(Previous)
Needle-like
teeth found my hands and bare spots on my arms.
I feared they were going to reach my face. The swarm of black swarm
swept through the cave and beyond it I could see something larger -- human
shaped, but not necessarily human.
I
shook the creatures off my arms, brushed them from my shirt and hoped they
didn't reach my face. I stomped a
few. The others had to have gotten far
enough down the cave by now --
Only
they hadn't. Beth leapt forward, Edmond
in her hold, and began stomping the creatures as well. At first I thought they must have gotten cut
off, but then I realized that they simply were not leaving me behind.
They
were putting themselves in danger for me.
Beth
yelped when one of them bit her hand.
Edmond let out a growl and leapt down, despite my cry of protest. He launched himself into them and his teeth
did good work, but they were too many and they were clinging to his fur --
"Get
back!" I shouted again.
And
this time they flew away from us, flying in a wind that hadn't been there a
moment before. I heard something larger
down the hall give a shout of surprise as well, but I couldn't see what it was
as the little black biters formed a cloud of destruction headed that way.
"In
here!" Beth said, grabbing my arm.
There was no sign of any of the creatures, at least alive, in the
area. Edmond limped back to me, limping
a bit, but otherwise looking quite pleased with himself.
Harvey
was pulling some boxes away from the wall.
They seemed to move oddly and I saw they were attached to a chain. Everyone was throwing themselves into the
little opening on the other side. Harvey
had to squeeze through with some difficulty, and that left Edmond, Beth and
I. Edmond was shaking his head and
mumbling something about playing mice.
He went in. I followed. Beth came last and pulled the chain so that
the boxes came back into place covering the opening. There was a good chance the enemy wouldn't
know where we went and would keep down the main path.
The
small tunnel through which we crawled wasn't too long and ended in a large area
with a ladder heading upwards. The
others had taken the chance to sit down and rest, though. I crawled through and found the first spot
against the wall I could. I was shaking
with exhaustion and reaction now. I
bowed my head. I must have just simply
gone to sleep because I only came awake again when someone pushed a sandwich
into my hand. I looked up and gave a nod
to someone who seemed human-like, and then bowed my head again, ready to go
back to sleep.
"Eat
the food, Mark," Edmond said, nudging my hand. "You've slept as long as you dare. We have to get moving again."
"Moving,"
I said, as though the word meant something dire. My legs ached.
"We
can't risk being caught in this hole," Beth said. She settled on her heals in front of me and
looked as though she thought she ought to apologize for something. "We still have a long ways to go. Can you move?"
"Yeah,"
I said. I stretched a little and
grimaced as I moved my hand. I could see
little bite marks on the skin, and it looked read and irritated. But that reminded me of what had happened. I thought back to the scene as I ate a bite
of the sandwich: peanut better and jelly, which made me smile.
"I
couldn't send the biters away the first time, but I manged it the second
time," I said. "No one was
really in danger the first time."
"Right,"
Edmond said. He appeared to have a piece
of chicken. They were taking good care
of him. "You really didn't have
anything to protect that first time. The
biters were not a real danger until they attacked. Before that, they were pretty much the same
as the rest of us."
I had
to think that one through. It meant
that, if we had gone in after the biters, my shout to stop would have backfired
and sent us flying. I dared not be the
aggressor. I wasn't by nature, but my
recent adventures were pushing me that way.
I was going to have to take better control of myself.
I put
Edmond inside my jacket as we started climbing up the ladder. He settled in with an oddly contented sigh
and I did my best not to hit his head on the metal rungs as we started to climb
up to . . . Somewhere. I still hadn't
asked anything like how far we had to go or what we would find.
I had
learned, I suppose, that there was no use anticipating what was out there. Besides, my worries were not about what as
going to attack us (and something would -- something always did), but what had
happened to Maggie, Davis and the others.
Part of me wished Edmond had gotten out there to find them, and the
other part was worried about what would have happened to Edmond, out there
alone in this damned dangerous place.
So
better that they would go together, I supposed.
Just
so long as I learned --
"We've
got trouble!" someone shouted from above them.
I
sighed. Edmond sighed. I started moving faster
"Ow!"
Edmond snarled, his voice muffled in the shirt.
"Sorry." I tried to be careful of his head again. He squirmed a bit. "Don't do that. You don't want to know how high we are."
"I
didn't need to hear that." He might
be trying to bury his head in my armpit.
"Edmond!"
But
we had reached the top. Beth pulled me
up and grinned. "Looks good. We have them right where we want them!"
That
sounded great.
Right
before the explosion shook everything.
To Be Continued. . . .
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