Children of the Blood

The Path

Chapter 9 - The Path

The dense forest was dark and wet. The oily black rain that had been falling relentlessly for days had turned the forest floor into deep, stinking mud. The darkness remained unchanged, day or night. Only the sudden blue cracks of lightening, preluded by the odd feeling of deadly electricity in the air, allowed for visibility much beyond a few yards ahead.

Lack of sun, moon, stars or any semblance of daily cycles made navigation almost impossible. And the deep, sucking mud which swallowed a horses legs almost to the knee made progress slow. Time had no form or substance, just endless sameness that seemed to stretch on forever.

Lexa dropped from her saddle, her boots instantly sinking ankle deep. Her horse let out a snort, the slow, difficult progress tiring the animal quickly. A sudden blue flash, followed by the deafening crack lit the dim forest before them. The trail had been hard to decipher, but in the quick flash, she saw again what had caught her attention and made her dismount. A break in the trees ahead.

She tied the horses reins to a branch and noiselessly pulled her sword. The clearing could be a village. If so, like most she had passed recently, if any residents remained, they were likely dead. Earlier on her journey, however, she had encountered others that had attacked wildly with a viciousness of the damned. She creeped forward, trying to keep the sucking sound of her boots in the mud to a minimum by sticking close to the base of trees.

As she edged closer, the vague shapes of trees gave way to a dark void. Another blue flash revealed a small, empty clearing. Lexa straightened, sheathing her sword and stepping out from the cover of the trees. The ground under her feet became more solid. She knelt, plunging her fingers into the black muck. They quickly felt the resistance of cold, solid rock.

Her gaze lifted to the darkness to her left, waiting for a blue flash to define her surroundings. She felt her breathe freeze in her chest as it happened. A brilliant blue flash, revealing a towering granite rock face at the north end of the clearing. She stumbled towards it, her boots heavy with the clinging mud. She held her breath, waiting for another flash, a glimpse to confirm what she thought she saw.

CRACK! The light flashed again and she saw them. Dark, vertical shapes, like deep gashes, high up the rock face just like in her vision. Her face, weary, dirty and sore, changed slowly into a smile.

****

Clarke pulled her eyes away from the microscope in front of her and rubbed them wearily. The pristine white room that had been transformed into their medical lab was normally well lit, but was dim and deserted due to the late hour. She glanced down at her notes detailing the last few tests they'd run on Lexa, Luna and Keena's blood. Surrounding the notes were tiny doodles she tended to make when pondering something. Her eye was drawn to the symbol of the Commander, the infinity symbol, which she'd traced over and over in the margin.

It had been six weeks since they'd left Arcadia. Seven since she'd last seen Lexa. Her chest ached in a way that was now familiar every time she let her mind wander to Lexa. They had been apart before. In fact, they had spent more time apart than together. But it was the uncertainty, the not knowing, that ate at her now.

Since then she'd been running tests non-stop, working tirelessly to try and glean the hidden secrets of the Nightblood. But she'd found almost nothing.

She glanced up at the sound of the glass door opening and saw the familiar figure of Raven, arms crossed and looking at her with a scolding expression. "Do you ever sleep?" the mechanic asked.

Clarke smiled wearily, "Do you?" she shot back.

Raven grinned and walked in, letting the door close silently behind her. It was a familiar exchange, as both tended to be working well into the night and early morning as they searched for some solution as the world around them was quickly turning into a radiated wasteland.