Rebirth

by Darkbringer

  Turning my attention back to the dead, I’d been distracted for too long; several zombies had closed in from all directions and were pressuring me from all sides. One scraped at my arm while another grabbed the lightest fistful of hair as I danced to try and avoid it. I suppose Crystal was right to pass me her robe; without it, I would’ve been scratched and bleeding from my forearm now.

  Shoving forth a surge of my own mana, I exploded the air out in a hardened gust in all directions. The dead that were pressing in on me were picked up and flew backward, crashing like bowling balls into the other’s that were pushing ever forward.

  “How much longer?” I yelled behind to the others, as I began dancing back and forth once more trying to keep each way from being overrun.

  “We’re as weight free, as we can be,” Crystal answered, moving up to push back a few of the dead from the tunnel leading off to the left. Glancing over, I could tell she was still topless – which, though providing quite an interesting view, was also quite worrisome.

  “Where the hell’s your top?” I shouted at her. “Get that damn thing back on. You need the protection! If I have to wear this shitty robe, you have to wear your armor too!”

  “I’ve got magical protections on better than the leather,” Crystal yelled in response as she helped push back the ever increasing horde. “It was just to keep the chain from pinching places that don’t need to be pinched. Jess is wearing the tunic now. Our healer needs the armor more than a tired warrior does!”

  “Screw it!” I didn’t have time to argue any longer. We were going to get overran if we stayed here much longer. “Keep y’all’s asses up, or die!” I screamed as I pulled in my energy once more. This time, I released it in front of me, gathering the stale air from around us, and the damp moisture which had accumulated on the earthen tunnels naturally, and I twisted it into a spinning cyclone and forced it down the tunnel in front of me. As it hit the dead, their bones scattered and twirled, caught up in the magic.

  As bones broke and shattered, the fragments and shards intermingled with the moisture in the magic and began to look like icicles spinning and grinding like a massive drill that moved and scattered everything in front of us. I couldn’t wait to see if the others would keep up; the strain to hold, compress, and control so much air in these tunnels was overwhelming. I didn’t know how long I could keep it up, but I knew we weren’t that far from where the others were held up now. All I could do is run forward as quickly as possible and hope that losing as much of their burden as they had, lightened the load so the others could keep up. We were all exhausted, about at our limits, but I didn’t have to luxury to slow or coddle anyone.

  The burden of trying to maintain the light along with the cyclone became too great, and I had to release the flows of fire back into the environment. In the darkness we ran; Dino too out of breath, too tired to create his flame for us; with only my sense of the earth to guide us. Of course, the others didn’t have any trouble knowing which path to take and follow along. The roar of the cyclone sounded like a freight train rushing down the tunnels, and the tornado of twirling ice, bone fragments, and broken pieces of zombies, grabbed up anything and everything in the path and shredded it, giving us a passage free of obstructions.

  Finally, as I feared I’d reached my limits, we reached our destination. With a last herculean effort of will, I forced the magic to blast on forward and down the tunnels for as far as it could reach before it dissipated naturally, and I collapsed to my knees. Almost too weak to even channel the energy to force a light back into existence, I forced myself to do so, so the others wouldn’t stumble passed and continue to follow the magic as it moved away from us.

  Crystal was so close at that point, she barreled into me, knocking us both to the ground in an exhausted heap. Glancing, I could tell we were in a passage with several stone doors along either side of it, and the door right beside us was closed tight. “Werb hare,” I slurred, having trouble trying to force my eyes to remain open and the light to remain steady.

  As it flickered and threatened to go out, Dino and Jess caught up from where they both had lagged slightly behind. Closing my eyes to preserve what little fleeting strength I had left, I could feel the dead starting to come our way once again. From countless tunnels which we had passed, skipped, or barreled past, they were emerging, and they were coming for us.

  I tried to force myself to get up. To do anything. We were here! The others were right on the other side of the door!

