Journey to a darker world

by Christian Mathis

  “Woah holy hell, I think I’ll take that one.” Said Willard

  He reached down and grabbed the last remaining weapon. A large war hammer that was to be made like James’s weapons. Reuben turned and places his hands in various parts of the ship. Turning each one of them into a liquid or gas so that no one could discover where we landed or where we were going.

  Toni took point as always, he held a sword readied and a gun bolstered on his hip, Willard and James guarded the rear while the rest of us stayed in the middle. After a few minutes we approached a small boarded up subway entrance. There was a sign on the door that read. Keep out by order of Director Bishop.

  Whack, whack, crack! Willard raised his war hammer and bashed through the metal and wood cover. One at a time we descended the stairs into the dark tunnel below. Once we were inside the only light was the faint light that shown through the subway entrance. We walked in silence our footsteps echoing off the tunnel walls. Several portions of the tunnels had collapsed completely, and we were forced to make twist and turns. I heard a faint dripping of water. Plink plink plink.

  Then came a scurry of tiny feet upon the concrete floor. I glanced down and saw a millipede stop and curl itself up upon the floor. My neck hair stood on into and I brought the heel of my foot down upon the arthropod until only a puddle of goo remained.

  “What you do that for?” Asked Willard

  “For Gabriel”

  We continued to walk along the tunnel until we saw a sliver of light. Scratch scratch scratch the scratching stopped and a familiar beast leaped into the tunnel. Sniff sniff the monster opened his mouth and the light glistened off his long sharp teeth. I cocked my thermal pistol and raised my right hand and had already started think about what poison to use. I heard the loud metallic scraping as Toni dragged his sword across the concrete floor. The creature jumped into the light and I saw the beast was a fermenter.

  “What the Fuck aren’t these damn things supposed to be back on the other planet!” Screamed Toni.

  “We should have figured they would be here, we let them lose on Annabelle’s ship remember, her silver tongue probably got them on her side.” I said

  The fermenter lunged attempting to bring his teeth down upon Agatha’s throat, Toni brought swung his arms up and blocked the fermenters mouth with the sword. Toni was pushed into the floor and the fermenter bit down on the sword and snapped it clean in two. James threw me into the fermenter, and I brought my sword and hand into the beast chest. Awolowo, the fermenter Howled and screamed. He began his scratch and flail. His claw came down upon Agatha’s arm and it began to become purple.

  “Agatha no!” I screamed

  Before I could help her, I heard the clicking and clacking of claws on the concrete floor coming towards us from the darkness.

  “Agatha!”

  I grabbed Agatha’s arm and dragged my sword across the dark purple skin until I had removed all the rot and ferment. James reached over and coagulated and clotted her blood.

  Zadok and Reuben began to blast the darkness with thermal guns until the clacking stopped. The tunnel had begun to light up from the bright blast. It wasn’t one fermenter over Ten.

  Willard swung his hammer and crushed one of the Fermenters back side and finally head he used the claw on the back of the hammer to rip deep into another. I pressed my fingers into the Fermenters cuts and injected him with box jellyfish toxin. He went into cardiac arrest until his heart exploded dousing me in blood and ooze.

  Agatha attempted to blast them back with sand, she could only use her left hand.

  James attempted to forge his famous blood sickles when a Fermenter bit his finger off, the rot began to travel up his finger.

  “AAAAA HOLY FUCK I AM NOT LOSING THIS ARM TOO!” James screamed. He used his jagged arm to cut off the rotted fingertip and clotted the blood. The Fermenters kept coming and coming.

  “Agatha sand wall now! Reuben try hardening the sand!”

  They jumped to action and attempted to do what I asked when another fermenter jumped through the partial sand wall and jumped to the roof to escape. We all slid to the ground in exhaustion and attempted to help cover each other’s room.

  We began walking again when we heard a faint voice in the distance. It was an old TV, the TV was playing a continuous loop. It was Annabelle sitting behind her desk looking both evil and enchanting.

