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I lifted my head and looked behind Molev as he ran.
Infected emerged from the darkness. Maybe a dozen. Nothing horrible that he couldn’t handle on his own.
They chased after us, growing more visible in the increasing light.
I turned to look at the next cave opening, not far away now, and blinked against the blindness.
“Go to the source,” Molev said. “I will guard the entrance.”
He released me and spun around. I ran for the light on unstable legs and entered a much smaller cavern. Ferns, grass, trees, and other strange vegetation grew in a dense tangle around an odd formation of crystals in the center of the space.
The massive cluster of crystals extended down from the ceiling and up from the floor, creating an hour-glass shape. A white-blue crystal connecting the two, pulsated with life and power.
The source.
I ran forward as I unzipped my bag. The bomb was simple enough. It was the effectiveness I questioned. Richard and Ryan had been worried about it going off too quickly and causing a cave-in that we wouldn’t be able to escape. So they’d rigged something that had some hand grenades in the middle of it. I only hoped it would be enough to destroy the glowing rock ahead.
Panting, I stopped in front of the crystal and pulled out the rope I’d need to tie the bag in place.
A scrape of noise behind me had me spinning with my arm up. Why I hadn’t thought it might be Molev, I couldn’t say. But my fast reaction blocked the infected as it grabbed my shoulders and tried to bite my cheek.
I heaved to the side in an attempt to throw him off and win some space so I could pull my knife. The infected’s red gaze held mine as it pulled me along.
We both fell into the crystal. His cheek connected with the glowing stone at the same time as my knuckles.
The cave around me faded, and I saw the world through a different lens.
The darkness wasn’t dark anymore,and I felt a hunger and a hate I’d never known before. The earth trembled, and I howled my rage when I felt two of the cursed ones leave.
They were not meant for this world. The surface and all it held was forbidden to them. We needed to destroy it. Destroy everything. End the cursed ones’ hope forever.
We poured out onto the surface, ravaging everything. We watched our need to destroy spread.
With a single bite, the humans understood why they needed to die. They understood the cursed ones would forever be alone and trapped as they were meant to be if they could not breed with them.
The humans were weak and slow, but we continued regardless, understanding our evolution had taken time. Theirs would too.
We warned them to avoid the fey and focus on the humans. They couldn’t hear us. Many fell to the fey, but many remained to replace them.
The older ones grew smarter. They began to hear us and avoid the fey. However, they still died easily. The lingering hint of fey in their bloodlines kept many of their hearts from crystalizing like ours. It kept them from connecting to the crystal’s power and life source for a very long time.
And then we felt it. The connection of the first one with eyes like ours. More connected to us.
It was our time.
We gathered many and sought out the lingering pockets of humans hidden away.
Devastation consumed the world. We saw it all.
Camps in different countries torn apart. People crying out in languages we couldn’t understand and didn’t want to understand. We reveled in the destruction of everything.
We were close.
So close.
Very few humans remained now.
Soon, all hope would be gone and the cursed ones would once again be trapped in darkness for their sin of wanting what was not theirs to possess.