  But, it was just too much. I’d pushed myself too far; used too much strength. Darkness descended over my consciousness and the light went out.

  Finding the Others

  It was an effort to open my eyes when I finally awoke. My mouth was parched, my head throbbed, and I felt like an elephant had danced on my skull and then pissed all over me. Cracking my eyes open, I was greeted with the sight of bare breasts above me, flickering light making shadows dance erratically over them. Wherever I was, the light was dim and feeble, and the area was hot, sweaty, and smelled of sickness and perspiration.

  “You’re finally awake, My Lord.” Crystal bent slightly and I could see that hers was the face above the boobs, leaning down to look at me. My eyes were watering from the throbbing pain in my head, but I was slowly beginning to make out more of my surroundings. Currently, I was lying with my head in Crystal’s lap, and tilting my head left and right I could tell that we were in some sort of small stone chamber. Dino was off to the side, resting soundly, and Jess was bent over another pair of figures over in the corner.

  “Just two survivors?” I asked Crystal weakly.

  “Four, My Lord,” she told me, shaking her head from side to side. “At least four that we know of, though two may not survive. Two others are currently missing from the main group here.”

  Watching me struggling to force myself to rise, Crystal finally helped tug on up arms and pull me upright so I could lean against her. Looking around, I could now see two other figures that I’d missed before, sitting leaned up against a stone door which appeared to be the only exit. Both were males, wearing nothing more than a pair of stained underwear, and they were covered in dust and grime to such a point that it was hard to make out such features as the color of their skin or hair in the dim light. A small rotting-looking bundle of cloth and scraps of wood burned in the corner of the room, giving off no more light than a candle as it flickered and sputtered. Glancing down at myself and Crystal, neither of us were wearing much more than the two boys. I was in my shorts while Crystal had on nothing more than a stained pair a string panties.

  Seeing the confused look on my face, Crystal half laughed. “It’s been hot as hell, with all us people being cooped up in such a tiny space. Even the small flame we’ve been trying to keep for light and cooking has kept this room sweltering hot. Jess and Dino might be stupid enough to worry about modesty in such a place, but I’m not. Overheating can’t be good for anyone, and the moment I started stripping, the other boys over there did the same.” Moving her head slightly, she indicated the two sleeping against the door.

  “Mongo and Skeet,” she replied to my unspoken question. “You managed to find your roommates,” she said with a slight chuckle. I wanted to try and get a better look at them, but my head throbbed too much. I could barely force myself to keep my eyes opened as I leaned against her and she stroked my hair.

  “Crystal’s been tending to the others,” she informed me, quietly. “The other group was on their last legs; they wouldn’t have survived much longer. It was all they could do to move the stuff they had piled up against the door to keep the dead out, and let us in. We’re now trapped in the same space where they’ve been for the last couple of weeks,” she half chuckled ruefully.

  “How long have I been out?” The stiffness and ache I was feeling made me believe that it’d been for several hours at least, and the empty feeling in my stomach made it think it might be even longer.

  “It’s hard to tell the passing of time down here,”
Crystal shrugged. “Best as I can guess, though, I’d say for a whole day at least. Maybe two.”

  “Two days?” I blinked, trying to process the information. “No wonder I’m so hungry,” I muttered, almost in disbelief.

  “I’ve chewed some of what we’ve had and worked it down you,” Crystal told me. “The other team hadn’t eaten or drank anything for several days, so they’ve been eating what we carried with us to try and get their strength back up. We’re not going to have food for everyone for more than a few more days, but Jess says she can make fruit and water easily enough.

  “Our biggest problem at the moment isn’t the dead,” Crystal muttered, “but the other team’s illness. The two girls here are sick with something, and Crystal doesn’t know what it is. For all we know, it might be the plague! She says we can’t leave and take something like that out of here with us. If we do, the sickness might wipe out who knows how many people!

