The Outcast and the Survivor: Chapter Twelve

Some of Brogan’s men join us, too, but not those who belong to Dalton, who all seem eager to keep going. Dalton then walks over to the rope, reaching down and unsheathing a small blade as though he intends to cut the knot.

“What are you doing?” Brogan says, removing his pistol.

“She made her choice to stay back,” Dalton answers, his voice annoyed. “What if we need to get over another obstacle like this?”

“We won’t,” Helena reassures.

“How convenient for you to say,” Dalton scoffs. “The choice you make now Brogan will cost lives, either Kat and those with her, or all of us. Not everyone is going to make it out of this alive, no matter what you do.”

Brogan lifts his gun, pointing it at Dalton’s head.

“I doubt that was ever your intention,” he says.

More guns raise, some pointed at Brogan, and more pointed between his men and Dalton’s. I stand by as helpless as Dalton, who raises his hands in the air.

“You’ve endangered all of us with your blind faith, all these years looking for someone more dangerous to us than the creatures who stalk the night.”

He glares at Helena, then at me.

“Going to shoot an unarmed man?” he says snidely.

Brogan begins to lower his weapon, but the moment he does, Dalton quickly raises his own.

“This was never going to end any differently.”

To my surprise, Brogan completely lowers his weapon to the ground, putting his own hands up. At the same time, he slowly steps closer to Helena, like he means to protect her.

“She has already proven to us that we can trust her,” Brogan says, his voice imploring Dalton to change his course.

“I have my orders,” Dalton replies coldly, his gun immediately turning on me.

Brogan dives to get in the way, and a shot is fired. I stumble in shock, but I’m not the one hit. Dalton is, though no guns were pointed at him. Except for perhaps one I could not have noticed, one pointed from somewhere in the darkness below by Kat or someone else in her unit.

More gunfire immediately erupts. Brogan is the next one hit, his face grimacing as his continued momentum sends him crashing into me, knocking me back toward the cliff. He stops, but it’s too late, as I am sent careening off the edge.

Astor grabs me by the sleeve of my jacket as I fall backwards, just enough to redirect me toward the ledge so that I can grab onto it. But my grip immediately slips, and I drop a short distance before finding something to hold to.

I hang there for a moment, my head pounding at the sound of gunfire and the blow it took as it banged against the rock when I caught myself. I can’t see any of the conflict above me as it develops, and I fear for the worst. Though there were fewer soldiers with Dalton, they were definitely more prepared for the conflict that was about to take place than Brogan’s men. I hope he’s still alive somehow.

“Kaela,” Kat yells from the ground below as she and the rest of her unit emerge from shadows and start climbing.

Unfortunately, the rope hangs too far from where I am for me to get to it, maybe fifty feet away to my right. Those who climb won’t be able to reach me either, instead rushing to reach the firefight still taking place on the plateau above.

It tapers off a little by the time they reach the top, flurries of gunshots taking place now and again. I recall noticing a lot of cover further up the cavern from various rock formations, and I imagine Brogan’s men would use these areas of safety to wait for Kat and her reinforcements to arrive.

In the meantime, I hold to the rocks where I am, using my feet to press against some light areas to relieve my tired arms. I could stay here for a while, but I feel so weak and vulnerable exposed like this. I want to hear a familiar voice, someone reassuring me that things are going to be okay.

But no voice comes as a different sort of rumbling instead slowly rises from below me, the terrifying stampede of the hording creatures as they come this way. Kat appears above me, holding a flare that she drops off the edge. That is when I see the creatures, hundreds of them, closing in beneath me.

“Cut the rope!” Brogan’s strained voice orders.

Kat reaches down right as some of them grab onto the end of the rope. The increased tension causes her to slip, the knife in her hand slipping as well and cutting into her arm. She winces but otherwise hardly reacts as she picks the knife up again and slashes at the rope, sending the creatures holding it crashing down, rope in hand.

Others immediately try to climb the rocks like the woman from Dalton’s unit did, most unsuccessfully, but a few are able to start making quick progress.

“Hold on,” Astor says, appearing closer to where I am.

He peers over the edge, his body lying on the ground like he’s avoiding being noticed. Kat disappears, I’m not sure to where, but a sudden increase in gunfire suggests that neither she nor and anyone else will be able to help me right now.