Chapter Fourteen

 

Kuma was a few hundred meters from the dig site when he heard a single shot. They'd been moving quickly, but carefully, as not to put themselves in danger, but as soon as they heard it, they increased their speed. Kuma bounded over obstacles using his emerald for Lightness, scaring up a nest of cave crickets, while Deacon poured the topaz into his pumping legs. He wasn't quite the blur that Duro could achieve, but he'd learned to move quickly.

They reached the cavern as more shots were fired. Kuma leapt over the metal scaffolding of the mine as shapes moved out of the shadows towards a lone Xylos. He'd thrown the gun to the side and was yelling at the top of his lungs with his blades held wide.

The first creature that met him looked like a four-legged slinky made of gnarled pink flesh with toothy maws at the end of each appendage. Tumblers. He'd only seen a dead one once, dragged back to the Machi by some soldados that had found it on a patrol. Tumblers lived in the deepest canyons of the Wastelands in places the clans feared to tread.

In a time like this, Kuma wished he was a sapphire to push the faez-rich creatures back en masse. A tumbler came after him, rotating mouths snapping eagerly. He dodged to the side and sliced off a limb with his curved blade, then leapt with Lightness as two more converged on his location. He landed hard, tipping off balance as the rocky ledge cracked beneath his feet, slipping to the ground. A tumbler came rolling towards him, but Deacon appeared with his blade, killing it before the toothy maws could reach him.

The three of them fought off the tumblers, killing all eight, leaving the rocks littered with bloody appendages still twitching. The miners had climbed out of the hole and were clutching pickaxes, ready to defend themselves.

"What in the dark are they doing up here?" asked Kuma, breathing heavily as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"What are they?" asked Deacon, eyes wide.

"Tumblers," said Kuma. "They normally don’t come up this high. They tend to stay in the deep earth where it's brutally hot."

Xylos was searching ahead using his headlamp. "I can't find Botan."

Kuma checked around them. "What do you mean? Where is he?"

"I was investigating something on the far side that ended up being a tunnel rat. He was standing almost right here when I fired my weapon, and by the time I checked back, he was gone. There's still thirty feet before the tunnel leading out. No way he moved that fast in the few seconds I wasn't paying attention." He checked his arm, which was soaked in blood. "Shit, I think I got bit. I'll deal with it after we find Botan."

A sickening feeling invaded Kuma's stomach as he searched the nearby area, seeing no signs of the soldado. He checked back to Xylos to see him looking unsteady on his feet. Kuma grabbed his arm, examining the wound to find it flayed down to the bone.

"Shadows below, it got you good. You need to fix that."

"Yeah, I guess I do," said Xylos, blinking heavily.

Mina, the lead miner, approached Kuma, her face covered in dust and dirt. The whites of her eyes looked bright against the grime.

"What do we do? We were close to a new vein. We think some interesting stones are down there, but the ground isn't stable. If we leave now, it could collapse before we come back," said Mina.

"Stay at the mine, keep your weapons. Take Xylos back so he can heal himself. Deacon and I are going to find Botan. Once we do, we'll resume the mining."

Mina returned to the mine with Xylos. The older waku looked drunken by his steps and Kuma wondered if he was poisoned. Little was known about the tumblers except that they sometimes gathered in groups of fifty or sixty at the bottoms of the deep canyons, feeding on anything that mistakenly wandered into their midst.

Using his amber exposed Kuma to the grotesque and bloody interiors of the tumblers as they looked for signs of Botan.

"Where did he go?" asked Deacon.

"It had to be this passage. But I don't understand. Tumblers don't come this high up and they don't make frontal assaults on people. They tend to go for the smaller critters, or tunnel rats, and scurry away when they see people."

"Should we really leave them back there?" asked Deacon, checking over his shoulder. "Xylos didn't look so good."

"We have to find Botan."

Checking where he was stepping, he saw lots of scrape marks from the tumblers. A clear line could be drawn where they'd passed, but he saw no signs of Botan's boots. It wasn't until they were about sixty feet from the last location he'd been seen that Deacon pointed to a rock where half a bloody handprint remained.

"What in the actual fuck?" asked Deacon. "Dude, I do not like this."

"If we assumed that was Botan's handprint, the question remains how did he get here? Something other than tumblers is going on here. They would have eaten him where he lay."

Kuma checked all around. His senses were overwhelmed with the metallic scent of blood, his own body odor, and the fear of something coming out of the darkness. He calmed himself, pinching his nose between forefinger and thumb, breathing deliberately until his pulse was no longer ringing in his ears.

