Gods of Blood and Bone (Seeds of Chaos Book 1) Page 8

  I stared out, and then back to the four skeletons lying inside the room. “Unless they were moved here after dying, there’s a reason why they didn’t escape,” I muttered.

  I turned back to the bones and noticed something on the normal-sized skeleton’s arm. I slid it off and held it up. “Damn.” It was an old ID link, completely out of power. My heart beat even faster, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up in warning.

  I turned in a circle, searching for danger, but nothing had changed. I tried to fold the link to tuck it into my waistband and take it home, but it was as brittle as if it had been lying there for decades, and crumbled in my hands. I clenched my jaw and went to examine the other three, larger skeletons.

  All wore armor of some sort; one had a larger hammer, and the other a short, wide sword. I couldn’t lift either of them. But there were two bands crossing the empty chest cavity of one, and I dragged them off, shifting the heavy chest, arm, and skull until I had pulled them free.

  The bands seemed to be made from hundreds of pieces of metal, stuck together into straps. I examined them quickly as the feeling of danger grew, and the sweet scent of the flowers from the hall floated toward me. I looked around again, and knew that I couldn’t wait any longer. I slipped the bands over my head and positioned them across my chest in an X, like the corpse had.

  I stepped cautiously into the corridor, droopy petals crushing beneath my feet and releasing their perfume. Adrenaline flowed into my veins with a burn. Danger. Death was coming, I knew.

  I breathed heavier and started to run. The faster and farther I went, the more the sweet scent filled my lungs, and the more I shuddered with irrational fear. I bit the inside of my cheek while running, since my bottom lip was still healing. The blossom of pain and taste of blood distracted me from the danger for a moment, and I realized something was wrong. The panic was raging out of control, for no apparent reason. The farther I went, the worse it got. I knew something bad was ahead. I could feel myself getting closer to it as the instinctual sense of danger increased.

  I stumbled over a branching vine and fell to my hands and knees. The blue flowers puffed up their cloying scent, right into my face, and my heart squeezed so fast and hard I became quite literally lightheaded from fear.

  “The flowers.” I took another breath, and thought back to the safety of that small room with the skeletons. I knew I should go back. I’d be safe there. “Damn.” I stood up, grabbed my shirt’s sleeve, and ripped it off, then rapped it twice around my head, covering my mouth and nose like a mask.

  The flowers were messing with my head. Something in their scent made my brain think of death and torment. And as I went further, they grew thicker and thicker, and the fear grew worse.

  I started running again, gasping for air through the thick filter. It helped somewhat, and I was able to continue until the corridor grew so thick with flowers I had trouble moving. Finally, the hallway ended abruptly, and I stumbled into a large room with steps leading down from the outside to the center, like a coliseum, or a small version of a football stadium.

  I looked around and shuddered. The room was filled with new monsters, and they were all looking my direction. For a few awkward seconds, we all just stared.

  The corpses of strange animals littered the floor, some newer, and some old enough that the bones had been picked clean already. There were a few human skeletons.

  The monsters were short, close to the ground. The bigger ones had six stubby legs, three on either side of their grub-like bodies. Their heads resembled a retarded pug dog’s. Their eyes bulged out on either side of their skull, and their mouths dripped thick green slime.

  They had been slurping up the liquefied flesh of the bodies. Smaller monsters with no legs, the babies, wormed around like maggots, blindly sucking up the fleshy slush beneath them. I realized then that some of the carcasses were their own species, being cannibalized.

  One of them sniffled loudly, lifting its head as if to scent the air. Then it ran toward me, moving surprisingly fast on its six stubbly little legs. The other adults followed, mouths hanging open like happy dogs. Most of them were on the lower levels of the room, and seemed to struggle moving up the large steps.

  I didn’t wait for them to reach me and see what they would do. That much was obvious by the contents of the room. I turned and ran, heading sideways around the outside of the stadium, close to the wall and on the highest level.

