Gods of Blood and Bone (Seeds of Chaos Book 1) (11 page)

The drooling, maggot-like monsters gathered around me, watching warily, and looking for a chance to rush me. Thick, slimy fluid from their mouths coated the stone floor, making it slippery.
 

When I kicked them from my lowered position, they slid away. I was hoping to knock them over the edge, but then others that’d been on the lower steps heaved themselves up to the top level, and joined the others in pinning me to the wall.
 

I let out a choked sob. There were too many of them, and I wasn’t strong enough.
 

Then, one of them made a horrible snorting sound, like it was gathering up a stubborn loogie from the back of its throat. It spit at me, a wad of green slime flying forward and hitting me in the middle of my left shin.
 

I shook my leg and most of its spit glob dripped reluctantly to the floor. But my pants were wet where it had hit, and they clung to my leg.
 

Then another snorted, and another.
 

I didn’t know what the heck the green stuff was, but the fact that they were standing at a distance and spitting it on me meant it couldn’t be good. I only had to look around to see it had to be a poison or acid of some sort. I highly doubted they were going for the gross-out factor.
 

They aimed for my legs again, and I use my left shin to shield my still loogie-free right leg.
 

The heavy fluid soaked through my pant leg and pooled in my shoe.
 

I prepared for the pain of acid eating through my skin or at least
something
horrible. But nothing happened. Then I realized my lower left leg and foot didn’t hurt at all. I’d had blisters all over my foot and my calf had been absolutely screaming in ignored pain, just like my right leg. I tried to wiggle my left toes, but couldn’t feel them to tell if they’d moved or not.
 

Blood rushed in my ears as I comprehended my situation. They would keep me pinned, and spit on me from afar until I was paralyzed, and then they would eat me, feeding their young on my dissolving, putrid body.
 

“Screw that.” I spit back at the monster that’d spit on me first. Then I screamed, and pushed forward from the wall. I balanced on my good leg and used the numb one to kick out viciously. I pushed two down a few steps, letting them slip in their own green slime, and then limped after the ones still on the top level. I kicked one in the head hard enough that it seemed to grow woozy for a second, and I used the opportunity to shove it over the edge.
 

The last one on the top level made the snorting, gathering sound again, but I kicked it before it could spit. Its head snapped sharply to the side and it stopped. It opened its mouth wide and rushed me, but I threw myself at it, stomping with all weight down on its head. My foot was so numb I couldn’t even feel the impact, but I saw it sink down in the blubbery creature’s head.
 

I did it again and again, as hard as I could. My breath shuddered in and out of my lungs, and I sobbed desperately, a sound of fear and mindless rage.
 

It had stopped moving, its skull thoroughly smashed in, its eyes bulging out even more. I stepped back from it and placed my back against the wall again.
 

“I killed it,” I said to myself. And then again, “I killed it! It’s dead!” It was a giddy feeling. And when the monsters I’d kicked down a few steps reached the top, I killed them, too. I screamed defiance at them, a grin stretching my mouth painfully wide.
 

More came from below, and still more from the far door, but their skulls weren’t designed for stability against hard impacts. I stayed in my circle of slippery, smashed carcasses, and killed my attackers with vicious kicks when they came close.
 

I didn’t know how much time passed, but they stopped coming, and I realized that all the adults were dead, too stupid to realize my superiority and run away.
 

I stood panting in the circle of squished-headed monsters for a bit, then limped away and sat down with my back against the wall. I leaned my head toward the low-hanging ceiling and laughed, and then started to cry. “I’m alive,” I whispered. I hadn’t thought I would be.
 

Lethargy started to crawl over me, and I struggled to my feet. If I didn’t keep moving, I might fall into the sleep of exhaustion and never wake again.

Chapter 9

I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.
 

