Lorelei
How times had changed. There had been a time when the City Watch was her worse nightmare, and now she actually entered the main hall by her own free will – and found the guard reduced to that idiot Callen, and then even seen him put down. The guard broken. There was a time when she would have cheered at the thought. But now... not so much.
“SUNDER!!!” bellowed Perl, once again. “BOSS, WHERE ARE YOU?”
And the Life Temple. She had always idolized the institution – the servants of the Life Aspect were the only holy men who seemed to care about everyone, regularly sending groups of healers down to the lower ward to heal the diseased and hurt, even among the commoners. Her mother once said that Lore had been a sickly child, and would have never lived but for the intervention of the Life Aspect's servants. And now? Now she had been into the place of her dreams, and healed by the priests themselves. But then things changed again, with that horrible place under the ground, and now... the Life Temple was something they were going far around. A place of horror and blood.
“JACK SUNDER!!” bellowed Perl once more. Lore gritted her teeth, raised up her thunderstick, and watched for the dead. And for Mr. Sunder. How things had changed.
Under Perl's direction, they were moving at a moderate pace far around the north side of the Life Tempe, at what Selena had judged to be the outside edge of the area contaminated with the living dead. Perl kept shouting for Sunder, but the rest of them simply kept their eyes open.
A woman, clutching a bleeding arm, stumbled into the middle of the road, gave Lore a fearful look, and continued north. Lore could see Selena fingering her crossbow's trigger, and gritting her teeth. At least they had not run into anyone aggressive, or anyone not living. Yet.
“Perl,” said Maureen. “This is it – we are here.” She pointed at a tall gray building, which looked squashed between its neighbors.
“Right then,” said Perl. He stared at the door. It had been broken down. Outwards. Lore thought she could see a shudder run down his large frame. The the big man started plodding slowly towards the house.
Selena followed close behind Perl, with Maureen and Lore behind her. The door, as they passed it, had clearly been kicked in, but those implications flew from Lore's mind as they entered the house. It was dark, and reeked of blood. And something else.
Maureen
“I don't like this,” said Maureen. Perl was standing there in the dark, staring forwards, his sword drawn. “Perl, are you sure going in here is a good idea?”
“Should have brought an eyepatch.”
Maureen hefted her hammer and tried to see into the shadows. The building shared walls with it’s neighbors, and little natural light penetrated the darkness. The central corridor had no windows, and if it had been lit by candles, those had gone out, or been destroyed.
“What's the plan, Perl?”
“Start at the bottom, kick in the doors, kill the dead, work our way up. Once our eyes adjust.”
Maureen stiffened at footsteps behind her. It was only Selena. “Hey Perl, I have flares, you know.”
Maureen could see Perl shaking his head. “No, not for us in the front. Keep it behind us, so we can see in front of us, but don't lose our sight.”
There was a creaking sound in front of them, maybe someone stepping on a weak stair. Maureen readied her hammer, and Perl shifted over to the wall on his right. Maureen could see his eyes glinting from the light creeping in from the door. “Selena,” he whispered. “light the flare when I yell.”
There was another creaking sound from the stairway in front of them. Squinting her eyes, Maureen could see a humanoid figure stepping down the stairs. It reached the bottom. “What if it's not--”
“Now!” hissed Perl. The flare lit up the hallway in reds, then brighter yellows. Perl charged forward, and Maureen found herself right on his heels. Perl swung at the figure's legs, exposed as they were on the staircase. The blade sliced through an ankle, and embedded itself in the other leg.
“Get the back, Maureen!” Perl shouted, stepping aside to let the small figure fall past him. A young boy landed at Maureen's feet, face down. Maureen was reminded of the young whore. But... what if this one was an actual boy? A loud crash to her side, and Perl had barged into the land-lord's office.
“He's not screaming!” Selena shouted, just as the boy reached out with an arm and grabbed her ankle. Maureen swung down with her hammer, but the blow went wide as her foot was pulled out from under her. The boy's jaws were on her ankle, the small teeth scraping, trying to reach around her boot. Maureen lashed out with her foot, kicking the small boy in the face, but she couldn't break his grip. Changing tactics, she sat up and swung down with her hammer. It was an awkward strike, but she smashed in the back of his head, then crawled forward to drive her hammer into his spine.
The boy went limp.
“Help Perl!” Selena said, running past Maureen to aim her device up the stairs. Lore was apparently holding the flare. There was another crash from in the land-lord's office, and swearing. Maureen scrabbled to her feet and dashed in.
In the light from the one window, she could see Perl standing over a body, his sword driven into its back. “I'm fine!” he said. “Ran my knee into a chair after I killed this one.” He pulled his sword out, and massaged his knee. “Hey, if you're in here, and you're alive, come out!”
There was no response.
“Damn. Okay, next floor.”
Quickly now, they hustled up the main stairway past Selena and Lore, and made it to the second floor. There were two doors here, both opening into the stairway's landing. Both were broken in from the outside. “Selena, Lore, guard the stairs and this door.” Perl indicated one shattered door. “We'll take this one.”
