The Proteus Trilogy: Book One: Warrior

Chapter 12

The dragon looks me in the eye, and I know that somehow, he knows what I’ve been thinking.

“Your friend went down the left path,” He says quietly. I walk over to it, and right before I enter, I glace back. The dragon has gone back to his earlier state, lying on his paws and flicking his tail. I enter the new corridor, mind occupied with kicking myself.

So I’m almost killed then and there by a trap. I don’t sense it until it’s almost too late. A blade emerges from the wall, at waist height, and slices at me. I throw myself over it, landing on my shoulder. I roll to my feet, and check for any more traps of that sort, but see none.

I proceed cautiously down the corridor, senses alert now, ready for anything. The philosophical thoughts can wait. Right now, I have to find Bree and get out of here. I see that the way ahead is clear, and run down the hallway, turning left at the end. At each turn, the way is sealed shut behind me, forcing me onward.

I turn a corner, and end up in another room similar to the one the dragon was in, only this one has several shambling figures. As I get closer, I see that they are all human…sort of. Their skin is literally hanging off of their faces, and I can see horrible wounds on many of them.

Then turn to me, and start to move toward me. They emit a low groan, and I raise my sword into a defensive position.

“Oh, um, hey. I’ll just be getting over to that door over there, if you don’t mind.” I say, edging toward the door on the other side of the creatures. One of them gets too close, and I whip the blade at him, slicing his forehead. It cuts, but no blood comes out.

They start to spread out, trying to encircle me. I decide to preempt their attack, and charge toward the door, hacking and slashing my way through, leaving several of them lying on the ground. I break through to the other side, and come to the door.

This is an actual door, not just a doorway. And it’s locked.

I look back at the figures shambling toward me, and see the gleam of a key on one of them. I raise my sword and yell as I charge. Inexplicably, the ones I cut down, with seemingly fatal blows, are rising to their feet. I throw the dagger in my left hand, and it hits the lead attacker in the eye, dropping it to the ground.

I keep my distance from them. They aren’t armed, but keep on trying to grab me and bite me. I stab one, and it pulls itself down my blade, arms reaching for me. I place my foot on its chest, and pull my blade out.

I whirl and behead another one of them. That one, at least, doesn’t get back up. I back up, sword swishing back and forth, stabbing at different enemies. The one I hit in the eye isn’t getting up either. It appears that the only way to kill these…things, is to hit them in the head. Armed with this knowledge, I go on the offensive, ducking, weaving and hacking. Finally, I get to the attacker with the key. It’s on a bracelet on his hand. I slice the arm off at the elbow, and then behead it.

It slumps to the ground, and I take the key, arm and all, with me toward the door. There are still four or five others, but they keep their distance. I use the key to open the door, and rush through, slamming it behind me.

The room I’m now in is even stranger than the one before it. The walls and floor seem to be made of some kind of colored glass, of all different colors.

I walk forward, and the glass breaks, the pieces falling down and out of sight, into a dark abyss. I back up, and see what color I’m standing on. Green. Experimentally, I step toward a green one. It also breaks. Finally, I tread on a yellow one. It doesn’t shatter. I narrow my eyes, thinking about what comes next. Then I put my weight onto a red one, which holds.