— Oscar Wilde

I walked through the far doorway and dragged myself up the huge steps of a dark stairwell. The remnants of light evaporated as I climbed, until I moved in absolute darkness. It frightened me at first, but as I went on, I lost even the strength for fear, and thought longingly of rest. My dragging left leg felt like a heavy log.
 

I sucked on my much-abused bottom lip, and the quick spike of pain pushed through my foggy head like a fresh breeze. “Works like a charm,” I whispered into the blackness. I continued on, pinching or biting myself when I started to grow lethargic.
 

By the end I was panting, my legs so worn that even the good one felt numb, and I couldn’t tell if my dizziness was imagined, or a result of over-exertion. The stairwell ended abruptly, and my face smashed into something solid. The pain made me jerk away, and brought me tingling back to a level of awareness I didn’t remember losing.
 

I felt along the wall I’d run into. It was actually more like the ceiling. It slanted toward me, and warmth radiated from the stone in waves that felt soothing, despite the heat of my body. I pushed, and the stone slid away. Hot air wafted down on me, and I peeked my head up through the floor and looked around.
 

The room was a compact cylinder with a low ceiling and images of different kinds of strange animals carved into the walls at regular intervals.
 

No monsters appeared, and nothing happened. I spat as far as I could into the room and ducked down, waiting for a reaction. Nothing. So I climbed up the rest of the way into the room. As soon as I was in, the opening
snicked
closed behind me, as seamless as if it had never been there.
 

Then the air around me let out a pulsing boom. It hit me from every side at once, and suddenly I was burning. Heat tightened my skin, and my dust dry eyes stung with tears that evaporated before they even wet my eyeballs.
 

I screamed, but couldn’t hear myself, and ran mindlessly, trying to get
away
. I slammed into a section of the wall with a gazelle-like creature on it. The stone once again slid open, this time onto a room full of deer-like monsters, separated from the room I was in by what looked like a seamless sheet of water.
 

A thin and muscular monster turned to look at me. It reminded me of a cross between a Chihuahua and a deer. Rather than hooves, two claws tipped each of its four legs. Its snout was long and pointed, and its teeth sharp. Two triangular ears swiveled around warily, and it ran towards me and stopped at what it seemed to judge as a safe distance.
 

I pushed my fingers through the layer of water. They cooled immediately, and I had to resist the urge to plunge my body through, too.
 

The creature let out a high-pitched chattering sound. “Tikitiktiktik!” Its eyes were locked on my own, and something about it, small bony frame and all, settled worry into my heart. It might be cute, if I didn’t know it wanted to kill me. Drawn by its call, others slipped into my line of sight, one after the other, until a crowd waited on the other side of the barrier.
 

The taut skin of my lips cracked from the heat, and a drop of blood fell to the bands across my chest, then dried up and fell away like dust.
 

I could fight the monsters. I couldn’t fight the heat. I stepped forward, and the absence of the burning felt so pleasurable I wanted to weep in relief. But I didn’t have time.
 

I knew from their body language they were going to rush me all at once, so I made the first move. I stepped forward and crushed one of them under my left foot with one giant stomp.
 

Its legs snapped out from underneath its body at a bad angle, and it died with a pitiful, high-pitched scream.
 

I almost felt bad for it, until its friends jumped at me from all sides. Their little legs propelled them through the air as if they were made to run and jump. But unlike the delicate creatures they resembled, they were the hunters, not the hunted. Their legs clawed at my clothes, my face, and my arms, and their teeth ripped at my skin.
 

They came at me from so many different directions I could only flail around and try to protect my head. But there were too many of them, and I was already weakening. I bled from a myriad of tiny slashes, and each time they sank their teeth into me, they tore loose small chunks of flesh.
 

So I clenched my jaw and stopped trying to blindly protect my head. It was instinct to react defensively to something I couldn’t fight head on, but it was going to get me killed.
 