  “Jess says we’re all under ‘quarantine’ until she can get a hand on what she’s dealing with here,” Crystal informed me. “So you might as well rest and get your strength back as well. I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere for a while.”

  “Peachy. For now, that honestly suits me just fine,” I admitted.

  “Well good!” Jess’s voice interrupted the conversation Crystal and I was having, as she came over and placed a hand on my forehead. “You need to eat, if you have to force something down,” Jess demanded. “You’ve overextended your magic, and you need to get your strength back. You’ll be lucky if you don’t burn out your talent, pulling stunts like you did the other day!”

  “Sorry,” I groaned truthfully. Her sharp, worried voice cut deep into my headache and brought tears back to my eyes. “How’s the others?” I questioned, as best as I could.

  “Alive,” was Jess’s simple answer. “I think the boys will get their strength back in just a few days – they mainly seem dehydrated, exhausted, and malnourished. The girls though seem to have been affected by whatever the corruption is that’s all around us. They’re pale, they’ve lost weight. Their hair is starting to fall out in patches, and even their nails are cracking and ready to fall off. I’ve never seen, heard, or read about anything like they’ve got.

  “I’ve been treating them almost non-stop with as much magic as I can spare, and I can’t tell if it’s helping or not,” Jess lamented. “For all I know, I might wake up in the morning and they’ll be fine; cured by the magic I’ve expended in them. They might be dead. They might even be some damnable combination of the both in the morning. I honestly don’t have a clue about what’s going on with them, and I don’t have a clue how their illness is going to progress or regress.

  “I just know it frightens me,” Jess admitted slowly. “Frightens me worse than any sickness I’ve ever seen or read about.” Half shivering, she slowly moved away to go lie beside Dino.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” I whispered to Crystal. “Not good at all.”

  “It doesn’t, My Lord,” she agreed, “but there’s nothing you or I can do about it anyway. For now, eat this, rest and get your strength back.”

  Too tired to even open my eyes from the throbbing in my head, I simply opened my mouth and let her shove something in it. I chewed as much as I could – each movement of my jaws made sparks flash behind my eyelids as pain shot up into my temple as my head throbbed with each time I swallowed. I’m not even certain what I was forcing myself to eat. The pain in my head drowned out any taste the food might have, and I was truly grateful when Crystal finally quit feeding me and gently stroked my hair.

  It wasn’t long afterward before I thankfully drifted off to sleep once again.

  A Mole in the Midst

  When I awoke again, I almost thought I’d died and went back to the room with the Dancing Fool. Complete darkness and utter silence engulfed me for several moments, and I nearly lashed out with my magic to illuminate the area in flames, before I felt Crystal’s comforting warmth against me. It took several moments for me to get my breathing back under control and myself calmed down fully enough to remember where we were and to deduce that the fire had simply been allowed to go out, leaving us all in the utter darkness of the stone tomb where we were currently taking refuge in.

  Gently moving my hands up and down Crystal’s soft warmth, I caressed her body for several moments until she stretched slightly and reached and took my hand. “My Lord?” She asked quietly, so as to not disturb the others.

  “I’m awake, and feeling much better,” I whispered back to her in return.

  “That’s actually a relief to hear, My Lord.” Letting go of my hand, Crystal slowly reached and caressed my face in the dark, before finally relaxing and resting her arms under her head. Snuggled up to her side, the invitation to indulge myself in the soft temptation of her bare flesh was obvious. I’d like to claim that under the circumstances of where we were, I resisted temptation and stayed focused solely on healing and escaping; but that’d be a lie. For several long and blissful minutes; I allowed my hands and fingers to caress her in a slow, endless cycle all the way down from her knees, up to her face, and then back down to her knees again; enjoying the feel of every curve, dip, and secret spot between.

