Sorry this has taken so long to update, I have been extremely busy with family coming over to see their father or grandfather as he (from my Grandmother's first marriage, so not my grandfather) is sick, so I have had a lot of cousins and aunts coming up and down to where we are to visit him. I also have made it to the infamous age of eighteen, so, congrats to me. I even had a joint party with my cousin who is one month younger. So, I have had my hands full, plus, to add on top, school has restarted again. And to even ADD ON TOP of that I have other stories to write. SO, sorry for the delay, but please tell me what you think at the end of this chapter. I have struggled with this. But came up with a sneaky (I think) cliff hanger.
Fairy Tail Fanfic
Disclaimer: I won this story.
Chapter 2: The travel.
It was unsafe at the very least. But also Lucy's biggest protection. Its dangerous speed was something she was lucky to have on her side. The small travelling bag at her feet, Lucy pulled out a thick woolly shawl Aries had made for Lucy the year before for her birthday, and wrapped the Lacrima ball inside, not wanting the rattling of the carriage to shatter it.
The front of the carriage, which was usually out in the open for the driver, had a built wall around the front, protecting the driver from the elements of nature, and the Inflicted.
The curtain wasn't pulled shut over the window, and Lucy scooted closer to it, peering out. The gas lamp beside the window was dim lit, and on second thoughts, Lucy turned it off. If the noise of the carriage and the whining of the horses weren't such a big give away, she didn't want something as trivial as a gas lamp to show where they were.
There had been moments along the way when Lucy was tempted to call out a spirit, but the fear of attracting unwanted attention stopped her. Maybe once she was inside the walls of Crocus she could, where it was safe and hopefully unthreatening.
It had been one long year without them, not being allowed to call them out. And the Stellar mage missed them all dearly.
Watching the scenery, the blonde released a sigh when they hit a soft grass area. The carriage stopped, bumping and jerking around, and smoothed out to a gentle ride. They were on a glad, Lucy realised. A long grassy area with no trees in their path.
With Mother Nature's tree line pushed back, thoughts of Inflicted jumping out from the shadows and latching onto the vehicle eased. Realising quickly that there was a drag to the carriage, Lucy slide open the window between herself and the driver, looking in front of them. There were two horses pulling the carriage.
The driver turned to look at her, "The ground seems to be softer here. The path here has been unused for a very long time. It must have rained earlier, too, it all feels soggy." The blades of grass were high and wild, the small gas light that was in the front gave little foresight in front of them.
Swallowing saliva, the celestial summoner, looked at the tree line, waiting for that spring of a body to leap out and chase them.
"Will we have to stop for the horses?" How long was their running duration?
"Soon. Maybe, I don't know … I'm not actually a professional coachman or whatever. I was just paid a shit load of money to do this by some council member. You must be important if they can't wait till day."
Out of silence, Lucy spoke. "How much more active are the Inflicted at night?"
"They fall into, like a, hyper-frenzy sort of thing. In the day, they are calmer. It's weird. And fucking creepy."
Settling backing into the seat, Lucy looked outside. Her clothes weren't enough to keep her warm. The cold latched onto her skin with icy fingers.
The carriage seemed to go even slower, dragged down by the ground. "Crap!" Hissed the driver. Lucy leaned into the front of the carriage, looking ahead for a sign, a body, something with a snarling mouth.
"What is it?" Mouth turning dry at the thought of the worst.
"It must have rained here recently, or more likely, flooded! Wait, look over there! A river! Curse this land, it must have flooded! The ground is almost too soft to drive through. We're sitting ducks if we don't get out of here!"
Heart thumping dangerously in her chest, Lucy put herself on patrol from the inside of the carriage, glancing out every window fretfully – as if she hadn't been doing that already.
The horses continued to pull the carriage, whining as they did so.
Travelling across the glad, it was agonisingly slow. The ground got mushier and not harder. The land in front of them seemed to stretch with no ending.
There was a small tap on the wall between them, the coachman didn't look back to see her. "Where coming to town. Be on your guard." He didn't say anything else.
