Reunification (12 page)

How the monster roared in agony when my
knife cut through its flesh like butter! It staggered backward in
shock, perhaps too overwhelmed by the pain, as its lower arm fell
to the floor with a clatter. 'Twas a gruesome sight indeed, seeing
the yellow blood leak out of the stump that had been its arm, not
helped in the slightest by the awful stench of cow excrement that
followed. It almost made me gag, but I had no time for such
luxuries.

Instead, I advanced, swinging my knife at
the foul creature. The creature swiped at me with its good claw,
but it was an ineffectual strike, for the pain in its cut-off arm
must have been affecting its rationality, for it retreated just as
quickly as it had come at me.

What a foolish creature, thinking it could
escape me! I leaped forward, bringing mine energy knife sailing
through the air down onto the creature's head, but it dodged far
more swiftly than a beast of its size should have been able to.

Hence, when I landed on the floor, my
knife cut into the tiled floor. Not only that, but mine feet—as
bare as ever—found no secure footing, causing me to slip and
stagger for any sort of balance I could find.

The creature screeched again, making me to
think that it was about to assault me once more now that my guard
was down. But I was mistaken, for the creature merely retreated
further down the hallway, but as it did so, other beasts just like
it emerged from the doorways on the other side. It hid behind its
comrades, though I could still see the yellow blood oozing out of
its arm onto the floor at their feet.

There were now at least a dozen of these
monsters, though there could have easily been more. I managed to
find mine footing again, but rather than charge forward, I walked
backwards. Whilst I was no coward, I was no idiot, either. There
were too many of these beasts for me to handle on my own,
especially with my puny energy knife as mine only weapon.

The lizard monsters had no such qualms
about attacking me, however, because they began to advance on me
with the eyes of predators going in for the kill. I felt like prey,
although I chose not to dwell on those feelings in order not to
feel helpless.

“
Uh, Apakerec?” said
Resita behind me as I rapidly backed up. “What are you—”

I backed up through the doorway and pulled
the door shut as hard as I could. Methinks I bent the door when I
slammed it shut, but it mattered not, because I had far more
important things to worry about than a slightly bent door.

“
Quickly, bird,” I
snapped at Resita. “Aid me in finding something that we can use to
barricade this door! Before the lizards break it open!”

“
What?” said Resita. “I
thought you were going to come up with some brilliant plan to
defeat those monsters.”

“
Brother Resita, I am no
tactical genius,” I said. “Yes, I am a Knight of Se-Dela, but all
that means is that I have sworn mine life to protecting the
innocent and following the Laws of Waran-Una. Now hurry, find what
you can unless ye wish to spend the rest of your life in the belly
of a lizard!”

That seemed to do the trick, because
Resita ceased talking and began searching for anything he could
find. 'Twas hard to tell for certain, however, because of the
darkness of the stairwell, but I heard him rummaging around me
anyway, and I decided to join him. Two heads were better than one,
as I always believed, so what better thing for me to do than help
him find a way to barricade the door?

And lo! I remembered the concrete chunk
from earlier, the torn step. It was almost too dark for me to see
it, but I knew it still had to be there and I knew where to look
for it.

“
Resita!” I cried as I
felt for the broken step, ignoring the screeches of the lizards,
which were now too close for mine comfort. “Help me move this
broken step in front of the door! It shall be a fine barricade
indeed if we work together to move it!”

I heard the clicking and clacking of
Resita's claws along the floor as he scurried to aid me. The two of
us grabbed the broken step and began pulling and pushing it toward
the door, but it was as heavy as ten thousand mountains and was
like trying to move a sunken elvish warship.

Still, we put our whole strength into
moving this broken step. I internally called upon the Old Gods to
grant us the strength to move it, but I could not feel my bones
fill with their power. Were the Old Gods ignoring my pleas? If so,
then we were well and truly doomed.

But I did not say that aloud, because I
knew better than to jinx us. I simply continued to push and shove
as hard as I could, putting every last ounce of my strength into
this action. 'Twas hard to tell if Resita was working as hard as I,
but I assumed that he did, because I heard him huffing and puffing
like he too was putting all of his strength into moving this
step.

Praise be to the Old Gods! We managed to
budge the broken step just a little, but it was enough, for it gave
us the momentum we needed to push it all the way in front of the
door. Just as we did so, the lizards in the second floor crashed
against the door, yelling and screeching as they did so, but
neither I nor Resita stayed along enough to listen to their growls,
because we turned and ran down the steps back to the lower
floors.

Neither of us discussed what the next step
of our plan would be, because there was no time to discuss much of
anything. We just had to keep running down the stairs, perhaps all
the way down to the eleventh floor itself. 'Twas not much of a
plan, but there was little else we could do in this situation.

But just as we reached the landing of the
third floor, the door to the fourth floor—which was directly
underneath us—burst outwards. Light poured out of the doorway,
followed by monsters, more of those damn lizard-like beasts, their
hissing and screeching echoing loudly off the narrow walls of the
stairwell.

What awful luck had befallen us! Above, I
could hear the lizard-like beasts tearing through the door and
broken step; below, I saw, by the light from the door they had
burst through, more of the beasts already making their way up to
us.

“
Quick!” Resita said,
grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the third floor door.
“Through here!”

I did not argue with that. We burst
through the third floor door together and hastily shut it closed. I
found a metal pipe on the floor nearby and stuck it through the
door's handle, making a makeshift lock, though I doubted it would
last long once the beasts reached this door.

I looked over my shoulder at the third
floor hallway. Did look like the other two floors I had been on,
but without any lizard-like beasts to chase and kill us. Nay, it
was empty, with only half of the lights on, whilst the other half
flickered. 'Twas indeed an eerie sight to behold.

