Chapter Thirty Five - word count 2116 - Download PDF
35.
      There was no chance to comment on Cyan’s observation because the zombies surged forward to attack.  They moved with a lumbering grace that was astounding for its efficiency.  
      It didn’t hurt that the forest seemed to be helping the zombies.  Tree roots that should have tripped the animated dead – simply melted into the underbrush.  Allowing the zombies a freedom of movement that the group of Mythos was denied.  
      Fenn was the first to engage, he drew, aimed and fired his .45 in one fluid motion, hitting the zombie lumbering towards him dead center between the eyes.  The zombie’s head vaporized.  
      He took out two more before Marcus commented.
      “When we get back to the compound I want to see your right hip.”
      Fenn flashed a grin at Marcus.  “You think I’m Omega?”  
      Marcus arced the sword he held and blithely decapitated a zombie.  “You have to be.  No one I know can fight that well – unless they have the Omega mark.”  
      “I’m an elf Marcus – translation – expert marksman.  Besides, for every action...  My bullets are .45’s and blessed to the point of overkill.”  He shot another zombie then continued.  “That doesn’t make me an Omega.”
      “I still want to see you hip – Fuck!”  He cursed just as a throwing dagger missed him by a nano before it buried itself between the eyes of a zombie that had been right on top of him.
      “Concentrate Marcus – Sorcha just saved your ass.”  Kyle barked before attacking the zombie facing him.
      “Thanks Sorcha.”  Marcus grinned then dove and rolled, coming up in front of a zombie and in a smooth motion separating the lumbering creature from its head.  
      “Not a problem.” Sorcha replied a little distracted as she launched another blade with deadly force and accuracy.  “Where are they all coming from?”  She hissed as another group of animated dead moved through the trees towards them.  “It’s never-frigging-ending. Sin’s Katanas would come in handy now.”  She half mumbled.  
      Kyle roared behind her, she spun to see him buried his claws into the back of a zombie that had been about to attack her from behind.  He lifted the zombie with one hand and threw it into a tree.  
      Kyle growled and leaned down to pin Sorcha with a deadly stare.  “You won’t even say that freaks name.  Copy?”  
      “Who Sin?”  Sorcha bit her lip to hide her smile.   He was jealous.  Maybe she could get him back after all.
      Yeah and maybe you’ll swallow your pride at some point and just admit to the guy that you love him.
      Her inner voice mocked derisively.
      Kyle glared at her then spun to attack another zombie.  He needed to kill something.  Since he couldn’t kill Sin, the zombie would have to be a substitute.  He was pissed at himself.  Pissed because he gave a damn.  He should just ignore Sorcha, but he couldn’t.  He was aware of every breath she took and every move she made, and it was driving him insane inch by painful inch.  
      “Don’t let them bite you.”  Fenn ordered as the boom of his .45 rocked the forest again.  “Their bite contains a bacteria that will turn even a mythos.  You’ll close your eyes to die in pain and wake up a zombie.”  
      “I’m not letting these creepies near enough to bite me.”  Cyan replied as he dodged behind a zombie to sink a wicked looking dagger through its scull.  
      “Enough.”  Sable hissed then dematerialized.  A black fog formed around the group. Hiding the forest in darkness.
      “What the hell is he doing?”  Marcus asked Crimson.  
      It was Cyan who answered.  “Hiding us.  Its about time he did, those zombies just keep coming.”  
      Crimson reached out a flaming hand to touch the last zombie.  The fire that consumed the creature was so hot those nearest the creature cringed, and the zombie transformed into a human shamed tower of scorching ash.  
      “We should have thought of that sooner.  Nothing like hiding in plain sight.” Crimson said.  
      “Yeah but our presence is even more obvious, that darkness will draw attention to us.”  Fenn pointed out.  
      “Well let’s just get past the zombies then Sable can stop the dark fog.”  
      Fenn turned toward Sorcha with a raised brow, asking her which direction Raven was.  
