Kimberly tried to glare at Felcey in the dark reiterating Nayan’s words, “Yeah, yeah I did try to save him.”
Felcey didn’t see her stare but the words cut deep enough. She leant against the tunnel wall and shot forward as if she had just been released from an arrow. “The walls are moving,” she whispered. Then her fear came back and she screamed. “THE WALLS ARE MOVING!”
The vines had let their prey walk freely along their tunnel, they knew how long the tunnel was and where each exit was.
“WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO NOW?” shouted Reede.
“THEY’RE IN THE WALLS, THEY’RE COMING THROUGH THE WALLS,” somebody else cried.
“THEY ARE THE WALLS!”
“I CAN’T SEE”
Elias realised with terror what was happening.
“THERE’S ONLY TWO OTHER EXITS IN THIS TUNNEL,” he shouted. “ONE OF THEM IS BEHIND US, THE CLIFF FACE, THE OTHER IS THROUGH THE VINES WHERE WE CAME IN, WE HAVE TO–”
Before he could finish three vines burst through the tunnel wall and grabbed the bulky prisoner Houghton, pulling him back through the hole and snapping his neck along the way.
“RUNNNNN!” everyone yelled.
Turning around, the prisoners ran towards the other exit as huge vines smashed their way through the walls or dropped from the very high tunnel roof. The tendrils picked off the men with ease, either swooping down to collect them in their tight grip or tripping them up as they ran for any sort of hiding place in the darkness, the prisoners had been on the run this direction before when they fled from the rats, so they knew exactly what to expect as they carried on their plight.
A tendril poked itself from between a gap in the wall and picked out Reede running for her life, it made a grab for her leg and soon she was being dragged screaming towards the wall, more of the vines penetrated the wall and through her convulsing body.
Kimberley stood in front of ‘Oscar’, a teacher who had taught at her School and was always friendly and actually listened to you if you didn’t understand the question; he was speaking to her trying to keep her calm.
Kimberley was now intrigued as well as frightened, the realisation that yet again something not human was trying to kill her, her eyes focused on something being flung from the dark and then in shock Kimberley opened her mouth. “Don’t.”
The teacher stopped talking and looked dumbfounded as even in the dark noticed a splatter of blood appear on Kimberley’s face, his own face was drawn to whatever had Kimberley’s attention.
He followed the young girl’s eyes to see her transfixed at his stomach, the teacher looked too and noticed something sticking out of it. Two long vines were protruding from the man’s belly. Before pain and shock set in he was hoisted high of the ground by the vines.
There was no sound from him as they tore his body in two, Kimberley barely made out this horrible spectacle and heard the blood splash like a bucket of water thrown from a block of flats to the pavement below.
Kimberley collapsed to the ground crawling backwards with her back arched and slowly crawled backwards a like cautious spider, her eyes never leaving the forms of the giant vines.
She reached the middle of a body of prisoners and they tried to keep her safe; Prisoner Ignus was whipped away with ease, followed by Borman.
Bevin watched as his friends were being slaughtered, his stomach fluttered as he saw Cooke’s head splatter against the wall, brain and bone slithered down the cold wet stone like a bulbous red slug, Bevin picked himself up carried on running, he was just behind Kimberley and tried his hardest to run with the prisoner pack but was finding it hard and was suffering; he stopped to catch his breath as the group ran on.
Kimberley turned and shouted to him to keep up, Bevin was bent over, trying his hardest to breathe, as he finally stood up straight, something snakelike and large was hurtling from above. He instinctively put up his hand to protect his face and the vine sliced through his arm.
Bevin watched as his severed hand fell to the floor, he stumbled back in slow motion as Kimberley screamed hysterically, he was in shock as he wondered what she was screaming at, blood pumped from his stump and it held his fascination, he wanted to show everyone and tell them about the funny colours in his head, he fell to his knees as another vine ripped in to his chest and tore it away, only the bottom half of his torso remained and it slumped forward, Bevin couldn’t tell anybody about the colours in his head, Kimberley watched as it rolled along the ground.
Something gripped her arm and as she tried to pull away and screamed, she recognised the voice amidst the death in the darkness. “Don’t be afraid, it’s me,” reassured Felcey.
