The Huntress Descent

The Storm: Chapter Six

It was the deafening pressure in my head, eyes and neck that shifted me from my dreamscape. An ear-splitting oomph followed by a rush of wind, dust and debris forced against my body.

The deep pulsation of the impact. The earthquake resounded along the road beneath me. Rubble shaking in its quake. A terrible flare of fire, a searing yellow that ballooned between buildings and blinded me for an instant. Noise roared all around me, thunderous, in the air and across the wasted city. My eardrums screamed. All my sense were lost to this fulmination of light and noise, which tore the world in two.

Somehow, I was on the ground. I shielded my face against the heat. My ears rung and my eyes streamed. Gasping, I looked up to see a black thundercloud of smoke, heaping and twisting itself into a column hundreds of feet high. A tower. A long moment, all I could hear was my own heartbeat – but no, it was too slow, and with each pulse, the ground shunted.

A shadow shot overhead followed by short burst of wind and a buzz of noise. Soon enough it was just a small dot in the sky.

Coughs racked my chest. I dug my fingers into the ground and drag myself up. A searing pain ripped through my ribs that resulted in me vomiting on the floor as a result of the debris that I had inhaled from the dust cloud. A burning sensation flared in my throat and stomach, it scrapped at my insides irritating everything within. I coughed again, a chesty cough that hurt my muscles with every fibre in them. This time no vomit came out, but a scratchy dryness had sucked the moisture from me.

I felt every ache gnaw at every fibre in my body, pleading at it to rest and let it heal. I ignored it, for if I had succumbed to the feeling of rest, I would have never have left the cot in the Glade. Pain would have to take a backbench until the moment was right.

I staggered, the weakness in my ankle collapsing from the sudden weight applied to it. I managed to catch myself before I fell to the floor and steady my balance. So the injury hadn't really gone after all, it had been hidden somehow. In spite of the thought, I had to press on and return to others that I had left in the room with the other two Cranks.

I ignored the puckering pain on my arm, the sensation of the one-eyed Daphne's mouth still present from where her teeth tore into my skin. I checked the damage the Crank had done to my arm. An outline of her teeth shone bright red and angry. The wound no longer bled, instead a clear fluid tinged yellow wept from the bite marks down to my elbow. A numb pain throbbed from the area thanks to the adrenaline that pumped through my veins. In a few minutes, it would be at full force again screaming that it was hurt. I pushed the feeling down and returned to the urgency at matter.

I wiped my bloody hands on my trousers, trying as best as I could to dry my palms. It came to no avail as I stained the fabric from a dusty beige to a dark red. At this point, it was just another addition to the growing number of stains that were appearing on my clothes. Each one developing an even worse story behind it.

A movement further down the street caught the corner of my eye. I glanced up and spotted several figures running out from where the steps of stairs descended into darkness. It was a small group of people, about ten or so bodies that huddled together as each one exited. I could hear their voices from here, not the words, but the noises. They sounded stressed, or worried. Either way, I did not want to find out who they were and go through the same thing again.

Just as I turned to run inside to warn the others of company, I spotted the bat that the one-eyed Daphne had thrown aside. It rested in the middle of the road in the direction that the group was, daring me to retrieve it from where it sat. It would be a shame to lose such a weapon that had ended up being useful.

A swift check-up saw that the group had yet to acknowledge my presence. They were to hauled up with whatever problem they had. It was the perfect opportunity to get the bat and whisk away before they even noticed that someone else was near them.