The whole way towards the town, Lucy leaned forward in her seat. Sure enough, after a little amount of time, silhouettes of building came into view. Different shades of blackness against the night sky. There was one beautiful thing Lucy found solace in the decaying nation: Stars.
The sky held more then she had ever remembered seeing. Even away from Magnolia, there seemed to be that little bit more. No lights to take away the vibrancy that the Milky-way held.
"Seems …." Looking for any light sources, "Abandoned." She muttered, looking out her own window now. Checking the doors on either side of her were locked, Lucy drew the curtains almost closed, leaving a small gap in them to peak out.
The driver drifted around the edges of the town, not wanting to run into any life … or the lack of it. The sound of crickets and frogs were vaguely distinctive in the abandoned town. It was a small town, and there was no wall around it. Nothing to shield them from the dangerous infection. The people here had either escaped, or worse, turned.
The ground was harder here, thankfully, and were able to move swiftly. Even the horses were quiet.
Biting her bottom lip, Lucy fingered her keys, moving her hands around their familiar shapes. They felt warm. They were aware of her feelings, her stress.
The last time Lucy had called a spirit out, it had been Loke, explaining what was happening. The day after she almost lost her keys. Loke had understood the dangers of Lucy calling them out, and passed on the message to the other spirits. Not one had come out on their own magic. Though that was relieving, it meant they were all safe. But it was saddening.
But this was the least they could do for her, the small piece of comfort they could offer: warmth.
"Oh, hell no! I wasn't paid enough for this!" The driver screeched.
"What happening?" Panicking, Lucy opened the curtain and peered out. All colour drained from her face.
"A fucking cemetery!" his face paled. "We're going around. Far around."
"If we do, we would be closer to the forest. We're travelling between two mountains. We don't want to get closer to anything –"
"Listen, lady. I'm the one steering this thing, I call the big shots –"
Two fast blurs ran towards the carriage, snarls ripping through their throats. In the split second they had entered Lucy's sight, she leaned back with flinched eyes. Face pale, she gasped. A struggled scream leaving her own mouth.
Thunk! The Inflicted ramped into the side of the carriage with power Lucy hadn't known they possessed, forcing the carriage on its two side wheels before it settled back down on the ground.
"Fuck!" the driver screamed, and whipped the horses to go faster. A snarl sounded from the roof.
"… Girl … I smell girl … so good. Girl is good!" Its voice was dry and rough. An almost cackling tune to it. Lucy whimpered.
There were two. One was on the roof, so where was the other one?
There was nothing to do with her whip inside the carriage. And she didn't want to call out a spirit, not wanting to endanger one. Plus no one knew if Spirits could even be affected by them.
"Two … there … are … two …" Its voice drawled, slowly connecting the words. But these were not Zombies like there were in the books. They were not mindless. To an extent they were smart. They could talk and think … maybe logically.
There was a strained moment of silence. Neither driver nor summoner dared to speak. Gripping a whip in her dominate hand, and her keys in the other, in case worst came to worst.
There was a soft, gentle tap on the roof directly above Lucy. A small cackle followed. Then another tap.
Tap!
Tap! Tap!
Fingers drummed on the roof, as though, it was thinking, planning ….
Inhaling deeply, it was like inhaling shard ice. Sharp and cold. Heart pounding so loud, Lucy was afraid she couldn't hear anything but the blood rushing to her head.
"Oh, girly!" the Inflicted snickered, "Come out and play!"
Should she respond? Say anything in return.
"Don't engage with it Lucy, don't engage." The blonde muttered to herself.
Silence.
Weight shifted above her, moving. Looking up, there were two dents in the roof, were the feet were planted, bearing down weight. It was moving to the side of the carriage. Making sure the curtain was completely closed, Lucy stepped away from the door.
The sound of weight hitting metal outside the door, it took a nanosecond to realise that it was standing on the step just below the door.
It was outside the door, Lucy screamed in her head.
The carriage hurtled through the cemetery, and it seemed that the driver had no problem with no driving through it now.
The nob on the door twisted, but caught itself on the lock.
It growled, "Bad girlie!"
Thunk! Another force had rammed the side of the carriage. It tilted again on the two side wheels, and the Celestial mage slid forward, towards the door of the Inflicted. It had been so sudden and unexpected, Lucy hadn't had the time to stop herself. Hitting the door, her head hit the glass. The carriage came back down on the four wheels again.
