Page 48 of Ragoru

“What about you?” she demanded, suddenly worried that she was going to leave the AI buried alone in the mountain. It was silly, since as far as she was ever taught, the AI would likely never know the difference, but she still didn’t feel right about it. “What will happen to you?”

A resigned look crossed the AI’s face. “I have anticipated this probability. The power supply of the facility is dwindling, and my systems cannot function as they once have. I have uploaded a copy of myself to your datacube. If you see to it that I arrive somewhere that I can be uploaded, I will be eternally grateful.”

“But you won’t remember any of this. You won’t have any memory after the lab.”

SAM’s mouth curved faintly. “Frankly, Evelyn Willocks, I don’t think even one such as myself wishes to recall the moments leading up to their death. I prefer that when I’m restored it is with no knowledge of this.”

She nodded, her mouth firming. “Okay. Do it.”

SAM’s eyes began to glow first yellow and then brightened to red. His voice grew hollow and mechanical as it echoed throughout the entire facility, rising above the distant sound of the feral mutants racing toward them. “Initiating self-destruct.”

The explosion rocked through the facility, the sound booming with such a force that Evie was thrown into the wall. She could hear the crash of falling stone and the screech of metal. Blood filled her mouth as she lay there listening to what sounded like the world ending—she was certain that she bit her tongue. The red emergency lights faded in and out of her vision before disappearing altogether.

CHAPTER38

The narrow tunnels of the cave system seemed to stretch into the darkness forever. If it weren’t for Avareth’s artificial light, they would have been completely blind a short time after leaving the entrance. Possessing keen eyesight had always made Vrishna comfortable in the dark, but it had never been anything like this. In the deep parts of the caves, the darkness swallowed up every bit of light, striking them completely blind. It acted similarly against the artificial lights that Avareth had distributed to each of them, dimming their glow and reducing how far they could illuminate.

They could only see a small span at a time which forced them to maneuver through the tunnels at an easy lope so that they were slowed further by acquiring injuries. His side was still bleeding a small amount from where the healing skin had split open again when he took a corner too sharply, but it ached more than it bled. Even if he wasn’t in any danger of dying, especially after the booster that Avareth gave him, he didn’t want to be further weakened just because he was taking the tunnels too quickly. The rest of his triad were of a similar mind as they kept together, their eyes constantly moving to scan their surroundings as their ears pricked and rotated, listening for any sound.

Anything that might lead them to Evie.

If she were still alive.

Vrishna growled quietly to himself and gave his head a hard shake. He wouldn’t let himself think like that. Evie was out there somewhere alive. Even Avareth seemed to be confident on this matter where Vrishna wasn’t. They hadn’t seen her fall as he had, and the crevice was too deep. It was so deep that they hadn’t been able to spot her body even when they shined a light down. It didn’t seem possible that their small mate would have survived the fall. But he wasn’t giving up yet. And if the Shining One believed that she’d survived, then he would too.

Avareth frowned at the device in his hands and grumbled. He gave the surface a hard tap and sighed as he slowed to a stop and raised his light out in front of him. The shadowy impression of what appeared to be a fork in the caves was visible just before them. Avareth peered at the tunnel, and then at his handheld device again, and shook his head before turning to face them.

“The signal is a little confused here. We are close, I can tell that much, and the scanner’s readings indicate that these tunnels do join back some distance ahead, but because of that there is no clear indication of which route would be the quickest.” He gave the tunnels a tired look. “I have no idea which way we should go. If you would like to select a route, Thral, we could continue forward.”

Thral peered back at him but turned his head toward the tunnels, his ears pricking. Vrishna knew that Thral was seeing the exact same thing he was—there was nothing different about the two routes. They were two identical dark pits that stretched further into the cave system.

“We’ll take them both. If one is quicker, there will be someone there sooner to help Evie should she need it.” His head turned toward Avareth. “You take the left. My triad will be on the right.”

The male’s mouth quirked faintly. “So I’m to be on my own then?”

Sabol gave him a disgusted look. “Do not pretend that you have no defenses with which to protect yourself, Avareth. Remember that I’ve seen you marshal the hunt, and you handled your own well against any prey and outburst of Ragoru temper. I know better. You have more defenses than any among the three of us. You’ll be fine.”

“The concern is touching,” the Shining One replied dryly in a way that would’ve made Vrishna laugh if he were in a joking mood, “but you’re correct. Very well. I move quicker on my own anyway. My scans do show that these tunnels, once they rejoin, terminate at a large structure beneath the ground here. So be aware of that. If I arrive before you do, I will secure the premises and locate your mate and hold position until you get there.”

Thral inclined his head in thanks to the male. The silent gesture was all that was needed to convey the immense gratitude that their triad felt. They would still slaughter the male if he tried to approach their mate in an unapproved manner, but their gratitude was genuine enough that they would give Avareth every opportunity to make good on his mistake and flee if necessary.

Vrishna watched the male disappear down the left tunnel before he turned and followed his triad to the right. The right tunnel seemed to veer sharply to the right even more so than had been apparent, and a cool breeze brought the gust of something foul from below. He gagged at the odor. The smell of feces was strong and with it the smell of something rotting there. He was almost tempted to turn back and take the other tunnel, but they had already traversed much of this one and he wasn’t willing to turn around and cause a delay for nothing. The smell was foul, but there was nothing immediately threatening in it either. Nothing that he was familiar with anyway.

Hackles rising once more, he turned to follow his triad. Thral had stopped just ahead to watch him, his yellow gaze piercing as he didn’t so much as move a muscle until Vrishna began to lope forward to catch up. Grunting, Thral spun around and hurried again with Sabol close on his heels. They increased their pace as they ran down the tunnel. Darkness edged around them, threatening to swallow them as they ran, their lights barely keeping a small distance around them lit as they raced toward the yawning pit before them. It was so much like running into nothingness that a sense of uneasiness wrapped around him, enclosing him as much as the darkness that reached for him threatened to do.

And yet that nothingness seemed alive with something that whispered over him with every slight scratch and scuttle. It ticked beneath his fur, an itch that he couldn’t escape. The faint sounds occupying the darkness seemed to steadily grow louder and yet still barely audible until suddenly they turned shrill, paired with something sharp scraping against stone, and a fleshy white mass flew out from the darkness at him from the side.

Vrishna dropped his light as he instinctively turned toward the threat and capturing it in his grasp. Long fingers scrabbled and sharp teeth gnashed as the slender creature attempted to break free from his grasp and climb him. He didn’t give it the opportunity. Grasping its shoulders firmly in one hand and its jaw in the other, he wrenched hard, the sound of snapping bone echoing through the tunnel followed by the sound of his triad’s quick approach.

“What is it?” Thral growled as he leaned over, bringing his light in close. He recoiled with a snarl when the terrible face was revealed. Whatever it had been, the creature had once bore some semblance of similarity to humans. “Where did it come from?” he growled, turning slowly, his hackles up as he lifted his light higher.

“Here,” Sabol replied from the cavern wall. His light illuminated the perfect fissure in the cavern tunnel where another naturally had joined with it.

“Any others?”

Sabol cocked his head, his ears pricking. “No. I don’t hear anything else coming.”

Vrishna dropped the dead creature, and his pelt shuddered with disgust as he bent to retrieve his light. “I wonder what the rest are,” he grumbled absently to himself. “If they are anything like humans I’d expect to see or hear signs of others.”

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