by Glynn James
I span around and looked along the street to where the kre'esh had come from, just as another leapt up onto the top of the car next to me a lashed out at me with its teeth. This time I didn't hesitate, and raised my gun and shot the thing in the face. I hadn't known up until that point if I even had the courage to stand and fight with these new weapons, but it seemed that instinct was more powerful that courage. It flew backwards just as two more kre'esh came leaping over the car, bearing down on me. The roof of the car buckled under their weight and a single intact window exploded into shards of glass that scattered across the ground.
I raised the other gun and fired, knowing that the second kre'esh would surely have me. The first kre'esh screeched and fell off the back of the car as the other bore down on me, but a hard shove on my shoulder sent me stumbling sideways and down onto the pavement amongst the glass as several large, black Maw collided with the kre'esh in mid air. I barely saw them vanish over the other side of the car, taking the second kre'esh with them, as I hit the ground.
I hit that ground hard, and tried to stumble back to my feet, crouching behind the car again as DogThing's friends poured over the area. The street on the other side of the car that was protecting me became a mass of teeth and claws as I realised that there weren't just a couple of kre'esh, but dozens of the damn things.
A shotgun blast went off behind me, and I span round again just in time to fire two shots straight into the kre'esh that had knocked the stranger to the ground and was about to bite down on him. The man hauled the dead body off, grabbed the shotgun that had been knocked from his grasp and raced over the gap between us, to join me by the car.
Another kre'esh managed to break free from the battle and jumped over the car towards us, but we were both ready and it was sent flying back into the fray by the blast of a shotgun and my handguns.
More kre'esh were rushing down the street towards us in what appeared to be an endless stream of the glistening, black nightmares.
Two of the kre'esh leapt clean over the ruckus that was blocking the road and both the stranger and I ducked down behind the car as they came crashing into the clearing. One of them hit the ground and tumbled away, not getting up quick enough before I shot off two blasts into its side, sending it crashing into one of the cars opposite. It still jumped up and made a dash for us, but DogThing sped past us and clamped his jaws on its neck. The thing thrashed and screamed but DogThing kept it pinned down until one of the black Maw jumped over me and landed on top of it, crushing the creature with its weight.
That didn't stop the other one, though. It landed hard, but on all fours, and darted around the back of a car as the stranger blasted away with his shotguns. Another Maw chased after it, but the kre'esh was faster, and as it came thundering around the other side of the car and raced straight towards me I dropped my two handguns that were still re-charging and grabbed for the other two, but I knew I wasn't going to be fast enough.
I rolled sideways, desperately throwing every bit of strength I had into getting out the creature's way.
A shotgun blast behind me made my ears ring and I felt the creature hit the ground barely a foot away from me.
Then it was over.
The whole fight had lasted for only a few seconds, but it had seemed like hours as time appeared to slow down.
I stayed down on the ground, breathing hard and watching the stranger just a few feet away from me doing the same.
He looked over at me.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yes, you?"
He nodded again. "I'm all good here."
There was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke again. Only the noise of the Maw moving around us broke the silence.
"I have been travelling the roads of this land for years and I've never seen anyone stupid enough to be inside one of the cities other than myself."
"We were just leaving."
He nodded, still getting his breath back.
"Leaving from where? What were you doing here? What did you find here?"
"Nothing. We found nothing."
The stranger didn't take his eyes off of me.
I wasn't sure that I wanted to tell him the truth, but I couldn't think of a good lie, and we had just saved each other's lives.
"We arrived here, through a door."
"A door? What kind of door?"
"A portal. A gate."
He squinted at me.
Around us the Maw were gathering in large numbers. For a moment I saw the stranger's eyes give away a hint of fear.
"You know how to move between worlds?"
I took a deep breath.
"No not really. It was by accident."
"I don't want any trouble," he said looking around. At least twenty of the big, black Maw were watching him. I'd have wet myself if that had been me, but although I could see the fear in his eyes, he was still holding it together.
"Me neither," I said.
I nodded at DogThing.
"Ask them to back off."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"It is done."
The Maw backed away and relaxed a little. Some of them broke off and headed back towards the buildings that they slept in. Others began dragging the bodies of the kre'esh away.
The stranger heaved a sigh of relief and holstered his shotguns.
"Thank you for that. And, well, we already established that neither of us particularly likes the local fauna. Any reason why we can't get along?" he asked.
"That would be good," I said.
I holstered both of my handguns and then offered him my hand.
"James Halldon. Pleased to meet you."
He glanced at my hand and hesitated, but then he shook it.
"Reginald Weldon. Happy to meet you also, James. You can call me Reg."
Reg leaned back against the rusted remains of the car that had been our cover during the fight. He took off his hat and the scarf that had been tied round his face and for the first time I got to see what he looked like. He was older than I expected. His face was wrinkled and worn as though he had seen years of troubles, and his eyes looked tired. He hadn't shaved for a while, and like me, he sported a scruffy beard and a moustache. What was strange was that all of his hair was almost white, as though he was many years older than he really looked.
