The Network ( Book One of the Grounders Series )

15

I draw my sword. The sound of buzzing is deafening, making me feel exposed. If I can't hear, that's one of my defenses gone.

The bees move quickly. One second they are all idle, as if looking at us, the next they are plunging their tiny stingers into our flesh.

Agony envelopes me within seconds. I swing my sword wildly.

There is so much pain. I can feel exactly when each individual stinger enters my overly exposed skin. I can feel as the venom is injected into me.

I swing blindly, watching as the insects bodies split apart on my blade. But for every one bees that falls, a million of them fills its place.

I am in a frenzy. With on hand I am skillfully slicing through each bug like it is a piece of pie, and with the other I am searching at my torso and face, a vain attempt to get the bees off of me.

My vision blurs. My strikes become less accurate. The bees become more in numbers.

There venom is a million times less painful then the pain I feel everyday. When I finally get my claws on you, you will wish for this moment back, you will with that you had gotten beheaded at the Hearth hours ago. You will wish to be thrown into the Hearth as relief of what you will feel when we finally come face-to-face. This pain will be negligible compared to what is coming your way.

The Dragon's word are cast away for my brain is in other places. The pain feel as if somebody injected me with a million gallons of molten lava.

I can barely make of the figure of Rox collapsing into the water. His body is covered with swollen, pus-filled bumps.

Then I get an idea. I let myself fall into the water, instantly drowning the millions of insects covering my skin. Rage courses through my as I rip their bodies from my skin, not caring if the stinger breaks off.

I am filled with white-hot fury. My blood is literally boiling. The heat of anger soaks through my skin and radiates off of me. I know it. I can feel it.

I am being a coward, hiding in water while the people I dragged down here with me suffer.

I push myself out of the water, expecting to be attacked by a swarm of stingers, but no new pain comes.

The bees charge at me, but as soon as they reach a certain distance, they crumble to ashes. I am literally radiating inferno strong enough to destroy bees in a half a millisecond.

I focus on my anger, as I can feel my shield of heat growing, surrounding my friends, all the bees on them are gone instantly.

They are scream ten times louder than before, and I realize my heat is burning them.

"Get in the water!" I scream. Mercifully they all hear me and sink beneath the surface.

I focus on expanding my shield. Ash pours down around me as the bees cluelessly try to swarm me still.

At one point I literally see my energy shatter. Agony consumes me for a fragment of a second, and I collapse into the water, expecting the bees to come back.

The water is hot. My energy was that strong. I don't even know where that came from.

The Dragon doesn't hesitate to tell me. Your are full are anger, darkness and grief. That is one of the reasons I was able to get to you so easily when you were near enough to me, because you are made out of darkness, just as I am. But you are losing darkness, in hell of all places. I am losing you. Don't take the wrong turn while I'm not here to guide you.

So basically means that energy was my repressed anger from all those years, finally having my back. How could my emotions have formed a deadly energy?

Anything is possible in hell, the Dragon says.

I emerge from the surface to find that there are no more bees. I killed them all.

I take advantage of the moment and rush to my friends, who are coming out of the water as well.

They aren't covered in swollen pumps. Just tiny opening all over their bodies. There is no black hue surrounding the wounds. The venom is gone. I must've dissolved it when I my energy surrounded them.

All but Rox has emerged. I find him laying on the bottom of the pool.

Joss help me pull him out. He coughs uncontrollably at first. His stings look venomless as well.

I sit back in the water, it licks my earlobes.

For one moment everyone isn't being harmed. I wouldn't go as far as to say we are safe, but we aren't in any immediate danger.

A droplet flies from somewhere overhead and lands in the water. A red starburst forms along the surface.

Blood.

I look up and see that now instead of bees, minions crowd the cells, overlooking us, savageness flowing in their eyes. I spoke too soon.

I stand up, holding my sword out in front of me, suddenly alert. I was wrong to drop my guard for even a second. There is always a reason to be watching your own back in this godforsaken place.

I scan the walls of the cavern. The bottom row of cells is the only one not full of bloodthirsty minions. But the caves are still just above our heads.

I snatch up my boots and charge through the shallow pool, the others following my lead. They are making a mistake by trusting my judgement but nobody really has another option.

I leap up a grab hold of the lowest cell opening. A minion above me snarls. I bring my sword through its head and it crumbles into the pool below.

I pull myself bodily to the tunnel leading to blackness and help the other in as quickly as possible. The minions on the highest levels have leaped, and are starting to rain down on us.

I pull Joss up last, just as the first minion lands. It's bone snap audibly and I cringe. The carcass is mangled and twisted and bloody. What would these crazed creatures do to stop us from reaching our goal.

We sprint down the tunnel as more minions fall to their deaths, but the ones on the lower levels are jumping too, and are creating a choked bottleneck at the mouth of our tunnel. The howl and hiss, racing after us.

My feet slap painfully against the stone.

Cicada slides to a hasty stop in front of me and I nearly bump into her, which would shove us both of the cliff before us.

Nothing is visible beyond the cliff except darkness in all directions. The minions are gaining, we need to act fast.

I quickly slip my boots on and load my bow. I fire down the tunnel, undoubtedly hitting something.

"We can't fight, Al," Cicada says, "we need to jump."

I shake my head. "No, I didn't force you guys down here just so you could get smashed at the bottom of a cliff!"

"You chose to come with you, Al. And if we don't jump now, we will all die anyway."

Jonah is noticeably paling as we speak.

All I can do is shake my head. We are all going to die. It's inevitable.

Cicada cups my cheeks in her hands, forcing my to face her, a presses her lips to mine. Electricity flashes through every cell in my body at her touch. "You have to trust me, Al. We didn't come down here believing that we would make it out. We knew the risk, and we came anyway. If we don't take risks, we won't succeed. We are in hell for crying out loud."

I fire at the nearest minion.

"Fine," I say and let my feet step into open air. I clasp hands with Jonah and Cicada as we fall, feeling overwhelmed with déjà vu. This is almost exactly like when we first jumped into the pit, which seems like a lifetime ago.

Almost.

The only difference now is that I'm not sure whether we'll survive or not.