The Fickle Winds of Autumn

56. Towards the Light

Kira charged forward as fast as her stiff, exhausted body could propel her. Her first bold strides carried her onto the crust of soft, sticky floor; the oozing guano gave way and clasped at her ankles; the heavy, acrid ammonia gripped her throat and made every breath a painful, rasping spasm.

She drove her determined legs onward; she must find a pathway through the foetid, stinking swamp; she must keep moving; the distant glimmering light was her only hope of survival.

Several black silhouettes swooped low; their rough wings clattered and skittered around her terrified ears; their sharp mouths gouged and ripped at the skin of her forehead and face.

She fought back the urge to scream; she forced her head down and thrashed at the air above her, desperate to keep the insidious creatures away from her eyes and mouth; the bitter, cutting bites stung deep into the vulnerable, exposed flesh of her hands and arms.

Her pounding feet sank deeper into the reeking mire; she struggled to drive through the cloying, boggy morass; the vicious swirl of piercing, puncturing wounds increased.

She battled through the traumatic pain and dug her weary legs in harder, faster; she must ignore the blistering, caustic lacerations and focus only on her escape - the protective shielding light flooding in from the mouth of the cave was her only hope of salvation.

The thick, squelching strides of Ellis and Aldwyn splashed out above the thump of her own turbulent heart. The bleak, obscuring gloom brightened with every painful footfall - but still the shadows of the cave persisted - the deadly distance still remained.

A shrill, shattering shriek crashed down from the dark ceiling above. The hopeful light of the exit flickered and wavered, confused by the deafening swarm of predators. Kira did not dare look up; she must focus, she must keep running - it was her only chance.

An intense, collective screech blasted through the echoing rocks; her ears stabbed and spiked in pain; the slimy floor darkened with rapid darting shadows.

A blizzard of voracious black swooped and engulfed her; the insatiable stinging bites blotted out the light from the exit. Ellis cried out beside her; the hostile swarm scavenged at his neck and shoulders and face. Through the dizzying, aggressive swirl she caught a momentary glimpse of Aldwyn - his cheeks and forehead gashed open, his face spattered with blood and creased in pain, his arms dripping with a writhing mass of the rapacious creatures.

A huge devouring cloud surged at her head; she drove her straining body forward and tried to shield her face with her arms; a plague of sharp, savage bites ripped and tore at her flesh; an unforgiving torrent of tiny piercing, stabbing mouths burrowed through her tunic and punctured her stinging shoulders; her helpless, obscured senses were blinded by the painful, incessant thronging drone of their wings and shrill cry of their menacing squeals.

The insidious, seething weight pressed down on her; the wretched ooze grasped tighter at her weary legs.

But she must keep running - she must keep moving; the dark of the cave would grow lighter with every heaving step she could wrench out of her beleaguered body.

She thrust forward and forced herself to squint out through her arms and the buzzing, swirling vortex.

She was well over half-way.

Surely she could make it?

Surely the Surrounder could not be so cruel - to bring her all this way just to fail now, so miserably and in such pain?

The churning wall of living, biting blackness swarmed at her body; she screwed her eyes tight shut, and tried to shield her face under her arms. She crashed through the whirring maelstrom of hungry, stabbing mouths, unable to see, or hear, or think properly - she only knew that she must keep forcing her wilting body towards the light, or suffer the terrifying consequences of failure.