"Tell me, friend," he said, "I need to know if you can really move through those portals. Can you make them appear?"
I shook my head.
"We have done before, and that's how we got here, but I don't know how to create them, at least I haven't figured out how to, yet."
He looked disappointed.
"Where do you come from? I mean where did you come from?"
I hesitated to answer.
"We escaped from somewhere that was dangerous."
Reg laughed out loud.
"Well you haven't landed yourself somewhere safe now, this place is dangerous too."
"Trust me," I said, shaking my head. "It can't be as bad."
"You give it a couple more days and see if you still think that."
I sat there, trying hard to think of something to ask the first living person I had seen in ages.
"What about you? Why are you here?"
He stared at the ground, his eyes slightly glazed as though his mind is far away, remembering.
"Oh, that's one long, long story. I'm looking for my wife. She disappeared a long time ago and I've been tracking her down ever since. This is where she came, through a portal like the one I also came through, but it's been so long that her trail is hard to follow, and it sometimes takes me to places where no one should ever go. I also never came from this world."
Reg looked up at me.
"What about you James? Where are you headed?"
"Nowhere really. I had an accident of some kind that means I can't remember my past. I don't really know who I am. I suppose I'm headed anywhere that might give me some clues."
I look over at DogThing
&nb
sp; "My furry friend over there is leading me to where we came to this place once before, where there might be some answers, but other than that I'm lost."
"You can talk to your wolves? I guessed that you had some kind of control over them, but talk to them?"
I laughed.
"Not all of them. Just him."
Reg looked over at DogThing, who was sitting on the pavement opposite us. DogThing started shifting around as though he was uncomfortable with the attention.
"And, which way is he taking you?"
I pointed along the main street.
"Out to the desert. Where after that, I don't know. He seems to know where to go though."
Reg stood up.
"Well, it looks like we're heading in the same direction for the time being. What do you say we travel together?"
I looked at Adler and Rudy. Reg glanced over at them.
"I don't see why we can't travel together. It will be nice to have someone new to talk to," said Adler.
Rudy looked warily at Reg.
"I'm okay with it if you promise not to point those guns at James again, though I can't say that I trust you."
"I won't be doing that again," said Reg. "I was just defending myself. I hid between the vehicles when you two came by, hoping to stay unnoticed, but then those wolves and James came along and I knew I wasn't going to stay hidden for long."
I looked over towards Adler and Rudy.
"So what were you two up to before?"
Rudy's eyes seemed to light up, he grinned.
"We're not bound to the compass anymore, at least we don't think we are," he said. "We realised it whilst you were asleep. I thought it was strange how I could see much further after we had left The Corridor, but I figured it was just because we were in a different place. Then when you went to fetch the stuff that you had stashed in the shop and I was left listening to the birds sing, I realised. You were hundreds of yards away from me, much farther than you had ever been before and I wasn't being dragged away."
"I also noticed it," Adler cut in. "When you were asleep last night and the rain was coming down, we wandered off. We kept a visual check on where we were, of course, so that we didn't get lost, but I wasn't even thinking about it. I just presumed that we would be still bound to the compass, so getting lost was really a moot issue. We got further and further away and I realised that the rules had changed. I must admit I panicked a little when the thought occurred to me that we would need to be sure we could find you again."
"So you are free."
It was a statement rather than a question.
"Yes," said Rudy.
We made our way slowly through the streets. DogThing was in front with some other Maw, guiding us. He stopped at each junction and sniffed the ground, looking around until he decided which way to go. I trailed behind him, with Reg at my side, both of us with weapons ready, watching the streets for trouble. Rudy and Adler followed behind us, chattering all the time, and behind them trailed the rest of the Maw pack.
I could have sworn that the Maw pack was getting bigger, and that there were some new ones, with different markings that I hadn't seen before. I shrugged it off. I didn't really know exactly how many of them came out of The Corridor with us.
"So do you know where it is that you are heading next?" I asked Reg.
"Yes, well, roughly. I found some clues in the last settlement I was in, weeks ago."
"So there are settlements? People alive here?"
"Yes, there are some. They're dotted all over the place and mostly hidden away, avoiding the attention of the things that still walk and crawl this land."
"Anyway, I found a clue that she had left the town maybe thirty years ago and joined a coven of some kind. It took me a while to get directions, but out of this city and across the desert there is supposed to be a range of mountains. At the foot of the mountains is a forest. I was told that there was once a settlement of some kind in those woods, near a city that had been abandoned a long time ago, and that they traded sometimes with the coven. It's the best lead I've had so far."
"What sort of coven? Like a religious group?"
