Ashelin ran blindly down the narrow path of the cave, guided only by the pen-sized flashlight held in her gloved hands. She was oblivious to everything now, the horrible pain in her ribs, the uncountable cuts and bruises covering her body, and the wet nothingness of the dead water as it splashed lifelessly around her shins.
There was only one thought on her mind now: survival. She was being chased by creatures like none which she had ever seen. They like horribly deformed elves, no eyes, only scabbed, black flesh, and teeth. Gnashing, razor-sharp teeth.
Ashelin's breath came in harsh ragged gasps, what little vision she had by the thin beam of her flashlight blurred with pain and exhaustion. Never halting, Ashelin turned and fired several shots of Red Eco behind her.
The balls of flaming Eco flew through the air like miniature comets hurtling from the farthest reaches of space. For a second only the uncountable pursuing creatures were illuminated by the extreme red glow of the fireballs. Several inhuman cries rang out, made even worse by the echoes that rang out around her. Despite herself, Ashelin couldn't help smiling. So, they could be killed. Her chances for survival were improving, no matter how little.
Her footfalls rang out with cold splashes as her feet fell again and again into the puddles of lifeless water that flowed from some unknown stream. This was what the Abyss was like, wasn't it? That place of curdled nothingness at the very center of the Underworld, where all the evil people of the world went when their bodies on the mortal plane died? Ashelin had been told of this place many times by her mother, a highly religious woman who had been suddenly stricken with a brain tumor. She had died before Ashelin's eyes. As Ashelin watched her mother fade away, she remembered wondering where her mother would go?
What were these things? Were they agents of the Underworld? Were they the tortured souls of elves long dead, returning to try and take the world for their own? What the hell were they? They certainly looked demonic enough to be from some hellish otherworld. What other explanation was there?
Suddenly something that felt like a dead branch caught Ashelin square in the face. The female elf grunted in pain and shock, landing flat on her back. A jolt of pain flew up her body from her ribs.
The soft padding of the creatures' feat drawing ever nearer was the only thing that made her scramble back to her feet, a soft whimper escaping her mouth as she continued her desperate sprint. Even if she managed to outrun them where would she go? There was no chance of her scaling the oil-slick walls of the cave, let alone with two broken ribs.
Ashelin fired two more balls of Red Eco at the creatures, once again seeing their inhuman forms illuminated in the sharp red glow of the projectiles in horrifying detail. Move your ass! Her mind screamed, even as her body begged her to stop, to just lay down and take a rest, bathe in the cool cave water, even if it felt dead –
"No!"
She would run as long as she could, as long as her battered body would allow, she would run from these damned beasts like a clever hare pursued by a pack of ravening wolves. She would escape.
These thoughts vanished from her brain in an instant. A single long-fingered hand closed about her left arm, pulling her backward with inhuman strength. Its touch burned like acid, a pain that overcame even the continuous throbbing of her fractured ribs.
Two more hands closed around the struggling elf woman, pulling her farther and farther back into the darkness, that darkness which would consume her; flesh, blood, and bone.
"LET GO!"
With her remaining arm Ashelin fired a volley of Red Eco at the roaring beasts. For each that fell under her gunfire two more seemed to take its place. Ashelin's flashlight fell from her hand, rolling slowly across the expanse of the fissure before plunging into the depths of the water. Ashelin could see the thin beam of light cutting dimly through the darkness under the water, it beam obscured slightly by the rippling surface.
Ashelin was now plunged into complete darkness. There was only the sound and the smell to guide her. The sound of the rapidly advancing creatures, each with a touch that burned like a powerful acid, and the smell; the rank, vile smell of their tough, leathery hides similar to sweat.
She could only make out vague images of them in the continuous red flare of her projectiles. There was no end to them! They were like a stream, no matter where you blocked it off, there was always another way it would get through! There was no stopping them. And suddenly something happened that Ashelin was dreading most. Instead of firing another shot, her gun clicked. She pulled the trigger again and again, cursing with the most foul words she knew. But nothing came, only the "click, click" that spelled her doom.
They overtook her easily, pinning her to the ground. The damp cave floor came up hard on the back of her head, her hair already askew from her desperate dash quickly soaked the damp residue on the floor.
The creatures surrounded her, baring down on her like a pack of hyenas, each hissing, saliva dripping from their gaping maws filled with loose, crooked teeth. So this was it. This was how it would end. Ashelin would not go down pleading for her life. If she was going to die, she was going kicking and screaming, fighting even as the creatures bore into her, laid her open. She would not give them the satisfaction of an easy kill.
Suddenly the creatures began to scream. They turned, glaring up into the light at the top of the cave. Several of them fell, jerking spasmodically as a thick goop poured from their bodies. The creatures began to fall like insects before an exterminator. Several turned and retreated back into the darkness, their malevolent screams echoing long after they were gone.
Ashelin was momentarily stunned. Everything had happened so fast. One moment she had been pinned to the fissure's cold stone floor, then the next the creatures were screaming, dying, running away. What had –?
Her unasked question was soon answered as the roar of Hellcat engines filled the area. The sound filled the air, echoing throughout the expanse of the cave. The sound, reverberating again and again off of the craggy sides of the chasm was deafening. Ashelin slumped to her knees groaning, her blue-gloved hands; now soaking wet; held tight over her ears.
The Hellcat landed several feet away, its engines slowly dying as the landing gear touched down on the uneven stone floor. Ashelin slowly lowered her hands from her ears, cringing slightly at the fresh burst of fiery pain that flooded up her torso from her ribs.
Torn leapt nimbly from the Hellcat, jogging frantically to the crouched elf woman. Ashelin, groaning slightly, rose to meet him. "Ashelin, are you alright?" he gasped, halting in front of her, his eyes alight with panic.
Ashelin could not respond. Her mouth opened, ready to pour out every scrap of information on what had happened. But she couldn't, no sound escaped her mouth, only a rasping whisper similar to that of a half-drowned person gasping for air.
"T-Torn," she whimpered, raising her hands to his face. She groaned again, and then the world went black, blacker even than the surrounding Abyss. Abruptly, Ashelin fainted into Torn's welcoming arms.
To be continued…for real…