Kingdom of Rust Chapter 8 (Patreon)

The blue glow seemed to be coming from a doorway on the far side of this cavernous room. I carefully made my way over, trying not to splash or make any more ripples than I had to. I was also careful to test my footing before placing my weight on my next step. These buildings were old and who knew if there was a deep hole hidden by the shallow water.

As I neared the doorway, I saw it was another hallway that turned to the left. The glow was brighter here and I could see it poking through the rusted remains of a door. The shock that the ancestors had enough metal to use it for something as simple as a door didn’t even register as the light seemed to call to me.

I cautiously stepped into the hallway – which was thankfully dry – and made my way toward the door. Somewhere along the way, my boot hit something. I looked down and noticed the skeletal remains of a human. I took a step back in shock but quickly recovered from the scare. When I looked up again, I noticed more piles along the hallway. I had initially dismissed them as piles of broken stone or rocks but upon closer inspection, they were all corpses. Humans that had died so long ago that not even a scrap of flesh or even the smell of rot remained behind.

I realized these bodies might have been ancestors. It was not a happy realization and I carefully avoided touching the remains. I didn’t want to be associated with the ancestors and possibly cursed by the Father.

Most of the holes in the door were near the bottom, letting the flood of blue light from beyond illuminate the hallway. There were a few holes higher up on the door but when I looked through one I couldn’t see the source of the light.

The door had a strange round handle that was remarkably intact. I couldn’t tell what it was made from as the blue light seemed to wash the colors out of everything in the area.

I tried turning the handle but it didn’t budge. No surprise there. I stood there thinking of how to get through the door. I could try to kick it open but that would make a racket and I could slice myself on the metal. I had read about people getting nasty infections from cuts that originated from old metal. So much so that it was called the Father’s curse.

If I had something solid, I could probably pry the door open but when I examined the jam I found it was extremely tight and I wasn’t even sure I could slip my sword into the crack between the door and the wall. I wondered why the ancestors would need to fit a door this precisely.

My eyes kept going down to the already rotted-away portion at the bottom. With a bit of work, I believed I could make the gap wide enough to slip under the door. Risking my blade wasn’t an option but I could use my wooden sheath.

After I removed my sheath from my belt, I crouched down and began poking at the metal. The wood of my sheath poked through the deteriorating door with little effort. After less than ten minutes of work, I had the rotten area removed. The door above that was in much better condition and only the exterior flaked off when I tapped on it.

The first thing I did was check the next room for signs of monsters. I couldn’t quite see the light source as it seemed to be on a pedestal. I had to squish my pack down to fit it through the opening but I was able to shimmy through behind it without much issue.

When I stood, my eyes immediately locked on a glowing crystal that floated silently in the air. It was beautiful and I had never seen anything like it. The ethereal blue glow emanated from inside this floating crystal and I slowly approached it, making note of a similar door on the other side of the room, only it had mostly rotten away. Behind it was a series of stairs.

I brightened at the sight of a way to the surface but my mind was pulled back to the crystal. I slowly reached out my hand to touch the strange object when I froze.

I thought I heard something. I waited and thought I heard the lap of water against stone. Soon after there was another wave of water and I could swear I saw a red glow start clashing with the cleansing blue of the crystal. My urge to reach out and take the crystal was quickly squashed by the realization that a monster was coming. As quietly as I could, I ran across the room and through the other door.

When I looked up, all I saw was an endless set of stairs upward. I silently cursed my shit luck and began running up the stairs as they twisted back around themselves as they went up.

The wound on my leg was throbbing from the exertion and I was pretty sure I tore more than a few stitches but I didn’t stop.

There was an angry wail from below that froze my blood but I kept pounding up the stairs two at a time. The soothing blue glow was quickly fading into the distance as the stairwell was cast back into perpetual darkness. I had to slow down so I didn’t trip as my eyes adjusted again.

As I got closer to the surface, I had to navigate around debris and even some missing stairs. For a moment I panicked when I thought I missed a step. My knee slammed hard into the step and I let out a quiet grunt but I got back up and kept going.

