Hanging on Bones

Chapter 10: Pendant and Saw

Without a risk there is no gain, so I decide to help her.

Instead of trying to reattach my broken arm, or taking the knife in the other one, I secure both of them into my ribcage.

I quickly run up to the struggling pair and grab the blade sticking out of his back. How the hell is he managing to keep on standing is an wonder for me. Quick pull back, shove and circular sawing motion solve that problem. He soon topples over. There must be total mish-mash inside of that chainmail.

While massaging her neck with one hand, the kite-lady looks at me with pained expression.

‘Thanks’ she says with the broken glass voice. ‘But you should have ran’

With these words she swipes my legs from under me. Damn. I made the wrong choice! I hit the grave slab with clattering sound and prepare to meet my doom. But to my surprise she simply takes the blade from me. Picking her shield up and moving them both in ready position, she throws a glance at me and says. ‘Never, EVER loose that pendant’ And off she goes toward the three warriors and a mage.

What pendant?

I’m still stunned by the impact and this sudden development, as she clashes with the warriors. What is going on here, damn it!! Arghhhhh!!! F**k this! No time for thinking! Got to run!!

I roll to the side, pick up the spear and start escaping. There’s no way I will leave it if there is free loot in my reach. As a bonus, the flails are still tangled up with the spear. I put the whole messy contraption on my shoulder bone and run up the slope.

There are heavy clashes of fighting but I do not turn to look. It would make me slow down and is too risky. Only thing that makes me jump is this fireball that passes right by me.

Explosion is spectacular and I would never survive it. But in order to pass this mess of graves quickly, I’m weaving between headstones and trees, running quite chaotically on the path of least resistance. That must make it hard to aim.

Quick glance back to make sure nothing else is flying at me and I see that this is not the first spell that mage has cast. In the place he was standing before there is huge blue portal. No wonder it took him so long.

Soldiers and mages are pouring out of the blue oval shaped hole in space. They are all running in my direction completely ignoring kite-lady. Only the ones she directly attacked are fighting her. Am I really that important? Maybe they really are completely mad, huh?

At least the initial position of the mage was quite far off and I managed to increase the distance even further. At this rate, there’s no way they will catch me.

Few moments and I’m already at the stairway to heaven. I throw the spear as I approach it and then run up the launching pad I never got to use. The jump took me half the way and few more quick movements got me on top.

They are far off but I will not leave anything to chance. I grab the spear and run with all my might for safety.

I will never be able to hide this spear in the grave, while leaving it on the surface might reveal my position. So few minutes later, when I’m on one of the main paths and have more space, I start fumbling with it to release the flails. Doing it while running, with only one hand is quite difficult. But few tries and I discover that simply sliding the whole tangled mess off the shaft will do the trick. I stop myself from doing that at the last moment. Only one hand will not hold two things after all.

Fighting with my own greed all the way, I finally decide to get rid of the spear at one of the rows near my grave. It will be risky. But there are no gains without the risks.

I make the quick change over and I’m left with the flails. Spear is lying between two graves in such a way, that it is hard to spot from the distance.

Those balls will be quite a dangerous weapon to handle. I can easily break my own bones with it. But at the same time, it should be much more useful against heavily armoured opponents.

I’m soon at my own grave. Not wasting any more time, I slide the slab and hide myself inside. Quick practiced movements and I’m again in the total dark of closed grave. I will wait this out.

Aaahh the relief. I’m safely in my grave again. I never thought the grave can feel so nice and comfortable. Going back deep inside, I stretch myself on my resting place. The heavenly feeling of putting my skull on soft pillow is simply amazing. Good I cleaned it out yesterday. There’s just little time left before the sunrise.

But what was she talking about? What pendant? I don’t have any pendant with me, now do I? I’m bare bones. Only things I had on me, is the stuff I stolen from Valkyria. Well, I never checked what’s inside my skull, but she should not have been able to see that either, right? Wait… The ribs… I have one rib broken and I cannot see that place clearly. It’s high up on the back. What? Did something got stuck over there? Damn! I do remember seeing something hanging over there back on the first day! How could I have forgotten!! Still… so many things happening at the same time…

Damn it! Well it’s not like I can do anything about it in this dark. The sun must be up, because I’m getting reaaaly sleepy. Damn it… too sleepy……

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What the f**k?

Do I simply pass out when the sun comes up? I don’t have any choice over it? F***ing lunacy!!

…

Bright sides… think of bright sides… Ha! I will never suffer insomnia again!

