by Glynn James
"I need to," he says." I made a promise to Andre. Who it appears is your son in law, that I would head back to the Resistance and join the cause once I had found my wife. I guess he presumed it wouldn't take quite this long, but I still have a promise to keep. And you don't know where the base is. I do. I can help you get your little girl, and then take you there. It's the least I can do."
"Thank you."
"No thanks required. Look. I'll leave you to rest now. You look exhausted."
"Okay, thanks Reg."
He goes to leave.
"Reg?"
"Yes?"
"They seriously have fangs?"
"They're vampires. But don't worry, we're safe. They can't drink our blood, since apparently some of their blood is in the A17 serum, anyway. They can't touch Resistance folks."
"They drink people's blood, though."
"They used to. But it seems that they found some way of avoiding it. I didn't ask."
Day 51
I can't believe that I actually slept for the whole day and the night. Unfortunately there were no flashbacks either.
We left early. The sun was just rising over the horizon when we stepped outside of the gates. Yes, gates. We went out the front door this time.
We wasted as little time getting out of the city as we could. The head of the Sisters had said that the Warped Ones, as they called them, wouldn't be back until nightfall, but the city was quite large and difficult to move through, so we had better get moving.
The only delay was in Marie saying goodbye to the Sisters. I wanted to go quickly, but I understood that she had been here for decades. It was a difficult goodbye.
She knew her way around the city very well, and within an hour she had taken us back to where the battle had been.
"There are no bodies," I said, as we approached the foot of the building from across the plaza. I had expected hundreds of them to be lying around. We had certainly killed that many.
"There wouldn't be," said Marie. "Part of their curse is that they only leave dust after they die. The bodies soon collapse, and all that is left is that."
She pointed at the grey muck that was gathering against the bottom of the ground floor windows.
"They burn up in the day?"
"No, that's just a myth, otherwise I wouldn't be standing here," she said, smiling. "But when they die they crumble to ash. As would I."
"So all the other stuff, crosses, holy water, sunlight. Does any of that affect you?" asked Rudy.
I frowned.
"Bram Stoker's Dracula," he said grinning at me."
"All myth," said Marie. "Well, mostly. Silver bullets hurt a lot."
"I thought that was werewolves?" asked Rudy.
"Bullets of any kind hurt. We're still corporeal. Anything that would hurt a human hurts us, except that we don't die very easily. It would take a lot of bullets."
"Oh," said Rudy.
"And yes, I can see myself in a mirror."
Adler laughed.
I left them chattering, and went into the building. Thankfully the trolley was still where I had left it. I just had to pick it up and put everything back in it. It must have been knocked over during the battle. I also had to bend a wheel back into place.
Outside, they were still talking.
"So werewolves are real as well?" asked Adler.
"Oh, yes, they are very real. You most certainly do not want to mess with one of them. They are lot bigger and faster than tales tell of them. And they will eat anything, alive or dead."
DogThing growled at this.
"I don't mean you," said Marie.
My turn to question.
"I don't yet remember much about the Maw," I said, giving DogThing a rub behind his ears. "Are they related to werewolves?"
"No, not at all. Maw are much friendlier, and almost as deadly."
"Really? From the way you were describing werewolves, they sound pretty dangerous."
"Oh, yes, they are. The main difference being that the Maw simply won't lie down and die."
"They don't? Not at all?" asked Rudy.
"No," said Marie. "I've never heard of a Maw being killed by anything. They have this innate ability to just vanish and then turn up later on."
I thought back to when DogThing and the other Maw had fought CutterJack in The Corridor. CutterJack had killed them, or so I had thought, but DogThing came back again. I never did ask him.
"Miala, the Head of the council of the Sisters once told me about them. No one really knows where they disappear to when they are killed. She believed it to be some kind of other plane of existence. She said that she suspected that they had some other place that they could go to that allowed them to rest and heal, and that it happened without them being conscious of it. Of course, you are the only person ever to be able to talk to a Maw, and only that one. And he's so young that he doesn't understand half of it anyway."
"I never thought of that," I said. "He is a lot smaller than the other adult ones. I never considered that he might still be a pup."
"I can hear you, you know."
"I know. How old are you DogThing?"
"I don't understand you."
I nodded.
By midday we were back at the camp we had used before, but this time we didn't stop. We just carried on until it was dark. We camped up in one of the old buildings. It was the one with the washing still on the line.
It was late when the first flashback hit me. We were all sitting around a fire in the middle of the room. The Maw were outside, surrounding the building. Marie was telling us about her past.
"I couldn't remember anything," she said. "Somehow the creature that had helped Laurence, the man who took me, had wiped all of my memories."
I knew how that felt.
"I stayed there because I couldn't leave. Something surrounding the house stopped me. I could only see darkness past the bottom of the garden. In every direction there was just darkness. I never did find out what it was that stopped me from leaving, but I always had this feeling that it was something real, an object of some kind. I even sensed where it was, hidden away in the loft. I searched, but I couldn't find it. There was this box that was hidden under piles of junk, and that was where the feeling came from. But the box was empty."