When he reexamined the ground, sweeping the area before them, he spotted a drop of blood on a rock further up the tunnel. He carefully followed, making sure to check the stone before placing his boot down. The passage led towards the canyons. Kuma found blood droplets for another fifty feet, but they grew more distant each time. Then he found a sneaker print. It was a partial—the shoe had clearly slipped off the hard rock and hit dust, leaving an impact.

"This wasn't random," said Kuma, pointing to the print. "Someone drove the tumblers to us, using the distraction to snatch Botan."

"How? Those fucking things didn't seem like the herding type."

"No idea, and that worries me."

"But where's Botan?" asked Deacon.

"The line suggested they took him towards the canyons. It's a couple hundred meters that way. You can go back with Xylos if you're worried we're too far."

"No, man. I'm staying with you," Deacon said, checking around them. "We have to find him."

Following the trail wasn't easy, but using the assumption that they'd taken him to the canyon helped them stay on course and find a dwindling blood trail.

"Do you think this was Drops?"

"If it was, they took him away from their territory rather than towards it."

"How can you tell? It all looks like the same fucking cave to me," said Deacon, scowling.

"Benefit of growing up underground, I guess."

As they neared the drop-off, the air grew warmer and the middle distance was sheer blackness rather than the glinting of rocks from their headlamps. The closer they got to the edge, the more Kuma was certain they wouldn't find Botan. He also had an itchy feeling between his shoulder blades that someone was watching, but they'd hidden themselves well. He couldn't detect them with his amber.

The edge of the canyon dropped off severely. Kuma scooted forward, careful not to place his weight on unstable rocks. He scanned the area, seeing no sign of Botan or anything else.

"Haven't found a spot of blood for a while," said Deacon. "I don't think he's here."

Kuma kept searching, but the trail of blood had disappeared. He wanted to keep going, but Deacon reminded him that the others were left unprotected, so they turned around. When they got back, they found Xylos sitting uneasily on the rocks with Mina holding him up. The other miners were spread out holding pickaxes, which would only protect them against the simplest of critters. Mina looked relieved when they returned.

"You okay, Xylos?"

"I think I'm poisoned. I tried to get rid of it with the opal, but I don't feel so good. It's like I have the worst hangover."

Kuma checked his arm. The wound looked better since Xylos had closed it, but it was uneven.

"Gonna have a good scar."

"Women love scars," said Xylos hazily.

"What do we do about the mine?" asked Mina.

Kuma checked Xylos' unfocused eyes. His skin was pasty and damp. Almost greenish.

"I don't want to leave it, but Xylos isn't doing good."

"If someone else comes along, they'll be able to finish what we started in a short amount of time," said Mina.

"What kind of stones were you finding?"

Mina shrugged. "It's always hard to tell, but we'd found a vein of faez crystals that were increasing in quality the further we dug in. We had to shore up the ceiling so it wouldn't fall on us. But from what we could gather by studying the earlier stones, it might be a vein of sapphires. Good ones. The last time I found a vein like this we managed to get six high-quality emeralds."

Kuma checked back to Xylos, who was leaning over, moaning softly and holding his stomach. Deacon had to hold him up.

"We're gonna have to carry him as it is."

"You'll have to carry him. You're the topaz," said Kuma.

The idea of leading the group back to the Machi with only him as defense seemed dangerous. But he also hated the idea of leaving the stones for someone else to take, especially if they were sapphires. The stones would immediately improve the standing of their waku.

"Deacon. I want you to take Xylos back. I'm going to stay and finish mining."

"But you don't know anything about how to extract the faez crystals," said Xylos

"Then teach me."

"No. I'll stay with you," said Xylos

"I can't let you do that," said Kuma. "Deacon can carry Xylos, but the rest of you need to take the guns. It's your best shot of getting back. Whoever took Botan is still out there."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Deacon as he grabbed Xylos and threw him over his shoulder while he kept the automatic rifle in his other hand.

"No, but we need the sapphires."

"I said I thought there were sapphires," said Mina. "Sometimes the mine dries up and you dig for hours to find nothing."

"A chance I'm willing to take. Now tell me what I'm doing."

Mina looked unsure of how to begin, or thought he was being foolish. Eventually she collected herself.

"About forty feet down, there's a side shaft. You'll see the lamps. Take one of the small picks. You'll have to use this special light to see the crystals. They glow when exposed to the illumination. The vein isn't so much a vein but a constellation of stars—they can be hard to find and easy to lose. Chip around the stone. You can't hurt them, but you can dislodge them and they'll fall onto the ground beneath you and be hard to find. When you have a chunk ready to fall, hold the basket beneath until you break it free."

"How do I know if it's good crystal?"

Mina handed him a small eyepiece. "This will help you see their crystalline matrix. The good ones have parallel lines while the bad ones look partially fractured. But in the end, grab it all and bring it back to the Machi for testing."

"Anything else?"