A tik-tik was on my leg, biting into my thigh with its Chihuahua-sized jaw. I grabbed it by the nape of its neck and twisted with both my hands as if wringing out a washcloth. Its bones crunched and broke, and I used the body to bat away another that jumped at me. It slammed into the ground, hard, and didn’t get up again. Some were attached to my back, so I stumbled against the nearest wall and crushed my body against the stone once, then again, and again.
 

Blood ran from me, and some splashed against the metal bands I’d taken, right in the middle where they crossed each other. Metallic scales rippled out from the center point in waves, rising like the back hair of a frightened cat. Then it tightened over me and the bands started to spread, the little scales filling in the gaps between the bands. In less than a second, my torso up to the neck and down to my waist was covered. I gave it a sharp rap of my knuckles, and it silently spread the force of the impact with a ripple of scales. “Freaking body armor,” I croaked. “Hell, yeah.”
 

The creatures sank back for a second, wary, and a few of them let out that high-pitched “Tik tik!” sound again.

I knew I needed to finish them quickly, before they overwhelmed me again. I was already exhausted, and losing blood to boot. So I lunged forward in attack, picking them off one by one.
 

They wouldn’t run away, and instead encircled me, trying to keep me contained. I had the feeling they were stalling for time until reinforcements were drawn by their cute calls.
 

I used the bodies of their dead against them. If a little deer got knocked over, I was on it, and it was dead before it had the chance to stand back up. I killed them, and kept killing them. They were so weak, compared to the grub-pugs.
 

But more came, and more. They were determined, smart, and vicious. One would dart in and make a feint at me, while two more attacked when my attention was diverted. My torso was protected, but they ripped at my legs, arms, and head. Rather than latching on like in the beginning, they’d dart in to give small wounds, and then dart right back out to rejoin the encircling pack. They were like a pack of relentless arctic wolves, hell-bent on bringing down their prey.
 

But fear of death is a powerful motivator, and I refused to fall. I killed them until finally one let out a sharp “Tik!” and they all backed up a few steps and repeated the sound.
 

I made a feinting lunge toward them as if to attack, screaming with all the intimidation I could muster. My dry throat cracked, and my voice broke under the pressure, turning my scream into a growling shriek of bloodlust.
 

They jumped in surprise, and dashed away almost quicker than I would have thought possible, going “Tik! Tik!” in alarm.
 

After that, I took a long minute to just lean against the wall and rest. I knew I needed to keep moving. I knew that. But at the moment, I couldn’t. That scream had been a desperate attempt to scare them. And luckily it had worked, because no matter how much I wanted it to, my body couldn’t keep going without a break.
 

As I sat among the small carcasses, I felt elation roll over me. I’d won, with my own strength. I’d fought and won.
 

* * *

I sat near the entrance barrier and looked around the room. I’d been too busy with the more immediate danger to examine it before.
 

It was a section of the top of the building, cut somewhat like a piece of Bundt cake, the center being the heat-room I’d come from, and the other slices undoubtedly being filled with other types of monsters. There were three doorways in the far wall, each leading into darkness. But the small crisscrossing grooves lining the walls and the holes in the ceiling that let in beams of sunlight were of more interest to me.
 

I looked to the three doors, and then to the skylights, and then to the grooved walls. “Damn. I wish I’d exercised more.” With one last deep breath, I swallowed to moisten my still-dry throat, crawled to my feet, and hobbled toward the doors.

When I reached the outward facing wall I carefully avoided the doorways and the danger I knew would lurk somewhere on the other side. Instead, I wedged my fingers and toes into the slanted grooves in the wall, and started to shuffle diagonally upward. When I’d gone to the far wall, I carefully moved to a higher set of grooves and started in the other direction, inching my way toward the ceiling.
 

As I neared one of the glass-less windows, I realized it was eerily silent outside, and the faint smell of something else mixed with the light perfume of the air. When I’d entered the building, already there had been horrible screams, but they were absent now. When I reached the window and hauled my upper body through the opening, I discovered why.