Hey everyone, here is another chapter for my story! By the way, the name of this chapter is French for "slaughterhouse". Thought it was kind of fitting for what is coming up. Anyway, please enjoy! :)
Author's Note: Blood, gore and some profanity ahead
Mortton, Ghetto
"Ribbit ribbit!" a frog croaked.
Rayne looked down and she saw the amphibian to her right looking up at her. It looked as big as a baseball but still kind of cute, but there was something quite unique about it. The frog had a thick white stripe that stretched from the back of its head and all the way down its spine, but the most distinctive feature were the frog's eyes. They were a brilliant bright blue and even though Rayne wasn't an expert on amphibians, she was pretty sure frogs didn't normally possess that eye color. Rayne knelt down to pick it up to have a closer look but the frog turned around and hopped off into the water.
Not too concerned, Rayne turned to examine the area. All across the horizon Rayne could only see brown, water and dead trees. However, just ahead of her was a partially submerged truck and it looked like it could be reached with one good jump. Her hypothesis proved to be correct and Rayne landed safely with a loud thump on the roof of the waterlogged vehicle and from there she leaped over onto small island that had survived the flooding. A row of four long, slender houses came into view, along with telephone poles, wires, lampposts and of course, monsters.
Rayne watched as one Diseased man inched closer towards the water with his head down, probably staring at his own reflection on the still surface. As he stared, something dark green, grey and red shot out abruptly from the water and it clamped down on the man's head. Rayne's worst fear was confirmed, there were infected alligators prowling their now much expanded territory. The Diseased struggled and flailed his arms in the air, shooting off rounds from its gun but this was all for naught as the alligator kept a firm hold on his head and it dragged the Diseased into the water to be eaten alive. Soon giant splashes sent waves of water crashing in all directions; the alligator was performing a death roll on its prey to kill it.
The gator stopped after its prey was completely still and a halo of blood began to slowly form around it. Another alligator joined it and soon the two began to partake in their grim feast. Rayne tread slowly and jumped over to another exposed island of land. But as soon as she landed, a Maraisreque popped out of the ground like a prairie dog. Rayne sliced off its front legs and then its head in quick succession.
As the creature's corpse fell, a Tentacle Mutate made its way towards Rayne. A direct blast from a shotgun blew off the upper torso of the monster, sending its mutilated body parts flying into the water. Rayne saw movement at the corner of her eye and she turned to right and she fired at the source. Instead of an alligator, it was a snake, a water moccasin it looked like. The two infected alligators were more concerned with their current meal and didn't seem to notice what was going on. Relieved, Rayne turned her attention towards the houses.
Her Aura Sense showed that only three of them had anything worth investigating, but Rayne decided to go into the house in front of her, the only one without a blue light, regardless. If she was going to clear the town of monsters, she might as well be thorough. The distance to the house was short but she had to cross through the water and the house looked like it was flooded. Rayne felt that she had enough stamina and endurance to withstand the burns that she was going to get because of this. She took a deep breath and ran.
The water, cool to normal human touch, burned as if it was boiling and it caused Rayne to clench her teeth fiercely and her legs to feel as if they were set on fire. She sailed past the entrance, a Maraisreque burst through the window and it chased Rayne into a room where she jumped onto a torn couch to recover. To her luck, the Maraisreque had trouble fitting through the door. To add to her good fortune, on the couch between her spread out feet, was a gun, a machine gun to be exact.
Rayne picked up her new weapon with glee. She was going to have fun with this. A cracking noise brought Rayne's attention towards the door and she saw the spider monster pushing against the doorframe. The wall, weak from humidity and poor construction material began to crumble from the pressure that the monster was exerting. Rayne aimed her new gun at the Maraisreque and fired, each bullet causing a fountain of yellow blood to spurt from every corner of its body.
The firepower was too much and the Maraisreque died, crumpling into the water, its yellow blood staining the surface as if it were spilled paint. Moving on, Rayne used the creature's corpse as a landing from the couch and she continued her painful journey through the flood. Along the way, she found a Winchester rifle on a bed frame behind an overturned mattress in the adjacent room and in the kitchen; she found dynamite and a box of matches. Another Maraisreque appeared from behind a dilapidated wall but Rayne just shot at it from atop the icebox where the TNT was located. Vacating the premises, Rayne jumped up onto the roof, happy to be out of the flooded house.
