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There are four pathways leading out of the cavern, not including the ledge we dropped down from. One of them has to lead us out. With a body to carry, the ledge isn’t our best option.
“They’ll come through this one,” I say, indicating the second tunnel from the left, the widest tunnel, naturally, where the growling sounds are the loudest. “Can you see anything down the other tunnels?”
The group disperses, trying the other surrounding tunnels.
“Captain!” Mandsy shouts. “I can feel a breeze down this one!”
The inhuman growls grow louder, uncomfortably close to us now.
“Run!”
Chapter 13
WE RACE FOR OURlives down the tunnel Mandsy found. Eventually, a small light appears ahead. Sunlight. An exit.
I glance over my shoulder. The cannibals aren’t in sight yet, but I’m sure it won’t take them long to discover which way we went.
I slam into Riden’s back. He turns and steadies me before I hit the ground, and I rub at my arms where I bumped him.
“Why are we stopped?” I shout at the same time I see the problem.
A cave-in. Sunlight filters through a small opening, not big enough for a person to fit through, not yet. The girls have their cutlasses out and are beating against the wall with their hilts.Deros tries to find handholds on the rocks to move them out of the way.
“Keep at it!” I shout to them.
I wedge my torch into the ground in front of me, draw my sword, and prepare to greet the ravenous men. Riden stands at my side, ready to help. We barely fit side by side.
“Here,” he says and hands me his sword while he reloads his pistol. “You weren’t joking when you spoke of how much danger your crew gets into.”
“We like to keep things interesting.”
“And fatal.”
The cannibals are within sight now, sprinting full speed.
Riden pours more gunpowder into his pistol, takes aim, and fires. The first cannibal in line falls, tripping those immediately behind. Some are smart enough to jump over the mess and keep running.
I toss Riden back his sword, and we begin to fend them off. Cannibals extend as far as my eyes can see in the scanty light.
The first cannibal who reaches me has bloodshot eyes, a scar on his forehead in the shape of aK, and long, matted hair. He swings his sword down at my head, and I raise my own to deflect it. Then he tries it again. He’s quick, but after three times of this repetitious action, I sidestep as soon as he starts to move his arm downward and hack him at the elbow. His arm comes clean off, and a scream that makes me want to rip off my ears ensues. I silence it with a well-placed stab.
It takes me only one try to confirm my suspicions. The menare unaffected by my voice. Their minds have already been charmed by sirens much more powerful than I.
There is very little left of the men they once were. They have no skill with a sword. Their strikes are imprecise, ill-timed, wild—like small children with toy clubs. They are desperate, quick, emergent. You’d think they were the ones fighting for their lives and not we.
But they are fresh and full of energy, unlike us.
“One of these days it would be nice to do something normal with you,” Riden says as he punches a looming face, then stabs the cannibal in the stomach.
“I thought you were angry with me.”
“I still am, I think, but it doesn’t seem all that important when we’re fighting for our lives.”
Well, then. “What exactly did you have in mind?” I kick at my own assailant, right in the mouth. Must’ve knocked a few teeth loose.
“I don’t know. We could share a meal together.”
Share a meal?I don’t know what he’s going on about, but I say, “Oh, come now, this is far more fun.”