Vision going dizzy, Lucy sunk to the ground, darkness inclosing her sight.
"There are more, Miss!" Fear in his own voice. Lucy barely heard him, only a few slither consciousness.
"Blood!" It hissed in excitement. The creature peered in, the curtains had been pushed aside a little on impact. Dark, thick, blood rolled down the glass. Instinctively the Inflicted licked at it. But got nothing.
Getting on all fours, Lucy came to sit on her hunches, looking for her keys. She couldn't see them. Back to the door, Lucy looked over her shoulder.
She hadn't known what she had expected them to look like. It skin had surpassed white and gone to grey. The flesh seemed to hang on the face. It had been a man, maybe in his thirties. Eyes once blue now dull and almost colourless. But what surprised Lucy, something that always came to mind when thinking of the dead, was the smell.
There wasn't one. No rot of decay.
"What the hell," the blonde said under her breath, looking at awe at the creature. The writer in her was drawn to it. However, the Fairy Tail in her forced her to her feet, and made her do the one thing she feared to do.
Lunging forward, unlocking the door, she pushed it open. Catching the creature off guard, it fell back. The goal was to knock it off the step. And maybe if it were human it would have fallen off, but it held itself with balance that Lucy felt, it shouldn't have possessed.
The Inflicted grappled for a hold, of anything. Catching the top of the door the Inflicted held on, its eyes flashing with anger. Lucy stood wide eyed at the creature. Edging towards the door, careful not to come close to the edge, Lucy kicked out at the door. It had done what she had hoped. The door swung all the way back, hitting the side of the carriage, it came between the door and the outer wall. There was a satisfying sound of impact, and the door rebounded, coming back Inflictedless.
Shutting the door, locking it. Lucy scanned for her key. Darkness enveloped the velvet seat, the oak floor. Shattered glass across the floor, broken at some point during the attack. Lemon furniture wax could be smelt. Looking out the back window, Lucy could make out the faint shape of the bodies hurtling after them. Growls, snapping of jaws, hissing came from them. Ten or twenty of them were just the ones she could see...
Fear crippled inside the blonde, rooted to the ground, she could not move, white knuckled hands gripped the curtain, the smell of lavender spray in them. The closest she had been before them then this night, was when she had guarded the wall.
At the start, when the Inflicted first started rising as past friends and family, they had come in swarms. Swarms of healthy mobile corpses. It had started in the West far away, but it was barely enough time to put up a wall. The East side of Fiore was now a desert land, and no one in their right mind would go there … not even when all this finished. It was a suicide wish!
But still, living behind the wall, despite knowing the dangers had made a bubble of safety that couldn't be popped. Not until tonight. There was no wall, their where no guards, or wizards.
Now, it was just Lucy and the Coachman.
They did not stumble behind them once, but got faster and faster, moving faster than if they were human.
Hand and feet clambered over the carriage, it shock with the weight of the dead. The carriage did not tilt, but the Inflicted grabbed on climbing to the top of the carriage. The slide between the front and back of the carriage was square shaped. It was enough for maybe Lucy to get through. Grabbing her small bag Lucy threw it in the front, going in after it, Lucy shut the slide.
"I … I … I don't think … think were gonna m-make it out!" He stuttered. Pure fear in his face, there were no words Lucy could offer him. He had no magic, and as far as Lucy could tell, no fighting ability, but he was their best chance at survival. "I should have gone through the middle of town … not the damn graveyard!" Anger pulsing in his words, enough to make him speak normally.
"We could have died going through the centre of town, you done the right thing!" Lucy reassured.
The shattering sound of glass in the back told them that one of them had gotten in. Holding their breath, they listened, barely breathing in the fear that it would hear them; picking up on the milischool of sound and attack them. The speed of the carriage was not enough to protect them.
My Keys! Thought Lucy, heart dropping in her chest. Would she ever find them again?
Eyeing the horses in front of her, a thought occurred to Lucy just as an Inflicted started pounding on the wall behind them, "Jesus Christ I ain't ready to die!" Screamed the driver! "I want to have kids one day!"
