In the ruins
The ancient city around us was enormous, but every building had deteriorated from age, leaving only hollow husks ready to collapse. Far more surreal was the lack of sound, light, and the living. The dilapidated structures would have been impressive to see before they were destroyed at the beginning of the Great Gender War.
I chose a spot out in the open, away from crumbled stones, then rolled out my fur blanket, ready for another night under the stars. Aberym decided against a campfire, given our location, something I actually agreed with him on.
Eno dropped his backpack beside me. 'This is your bag, where's mine?'
'No,' I replied, pushing him away. 'That is yours, it has a hole in it, remember?'
'Kids,' Aberym whispered, before shushing us. 'Stay quiet around here. We might not be the only visitors in this place.'
'Other pilgrims like us?' Eno whispered back.
'Necrolisks,' I answered, and Eno's eyes widened in shock.
Aberym sat on a fallen, crumbling column and pulled out the map from his bag. 'We'll be fine if we don't give them a reason to leave their nest and come to the surface. Sacet, sit with me.'
I rolled my eyes as I wandered over. 'More revision? What's the point in remembering the settlements if I can't open portals anymore?'
'Just sit.'
I groaned and plonked down next to him. He unfurled the map and pointed at an unlabelled location in the Unclaimed Wastes.
'Fort Promise,' I answered with a drawl for the thousandth time. Anticipating his next question, I went on to describe the location. 'There's a giant stone statute of their chieftain in the village's centre, and a fountain below filled with flowing spring water.'
Time passed; the sun was setting. Eno stared at the evening stars, probably coming up with stories for them. Meanwhile, Aberym and I were still at it.
He pointed at yet another settlement. 'And tell me what you remember from–' He stopped mid-sentence, for all three of us could hear an odd, whining echo throughout the ruins. It grew louder, coming closer.
An aircraft emerged from the distant rooftops, equipped with bright, swivelling searchlights. It was flying low, and as it approached our courtyard, it slowed and descended. A ramp was already winding down on its rear. We had been spotted.
'Run!' Aberym yelled over the wailing engines.
I snatched up the backpack at my feet, not bothering to pick up anything else, and bolted into the nearest structure with the others. The entrance led to an underground tunnel, which extended into the darkness.
My sweaty hands grasped at the rough stone passage walls as I twisted and weaved around the corners so as to not lose momentum. The ceiling above thundered and shook as a rain of laserfire fizzled through the stone.
Aberym howled from behind, causing Eno and I to stop.
'What is it?' I said as we turned back, my words echoing down the long, narrow passageway. 'Come on!'
He stood, gently swaying from side to side as he stared at Eno. His hand was on his stomach partially covering a growing stain of blood. The old man leant forward and knelt upon the grimy cobblestones. We could see the laser's entry wound, a hole larger than my fist through his clothes.
Eno clenched both his teeth and fists. 'Come on, Grandpa!' He pulled on my arms. 'Quick, portal us all out!'
I shook my head. 'I can't, you know I can't!'
'Save him... get out of here!' Aberym implored between choked breaths. He locked onto my eyes. 'You know... what you have to do.'
Our grandfather's coherence was fading fast. A slight reassuring grin grew upon his face, but it was quickly replaced by a pained expression.
Amassing footsteps resonated from beyond the thin veil of dust the chase had stirred.
'I'll slow them down,' our grandfather said. 'Go!'
With great difficulty he searched his belt underneath his tattered robes. He pulled out his last grenade and gave us a nod.
'Grandpa!' Eno screeched.
But he had already pressed down on the grenade's switch. The sound of footsteps rang louder.
I suddenly felt lost. My whole life, I had wanted to be free of the man, but not like this.
'Grandpa, we... we need you...'
'Go! Now!'
I broke out of my transfixion, pulled on Eno's robes, and turned to face the dim corridor ahead. My legs wobbled at first, but I forced myself forward with Eno in tow. We heard our grandfather's final battle cry.
As we ran around the nearest corner, an ear-deafening explosion shook the ground inside the tunnels. Stones and clumps of dirt broke free from the walls. We peeked around the corner to see. The whole chamber was filled with dust. Eno began to weep, and I covered my silent, horrified scream with my hand.