Even eerier were the corpses of Foundation
members on the floor, though there were fewer than there had been
back on the fifth floor. Not only that, but one of the corpses was
the body of one of the lizard beasts, which told me that these
creatures could indeed be killed, though it hardly mattered when
neither I nor Resita were in any position to kill these beasts
ourselves.

But neither of us had much time in which
to think about this. We just ran down the hallway as fast as we
could, Resita's claws clacking against the tile, mine own feet
slapping against them loudly. The floor was much colder here than
it had been elsewhere, but I did not complain about it because I
had no time to complain.

“
Resita! Where are we
going?” I asked as we tore through the hall. “Is there a secret
escape route in here that will allow us to avoid the lizards and
escape with our lives?”

“
Of course not!” Resita
snapped, glancing over his shoulder at me as if I was being dull.
“Don't be silly. This isn't the a telescreen play where the
protagonists always stumble upon the escape route that they need
when they need it. We're just going to have to hide in one of these
rooms and hope the monsters don't find us.”

I skidded to a halt when I heard him say
that. Resita also came to a stop, but whereas I drew mine energy
knife again, Resita did not even touch his gun. He just turned to
look at me, disbelief etched into his bird-like features.

“
Apakerec, what are you
doing?” said Resita. He jerked a feathery thumb over his shoulder.
“Weren't you listening to a word I said? Or are you Delanians that
dumb?”

“
Neither, my friend,” I
said, shaking my head. “I simply do not wish to run and hide from
our enemies. 'Tis neither honorable nor practical, for I am certain
that these creatures could find and kill us no matter how well we
hid ourselves. And as a Knight of Se-Dela, I would rather go down
fighting than hiding.”

“
Are you suggesting that
we fight the damn monsters?” said Resita. He clucked. “That has to
be the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say. I thought you
were at least smart enough to realize that this is not a fight we
can win.”

“
So says the scared
chicken,” I said. I turned around, holding my energy knife before
me again. “Ye can run and hide, if ye wish. But I, I will stand and
fight, even if it is to the death.”

As I said that, I caught a glimpse of the
lizard creatures' green skin through the tiny window in the door at
the end of the hall. Then I heard pounding noises on the other side
of the door, likely from the attacks from the monsters, although I
was pleased to see that mine metal pipe was holding it firm. How
much longer that would last, however, even I couldn't say for
certain.

“
Uh uh,” said Resita
behind me, his annoyance giving way to panic. “No way. You're
coming with me, big guy. No way am I going to hide alone. Not when
I'm about as good at fighting as you are at speaking
normally.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Resita
irritably. “Do not insult the High Tongue of my ancestors, bird.
Though I am not surprised; ye Xeeonites tend to be very jealous of
the beauty of our languages.”

“
Jealous? You're
delusional,” said Resita. Then his shoulders slumped. “But fine. Do
what you want. I'm going to find the perfect hiding place, but when
those monsters kill you, don't come whining to me about
it.”

I was about to comment about how silly
that idea was—after all, if the monsters killed me, I would not be
able to coming whining to anyone—but then Resita was off, running
down the hallway far faster than I had seen him run before. I
watched as he pulled open a door closer to the end of the hall and
vanished inside, slamming the door shut behind him as he did
so.

Do not get me wrong; I was still angry at
Resita leaving me behind to deal with these monsters myself.
Despite my words of bravery earlier, I was terribly afraid of these
beasts. I had seen the bodies of the other Foundation members, how
cold and stiff they were, and I could not help but imagine myself
looking like them once the lizard beasts were done with me. 'Twas
hardly an encouraging thought, for certain.

Yet the only other alternative was to run
and hide, but I doubted that would do us much good. As I said,
those lizards would likely find us no matter where we hid;
therefore, I was going to be a true Knight of Se-Dela and go down
fighting.

True, if I died here, then that would end
all of my chances of reuniting with Kiriah. But I knew I was going
to die either way, so I was going to die the way I wanted to, on
mine own terms, not on the terms of these foul reptilian beasts.
Perhaps I would be reunited with Kiriah in the next life, after she
dies.

Whilst I thought these thoughts, the door
at the end of the hallway kept groaning under the repeated blows
from the lizards on the other side. That metal pipe must have been
mightier than it first appeared, for it continued to hold even
under the constant pummeling from the lizards. The tiny window on
the door shattered, sending glass falling onto the floor with a
crash. One of the lizard creatures stuck its arm through the new
opening, waving it about wildly as if it thought I was near enough
for it to strike.

I held mine energy knife before me,
feeling its heat radiating from the blade. I positioned myself to
fight, but the floor was still too smooth under my unshod feet for
me to have any guarantee of finding the footing I needed for
victory. Likely I would go down quickly, unless a miracle of the
Old Gods occurred and saved me from the end I was destined for.

I thus prayed to the Old Gods for that
miracle, but at the same time, the door crashed down onto the floor
and the lizard beasts poured in, two dozen in all by my count. They
came as fast and swift as an invading army, holding their claws
before them as though they wielded powerful swords instead.

This was it. There truly was no way that I
could defeat them all. I merely tried to look as threatening as I
could, but already I could feel my bones turning to jelly. What
were these creatures? Just where had they come from? And what was
their ultimate objective?

I had no answers to any of those
questions, but I thought little about them. Instead, I charged at
the creatures, yelling the battle cry of the Knights of Se-Dela,
swinging mine energy knife before me wildly as I did so.

“
For Se-Dela!” I cried.
“For the Old Gods!”

The stench of the lizard creatures was
almost overwhelming now, but I did not allow it to keep me from
running at them as fast as I could. The lizards roared and
screeched and the closer I got, the more detail I saw on their
ugly, leathery faces and thin, twisting bodies. The combination of
their stink and their ugliness was by itself almost enough to
defeat me, though I persevered nonetheless.