----------------------------------------
Author's guide:
This is narration
This is a character's thoughts
"This is a character speaking"
----------------------------------------
Two men sat around a makeshift table made of mere planks of wood that were found around the abandoned factory they resided in, it was nailed together somewhat hastily.
"What do you want to talk about?" Ijin asked the man who sat across the table.
"It's... about your disappearance," Riro said with a monotone voice.
"There's not much I can explain, it's a complicated topic,"
"I saw what happened, I was there," Riro said as he intensified his gaze at Ijin.
"What?"
"I was there when you killed them, Darvok, Elaine and everyone else,"
Ijin' aloof attitude threatened to shatter, he took a deep sigh before looking out the window, sorting his thoughts in his head before looking to Riro with a gaze that was threatening to say thr least.
"Does Aiko know about this?" Ijin asked, he said as he leaned closer.
"N-no," Riro said with a voice that had a hint of fear.
"Keep it that way..."
"I understand why you did it... I don't blame you, you had no choice,"
The rain poured heavily, droplets of water seeped through the cracks in the dilapidated ceiling. Ijin looks up and a drop of water lands on his forehead, Ijin wipes it with the sleeve of his coat.
"You understand nothing," Ijin whispered, his voice could barely be heard, blocked out by the endless pouring rain.
"What was that?" Riro asked, confused.
Ijin tapped on the table with his fingers, listening to the rain drop before making a deep sigh.
"Thank you for attempting to understand..."
Riro looked at Ijin with an unreadable expression, perhaps a face of someone that reached closure.
"He fears you," Sierra interrupted.
Ijin looked around, Riro looked like a statue, as if he could not move. He looked out the window, the broken shards made it hard to see outside but it was clear that the droplets of rain became unmoving, frozen in place as if gravity did not exist.
"It's no secret to me," Ijin said with an aloofness only he could muster up in a situation like this.
"Didn't know you were a mind reader," Sierra said with a certain amount of cheekiness.
"What the hell do you want?"
Sierra made a manifestation of herself on the table. Her long hair reached the floorboards, her porcelain smooth skin seemed like a bright light compared to her dimly lit surroundings. It looked like she was truly in the room, and yet it also felt like she was a mere hallucination, a mere specter, it felt like she'd disappear into nothingness if Ijin were to touch her.
"I feel..." Sierra muttered.
"Feel?"
"I feel the presence of a brother,"
"We are surrounded by Anomalies, we are in a city under siege by those things, of course you're gonna feel their presence," Ijin said, not wanting for Sierra to waste his time any further.
"No..."
"No?"
"Those are our cousins, this one feels closer to home,"
"Feels closer? The hell are you saying?"
"I'm saying that there's another Reganō in this god forsaken city, and it ain't exactly friendly"
----------------------------------------
Relentless Slaughter
Chapter 13: Wailing Whites
----------------------------------------
On the evening of June 25, 1789. Fredrick and Henry sit in an alleyway within the residential district of Eichenheim. They looked up to the towering concrete apartment complexes that surrounded. The fog and rain blocked their vision but in the distance, screams of what seemed to be humans could be heard, it was clear that something was wrong.
The two Black Heart hunters cling tightly to their weapons of choice, their breathing became heavy with each passing moment.
The two hunters look to the hunter tha had joined them hohrs later.
"Are we just gonna sit here?" The hunter asked.
"We can't be sure what's out there, it could be some Eldritch horror for all we know" Fredrick said.
"Just calm down Blackburn," Henry said to the hunter.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Suddenly, a group of soldiers and hunters pass by them. Blackburn ran to them, calling out to them. Fredrick and Henry followed closely behind.
"Stop!" An authoritative old man with gray hair ordered to the three men. The hunters and soldiers that were with him drew their weapons and pointed onto Blackburn.
"We're friends! Hunters! We're fellow hunters!" Blackburn screamed out.
The group were sceptical but sheathed their weapons and approached cautiously.
"Who the hell are you?" The authority figure asked.
Blackburn was about to speak before being interrupted by Fredrick.
"Fredrick Grant, a fellow Black Heart hunter, I was assigned to the spearhead team with him" Fredrick said as he pointed towards Henry.
"I-I'm Blackburn, fellow hunter, I wa assigned to the shield team"
"George Hamilton, fellow Black Heart hunter, commander of Vanguard team," the authority figure said.
"You," George pointed to Blackburn, "You're shield team? What the hell happened? Why are you with spearhead?"
"W-we got attacked by s-something," Blackburn whimpered.
"That explains nothing! You ran away didn't you, you damm coward," George said with anger in his voice.
"Woah there, cut the kid some slack, " Fredrick attempted to mediate the situation.
George looked at Fredrick with a disapproving look on his face, "I'm the commander here," he said.
"This kid ain't a total rookie, and yet he's traumatised, a Black Heart hunter is scared, if that doesn't tell you something is wrong then I don't know what will!" Fredrick said with conviction in his voice.
George sighed heavily before motioning for his group to continue onward.
"If you want to come along then come!" The old man said out loud.
The three hunters join Vanguard team towards whatever awaited them. The rain poured heavily, the sound of their boots stomping on the flooding streets were drowned out by the rain.
After minutes of marching in the cold and heavy rain, the Vanguard team looks up to stumble upon the hanging corpses of their dead comrades. Each corpse was was held up high with what seemed to be crimson red webbing, from a weaver perhaps. Their legs dangled as their blood dripped onto the city streets below, making the waters crimson red.
