The woman’s limp black hair fell over her shoulder as she turned her head. The hair tie she’d had previously had snapped; an ill omen. But she couldn’t voice any sort of superstition. Not with so many jittery conscripted legionnaires around her. They likely wouldn’t have hesitated to put her down if they thought she was somehow some kind of threat. Something skittered past the group of six and their sky guard; they jumped. Shoulders bumped together and curses were spat out from clenched jaws.
A sigh of relief left one young man, shoulder slumping as his gaze lingered on the backside of the rat that had stopped to look at them. Four beady eyes stared back at him, and the woman turned her head. There were more. Many more rats, all bearing a deformity or mutation of some sort, running as a torrent. They were like a river running its course. She shuddered at the thought, her skin crawling like maggots had finally broken the skin and gotten beneath it.
Under her breath, a prayer. To no one in particular; any that would take it and let her get through this day. Just one more, and she could figure out handling the next day. Her breath was a hollow sound in her ears she walked forward. Close to the others, but not close enough that they could touch her. Two punch-bruised eyes peered into the expanding cave that seemed to never end. She’d never been beyond the First Deep, and part of her wonders why. She’d made it all this time. Wouldn’t they think she could at least handle that?
Maybe then, she would die.
She didn’t like the swell of relief that hit her with that thought. But it came and it festered within her because it would be a relief. It would be an end. Beside her, Jieun pouted. She tried not to look. The girl remained in the corner of her vision, though. Kept time with her weak steps at the back of the pack. Her skirts billowed around her as she kicked at a rock, folded her arms over her chest. The woman shot another glance at the silky black hair, the lips pushed out. It was the same petulant look she used when the woman would be gone to perform somewhere else. Somewhere far to put as much distance between she and her heart’s yearning because nothing good could ever come of it.
Nothing good had come of it.
We’re always walking. Don’t we ever rest?
”No, we don’t.” One of her comrades looked back to her, brows furrowed. No one else had spoken, and she’d thought her voice had been low enough. The woman, scarred around the mouth and eyes, stared her down before turning back to the front. Behind her, the sky guard prodded her forward.
Jieun wouldn’t let up. Can’t we ask them to stop?
She pressed her lips together, forced herself to keep from answering.
They thought her crazy. She wouldn’t say that she blamed them. She knew it, as well as the others, that she was. She carried around memories of the dead like they were still living and yet — she couldn’t find it in her to let go. Jieun stared at her, brows furrowed and still pouting. She would stay that way until an answer was given. Or, until more rats would pass them by. Then, though, she would jump and release a cry before she latched onto the woman and buried her face in a cold neck.
Jieun was surprisingly warm for a dead woman.
The woman turned her gaze to the rear. Behind them, the terrain was much the same as ahead. Stalagmites rose toward the cave ceiling, like a lover reaching for its other half. She shut her eyes, focused. Took in a breath that whistled through her lungs. A cough pulled itself from her as she opened her eyes again, face scrunching up with the effort. The breath that left her carried a wheeze on it. Another comrade looked back. But she couldn’t tell if it was a concern for her or them on their face.
The sky guard halted them. Made them stop in the middle of an odd formation with a sparse amount of reaching rock formations. It reminded her of a grove of trees. She missed trees. She missed the sun and the moons. She missed not wanting to lay down and die as a hand wrapped around her lungs and took her breath. But she wondered why they stopped. Rest breaks came few and far between. Jieun flicked a pebble from a rock that looked like she could sit on it. The echo carried, and then struck something. Something fleshy and wet.
The woman’s gaze darted over to Jieun, who seemed to realize the same thing she did. The same thing everyone else did as the first of them was pulled away. A slithering tendril of flesh wrapped around the man’s leg. Latched onto him like it was the last thing it would do, and pulled. He was gone a second later. His screams echoed and the clank of his weapon being lost could be heard.
