Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Gwen

What on earth is that? It’s a horrible noise, like a siren but, miraculously, so much more annoying. I jump out of bed and hastily get dressed. My pants are barely on when there’s a frantic pounding on my door. It has to be Derek, that’s the only person who would bother trying to beat my door down.

“Gwen! Get up!” I hear him shouting as I near the door.

“Calm do-” I try to speak as I open the door but the minute I turn the handle Derek grabs hold of my hand and pulls me out into the hallway. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” I demand as I regain my footing.

“We have to go, the refuge is under attack,” he says in a voice that I’ve never heard him use before.

I take in the rest of his appearance. He’s wearing a leather jacket, black jeans and heavy duty black boots. He looks badass and, yes, he also looks pretty hot. Then I take in the weapons. There are knives of all sorts strapped across his body and peeking out from the sleeves of his jacket and the tops of his boots. I understand now. This isn’t a Derek that I’ve met before. This isn’t my friend, this isn’t my Guardian. This is Derek the Warrior and I finally understand why everyone turns to him when they’re afraid. He certainly looks fierce. I’m pulled from my thoughts as screams echo down the hallways. Derek grabs hold of my hand again, gripping tightly, and he begins to move me down the hallway.

“We have to get you somewhere safe,” he says.

Somewhere safe? What an idiot. Why should I be protected over anyone else? I’m perfectly capable of defending myself and there are children that live here. There are heaps of people who don’t have their abilities yet. I’m not the priority. I can fight my own battles.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say, pulling my hand from his grasp and stopping in the middle of the hallway.

“Gwen, we don’t have time for this. You’re the one they’re after and we can’t let them get to you. Now, let’s get moving.”

“No,” I’m not budging on this. “I’m not the most important person here and you certainly can’t make me go into hiding. They’re here because they’re trying to take me and if you hide me away then they’re just going to fight harder to get through all of you and find me. And, besides that, I’m perfectly capable of fighting for myself. I refuse to be hidden away behind whatever protections you’ve arranged while innocent people are being hurt because of me.”

“You’ve never fought a battle like this before, you don’t know what it’s like.”

“You haven’t fought a battle like this before either, Derek!” The look that passes over his features confirms as much. “You’re as much in the dark in this battle as I am and you’re letting our friendship cloud your judgement. You need me and I will not sit on my arse and let someone else fight for me.”

I watch as he finally comes to his senses, or just accepts the inevitable, and he lets out an incredibly exasperated sigh.

“I knew you’d say that, I was just hoping I could get you out of here first.”

“Not a chance. Where are the others?”

I’m not going to say it out loud just in case it makes me sound like an idiot, but, in these situations don’t they set up a control room or something? Some place where all the planning happens and all the leaders get together to work this out?

“Everyone is in Hank’s office. They haven’t gotten too far into the refuge and so far they’re being held back by a few groups of Warriors but we’re not sure how many there are and how long they’ll be able to hold them off.”

We’re walking again, nearly running, towards Hank’s office. I don’t respond, I just pick up the pace and keep moving forward. The sooner we get there the sooner we can figure this entire thing out. We round the corner and nearly run head first into a group of Warriors. They’re completely decked out in their gear. I can see swords and guns and there’s even a quarterstaff in someone’s hands.

“Derek, she’s not meant to be here,” I recognise the Warrior from the other day. I think his name was Darius?

“You try and tell her to leave,” he responds. I think he’s trying to sound stern and annoyed but it doesn’t quite work.

“I’m standing right here,” I turn to Darius. “What’s happening?”

To my immense annoyance he turns to Derek for approval before speaking to me. Derek nods, lucky for him, and Darius turns back to me.

“We’re not entirely sure how they found the entrance yet but we’re working on it. Right now they’re contained in the entrance hall but there’s more and more coming through and our guys are being pushed back. We’re headed to Hank to see what we can do,” he looks worried, but only for a moment.

“How are they being pushed back?” I ask. If I know the details then maybe I can help.

“There just isn’t enough room. Our guys are only able to contain them because they’re clogging up all the hallways leading off from the entrance. There just isn’t space for them to do much else.”

And with that I have a wonderful lightbulb moment.

“What?” asks Derek. My thoughts must be showing on my face.

