by Ramy Vance
Stew’s voice was trembling. “I don’t know. I think I’m… Fuck, what the hell is this feeling? I feel like I’m going to throw up or something every time I think about what those angels did to those scientists. It…holy shit. I think I’m scared. Is this what being scared feels like?”
Diana walked over to Stew and put her hand on his forehead. “Guess the leeches are still having an effect on you,” she suggested. “Interesting. Capable of blocking the Dark One’s genetic material, and also causes the subject to experience new emotions they haven’t experienced before.”
Beth clapped her hands loudly to get Diana’s attention. “Okay, we can do the science fair later,” she interrupted. “You said those angels are out there? How many are we looking at?”
Diana shrugged as she peeked out of the door. “No fucking clue,” Diana admitted. “It looks like a pack of them from the heat signatures, but other than that, I can’t get any more information. But I can say there’s a good number; that much I’m sure of. If we take into account the number of bodies we’ve already seen, there are at least six of them.”
Beth came over to join Diana at the door. “That’s not too bad. Totally doable. We just need to make sure we don’t get overrun or taken by surprise. Any bright ideas, Suzy?”
Beth turned to face Suzuki, who was slumped on the operating table, trying to breathe. His temperature had shot up, and he was sweating through the fever. He coughed and blood trickled down his chin. Beth rushed over to Suzuki and tried to hold him up. “Jesus Christ, Suzy, are you okay?” Beth asked.
Suzuki was only able to mutter something softly under his breath. Beth brought her ear close to Suzuki’s mouth, but she was not able to make out what he was saying. She turned to Chip, looking for some kind of answer or hope. “You need to operate on him right now,” Beth shouted. “Something’s happening to him.”
Chip pointed at the lights as she knelt next to Suzuki and put her ear to his back. “Can’t. The power was cut,” she explained. “And all the tech I have is meant for exploding, not for delicacy. Could kill him.”
Suzuki coughed again, this time with more blood than the last.
Beth stood up and started walking back and forth, frustrated and shaking her head. “We need to do something,” she finally said. “And we need to figure it out fast. Come on, ideas, people. We gotta come up with some fucking ideas; otherwise, we’re going to lose Suzy!”
Chip stood next to Diana, both of them looking out into the darkness, trying to gauge what their next move was going to be. Chip’s forehead was tight with wrinkles, her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she thought. Diana was the exact opposite, her face calm and emotionless. “You know, we could try that thing you were gabbing about,” Chip finally said to Diana. “I left a quick transport at the Smuggle village and dumped one when we first got here. Try for a few leeches?”
Beth inserted herself between Chip and Diana. “Okay, this needs to stop right now,” she said. “If we’re all going to be Mundanes, you both need to stop with all the secret shit. We all need to know what the fuck is going on or whatever the fuck you two are discussing if it pertains to anyone in this fucking party. Now spill it.”
Diana took off her glasses and wiped them. “We are not keeping secrets,” Diana explained. “Both of us have advanced knowledge of plant life and tech. We were only exchanging notes and theories, but they are extremely applicable for this specific moment. One of the SD cards Chip found is encoded to be able to summon “aliens.’ We think the ‘alien’ referred to is anything infected with the Dark One’s genetic code. We thought it would be interesting to experiment with the nullifying agents of the leech while connecting the SD card to a host HUD. It was meant to be an experiment for when we returned, but at the moment, it seems like it might be the most viable option for keeping Suzuki from becoming an angel.”
Chip nodded and held up crossed fingers, barely visible in the dark. “Scouts’ honor,” Chip chirped. “Just an unpleasant coincidence. Don’t know how its gonna turn out, but at this rate, Suzy’s guts might be on the outside soon enough. Can’t really make the decision for him. Feel like girlfriend duty gives you the right?”
Beth pointed to Stew. “Fuck right, it does,” she grumbled. “Stew, strap Suzy to your back. We gotta start moving.” Turning back to Chip, her face fierce with determination, she asked, “All right, you can get us back fast enough?”
