Sometime during the storm they had both fallen asleep. When Chuck woke up, the sun was shining weakly through the cloud cover. It was still drizzling out but he could finally take in his surroundings. It looked like the pickup was parked on some kind of raised, flat platform made of black rock. Luckily there were two wide stairs coming up to the platform that he should be able to drive down.
What looked like a massive graveyard surrounded the platform and went off into the distance in front of them. Behind them was more graveyard which butted up against a cliff face filled with caves. There were gnarled dead trees dotted around but the platform was the highest structure.
Off to the sides the graveyard had turned into a swamp which then turned into steep hills that connected to the cliff. Most of the ground was flooded with murky water with tombstones sticking out. The stairs in front of them led to a stone roadway that seemed mostly dry and went off in a straight line as far as he could see. The stairs behind led to a cavern entrance that was bigger than the rest of the caves and could easily fit the pickup.
Movement caught his eye as he was looking around and he swore as a skeleton was shambling around one of the open tombs. As he watched, a second skeleton came out of the tomb. Chuck quickly took another look around and spotted more of them, a lot more. A shiver ran down his spine as he realized the place was infested with animated skeletons.
The skeletons were definitely not human so he hadn’t been brought back to Earth. Not that there were skeletons walking around on Earth. He was starting to freak out a bit so had to take a few deep, slow breaths to relax. None of them had noticed the pickup yet so that was good. It had been idling all night so the noise didn’t seem to bother them. The skeletons didn’t have eyes or ears so that kind of made sense.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
If it was like in the movies, they were probably drawn to the living so could sense living creatures somehow, but he was just guessing. If that was the case, he wasn’t sure why none had been drawn to the pickup. It could be that they were too far away, as none of the skeletons were close to the platform. He really wished he had more information.
Most of the skeletons were bipedal but there were a few that walked on all fours. Their skulls were grotesque and filled with sharp fangs and most had claws. There were a variety but it didn’t look like any of them fit the residents he had seen in the new world he had been exploring. Maybe when Tess woke up she would know something.
To get a better look, he grabbed the binoculars from behind the seat. They weren’t any less grotesque through the binoculars and they seemed to have some sort of black miasma surrounding them. He theorized it was the magic holding them together but as usual he didn’t know how it worked.
With a yawn, Tess woke up and stretched. “Good morning.” She said, smiling at him. “What’s wrong?” She asked, noticing the frown on his face. Chuck gave her the binoculars and told her to have a look. “I don’t suppose you know anything about skeletons?”
She slowly looked around using the binoculars before speaking. “Dungeons are the only places I know of that have skeleton monsters but I’ve never been in one.” Chuck had heard about dungeons but there had been none near Axtol or the capital and he had no desire to risk his life in one. Tess told him what little she knew about the creatures which was mostly what he figured. The main difference was that taking off their head didn’t do much so if you didn’t use holy magic your best bet was to take off the arms and legs to stop their mobility.
“So you think we might be in a dungeon?” He said looking at the sky. “If we are it isn’t like any dungeon I’ve heard of.” she replied, also looking up. The descriptions he had of dungeons were that they were like caves or labyrinths and did not include a sky. Chuck still didn’t know where they were but he knew for sure they couldn’t stay here.