Take Renee
"We'll take Renee," Angel said eventually, "but be careful."
She tried to see what Renee felt about this, but her face was unreadable, even as she sliced up a few monsters, who tried to attack them from behind. Angel didn't know what to think of her choice. Ann, Ariza, and Mason are putting their lives in danger so Angel's group can go to Aiden and here she was choosing Maya over them. Maya's going to die (notch, even thinking that makes her sick to her stomach) if they don't have Renee with them, but that still made her feel selfish.
As they ran to the tunnels, with Renee slicing up the monsters, she was about to apologize when Ariza looked up, her eyes widening with horror, and screamed, "INCOMING!"
"What is it?" Ann said immediately, raising her gaze to Ariza's trail of sight. She swore loudly.
"Cave-in!" Mason yelled. "Run!"
Before Angel could react, Jace tackled her out of the way of the falling rocks and into one of the tunnels, and since she was using Gill to support herself, he was pulled (roughly) with her.
The last thing she saw before the rocks completely blocked the entrance was Renee sliding under a large monster and slicing open its stomach, showering her with black goop.
Angel felt distorted. The blow to her head really did her some good (you can hear the sarcasm from space). It was only until a few minutes later that she realized she was pinned to the ground by Jace, who was, for your information, not light.
"Ow, ow, ow, get off me, Jace. My leg is near the place where it hurts, and if you don't get off me now, I will kick it—"
"Alright, alright, sorry!" Jace said as he quickly rolled off Angel before she does anything. He helped her up and called, "Oi! Gill, are you there!"
"I'm here," Gill grumbled, unsticking his face from the ground. "No thanks to Mister I-Like-To-Tackle-My-Friends."
Jace put his hands up in surrender. "Sorry! It's just that you two were standing under the rocks, and there was no way to get you guys out of the way."
"I'm just glad you managed to tackle us in the right tunnel," Angel said before Gill could say anything. "I thought for sure you were going to get us in the completely wrong direction with our luck."
Jace snorted. "Thanks for having so much faith in me." He glanced around. "We better hurry. We don't have much time." He crouched down in front of Angel.
She glanced up at him. Jace was afraid of the dark and would run around like a giant mad pigeon and scream in terror if they ever get stuck in total darkness. But since there were torches to light up the place so it wouldn't be total darkness, he wouldn't do that, and she won't have to worry. So she just rolled her eyes ("I know you did that!"), climbed on his back, and held on.
As they began to head out, they heard a voice call out.
"Guys!"
Angel turned around, recognizing the voice immediately from the laughter and comments during the pillow fight yesterday, although muffled from the rocks. "Ariza?!"
"Yeah, it's me. Ann and Mason—" Ariza paused briefly but continued before Jace and Aiden noticed. Angel noticed, however, and made a mental note to ask her about it later. "—are making sure Renee won't get overwhelmed, so it's just me— WOAH!"
There was a loud WHAM! It seems Ariza ducked just in time to prevent a monster from hitting her and knocking her out. The monster, instead, hit the rock wall and it wasn't gently.
"Be careful, Renee, that almost hit me—"
"Sorry!" Renee's muffled voice called. There was a scream, a string of swears, and a battle cry as her voice faded away. Whatever was happening out there, Angel didn't want to know at all.
"Sorry about that," said Ariza's voice, addressing the three this time. "Something happened. Anyway, go to Maya without Renee. There's no way to get through that rock wall without causing another cave-in. Not to mention, there are the monsters. There's too many of them. More and more are coming, so even if we miraculously get through the wall, some will follow you and that won't be good."
Angel's heart sank. So it wasn't a good idea to bring Renee. What if the cave-in didn't happen and Ann, Ariza, and Mason were overwhelmed and were killed? She shuddered at the mental image of their bodies.
"We understand," Gill said, stopping Jace from making a snide remark as well as pulling Angel from her thoughts. "Don't worry about us. Take care of yourselves."
"Alright. By the way, remember the order of the tunnels is— ah crap!"
Something crashed into the rock wall. The blow was so strong, it blew them back several feet. Angel winced as she was knocked off Jace and crashed into a wall (mind you, it was painful). There was a loud shout of pain and what sounded like a blast of fire.
