by Shad N Freud
Carl smirked, walked over to his shaft, and pulled out the shaped charge he’d prepared earlier, switching the detonator to an impact detonator instead. He flipped the switch and then tossed it downward, plugging his ears just before the blast destroyed the platform and brought down a shower of fetid gore and viscera over the group.
The platform bearing Zeke came to a stop, the piled body parts spilling all over the room and the lizard smiling from earhole to earhole, covered in filth. Jin peeled his shirt away from his chest, the sodden clothes clearly ruined. Cenere wiped the gore out of his eyes and glared at Carl, who smiled unabashedly as he pulled his smokes out of his coat. “Carl, we need to fire your travel agent. This vacation spot blows,” Cenere said as he wrung the filth out of his hair with a nauseated look in his eyes. “I think I’ve got brain matter in my underwear, you jerk.”
“I’d never agree with Fancy if I could avoid it, but I’m inclined to. As if the weather weren’t bad enough,” Jin grumbled as he wiped his hair, pulling away a slurry of pulped zombie out of his scalp, “this place is clearly not accommodating to people of short stature.” A zombie missing its lower half crawled along the floor towards the gnome, who rolled his eyes and casually flung a fire bolt at the creeping undead. “I’ll be leaving a scathing review on their Yelp! page.”
Zeke’s smile dimmed as his stomach rumbled. “Their dining choices are pretty horrid, too. I don’t think I’ve seen an unspoiled entrée since we’ve gotten here.”
Camilla and Sachi snickered as Carl looked down the hole he’d blasted with his shaped charge. The blast had utterly destroyed the shaft, but he could hear ragged growls and shrieks below. He pulled out a road flare, struck it, then tossed it down the hole. “Hmm. About fifty feet down,” Carl muttered under his breath as he pulled out a spike and a length of nylon. He jammed the piton into the floor and tied off the rope before throwing it and a couple grenades down the hole, the frags pulping the undead that had lunged at the flares. The sounds of the shambling horde were silenced immediately. Carl smirked as he repelled down the rope, his 10mm in his off-hand as he slid down the rope into the gloom.
∞∞∞
“My apologies, General, but it seems the good doctor and our head of security have been destroyed. Also, we seem to have an assault squad led by a pair of Inquisitors wreaking havoc in the upper levels,” a lieutenant stated as the lich on the throne in front of him glared at him from under his hood.
“Very well. Bring me a pair of clones. Also, bring me the box and the coin. I’ll have need of them.”
“At once, General.”
The lich stared at the wall in front of him as he thought about the ritual that was nearing fruition. Soon their efforts would be complete.
∞∞∞
“I hate zombies,” Cenere grimaced as he wrung fetid viscera out of his hair. “The dumb ones especially. And these friggin Nazis are the absolute worst. If I get the chance, I’m blanketing this place with thermite and making s’mores. Screw the historical value, this temple’s gotta burn.”
“I’ll bring the marshmallows,” Jin grunted as he slid his boots off, pouring out the gore and ichor that sloshed as he walked. “These combats have had it. I’m burning them as soon as we get out of here.”
The resounding roar of Zeke’s cavernous belly grabbed everyone’s attention as he rubbed his stomach, smiling sheepishly. “I don’t suppose anybody’s got any food? I’m out of rations already, and I’m so hungry I could eat a whole goat right about now.” He raised his arms to shield his face as packets of biltong flew at his head from others in the group. “Thanks.”
Carl glowered at the remains of his sunglasses, split cleanly down the middle of the bridge. He’d narrowly avoided a trench knife aerating the space between his eyes and had promptly pulped the ghoul’s brainpan for his troubles. The group had just entered an ersatz mess hall full of demons and undead, all of them munching on the contents of their gruesome larder, the pantry filled with failed clones. For several long seconds, no one moved, aside from the zeds and demons chewing on their loathsome meals. One of the zeds decided that living flesh was suddenly on the menu, and snarled before Camilla and Cenere looked at each other, nodded, and unleashed Hell upon the vile gourmands.