The neighboring house was bigger, it had two stories and this one had a blue light in Rayne's Aura Sense, so something important was in there. A warm, flickering glow permeated the window in the very front of the house where the blue light had pinpointed. It looked like candlelight. Rayne saw movement in the opposite windows. Running alongside the roof, Rayne jumped up and broke through the glass, startling the Mutates that were gathered in there.
"Uuuahhhhh!"
The monsters congregated to attack but Rayne went into Blood Rage mode and she diced them all up. As the severed limbs fell around her, a Diseased woman ran from the room behind Rayne with her afflicted hands outstretched, intent on strangling her target. Rayne just simply spun around and decapitated the monster. As the carnage settled, Rayne heard what sounded like chanting coming from the candlelit room across from her. Rayne slowly made her way towards the room, the chanting growing louder with each step.
Inside was a strange sight. In front of an old, antique couch, was a middle-aged African-American woman with light brown skin, greying black hair that was tied in a long braid that hung on her right shoulder, a large, beautiful multicolored bead necklace, and she wore a vibrant red dress with a yellow sash and white bordering on the hems. But it wasn't the outfit that had caught Rayne's attention; it was what the woman was doing. She was sitting cross-legged in the center of some strange arcane symbol made out of chalk and was ringed with candles. The woman seemed to be deep in a trance, as her eyes were shut tightly and she chanted in some obscure language in a steady rhythm.
Rayne walked up to her and just at the perimeter of the chalk symbol, she knelt over and snapped her fingers in the woman's face to test this trance. The sharp sound did nothing and the woman continued with her incantation. Just as Rayne straightened herself, a Diseased man kicked down the rotted section of the wall. This startled Rayne and her right foot slid unconsciously through the chalk. The breaking of this symbol also seemed to affect the woman's hypnotic state as she stopped chanting.
"What… What is dis?" she said in a heavily Creole accented voice, "Who broke my veve?"
When she saw Rayne and the Diseased man, she shrieked but Rayne made quick work of the monster by slicing off both his arms and then his head. After she was done, Rayne turned to the woman.
"Are you alright ma'am?"
The woman was taken aback at first but she responded after a moment.
"Oui, (French for yes), I am. But who are you?'
Rayne retracted Malebranche.
"My name doesn't matter, but what does is that you should get to the Famillie Tremain Mausoleum. It is the only safe place left in town."
"I see... Is dere anyone else dere too?" the woman asked.
"Yeah, the gravedigger Jean and my friend. She is guarding the place."
The woman let out a loud laugh.
"Ha! Jean's dere uh? Figured as much… Man can run like the best of dem when trouble is afoot. Even while drunk he only thinks to save his own hide…"
Rayne didn't share the same viewpoint. She thought it was pretty understandable to be that scared of these creatures. If she were a normal human, she would have been scared shitless too…
"Yeah… but anyway, ma'am, what is this symbol you were sitting on?"
"The name is Kazi child and this is a veve, a sigil used to summon the loa, which are voodoo gods and spirits. I was trying to summon a protective loa to help guide me and keep me safe..."
"So you're a voodoo practitioner?"
"Yes child I am. Been since I was a wee girl. I used to make medicine for the sick and cast spells to help de crops grow before all of dis…"
"Cool… But Kazi… Do you by chance know how to stop this outbreak completely?"
Kazi suddenly froze and her subtle wrinkles crinkled up on her brow in an angry frown.
"Oh yes…" her voice was dripping with anger, "That bitch Marassa… When I git me hands on her, I will make her eat her magic…"
"Who?" Rayne asked, Kazi seemed to be talking only to herself now.
"Marassa! She was my protégé and she fancies herself *Marie Laveau voodoo priestess."
"And she is responsible for this?"
"Oui! She hooked up de old German who came into town over a month ago… Scary man, evil…"
Kazi whispered those last three words in an ominous tone. Rayne would have to investigate that later, but right now, she had to eliminate the biomasses, find other survivors and now, kill the rogue voodoo priestess Marassa.
"Where can I find Marassa?" Rayne asked.
