Sweat dripped down Leopold’s face as he hurried down the rocks. The race between The Swarm and themselves had already been tight, but the Swarm’s sudden appearance from above on the trail they were climbing had thrown any plans they had into disarray. If it weren’t for Lana blasting them off the mountain, they would probably already be dead. But she was exhausted already and using that much energy had depleted what little stamina she had left. All they could do now was hope the sound of Lana’s attack would draw the converging Swarm away, as they hid in the cave and picked off the stragglers.
Leopold stopped his descent suddenly and hugged the rock wall. Peaking down the path he could make out the shambling forms of The Swarm beginning to appear. They were still a few yards off, but he could already see dozens upon dozens of them, stumbling over themselves as they hurried up the mountain desperate to feed. With a shudder, Leopold estimated they’d be up the path in about five to ten minutes, and after that, it was just a waiting game.
Leopold backed away, doing his best to stay quiet and cursing his bulky frame every time it clanked or slowed his progress. It was only on the return trip that he realized he should have sent Rick down the mountain scouting instead. He cursed himself silently, telling himself he had to calm down and think rationally. But as the stress of their sudden stop compounded with the cries echoing off the rocks behind him, he found it hard to calm himself down.
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Jake had absolutely no idea what was going on but could tell now was not the time to ask questions. Lana was drifting in and out of consciousness, not bothering to address the wound on her arm but instead opting to lie back against the rock and close her eyes, allowing blood to stream down her arm and out into a thin trickle against the stones.
Rick wasn’t paying attention to either of them, instead putting all his focus on the narrowed entrance of the cave. Squatting low next to it, it would be difficult to spot him upon entry.
“Rick…” Jake called out in a hushed whisper, but Rick just let out a short shushing sound and shot him a low glare.
“Where is the gauze?” Jake continued, speaking even softer to try and appease Rick and avoid the attention of whatever was stalking around outside. Rick shot Jake another annoyed look before noticing the trickle of blood leaking out of Lana’s arm and pointing toward one of the bags thrown in the corner of the cave. Jake dragged himself over to the bag and dug through it for a bit before finding the role of gauze.
Jake grabbed it, and dragging himself back over to Lana examined her arm. The wound didn’t look too deep to Jake but he struggled to tell the severity of it as he looked at it. As he grabbed her arm and began to wrap gauze around the scratch, Lana let out a slight wince but otherwise gave no other reaction. Jake wondered what the hell had happened to her; she looked drugged and out of it but the scratch on her arm wouldn't do that. As Jake was starting to worry she might have a concussion, Leopold returned to the cave.
“We have about five minutes before they arrive, after that, we need absolute silence, understood?”
That last question was directed at Jake, who gave a nod. After receiving his confirmation, Leopold’s face broke into one of concern before he asked,
“Is she ok?”
“I don’t know, her arm’s scratched and she has like a concussion or something?”
Leopold let out a short, low laugh before saying,
“She’s not concussed kid, just exhausted. Used all her remaining stamina blasting away Swarm coming at us from above. You didn’t hear her?”
“No, should I have?” Jake said, a confused look on his face.
Leopold let out a sigh before a nervous chuckle escaped his mouth and said,
“It’s fine you didn’t I guess, just means her blast didn’t create much collateral damage. Probably means the path will still be clear, which is good I guess. The problem is, if you didn’t hear it then The Swarm below us definitely didn’t hear it. Means there’s nothing to distract them from rushing into here.”
He turned to Rick as he was talking and jerked his head toward Jake before adding,
“Pass the kid a knife, Rick.”
Rick offered no argument this time, silently pulling a knife out from somewhere under his cloak which he handed to Leopold, who finished the chain and passed the knife into Jake’s hands.
“Hope you won’t need that kid. Now everyone, stay quiet.”
At Leopold's last worst, a horrid screech was heard from beyond the cave’s walls. It wasn’t the last, as soon the sound of bone-chilling shrieks and screams and bare flesh pounding against rock filled the air. Leopold took a position directly in front of the cave entrance, as if daring the creatures hunting him to attack, and pulled a broadsword from a scabbard attached to his belt. He stood silent and firm, and soon the only movement filling the air was that of The Swarm beyond the cave. It soon sounded as if the first few waves had moved past the cave and continued forward, but the shrieks of their advancement were unending.
Jake held his breath on instinct, trying subconsciously to attract as little attention as possible. He hoped that soon The Swarm would pass without noticing the cave, and he and the trio would be allowed to rest and talk. However much he hoped, though, soon a particular shriek grew closer and closer accompanied by a click and sniffing sound. Soon, a figure appeared at the entrance of the cave.
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He was gaunt, almost a skeleton with grey flesh hanging from his hunched, animalistic frame. He had rotted nails, grown out till they resembled claws that seemed to barely hang to his form anymore. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, yellow pupils moving in erratic motions. As soon as he caught sight of Leopold, his erratic movement ceased as they locked onto him. His mouth opened to reveal his jaw hung loose from his skull, looking dislocated, revealing rows of yellowed pointed teeth. A screech began to erupt from his throat as he leaped forward in a hunch, trying to claw at Leopold.
His screech died in his throat, never being completed as a knife lodged itself into the side of his head causing him to fall from the air in a crumpled heat. Rick moved forward from his hiding spot and roughly yanked his knife from The Swarm’s head, before turning to Leopold.