Camilla’s twin bone-handled 9mms established a drum beat for Cenere’s dirge, his hands rapidly flinging summoned steel, his knives felling demon and zed alike. Zeke growled in irritation as he threw his sword horizontally like a boomerang before flying into knots of the abyssal and undead, his fists slamming the life (or unlife) out of the occupants of the putrid dining hall. The wholesale slaughter lasted a whole ten minutes before the last ghoul fell to Carl’s baton, his very expensive sunglasses the group’s only casualty.
He crushed the ruined glasses in his fist before incinerating the remnants with Hellfire. He rubbed his face, then rolled his eyes when his hand came away bloodied. The ghoul had apparently nicked him deeply enough to cause him to bleed freely, so he pressed his thumb against the scratch and lit it. He growled as he pulled his pack of smokes out and then lit his thumb again. Right in front of him, in German, was a placard that said, “Broom Closet”.
Carl’s eyes widened in absolute joy as he fumbled around in his pocket, opened the door, and slapped the runestone on the wall inside the closet. The five seconds it took to summon the mansion was a small eternity, but Carl’s sneer turned into a smile with enough wattage to power the Avarice Day display at the Basilica in Hollywood. A green blur veritably flew through the mansion, clothes flying off as Carl sprinted to his room. Jeeves reached up and pulled the sodden underwear off his face with a look of disgust, tapping his foot on the floor and causing all of the clothes Carl shucked in his mad dash for his bathroom to fall into the mansion’s incinerator, save for Carl’s coat. He sighed as he activated one of the spells bound into his metal bones and waved his hand, the filth on the coat slowly forming a ball above the coat as it hovered in mid-air.
Jeeves sidestepped the fifth of a ton of scale and muscle as Zeke barreled his way through the foyer like a freight train, the first stop - his room. Jeeves sighed again as he mentally signaled the kitchen to start preparing enough meat to feed a family of eight, or one of Zeke’s light snacks.
Cenere stripped as he walked at a more sedate pace, his tail hanging a bit lower than usual as his feet sloshed in their shoofs, his hirsute legs matted with blood and viscera. “Sorry about the mess, Jeeves. You really don’t want to know,” Cenere muttered as he made his way to his room as well. He noticed the women staring at him as he walked skyclad, and smirked as he put a bit of swagger into his strut, putting on a show for the Inquisitor of Wrath behind him.
Despite being covered in blood and filth, the naked man in Camilla and Sachi’s line of sight caused both women to blush furiously as Cenere oozed sensuality.
“A bit too pretty for my tastes,” Sachi smirked as she reached over and gently closed Camilla’s mouth. “And a bit too expensive for daily use. That said, I wouldn’t mind renting him for an hour or two. Did you see how cut that boy’s body is? Gonna need to say a few Hail Marys tonight. Forgive me father, for I want to sin.”
“Yuh,” Camilla said intelligently, a burning fire blossoming between her legs. She shook her head as she tried to dispel the enchantment the captivating tiefling seemed to cast on her every time she looked in his direction. She felt something bump into her legs and looked down to see Jin likewise stripping his clothes off; her lady boner jumped off a metaphorical cliff, screaming all the way to its death. Short guys did absolutely nothing for her, and she took a deep, cleansing breath as she watched Jin ball his clothes up and incinerate them with a fireball spell.
He looked up and pointed at the stairs. “Rooms are that way. Each one has its own ensuite. Welcome to Carl’s Mansion,” Jin said as he made his way for the room under the stairs, oblivious to having clam jammed Camilla’s libido. “Oh, and be a bit wary of the golems when you take a bath or shower. They get a bit…handsy.”
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Chapter Nine
“My apologies, General, but it seems like we’ve lost our intruders for the moment. I have patrols searching the level they were last seen on, but it’s like they simply disappeared,” a ghoul rasped to the skeletal lich sitting on a throne of skulls and Nazi memorabilia. The lich wore a black robe, the ragged hood casting a shadow over its face, red pinpricks glowering balefully from within the emaciated face. The “General” lifted a bony hand to silence the junior officer, then waved to dismiss the security team head.
“Find them. I grow weary of the incompetence the security forces here are displaying. But, bring them alive. I’ll want them questioned before they die.
“At once, General.” The ghoul saluted, then stiffly left the room.
