On my way back to where I left Eve, I can’t help but constantly look over my shoulder. Paranoid, my mind thinks it hears noises, but every time I look, I’m alone. My swift strides carry me near to where I left them and I hear noises ahead. But it’s not voices.
As I reach the area, several of the creatures are huddled around, gorging themselves on something and I can’t see who it is. My blood begins to boil and rage fills me. My grip tightens on the leather handle of my sword and I bring my crystal up, ready to charge in there, but I’m grabbed from behind and pulled back.
It dawns on me only as I’m swinging around to bludgeon whatever has a hold on me, that it isn’t claws on my face. It’s Eve and she grabs my wrist mid-swing. She puts her finger to her lips to shush me, and leads me quickly away.
Back a few hundred yards, we duck into a side tunnel and she whispers, “We were discovered by one. It tried to feed on us, but when I hit it in the head, it retreated. I didn’t want to risk chasing it and running into more without you as backup, so I moved us and left the already dead body there.
“Where have you been? It feels like you’ve been gone for several hours. I was beginning to think you’d been eaten.”
I put my sword away. “I passed out. I don’t know how long, but if I hadn’t woken up when I did, I probably would have ended up a snack.
“I took a path away and, when I came back, there were a few of them milling about. I didn’t find any survivors, but there are plenty more branches I didn’t look in. I did find something strange that I’ll have to show you later though.”
“All right. Let’s head to where I have the tribals hidden away.” She motions for me to follow.
“Eve, I need to use you as a support. I’m still feeling pretty weak.”
Coming in close she grabs my arm and slings it over her shoulder. I don’t put a lot of weight on her, but I feel more secure. While we walk, Eve can’t resist herself. With her arm around me, she pulls in tight.
“This is just your way of breaking the ice with me, isn’t it?” she jokes.
I smile weakly and she leads on into a side network of tunnels. There are many twists and turns and, surprisingly, a lack of dead bodies. All sense of direction and distance is gone, and I’m lost in as to which direction the house is. We reach a hole in the wall. A narrow nook which we have to hunch to climb into. Bending, I become dizzy due to hunger and I nearly collapse, but Eve holds me.
Devoid of crystals and only leading back a little way, it seems barely large enough to fit our band of six. When Eve lets me down, I look at the tribal people and notice they are probably feeling terrible, like me. The little girl nears and uses her green glow on where I was previously wounded. It relieves pain I didn’t know was there. My mind is now focused only on the hunger fatigue. I smile at her and she smiles back.
“Rain, I’m going to look around down this way. Rest up and don’t go dying on me,” Eve whispers.
I nod. “Be careful.”
She nods back and disappears. The light fades as she slides away, and I’m left with the others. They chatter quietly amongst themselves and I wonder what they’re talking about. With nothing really to use as references to begin attempting to communicate, I sit in silence. Though I keep my crystal at the ready, I begin to doze off. At the last moment before sleep, I’m pulled into that darkness of despair.
Not amused at being drawn into this entanglement of people’s despairs at such a dire time, I cross my arms in defiance and stand on the invisible ‘ground’. Hesitating to walk forward and confront the cries of those despairing around me, I stand there.
If I don’t move forward, I’m unsure if I’ll be able to come out of it. But do I have the strength to take on their sorrows right now? How far can they tax me before I break?
Unsure of the answers, I walk and find myself surrounded by the despair of innumerous people, first by those nearest to my body, then from others scattered underground and from the world topside.
Even Eve’s despairing reaches me. I sense her deep worry for my health, as well as dying down here. Seeing into the tribal girl’s woes, she is thinking of an older man. She aches terribly thinking about him being swallowed by the chasm. I’m left to assume it’s her father or grandfather, but her connection to him is strong. The others nearby worry for themselves and, I assume, their families.
While a language barrier exists, I understand how they are feeling at this situation. I move forward, and am confronted by a massive grouping of woes. It surprises me when they become clear and they are my own. They are great in number. I can’t avoid them, and they begin plaguing me, overwhelming me.