This time Perl entered on the defensive, with no element of surprise. He stepped cautiously into the room, and Maureen stayed behind him, protecting his back like Sunder had taught her. The first room was empty, holding a small kitchen and two straw-stuffed beds. Maureen stepped carefully, trying to listen for the sound of movements not her own. There was some sort of scrabbling, scratching sound from the only other doorway in the room.
The room was visible, light seeping past ragged, torn curtains. Nothing was directly visible, which meant that... Maureen saw Perl motioning right, then pointing at her, and motioning left. Together they stepped slowly over to the doorway.
Perl lunged in first, and Maureen followed a moment later. She swung her hammer, and it smashed into the wall. Nothing on her side. She spun to face Perl, but there was nothing at his side either. The big man looked at her, then above her. “Watch out!” he cried.
Maureen looked up just in time to see an emaciated man detach himself from the roof, and fall down directly on her. The dead man knocked Maureen to the ground, with him on top, but Maureen had gotten her arms up in time. While clawed hands raked her sides, the man's slavering jaws could only snap shut on thin air.
Then, just as suddenly, the dead man was off quick as a bird, scampering like an animal to the window, and clambering up and out of view.
Perl stood over her, his sword dripping black blood. Then he stabbed downwards, next to her. Maureen sat up, her back to the wall, her heart racing. “Mother Water, what was that?” Looking down at the end of Perl's sword, she could see an impaled forearm, still scrabbling and twitching.
“It climbed,” said Perl. He stomped on the arm with his boot, then lifted it up on the end of his sword and walked back to the stairs. Maureen followed, keeping an eye on the window, and the roof.
“Oh gods, is that a hand?” Selena reel away from the thing. “Hey, it's missing some... oh, that's interesting.”
Perl pried it off his sword, stomped on it, and told Selena. “That one climbed on the ceiling. Keep an eye out.” He ducked into the other doorway.
“Oh, I see how it does it – there's no flesh on the distal phalanges, and they are gnawed sharp. I bet that digs into wood real well.”
Maureen checked her armor in the light of the flare. There were deep gashes in the leather, but no penetration. “Perl?” she called.
There was a hacking sound, and then the man reappeared a moment later. “Nothing there, just one room, one corpse. I cut the spine apart to be sure.”
Maureen bit her lip. “Good idea, I guess.”
“Look, I wanted to clear the building from top to bottom, but there's nothing keeping that one from just climbing down a floor and attacking us from behind. Can't have Lore guard the other room like this time, she has to play rear-guard.” He gritted his teeth. They were yellow in the light of the flare. “Both rooms at the same time.”
Which meant that she was going in alone. Joys.
The group worked their way up the stairs. Both doors were closed.
“I'll take the one with the window, you get the other one,” said Perl. “Ready?”
Maureen nodded, then drew back, and slammed into the door. It didn't budge. Next to her, Perl plowed through the other door, and charged into the middle of the room, sword swinging. The thin, gangly dead man was there, on all fours, and it leaped backwards, away from Perl's sword swings. It scrambled along the wall, twisting and turning with lightning speed to avoid Perl's slashes. Then, just for a moment, Perl's sword stuck into the wall.
Maureen charged in, but before she could reach Perl, the creature had leaped onto him, driving him backwards. The sword was still in the wall, and Perl went down under a flurry of claw strikes from skinny man. Maureen yelled, and swung her hammer in a low arc, smashing through a chair and crunching into the dead man's side. It screeched then ran out the window again.
“Damn, are you alright, Perl?”
“This is what armor is for, Maureen.” Perl groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. “Damn thing was fast. Stupid of me to get my sword stuck in the wall like that...” he stepped over and pulled it out.
“You don't sound good.”
“Got the wind knocked out of me when--”
There was a scream from the hallway, and then the sound of Lore's thunderstick amid the roar of Selena's crossbow spitting out bolts. Then the two of them dashed in the door. “It's coming!” yelled Lore, dropping the thunderstick and drawing her knife.
The doorway burst inwards, along with part of the wall. Standing in the debris was the largest man Maureen had ever seen. Except... it wasn't a man. Four arms sprouted from its shoulders, and there were exposed muscles attached on the outside of the body, oozing black blood. Maureen found herself backing up, but there was nowhere to go in the small room.
“Maureen, take out the legs!” shouted Perl, doing the same himself. He lunged forward, and slashed at one of the legs. His sword sank deep into the leg, but the creature did not falter. Instead, Perl ducked one punch, but was caught by the the next, a moment later, in the side. The heavy blow sent him tumbling backwards, bereft of his blade.
Maureen had circled the creature, and attacked as it lunged to finish off Perl. Her hammer crunched into the knee, one of the few areas not covered in layers of muscle, and Maureen felt the familiar sensation of crushing bone. Then there was a massive elbow out of nowhere, pain, and she knew nothing more.
Next: Chapter 6