HELLISH PLACES
Hellish Places
The Tundra, Arctica
Monsters…Monsters…There were monsters coming after them. Aku was just glad to have his wolf speed back as he raced over the plains. He didn't dare look back over his shoulder to see how much progress the creatures were making. He was pretty sure that they were snakes, but he couldn't be sure.
They sprinted toward the mist. He could hear Aleksander saying something about almost being safe, but he really didn't buy it. There was no place safe in this unforgiving land.
His breath came out in ragged gasps as the icy air burned through him. He would had thought this would had stopped once he got his wolf powers back, but he guessed he was wrong. He seemed to be wrong about a lot of things lately. It was rather disappointing.
In front of him, Kendra stumbled in the snow-he reached out and caught her before she could completely go down. Aatu pulled away from the group, leaving some room between him and Eelis. Aatu turned, gun out; his eyes were nothing more than narrow slits. He fired a couple of shots. It didn't do much, but it did seem to slow the beasts down for a few seconds.
However, it quickly regained its strength. It snarled and lunged at him. Aatu fired a couple of shots right into the creature's mouth-the bullets went in with such a force that they came out of the back of its head. The creature screamed; its sound so deafening that it made Aku want to turn back and run the other way.
Markus appeared out of nowhere, sword out. He slashed at the creature. He caught it in the side, sending it falling into the snow. "Let's go!" he shouted.
Eelis fanned out the other side. As they kept running toward the mist, he kept shooting at the creatures that kept coming. His aim was so prefect that it should had killed the creatures, but it only seemed to make them madder.
Markus swung at them with his sword. His swing was deadly and powerful. With one swing, he decapitated heads, hacking deep into their necks. The snow around them was no longer white, but covered with black blood. Behind them, the creatures laid dead.
"Go!" Floor screamed at once.
Aku turned to see her face to face with a creature. It was just minutes away from killing her. Why wasn't she doing anything to save herself?
She spun, holding a pair of daggers in her hands that he hadn't seen before. She looked every bit of the Hunter than she was; she was deadly, there was no denying that. She stabbed the daggers deep into the creature's face. The creatures screamed far louder than any of the others. She held the daggers in there for several seconds before pulling them out. The creature fell to her feet-dead. She stared down at it before turning and coming back to the group.
"Well now," Aku said.
Floor just gave him a long look. "I thought I told you to run."
Aku didn't say anything.
They reached what seemed to be a valley of some kind. Aku hadn't even realized that they had been walking downwards. They were no longer in the open. The trees were so close together that it made walking rather difficult. Running was simply out of the question.
"What out!" Vuokko screamed as one of the giant snakes barreled out of the trees right toward Ovikki. Ovikki jumped back just as the snake ran into a tree. It tried to get free, but every time it moved, it seemed to find itself caught against another tree. Markus rushed out with his sword, slicing the monster in two.
Markus urged Ovikki forward. "Move. You need to learn to take care of yourself."
Ovikki just looked at him with wide eyes, but started forward without a word.
Markus sliced another creature before coming after the group.
Then another jumped out right in front of them, landing deep in the snow. Aku hadn't even been aware that snakes could jump until now; this day just kept getting better and better as it went on. It looked right at them with its sightless eyes and smiled-Aku could not believe it, a smiling snake. Beside him, Floor lunged at the creature. She bared her sword, swinging it directly at the snake. It made contact, taking the head right off.
"Move!" Kendra screamed. "Don't stop to watch the kill!"
Aku ran through the trees, trying to keep the others in sight. Branches cut into his skin, a few of them coming so close to his eyes that he feared they would blind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept looking for the others, catching a glimpse of them every now and then.
That was when he saw it jump out right in front of him. It lunged right at him. It was licking its fangs as it stared at him. He took a small step back, only to find his back against a tree. The snakes kept coming closer, ready to kill him. He gulped. This was how he was going to die.
Then, from somewhere, came Eelis. He was breathing heavily, wide eyed, his forced on the snake. With a roar, he charged right at the creature.
The creature turned to him, but didn't seem to be able to take him down. Eelis swung at the creature, but it seemed to dance just right out of his deadly swing. "Go!" Eelis screamed as he swung again at the snake.
Aku just looked on, unable to make himself move.
Eelis looked at him once again wide eyed. "Aku! You have to run!" He swung at the snake and missed. The snake only seemed to be growing angrier with each passing swing. "Do you want to die?"
Aku moved around the fight, trying not to get in the way. It was the last thing he wanted to do: get in the way of the person trying to save your life.
