The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter eleven:

The stairs continued their ominous creaking as the remaining three supports struggled to hold all the weight.

Clarity waited until the stairs had stopped vibrating before she gingerly moved her foot up onto the next step. Nothing gave way, and the creaking remained at a steady pitch.

She reached back and once again slid her arm under Rachel's. Every move she made was careful and slow. She wasn't going to risk killing them just because she wanted so badly to get them to safety. It would be stupid to rush.

The metal staircase now hung at an awkward angle from the wall, making it all the more difficult to ascend. She took a slow breath before she climbed another step.

Clarity risked a look back. The entire bottom portion of the stairs was crumpled like paper and now completely impassible. There was nowhere to go but up. She slowly took another step.

There were less than twenty more steps to go. She took another step, and still another. Nothing was happening. The steady creaking had faded to nothing but background noise in her mind. She was tuning everything out except for one foot passing the other- one more step climbed.

She was able to take two more steps with no incident. The creaking stayed in the periphery. Rachel was breathing heavily. Her heart had not stopped its frantic beating.

When she looked up, she could see the worried faces of the ones who had made it up before the stairs had broken. She took another step, releasing a breath as she did. Her foot slipped on the slanted stairs and her heart leaped.

Ten more steps to go.

Her movements were even more careful now. Sweat was forming on her brow and her heart continued to hammer inside her chest. Her head had begun to pound painfully with the thumping rhythm.

She tentatively placed her foot on the next step, in unison with Clara and Rachel. The stair shifted under their feet. Clarity's heart sank as the metal groaned loudly and let out an earsplitting creak. The last of the supports broke away from the wall. Bits of concrete and rusted flakes of metal rained down.

The trio lurched backward with the stairs. Their collective weight caused the staircase to buckle in on itself. Clarity felt her feet slip out from under her as she plunged over the railing. There was a shriek from below her.

Just in time, her hand caught hold of the metal grating that the floor of the stairs was made out of. The sharp jerk downward tugged at her hand and the rusted metal cut into her skin. Her breath was forced out of her in a hiss.

She was still holding onto Rachel's arm, and from a cry of pain and surprise, she knew that Clara was still on the other side of Rachel. None of them had fallen.

But that was a curse as well as a blessing. Clarity was now bearing not only her own weight but the weight of two other people her size with only one arm. The rusty metal was sharp and clarity could feel blood trickling down her arm. Her shoulder was sore but she was pretty sure that the rest of her arm had lost feeling along with her fingers.

The staircase jerked again and Clarity could feel her grip loosen. Although her cut fingers were aching and her almost completely numb, she bit her lip and held on. She focused all of her attention on her bleeding fingers, willing them to hold on.

Her pulse filled her ears. She could hear the rushing of blood. The only feeling was the far-off sting of numbed pain. She felt stretched like taffy.

Then there was a release. She almost felt as if she would spring upwards with the loss of weight. Her dull mind filled with dread because she thought that Clara or both Clara and Rachel had fallen, but a moment later, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She shifted her gaze from her fingers and saw that Alex was flying up, gripping Clara by her elbows. The downdraft from his wings beat her in her face. Her heart sped up because she thought the wind would put extra pressure on her weakening fingers, but she quickly dismissed the thought. The breeze felt terrific on her warm forehead and aching fingers.

She watched intently as Alex dropped Clara off at the top of the hole. Once she was safe on the grass, he descended into the hole again. It had been a long while since she'd seen him in flight, and his wingspan was even wider than she recalled. She could only see the white undersides as he came to relieve the weight of Rachel.

Clarity's other hand flew upwards to grip the metal as soon as she felt Rachel's hand loosen.

Alex repeated what he had done with Clara and soon, she felt his hands close around her upper arms. She once again felt the cool downdraft of his flight as they slowly rose out of the concrete silo.

It felt like forever before she was once again safely on solid ground.

  Her hand recaptured its circulation and almost immediately started pulsing with blood and pain. She grimaced and gripped her finger in an attempt to stem the flow.

She stood up on shaky legs, her heartbeat gradually starting to slow.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked, taking a mini step towards her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clarity's voice trembled slightly, though not as badly as she'd been expecting it to.

Clarity looked around for the first time now that she'd recovered enough to think. They were in a grassland similar to the one they had been taken from. Except this one was smaller. Bordering the entire field, there were thousands of tall buildings, some more distant than others.

Clarity spun around and, sure enough, the buildings completely encompassed the small prairie. They were in a bowl of sorts, surrounded on all sides by a wall of civilization.

"What are we going to do now? We can't stay here. The person on the other side of the radio said that they were sending a team here. We need to get out of here." Clara said shakily, wrapping her arms around herself. Clarity was amazed at the fact that she'd even been able to remember the details. Clarity's own mind was nearly blank after the ordeal of climbing those stairs.

"You're right. We should move." Sam said, though his words were laced with uncertainty as he spun around to take in the same information that Clarity had just observed. They were surrounded.

"But to where?" Rachel asked, still sitting where Alex had dropped her. One leg was held protectively close to her chest.

"Let's just head into the city and find out where we are. Once we do that, we can figure out where to go from there." Alex said. He was the third one to spin around and observe their situation.

"If you say so," Rachel muttered, rolling her eyes.

Clarity helped Rachel to her feet and Sam and Alex once again took up the burden of lugging Johnny between them. After deciding which buildings seemed the closest, they started walking. Clara was still shaking badly, but she still offered to help support Rachel as they walked.

Clarity looked at the distant line of buildings, her legs already aching in anticipation of the long walk.