Page 14

As quick as it had begun, the rain stopped, but I didn’t dare move.

I watched as the flood rushed in one direction.

Muddy brown water stole the evidence of the storm, tearing away all that was broken and dragging with it three Potentials towards the fissure that had appeared earlier in the floorboards.

Their bodies were pulled into the dark abyss.

“First an earthquake, then Monsoon rain,” I said, sitting up. My clothing stuck to my skin, every inch of me soaked. “Definitely weather extremes.”

“Yeah, yeah, forecast boy,” Kayden hissed, looking like a drenched cat stuck up a tree. His red hair was plastered to his head as he hugged the trunk. “But what’s the puzzle?”

I assessed the layout of the room. “There! I can see a metal door at the far end of the room. We just need to arrive in one piece.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Zane said with a salute.

“Check her out,” Ace called from another tree. I looked over and saw him standing on a branch, one hand on the limb above him, the other pointing to where a drenched woman was scaling the walls. “She’ll be toast in a minute.”

The young woman clung to the vines, which had already etched multiple scratches into her arms and back.

Red trickled from the cuts down her limbs, leaving a blood trail behind her.

She moved slowly and was by far the closest to the exit, but she appeared to be faring better than the rest of us.

Yet Ace was right; there was a flaw in her plan.

The vines had led her up the wall to the ceiling, moving in a diagonal line.

At about the halfway point of the room, she would reach the top and wouldn’t be able to progress any further.

The woman seemed to realise the flaw in her plan at the same time I did and looked around before grabbing hold of a curtain rail.

Torn fabric hung from the metal rod, stained from age and blackened from old lightning strikes.

It held at first, but as soon as she shifted her weight from the vines to the rusted bar it snapped from the wall, tearing the bracket from the wall completely.

“Another one down,” Ace said as she fell, hitting the wet ground hard, the rail landing atop her. She lay still beneath the curtain rod, her limbs at irregular angles. Blood blossomed out from the back of her head where it mixed with the dirty flood water. “How many more to go now?”

“Too few,” I whispered. Slowly, I climbed down from my tree, the wound blazing with pain in the process, as if angry that I had forgotten about it for the moment.

Blood spilled from it through Kayden’s makeshift bandage.

I didn’t want to think about the yellow that seeped into the fabric as well.

I needed to finish this trial because whatever the slug-thing had infected my leg with, its teeth couldn’t be good.

Bacteria would be slow in debilitating me.

My body would have more time to fight it.

But if it was venom, I would discover its symptoms much faster than I’d like.

Either way, all this running and filth wouldn’t be good for it.

My foot slipped as I neared the bottom, mud splashing me as I gingerly dropped to the ground.

“You alright there, Kaydey Cat?” Ace shouted up to Kayden, who remained wrapped around a branch high above us. “Do I need to call the fire brigade?”

“Kitty Kayden,” Zane chuckled, helping me to my feet, a mischievous grin spread across his face.

“Fuck off,” Kayden barked, face reddening.

“Mess with him later,” I told them. “Get down here! We need to cover as much ground as possible before the next weather incident.” Not waiting for a reply, I took the lead again, limping hard now. The ground trembled slightly behind me, and I glanced back to see Kayden had joined us.

Zane whispered “Kitty Kayden” under his breath as I resumed limping away, which must have earned him a punch because a howl followed quickly after.

Lightning, earthquakes, monsoons... I tried to think of what else to expect.

Extreme temperatures.

Volcanic eruptions.

Tsunamis.

Wind whirled through the room, blowing debris and rattling the shells in Zane’s hair.

“Tornado!” I shouted, freezing on the spot, my mind racing as I searched the area around us.

I had no idea where to go, just that being out in the open would mean I’d be in the tornado’s firing line.

“This way!” Kayden shouted.

I looked over to see him waving us in his direction. He was running towards the darkened hole where all the water had flowed.

“Are you sure?” I called back, though I made my way towards him. My run was more like some kind of monstrous hobble. This seemed like a bad idea, but I had no other options, and he seemed confident enough for me to trust him.