The snakes keep swarming him until Aku could barely make him out, but nothing seemed to stop Eelis. He fought like a beast from hell, his sword nothing more than a wave. Aku kept backing up, getting further and further away from the fight. He did actually feel bad for letting Eleis save his life and even worse that he couldn't do anything to save himself.
"Come on!" Aatu roared.
"But Eelis!" Aku objected.
Aatu grabbed onto Aku, roughly pushing him forward. "There's nothing more you can do! We have to keep moving!"
Aku looked back at Eelis again. One of the snakes had managed to latch itself on Eelis's arm. Another clamped itself down on his opposite shoulder. Eelis roared, but at the same time, turned and stabbed one snake in the neck. Aku winced. The whole thing just looked painful for everyone involved. Then, the snakes began to dig into Eelis.
There was no way that Eelis was going to come out of this alive. That much was getting clearer and clearer as the battle went on.
"Go!" Markus yelled as he rushed forward to help Eelis. "Don't stand there! Go and save yourselves!"
Before anyone even had time to react, Markus had thrown himself right into the battle. He rammed his sword through one of the snakes' back. Aku didn't understand why until now no one was using their guns; it would hit Eelis and kill him for sure.
More keep coming out of nowhere. Aku looked around. There simply was no end to this madness. It seemed to be never ending. They were all going to die.
Aku kept going back and back. He must not had been moving quickly enough because someone grabbed him back the back and drug him backwards. Eelis and Markus kept getting smaller and smaller. The snakes looked as if they could consume them at any time. He could not believe that the others were not doing anything. There surely must be something that they could be doing. Wasn't there always supposed to be something to help those who needed it?
"Come on," Tarja hissed. Aku could feel her digging her nails into his back, but didn't recognize the pain. It was like he could feel nothing…Almost like he was nothing.
Aku looked back down at the snow. It was nothing but a red layer of death. People were dying when there was this much blood; it was a thought that he could not get out of his head. Someone back there was pretty closer to dying and it was all his fault.
Everything was simply his fault. No matter what he did, it wasn't enough, it wasn't right. He was a complete failure at life. He deserved to be the one back there dying.
The air was oddly quiet now. Aku wondered when it had gotten to this point. He didn't remember putting that much distance between them and the battle.
He listened to the soft crunching snow beneath his feet and his own harsh breathing. Every once in a while, he would chance a look over his shoulder, hoping to see some kind of sign of them, but there wasn't. He sighed. This whole thing was really starting to go downhill.
He looked over at the newcomer. Didn't anyone seem worried that she had just appeared out of nowhere? Why weren't they questioning her very motives. For all they knew, she could had been here to kill them or lead them from their mission. It just didn't make any sense to him. She was probably harmless, but they couldn't afford to take any chances, not now, not ever. It was just so hard to let it go.
They stopped at the top of a hill, staring down at the valley. Aku took a small step back. The entire valley was covered in a thick layer of wicked looking rocks. Some of them were so sharp looking that Aku knew they would kill him if he even stepped on them wrong.
"Let's go," Tarja said, her voice low. "It's not doing us any good to stand here and wait."
Raakel nodded. "We don't even know if they are going to be coming."
Aku looked back over his shoulder. This was all his fault and it knew it. The others knew it. Everyone knew it.
They started down the steep incline. It wasn't as steep as the one had been leading into this foul land, but it was pretty close. There was no denying it. More than once, Aku felt his body try to go out from underneath him. It took everything he had to keep himself upwards; once again, it seemed like he was the only one having this much trouble.
Down and down they kept going. The rocks seemed to be growing sharper and sharper. There was no safe place to grab onto. Every place that you could grab onto was covered with a sharp, jagged edge.
Aku slowly kept going, trying to keep pace with Vuokko, while trying to be impaled. He knew Kendra was behind him, probably wishing that he would pick the pace up. It was better to go slow and be safe than end up hurt or dead.
"Stop," Tarja said from the front.
Aku tried to peer around to see what was in front of them, but couldn't see anything. He only hoped that it wasn't the snakes or the Rogue. At this point, he didn't know which one would be worse. Both of them would likely kill them.
"What is it?" Aatu asked.
"I don't know, but there's something there," Tarja answered.
The newcomer pushed around them. "There's nothing to fear." Her voice sounded far off. "You just need to go toward it and have faith. It will not harm you."
Aku just stared at her. There was something in her voice that told him everything would not be okay.