"We have to make an escape!"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM DOING WOMAN?"
"No! We need to leave this carriage!"
"Wha – no! We can't out run them! Have you been looking –" he was cut off by the sound of a screech behind them. Lucy turned to put a latch on the slider between them, but when she saw that there wasn't one … it wouldn't be long until it discovered it.
"But the horses can! They will be faster without the carriage attached to them. If we can disconnect the coach we will be safe!"
"No we bloody well won't be! We'll still be in the carriage, how are you going to do that, and get on the horse at the same time? These horses won't stay here for us! They're scared!"
Lucy thought about this, "We'll break the window in front of us, somehow get on the horses, disconnect the carriage, and then get out of here!"
The coachman looked solemn, taking it all in. "We won't be protected out there."
"But we'll die in here!" Lucy shot back, just as the wood cracked behind them, splintering down the middle.
The driver looked at the cracked wall and back to Lucy, "Okay, we're going!"
Lucy slumped in her seat, brought her legs back and kicked at window. The glass broke easily. Grabbing her bag, Lucy stood on the sill of where the window had been, flicking away the left over glass.
The cold air lashed at her hair and skin. There was no moonlight to guide their path, just the gas lamb.
The horses out of fear were beyond being controlled, and sprinted as fast as they could go, even with the weight of the carriage bearing on them. Lucy leaned forward with one hand steading her on the frame where the window once was. The horse below Lucy was unpredictable, unknowing to how the horse would react when Lucy would pounce on it.
But, one wrong slip, and Lucy would be left in the glad to die.
Taking one shallow breath, unable to breathe properly, Lucy leapt. For a moment she seemed to stay in the air. Time moved both slowly and fast, a weird combination.
The brush of short fur filled with the smell of hey and saw dust hit connected with Lucy with a heavy inhale of relief. Raising her head, Lucy took in the sight in front of her. Itchiness of long grass blades stuck to her legs from the stickiness of rain or dew. The wild shrubbery appeared like small dots as they passed.
"Natsu!" Whispering instinctively as though he would pop out and protect her. The body of the horse rose and fell beneath her, and there was light she could do but press her legs to side of the horse clenching, and arms around the horse's neck; the mane tickling her face and neck.
Cracking of a wooden wall resounded behind them as an Inflicted thrashed against it, breaking in. The wall splintered open to reveal a crazed corpse. The wall splintered open like a gashing wound reviling a grey sagging skin hand, breaking the small bubble of hope Lucy had immersed herself in.
Peeking behind herself, the Inflicted was illuminated by the gas lamp. The first word that popped into Lucy's head was ferocious. The decay of the body had pulled the lips over the gums, showing yellowed teeth. A roll of salvia dribbled out like a transparent string.
The coachman gave a shout, and without further prompt threw himself upon the horse beside Lucy's. "Now what?" He yelled, looking down at the constraints that bound the horses to the carriage.
The bag hang on her back, and a whip still clutched in one hand tightly, turning her knuckles white. The Celestial didn't want to use magic, especially not now when there were so many, and using it would attract more; but if she was doomed to die wasn't it better to fight?
The keys were gone in the back of the carriage, Lucy realised she may never get them back, or at least, not unless this war with the dead ends and she could return to find them. If they weren't stolen.
Hot tear stuck to the blonde's lashes as pictures of her friends appeared in her mind. A brilliant blue appeared in hand, lighting up the glad that surrounded them; the whip came alive.
The power was a radiant warmth that soaked into her skin, still familiar to her after a year. Swinging her hand over head, body twisted back on the horse to look at the ropes and poles. There was spear of wood between the two horses joining them. The ropes that connected between the spears and the carriage. The whip, hot in hand, swung down, burning the leather constraints. Each crack of the whip resonated over the mountains, Lucy cringed under the sound. The leather tore, and eventually, after the heat of the whip, melted away.
There was satisfying burst of speed as the horse shot forward with now found freedom.
"We did it! We actually did it!" As the carriage fell back behind them, rolling to a stop. As the light faded from the whip, Lucy looked in front, just in time to see them run off a cliff.