"You can find her at the Ship Graveyard. She went there with the German to perform black magic. She said that she wanted to summon the Mother of the Underworld."
"Mother of the Underworld? Is that a loa?"
"No… it is the spirit of Mantema. She is…"
"Yeah I know that story. Well Marassa sounds like one attractive lady. But anyway, you should get going before more monsters show up."
"Oui, I will."
And with that, Kazi took off running. Rayne shouted after her.
"Oh and be careful of alligators and snakes."
Rayne heard a faint thank you emanate through the old floorboards and disappear out of the house. Aura Sense revealed that there was nothing else of note in the house and Rayne exited through a window. She landed on the roof of the house she first went into and she leaped onto a long tract of exposed land. Gunshots came flying towards her from a Diseased and as he ran up to her, a Maraisreq emerged from the ground. Unlike the ones that Rayne had fought before, this one was bigger, had thick, bumpy red skin and large fangs.
The red Maraisreq pounced on the Diseased and it began to bite at his head trying to eat it. With a firm a grip hold on the man's head, the Maraisreq tilted its head and sucked the man into its gullet, causing it to bulge considerably. The monster let out a loud burp and it charged Rayne. She slashed at its legs but the strike was a mere glancing blow. To protect herself from its fangs, Rayne put Malebranche in front of her to keep the fangs at bay.
As the two struggled, Rayne dug one foot into the ground and she used the other one to kick back the Maraisreq. With it pushed back, Rayne jumped backward, took out the machine gun and she emptied the magazine into the monster. Tossing the steaming and now useless weapon into the water, causing it to sizzle, Rayne went towards the next house and thankfully, this one and its neighbor were built on hills and were thus not flooded. To her right Rayne saw the soggy, mauled chunky remnants of the Diseased man she saw get eaten by the two infected alligators floating listlessly in the shallows. Wishing to avoid the same fate, Rayne jumped up onto some telephone wires and began to run towards the next house.
Three Diseased people stood guard at the front of the house, one being a woman sitting on a porch swing rocking it and the other two, a man and a woman, in the front yard. The two in the yard had guns and the woman on the porch swing had a big kitchen knife on her lap. Rayne took out a pistol to snipe the woman on the swing and just as she aligned the barrel, something happened. A loud splash came from the water and a monster jumped onto the Diseased woman, crushing her. Rayne turned to see that it was a Mutate dressed in the soaked tatters of a dress. It was female and it had frog like attributes.
Her legs were splayed out like one, she was pale, wet and boney like a famine victim except for her engorged stomach, her fingers and toes were bloody and had webs between them with sharp, claw like nails and creepily enough, her mouth was stretched all the way down her neck and when she opened her mouth, Rayne saw rows of tiny razor sharp teeth and a long pink tongue dripping with saliva. The Diseased on the porch suddenly got up and ran into the yard with her knife and she began to furiously stab the Frog Mutate while her male counterpart began to shoot at it. The Diseased being crushed by the Frog struggled and shot aimlessly into the air as her companions tried to help free her. In retaliation, the Frog Mutate shot out her tongue towards the male Diseased, ensnaring his gun and throwing it aside before she wrapped her tongue around his neck and crushed the air right out of him. With him dead, she used her claws to disembowel the female Diseased who was stabbing her viciously.
The Diseased stopped stabbing to grab her spilling innards and to finish the job, the Mutate used her tongue to snare her enemy's neck and she threw her into the water. As soon as she splashed, Rayne saw alligators coming to partake in another meal. With those interruptions gone, the Frog Mutate turned to the struggling Diseased under her feet. She grabbed both sides of the Diseased woman's face and with a one fierce, swift movement, the Mutate broke her neck with a loud snap. With the Mutate distracted, Rayne jumped onto the front yard.
Just as the Mutate began to put her food head first into her mouth, Rayne shot her in the head from a distance. The shot dazed the Mutate but it didn't kill her. She dropped her meal to attack Rayne. She shot out her tongue to ensnare Rayne but she cut it off before it could wrap itself around her neck.
"Hraaaaaahhhhh!" the monster screamed.
