The others bypassed the first obstacle as easily as had the Many. As Malcolm and Michael cautiously avoided the occupied creatures, Hiss was busy smearing one of the next pair with bait. They responded the same as the first two rockadillos, pinning themselves to the wall as they battled each other for access to the smelly delicacy. The group made steady progress forward toward their next exit.
Hiss painted a final black smear on the side of the last rockadillo. The third pair squared off with each other exactly as the others had. These two creatures, however, did not push and shove themselves against a wall. Instead, they butted against one another in the center of the alleyway, equally matched in strength and size, and neither giving any ground to the other. The size of the two monsters left limited room to either side for the group to slip past. Shoo and Kack dodged to the left and successfully avoided the mobile melee. Sofia and Annie also went left and made it safely through.
Shoo reached the door and attempted to turn the handle. As expected, it refused to move. This time, the door was not a featureless smooth plane of white like before. To the right of the handle was a diamond shaped recession, four inches long from the top point to the bottom, and Shoo quickly recognized the opening for what it was. She picked through the items on her ring, hoping to find a key that would match the shape of the lock.
Malcolm and Michael split up as they approached the final pair of rockadillos, Malcolm running right and Michael going left. They both made it safely past. The battling animals did not so much as pause as the men raced by. Whatever odor the two men might be giving off was nowhere near as attractive as the goop Hiss had slathered on the beasts.
Shoo held a diamond-shaped, metal plate in her small hand, the ring and the rest of the keys dangling below the object in her grasp. Leon and Vinod were the only two members of their party that had not yet navigated the last battling obstruction, but they were close enough that they should be easily past in the next few seconds. If she waited much longer and the key did not work as she hoped, there would not be enough time to try something else. Shoo placed the metal key into the recession. It slipped in without effort and clicked into place.
The door did not unlock or swing open. It disappeared. One moment a solid barrier obstructed their escape, the next freedom was a step away and Shoo was standing in front of an open passageway holding the key in her outstretched hand.
Leon and Vinod dodged to the right of the dueling mountains of armored flesh. Unfortunately, at that very moment, the rockadillos lurched in the same direction. Both men saw the threat coming, but they were already between the creatures and the wall. With no time to move past or stop and retreat, they leapt upward in an attempt to get above the crushing edges of those armored shells. Leon sprawled onto the bony plated back of the nearest animal, grasping desperately for hand and footholds to avoid sliding back into harm’s way. Vinod’s leap was a heartbeat too slow. Although his body cleared the threat, his right foot was crushed between the mass of the monster and the wall.
Vinod screamed.
“Give me your hand,” shouted Leon. He scrabbled to turn and face Vinod, his arms and legs spread wide to maintain his purchase on the creatures back. “I can pull you up.”
Vinod reached out, but he was too far away to catch Leon’s outstretched hand. Leon squirmed forward to close the distance. As he moved, he was almost dislodged when the rockadillo shifted up and forward in an undulating movement. The bony ridge of the animal’s armor dragged downward, grinding mercilessly against Vinod’s leg before suddenly jerking upward and again slamming against the wall, this time pinning the man above the knee. The movement was not accidental. Smelling blood, the creature realized it had stumbled onto something it could eat. Now that it had its prey trapped, it was not going to allow it to escape. The thick, purple tongue appeared and lapped at the blood streaming freely from Vinod’s damaged limb.
Leon reached out again. “Grab my hand!”
Vinod cried out in pain a second time, but waved Leon away. “Go,” he shouted through gritted teeth. “It’s too late. Get to the door.”
Leon could not make himself leave. This complete stranger had saved his life twice in the past few minutes, and now when Vinod needed help in return, he was supposed to turn and run away? No. Leon would not, could not, do that. He tried one more time to maneuver closer to the pinned man. He had to make the attempt.
The rockadillo humped up against the wall in the same relentless undulating movement. This time its unforgiving mass caught Vinod at the waist. The man’s torso collapsed on the back of the beast, completely severed from the rest of his body. Vinod stared toward Leon, his mouth working open and closed like a fish brutally pulled from the water and tossed on shore to gasp helplessly for breath. Blood poured from his lips. He was still alive despite the gruesome dissection of his body, but it was finally clear to Leon there was nothing more that could be done for him.
Leon closed his eyes against the gory sight. Before now, he had only known one person in his life that had died. That had been his father. His dad’s death had been sterile and clean since it occurred thousands of miles away, and all he had ever seen of it was a shiny new coffin draped in an American flag. Vinod’s death by contrast was loud and messy, and it happened right in front of him. Leon felt sick.
He didn’t have time to let himself react to the grisly horror. His own life was still in danger. If he did not want to join Vinod, he needed to get off this monster’s back and reach the door before it closed. Once that opening sealed shut, Leon’s life would be forfeit.