Why did Drake cross me?
What kind of person orders assassinations? What kind of king was I?
What kind of man am I now? I’m violent, irrational, and unpredictable.
I want to remember! Why won’t things come back to me faster? I don’t know who I really am!
Why can I not keep the women out of danger? What happens if I fail to save one of them? Will I be able to live with myself?
If I die, will they be better off?
Though I have no physical body here, I feel the sadness set in and my soul weeps. Curling into a fetal position I try to block it all out, but I am unsuccessful. Time and despair rage at me.
I lose track of myself, but a soothing sound eases my anxiety. Humming. The despairs are drowned out by it and the light signifying my way out appears. I move closer to my escape. The humming increases, and when I reach the exit, my eyes open.
Staring up, the little girl is over me, my head in her lap. Her hum is soft and calming, and she runs her fingers through my hair. My cheeks are wet and cool with tears.
I must have been crying here too.
She smiles at me, seeing I’ve awoken, and I muster a small one back. As I roll off her lap and face the entrance, I’m startled as Eve appears and whispers my name. My body jerks and I sit up, nearly smacking my head on the low roof in the alcove.
“Rain!”
“What?”
“Look!” She’s excited for something in her hands and when I look I see what looks to be a mushroom the size of a mixing bowl. “Food!”
My eyes squint a bit and I question her, “You know some mushrooms are poisonous right? I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Before she says anything else she takes a large bite out of it and my jaw drops while she chews.
“Eve! Spit it out!” I yell, forgetting to be quiet.
But she continues to chew and then swallows the bite of fungus. Smirking she offers it to me and I hesitate, but she shoves it into my lap. Her eyes go wide and she begins to seize. Falling over, she spasms on the ground, making gurgling noises.
“Eve! Eve!” I drop the mushroom and move to her aide. “What did you do?!”
I fear that she’s stupidly eaten something that’s made her sick, or worse, sentenced her to death. But she looks me dead in the eyes and stops squirming. I realize I’ve been the victim of a joke and punch her hard on the arm. She squeals with laughter. Fuming, I glare at her.
“That wasn’t funny!” I whisper harshly.
“Oh come on. I was just kidding. You need to lighten up Rain, we have something to eat now and there’s plenty more.” She touches my bare arm and her cool hand feels good.
“How did you know they were safe? You could have really died.” I berate her.
“Are you kidding? I ate these as a kid. I used to live in caves. The same ones I was going to take you to. Do you think if I had any thought they might be bad, I would have put it in my mouth?”
By now, my mouth is salivating at the thought of eating and I grab the mushroom cap. I bite into it. While bland, the meat is tender and after a few bites it settles on my stomach. The hunger pains subside.
I offer it to the tribal people and show them it’s edible by putting it to my mouth. They break it apart and eat until there is only a small portion left.
My body hasn’t had time to diges
t the mushroom, but it seems willing to relinquish a little more energy from its reserves. The tribals also perk up a bit and it seems we can continue surviving for now. The girl leaps and hugs Eve tightly. Not knowing what to do, Eve simply pats her on the head.
“Okay. Food, good. Now we need to know what water is safe to drink,” I mention.
“Already solved,” she says smugly.
“Well, it certainly seems you had a lot better luck than I did with searching.”
“I did, and I think we should move to the area where I found the mushrooms. It’s a secluded, natural room with only one opening,” her excitement is infectious and I am eager to move out of these cramped quarters.
Eve and I shuffle to the entrance of our little hideaway. We scout for any of the creatures. Upon seeing none, we motion for the others to follow us. Eve leads us away from the direction in which we came. The tunnel slopes down and farther in the chasm rejoins us overhead. It’s a much smaller opening than the others we’ve seen.
We must be farther away from the house.