Several figures waded through the dust. Each was clad in the infamous silver armour of the female dominion, with transparent helmets and large rifles. The women saw us and gave chase again.
My eyes widened, and I ripped on Eno's wrist to make him follow. We sprinted into the dark, foreboding labyrinth of passages, with no clue as to where we were going.
More gunshots. The projectiles missed us and ricocheted off the walls. Strange, it wasn't laserfire this time? Maybe darts? They wanted us alive.
Eno pulled on my arm. 'Stop, Sacet!'
I hadn't noticed it in the dark, but we stopped just short of a large hole in the corridor's floor. There was a trickle of water below. We peered down through the gaping black maw and saw a large murky cesspool at the bottom. An ancient sewer system. The putrid black water below us bubbled.
My body was covered in sweat and my heart raced. This was our only escape.
'We have to jump,' I said.
'It's too dark,' he said, backing away. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
We had hesitated at the rim of the hole for too long. The first soldier had rounded the corner with her weapon raised.
'S-stop!' she said. I could see her face clear as day. Her bottom lip trembled as she nervously stepped forward.
I grabbed Eno with both arms and dove in. We leapt just as the rest of the soldiers caught up.
As we fell, I threw my arms across my face and took what I thought would be my last breath of fresh air. We crashed into the cold water, and it felt like falling head-first through a glass window. The impact took my breath away.
I thrashed my limbs to face upright. I latched onto Eno's collar before kicking to the surface.
We both gasped for air and looked up at the tunnel. The only light that illuminated this dark cavern streamed in from above. It was much brighter up there by comparison. A soldier approached the edge and peered down into the abyss.
There was another tunnel entrance on the far side of the chamber, and so with Eno's robes still in my grasp, I began to swim towards it. The smell down here was revolting; it was the smell of decay and mould. As we paddled, my feet touched the floor of the pool, and we waded through the shallows.
Our pursuers were assembled on the rim of the hole, watching us make our escape. Their faint voices echoed into the lower chambers. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I knew what their discussion was about. Like me, they knew what was down here. But they weren't going to jump.
Eno and I trudged ashore. The air was humid and reeked of death, but we both panted deeply anyway. Adrenaline coursed through me.
I rummaged through my backpack, hoping to find my torch.
'Ahh! This is your bag, see?' I said, opening it and showing him the hole.
Eno was still catching his breath. 'Then where's... yours?'
'You left it up there, didn't you?'
'Me? It was your bag.'
Splash!
Our attention whipped back to the bog. Water spouted in all directions from another impact. I started to panic, my chest thumped once more.
I gestured towards the tunnel. 'Come on!'
As we dashed down the passageway, a bright light shone from the water. It illuminated the path and cast our frantic silhouettes on the broken passageway stones. The tunnel ahead was long and empty. I could almost sense the woman training her weapon upon us.
Click!
We didn't stop running. Had her weapon jammed? No time to speculate.
'Come back!' she yelled instead. She kept the light trained on us. 'Don't go that way!'
But it was too late. We had already rounded the corner and were out of her sight. The soldier sounded young, perhaps close to my age.
I gripped Eno's hand tightly. He was shivering. I paid careful attention as I pulled him through the pitch-black tunnel. I dared not run at full speed as I didn't know what we might crash into in the darkness.
Our pursuer closed in, her light revealing our path again. Holding onto Eno with one hand, I put the other out on the wall to feel my way around. The muck oozed through my fingers. The overpowering stench had grown worse as it wafted in our direction, causing me to retch.
Eno was slowing down. 'I'm scared.'
'I know, I am too,' I replied. 'But I'm not going to let them get to you, okay?'
'It's getting too small in here. I don't want to die. Can't we just surrender?'
I didn't want to think about what they might do to Eno, being a male.
I could barely see him anymore, but I could hear him sobbing, and I could feel his wrist shaking in my hand. This was the worst place a claustrophobe like him could be right now, but we didn't really have a choice.
The light on the walls in front of us flickered and grew brighter. As we passed each corner, the soldier's light guided us clearer than before.
We reached the end of the corridor and entered a cave, its floor covered in bones and mucus. A small shaft of light came in from the cracks in the cavern's ceiling. On the far side of the cavern there was another stone tunnel, but it was much higher than I could reach. We would need to climb to get to safety.
