Old Magic

Brittle Bones

“No s**t,” Melody said, heat rising through her chest as his idiotic comment broke through the haze of fear, “any other brilliant insights you want to share? What are going to do?”

David popped his head back around the corner as Melody looked for signs of their pursuers. She didn’t see anything, but the skeletons had to be getting closer.

“There’s got to be something causing this,” David said, at last, coming back into the shadows, “anything highlighted on the blueprint?”

Melody pulled up the overview display and searched for a power source of some kind. She expected to find some kind of control room, thinking that the skeletons were powered by some kind of microbot collection, but the only thing highlighted was a small pit on the other end of the cavern.

“That’s weird,” she said, lost in the data.

“What is it?” David asked.

She sent a copy of the blueprint to him while she continued to study the pit. There didn’t seem to be anything underneath it, or something protected was under it because the mapping drones hadn’t been able to get through. The pit contained a tar-like substance but it also put off a strong electrical charge.

“That is weird,” David said, “but it’s also our best chance.”

“Assuming we can get to it,” Melody said, switching her view back to overlay, “or need I remind you that there is at least one living skeleton, that’s already aware of us, standing between us and our prize. Unless, of course, you would prefer to fight our way through the mass hoard. We don’t even know if these things can die, they are certainly not alive.”

David rolled his eyes at her.

“Any more brilliant insights you want to share?” he quoted.

“Shut up.”

“You shut up, this is the only hope we have. Something trapped us down here and I, for one, would rather test my blade against one skeleton rather than a hundred. So, if you are done wasting time…”

He started walking back toward the fake wall. Melody watched him go and then popped her own head around the corner again to look at the hoard.

Now that she knew what she was looking for, the pit wasn’t too hard to pick out. It looked so mundane but entirely foreign at the same time. The skeletons were keeping their distance from it, but she wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

They’d need to come up with some sort of plan before they got down there, but try as she did, she couldn’t think of any course of action that would be even remotely useful.

Most of the obstacles they’d face up to this point were either alive or electronic. Kill, unplug, or destroy their power source and you were fine, but how exactly were they supposed to unplug a thick, black pond. Could the pond just be some kind of door, would they have to jump into it and hope that whatever waited on the other side would be their fix? What if there wasn’t anything on the other side, what if it was just a pit?

“Are you coming?” David whisper-yelled.

Melody waved his question away but pulled her head back. Something had caught her attention though and she poked her head around the corner again.

Sure enough, one of the walking skeletons stood out from the rest. This one still had something of a body, albeit patchy and discolored. He was something of a zombie, but not. Strips of cloth still draped from his limbs and Melody could make out a few tufts of thick hair sprouting from his head.

She was still staring at him when his head turned to look at her. All white, blood-shot eyes stared back at her and she quickly pulled back her head, heart racing. Nobody with eyes like that could see, but she couldn’t help but think that whatever that thing was, it knew she was there.

She raced toward David, deactivating the blade temporarily for the sake of speed.

“Let’s go,” she said, pushing David in front as she went.

“What happened?” David asked as he moved.

“I think I may have alerted the hoard,” Melody said, “we don’t have much time.”

David scoffed at her but Melody didn’t react, slipping around him and activating her blade again.

“Are you kidding me,” David said, “why would you do that?”

“Well, I didn’t do it on purpose now, did I? Can we just get going? I’d rather not fight the entire group if we don’t have to.”

She could hear David’s feet pounding against the stone behind her and moments later they burst through the false cave wall and into the main passage.

Melody could see the path lit up before her, she could even make out their next turn, but even as she thrilled at the sight of it, the joy didn’t last long when she noticed how many skeletons were now standing between them and their way down.

She froze momentarily, still unsure if the machete would do anything to the skeletons. David didn’t hesitate though, his sense of chivalry no doubt getting the better of him again. He ran toward the first skeleton like a raging mama bear and swung his machete at it, slicing toward the non-existent heart.

The blade didn’t cut through the bone like Melody had thought it would, instead the bones seemed to move out from under the blade before the skeleton body burst apart, scattering bones in every direction.

David froze at the sight, but now was Melody’s chance to take up the call. She ran toward a skeleton mere feet from David’s frozen form and swung at its heart, watching as it too exploded into a rain of bone.

Her heart danced at the sight, a sense of relief flooding through her body and unknotting some of the tension she’d held since they’d gotten trapped. She could do this, this was easy.

“Come on David,” she called, smiling as another skeleton disintegrated under her blade, “you don’t want everyone to know you were bested by a girl, right?”

