Relias: Uprising (32 page)

 The guy who came up behind him slapped a hand on Hendrick’s shoulder and laughed and pointed to Muldoon. “That short temper is normal. He gets angry when his soup gets cold.” He shouted down the tunnel to Muldoon. “Douse the flames, you little Mary.”

 Muldoon glared at the man before he turned back to gather up his things that had scattered when the log tipped them into the hole. He knelt down and scooted all his things into a pile, his particle cannon, his food rations, his ammo, and an assortment of war-related objects.

 “He’s just a big pansy.” The man said.  

 He was a few inches shorter than Hendrick. His shaggy hair was thick with the dirt and grease and nearly concealed his eyes. He had a leather jacket on which did a good job of making his long, lanky body seem larger. But he could’ve been a good-looking kid if he’d cut that disgusting mop.

 “I’m Warren Pitt.” He said with a hand on his chest. “But you know that. You do, right? I’m sure Alighieri gave you a good description of us when you talked to him so I won’t waste your time with pointless intros.”

 Hendrick said nothing. Usually he didn’t have a problem sounding like a jerk but the kid seemed nice and he didn’t want Pitt to think that he didn’t even take the time to remember all their names. Hendrick shrugged with the hopes that Pitt would keep on assuming that he remembered them.

 Pitt laughed. “I’m Warren.” He said, slower this time sounding out every syllable. “War-ren.”

 Hendrick frowned. He knew that Pitt knew he had no idea who each of them were but getting caught in that position really pissed him off.

 “It’s fine.” Pitt said slapping Hendrick on the shoulder. He had no trouble picking up on Hendrick’s frustration. “That wonderful woman you see over there is Serenity Blake. She’s eighteen and
completely
legal. The girl over there that Tess is helping is Seraphine Leyen, a Durant-“

 “What makes you think that we know Tess?” Hendrick asked, nodding over towards her.

 “Several things.” Pitt said with a deep breath. “First I’m just gonna assume that you all are the Ditrinity because of the completely scattered bunch you are. Werewolf, Vampire, Half-Durant… nobody from those groups would ever get along like that. And there honestly can’t be many Sempryses in the world and I’m sure that Luke is somewhere close probably doing a good number on the Legionnaires that were chasing us.”

 Hendrick was amazed. The kid was actually smart. 

 Suddenly and entirely unexpectedly the ground began to shake. The tremors threw a few standing off balance and a few pebbles shook loose from the ceiling of the tunnel. Morlo yelled and threw himself to the ground. Everybody else became cautious but remained at a relative ease.

 “Earthquake!” Morlo yelled, his booming voice now deafening in the small space.

 Pitt put his hands behind his head and laughed with a pleased smile on his face, knowing that the quake was the result of a crashing Helio. “He actually took it down.” He said to himself. “Now I can say I saw it in person. Anyway, I think you already met Kristik, right?”

 Hendrick turned back and saw the portly Demolitionist pouting up against the tunnel wall. He nodded. “That I did.” He said. He walked back towards Vyvyr and Pontious and stepped on Morlo’s back. “Get up, man. Only little girls are claustrophobic.”

 Hendrick stood in front of them and pointed to Pontious. “This right here is Pontious Granlow. Werewolf, comes from Brún.”

 Rush formed up, standing in their own group as the introductions were made.

 “Then we have Vyvyr Syvyr. Pronounced Vee-ver See-ver. Hard ‘Y’s. He’s a vampire and a creepy one at that. This pulsating pile of flab is Morlo Greyhorn. Used to be one of the biggest clan leaders in the Barbarian culture and’s been workin’ with us for a long time. Then that indescribably and truly hideous half-Durant you see over there is Sable. We have no idea where she came from and she just showed up about twenty two years back and joined the crew.”

 Sable’s eyes went wide in offended shock. Hendrick winked at her. He hoped she picked up on the joke. She better, or else there’s no way she’d ever be secure about anything. If you can’t be completely secure with a curvy, perfectly built body and a flawless face then there was absolutely no hope for you.

 “So that’s the Ditrini-“

 “Where’s Trey?” Serenity asked as she stood up straight.

 He kept forgetting. The Ditrinity did feel like it was missing a person, which it was, but Hendrick had done a pretty good job of keeping that fact far from mind. He should have had a story pre-prepared, especially considering his little sister would be traveling with them. People kept bringing it up and Hendrick realized that, unless they wanted to have a solid sob fest everywhere they went then he’d have to do a bit of lying. Lying came naturally to Hendrick. He had one fast.

