EDGE OF DECISION

Alex's POV The air smelled like burning. Not grass or wood but something more metallic, more menacing. Although the explosions had quieted for now, harm was done. Time was running out quicker than we could keep pace with as the Order started their excavation of the heart of the monastery. Perched near the ridge, I gazed at the monastery's deteriorating stone walls. From this vantage point, it appeared as though nothing more than ruins; I knew better. Under those stones lay the Key, which governs everything. And we were finished if The Order discovered it first. This was different from months of barely surviving shadow chasing. This was the goal at last. Glancing back at Sam and Lena, who were hunched in the brush behind me, Samantha's face wore a mask of will, but I could see lines of tiredness carved around her eyes. After running on fumes for days, we were beginning to suffer. Still, she stood taller than I could have imagined and her will was unquestionable. I wonder how she managed to keep things together as the world was implacably disintegrating around us. Lena, on the other side, seemed afraid. Her hands were quivering as she looked across the horizon for any indication of soldiers from The Order. From our arrival, she had not been the same. She was radiating terror to me. She had confronted these demons once, but this time it was different. She was guiding us exactly into their hands this time. Sam muttered, "We can't wait much longer," her breath clear in the frigid early air. "They approach the sanctuary, almost here. Should they come upon the Key... I knew, I said, cutting her abruptly. I had no need of a reminder of the stakes. Actually, though, I wasn't sure whether we were prepared for this. My head flew over every conceivable possibility and every action we could take to stop them. But nothing felt right. We were outnumbered, outgunned; too many of them existed. Charges in now would be suicide. Lena fixed me with wide eyes begging for any sort of comfort. Still, what could I say? That it would turn out okay? That from this we were going to survive? I could not tell her a falsehood. Not today. Her voice quivering, she added, "We have to act." "They are almost there. Should they find the Key, all we have done—all we have lost—will be useless. I stared down at my hands, her comments weighing down my chest like a lead blanket. She pointed out the right thing. We could not just sit here and wait for the unavoidable. But hurrying in without a strategy would kill us all. "There's another way," I blurted, the words pouring forth before I could stop them. "An approach to slow them down." Turning to me, Sam narrowed her eyes in mistrust. "What are you discussing?" I faltered. Before, I had not mentioned this to them. One part of me had hoped we wouldn't need it. But today that was the only choice available. "There is a passageway under the monastery," I said softly. "That tunnel beneath the sanctuary runs under another. We might be able to collapse the entryway if we can reach there before The Order does. Put them off from the Key. Lena widened in fear in her eyes. "You cannot be sincere. That tunnel seems fragile. Should we descend there, we run a reasonable risk not making it. I nodded at her, knowing this. But our only chance is this. Sam shook her head, her mouth closed in a narrow line. Alex, you are discussing burying ourselves alive. "I'm talking about stopping them," I muttered, the irritation boiling up in my chest. "They will find the Key and it's finished if we neglect this. Nothing will mean from all we have battled or lost. Sam's eyes wavered with something I couldn't exactly identify: maybe fear, maybe rage. She nodded, nevertheless, following a protracted silence. "Sure. Let's start. Benevolent under a collapsed portion of the outside wall of the monastery, was the tunnel entrance. It was hardly evident unless you knew what you were searching for, which precisely explains why The Order had not yet discovered it. I could feel the weight of the earth pushing down on us from all sides as we crept through the small aperture. The air smelled like moist stone and was heavy with dust. One found it difficult to breathe. Lena said behind me, "This is insane," her voice resonating in the cramped area. We are going to die down here. "We're not going to die," Sam remarked, her tone calm but not very persuasive. I say nothing. I never had to. The tunnel got more unstable the deeper we descended; the walls were closing in all around us. Every few minutes we had to stop and clear trash to keep traveling as loose pebbles changed underfoot. It was slow going; every second we spent down here seemed to last a lifetime. Are you convinced this will work? With her voice hardly a whisper, Sam questioned. I slowed down. Not. She glanced at me, but I didn't see her look. I wanted no one to know how doubtful I was. If you could even call it that, this was a long shot, a last-ditch action in a game we were already losing. Still, it was all we possessed. We arrived at the part of the tunnel straight under the sanctuary after what seemed like hours. Here the walls were damaged and disintegrating, kept together just by sheer effort. With every passing second, I could sense the vibrations from above—the sound of The Order's troops marching across the abbey toward the Key. "This is it," I remarked, my voice labrous from the dust. "We must define the charges right here." Sam and Lena looked at each other, and I briefly considered they might fight. Rather, though, they both nodded, their faces somber. We set the explosives in the weakest sections of the tunnel rapidly. Although little, it would have to be sufficient. A tremendous boom emanated from above as we were finishing, clearly audible voices. They were almost here. Far too close. Sam replied, panic seeping into her voice: "We have to leave." Twice of telling was not necessary. The tunnel shook underfoot as we scrambled back the way we came. Rocks dropped from the roof, and for a horrifying instant I believed the whole corridor would fall before we could escape. Still, we managed it. Mostly. Just as another blast floored us, we crawled out of the tunnel. As the troops of The Order recognized what had transpired, I could hear their distant cries falling around us and dust and trash raining down. Breathing heavily, I answered, "They'll be trapped." At least for a little bit. Sam stared at me, dread mixed with relief visible in her eyes. "What now?" I came up short with an answer. We did not have much time, but we had bought some. The Order's continuation would not stop. They would discover yet another path. They constantly performed. Right now, though, we were living. And that had to count for some. "We keep moving," I murmured, my voice firm even if everything inside me felt like it was breaking down. "We work through what happens next. One progressive step at a time. Sam nodded, and together we turned away from the ruins, the weight of what we had done—and what still lay ahead—settling over us like a heavy mantle. But the sensation that someone was approaching persisted in me as we descended into the woodland. something even worse.