The Frog Mutate retracted the bleeding remnants of her tongue back into her mouth and she arched back and then leaped towards Rayne, hoping to crush her. Rayne did a sidestep jump to avoid the attack and she began to unload more bullets into the creature as soon as it landed. Already wounded before the bullets, the extra injuries slowed the monster down and Rayne took this opportunity to slip her blade into the Mutate's eye and through her brain. Convulsions followed and the Mutate's huge mouth opened, blood from the wounded tongue pouring out like a waterfall. Rayne removed her blade and the Mutate fell with a thump.
With that done, Rayne proceeded to the house, now even more wary of the water than ever before. The door was barricaded from the inside, so she had to find another way in. When Rayne rounded the houses left, she found a weak spot in the wall and so she jumped up and did a spiral kick into it. The rotten wood gave way without resistance and Rayne found herself in the living room. Just like the other houses she had been in, this house had torn furniture, water stained photos and paintings, gas lamps and the occasional light bulb hanging from the ceiling, mold stained wallpaper and rugs with crumbs embedded in their weaving like jewels on a crown.
Rayne saw that a chest of drawers was used to barricade the front and door and she turned on her Aura Sense. Her next objective was just down the hall, but that too was barricaded with furniture and whatnot so Rayne went through the bedroom. Above the bed was a portrait of General Robert E. Lee, the celebrated general of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Down here in the South, the Civil War was still a source of debate and pride even after it had ended sixty-eight years ago. And instead of being the called the Civil War, some Southerners preferred to call it the War Between the States or the most common name among the more patriotic Dixieland natives, the War of Northern Aggression.
Rayne, wandered if the former occupant here prayed for General Lee to help Mortton along with Jesus during the outbreak. But anyway, back to business. Rayne kicked down another weak wall and she proceeded through the next room and she came into the kitchen to find another nest. Unlike the open spaces of the graveyard, Rayne was going to have to fight this thing in the closed cramped space of the kitchen. The nest shook, the vertical slit appeared and soon a Maraisreq shot out. The kitchen was going to get crowded really fast and it was time for Rayne to do some crowd control.
Rayne shot the Maraisreq in the face and she entered Blood Rage mode and she began to lay into the nest. It didn't stand a chance and soon the nest was reduced to a pile of torn flesh and bloody gashes. Now it was time for the other house and Rayne exited the back door. Sadly there was no more dry land behind the houses and Rayne had to jump onto the roof and then onto the back steps of the next house. As soon as she entered this one, a Maraisreq jumped out of a hole in the wall, knocking over a neat pile of canned goods that were stacked on an icebox onto the floor.
It lunged its head towards Rayne and its fangs scratched her. In return, Rayne jammed Malebranche into the monster's mouth and she cut upward, slicing its head in half. With that deed done, Rayne activated Aura Sense and found that her next objective was just a few feet ahead. Just like the other house, the hallway was blocked and but there was also a weak spot in the wall in the adjacent room. Kicking it down revealed another survivor cowering under a bed.
"Ah! Please don't kill me!" said the man in a terrified Southern accented voice.
"Its okay, I'm not going to hurt you." Rayne said. "You can come out from under there."
The man edged himself out from his hiding place. He had a beer belly and he wore only a worn pair of overalls whose left strap was undone. Rayne smelled an old musty scent and she saw that there was large drying, dark spot between the man's legs and inner thighs. The man had peed himself sometime in the past. With these circumstances, who could blame him?
It was still funny though.
"Who-o are you?" he asked nervously.
"Someone that's here to help you. Now please go to the Tremain Famillie Mausoleum. You'll be safe there. There are other survivors and my friend is protecting it."
The man looked at her with a hopeful glance.
"R-really? Who else is there?"
"The gravedigger and a woman named Kazi."
At the mere mention of her name, the man suddenly became irate, startling Rayne.
"Kazi! Its her fault that this has happened! She should have drowned that witch the moment she was born!" the man said with much vitriol.
Rayne was confused.
"Who are you talking about?"
"Marassa! She is a witch and a blue-eyed she-demon! Kazi should have killed her when she was born because her sister didn't have the goddamned common sense to abort her when she had the chance!"
His words were cruel and so unexpected that Rayne was taken aback. After her initial shock had worn off, Rayne spoke to the man again.
"Okay… You mentioned that Kazi had a sister. Are Kazi and Marassa aunt and niece?"
The man's anger had receded and his timid, gentle self returned as if nothing had happened.