“Not sure yet, let’s hurry up and get to Hank.”

I take off at a run for Hank’s office. We’ve wasted too much time chatting in the hallway.

We finally get there and I waste no time opening the door. I’m met by a startled Warrior who promptly lowers his weapon and backs off once he recognises that it’s me.

“Gwen?!”

“Yes, it’s me. I refuse to go into hiding and that’s the end of the discussion. What’s the situation?”

I cut to the chase immediately, there is no point wasting time having another pointless conversation about me being involved in the drama. Hank seems to understand and he motions for me to move up next to him. I’m looking at something that is definitely not meant to be found cool, at least not in this situation, but it is pretty awesome. It’s a map, just not your typical map. This one is made using earth magic and is a perfect, to scale, 3D replica of the entire refuge, complete with moving 3D models of everyone who is inside. I can’t help myself; I move my arms around just to watch my own little figurine do the same thing. Hank looks to me with a what-on-earth-are-you-doing? Expression on his face and I sober immediately.

“Sorry, the maps just really cool,” I apologise and he smirks at me.

“It is pretty cool, however, this is not,” he points to the part of the map representing the entrance and I see that it’s just a sea of bodies. Little figurines keep crumbling to dust and it takes me a moment to realise that this means that the people those figures represent are dying. Each little pile of dust is a dead Elemental. My heart catches in my throat and I find myself unable to respond. These people are dying because of me. Hopefully they just think that I’m thinking really hard about the situation and they don’t realise that I’m trying to keep myself together.

“The main problem is that this map only shows how many are in the refuge, not how many there actually are.”

I bring myself out of my stupor as I register Jasper’s words. I can help with that.

“Give me a moment,” I say to them and close my eyes. There are so many people crammed into that one small space that I’m having difficulty separating the vibrations and sorting the Recruiters from the Warriors. I open my eyes again and let my hand hover over the part of the map that portrays the battle, hoping that I can use that magic as a way in. I see the gems on my arm light up and, from the gasps I hear around the table, I know that the other Warriors in the room have noticed too. I block them out, I don’t have enough concentration spare to worry about them. It works and I find myself being transported with the vibrations. Now to start counting…

1…12…36…74…

“One hundred and twenty-eight,” I finally say. I counted as fast as I could but it still took a few minutes. “There are currently thirty-four within the entrance to the refuge, the rest are above ground waiting for there to be enough space to enter.”

They seem to be hanging on my every word and I feel that strange confidence build up within me again. I stand up straight and speak loud enough for everyone to hear, it’s time to share my lightbulb moment from before.

“Right now the problem is that there simply isn’t enough room for our guys to get a proper foot hold up there, but there also isn’t enough space for the Recruiters to launch a full assault either, so we got lucky with that. Here’s my plan. We outnumber them considerably; the only thing preventing our win right now is that we are severely limited in our movement. What are the protocols for a situation like this?”

I direct my last question to Hank and Jasper who are looking at me with an expression I don’t recognise and I don’t have the time to analyse it either.

“Step one is to evacuate all those who are incapable of fighting. We got our teleporters to begin the process the minute we realised the refuge had been compromised, but it will take a while,” says Jasper.

“Then we have to do what we can to contain or eliminate the threat so that we can secure the refuge but in this situation I recommend we shut this place down. The refuge is completely compromised; we’ll have to move on,” says Hank sadly.

That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Not that I want to move on at all, I love being here, but for my plan to work we’re going to have to let these guys get a better look at this place.

“Where’s the extraction point for all those being evacuated?”

“We sent them all to your arena. It’s a big enough space that everyone can get in and it’s also easily defended.”

Another stroke of luck, they’re nowhere near the cafeteria.

“Good. Here’s my plan. Our guys need more room if they’re going to end this and I can see only one way of getting it. We need to lead them into the cafeteria. We need to do it in a way that has them believing that we are merely giving ground so we’ll need this section to start moving back first.”

I point on the map to a section of three hallways that all lead into the front section of the cafeteria. “Then, as they move through there, we have everyone else moving through these hallways at the back of the cafeteria,” I point to a set of hallways that come in behind the writhing mass of bodies on the map. “If we do this right then we’ll have the entire group surrounded and we can end this pretty quickly. Our guys will have the space they need to fight and the Recruiters will be trapped.”

