Duck and Cover

[Zevka]

"Stop, he'll kill you!" Zevka shouted after Poko and Nyika. She, Mekad and Istvan took off after their friends, the same fear lending them all speed.

If they die now, with Tikora gone and her control crumbling around us...

They had almost caught up when they rounded a corner and found themselves face to face with a over a score of Carrigul Guards running in the opposite direction. The Guards were a mix of species dominated by rats, and were clad in light blue tunics that Zevka recognized from the halls of Tikora's palace. Their leader was a tall ferret barely over the cusp of adulthood, his face covered in a dense web of tattoos. The mustelid pointed straight at Istvan.

"It's the false priest we caught before! And those other two must have killed Tobley!" His eyes narrowed. "Tikora's going to want these three alive..." he said, putting an endlessly expressive, very ominous inflection on the last word.

The guard advanced, a mix of spears and swords at the ready.

Zevka  and Mekad's eyes met.

"TIKORA'S DEAD!" the cat and the marteness shouted in unison. The guards stopped in their tracks, exchanging startled glances.

The rather sinister smile that had been gracing the ferret's face flickered, but did not vanish entirely.

"It's a ruse! The Light of the Mother cannot be dead! They're just --"

"That crazy falcon of hers ate her eyes out of her skull like currant jelly pastries, then tore her throat out while we watched." Zevka said matter-of-factly. "How do you think we got away from her alive?"

"She lies!" the ferret snarled, a hint of shrillness creeping into his voice, but the other Guards slowed their advanced considerably, and looked a bit less certain about pressing forward.

Understanding dawned on Zevka as she looked at Nettle Platoon's spotless light blue uniforms with their yellow trim.

Parade ground hordebeasts, the lot of them...they probably never expected to actually risk dying. Zevka's ears backed. I'll bet Nessa gave them more of a fight than they've ever had before...

"No, she doesn't lie. I was there, too." Zander swaggered up behind Zevka, Istvan and Mekad. "Naksha. It's been a while. Last time I saw you, you were screaming for somebeast -- somebeast else, that is -- to kill me. But I'm willing to forget that if you'll just tell Nettle Platoon to get out of our way. We're in a hurry."

Naksha's eyes narrowed. "Not a chance."

Zander grinned. "That's what I hoped you'd say."

"Nettle Platoon...kill them all!"

It was at this point that Nettle Platoon's thin veneer of military discipline cracked. Rather than move as one, the individual Guards each seemed to take a moment to steel themselves to go on the offensive. Their opponents engaged in no such hesitation. Zevka, Mekad, Istvan and Zander surged forward, taking Nettle Platoon off guard.

Zevka easily parried a spear thrust from a rat, before thrusting her saber through his ribs. Pulling her sword back, she slid under the guard of a weasel, and dispatched him as well. As other Guards fell to her companions, she locked eyes with Naksha, and the two began to move towards one another.

Naksha broke into a run, mace at the ready. He swung downwards at Zevka and missed her, but avoided the amateur's mistake of overcommitting to the attack and letting himself fall off balance; instead, he followed up with a horizontal swing that Zevka blocked, stepping in past the head of the mace as her blade intercepted the weapon. The marteness winced as the attack sent a shockwave up her sword and into her arm. Naksha pushed her back, and pressed the offensive.

Zevka tried to dodge rather than parry, but couldn't always do this, and each time she was forced to block took a toll on her arms. She could feel barely-healed injuries from catching Risk and throwing Gypsumfur and fighting a dozen battles tearing themselves open. The ferret grinned, seeming to sense her fatigue as he drove her back.

Can't outlast him. Need to find some way to get rid of that mace...but we're right out in the open!

