Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 46iii

Grifford's mind was empty of anything except for the need not to fall. He continually pushed the image of his brother's peril away from himself as he sought the next handhold on the tower's side. His foot slipped off the wet curve of a pipe beneath him, and he grabbed at the thin ledge of metal above his head, breaking off brittle Rachnid spikes, which tumbled about him, down to the waste reservoir's brown waters below.

He had not wanted to spend the time back tracking up the metal gantries and walkways in search of a way back to the tower's far side, and had instead decided to climb around its outside. Tahlia had wanted to go first, but he had pushed her away without bothering to give her reasons, or a chance to argue. He'd heard enough of her voice that morning.

He had pulled himself up to the nearest pipe that circled the tower and begun to climb. Tahlia had not followed him. She was doubtless making her own way around the tower's other side in her usual haphazard manner, but he no longer had the capacity to care for her safety.

All he could do was climb.

* * * * *

Dak tried to make no sound, and even though the wounded creature had no eyes it still came on towards her.

She cringed away from it.

'Oh, why was I not staying in bed this morning?'

That thought awoke some anger inside her. Why must she be such a coward? Why could she not be brave like Tahlia and Grifford? Somehow, the thought of her friend's brother increased the heat of her anger. She recalled the way he had spoken of her countless times that morning; calling her useless and a burden. Even claiming that he did not trust her.

All she had been doing was trying to help!

She felt her fists tighten, and it was only when she felt the heavy weight of it in her hand did she realise that she still held the valve lever.

The nadidge was almost upon her. It crouched down, preparing to leap at her with its two deadly blades, and something about that predatory stance stoked her anger still further. It reminded her of the implacable callousness of the thing; the uncaring way it had killed an innocent woman with a baby at her breast. It would kill her too without any thought.

When she spoke, the words hissed through her teeth.

"Oh will you just..."

The creature sprang towards the sound of her voice.

"Be leaving!" she yelled as she swung the lever, and the creature's mandibles smashed as the blow landed, halting it in the midst of its leap.

"Me!"

She swung the lever back, and the side of its face caved in, the sockets of its dead eyes breaking.

"Alone!"

She held the lever over her head with both hands, and swung it down, feeling the nadidge's skull crack beneath the weight of the metal.

The creature fell to the floor, its remaining limbs snapping closed against its body like a dead rachnid.

Dak could feel her breath whistling through her nose, and her heart beating fast in her chest. She pulled herself up to her knees, but her dead leg could not support her and she fell back onto her haunches.

Her breathing slowed, and her heartbeat along with it.

She watched the creature, curled up on the floor; mutilated, frozen and broken.

One of its arms twitched and uncurled.

What would it take to kill such a creature?

Dak's next blows were not like the first three she had landed. They had been frenzied, born of fear and anger, but those that followed were slow, heavy and methodical. The first ones landed on its head until it was utterly smashed, and the floor about it was covered in a halo of dark blood. Then she struck each of its limbs in turn, hearing the bones inside them crack. With that done, she levered it onto its back and set to work breaking its body, shattering its ribs and pulping the organs beneath until she was sure the job was done.