“We need to get low!” Kayden ordered as I tripped to a halt at the edge of the fissure just after Ace and Zane. “Move your asses now and follow me.”

He crouched, then lowered himself into the hole, his feet finding purchase on the rocks sticking out of the walls.

The wind was picking up speed around us, making me more unsteady on my feet.

I braced myself as best I could, fear filling my gut as I watched Kayden slide himself into the gap beneath the floorboards and the ground, right into the crawlspace.

“He swims like a cat in a bathtub too,” Zane stated with a grin before following Kayden, his long blond hair wild around his face. “Here, kitty, kitty.”

Swallowing hard, I slowly lowered myself over the edge, my arms straining as I clung to the broken boards. Ace gripped my wrists, holding me as my feet desperately searched for purchase.

“You alright?” he asked, the wind whirling through his dark hair.

“Never better,” I replied. My palms became sweaty, my heart hammering in my chest as I tried and failed to find somewhere for my feet.

Kayden appeared at chest level, peeking his head out from the crawlspace as he reached out and grabbed my waist.

“You got under the room’s foundations and turned your body around?” I hissed, amazed that Kayden was able to manoeuvre his huge form in such a small space. “Not sure I can entirely disagree with Zane’s current nickname for you.”

“I can drop you if you prefer?” he replied with a grin. “Let go.”

I nodded to Ace, and he released me. My gut felt like it was going to fall out of my ass as Kayden took my weight.

“Cats fit in the smallest places,” Zane shouted over the rising sound of destruction, shuffling on his belly closer to Kayden. “It's a whole thing on the internet.”

Kayden growled as he hauled me into the crawlspace, and I clambered in on his other side. Broken pipes and debris littered the dirt and the drenched bodies of dead Potentials lay scattered along a tunnel that descended underground.

Ace was quick to join us and soon we were cramped together beneath the ballroom hardwood floor.

Kayden shouted something at Zane but I couldn't hear over the roar above, and I doubted Zane could either.

The floorboards above us rattled and groaned loudly, the sound of the wind howling and mixing with the destruction over our heads.

Like the lightning and rain, the tornado lasted all of a few minutes, its violent winds wreaking havoc above. Finally, the winds died down and the world became quiet.

At least momentarily.

“So, you know a thing or two about tornadoes?” Zane asked Kayden. I could see the merman lying with his head on the side, an arm tucked beneath it like he was relaxing on a beach somewhere.

“They’re cool.” He shrugged, or at least attempted to. “There are a lot of interesting docos on them. We also get sandstorms in the desert, which are different but still terrifying if you’re not prepared.”

“This is getting too chummy for my liking,” Ace declared, shuffling out first. Once above he called an all-clear and we followed him to the surface.

At least I tried to follow, but the others lifted me out. I’d conclude that without them I’d definitely be dead by now.

Above, the interior of the ballroom was a mess.

The walls still stood, clearly holding strong thanks to whatever magic existed here, but everything within had been thrown about.

Furniture was embedded in walls, some pieces high up in the branches of the large trees.

Smaller trees were now on their sides, torn from the ground and scattered in pieces about the room.

Then there were the surviving Potentials, who were bruised and beaten bloody. Of the 24 of us who’d entered the room, 19 remained. That number was likely to drop again any minute.

Still soaking wet from the rain, I stood with my hands on my hips and looked towards the exit. We were close. Painfully so, yet I doubted we were in the clear yet.

“This is it,” Kayden said with a hand on my shoulder. “We get to that door. No matter what they throw at us, we’re finishing this right now.”

His tone brokered no argument. I could see why so many people followed him back in the early days of the trial. Kayden had an undeniable authority about him.

Without waiting for a reply he took off, hurtling himself over fallen tree trunks with a surprising amount of grace as he went.

I ran too, reminding myself the entire time that the sooner I got out the sooner I would be healed.

I ran awkwardly behind Ace and Zane as we followed the path Kayden created for us.

He was right. It was time to get out of this hellscape of a ballroom.

But as I ran, swallowing became harder and my throat dried out.

Each intake of breath grew raspier than the last until I wasn’t sure I’d still be breathing by the time I reached the exit.