The lich reached up into his hood and began rubbing his temples. Despite not feeling actual pain anymore, the phantom pains of a migraine plagued this particular lich as he fought the urge to de-animate his subordinates. Today had proven to be utterly exhausting, even for one that never had to sleep again. He looked up to see a junior enlisted walk into the room with a heavily lacquered box and a small silk pouch. The General dismissed the corporal after accepting both, caressing the box with his skeletal hands before carefully opening it. Darklight flowed out of the box like a black mist and a black stone within glowed dimly with a purple light.
“Ah, Heinrich. Always a pleasure to see you,” the stone whispered with a faint touch of disdain in its voice. “And just how can I serve you today?”
“We’ve acquired one of the coins you asked for. Now, what is the final requirement for the ritual to restore our benefactor to corporeal form?”
The stone’s inner light rolled around the core in a similar manner to someone rolling their eyes. “Well, unless you’ve got access to certain highly intricate pieces of McG technology, the only way I can think of would be to use the blood of a male tiefling who is a…what’s the term you, ahem, mortals use? Ah yes, a ‘twinned soul.’ So, the likelihood is that-,”
“Finally! A chance to restore my patron, and vastly increase my powers!” the lich’s dry, raspy voice ground out, the pinpricks of light in the back of his eye sockets flashing brightly.
“Wait, what? You’ve actually found one? Interesting. Yes, it should provide enough kick to perform the ritual.” The stone’s inner light flashed brightly in surprise. “What were the chances?” The stone muttered under its breath as the lich began removing himself from his throne, his joints cracking loudly as he took his to his feet. The stone’s light turned within its sphere, finally picking up the echoes of a carrier signal from a familiar source. “General, these people you’re tracking…one of them bears a box similar to my own. Within it is another cortex like me. I demand you bring it to me. It’s vital I speak to it.”
Heinrich paused, turning to stare at the stone. In the seventy years he’d had possession of the stone, it had not requested anything at all aside from access to reading materials and being kept appraised of the advancements in technology, both mundane and arcane. His eyes dimmed slightly before the General nodded his ascent. “Very well. Your fellow cortex shall be spared. The other interlopers must die.”
The stone flashed dimly, the equivalent of a shrug. “Whatever processes your data.”
Another junior officer walked stiffly into the room, tugging on a leash. Two doe eyed clones followed along, their blank expressions a clear indicator that while the lights were on, nobody was home. Heinrich gestured toward a stone altar and pulled out a small box containing five stilettos, each set with a gemstone in the pommel. Two of the thin knives had ruby-like stones, each slightly opaque and swirling. He extracted one of the pair of rubied daggers, and gently guided one of the mindless people onto the altar. He then carefully laid the body out and raised the stiletto.
The body smiled up at him as he positioned the knife over the clone’s heart, then pushed it home. Almost instantly, the light went out in the clone’s eyes and with a final breath, the body died. Black veins rapidly spread from the wound as the “ruby” faded, becoming a pale, clear diamond as the flesh withered, becoming leathery as the eyes shriveled up into tiny black pips at the back of its eye sockets. The gums receded, the skin cracked, and the pips began to glow faintly as the body became skeletal, the hair becoming sparse. Finally, the body folded at the waist rather than sat up, and it looked down at the stiletto sticking out of its chest. It pulled the knife out and handed it over to Heinrich before getting off the table, grabbing the clothes laying on a medical gurney nearby.
“My thanks, General. That filthy half-breed burned my body. I suppose my sword was lost?”
Heinrich nodded, but gestured for another zed to step forward. The zed carried a cavalry sabre with a faint purple aura. “Flesh withering. Even a nick will cause the body to rot. May not work on the Inquisitors, but the others will fall to that blade. Do try not to fail me again.”
The Major nodded, then saluted the General. “By your leave, I have a score to settle.”
Heinrich dismissed him with a negligent wave. “Be gone. I have work to do. Get Frau Stitcher and see if any of her pets are ready.”
“At once, General.”
“Oh, and if you find a small box like that one,” Heinrich pointed at the box sitting on his throne, “bring it here.”
The Major nodded, then made his way out of the room. Heinrich then motioned the other clone towards the altar and pulled out the other stiletto after replacing the one used on the Major. He’d need the Doctor’s services sooner rather than later.
