Ex Lumina

"Should we try to find Adrian?" Malcolm asked, helping Asher to his feet. Whatever was in the medicine he had gotten, it healed quickly and the bleeding had stopped. Already the skin looked perfect, as whole as it had been before Christina's flailing knife abilities had debuted. Asher's face had regained it's color and his face was as blank and impassive as ever. Christina wondered if even a knife piercing his thigh had caused that impenetrable mask to slip.

"He'll be in the next zone by now, if not in white." Charlie's eyes darted through the inky black passageways, the dizzying array of neon lines not seeming to perturb him. "But it's possible that not everyone on his team made it."

"We'll have to look for them." Kent said, and Christina saw the dark anger in his eyes at the thought of abandoning the exit search to find lost team mates; a course that could have been avoided had they followed his plan in the first place. To his credit, he made no childish remark to Charlie but instead reloaded his large gun and handed extra ammunition to Wayde.

"Giulia, Axel, Jett, Reilly and Orion." Malcolm listed mechanically. "Giulia..."

"I'm sure she's fine; the medicine here works miracles for anything, almost like a one-size fits all." Wayde said comfortingly.

"And they had Jett." Charlie reminded him.

Kent stoically surveyed their small team and turned away for a moment. Christina saw him looking intensely at the mess of tunnels, and guessed that he was trying to gauge the best way to go. "The creatures could be back at any moment" he said finally "and we should try to find anyone else who might be here. Let's move out."

Except for a vague buzz of electricity, the team was silent as they trooped along. Occasional tremors made the four soldiers flatten themselves against the wall and point their guns at the floor in anticipation of the beasts. After a few instances of this behavior Christina and Asher learned to do so as well, but there were only a few minor skirmishes with one or two of the creatures. The powerful guns quickly disposed of them; they seemed weaker than the original monsters.

Soon after one of these fights, Malcolm found the first box that Christina had seen. Since it was dark near the floor, he tripped over it and swore loudly and profusely until Charlie boxed him in the head and told him to shut his mouth in the presence of a lady. Christina examined the box - it was made of dark wood, as she had been told, and was virtually invisible. Only the shine from her light on the surface made it visible, and her fingers slid over the smooth lid, trying to find an opening.

"There's a combination." Charlie told her. "We'll have to figure it out, but they're usually simple." He fingered the wood and made a small triumphant noise, gesturing Kent closer. "Numbers again. What d'you reckon?"

"9 through 0?" Kent squinted in an attempt to make out the numerals in the dark.

"Yep." Charlie cocked his head. "Three - three - six?"

"Good enough for me." Kent pressed three numbers, and there was a metallic click. Charlie took off the lid of the box and began to take out the contents.

"How did he know the combination?" Christina asked Malcolm in a soft voice.

"Well, he's a Captain, isn't he? They both are."

"It's because we're in level three, in the third zone, and there's six of us." Asher said unexpectedly. Malcolm looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, that makes sense." he said. "You could be a Captain, man."

Asher cracked half a sarcastic smile and turned away. Malcolm raised his eyebrows at Christina.

"More food, thank goodness." Wayde said with a grin, pulling strips of dried meat out of a plastic pouch he had taken from the box.

"And medicine." Kent ran his thumb over an unmarked bottle.

"How do you know it's medicine?" Christina asked curiously.

"I suppose because it always is." Kent said with the shadow of a smile and tossed her something. "Here. These look about your size."

She looked down at a pair of fingerless gloves with glowing blue stripes along the black background. "Are you sure? One of you might need them more."

"They wouldn't fit us if we tried." Wayde held up his hand. "Big palms and beefy fingers."

"Yeah, those were definitely made for girly hands." said Malcolm wisely. "Besides, you need all the light you can get."

"What do you mean?" Christina looked at Kent and Charlie. Charlie licked his lips. "See, Christina, you weren't in the cavern as long. You're starting to fade out a bit."

"But my clothes are still lit up, right?" Christina looked down at herself and saw that they were right. Her skin and garments had not drunk in enough light, and compared to her companions and the walls, she was practically a shadow. Only her hands, with the light of the gloves, were easily seen.

"Just stay close." Kent told her, picking up ammunition from the box and stuffing the pockets of his cargo pants with it. "We don't want to accidentally shoot you."

With these comforting words he pulled the last object from the box and held it up. "Looks like a charge." he said to himself, rolling the small red canister around in his fingers. "Should we take it?"

"It might be useful later." Wayde commented.

"It's also heavy as a conscience." Kent unloaded cartridges from one of his guns and stowed them away, leaving the empty weapon on the ground. "I don't really need four, anyway." he said and tossed a second gun to Charlie. "Pull your weight, big guy."

"And apparently some of yours as well." Charlie stuffed the large gun in the back of his belt and shut the box.