  “Attention citizens surrender now, or I will be forced to bring New York to its knees with any means necessary. I will level the city it I must, stragglers will be killed.” Said Annabelle

  The same ten second clip repeated. How could this Psychopathic murdering super dictator be the same beautiful girl I fell in love with when we crashed on that planet over a year ago.

  “There is no way she got here that long before us most of that building rubble was fresh, she must only have control of New York. Which means we could still end her Coup de ta right here and now” Toni said.

  “Then we Better get out of this subway and figure out how to defeat her and get that book and set things right. I know because we have special abilities does not automatically make us superheroes, I think it wouldn’t hurt to try”, I said

  We found a subway exit and we were able to exit to the street once we bashed open the covering. We were forced to scale the closest building because of the sheer number of troops patrolling the city. From the partially collapsed tower we saw the Unites nations building. Swarming around the sky were robotic drones and mercenaries with Gabriel like wings on their backs. Cardinals, Fermenters and dinosaur men guarded the tower at the base and on every level from every window. As for the streets surrounding the building there were dozens of giant cockroaches and millipedes. This was going to be one hell of a final battle.

  Chapter twenty-four

  For a while we sat at the top of the partial destroyed building we stared over the remnants of the city and thousands upon thousands of enemies. We waited on the building for hours, planning and talking and getting rest. Darkness fell upon the city and everyone began to sleep. Agatha attempted to lean against me, I pulled myself away.

  “Catalyst do you think we’ll be able to do it. I mean I know everyone tends to think of themselves as invincible and that they can do it. Everyone thinks of themselves as this untouchable hero when really, they are the guy the hero punches in the face. That with everything in life it always ends with the heroes wining. Life is not black and white sometimes heroes fail. Catalyst all those years I spent on that planet I was never as scared as I am now. I don’t want to die Catalyst.”

  I looked at Agatha’s face and the face of all my friends. I looked down upon the street and saw the glimmer of the light upon the shells of the insects. The scurrying of millions of feet upon the concrete streets. I paused and thought deeply about what I said next and what we would do next.

  “Agatha my entire life has been defined constantly fighting, battle after battle. It never gets any easier, you never stop being afraid of dying. I think that is perhaps what villains have that we don’t. They are not afraid to fight, hurt, and be killed. It gives them strength. I think fear is a good thing, when you become fearless people tend to do stupid things. However, the thought never crossed my mind that we won’t when, it’s not a question of If we win, when. Good always wins in the end the only variable is at what cost.” I said.

  Scratch scratch scratch. I stood up to see what was making the strange noise and I found Toni carving symbols into the floor with a sword.

  “Catalyst I have been up all night, running through hundreds of battle tactics and strategies. The best I can figure it if we sweep in and attack each separate group and cut them off from the rest of her army. It will be easier than any head on approach. We simply do not have enough people to do a sweeping envelopment and in order to fake retreat we would have to attack them head in first. We know their weaknesses Catalyst as long as we still have the element of surprise, ambushing them is our best bet.”

  We made it the ground level
of the tower and we explored for the best vantage point of the streets and buildings surrounding Annabelle’s United Nations tower.

  “I think it would be best if some of us stayed here in case something bad happens we won’t all be captured,” Said Toni

  We all nodded in agreement as we gazed upon each other’s faces. We tried to read one another, and I could tell everyone was worried. In all the battles we had before their worry was there, it was never this bad. Everyone is so tired and physically and mentally exhausted. Zadok began to fidget and pace across the floor.

  “Guys I don’t get it why the hell are we doing this! We are back on Earth; I am back on Earth after a hundred years. What are we doing? Fighting a powerful villain with an army that will probably cause the death of most of us. Even if we defeat her then we get to spend years fighting the president and his army that covers the fucking globe. What are we supposed to do go from city to city purging any armies or enemies until there are none of us left and we’re all dead!”

