Uncharted

[Caira Ayryn]

Chapter Six continued: A Struggle to Survive

He nodded and acknowledged the pain searing his left shoulder. In the desert having an injury meant certain death. How could this have happened? How could I let this.. He felt for his pistol, that had been dislodged from his holster. "Why am I alive? Cai- you have to run. Now." His eyes became very stern and resembled that of a vaulted fire. "Don't you know what this place is?"

"What? You weren't safe to move and I wasn't sure if you could even stand.. There's no way out and you had already lost a lot of bl-"

Then, suddenly the chanting began. Echoes along the walls and distant drums filled the crevices. 

Of course she didn't know! How could she? Yet now the cadaverous Merik stood in the wake of the most deadly thing in this desert and the thick ebony stream nearby began to rise into a black liquid sludge that he knew as the Tar Pits.

"Listen Caira!" He shouted, his once cool tide of charisma was now growing frantic, "Do NOT let it get into your wounds," he looked at her arms that had been severely cut. It didn't seem he remembered he [i]was the cause.

The female didn't waste time asking the idiotic [i]why? as he winced, bracing his hand against the slick rock and strained his body into a standing position.

The stream of liquid began to make the rocks, the walls and the very air fervent with an astounding heat. Had she not been in the desert, she would have collapsed at the intangible abrasion. Her hands fumbled for her hoverboard as the sludge congregated in a sticky mess around their cornered feet. 

It closed in as the sludge pressed against the wall, she helped Merik onto the silver board before mounting it herself. Her foot stepped onto the sleek silver board just before the circular dry puddle of land around her foot disappeared under the cloggy rank substance.

The pungent, insulting smell stung in her eyes and the weight of the two people on the board, no matter how light either of them was, threatened to sink and skim over the sludge in the minute two inches of pooling space just below them.

Suddenly, as though set out from a cataclysmic eruption, the tall walls rumbled under the great force of a huge black seething wave. It's mouth craned as the pac-man wave haunted their movement and slowly crept, hissing at their heels.

Merik, who was behind her, moved his feet appeared as though he was going to jump into it. "WHAT are you doing?" She thought the idea of anything other than fleeing the incessant undead wave was completely unimaginable.

"This board isn't made for two, and we are moving too slow. If I jump, there'll be a chance for you. I know what I have to do. And hey, you saved me once." He looked down at his arm, his pale skin and gaunt face spoke for how he was feeling. His body was crippled even to stand, Merik considered himself a deadweight.

As lovely as this gesture was, she scoffed and disregarded his implied sacrifice with a hint of obstinate anger, "You honestly think I'll let you jump? A little wave of death is no match for a telekinetic mastermind and a knight of the Kingdom!" 

Her words had acted as a passionate slap in the face. This seemed to quell his haste and renew his hope as the wave grew closer and bounced from the great walls of the crevasse; the level of the tar continued to rapidly rise beneath them, this added height gave them a chance.

"Hang on!" She warned him and realized what she meant, as there was only a slab beneath him and as the wave neared, he used one hand to latch onto her and she leapt into the air about five feet. Higher than a normal person could jump, he observed as the board followed them in the air and the wave of dark stinking slush rolled past the three of them and evened out.

Caira quickly aligned the board underneath her feet Merik's footing seemed to slip from the silver surface. Perhaps he had still been in a daze from the heat or fatigued due to his wound but he twisted his arm as he hung from the hinge of her shoulder and his feet dangled almost skimming the slop that still flowed in a tremendous current below. "Hang on!" She steadied herself and sunk low on the board before heaving his torso over and his slung shoulder was stretched painfully. 

The boiling asphalt continued to rise, there was no space or time for Merik to stand and Caira slowly navigated the pair upstream. The thick air hung with a sweating stench, making her gag as she breathed against it. Soon the crevasse was filled with the liquid, the wave made a full circle and rushed with froth underfoot. They were nearly at the top, and daylight was visible as the tar flow nearly brimmed at the lower cliffs of the canal.

The edges of the surface were just within their grasp. Riding the wave had helped but they were just out of range from jumping; the dark walls rimmed with a lacking of just twenty feet of liquid.