Chip’s eyes began glowing in the dark as binary started to flash across them. “I’m all plugged into the facility’s map. Know this place better than any of the backs of my hands.”
“Good. Let’s get the fuck out of here and save Suzuki.”
The Mundanes gathered around the doorway. Beth gritted her teeth as she mentally prepared herself for the task ahead. Chip tried to look as casual and confident as she could muster, and Diana was serious as always as if the obstacle ahead were nothing to her. Stew was the only person who seemed legitimately disaffected by the situation, Suzuki strapped to his back, his swords drawn. Even with the fear the rest of the Mundanes knew was flowing through his heart, Stew still managed to put on an air of confidence. “All right,” Stew said. “You guys ready?”
It had not been said aloud, but the Mundanes knew exactly what it was they were facing and what they had to do. The only way to the portal was straight through the pack of angels who had decimated the facility. There was no telling how strong these creatures were, but they knew the angels had killed every person in the research facility. But those were scientists. They were the Mundanes. They had killed their way through orcs, goblins, trolls, and giants. Each of them had fought through the defense rings and watched dragons die in their wake. A pack of angels who had only ever killed scientists hardly presented a problem. At least, that was what they were telling themselves.
Beth exhaled deeply and said, “All right…for Honor!”
Stew ran the blades of his swords against each other. “For Glory!”
Chip and Diana looked at each other and then at the other Mundanes. “It’s for experience, right?” Chip asked. “That’s the phrase you dolts keep shouting?”
Beth laughed before she answered. “No, it’s XP. We do it for XP.”
“Oh, all right. Bollocks. For XP!”
The Mundanes ran out into the dark hallway, guided by Diana, who was using her light spectrum SD to see if anything was in front of them. From what she could see, the pack had diminished. She couldn’t tell where the rest of them had gone, but there were fewer ahead than there had been before. But the angels were closer. A fight was brewing. And it would be happening in the dark.
Diana pulled out her wand and pointed it straight ahead. “We’re coming up on them!” she shouted as she cast a series of illuminating balls to light the hallway.
In the dim white light cast by the magic balls, the Mundanes laid their eyes upon the angels who stood between them and their freedom. The creatures were just as they had seen in the videos, long lanky beasts with arms that practically dragged on the ground, their heads faceless, just one long slit that opened horizontally, lined with row after row of teeth as if their head was nothing more than a garbage disposal. Their sleek black bodies slid in and out of the shadows, casting a hair-raising screech as they squared up against the Mundanes.
There were only three of them. The Mundanes breathed sighs of relief before realizing Diana had said the pack had dispersed. If there were three standing before them now, how many more might there be, and where were they?
Beth did not have time for these thoughts. The only time she was aware of was the amount of time Suzuki had before one of these things ripped from his back. She slid her new daggers from their sheathes and clicked them on, the light from the blades illuminating the space directly in front of her. The hallway filled with the hum of energy coming off her daggers. “Let’s fuck them up,” Beth growled as her body slipped into invisibility.
Chip’s hands converted to her plasma cannons, and she charged forward
alongside the invisible Beth as Stew prepared to charge as well. Diana rested her hand on Stew’s shoulder. “Not yet,” she said. “Something isn’t as it should be. I feel like we’re walking into a trap. Stay behind with me.”
Stew nodded his agreement and watched as Chip and Beth sprang forward, attacking the group of angels. Beth leapt, taking the first angel by surprise. She slammed her daggers into the creature’s head as its body lashed around, trying to fight off its antagonist but only managing to succumb to death. As Beth stood, one of the other angels whipped around and struck her with its tail, sending her flying into the wall before pouncing on her, its tendril tongue snaking out from the deep maw of its cavernous mouth. The mouth moved like it had a mind of its own and that mind only had one goal: to force itself through Beth’s skull.
Beth managed to raise her daggers in time and the tube connected with them, sizzling and drawing itself back into the creature’s mouth. The angel stood to its full height, towering over Beth, reaching down and lifting her off the ground as if she weighed nothing. The angel slammed Beth into the wall, and Beth screamed as her body went limp with shock.
