Linus Toria

Chapter 15

Manon didn't want to wake up. She was cozily lying between Elodie and Matthieu and hadn't had such a good sleep for a long time. A dreamless sleep without nightmares. Unfortunately, that wasn't the norm for her.

She groaned in frustration as Mathieu on her left started moving around. He was going to get up any second now as he loathed sleeping in. Her prediction came true. In an attempt to ignore the early bird she turned to her other side where Elodie was lying and tried going back to sleep.

Regrettably, her leader had other plans. „What?!", he yelled at Gaspard on full blast, „What do you mean you let her go?"

„You see", Gaspard tried to explain himself, „she wanted to leave because she felt threatened by you"

„Don't be ridiculous! I haven't even done anything yet!", Mathieu exclaimed.

Manon decided she couldn't miss this spectacle and turned towards them. Gaspard's eyes had widened and he shrieked: „Yet?! Were you planning to?" His voice was an octave too high for Manon's ears and she decided to intervene: „Guys, Elodie and Etienne are still sleeping! Tone down!"

Her efforts were rewarded with two quiet apologies. No longer able to sleep she staggered to her feet and joined them by the door. „Why are you fighting?"

„Lina's gone and he didn't stop her while knowing that I would want to question her aboout Etienne's accident", explained an exasperated Matthieu.

„Oh, that's too bad", Manon tried to hide her relief.

Gaspard looked at her as if she had betrayed him: „What, you're also glad that our newest teammember ditched us, Manon?"

„She had creepy eyes", Manon excused herself.

„Enough", Matthieu ended their banter, „When did she leave?"

„Five hours ago. She's probably found the exit by now and is miles away. Knowing my luck, I'll never see her again", Gaspard whined.

Manon rolled her eyes at her friends dramatics and Matthieu abandoned the thought of chasing after Lina. He turned towards his partner: „How's Etienne?"

„The last time I checked, he was breathing. For further information you've got to ask Elodie. I'm no medic and can't tell you when he will be transportable", Manon berated.

Gaspard coughed to get their attention: „I'd like to report something: During standing guard I felt like I was being watched again and sometimes even heared somebody walking through the corridor"

„Maybe the dwarves were finally able to enter this corridor?", Mathieu mused, „doesn't really matter who or what it was. We'll try to get out of here as fast as possible"

Manon agreed. The faster they left this gloomy place behind, the happier she would be. She looked towards her still sleeping friend while silently pleading for her to wake up and tell them that Etienne could be moved.

To her surprise, Elodie was already up and busying herself with her patient again. Manon trotted over and took in Etienne's pityful appearance. His face was pale and his black locked hair was sticking to his forehead drenched by sweat. His torso was bare and mangled by an angry red suture in T-form. All four of his limbs were stabilised by splints and Manon was sure that if he had been a normal human he would have been disfigured for life.

„How's it looking?", she asked the focused medic who was checking up on him.

„Honestly? I'm not sure. The surgery went well but I'm more worried about a possible infection. The conditions for a surgery in these surroundings aren't really suitable. And if the wound gets infected my work might have been for naught as there's no way his immune system could handle that right now"

Mathieu and Gaspard had also come over leaving the door unmanned. „Is it possible to move him without worsening his condition?", their leader inquired.

„Yes, but you'll have to be extremely careful. I'll keep him in a medical induced coma for now to prevent him from feeling all that pain. Therefore he won't be able to tell you when you're too rough while carrying him", Elodie clarified.

„Can't you speed up his healing process with magic?", Gaspard suggested.

„It's not possible around here. The array which was depleting the magic in this area might have been destroyed now but it will still take years for the magic to recover. And I'm no witch so I don't have any innate magic and can only rely on the natural one. But once we leave this desert I'll be able to help him some more"

Manon cheered internally. One more vote for leaving as soon as possible. She had feared that Elodie might tell Matthieu that they couldn't move Etienne for the next few weeks and they would have to spend the whole time here. The others seemed just as relieved.

„How many people need to carry Etienne?"

„All four of us. We'll built a makeshift stretcher using our parkas and tent poles and each side will be carried by two people", Elodie instructed.

„But then nobody is free to protect the formation from attacks!", Matthieu complained.

„In case of an emergency, three people will be enough to hold the stretcher. The fourth person can then engage in combat. But who should attack us now? The explosion destroyed the array and we fulfilled our deal with the dwarves. And nobody else is down here", Elodie mollified their leader.

„How many parkas and tent poles do you need for your stretcher?"

„Three parkas and as many tent poles as possible. The more we have the stabler our construction will be"

„Gaspard, you will collect all tent poles. Manon, you will fetch the parkas. While you're at it, figure out wether Etienne's luggage survived the explosion"

„Yes, sir"

A quarter hour later the stretcher was finished using Mathieu's, Manon's and Etienne's parkas. His backpack had been shielded by his body and survived the explosion. Much to Matthieu's chagrin they really needed four people to carry the stretcher properly, but his teammates all promised to be extra perceptive to impending attacks.

Their leader decided to take the path that had already been cleared by his scouts, guiding them back to the first juntion and walking down the other corridor. Carrying the stretcher their progress was very slow and exhausting and slowed down even more when they reached the crawling passages.

By this point their sole motivation was the daylight in the far distance.