“Help me block the entrance with him, his pack will be coming soon.”
Even for Rick, the amount of vitriol in his voice as he spoke about the man he just killed shocked Jake, but Leopold seemed unsurprised or uncaring as he broke the statuesque pose he stood in since The Swarm first appeared and helped Rick roughly shove the corpse into the cave’s entrance. Sure enough, as they were moving, Jake could begin to hear a dozen or so shrieks start to get closer and closer.
It wasn’t long before they appeared at the entrance of the cave, and though they all looked roughly the same as the first to appear they were all distinct in Jake’s eyes. They all wore different remains of tattered clothing, where different heights, and all had varying amounts of different color hair still clinging to their scalp. Despite their uniqueness in Jake’s eyes, they all moved in the same animalistic way as the first, moving in for the kill as soon as they locked eyes on their prey.
Rick and Leopold showed no mercy to the oncoming Swarm as it threatened to break through the entrance of the cave and devour the group fighting inside. With each few that came, a brief respite followed before the next wave of Swarm would find their way to attack the cave. In that respite Rick and Leopold would frantically drag and stack the corpses of the slain, trying to create a blockade of the dead.
Soon, the oncoming Swarm were struggling to make their way into the cave, unable to force their way past the wall of corpses before being added to it. Before long the wall of rotted corpses had sealed the cave off entirely. Yet The Swarm on the other side didn't leave. Instead, their horrid shrieks grew more determined, and the thumbing of their fists breaking against the flesh of the wall grew more numerous as more and more Swarm joined the cause of breaking the barrier separating them from their prey.
Rick and Leopold took positions further back from the wall, waiting for when the dam they created would burst. Meanwhile, Jake was left to care for Lana. Despite the shrieking of The Swarm outside the cave and thundering above the mountainside, Lana had completely fallen asleep soon after Leopold returned. She remained non-responsive no matter what Jake tried to rouse her. Though Leopold said her condition was nothing to worry about, he couldn’t help it as magical symptoms were something he was entirely alien to.
All at once the dam burst, as the stacked corpses of The Swarm collapsed inward mixing in with the rushing bodies of the still living Swarm creating a cloud of confusion. Rick and Leopold tried their best to fend off The Swarm but they were being attacked from every angle. Leopold swung his sword, cleaving members of The Swarm in two only to find three more members replaced the one he’d just felled. His armor was his only lifeline. It allowed him to move as he wished in the center of the cave, confident no Swarm’s rotted jaw was strong enough to rip through the metal he wore. He was confident the only way The Swarm would fell him was if he was overwhelmed and pulled to the ground, which is why he became more and more nervous as more Swarm began to stream into the cave.
As for Rick, while he had no armor protecting him, he was far faster than The Swarm, allowing him to easily dodge their basic animalistic movements and hunt the growing crowd. He was grateful for Leopold’s bold movements as without the flashy armor he swung around drawing the swarm’s attention, even with his faster speed he would have been overwhelmed long ago.
But something else was flashier than Leopold's armor, especially in the dark of the cave, and one Swarm knocked back by a random swing of Leopold's suddenly locked its eyes on something else. The soft glow illuminating Jake’s leg was hypnotic to it. It sprung forward on all knees, bounding like a wolf towards its prey as it desperately tried to reach Jake. Jake noticed the bounding Swarm right as it was about to pounce on his chest and hurriedly raised his knife to try and intercept his attacker.
He felt resistance against the knife as it plunged into the hollow chest of The Swarm. Black, thick blood pooled out from the wound across his hands and for the first time, he got a good look at his attacker. It looked female to Jake, based on the ragged remains of the dress she was wearing. But what struck Jake was the long strands of black hair that still clung to her rotting scalp. He was suddenly reminded of his sister, who always whined to Mom about being allowed to grow her hair out. Jake remembered one summer when he was younger, she kept whining about so much mom finally relented and let her grow it down as long as she wanted. His sister had expected it to reach her ankles, but it never got below her shoulders, where she kept it to this day.
Jake pulled the knife out quickly, winding up to stab the head of the still-flailing Swarm but froze, his hands shaking. Looking into the eye of the monster in front of him, the erratic movements were gone and he thought he could see something like despair calling out to him, begging for mercy. All at once as he sat frozen The Swarm lurched forward, her dislocated jaw aimed to rip his throat apart. Jake barely had time to react, he could feel her teeth closing in on his throat when all at once she went limp and collapsed into his lap. A knife stuck out the back of her head.
Jake looked up to see Rick giving him a complicated expression before moving on to continue the extermination of The Swarm left in the cave. Jake remained there, hands shaking coated in the ever-growing pool of black, viscous blood.
When at last, the rest of The Swarm lay dead on the rocks, and the shrieks outside were retreating into the distance, Leopold and Rick were exhausted. Neither knew how many hours had passed since they first took shelter in the cave, but neither could move much anymore. Rick was bent over on his hands and knees, struggling to take in breath while Leopold collapsed where he stood in the center of the room, surrounded by a pile of shriveled corpses.
“Told… Told you the cave was a bad idea…”
Leopold gulped out between breaths before collapsing backward onto the ground. In response, Rick kicked a small pebble at Leopold before collapsing down next to him, eliciting a small chuckle from the gasping Leopold before he passed out leaving Jake alone in the cave, listening to the shriek's above slowly retreat into the distance and trembling in the monsters blood.