Chapter 83 - The Sixth Floor

  The tunnel slanted, turning from a plummet to a high-speed slide down a smooth, stone chute. Other groups slid around them, some screaming, some cheering, some simply sobbing from the teammates they’d had to leave behind. Cole just tried to keep Howie from choking him.

  The already hot temperature shot up even higher as they descended, feeling as though they were being taken out of a sauna and dropped into an oven. This was the hot, dry hellish heat that had greeted him every summer morning in Syria—but turned up to eleven. Magma dripped from the walls on both sides, forming running rivulets to either side. There were so many challengers crowding the slide that more than one collision saw one or more people knocked into the molten rock, flailing and screaming as their clothes burst into flame.

  A large, armored man tumbled past, knocking Cole and Howie dangerously close to one of the lava channels, and Howie thrust out his hands to spray a jet of icy mist that cooled the molten rock in their path into a solid—if painfully bumpy—descent. Cole managed to kick off a stalagmite and get them back on track. After another thirty seconds of spinning, rolling, and sliding, the lava chute leveled out and dumped them onto a black, glassy surface.

  Every part of Cole hurt in a different way. He groaned as he climbed to his feet. A massive cavern had opened around them, hotter than he thought even Hell ought to be. Lava dripped from the ceilings and ran in rivers, suffusing the entire area with an orange glow as bright motes danced in the blistering air. The brief said this floor was supposed to be hotter than the last. It hadn’t mentioned it was inside a fucking volcano.

  “Oh, that wasn’t so bad,” said Howie, standing up on wobbly legs and tugging at his uniform collar. He had to leap out of the way as another pair of climbers tumbled past. A few seconds later, the cascade of humans and non-human otherworlders ceased. It seemed like everyone who would make it, had made it. As for the Beast Cult? Well, the gate wouldn’t keep them out. But he doubted they would try and push in against ten-plus teams of combat-capable challengers. Just because the other challengers hadn’t wanted to be the ones to risk death against the dragon didn’t mean they couldn’t hold their own if threatened.

  Cole stared at the crowd. Less than half of the challengers he’d seen on the plateau waiting for the fog gate to drop were here. All were soot-covered and ashen. Many were in shock. Even the seasoned adventurers among them had probably never seen dozens of people torn apart by ravenous apes the size of grizzlies. But there were still at least sixty or seventy survivors. Most of them were moving slow or not at all, withdrawing while their other companions tried to snap them out of it. Several of the solo challengers were simply pressed to the walls of the tunnel, staring around as if waiting for attack from any angle.

  Others were struggling to cope with the stifling heat, skin red and flushed as they sweated out buckets of moisture that didn’t look to be easily replaceable. And they still had the same problem. The congregation would bring monsters in numbers the group couldn’t handle. Cole didn’t want to be here when either the monsters came to answer the dinner bell, or when people started to realize the only source of fresh water on this floor might well be other challengers.

  “Come on,” he said. He and Howie moved off, joining up with Roxy and the others. Beth sat on a rock in the middle of a lava flow, smoking one of Roxy’s donated cigarettes and looking out over a vast, sprawling ruin below. Clearly the heat didn’t bother her. Far beyond the descent, there were more pillars of light in the distance, shining down over massive structures that looked like something out of ancient Greece or Babylon. Cole whistled and waved her over. She jumped down, stomping through ankle-high lava and still dripping it as she made her way back onto the main piece of the rock and stretched as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “Let’s get moving,” he said. “We don’t want to stick around a big group like this.”

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  “Yes sir, whatever you say, sir,” Beth said with a sardonic salute before breaking into giggles. But she matched their pace, enormous bone sword resting across her shoulders. “What was with those monkeys? Haven’t seen so many monsters in one place like that before.”

  “Large groups attract large groups of nasties,” said Cole. “Hundreds of people huddled together must look like a beacon in a Lewis Field.”

  Beth quirked her head. “Lewis who?”

