THE THREE SPINE BEAST.

Sage had been too preoccupied with fending off the raids from the monsters, that she hadn't had time to check up on the students.

Kabe spared a glance at the projection and declared. "They are in a better shape than I would have expected."

"Yeah, but a student is dead Kabe!" Sage said irritated. The fact that one of them had died would be a hinder to what she stood to gain.

"I suggest you focus on finishing up the remaining creatures else, more students would be lost."

Kabe urged as he weaved the Mussel Mobile through broken earth with lava seeping out of it as large fiery red hot boulders obstructed his way. 

He was trying to make his way back to the route of the Life Line.

Sage took his caution to heart as she turned her focus back to face the map. And she proceeded in blasting cerulean balls at the trailing predators.

Back in the compartments, the children were all quiet with a few of them turning occasionally to take a peak at the dead girl like they couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that one of them was dead.

Flint and Sarah had gotten to Ulanni and both sat down close to her.

Sarah sat close to Ulanni as she held her hand in hers, as thou to comfort her.

Just then the grinding irritating sound of metal hitting another metal startled those in the compartments and also in the driver's cockpit.

The grinding sound continued for some seconds as some children hurriedly raised their hands to block their ears.

Then there was a bang from behind that shook the sturdy Mussel Mobile. This brought instant fear to the hearts of the children in it, as they had thought of the Mobile as sturdy and unshakeable.

Ulanni was propelled forward but was immediately stopped by Sarah's grasp on her hand.

Turning around to give a slight nod at Sarah, Ulanni used her hand to hold onto the chair's handle.

Back in the driver's cockpit. "Sage, what the hell was that?" Kabe asked in a hurry as he turned the steering to the right sharply to avoid a bed-sized boulder sitting in the way.

"The fuck Kabe! How did we manage to attract a three spine beast!!" 

Sage exclaimed as she kept alternating between shooting at the creatures trailing them and zooming into the projection at the beast who just slammed into the Mobile.

"A what? Just great!" Kabe said his voice going a pitch higher.

"Drive faster Kabe, you know the Musket would do nothing against this creature!" Sage said, with worry lacing her voice for the first time since the beginning of the journey.

"You know if I go any faster, we risk the chance of running right straight into a lava opening and that would cause damage to the tires," Kabe said as he jabbed at some buttons on his side.

Just then, the Mobile took a greater hit than the last time which caused the Mussel Mobile to propel forward and skit across the earth, narrowly escaping the lava openings in the earth.

This caused the borders of the Mobile to be thrust forward unexpectedly.

Sage and Kabe weren't turned out of their seats as the sturdy strip held them firmly in place.

With Sage coughing for a bit and Kabe shaking his head to clear his mind as he quickly took hold of the steering again and manipulated the Mussel back into the right path.

But the same could not be said for the children back in both compartments.

The children went flying in different directions and screams of pain permeated the air.

Ulanni had been thrust forward and had hit her head hard on the handle she had been holding onto.

Her sight became blurry for a bit as she moaned in pain, she slowly raised her hand to her head to fathom the damage done to her head.

She screamed out in pain as she immediately regretted her decision. A sharp pain shot through her head, it felt like someone was holding her head in place and was hacking at it with a machete.

Feeling moist in her fingers, she looked down to find her index finger stained with blood.

Blinking her eyes, trying to see if that would elevate the pain but it seemed that didn't work as she sobbed out in pain.

"Are you okay?" Sarah called out to Ulanni as she too cradled her left hand as though protecting it.

"Sarah my head hurts…it hurts!" Ulanni cried out in pain.

"Sorry, it would pass okay. Why don't you hold onto that handle and don't let go of it" Sarah instructed Ulanni as she patted her softly on her hand to comfort her.

When Ulanni nodded at her Sarah turned to her side to find out that Flint was not by her side.

Gazing at the center aisle where there were mangled bodies of the children squeezed up together and trying to free themselves up so they could head back to their seats.

Looked through the children as they stood up one after the other and they either wobbled, clenched on part of their body, or somewhere was swollen up.

She finally spotted Flint, she was right in front, behind some other children.

Flint unlike the rest of the children didn't walk upright to her seat, instead, she crawled. Some children veered around to peek at her and wondered what she was up to.

Even Sarah kept staring at her as she approached wondering what she was doing.

But her actions seemed to explain themselves as the Mussel Mobile took another hit right into the mid-section.

This made the still-standing children get thrown across the floor again and sent knocking into the sturdy chairs.

Ulanni cried out in pain as she felt shocked by the hit, which hurt the injury on her head although she didn't hit it anywhere as she still had her hold on the chair handle.

Children's moans of pain filled the entire compartments. Except for the children who had not still gotten up and Flint who just skitted some steps away and came to a stop.

Before she resumed her crawl back to where Sarah was.