Chapter Twenty-Nine:
A/N: Anyone else not trust Xu, or is it just Tessa being paranoid? And what becomes of Phelan? Unfortunately, you don't find out in this chapter! (Bwaa ha ha!) However, old favourites and OCs begin to crack under the pressure of trying to escape the Rots.
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Tessa felt the sewer's dampness long before she splashed into the dirty water. She was the last down the ladder, where Zell, Rinoa, and the mentally absent Adette waited. When she did finally climb off the ladder, Tessa felt the water submerge her to the knees. Almost immediately, a small flame appeared in her hand, illuminating the faces of her exhausted comrades.
"Which way?" she asked as she looked down the tunnel. Both paths faded into cold darkness. Tessa reached out with her free hand, and wrapped it around Adette's limp wrist. She thought of how hard it had been to get Adette into the sewer, and how it finally came to Zell carrying her down the ladder himself.
"Left, I think," Zell said nervously as he scratched his arm. It's been awhile since I've been down here, though."
"Left it is, then," Rinoa said as she raised her right hand. In it was a gun, Adette's second. Rinoa pointed it toward the unrevealing darkness and pretended to shoot. "I wish I had my regular weapon, I'm not good with guns."
"Flare," Zell explained when a flame, slightly larger and infinitely bigger than Tessa's, appeared in his right hand. It lit the whole of the tunnel, so Tessa irritably closed her hand, extinguishing her Fire spell. She didn't like to be shown up by a man, especially where magic was concerned.
They walked for about ten minutes, with the only sounds being the splash of water as the group waded through the sewer water and the occasional cough from Zell. Then, suddenly, they heard more rapid splashing and yelling.
Two men spilled into the lit tunnel from an access pipe in the side of the wall, wide-eyed and covered in blood. One was short and heavy with a beefy moustache, and the other old and skinny with long grey hair. Both were drenched in blood. Tessa could tell Zell and Rinoa thought the men's mutterings were signs of madness, but she new better.
"Gotabo," Tessa said as she stepped in front of Zell, dragging Adette with her, and stood in view of the men. "Lashel im eed?"
"Lodeel imes zutu!" the old man yelled. "Lodeel imes zutu!"
"What is he saying?" Rinoa asked Tessa. "What did you say?"
"Une dijue," Tessa said to the old man. She turned Rinoa and Zell with a worried look. "It's Junonian, my native tongue. He said that they're coming."
"Who's coming?" Zell asked as wiped his forehead with his sore arm, which had begun to turn black. He was sweating profusely and his voice growing hoarse. "Ask him who's coming."
"Quis im zutu?" Tessa asked the two men, who were on the verge of hysteria.
"Al copres imes zutu!" screamed the heavy men. They ran past Tessa in the direction of the Gate, scared out of their minds.
"He said that the corpses are coming," Tessa translated, her pale face growing whiter in the light of Zell's Flare spell. "I think he means the Rots."
"Then why are we standing here?" Rinoa screamed at the top of her voice. She took off running wildly, green water flying around in a mist.
"Hold on!" Tessa yelled as Zell and she took chase. Adette was holding her back and Zell soon passed, running much faster. Tessa's legs filled with fatigue and she stopped running, which caused Adette to crash into her. Both teenagers fell over, crashing into the water. Tessa let go of Adette and pushed off of the grimy sever bottom.
She resurfaced and gasped, filling her lungs with the fetid air of the sewer. She looked around, but the light of Zell's spell was disappearing and she couldn't see Adette. "Adette!" she screamed as she splashed around, searching for the girl she had claimed she would protect. "Adette!"
The sounds that began to fill the tunnel were ones that ran shivers up Tessa's spine, ones that she had heard far too often. They were the groans of the Rots. She felt around the bottom of the sewer until her fingers touched warm flesh. Tessa drew Adette out of the water and slung the Brunette's arms over her shoulders.
"Come on," she muttered as she tried to ignite a Fire spell, but her hand was too wet and it only fizzled. By this time Zell and his Flare were gone, leaving Tessa alone in the dark with no way to defend herself from the decaying army approaching. "Work with me."
Giving up on the spell, she drug Adette in the direction she had seen Zell going. She couldn't see anything because there were no lights in the sewer, so she didn't see the Creeps when it slipped up and attacked her. Tessa hit a wall, but wouldn't let go of Adette. The Creeps climbed up and started scratching her, cutting her face open. Biting her lip to keep the tears back, she kicked out and felt her foot connect with something thin, like a sheet, yet solid.
She wanted to yell for help, but was afraid that doing so might attract the unwanted attention of the Rots. The Creeps slashed again and hit Tessa's left arm, causing her to lose her grip on Adette. As she slid again into the water, Tessa grabbed her hair and held her above the water. With her free hand, she punched out but hit only air.
Deciding the risk was worth it, Tessa screamed out, "Help," but received no response. The Creeps clawed her again and blood spill into her eye from a cut above her forehead. The groans of the Rots grew closer and the Creeps kept scratching. Tessa didn't know what to. She couldn't use Fire because she was too wet, couldn't use Thunder for the same reason, and the only other spells she had were Scan and Blind, neither of which would help.