The marteness dodged several more attacks as she tried to figure out some way to draw Naksha into more confined quarters...maybe one of those buildings? As she tried to calculate some way to take the fight indoors, Zevka 's heel caught against an uneven cobblestone, and she stumbled. The marteness only avoided taking a mace to the head by dropping to the ground and rolling away, coming up and swinging her sword at the ferret's arm quickly enough to cut him, but too slowly to take the arm off. The ferret snarled and swung his mace at her again. She blocked the attack, but he managed to push her back onto the ground.

SCAT!

Zevka barely rolled away in time as Naksha's mace crashed into the ground where she had been a moment ago. However, the ferret didn't get a chance to try again, because just as he raised the mace a second time, a paw snaked out and caught his wrist. The ferret's eyes went wide as saucers as Mekad twisted the ferret's arm hard, dislocating it with a single movement. Naksha screamed, dropping his mace and collapsing to his knees.

"Thanks! I thought he really had me there!"

"So did I," Mekad said, his eyes glaring into Naksha's in a way that made the ferret tremble. Around Mekad, Zevka could see Zander deal with the last few members of Nettle Platoon as Istvan made his way over to Mekad and Zevka.

The three remaining beasts of Nettle Platoon, meanwhile, had surrendered to Zander. The weasel glared at them.

"I normally don't like leaving beasts alive after they try to kill me, but I might make an exception here. Come with me. We have work to do at the palace."

We'll worry about him later.

"Don't kill him yet, though..." Zevka growled. She pulled her arm back and punched Naksha in the face, then grabbed the ferret away from Mekad and pushing him to the ground with a takedown intended to put most of her weight on his dislocated arm. The tattooed ferret screamed.

"Zevka!" Mekad exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing? He can't fight! We shouldn't be --"

"Zevka, don't let anger delay us!" Istvan added. "We must hurry after --"

"This is the beast who took Nessa!" Zevka said, driving her knee into Naksha's shoulder and eliciting a cry of pain.

Both Mekad and Istvan suddenly forgot their objections, although Mekad still looked deeply uncomfortable in a way that made Zevka's ears feel hot with embarrassment. Her tail bottlebrushed, but she forced herself to focus on the task at paw.

"What did you do with Nessa Fern, the one-pawed otter from Yew? The one you and your platoon took out of the market? I don't have much time, and the only thing that's going to let you live longer than the next few minutes is telling me where she is." She drove the point home with another jab of her knee into Naksha's injury.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you!" Naksha blurted out. The ferret could barely gasp out an answer around his agony. "Aster...Aster had some of his beasts take her out of the city...said he had plans for her somewhere else."

It had never occurred to Zevka that he would give such an unhelpful answer.

"What the 'Gates is that supposed to mean?" Zevka snarled. "He had plans for her somewhere else? How are we supposed to find her based on that? Where is she, Naksha?"

Zevka punched the ferret hard in the face again and again until knuckles started to bleed, punctuating each punch with a repetition of her question as the ferret's insistence that his vague account was the truth made her angrier and angrier. She pinned Naksha's chest to the ground, grabbed his arm and wrenched it upwards. He screamed. Zevka leaned in close.

"I'm just going to keep doing this until you tell me: what did you do with Vanessa Fern?"

"Zevka, he doesn't know!" Mekad's voice stopped her in her tracks. "I know what he said doesn't make any sense, but stop it! This isn't helping Nessa,

"And we can't stay here and question him! We have to help Poko and Nyika!" Istvan said, putting a paw on her shoulder. "Come on, Zevka. We'll find Nessa later, I promise. The Mother will not let them hide her from us forever.

Zevka sighed.

They're right. They're both right. Zevka rose to her footpaws, picking up Naksha's mace and throwing it a ways down the street.

"Get out of here, Naksha."

The ferret hurried to comply.

"Hey, what happened to Whatsisface, the jack Tikora was sleeping with?" Mekad asked.

Zevka frowned as she realized that Zander was no longer anywhere to be seen. Apparently, whatever he needed to do at the palace took priority over rescuing his kit.

Fantastic. I like this jack less and less the more I know him.