Mina's mouth shifted to the side. "Don't do this. You're more likely to get yourself killed, especially with another clan on the loose. Or asphyxiate yourself accidentally. The stones aren't that important."

"But they are. Our future depends on them."

Deacon led the group out of the caves towards the Machi. The Black Crow looked genuinely concerned. He said nothing but gave a head nod on the way out.

Kuma turned the lamps off, plunging himself in darkness. He switched on the oxygen bottles and climbed into the mine without hooking up to the safety harnesses. The lights deep below guided him through the natural hole that had been widened at certain points. The stone beneath the city of Invictus was porous with multiple layers of caverns. Some of the deeper layers, especially those with faez crystals, were assumed to have been entry points from the infernal realm.

He reached the location Mina had told him about. The side passage went perpendicular into the darkness. This section had clearly been excavated, the excess rock dumped into the deep hole beneath, using baskets to transport.

Switching on his headlamp, he crawled across the stone, taking a pickaxe with him. He reached the end of the tunnel and using the penlight found the crystals imbedded in the stone they'd been digging around. The idea that he'd pop down and quickly grab the stones was quickly dismissed by the thickness of the surrounding rock and the way the shelf had to be supported by steel rods to keep the entire thing from collapsing. He could see why they'd been taking their time. He was a little unsure about continuing the dig and considered leaving, but decided against it. The needs of the clan were too great.

Kuma situated himself cross-legged with a basket in his lap and started picking away. Chips flew, stinging his face and making him wish he'd grabbed goggles from the others to protect his eyes. He worked quickly and steadily. While the miners had better technique, the years of honing his muscles at the Academy meant he could strike the rock harder and more consistently.

He was drenched in sweat by the time he broke the first crystal free. Using the eyepiece, he examined the matrix, finding a bluish tint and crystalline structures that went crossways. It probably wasn't viable but he'd let someone else worry about that later.

He threw the chunk in the basket and continued breaking the rest of the crystals free, feeling more confident about not bringing the entire tunnel down on his head. There was a line of eight crystals barely peeking out of the stone along a two-foot section. He checked them with the eyepiece, finding nearly all of them had parallel lines and a bright blue coloring. The excitement of the find made his head swim. He'd be bringing back a boon that could change the course of the arms race. Rather than break them apart individually, Kuma tried to bring the whole piece down. He wanted to get them out of the rock and back to the Machi.

Time passed quickly. The sweat on his skin collected dirt and dust, leaving him grimy. He wished he'd brought a water bottle down. His mouth had grit in it that kept crunching against his teeth. It wasn't until he grew dizzy that he realized something was wrong.

Pausing mid-strike, he listened with his amber. At first he heard nothing, and then he realized that the nothing was the problem. The tube running down the scaffolding was no longer feeding him oxygen. A beep from a meter hanging off a rod brought him crawling out of the hole to find the CO2 levels were rising.

When the scaffolding rattled, he realized someone was up top. He couldn't see anyone coming down, but the tunnel didn't go straight up, making it hard to see. He grabbed his blades that he'd left at the flat section, crouching to the side when a heavy rock at least a hundred pounds came crashing down the scaffolding, snapping poles and bouncing into the darkness below. More rocks came down, tumbling fast and hard, making it impossible to climb out.

Some of the rocks started getting stuck about twenty feet above him at the narrowest point of the shaft. The realization that he was being trapped underground settled into his bones. He started breathing fast and shallow, but forced himself to calm, or use up the remaining oxygen. The crash of rocks continued for about ten minutes and then it stopped, leaving dust motes floating in the air in the lamplight.

When he was sure nothing would fall on his head, he climbed up using the remaining pole that hadn't been shattered, or the opposing walls. He reached the blockage, finding it completely covering the hole. There was at least five feet of stone between him and the opposite side.

Kuma rested his head against the warm stone. He was trapped. Permanently. The rest of the clan had headed back to the Machi. Whoever had taken Botan had circled back, turned off his oxygen, and blocked his exit. Either they hadn't cared about the stones, or hadn't known about what lay beneath the ground.

He had two options. Try to open up the tunnel with his pickaxe so the blockage would fall away, or descend further in hopes of finding an alternate route. It was more likely that it would lead nowhere, or be too narrow for him to pass, but the longer he waited the less oxygen he had to work with. The beeping had increased in frequency. He checked the meter to find he was rapidly running out of time.

Kuma climbed back into the tunnel, finding the supporting rods had shifted. The huge rocks being dropped down the shaft had shaken some loose. He figured he had another half hour of work to free the sapphires, which was more than the air he probably had to work with, especially if he was pushing himself.

He hated leaving the sapphires, but if he were dead, then it wouldn't matter. On the other hand, if they tried to come back later, the entire tunnel would likely be collapsed from the digging. If he wanted to bring back a sapphire, it had to be now.

