The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter thirty-two:

Clarity had almost returned to her starting point. Her neck had been bowed back the whole time, and her eyes burned with the effort of her diligent observation. But then she saw it.

It was just the smallest dent, protruding down into the room, but it was definitely something she would consider a weak spot, especially after scanning the rest of the room in its entirety.

"Johnny, I found a weak spot!" she cried. She didn't even have to raise her voice that much. Every sound she made bounced off of the walls over and over again until it sounded like she was screaming it at the top of her lungs.

"Coming!" she the reply sounded as if it had come from the other side of a long tunnel. She had no idea where in the room he was, because of the echo effect, but she heard his running footsteps long before he reached her.

"Where?" he asked immediately after he reached her.

She pointed at the dent in the ceiling, looking up again, herself.

"How are we gonna reach that?" his doubt shone clearly through his voice.

Clarity took hold of Johnny's hand, and in the blink of an eye, they were standing on top of the huge metal device closest to the weak spot.

Johnny was taken completely by surprise, and it didn't help very much that the thing they were standing on was uneven, so he lost his balance and was on a sure road to splattering all over the floor below. However, their hands were still linked, so she was able to prevent that from happening.

He offered a faint smile of thanks, which she briefly returned before they had to get back to the task at hand.

"The real question is how are we going to break through?" she stared up at the ceiling, still impossibly thick even at its weakest point.

"Stand back."

Clarity looked at him, letting her eyes ask the questions for her.

"Just- go back down there for a bit." He pointed back at the ground.

That wasn't the answer what she was looking for, but she complied anyway, teleporting herself back onto the floor.

As soon as she was back on the ground, she turned to look and see what Johnny had in mind.

Her questions were answered upon seeing that he was once again a dragon—or not technically a dragon, as he said—and he was rearing up on his hind legs to better reach the last few feet to the ceiling.

The sound of his two front paws striking the dented metal was deafening. The first time was unsuccessful, so he did it again, and again after that. Water was starting to trickle slowly from the peak of the bulge. It was no more than a few drips, but the sight sent hope flaring through her.

After another hit from Johnny, the water was gushing through, causing the surrounding machines to send up their protest in the form of acrid black smoke. She was standing a far enough distance from the hole, but even she was beginning to get wet. Johnny was soaked.

He hit the weak spot one more time, and the water was suddenly too strong to hope for another hit.

She wasted no time in teleporting up and returning him to the floor so that the tide wouldn't sweep him away.

His giant dragon form could hardly fit in the narrow aisle, but within seconds, he had shrunken down again to the familiar redheaded human.

"Let's get out of here." He shouted over the din. The water was coming through the ceiling in torrents and the noise almost drowned out what he said.

As they walked towards the door, Clarity could tell that something wasn't right about the way the water was flowing. It shouldn't have gotten any deeper than a couple of inches as it flowed into the building, but it was already above her shoes and quickly rising higher.

Johnny must have noticed this as well because he picked up the pace until they were running.

By the time they reached the closed door, the water was nearly up to her shins.

The door was locked.

There was only one thing to do, and that was teleporting out, but she was hesitant to do so because whoever had closed the door might still be out there, waiting to shoot them if they tried to leave. And they couldn't just teleport to somewhere further away, because they needed the water to flood the whole place, not just the generator room. The door had to be opened from right outside.

The water was now above her knees.

"Do you think we should go out?" Johnny asked over the roar of the water. He was most likely thinking along the same lines as her.

She would hate to have to watch another friend die, even if she would only be dying herself a moment later. And a small part of her was whispering that she would especially hate to see Johnny die, and she would be lying to herself if she didn't believe it.

It felt completely absurd to realize that she liked him in the midst of their current crisis, but she couldn't exactly deny it.

"We might get shot at." She replied, shrugging. The nonchalant gesture felt very wrong in light of their situation. "But we certainly can't stay here." She gestured to the water, which was now almost at waist level, though she knew that he wouldn't need reminding. He had to know just as well as she did that they would drown if they lingered for too long.

"We might as well risk it," Johnny yelled. It was getting harder to hear what he said, and Clarity guessed that the hole in the ceiling had widened with the pressure of all that water.

Clarity nodded quickly. She didn't care much what they did because both options could be deadly. But whatever they did, they needed to hurry. The water was past her belly-button.

And she knew, too, that they could never just give up. If they were going to die, they would die fighting.

She met his gaze and saw the same grim determination mirrored there. Something else, entirely different, lingered just below the surface. She didn't dare let her imagination run wild with the thought that it was a return of her own feelings, but even so, she felt a singular butterfly start its fluttering in her stomach.

Then suddenly—so very suddenly—he'd closed the distance between them; closed the distance between their lips.

In that one flaming moment of surprise, so many thoughts rampaged through her mind—so many things she ought to do. But they were too fast for her to follow, and she found herself simply letting it happen. She felt another bright blush rise to her cheeks when he wrapped his arms around her. But of course, the moment ended too soon.

The water was almost to her chest by the time they pulled apart. She allowed no time for him to study her giddy, blushing face. She snatched up his hand and teleported them both into the hallway beyond the door.

The first thing that she was able to process was the brightness of the lights. The next thing she saw wasn't so harmless, however.

A ring of guards, all with guns trained directly at Johnny and herself. The butterflies in her stomach instantly withered and died, replaced by a sinking dread.