Wait, wait… My shattered arm is attached again… scratches and chips left on ribs are missing too… It has all fixed itself while I slept… that’s one weirdness after another… but I guess I should have expected that after bones of my feet reattached themselves. I bet all the blood is gone too.

I feel its dark outside.  But I’ve got to be careful. They might still be out there waiting for me.

Few checks and I’m out. No one in sight.

Let’s see…

As expected, no blood on me. Few tries and I still cannot see the place of my broken rib. The pendant should be there, right? Right??

Well whatever. I don’t feel like taking off my skull to check it. Besides, if it did not dislodge itself with all the movements that I made till now, then it must be secure there.

But who knows? Maybe she was as mad as the rest of them.

For now I should check my possessions.

First the equipment… I have one knife that I kept hold off in my broken arm. Then there are flails which might do me more harm than good. Small sacks with money and strange potion make my rotten off heart go fuzzy and warm. Then there is cut up harness and the useless boots. Ah! The pillow! I also have the pillow! Never forget the pillow!

Well then… also on my bony self, there are knee protectors and belt with straps for scimitars. I won’t need those.

Playing with belts and straps a little I get rid of the excess material and adjust reminder to hold the knife.

What to do about the flails? There’s no way I can secure them properly like this… Even if I manage to get the straps to keep the baton in place, the movements of my body would swing the balls harming me in the process…  That cannot be good.

Either way, I guess I better check how to use them.

First swing goes relatively easy and with lot of noise I shatter piece of next door grave. Oops I didn’t want to do that…  Easier, easier…. Another swing…

Few tries and I abandon all attempts at wielding this weapon. I almost shattered part of my ribcage with one of the swings. Other, almost took off my newly re-attached left arm.

Thanks but no thanks. That is definitely not a weapon for me.

Damn, such a shame. I had high hopes for that thing.

Spear then! I got to retrieve the spear!

But first… the flails get stowed away in the grave, while the pouches get properly secured to my belt. I do not plan on leaving them here any longer. Last time I almost didn’t make it back. Who knows what will happen next. And there are thiefs running around.

Alright then off I go.

Quick but cautious trip to place I stashed spear and I’m back at my grave. It’s long and I don’t feel comfortable wielding it, but at least I will not break myself with it. Plus I have both hands now.

I have plenty of night left so I better explore some more. Still I do not feel like going back downhill where the humans are pouring out from. I guess checking out old crypts and rest of my vicinity is better idea.

Trek up hill is quite uneventful, except for meeting several of my dumb brethren. I spotted plenty of skeletons and few zombies. There was something running around in the shadows, following zombies from the distance, which might have been ghoul I guess. Luckily, there are no signs of combined family giants or anything worse.

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I played around with one of the skeletons. Prodding it with spear, this way and that proved to have no effects. It completely ignored me. Totally and utterly.  I even tried to put my spear into its hand, and make it grip it. But to no avail. Nothing worked. Only thing I didn’t try was dismembering it or breaking its bones. That would be very hostile and who knows how the rest of this crowd would react.

Except for ghoul, none showed any kind of recognition or though pattern, so I simply bypassed them. Damn, I don’t want to finish as one of those guys.

But what about the ghoul? What does his reaction mean? Maybe, basic folklore one-o-one applies here huh. Drinking blood makes you into vampire while eating rotten flesh makes you into mad animalistic sicko? I better don’t go to bed with any zombies then.

Leaving them to themselves I proceeded further upwards. The crypts that I’m aiming at are situated on the other side of the hill where the steepness does not allow for many normal graves. The difference between level of each row is too high. But there is little to none space wasted on this cemetery. Over the years the city officials thought of use for places like these. The crypts with their one and half meter height are going into the hill instead of downwards like normal graves. The doors for them vary from all kinds of metal gates to fixed marble with stone handles.

Those places might prove perfect hiding spots. I only have to manage to find one that is unoccupied. Seeing how many of the graves in this cemetery are already empty I doubt it will be a problem.

But before that, there should be some kind of small building somewhere near the top. The grounds keepers have to keep their toys somewhere, right? There’s plenty of small shacks scattered in out of the way places across this cemetery.

Searching this way and that, on top of this three and grave covered hill, does not make me more visible then before and I quickly find the shack I was looking for. Its small wooden building, that seems about to fall apart. It makes it easier to get inside though. Looking around leaves me agape in wonderment. The equipment here looks brand new! There are shovels, pickaxes, rakes, axes, saws, bags, ropes, ladders and other stuff proper caretaker would need. But what caught my attention the most and would make me hold my breath in wonderment is the chainsaw! F***ing chainsaw! Buahahaha! Unbelievable!! I can mow them down!! Haha! F**k the spear and flails! I can easily defend myself now!

