The Network ( Book One of the Grounders Series )

28

The walls of the curving tunnel seem to be made from so weird, woodlike material.

The others are waking one by one. The first is Joss.

He sits down next to me in the crook of the tunnel and let's the darkness surround him. Sometimes you can tell if someone's echolocation is off.

"What the hell are we even chasing?" he demands irritably.

"Arosi."

"How do we even know that this Dragon exists."

"We've all hear him speak."

"Sure, but no one alive has ever seen him! What if it's just some hoax from Constantine to test our resiliency?" His voice is rising.

"That's doubtful," I say.

"I quit!"

"What?"

"I'm done with this pointless goose-case. I'm so tired of risking my life everyday, just because some kid who could never fit into his clan says so!"

The anger I felt for the past fifteen years, that I stored away inside a careful enclosure in my heart, breaks free and I lunge at Joss, my fingers curling around his throat as we fall to the ground.

His fist impacts hard with my chest. "Get off me!"

I roll off and stand. "Don't talk to me like that! You act as if you're the only one with everything at stake here! We are all risking our lives on this quest! I'm an terrified down to my soul every second of the day, but it's worth it because no one else is trying as hard as we are to save the Network. That is why we cannot give up."

"Don't you every punch me again," he growls.

"Don't be a coward ever again."

Jonah and Cicada are awake now, and have jumped between us. "Stop fighting!" Cicada hollers. "Now!"

We back off of each other but we are both still fuming with anger.

"We are a team!" Cicada yells. "This is no time to fall apart. This is exactly what Arosi wants!"

A loud crash sounds and we all freeze. The wall of the tunnel is fracturing into pieces. Boulders crash down around us but that's not the least of our worries.

Minions. The pours from the openings forming on the wall. The leap down the tunnel, not caring about the rocks impacting then as they fall or the fatal landing.

"Run!" I scream and barrel down the woodlike tunnel. I keep my ears strained for the sprinting footsteps of my friends behind me.

I sprint as hard as I can. My lungs burns like hell itself but I push forward. My muscles are taut and aching from exertion. I don't think I've ran this hard in my life.

I am so caught up in mentally keeping myself going that I stop watching my feet, and I trip on a stone on the ground. My forward momentum sends me sailing through the air.

When I land I expect a hard stone surface to violently scrape my skin but I land hard in a soft, wet substance with a flop.

I click my tongue against the roof of my mouth and the scenery around me comes to life.

Above me I expect to see a dark cavern ceiling, or maybe even nothing at all, but I am greeted with a big thick green canopy. Thick brown tree trucks rise form the ground, supporting the canopy of leaves, twisted together in a beautiful mess.

I am about a foot over the border where stone turns into...into...earth. The word reverberates through my mind as if I already knew it.

The tunnel opens abruptly into a massive cavern. The weird material making up the walls is the same but the ground is muddy and wet.

Moments later the others come barreling into the cavern, racing right past me.

I expect a horde of minions to swarm in after them but they stop right at the mouth of the tunnel, hissing for ten minutes at least before they disappear into the shadows. The fact that the reckless, careless, savage army of Arosi refused to enter this place leaves an anxious feeling in my gut. I don't know whether to be relieved of worried.

We are all in shock for about ten seconds before I realize that I'm still lying in this weird mud. I yank my arm, but the mud clings to my limbs tightly. I can't move.

"Guys!" I shout. I flail like as if I'm having a seizure, wanting nothing more than to be able to get out of this. I quickly catch on that the more I move, the deeper I sink into the mud.

Quicksand.

The others are all standing around, shouting at me to get out of there but careful not to step off the solid dirt themselves.

"I can't, I'm sinking!" I shout. I am laying on my back in the quicksand, with is licking the back of my ears, and has consumed my legs. The only left out is my chest, arms and face, but I am disappearing rapidly.

"Pull me out!" I shout as the quicksand covers my ears. I can no longer hear them.

I know I'm screaming for help like a petty child, but it feels surreal not to be able to hear anything. The sand has consumed everything but my hands. I can no longer breath. I am submerged.

Will I really die here? Will I die without being able to make peace with Joss or kiss Cicada on last time or see Jonah nearly permanently smiling eyes?

My brain tells my arms to hold still but I'm not sure if they are. All I can feel is darkness, the suffocating blackness of the earth all around me. Maybe it was better to live in a world made out of stone for my whole life. Maybe I shouldn't have even attempted this quest and let Arosi destroy my home.

No, I surely would've died then. I would've died a coward, I would've died knowing that I could've saved everyone but didn't. Either way I die, but at least now I'm going down with a fight.

Finally I realize that every single time I told myself that I was making the wrong turn in this hellish maze, I did it anyway because deep down I knew I was right. In the deepest, darkest recessed of my being, I was confident, I just thought of it as stupid.

Now I know that I'm not the weak, defenseless victim I was a week ago before I went to detention. I am stronger, braver, and smarter.

I know the sand is about to my wrists and I know I will be out of oxygen soon. But then I feel something in the palm of my left hand as I grasp it. It's a rope. I hold on tight, willing myself not to suffocate.

My hand burns as the cord is yanked on, but my arm is pulled free from the sand. Another yank and I'm able to breathe again. Never in my life has air tastes so good.

The other are all pulling the rope with their entire bodies, ripping my free from this trap.

I fly through the air and hit the solid ground hard. I suck in many breaths before I am able to move and then roll over onto my back so it's easier to breathe.

Cicada's heads is looking down at me with he big eyes, the golden streak gleaming.

She hold my face in her hands. "Alaric," she says. I want her to kiss me so badly but I'm afraid I'll be winded if I go a second without air at the moment. "I was so scared."

I wrap my arms around her, pulling her down so she laying lightly across my chest, and I hold her. I can't talk, I can kiss her, so I hold her to let her know I'm okay.

She slips her hands under my back and she squeezes lightly. We lay there for a while and all I can think is that almost dying brought me this moment of greatness and it was more than worth it because now I have to girl I love wrapped in my embrace.