Rogue Evolution

The Mountain 6.7

The journey forward was filled with steep inclines, sudden drops, slick rocks, and jagged peaks. It felt like the mountain was fighting them every step of the way. With every turn and footfall, there was a new hazard. Snakes, spiders, and other horrible wide-eyed little monsters that could only survive in the dark seemingly began to appear in every hole and crevice.

Always within arms reach, Scott was there providing support. Helping Anna over craggy ledges and zapping away nasty little hissing creatures that threatened their path. Anna, in turn, having held on to one of the rusted shovels from the dig site - cleaved her way through thick spiderwebs and plant undergrowth presumably from fauna above.

"It's a good sign," Scott mentioned while she chopped through a particularly twisted thick brown vine with the blade of her shovel. "It must mean we're near the surface."

"God I hope."

However, before they could further ascend they had to go deeper and deeper still into the caverns. Anna could hear the howl of some roaming animal nearby and found the shadows were begging to play tricks on her mind. She could see Scott wasn't fairing much better the way his right hand was glued to his glasses, always ready to fire off a blast at anything that moved.

The way got tighter to the point they had to crawl and move single file. Anna could feel the jagged wet rocks tearing through the fabric of her clothes like they were withered cheesecloth. Her elbows and knees were taking the worst of it, but she could feel the roof of the tiny chute scratching at her back and neck like so many dull knives.

Finally free of the claustrophobic hell, it was Scott who was the first to fall to the ground on the other side. He rolled onto his back and panted, his arms laid out at his sides.

"Scott, your leg." His left leg, already damaged from his initial fall, was a near unrecognizable bloody pulp.

"We have to keep going, Anna. We just have to get to the surface. My distress signal is still live. Xavier will find us. We just need to get to the surface."

Anna fell to her hands and knees, her chest spiking with pain. "You're going to bleed out before then if we don't take care of that gash." She shed her pack, her right shoulder screaming loud enough for her to gasp with pain. She gritted her teeth as she ripped open one of the zippers to pull out a canteen and her last pair of leggings to begin dressing his wound. The blood was too caked to get off with a simple splash of water, so she instead just secured the soft dry pants around the wound as snug as she could and applied pressure.

"Scott, you still with me?"

"I'm here." He said, but his voice made him sound a half dozen miles away.

She passed him the water. "If we're near the surface, do you think you can just blast our way out?"

"I could cause a cave-in if I punch the wrong hole. I would need to know where we were and if a bunch of rocks were above us."

Anna fell back on her rear and saw what a bloody mess her knees were. She sagged her head and stared at her hands. The gloves were long gone. From the one she lost earlier, and the other that got eviscerated during their climb that was now was only a sagging black wristband around the base of her hand. "If only we had that rock-throwing guy on our team. He'd be handy right about now."

"Eh," Scott waved a hand in the air. "Fuck him. He's an ass."

Anna almost snickered. She rose her head and looked around with her flashlight. "You think this is The Brotherhood's doing?"

"Who else?"

"It just seems too, I don't know, thought through. You know? They seem like the smash-and-grab types."