The end section had a crack in it. He thought if he worked it quickly, he might be able to free two sapphires. Kuma slammed the pickaxe into the crack, widening it while keeping an eye on the metal supports. The impacts shook them, sending dust upon his head while the beeping forced him to work faster. Once the piece broke free, Kuma grabbed the rock, shoved it into his pack, and prepared to climb down the shaft.

With a headlamp affixed to his forehead, and the pickaxe shoved in the back of his pants, Kuma moved downward, using the opposite walls to maintain at least three points of contact. He shimmied down about fifty feet before he reached the waste stone they'd been dumping. Fear that there was nowhere to go rose up in his throat until he had to force himself to push away the panic.

When he leaned down, he found a perpendicular passage heading into the darkness. It wasn't tall. He'd have to crawl on his belly to make it through.

As he maneuvered himself flat, crawling forward on his belly, the ground shook and a rock fell on the back of his calf. The impact felt like getting kicked by Instructor Kaz. Kuma grimaced and continued forward, the beeping from the oxygen monitor growing fainter. He'd thought about bringing it, but if the oxygen ran out there was nothing he could do about it. It would only be one more thing weighing him down.

Shimmying forward grew more difficult as the passage narrowed. His hips got caught on the rocks and he had to wiggle to free himself. The headlamp revealed a cluster of unusual pale insects clustered around a crack in the ground. Not wanting to get poisoned on top of being trapped, he tore a part of his shirt off, wrapped it around his hand, and smashed the colony before continuing.

The heat was unbearable. Sweat rolled into his eyes. The only saving grace was it made his limbs slicker to pull himself forward. Kuma kept thinking the passage would end and he'd be stuck, but he found more room. As it started angling upward, he grew hopeful. He was sure he'd crawled a hundred feet already.

As the passage turned vertical he found himself stymied by narrows too slender for his muscled body. Pulling the pickaxe out, he worked the stone while protecting his eyes from the dust and chips falling on his head. He'd knocked half the protrusion free when a wave of dizziness hit him, forcing him to lean against the wall and catch his breath.

The weight of the rock above him pushed down. He had to work to control his breathing. The last thing he wanted was to hyperventilate.

"Breathe," he told himself, using the exercises from being an emerald to calm.

But when he returned to the rock, the same dizziness remained. He worried he was running out of air. All the training with Kaz about holding their breath for minutes at a time wouldn't matter once the oxygen ran out. He needed to break the rock free quickly.

Kuma returned the pickaxe to the back of his pants and grabbed the point of the protrusion with both hands. Then he made himself Heavy with his emerald at the same time he pulled down. He stayed Heavy for twenty seconds without breaking it free. After cycling Light, he tried again, this time hearing a faint crack for his efforts, but not enough, as he had to return to Light. On the third try, he put everything he had into it, including the fear that he'd never get out. He'd never made himself Heavy for that long and feared he might rip his arms out of their sockets, but then the rock snapped and he fell a few feet, jamming his knees out to catch himself.

With the protrusion out of the way, he pulled himself upward, hating that he hadn't tasted fresh air yet. Fearing that meant the passage would go nowhere. But as he climbed higher, he saw more of the little insects, the cave crickets and centipedes that were common.

When his headlamp revealed a flat top to the passage, his heart sunk into his gut. He was trapped.

But the top was odd, too flat, where stone should have been uneven. He kept going until he reached it, finding the exit covered by a layer of carpet fungus. He punched his fist through, exposing fresh air, and dropping a bunch of crickets and other insects on his face.

After knocking them off and wiping his face clear, Kuma switched off the headlamp and carefully climbed through the fungus and into a cavern. As if the earth had given birth, he lay on the soft fungi catching his breath, feeling the cool air against his face. The sound of water trickling through rocks made him realize he was near the underground lake, which wasn't too far from the cavern.

With his amber, Kuma confirmed he was alone before climbing to his feet and exposing himself. He stayed in the darkness, relying on the faint illumination from the fungus. His legs ached and his arms were exhausted from fighting through the earth, but he was relieved to have made it out.

After an hour of cautious travel, Kuma made it back to the outer guard posts of the Machi, where he confirmed that the others had made it back. As he was headed over a wooden bridge towards his father's house, he ran into Yara, who looked like she'd come from training.

"What the fuck happened to you?"

A pithy answer died in his throat when he remembered that her friend Botan was missing, and likely dead. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, which only made her suspicious.

"What?" she asked, lips snarling in anger.

"I'm sorry, Yara."

He proceeded to explain what had happened. Yara stared over his shoulder with the heat of a fiery furnace on her face. When he was finished, Yara gave him a brief nod before heading towards the Academy.