"Yes they are. They live together in Kazi's hut by the swamp. That witch has been practicing voodoo since she could walk. Her mama died some time ago. Murdered by the Ku Klux Klan I think… Anyway, I will go now. Merci…" (French for thank you)
The man took off, leaving Rayne a little dazed from that conversation. It appeared that the name Marassa left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths whenever it was mentioned and it was also pretty convenient of Kazi to leave out the fact that Marassa was her niece too. But whatever, it was time to get out of here. All of the nests and possible survivors had been found in this area and Rayne had to move on to other places. With her goal set, Rayne left.
Just as she reached the front door, a Maraisreq came into the house through the rotten floorboards and it surprised Rayne, giving it the opportunity to push her out of the house with brutal force. Rayne corrected herself mid-air and she landed just a few feet away from the houses front porch. Besides the Maraisreq, Mutates and a few Diseased began to show up. It was quite the showdown; a dozen or so monsters versus Rayne. What would the results of this imminent bloodbath be exactly?
Blood Rage awoke deep within Rayne, her eyes began to glow crimson and Malebranche was brought forth. Very soon these monsters were going to meet their maker…
A Tentacle Mutate came towards Rayne with its mutated arm outstretched high along with a Frog Mutate, who licked her cheek clean with her lethal tongue. The two got closer and closer. Something caught the corner of Rayne's eye and a gigantic whip like appendage suddenly shot out of the water and it curved in midair like an anglers line and it crashed into the house, nearly taking off the roof. There was another tentacle and the two anchored themselves into the ground. Something was using these to pull itself out of the water.
Rayne and her assembled company stared in shock at what had emerged from the water. It was giant blue catfish, the size of two city buses to be exact. Its smooth, dark-blue scaled body was decorated with crisscrossing black veins and its front flippers curved from its torso to hold its massive body up along with help from the tentacles. Those tentacles were in fact the fish's whiskers and there were more of them, ranging from small to big, wreathing its huge mouth. The catfish's red eyes glowed and soon it let out a low, deep growl.
Without warning, the fish slammed its cavernous mouth onto the ground, enclosing three Maraisreq, one Diseased and two Mutates into its maw and it dragged them back into the water with it. All was quiet except for the chirping of summer peepers.
"Did I just see that?" Asked herself. "Did I just see a giant catfish eat some monsters? If so, I am totally fucked…"
Even the monsters were at a loss for words. Rayne recovered her thoughts quickly and she resumed Blood Rage. After cutting up her enemies until they were quivering piles of mincemeat, Rayne used her Aura Sense to find her next path. A blue light pointed down past the first house she entered. Taking out Mynce's map, Rayne found that the next location would be the town hall.
"Hoot, hoot"
Rayne looked to see a great horned owl roosting on a tree branch behind her. It was a beautiful, the owl was covered in snow white feathers and it had two bright blue eyes. The whole color scheme didn't seem to make sense to Rayne though, just like that frog from earlier… But regardless, Rayne had a job to do and she couldn't worry about color of this nocturnal bird. She ran down the strip of earth as soon as dry land gave way to water, she jumped onto the telephone wires. With infected alligators and now a giant catfish, Rayne's mission had become much more dangerous as well as interesting.
She hoped that the giant catfish wouldn't jump up and snag her from the wires. After all, from underwater, Rayne looked like a colorful fishing lure. As Rayne disappeared into the horizon, a figure in white watched her from afar.
The figure, a woman, smiled evilly and then disappeared without a trace.
*= A famous voodoo priestess from New Orleans from the late 18th to the mid 19th century. She is considered to be the most powerful voodoo practitioner and many modern day voodoo worshipers visit her grave to leave candles, draw X's with bricks and even leave pastries to invoke her favor. She lived to be a hundred and was said to look young even at that age. One thing I remember about her was when she helped a man who had a son that was convicted of rape. Sometime before the trial was set to begin, Marie had the man sprinkle chili peppers under the chairs of the jury, the reason being that the chilis would make the jury find the son not guilty. It worked.
What did you guys think of the giant catfish? I thought that since this takes place in Louisiana, why not? Catfish is a part of their diet and they go "noodleing" for them too. Thanks for reading and please review! :)