“Running again away I see,” she spat.
“Now’s not exactly the right time,” said Felcey.
“What? Don’t want me to kill you now? If you want to die, why are you running? So when do we speak about the fact that people are dying Felcey, and you want me to kill you?”
Felcey couldn’t reply. “Thought not,” continued Kimberley.
“Keep running, Felcey, it’s what you’re best at anyway.”
Aubrey who was running in front huffed and puffed but managed to turn around.
“I say you two; you might want to put your domestic affairs to one side before our green fingered friends entrain us all to our doom, besides, looks like we’ll be taking a little dip as well.”
Kimberley knew there was a big drop ahead; she barely heard what Elias was panting about when he too had rats on him as he hung from the cliff face, but she did catch that there was a drop, but not what was at the bottom.
Nayan and Elias had made their way back to the front of the group again, and were soon approaching the end of the tunnel in the middle of the mountains which Section b were based in. Nayan was looking back at all his ‘brothers’ being slaughtered, each death cut out a little bit more from his soul, he had watched over them ever since his arrival on Gommerstall and had hoped he would be able to see them all leave, but not like this. Elias’s shouting voice snapped him out of his sad remembrance.
“WE’RE GONNA HAVE TO JUMP,” he puffed.
“I KNOW.” Nayan looked down and then back at the rush of upcoming prisoners.
“YOU GO,” he shouted to Elias.
“I HAVE TO WAIT FOR SOMBODY.”
“WHAT?”
“JUST JUMP, MY FRIEND, I’LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU.”
The first wave of prisoners looked down at the fast flowing river and had waited for Nayan’s or Elias’s instructions, then they turned around at looked at their cellmates running to join them whilst being collected for food by the army of swinging tendrils.
Nayan held his gaze to the first prisoners in line to jump, the footballer Dex, with the failed comedian Faris.
The tired smile from the one they trusted was enough for them, but he still spoke, or rather shouted.
“IT LOOKS LIKE A VERY FAST CURRENT FROM UP HERE AND THE WINDS ARE STILL HIGH, TAKE YOUR BROTHER’S HANDS.” He turned around and shouted back. “ALL OF YOU, HOLD YOUR BROTHER’S HAND.”
He turned back to the front two and the smile was back, slightly stronger and his voice softer. “Be safe, my brothers.”
They leapt and hung briefly in the air before plummeting to the waters below, with their arms flailing by their side, the prisoners above watched them hit the surface hard before sighing with faint relief as all their heads resurfaced and were swept away by the unforgiving waters.
The next wave jumped, swiftly followed by the third, Nayan and Elias ushered them down, the vines were bearing down on the men at the back and the screaming of inevitable death continued. Elias shouted through the crowds of men to his friend, Nayan, “WHO ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”
When Elias saw Kimberley running beside Felcey he immediately understood. “I’LL SEE YOU AT THE BOTTOM, MY FRIEND.” And with that Elias Glaucas leapt from the edge to meet the river deep below. Kimberley baulked when she came to the edge and looked down, than sprang back into the forwarding men, shak
ing her head, her face was a mask of fear and panic, as much as the men took care of the youngest girl of the group, they wanted to escape with their lives from the vines and Kimberley was pushed aside as the prisoners leapt towards the river.
“I CAN’T DO IT!” she cried.
Nayan held onto her as he let his brothers jump past him, Felcey and Aubrey waited along side her too. “I’M GOING TO BE RIGHT WITH YOU, LITTLE ONE, THERE’S NO NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
Nayan needed for her to understand; Kimberley shouted back at her prison guardian. “I DON’T WANT TO JUMP, I AM AFRAID, AFRAID OF THE WATER.”
Nayan took her hand. “THEN HOLD ON TO ME, KIMBRLEY, I WILL NOT BREAK MY PROMISE IN KEEPING YOU SAFE.”
“I KNOW.”
The original solid smile from Nayan spread across his face. “LET’S GO.”
And before she could answer, Nayan, Kimberley followed by the rest of the prisoners took a tremendous leap from the cliff face, the harsh winds of Gommerstall whipped around them as they dropped from the prison and hurtled towards the torrent, it wasn’t a graceful leap but the jump surprised them all as they fell a lot faster than they’d anticipated, but unfortunately not fast enough for prisoner Masper who had trailed behind the others and as he made his leap to hopeful freedom he hung a little too long in the air, long enough for a vine to snatch him in mid-jump and pull him back into the tunnel for a premature demise.