We move with stealth, Eve in the lead while I cover the rear. Random sounds keep me on edge and I keep my sword ready. A growl comes from far behind and I look to Eve for direction. She waves us on. Because our stomachs have been appeased, we are able to keep a good pace down the twisting corridor.
We reach an intersection and Eve stops to listen. Growling comes from the right. Flagging me with hand gestures, she takes a left and I guard the junction. The growling grows louder. I look behind me and Eve waves her crystal from an opening on the left a few hundred yards down. I make haste to catch up, checking for lizard-men.
The new tunnel arcs around into a large room and it appears to be the one she mentioned where there is plenty of food. Enormous mushrooms grow in patches all along the floor and wall line. Enough to feed us for a fair amount of time.
Hissing and barking echoes through the network and I prepare to cut down any lizard-men that enter the chamber. Back out to the main tunnel, I hide at the edge of the opening, lying in wait. Eve joins me with her crystal. The scratching and stomping increases, and it sounds like a herd of them.
A dozen of them run by our opening, passing by without a second glance into our area. Hugging the wall, we do our best to blend in so we’re not noticed, and it works. A few minutes pass after they’ve gone before I feel safe enough to move away from the opening. We return to the safety of our cave and find the tribal people haven’t moved.
Crystals line this cave, as they had with the others, and it allows for fair visibility. Sounds of water droplets hitting puddles all along the floor indicate Eve might know something about the water I don’t. In the far back, near a corner, something shuffles near a very familiar object halfway stuck in the wall.
Sword pointed out in front of me, I move closer. I’m put at ease when I see a torn up little boy about the same age as the girl. He whimpers, but hope gleams in his eyes. Before I can call the girl over, she’s already here, taking care of him. While she does, I examine the familiar object, a metal cylinder, this one halfway stuck in the wall.
Though I’m unable to circle this one, when I raise my crystal up to see better it appears to have similar, or even the same markings as the other one. Eve stands with me and I can sense she wants to say something.
“I have no idea what it is,” I preempt her.
“Well, it’s writing for sure.”
“You don’t say?” I ask sarcastically and smile.
Eve’s hand lunges out to touch it, and before I can stop her she runs her whole palm over it. The same electrical discharge happens, arcing to her hand and into her fingers. She yelps and pulls back. Rapidly speaking in her language, the tribal girl springs up and heals Eve’s hand. The girl points to the object, lets out a sentence and looks at us in a questioning manner.
“We don’t know what you’re saying.” I shrug and hope my tone conveys the lack of understanding.
For the first time, the girl looks a little annoyed. She begins using her hands to communicate, but she’s moving them too rapidly and I am at a loss if the gestures mean anything. I shrug again and shake my head. She snaps off a mushroom cap and snatches the crystal from my hand.
Looking me dead in the eyes, she runs her hand across the top of the mushroom and then points up to the ceiling. Not knowing what to do, I slowly make the same motions she did, causing her to nod excitedly.
She stuffs the mushroom in my hands and then begins pointing to the metal cylinder and then to the crystal. Moving my hands for me, she positions the mushroom above her. She shakes the mushroom and punctures a hole in the underside with the tip of the crystal.
“Is she saying what I think she’s saying?” Eve asks.
“I have no idea. They’re primitives: how could she have any understanding of this? Of technology?”
“I don’t know. The others don’t seem excited about it.” Eve looks back at them, tending to themselves and eating casually.
Reaching out, I pretend to touch the cylinder and look at the girl. When I get close, she swats my hand away, convinced I was going to make contact. I shrug and she kneels down while using my crystal to scratch lines on the smooth ground. I hover over her shoulder but she pushes me away while looking up at it and back down to her scribbles.
Eve pulls me away and though I keep my eye on the girl, I focus on Eve.
“So, while she does whatever it is she is doing, we should start filtering water,” she says.
“How?”
Taking the mushroom cap from my hands she flips it over to expose the gills. She runs her finger along the soft, porous gills, and smiles cunningly.
