The Mantis Variant - Book One - 28. Chapter 28 - Death Drop

Deep in the underground, above the well of fire, the object that came spiraling out of the chimney possessed the appearance of a winged sphere. Gravity pulled it towards the opening that led to the bubbling magma below, and as the thing spun downwards, it produced a shrill whistle.

The noise interrupted the memorial that the Biological Shifts were holding at the well, and no one in the chamber knew what the thing was. The spinning orb traveled from the opening in the chimney to the well of fire in a split second.

The giantess was closest, and she was the first to look over the lip. She watched the thing land and sink into the molten stone.

Then the cataclysm device detonated.

A reverberation shook through the underground chamber.

Everyone froze.

"The magma is rising," the giantess growled.

"How can that be?" asked the woman with a bird-like appearance. "Are you sure?" She rushed beside the giantess, looked down, and there could be no doubt.

The fire from below was coming.

"Everybody out!" the bird woman commanded. "Head down the passage and take the stairs up to the meeting chamber. Once there, we can split up and call for a general evacuation of the underground. Now move!"

Leaving the corpses undisposed, everyone raced to the door. Several of the inhabitants looked back over their shoulders, and Agrell saw their expressions of shock and terror. She turned, just as the stones of the well collapsed and fell through the hole. Magma began to bubble up like a tiny volcano.

"Run!" someone screamed. "It's coming!"

Agrell doublechecked to make sure everyone was out of the room, but as soon as the last person stepped into the hallway in front of her, she froze. She looked to Lahari and Ilya and the group of fleeing Biological Shifts, and Agrell's mind raced. She turned back and knew they could not escape the rising magma.

Agrell cared about the inhabitants of the underground, and although the feelings were new to her, she loved the people who were now her friends. Ilya and Lahari held special places in her heart. She also came to cherish the mystic and his husband, Theolan, during her few days of freedom.

Then Dozi flashed into her mind. Dozi felt like the other half of Agrell, a sister that she never had, or a lover who only needed companionship. Agrell wanted to thank Dozi, wanted to tell Dozi how much she helped her to feel free. She wanted to tell Dozi that she was perfect.

The immediate situation forced Agrell into the present. She needed to protect the people who were in imminent danger. She knew they were not going to make it; they were not going to escape the oncoming fire.

For the briefest moment, Agrell thought the Messiahs had won, and that everyone in the underground was going to die.

Then in a flash, she knew this was the moment that would make up for her cousin's murder.

With all her might, Agrell kicked through the stone wall on one side of the doorway, and then the other. Those fleeing turned back to look at the sounds, and they saw the stone shattering.

Agrell reached up, grabbed the lintel, and pulled the entire wall from above her head down into the room with the well. The massive slab slammed down against the floor of the chamber, and she pushed it against the oncoming onslaught of magma.

Everyone stopped to watch the skinny girl, who alone, was trying to hold back one of the most terrible forces in all of nature.

Agrell looked in their direction and screamed, "Run!"

Both Lahari and Ilia cried out her name, and the Biological Shifts who moments ago despised her existence, now realized how wrong they were about Agrell.

"Run!" she screamed again. "Go, go now!"

Hands grabbed Ilya and Lahari, and they were dragged to the stairs that lead up and away from the approaching fiery death.

"Ruun!!"

Agrell's voice could still be heard as the others made it up the stairs to the meeting chamber.

"Ruuuun!"✪