 “The Darks are migrating up towards Styne and Trey’s helping. Alighieri asked for at least one Ditrinity to stay back so he volunteered.”

 Hendrick’s explanation ended and, luckily, it looked like it had done the job.  Following his answer there wasn’t a trace of concern on Serenity’s face as she snatched up her travel pack and tossed it over her shoulder.

 “ Good.” Hendrick said with a clap. “Now let’s move. We have to get to a place where the roots grew above ground so we can climb out of here. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

 “I’m gonna have trouble walking through a lot of this.” Muldoon grumbled.

 Hendrick grinned and slowed his pace to put his between Morlo and Sable. “Better be ready to crawl then.”

 Pitt laughed and elbowed Muldoon in the side. “You can laugh at that.”

 The two groups walked pretty well separate from one another, walking in twos but moving to single file when the tunnels shrunk. And like Hendrick had joked there were points where Muldoon and Morlo had to get down and crawl. They had been crawling for an hour and in one of the larger caverns Hendrick reorganized the group; he and Sable would take up the front to keep them in the right tunnel while Morlo, Pontious and Vyvyr would follow up behind to ensure that nobody parted ways with the main group and get lost in the sprawling spider web of tunnels.

 The light was still dim in the tunnel and Sable’s eyes glowed prominently. She looked back at the rest of the group, all of whom seemed unconcerned with the current state of affairs and turned back to Hendrick.

 “You have no idea what we’re doing, do you.”

 Hendrick chuckled and shook his head. “No idea.”

 Sable nodded, not particularly anxious about the outcome. Again, Hendrick found himself surprised. Both her and Morlo had problems with tight spaces and they had no idea how long they’d be walking before they reached the surface or came to the end of the root system without finding a way out. It was one part of the plan that Hendrick hadn’t really considered; getting into the caves was the only thing he thought about. And for as long as they had been walking Hendrick was sure that they were far enough beyond the patrolling Legionnaires that they could escape without notice.

 The tunnels were starting to narrow down and they had to crouch once again to pass through. Sable pressed her hands up against the walls and narrowed her eyes in thought.

 “How far below ground do you think we are?”

 Hendrick hummed to himself and looked back. The tunnels had been sloping slightly downward for some time. It was hard to determine how deep they actually were. He didn’t tell Sable that though. If she knew that there might be a hundred feet of solid rock between them and the surface she might lose it. And Hendrick knew that a hesitant response from him would give her the answer that he was thinking so he was quick to change the subject. 

 “So once we’re out of here we’re gonna have to come up with something else.”

 Sable bounced the sagging rifle strap back onto her shoulder. “Then we have to find Luke… again.”

 “Heh, yeah.” Hendrick said. “But we better hope for a… Hole!...” He hopped over a large pit and kept walking. “We better hope for an exit soon or we’re gonna have to back track all the way back towards that Popus graveyard place where we broke into whatever hole we’re in now and hope that the Legionnaires aren’t sliding their cheesy crotch-plates all over it.”

 “So what’re we gonna do about it then?” Sable asked. “You know, if we can’t find a-“

 “HOLE!”

 Sable disengaged herself from the conversation and waited for the echoes to die down. Hendrick looked casually around the tunnel, waiting for her to continue. She didn’t.

 His eyes squinted in confusion. “…And?”

 Sable shrugged. “Well I was just going to ask you what we would do if we couldn’t find a hole to the surface.”

 “Dunno.” Hendrick said. “Chisel our way out or something. I’d tell Kristik to blow our way outta here but the shockwave from the blast would probably kill us in a tube like this and cause the tunnel to collapse.” He nodded back to Morlo. “Morlo’s got a custom battlehammer. Give ‘im a few days and he can pound our way out of here.”

 He lied again. It was then that it occurred to Hendrick that, in his efforts to keep people calm he was developing a bit of a lying problem. . This time Sable picked up on it.

 “No he won’t.”

 Hendrick shrugged. “No way in- HOLE!”

 Hendrick hopped over the particularly expansive hole and checked behind him to make sure the others made it over all right.

 “That one’d go down a ways.” Hendrick said. “You’d just keep falling and falling until it got too skinny and you just stopped and wondered what the hell happened.”

