Blade. Scrapper. Part 6.. Damantha Makarova
but, thankfully, her helmet was equipped with night vision and she could see that they ended up in some sort of a cave. Glancing up, she saw how tall of a tumble they took before they ended up where they were now.
«Shit!» she cursed, swaying from a nauseating wave of dizziness, and hoped to get someone on the communicator. «Reaper? Wraith? Do you copy?»
The signal returned with a heavy interference, and Serena looked up, trying to understand why the signal wasn’t reaching her ship or other devices.
«The fuck did we get ourselves into?» she whispered.
Wincing at the headache pounding on her temples, she flicked Lindon’s helmet off and noticed his head bleeding. But, at least, he was breathing, which was a good sign. She looked down at his belt and suddenly realised that not only his – her own stims were missing. There was only one syringe left on her belt and the woman sighed heavily, understanding that Lindon needed it more. She injected him with the stimulant, feeling a nauseating wave coming over her.
Fortunately, they didn’t lose their blades, so, at least, Serena had some way of defending herself and the unconscious man.
Taking her helmet off, she realised how dark it was, but the fresh and chilly cave air helped her push down the nausea and get some idea of where the exit could be by the way the air moved slowly through the cave system. She hoped that she wouldn’t get lost in the labyrinth.
It took her a couple of minutes to collect herself and flick the helmet on again to see where she was going. Then she picked up Lindon, essentially carrying him on her back to try and find a way out.
«Just hand on, there…» she whispered, knowing that Lindon didn’t even hear her.
She first checked the way they fell through, but soon realised that she wouldn’t be able to keep Lindon on her back and ascend the extremely steep slope ahead. So the only way to get them both out of there was to carry him with her – wherever the fresh air would lead them. Serena wished her communicator would work – this way she could at least tell her crew where they were. But without comms, it was only up to her to get Lindon out to safety.
Walking through the cavern, and then entering one of the tunnels – the one, where she felt the fresh air flowing – Serena couldn’t help, but think that if Lindon wasn’t hurt, they would have been able to move faster, and, perhaps, get out the same way they got in.
Still, she moved forward, carrying Lindon on her back, even though she felt dizzy and nauseated. But, knowing that the man could be badly hurt, she couldn’t wait for him to wake up at all.
Step by step, stumbling through the darkness that reigned in the cave system, she walked from one tunnel to another, each time taking off her helmet to ascertain where the airflow went, so that she could find somewhat of a way out.
Time passed so slow, and so painful that Serena had to make stops every now and again – to rest a little and collect her bearings again before carrying on the road that seemed to lead nowhere. Each time she took her helmet off, she wished she could see in the dark – just like Wolfin – because it was distracting to check the airflow all the time, and not really seeing where to go.
Finally, she came across a cavern with two tunnels leading out of it on the opposite side.
Feeling her head spinning, she carefully lowered Lindon down by the wall and took a breather, regaining her strength and collecting her bearings once more. The nauseating dizziness that was coming in waves made her irritated, but she knew that even if she had any injuries of her own – Lindon was by far in a much worse condition. And with the time that passed by, she was beginning to worry if his wounds were even more dangerous than she thought at first.
Taking her helmet off, she breathed in the thick, cold and moist cave air. This helped her a bit, and the throbbing pain in her head subsided just a little.
«Fuck…» she exhaled, frustrated at the whole situation.
Suddenly she heard a distant skittering, which seemed to come closer in a matter of seconds. Jumping to her feet, she reached to her throat to activate her helmet again, but an immense impact threw her back. Hitting the wall behind her, she grimaced from the blunt blow to her skull, but managed to activate her helmet again and unclasped her blades, seeing a number of creatures around her and Lindon.
The smallest insect-like creature with jagged appendages and two rows of short spikes running up its spine jumped to the man, aiming to drag him away from Serena, but she stepped aside, barely avoiding a slashing hit one of the creatures tried reaching her with.
Serena felt her blades meet with the agile legs of these creatures, cutting through the hard chitin armour they had. The loud screech the wounded monster gave out made Serena wince – it was piercing and hit her hard, making her headache flare up. She missed another hit that scratched against her armour, and gritted her teeth, jolting forward.
Slamming into one of the creatures and piercing it through its mouth, the woman twisted around and sliced apart another. While busy with those two, the third one managed to grasp Lindon’s leg, but Serena jumped back and finished the creature’s existence, hitting it with her blade across the body.
Looking around, she noticed another similar beast crawling deep into the tunnel.
«Fuck…» Serena clasped her weapons back to the belt and stepped to Lindon.
Another – stronger – nauseating wave sent her stumbling to her knees. Grasping at her helmet, the woman took a few breaths before hoisting Lindon onto her back again to get out of whatever lair they got into.
Fortunately, when she chose the tunnel the creature did not crawl into, no one followed.
Pushing through the dizziness and weakness, slowly washing over her, Serena walked for some time, making distance between them and whatever the cave dwellers were. For a bit it seemed like there was no end to the tunnel she took, but then, suddenly, it parted and Serena stepped into a much bigger cavern than before. Something caught her eye, and she slowly stepped forward, tensing up.
As soon as she approached the edge of a small cliff, she saw piles upon piles of bodies.
Among them were some of the smaller cave creatures, but when Serena descended the slope to this giant underground cemetery, the animals scattered, spooked by someone alive appearing among their feeding grounds.
The sight was horrid, filling Serena with a sense of dread. She tried not to think of the putrid air that couldn’t reach her nostrils through the helmet.
Serena looked at the piles and felt her breath becoming pained and shallow. She was shocked, without a doubt, but knew she would need to pass through this cavern.
Forcing herself to walk on, she couldn’t help but look at the bodies of children that weren’t even yet assigned their armour pins. Haphazardly thrown, the piles consisted, without a doubt, of children – not older than 14. Boys, girls, most of them clothed in typical Academy attire, they lay there – rotting, bloated and pale blue.
They were barely starting to learn the ways of war – too young to carry anything, except the shorter, kids’ versions of Veluthian blades. If at least one such weapon could be found among these corpses, then Serena would have means of identifying the group that perished.
Serena felt a shudder running down her spine and suddenly remembered that she was carrying Lindon. Swallowing a heavy lump in her throat, she saw a narrow path between the piles and headed through it, trying hard not to look at the faces of children that will never return home. But, however she tried, it was impossible not to.
Stepping over a mutilated boy, she noticed a few bodies stripped of their attire. Stopping for a moment, Serena studied the cuts that ran on their bodies. Someone deliberately dissected them, taking out organs and samples – only to drop the corpses in this cavern.
Passing a few more piles, she saw a wide space cleared of bodies, but when she approached