      Sorcha concentrated for a moment, it was difficult to pick out Raven’s evil amongst the other forests other evil echoing in her head, but after a second she felt the pulse of Raven’s twisted mind.  
      “This way.”  She raised an arm and pointed right.  
      “Lets go.”  Fenn led the way, his unique ability to tame the plant life of the forest making it easier to move through the underbrush.  
      An irritating buzz filled Sorcha’s mind.  It had been getting steadily more persistent for the last fifteen minutes or so.  Sorcha would start to make out words in the buzz then it would elude her again.  She was on the point of screaming in frustration.  It was like having unending tinnitus.  She shook her head hoping the sound would subside, but it only got worse.  
      “What’s wrong Sorcha?”  Kyle’s voice sounded far away, as if she was standing miles away from him instead of right next to him.  
      “The buzzing – can you hear the buzzing?”  She closed her eyes and tried to will the sound away.  
      “I can hear some buzzing, I thought it was just my ears, or some extra weirdness in this forest.”  Kyle agreed.
      “I hear nothing.”  Fenn stopped and turned toward the others.  “Does anyone else hear something?”
      “Ah-ah, nothing here.”   Marcus shook his head.  
      “Me either.”  Cyan said.
      Crimson worried at his lip with his teeth as he shook his head.  
      “Can you call Sable back so we can see what is ahead of us.”  Kyle asked Crimson.  
      Crimson nodded his head and spoke.  “Sable, come back please.”  
      The blackness that had enveloped the surrounding forest coalesced into a man shape as Sable took form near them.  
      The group took an alert stance, staring into the gloom of the forest looking for anything that seemed strange.  
      Sorcha gasped, as the buzz became an insistent whisper.  
      Go no further – leave this place.  Death waits for you if you go further.  
      The whisper repeated like a sound bite on a loop.  
      “Something is warning us off.”  Sorcha told the others.  
      “Yes, I’m getting bits of it too.”  Kyle agreed, peering into the forest.  “What is that?”  
      He pointed as the others looked in the direction he was pointing.    
      Fenn’s sharp eyes caught if first.  “Crap, it’s a Willo-o’-the-wisp.”  He turned to look at the others, his face serious.  “Do not follow that, don’t listen to it don’t go near it.  There must be a marsh or swamp in here somewhere.”  
      “Is it the Willo-o’-the-wisp whispering in my head?”  Sorcha asked.  
      “I don’t think so.”  Fenn shrugged his shoulders.  “Just be careful, nothing in this place can be trusted.”  
      “Sorcha…”  Kyle’s voice was a warning.  
      “What?”  
      He pointed into a gloomy area under a tree.  Sorcha wasn’t particularly surprised when she saw the hazy transparent form of a spirit.  She stepped forward but stopped when Kyle laid a restraining hand on her shoulder.  
      “Are you the one warning us away?”  She spoke to the indistinct form of a man.
      “Yessss.”  The word was drawn out in her mind.  
      “We have to pass through.”  
      “No.  Go around.  Bog ahead.”  
      “He said there is a bog ahead of us.”  Sorcha told the others.
      “He’s not lying about that, we’ve seen the evidence.”  Fenn agreed.  “But why warn us.”  
      “Go around.  I will see no others die in the bog, many have died already” The spirit spoke in Sorcha’s mind again.  
      “He wants us to go around.”  Sorcha told them.  “I don’t think he is native to this forest.”  
      “More like a casualty?”  Crimson stared intently at the spot Sorcha and Kyle were focused on but he couldn’t see anything.
      “Yeah, I think that’s it.”  
      “What’s in our path if we go around?”  Crimson asked.
      “Goblins.”  The spirit spoke in Sorcha’s mind.  
      “He said there are goblins.” Kyle told the others.  Sorcha raised a brow but didn’t comment.  She hadn’t thought that Kyle could hear the spirit that clearly.  He must have gotten more of her ability than either of them realized.    