All the remaining prisoners had resurfaced safely and were being carried away by the current, bobbing up and down swiftly they came across a huge rock fork in the middle of the river, unable to swim against the tide, the group for the first time were separated, Elias, Nayan, Faris and the majority of the prisoners were swept to the left along the outside of the Section C prison imbedded in the mountain, and Kimberley, Aubrey, Felcey and the remaining men, were forced to the right, heading way from their prison and into some caves opposite the main mountain, the waters pushed them for quite a while before beginning to subside by some jagged rocks, summoning up all their strength the group managed to haul themselves up on to the rocks and make their way to the other side of the cavern where they could see some light creeping through a small entrance. The rock formation was harshly scattered all over the cavern and having to circumnavigate was extremely hard, but after a laborious effect, Kimberley and the male prisoners made their way out to a small sand clearing on the other side and collapsed from exhaustion, but no sooner had they hit the ground, they lay on their backs for some much needed recovery.
Aubrey heard a low grunting sound, the others it seemed didn’t hear a thing. He got up to investigate, making his way awkwardly around the rocks on the sea front, the grunting sound grew louder and rhythmic, as he clambered around the last few rocks and froze in shock at what he saw.
Sitting curled up beside a boulder was a gigantic dragon-like creature, its wings were folded neatly on its armoured crimson shoulders and a tail protruded beneath its back, lazily swaying from left to right.
Its eyes were half-open and Aubrey could see its snake like slit, but the dragon didn’t respond to him, its head was cocked to one side and it glistened but the creature lay still, very fast asleep as Aubrey’s eyes studied the great beast.
“WOW, LOOK AT THAT!” said Felcey. Aubrey spun around to see the rest of the group standing behind him open mouthed and staring at the dragon, he cuffed Felcey on the back of the head.
“Young man it would be in all of our best interests if you could keep the noise down, the last time I checked dragons weren’t vegetarians.”
Ansell, a teacher from Kimberley’s school who ended up with the group when the waters from the tunnels above divided, put up his hand, Aubrey pointed to him.
“You don’t have to raise your hand now, we’re not at school, in fact…good god man you’re a teacher, why are you raising your hand?”
“Yeah sorry, but what do we do now? We have to go back the way we came, right?”
Kimberley butted in.
“We can’t, the hangar for the supply ship is on the other side of the rock face, we have to make our way past sleeping beauty here to reach it.”
Everyone was shocked on how the young girl took charge so easily, Ansell blinked rapidly. “All that and you never said two words in my class.”
Kimberley smiled. “That’s because your classes were boring, sir.”
Aubrey signalled to the others and they gingerly climbed down from the rocks onto the ground where the dragon slept. They walked around the dragon fearfully, each and every person clocking the dragon’s half-open eye. As Kimberley walked past she noticed something glistening from the dragon’s ears, she did a double take and pulled at Aubrey’s sleeve. “Do they look like earrings to you?”
Aubrey squinted. “My dear, they could be shower curtain rings for all I know, let’s keep moving before this sleeping giant has a nightmare and spoils what could be a glorious afternoon.” Kimberley nodded vaguely.
The waves crashed against the rocks on the seafront and still the dragon slept, it shifted itself onto its side and slid against the boulder until it was upside down with all four feet in the air.
Ansell kept the dragon in check. “Any other time and that might have looked cute.”
The group moved forward, with hearts pounding, the dragon increasingly becoming the part of the background, Kimberley’s head buzzed and she suddenly remembered where she had seen the earrings. She squealed, “THEY’RE MY EARRINGS, I MEAN I GAVE THEM TO CASSANDRA…THAT’S HER, THAT DRAGON THING IS CASSANDRA!”
Aubrey put his finger to his mouth in a ‘ssshhh’ motion, and put a consoling arm on her shoulder. “Now see hear, my dear, I know you miss this ‘Cassandra’ lady, but imagining she’s a dragon? I think that’s a tad harsh.”
“No, it’s true, I bought them for her, they’re her earrings.”
