The Human Hunter

Chapter 24

Slipping silently down from the ceiling by a thin silk thread, Widow paused only for a moment before nicking the strand with his claw and dropping down onto the ledge leading to the small cave he used to call home. His bare feet were nearly silent on the cold stone as he moved. Ducking inside the dark room, he felt the pressure that had been growing in the back of his mind pulse slightly. His instincts were responding to Madam's pheromones, but he couldn't let himself revert back to the way he'd been. He couldn't be another drone for the hive. When he managed to block out the ache, he noticed that everything in his old room had been torn apart and thrown against the walls. Even the metal cage lay in tatters, pieces bent and broken atop nearly every surface.

One thing stood out on the floor beneath his destroyed desk that drew him closer, though. Kneeling, he reached forward and picked up the crushed chocolate bar. The memory of it brought a smile to his face as he thought about when Emma had won it. He'd been surprised by her skills, but also proud. That was one of the first times that he'd actually thought that maybe she could be something more. That she was maybe worth protecting above and beyond his normal duty of a hunter to their catch, until they were sold to their new master.

Since nothing was really worth salvaging and right then definitely wasn't the time anyway, he stood as he let the destroyed chocolate bar drop from his fingers and refocused on the sound of rushing water reverberating off of the cave walls. It will be here soon. Need to hurry. He walked briskly over to his shredded bed, then knelt beside it and dug underneath. When his fingers brushed against something cold and solid, he wrapped his fingers around it and pulled it out. The blade of the small knife was colored a dark purple by him from years of being exposed to his venom. Part of the metal had also dissolved away, but it would still be useable.

All of these years keeping it for an emergency... only to use it on my Madam. Shaking his head, he slid the knife into his pocket and made his way back out of the room. He noticed that there was barely any light in the cavern when he emerged, and what little there was came from the bodies of dropping glow worms as they were peeled from their ceiling home fighting for their lives against the spiders Emma had sent. The roar of the oncoming water was growing to near-deafening proportions as he began his climb toward the cavern where Legs had told him to meet him once he'd retrieved his weapon.

He heard jets of water begin spurting from the walls down below and couldn't hold back his curiosity, making him look down. It was definitely starting to break through the stone and dirt infrastructure of the caverns as it glinted into view each time a glow worm fell into it. He could also hear screams beginning to build as the water started taking lives, likely having broken into several of the lower tunnels already.

Keep going.

He turned his attention back upward. Before he even completed his next reach up to a small jutting rock, Widow's hand paused and his breath caught. Brax was perched on the wall not twenty yards above him. He clearly hadn't noticed him yet, as his eyes were more focused on the small glowing worms occasionally falling from the ceiling, like a cat mesmerized by a flashlight. Widow slowly began to descend to the right, hoping to find one of the caves that was somewhat close to his own. He got about ten feet before something light plopped on top of his head. It felt somewhat like bat guano, but when he reached up and touched it, it began to squirm in his hair, making his body stiffen.

A low rumble, somehow heard above the rushing of water that swallowed everything below him, told him that the little glow worm in his hair had just made him a target. Without another thought, he jerked sideways and began sprinting along the rocky wall. He could feel Brax following him as the arakin's claws dug into the rock, breaking pieces off and causing nearby ones to vibrate from the impact. Widow's own claws slipped several times, forcing him to rely on the partially adhesive skin on his fingertips as he made his way toward a lower cave, only to skid to a stop as he realized that it was going to be submerged in a matter of minutes.