Chapter 9

Darkest Night, Eternal Blight

"I worked the cemetery for one week. I had to quit, couldn't face it anymore. I knew some day I would end up here, buried forever on Carnate. I couldn't handle that reality."

Upon entering the building that led to the Quarry, the group saw fires on the floor. Wiess quickly put them out and the group entered, a radio room he began to look for more supplies. As they were doing this the radio came on.

"Copy, hello, copy? this Sergai. I'm out at the sanitarium with Kennedy, Boetticher, and Scott. We don't think were alone, were hearing weird sounds, you know, like I don't know what it is."

There was then some laughter, then Sergei continue.

"It's strange, Kennedy went out to look-see, he hasn't come back. Also, hookal break in earthquake. If the next ones out could bring a beaker from the infirmary, it would be great. Sergei out."

When the radio went silent the group continued forward. As they moved, Wiess spoke up, "You know, I get the feeling that guy was pretty high."

"I agree", Torque responded, and continued, "still though, he seems like a nice guy, even if he wasn't high."

The then climbed up a ladder, that led to a cat walk and found a door to their left open it and left the building through a hole in the wall and outside. Once they were outside again they realize that they had found the cemetery.

The group moved with caution, keeping a eye out for any of the creature's. As the group wandered around they saw dead bodies here and their, both inmate and C.O. alike. Once they entered the cemetery, the group began to hear various voices.

"I... can't... breathe.." Said one.

"I remember hearing them cut the string." Said another.

"Ma was there, I told her not to come." Said the ghost of Willie.

"Blackest night, eternal blight." Said a third voice.

"They had to strap me down. I didn't go easy." Said a forth spirit.

The group were clearly shaken by this, and quickly decided to leave. As they were leaving, they were hit another vision and saw Carmen and the two boys.

"It hurts so much." Said Carmen.

"That was never there." Said Cory.

"The ban man caught us." Malcolm said.

"I Just wanted to be with my children." Said Carmen.

Then, there was a flash and Carmen and the boys was staring at Torque. It then Carmen began to speak to him, "This was your life, T. How did you let it get away?" She asked. Soon the vision ended, and Torque was taking deep breasts as it did. Clearly shaken from what he saw.

The group continued on until they heard three surviving C.O.'s talking with one another.

"And then this inmate begged me to give him a weapon to defend himself. Can you believe those balls?" One said.

"I let some of mine out after the quake, then one cocksucker tried to shiv me. Some thanks." Said another one.

"Typical. Wasn't for the inmates, none of us would need to be on this godforsaken rock in the first place. I gave 'em a chance when I first got here, but those fuckers never cut me a inch of slack." Said a third.

"They're no better'n rabid animals, the way they treat each other, the way they treat us." Said the first one.

"That's right. I got shit down by this punk just last week. Fuck, that's the worst. It's a goddamned zoo in there." Said the third again.

"Maybe Hargrave's got the right idea." Responded the first one.

"Naw, that jarhead's just outta control. We had to get outta there." Replied the third.

"Give that nut long enough, he woulda started cappin' C.O.s he thought didn't suck his dick good enough." Added the second one.

The group decided to walk around them and hopefully avoid a fight. However the three C.O.s took notice of them, and became hostile.

"Inmate's got a gun! Drop him!" Shouted the first C.O. Instantly the C.O's began to open fire on the group. They quickly got behind a large rock for cover, and tried to reason with the three C.O's. But they refused to listen, and the group realized they had no choice but to return fire.

However as they returned fire, the sound of guns going off attracted the attention of a small group of Slayer's. The creature's then began to attack the three C.O's, and the group decided to use the distraction to escape.

As they escape, the ground around them began to rise up then fall down, as if something was burrowing through the ground. Not wanting to stick around to find out, the group moved forward, only for three Marksman to come out of the ground, the creatures then torethemselves free from them when polls they were strapped to, and began to attack.

Torque quickly took out his revolvers and began to open fire, as the group did the same. The creature's aim their turrets at the group and began to open fire. One aim its turret at Wiess and fired, but she quickly created a wall of ice, which stopped the bullets dead in their tracks.

Ruby then jumped over the ice from behind and brought her scythe down severing the creatures left arm, she then swung her scythe at the creatures head, and took it off one clean swipe. She then opened fired and shot the creature several times, killing it as it went down.

Blake joined Torque in shooting the second Marksman, the Marksman however return fire at the two, the bullets hit the two targets but they disappear as they were in fact nothing more but shadow clones.

The Marksman was confused by this and try to understand what had happened. That's when a black ribbon wrapped itself around its arms and body, pinning its arms to its sides. The Marksman tried to break free but the black ribbon held tight. That's when Torque came up to it and pointed his shotgun at the creatures head-as he had put away his revolvers-and pulled the trigger, blowing the Marksmans head off.