Zevka, Istvan and Mekad resumed their pursuit of Poko and Nyika.

"Where do you think they went?" Mekad asked, looking skyward for any sign of a blue falcon soaring above them.

"I heard Poko shout that Aster was headed to the foundries. I haven't been, but Poko gave me their location while we were ? entertaining Beechton Valash," Zevka answered with a grimace.

She led them to the foundries, spying a large building that stood alone from the rest of the city. It was large and imposing, just as Poko had described. Istvan went immediately to the doors, but as he opened them, Zevka pulled him away.

"I don't think they went inside," she said, looking skyward.

"We should lay low," Mekad said, casting cautious glances about. "We don't want to get caught trespassing."

"There has to be a way up to the roof," Zevka murmured. Following the edifice walls, she found a number of chimneys arrayed around the complex. Choosing one at random, she splayed her claws and began climbing. She wasn't sure what she expected when she reached the top, but seeing Aster dead with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his neck and Nyika holding Poko in a quiet embrace, told her everything she needed to know. They hadn't seen her yet, and she took the time to check and make sure Aster was really dead, prodding him with a footpaw, and then removing the bolt from his neck. Bolts were expensive and hard to come by, especially since the only beasts who used them seemed to be the mountain ermine and the Carrigulian Guard.

Poko was shaking like a leaf in a tree, the crossbow discarded at her footpaws.

"Poko?" Zevka said.

"Zevka!" Nyika replied, breaking her embrace and turning to the pine marten. In one paw she held the tiny weasel kit. She had survived.

"I killed him," Poko said, still shaking. The words were deadpan and hollow.

"He needed to die," Zevka said.

"Did he? I've never taken the life of any creature, but it just happened. I thought of Noony, and the kit, and the betrayal, how he sent my family to their deaths. All of us. And...and then I killed him." The sprite's voice shook.

Zevka crossed over to where Poko stood, and crouched down to look her in the face.

"Poko? Listen...you just saved the life of an innocent weasel kit. If you hadn't killed Aster, that kit would have died the same day she was born. Everything she ever does, every memory, every moment of happiness or sadness or anything else that that kit ever has is going to be there because you killed Aster. You did the right thing."

"I know...but...it doesn't completely feel like it. I couldn't let him kill a kit, I just...I wish..." The look on Poko's face said it all more eloquently than her words ever could have.

"And there is nothing wrong with feeling like that. In fact, it's good."

"Good?" Poko seemed taken aback. "How can feeling like this be good? I...I just killed a beast, Zevka!" The ferret's voice broke.

"It's good because if you weren't feeling this way, you wouldn't be my Poko. I wouldn't want you to get to the point where you could kill a beast and not feel it. You're not a killer at heart, Poko. Trust me, I am one, and there are way too many of us in this world. We don't need another. Take all that shock and sorrow and wishing there had been some other way or that things had been different, and hold onto it. Don't push it aside, don't try to make yourself stop feeling it. Because that's part of what makes you you. And that's just how we...how I want you to stay: the ferret who doesn't want to hurt anybeast, and just wants to live and have fun and enjoy life, and let other beasts do the same. It's who your Papa would want you to be. And I know that he would be proud of you."

"Thanks, Zevka." The ferret hugged the marteness closely. The hug ended all too soon.

"We need to get Nyika and the weasel kit down from here," Poko said.

"How are we supposed to get down?" Nyika asked.

"Oh! Umm, I hadn't thought of that, actually," Zevka said, frowning. How would they manage to get an injured wildcat carrying a tiny kit down a high building.

The three beasts thought about it for a while, but no solution presented itself to any of them. Zevka walked a circuit around the rooftop, looking down. She frowned.

Zevka paced around the perimeter of the roof for a bit, tossing ideas back and forth with Nyika and Poko. What they finally settled on involved having Mekad climb up the building, and then help Zevka bring Nyika down while the kit, along with Nyika's sling, remained on the roof with Poko.

