I lurch toward him, and other soldiers nearby shout and try to reach for him, but no one has a chance, and no one wants to risk falling too. All we can do is watch him plunge into the mist as he lets out a piercing scream that stabs straight past my eardrums and into my heart.
That scream seems to stretch and stretch, until I’m certain it’s never going to end. Guilt drags through me as I stare at the air in shock.
I’ve killed him. I didn’t mean to, I just reacted, and he fell off the bridge. Fell into a void we have no concept of. A void we can’t even comprehend.
What if he falls forever?
“What’s going on?”
I jerk around and see a shadowed silhouette ahead shoving soldiers aside, stomping this way. Stone Swords shuffle over to make room, and then the Badge stops and looks out over the rope.
My heart sprints through my chest. I start backing away, maneuvering past the soldiers while they’re still distracted. They’re swarming around the spot where the soldier fell, leaving room for my retreat. I hear them murmuring, listening to the fading scream.
The Badge turns and looks around. “What happened?” he demands.
Nobody speaks up at first, just murmurings I can’t hear past the pounding in my head.
But then, words likepushedandtrippedstart bouncing around, and I have no idea which one is going to land. Have no idea if through the thick fog, one of the nearby soldiers saw.
“Who was in line with him?” the Badge asks.
I drop to the ground.
The fog is even thicker down here against the gray dirt, and I narrowly avoid soldiers’ legs while also avoiding falling over the edge myself.
I scramble like a rodent searching for a hole to hide in. Luckily, I manage to pass a group huddled near the rope, leaving a spot for me to squeeze by.
But with the questions from the Badge being tossed like darts, I feel like I have a giant bullseye pointed right on my face.
I also don’t dare look over the edge. I know all I’ll see is fog, but already, vertigo is threatening to tilt my brain. Panic is just a breath away.
When I find a cluster of soldiers with a space behind them, I nearly cry in relief. I scuttle behind them and then pop back up as quickly as I can, pretending to have been there all along.
I stay behind the taller group, hastily shoving the ends of my hair up into the too-large helmet and rolling up the waist of my trousers so they stay on.
Another resounding crack fills in the air.
My entire body is covered in sweat, and I’m bracing myself for everyone to turn around and look at me. I’m waiting to get dragged forward and found out.
Guilt seeps through my pores as much as my anxiety does.
I’m going to be caught.
What if they toss me over too? What if they give me to the Gore?
A shiver runs down my spine. I think I might be sick.
When the Badge shouts out, I flinch, bracing...
“Everyone back in formation! And stay the fuck away from the edges!”
I blink, shocked and frozen. I hear shuffling, and then I’m pushed around as soldiers hurry to reform the rows. In a daze, I force myself to get in line with two other soldiers, when really, all I want to do is dissolve into a puddle of relief.
That was a close one.
The army procession starts to move again, and I move with it, like a piece of seaweed caught in the ocean’s tow. I’m still shaking when the fog lifts, like the foam dissolving upon the sand, and then, we flow out onto a white shore of snow.
Orea.