"Yes, sort of. An old man in Rockroad, the settlement I left, said that the Sisters of Rahl, that's what the coven is called, travelled through the settlement and they took several other women with them. Not by force, but they left all the same. He said that his wife was offered to go with them, but she stayed to marry him, and they had told her that if ever she wanted to join them that she should travel to the mountains, to the Narrowfang as they call the forest. I thought it was a strange name for a forest, but that old guy said that it was supposed to be because of the shape of the woods if you saw them from the mountains. Anyway, his wife left him in the end because the coven still haunted her and she felt an uncontrollable urge to join them. So she went after them. He said that he followed her, and found the settlement, but he never found out where the coven was and never found his wife again."
"Poor man."
"Yeah, but well, there are a lot of sad stories in the world if you take the time to listen, and that's without the old stories of the days before the invasion."
"Invasion?"
"The invasion. The time when Nua'lath and his minions stormed across Gaia. Destroying and enslaving everything in their path. Billions of people once lived on this planet. I'd be surprised if there were even few hundred thousand left. The most I've seen in my years of travelling is a few scattered towns hidden away with a few hundred or maybe a thousand people in them. Even all these years on from the invasion, the creatures of Nua'lath's horde still ravage this land and prevent anyone from rebuilding something from the ruins. Too many people get caught out every year, or a town gets overwhelmed by shamblers."
Nua'lath. That name again. CutterJack.
“I’ve met Nua'lath, though I know him by another name, CutterJack.”
Reg stopped walking and turned to me. He looked shocked.
“You’ve met the creature?”
“Yes, that’s where we just came from. We escaped from his prison.”
“I didn’t even know he had been imprisoned, all I ever heard was how he led his armies across countless worlds.”
“I didn’t know what he was until after we had escaped,” I replied, “I still don’t, really.”
"What's a shambler?" I asked.
"A shambler? Well, they are basically dead people who have been killed by other shamblers. They spread a disease through their blood. It somehow brings their victims back to life after they die. If you can call it any kind of life. The disease kills pretty quickly if the wounds don't. Well, you end up with a walking corpse that is just as contagious as the last. Whole cities got overrun with the damn things in the early days, now, every now and then someone runs across a few of them and gets themselves bitten, and then stupidly goes back home hoping to get help, ends up turning the whole damn town into shamblers."
Plague walkers.
"And these Sisters of Rahl. What are they all about?" I asked.
"Oh, I don't know enough about them yet, only that they are a community of only women, and that they live up in those mountains somewhere. I've heard that they don't deal with men very kindly, but I have to believe that they must be decent in some way. Marie would never have joined them if they weren't. There are rumours I've heard about them being mystics and mind readers, and also tales of them killing men, but I don't know if any of that is true and I have to risk that if I'm to find my wife."
"I guess we will find out."
Reg smiled at me.
"You're planning on travelling that far with me?"
"Well I don't have a lot of leads about my past at the moment. If you are willing to travel with us to where DogThing is leading us, so that I can at least try and find out something from there, then I reckon the least I can do is travel that bit further and go find these Sisters with you."
"I'd be glad for the company."
"I must admit I'm also curious. You never know, t
hey may even be able to help me. I need to regain my memories, and if they are mind readers they might be able to tell me at least something that I don't know."
Reg nodded.
"There is that."
It was nearly dark when we left the city. The relief was obvious in everybody. Even the Maw seemed to be more relaxed as they spread out across the dry, barren land either side of the highway.
There was a rundown building that looked like it had been some kind of factory, just a quarter of a mile or so from where the city buildings ended. We split up, Reg going one way around the building and I went the other, checking between the piles of trash and rubble and inside the half dozen rusted cars for unwelcome inhabitants. Nothing. The building itself didn't look like it would provide much of a defence if it came to it, but the Maw had settled down in small groups, completely surrounding the ruin and the area around it, so we cleared the inside and set up camp. Reg even lit a fire.
I spent an hour or so telling Reg everything that I could remember from our time in The Corridor. It was strange recounting it again and I was surprised just how much of it I could remember. I didn't even have to get the first journal out of my rucksack.
"So, are you going to tell me a bit more about yourself?" I asked. "I can't really tell you much more about me. No memory and all that."
"Sure, well, where do I start? I reckon I'll cut to the why and how I ended up here. Not enough time to recount my whole life story. That's maybe a tale for another time."
Reg's Tale
As I said before, my wife disappeared, just vanished right in front of me when I was only a young man, and I've spent the rest of my life trying to find out where she went to, but it took nearly dying to actually get somewhere. See, I'm a hundred and twelve years old.
Well, when I was one hundred and two years old, I was dying of a cancer. I was sitting on a bench out in the middle of the grounds of my house, in a spot where Marie used to sit. You see I eventually did find where she vanished to all those years ago. A man named Laurence had made a deal with a demon of some kind and stole her away from me, or so he said. It was decades before I finally found out about it and tracked him down. But when I got there, she had disappeared again and Laurence didn't know where she had gone either. Well, it turned out that Laurence wasn't even what I thought he was. He wasn't human at all and there hadn't been a demon to make a deal with. He was the demon. That was another thing that I didn't find out until I was nearly dead.
