Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,320

further disappointment at my lack of a reaction. She’d been holding on to tell me this, and I had no fucking clue what it meant.

I listened as the noises faded and a shrill scream met my ears, was it me? Everything felt so distant. A hand landed on my shoulder as I turned around to face Patrick. “Come here, Ash. Let Maverick do his thing.” I stood up and somehow managed to find Jacob’s hand just as Huxley was knocked out—by Cyler. Huxley was in his overprotective mode and was itching to open the hole and continue to beat Lenny to death. Huxley had scratches running down his cheeks from his fight with Lenny and a good bruise forming on his face from Cyler. I winced. Even though I knew there was no deterring Huxley when he got in that headspace, knocking him out still felt a bit excessive.

Cyler shrugged. “Can’t kill him yet. Need to get intel.”

“Will he be okay?” I asked Patrick while looking at Huxley.

“Hux?” Patrick said with a chuckle, though it was a dark tone. “He’s been hit way harder. He’s fine.” Hux might have gotten better about losing himself to his episodes, but some things never changed. He couldn’t get past his devotion to those he cared about.

While Maverick looked Mia over, I took stock of my other men. Their eyes seemed heavy, and Patrick was leaning against a wall while clutching his stomach. It was like we were all sick.

Maverick picked Mia up and cradled her in his arms while storming out of the small tunnel, nearly tripping over Huxley in the process. “We have to get out of the caves. The air is poisoned. That's why everyone was so complacent back there. Everyone, grab a body, and we’ll do shifts to get everyone out.”

“Fuck,” Cyler said while grabbing his head. “The tunnel sickness. Had it in the mines, too. There are at least a hundred people in here.”

Maverick cradled Mia while heading back towards the main room. “We’ll get them out. We’ll save them all.”

Chapter Nine

It took the guys four grueling hours to carry everyone out of Lythe. I watched in horror as they moved men, women, and children on their backs up the elevator. Each time they’d get back to the top, they’d gasp for air like they’d been holding their breath.

Maverick found an old building above ground and was setting up people there. He said it would take a while for the poison to leave their systems. Tunnel fever came from some of the natural gasses trapped in the caverns underground. It was like a potent opioid, causing mania, delirium and mostly apathy. It was such a downer that people didn’t care what they were doing, they just existed.

The guys alternated going down into the caverns, working as quickly as possible while taking breaks. Once they got dizzy, they switched shifts and laid down to rest. By the end of it, all of them were dripping with sweat, their limbs shaky. “What happens with long term exposure?” I asked.

“Weaker people die, but it just acts like a long-term high. You don’t think. Don’t feel. It’s probably why Lenny thought he was in charge down there. He got the manic side effects and went crazy. Plus, if he was often leaving to gather more Scavengers, he wasn’t having nearly as much pumped into his system.

The underground city of Lythe was coordinated by anarchy. There was no real leader. No real governing body. Lenny and his goon were just a couple of guys that had their ear to the ground, knew of rumors, and took things into their own hands.

The guys refused to let me help rescue the people down there, so I stayed by Mia. She had a broken arm. We couldn’t tell how long it had been snapped, but Maverick said it was healing wrong, which meant it had been a couple of weeks. On top of that, food rations were sparse. It appeared that they’d only given her the bare minimum of nutrients to keep her breathing, and nothing more.

“How do you get food?” Cyler asked while adjusting his belt. He’d been addressing one of the Lythe citizens. The first men to be pulled from the cavern started to wake up from the waking sleep they were in and frantically asked questions. Some of them had been down there for months and had no idea what was happening. I loved watching Cyler approach the problem that was Lythe. Some of