Rats.
Lapis stared at the rodents as they observed the people who interrupted them, squeaking, before scurrying away from the light and down the tunnel they needed to take.
So many rats! Where did they all come from?
Sanna, unconcerned, bustled past Linz and followed the creatures. Lapis hustled after, prickles racing up and down her arms. Not that she hated the rodents, but they carried disease, especially in the Stone Streets. Jiy’s city council hired several ratcatchers who toured with their dogs; a boring job, but one that paid well enough the people who plied it resided in the Grey Streets.
“There are a lot of rats,” Linz said, eyeing the receding tails with dread.
“They lived in the deserted caves,” Sanna said. “Anquerette moved in, and they moved out. They will move back, when Anquerette leaves.”
Hopeful, that.
They proceeded through an earthen tunnel, one held up by wooden beams rather than metal walls. Had the khentauree carved it? Likely. Before or after Dentheria’s invasion?
“How many khentauree never went to silence?” Lapis asked.
“Two hundred and fifty-three,” Sanna immediately responded. “Some did not want silence, but they broke and went anyway. Two hundred and fifty-three remain. Jhor has looked at them. He has helped them. He gave Path and Duxe information so they could mend others when they broke. The khentauree are . . . healthy.”
“Do you help Jhor with his research?”
“Yes, because it helps others. We have helped them to walk again. To see again. It is not the same, as they had before, but they are happy.”
“Is that how he funds his research?”
“Some give us money. He prefers favors, but they give money. He has a scheme. He takes from bank accounts. Just one bit or one dresh, but he takes from thousands. He takes from the very rich who will not notice. He takes from the governments who fall to their knees to Dentheria. Most are corrupt. They lose much money every year to this corruption. They do not realize he siphons some of it.”
“Does he hit Gall?” Lapis asked.
“I do not know. He does not want me to know, because it is criminal. I tell him, I do not care. He always raises his eyebrow when I tell him so.”
The huffy way she explained it, she did not appreciate his attempt to protect her, in some small way, from retaliation.
“I wonder if the rebels can help,” Linz said. “The Meint are part of the rebellion, and they’re very dedicated to helping people survive the brutishness of Dentherion rule. It would be worth it in goodwill, to fund medical research.”
“That would be nice,” Sanna admitted. “Jhor will not say so, but his equipment costs much money.”
Modding to improve the lives of the disadvantaged rather than as an act of war. Lapis appreciated the sentiment and knew several rats who could benefit from such help.
The khentauree clicked her tongue. “We come to a room,” she said. “Beyond is a large tunnel. The Jiy people claim it. Anquerette did, before the Jiy people came, but they left it. The black-clad ones think they are stealthy, to use it without asking. They are not. They stumble around and peer into doors and scratch their stubby heads.”
Her denigration made Lapis smile. The mercs certainly needed more training to become the infiltrators they assumed they already were.
Sanna’s optimism became anger when they reached the room. The door, one with knobs, lay in a twisted heap on the ground to the side of the entry, with items of all shapes and sizes scattered across the floor.
“Why do they do this?” she seethed, sweeping her hand about. The ire unsettled Lapis. Did khentauree react in the same way as humans? She remembered Sanna’s show of temper in shoving the table, and Jhor only sighed. Perhaps he weathered her annoyance because she liked him, but she did not know their group, so had no reason to soothe their unease.
“It is junk,” the khentauree continued. “It has not worked in many years.”
“Maybe they’re looking for tech supplies?” Linz hazarded. “It looked like they blew the door up to get inside.”
“So whoever it was, knows about this tunnel,” Lapis said.
“Yes. They know. But they did not use it. They would have blown up the other door. They did not.” Sanna stepped lightly through the debris, buzzing. “I do not know when this happened. Jhor and I have not used this way in many days.” She paused and peeked out of the frame, looking in both directions down a well-lit passage. “Many are near,” she said, soft and hesitant. “I cannot see more. My sensors return fuzzy, and Jhor’s birds do not respond.”
“Let’s go, but keep alert,” Brander said.
They followed her out the door and to the left, trotting to keep up with her long strides. She headed straight for the left-hand wall and the pathway that lined it, which avoided the many boxcars set on non-functioning tracks. Someone cleared a single lane down the center, with newer material shining against the older, bridging destroyed ties and rails. Tipped cars rested against their brethren, while small, grungy carts sat on the tracks, filled with dirt and stone.
