The Elementals: The Rise of the Deviants

Chapter 11

Chapter eleven

[Derrek’s POV]

“What are you waiting for?! Go! Run!” I repeated when Blake, Evanesce and Chimera didn’t immediately run. “I’ll catch up, but they’ll need your help more than I do!”

At the urgency of my voice the girls snapped back together into the shadow silhouette and whooshed out of the chamber, followed shortly by Blake. I quickly turned and ran the short distance to Val and my jaw clenched painfully when I saw the blood oozing from the inside of her elbows. What the hell happened? I gulped down my anger and fear as I tried to quickly unfasten the straps holding her down. It was when I began to unfasten the straps on her arms that I realised she hadn’t been tortured (at least not in a way that caused her to bleed out) but somehow she had tried to hack away at her bindings.

“Don’t worry, Tadpole... I’ll get you out. Come on, just wake up for me” I whispered urgently over and over again with every unfastened strap. I could feel the blood rushing in my ears and my heart was beating painfully against my chest while slight shivers wracked my body; which had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with my fear for Val. Why wasn’t she waking up?!

“Wake up, Val!”

Nothing.

I had no choice but to bend down and lift her over my shoulder. I barely registered that she was much, much lighter than when I had last seen her and I bit down on the anger that had begun to rise again. I scurried past the frozen sculpture of my ‘mother’ and ran for the door, not without checking if the coast was clear – once again there was nothing and no one in my way.

That didn’t make me feel any better.

I shifted Val higher on my shoulder and dashed down the corridor, recalling my way back to the cells, while my eyes darted around looking for any sign of movement. At the last corner, I skidded around and into the dungeon only to see that it had been completely blocked by panicking Abled and Elementals. Over the heads of the panicking people I could see Helena and Cameron barely managing to keep a tall man with the head of a snake from the neck up and a snake tail sprouting from the back.

“Get out of my way! Move!” I shouted angrily as I tried to shove the people aside. If I hadn’t been carrying Val I’d have easily burnt my way through, but it just wasn’t an option right now. The snake man whipped around and his tail curled around Helena, squeezing her like a tube of toothpaste before Cameron ran forward and tackled him against the metal cell bars. The Elemental released her but she flew like a rag doll to the side crashing against a stone wall. Not even a second later and she was up and back to fighting alongside Cameron.

I struggled to push through the crowd and, with every second lost, I began to regret having these people released. It was like a raging sea in a temperamental storm, I tried to sail straight through them but was only being pushed around and shoved back and forth. More than once Val nearly slipped off from my shoulder and I was beginning to think that Val burning a little would be worth blasting a fireball straight through these Abled and Elementals.

Just as the thought came to mind, I fell through the back of the crowd and caught my footing just in time to miss having Blake come hurtling past my face and smash against the glass cell behind him. I turned to see what in the hell had him flying down the corridor like that when in the corner of my eye a massive man, slightly tinged with green, walked forward. I glanced down and coming out from his forearms were razor sharp mantis arms, almost like blades. Behind him I could see more Elementals... and there was definitely a difference between these Elementals and the ones panicking to escape.

I wanted to fight.

I wanted to burn every single one of these Elementals into a crisp, despite them being under the control of Malum, because the fact was I was just sick and tired of them. They were under the control of Malum and that meant they were a danger to everyone. But it would be a cold day in hell before I let Val out of my arms in this place, so I had no choice but to go to Plan B.