floored me. I was so taken aback by it that I almost stumbled backwards into the hole where the steps had once been, but I caught myself in the nick of time, though I was still shaken by Resita's words nonetheless.

  Resita must have noticed my reaction, because he said, “Um, why did you do that?”

  “Because I had never known about those other stairs before,” I said. “Why did ye never mention them until now?”

  “Because there was no reason to,” said Resita. “If these damn stairs hadn't been completely trashed, then we could have gone up to Floor Number One easily. As it is, we'll have to cut across Floor Number Two to get to the stairs on the other side.”

  “What luck!” I said. I spread my arms. “Brother Resita, we shall hug to celebrate this brilliant stroke of luck, which must have been granted to us by Walnak himself!”

  Resita, however, held up his hands defensively, as though I was about to assault him instead of embrace him. “There's no need for any of that. I mean, we can't celebrate just yet; after all, there's a good chance that those lizard creatures are in the second floor, unless they've already left this place.”

  “Even so, we shall fight them as though they were nothing, for we have righteousness on our side,” I said, forming a fist with mine right hand. “The Old Gods themselves are protecting us, of this I have no doubt.”

  “I don't know who or what the 'Old Gods' are, nor do I want to,” said Resita, who now sounded as nervous as a tiny bird that knew that a hungry cat was nearby. “Let's just keep moving. If that door is locked—”

  “Then I shall knock it down like the Tower of Malnuth!” I cried, shoving Resita aside as I walked over to the door to the second floor.

  But as it turned out, when I tried to push the door open, it flew open without any trouble. Its hinges creaked loudly as it did so, an unnecessarily loud noise in this quiet place. Did make me cringe, but I still held my hand on my energy knife in case any monsters lay awaiting within, ready to take advantage of our momentary surprise.

  Yet when I looked through the open doorway, I saw no sign of any of those lizard-like creatures at all. 'Twas nothing more than a long, empty hallway, similar to the hallway back on the fifth floor, though this place lacked the corpses of the lower floor.

  “It appears that our worries were unfounded, my dearest Resita,” I said, looking back over my shoulder at my bird-like friend, who stared at me as if I had acted like an idiot. “There is not one sign of any lizard-like creature; to wit, there is—”

  Mine words of reassurance were interrupted by the screech of some kind of beast, a screech I had never heard before in my life. This sound was followed by something slamming onto the floor and coming at me at frightening speed.

  I whirled around and saw a giant, humanoid lizard-like creature running at me, its claws bared. It moved almost too fast for me to see it in any detail; hence, I decided to act instead of observe.

  I drew mine energy knife out of my sheath in one smooth motion. I clicked the tab on the handle and a blazing red energy blade popped out of it, hot and burning to the skin, but that mattered little to me, for I assumed that this heat would be enough to wound the accursed beast mortally.

  But despite the speed at which I drew and activated mine weapon, the lizard-like humanoid was upon me faster than mine eyes could follow. I saw only one of its claws, sharp and jagged like a knife, coming at me like the talons of an eagle, but I responded by slashing at its arm.

  How the monster roared in agony when my knife cut through its flesh like butter! It staggered backward in shock, perhaps too overwhelmed by the pain, as its lower arm fell to the floor with a clatter. 'Twas a gruesome sight indeed, seeing the yellow blood leak out of the stump that had been its arm, not helped in the slightest by the awful stench of cow excrement that followed. It almost made me gag, but I had no time for such luxuries.

  Instead, I advanced, swinging my knife at the foul creature. The creature swiped at me with its good claw, but it was an ineffectual strike, for the pain in its cut-off arm must have been affecting its rationality, for it retreated just as quickly as it had come at me.

  What a foolish creature, thinking it could escape me! I leaped forward, bringing mine energy knife sailing through the air down onto the creature's head, but it dodged far more swiftly than a beast of its size should have been able to.

  Hence, when I landed on the floor, my knife cut into the tiled floor. Not only that, but mine feet—as bare as ever—found no secure footing, causing me to slip and stagger for any sort of balance I could find.