“So how did they get in the dragon’s ears, eh? Did it put them in itself? That dragon is a style icon.”
Kimberley was failing in trying to get her point across. “Look, you’ve seen my power, well Cassandra did have a dragon face, she told me when we first got our powers…looks like she can turn into a dragon too.”
Ansell tapped Aubrey on the shoulder. “So what do we do?”
“We keep moving, my good man, we mustn’t dawdle,” Aubrey said.
“But–”
“But nothing, Kimberley, we press on.”
The whole group turned to leave until Aubrey noticed something, he was the one to first hear the grunted snores of the dragon, he didn’t hear them now, he could hear the unmistakable sound of heavy breathing, not erratic like before, he turned to look at the dragon, as the others walked on, he remained and slowly walked back towards the beast, it was still upturned on its back. Aubrey cocked his head to the side and noticed one of the dragon’s eyes, it wasn’t half shut as before it was wide open, Aubrey stood still, a sick feeling moved around him and it was now he could smell the rotten flesh wafting in from the dragon. Rooted to the spot he watched slowly as the dragon’s eye stayed open…and then blinked.
Aubrey mouthed, “Good God!”
Aubrey spun around to the group. “RUUUNNNN.”
The dragon righted itself instantly and took a clumsy side-step through to grogginess, it started to run swiftly, its tail whipping through the air behind it.
“MOVE IT! MOVE IT!” Aubrey yelled.
Everyone accelerated and got their feet in to gear as the dragon raced forward, the older gent ran as fast has he could, catching up with the others almost instantly, and glancing over his shoulder, he thought he could hear the dragon’s snorting breath behind him and adrenaline kicked in, forcing him to run faster.
Kimberley, like in the tunnels, was in the middle of the group, Felcey yelled at her.
“CAN’T YOU DO SOMETHING? BLAST IT.”
Kimberley’s face tensed up. “I’M NOT TOUCHING HER, IT’S CASSANDRA AND I’M GOING TO PROVE IT.”
Kimberley pulled back causing the others behind to crash into her.
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” Ansell yelled.
Kimberley coughed. “THAT DRAGON IS MY BEST FRIEND, I’M STAYING RIGHT HERE.”
Ansell grabbed her arm. “DON’T BE SO STUPID, IT’S GOING TO KILL YOU.”
She wriggled free. “LET ME GO, SIR, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.”
He grabbed her again. “DAMMIT THIS ISN’T A GAME, YOUNG LADY, I WON’T LEAVE YOU TO DIE HERE.”
Kimberley hissed back. “You’d better leave me be, sir, I don’t know what she’ll do to you.” The other teachers implored him to leave her and to keep running, Ansell screamed back, “I’M NOT LEAVING HER.”
Kimberley pushed him away and he stumbled backwards. As he fell to the ground the dragon was already upon them, it raised itself on its hind legs and gave a defiant fierce cry, Kimberley covered her ears as the dragon now hissed furiously as it dropped back down on all fours. Ansell was paralysed with fear as he lay on his back looking at the trembling form of Kimberley, she stood with her hands by her side and she finally shook with fear. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, she thought. Blood suddenly trickled from Kimberley’s nose as she shut her eyes. The dragon bent down its huge head and moved around the side of Kimberley, heavy jaws opened and closed and the dragon bellowed angrily, it gazed again at Kimberley and paused…and then let out a terrifying shriek which made Kimberley shriek too.
The others had stopped running and looked on, memorised at the dragon sizing up Kimberley.
Aubrey eagerly turned to Felcey. “Can’t you do something, old boy?”
“Like what? Throw milk at it? My powers are useless, Aubrey, I can’t do anything.”
The dragon watched as Kimberley wiped the blood from her nose and then it cleared its mouth, and gave an impatient snort, and then it drew back its head and spat at Kimberley.
It gave a victorious roar and then began to yelp like a puppy, rearing on its hind legs again.
Kimberley wiped the remains of spit and carrion from her face and scowled at the dragon. It continued to yelp away, and then started grunting as if it was laughing. Kimberley had had enough and started to flick her right wrist in order to make an orb, her hand was already red hot before the orb could be formed and she pressed it into the crimson leg of the dragon.
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