She couldn’t tell if David was following along, but Melody just kept moving, slicing through skeleton after skeleton until none remained.

She looked around, her chest swelling as she saw the array of scattered bones littering the cave floor. She noticed David moving through them, his own face far less jovial than her own.

“I told you that you should’ve gotten a move on,” she said, shaking her head.

David just looked up at her and then back toward the entrance grate. Melody’s heart sank as she remembered the massive cavern filled with skeletons. How much noise had she made? If the skeleton hoard wasn’t aware of them before, they probably were now.

A soft rumbling started to shake the ground around her and Melody’s eyes went wide as she stared at David. The rumbling grew louder, turning into drum beats that filled their air.

Lights were coming up the main passage toward them now, and Melody was reminded that they hadn’t made it to safety just yet.

She ran toward the hidden passage and ran as hard as she could, accidentally cutting the side of her leg with the machete.

She collapsed to the ground, the blade dropping from her hand, it’s blade retracting now that her hand no longer touched the tube. Her hand shook as she reached to pick it up, but before she was able to grab it, David’s arm was wrapped around her waist and he was pulling her up.

“Leave it,” he said, “we don’t have any time to waste.”

Sure enough, Melody could see a massive line of skeletons running toward them, torches in their bony hands.

Melody wrapped an arm around David’s shoulders and together they made their way toward the narrow offshoot, but as the skeletons drew closer, she wondered if they would make it. But, even if they did, it was only a matter of time before the skeletons caught up with them.

This was all her fault. She’d alerted the zombie man and then bashed her way through the skeleton guard without any regard to how her rash actions would affect the situation. She’d even hobbled herself so that they couldn’t run.

“You should just leave me behind,” she said, trying to push David’s arm off her waist, “you stand a better chance of getting to the pool alone. Take out the power source fast enough and I should be fine.”

“Yeah,” David muttered, “that’s not happening. We have no clue what those things are capable of, you’re staying with me.”

His arm tightened even more around her waist, causing Melody to flinch, but she didn’t argue, glad that David had refused to accept her selfless offer. She didn’t want to die and she didn’t want to become one of those skeleton things either. Or maybe they ate the humans that wandered into their hidey-hole?

Whatever the case, she didn’t want to be left alone with the skeletons, but that didn’t change their circumstances. With her along, they were losing ground with each step.

“Don’t you dare give up on me,” David said, correctly guessing the direction of her thoughts, “I don’t care how bad it looks, keep fighting.”

Melody nodded, but still grimaced as her injured leg took her weight again. She needed her machete if they were going to stand a chance, but they’d already traveled too far to turn back for it.

“I told you that you should’ve taken me up on my offer when you had the chance,” David said, his breathing labored.

“I thought you said that we shouldn’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up, I’m merely stating that the odds of both of us making it out of here alive are pretty slim, I could do with a little motivation.”

Melody couldn’t help but laugh at that, although the laugh came off a bit hysterical.

“Working every angle you can, I see,” she said, “it’s actually kind of impressive.”

“Does that mean you’ll think about it?” David asked, his free hand reaching out to grab the edge of the hidden passageway.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop,” Melody said, turning her head toward the approaching mass again; the skeletons were so close already, what chance did they have?

Two more shuffling steps and they passed through the false wall guarding the passage. Melody’s vision sensors went wild at the sudden shift in light and she stumbled forward out of David’s embrace.

Her hands landed in something wet and she tried to withdraw, but her hands wouldn’t pull free.

“David,” she said, her voice rising in pitch as she spoke.

“I know,” he said, “I’m stuck in it too.”

Melody turned back toward the passage entrance and waited for the hoard of skeletons to break through. But, even after several seconds, nothing happened. In fact, even the drumming had died away ever since they’d pass through the false wall. And while Melody felt a slight sense of relief with this knowledge, she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d stumbled into something worse.

She glanced down at her hands, her vision sensors having finally settled down, and tried to work her hands-free. But, instead of loosening, every move seemed to make the stuff even stronger; then the stuff started creeping up her arm.

The goo tugged at her down and she could feel her body stretching as the stuff pulled at her arms. 

 “A little help,” she called.

“I’m working on it,” David called back, his voice muffled as if he had something in his mouth.

Melody risked a glance over at him and saw a looped coil in his hands. She also saw that he was being pulled by the sludge, although his descent seemed far more controlled than hers. She wondered what he was planning, but before she had the chance to really think, the slight pull increased and she found herself half falling and half flying through the cave.