Nyika didn't look pleased with any element of this plan, especially the last part. "Are you sure? Maybe I should just hold onto her."

Zevka sighed. "Nyika, carrying you is going to be hard enough without a kit. We need to do it this way."

Nyika shook her head, and held the kit closer to her. "Zevka, I...I don't want to. Can't you just let me keep her? I really don't--" Suddenly, Nyika's eyes fell on Aster's body, and then flicked to Poko, and her objections died off midsentence. She walked over to Poko.

"I...I changed my mind. Here, you hold her, Poko. You saved her. Remember that. This is the beast whose life you just saved."

Poko took the kit from Nyika, and smiled. She still looked shaken, but the gesture of friendship seemed to have had its intended effect. Poko held the babe close, rocking it gently and making cooing sounds.

It took quite a bit of doing to get Nyika down from the rooftop, but  the way Istvan's face lit up when he saw that Nyika was safe was worth it. Zevka swiftly re-ascended the chimney. At the top, Poko helped the marten tie the weasel kit tightly to her back with Nyika's sling and Zevka's scarf. The marteness then proceeded to very gingerly climb down again, careful not to go too fast and risk fatally dislodging her young charge. Poko climbed down with her. Finally, all three reached the bottom.

"You're shaking, Poko," a concerned Istvan said while Zevka handed the kit to Nyika. "What happened up on the roof?"

"Aster had the kit and I...I killed him." Poko was watching Istvan very closely as she said this, clearly both in need of reassurance and apprehensive about what the otter might say.

"Death is as much a part of the great cycle of the universe as life is. You have returned Aster to the embrace of the All-Mother, and perhaps he will find his earthly mother there." The otter put a paw on the sprite's shoulder. "Ultimately, I think that's the happiest ending he could have hoped for."

Zevka glanced over at Nyika as Istvan said this. The wildcat was biting her lip and and grimacing, as though she wanted badly to disagree, but had thought better of it. Zevka noticed that her eyes seemed to be following something in the air. Zevka coughed politely to cover a snicker.

"Newborns are the purest of the Mother's creations. Your actions today have saved an innocent kit from premature, undeserved death, and nobeast could ever call that a sin," Istvan added.

Poko seemed to be more comforted at hearing this sentiment from Istvan than from Zevka, and her ears perked up a bit.

At first, Zevka was just relieved to relinquish the weasel kit back to Nyika. She rubbed undignifiedly at the wet spot on the back of her collar that the kit had drooled on, and decided she was just grateful that that was the only way the kit had damaged her clothing. However, even Zevka had to admit that the way Nyika was holding the kit and the way everybeast was crowding around it was heartwarming. The marteness didn't like kits, and had never thought very hard about having any, but as she watched Mekad and Nyika soothe the kit after her harrowing ordeal, Zevka found herself thinking about what life with the two wildcats, Nessa Poko, Istvan and their new charge would be like if they all survived. What would it be like, getting to have a normal home and life again?

Unbidden, an image of all of them sitting around a tavern table just talking and laughing and being normal popped into Zevka's head, and she didn't want to let it go. Something about the talk she had had with Poko on the rooftop had suddenly made Zevka yearn for time when beasts trying to kill her had been only a semi-routine occurrence rather than a constant.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, a more practical side of her brain urged. This isn't over yet!

"Zevka, we need to go back and try to destroy the foundry now. We may never get another chance to do it," Poko said, apparently in the same state of mind.

Istvan nodded. "We must find a safe place for Nyika, and for the kit. This place is too important for it to be lightly guarded, and we aren't safe here. How will we find one another?"

"I don't know. I think that'll depend on what happens with Zander and what's left of Tikora's flunkies," Zevka replied. "For now, we all just need to try to stay alive and ride this out."

"Alright Poko, let's do this. Do you know how we're going to shut this thing down permanently?"

