The Alpha's Fallen Princess

Ch. 5: Gus (Pt. 2)

(Apri’s POV… Cont’d)

So now that the effects from the silver are worn off, so are the kid gloves. If this as*hole doesn't wanna cooperate, I'll just listen to his inner thoughts and get my information the disgusting way.

I looked back at the opening where the girls had disappeared and wondered if they’d made it out alright. I tried to get through to them, but something in this cave system was blocking our long-distance mind-linking abilities. It’s why we couldn’t just link the warriors from here. We just couldn’t figure out what it was. The silver in the rock-face, perhaps?

I stood up and looked around, thinking over what my next move should be. Gus just kept on with his drivel about me reuniting his head with his body, so he could kick my a*s. Wendigo’s were disgusting creatures. Sort of like a cross between a vampire, a zombie, and an animal of some kind. Well, maybe not a vampire exactly. But similar.

They were all once human. But they are captured by other Wendigo's and if they aren’t killed, they’re locked in darkness and fed the rotten flesh of other humans. They’re kept that way until they eventually turn. Or die.

Once they turn, they can eat only rotten meat, human or otherwise, and their appetite tends to be voracious. They look like dead men walking and smell just as bad. Their hands are like claws, their teeth are sharp and pointed, and they shuffle when they walk like their legs aren’t quite able to work properly.

There are only two ways to kill them. One is to rip their heart out and destroy it, the other is to burn their bodies to a cinder, which is only because in doing so you’re destroying their heart anyway.

If you don’t destroy the heart, though, they will just come back. Even if you tear a limb off, they can just realign it and the rotted flesh will naturally knit back together. It’s creepy to watch, let me tell you.

So yea, if I took his head over to his body, I have no doubt he could reconnect with it.

I frowned at the thought. It was suddenly awfully quiet in here. I looked down at where Gus’ head was supposed to be, and it was gone, but there was a trail of slimy yuck on the ground. I let my eyes follow it then rolled them when I saw Gus using his nasty black tongue to push his head across the ground toward his body.

“Dude. Don’t make me take you to a bowling alley later.” Gus stopped, his eyes coming up to meet mine. He understood my threat, clearly, and stopped moving. It almost made me laugh.

Almost.

I walked over to him and grabbed a handful of hair, then lifted him from the ground till he was about eye-level with me, then asked, “Yah know what? I’m just dying to have a word with that queen of yours. Which way should we go?”

He actually tightened his lips, which suited me just fine. But his thoughts told me to take a right when going out of this chamber, then go straight. So I took a deep breath and started out of the chamber as I said, “Okay, well, I guess I’ll just stroll around until I find her then.”

I didn’t want him knowing I could hear his thoughts. We had that happen a couple of months ago when our target found out we could do this and used it against us. So we learned to be more careful and to keep that information to ourselves.

Every time I came to a new twist or turn in the cave I would stop and act as though I didn’t know which way to go. Then he would mentally gloat about my confusion, and I’d get the correct direction from him and off I’d go, marking the walls so Bethany and our warriors could find me.

All of which took time, especially because I did wind up taking a wrong turn once or twice. But I was also taking my time, so the others would have the chance to catch up too.

The deeper I walked, the more the air became acidic, acrid. It kind of smelled like rotten eggs. I knew that was some form of gas, but I couldn’t remember which one.

See, after I came back last year, I noticed I now have these gaping holes in my memories. I try to hide it from everyone, but it’s hard. There are a couple of people who know, Bethany being one of them, which is another reason why she was so hesitant to leave me before. But we’ll talk more about that later.

As for the gas I smell? I only hoped it's flammable.

Eventually, I stood at the opening to a large chamber deep inside the cave. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. There were dozens of them, maybe even over a hundred. They had built dwellings into the walls of the chamber and hanging from the center was this sort of rock castle.

I don’t know what else to call it. It was literally a castle made out of rock. Not like built rock by rock. I mean like carved out of the rock as one solid structure. “Scared, little b*tch?” Gus asked and I rolled my eyes.

I wasn’t scared. Surprised, yes. But not scared. But his question did bring me back into the moment and I began to look around more carefully. Most specifically, at the ceiling of the chamber, which was thankfully a solid structure as well.

The castle was suspended from the ceiling by several rock-columns and there were stairs and ladders to climb up to it. There were also some rope bridges going from the ledges along the walls out to the castle as well. I could see people walking across them going to and from the structure.

There were air shafts carved out that let in some faint light, but they weren’t wide enough for a person to get through. Other than that, this place kind of resembles an underground town. The only thing noticeably, and thankfully, not present were children.

After a few minutes looking around, I developed a plan. But I was going to have to work quickly. “Well Gus, you p*rverted b*stard, here’s where you and I part ways. I’ll leave you to find someone to take you back to your body. Good luck.”

I sat his head down and walked away to the sound of him yelling about how I couldn’t just leave him like that. He seemed to think I was frightened and running away, too. Little did he know.

About halfway out, I met up with Bethany and our warriors. “You promised you’d wait!” Bethany hissed. She wasn’t at all happy, but I just shrugged it off. “Hey. Take a whiff. What do you smell?”

She made a face at me, not understanding why I’d asked that until she lifted her nose and inhaled. “I smell Hydrogen Sulfide. Why?” I quickly began sorting through all the torn-up pieces of my memory, looking for that particular compound and the information that went with it.