  Cole waved his finger around. “It’s the ambient energy field that lets us use abilities and get stronger. It’s like background energy that some people can pull from. It links stuff together, feels everyone’s thoughts and souls and shit. Every world’s got one, except Earth,” he said.

  The sixteen year old girl took a pull of her cigarette and blew the smoke to the side. “So, it’s the Force?”

  Howie’s face lit up.

  “No,” said Cole, cutting him off. “But, I mean…” he strained, trying to think of a better analogy. He settled for taking out his LF analyzer and passing it over. “Here, touch the back of that. It’ll analyze it, tell you what your powers do. And it won’t say you’re a Jedi.”

  She took it and swiped through the data, nose wrinkling. “This thing’s junk. That’s not how my spells work at all. And it says I’m something called a level 21 Hellblade-Striker ephemeral whats-it.”

  “Christ almighty,” muttered Howie. “She’s higher level than we are,”

  And apparently her Acuity was high enough to pick up that remark, because Beth grinned from ear to ear. “Don’t worry, sport, I’ll keep baby safe.” She laughed as Cole shot the blushing Howie a withering glare. He held out his hand for the analyzer, and Beth high-fived it instead. He winced. It felt like his hand had been hit with a brick. But he kept his hand out, and eventually she sighed and dropped the analyzer into it. They continued on their way.

  As they walked, the natural cavern gave way to masoned stone, and they reached a switch-backing path down that looked out over the black stone walls of a ruined city, where lava drifted through old canals. A blazing updraft carried the heat of the molten stone up to them, and Artian seemed to reach his limit from the intense heat on the floor. Cole gave the man one of their heat resistance potions that Nona had stolen from the settlement. The man guzzled it, and nearly retched the whole thing up while Beth cackled maniacally. Cole offered her one as well, but she waved him off.

  “Heat doesn’t bother me,” she said. "Only government spooks and creeps do. And meth dealers, and my mom’s boyfriend, and coin boys, and country music, and skibidi memes.”

  “Suit yourself,” Cole said. Soon enough, the rest of them would each have to take their second potion. But he wasn’t looking forward to repeating the experience. They started the climb down, along a path that spiraled an enormous pillar, one of several that branched off from the upper platform.

  “So you guys do this a lot?” Beth asked. “Following kids home—I mean, to other worlds?” She gave him a shit eating grin.

  “The department does,” said Cole. “The last kid we pulled out couldn’t do what you’ve done. He just wanted to go home.”

  Beth looked away. “I wonder what that’s like…” she mused.

  Cole couldn’t help asking. “You don’t miss it at all?”

  “What?”

  “Earth. I know your family situation sucks. But didn’t you have friends? A boyfriend or something?”

  Beth’s mask cracked just a little at that. “Yeah, I had Gale and Autumn. They’re my ride-or-die bitches. And Adam. He was kind of a fuckboy, but not a total creep.” She frowned. “They all probably think I’m dead. Did I have a funeral?”

  Cole dropped down from a ledge with his reduced falling speed and offered his hand up to help the others, but Beth just ignored it and dropped down next to him, obsidian floor cracking into two spiderwebs where her feet struck. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “The briefing didn’t cover anything about the aftermath of your disappearance, only that it didn’t leave a body behind.”

  “Autumn will be fine. She’s a bad bitch. But Gale… well, she doesn’t do too well on her own. Gets taken advantage of real easy by guys, you know? They promise her the moon, and she always falls for them. But they’re just trying to get in her pants.” Beth got a far-away look in her eyes. “It’s weird thinking that I used to really worry about stuff like that.”

  “Friends aren’t ever trivial,” said Cole. He nodded to the others. “I never would have got this far without them watching my back. Sounds like yours could really use you.”

  Beth snapped out of it. “Nice try, Mr. GI,” she said with a smirk. “I’m still climbing this god-damn tower.”

  Besson appeared with Nutmeg, both of whom had been ranging out on their flanks. His face was flushed with exertion, though the potion prevented him from sweating.

  “Cole, we’ve got tails.”