"Just like Adler and I, when we were trapped by the pieces of the key," said Rudy.
"Why yes," said Adler. "Of course Rudy, it sounds just the same. Marie, when Rudy and I were killed, we couldn't leave. We were trapped in the place of our deaths until James came along and we discovered that it was the pieces of the key that we were bound to. When James reformed the key as a whole, we were set free."
"Except that Marie never died," said Reg.
"No, I didn't, but I was bound nonetheless. Until one day when a man came to visit. He knocked on the door, and Laurence wasn't there. I never let anyone in when Laurence wasn't there. I just watched from the windows upstairs. He did this very strange thing. He walked into the back garden, and down the steps towards the summer house. I wondered what he was doing down there, so I went out the back door, and followed him from a distance, keeping quiet."
"Was he looking for something?" asked Reg.
"Yes. Well. In a way," smiled Marie, "He went down the garden to where the old ruin was. There was an arch down there. I always found that ruin fascinating."
She seemed to be lost in some memory for a moment.
"You don't have to tell us," said Reg.
"No. No. He walked to the arch, and then took something out of his pocket. A thing. I didn't know what it was. And then the portal opened. It just appeared in the middle of nowhere. He stepped through and the portal closed. He was gone."
"Another key maybe?" asked Rudy.
"Maybe," said Marie. "Anyway. After that I became obsessed with that archway. I would sit down there day after day. One day I was sitting there, reading a book, when the portal just opened again. I stood up, and walked over to it. Through the gap was a bright desert, yet on
my side of the portal was wet grass. Before I could do anything else, it closed again."
"I was so angry with myself. By then, you see, I had discovered enough of my own mind to know that I wasn't Laurence's wife. I was bound there. You see Laurence would talk in his sleep. Not that I ever slept in the same bed as he. But I heard him, and I would go and listen at his door when he started. That way I found out all about how it had happened. I knew I was trapped here by him."
"But, you'd missed the door opening," said Adler.
"Yes. But I was determined that I wouldn't miss it again, so I began to prepare. I found an old satchel and started collecting things that I would need, and hiding them in the summerhouse. I still went there every day. About a year later, I was sitting in the same place, once more reading a book, and the portal opened again. This time I grabbed my things and ran."
"Into the desert of this world?" asked Adler.
"Yes."
FLASH
I'm standing in the snow. Andre is next to me. Around us, the forest burns even as the snow falls into the fires. A cold wind blows.
"So. There are no sentient races at all on this planet?"
"Not exactly."
"What do you mean? Why else would they come here?"
"There are these creatures, they are like dogs, except much bigger, much more dangerous. We think that they came here to enslave them. They may be sentient to some degree. We haven't managed to find out yet. They are quite defensive and untrusting."
"But other than big and dangerous dogs, there's nothing else for them here?"
"No. Nothing. But you should see them. They are amazing creatures. From what we have figured out so far, the Horde can't even kill the things."
This surprises me.
"They can't kill them? Explain."
"They are just too tough for them to kill. We've seen them fight. They get set on by hundreds of shamblers, and they can't seem to even scratch them."
"What about the burning ones?"
Walking skeletons that carry an inferno with them.
"I haven't seen them here, yet, so I can't vouch for that match. But, can you imagine if we were able to get these things to help us?"
"You mean train them?"
"Yes."
"I'd need a pup. A young one."
"I'll find one," says Andre.
"Do that. And get Chione to help. She is good with animals."
"Get's it from her father."
FLASH
I'm standing in darkness. Wait. It's almost complete darkness, but there is some kind of unnatural glow coming from somewhere.
"What is this place?" I ask.
Joshua, my brother, stands a few feet away from me.
"A cavern made naturally from near the centre of a destroyed planet."
"What? How?"
"When the planets collided with another, it was pulled into a naturally occurring hole, and somehow it ended up here, in this place."
"Embedded in the middle of the desert on an entirely different planet?"
"Yes, amazing isn't it? Quite an extraordinary event."
"How do you know where it came from?"
"Oh. The Sisters Seer. Senga. We brought her here."
"Oh, her."
"Yes. She walked around for a few days, warbling on as she always does. Then she just blurted out what it was. That woman freaks me out."
"And you just found it. Whilst you were wandering around in the desert?"
"Yes. Well, no. We were looking for a good spot to build an outpost, you know, somewhere secluded, but not far from a road. We found the ravine and then one of the scouts spotted the cave entrance. There are two entrances, about three miles apart."
"So, Josh. Why are we even here? I mean. It's just a big dark cave."
"It's a very special, big dark cave."
"How so?"
"Once in here. You can't portal out. I tried it."
Now he had my attention.
"What do you mean? You can't open a door at all?"