Within his box, the stone’s inner light flashed rapidly in excitement. Soon, he wouldn’t be alone anymore…one way or another.
∞∞∞
“…I’m just saying, old man, that we should’ve grabbed more stuff from the armory,” Cenere said as he hoisted a bag of shaped charges over his shoulder like a hobo’s bindle. “In case they throw another Blitz or Krieger at us.” He glanced over at Camilla and blanched at the almost indecent way she caressed her new toy.
She’d hugged Carl in a way that bordered on improper (for Carl, at least) when he gave it to her. She’d named the 25mm pump action grenade rifle Thumper and then thrown on a tactical vest filled with spare magazines for her pistols and the grenade launcher, as well as a backpack filled with plastic explosives. Camilla grinned as she looked over at Sachi, who was whistling cheerfully as she stuffed more fresh magazines for her MP5 and Barret .50 cal into her own tac vest, a nexus bag full of claymore mines and other traps hanging from her belt.
Zeke walked over to the group, carrying an over-sized duffle bag filled with plastic explosives and munching on a raw beef joint. He wiped the blood from his mouth, smiling at the group as he cheerfully joined them. He tilted his head as he stared at Jin, who was fumbling around for the lacquered black box in his pocket. “Is something wrong with your stone, little one?”
Jin shook his head as he held the box up to his ear. The stone within whispered loudly enough that the group could hear its words. “Jin, we have a problem. One of the other cortexes from the Pacification Drone I was a part of is here. I can feel his carrier signal’s echoes. I apologize, but I hadn’t noticed it over the background darklight in this temple until Carl opened the door. If I can sense it, it likely already knows I’m here. I don’t know how things are going to go down.”
Jin looked up at Carl, who nodded as Jin looked back to his box. “Thanks for the warning, Krang. We’ll be careful.”
“If we could…can we grab the cortex before we leave? I…I enjoy your company, Jin, but I get so very lonely.”
Jin nodded. “We’ll do what we can.”
The box vibrated for a moment. “Thank you.”
Jin slid the box back into his pocket, then drew his kamas as the group strode out the door and back into the Nazi compound.
They made their way through the corridors, refreshed after having gotten a chance to change clothes, grab a quick bite to eat, and restock their ammunition. They relied
on Sachi’s piercing gaze as she scouted ahead, taking out booby traps and placing shaped charges at key structural points as well as some of her claymores at choke points to help her group avoid ambushes while setting up her own traps, leaving nasty little surprises for the defenders. She paused as she set up several more claymore mines, listening to the sound of heavy footfalls, and quickly hid behind a decorative pillar to watch what appeared to be a two-headed ogre assembled out of spare parts and fitted with tank armor. It followed a skeletal woman wrapped from head to toe in leather straps, save around her mouth and one exposed eye. It glowed with a malign fury as she tugged on the leash tied around the construct’s wrist.
“Komm mit, Kurt und Wilhelm. Es gibt Eindringlinge, mit denen Sie "spielen" können (Come along, Kurt and Wilhelm. There are intruders for you to ‘play’ with).” Frau Sticher rasped as she glared balefully into the gloom and tugged again on the minder leash, her red eye bright in the darkness. Kurt and Wilhelm seemed to become rather excited, Kurt drooling as a large tongue lolled out of his mouth while Wilhelm’s jigsaw puzzle face took on a sinister smile. Both heads started laughing, Kurt’s in child-like glee and Wilhelm’s deep and threatening, both non-verbally illustrating what they considered ‘play.’ Sachi inched her way around the column to stay out of the reanimated seamstress’s line of sight. As soon as the unlikely pair disappeared around a corner, Sachi made a break for it, bolting down the corridor to rejoin her team.
“Six passageways north and three west, there’s another lich - the last one if surveillance served me well. And, she brought a very large, very heavy friend. One that looks like it was made by the same hands as Blitz and Krieger. And, he seems angry,” Sachi reported quietly, keeping a gimlet eye trained on the corridor as she relayed the information to the group. “Otherwise, we should have an easier time of things until we run into the commanders. I’ve placed explosives at structural weak points and set up a few surprises for our hosts while taking out their security cameras. We should get a move on.
