tep2

     Sarah Jane led the way down the dirt tunnel. She held her arms out in front of her, ready for the door she knew was coming up soon. She felt the person behind her bump into her as she stopped.
     "Why did you do that!" Kelsey said. "I wished you'd tell me when you were going to stop." She grumbled.
      "I didn't have much of a warning since I just found the door!" Sarah Jane hissed in reply. She grabbed the long weathered handle and began to twist it open. She realized something was wrong as soon as she started. The handle was dripping water onto the floor. Sarah Jane hadn't heard it because of Kelsey's bickering. As soon as the metal holding the door shut slid back, the door flew open.
      "S***!" Sarah Jane yelled, as the water pressure slammed the door into her. A wooden box of supplies hit her in the shoulder as it slid by. "Kelsey!"
      "What's going on!?" Kelsey screamed. "What the hell is happening!" Her voice was strained as she fought the water as it pushed her back into the other girls.
      Sarah Jane tried to close the door. The water current was still too strong as it flowed out of the room. Another box floated by, scraping her leg as she held onto the door. The water level quickly rised up to her thighs and then her waist in the short tunnel. She felt helpless as it did. Finally the water stopped rising. She started to shut the door and then realized that it wouldn't accomplish anything. She waded back down the tunnel to find the girls.

      Hundi kept a hand on the walls of the sewer as he listened for any indication of another member. He was following the arrows Tzar had engraved on the smooth stone of the sewer. He was anxious, he hadn't heard any noise resembling a person. He felt another arrow and followed it around a corner. The Earth seemed to shake to the core. He stumbled and fell as a particularily large tremor hit the tunnel. He stood back up and continued down the pipe. He smiled as he heard a little girl laugh in the pipe up ahead. Another tremor hit, stronger then before, and the pipes up above him gave away.
      That laugh was the last thing Hundi ever heard.

      The camp was all set up in little less then an hour. Dego and the others curled up with the blankets he had opened and settled in for the night. It was all set.

      The girls huddled together on a group of boxes they had collected. They were out of the water but they were still soaked. They knew that they were at risk for hypothermia if they didnt get a fire started soon. Sarah Jane shivered, still trying to figure out what to do. She slid off the boxes into the ice cold water and began digging through any box she could reach. The other girls listened to her frantic digging, wondering what she was looking for. She found it in the fifth box she looked in. A plastic baggy full of matches and another full of lighters. She climbed back onto the group of boxes with the others.
      "Now all we have to do is find something dry enough to burn." Sarah Jane stuttered, her lips quivering from the cold.
      "And something to burn it on..." Kelsey stated, the words edged with the hopelessness she felt. They all got off the boxes and started digging through the boxes and looking for a place to light a fire. Kelsey searched the chamber walls and found a little niche created by the water that was now completely dry since the water had dropped. Sarah and the others managed to find one box that had been water proofed before the Society had ever touched it. It was full of blankets and clothes
      "That's going to have to do." Sarah Jane said softly. "We're not going to be lucky enough to find another box like that." They handed two shirts to Kelsey, who managed to get them to catch.
      They brought some boxes over and huddled close to the fire.
      They'd survive.

      Tzar opened up the meeting place as soon as he could. He knew it would take the Blind Society members a long time to make their way to the spot since the landscape had changed so dramatically but he had faith in their senses. He hoped that the spots they hid in had been sufficient to keep them relatively comfortable. He knew this was going to be a very long journey to recovery. The human race was almost completely destroyed apart from the Society. The Earth's rage had caught all the Seers off guard.
      Three days later, Dego and his companions arrived to meet Tzar. Sarah Jane and the girls arrived shortly after. All in all 143 members had managed to survive and make their way to the spot.
      The Blind Society would no longer be pitied or thought of as 'lesser' people. The human race would survive-but never again would it know the color of the sky.

The End of Pity (con't)

Well... I had to do this story for Lit Arts. The only thing that was required was that I started with the sentence I started with. It turned out... weird. So I put it on here. Copyrighted KMS 2005.