by Mark Tufo
***
Birds circled the town in great concentric circles. The stench was one with which I was all too familiar. Smoke drifted up from a dozen different areas. Huge swaths of blood blanketed entire walls of structures that still stood. Bodies were strewn about in all manner of pose, with no sanctity for the dignity of the essence the shell once housed. Men were eviscerated, some still clinging to their hemorrhaging innards. Throats were ripped out; bodies were torn in half as if they had been frayed ropes in a tug of war that had finally given out. Some held ineffectual farm implements as weapons; most were unarmed.
“This was a wholesale slaughter,” I said, stepping over a headless boy.
“They did not even feed,” Tommy said.
“This was a statement,” Azile added.
Lana had gotten sick when she encountered her first casualty; he had been split from his groin to his chin, splayed open like the world’s most grisly pop-up book, his broken bow still clutched in his hands, the arrow still notched but never loosed. Bailey was faring better, this was not a sight for the faint of heart.
The men had not put up much of a defense; some had been smashed against the ground, their broken bodies now being picked over by legions of carnivorous birds. I could not fault them for doing what was in their nature, but if I’d had a flamethrower I would have made them pay for the right.
What I thought could not get worse, did, as we approached the town meeting hall. What was left of the city population had pulled back to this central location for their final stand. Bodies had fallen over bodies in this hopeless stand. They still writhed as birds fought for juicy spoils. It was then I noticed the naked bodies that none of the birds seemed interested in.
“Werewolves?” I asked, walking over to the fallen form of a small female. A pitchfork had been stuck clean through her neck.
“Other animals will not touch them due to their infection,” Azile said, moving towards the hall.
Oggie steered clear of the werewolves and whined whenever we passed a human. If I had my way, I’d be back at Talboton doing my best to erase this vision from my mind, although I don’t think they had enough on tap to do that.
“Have we not seen enough?” I asked Azile as I heard Lana retching behind us. Bailey and Tommy were comforting her. She kept walking, and I kept following.
The doors to the hall/church were shattered, the right one completely torn from its hinges. What awaited us inside made outside look like a walk in the park, albeit a bloody walk in the park. I could only hope the women had been shepherded out before the werewolves had done what they had. I will not go into description of the atrocities I saw there, to do so would help to further etch them into my mind, and these images needed no further help. Suffice it to say, it was among some of the cruelest imagery I had thus far encountered in my life – and I’d been through a fair amount.
“The Lycan did this,” Azile said, bending down to look at something.
“Directly?” I asked. “Not the werewolves?”
“It seems they waited until the city was won and then they came in for this final deed.” Azile stood back up.
“They are cowards. I guess that’s good to know.” I was seething.
Azile said a few words, and a small light emanated from her hand. She tilted her hand and let it slide to the floor. “We should leave,” she said.
That was a no-brainer considering the hostility of the place we were in, but if she thought that matchstick of a flame was dangerous, I didn’t understand her point. That was of course until I watched veins of flame lick out from the original tiny spark. Everything it touched caught instantly.
“Neat trick,” I said as I headed for the door.
Tommy was crying as we watched the building burn.
The zombies did what they did because they knew no other way. They didn’t kill for the enjoyment of it; they killed for nourishment. Sure, it was an unrelenting hunger they tried to sate; but it was quite literally the nature of the beast. And that’s what I believed had happened here. A creature with cognitive thought had wrought this damage. The Lycan had killed as a display of their power; they were drunk with it.
“You still think the world would be a better place with them running the show?” Azile asked.
I’d seen enough. Man was a seriously flawed animal that would continually strive to find ways to kill other men in new and unusual fashions. However, I was past the point of being able to sit on the sidelines while this new threat came forward. There was no mercy in the Lycan’s actions. They would crush everything under the heel (or paw I suppose) of their war machine.
We left Harbor’s Town in a somber mood. Even Lana did not have the compunction to argue about her return home. Maybe the thought of being wrapped up in her father’s arms right now actually sounded pretty good. If I could have pulled it off, I would have enjoyed it my damn self.
When we got to Denarth we were ushered from meeting to meeting. Her father thanked me profusely for bringing his daughter home unscathed. I wasn’t so sure about that, physically she was fine, but she’d never be the same after what she’d seen. I didn’t pay much more than half my attention to any one thing people were saying. In my best of times I had a tendency to drift off, and now my thoughts kept being pulled back to that infant child that had been thrown so violently and with so much force he had been impaled on the chandelier that hung from the church’s vaulted ceiling. Was it a lucky toss or had the Lycan been trying for just that. Like a trick basketball shot?
Azile got what she was looking for – a promise to help. Lana didn’t see us out as we left. Can’t say I blame her. If she was smart, she’d try to forget she’d ever met me…met any of us.
“Where to?” I asked. I was downtrodden.
“We go to see Xavier,” Azile said.
The gears in my mind took a minute to fit the cogs together. Bailey beat me.
“The Lycan king? You wish to bring us to the Lycan king? Has he not bloodied the soil enough?” Bailey spat out.
“We will see him under the banner of the crescent moon,” Azile said.
“And that means what exactly?” I asked.
“That means he will have to listen to us without attacking. He will be honor-bound.”
“How much honor do you believe a baby killer has?” I asked incredulously.
“Lycan care not for people. We are a dangerous food source to them and nothing more,” Azile said.
“Then I guess my original question still stands. Why will he honor anything when it has to do with us?” I asked.
“He may not care about us, but he will care what the other clans think. He is trying to unite them under one cause, and if he goes against their laws he will appear weak.”
“This sounds like a bad idea,” Bailey said. “You bring him the Red Witch and two of the Old Ones…it will be a prize too big to forfeit.”
“What she said,” I said, pointing towards Bailey. “Except for the old part.”
“I meant no disrespect,” she added to me. “Well…maybe a little.”
“Whoa! For a second there you almost lost the ancestral relationship, but you brought it roaring back home,” I told her. “I agree though, Azile, you yourself have said he is bringing them under his rule by intimidation and cruelty. Why would he care if he forced them to accept this newest twist?”
“His rule is not absolute. He cannot do as he pleases. As long as he forwards their common cause he will sit upon his forged throne. Once he breaks all ties to their traditions, they will abandon him.”
“Are you confident of that?” Bailey asked.
“More or less,” Azile said.
“More or less? Are you friggin’ kidding?” I asked incredulously. “I am not bringing my dog into that kind of situation, Azile.”
“You can leave him with Tommy. He is our back-up plan,” Azile said. Tommy was smiling.
“So that’s how sure you are of this working. You’ve already thought out a contingency plan? And what is i
t if I can be so bold?” I said. I was near to shouting.
“It would be best if you didn’t know the particulars. The plan is not because I fear what Xavier will do, but rather what you will.” She pointed at me.
My mouth opened, thoughts were flying about my head, but I couldn’t put any of them to voice.
“Is this where BT would have told you to close your mouth, you’re attracting flies?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah, something like that. You’ll need to work on your timing though,” I told her. “Everyone needs a smart ass. And they say I’m the insane one.”
