Chapter 28

Anguishing in the realization of their imprisonment, stunned, their minds were spinning in panic. Standing in the dreaded silence, terry took charge, and made a desperate gamble. “If we can’t go out, then maybe we can go farther in!” Looking at him like a madman, for the first time in her life, she slapped, and screamed at him, “Are you completely out of your mind? Do you want to be tortured and killed? We can see what they are doing to the families on the outskirts, but look towards the center of the town! Just look!” Pointing at the center of the town, it appeared to be ablaze in flames and the storm was roaring, just like this area, but, once he looked closer at the center of the town, he finally noticed something off.

The area above the center of town, no bigger than a few blocks, was devoid of any clouds. There didn’t seem to be any rain coming down from the area either. It had been raining and storming so hard, he was not able to see the center clearly, being so small, and covered by the massive storm around it. He could not see what was above the clouds, but, something appeared to shine down, a dark, black and red light, that swallowed up any nearby lights, making the center appear almost like a void. He felt a shiver shoot up his spine and goose bumps form all over his body, as he looked at the void that was the center of the town. It reminded him of a trip he took once when he went, “Spelunking” inside a massive underground cave system. The cave entrance went straight down, and at the time was the darkest pitch dark he had ever seen, until now. Looking back at Janet as his mind continued to race he gave her an apologetic look and asked her, “Do you have a better idea?”

With the decision made, the two re-entered their homes, grabbing old bottles of wine, soda, and hard alcohol, and packing rags to make Molotov cocktails. They then went into the garage where they emptied the wine and soda bottles and filled them with gasoline with the exception of the hard alcohol, to use in case one of them were injured. Tying the new bottles to their sides, the two began their terrifying journey to the center of the town. They kept to their previous arrangements of keeping to the alleyways, or backyards, anywhere there weren’t people, but soon found they were having a very difficult time in making their way forward. Thinking on their feet, they began to sneak into the already destroyed homes along the way. These were not hard to find, and it came with the benefit of the area being unlikely to be searched a second time. Our luck didn’t last though as while we were cutting through a two story house along the upper-class neighborhood a few blocks from the city center we felt a light, and heard the whining of a police drone searching for…. Most likely us.

Dropping to the floor as the drone came by, we held our breaths, as the drone hovered over the living room window and we hid on the floor behind a large couch. It stayed for a moment, hovering, until it took off as Janet took out an arrow and knocked it. Aiming at the drone, she released her arrow, nailing the drone out of the sky and causing it to crash into the street. Looking back in horror I screamed, “WHY? You fool! It was leaving!” and without missing a beat Janet reacted to the horror by responding, “They already know we are here, the drone was just keeping us here, and once we go out, it would be following us, and making it much harder to escape,” Pointing at the neighbor’s house I noticed the main window curtains, moving slightly, as if they had just been closed in a hurry. “Let’s go!” Holding my spear in one hand I grabbed her hand in my spare and we fled down the street. We were already spotted, so we just needed to flee as quickly as we could and hope there weren’t too many of them chasing us.

This hope was soon dashed though as cultists began springing from every door from, every house along the street. Adrenaline rushed into my veins as I looked for any possibility of escape. Rushing towards the end of the street, I noticed a storm drain that was sucking in a ton of blood and debris, as we were slowly being enveloped by the massive group of people. Roughly counting the amount they must have been close to thirty or forty. As they approached closer I noticed that each one of them had on strange bloodied masks, and carried smaller daggers and short swords. I was not paying attention to these ones though as a few carried police revolvers as well. Watching the group of murderers surrounding us I quickly grabbed hold of Janet, stopping on a dime with her, and pointed to the drainage cover.

Stolen novel; please report.

