Split Decision

It was too dark to see how my clothes were holding up, but I was fairly certain once my journey was over, I would not be able to salvage the Overlord bodysuit that I was wearing. 

Any time we touched the sides of the tunnel wall, whether by accident or on purpose, it shredded the fabrics of our outfits just a little.  Worse yet, it would also leave greasy dark residues on our hands and clothing—not that we could see much of our grimy selves. 

The deeper we ventured into the tunnel, the darker it got as light tubes began to fail. 

At first, it was just one dark tube out of every three or four that still shone.  Eventually, the working lights were so few and far between that the twins had to keep a small dim blue flame hovering above us through the darkest sections of the tunnel so we would at least be able to see our feet as we walked. 

That helped a bit, except every so often, we would see bright shining eyes in the distant darkness reflecting the light. 

Depending on their size and height from the ground, I could usually tell if they were rats, bats, or otherwise.  To my intense relief, since none of the wild life came out of their darkened corners, we were left alone to continue our trek with no altercations. 

Halfway through the day, we stopped for a brief break and managed to swallow some bread and cheese, washing it down as best as we could with some lukewarm water from the bottle that I carried in my bag. 

No one had much appetite but we ate and drank to keep our energy level up and to hydrate ourselves.  We did not linger for long in that location, as my senses were picking up unusual horde life not far from where we were. 

By around midnight, we had reached the junction where the tunnel split.  One track headed northward; the other turning south. 

"Great," Connor mumbled.  "Which tunnel do we take?"

"Any ideas?" Corwin stared into the darkened interior of one of the tunnels.

I sat on my haunches willing my sore aching feet to relax as much as possible.  I had been worried that the tunnel was going to split, but I also knew that I had one resource left to call upon. 

It was time to summon that unusual horde of life I had been quietly tracking within the crevices of the train tunnel.

"We need some scouts." I stood up.  "Let me see what I can do."

Reaching out with my mind, I cast an open signal to the life signals I had detected. 

"Dajiadohguolai!"

It did not take long. 

The group of bats that had been shadowing us for awhile came out of hiding. 

They dropped down from their hiding spots in the ceiling and swooped toward us, eliciting howls and yelps from Max, Simon, and the twins.

"Sorry!"  I squealed, embarrassed that I had not warned them about the dive-bombing leather-wings.  "They're not that subtle." 

I bade the bats to land on the other side of the tracks, well away from Max's reach, but close enough for me to continue my conversation with them.  Then I gave them a brief mental image that the crows had delivered to me. 

As faithfully as I could, I showed them images of the train and the sighting of the missing boy.  With another command, I sent them off to find the source of the images with a promise of some pieces of my cheese sandwich as compensation for their effort. 

"Dajiadohlikai!"

The bats clucked and squeaked and then split up into teams.  Within seconds, they had disappeared through both tunnels.

"OK." Simon sat down next to me.  "Now what do we do?"

"Now we wait.  This is not a bad place to take a break since it's about the midpoint.  I suggest you all take a little nap if you can.  They will return to let us know which way to go."

The intersection of the tunnel split turned out to be a good spot to rest.  There was plenty of space at the center divide between the tunnel split that we were all able to take advantage of the wider flat space to lie down together. 

We settled down onto the cold concrete ground, staying as far as we could away from the edges.  Although we were not expecting another train to roar down the tracks, it was always good to remain cautious and aware.

Now that we were no longer moving, at least for the moment, I had no footstep mantra to chant upon which meant my brain went right back to the scene of the destruction. 

I had been trying not to think about it all.  The constant movement did help but now that we were still, I could feel the shock of the crisis looming over me. 

From what I could see as we ran, the Academy had been completely demolished.  That was not a single fire bomb that exploded through the Academy.  It was half a dozen waves of fire bombs. 

Anything that could burn had burned.  Anything that could not burn had been turned to rubble.  When---IF---we ever got the chance to return, there would be no school left to go back to.  All the teachers and students who were still there at the time of the blast would have certainly perished. 

My mind went to Professor Jonebarry, the Astrology teacher who lived at the top of the Astrolab.  He had warned me about this.  He was one of the few people who knew this was going to happen.

And then there was Professor Farley who sent off his kids on hoverboards all the way to Diamond.  He had also known this event would occur.   

And then I remembered what Magus Asada always said to me.  'There is nothing worse than seeing what is to pass and not being able to do anything to avert the crisis.' 

I hadn't quite understood what she meant at the time she said it, but now I understood.   

My eyes watered as I recalled the explosion of the pyramid's capstone.  The city was ablaze.  There was nowhere that was not burning.  My family home was probably gutted.  My tiny studio apartment would also be gone.  Heavens only knew what happened to Mother and Father. 

