Subterra Heart

Chapter 23: Connor Rocha

Since when had a girl as small as Tess learn to punch like that?

Connor lay on the ground, groaning. He'd fallen on his bad shoulder when Tess hit him, and his cheek throbbed. He wiped sweat and tears from his eyes and stumbled to his feet. His head kept hurting and his stomach lurched. The walls spun briefly as wild blue flames flashed in his vision. Damnit. He needed his parlin.

The tunnel's blazing walls beat down on him. Kuar burned slowly, but it also burned hot, and it was getting hotter by the moment in this place. The air stung his lungs. He had to get out of here before the fires ate up all the oxygen.

"Tess!" he yelled. But his voice was raspy, and she was already far ahead of him. Shit.

Bastet had never explicitly told him how to kill a Dweller, but she'd been nervous enough whenever he'd flicked on his lighter. And even as unhinged as Tess seemed now, that girl had acted with a purpose when she'd set this tunnel on fire. He grimaced. Fire would kill a Dweller. Got it. Great. As much as Connor hated the idea of sacrificing people to Fenrir, he liked the idea of countless Dwellers raiding Heart even less. The city wasn't prepared for that.

Talking Tess out of killing him had been a stupid idea. He couldn't let her burn off Heart's best protection.

"Tess!" he yelled again, and stumbled into a run after her. He saw her reach the line of rotting, infected people, and he ran faster. Tess's fiery knife cut through them with ease. Limbs flew through the air with the stench of burnt flesh. There was a hole in the wall of bodies. Connor's feet thudded hard against the hot tunnel floor. He could make it through that. He had to get past them before they regrouped.

But he was too slow. Connor made it to the wall of infected people, but they were already crawling back together, filling in the gap that Tess had left. Gasping skulls and the foul, sickly scent of decay confronted him. The skin of one person's face had slid off, leaving behind shiny white cheekbones beneath blackened eyes. Black dust poured from its mouth and the raw gaps in its body. A festering hand grabbed his leg. Another grabbed his bad arm with slippery skin. He couldn't even feel the pain anymore – he was all adrenaline, struggling to get free. But the air was hot, and it stunk, and he couldn't breathe, and his vision was going spotty, and more crumbling bodies kept piling on him, dragging him down. Black dust was everywhere.

A guttural scream pierced the air, and suddenly, the hold that the infected had on Connor loosened. He kicked his way free, sending limbs flying. They turned to dust in front of him. He looked back, and every last one of the infected lay still, falling to pieces. His heart was hammering in his throat.

Shit.

The tunnel was getting hotter. He couldn't turn back now, even if he wanted to. Connor ran forward and into a massive cavern. He was breathing heavily, and his headache and nausea had returned. A wide peninsula filled with low benches stretched out in front of him. The whole thing was covered in the blue glow of fresh kuar. Above were countless kuar worms, and far below lay faintly shimmering water. Connor grabbed a bench and sagged against it with shaking arms. He was taking deep breaths through his nose to try and keep from retching.

Directly ahead was a dead end. There was a raised platform and a stone throne. It was all aflame. Only skeletal shadows of bone were left seated there. Tess lay at its feet, and flames licked over her, lacing their way down the kuar-coated platform. In a few seconds, Connor would be caught up in a firestorm.

In the coming days, Connor would struggle to explain his next action. He was stuck between hot, hot flames approaching from the front and from behind. There was a sheer drop to either side of him and no telling how deep the water below was. His best bet would have been to leave Tess and climb down as quickly as possible. But that's not what he did.

Instead, Connor wrenched himself from the bench that was supporting him and sprinted up to where Tess lay. He hooked his good arm around her burning body, and dragged the both of them off the edge of the cliff. Together, they plummeted like a rock.

Connor didn't remember hitting the water. All he knew is that one moment, they were free-falling, and the next, they were below the surface of a massive lake. His chest was fighting for air, but he kept his mouth shut and forced his eyes open. The water around him was a neon, flickering blue. He looked up and watched as flames swirled and danced across the kuar that coated the lake's surface. It burned his eyes.

His mail shirt weighed him down, and he tried to swim, but he couldn't raise his bad arm. And then, as if suddenly remembering, it hurt. His shoulder hurt so bad that he nearly gasped. Bubbles escaped his mouth and nose. A hand grabbed the back of his shirt. It dragged him up through the water. There was a sudden burst of heat, and then he was on land. He was coughing and writhing on the ground, gripping his bad shoulder.

Above him stood Tess. Her clothes were in tatters, and she was missing most of her hair. Her skin was too shiny – whether that was from dripping water or burns, Connor didn't know. She swayed for a moment, and then collapsed.

"Tess!" gasped Connor. The world was spinning around him. His head still hurt, and the flaming lake was far too bright, but he crawled over to her and grabbed her wrist. There was a fast, fluttering heartbeat.

"Well, well," purred a voice from behind him. "This keeps getting morrre and morrre interrrrresting."

Connor whirled around to see Bastet. She was sitting far inland from the burning lake.

"Bastet! You backstabbing little –"

Bastet shook her head and made a little tsking sound. "Connor," she said, "You werrrrre fully awarrrre that you could not trrrrust me when you starrrted following me arrround. I was merrrrrely making decisions for my surrrrvival." She began pacing. Her tail flicked excitedly. The damn cat seemed altogether too happy for Connor's liking. "Fenrir disliked my existence just as much as yourrrrrrs," she continued. "By deliverrring you to him, I ensurrred that he would look favorrrrably on me...." She flicked her tail again. There was a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Orrrr he would be dead. Bug was hoping forrr the second option. She much apprrrrrreciates your prrrresence."

There was a long pause. Connor got hit with another wave of nausea, but he held it down and glared at Bastet. If she hadn't been using Bug's body, he would have thrown her into the burning lake. Instead, he took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Fine, whatever," he said. "We'll skip why you thought I'd know how to kill off a Dweller. Help me with Tess. You told me a while ago that some of the Anai were able to break free of the Dwellers influence. How? She gonna be ok?"

Bastet shrugged. "That is doubtful," she said. "The Anai were farrrr advanced, and they developed us to coexist with them. Even so, they went extinct without us Dwellers. You should cease any furrrrtherr hope forrr the human girrrrl."

Somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, Connor had hoped to get Tess safely back home for Marina's sake. He felt sick. For once, it wasn't just from Rochagorosis. He punched his thigh with his good arm, and his fist hit something solid that broke and bit through his pants. Connor hissed at the sudden, unexpected pain and looked down. Red liquid was seeping through his pocket's grey fabric. Blood? Connor blinked, and then he remembered. Not blood. Parlin. He was wearing the same uniform as when he'd last visited Ritty's Pharmacy. He still had the extra parlin cartridges that Marina had given him.

Immediately, he dug into the pocket, hoping against hope that he hadn't broken both cartridges. He cut his finger pulling them out. The broken cartridge still had a few drops of bright red parlin left in it, and a bit of Connor's own dark blood was smeared against its jagged edge. The other was still whole. He stared at the them, and then looked back to Tess.

"Ah, dark take me," he muttered, downing the last of the parlin from the broken cartridge and popping off the lid to the second one. He tilted Tess's head back and dumped the contents down her throat. Then, he sat back and waited.

Bastet watched him intently. The light from the flaming lake cast mottled patterns across her fur. "Humans arrrre such strrrrange crrrreaturrres," he heard her say.