Freezing Wings

Chapter 12

I watched the concrete walls around us whizz past as he ran, dodging falling concrete and jumping over boulders. I could barely feel a shift in the terrain, the ride surprisingly smooth considering the fact that I was riding on his back.

The feeling of his scales rubbing against mine was branded into my mind and glaringly obvious. My mind galivanted off into forbidden places and my face burned as I shook my head, closing my eyes and burying my head in his shoulder, trying to dispel the thoughts. Of course, that only made it worse. However, I soon was able to get rid of them as we caught up with the group, them looking around as if they lost something at the second intersection I had told them about. 

Once we finally stopped I was about to get off and walk on my own, but one look from him made me stop moving and just let him do as he pleased. He made his way up to the front of the group with me still hanging onto his back. Despite me being the only thing there, most of the group didn't notice me, his wings getting in the way. 

Once we got to the mouth of the hall I half-sat up, craning my neck until I could see the entire group. I took a deep breath and spoke as loud as I could to gain their attention, "We take the hall to the left and the right after the third doorway, go about four hundred feet and take the hall going to the left and first right you see, I'll tell you the next step after that." 

Most of the dragons spun around, looking extremely surprised at the fact that I had been there. I made sure that everyone had heard me so we just kept moving, Lucas automatically taking off as soon as we all got on the same page. I could see that a few wanted to say something, but as soon as he turned around to glance at the crowd before starting up, they suddenly decided to keep quiet. 

We continued on, the shaking and rumbling of the earth getting more and more violent. The screams had stopped a long while ago, leaving a creepy silence behind. The occasional thuds of falling concrete resounded out, as well as the creaking and tearing of rock. The world around us seemed to be tearing itself apart, and if we kept going at the speed we were, we would end up buried under it, just like this facility. 

All of us seemed to realize that at the same moment and we collectively picked up the pace, streaking down the halls. Instead of calling out where we were going beforehand I just gave the directions to Lucas and he followed them, the rest of the pack following not far behind. 

After about fifteen minutes we had reached the part in which I had begun to attract pursuers and had first smelled the world above. Currently, all I could smell was concrete and Lucas, It wasn't a bad scent, in fact it was very good, but it wasn't the one I was looking for. 

My eyebrows unconsciously scrunched up but I batted away my worries. I whispered the next set of directions in his ear and tried to keep from worrying. 'The door couldn't have been sealed off...could it? It seemed to be their only way in or out but I don't know... I just hope the passageway is still open'

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

We were only about three turns away from the staircase that led to the door when we practically crashed into a wall of rock. The entire hall was filled with boulders of various sizes, and it was completely blocked off. The lights had long gone out and the passageway was completely dark. The only way we were seeing where we were going was by the minimal amount of glow our scales give off. From what we could tell, there were no breaks in the stone where light could have come in, if there was any. 

Some of us began coughing as the dust finally caught up with us and got into our lungs. I tried not to cough on Lucas and use my wing instead, but it only made me cough harder. Some of the older dragons began to dig furiously at the rock, easily cutting into ribbons and allowing us to keep moving.

I couldn't seem to stop coughing. My lungs rattled in my body and my throat felt like itchy sandpaper. My stomach began to hurt and I was losing my balance. Lucas slowed down a bit so that I wouldn't fall off but I didn't pay attention to his actions. My lungs burned and my nostrils were filled with dust, I could hardly breathe. He adjusted his wings so that they would make sure I wouldn't fall off and sped up even more, sprinting far in front of the crowd. 

I was able to splutter out the rest of the directions loud enough for him to hear before going into another coughing fit. I was soon coughing up drops of blood, and I couldn't bring in enough air. The air whipped past me and the distance that it took me twenty minutes to cover in my first run through was handled in less than two, the pack behind us struggling to keep up. 

We were soon at the staircase which, thankfully, still led to an unblocked door. My eyes were closed shut so I couldn't see it but I could hear the murmur of dragons behind me when they saw it.

I could feel Lucas tense up under me and his breaths quicken with his heartbeat. The small sliver of moonlight that got through the window in the door illuminated the dragons, and I finally was able to stop coughing. The dust wasn't as bad here and even though my lungs were still itching hard, almost enough for me to cough, I was able to close my mouth and keep it at bay.

A particularly violent rumble made a new cloud of dust fall, along with huge chunks of concrete, snapping us out of our reverie.

We all rushed forward, ready to tear the staircase apart and just climb the walls to get up there. The door would be too small for most of us anyway, and we would have to dig out the hole around it to get through. The passage was too compact for us to fly up there , so we would have to climb up.  However, just as the first of us - a girl named Savannah; as soon as her claws touched it, something very strange began to happen.