  The dark room began to fill with a golden light from Zadok’s amulet and eyes. He dropped the weapon he was carrying and pulled out a naginata Japanese spear staff.

  “Zadok I know how much everyone had lost on this journey and how much more we will lose. Some of us could die, we’ve been over this hundreds of times we are two sides of the same coin. We have to do this because we have the abilities and powers others can’t and besides it’s our fault, it’s my fault!”

  The room grew quiet again, as we stared out the windows and holes in the wall. The clicking and scurrying of insect feet on the pavement below once again echoing through the darkness.

  “Catalyst we should move now before we need to start taking them out before they take us out.” Said Toni. We readied our blades, James, Toni, Agatha and I exited the buildings and hugged the shadows along the buildings until we came across the first group of roaches. I pulled the red sword made from Gabriel’s claws out of the homemade sheath tucked it close to my legs. I jumped upon the roaches back and brought the sword into the roaches back and dragged the blade through his head. I pushed my feet down and brought the split roach carcass into the floor and jumped onto the back of the next one. I cut his legs off and crushed the roaches head under my heel.

  James has formed his blood sickles and began to rip apart the roaches, tearing wings off, legs off and ripping them in half. Agatha has already started to sand blast the roaches into nothingness when another dozen roach crawled out from the next street. Toni began to blast the roaches with the thermal gun, he grabbed hand full of metal scraps from the floor and loaded them into the chamber at the top of the gun. He fired again and again; the first roach was completely obliterated. Another roach jumped down from a pile of rubble and bit down on Toni’s guns cutting it clean in half.

  “Agatha shoot your sand at me now!” Toni screamed

  “won’t that kill you?”

  “do it I have a plan!”

  Agatha blasted the silica sand at Toni, and he pulled out his thermal pistol and cranked it up to the highest and hottest setting. Which caused the sand to turn into glass and rip through the roaches hide.

  “Catalyst that one’s escaping, and we cannot let him return to Annabelle!” Said James

  I grabbed a metal sliver knife and threw it into the roaches back, I stuck my hand inside and filled his guts with Asian giant hornet venom. The roach seized up and collapsed dead.

  After we killed all the roaches on the street closet to our building we returned to where our friends hid.

  “You guys alright in there?” I asked

  “Actually, I think you guys better get in here” whispered Zadok.

  The others sat bunched tight in a corner of the highest floor. A drone had flown into the window and was broadcasting a message.

  “Toni your element of surprise is no more, oh wait it never was, how stupid are you guys. You were on my ship, and then you continued to use my weapons I’m tracking you fools. I simply wanted you to think you were making some sort of ground, celebrating a small victory before so that your defeat would feel all the worse, or better for me. Now surrender or I will be forced to surround your building and kill every one of you. If I don’t hear from you in ten minutes, I will assume you chose the latter.” Her voice clicked off and the drone began to buzz and hum before it shifted into one of the robotic men. Its hand changed into a gun and he held it toward my chest.

  “Nine minutes remaining” Said the robot

  “We have to agree that we are not surrendering, I don’t know about you,I’ll fight until my last breath “Said Willard.

  Whack whack, crack crunch.A few shards of metal embedded in my cheek as James bashed the robot to pieces. Parts and bits of metal scattered the room. James dropped Willard’s war hammer with a loud metallic ring.

  “That an answer enough Annabelle, I stand with Catalyst and Willard we’ll fight until the last enemy falls or I clot my last ounce of blood.”

  “You are out of time commencing attack wave one.” A second robot blared.

  “This is it guys, this will be our last stand, our Alamo a few men against thousands,” Said Toni

  “Uh wasn’t the Alamo a loss though?” Asked James.

