Chapter 66: Tunnel Through the Trollbones, pt. 3

Alcar ran without for over a minute, before he chanced a look back over his shoulder. He then slowed his pace, panting hard. The skeletons had continued to approach – but they weren’t running.

Instead, they had stooped down beside the body of the lizardwoman on the tunnel floor. As Alcar looked on, horrified, the dead adventurer twitched, then jerked, then sat up. A green glow began to fill her dead eyes, too.

The lizardwoman-zombie then stood, and stooped awkwardly to pick up her fallen warhammer. With that done, all three of the undead monsters snapped their heads upwards in unison to look in Alcar’s direction, and then began to march onwards up the tunnel.

With Brutus at his side, Alcar hurried on, choosing not to run this time, and instead going at a quick but steady pace. He looked back every few feet, but nothing changed. The three undead pursuers were not running – that was good. Less good was the fact that they were proceeding without hesitation, untiring, the magical glowing green gaze still focused ahead.

Unblinking.

Relentless.

It seemed that the pursuit would just keep going until the monsters reached him and Brutus, Alcar could see. They wouldn’t chase him down, but they would tire him down, carrying on with their pursuit until he was forced to rest... or reached a dead end.

And what was more, he had lost his one genuinely worthwhile weapon – his sorcerous energy was surely now used up. He had no real way of defending himself other than a staff and a torch.

“We are going to walk more slowly now, Brut,” he said, stopping for a moment with his staff in the crook of his arm, and patting the anxious dog. “We just have to keep going, boy. Save all our strength, yeah? We can do this.”

“Woof,” came the quiet, solemn reply.

The tunnel continued in a straight line, but it rose as man and dog continued, and Alcar wondered if it was now taking them away from the trail and up into the hills. It felt very likely.

And what the hell was the tunnel here for anyway, he asked himself? Surely people didn’t build tunnels for no reason. It must connect something... to something else.

But what?

At the very least, there had to be an end point – a destination. And with any luck at all (which had recently been in short supply), he would end up somewhere close to his companions, or to the rift valley, or both.

“I wish I could fight those monsters, Brutus,” Alcar said as he walked, “but I don’t think I can. Certainly not three of them. If there was only one, perhaps I would try my luck smashing its horrible face with my staff. But three?”

“Woof.”

“And I don’t think biting is the answer, either, but thanks for the offer. Damn it... And to think that things were just starting to look up.”

Alcar walked on steadily, looking back periodically. His pace had slowed, and the undead creatures were keeping up with him, but they were still about fifty yards back.

Very occasionally, the tunnel took a slight turn to the left or right, or curved uphill a little more, and he lost sight of them momentarily. But the green glow could still be seen from behind, and soon they could be seen once again..

Now, Alcar had begun to worry that he would come across another rock fall, a blockage in the tunnel of some sort. If so, it would leave him no alternative but to go back the way he had come. A sick feeling spread through his body as he pictured this possibility in his mind.

“Brutus,” he said at last, “if we are going out, we go out together.”

Then, unexpectedly, the tunnel curved sharply to the right, and as they hurried around this curve, the pair came to a junction. The main tunnel turned back to the left and continued in the same direction it had been going before the curve. Crossing it, a slightly narrower and lower tunnel ran in the perpendicular direction – what Alcar hoped was east to west.

He took a moment to take a few steps down each alternative route. “Sit there for a second, boy. We need to hurry, but we also need to check for dangers ahead. I’d much rather go in the wrong direction than meet a rockfall or more monsters.”

Satisfied that the main northwards (he hoped) tunnel was clear, at least as far as it was possible to see, Alcar began to move in that direction, and then hesitated. The skeletons must be mindless beasts. Would it be possible to trick them into a wrong turning?

If so, he’d have to be quick.

He thrust his staff through his belt, and began to rummage through his pockets. Among his own share of the food supplies, Alcar had more of the honey and oat bars, ten of the fish fillets, the beef strips, the dog bones, and a couple of apples.

Quickly rejecting the use of any dog food supplies, he pulled out four of the fish fillets. Two of these he left in both sides of the smaller cross tunnel, just a yard from the junction. A further two he flung as far as he could in the same direction.

“Hopefully those get their attention,” he murmured, gesturing as he moved on down the main wide tunnel.

As he did so, the pair of skeletons and the zombie at last moved around the curve. They were now only about ten yards behind, and soon they had reached the junction.

“Stay still,” Alcar murmured to Brutus. With his staff still secured in his belt, he pulled into the side of the tunnel he was in, holding the burning torch low behind his body.

He watched intently as the zombie and two skeletons reached the junction and paused. Their heads swivelled in unison, their glowing eyes appearing to look one way and then another.

And then, to Alcar’s surprise, the undead monsters didn’t choose a particular way at all, but instead divided up. The zombie moved to the left, one skeleton to the right. The second skeleton moved straight on, down the main tunnel, and began shambling towards him.

Alcar was so focused on it that he almost didn’t notice a warm feeling around his backside. But then he snapped his head around; he had been so focused on the skeleton that he had not been paying attention to the flaming torch.

And now the edge of his robes had caught fire.

“Damn it,” he yelped, whacking at his side and back with one hand, and moving further away from the junction as he did so.

Brutus loped ahead of him, and Alcar hurried on just behind.