 “Hey, Henrick!” Came Kristik’s heavily accented voice from behind them.

 “You need a ‘D’ in there!” Hendrick shouted back. “What ya need?”

 “Fresh air!” Kristik said. “Fresh air n’  sunshine! Now!”

 “Just hang…” Hendrick trailed off as they came further around a bend. The darkness was thinning out substantially and the cavern opened up significantly. Hendrick could hear Sable’s breath ease slightly. Hendrick didn’t react much but his eyes revealed his approval. As they came around further a glowing hole appeared in the ceiling and shot a dusty beam of light down onto the floor. Puddles of water formed on the floor from years of rainwater that would never evaporate. More water from the surface ran down through the hole and streamed through thick patches of moss along the cave walls. Hendrick took a few steps further than Sable, turned in front of her and stopped.

 “Now that we’ve found a way out we can set up camp down here and take off tomorrow and let the Legionnaires clear out if there’re any more up there. Stay here and I’ll be back.”

 The idea of Hendrick leaving so abruptly came as a surprise to Sable and she made it sure that her disapproval was clear. She took off after Hendrick and reached him before he could climb out the hole.

 “Nate, you’re not going out there by yourself.”

 With one hand holding onto the edge of the hole Hendrick turned back to her with exasperation.

 “I’m not gonna be hangin myself out on a rope for some Legionnaire target practice I’m just going to go out, see where we’ve ended up and maybe see if I can find Luke.”

 Hendrick pulled himself up into the sloped tunnel and began to climb out. “Cause there’s no way he’s gonna- ow!” He said, his foot slipping down. His shin slammed onto the edge of the tunnel. “Ow! Mother of all… Just stay here, Sable. Make camp, tell some stories, and I’ll be back.”

 Sable nodded and said nothing. She stood there in her typical wide-legged stance and watched as he climbed up the hole, his feet slipping occasionally on the damp surfaces. After a minute of swift crawling, Hendrick pulled himself out of the hole, got to his feet, and disappeared.

 The rest of the group caught up to her and formed around her. They were all as pleased to see sunlight as she was. With Hendrick gone and Sable standing where he once was, Rush naturally assumed that she had taken his place as leader of the Ditrinity. But Kristik and Muldoon still remained defiant and tried to separate themselves from the group as much as possible.

 “We’re gonna have to grease the crap out of that hole.” Said Morlo, using his hands to gauge its width. “What’s Nate doin’?”

 “Scouting.” She said, setting her gun on the ground on going off in search of a place to lay down. “Find a somewhere to sit down. We’re camping ‘til he gets back.”

 Night had fallen hard across the Byfayne mountains and a heavy rainstorm was moving in. The trees bended beneath the harsh winds and a dark grey spread across the sky. Leaves and dust caught up in the brutal gusts and shot through the woods like rough-cut projectiles. Blowing across the tunnel in the ground the wind whistled and howled, the discomforting ruckus bounding off the walls and into the cavern below.

 Rush and the Ditrinity spread themselves across the tunnel floor. Both groups, with the exception of Muldoon and Kristik, gathered around a fire that Tess had built on the floor with Elemental and a pile of dried sticks. Morlo had broken open his travel pack and had passed small food rations around to the group before giving Pitt extra rations to give to Kristik and Muldoon. Normally he wouldn’t have done that; Morlo didn’t like the two. But seeing as how the group had barely packed any food in their escape from Praemon they’d all be short on supplies in only a few days.

 They sat in silence for what could’ve been hours. After Hendrick took off there was very little talk. While setting up some sleeping areas Morlo tried cracking a few off-color and bluntly racist jokes that only Pitt laughed at

 Sable laid on her bedding which she had placed alongside the fire that Tess had made with Elemental. Laying on her side, Sable lost herself in the flames. It was the first full nights rest she’d have without any imminent threats. The brooding storm outside put her at an even greater ease. Even when she was little Sable would lay in bed and take comfort in the wind and rain that pounded on her bedroom window and get excited with every pale flash of lightning that bleached her bedroom walls with every strike. And listening to the brimming tempest above brought back all those memories, good memories. Even some memories where she was driven from her home by the First Legionnaire somehow found their way into the ‘Treasured Moments’ section of her heart. It didn’t surprise her though; those are the times when she first learned of Luke Semprys.