[TheKhanzumer]

Okay everybody, I'm just about ready to rap up Amos's backstory so who should I write about next. Lamuel the Mudarcher, Nathaniel the Native or Chukkra the Tomahawker?


Part 22:

Amos ran faster than he knew was possible for him. Scrabs seemed to everywhere. Popping out of hiding places he couldn’t see. The pink sky outside did little to light up the dark runways of the temple. He ran and the vicious scrabs followed. Run to the right. Jump the gap. The scrab jumped in pursuit. Jump the next gap. Would he make it? Dead end. No wait, a ledge. Jump to grab the ledge. Amos hoisted himself on. No time to stop, more scrabs from the shadows. Run. Jump. Stop.

Amos stopped to take a few needed breathes. He had managed to get to a place that the scrabs couldn’t follow. They hissed at shrieked at him from the darkness. His feet wear raw from running on the rough stone. He felt like he would faint any minute from the tremendous heat. If he had to take one more step it would be the end of him. How did that chump Abe do it? Amos clutched his chest, felt it rise and fall. His heart seemed to be clawing its way out. His lungs would burst any minute.

But he couldn’t stop. He had to finish. The blood in his body began to cool, it stopped racing through his body. His lungs no longer felt starved. A few more minutes and he could continue. The scrabs wouldn’t shut up.

Amos climbed down from his safe haven and ran.

Occasional safe spots kept the mudokon on the razor edge which was his life. He pulled himself up ancient stone and rope elevators. He ran from scrabs. He jumped over crevices, barely making it over certain doom. He continued on. He wouldn’t be outdone by a Rupture Farms floor-waxer. He could do it.

Amos ran. Blood racing, desperately trying to supply his organs and tissues with the oxygen it needed to survive. Adrenaline made his head throb. He ran from the newest in a long line of scrabs and saw a door ahead of him. This was it! He had made it.

The scrab lunged forward with a final burst of predatory effort and bit off a piece of Amos’s leg. He fell to the ground and frantically scrambled toward the door. He could make it. He would make it.

He jumped over the ditch in front of the ornate door. Small stones scrabs greeted the new visitor. Amos desperately scrambled into the door. The scrab backed away. This was another one’s territory now.