Swallowing his desire to scream, Leon dragged himself across the rockadillo’s back. The accordioned bands of bony plate offered surprisingly effective handholds. He pulled himself to the side of the monster’s body closest to his goal, then leapt for the floor. For a terrifying moment he was airborne, windmilling his arms for balance, then he crashed to the ground with a jarring blow to his ribs and the side of his face. He had initially landed on his feet, but his legs buckled awkwardly underneath him as they failed to keep up with his forward momentum. The creatures behind him were too busy fighting over Vinod’s remains to pursue, however, and he had time to scramble back to his feet and resume his dash for the exit.
Everyone else had already stepped through the opening and he could see them watching him. Sofia was waving him on, shouting to him. He could not hear her. His ears rang from the blood pounding in his head and the sounds of warring monstrosities nearby, but he knew she was telling him to hurry. He felt tired, sluggish. The muscles in his legs burned, and his breath came in gasps as he drove himself forward. He had not fully recovered from his run in the first alleyway, and adrenaline could only carry a human body so far.
At last, he reached the opening. The doorway began to blur, but whether it was preparing to close or he was simply experiencing tunnel vision from his exertions, he could not tell. He stumbled, diving forward as he fell again. Several sets of hands grabbed at Leon and attempted to ease his landing, but he still struck the floor with more impact than he liked. His breath chuffed out of him and he struggled to pull in his next lungful of air.
Leon flopped onto his back and stared at the wall a few inches from his feet. The door was gone, which meant the rockadillos were also gone and he was safe. He had made it. His throat felt tight, and he heard the air wheezing in and out of his lungs as he fought to bring his breathing back to normal. Slowly, the muscles in his diaphragm relaxed until he could once more take a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” asked Sofia when she saw that he was breathing easier.
Leon thought for a moment about the question. Was he okay? He had been abducted from his home and dragged millions of miles away to be unwillingly subjected to some kind of sick, twisted testing. He had just watched the man who had saved his life – twice! – be brutally murdered by an alien monster and he had himself only escaped by sheer luck. No, he absolutely was not okay. He was as far from okay as he thought he had ever been.
“I�
�m fine,” he said.
CHAPTER 7
Sofia held out a hand and helped Leon to his feet. They were in another of those lighted, featureless hallways with a closed wall behind them and a single door at the far end. These spaces were designed to be pass throughs from one life threatening challenge to the next, with a limited amount of time for the unwilling participants to transition. Still, they did serve as tiny respites, allowing the group to catch their breath before another roller coaster dip through the fires of Hell. As such, Leon welcomed it.
“Thanks,” Leon said, his heart still pounding in his chest. His breathing slowed, and he no longer thought he might throw up. He still wanted to; he just didn’t think it would happen.
“Of course,” she said with a steadying hand resting on his arm. “I don’t think we have actually met yet, although given our circumstances I think that’s understandable. I’m Sofia.”
“I know,” Leon told her. When she cocked her head at him quizzically, he hastened to add, “I heard you introduce yourself to Annie earlier. I’m Leon.”
“Are you okay, Leon? You look a little shook up. I mean, of course you have every right to be after what happened, but are you going to be all right?”
Leon nodded, although he wasn’t certain he would be. He had watched a man get torn in half and, although Vinod was a complete stranger, he had saved Leon’s life twice in the short time they had known each other. Leon, in return, had not been able to do the same for Vinod when that monster pinned him to the wall.
“I think I’m okay,” he lied, trying to force a small smile. He gave up when it did not seem to want to stick to his face.
“Hiss, are we safe to stay in this hallway for a little while?” Sofia asked. “I think we could use a couple minutes to catch our breath before we get sucked into whatever else is waiting for us behind that door.”
Leon appreciated what Sofia was trying to do for him. His head felt like it was full of cotton, and all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep for a month. He recognized the beginning stages of shock and knew he should really take a moment to let his mind clear, but his pride would not let him accept the kindness. He did not want to appear weak in front of the rest of the group, especially not to Sofia. Although Leon understood intellectually that his reluctance was pointless macho bullshit, it didn’t change how he felt. He barely knew her, and it made no sense that he should be so concerned about her opinion of him, yet it did matter.
“I’m okay,” he repeated. “We should keep going. Every second we waste in one place is another second we’re trapped here. The only way we get out is keep moving forward.”
Sofia gazed intently into his face until Leon was forced to look away for fear that she would see the lie in his eyes. He was a long way from okay, but that didn’t mean everyone needed to stand around waiting for him to get his head screwed back on straight.
Malcolm was the one to finally end the debate. “The little cunt says he’s fine. Let’s go,” he said, and marched down the hallway toward the next door. As he walked, he unfastened his belt from around his waist, glared at the empty scabbard with disgust, then dropped the useless rig on the floor. The others in the group shuffled after him.
Sofia gave Leon a last glance, patted him gently on the chest with her hand, then turned to follow the moving queue. Leon sighed and tried to swallow the dry lump in this throat before trudging after her.
First to reach the door, Malcolm did not wait for the others. He turned the handle and threw it open immediately. Daylight flooded into the tunnel from the open doorway. There must not have been any obvious danger on the other side, as Malcolm disappeared through the opening without hesitation. Everyone else filed out dutifully behind him, with Leon once again taking up the rear.