Chip fired shot after shot at the angel, who managed to easily dodge each of the blasts, sticking close to the shadows, fading from sight for a second, only to pop out to slash at Chip, who jumped back, continuing to fire, until she bumped into the angel who was behind her, accosting Beth. Chip grabbed the angel by its throat with one hand, and with the other, pressed her cannon hand against its temple. Before she could fire, the angel’s tail lashed out at her and slashed her across the face.
The angel dropped Beth and turned to Chip. It bounded on all fours toward her as she backed away toward the wall, firing and firing. The angel dodging each blast just as easily as the other ones. “Goddamn it,” Chip roared as she slammed her hands together to form a larger cannon. The hallway grew hot with the plasma heating in her hand as she fired the blast. The angel jumped into the darkness.
The plasma blast ripped through the wall next to Beth. “Be careful where you fucking aim that thing!” Beth shouted.
Chip grabbed Beth and helped her to her feet. “More light, Diana!” Chip shouted.
Diana waved her wand again, and more balls of light went flying toward Chip and Beth. These balls of light were brighter than the first but smaller. The light reflected off the steel of the walls. Diana looked around, noticing the walls were indeed reflecting, but they were black nearest to her and Stew, quite different than the walls near Beth and Chip. “Fucking shit,” Diana shouted as she jumped forward. “Stew, they flanked us!”
Stew whipped around just in time to raise his swords as six angels leapt off the walls and onto him. He screamed in pain as one of their tongues pierced his stomach, nearly driving straight into his intestines. Stew grabbed the angel’s head, his muscles bulking up instantly, his eyes wide with rage as he ripped it off.
Farther up the hall, Beth dashed toward one of the angels. She leapt toward it, her daggers raised. The angel slunk back against the wall, turning its back and slashing Beth with its pointed tail. Beth was flung back, her daggers knocked from her hand. She couldn’t find them in the hallway, even with the light Diana had provided. Instinctively, she reached for her sword with her right hand. That was when she saw her dagger moving in the dark as if it were tethered to her wrists. “Oh, hell-fucking-yeah!” Beth shouted as she moved both of her hands, confirming her daggers were connected by some unseen chain. She backed against the wall and jerked her hands back so the daggers returned to her. Then she tossed one ahead, and as the angel dodged the attack, she pulled it back as she lunged forward with her other dagger, closing the gap between her and the angel, driving her dagger into its concave chest, whipping the other dagger around so it severed the angel’s tail. Dagger still embedded in the angel, she circled it, dragging the dagger through the angel’s body until the creature fell, convulsing in its own blood.
Chip was still firing at the angel, who was ducking in and out of the shadows, sidestepping its flailing tail.
Beth launched one of her daggers at the angel and shouted, “You got to get in close, Chip! They can’t deal with close-range combat!”
Chip nodded and pulled her hands apart. Her fingertips stretched out and sharpened as she darted forward, slamming into the angel with all of her weight and throwing the creature off-balance. Its tail lashed around, trying to find a target. Chip slammed one of her clawed hands into the creature’s throat, and her other hand converted to a cannon. She pressed it to the creature’s mouth as its tongue snaked up and tried to impale Chip’s head. She fired, and the angel’s brains splattered across the wall.
Beth came over and helped Chip back to her feet. They turned around and saw the carnage behind them. Stew was covered in angels, screaming as he backed up against the wall, trying to keep Suzuki safe, Diana casting a smaller ball of fire, unable to cast anything large due to the confines of the hall. Chip grabbed Beth and pointed at the madness in the hall. “Precise shots!” Chip shouted. “We clean it up, you hear?”
Beth drew her short bow and reached for one of her arrows. Her quiver was gone, but she hadn’t noticed. She still nocked, and as she drew back her bow, a bolt of pure energy not unlike that which her blades were made out of materialized. “Oh, fuck YEAH!” Beth shouted as she let an arrow fly. The arrow connected with the angel between her and Diana.
