Overlord

33

Jo Slater ran alongside Jahara Syed into the darkness of the tunnel, her mind spinning in shock. Was everyone but them dead? She’d seen so many go down. The image of Marla’s shocked face would haunt her forever. It seemed that whoever came to work for her met a grisly end and she wondered if maybe she was a cursed journalist.

Syed cried out as she stumbled and Slater caught her by the elbow, hauled her along. No, they couldn’t all be dead. Madness snapped at the heels of her mind when she thought like that. She had seen Aston forced into the next passage around, and Tate had been with him. And Jen too? It was hard to remember. But Aston had been alive. If nothing else, she needed to cling to that knowledge, that hope. Somehow they would have to find a way to loop around and rejoin each other. Or both escape by separate routes and meet again on the outside.

“They’re coming!” Syed cried, glancing back over her shoulder.

Slater trusted the woman’s word, didn’t risk a fall by looking back herself. “Let’s get somewhere bright. Find another cavern with vines or something.”

“That last cavern was bright with vines and crystals,” Syed said, her voice trembling on the verge of open panic.

“Let’s hope that once they go along dark tunnels, their eyes take a long time to adjust again to the next bright place. It’s the only hope we’ve got. We keep moving from one to the next, no rest until we get out.”

Syed nodded, brows knitted. Slater wondered if her biologist’s mind was working. That was good, anything to distract her from giving in to fear. “That could be why we keep getting reprieves,” Syed said. “If we don’t linger too long in any one place and they have to keep readjusting, we can maybe stay ahead of them.”

“It’s the best plan we’ve got.”

“It’s the only plan we’ve got! But do you really think we can find another way out?” Syed asked.

“We have to. There must be multiple ways in and out of a network this big. The evidence of habitation means at some point it was well populated. There’s no way there would only be one entrance to a place so vast. We just have to keep moving, keep looking.” Or die trying, she thought, but chose not to vocalize that addition. Syed wasn’t stupid, and would be entertaining the same thoughts, she was sure.

They ran on, keeping their headlamps aimed at the ground to avoid tripping on the rocky debris strewn everywhere. Finally, Slater noticed a soft luminescence ahead. The by now familiar green tinge was like a breath of fresh air. “Come on!”

They redoubled their speed and burst out into a cavern that was long and low, but had a fissure all up one of its long walls from which bright green vines snaked out like veins, lighting the place. As they skidded to a stop, Slater rejoiced at the sight of three other people already there. Her mouth started to form Aston’s name, but her relief was short lived. Anders Larsen and two mean-looking mercenaries she had never seen before turned in surprise and brought their weapons to bear.

Slater threw her hands up. “Don’t shoot! We’re unarmed.” She still had the pistol jammed into the back of her pants, but it was useless without ammo. She knew Syed didn’t even have a knife, but her bloodstone dagger was tucked safely in her jacket.

“Jo Slater and Jahara Syed,” Anders Larsen said. “Well, well, some of you still live after all. Just you two?”

“Yes,” Slater said quickly, before Syed could answer. “Everyone else is dead. We need to get out.” She couldn’t articulate exactly why, but she felt pretty certain Larsen was not their friend. If he thought Aston, Tate, and Jen were dead, as the others really were, perhaps she would buy them a chance to escape.

“Well, that’s okay,” Larsen said.

Slater was stunned. She was definitely correct that he was not their friend. “Okay? Everyone’s dead, Larsen! How is that okay?”

He grinned. “Because you’re still alive and we only need one guide.”

“To where?”

“Back to the big cavern, with the lake and all the greenium crystals. We got lost in these damned tunnels. We need to get back. So you’ll show us the way.”

“But we…” Syed started.

But Slater spoke quickly over the biologist. “Yeah, sure, okay. We’ll do that, if you use those guns to protect us.” She knew they had little chance, unarmed as they were. At least Larsen and his angry-looking friends had weapons. Perhaps she could use them as much as they used her. “But we can’t go back that way, it’s swarming with mantics. And they’re catching up.”

Two tunnels led from the far side of the long cave in which they stood. Larsen gestured to the one on the left. “Well, we can’t go that way for the same reason.”

Slater forced a smile, hoping to project a confidence she didn’t feel. “Not a problem.” She pointed to the other tunnel. “We can go that way.” It was a ploy to keep moving at least. Syed looked at her, but Slater refused to meet the woman’s eye. “Let’s move,” she said. “The quicker the better.” She hoped Aston was having better luck.