  The creature screeched again, making me to think that it was about to assault me once more now that my guard was down. But I was mistaken, for the creature merely retreated further down the hallway, but as it did so, other beasts just like it emerged from the doorways on the other side
. It hid behind its comrades, though I could still see the yellow blood oozing out of its arm onto the floor at their feet.

  There were now at least a dozen of these monsters, though there could have easily been more. I managed to find mine footing again, but rather than charge forward, I walked backwards. Whilst I was no coward, I was no idiot, either. There were too many of these beasts for me to handle on my own, especially with my puny energy knife as mine only weapon.

  The lizard monsters had no such qualms about attacking me, however, because they began to advance on me with the eyes of predators going in for the kill. I felt like prey, although I chose not to dwell on those feelings in order not to feel helpless.

  “Uh, Apakerec?” said Resita behind me as I rapidly backed up. “What are you—”

  I backed up through the doorway and pulled the door shut as hard as I could. Methinks I bent the door when I slammed it shut, but it mattered not, because I had far more important things to worry about than a slightly bent door.

  “Quickly, bird,” I snapped at Resita. “Aid me in finding something that we can use to barricade this door! Before the lizards break it open!”

  “What?” said Resita. “I thought you were going to come up with some brilliant plan to defeat those monsters.”

  “Brother Resita, I am no tactical genius,” I said. “Yes, I am a Knight of Se-Dela, but all that means is that I have sworn mine life to protecting the innocent and following the Laws of Waran-Una. Now hurry, find what you can unless ye wish to spend the rest of your life in the belly of a lizard!”

  That seemed to do the trick, because Resita ceased talking and began searching for anything he could find. 'Twas hard to tell for certain, however, because of the darkness of the stairwell, but I heard him rummaging around me anyway, and I decided to join him. Two heads were better than one, as I always believed, so what better thing for me to do than help him find a way to barricade the door?

  And lo! I remembered the concrete chunk from earlier, the torn step. It was almost too dark for me to see it, but I knew it still had to be there and I knew where to look for it.

  “Resita!” I cried as I felt for the broken step, ignoring the screeches of the lizards, which were now too close for mine comfort. “Help me move this broken step in front of the door! It shall be a fine barricade indeed if we work together to move it!”

  I heard the clicking and clacking of Resita's claws along the floor as he scurried to aid me. The two of us grabbed the broken step and began pulling and pushing it toward the door, but it was as heavy as ten thousand mountains and was like trying to move a sunken elvish warship.

  Still, we put our whole strength into moving this broken step. I internally called upon the Old Gods to grant us the strength to move it, but I could not feel my bones fill with their power. Were the Old Gods ignoring my pleas? If so, then we were well and truly doomed.

  But I did not say that aloud, because I knew better than to jinx us. I simply continued to push and shove as hard as I could, putting every last ounce of my strength into this action. 'Twas hard to tell if Resita was working as hard as I, but I assumed that he did, because I heard him huffing and puffing like he too was putting all of his strength into moving this step.

  Praise be to the Old Gods! We managed to budge the broken step just a little, but it was enough, for it gave us the momentum we needed to push it all the way in front of the door. Just as we did so, the lizards in the second floor crashed against the door, yelling and screeching as they did so, but neither I nor Resita stayed along enough to listen to their growls, because we turned and ran down the steps back to the lower floors.

  Neither of us discussed what the next step of our plan would be, because there was no time to discuss much of anything. We just had to keep running down the stairs, perhaps all the way down to the eleventh floor itself. 'Twas not much of a plan, but there was little else we could do in this situation.

  But just as we reached the landing of the third floor, the door to the fourth floor—which was directly underneath us—burst outwards. Light poured out of the doorway, followed by monsters, more of those damn lizard-like beasts, their hissing and screeching echoing loudly off the narrow walls of the stairwell.

  What awful luck had befallen us! Above, I could hear the lizard-like beasts tearing through the door and broken step; below, I saw, by the light from the door they had burst through, more of the beasts already making their way up to us.

  “Quick!” Resita said, grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the third floor door. “Through here!”

  I did not argue with that. We burst through the third floor door together and hastily shut it closed. I found a metal pipe on the floor nearby and stuck it through the door's handle, making a makeshift lock, though I doubted it would last long once the beasts reached this door.

