“Hey, Acho. Honestly? I’m glad that we’re finally getting out of here. But man, I thought se fue al garete[1] for a bit there.” Juan tipped his head up towards Sarah to indicate he was talking about the conversation earlier.
“Yeah, me too.” Drew leaned against the desk, looking at what Juan was putting away. “This whole thing has been a bit of a nightmare.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that. You know the bible?” Juan asked, and Drew nodded, “Well, you don’t think like…this whole thing was Armageddon? Like, the rapture happened, and we didn’t get picked, and now we’re in hell?”
Drew laughed slightly, “I’m not super religious anymore, but I think there were a whole bunch of signs that were supposed to happen before the rapture. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t God’s handiwork.”
“So, do you think that means God isn’t real, that if we die like that guard did, we just gonna cease to exist?”
“I don’t know if there’s an all-powerful being out there, Juan, but from what I was told during the tutorial, Humankind immigrated here. Maybe the blue boxes are God, finally talking to each of us on an individual level. As for death, I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on finding out in the near future.” Drew clapped the younger man on the shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, as long as we stick together, I don’t think there is anything here that the five of us can’t handle.”
Drew looked over at Mitch and the two exchanged a nod. Katie had finished talking to Sarah and the two women had split up to finish getting ready. Drew frowned to himself before walking over to Sarah. “Ma’am?”
She turned around and looked at him, and he could see the faint redness in her eyes indicating that she had been crying before she looked away. “Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s…it’s fine. You’re right; we can’t stay here.” Sarah didn’t meet his eyes as she picked through her desk.
“I’m terrified too, you know. The darkness out there? It scares me more than I care to admit. Heck, it almost killed me once already, and you saved my life. I never properly thanked you for that. So, sorry, for not doing that earlier.” Drew paused as he looked at her, “I know you can handle this, and most importantly. We need you; I have a feeling we’re all going to bleed a little bit before we get out of here.”
“Thank you IT2…Drew.” Sarah sniffed but didn’t look up. “I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”
“You would have figured something out; you’re a smart woman. Me showing up just makes it a little bit easier.” He smiled at her again and then turned to leave. He didn’t have anything to pack up, but he rearranged the duffles on the cart.
Juan and Mitch each took a fire axe, while Sarah would grab the cart. Katie would be in charge of the lights and making walls for the ranged folk to duck behind if things turned dicey. Buffs were reapplied, and after double checking that everyone had everything, they left the safe room. Sarah locked the door and flipped the magnet from “Open” to “Secured.” When she turned around and saw everyone looking at her strangely, she shrugged. “What? It’s not like we’d be able to get back in without breaking the door anyway, might as well let anyone who comes know that we aren’t in there. Now let’s get going before we get ambushed by goblins or whatever the heck is out here.”
“Aye aye, Ma’am,” Mitch said before doing an about face, leading the way towards their egress down the hallway. Following him was Drew and Juan side by side, then Sarah, with Katie and the Knight bringing up the rear. Juan’s Earth elemental was following behind him.
They passed the point where the ice storm had gone off, Sarah having to maneuver around the pits in the floor.
Juan whispered to Drew, “You did all this?” His earth elemental seemed to be inspecting one of the pits, poking it with a stubby rock hand.
“Uh, yeah,” Drew said, scanning the area for any sign of a creature struck by the spell, hoping to find some evidence of the shape he saw moving in the darkness here.
“Dios mio,” the Puerto Rican whispered, crossing himself while looking around at the rubble.
Forging ahead, Drew glanced back at Katie and Sarah, who were having some trouble getting the cart over the uneven terrain. Katie helped her pick the cart up for a moment after concrete rubble got stuck in one of the wheels. He nudged Juan, who was staring at the damage, and they moved forward. They were almost to the stairs now.
Catching up with Mitch, he said, “I’m not going to be much help in the stairs, it’s too small an area for me, so I’ll only be able to cast my weakest spells.”
“Which of course means that’s where we’re going to get attacked, doesn’t it?” The ever-hungry man said with a grimace, but he glanced back and gestured for Juan to join them.
“Yeah, probably. What do you think? Send the elemental in first? See if it can see anything?” Drew asked.
“You’re just going to sacrifice the little guy?”
“Better it than one of us.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Juan gave some instructions to the elemental, and it wandered forward towards the door. The girls had caught up again, the knight bringing up the rear.
“Checking the stairwell with the elemental,” Drew answered Katie’s raised eyebrow at the unplanned stop.
With a nod, Katie leaned against the wall. There was a sudden sharp whistling sound and then a loud clatter as something impacted the wall right next to her head. With a cry of pain or fear, she immediately collapsed. Drew and Juan immediately sent two fireballs streaking into the darkness around them.
“Kill the red mages!” The shout was followed by a strange snapping sound. Drew and Juan both dropped to the ground, a blast of cold energy flying into the air above them as Drew cast a cone of cold. Sending the bolts off course, a short wall appeared between the group and their attackers, Katie giving them some cover from the sudden attacks.
“What’s going on?” Mitch shouted from where he too had fallen to the ground.
“Ambush,” Drew said, throwing a glowrock over the wall like a grenade.
Chapter Ten — Ambush
The knight was the only figure still standing. Drew watched as the second wave of projectiles smashed its helmet to pieces, the knight’s body dissolving in a manner similar to how it had appeared. He poked a finger over the top of the barrier and launched a blind frostfire ball in the same general direction he had heard them coming from before.
“Can you make part of the wall glass?” Drew asked Katie as more barrages fell around them.
“I can try,” Katie said, concentrating on the wall in front of them. Drew threw another glowrock from his pocket over the wall, hoping to distract the attackers. As he did this, the wall in front of him added a foot-tall section of glass to its height.
“Perfect.” Drew said, popping his head up a little so he could get a look at whatever was attacking them. It was difficult to make them out through the thick, cloudy glass, but he guessed there were seven or eight figures standing back a few dozen feet away from where they had emerged from the branching hallways.
“Katie, put up a wall behind us, I don’t want to get flanked,” Drew said, glancing behind him. They couldn’t have known about the walls, but any good ambush would have them defending against multiple avenues of attack.
The brunette glanced back as well, chanting a quick spell to create another long wall, this one slightly taller than the one in front of them. “Got it,” she said, before ducking reflexively as another clatter hit the wall behind her and shattered, showering them with slow-moving shrapnel. Drew glanced down the line. Juan was poking his fingers over the wall and launching projectiles blind, not doing much, but hopefully, it reduced the number of projectiles coming their way. Sarah was curled up with her hands over her ears leaning against the half wall, and Mitch crouched next to her, axe in hand, unable to attack anything.