Raising his eyebrow, Rowan eyed the fruit warily. The inside was white, tinged with red in the areas near the skin. Raising it to his mouth once more, he took a smaller bite, enduring the bitter sensation.
Avery and Nadia came over to the two of them, each picking their own fruit and taking a bite. Surprisingly, even though their faces twisted, neither of them spat it out. Instead, they took a second bite.
'I suppose I'm too used to the spirulina blocks at the complex.'
dense blue-green blocks, spirulina rations were the staple food of the complex. Rowan wasn't exactly sure what they were, but their taste was much to be desired over these fruits.
"Are we sure the wolves won't come back here? We might need to block off the tunnels before we do anything else."
Nadia and Avery nodded with his comment, eyes glancing back the way they came.
"I've already blocked off most of the others, and I think you've killed enough to dissuade the remaining ones from coming from that tunnel for the time being."
'More tunnels... of course. There are likely dozens, if not hundreds, of wolves out for our blood. This Hell is far from over.'
Thinking about the Hell being over, Rowan remembered Lenny's instructions on how he was supposed to clear it.
"Do any of you know what the core of this Hell could be? I've been thinking wolves and darkness, but neither has caused a reaction yet."
The others exchanged a brief glance before Avery responded for them.
"It's probably best you stop thinking about it. Until we've recovered our strength, it would only be a fatal mistake to realise the core. There are too many wolves remaining, undoubtedly."
"Oh. Right. I forgot that realising the core wouldn't be the end of the Hell. Oops."
'Turns out it was a good thing I couldn't figure it out, though I still don't know what it could possibly be...'
Shaking his head, he banished the thought to the back of his mind, where it wouldn't trouble him. Instead, he began thinking about how they were supposed to kill the remaining wolves. Avery and Nadia were currently weaker than him, and even he was way behind Aoife's skill and ability.
Eyeing the bitter fruit, he scarfed it down, ignoring the horrid taste.
'I need to eat more and build some muscle. It's the only way I can grow stronger, for now.'
Leaving behind nothing but a seed pod, Rowan stuffed it into the ground before getting up.
"I'm going to go close the tunnel I came in through, then get some rest."
The others nodded, while Aoife got up, following him as he retraced their steps. His muscles ached, but he wasn't about to sleep where the wolves could get him. He brought his spear with him, unwilling to risk a brave wolf ignoring its dead kin in favour of feasting on a human. The pair walked in silence, with little to say to each other. Before they had entered the Hell, they had lived in the polar sides of society, and Rowan had little idea of what to talk about.
'What do normal people even do? After I finished school two years ago, I haven't spoken to anyone. I've just been avoiding the gangs, dreaming about escaping the complex. And I doubt she's interested in my life story. Not the time for a sob story like that.'
Aoife seemed to have little intention of speaking with him either, preferring to observe their surroundings and investigate the ruined town. Finally, not long before they reached the tunnel, she spoke.
"The other two aren't going to be of much help. It's likely that we will have to kill the remaining wolves. Nadia lacks the stomach, and Avery likely won't fully recover before we escape."
She paused in the street, turning to look at him with a stern expression.
"Can I count on you? I don't mean your physical abilities. Can you fight while afraid? Can you hold your ground?"
Before answering, Rowan seriously considered the question. Rowan had known fear in the complex, but he had never experienced the visceral fear that came when fighting for his life.
Yet, even in this darkness, he had managed. And even if he had to manage a hundred more times, he could. Steeling his gaze, he met Aoife's eyes and responded, confident in his answer.
"I can. I'm sure of it."
Aoife nodded, and Rowan returned it. The two began walking once more, now with a growing degree of trust between them. Passing the final row of stone huts, they found the tunnel and began the slow process of sealing it up. Piling the rocks to block the tunnel, Rowan felt his muscles strain, but continued to ignore it.
'Finish this, and rest. Finish this, and rest.'
Repeating a mantra in his mind, he continued his task. Aoife seemed almost unaffected, lifting larger rocks than Rowan seemingly with ease. Sighing, he wondered how long it would take to grow stronger. He had always been this skinny and had no real frame of reference for building muscle.
But he knew that exercise was paramount, so he kept stacking the rocks. Higher and higher the pile went, wedged tight against the walls of the tunnel. Finally, sweating from exertion, Rowan placed the final rock on top of the pile, wedging it into the last open space he could see.
"Huff... finally. Is there any house we're using as our main base?"
Sleep beckoned, and Rowan was dying to answer.
"There's a large one opposite the stream. It's got enough room for all of us, and there's only one entrance."
Thanking her, Rowan turned to the top of the town, whilst she went back down towards Avery and Nadia. His feet scuffed as he walked, the leather boots dragging as he forced himself to keep moving.
As he moved closer to the base, he found an increasing number of corpses. The wolves were mostly inside the houses, but they occasionally lay in the street, with significantly more wounds than the others.
'How does she manage it...'
With no energy to think, he decided to worry about it later and continued on. He eventually noticed the building over the flat roofs of the huts, significantly larger than the others. It looked akin to a town hall, or a chapel, with sloped roofs and an arched doorway.
Finding his way inside, he was surprised that there were no wolves inside. Perhaps the ones in here were now lying on the street, where Rowan had passed the bodies before. Finding a room, Rowan lamented the lack of furniture before lying down. He placed his back to the wall, facing the doorway. He had chosen the room furthest from the entrance, and he still didn't feel safe.
Barely a few minutes had passed before his eyelids settled closed, and he found a peaceful sleep.
><><><><><><><><
Rowan woke to the sound of movement in the building. Opening his eyes, he couldn't see anything nearby and figured the noise must have been coming from a few rooms over. As he sat up, he noticed that his mouth was watering, and a strange smell was in the air.
To his surprise, the pain in his body felt worse than it had the previous day, and his muscles protested at his movements.
'Shit, this hurts so damn bad. Did I pull something? How do I fix that?'
Figuring one of the other three would have the answers, he left his room and began following the noise, which sounded akin to static, only softer. Walking along the building's main corridor, he saw Nadia walking into the room the sound seemed to be coming from, with a bright expression on her face.
Her joy was contrasted by the meat she held in her hands, no doubt harvested from the wolves outside. As he followed her into the room, it finally dawned on him what they were trying to achieve.
"You're cooking their meat? How?"
When they had explored the town earlier, Rowan had noted the lack of wood and furniture, so he was at a loss as to how they had managed to light a fire to cook the meat. Nadia gleefully turned to him and offered him a slice that had already been cooked, on a warm flat rock.
"Before we slept, Aoife and I found a room full of coal. We were too tired to use it last night, but I decided to get up early and make everyone some food! Food is fuel, as they say!"
Rowan took the food and sat down in a corner to eat it. It was tougher than he had expected, used to the ration blocks, he was surprised he had to chew the food thoroughly, rather than it breaking down with his saliva.
He sighed as he finished the last few pieces of meat and felt a surge of melancholy, wishing he could have eaten the meal all of his life. Accepting that he was simply glad to have it now, he reached for a second piece before a stern look from Nadia stopped him.