  I looked over my shoulder at the third floor hallway. Did look like the other two floors I had been on, but without any lizard-like beasts to chase and kill us. Nay, it was empty, with only half of the lights on, whilst the other half flickered. 'Twas indeed an eerie sight to behold.

  Even eerier were the corpses of Foundation members on the floor, though there were fewer than there had been back on the fifth floor. Not only that, but one of the corpses was the body of one of the lizard beasts, which told me that these creatures could indeed be killed, though it hardly mattered when neither I nor Resita were in any position to kill these beasts ourselves.

  But neither of us had much time in which to think about this. We just ran down the hallway as fast as we could, Resita's claws clacking against the tile, mine own feet slapping against them loudly. The floor was much colder here than it had been elsewhere, but I did not complain about it because I had no time to complain.

  “Resita! Where are we going?” I asked as we tore through the hall. “Is there a secret escape route in here that will allow us to avoid the lizards and escape with our lives?”

  “Of course not!” Resita snapped, glancing over his shoulder at me as if I was being dull. “Don't be silly. This isn't the a telescreen play where the protagonists always stumble upon the escape route that they need when they need it. We're just going to have to hide in one of these rooms and hope the monsters don't find us.”

  I skidded to a halt when I heard him say that. Resita also came to a stop, but whereas I drew mine energy knife again, Resita did not even touch his gun. He just turned to look at me, disbelief etched into his bird-like features.

  “Apakerec, what are you doing?” said Resita. He jerked a feathery thumb over his shoulder. “Weren't you listening to a word I said? Or are you Delanians that dumb?”

  “Neither, my friend,” I said, shaking my head. “I simply do not wish to run and hide from our enemies. 'Tis neither honorable nor practical, for I am certain that these creatures could find and kill us no matter how well we hid ourselves. And as a Knight of Se-Dela, I would rather go down fighting than hiding.”

  “Are you suggesting that we fight the damn monsters?” said Resita. He clucked. “That has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say. I thought you were at least smart enough to realize that this is not a fight we can win.”

  “So says the scared chicken,” I said. I turned around, holding my energy knife before me again. “Ye can run and hide, if ye wish. But I, I will stand and fight, even if it is to the death.”

  As I said that, I caught a glimpse of the lizard creatures' green skin through the tiny window in the door at the end of the hall. Then I heard pounding noises on the other side of the door, likely from the attacks from the monsters, although I was pleased to see that mine metal pipe was holding it firm. How much longer that would last, however, even I couldn't say for certain.

  “Uh uh,” said Resita behind me, his annoyance giving way to panic. “No way. You're coming with me, big guy. No way am I going to hide alone. Not when I'm about as good at fighting as you are at speaking normally.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at Resita irritably. “Do not insult
the High Tongue of my ancestors, bird. Though I am not surprised; ye Xeeonites tend to be very jealous of the beauty of our languages.”

  “Jealous? You're delusional,” said Resita. Then his shoulders slumped. “But fine. Do what you want. I'm going to find the perfect hiding place, but when those monsters kill you, don't come whining to me about it.”

  I was about to comment about how silly that idea was—after all, if the monsters killed me, I would not be able to coming whining to anyone—but then Resita was off, running down the hallway far faster than I had seen him run before. I watched as he pulled open a door closer to the end of the hall and vanished inside, slamming the door shut behind him as he did so.

  Do not get me wrong; I was still angry at Resita leaving me behind to deal with these monsters myself. Despite my words of bravery earlier, I was terribly afraid of these beasts. I had seen the bodies of the other Foundation members, how cold and stiff they were, and I could not help but imagine myself looking like them once the lizard beasts were done with me. 'Twas hardly an encouraging thought, for certain.

  Yet the only other alternative was to run and hide, but I doubted that would do us much good. As I said, those lizards would likely find us no matter where we hid; therefore, I was going to be a true Knight of Se-Dela and go down fighting.

