Images flash before Ari’s eyes – a wolf chasing her through a forest, a beast chasing her into a cave, the bodies of her friends laying, bloodied at her feet. She had to save them. From The Chancellor. She needed them to survive so that they might save all of those who were now imprisoned by him or being experimented on in his twisted plan for a better future. She knew what she needed to do. There was no way, with the mages having had their power almost completely extinguished, and Justin and Maude bloodied and bruised, missing their weapons, that anyone else but her would be able to defeat Pyro and Inferno.
In doing so, she may not survive.
But it was the only way.
‘We need to get out of here,’ Justin shouts in Ari’s ear over the roaring of flames.
Ari nods, her brow beaded with the exertion of holding off the fire-mages’ power. ‘Yes. You need to get out of here. And you need to take the others with you. I can hold them off for a few minutes.’
Justin’s eyes grow wide at the realisation of what Ari was saying, ‘you won’t survive if the tunnel collapses. We need to go – now.’
Ari turns her head slowly towards the handsome assassin; looking into those green-rimmed hazel eyes she could never quite picture perfectly in her many dreams whilst held captive by Eli. She glances at the tight scar across the right side of his face, always wanting to ask about the origins of it but never quite finding the right time. Then she looks down at his lips – a perfect cupid’s bow, smooth lines, soft on her own once upon a time.
What she wouldn’t give to feel those lips on her own one last time…
‘You need to go,’ she says softly. ‘It’s the only way The Underground Movement can survive. It’s the only way Chvostek can be defeated. You need to help those who cannot help themselves.’
Tears start to well up in his eyes, as Justin shakes his head, not wanting to let go. Maude comes up behind him, and pulls him away.
‘We need to go!’ She yells, voice breaking with the air now dried out with intensity of the flames.
The mages have already started to run, taking The Underground survivors with them, navigating the many tunnels, avoiding the falling bricks and debris, searching for the nearest escape.
Watching their escape and not being able to circumvent their firepower around Ari, the incendiaries become increasing infuriated. They channel their anger into their power and the flames grow in intensity.
Ari diverts her own emotional pain into her own power, and fires back towards the twins. The two forces combining causes a shudder through the earth and a loud crack! ensues. A fissure flows from one side of the tunnel ceiling to the other, dust falling on the individuals below.
She shouts to Justin and Maude, ‘you need to leave! Now!’
Before he could protest further, Maude drags Justin away.
‘Find my sister! Help her!’ Ari calls after them.
Maude nods, tears streaming down her soot-covered face. As they leave, Ari turns her attention back on The Fire Twins. Suddenly their flames are extinguished, sucked back into their being.
‘Brave of you,’ Pyro commends. ‘But you will not live to tell the tale.’
‘Enough talk.’ Ari crosses her arm in an X across her body, bringing her fists down by her hips, before pushing them forwards, forcing her power towards the twins.
Her power spews forth, like black threads weaving their way around the twins, encircling them from head to toe. Her destructive power suffocates and extinguishes their flame. Pyro collapses to the ground, but Inferno is stronger. He manages to break loose from the shadowy threads and throw his flames at her. She hesitates, her power faltering, before she regains her composure and her power streams outwards, consuming the whole tunnel.
On combining with the flame there is a massive explosion, causing the fissure in the tunnel ceiling to enlarge, and the walls to cave in to a mass of rubble and broken pipes.
◆◆◆
Maude and Justin run through the tunnels, coming across a collapsed portion of the sewers, blocked by rubble. They turn and run the other way, making their way through the maze until they come across a metal retractable ladder. Jumping to the lowest rung with her left hand, Maude loses her footing, falling backwards onto her damaged hand. Cursing, she gets to her feet. Justin pulls the ladder down and they take every second rung, to the open manhole above.
Just as Maude pulls her legs up and out of the manhole, a crack appears in the white marble street, feathering in all directions, growing larger and larger. The assassins run from the sewer opening, taking the mages and The Underground’s survivors with them.
A loud explosion sounds from underground and the earth caves in, leaving a crater where the sewer system once stood.
Justin looks on in despair.
Maude takes his hand in her own, unsure how to console her friend.
River holds Hani tight under his arm, tucking her into the recess of his shoulder, as she quietly sobs, her amber eyes glistening in the still moonlight.
Mouth aghast with the events that just unfolded, Malik sits down on the marble ground, trembling whilst Delta paces a few steps before pacing the other way, hands clasped over her head.
Standing with the other survivors in the corner of the square, Jade watches on in stunned silence.
The whining of sirens sound in the distance, snapping them all back to reality.
Justin turns to the others, ‘we need to move on. We cannot stay out here.’ Without another word, he moves away from the square and the crater, Maude following at a distance.
‘We cannot all move as a group together,’ Maude says, as she hurries to catch up to him. ‘It’s too risky. We’ll get caught.’
Justin considers this for a moment. ‘You’re right. We need to get the others out – they’re all of what’s left of The Underground Movement. I need you to get them out and see what you can recover back at Headquarters.’
‘And you?’
‘I am going to find Kaley, Ai-Ling and Xavier.’
‘You don’t have any weapons,’ Maude counters.
‘There’s bound to be an armoury around here,’ Justin shrugs. ‘And I’ll take some of these guys with me.’ He nods towards the mages, who stand nearby, looking lost.
Maude concedes, ‘very well. I will escort the survivors back to our Headquarters. If you don’t make it back in two weeks, I’ll come searching for you. And try an find a bloody Communicator.’
She and Justin embrace before she heads back towards The Underground citizens. On the way she says a few words to the mages. Hani and River hug their siblings, before joining Justin. The others join Maude as they plan their journey back.
‘So what’s the plan?’ River asks Justin.
‘First we find Kaley and the others. Then we find that bastard Chancellor and destroy him and his internment camps.’
Justin would avenge Arielle.
He will fulfill his promise to rescue her sister.
And then he will wreak havoc on those who took away his love and turned his world upside down.
Elite Nation: Book One Page 21