Night 46: Into The Nightmares’ Nest

--- Jon ---

Finding a perch to watch the storm drain cover was as easy as climbing the tallest building on the block, a location that given the way the Creep he was tracking moved by leaping and crawling along building laws meant that he’d be relatively safe until the hours beyond dawn. And while he was nowhere near stupid enough to actually sleep near the entrance to a nest of monsters, he was able to close his eyes and rest enough that staying up through the night wouldn’t hinder him.

As he laid in wait, he slowly flipped a knife across his fingers, the action more muscle memory than actual intent, but just active enough to make sure he didn’t nod off with his eyes closed. One of the more useful tricks that Quartermaster Rogers had taught him during their numerous hunts of the Corrupted.

In this state of half-consciousness he counted roughly three more Creeps using this particular drain cover via the sound of it scraping closed echoing through the night air. A sign that he probably would’ve ended up being cut off by at least one of them on his exit route if he’d tried to enter the nest the moment he’d found it, rather than waiting for them to return to their den.

Eventually his phone began ringing, signaling sunrise nearing. And as such he forced himself awake by pulling a water bottle out of his pack and dumping it over his head, pushing the dregs of whatever exhaustion filled him back for a couple more hours.

A little more aware than moments prior he took in the scene around him, spotting a few rays of light just beginning to crest over the horizon, and a few cars moving through the streets for those getting to work early or leaving their night shifts behind. (Need to move quick before the actual morning traffic gets here.)

Using a nearby fire escape to make his way down to ground level, he pulled out his phone and made sure that the map of the local storm pipes he’d found during the night was still loaded for when he went into a space with no signal to reload it. Admittedly this wasn’t the best map, given how apparently only the main streets had walkable storm drains beneath them, all of which eventually traced back to the city's lake.

(Really hoping I don’t have to fight another lake monster.) He sighed, because it would be just his luck that he’d have to fight another massive monster on a small wooden boat without being eaten.

Sighing to himself he removed the drain cover before waking up the little fairy sleeping in his pocket. “Come on Pix, we’ve got work to do.”

The little fairy climbed out of his pocket before taking flight with a yawn as she sleepily looked around.

“Mind giving me a light?” He asked, gesturing to the hlole in the ground. “Found where these things are nesting but I’d rather not give them enough light to spot me.”

Pix gave him a determined nod, realizing that they were getting to the dangerous part of one of their ‘hunts’.

As he climbed down the ladder to the drains, Pix followed behind him while bending the light of her natural glow in such a way that it’d make things just a little more visible without actually giving their position away. A trick that turned the drain pipes from total darkness, to shadows much more resembling the forest of Blackwell’s moonlit nights.

Looking around he took another glance at the drain map and compared it to his compass’s latest heading before starting towards an intersection of pipes closer to the center of the city’s storm drain system.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Every so often he’d pause to check the walls he could find numerous claw marks on the walls and flooring, including several that looked faded and worn as if they’d been there for years and slowly eroded away.

(In which case why hasn’t the city’s maintenance reported the claw marks to Sanctuary or the Guild?) He frowned, fairly certain that if Sanctuary knew about even the possibility of these nests they’d be burning them down or at the very least they would’ve let the Hunters know about them in the hopes of limiting the damage caused on Halloween. (Curious…)

Still regardless of why they’d been allowed to nest in these pipes, the claw marks at least confirmed that he was heading in the right direction. Something that was further underlined when he came across a large sleeping mass.

Carefully he took a photo of the creature, knowing that in the dim light his phone would only pick up a blob in the shadows, but (hopefully with a few more pictures I’ll be able to prove that there are nests in these tunnels.)

After all he wasn’t naive enough to believe professionals would just take his word for it.

With the photo taken he shifted around the lone beast and considered how best to kill it without generating so much noise that he awoke any other nearby Creeps.

(Hide is too thick for the knife.) He figured just from the size of the creature. (Axe it is.)

Reaching into his pack he pulled the axe out and lined it up with the Creeps skull, much the same way he would when Rogers conned him into chopping wood for the camp’s bonfires before raising it up and bringing it down with a heavy and wet thud.

Part of him panged with a touch of guilt over killing the creature in its sleep, after all this was nothing like the Corrupted whom killing was an act of mercy. Especially if you could make it stick permanently.

The rest of him however was too paranoid from having thousands of Corrupted trying to kill him to risk leaving a threat on his exit path if he could help it. Especially given the Creep’s reported body count.

Either way, killing it quick was as much of a mercy as he could afford, without putting himself or possibly someone else at risk.

Pix landed on his shoulder and patted his helmet with an understanding chirp, knowing that he didn’t enjoy killing. (No matter how good I am at it.)

He pat the little fairy between her antenna before continuing on through the drainage pipes.

With first contact established, he made sure to keep a more focused eye on his surroundings, his purpose for being here reconfirmed as he walked into the darkness once more.

At times he’d pass the occasional ladder to the surface before adding it to his mental map, knowing that now that he was nearing the actual nest, getting to the surface was going to be far more important than making his way back to that first entrance.

Eventually he came across another chimera sleeping in a curled up ball, and just like with the first he lined his axe up before putting the Creep down with a thud and a squelch. The only difference being that this time he waited until the creature was dead before taking a photo of it with the axe in its skull.

More than a little morbid, he’d freely admit, but it’d make the photos more believable. Especially since with the beast dead he could afford to let Pix give him a little more light to see the Creep in the picture.

Not that he ever wanted to see the face of something he’d killed, (but proving there’s a problem down here is more important than what I want.)

And so he continued through the pipes slowly chipping away at the number of Creeps that would crawl out of the ground to invade the city each night, his steps never slowing and never stopping so long as the job needed finishing.

With another Creep dead he ran a hand through his hair before running it down his face.

(These last two were barely a minute apart, I can’t be much further from the center of the ne… oh.) He swallowed as Pix’s light lit up the next chamber, not enough to see through the darkness but still enough to make out a good dozen or so sleeping masses shifting in the shadows.

(Too close to kill in their sleep…) He noted with a frown as he took in as much of the room as he could. (Going to need to figure something else out.)