Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

24 - Collapse

Suddenly the ground beneath them shook violently once more and more dust and stones fell from the ceiling. It wouldn't be long before the whole temple came crashing down on top of all of them.

"Those quakes aren't gonna let up! We gotta go now!" Spatch yelled as he watched the roof begin to almost melt away on top of them. 

"No no no no no! Please no!" Quin cried as she fought desperately against the wall of rock that held her at bay. Kori's arm hung lifelessly next to her almost like it was reaching out to her, trying to grab her own hand. Not wanting her to leave. She flung rocks off the pile in a futile attempt to free him from his stone tomb. But there was no point. It would take an excavator to move all that rock. One little carcan wasn't going to break through it in a million years. 

She let out another cry, her heartbroken wail filling the air almost like a blanket.

Another tremor shook the ground and a huge crack started to form on one of the pillars that was still standing. It spread across the cylindrical stone like a snake constricting its prey.

"Quin? Quin we need to go!" Fischer called out as Ko helped him to his feet. 

The carcan payed no attention to her friends as she continued to claw at the rubble. 

Seeing that she wasn't going to leave even if her life depended on it, Spatch rushed over and hastily grasped her wrist.

"Quin! I'm sorry but we have to leave! This place is coming down around us!" He yelled urgently above the roar of the temple shaking itself to pieces.

"No, no no no!" she wept, trying to fight Spatch's attempts to pull her away. Seeing what was happening, Fischer quickly rushed over to help. 

"Quin, he's gone. He's gone buddy, we need to leave alright? We gotta go now, c'mon, he's gone," he explained in as soft a voice as he could muster.

He threw an arm around her stomach and the two of them began pulling the reluctant carcan away from the rubble as she cried out in desperation. Eventually she stopped struggling and sank into Fischer's arms, allowing herself to be dragged out of the way.

Just as they began to move, the cracked pillar broke apart and began collapsing down, slamming into the ground where they had been standing moments before and burying what was left of Kori's body.

They eventually came to the ravine where the bridge had stood before, but now there was only two tiny stumps of rock that jutted out from the sides of the smooth cliff faces.

"Fuck, how do we get across?" Fischer exclaimed as he stared down into the abyss.

"Up there! we can jump across from the statue!" Spatch yelled, pointing towards the huge alien sculpture's paws that extended across the gap. 

The four of the hurried over to the right side of the room and began clambering across the room. Spatch whipped up his right arm and aimed it up at the ceiling across the gap. In the blink of an eye, the device on his arm shot out a small hook with a thin cable attached to it, the same grapple hook he used to dive after Quin earlier. 

The device penetrated through the rock and became firmly wedged as three little claw like arms held on tightly to the rock. After a quick tug to make sure the hook was secure, he looked over at the group, more specifically, Ko. 

"Ko, c'mon. You get a free ticket. Quickly!" He urged. 

She hesitantly looked over at Fischer and Quin, trying to decide whether or not to stick with them.

"Ko!" Spatch yelled, growing increasingly concerned about the rocks falling all around them.

"Ko, go! We'll be right behind you, go!" Fischer yelled from atop the statue's paw. 

Eventually Ko followed through and rushed towards Spatch with the lantern in hand. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and with a big pull, yanked the two of them across the gap. Ko's retractable claws instinctively dug into Spatch's skin and she let out a terrified scream as they swung across. 

Spatch winced in pain as the zapher's claws buried into him but kept it to himself and they both landed softly on the other side of the ravine. 

Fischer and Quin weren't far behind and both jumped down off of the statue, Fischer tripping slightly as he fell. 

"We're not done yet, hurry!" The veranah yelled as they bolted towards the stairs.  

Fischer turned around and was horrified to see part of the cliff face crack away from the main part of the floor and tumble down into the abyss below.

Without any more distractions the group hurried their way up the stairs and out into the main part of the temple entrance. As they rose to the surface, the blinding light of the sun struck them like a flash-bang and they were all temporarily blinded for a few seconds. The roaring heat of the desert also returned and almost immediately it felt like they were being baked alive.

The four finally had some time to breath and realise what they had just made it out of. Quin sank to her knees and threw her hands up to her eyes, tears bursting from her face. She cried out in anguish and her bio lights were alternating between a deep shade of blue and black. 

Fischer had to pause for a moment as he took in what had just happened. 

Kori was dead.

Crushed under the weight on an entire temple falling on him. And Quin had a front row seat to it all. Each time she let out another wail it was like a vice was crushing his heart into pieces. He'd never seen someone this torn up since his father passed away. 

Ko silently kneeled down next to her and threw her arms around the weeping carcan. She immediately turned into her and began sobbing uncontrollably into her chest. Tears flowed from Ko's eyes as well as she held Quin in a tight hug. Fischer felt his jaw trembling as he watched. 

He felt sick, like there was a cauldron of horrid concoctions brewing away inside him, ready to force its way up his throat at a moment's notice.

Spatch stood to the side, silent as the wind. He hadn't know Kori for more than a few minutes, but he too was hurt by the loss of someone. He didn't need to know him to see how much Quin and the other two loved him. 

Suddenly the ground began shaking again. Behind the the temple's supports shook and cracked under their own weight. Spatch snapped out of his trance and looked around.

In the chaos, the group hadn't even realised what had happened to the land outside the temple. The huge rock pillars that towered over them before had been reduced down the piles upon piles of rubble and sand, cliff faces had been shaken off from their foundations and entire sand dunes had begun to collapse in on themselves. 

"Shit, this whole place is being torn apart. We need to get off world ASAP," Spatch exclaimed. "My ship isn't that far from here, we can use that. C'mon."

Ko gently helped a sobbing Quin to her feet and the four of the quickly hurried off to wherever Spatch had parked his vessel.

--\/--

"Up there! Not far now!" The veranah called as he pointed a finger up to a ship that was parked upon a little rock plateau.

The vessel looked rather similar to an osprey VTOL craft from Earth. It sported two stubby wings on either side if the top of the ship. Both wings had two pods angled down, presumably for thrust and VTOL capabilities. The front of the ship almost resembled the bubble cockpits of old Russian hind helicopters.

The four hurried themselves up, just as another quake shook the ground. Not wasting any time they boarded the craft and Spatch raced over to the pilot's seat. Rapidly flicking switches and pressing dials, he immediately started the engines and a huge ball of flame blasted out from both of the pods on the wings. The heat was so intense that the sand below them began to melt away and turn to glass. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking! We are getting the fuck outta here, so find your seats and plant your asses in 'em!"