"When I came here before, I spent a long time watching the workers. There was a new fox being trained as an overseer. The older fox who already worked here said that the worst disaster they could have here would be if the pressure valves were closed while the lava vents were open. The great furnaces would overheat and explode in minutes."

Zevka raised her eyebrows. "Sounds like a plan. Do you know how we do those things?"

Poko nodded. "The great furnaces should be all together at the back, near the mountain. The great furnaces get their heat from inside the earth, and then they heat the forges. We should try to find some smocks so that we look like ordinary workers. Nobeast will pay any attention -- lots of beasts work here who aren't much older than me.

Zevka frowned thoughtfully.

"Okay, so, we could climb over the wall, go over the side and find wherever it is that the workers keep their supplies. I've never done this before, but in my experience, if you act like you belong someplace, beasts will tend to assume that you do. Especially if the beasts in question are exhausted from slogging away in side a foundry all day. Are you going to know what to do if we can get to the furnaces?

Poko nodded. "I think I was able to get a good enough idea of how to do this. The older fox showed the younger fox examples of the controls. I would recognize them again." The sprite paused and frowned. "Your sword might be a problem, Zev. I don't think you can hide it under a worker smock."

Zevka swore. "You're right. I hate leaving this behind -- I'm going to feel so vulnerable the whole time we're in there -- but this really is going to give us away if seen, and I don't think I can hide it. At least I'll have my dagger, and I'm sure there're sharp tools around there somewhere. By the way, what about this?"

Zekva produced Poko's crossbow, which she had brought down from the roof with Nyika. She offered it to Poko, then immediately regretted the gesture as Poko flinched.

"I don't want it," Poko said. "I...I don't think I can ever shoot that thing again."

"But it was a gift from Takis," Zevka tried.

Poko continued to shake her head and look away from the weapon. "You keep it."

Zevka sighed and gave the crossbow and bolts to Mekad, along with her saber. "Here. I still can't hit the side of a castle with that thing."

Mekad smiled as he picked up the crossbow, but the smile vanished entirely as he took Zevka's saber. "I'm just holding onto this for a bit, Zev. You have to come back. You have to."

Zevka nodded. "I'll do my best. Find somewhere safe, all of you. We'll come and find you when we're done."

--

A short while later, Poko and Zevka were crouched behind small building as they looked out across the courtyard. Two musteline faces emerged from arounder the corner of the building to survey the complex. There were a number of smaller buildings within the compound, but what really stood out was a very long, T-shaped building that went up approximately three stories, its roof covered with chimneys. The end of the building was pressed flat against the mountain, and the central part of it stretched across the compound to the front of the complex, which was secured by a very large metal door. Zevka wondered what kind of mechanism was required to operate such a heavy gate. The entire complex was built on a gentle slope, with the front end being the lowest elevation.

"I'm guessing that the furnaces must be that way," Zevka mused.

"Hey, look at that cart over there! It looks like a laundry cart of some kind." Poko pointed to a large cart full of dirty smocks. "I'll bet nobeast would notice if we just casually walked over there and took two.

"These things don't exactly look tailor-fit...we probably can find two that fit us well enough."

The two jills proceeded to do exactly that, garbing themselves in dirty smocks made of rough beige fabric. Nobeast seemed to care about their actions enough to challenge them. Zevka moved her dagger's scabbard so that it was near the back of her belt rather than the front of it.

It was surprisingly easy to get into the section of the foundry that housed the great furnaces. The marteness was pleasantly surprised at how little activity seemed to be going on near the furnaces, or anywhere else, for that matter. She had expected to see a lot more workers in the complex, but it seemed this was the end of the shift, because more beasts were leaving than coming in, and most of the beasts they saw seemed preoccupied with thoughts of home and food. Even the Carrigul Guards posted at the door of the furnace building seemed not to be paying much attention to their duties.