  Her body arched lightly under my gentle probing and caress, and I quietly kissed, nipped, and nibbled on the round fullness of her breasts, as she worked to keep herself silent. For a brief, blissful while, it was almost a game between us, with her trying her best to not make a sound, and me doing my utmost to make her. Had she been Le’Nara, it would’ve been no contest; she would’ve moaned freely, and anyone listening -- dead or living – could just be damned! De’Nara on the other hand had a will of steel. If she decided she wasn’t going to moan, I could’ve bit off her nipple and she still wouldn’t make a peep.

  The two sisters were the extreme opposites when it came to such things, and as such, neither of them would’ve been half as fun to tease as Crystal was. Gentle little gasps and ragged breaths escaped her lips, and I could tell she was on the verge of letting out a groan loud enough for the others to hear – and yet she always managed to somehow swallow it back with a twitch and a quiver at the last moment.

  Honestly, I don’t know how long I would’ve simply laid there and indulged myself in the gentle distraction, but unfortunately, the sound of someone else moving and stirring in the darkness made me quit. For several moments after, Crystal wiggled and squirmed before she finally settled back still beside me. As the first flashes of flint were being used to reignite the fire, I could tell from the briefest of glances that Crystal was covered in sweat and had an almost blissfully peaceful look on her face.

  As the small fire finally lit, I leaned up and gently kissed her on the lips. “Good morning,” I told her, not even bothering to hide the large smile on my face.

  “Good morning.” Crystal blushed slightly and then wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close. I could feel two hard peaks pressed tight against my chest, with a soft feeling of full, gentle roundness behind them. Leaning forward, Crystal returned my kiss lightly.

  “Geeze! Why don’t you two get a room?” Jess muttered, moodily, which somehow made me laugh.

  “Fine. We’ll do just that.” Stretching, I slowly sat up and stretched. “It’s cramped in here, and we could use some extra space.”

  “My Lord?” Crystal asked, questioningly.

  “We’re going to be stuck here for a while it seems,” I reasoned. “There’s a ton of dead outside that door and around us once more, drawn by the large amount of life in this small area. The others are going to need as much strength and health as they can recover before we work on moving out of here. Extra room so we can separate the sick from the healthy at least would be nice.”

  “And how are you going to do such a feat, My Lord?”

  “Probably by overusing his talent, burning out, and becoming a worthless bum,” Jess answered.

  “Nooo..” Laughing, I held up both hands to show my innocence. “In fact, I�
��m not even going to be the one to do it. Crystal is,” I stated matter-of-factly.

  “Me?” Crystal asked, confused. “I don’t have any magics. I don’t see how I can do anything to make us more room.”

  “You’ll both see.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the confused looks they both gave each other.

  “Wakey! Wakey! One and all!” I half shouted, and all three of the boys jerked upright. Dino looked like he was about ready to piss himself, in wild panic, while the big fellow – who I assumed had to be Mongo – was grabbing for a sword that sat near his side. The other, littler fellow, had bolted upright, and even though he half staggered on his feet, he was alert and had a long-bladed knife in each hand.

  “Morning, all! It’s a pleasure to meet you Mongo,” I half-bowed to the large guy with the sword, “and you too Skeet.” I half-bowed in his direction, as well. “I’m Michael, your new roommate, and I’m here to rescue you.”

  “What ‘n ta nine ‘ells is he ramblin’ ‘bout?” Skeet asked, in a thick, common speech, while staring over at Dino.

  “Damned if I know,” Dino shrugged. “He’s like that most of the time.”

  “Bloody ‘ell! Ya buggered ta sheet outta me!” Skeet was starting to settle back down slowly, and looked like he was going to simply collapse right where he was, but I didn’t let him.

  “Woah!” Rushing over to help support him under the arms, I was amazed at how light he felt. “Let’s get you over to the other wall. We’re going to be doing some remodeling on that one. It’s why we needed you guys to move.” Everyone was looking at me like I was crazy now, except for the two girls who were still passed out and completely oblivious to everything over in the corner they were in, and I found myself laughing once again. Somehow, the more I baffled people, the more it amused me.