  I heard the snuffling behind me from a grub-pug that must have already been on the top level, and ran faster, barely keeping ahead of it. I looked frantically around for an escape, and saw a door at the other end of the room.

  I felt something warm on the back of my calf and snapped from fear, just a bit. I took a huge leap out over the abnormally large steps leading down to the middle. Things seemed to slow down for a moment as I hung in the air, falling forward onto the steps far below. Then I was plummeting at full speed.

  I landed on my feet, but my legs couldn’t handle the pressure or the forward momentum, and I tumbled over. I came down on my back and flung out my arms to keep from rolling any more. I had probably hurt myself quite a bit with that little stunt, but there was so much adrenaline pumping through my veins that I didn’t notice.

  I’d put some distance between myself and the one on the top level, but conversely put myself closer to the ones still struggling to climb up from the bottom. I stood and ran forward, careful to maintain my footing on the vines and small plants that grew everywhere at this lower level.

  When I reached the far end of the room near the second doorway, I started up the stairs again, my thighs burning from the exertion of moving my weight upward at such a fast pace. When I reached the top, I used some of my precious air on a chuckle.

  The grub-pug on top had followed me down and across, but was now struggling along with the others to move up the steps below me. Its short legs scrabbled desperately before finally heaving it over the edge of a step.

  I pointed at it and spit. “Screw you! I’m not that easy to kill.”

  Of course, fate took that moment to show me the consequence of hubris. A sniffling sound came from the doorway behind me, and I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the huge grub-pug lunging for me. It sniffed and came for me at full speed.

  I turned and ran all the way back to the blue-flower doorway, then down and back up again, avoiding decaying bodies along the way.

  Some of the grub-pugs were thrown off, but more came through the doorway, and others seemed to catch on to my trick and ignore my descent, waiting for me at the top level. Soon, I found myself trapped on three sides, with my back to the outside wall. I was caught, too far away from either of the doorways to escape into them. Helpless rage took hold of me at the unfairness of my situation. I hadn’t asked for any of this, had done nothing to deserve it. My whole life I’d gone about silently, invisibly, never standing out or voicing the anger, irritation, and derision that filled my head.

  Now, I screamed at the monsters, a wordless shriek of challenge. Let them try and fight me, eat me, if they could. I wouldn’t hold back my rage at Death’s attempt to take me any longer.

  So I put my back to the curve of the wall and braced myself for the first one to come close. I was ready when it did. I kicked it in its drooling face as hard as I could.

  Its pug-nose squished in a little bit, and it fell back, dazed. Another came, and I did the same to it. But they were big creatures, and my kicks weren’t having much effect other than to keep them off.

  So I kicked harder. I slid my back farther down the wall, so that my legs could push outward rather than just down.

  The drooling, maggot-like monsters gathered around me, watching warily, and looking for a chance to rush me. Thick, slimy fluid from their mouths coated the stone floor, making it slippery.

  When I kicked them from my lowered position, they slid away. I was hoping to knock them over the edge, but then others that’d been on the lower steps heaved themselves up to the to
p level, and joined the others in pinning me to the wall.

  I let out a choked sob. There were too many of them, and I wasn’t strong enough.

  Then, one of them made a horrible snorting sound, like it was gathering up a stubborn loogie from the back of its throat. It spit at me, a wad of green slime flying forward and hitting me in the middle of my left shin.

  I shook my leg and most of its spit glob dripped reluctantly to the floor. But my pants were wet where it had hit, and they clung to my leg.

  Then another snorted, and another.

  I didn’t know what the heck the green stuff was, but the fact that they were standing at a distance and spitting it on me meant it couldn’t be good. I only had to look around to see it had to be a poison or acid of some sort. I highly doubted they were going for the gross-out factor.

  They aimed for my legs again, and I use my left shin to shield my still loogie-free right leg.

  The heavy fluid soaked through my pant leg and pooled in my shoe.

  I prepared for the pain of acid eating through my skin or at least something horrible. But nothing happened. Then I realized my lower left leg and foot didn’t hurt at all. I’d had blisters all over my foot and my calf had been absolutely screaming in ignored pain, just like my right leg. I tried to wiggle my left toes, but couldn’t feel them to tell if they’d moved or not.

