The Network ( Book One of the Grounders Series )

25

The river is relatively calm and merciful. We ride in the canoe for so long, my butt gets sore, and the goes numb, which is not a good feeling.

Around us the cavern is narrow but high, so high in fact that the top is concealed by shadows impenetrable by echolocation. The walls are smooth compared to other places we've been through, which is probably due to erosion.

To keep from totally losing my marble, due to boredom and the torturous feeling of my backside, I stare into the water. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of a fish beneath the surface, and sometime I watch as one leaps from the water. It's actually quite fascinating. It makes me want to jump into the water and swim.

Everyone else is resting. They sit on the back bench, leaning against each other's shoulders. All the packs are in the front to even out the weight.

I volunteered first watch, so I am awake staring blankly around me waiting for something interesting to happen.

Finally I can't take the cramping in my legs and the numbness in my rear. I stand and stretch a little, mindful not to wobble the boat while the others are sleeping.

After I'm done stretching I sit back down and count the minutes until the hour is over.

Mercifully Joss wakes up just before my turn is over. I would've probably let them sleep verses having to impolitely wake one of them.

I am small enough that I can snuggled into the gap beneath benches, using one of the pillows to cushion my head against the floor, I fall asleep instantly.

When I dream I see the Hearth, burning low a dim, unlike normal where the symbol of Alvus would burn high and mighty, lighting an entire series of cave through walls. Now embers glow with red, and flames lick the black rock piled sighing the stone bowl around the Hearth.

Bodies litter the floor, slaughtered. Blood is smeared on the walls and floor.

Crazed minions, covered in crimson trudge amongst the sickening carnage.

The scene shifts to the training field in Verro. Chunks of the stone bridge lay discarded across the field, which is pockmarked with pits that look like they've sealed since we leapt through them. Blood also covered the stone like decor, only much more sinister.

Carcasses of fallen Verro soldier lay scattered across the ground, mangled and decapitated by the savage armies of Arosi.

Minions stand underneath the gaping hole high above in the wall, trashing as if trying to climb to stone walls.

The thought hits me. Most their weapons were in the training field. If Arosi finds a way into the clan, he'll slaughter all of them. I wonder if he's attacked any other clans besides Verro.

The scene switches and I'm in the Daws bathroom. A boy wearing tattered trousers and tunic, hides in a stall, trembling like an earthquake is going on inside him, as a minion walks around the room.

The minion will walk past the boy's stall and it'll be over.

At first I consider imagining the death of the minion, but then I get a better idea.

"It's alright," the minions says, it's voice identical to my own. "It's okay. I'm not going to let this thing hurt you."

The boy pokes his head out and shrieks as minion-me looks at him, he closes the curtains for a moment and then poked his head back out.

"Alaric Constantine?" He asks uncertainly.

Minion-me chuckles a bit and nods. "I've taken over the mind of the minion. You are safe."

The boy steps out of stall.

"Is there anyone left here?"

"Yes," the boy says, "they are all hiding in the school. I could make it so I hid in the bathroom, a minion followed me in here."

"Do you know how many minions there were?"

"Not a lot."

It looks as if Arosi underestimated Daws. His mistake.

"Follow me," I say. I walk o the door of the and imagine that's the crack in the storeroom leading to the school. I stick my hand through the crack to see if it's real and it is.

The boy follows me like a faithful dog into the storeroom. I step over l the boxes and reach for the door handle.

"If you go out there they'll kill you."

My heart shatters at the boy's words. The young should not have to know death like he does.

"Go into the school," I say. He steps through the door and I close it tightly behind him, locking it.

A headache rips through my skull. Suddenly there is a lot of pressure on my brains.

Fragments of black and white rip across my vision and I suddenly want to claw through the door an kill any Grounder in sight.

The moment passes as quickly as if came, leaving my with a sickening feeling in my chest. I know what will happen if I stay in this creature's mind too long, I'll become a crazed, animalistic creature like it is.

But I half to stay in the minions mind, or it'll break down this door and destroy the survivors.

I need to detach though. I imagine a block in the minions mind, barricading all of its savage thoughts. Now I can detach. I imagine all the rooms in the school until I find the a bunch of people gathered in the cafeteria. The boy runs through the door and many weapons are aimed his way. He screams and hides outside.

"It's just a boy," a girl I don't recognize say. She disappears in the hallway and comes back a while later. "He said that Alaric Constantine took over the mind of a minion and brought him to the school."

"How is that possible?" Someone shouts.

"It's true," I imagine my detached voice echoing off the walls of the cafeteria. I try to stifle my anger. These people all attended my execution, why am I helping them? "Alvus Constantine blessed me with powers to communicate with you through Arosi's army. The minion I am controlling is in the storeroom. Sent your leader to it."

"What if we don't?" The girl says.

"Then a lot more people will die before Arosi is stopped."

I return to the storeroom and go back into the confused looking minions head. This time I decide to keep the blockade up and work around it.

Minion-me unlocks the door just as someone steps through. It's the girl.

She holds a sword to my throat. "Alaric?" She asks.

"I'm here," I say.

"What the hell is going on?"

"The ancient Arosi, who lived in these tunnels long before we did, is slowly breaking free from the prison Alvus put him in. He is using the minions to take down the Council so he can take over when he gets here. I am traveling through hell with Cicada and Jonah looking for Arosi so we can stop him. Are there any Council members alive here?"

"Yes, Vaun and Shavab."

"Good, keep them alive."

"That's it?"

"Arosi wants to Council taken down so he can take the rest of you and make a kingdom out of you. Keep what's left of the government alive until Arosi is defeated."

"Okay," she says.

"Now kill me."

"What?"

"Once I leave the mind of this minion it's normal instincts will come back. Tie me up."

She knocks minion-me on the ground, grabs rope from the one of the boxes and secures my arms and legs tightly. "You know what to do," I say.

I imagine the blockade shattering, crumbling to nothing.

Another black an white clip appears. There is the letters RP, twisted into the shape of a flame, and the. It's gone and I'm back on the canoe, cramped but glad to be out of that creatures mind.