“I told you, I have had these before, and I know a variety of uses. This type has a unique quality in that its gills can be used as a filtration system. If you put water in at the top of the gills, as it trickles through to the center of the cap. The gills will pick up potential parasites and heavy metals, leaving us with clean water.”
“I would have died of thirst down here. You’re smarter than you let on, Eve.”
“Survival skills are just one of my specialties.” She winks and pokes me playfully.
“We’re still in dire circumstances and all you can think about is that?” I laugh. I don’t feel as put off as I have been in her previous advances.
“Of course. I won’t stop until you succumb.” She grins.
“Eve, we need to clear that up.” My tone becomes serious.
“What’s there to clear up? I know you like Ami more than me, and I don’t blame you. We got off on the wrong foot. But you have to admit I’m growing on you.” She leans against a nearby wall, the crystals illuminating her red locks and wicked smile.
“Eve, we would never work.”
“Give me an opening. If you still think that way when we break the curse, then I’ll head out and leave you and Ami alone.”
The urge to tell her ‘no’ again is there, but she’s being obstinate and it feels like she won’t budge, no matter what I say. I sigh.
“Let’s start filtering.”
We proceed with her methods and pop the caps off of several mushrooms. Lining them up with the water dripping down, we make sure it hits the gills as much as possible. Thinking of water makes me thirsty and I do the only thing I can think of to alleviate it right now, eat. In order to collect enough water for all of us, we set up a dozen or so filtering mushrooms.
Thankfully the mushrooms are plentiful. We will have enough food and water to keep us going until the end of the month, or until the girl hopefully figures out if that thing can get us topside.
Sitting near the entrance on guard, Eve and I admire our handiwork and smile at each other. With the tribal people huddled together near the back, and the girl still scribbling away I feel more at ease knowing we’re doing everything we can to survive. Relaxed, with Eve by my side to protect me, I drift into a daze.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Distant growling startles me. Ev
e is already up and ready with a spear in hand. Looking back, the man who had one previously is empty handed. The tribals hover back near the cylinder, hopefully difficult to distinguish for any lizard-men. I join her.
Eve motions for us to move forward through our branch back to the main tunnel. Claws scrape against the rock, and it sounds like one is nearby. It’s sniffing the air. It picks up. Coming close to our opening, discovery is imminent.
I draw my blade, ready to kill the lone lizard-man, but it turns around and runs the other way. With a glance, Eve and I know what the other is thinking. I leap out after it, to the left of our opening. It’s already disappearing into the darkness.
A scout seeking our location?
The more I feel they have some intelligence, the more dangerous they become in my mind. I’m after it with Eve at my side. It gallops on all four legs, giving it the advantage of speed. It nears a corner and has to slow and shift its weight. We gain some ground, but not enough to catch it. It barks out. Intense growling resounds from ahead. Turning on its heels, it’s joined by a few others in a wave. It barks and hisses. They barrel headlong into us while the scout disappears among them.
The narrow tunnel provides limited room to fight, but the lizard-men advance anyway. We collide and begin the inevitable. I quickly parry’s a claw swipe and dodge a lunge. The edge of my sword comes down hard to sever an arm. The beast wails and I drive the tip up through its jaw and skull.
Eve jumps into the rest of them and spins the spear around. She lands blows left and right. They narrowly miss her and I charge in to draw their attention before she’s overwhelmed. In the middle I’m forced to duck and defend. An opening presents itself and I put my shoulder into one. It doesn’t budge so I put a shockwave to its chest. It reels backward to impale itself on the jagged crystals jutting from the wall.
Eve grunts as one picks her up by the head. She tries to jam the tip of the spear into its neck, but she’s too close. It slams her down. Her pride keeps her from staying there and she leaps back to her feet. She’s slow to react and is clawed across her chest. Before I can get there she collapses, blood spurting.
R.E.solve (Rain Experience Book 2) Page 25