Chapter 71: Run Linchpin, run!
Come on! You can do it, Irwin thought as he stood with his hands on his knees, drawing in ragged breaths.
Desmir lay on the ground nearby, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.
"Quick, that bloody thing is trying to get away!" Lous's voice was filled with anger as he sprinted as fast as he could after a small shadow that sprinted across the pale sand.
"I've got it, I've got it," Yerich shouted, running on an interception course, while Gwallina came from the other side. All of them had looks of hope and fear on their faces as they knew they would need to wait another day if they failed.
"They are going to make it," Irwin whispered just as the black shadow blurred past Desmir with a burst of speed. Desmir jumped, missed, and slid headfirst through the sand in the path of Gwallina. She yelped and barely managed to jump over him.
"No, no," she screamed in anger.
"Don't let it get back," Irwin shouted as the nimble ranger sprinted after the blur.
It was moving toward a set of thick stone doors with an odd octagonal shape on each side. Gwallina almost reached it, her fingers brushing the shadowy thing as it shot into the hole, causing her to scream in pain as she slammed fully into the stone. Lous reached her a moment later. The ranger slowed down and stared dully at the door before shouting in futile anger.
Irwin felt the hope drain out of him. He slumped down onto the warm white sand, fell on his back, and looked up at the partial building that stretched above him. A dull red sky shimmered through the holes and beyond, where the building seemed to have been ripped from the city, it must have belonged to. Or perhaps not. There wasn't anything around the ruined building, so who knew what it had belonged to? Either way, one side was fully gone, exposing everything and everyone inside to the harsh light and wind of the sands beyond.
"Failed again?" Desmir grunted from the side. There was a sharp anger in his voice that hadn't been there a few weeks ago.
"Failed again," Irwin responded carefully.
"We need a plan, or we will run out of food…" the guard said, his voice ending in a growl. "If we get back out, I'm going to kill that Frozir for not telling us what this portal was like."