Linus Toria

Chapter 3

Manon was surprised. She did a double take. But the place where the girl had stood seconds ago remained empty. Although the time to examine her was short, Manon got a good eyeful and was now confident enough to describe the girl with the white headscarf in detail.

She was quite small, around 1,60 m with slender limbs. Her clothes were mainly in a sandy colour and way too big for her. They were flattering in the wind and reminded Manon of a ghost. Her face was concealed by her scarf and sunglasses protected her eyes against the whims of the desert.

Manon would have described her as delicate and young but something in the girl's body language made her reject those adjectives. She couldn't put her finger on what it was yet something intrigued her while screaming danger.

All in all she felt like she was about to meet her doom. Which wasn't unusual as she felt threatened by everybody outside of her team and sometimes even her teammates weren't spared from her trust issues.

At night, one moment she would wonder when they would betray her and in the next she would scold herself for thinking so little of her long-term friends. After all she had been working together with all of them for at least 30 years and they had yet to do anything to warrant her doubts.

„The ground swallowed her whole!", exclaimed Etienne stunned. In fact, the whole group was so stunned that nobody moved for a few seconds. Hence nobody noticed how lost Manon was in her thoughts.

Recovering quickly she answered: „I know but where did she go?" Etienne shrugged but Elodie explained: „No, it literally swallowed her whole by caving in or something like that" and started walking towards where the girl last stood.

Manon and Mathieu yanked her back at the same time, resulting in Elodie practically flying back against Etienne who was trying his best to reduce the impact. Mathieu looked like he was just about to scold her into oblivion as the ground started shifting again. They were dropping into the darkness before any of them could react.

The fall ended sooner than Manon expected. They had been falling for 3 seconds at most before her knees crashed against ground and she rolled forwards to prevent any injuries. Easier said than done with her rifle straped to her back. She still managed to get back on her feet but the motion was less elegant than she would have liked. Irritated by Elodie who was still screaming even though the fall had ended, Manon reached for her daggers, counted to ten and told herself to be lenient with her younger friend as she was 'just' a medic and not a combatant.

Luckily, Etienne got her to quiet down and they all took a moment to scan their surroundings. Surprisingly the chamber they were in was illuminated by torches. As the torches weren't that numerous a gloomy atmosphere was created accentuated by the dirt brown walls and the dirt brown ground. They were littered with cobwebs making the whole experience even more eerie.

She estimated the room's measurements to be about 10 x 10 meters while the ceiling was at least 10 meters above them. She couldn't say for sure as the torch light didn't reach that far. But according to the duration it took them to reach the ground they should have fallen for about 30 meters.

In moments such as these she was happy that her body and those of her teammates were genetically enhanced. Otherwise she wasn't sure they would have survived the fall at all. Lest uninjured.

Which led her to the next question: Where was the girl? She had to have one minute at most to get away before Manon and her friends joined her in this dark chamber. But there were no traces of her. Manon promised herself to keep an eye out for the girl. And for Gaspard. Maybe they just found the reason for his mysterious disappearance.

Manon heard Elodie take a deep breath and was sure the younger woman was readying herself to start a tirade about the spookiness of this place when Mathieu ordered the whole team to be quiet and get in formation.

Within a second they had all assumed their positions and started moving towards the chambers only exit: a long corridor ending in a steep winding staircase. Manon as the substitute-substitute scout hurried a little ahead and peeked down the staicase after signaling to Etienne that the corridor was safe to cross. He arrived by her side and gave the same signal to Elodie who was followed by their leader Mathieu.

Downstairs she could hear voices and laughing. Mathieu commanded her to explore further ahead and she started sneaking down the endless stairs. Fortunately, they were chiseled in stone and she didn't have to worry about them making any unwanted noises. The deeper she went, the brighter it got until she stood in front of a doorway leading into a similar room. The end of the staircase was still not visible.

Before she could go further down she had to make sure that there were no threats in the room that would stab them in the back. Keeping to the shadows she peeked inside the bright room. At first its brightness blinded her and she couldn't make out anything. After a few seconds her sight recovered.

Nothing but a fire pit was in the middle of the room projecting its wiggling dance against the walls. A strange creature with the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion and wings was dancing around it while singing and laughing with different voices. The sight was very bizzare and Manon felt her hackles raise.

She couldn't understand its singsong as it was neither english nor french but she still felt very uneasy seeing such a monster so happy. During the war she had learned that a content monster was a clear sign of a tragedy about to happen or having already happened. In this case she hoped bitterly that it was the former.

Just as she was about to turn around and return to her team, movement in the furthest corner of the room caught her eye and made her halt. Over there, in the only corner that was dimly lit, laid two crumpled figures. One of them was the girl from earlier and the other was her missing friend and legitimate second scout of her team.

Relief about finding him flooded her system and she had to surpress the urge to run up to him and check his condition. He appeared to be alive but appearances could be deceiving. She had to keep working professionally until they were out of the danger zone.

This whole scenario had reminded her of many times during the war when other allied teams suddenly went missing. Back then not one of them ever came back. Manon strengthened her resolve that Gaspard would receive a better fate.

If only so that he could come back and resume his post inside the team. Gaspard, for sure, wouldn't have made the ludicrous mistake of almost overlooking the people they were searching for. But what could she say? Her specialities were hand-to-hand-combat and everything that had to do with technology. Scouting was out of her expertise.

The girl and Gaspard both seemed to be unconscious but the latter was starting to wake up. Fortunately, the monster hadn't noticed that yet.

Having seen enough she made her way back upstairs towards her leader and the rest of her team to report her found.