Warmoon [ONC 2020]•[Shortlisted]•[Honorable Mention List, Stunning Worlds]

21. Rubble

Total Word Count: 32,341

Tap.

Rhoa flinched.

Tap.

Tap.

She drew in a short, sharp breath. The sound echoed faintly, and she opened her eyes.

Then she blinked.

Nothing. She couldn't see a thing, only thick, unyielding darkness.

For a moment she thought she must have gone blind. Although, she remembered falling. Maybe she was dead?

Tap.

Something splashed on her right hand. It was cold, colder than she was. She lifted her arm, bringing her hand to her lips. She was able to move, at least, and it was water on her fingers. She was thirsty. Calmly, she put her hand back down where it had been and caught the next few drops in her palm. It tasted of dirt, but it was wet.

She took a breath and began cataloguing facts. She wasn't dead. She wasn't infected with the Rot, either. The tower must have collapsed when the monster broke free, and she had fallen with it. She was alive, lying on her back in the dark, it was cold and smelled of mortar dust, there were large stones and what felt like gravel beneath her, and water was dripping from somewhere overhead.

She flexed her fingers. Then her toes.

Her left foot didn't respond as quickly as it should, and she hissed out a curse as a harsh stab of pain shot up her leg when she shifted her knee. There was resistance; something was keeping her from moving, something that grated against bone and yanked at muscle and sinew.

Grinding her teeth, she pushed herself upright and felt along her leg, wincing when her fingers found a piece of metal sticking out of her skin a few inches below the bend of her knee. A few more seconds of exploration told her the metal speared out of the rocks under her, entered her calf, and came out the other side.

Sitting up brought another discovery: her head was spinning. There was a nasty knot at the back of her skull, and her neck, shoulders, ribs, and spine all ached.

Suddenly exhausted beyond reason, she sank back down, darkness of a different sort stealing her away.

°°°°°ººººº°°°°°

Time passed. It must have. It was impossible to know exactly how much, when she could barely stay awake longer than a few minutes. It could have been hours, it could have been days.

The second time she came to, she tried feeling around to get a better idea of where she was. As far as she could tell, she seemed to be in a sort of pocket made by the curve of the iron tower stairs – a length of which was now impaling her lower leg. If she reached up above her head, her groping fingers found the edge of the steps, the grating unmistakable even in the dark.

When she tried to dig her leg free, however, the pain was so great she passed out again.

Hunger woke her the third time. She thought about screaming, but who would come? What had happened to everyone else when the monster got loose? Why had it saved her from the Rot only to let her fall?

She lay still, staring up at nothing, thinking it would have been better to just die and get it over with. It would have hurt less.

A sound brought her back to reality the fourth time. She opened her eyes, not entirely sure what had woken her.

Clang

Her heartbeat kicked over in her chest and she lifted her head, listening intently.