We walked down the tunnel in silence. Only the distant sounds of cars rolled in the background.
Larry walked directly behind me, carefully examining the walls of the tunnel. Suddenly, the opening sealed. We were stuck in pitch black. I heard a shift in fabric as Larry turned.
"Can you make a light or something?"
I concentrated, drawing in the light from my surroundings. I was left with nothing. "Nope. There's no light around for me to take in."
I could feel him raising his eyebrows, getting nerdy. "So your power is determined based off of the gathering of particles in your environment?"
"Um, yeah. Sure. Do you, like, a flashlight or something?"
"I didn't feel the need to pack one beforehand."
I sighed and began to feel the wall. Slowly, we progressed forward. Once in a while, Larry would accidentally bump into me, causing the aura to break out, giving him a slight shock. Luckily, the aura also caused us to see visibly for about three seconds.
As we continued to stumble along, I suddenly caught a hint of light. I felt my way forward and came across a torch. I breathed in a sigh of relief and took in the light. The flame quickly extinguished, but I was left with a ball of light. Grateful for the ability of sight, I led the way down the corridor.
Suddenly, my leg broke through the soft dirt. I yelped and tipped over, slipping into the darkness. Then, I was jerked up by a sudden stop. I looked up to see Larry grabbing on to the top of my coat. I dangled on the edge of the gaping hole. Then, slowly...
The aura began to form at my feet.
Oh, come on. Not now. Anytime but now.
I could see Larry sweating as the aura passed my arms and started stretching to the end of my coat.
Finally, it hit his hand. The shock from the aura was enough for Larry to wince and to drop me. I screamed as I plummeted to the bottom.
The wind whisked past me as I continued to fall through the air. I forced myself to take deep breaths. It was fine. The aura would protect me from dying.
Then, I heard it. Larry's scream. I strained against the wind, turning and watching Larry tumble after me. It looked like he had jumped after me. My heart started pounding. I found myself beginning to panic. I could survive if I landed because of the aura, but he wouldn't.
I began to struggle in the air, trying to find the position that I would fall the slowest in. Meanwhile, Larry continued to scream and try and make his way to me.
I could sort of see the bottom. There was a dim light near the bottom. I struggled ten times faster.
Finally, we got close to one another. I grabbed onto his sleeve and pulled him in a tight embrace.
When we landed, we bounced a couple of times before we came to a scrambled pile. I coughed and started to get up, massaging my ribs, before I was met with a sword to my neck. I turned to see Larry in a similar situation. I scoffed, grabbed the blade, and stabbed the monster guarding me. I turned and slashed at another one. One monster quickly slashed at my shoulder, but the aura rebounded the blade and sent it flying across the room. I swiftly cut his head off.
"Stop, or your friend here will get it." I stiffened as the knife at Larry's neck was pressed closer to his neck. I was about five paces away from him, so by the time I got there, Larry would be dead. He kept very still, breathing shallow.
"Just come peacefully and we'll-" He was cut off by Larry elbowing him in the stomach, whirling the sword around, and impaling the monster behind him. The monster choked and slowly disintegrated into dust.
An alarm went off on the wall. I turned to Larry, who shrugged, one of his eyes dead. "I suppose it is a race now."
We ran down the halls, killing all of the reinforcements that came to take us out. We ran past many rooms, none of which contained Brandon, and had some narrow misses.
Soon, we were at a fork in the road. I nodded to Larry and took the left. A draconae leaped at me. I ducked, sidestepped, and slashed her in the chest. I ran into another and tackled her to the floor, stabbing her with her own sword. I picked up the sword she was using, got a grip, and chucked it at the third. The flat end caught her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. I ran over and slashed her to bits.
We converged at a room in the middle. Larry had lots of reinforcements behind him, chasing him down at a quick pace. We met at the center and stood back to back, swords ready, as reinforcements flooded from all sides.
There was a slow clap. I turned to see the man that had killed Jessica, the one from the beginning of the trip who'd separated us in the first place. He had a smile on his face.
"Valiant. Valiant effort, you two. And I have to thank you for coming. I thought this may happen."
"We are not going down. Not today, S."
He looked surprised. "Why, Larry, I had no idea that you felt that deeply. Last I checked, you were a coward."
"That was before I found out that you were using a mode of torture that we have long since forsaken. For shame, S."
He shook his head and grinned. "One with the Eye and another with the Eye's protection. It will be hard to break you two with these troops, indeed. Luckily, I have a solution."
He snapped his fingers and two draconae slithered forward. They dropped a body on the floor before returning to their original positions.