"Just what the hell?" George muttered as he readied his rifle.
The group trudged on, their surroundings became more and more macabre with each step they took. The buildings that surrounded them turned red, covered by gore and blood. The flood no longer was water but blood, not water stained by blood, but blood itself. Mangled flesh and corpses of people covered every surface.
It was too much for some of Vanguard teams, some fell to their knees and threw up at the sight. Blackburn was one of these people. He fell onto his knees, soaking his lower body in blood as he threw up when he felt a cold touch on his foot. He shook and violently stumbled back, thrashing around in the blood as he screamed.
"Calm down! Get your mind set together!" George ordered.
"T-th-the hell is that?!" Blackburn said as he pointed towards a pale white hairless corpse.
Fredrick looked to the direction Blackburn pointed to before approaching it cautiously, readying his greatsword.
He stepped closer and closer to the corpse, his blood covered boots marched on until he saw it...
It was alive...
The thing was alive, it was completely hairless, its body looked like a skeleton, incredibly skinny. Its skin was pale and rough, it seemed nothing like a human. It looked onto Fredrick, the place where its eyes were supposed to be was just fog. It opened its deformed mouth and made a sound.
"Ĥæəľp!!!!"
Whatever it tried to say, it was clear it was in miserable anguish. It crawled closer towards Fredrick making sounds and noises that could only be described as flesh slapping onto bone.
"Dear God" George muttered as he looked onto the thing with horror...
But it was not alone...
Soon enough, many things like it began crawling out of nowhere towards Vanguard team, all of them making noises, wailing out in what seemed to be agony.
A mmember of team Vanguard became overwhelmed at the sight of the wailing creatures, he readied his machine gun and began firing at the horde of plae wailing creatures.
"Halt! Compose yourself!" George ordered.
The soldier did not relent and continued to fire into the group of wailing white creatures. He killed a few but more would arise from the knee deep blood and began crawling slowly.
"Just what the hell!" Blackburn screamed out in disbelief as he ran back, attempting to escape the scene.
"Blackburn!" Henry attempted to call out to the hunter.
Some soldiers and hunters followed Blackburn, leaving the Vanguard team to deal with the mess.
A hunter attempted to call out to the man soldier, attempting to stop him from wasting his ammunition on the white creatures but to no avail.
"Stop!" Fredrick called out to the soldier.
A hunter bolted towards the soldier and lunged at him, pushing him down and halting him from firing his machine gun any further, holding him down and pushing him onto the blood.
"Let me go you sick bastard!" The soldier screamed out as he attempted to push the hunter off of him.
"Stop! Stop fighting!" George ordered as his voice began to crack.
Fredrick marched onto the two fighting men to stop the fight. He pushed the hunter aside and slapped the soldier.
"Stand down! Both of you!" Fredrick said.
"This is no time to be mucking around!" Fredrick said with frustration in his voice.
A scream interrupted Fredrick, it was inhuman, too high pitched to be an animal or human, it was most certainly an Anomaly of somekind. Soon after, a large train-sized worm like thing emerged from out of nowhere, it loomed over team vanguard.
"Kill it!" George ordered as his men fired upon the thing with their guns. Machine guns, submachine guns and rifles fired upon the large Anomaly.
The worm lunged at George, killing him instantly before lunging towards the rest of Vanguard team. Fredrick chased after the Anomaly, his greatsword in hand and prepared to cut it.
Henry climbed up a building, evading the Anomaly's attack. In response, the Anomaly would smash itself onto the building's walls, causing it to crack and break.
"Henry, get out of there!" Fredrick screamed.
Henry climbed higher as the building broke down beneath his grip.
Fredrick threw himself at the worm, his greatsword over his arms before slamming it down onto the thing, cutting it into two.
The worm thrashed around, launching debris and blood all over before lunging at Fredrick.
Fredrick performed an upward slash just as the Anomaly approached, cutting it into another half.
"Kill it!" A soldier chanted before him and his comrades charged onto the Anomaly.
The soldiers and hunters stabbed the beast repeatedly until they found its heart and destroyed it.
The team sighed a breath of relief but Fredrick did not.
"We need to get out of here! We're not lasting another minute if we stay, retreat!" He ordered to the Vanguard team.
The team did not hesitate to do as they were told, they picked up their pace and ran towards a direction.
...
Hannah watched the Vanguard team from a distance, standing on top of a tall apartment complex. Her figure was completely covered in blood and she had a black eye on the right side of her face.
She took a deep breath before looking into the foggy crimson red atmosphere that surrounded where the refugee camp used to be. Her clothes flew in the wind as she squinted at the red fog.
An hour later, the fog dissipated slightly and she saw a man standing on top of a building in the distance, it was hard to see what he was doing but he was surrounded by what seemed to Anomalies.
Hannah pulled out her binoculars from within her bag and used it to get a further look. The man seemed old, the Anomalies that surrounded him did not attack him.
She looked on in silence and disbelief before the old man turned his head towards Hannah. It seemed as if he was looking at her, as ifhe knew where she was and that she was looking at him.
The man grinned mischievously, and made a hand gesture, a shushhing gesture, seemingly implying he wanted to keep his presence a secret.
Hannah dropped her binoculars in shock, she was incredibly unnerved...
And then...
She saw something in the corner of her eye...
A large figure...
It swung his arms above its head, hurling debris towards Hannah...
----------------------------------------
Relentless Slaughter
Chapter 13: Wailing Whites
Chapter end
To be continued...