Unfortunately, all I came up with was that it smelled like rotten eggs. Which I obviously already knew. “Is it flammable?” I finally whispered to her, and she gave me an odd look, apparently forgetting for a minute why I didn’t know the answer for myself, as she said, “Uhhh, yeah. Very. Why?”

I just gave her a “duh” look, and she caught on right away. “Hey! Anyone got a match?” She asked the warriors, and they all began shaking their heads. Thankfully, a voice in the back said, “I have a Zippo. Will that work?”

I smirked as Bethany said, “Sure as h*ll will. Thanks!” I was already gathering some heavy sticks from the ground, looking for ones that were sturdy and long.

“Gonna need your t-shirts, too, guys. We need to make torches.” I said, and the warriors were happy to comply as we all got to work making torches. We didn’t need many, just a few would do.

Once we had them made, I stood with the six torches in my hands and said, “Okay. I’ll be right back.” But Bethany grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Oh no you don’t! I swear you’ve got a d*mn de*th wish or something.”

I was gonna laugh, but then we heard the shuffling of feet and knew we were about to have company. “Warriors ready. You have to rip out their hearts to kill them.” I told them as they surrounded me and Bethany.

I know they know we can defend ourselves, but it’s so ingrained in them to protect us that it was an automatic reaction for them.

It still p*ssed me off though.

We wound up fighting our way back toward the main chamber until we were close enough that the gas was thick enough to ignite. Once we were there, I jammed the torches into the ground, spacing them apart from one another by about a foot. We’d put long wicks on them, and chained them together, so we could light them from a distance, but I wasn't sure if that’d be possible now.

The Wendigo's were all around us at this point. There was no way they would just let these wicks burn off. “Beth? We’re gonna have to light the head of the torch.” She looked at me like I was crazy, but I could tell she knew I was right.

“Fine, but I’m not leaving you.” She said and I nodded. “Everyone get ready to run! Use your enhanced speed, no need to hide it now. We’ll have a matter of a few seconds to get the h*ll out of these caves so follow my markings as fast as you can.” I told the entire group.

“Count it down, Beth.” I said as I got out the Zippo, and everyone got ready to run. I waited until the warriors had lessened the number of Wendigo's in the corridor we were in, so we’d be able to get out faster, then when Bethany counted down to one, I lit the Zippo and everyone but Bethany ran just as I was touching the flame to the first torch.

Once the torches were lit, even the Wendigos ran, wanting to protect their queen and get her to safety. Their sudden absence gave Bethany and me the chance to run unimpeded. The warriors moved so quickly that they were well ahead of us by that point. And Bethany took off without looking back.

So none of them noticed I’d hung back to be sure the gas ignited. And boy, when it did, it went up fast! There was a loud explosion that knocked me off my feet just as a wave of fire began heading my way.

I leapt up and ran into a side chamber just in time for the plume of fire to sweep through the corridor, killing any Wendigo's that were still there. I only prayed that our people got out in time.

Once it was clear, I peeked out into the corridor again and looked back towards the main chamber. It was like looking into a kiln. I could feel the heat on my skin even at this distance, which was substantial.

I didn’t stick around, though. I ran out of there at full speed.

As I was running past the chamber where we were being held earlier, I heard a sound and stopped just long enough to peer inside. I probably shouldn't have done that, though. Because there was Gus’ body, writhing around on the floor as if he were in some sort of pain.

I didn’t feel right just leaving him like that, so I did the only humane thing I could think of. I quickly walked over to him and plunged my hand into his chest, then tore out his heart. As I threw it on the ground, it burst into flames and a split second later his body did the same.

After that, I just ran out of there as fast as my little legs could carry me.

As I ran out of the cave, I found myself swept up in someone’s arms. At first, I thought maybe it was Alex, but then I noticed there were no sparks between us. No tingles.

“D*mn it, sis! Chill! It’s me!” Winter said as I began throwing punches his way. The sound of his voice made me realize it wasn’t the Wendigo’s I’d run into and I stopped. “Geez, Bro. What are you even doing here?”

He rolled his eyes at me as he held me at arms length by both of my shoulders as he looked me over like a mother would a wayward child she’d been worried over. “I came with the others when the team called for help. Jake and Jeremy are here too. They’re with Chloe and the others.”

“How is she?” I asked with genuine concern and he sighed. “Not good, Sis. Doc Thompson is attending to her. They’re getting ready to carry her down the mountain now. I really hope this was worth the risks you took! They weren’t ready! Even Dad said so. But did you listen? Noooo.”

He was p*ssed. Winter never gets angry with me, but right now he was absolutely livid. I knew I was in for a lecture at some point, but right now I wanted to go see Chloe. Unfortunately, they were already lifting her and heading down the path leading home when I got there.

The walk back was a quiet one. No one seemed to want to talk. Jake and Jeremy kept giving me sideways looks as if they were worried about me, but they kept their minds closed off to me, so I couldn’t figure out what was going on with them.

Of course, once we were all back at the packhouse and clean, Winter and Bethany paid me a visit. “You have to stop doing this, Sister. I’m worried about you. I know you can physically take whatever life throws your way, but emotionally? Mentally? You’re going to kill yourself.”

“Bethany’s right, Sis. You need to stop. The pups need their Momma. Alex sure isn’t stepping up to take care of them. So if you won’t do it for yourself, and you won’t do it for us, then do it for the pups.”

I knew they were right. I also knew this was going to be a very long night.