The Network ( Book One of the Grounders Series )

13

The tunnel is so dark, my echolocation is foggy. The inky blackness spreads on, seemingly endless.

My hand is trapped in Cicada's tight grip. She's afraid even though we've be traveling the tunnel for hours and nothing exciting has happened.

The air smells rotten, like sulfur, decaying flesh, and fresh blood all at once. My nostrils burn every time I suck in a breath.

Rox and Joss are the more experienced fighters, so they lead the party, clicking at regular intervals in time as they go. They are conscious to be loud enough so they trigger all of our echolocation abilities.

My feet sting as I walk. The cuts sticking to the soles of my shoes as I step and then ripping away as I lift my foot from the ground. The ground is still covered in the shards of sharp gravel though, so this pain is better than being stabbed over and over again.

Jonah is right behind the soldiers. Every time my echolocation is triggered, I see that he is visibly trembling all over. He is more scared than I thought, but I'm grateful that he was brave enough to join Cicada and I.

Rox holds his fist up, signaling for us to stop, then he presses his index finger to his lips.

I wait silently, straining to hear whatever he hears. As then I happens. It sounds like the rush of water.

The group continues quicker now, more motivated. If we can find water that means I'll be able to calm my dry mouth and wash up, but that'll also mean we'll have a change in scenery. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

Eventually the tunnel opens up into a spacious caver. The walls are dotted with glowing blue gems, the cast an eerie glow across the space. The dim light is bright enough that my echolocation is disabled, but dim enough that I can hardly see with my naked eye. I keep my bow at the ready.

The sounds of water are louder here. A wide crack splits the cavern into two sections.

Our party approaches the crack cautiously, moving with stealth and agility.

At the bottom of the crack is a raging river, foaming with white. The crack is about six feet deep to water level, but there's no telling how deep the water is.

The water runs fast, sometimes with so much force that it snags overhanging rocks of the polished sides of the crack, and shatters large outcroppings into shards of rock. There's no bathing in that.

"There's no exit," Rox says, but his voice is muffled over the sound of the water and I'm not sure I heard him right.

"What!" I holler.

"There's no way out!"

I look around. The walls are covered with grooves where blue crystals jut from the rock, but that was all. There are no tunnels, doors or holes. The walls and floors were empty.

How are we getting out?

The Dragon's sandpaper cackle reverberates through my skull. You're trapped, Alaric. There is no way out. All you can do now is wait for me to come and destroy your home.

I search the cavern frantically, rubbing the walls and pressing my ear to the floor, searching or something, anything. I did not leap to what could've been my death and bring my friends through hell, literally, to sit and wait for the Dragon to finally escape his prison.

My heart beats hard against my ribs as I rush, now banging my balled fist against the stone, rocks cutting into the sides of my hands.

In this moment I realize I've snapped a long time ago. Ever since the Dragon started speaking to me, my sanity has slowly eroded away. Now mere fragments of it remains. I was never mentally stable, even before my time in Detention, but now I'm outright paranoid, slamming my fists to the wall because I fear some creature no has in my generation has heard of. As of right now the Dragon is seemingly faceless.

I lower my fists to my sides. My hands sting from the shards of rock that are no embedded in them, but the pain will pass.

"We'll be stuck here forever," I say, finally admitting defeat to the others.

"Wait," Cicada says, and she drops into the crack. I scream escapes my lips as I rush forward, afraid all I will se when I get to her is more blood.