At the thought of my parents, my heart clenched.    They had tried to protect me by handing me off to Marcus and I had gone against their wishes---even disowned them outright. 

I was a horrible child to my parents. 

As I sat on the ground next to the twins, my hands began to tremble and my body began to convulse involuntarily. 

Instinctively, I curled up and covered my head with my arms, trying not to call attention to myself.  Whether it was due to shock or exhaustion I could not tell, but I was unable to control my body's reactions. 

Of course, there was no way that I could hide this from the twins' sharp eagle eyes. 

I felt their gentle hands on me as they laid me down next to them.  I wanted to tell them that I was fine, and it was just an overreaction to all the stress that we'd been through, but I found myself almost catatonic. 

I curled up into a fetal position as wave after wave of nausea wracked my body.  My stomach was clenched so tightly that I could barely breathe.    The pain was so intense. 

"Don't hold your breath, sweetie.  Breathe."  I heard Connor's voice from somewhere far away even though I could feel the warmth of his body behind me as he held me close. 

"Relax your body.  I'm going to transfer some of my energy to you."  Corwin was saying as he muttered some command I could not quite hear. 

I felt warm hands transfer healing magik energy into my body and after some minutes, I was relaxed enough so that my stomach cramps eased and my shivering had subsided.     

I felt one of the twins move my head onto his shoulder and it was so comfortable, I fell asleep before I had a chance to find out which twin it was. 

Some time in the middle of the night, I felt myself being shifted by warm hands to another set of shoulders which became my new support pillow. 

I had enough mental awareness to realize that the shift was due to the changing-of-the-guard moment, when one twin took over the night watch duty for the other. 

Some time later, I was shaken awake.  Opening bleary eyes, I made out one of the twin's face in the dim tunnel light. 

"Sweetheart, wake up.  Are you feeling ok?   

I roused myself from my prone position and sat up.  It was Connor.  He gave me a cup of water and waited until I was fully awake before informing me of the situation at hand.

"I'm sorry to have to wake you, but your bats have returned and they have been darting about and chattering for awhile now.  I think you need to talk with them." 

Looking around, I saw Simon's sleeping form nearby, snuggled up to the malamute's body, seeking warmth. 

Next to him was the orange orangutan, snoring softly. 

Corwin was lying next to me sleeping, and I realized it was his shoulders that had taken over being my support pillow in the middle of the night. 

So that was their watch pattern.  Corwin took the first watch and Connor had the second watch. 

The guys had let me sleep all through the night without any complaints, and that made me feel guilty that I had not think to take over one of the watches.

I sat up, casting a silent call, looking for the bats. Within seconds, two of the four flew toward me and landed on my lap. 

Their minds' eyes showed me the route they had taken to the south had scored a matching visual with what the crows had seen. 

South it was. 

I thanked the bats and gave them the promised cheese sandwich sections before sending them away.  Then I pointed to the tunnel splitting to the right. 

"We go that way in the morning."

Connor was not looking at the tunnel I indicated.  He was looking at me. 

In the darkness, he reached out and touched my hair.   

"This journey's been hard on you, I know that.  You and Simon shouldn't have even been involved in something like this.  Corey and me, we're used to this rough existence, but you're so delicate that I worry about you."

"I'm ok, really." I said with a smile, trying to reassure him.  "If you guys hadn't taken me with you, I'd be in that burning mess." 

They had enough to worry about without having to worry about how I was handling this journey.

"Still, I would feel better if you were somewhere safe.  Instead you're here, sleeping on the cold hard ground in a dirty train tunnel going to heaven-knows-where with a bunch of guys you barely know. 

He sighed.  "Any girl would be complaining by now about the lack of amenities and food and shelter, but you've never complained, not even once.  You just accept whatever we are able to offer you, and you even contribute what you can." 

"I just think of it as being on an adventure, or going camping."  I responded with a shrug.  "Nobody complains about experiencing an adventure."

Connor chuckled and leaned over to kiss the top of my head. 

"That's my girl."  He breathed and helped me to lie back down next to Corwin.  "Go back to sleep.  We can't have you falling apart on us again." 

I nodded. 

Seemingly satisfied with my response, Connor settled back to his watch position. 

I closed my eyes, too tired to argue. 

From behind, Corwin reached out and pulled me back into his arms.  I wondered if he was so deep in dreamland that he was even aware he was hugging a bête noir. 

Well, I was certainly not going to worry about his feelings at this point.  It was chilly on the ground and I needed his warmth. 

I sighed, snuggling into his body and did not move again until morning.