  Blood rushed in my ears as I comprehended my situation. They would keep me pinned, and spit on me from afar until I was paralyzed, and then they would eat me, feeding their young on my dissolving, putrid body.

  “Screw that.” I spit back at the monster that’d spit on me first. Then I screamed, and pushed forward from the wall. I balanced on my good leg and used the numb one to kick out viciously. I pushed two down a few steps, letting them slip in their own green slime, and then limped after the ones still on the top level. I kicked one in the head hard enough that it seemed to grow woozy for a second, and I used the opportunity to shove it over the edge.

  The last one on the top level made the snorting, gathering sound again, but I kicked it before it could spit. Its head snapped sharply to the side and it stopped. It opened its mouth wide and rushed me, but I threw myself at it, stomping with all weight down on its head. My foot was so numb I couldn’t even feel the impact, but I saw it sink down in the blubbery creature’s head.

  I did it again and again, as hard as I could. My breath shuddered in and out of my lungs, and I sobbed desperately, a sound of fear and mindless rage.

  It had stopped moving, its skull thoroughly smashed in, its eyes bulging out even more. I stepped back from it and placed my back against the wall again.

  “I killed it,” I said to myself. And then again, “I killed it! It’s dead!” It was a giddy feeling. And when the monsters I’d kicked down a few steps reached the top, I killed them, too. I screamed defiance at them, a grin stretching my mouth painfully wide.

  More came from below, and still more from the far door, but their skulls weren’t designed for stability against hard impacts. I stayed in my circle of slippery, smashed carcasses, and killed my attackers with vicious kicks when they came close.

  I didn’t know how much time passed, but they stopped coming, and I realized that all the adults were dead, too stupid to realize my superiority and run away.

  I stood panting in the circle of squished-headed monsters for a bit, then limped away and sat down with my back against the wall. I leaned my head toward the low-hanging ceiling and laughed, and then started to cry. “I’m alive,” I whispered. I hadn’t thought I would be.

  Lethargy started to crawl over me, and I struggled to my feet. If I didn’t keep moving, I might fall into the sleep of exhaustion and never wake again.

  Chapter 9

  I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.

  — Oscar Wilde

  I walked through the far doorway and dragged myself up the huge steps of a dark stairwell. The remnants of light evaporated as I climbed, until I moved in absolute darkness. It frightened me at first, but as I went on, I lost even the strength for fear, and thought longingly of rest. My dragging left leg felt like a heavy log.

  I sucked on my much-abused bottom lip, and the quick spike of pain pushed through my foggy head like a fresh breeze. “Works like a charm,” I whispered into the blackness. I continued on, pinching or biting myself when I started to grow lethargic.

  By the end I was panting, my legs so worn that even the good one felt numb, and I couldn’t tell if my dizziness was imagined, or a result of over-exertion. The stairwell ended abruptly, and my face smashed into something solid. The pain made me jerk away, and brought me tingling back to a level of awareness I didn’t remember losing.

  I felt along the wall I’d run into. It was actually more like the ceiling. It slanted toward me, and warmth radiated from the stone in waves that felt soothing, despite the heat of my body. I pushed, and the stone slid away. Hot air wafted down on me, and I peeked my head up through the floor and looked around.

  The room was a compact cylinder with a low ceiling and images of different kinds of strange animals carved into the walls at regular intervals.

  No monsters appeared, and nothing happened. I spat as far as I could into the room and ducked down, waiting for a reaction. Nothing. So I climbed up the rest of the way into the room. As soon as I was in, the opening snicked closed behind me, as seamless as if it had never been there.

  Then the air around me let out a pulsing boom. It hit me from every side at once, and suddenly I was burning. Heat tightened my skin, and my dust dry eyes stung with tears that evaporated before they even wet my eyeballs.