"Chat later!" said a new voice. It was Ann, and she sounded as though she was on the verge of panicking. "We're getting a bit overwhelmed here! Killers are popping in now! Pig Lady and Doctor!"
"What? Alright! I'm coming!"
"Ariza, wait! What about the order of the tunnels?!" Angel shouted, but it was no use. Ariza was gone.
"Drat!" Gill said as he got up. "Let's go anyway! I don't think there's any time left!"
Jace nodded, picked up Angel again and placed her on his back, and he and Gill rushed off in the darkness.
"This is like the lava incident all over again," Angel mumbled onto Jace's shirt. She saw him wince in sympathy. Last year, during the portal adventure, they stumbled on a fire world, in which Angel shoved Petra out of the way of a lavafall ("I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" Petra had roared afterward) and burned her leg badly. Jace had to carry her until they get help from a girl who lived there.
"Yeah. The girl you guys bumped into was pretty, huh?" Gill said innocently. "I'm sure you don't mind getting injured so she can heal you again."
Angel flushed. A moment later, a frying pan came flying in his direction, which he dodged while laughing hysterically.
"Shut it, Gill, she was good-looking, but she was rude and only healed me after Ivor offered her some of his potions," Angel snapped. "I'm starting to regret coming out to you guys."
She wasn't exactly serious. After telling her friends that she was bisexual and attracted to females, they went out of their way to wear pink, lavender, and blue to support her. She made jokes about never coming out after they teased her, but she was never serious and Gill knows that.
Gill grinned. "Alright, keep your hair on."
Angel 'hmph' and said no more. Her emotions were out of control. She was scared, worried, nervous, and agitated, and as per usual, when she feels those emotions, she snaps at everyone. Her friends were used to it and took it in stride and even made jokes to distract her. It does work, but not when one of her friends is possibly going to die…
"Oh shit!" Jace swore suddenly, cutting off Angel's thoughts. "Huge monster up ahead!"
Angel looked up and blanched. Sure enough, there was a monster the size of a monster truck in front of them. They weren't going to be able to knock it away.
"Crap!" Gill said. He looked scared, which was understandable, because who wouldn't be afraid of this monster?
Jace's brow furrowed in thought, which made Angel feel a strong urge to back away from he does anything, and said, "Hey, Angel, do you still have the scarf?"
Angel rose an eyebrow. Usually, when Jace asks you a question during a fight, he's planning something stupid. He proved that when he jumped through that trapdoor earlier. "Of course I do. It's tied around my waist. Why?" She asked suspiciously.
"Good," Jace said, ignoring Angel's question. He whispered something in Gill's ear, who grinned and nodded, then turned back to the monster. "Tie it tightly and hang on, but don't strangle me this time."
Angel opened her mouth to ask what the hell was he planning to do when Jace suddenly lurched forward, causing her to squeak.
Jace jumped, landed on the monster, and before it could kill him, he jumped again and rolled in mid-air then landed on the ground. Thankfully, he didn't roll when he landed, because Angel would have smacked him.
She was used to rolling, front-flipping, etc… so that meant she was used to being upside-down, but that doesn't mean she'll stay calm when someone else's doing it with her on their back.
"I SWEAR TO NOTCH!" Angel screamed as Jace and Gill, who slid under the monster instead (she made a mental note to smack him later, because why didn't he warn her?), continued running. "YOU SEEM TO MAKE IT YOUR MISSION TO GIVE ME HEART ATTACKS!"
"Sorry," Jace said, not looking sorry at all," but that was the only way. Sliding will cause your bum to do red."
She turned red from anger and embarrassment and tightened her arms around Jace's neck as a warning.
"Ow, ow, ow! Okay, no more jokes on your bum— Ow! Sorry—"
"Guys, up ahead!" Gill shouted, pointing in front of them. The path had split into two. One showed a staircase that goes up, and the other showed a slide. "What's the order of the tunnels? I sort of forgot."
Jace swore under his breath. "Drat! The cave-in distracted me! Wish Ariza didn't get dragged away by Ann…" He turned his head so he can look at Angel in the eye. "What about you?"
Angel ranked her memory. The cave-in and attack prevent her from completely memorizing the order, but thankfully she remembered a few bits…
She opened her mouth—
"Up, up, down, right, left, up is the order."
"I'm not sure, but maybe it's up, up, down, left, right, up."
Choose Wisely~ :)
