Chapter 27

While we were inside of the makeshift house, and eating the canned foods that I had brought the family, he continued his story about the town’s origin and history. Taking another scoop of re-heated beef stew from its wooden bowl he renewed his prior story. “We didn’t understand what was happening at the time, and even if we did who would have believed us? Seven years ago the earth was completely normal. We would have passed out in fright from any of the things we see on almost a regular basis now. Right now, if you travel for a few days into the heart of the old village, you can see a whole group of monsters! Real monsters! They even have a troll that’s as big as a house! A troll! I’m sure you have seen them before, so I know you don’t think I’m crazy. But can you imagine? If you hadn’t seen them before, and come here, hearing me ranting and raving about them. What would you think? You would think me mad! I always think back to those days when old McGunny was still around. He went berserk towards the end. Trying to attack newcomers and claiming that they were hiding monsters and feeding the children to them. I wish I would have listened to the old bastard, but at the time he was already known for not being, "right in the head from the war.”

There is no medicine for regret. Once the gates to the castle were open it was only a matter of time until our quiet paradise turned into a hell. More and more families fled the town and for every house abandoned one more cult follower was brought in. Until the disappearances suddenly stopped. Except, they didn’t actually stop, but a new more nefarious phase of their plans began instead. The families that were left were mostly from the poorer areas and could not afford to move. They began taking extreme measures to ensure their safety. Everyone began buying the largest, scariest, and meanest dogs they could find and place them outside their front yards to patrol their area. Self-defense weapons were flying out of nearby stores and no one ever traveled alone anymore. It began to feel like a prison. But, we found we underestimated the enemies reach once more. The city council, and local law enforcement began a county wide ban on dogs citing an outbreak of, "rabies" and other, "k-9 diseases" that had never been prevalent in the area. Then, just like that, dogs were illegal citing, "health concerns."

They fined anyone with a dog in their yard $400 a day until they got rid of the animal. We began calling up news stations and our government but we had no idea how deep these people had hidden themselves. We couldn’t even speak to a news station before they killed the story and threatened legal action for us trying to talk about it. They even sent the town residents letters where they threatened prison, or worse for disclosing, “State secrets” It was then that we understood how deep the rabbit hole that we had just fallen into was. We weren't going to get any help for this problem. We were on our own.This continued for some time until we began hearing rumors of entire families disappearing together. The police department was adamant in their refusal of our complaints but they wouldn’t even write up a ticket or anything. This all culminated in the last night that we stayed in the town. That night was stormy and the wind was howling like a siren. The moon was full and the night sky was blanketed in deep and dark thunderclouds! This was almost normal at this point, being a full moon out, but the thing that was different this time, was that once it hit midnight, the sky turned a deep, dark red and began to rain blood, with snakes, and toads, all over the town. Terrifying the few normal residents who were left. Once this sign came about all the new residents came out of their homes at the same time wearing a black cloak and hood and holding a torch in their right hands.

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They marched out of their houses and began to walk towards their nearest normal neighbor where they pulled out a short sword, or dagger, and began rushing their homes. It instantly turned into a nightmare where people were being gutted through and everyone was running for their lives. Fortunately for us, I was an avid medieval reenactment buff and I even went to quite a few A.C.S. or Armored combat Sports, events and participated. I ran to my gear as I was being chased into the house by a cultist. I saw my spear under my bed as I sprinted and slid on my knees, reaching under the bed and turning to my back as I shot a quick jab with the spear while jamming the back spike into the floor, and bracing for the impact. Not even a second later I could feel the impact from his body piercing into the spear, and completely running him through as his weight was used against him. Pulling the spear from the corpse I quickly put on my armor with the help of Janet and I loaded her up with whatever else I had laying around the area. Walking out the front I found the neighbors had lied to the city, and had kept their massive Cane Corso who was now munching on the face of its second intruder. Apparently they weren’t expecting this much resistance as when they saw me and my wife carrying spears and swords and the neighbor’s dog crushing his former friends face, he took off running.

Looking into my neighbors now destroyed house I was saddened to see he had passed away with his family. Though I did find some solace that he was avenged by the massive dog outside. We decided to try and take our car outside the town but to our dismay none of the vehicles were working. We tried to take the keys from the neighbors as well but once we tried to start their car, nothing happened. Taking out my phone I finally understood what was going on. We were hit by an EMP. Our phones were out and fried. We had to move on foot. Making a quick side mission to our shed to pick up my wife’s bow and arrow we continued to move towards the outskirts of the town. Our plan was to stick to the back ways and backyards and only use main streets as a last resort. We had no idea how many of these people were out there and we were confused about the EMP. Are we at war with someone?

Sneaking out of the alleyway we began our descent into madness. Bodies lined the streets and hooded cultists were out in numbers. We saw their main group a couple of times from the distance. They were terrifying with their number alone. They dragged out screaming families from their houses as they begged for their children’s lives. However, it was all for nothing as they always did the same things to the children. The males would be tied to a pentagram as they cut their wrists, ankles and finally their throats. They would then use their abominable creation to spin in the air while they would soak in their blood as they continued their strange rhythmic chant. The women were even worse as they would tie them up, and look for any of their relatives still alive, usually a parent. They would then cut the mother or fathers eye lids off so they could not hide their gaze for what was about to happen. Once their eyes were open to see they would strip the young girl nude and tie pieces of straw to her body. They would then set her alight in a massive straw man. This was done as dozens of young girls were burnt alive at the same time screaming with the mixed sorrow and pain of their caregivers.

Making our way past the insanity of the cultists we made it towards the guard booths of the fenced in area. Making my way up front I found the guard with a missing head and a body that seemed to be missing a heart. I knew that because the heart was placed in his hand. Making our way out of the area, we ran for the forest and burst into the trees, feeling the euphoria of making our escape! But we realized to our horror that we somehow came out of the bushes in our backyard. Utterly confused and shocked we looked around only to see the neighbor’s dog still sitting on its front porch right next to the corpses of the two cultists. We had come back around again! How is this possible?