The Smiling Sword Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Blood Hands

Read chapter 9 of The Smiling Sword by IchorX on NovelPedia.

Blood Hands "You replace their number when you kill someone," Krim's explains to me. "Leon was number 082 before, but then he killed someone higher ranked than him and moved up into 032." "How did that guy get up the pit anyway?" Leon scoffs. "He was weak as hell." "We have to be careful, though," Diva says. "You guys are pretty high-ranked. You should be thankful we aren't obsessed with the ranks - but there are some crazy fuckers out there who'd be gunning for your heads." She crushes a small pebble between her finger and thumb as she says that. We travel with Krim's group for a while. There's no way to keep track of time down here - it's disorientating. Everything is just always the same. Always dark. Also, the random crazy shifting thing hasn't happened again, thankfully. There's a lot my mind. The boredom of walking through caves of nothing but rock and moss allows for plenty of time for wondering. Hunger. Home. Dying today. Dying tomorrow. Artee, Ronin, Mist and Kino. Neo's slow-healing leg. The cave creatures. Whether or not we can really trust Krim's group. Every step I take could be by last. A Rock Scorpion could fall out of the roof and poison me, or I could get bitten on the neck by a venomous spider the size of upper body. Or maybe some crazy fucker will come out of the dark and slash me to bits. Anyone who says they're not afraid of death has never looked it in the eye. I probably would've gone insane a long time ago but breathing this high-chrona-concentration air clears my nerves, but I don't know if that's a good thing. If I kill someone I'll know full well what I'm doing. Nothing will save me from the guilt." Being with the others is what saves me. *** We've been sticking with Krim's group and scrounging for resources, making DIY stone weapons and tools. We eat these small meal pellets - these small round balls the size of a pea - they're worth a whole meal by themselves so despite being tasteless and lack nutrition they're a life saver. However, we only have a few that Krim's group looted previously, so we've been rationing them to one each per day. *** Me, 004 and Neo have mostly just been trying to find Artee's group, but we've seen no people this whole time. After evading a swarm of bats the size of my head and coming out into a small network of tunnels, with the light much dimmer than in the main cavern. We're assuming that we've somehow managed to get into the lower levels - yeah, the cavern is split into over ten levels overlaying one another in a huge expanse larger than most big cities. "I hate those things," Luc mutters, examining a bleeding gash in his shoulder. "Never wanna see one again." "You sure seemed to be enjoying yourself when you were punching 'em out the air," Neo scoffs, and Cinder laughs. "Hey guys," 092 Jora calls, pointing ahead. "What's that?" "What's what?" Leon asks, following her finger. We head down the tunnel and are met with a stout wooden door, hewn flat into the rock wall. "Uh, what is this?" "A door." "Yeah dipshit, I can see that . I mean what's behind it?" "Dunno. Open it, and we'll find out," Luc grins, drawing back a fist. "Wait!" Jora stops him. "We have no idea what's behind here. It could be-" "A nest of blood-sucking, man-eating, head-sized venomous spiders?" Neo offers. "001 Airo?" Cinder shivers. "That guy creeps me out." "No kidding," Diva nods vigorously. "A pit of hungry pale vipers?" "The darkness of Death and the abyss beyo-" "Literally shut up." "Well," I say, coming up beside Luc. "What if it’s the place where we got these weapons from?" I hold up the battered wood-handled stone knife Krim's given me. A primitive, monkey weapon that I wouldn't even dream of seeing at home, but here it's my lifeline. "Food," Luc suddenly says. "I can smell food from beyond the door." "Of course you can," Neo rolls his eyes. "What a pig." "The smell of protein," Luc continues, breathing in deeply. "Ah, it's been too long…" "I smell metal," Jora sniffs. "That's the smell of