The white knuckle driving continued through the night with little change. Chuck was thankful that the gas tank was full as stopping would be a death sentence. The road was unchanged except for a section that sunk down and was covered in water. When they came upon that, he nearly had a heart attack but the water wasn’t deep and they made it through with no problems.
Chuck didn’t know how long they had been driving but the pickup had less than half a tank left when the sun finally decided to rise. The effect was immediate and all the skeletons slowed down to their usual gait. They both let out a sigh of relief but he couldn’t relax yet.
Even though he was exhausted, there was no safe place to rest. Instead he told Tess to get some sleep and then he would switch off with her afterwards. The graveyard hadn’t changed since they started down the road. There were still scores of tombstones on either side of the road as far as the eye could see.
They were now close enough to see what the black smudge had been in the distance. It resolved into a black tower that pierced the sky. Chuck couldn’t make out any details or tell how close it was yet. He just hoped they made it there before nightfall.
Tess rested for a couple hours and then he slowed down enough for them to switch spots and he fell asleep almost instantly. Chuck was woken up by Tess nudging him. He was still groggy but sat up quickly when he remembered where they were. “Look up ahead.” She said, pointing.
Chuck’s jaw dropped open at the sight. They had finally reached the end of the graveyard. The tower was in front of them on the other side of a gate across the road in the distance. He carefully switched places with Tess and looked around at the current situation.
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They had lost the group of four legged skeletons when they slowed down due to the sun. There were only a few skeletons between them and the gate. Chuck didn’t know how strong the gate was but it looked considerably tougher than the last one. He decided not to risk damaging the pickup and slowed to a stop.
He grabbed the rifle and got out. Taking aim, he shot each skeleton in turn until it was clear. Chuck gave Tess a thumbs up as he got back in the pickup. She smiled wryly and kept a lookout as he drove to the gate. Soon they were parked in front of the gothic styled black metal gate.
The road continued on past the tower but it seemed to drop in elevation so he couldn’t tell where it went. The other side of the fence consisted of brown scrub grass with boulders sticking up here and there. The tower rose up into the sky at least 10 stories high and seemed to be made of seamless black obsidian.
Chuck had expected the gate to be chained or locked but it only had a simple latch. He was pushing the gate open in no time. It swung open on creaky hinges and he drove the pickup through then closed and latched it again. There was no sign of skeletons or anything else on the other side of the gate.
It seems they got through just in time as the sun was quickly setting. It looked like there might be someone home in the tower as he could see light coming out of some of the openings toward the top. Chuck thought that the skeletons probably couldn’t get past the fence and gate but to be on the safe side it would be better to find shelter.
They drove up to the base of the tower and got out. There was a reinforced wooden door with a door knocker shaped like a skeletal hand so Chuck tried knocking. They waited in silence for a short time before the door slowly opened with a creak. There was nobody there and it seemed like the door had opened on its own. They looked at each other and gulped before entering the mysterious tower.