I figured whatever venom the slug that bit me with had finally made itself known.

Until Zane clutched at his gills ahead, and I glimpsed a pained expression on his face.

“The air is too dry,” he gasped, his steps slowing to match mine. We tumbled over a pile of rubble together, only for Zane to trip on a cracked floorboard and face plant.

“Son of a barnacle!” he howled and lifted his head slowly, revealing a very broken nose.

Kayden and Ace hurried to his side, hoisting him to his feet before I could even attempt it.

Not that I would have been much help, seeing as I could barely hold myself up with my leg.

Dragging in a rough breath, I placed my hand over Zane’s beaten face, blood seeping through my fingers as I clicked his nose back into place with my healing magic.

“Just do enough to stop the bleeding,” Ace said, fluffing his t-shirt. It was bone dry. Come to think of it, we all were.

“It’s getting hotter,” I stated, taking my hand from Zane’s face. Blood no longer fell from his nose, though what remained on his face was now crusted.

“Can’t stand the heat?” Kayden chuckled as we set off again.

“Not at all, dude. I was born for the cool sea,” Zane replied, stepping carefully over the rubble. “The ocean calls to me. The waves beckon for me to slide through their wet folds and taste their salty goodness.”

I caught Ace rolling his eyes and I grinned. What a little group we made. We moved slower now, the heat continuing to rise. The door was less than ten metres away, yet each step was becoming harder and harder to take. My body sagged as my limbs became heavy.

Every weather event had an answer, a way to survive. My gaze dragged over my surroundings, searching for clues. We were in a heat wave, so what did we need to do to survive it?

Get indoors, usually. But that was out of the question. We were already in a giant room and there was very little shelter beyond the trees and the crawlspace we’d just been squeezed into. I wasn’t eager to return there and I doubted the same answer would do for two weather events.

I glanced up at the ceiling, the sun nowhere in sight.

The heat was clearly magical, so finding shade wouldn’t help.

That just left water. The puddles left from the rain were drying up quickly, the heat evaporating the precious liquid.

My dry mouth tingled with the thought of its fresh taste as I searched.

There had to be a larger source somewhere.

My eyes snagged on torn curtains to my left, the fabric hanging from a fallen rod and draped in a pool of water.

I dragged myself over to them, tugging until the fabric tore free.

Dropping the pieces of the curtain into the pool, I fully submerged the bits of fabric as best I could before dragging it back towards the guys.

“Here,” I said, handing them a piece of the curtain. “This should help for a little while.”

We took off again, the wet keeping me cool for a time as I draped it over the back of my neck and held it over my mouth, letting droplets of moisture wet my lips.

The relief didn’t last long.

Once the curtain was dry, I discarded it, as did the others.

Zane took the heat the hardest. He dropped back a few steps, his strides more of a shuffle as he struggled like a literal fish out of water.

Even Kayden, who was used to dry desert air, wasn’t immune to the effects as he trudged along.

“Almost there,” he declared, only a step ahead of the rest of us.

Out of everything the room had thrown our way, this was the hardest. The slow and painful suffering as we neared the exit.

“Fuck,” Ace hissed, wincing as he held his bionic arm away from his torso. The skin where the metal met flesh was a bright angry red, as if he’d been sunburnt. “Fuck.”

“The faster you get through that door, the faster I can heal you,” I rasped.

He grunted a reply, his steps quickening. I kept pace, his newfound speed spurring me on. Behind us, a thud drew my attention, and I turned to see Zane had collapsed to his knees.

“I’ll get him,” Kayden said, trudging back towards the merman. He hooked a huge arm around Zane and lifted him to his feet.

Further behind them, a handful of Potentials moved slowly towards the door as well, following us in hopes of escape. They were just as determined as we were not to give up. The Masters had concocted this trial to break us, and here we were, refusing to be broken.

With Ace at my side and the others close behind, we finally reached the door. Ace grasped the handle and shoved it open with a grunt. The cool air was a welcome embrace as we stumbled forward, and I fell to my knees in the momentary safety of the next room.