There were small tremors beneath our feet. Eno and I sprinted straight for the wall, each step of our feet crunching the bones of long-dead victims. My clammy hands tried to grab onto the rocks but they were too slippery.
A soldier came out of the stone tunnel behind us and stopped. 'Raise your hands, slowly! I'm going to get you out of here, but you have to trust me.' It was the same hesitant girl from earlier.
It didn't bode well for her if she was trying to capture us this way. I was right earlier; her weapon was malfunctioning. I stepped in front of my brother.
'Sas, you have to teleport us,' Eno whispered as he huddled against the wall.
'I can't!' I snapped back. I looked past the girl to the only exit. The other soldiers hadn't caught up yet.
The shudders of the cave became more obvious. The soldier spun around and gasped as they noticed the bones. 'Come on, quickly!'
One of the monsters erupted from beneath the ground between us. It raised its pincer-like claws into the air. Its shell shook and shivered, as if giddy with the impending bloodshed. Its head dipped towards me. Memories of my last necrolisk encounter flooded back. I couldn't move.
'Get us out of here!' Eno yelled, pushing me in the side. 'You can do it, I know you can!'
We couldn't die like this. I looked up at the tunnel above again.
A scream, followed by a burst of laserfire from the soldier's weapon caused the hideous creature to squeal and turn away from us. Each shot cast a shadow of its curved, segmented torso and spiny legs onto the cavern walls. The shadow's legs skittered up and down as the creature rotated to face her.
A lucky shot to the creature's head downed it for good. She backed away to the where she had entered, but another necrolisk burst from the ground, spraying flecks of dirt everywhere and cutting off her retreat.
I had no choice now; I had to create a portal to safety. I closed my eyes and weaved my fingers in circular motions. The flux of stale air changed around us. I focused both on the collapsed tunnel above and on a point a few steps in front of us.
The soldier screamed again. A pack of the towering creatures congregated around her. The cave trembled as more of them surged out of the hive tunnels nearby. The nearest beast swiped at her, but she narrowly avoided it.
I was ready. The portal opened with an otherworldly hum; a small circle no wider than my body appeared beside us. The wall behind it was obscured, replaced with a view of the collapsed tunnel. All we needed to do now was jump through the hole and we would be teleported up to the tunnel.
The soldier fiddled with some of the switches on her weapon and fired. Instead of more darts, flames burst forth, wreathing the necrolisks and lighting the chamber with intense orange. But the fire only delayed them. She was done for.
'Help me!' she begged as the creatures corralled her towards a wall. 'Please!'
I thrust Eno forward through the floating circle. He tripped into it and landed on the solid ground on the other side. I followed him, jumping through the portal, gripping onto its rim briefly as I landed in the tunnel.
Now that we were safe from the necrolisks, I closed the portal by clenching my fingers back together. We were standing precariously on the broken tunnel's ledge, which was now far above the necrolisks. The doomed soldier's options were waning.
This wasn't right, where was her backup? Why did she sound like she was trying to help us earlier?
One of the largest creatures struck at her with its gigantic claw. The strike shattered off a piece of her chest armour and sent her flying. Her body crashed against the wall with a sickening crack and she fell to the dirt. Her weapon rolled out of her hands onto the now bloodstained cavern floor.
She was still alive. I could save her with another portal if I wanted to. Wait... why? She and her kind were my enemy. I wasn't a soldier like her, not anymore. Her people hunted, killed and enslaved the nomads.
'Sacet?' Eno said, looking up at me, eyes wide. 'What are you thinking?'
I couldn't take my eyes off the helpless girl. What if it was me down there? Why couldn't I just walk away from this? It was as if the logical part of my mind had been switched off.
I made my decision. Now that my powers had returned, I felt invigorated. I focused again and twirled my fingers in circles. The air around us whipped through the dark passageway. The necrolisks were gathered around the soldier's lifeless body and raising their claws into the air for the killing blow.
A portal appeared above me and another below the soldier's body. I stared upwards at the circle and braced my arms out in front. The soldier fell through and into my arms. The sharp necrolisk claws snapped and slashed their way into the hole, but they withdrew them as the portal shrank and disappeared.