  True, if I died here, then that would end all of my chances of reuniting with Kiriah. But I knew I was going to die either way, so I was going to die the way I wanted to, on mine own terms, not on the terms of these foul reptilian beasts. Perhaps I would be reunited with Kiriah in the next life, after she dies.

  Whilst I thought these thoughts, the door at the end of the hallway kept groaning under the repeated blows from the lizards on the other side. That metal pipe must have been mightier than it first appeared, for it continued to hold even under the constant pummeling from the lizards. The tiny window on the door shattered, sending glass falling onto the floor with a crash. One of the lizard creatures stuck its arm through the new opening, waving it about wildly as if it thought I was near enough for it to strike.

  I held mine energy knife before me, feeling its heat radiating from the blade. I positioned myself to fight, but the floor was still too smooth under my unshod feet for me to have any guarantee of finding the footing I needed for victory. Likely I would go down quickly, unless a miracle of the Old Gods occurred and saved me from the end I was destined for.

  I thus prayed to the Old Gods for that miracle, but at the same time, the door crashed down onto the floor and the lizard beasts poured in, two dozen in all by my count. They came as fast and swift as an invading army, holding their claws before them as though they wielded powerful swords instead.

  This was it. There truly was no way that I could defeat them all. I merely tried to look as threatening as I could, but already I could feel my bones turning to jelly. What were these creatures? Just where had they come from? And what was their ultimate objective?

  I had no answers to any of those questions, but I thought little about them. Instead, I charged at the creatures, yelling the battle cry of the Knights of Se-Dela, swinging mine energy knife before me wildly as I did so.

  “For Se-Dela!” I cried. “For the Old Gods!”

  The stench of the lizard creatures was almost overwhelming now, but I did not allow it to keep me from running at them as fast as I could. The lizards roared and screeched and the closer I got, the more detail I saw on their ugly, leathery faces and thin, twisting bodies. The combination of their stink and their ugliness was by itself almost enough to defeat me, though I persevered nonetheless.

  Before we could collide, something small and shiny went sailing over mine head. It landed with a clatter on the floor between the lizards and I, and then rolled forward quickly, heading toward the incoming lizard creatures as though drawn toward them by some mystical power.

  I skidded to a halt and watched, with great uncertainty and trepidation, as the object—which I could now see was a metal sphere of some sort, though I could not tell for sure what kind of sphere it was—rolled toward mine enemies. The lizard creatures stumbled over each other in an attempt to stop, but it was no use because the tiny sphere rolled in amongst them before they could come to a halt.

  I did wonder what it would do before I heard Resita behind me shout, “Get these goggles on, quick!”

  Before I could ask him what he meant, a pair of thick, heavy rubber goggles were pulled over mine eyes. The sudden appearance of these goggles took me by surprise, not helped by their surprising tightness, which made me feel as though mine skull was being crushed between the straps. And how dark did the goggles make mine vision! The hallway did look like midnight now, which made me wonder for a moment if Resita had cast some sort of spell on me to make my vision pitch-black.

  Then one of Resita's claws gripped my hand, almost cutting into mine flesh, as he dragged me away from the lizard creatures, which were now hopping around the sphere and examining it as if it was some kind of amazing object they had never seen before. Did make me question their intelligence, for they seemed to have forgotten all about me now.

  “Come on!” Resita said. I looked and saw that he wore goggles similar to mine, large, round, and darkened. “Before the bomb goes off!”

  Despite Resita's rather thin body, he managed to drag me along behind him nonetheless. Though that was less due to his strength and more due to my own surprise, for I still did not know what was going on here.

  However, I quickly regained mine senses and, shaking mine head, I said, “Hold on, fowl! What are ye doing? What did ye mean when ye said—”

  Mine words were cut off when a loud popping noise—like a massive bag of popped corn going off—exploded in mine ears, followed by the shocked cries and screeches of the lizard creatures.

  Then it was followed, not even one second later, by a massive burst of light that blinded me, a light which made even me cry out, even though it did not hurt. Yet I did not stop or slow down Resita; indeed, I actually picked up speed without urging, for the sudden light and sounds had startled me greatly, causing mine heart rate to increase beyond measure, for I did not wish to be consumed or harmed by the light.

  ***