The creature then fell down to the ground dead, as Blake unwrapped her black ribbon around the creature.

The last Marksman fired at Yang, but she'd dodge every last shot that was fired at her. She then slammed her right fist in the creatures head and fired off a shotgun shell from her gauntlet. She then punched the Marksman in the stomach and fired another shell with her other fist, and blew a hole through its back.

The creature then stumbled back a few steps, then fell to the ground. When the creatures were gone the group moved forward. Soon the group found the old quarry, seeing some rusty metal stairs they began walking down them, only to find the bottom part gone.

With no other options the group jumped down and spotted a ladder that led to a cave, as they were climbing up the ladder a couple of Mainliner's appear. Not wanting to waste their time of them, the group quickly climbed the ladder as fast as they could.

When they were all on the top, the Mainliner's try to attack them, only two Slayer's to appear. The Mainliner's took notice of the Slayer's and focus their attacks on them. As this happened the group stared on in shock.

"I don't believe this", Weiss said, "why are they fighting each other?"

"They're fighting for territory." Torque replied. "What?" Responded Yang.

"You heard me, they're fighting for territory. Either that or they have nothing else to kill. These creatures aren't like the Girmm. If they can't find something to kill, then they turn against a different type of creature that isn't the same as them." He said.

"Well, whatever the case let's get out of here." Ruby said. "Agreed." Replied Torque.

They then started to move further into the cave, spotting a few C.O's who had hung themselves from the ceiling of the cave. As they move they spotted a leaving C.O. who took notice of them, and began to quietly speak to them.

"Be quiet, they're listening!" He said. The group didn't know what he was talking about, and decided to move closer, when the C.O. spoke to them again.

"Don't get any closer, they can hear your footsteps!" The group however didn't heed his warning and moved forward.

"Damn!" Said the C.O.

That's when the group saw the ground rise up and fall back down, just as they had seen earlier. And it was making its way towards the C.O.

The ground then stopped moving and a new creature popped out, the creature was wrapped in a gunnysack, and had three chains on its body and at the end of each chain was a sharp blade. One chain wrapped itself around the C.O. and lifted him off the ground, while another one stabbed him in the back and out through the chest, killing him.

The creature then drop the now dead C.O. and went back in the ground and started to make its way towards the group. Making its way towards the nearest person it popped out of the ground again, and attacked its target. Ruby.

Springing its three chains around in a 360 motion, the creature tried to hit her. But Ruby had jumped out of the way in time.

She then converted her weapon back into its rifle form and began to fire at the creature. The creature took a few hits, then re-submerge back into the ground and began to choose a different target.

It then popped out again and with its chains attack Blake, but the chains only struck a shadow clone, as the real Blake began to open fire on the creature. Taking a few more hits, the creature went into the ground again, and began to choose a new target.

Popping out of the ground again it try to attack Wiess, but she created a glyph and block the attack. Yang then began to fire at the creature hitting it a few times. The creature quickly went back into the ground, and tried to attack a new target.

However, while the girls were fighting the new creature, Torque has found a few sticks of TNT and a lighter along with a couple boxes of matches. Lighting a match he lit up one of the TNT sticks, and threw it into the hole where the new creature had made and gone back in.

The girls saw Torque throw the stick of dynamite and into the hole, a few seconds passed, then there was a loud boom that was muffled by the ground, and the new creature popped out the ground.

The girls ready their weapons, only to see that the creature moan in pain and fell to the ground dead. When the creature was dead, there was a short silence, until Yang spoke up.

"Well, that was something." She said. "Yeah, it sure it was." Responded Wiess. Torque then looked at Ruby and spoke to her. "Is there any entry in that journal that says what this thing is Ruby?" He asked.

"Let me see." She said and began to go through it, "Ah, here we are." She said began to read the entry.

Burrower

"These Burrowers are some of the most lethal creatures I have encountered, primarily due to their ability to spring fourth from the ground itself and just as quickly, re-submerge. They are closely tied to the very soil of Carnate, a theme among these monstrosities. Its appearance is of a human body tied up in a gunny sack and constrained by leather straps, with deadly steel chains attached at various locations. I believe they represent those buried alive."

"Great, now we have to be careful where we step." Wiess sarcastically said.

"We've only just entered the quarry, so the sooner we get out of here the better." Blake said.

"I agree, but we need to keep moving." Responded Torque.

"Then what are we waiting for, a engraved invitation? Let's get going." Replied Ruby.

The group then began to go further into the cave and took cautious steps as they move. As they were exiting the cave they were in they heard a girl giggling, that's when they spotted her.

She was wearing a pink dress, and as the group got closer to her she ran away through a hole in the fence. But the hole that they saw was strange, instead of being cut apart, it looked like it had been melted through.

"Okay, now that's strange." Yang said. The rest of them nodded in agreement, and continue to move forward.