      “Goblins we can deal with, they are nasty little fighters, but we should manage.  You can’t stick a blade in quicksand.”  Fenn popped the clip in his .45 and loaded more ammo before slamming the magazine back into place, then holstered his gun.  
      Sorcha looked at the ghost, he was pointing to the left.  
      “We go left.”  She told Fenn.  
      “Keep alert.”  He told them as he took point.  “Goblins are masters of camouflage and they move like ghosts, you wont hear them coming.”  
      The first sign they were under attack was Cyan’s curse.  Sorcha spun to see what the noise was about.  There was a small man hanging from Cyan’s shoulders, he hand a death grip on Cyan’s neck and a dagger to the incubus’s throat.  Cyan ruined the goblin’s plans when he dematerialized, becoming water.  The goblin did some cursing of his own before he fell to the ground.  He was pinned there when Cyan rematerialized and planted a booted foot on the little man’s chest.  
      The goblin let out a shrill undulating call.  
      “Now we’re toast.”  Fenn mumbled before reaching down to tug his dagger from the sheath at his ankle.  “I hope your blades are sharp, guns wont work on these beasties.”  
      The trees came alive as goblins catapulted from limbs to land on the group.  The fight was chaotic and curses and cries of pain rang out through the trees.  
      Sorcha found herself pulled back between Kyle and Crimson.  
      “Stay there.”  Kyle barked before aiming a kick at a knee-high goblin that was trying to take a bite out of his boot.  
      Crimson took out another with his blade.  His longer reach defeating the goblin that tried to get near him.  
      Sorcha chose to listen to Kyle, even though she gave him a look that could melt steel as she aimed another one of her daggers.  Then retrieved it, wrapping air around the blade to clean it before letting it settle in the belt sheath that Kyle had given her.  
      “Don’t let them get close enough to launch themselves at you.”  Fenn lectured while slashing goblins with his blade.  “A she-cat in an alley is kinder than these little buggers.”   
      “Keep my mother out of this.”  Marcus laughed before he did a back flip and landed on a goblin.  There was an audible crack as its spine snapped.  Marcus flowed down onto one knee and slit the goblins throat for good measure.  
      The goblins broke and melted into the forest.  Disappearing as quietly as they had arrived.  
      “What is that the end of the fight?  Wait don’t leave!”  Marcus called after them.  “I was just starting to have some fun.”  
      “Shut-up you tool.  You’ll bring hell down on our heads.”  Kyle laughed.  
      Fenn just shook his head, he was never going to understand the workings of the Omega mind, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.  
      “Which direction now Sorcha?”  
      Sorcha didn’t have to concentrate very hard.  She could feel Raven’s malignancy, and it wasn’t far anymore.  She took a deep breath bracing herself, in the end it would be up to her to corner Raven, the Psy had become very powerful.  Sorcha could feel the power on the air, like a living breathing thing.  She wondered if they were too late.  Could Raven have become too powerful.  
      “This way.  We are getting close now.”  
      Fenn led the way.  “I can see light up ahead.  There must be a clearing of some sort.” He sped up his pace moving effortlessly through the forest.  The others kept up, staying close in his wake so the forest didn’t close around them again.  
      Kyle slammed into Fenn’s back as the elf came to an abrupt stop at the edge of the clearing.  
      “What the hell Fenn, damn-it.  Give me some warning – or do I need to install some break lights on you…”  Kyle’s words trailed off as he looked over Fenn’s shoulder to see what had stopped the elf.  
      “Crap!”  
      The others gathered closer to see what had caused Kyle’s exclamation.  
      It wasn’t a clearing in a forest.  Before them stretched a mountain valley, and in the center of the valley was a fortress.  There was no other description that fit the monolithic construction.  
      “Holly shit!”  Crimson gasped.  “What do you want to bet Raven is in there some where?”  
      “Nothing.”  Sorcha spoke in a mummer.  “Because that is exactly where she is.”
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