Chapter 28
Donal crashed onto the floor and buckled his leg. Behind him, Eve pushed through the small opening and landed in an awkward heap herself; her body twisting and contorting painfully as gravity invited her to into the cold hard concrete.
Through the gap in the wall, they could hear the sound of hungry boars waking to a chase and Eve knew their scent was enough to drive these beasts through this wall. They had to pick themselves up and run. They had to surface somewhere and get out of these tunnels.
“Can you walk?” said Eve.
Donal was pulling himself from the floor. His body was bruised and his mind was completely soiled with defeat. He wished only to throw his arms in the air, to lie down on the cold concrete floor and have a peaceful death carry him from the reach of this tireless pursuit.
“I can’t do it anymore. I’m too tired” he said.
“You can and you will pick yourself up. We are getting out of here. We’re getting to that boat” she said.
“What boat?” asked Donal.
“Nothing. I’m confused. We’re gonna get you to your father and to your sister, but you have to get up. Those things are gonna break through this wall. If we don’t move, they’re gonna do to you what they did to that dog. Now get off the fucking ground” she screamed.
Donal jumped to his feet and his ears flooded first with the roar of hungry boars and then with the sound of thousands of dogs pummeling against the walls, scratching away at the wooden frame and then finally with the hoarse yelling of thousands of Famined voices setting upon them and the echo of their stampede, pounding in their ears like the heartbeat of violence.
His legs felt lighter than they had ever been. He filled his mind with the image of his father walking from his sight; one he had always known. And this image - which had always given him strength, - called his passion to carry him through one final sprint.
“There, in the distance, do you see it?” Eve asked, pointing somewhere in the dark.
“Is it a ladder?” asked Donal.
“Run” yelled Eve.
The wall behind them started to heave in and out like a wooden lung with the weight and force of thousands of hounds and two great monolithic beasts pounding against its collapsible frame.
They had only seconds to spare.
To the left, at the end of the tunnel, pushing its way round a hairline bend, came a wave of Famined humans, first spilling round the bend like a wash pushed forward from a rising crest, then splashing against the wall as hundreds of thousands of screaming distraught humans piled over one another, stomping their feet on the crushed and trampled bodies of those before them, high on the scent of incident, flooding towards the young boy and his untrustworthy friend.
Eve ran first, dragging Donal along by his hand and just as she had done before, she threw him first into the escape; picking him up by his waist and placing him on the ladder that ran from wall; just above her hand’s reach, to somewhere in the ceiling, but they couldn’t tell what awaited them.
Donal climbed; his fingers clenching the bars, cutting on shards of rusted metal, but doing nothing to slow his sprint to finish. Behind him, Eve kept right at his feet, stopping every few meters to grab the boy’s legs as he continued through the flight of fear, to misjudge his step and undo his sure footing.
They hadn’t come this far to fail now.
The wall where they had just escaped exploded and from its dust and ruin came the sea of angered dogs and ravishing beasts, all driven by the scent of the fleeing humans. They scampered to where the humans climbed and they jumped and scratched at the walls and howled into the air, calling the feeble humans to unfasten their grip and fall into their hungered mouths.
“Don’t look down. Keep going, they can’t get us” she said.
As she spoke, the animals below lay down on their bellies and gave themselves to their chase for the betterment of their brothers. As they lay on their stomachs, more hounds ran upon their backs and too laid down and in seconds they had built a mound and from a mound, a hill and from a hill, they had built a closeness to the two humans now pressing through the last meters of their escape.
Donal looked down and saw the thousands of dogs just centimeters from where they clung and below on the cold tiles waited the monolithic boars; their hooves pressed into the cold concrete, their heads lowered, their bodies coiled, waiting to be sprung; waiting for the last of the dogs to lay themselves down and give the boars the bridge they needed to stampede their way to the two humans before they escaped. For the hounds, laying down, it was what their Queen would have had them do.
“They’re coming” screamed Donal.
“Don’t look. Only a bit more. Go, you can do it” encouraged Eve pleadingly, feeling the warm breath of the hounds upon her feet.
Donal pushed and gripped the bar and lifted himself; his arms tired and his joints aching horrendously, but he fought on, keeping in his mind the image of his father.
Behind him, Eve kicked at the dogs which snapped at her heels and both looked down to see the two monolithic boars tearing apart the concrete with their hooves as their heaving bodies pounded against the earth and ripped apart the first dogs that lay at the base of the mound as the two boars stormed upwards towards the fleeing humans.
“Go” screamed Eve.
Donal reached for the last railing. His hand slipped and it fell behind him sending him swinging backwards. Eve pushed upwards and caught him mid swing; one hand gripping the bars, with the other holding the boy firmly and stopping him from falling to his death.
She pressed her hand firm against his back and pushed him towards the ladder. Donal grasped at the bar and lifted himself to the ceiling and pushed against the grate, but it wouldn’t open.
The two boars ripped and tore at the flesh of hounds as they worked their way up the mound. Their great tusks shook left and right to free themselves from the bodies of laying dogs which caught upon in the spirit of their sprint.
The wave of Famined stormed through the tunnel and beat against the pile of sacrificed hounds and though it’s momentum carried thousands of ravaged humans further than their liking, spilling long into the Kingdom of the Hound, many rode of the crest and clung to the dead animals and like the boars, they scaled the mount of escape, themselves wanting to make some prize of the boy and his untrustworthy friend.
Donal pushed against the grating, but it wouldn’t budge. Eve pressed herself against him, keeping them both pinned to the ladder and clenched of her fist.
“My will is stronger than rusting metal. My fist is the extent of my will. I am the force necessary to break through this rusted grate” she screamed to herself; strengthening her mind, believing every word and her fist; hardening so that when she threw it upwards; the rusted metal stood no chance of keeping in one piece and shattered like glass, raining down like confetti on the two boars that dove upwards, their mouths agape, their massive tusks inches from the girl’s heart and their hunger; visible through their open mouths into the pit of their bellies.
Eve pushed a container into the boy’s pocket and threw him upwards through the grating and into the open air as the two boars smashed against her body and with her in their mouths, they tumbled backwards; their force now ruled by gravity, taking them rolling down the mound of dogs and taking with them, the thousands of Famined humans, climbing the mound of dead hounds and crashing against the cold concrete floor where the two monolithic beasts dug their tusks into Eve’s lifeless body and threw it against the surrounding walls to soften the skin before they could gorge on every bit of her flesh, bone and muscle.
Donal looked down through the grating for Eve, but he could see nothing but darkness and the smell of death. He reached his hand through, waving it around, expecting her to catch on and pull herself upwards, but he caught only the shift in the air.
Around him, a massive roar echoed. He had no time to contemplate the girl or her fate or what about him roared. He saw light, turning the night sky orange and in a second, the f
eet about him turned to chase and carried him with them and before he knew it, he was running along with scores of other children, all waving weapons and fire.