Erin sat still, her eyes were on the fire, she felt the warmth soak into her bones. Eira had fallen asleep earlier. She was curled up like she was used to sleeping anywhere, the same person who had earlier objected to creating a fire. Jayden was out too, his head resting on his arm. Only Liam stayed awake, though he laid down with his hands behind his head, and his eyes were wide open and watching the flames.
Erin's body was present, but her mind wasn't. She kept replaying everything. One moment, she was in the school library. The next, she was here. No answers, there was no logical explanation and no sense to any of it. And no one had asked the questions that mattered, like how a pit of lava could suddenly appear in a school and swallow them whole.
Liam muttered something under his breath. Erin scoffed, but not at him, she did it at the thought of her parents. The sound immediately caught Liam's attention.
"What?" he asked. "You feeling peckish or something? Want to stub your toe maybe?"
Her eyes narrowed. Then she proceeded to look at him, but she wasn't seeing him. She was seeing them, her parents. The anger she kept buried was rising fast. Her eyes burned, and Liam noticed. He immediately switched up from his attitude.
"Hey… sorry. I didn't mean..."
It wasn't like him to apologize. Something in him shifted when he saw her like that. He sat up watching her closely, a worried look appeared on his face.
"What is happening here,Erin?"
She groaned and swiped at her eyes, casual, like she wasn't hiding anything or like she wasn't almost crying
"Are you… crying?" he asked.
"No," she snapped.
He just shrugged. "There's something going on here."
Her brow furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"How do you explain a lava pit appearing out of nowhere in a freaking library? And it didn't burn us, it sent us here. This is… I don't know… another planet, maybe another universe...and I'm not supposed to think there's something mysterious, or outwordly involved?"
"Aren't you the science guy? Since when do you believe in magic?" Erin chuckled.
His voice started to shake. He stood and began pacing. "Well magic is just science yet to be understood. Hell, maybe we're dead. Maybe that lava roasted us and this is the underworld, or maybe we're in hell. Maybe we got it wrong, hell isn't some fiery pit, it's...this. whatever this place is. Or maybe it's some kind of..."
"Liam?"
"....mystic realm or… whatever. The point is, "We are royally, utterly screwed."
His breathing was quick and uneven now. Erin sprang to her feet and grabbed his arm.
"Breathe," she whispered
It took a moment, but he did. Slowly, his shoulders dropped. They stood there, and their eyes locked, neither of them were saying what they were really thinking, which was why the hell their eyes were locked on each others
All of a sudden, the fire shifted. At first, it was just a flicker, they didn't think anything of it at first but then it moved again, wild, almost lashing toward them like it had come alive. They stumbled back before it could scorch them.
Eira's eyes snapped open and Jayden sat up instantly. "What the hell was that?" Jayden asked.
"I warned you," Eira said, "Something's coming."
Liam turned to her. "What's coming?"
She didn't answer and that pissed him off, his jaw clenched and he walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder. "If you don't start talking..."
Jayden stepped in shoving him back. "Leave her alone or you're gonna get it from me."
The ground broke before either could say more. Something burst out of the ground, a worm. Not the kind they saw in dirt. This one was the size of a hand, its mouth ringed with razor sharp teeth.
Erin froze for half a second, maybe Liam was right. This is hell.
The dirt shifted again, and more came, long, snake-like bodies writhing, their armored skin scraping against each other. Ten of them, maybe more.
Erin grabbed a stick from the fire and rammed it through the first one that lunged at her. It shrieked, curling before going still. Liam crushed another under a rock, and the crack echoed.
Jayden yanked Eira backward, away from a snapping mouth. She slipped into the shadows near the cave wall, out of sight. Erin's arms ached from swinging, but she kept going, she kept slamming and stabbing.
They were winning, until one latched onto Jayden's arm. Its teeth sank deep and his scream ripped through the night. He tried to tear it off, but it wouldn't let go.
Then Eira came out pretty literally nowhere. In her hand was a jagged piece of metal, it was sharp like a blade. One quick slash and the worm's head fell to the dirt.
Jayden stumbled back, clutching his bleeding arm and panting hard.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked between breaths.
Eira looked at the blade, then back at him. "Found it." She said rather casually
Liam gave her a suspicious look but didn't press further. Erin's voice trembled as she spoke, "We could have been killed. What if they'd gotten to all of us and…" She didn't finish.
Liam crouched beside one of the dead worms. Its now pale body twitched faintly in the freezing air. He turned it over with a hand.
"Don't touch it," Jayden warned. "It might be radioactive or something."
Liam froze, then he slowly turned his head in a weird way. "Radioactive? Seriously? Do you smell anything strange in the air? Feel your skin tingling? Do you even know what radioactive means?" He shook his head. "That's for nuclear and atomic materials, waste and radiation. How the hell do you associate radioactivity with bio life? How would you even think that a worm could be radioactive? Did you attend science class in middle school?"
Jayden stared at him, unsure how to respond. That's the kind of person Liam Ashford is, he always displayed how smart he was, degrading others of need be
"So stupid." Liam muttered under his breath before bending down again. "These things have… human teeth. Deep inside. How's that even possible?"
Erin, who for some reason couldn't tolerate how he had just spoken to Jayden, marched over and shoved him hard across the dirt.
"What the hell, Erin?" Liam snapped.
"Why would you insult Jayden like that?" she shot back. "Why? We're stuck here, trying to survive, and we just got attacked, yet you're out here acting like it's some kind of science competition. Wake up to reality!" Her voice shook but her anger burned through it. Erin's anger had taken over almost completely and her arm reacted to it, the pulsing had increased slightly and Jayden noticed it.
"It's okay. Let it go," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, calming her down. He witnessed first hand how the pulsing reduced. He'd already figured it out.
Eira who had been mute since spoke up, calm but certain. "The worms came here because of the fire."
"You can't possibly know that," Erin argued.
"I know," Eira replied, "because once we put the fire out, they were gone." Jayden nodded in agreement.
Eira turned to leave, but Liam stopped her. "How did you know we shouldn't light the fire?"
"Lucky guess," she said and walked away. He tried to go after her but Jayden stepped before him.
"Back off."
The group settled down again, but no one truly slept. Who could blame them? Erin sat apart from the others, staring into the nothingness. Her fists tightened as frustration and exhaustion pressed on her. Then she froze.
She sensed something strange and her gaze shifted left. "What the hell?" she whispered. A strange energy stirred inside her, prickling under her skin. She scratched at her arm and noticed it, her mark was glowing faintly. She could feel it. Something was out there, something bad, and whatever it was, it's coming.
–
"Any update on the arrivals?"
The voice of a woman drifted into the chamber as she stepped into a booth that looked nothing like anything from the twenty-first century. Its walls gleamed with soft light, smooth surfaces pulsing faintly with hidden power. She wore a long white robe that hung from her shoulders to her feet, hiding her form. Her skin was pale, unnaturally so, and her dark hair shimmered beneath the fluorescent glow as she moved inside.
"One of them bears the mark. Female," another woman replied, fingers clicking across translucent keys that floated before her. Her eyes were fixed on the massive monitor mounted to the wall. The screen displayed the wasteland in stark detail, the floating boulders, the purple dust and the mists.
"If she's awakened," the first woman said, her tone measured.
"The Mirrorglaive will go for her. Send a team, find them."