They heard furious voices and shouting. Sanna hurried, the implied worry triggering Lapis’s own fear. How far down must they go, before they took a roundabout way less dangerous with the enemy?
A group popped out from between two crumbling boxcars far ahead, screaming at each other and waving their tech weapons about. It took a moment for the agitated men to realize a khentauree and three humans walked their way—long enough they slipped through another opening before the enemy attacked. Lapis glimpsed more people walking down the center lane, and Sanna made a high-pitched, anxious sound before a tech strike impacted the cart next to her.
They ran.
Beams tore through the sides of the cars, sending shrapnel in all directions. Lapis winced away and to the right, arm over her head. Brander kept step, but Linz and Sanna were no longer with them.
Dammit.
She pelted down the way, weaving in between the boxcars. The scattered voices grew closer and became louder as more people joined their pursuers. She raced past doorway after doorway, each with a missing door and darkness beyond.
The car next to her tinged before something exploded on the other side.
She shot into the next room, accompanied by debris—what else to do?—and looked about in the ambient light. A series of cabinets lined the wall, and trash littered the floor. No other exit.
Trapped.
Another explosion, and more wreckage filled the portal. Brander snagged cabinet doors until one opened. No shelves or items inside, just an empty hole. No other options for hiding, and they would lose any face-to-face battle with explosive tech.
Light flared. A huge blast, right outside the door.
They were going to die.
Tears coursed down Lapis’s cheeks as Brander snagged her, shoved her into the cabinet, then squeezed himself in, so tight she barely drew breath. He fumbled for the door’s edge, leaning out to the point he dug into her, slammed it shut and held it closed. His grip would not prevent a serious enemy from yanking it open, but it would give them time to react.
She pulled her right arm up, her forearm resting against her cheek, waiting for the inevitable; she would trigger her weapon into the next person to touch the door.
Frantic screams and the sounds of tech weapons firing echoed into the room. Brander sucked in his breath, and she set her forehead against his; she would do her best to protect him. Hopefully, whatever frightened their chasers kept them so busy they forgot about the two rebels who raced into a dead-end room, and they could sneak away with no one the wiser.
Then they would need to find Sanna and Linz. If Sanna’s sensor equipment did not function, reuniting became a more difficult problem. And if the enemy captured them . . .
She mentally chastised herself. Of course not. Sanna knew the tunnels better than those chasing them. They would escape.
More explosions vibrated the room. “What in the Pit?” Brander breathed.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. Had Ghost found them? If he destroyed an entire communications center for Anquerette, he had the capability of obliterating the train cars and tracks—and anyone caught in the tunnel.
People ran by, their heavy footfalls echoing into the room. Gasps for breath, and Lapis thought they spoke Jilvaynan and Lyddisian, but could not make out a single garbled word, though the fear lacing their voices triggered her own. Her heart beat rapidly, but slowed when no one appeared to enter their hidey-hole.
The cabinet became muggy and over-warm, and Lapis almost stepped out of it to shrug off her coat and then return to hiding. A foolish thing, but her sweating body did not like the confines. At least she pressed against a friend, someone she could guess as to their reaction if an enemy opened the door.
Quiet reigned, except for an odd, repetitive buzzing. Did it come from their packs?
“Brander? Do you hear that?”
“It sounds like the comm tech Faelan gave us.”
“Linz is trying to find us, then.”
“Probably.”
How long should they wait, before exiting the cabinet? They strained, but heard nothing.
“What do you think?” she whispered after an agonizing eternity.
“I don’t hear . . .”
Footsteps. Soft, crunching on debris and soil.
Shit.
The unknown person entered the room, a nonchalant step. She frowned. Whoever had run from the explosions would not casually enter an enemy’s hiding place. Unless they had won whatever battle had taken place? But even then, they’d be on-edge, angry, upset, and take a buddy to check the rooms. Brander tensed, his fingers curling against her back. She readied her gauntlet.
What if it were Sanna and Linz?
They would have said something. So definitely an enemy.
The thief lost his grip on the door as it swung open. She lowered her hand and triggered her blade.
No one there.
Light flared and Patch’s head peeked around the edge. “Hi.”
"Rats, why did it have to be rats?" - a certain adventuring archeologist... Really, a GREAT chapter! Very nice!
haha :) I hadn't thought of it that way, but it works! And thank you :)