Crais(26)

“Looks like we’re about to find out,” Lucas said as the tribal leaders disappeared into the darkened entrance.

We were close behind them, and everyone crowded into me. We tripped over each other, but it was easier to maintain my shield. Our footsteps echoed off the rock walls as we continued our dash. Even after removing my glasses I still couldn’t see any further than about ten yards in front. I just hoped we were heading in the right direction. Lucy gripped my hand tightly; without Walker abilities, she’d have almost no vision.

Shouts could be heard in the distance. We increased our speed before emerging into an open space. I threw out my free arm to halt everyone at the edge of the room. The mossy lights illuminated the chaos that was reigning before us. The tribe members we’d followed leapt around attempting to fight off a dozen men who had long blindingly white hair. The nomads stood taller and more muscled than the tribespeople, their skin a shade of burnt red like the dirt outside.

“Do you think we’re far enough underground to breathe the air?” Lucy asked.

She was bouncing on her feet like she did before fight-class back home.

I shifted my eyes to her. I’d been in plenty of fights lately, but clearly Lucy thought she’d been missing out.

“I have no idea, but we should test it out. I nominate Lucas,” I said as I turned and shoved him out of the shield.

He stumbled into the clear space next to us. Talina gasped and Lucy snorted with laughter. I watched closely. If he struggled to breathe I was totally prepared to extend the shield, I swear.

Lucas glared at me before closing his eyes; I think he was counting to ten. Opening them again, he nodded to indicate it was fine to breathe the air. I slowly retracted my energy. The air had that dirty ash taste to it again, much worse than anything I’d experienced. But if I breathed shallowly it was bearable.

“You should give a guy some warning the next time you’re trying to kill him. It’s only polite.” Lucas bit the words out.

“Don’t be a little baby. If I was trying to kill you, you’d know about it.”

Lucy’s cough interrupted our bickering. “You two fight like an old married couple. And seriously, what is this crap we’re breathing? My lungs actually hurt.”

I faced Lucy and Talina. “Make sure you two let me know if it’s too much for you to handle.”

“It’s not pleasant, but I seem to be doing okay,” Talina said.

Now that we had established our ability to breathe we turned back to the scene. Many of the tribesmen were looking down and defeated. The nomads were clearly the dominant fighters. They used no weapons that I could see, just hand-to-hand combat.

Jordan and another tribesman were working as a team, throwing each other into their opponents to knock them down. It was clever, but definitely required huge levels of control and acrobatic ability. Otherwise they could just as easily hurt themselves. Had all the rock climbing given them those necessary strengths and skills?

Before I could stop her Lucy took off. She dodged around the main group of white-haired men, who were giants compared to her. Once she was in the centre she used her small stature to her advantage, ducking around and taking out the unsuspecting nomads’ legs.

Within seconds she had shifted the advantage toward the tribes. I actually stood there dumbfounded for a moment. She was laughing her ass off as she punched, judo-rolled and crown-jewel-kicked her way through the white-haired men.

I knew I needed to get in there too, but her sheer craziness had me alternating between freaking out with worry and laughing my own ass off. Shaking my head, I gathered some energy the way I’d been taught and started firing off small balls of power.

It was hard in the semi-darkness to make sure I hit the intended target and not someone on our own side. I sent one off into a man who had been approaching Lucy from behind. She’d been too busy swinging off a nomad’s long white hair to notice. The man in question was furious, twirling around with fists flying, trying to dislodge her. He didn’t have a chance.

Her behavior had certainly upped in recklessness since the whole Samuel incident. Like the rest of us, she had a lot of anger to work through.

When I reached her, she stepped in back-to-back with me. We’d fought that way a lot and it worked very well for these large group situations.

“What are you doing, Luce?”

“I’m going all Chuck Norris on their asses,” she said as she launched off my back and two-foot-kicked a man in the head. “I don’t need a weapon; I am one.”

I was about to answer when I noticed a spectacle to my right.

“Where are our women?” Jordan bellowed as he repeatedly smashed a nomad’s head into the rock floor. “You keep taking them and we never see them again.”