“They’re about out,” Savage remarks.
“Go!” Sefina shouts to Savage and Leah. “We will hold them off.”
Savage hoists Leah up to his chest. She wraps her legs around him, and he leaps up the wall behind the last wave of our brothers.
A woman screams as she slips from a Brother. I see her flail and frantically adjust my position to catch her. But it will be a rough landing from such height.
Menace>>Savage: One falling!
Shifter>>Local: She let go! My stupid body… It pinched her!
Savage looks, launches off the wall, catches the woman with an arm, crashes into the wall on the other side, and swings her over his shoulder. Leah steadies her as they keep climbing. I sigh with relief.
Savage>>Local: Breathe, Shifter. It’s not your fault. We will design you a suit like Morbid’s. Everyone, check your charges. I cannot catch any more. No more accidents. We cannot afford them.
Bits of rock fall from my climbing Brothers.
Sefina drops to a knee beside me.
“Sefi…” I collect her as my vision lights up the tunnels from every direction with more welvirs than I’ve ever seen in one place.
“Get me up the shaft, but keep me below everyone about twenty paces,” she says, her voice tight.
Gathering her against me, I grab the rocks of the shaft and begin our ascent. All I want is to take my rifle and fire down at them, but I have to trust her. She is capable of something I don’t understand.
Sefina weakens in my grasp and lets out a frightened gasp.
I pause, steady her with an arm, then keep moving. “I’ve got you. You just do your thing.”
The snarling and scraping sounds of welvirs rumble closer, thundering up the shaft. I look up at my Brothers to make sure they are at a safe distance. “Ready.”
“Hang on,” she whispers as she clutches her head.
Welvirs start to climb after us, moving much faster with less weight hanging from them.
I launch us up another ten feet, dig my fingers into the rock, and bury my face in her silky neck. “Locked in. Do it.”
Sefina climbs up my body, hangs her head over my shoulder so her forehead points down, and lets out a horrendous pulsing scream.
Blue waves ripple down the shaft in faster ribbons, like she’s getting better at it. The vibrating echoes make their way up to my Brothers above us.
Several stop, turn, and look down like they’re in pain, too.
I wince as I endure her mind-shattering scream, but I refuse to give in to the weakness her defense system renders throughout my body. And as she quiets, so do the creatures below us.
Sefina falls completely limp, and I think she’s blacked out again.
“Sefi?” I climb carefully, adjusting her as she slides down my front. Unable to stop and strap her to me, I grab the chest strap of her weapon harness with my teeth and keep her steady as I crawl as fast as I can the rest of the way up the shaft.
Hang on, babe. Please don’t leave me here without you. I might just lose the last shred of sanity I have left.