Checking the mechanism and controls reveals it’s surprisingly hard to use. I manage to make it work after good half an hour. In addition to finger trigger, it has two locking mechanisms preventing it from misfiring. It also needs special cord to be pulled before use. All in all it makes a hell lot of a noise when working full throttle but when in idle mode it’s surprisingly quiet. Better than I expected considering the size of this thing. It must have been used to cut down big old oak trees or something.

I grab the ropes and make proper harness for my chainsaw. It’s quite big so I will have to carry it on my back.  Looking through the shack once more I decide to take several more things. First on my list is the small axe. There are several different kinds here, but since I already have heavy duty weapon I prefer my backup to focus more on speed over the heavy blow. I can also easily tuck it behind my belt. Next are the rags, cigarettes caretaker smoked and the tree glass bottles of paint thinner. Yeah, the Molotov cocktails are my favorite kind. I secure them by tying the rope between my belt and the bottlenecks. Lighter goes to one of my pouches.  The last thing I take is small fuel canister for the chainsaw. I manage to carry it with one hand while I keep the spear in the other. I have really hard time leaving the hammer, screwdrivers, shovel and pickaxe, but decide to come back for them later. I would carry out everything at once if I only could, but first comes place to store this stuff.

Getting out of the shack I check if the place secure. Seems like most of my bony family disappeared. Most likely the hunt is on.

Quickly moving to the other side of the hill I reach the crypts. There are many here, and soon enough I notice open ones. Paranoia never leaves me though and just to be sure I leave the first ones and go deeper down the hill and further into the rows. After reaching suitable place I start inspecting possible candidates. Many are sealed tight with double locks and many padlocks while some have broken or rusted entry gates. Only few meet my standards for safety and accessibility.

But finally I found the one I was looking for. It is quite an old one which unlike majority here, uses big heavy marble slab gate to block the entrance. A bit of pulling by the handles and prodding gets it open. Sure enough coffin that used to be inside is crumbled almost to dust, with no signs of the remains. Closer inspection reveals nothing of value and bit of shoving makes more space. Yeah this one will make for perfect hideout and storage space. I leave spear and fuel inside. Well I guess I should now bring rest of the useful stuff from the shed.

Due to chainsaw, going back up is a bit more difficult. The weight does not seem to matter much, but its distribution does. The balance. Now that I don’t have the canister in tow, it’s really hard to keep it. Hmm… Ah! The boots! The useless boots! With the ropes I can somehow fill them up and tie them down to me. It should provide me with both weight and protection! That’s good. One problem almost solved.

As I reach the top something else seems odd though. I’m totally alone now. No skeletons, zombies or ghouls whatsoever. It seems that if I’m not careful, things might get really bad.

Well, let’s leave the shack alone for now. Safety comes first. I should head back to my grave for now.

Carefully and quietly going down the hill I don’t notice anything strange for a while.

Ah there it is… I hear some noises directly below me. It’s straight on the path to my grave. But they seem to be quite preoccupied.  I might as well see what is going on huh. As they say, curiosity killed the cat. But as usual, I can’t help myself.

Several meters of stealthy approach and I see them more clearly. There are five skeletons fighting with lone armored warrior

Moving few more meters I wonder. Lone warrior means plenty of good equipment. This one has standard leather armor and single short sword. I don’t really need the weapon, but the rest might prove useful.

But how do I do it? Do I use the chainsaw? Naah too much noise. I guess dagger and the small axe will do. I will have to aim for a throat and make sure armor is in good condition though.

I stealthily approach as I think those things. He’s down to two more skeletons and I’m in the next row to them, when suddenly there is big explosion in the distance to our left. He turns, but luckily does not notice me. The quiet unintelligent skeletons continue to attack though, and one bites in on the left arm of the warrior.  Ahh~~~ my armor!!

The warrior quickly slices the last opponents to pieces. Observing the fights from up close I noticed what made the skeletons stop move. Seems like there are few steps to it. First is disconnecting the skull from the spine. Then shattering the spine in several places. Last is breaking the skull. Otherwise they simply continued to attack while segmented or tried to pick themselves up.

Taking closer look at the scene, the warrior started sheathing his sword. But before he has time to finish it, I rise up from behind and slide his throat from ear to ear. I guess the knife was enough this time.

Looking in the distance I see few smoking remains in the area where the explosion took place. No one is moving anywhere near that place.

Well now, I guess free stuff just drops into my hands today.

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Author: RRL Stuff... I promise to speed up things from now :) Also like Lv1slime always says and I whole heatedly concur:

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