Chip fired four shots back to back. They tore down the hallway and scorched two of the angels on top of Stew to ashes. That was all the space Stew needed. He grabbed the angel closest to him, ripped it in two, and then slammed its torso into the other one. “Come on!” Beth shouted.
Stew and Diana ran to catch up with Chip and Beth, who had already turned the opposite direction and were running down the hall. Chip was in front, pulling up the map as she ran through the maze of halls that only seemed to get darker. All the while, the screeching of the angels followed them. It was impossible to tell how many of them there were, but it sounded like dozens.
Beth cast a glance over her shoulder. She could see hundreds of bodies moving in the dark, climbing the walls and ceiling. “Ideas, anyone?” Beth asked.
Stew turned for a second, just enough time to throw one of his swords at an angel who was getting too close. “We could try for the vents,” he suggested.
“Are you fucking stupid? Have you never seen a horror movie?”
“No! I don’t like being scared!”
Chip fired a shot over her shoulder without looking, taking out two of the angels. It meant nothing, though. There were too many for it to have made a difference. “All right, now is not the time for one of your pitiful nerd-offs! Any ideas? Any real ideas!”
Suzuki murmured something in his sleep. “What the hell did he say?” Beth asked.
Stew shook his shoulders around, trying to jostle Suzuki out of sleep. Suzuki murmured again, this time loud enough for Stew to hear. “He said Backdraft,” Stew said. “What the hell is Backdraft?”
Diana laughed, a riotous sound that did not have a place in their dire situation. “Are you all really that young?” she asked as she slowed down and fell to the back of the party. “How far away from your portal are we, Chip?”
“Couple of minutes if we keep sprinting.”
“You better run your asses off after this.”
Diana stopped in her tracks, then turned around, her wand raised high. Her body started to emanate blue magical energy as she drew a sigil in the air. Then she blew lightly on the sigil, which ignited into a fiery sign. Diana pulled back her wand, then thrust it into the sigil. Flames burst from the sigil, covering the walls, the ceiling, the floor, spreading out like a wildfire, shooting down the hallway in the vacuum created from constraint.
The sound of screeching angels filled the hallway. But the fire was not contained. Most of it went shooting back toward the angels, but like many things in life, the fire could not be contained. Diana turned to run as the flames chased after her and the rest of the Mundan
es.
Suzuki muttered, “Such a sick movie…” before drifting back to sleep.
The Mundanes moved as fast as they could, trying to outrun the inferno at their backs. Even with the fire roaring, they could hear the angels screeching. How many of the angels had perished, and how many of them would remain even after the fire? It was hard to say.
Beth pointed ahead, her forehead covered with sweat she had to wipe off just to be able to see. “The portal! I see it,” she shouted.
Down the corridor was a shimmering green light. “All right,” Chip shouted. “When you get through, hold your breath unless you want to be coughing up your lungs in a second.”
The Mundanes pulled out everything they had as the flames licked their asses. They burst through the portal at the last minute, right before they were overtaken by the flames Diana had unleashed. Then there was darkness.
16
Suzuki opened his eyes. There was blinding light, and then he saw he was back in the kitchen with Sandy. She was sipping a cup of tea, and there was one in front of Suzuki. He watched the steam float up to the ceiling where it got caught in the corners, unable to move on.
Sandy blew on her tea.
She smiled pleasantly at Suzuki but didn’t say anything. All around them, a thousand Sandy’s bustled. Some were cooking. Others were pacing back and forth. Then there were those eating or snacking. One was smoking. And yet there were others who only stood. Staring into space as if they were waiting for an answer to a question long forgotten. “Getting in the habit of stopping by?” Sandy asked.
Suzuki took a sip of tea and winced at the heat. He hadn’t realized he could feel pain here. “Uh, this time, I wasn’t trying to show up here unannounced.”
“Guess you’re in the habit of almost dying.”
“You know, I feel like out of all of us, I’m the one who ends up nearly dead the most.”
“You’re accident-prone. Or maybe just unlucky. Or it could be you keep putting yourself out there like you’re some kind of goddamn hero.”