"No. Well, just one spot in the entire place. We tried a few times. There is one small area that is part of the original rock that was here before this thing popped into place. That area can be ported out through, but only if you have a key. We tried opening one into here and that works okay, but you have to have the exact coordinates, and it's very inaccurate, somehow it gets warped. There is also this very strange anomaly over on the other side of the cave. We haven't figured out what it is yet. Did I tell you that this place is thirty miles across?"
An idea begins to form in my mind.
"If you can't portal out, but you can portal in. If you blocked up all the holes, those entrances. You'd be trapped, right?"
"Yes brother. Effectively, if you put someone in here and...Oh."
"The perfect trap."
FLASH
I'm standing in the desert. I'm not alone. I'm near the portal. It's the same portal that Marie travelled through. I'm not alone. Standing next to me is...
Nua'lath.
"We have a deal then?" he asks.
"We have a deal," I reply.
"I will help you, and then you will let me take what I want."
"Yes."
My mind reels. This can't be true. I can't have made a deal with Nua'lath.
No
No. Wait. It looks like Nua'lath. But it's not him. Another that looks similar. No scars. His skin is not so pale. No metal rivets holding his face together.
Another of Nua'lath's kind.
He speaks, and his voice still chills my spine.
"The power. The gift of the old ones. It should never have been his. He has squandered it and abused the gift."
"Yes. You could say that."
"The destruction of entire worlds is unacceptable. Only the old one has the right to such an endeavour. We, the followers, must be humble. It must stop."
His name is Dha'mir.
"Agreed," I say.
"We will end this, you and I. And I, the high priest, shall become the ordained one, as was the will of the old ones, before he stole it from me. It will take time when he is trapped. He will weaken eventually, but we must be patient. It could be years or even decades before he has become weak enough for me to destroy him."
"But during that time The Horde will dissipate?" I ask. "And there will be no more invasions?"
"Yes. The Horde will cease to have a mind holding it together. The creatures will still exist, but they will not gather in force. We will start in the next world that The Horde are to travel to. I will be with him. It is a place that the native peoples call Nenshar. A swamp on a very warm planet. Here. This will allow you to travel there. Good luck."
For a moment I see a picture in my mind, of a swamp on a distant planet. Huge mushrooms grow there, and slithering in the rancid mud are massive slug like creatures. The place is etched into my mind so clearly that I know that I will be able to use the key to travel there.
FLASH
I'm standing in the dark, with Andre and my brother Joshua. Others are nearby, a dozen armed Vigilant soldiers, the heavy combat troops of the Resistance, stand watching, waiting for their orders. Their battle gear is similar in design to the armour plates that I wear, what all the Outriders wear, except that Vigilants are covered from head to toe in it, with helmets and visors that allow them to see in the dark.
We're in The Corridor, and below us, down the slope, is the part of London that we pulled into The Corridor, hoping to catch Nua'lath. I watch as lurching zombies stumble around in the darkness. We managed to capture and contain the outbreak that he released, but we somehow managed to miss him.
"Nua'lath's not here," says Andre.
"No. I know," I reply. "We failed again."
Joshua looks at me.
"What is it we are doing wrong?" he asks.
"I don't know. I will need to meet with Dha'mir. Maybe he will know. Maybe it's the machine."
"That's four times now," says Joshua. "The swamp, the waterfall, those d
esert caves, and now these streets. We're going to run out of space. There's only so much crap that we can haul back here."
"I know, okay?"
He shrugs.
"We'll figure it out. Next time we will get it right. Maybe we need to be closer to him when we set off the machine. He must have left the area before it activated."
"Closer to him means dead."
"Not in here it doesn't. He won't be able to control his creatures so well. Dha'mir showed us that."
"He is still lethal. And we're guaranteed to pull whatever is with him at the time."
We watch as other Vigilant soldiers sweep through the streets below, destroying the zombies.
Something darts out of an alleyway and runs at the soldiers, but they cut it down before it gets near.
"What was that?" asked Andre.
"Kre'esh," replied Joshua. "They came from Nenshar. The swamps. The Horde has thousands of them now. I guess there must be a few wandering around down here as well."
Andre shakes his head.
"This place is soon going to be too dangerous to work out of. We have to get it right the next time."
"Don't worry. It's not time to give up yet. We're close. And soon, it will work."
FLASH
I'm in London, walking the streets of an area called Gallowshill. It's 1912. Joshua walks with me, as well as Loran, Ashley and Kale, my other brothers. The streets are busy, and I feel hugely uncomfortable without my armour. I can tell that the others do as well. Fortunately we are able to conceal our guns, so we are not completely unprepared.
"So we have secured the house?" I ask.
"Yes," says Kale, "paid for, and as we speak being occupied by a detachment of Waylanders"
Waylanders. They work closely with the Outrider division of The Resistance. They are the supply and logistics division. Right now they will be setting up base in The Old Caff Trade Company premises.
"And the other occupants?"
"Recruited. They were only too happy. Vagrants mostly. The old owner has moved out of London and won't be back."
"Good. No loose ends."
"What's the plan?" asks Ashley.