As soon as they got inside, Zevka and Poko split off from the main group. Zevka made a point of looking like she was in a terrible hurry, although not enough to run. Poko took the lead, and before too long, she had managed to locate the first of the great furnaces, a massive stone and metal column covered with wheels and switches and valves. For a moment, Zevka just marveled at the design. What brilliant mind had first conceived of something like this? This thing was truly a wonder, but it was wonder that they had to destroy because of what a beast like Tikora could do with it.

"Here, I think I figured it out, Zevka. The ones that are painted red are for pressure. The heat valves aren't painted at all -- I guess they're just too hot." Poko found the pressure valves and began to close them. Zevka, meanwhile, worked on fully opening the heat valves. After much effort but little time, the furnace was set.

"Now that you know how to do it, split up. We can get done faster. We don't want to be anywhere near here when the furnaces go."

Zevka stared at Poko for a moment, struck by just how much she had come from when Zevka and Nyika had found her on the mountain side. Looking at her now, Zevka suddenly had a mental image of Poko as an adult, confident and happy and at peace. It made her smile just a bit.

"Right. We'll meet back here and then get out."

The actual work of opening and closing the valves was not difficult. There weren't many workers around at all, and they were mostly in the process of leaving. The one impediment had been a pair of chatty old rats who had decided that a room full of furnaces was the perfect location to have a boring conversation about their ratlings. Finally, the two rats left.

Zevka got back to the meeting point just as Poko was approaching it herself.

"We did it," Poko said. "Now let's get out of here. We can't let them see us running, though. If they find out, they can still stop it."

The two jills made their way as quickly as possible through the building, following the workers on their way out. Zevka began to feel a sense of relief. Had they really pulled it off? Was it really going to work?

Then, just as they came within sight of the gate, Zevka saw something that smashed that feeling of hope into tiny pieces.

Istvan, Mekad, Nyika and the kit were surrounded by workers armed with sharp tools. The most prominent beast among them was a massive wolverine, who was roughly forcing them through the door of a side room.

"We don't tolerate intruders of any kind in this part of the city! Nobeast who doesn't work here has any business being in --"  The wolverine stopped mid-sentence, growled, and looked up, staring straight at Zevka. The marteness felt her stomach clench.

Oh, SCAT!

"There are no pine martens who work here, Miss!"

The wolverine charged at Zevka and Poko, who both leaped out of the way. Zevka managed to pull her dagger out from her smock, but before she could do anything else, the wolverine barreled into her at a speed that knocked the air from her lungs and the knife from her. The wolverine picked her up effortlessly, and knocked her hard against the wall, dazing the marteness. He dropped her roughly, and then charged down Poko, grabbing the sprite as she tried to evade him.

The wolverine stalked over to where Zevka lay, and picked her up as well, before dragging both of them to the door of the side room. Their intervention had not even created an opportunity for the others, who had been trapped in the room by a wall of sharp tools held by angry looking foundry workers. The wolverine unceremoniously tossed Zevka and Poko into the room with their friends.

"If there was any doubt in my mind that you're here to cause trouble, those two just ended it. You're going to sit in there together until the Guard arrives. I've already sent for them. I wouldn't get too comfortable in there -- I hear the executioners have been bored lately."

The wolverine slammed the door and locked it.

They were trapped.

"Zevka! Are you alright?" Istvan rushed over to the marteness as she tried to sit up, followed closely by Mekad. The otter growled as he saw the small stream of blood draining from a cut on the marten's face.

"Get in line," Mekad muttered from next to him as Nyika went to check on Poko, who hadn't been handled quite as roughly.

"Uuuuuggghhh. I'm fine, but none of us will be alright for very long," Zevka said quietly, holding her paw to her muzzle and pointing at the door. They couldn't be sure that somebeast wasn't listening on the other side.

We did it. Zevka mouthed silently.

"How do we get out of here?" Nyika asked. "Even if Istvan and Mekad can break down the door, how will we get past that wolverine?

"There's got to be some other way," Mekad said, but even as he spoke, his face fell.