Exiting the tunnel, the motley party found themselves outside in an open pasture. Knee-high grasses and weeds flowed in the breeze as far as the eye could see to the left and the right, with speckles of white, yellow, and blue flowers topping the plants in sporadic clusters. Straight ahead, in the distance, hills or small mountains poked up barely high enough to clear the horizon. At odd intervals throughout the lush prairie, an occasional tree sprung up from the grass line, but other than these anomalies, there was no visual distraction from the flowing sea of green stalks surrounding them.
Above them, streaming wisps of white cloud streaked the pale blue sky like accidental swipes of an artist’s brush. Directly overhead, a ball of white light blazed cheerily, shining too brightly to be the Earth’s sun. Two ghostly moons floating barely over the horizon to their left offered another, though unnecessary, clue that Leon and his companions were no longer home. Everything else, however, seemed normal. The gravity felt right, there was sufficient air to breath, and the temperature remained comfortable, if maybe a bit chilly.
The eight survivors of their original group of ten, stood in a circular dirt clearing about ten feet in diameter that appeared to be the starting point of a dirt path. Or perhaps it served as a terminus depending on the traveler’s perspective. The path was wide enough to allow three people to walk abreast without difficulty, and it ran in a straight line toward the distant hills with such unwavering precision it could only have been created artificially. The dirt beneath their feet was level and packed down smooth, and the greenery terminated at the sides in a sharp, manicured edge. This was no animal trail created by the random passage of mindless creatures over time. The road was deliberate and carefully crafted. It also did not appear to have a visible ending, running as far as the eye could see until simply disappearing into the distance.
Leon turned to find that the door behind them had already disappeared. Unlike in the past when the door had melded into blank wall, this time there was absolutely nothing to show that a door had ever existed. There was no wall, and no building or structure of any kind to see, only more of the endless grasslands drifting in ripples as the wind brushed along the tops of the flimsy stalks.
“We, home, are?” asked Shoo, glancing toward Hiss.
Hiss touched a hand to his chin. “Similar, perhaps. But no, I think. Not home. This, another test, is.”
Annie moved a step closer to Hiss. “Are we in danger?” she asked in a quiet voice, not wanting to draw attention to herself from anything that might be lurking in the tall grass.
“Always,” Hiss replied unhelpfully. “But danger, subjective, is. The last test, survival, was. This test, mental ability, will be. Cleverness, intelligence. I think. But I, certain, cannot be.”
“So, you think this challenge will be to see if we can think our way out?”
“Yes,” agreed Hiss.
“But there could also be a trap right in front of us that kills us all.”
“Yes.”
Annie nodded to herself and stepped forward onto the path. Her lips pressed together into a thin line and her forehead furrowed with determination. What she was thinking was obvious as they were all contemplating the same thing. If this test was a trap, at least by staying on the path they might have a moment to see it coming before it snapped closed. It was the most obvious route to take, so also the most likely to be the location of an ambush. Still, it seemed preferable to wading through the grass where they would not be able to see where they were placing their feet. If they had to get past some nasty surprise to move on to the next phase of this test, they were going to come face to face with it eventually no matter which direction they went; they might as well take the path of least resistance. Literally.
Annie looked over her shoulder at the others milling behind. “Okay, then. Like Potato Boy said earlier, the only way out of here is to move forward.”
Hiss and Annie went first, following the direction of the path. Shoo and Kack stepped into line behind them. Michael, Sofia, and Leon formed the next small cluster of travelers and Malcolm kept to himself at the back of the procession.
Leon plodded along with Michael to his left and slightly ahead, and Sofia on his right. He walked with his head down, watching
his tennis shoes as they slapped the compacted dirt over and over. The ground was hard packed to the consistency of dried clay, so there was little dust raised by their passage. There was only the noise of heavy footfalls padding and sliding against the tiny loose rocks that littered the pathway. He let the sound fill his mind, focusing on the repetition of it like a hypnotic mantra that would drive away the thoughts that were churning his mind to soup.
The horrors of the past few hours left Leon dazed and depressed, and he was terrified of what might still come before he could figure out a way to get home. If he got home. He pushed that black thought away. Leon knew if he let the fear and shock take over, he weakened whatever remaining chances of survival he had. He needed to focus on what came next and figure out how to move forward despite the parts of him that wanted to curl up into a ball and scream himself hoarse. For now, listening to his own footsteps and closing out the rest of the world for a few minutes was the best he could do.
Focus would have to come later.
“So, you’re Leon. Is that a family name? Or did your parents pick it for some other reason?”
Momentarily sucked out of his reverie, Leon looked up to find Sofia staring at him, her dark brown eyes intent and worried. For him? Or for all of them? he wondered. Sofia must have seen him disappearing into himself and decided she needed to do something to bring him back. That, or she was wrestling with her own inner demons and talking was her way of dealing with them. Then he realized she had asked him a question. Something about his name, but the words were already lost in the desert his mind had created. “Um, no. Wait. I … I’m sorry, what did you say?”
Testing Grounds (On Dangerous Grounds Book 1) Page 8