The monster below hadn’t come racing up the stairs yet but it could at any moment. I was panting and out of breath when I reached a long tunnel at the top of the stairs. There were no windows and the ceiling was arched so I assumed I was still underground.

I ran down this corridor until I saw the light of day peeking through a side passage. The passage was caved in but it meant I was right below the surface. I kept going down the tunnel until it opened into a large space with stairs on either end. The light was pouring down the stairs and I had to blink away the temporary blindness after being stuck in the dark for so long.

There were still no sounds coming from behind me so I took the moment to catch my breath. I was still holding my scabbard in my hand as well, so I reattached it to my belt. Once I was rested enough that I was no longer huffing and puffing, I slowly made my way up the stairs. This was the risky part since I didn’t know what was above or if any monsters were nearby but I had no other choice. The room below had no place to hide and if that other monster came up behind me, I would be in serious trouble.

By this time my leg was on fire. The cut along with knocking my knee on the stair wasn’t doing me any favors. When I looked down, I could see the bandage was thoroughly soaked in blood again. I couldn’t stop and change the bandage at the moment so I tightened it a bit more.

I poked my head out of the stairwell and surveyed the area. I seemed to be inside some sort of building. The roof had caved in at some point in the past allowing light to stream through but I didn’t see the telltale sign of red eyes as I scanned the soggy and overgrown floor.

There also seemed to be plenty of little areas off to the side to hide in and rest. I took one last look around before slowly cresting the stairs and quietly making my way toward one of these areas.

The areas were covered in horizontal bars that reminded me of the jailhouse back home. Only these seemed to be made out of some metal that resisted rusting instead of stone. But age had still taken its turn and I was able to bend the bars aside with little effort and slip into the side room.

The place stank of mildew and rot but it was better than I had hoped. I found a back room that used to be separated by a door and piled some broken furniture against it. It wouldn’t stop a monster from coming through but it might slow it enough to give me time to react. This room was also mostly free from water and rot.

I sank into the back corner of the room in exhaustion. My leg was cramping up and my cut was throbbing and on fire. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and took off my pack to begin the lengthy and painful process of sewing it back up again.

Unwrapping the bandage was a painful process and I had to pause a few times as I went lightheaded from the pain. It came away with a sucking sensation and I winced at the angry and inflamed-looking cut. Half of the stitches had broken and it was bleeding freely again.

I already had the sewing kit out again and with a whimper and a shaking hand, sewed the wound closed again. I doubled up the stitches to hopefully prevent them from breaking as easily but this meant it was harder to pull the thread through the hole the needle made. Each jerk on the needle sent a fresh round of pain shooting up my nerves and at one point I passed out. I wasn’t out long though as I had been using the few rays of light coming through my makeshift barrier to keep track of the time.

Eventually, the difficult work was completed and I used a bit of my limited water to wash the blood from my leg. The gash was a bit longer than my hand now that I could see it clearly and it wasn’t a clean cut as I had expected from something with claws sharp enough to tear through rock. It was a jagged tear that looked more like something dull had torn open my skin. ‘At least I would have a good story to tell,’ I chuckled internally.

With the stitching done, I put a clean bandage on and wrapped it back up. I forced myself to eat some of my rations and drink some water even though I didn’t have any appetite. I was going to rest here for a few hours before I set out again.

***

I jerked awake, flailing around in the dark in a panic a moment before I drew my sword. My heart was pounding as my mind finally woke up and I remembered where I was. The last thing I remembered was an awful nightmare. The realization that I wasn’t being attacked didn’t make my pounding heart slow any and I held my blade pointed at the barrier.

No sounds came and I didn’t see any ominous red glow in the fading light of day so I eventually relaxed and put my blade back in its sheath. Going by the shadows I must have gotten a few hours of sleep. My leg still hurt but it wasn’t the on-fire pain that I was experiencing before. My knee was no longer hurting anymore either, so I decided to get moving again. I had wasted a good portion of the day and there were less than two days remaining for me to escape the city.