The Uktena

29. Escaping This Nightmare (Emmet)

Hearing Ro say that they couldn't hear was concerning, but understandable. The explosions were enough to leave my ears ringing, and Ro had also used a shotgun, which means they got a double whammy of hearing damage. I grabbed their shoulder, trying to get Ro to look at me.

"What?" Their raised eyebrow made me start to regret bothering them.

'Maybe we can get out of here soon.' I wrote the note onto a notepad I took from the shelf. 'We made it out of this alive, and that means that we don't have to worry about the Uktena or Inola trying to kill us anymore.' I really hope this is true, otherwise I'm giving Ro false hope. Ro took the notepad away from me, writing something down before they handed it back to me.

'I lied about there not being a window. There is one, but it looks more like a peephole in the door and a couple spots on the wall. You can look through any of the ones on the wall with the door to see if the smoke cleared up any.' Ro looked beyond exhausted as I read the note. Why are they shaking so much? We won, they should be happy.

I stepped off the table, slowly moving towards the door. Move quietly, if you were wrong and that monster is still alive, you don't want it to know we're here. My heart was racing as I got closer to the door so I could look out of the peephole. Just look through the hole, it won't kill you. Hopefully. I took a deep breath and looked through the small glass peephole.

There was still a ton of smoke, but it didn't look like anything was actively on fire. That should be a good sign, right? I hated feeling unsure of myself, but I didn't think we could afford to not be afraid of what could happen to us if the Uktena was still alive. I still didn't understand what had happened, or why Inola would try to get us killed, but I had to deal with everything that was going on now. No matter what happens, I just want to escape and not have to worry about dying at twenty-freaking-four. I haven't had anywhere close to enough time alive to be ready to die.

I switched to one a peephole directly to the left of the door. The body of the giant snake with antlers and wings was terrifying this close up. The blood pooling below its body was pitch black, like someone just dumped a black hole under its body and made it impossible to get through. I focused on the Uktena's breaths. Slow breaths, with the blood continuing to pour out of the hole between its wings. Every few breaths would have one that stuttered, with black blood gurgling out of the bullet wound. It's dying, but not dead yet. The relief hit me like a ton of bricks. We're going to make it out of this hellish nightmare.

There was a hand on my shoulder. I spun around quickly, trying to spot where Ro had gone. With a finger to their lips, Ro was trying to tell me to stay quiet. Right, we don't want to be noticed. They then pointed at the floor beneath the door. What the- What is that? That can't be the blood, can it? I reached for the notepad, writing my last question quickly.

'Yes, and the blood is venomous. The only person I know of to have killed an Uktena got hit with a drop and a snake grew out of that spot. We need to get up onto the tables again.' Ro's note was terrifying but it made sense that the blood would have some type of curse on it.

'So, what do we do now?'

'We wait for the Uktena to finish dying, then we get out of here, and take the diamond.'

'What diamond?' Ro took some time to think before writing the note and handing it to me.

'The ulun'suti. It should be about the size of a shotgun slug. Since we killed the Uktena, it rightfully belongs to us. I want to use it to help the tribe, and make sure that we can actually get out of here safely. We need to take it after the Uktena is completely dead.' Ro looked at me expectantly while I read the note,