Season 2 - Blogisode 14

CHAPTER 14


Nine stands braced against the far wall of his bedroom, shotgun cocked and set in hand, barrel door way.

“It’s open.”

The knob tries, clatch and clink, it twists to side. The portal swings way and with it come a sea of demon.

The first of them pushes through, claws high, sharp toothy grin, blood lust.

BANG!

The shot rings out from between Nine’s clenched fists as the pump blasts hot shot and shrapnel tearing through the crowd of beasts. Splinter, shave and skin blend in a mist as the chests and stomachs of the three nearest the front are liquefied and sent about all sides.

The creatures to the back of the pack scatter back ways head over foot in a mad clamor to evade the line of fire. They escape back through the door and round its side into the hall.

“You can tell Moloch that he need send his entire league of demons if he expects to run me down!”

Nine screams out in rage as he resets his weapon for a second go.

He stands firm, splatter of red and green painted abstract across his bare chest, bits of flesh cling to his hair and beard. His eyes unmoving, trance to the anticipation of his adversary’s next move, ready.

The sound of scuttle and debate sails in through the shattered portal as the beasts beyond contemplate their course of action.

“Well, come then! I can make a stand still until the dawn though I expect you all have set minds to a timely conclusion to this conflict! I tell you what, I have one shot left in my chamber, the next of you to come through is welcome to it. After that we can move to hand and foot, perhaps then your eagerness will overcome your cowardice!”

His teeth grit, eyes excite, anticipation.

The clatter from beyond the door turns to a bustle, then a struggle of arms. A language unknown to most pierces Nine’s ears like nails on a chalk board pitched to sonar.

“No!”

The creature screams as an ocean of arms shove him into sight and through the gate.

The demon freezes in sight of Nine, gun aimed high to head.

“A sacrifice is it?” Nine smiles, wide.

“So be it.”

BANG!

The reptilian’s head separates as a thousand bits of hot metal shard swift through every inch making it unrecognizable, then not at all.

The headless hell spawn collapse to the floor like a marionette.

Nine quickly pulls another shell from the folds of the housecoat now draped around his lower half like a kilt, reloads.

“Well? Shall we have it or are you in want of tossing me another sniveling coward to the sacrifice?”

Nine raises his shot to eye level, aimed steady at the door.

Three heads, scaled and snake like, peek slowly round the hall into the entrance, a la Three Stooges.

BANG!

The second side of the door splinters into their faces, a rush of pine and pain slams face way sending the creatures reeling back in agony.

Their screams reverberate through the dwelling as they try to tear the shards of shrapnel and side from their wounded faces.

“Okay. Now I really am out of ammo!” He chuckles at the sight of the reptile men riving in pain as they scuttle back to the safety of the hall.

He drops the weapon to the floor at his side, and braces for the next reaction.

“Your invitation stands!”

A long silence from beyond the entrance fills the room like a thick blanket. Patience can be a virtue in matters of life and death.



BELOW

Christian and Set navigate their way through the winding subterranean passage, eyes wide, the vision is easier in shifted form.


Some yards behind them Jade makes her progress in state to stealth. One hand pressed against the right wall she moves slow with uneven footing, unable to light the way for certainty of being made by her prey she does best to follow the voices as they trail through the darkness.


“You know you still haven’t answered any of my questions. I’m following you through a secret tunnel underneath a facility that until now I hadn’t known existed in the middle of a battle between what looks like a functioning colony of happy, healthy people and a group of reptile men that I had been made to think had all gone back to, wherever they’re from, and I don’t even know where we’re going, not to mention how I know you.”

Set turns back over his shoulder to Christian.

“Was that as exhausting to say as it was to listen to?”

“If you expect me to keep following you…”

“Oh Jesus Fuck Christian, haven’t we been down this road already? You sound like a fucking record with a skip in its side. You go right ahead and make your way back the way we’ve come. You go back up there and maybe when those fools are finished massacring one another they’ll just sit you right down around the camp fire and tell you all the secrets of the God damned fucking universe. Though odds are they’ll simply cut you to pieces where you stand and eat the parts that fall away. Have fun.”

Set speaks without breaking stride. A firm impatience in his voice, his pace quickens.

Christian pauses in step, the thought brief, he continues on with Set.

“Don’t fret my son. I assure you all of your questions will be answered in time.”


Jade holds back, not more than seven feet behind Christian and Set, listening intent from behind a wind in the passageway. Answers are what she is here to find as well.



ABOVE

The main courtyard is littered with the bodies of the fallen. Victims from both sides of the conflict stacked miss matched about the grass and stone, small trails of blood weave in and out from between the cracks in the cobblestone.

The chaos has subsided and all attention from the victors is now focused on the quaint domicile tucked into one of the far corners of the habitat.

Seventeen of the cold blooded demons advance on Nine’s abode, drenched in the suffering and death of the recently deceased. They were all dead, save for the one still fighting for his life.

Nine peers out his now shattered bedroom window, the advancing horde coming at him from all sides.

“I suppose this is it then.”