The half of the group led by Tesel went up in the direction of the right shoulder, and the half led by Lia and Fil went up in the direction of the left one. It was dark, and none of the warriors really knew their way around, so it was hard for them to choose which tunnels were the best to go through.
As soon as all of them went through their chosen left and right entrances in the chest area, they felt a wind sucking them all up, deep into the middle of the large chambers they’d entered. Yelling and screaming as they all flew up in the spacious chambers, they smacked into the inside upper walls, then fell to the floors all around the entrances they’d just come up in.
“We went…the wrong way,” Fil said in gasps to Lia. “We’re in…the lungs.” He was rubbing his left arm, on which he hit the floor.
“I know,” Lia said, rubbing her right leg. “We never learn these things ’til it’s too late.”
No one had any more time to rub his or her hurt body parts, for another wind sucked them up to the ceilings of the lungs, against which their bodies smashed. Shouts of pain echoed all over the chambers.
They tried to stick their fingers into the gluey ceilings, to keep from being blown down again, but it was no use. Gaya’s next inhalation, a deep and powerful one, pulled them all off the ceiling and threw them down to the floor again. Some of the troops’ bones were fractured.
As he winced at the sounds of groans of pain all around him, Tesel was looking all over the ceiling to find the upper exit. As soon as he found the small black hole, he pointed at it.
“Everyone!” he shouted. “Try to get over there, to that hole in the ceiling, and crawl out of it!”
He shouted loud enough for those in the other lung to hear; Lia and FIl looked for and quickly found their upper escape hole.
“There it is!” Lia shouted “Try to get to i…”
Suddenly, the next exhalation carried everyone screaming up to the ceiling again. More screams of pain were heard when their bodies smacked against it. Those closest to the escape hole scrambled over to it as fast as they could before Gaya’s next inhalation, which was softer.
Those right by the escape holes–Tesel, Lia, Fil, and several others–clung to the sticky ceilings as tight as they could, so the breath wouldn’t blow them to the floors. Many others fell, some screaming, others already dead from their combined injuries.
The ones still at the top managed to crawl out the escape holes in time before the next breath came. After it came, and some of the warriors had clearly flown up closer to the escape holes, Tesel, Lia, and Fil reached into the chambers to pull out some of the men on the ceilings.
After they were pulled out, another inhalation pushed most of the rest of them down again, while others had dug their fingers deep enough into the ceilings to be able to withstand the wind and stay there. Between the breaths, these troops crawled out the escape holes. The next exhalation brought up the ones from the bottom; Lia frowned to see those coming up that were clearly corpses.
At the end of that exhalation, the dead bodies fell, while the survivors clung to the ceilings and struggled to get to the escape holes in time. Tesel, Lia, Fil, and some of the others who’d already escaped hurried to pull as many of the survivors out as they could.
The next inhalation came, and a few of the warriors trying to get out screamed as they were blown down to the floor again. The survivors who’d escaped watched and waited for the next breath to bring the remaining men back up. The exhalation came, but all the bodies that came up this time were passive and lifeless; none tried to grab on to the ceilings. When the breath ended, they all fell back down silently.
“There’s nothing we can do for them,” Tesel said. “Let’s carry on in our separate groups to the shoulders.”
“Come on, troops, let’s go,” Fil shouted out to his and Lia’s group. But before anyone took any steps, voices from above were heard again:
OhPhilI’msogladyoucametoseeher!
Howisshe?Shedoesn’tlooktoogood,Lila.
Herbreathingisgettingweaker,Ithink.IsometimesputmyhandoverhermouthandfeelbreathingbutthenIdoitagainlaterandherbreathingisweaker.Oh,Phil,I’msoscaredshe’sgonnadie.Whatarewegonnado?
Let’snotgiveuphope,Lila,thoughIwishyou’dgiveupthatbottleofJimBeam,Phil.
Oh,comeon,Cecil.Igottohaveafewswigsofthistohelpmedealwithwhat’shappened.
Again, the soldiers didn’t understand a word of what was said, but they felt a kind of identifying with the speaking gods–especially Tesel, Lia, and Fil. They all continued on their way to the shoulders.
Infinite Ocean 