  “Only from a certain point of view, it bought Sam Austin enough time to rally troops to fight Santa Anna another day and it will buy us enough time to figure out how to get that book and defeat Annabelle.” I said

  “Enough heroic speeches time to defend or die,” Annabelle’s voice shouted through one of the drones.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM CRACK. A group of the robotic drone man had blasted a hole into the side of the building. Cockroaches and millipedes began to crawl through the hole.

  DA DA DA DA DA DA. James has stepped into the center of the room and began blasting through and killing several insects with the thermal Gatling gun. My face was covered in blood and insect goo. My hands tightened on the blade of my sword.

  Agatha blasted the flying drones out of the sky one right after the other, until the drone shot metal slivers through her hands.

  “AAA what the hell!” Agatha screamed as she fell to the ground and her body collapsed from shock. I swung my sword under hand and sliced through the thick metal covering on the robotic shell. Willard blasted acid and melted the robot from inside out. A solid crossfire had been created between us blasting out the windows and Cardinals, drones, and other bad guys shooting back at us.

  I heard the howl of the fermenters outside the building they broke through our defenses and we began to be overrun by the various creatures and men. Everywhere I looked, there were creatures attacking my friends. James was still mowing down the cockroaches and millipedes with the thermal gun until it ran out of chemical energy. He tossed the empty gun into the last roach and crushed him. He formed a long sword and tried to cut down the fermenters. I brought my sword through the arm of a fermenter and the purple blood pooled in the floor.

  Willard slammed his war hammer’s claw through the drones casing and filled it to the brim with acid.

  I slashed my sword through the fermenters again and again attempting to keep them at bay. I stuck my hand in the fermenters open arm and pumped him full of stink ray venom. I launched myself off the mutt’s carcass and brought my sword through the next fermenters skull. I was thrown a to the ground and my sword was chewed up and swallowed by a millipede. The insect began to crawl up my legs and seeped its razor-sharp legs deep into my flesh.

  I began to pass out and my eyes rolled to the side, I saw Toni smashing and slashing through Cardinals. He brought the battle axe into the back of one and turned to slam it into the next when the Cardinal dropped his sword and grabbed his thermal gun. He pushed the tip of his gun against Toni’s chest and pulled the trigger. The heat blast completely incinerated Toni’s chest and he fell to the floor life less.

  “TONI NO PLEASE, NO NO NO TONI,” I screamed. I attempted to blast my way thru the enemies and to Toni’s body. My tears were thick and heavy and poured down my face.
I fired my thermal pistol through the face of the nearest Cardinal. I pulled the trigger again all I heard was an empty click. I grabbed the soldier’s sword coated it in poison as I had a dozen times before.

  My knees touched the floors and I pushed my forehead against Toni’s. His skin had already started to grow cold.

  I felt someone press against my back and I had begun to turn and bring my sword to the man’s neck.

  “Catalyst it’s alright buddy it’s me, I’m sorry I’m going to miss him to there is nothing we can do for him now, we have to go get that book or we will never beat her.” Said James.

  We were able to cut through most of the army when Willard spit acid onto the floor and melted through the fermenter’s tough hides. A second wave of drones entered the room and I saw Zadok and Reuben when I could not before.

  Reuben was able to turn the air around the drones to a solid and crush the drones before they shift into the robotic soldiers.

  “James help Zadok! He’s bleeding and weak” Reuben screamed.

  The Cardinals began to shoot the acid throwers at our feet, and it melted the floor below us. I dragged Agatha over to where Zadok sat and James coagulated his blood.

  The room grew ablaze and enemies grew closer and closer.

  “I think it’s time we go get that book, instead of keeping her from using it we should figure out how to use it against her,” Said Agatha

  Agatha and I clasped each other’s hands and began to blast the poison coated sand over the Cardinals and the others, it kept them at bay while Reuben placed his hand on the back wall of the building and liquefied the concrete and metal beams. At first it was enough room for each of us to slip through one at a time until Reuben slipped out last.

  “Reuben bring down the building on top of those bastards like Sampson did to the philistines.”