  I screamed, but couldn’t hear myself, and ran mindlessly, trying to get away. I slammed into a section of the wall with a gazelle-like creature on it. The stone once again slid open, this time onto a room full of deer-like monsters, separated from the room I was in by what looked like a seamless sheet of water.

  A thin and muscular monster turned to look at me. It reminded me of a cross between a Chihuahua and a deer. Rather than hooves, two claws tipped each of its four legs. Its snout was long and pointed, and its teeth sharp. Two triangular ears swiveled around warily, and it ran towards me and stopped at what it seemed to judge as a safe distance.

  I pushed my fingers through the layer of water. They cooled immediately, and I had to resist the urge to plunge my body through, too.

  The creature let out a high-pitched chattering sound. “Tikitiktiktik!” Its eyes were locked on my own, and something about it, small bony frame and all, settled worry into my heart. It might be cute, if I didn’t know it wanted to kill me. Drawn by its call, others slipped into my line of sight, one after the other, until a crowd waited on the other side of the barrier.

  The taut skin of my lips cracked from the heat, and a drop of blood fell to the bands across my chest, then dried up and fell away like dust.

  I could fight the monsters. I couldn’t fight the heat. I stepped forward, and the absence of the burning felt so pleasurable I wanted to weep in relief. But I didn’t have time.

  I knew from their body language they were going to rush me all at once, so I made the first move. I stepped forward and crushed one of them under my left foot with one giant stomp.

  Its legs snapped out from underneath its body at a bad angle, and it died with a pitiful, high-pitched scream.

  I almost felt bad for it, until its friends jumped at me from all sides. Their little legs propelled them through the air as if they were made to run and jump. But unlike the delicate creatures they resembled, they were the hunters, not the hunted. Their legs clawed at my clothes, my face, and my arms, and their teeth ripped at my skin.

  They came at me from so many different directions I could only flail around and try to protect my head. But there were too many of them, and I was already weakening. I bled from a myriad of tiny slashes, and each time they sank their teeth into me, they tore loose small chunks of flesh.

  So I clenched my jaw and stopped try
ing to blindly protect my head. It was instinct to react defensively to something I couldn’t fight head on, but it was going to get me killed.

  A tik-tik was on my leg, biting into my thigh with its Chihuahua-sized jaw. I grabbed it by the nape of its neck and twisted with both my hands as if wringing out a washcloth. Its bones crunched and broke, and I used the body to bat away another that jumped at me. It slammed into the ground, hard, and didn’t get up again. Some were attached to my back, so I stumbled against the nearest wall and crushed my body against the stone once, then again, and again.

  Blood ran from me, and some splashed against the metal bands I’d taken, right in the middle where they crossed each other. Metallic scales rippled out from the center point in waves, rising like the back hair of a frightened cat. Then it tightened over me and the bands started to spread, the little scales filling in the gaps between the bands. In less than a second, my torso up to the neck and down to my waist was covered. I gave it a sharp rap of my knuckles, and it silently spread the force of the impact with a ripple of scales. “Freaking body armor,” I croaked. “Hell, yeah.”

  The creatures sank back for a second, wary, and a few of them let out that high-pitched “Tik tik!” sound again.

  I knew I needed to finish them quickly, before they overwhelmed me again. I was already exhausted, and losing blood to boot. So I lunged forward in attack, picking them off one by one.

  They wouldn’t run away, and instead encircled me, trying to keep me contained. I had the feeling they were stalling for time until reinforcements were drawn by their cute calls.

  I used the bodies of their dead against them. If a little deer got knocked over, I was on it, and it was dead before it had the chance to stand back up. I killed them, and kept killing them. They were so weak, compared to the grub-pugs.

  But more came, and more. They were determined, smart, and vicious. One would dart in and make a feint at me, while two more attacked when my attention was diverted. My torso was protected, but they ripped at my legs, arms, and head. Rather than latching on like in the beginning, they’d dart in to give small wounds, and then dart right back out to rejoin the encircling pack. They were like a pack of relentless arctic wolves, hell-bent on bringing down their prey.