The room they were in was apparently a storage room of some kind. It was full of wooden crates, but there were no other doors, and only one small window.

"Let's see what's in these crates," Poko suggested.

Zevka clambered to her footpaws as everybeast started searching the crates, but to no avail. Most of them held things like smocks, heavy leather gloves, various powders, casks of water or other things that would not help them escape. Mekad found a pair of blacksmith's tongs in one crate.

"Maybe after -- maybe later on it will be easier to leave," Nyika suggested.

"Yeah, if we don't get flattened," Poko said grimly.

Suddenly, Nyika's ears perked up. She took some cloth they had found in one crate and started wadding it up, then fit it around the kit's ears.

"What are you doing, Nyika?" Zevka asked.

"I don't want her hearing to be damaged by...by anything," the wildcat replied.

"That's not a bad idea," the marteness started to respond. "But how loud could anything around here really --

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!

Zevka felt the vibrations from the explosion resonating in her chest as the great forges finally gave way. The entire building shook, and the shockwave was followed by heavy thudding sounds of debris striking the structure. One piece hit the wall of their storage room hard enough to dent it.

There were a few minutes of quiet following the explosion, broken only by screams and moans from injured beasts outside, and a massive roar of pain. Zevka desperately wanted to think it was made by a certain wolverine, and was hard pressed to think of any other likely source. The bellows of agony died off slowly. Then, the silence was replaced by a lot of running and screaming.

" Run! Run for your lives!" a voice shouted from the outside.

"What about the injured?"

"Leave them! There's no time!"

This advice apparently wasn't controversial enough to stop a massive exodus from stampeding past the door of the storage room. Mekad went over to the door and started pounding on it.

"Hey! Let us out of here! You can't just leave us in here! HEY!"

But nobeast paid any attention to the wildcat's shouting.

Poko looked up at the window.

"I...I think I should be able to fit through there," she said.

Istvan stepped forward. "I should be able to push you up so that you can reach it. It's going to be dangerous out there, but I don't see any other way."

The otter walked over to the window with Poko, and gave her a boost up. The window was almost too small even for Poko, but between the natural powers of a mustelid and a lot of pushing from Istvan, she finally slipped through.

?I?m going to go through the side door and unlock your door from the outside!? Then she was gone.

The group in the room continued to pull open boxes. Suddenly, Zevka gave a cry of triumph.

"Istvan! Mekad! Help me pull these boxes away. There's a long iron pry bar that was hidden behind them!"

The two males complied. Istvan took the pry bar over to the door, and managed to work its hooked end into the small space between the door and the wall. Then he and Mekad pushed on the pry bar with all of their strength. The door started to give a bit. Zevka and then Nyika joined them, setting the kit down on a pile of smocks for a moment.

The connection between the door and the wall finally gave way, and the group made its way out of the room. Nyika was last, having stopped to retrieve the kit.

"Zevka..." the wildcat said, as her eyes took in what had stopped her companions in their tracks. The scene around them was one of utter devastation. The explosion had collapsed the entire rear wing of the building, and scattered burning chunks of debris across the facility. One such piece had pinned the wolverine to the ground, apparently crushing his chest. Other bodies lay scattered about as well, many badly burned.

But what stole all of their attention away was what was approaching from the mountain. The explosion had completely torn open the channels that controlled the flow of lava, and now there was a horrible red and black river of molten rock oozing downhill towards where they stood. The lava was incinerating everything in its path as it made its way towards them.

"Come on, we need to get out of --" Mekad's words died on his muzzle as he turned to leave.

It was then that they all realized that the heavy metal door that would have been their only exit was shut. Zevka swore.

The four companions ran to the door and began to try to force it open. They tried the pry bar, but the door didn't give even a little bit, no matter how much force they applied. Meanwhile, the lava continued to flow languidly towards them, scorching corpses and buildings alike.

"Everybeast... I think we might be about to die," the marteness said.