[End Act I] Lt Alex Storm - Trial by Fire
Karen Morris
(( Monastery - Callis 1 ))
Alex stepped quickly into the cavernous room, and shut the door softly after Brexis stepped through. The smell of smoke hung suspended in the air, clinging to everything it touched. A quavering fire lit up one corner of the room, and three successive pops exploded into the quiet. Alex’s movement slowed as a memory invaded the space, but a deafening growl reverberated outside the building and wrested her attention back to the present.
Brexis: ::Grimacing and digging out her knife:: It looks like our friends might be back.
Storm: The door ::her voice briefly lost its footing:: should hold. Only one of the hinges was bent. Let’s get some firewood and hightail it back downstairs.
Her knife secured backward in her hand, Alex sprinted for the pile of wood in the corner beyond where the fire danced brightly, either in rebellion against the growl or in invitation to the creature to join it in the room and eradicate the intruders. But with a torch in one hand and a knife in the other, she couldn’t effectively pick up anything.
Brexis: Might be able to lean the torch there. We gotta hurry.
Setting the handle of her torch in the crevice in the floor which Brexis indicated, she leaned the flaming torch head against the wall, and wrapped her arms around as many pieces of wood as she could carry. A loud sniffing sound penetrated the door, and Alex thought she could hear something pawing at the ground. Ignoring the sound, she scooped one last piece of wood into her arms. With a resounding crack, the creature barreled into the door, shaking the entire building and bringing the lighted end of Alex’s torch tumbling against her back. Flames licked at her shirt—then caught.
Storm: Charlotte!
Her cry was instinctive - not out of pain or panic. But it didn’t take long for the heat of the flame to tunnel into her skin, its razor-sharp fingernails clawing into her back mercilessly. She rolled over, trying to extinguish the dancing fury and extract the talons entrenched in her skin.
Brexis: Oh fu– ::Throwing everything out of her arms:: Alex!
The pain penetrated further than the flame, and Alex’s mind opened up to reach out for a life-line. It wasn’t Charlotte that she reached out to for solace. Her mind reached out for Roy, but all she could feel was raucous silence and emptiness. Her mouth formed his name, and she gasped for air like a parched traveller gulping down water. Tears rolled down her soot-stained cheeks in response to the pain -- not in her flesh. Charlotte quickly pulled off her uniform jacket and ran over to Alex.
Brexis: Alex I need you to hold still for just a minute! I’ve got you!
Alex rolled back onto her stomach, letting the creature continue to drag its claws across her back. And as Charlotte flung her jacket over the creature atop Alex’s back, she embedded its claws further, until the anguish stopped spreading like a glass of spilled liquid on a table. Smoke billowed out from under the jacket, until the last of its tendrils dispersed into the thick air.
Storm: He’s gone…
Brexis: I'm going to move the jacket slowly, it's probably going to hurt and I am so sorry for that, but we have to get out of here.
Alex’s fingertips pressed against the cold of the stone beneath her torso. Her ears heard sounds coming from Charlotte’s mouth, but her brain wasn’t able to put meaning to it. Everything - body and soul - withered as the flames sputtered their last gasp.
Slowly, Charlotte lifted her now singed jacket, but efficiently. It was too dark to tell how much damage had actually been done.
Brexis: I’ve got you. ::Holding out her hand:: You’ve got to get up.
A hand barely distinguishable from the shadow crept into Alex’s line of sight. Pressing her eyes tightly closed, the brunette took a deep breath. Opening her eyes and pushing through the intense burning, she reached out and grasped a hold of the hand, the single thread holding her to this life.
Another growl, lower, gutteral, and angry reverberated just meters from the door.
Storm: I’m ready!
And with that, Charlotte pulled Alex to her feet. With Charlotte's help, the two traversed the room and passed through the door into the smaller side room, shutting it behind them just as a thunderous crack echoed throughout the smoke-filled main room. A blast of cold air rushed in, extinguishing the fire and maybe their chances for survival as well.
~*~
End Act I for Storm
~*~
Lt Alex Storm
Tactical Officer
USS Artemis
O240103SK2