Austin was gone even before the roaring.
It turned out that his friend guarding the entrance encountered an Annihilator and brought it down, but not before it had called for its monstrous friends for backup. Luckily it was down before Austin reached the Cavern's entrance , but the first thing Austin and Aaron noticed as they walked up to their friends surrounding the fallen monster was Trevor wounded and in seemingly unmoving form.
"He's breathing, just unconscious," Cleo noticed, upon checking his pulse and checking for bite marks and claw wounds. " I don't see any Annihilator bites or claw marks so he isn't infected."
"He's gonna need us to help him back to the Meadows," Austin murmured out loud.
"Dontcha think I know that already, Newbie," Aaron sounded more stressed then angry when he spoke. Austin figured the guy was feeling the weight of the possibility of losing one more of his Scouts to this place yet again. It made Austin feel for the guy, but Austin said nothing; he didn't think Aaron would accept his sympathy that well.
Suddenly, a roar shook the ground from which they were all standing on. Cleo, who had been silent the whole time, seemed the most startled at the sound, as everyone looked behind them, towards the approaching beasts. Atlanna jumped in surprise, Zach just looked tired and too used to the surprise to actually be surprised; Even Aaron grimaced as he glanced behind them towards the approaching monsters - There were six, total.
"Atlanna, Zach. Go with Cleo, get help," Austin took the lead. "There should be scouts still in the Labyrinth; once you find them, head to the Meadows afterwards.
"Right," Zach nodded in acknowledgement, as he and Atlanna rushed the way they had come, both armed and both bodyguarding Cleo as they ran. "We'll be back. Promise."
"Help me, Newbie," Aaron said, looking to Austin, as he grabbed one of Trevor's arms and pulled it over his shoulders.
Without a word of objection, Austin complied, grabbing Trevor's other arm and doing the same. They hadn't spoken about the elephant in the room or that Annihilators were close on their tales or the fact that they probably won't make it to the Meadows before the Annihilators catch up. They just ran-trudge as fast as they could, one step at a time, knowing that sooner or later, they would have to fight one of those beasts… or die trying, anyways.
'Looks like we may just die…,' Austin thought to himself, as the sounds of something big and hard moving on stone ground startled the boy. "The Labyrinth… it's moving." He would've been amazed as the stones around them moved but he couldn't find it in himself, as they trudged, presumably, to the unknown.
"Austin get your head in the game, Newbie," Aaron snapped. "If we can get to Sector 5 before our man-eating, venomous-clawed pals behind us and before it shifts about, we can buy ourselves more time for help to arrive, got it, Newbie? Good, now, what Sector are we in now?" Austin, perplexed, forced himself to look at the numbers on the wall closest to himself. "If that's S3, and that way leads to S1, then we must be in Sector 2… ."
"Yes, and…," Aaron said, causing Austin to wonder if now was the best time for a pop quiz on something Austin had barely had only a few hours to study. But, then again, this guy's tone suggested he thought so.
"And we can use the passages between S3 and S6 to reach Sector 5 quicker then the long way," Austin finalized, looking at Aaron, whose facial expression was a mix of pride and amusement, telling Austin he got it right.
"Very good, Newbie. I'd clap but ya know, I'm sure ya can see my hands full, huh?" Chuckled Aaron, they made it to the middle passage between Sector 3 and Sector 5 somehow without even an encounter with their pursuers, though their pursuers' roars and snarls and clicks and clacks we're getting louder. "Once we get past this narrow passageway, there's a sort of restspot that we can rest at. It can only be seen or gone to when these passages are in transition, so we ain't got too much time to rest up."
"Are you sure we should rest… you know, considering that we have Annihilators on our tail?" Austin asked, as they continued slower in the short, narrow passageway.
"First, they won't be able to reach us, Newbie. It's too narrow to get to. Next they have to go around. Listen," Aaron said, his head tilted to the side, smirking broadly. "See. Nothin'. For now, at least."
Austin tilts his head, allowing his ears to pick up the tiniest of sounds and found that the roaring was silent… not, just distant; even more distant than before. Austin smiled. They may just make it.
As the small clearing clearing Aaron promised came into view, Austin couldn't help but notice how simple it was.
With a roof of made of It was empty, with cobblestone grounds and a few weeds rooting loosely from the cracked stone ground, alongside gravels and pebbles spreading across the space. The walls were made of concrete, or stone… Austin felt they may have been a bit of both, which was odd, seeing as the rest of the Labyrinth was made of grey metal walls and cobblestone
flooring. Either way, what really puzzled Austin was that, though he could hear the of his voice and his and Aaron's footfalls, but Austin realized that he couldn't hear anything from outside the area, not even the ever-constant growls and roars of the Annihilators that is constantly audible even from within the Meadows. The skittering and chirping of insects also had gone off and the lack thereof combined with the sudden silence of growling and snarling monsters made Austin suddenly feel more at peace then any other time before his arrival in the Meadows days earlier, or even before waking up, an amnesiac for the first time all that time ago.
"This place is called the 'Quiet Place' for obvious reasons. Though I didn't name it; Jackson had but it stuck so, I decided to keep it and now here we are," Aaron said, as if by reading Austin's mind.