The Creeps clawed her face again, and Tessa screamed out in pain as a piece of her nose flew off. Blood poured down her face, and she tasted the warm, salty liquid. Then, out of nowhere, a bright flash hit the Creeps, lighting it up. It seemed paralysed, so Tessa took the opportunity to pick Adette up, tears running due to the pain.
"Are you okay?" a man's voice rang out. "Did they get you?"
"What?" Tessa yelled back. She knew that the Rots had heard her and were on their way to finding her.
"I asked if those things got you. You know, the cannibals," the man called out again. A moment later, she felt a hand on her arm and a pair of eyes came into view. "Were you bitten?"
"No," Tessa said. She looked back at Adette and then to the stranger. She couldn't see much from the dim lighting of the Creeps, but she made out the shape of his eyes. They were almond-shaped, but his pupils, even in the darkness, were nothing more than thin slits. She was instantly reminded of a cat. Then she remembered Adette and pulled her into view. "Neither was she."
"Good," the man said, his eyes moving up and down in the darkness. "Come with me, there's an exit near here. It leads to a small collection of survivors."
"Survivors?" Tessa whispered as the man walked to Adette's other side and helped Tessa carry her. "What do you mean survivors?"
"A lot of the population of Galbadia City is wandering around eating each other. The ones that aren't are the survivors," he said. His voice was deep and gravely, reminding Tessa of a rock singer. "I just hope we can get there in time."
"What do you mean?" asked Tessa as they started moving. She couldn't see anything and was relying on the man's sense of direction to get around. He led her down a series of twists and turns, wandering further and further away from where Zell and Rinoa had gone.
After a long time, the man spoke again. "There are two main collections of survivors left in the city: the Presidential Residence and Caraway's Mansion. We're going to the Presidential Residence. There are about ten other people there, but none of them are armed or able to use magic. I came down in the sewers in search of some weapons. Instead, I found you two."
"How can you see?" Tessa asked. However, the man came to an abrupt stop instead of answering.
"We're there," he said. "We just have to climb this ladder and hope that none of the cannibals are up there."
"We call them Rots," Tessa said dumbly. To cover her embarrassment, she shifted some of Adette's weight. "How do we get her up there?"
"Simple," the man said. "One of us will climb up and lift the manhole cover, and the other will stay down here and try to hand her up."
"You go up," Tessa said, not wanting this strange man to think she was weak. "I'll stay down here."
"Fine," he said. Tessa felt Adette suddenly get heavier and seconds later the scraping of rust. After a few moments, she heard the sound of metal on pavement and called up.
"How is it?"
"Looks clear," he called, his voice calm. "Hand her up."
Tessa was nervous as she wrapped one hand around Adette's waste and used the other to feel for a ladder. When she finally felt it, she heard the groans again. She stepped on the ladder and tried to lift Adette, but found her too heavy.
"I can't do it!" Tessa yelled up to the man. "She's nothing but dead weight!"
"Hold on!" he yelled back. A couple of seconds later she was hit in the face with something long and slightly rounded: a rope. "Tie it around her, and I'll try lifting her up. You'll have to push, though!"
Tessa, working in complete darkness, tied the rope as tightly as she could around Adette. The groans were louder and much closer, echoing in the tunnel. "We're good, try lifting her!"
She reached under the water and grabbed Adette's shoes. She lifted and heard the grunts of the man as he did the same. Her nose was burning was she didn't want the man to think she was even more worthless than she already felt. She hated him for making her feel like that. Stupid man, she thought.
After lifting Adette about ten decimetres off the ground, Tessa started to climb the ladder. With one hand on a grimy rung and the other guiding Adette, they slowly made their way up. Adette was finally at the manhole and Tessa had to climb back down a few rungs to help push her through when the Rots finally arrived. Tessa felt the ladder shake slightly as they grabbed at it, trying to reach her. The hand on a rather tall one landed on her boot and she couldn't shake it loose, its grip was so strong. She kicked the hand until it detached from the arm and fell off on its own accord.
She saw a bit of light in a circular pattern in the ceiling, meaning Adette had been pulled through the manhole. Tessa Quickly climbed up and took the outstretched hand offered to her. "Thanks," she said when she felt her feet on solid, dry land.
"Let's go," the man said. Tessa finally saw what he looked like under the moonlight: his grey hair was cut short and he looked to be about forty. To Tessa, he might as well have been a hundred years old, though. His face was wrinkled with concern as he looked about. "It's only a building away."
He pulled out a pair of keys and unlocked the side door of a brick building. He led Tessa, who again carried Adette by sticking her shoulder under the unconscious woman's arm, into the building and locked the door behind them.
She couldn't see much, but the man took her hand and led Tessa up a flight of stairs. They came to the second story with a large, broken-out window. On the edge of the window was a ladder that stretched across to a much larger building with fake clowns on the roof.
"That," he said with a gesture to the building, "is Paradise."