I finish and look up only to be met with silence and dumbfounded looks.

“Why the hell should we trust you about this, huh? Who are you to walk in here and start barking orders?”

I look around for the source of the voice and, unsurprisingly, find Howard striding toward the table from his place behind Jasper.

“You don’t have to trust me and I’m not barking orders but we don’t have a lot of time for a lively debate and the longer we stand here the more people are going die out there. But by all means Howard, cause a scene, start a fight and delay us some more. Any time you’d like to speak up with something that’s actually helpful then, by all means, interrupt. Until then, get back to your corner and shut the hell up because the adults have work to do.”

I have no idea where that came from and I can’t really blame Howard for the look of outrage on his face. I’m surprised he didn’t jump the table and snot me. Eventually he moves back to his spot and stands there silently. Everyone else is staring at me and then a strange sound breaks the silence. Not strange because it’s something I’ve never heard before, just strange because you wouldn’t expect to hear it in this situation. It’s laughter. Hank and Derek are nearly doubled over on the other side of the table laughing their arses off.

“You guys- should – s-see- your faces!” says Derek in between fits of snorting and laughter.

“I knew it,” says Hank, standing up and wiping a tear from beneath his eyes. What are they laughing at? “Sorry Gwen, we couldn’t help ourselves.”

“Are you laughing at me? I really don’t think now is the appropriate time,” I glare disapprovingly at them, mostly to try and hide my embarrassment. What did I do that was so funny?

Hank clears his throat and Derek straightens up, wiping tears from his face as well. I feel a slight nudge at the barriers around my mind and my whole body tenses in response. Then I recognise it, its Derek asking for permission. I relax again and lower my defences just enough so that I can hear him.

“I’m sorry. I knew you had come up with a plan in the hallway and I told Hank to let you do whatever you had to in here. I knew you’d be awesome and I wanted to see how everyone else reacted. It was just funny watching them go from annoyed at being addressed by the new girl, to shock that you actually knew what you were saying. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

I turn away from him to look at Hank.

“Well? You two have had your fun, it’s time to get serious,” I say, putting as much of my strength into my voice as I could. Hank responds immediately.

“You’re right, about everything. We didn’t think of your option with the cafeteria but it works. Darius,” Darius walks to the front of the group and stands before Hank, clearly awaiting orders. “Get back to the front lines and relay the information. Make sure you do it discreetly; don’t let any nearby Recruiters get wind of your plan. Get them moving toward the cafeteria.”

Darius and his team are off the minute Hank finishes speaking. They’re so efficient.

“Jasper,” Hank continues. “Get more teams together and set them up in the hallways surrounding the cafeteria. Have them prepared. I don’t want any delays. Let’s get this finished as soon as possible.”

Now Jasper and the rest of the warriors are off, leaving the room empty except for Hank, Derek, Anya and myself. I didn’t even know Anya was here until now.

“Where’s Oliver?” I ask. He’s the only one missing.

“He’s our most skilled teleporter. He’s handling the evacuation with the Guardians,” says Hank. “Derek, you should take Gwen to get her weapons. She might need them.”

Weapons?

“I don’t have weapons,” I say, kind of confused. What weapons am I supposed to have?

Hank’s jaw drops open.

“Seriously? You should have weapons. Hasn’t Jasper shown you how to choose one?”

Oh, those weapons. Apparently my magic is capable of guiding me to whichever weapon is most compatible with my affinities.

“Nope, I haven’t really done any weapons training yet. Everyone has wanted me to focus on my magic. Jasper and I have been working on hand-to-hand combat and offensive magic,” I shrug, not really bothered by it, but Hank looks positively scandalised.

“What an idiot! He was supposed to show you how to choose your weapon in your first session, how are you supposed to fight?”

What does he think I am, a useless little puddle of stupid?

“The usual way, you know, with my hands?” I form my hands into fists to emphasise my words. “Also, I’m pretty good with my magic so I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”

Hank looks at me apologetically.

“Sorry, I forgot about all of that. I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t capable of defending yourself. Stick with Derek though and don’t go running off.”

“Sure thing,” I agree with him, at least he isn’t trying to keep me out of this.

“Let’s go then, we’ll join Jasper in the hallways behind the cafeteria.”