"We'll rest up here," Aaron said, as they both laid Trevor's still unconscious form slumped against the wall slowly and carefully. As they took their seat, a silence grew in the air - A silence Austin felt too uncomfortable to let go in. Apparently, Aaron didn't find it suiting either because he said "Hey, Newb-Erm, Austin…Lemme ask ya a question, yeah?"
Perplexed by the sudden statement, Austin just nodded, replying with "Um, yeah, sure, wassup?"
"Your crest… The 'Owl' crest," Aaron began, sounding unsure if how to say whatever it was he wanted to say for some reason. "I know we all have crests, an' that not all of us have abilities, or even know if we got it, but those of us who do usually have similar abilities to those who share the same crest, right?"
Austin somehow knew that he wasn't asking. It was probably the same way he knew that that wasn't what he wanted to ask. Austin stayed quiet for Aaron to continue.
"Reya has her mind powers thingy, and Cleo and Zether have their healing powers; I have been told I'm stronger than I should be, but…," Aaron shook his head. "Look, aside from you, Scarleteye has been the only other owl-crester to enter this place, and we still have very little information on her abilities. You two…."
He sighed, evidently frustrated with his tongue-tied struggle to find and say the right words. "Austin, I respect you. I do. Just…you seem to know things that others don't particular do at a given time. It's kinda similar to how Scarleteye was when she first arrived… Ya know, before she went crazy and wanted everyone dead… I just wanna know-."
"You want to know how I know what I do," Austin finalized and Aaron nodded, grimace on his face. Austin took a shaky breath before he decided to continue. "I honestly have no idea. I mean, it's less like I know what I'm doing and more like my instincts and intuition guides me through things…." Austin decide to leave out the voice inside his head part; he was already treated like he didn't belong here because of his crest; he didn't need to be outcastes, called crazy and exiled from the Meadows, too. "I guess you can call it a supper instinct or something."
"Hmm," Aaron responded with, as if he aww Austin was holding something back, but he was satisfied with his answer enough when he studied Austin's face.
"Um, Aaron, can I ask you something?" When Aaron nodded, eyes still staring at nothing in particular I'm ahead of him, Austin took that as the go ahead to ask. "Reya really doesn't like Scarleteye. I mean, even compared to others, and even Ceasar, she hates any mention of Scarleteye-."
"Scarlet," Aaron interrupted, earning a questioning look from Austin. "Her name was Scarlet before she was exiled, Austin."
The two locked gazes and Aaron continued with "Remember this, Newbie: There ain't no hatred greater then hate breed from someone you loved and was betrayed by."
That was vague, Austin noted. But, then again, he kinda deserved it; he was not very forthcoming with the voice inside his head. But what was the deep meaning behind those words? Is there a meaning behind those words? Who was Scarlet ro Reya? To Aaron?
"Now, newbie, about the way you're lookin' at Reya…." Austin didn't get the chance to ask those questions before Aaron changed the subject. "You so realize that she's Stryker's younger sister, right? Meaning if ya gonna go for it, I wouldn't let her big bro - da boss - find out…"
"I hadn't… I didn't," Austin struggled as he stuttered, a blush turning his cheeks and neck red, as he glanced at a smirking Aaron, who wasn't even trying to hide his laughter, on his knees and laughing so hard tears were definitely pooling at the corner of his eyes. "Oh, shut the hell up, you Composter. I wouldn't go for it. And, honestly, I'm really sure how I feel about her."
As Austin shoved a still bellowing-over-with-laughter Aaron playfully, he suddenly could help but wonder how this area of the Labyrinth was so quiet. It was even quieter than the Alcove, and no Meadower had truly been inside that place before today. "This 'Quiet Place'... How does it work exactly?" Austin voice even managed to echo off the stone walls when spoke, much like the same for when Aaron laughed and spoke.
"How does the Gates of the Meadows close? How can something like the Annihilators even exist? Matter of fact, how do anything in this Compost Dump work?" Aaron shrugged, looking tired and drained briefly before his anger returned to their usual spot on his eyes. "Don' know, but, ya know, if we ever meet the composters who put us here, hey, maybe we beat the answers outta them before we kill them?"
Austin thought for a moment. He still didn't see how anyone could put anyone in this hell place - this Compost Dump - let alone a bunch of youths and teenagers. What kind of world is so fucked that it'd be allowed to even be built? Austin knew it was built, but he sure as hell was gonna have long chat with the creator of this compost dump when they escape this place.
"We should probably head out now; we don't wanna get trapped in here too long or we'll not get out until tomorrow." Aaron said, getting to his feet, as he and Austin grabbed Trevor's unconscious body again from the same shoulders, hoisting him to his feet.
"Shit," Was all Aaron could say.
The sad part was that they had barely made it out of the Quiet Place and were halfway through an opening that led to the Northern Gates of the Meadows when the Annihilators that were on their tails caught up. Austin counted a total of 6 Annihilators that surrounded them; he felt the presence of a seventh one hidden somewhere, but he could've been just paranoid or tired, as he hadn't spotted it.
But, as the monsters decided to close in, with both Aaron and Austin using their freehand to arm with their daggers, the unmistakable sound of sound of Zach's battle cry sounded and from the other 3 pathways, scouts of the Labyrinth charged the enemy and, somehow, deep down, even though they outnumbered the beasts two times over, Austin knew the battle - the real battle - was only beginning.