Pushing her towards the cover, with dread in her eyes for what she knows we will have to do, I quickly took a defensive posture and readied myself for the oncoming attacks as Janet got the lid off of the manhole. Seeing us trying to pop open the top of the cover, the leader took no chances, as he pointed his revolver towards her, and pulled the trigger. Fortunately for her, I had rushed into the path of the bullet and felt it dig into my shoulder. Taking the spear in my hand I hurled it at the shooter, spearing him in through his chest, and directly through his heart, killing him instantly. Forced to use my long sword, I pulled it out as two men rushed me from behind. With the blood rain flowing into, and the stinging of, my eyes, and the noise of the storm, I could hear and see almost nothing, but I somehow heard Janet screaming to me. Turning around, I was met with the two men who had planned to jump me from behind. Stabbing at me at the same time from my front right and front left I jumped to the right side and swung up with my sword, pushing his blade upwards, and then cutting down as I cut his hand off, and let his hand and dagger fall to the ground.

Seeing an opportunity, I quickly followed up my cut with a slash to the man’s throat, as he cried out in surprise and collapsed holding his throat with his remaining hand. Seeing his friend being killed so quickly, and with me now on guard the man was now not so quick to join the fight this time, but I was somehow taken by surprise again as I felt a stinging in my side. Looking at the wound, I found a young boy, no older than 8 or 9 with an ice pick sticking into me. In my shock I quickly backhanded the little bastard and assessed the damage. I could feel the blood flowing out of me, pouring out a deep dark color, showing it had hit something I wish it hadn’t, as it fled into the street, mixing with the blood of the sky. ”Traitorous blood! How dare you run from my body in a fight!” Feeling woozy, I looked to my back where I was being charged by another few cultists. Readying myself again, I heard a whoosh, and an arrow was imbedded into the face of one of my attackers. The second attacker seeing his friend shot down attempted to stop his charge but he was already in range. I quickly sent a diagonal chop into the man’s carotid artery and neck, and kicked his now stunned and mortally wounded corpse off of my sword.

Looking back to see Janet with the lid of the manhole cover open, and putting her bow and arrow back, I made a mad dash for her as she, seeing my actions, tossed her spear into the closest enemy, and, finished tightening her bow, jumped into the abyss. Following close behind, I jumped towards the hole, feeling the fingertips of the cultists attempting to grasp me on my armor as I descended into the abyss. Here, I would discover a whole new hell and fear that made itself known almost immediately. Once I dropped into the drainage system, I felt a mad rush of blood pushing me forwards rapidly as we were bounced around the maze of the system. It was completely pitch black and everything was made of concrete, with very few places we could go up for air.

Most sections were around the same size as I was laying down, and were exceptionally claustrophobic. Holding my breath I swam forward into a strange maze like area completely covered in blood with no air holes above us. I swam as quickly as I could, trying to feel the flow of the water, and come out of the area, but everything felt still, and calm, like a lake. I swam forward faster and through multiple concrete corridors separated by square shaped doorways and four way directional valves, crawling/swimming through the blood and filth on my hands and in the pitch dark, making it almost impossible to know where you were going. I swam until I began to feel static, am I going to die drowning on this blood and filth?

After another few minutes I was convinced I was about to die. My mind began to disassociate, and my body was fighting my mind to breathe in. The only thing I could think of, was that I hoped Janet got out of the area, but at that moment I felt something brush up against me, and to my horror, it was Janet. She was unresponsive as I felt for her underwater. At that moment I knew I couldn’t let us die in the area, and using the last of my strength I began to feel around the walls. From the far left, to the far right, I felt out every part of that wall, until I felt a small piece of debris being sucked into the wall right in front of me. Feeling out the area that it was being pulled to, I finally felt a corridor that had been stopped up by trash and tree branches. Taking my sword I pushed it into the branches and twisted, immediately feeling a big pocket of air being pulled up into the room. Chopping the limbs, the clog was finally destroyed, as me and Janet were pulled into the next area.

Blacking out as I fell into the next area, I awoke coughing up the blood and nastiness of our debacle. Looking to my right I saw Janet laying still, not breathing. Panicking I tried C.P.R. and everything I could think of, but nothing worked… she died.