A/N: Well hello people, welcome to season finale! Finally after a good twenty-something chapters we're here! Far from the final episode but a nice ole finale to get you guys ready for season two! There's going to be a break of a month or so. At least enough time for me to write the first five "episodes" of season two and then we'll be set!
(And just a helpful P.S.: Remember the man in that strange building from "Protocol 4-8112"? Well he's coming back so hopefully you remember what he was doing in that chapter!)
Well anyways: OFF TO THE FINALE!
_(=I=)_
A storm had settled over Grimdale and Michael watched as the droplets of gray rain splattered against the window in front of him. With the slates of dark cloud settled over the sky it was hard to say what time it actually was but as he leaned against the stone barrier situated in the middle of the room he guessed it was most likely night. Watching the drops dribble off the window and out of sight Michael considered how strange the day-to-night cycle was.
It seemed that sometimes the days ran much longer then the nights and sometimes the sun dropped away in what only seemed to be a few hours. While he hadn't been in this world for long he could already sense that there was something wrong with it, like watching a broken clock still try and keep time: something was wrong. However he had no use thinking of it, they had bigger problems on their hands at the moment.
Suddenly Ben spoke up saying, "maybe he wasn't part of the Black Hand or knows what it is," he tried. "I mean those seemed to be invitations and I doubt that someone would kill their own guests."
"Well he was allowed to live in the city, I don't think anyone who was associated with the Black Hand would let an outsider wander about," Kurt pointed out. Ben was standing in the doorway that opened up to the stairwell that lead to the first floor and turned to Kurt who was sitting on one of the four windowsill that were on the second story of the windmill.
"Well maybe he was just living in the walls, could've hide from whoever is a part of the Black Hand or whoever controls it! I mean living inside the walls, that's perfectly possible!"
As they went on with their argument Michael sighed and turned over to see Sam who was fast asleep on a small rusty cot that had been in a storage cellar and then looked down at his backpack. Dragging it over and placing it on his lap he opened it and glanced inside, immediately seeing what he was looking for Michael quickly pulled it out. In his hands was the strange wooden box he had found, the strange wooden container and whatever was clunking about inside.
I have the treasure chest, Michael thought dully as he examined the golden plate where the key hole was, but now I need the key.
The man who had the key was in Grimdale along with Michael, Ben, Kurt, and Sam. Currently he stood near a hole in the ground which was full of water, almost hidden under a canopy he slowly brought the silver thing out. Looking up into the sky which was filled with bustling black storm clouds he made some kind of calculation before reaching his conclusions. Dropping the silver key in his black overcoat the holder of the key leaned against the stone wall.
Not yet, the Man in Black thought to himself as he pulled his hand from his pocket, but very soon.
_(=I=)_
As the storm raged on, occasionally filling the sky was the blue claws of lightning and following with the deep roar of thunder a grand total of twelve posses who had surrounded Grimdale had slipped in. The last of these was a small group of two that consisted of a rather intelligent George and a rather strong Lennie. They had split up when their hiding spot by an old well had been found and were currently trying to get back together.
Lennie was making his way through one of Grimdale's many back alleys when he saw a dark figure at the other end nothing but a hazy outline at the end of the alley. "George?" he asked, taking a few steps closer, "is that you?" He started to walk towards the figure when he then saw something pushed up against one of the buildings. Through the curtains of rain he could see the dark form on the ground only a few feet away from the outline at the end of the alley which was still silent.
Lying against the building was George with a ragged hole where his forehead should've been that was still seeping out dark stuff that Lennie refused to look at. The eyes had been enough for him, the swelled gray things still fully open and looking at nothing, filling up with rain water. "George!" Lennie started and glared up at the figure at the end of the alley and started to charge letting out a single hoarse cry as the outline at the end of the alley split into two.
The two men who had been standing at the end of the alley looked at Lennie with a sense of boredom as the shorter of the two raised a hand. However, instead of a sword or a bow the man had a sleek black gun which he raised and pointed at Lennie who didn't even have time to understand that the attacker had something much more powerful than a sword. The muzzle of the gun erupted with smoke as a bullet screamed out and cut straight through the approaching Lennie and left a blooming bud of red on his stomach.
"Eugh!" Lennie managed as the bullet sent him flying backwards and then falling on the ground with a crash. Before he could even settle the gun flashed with smoke as another bullet ate through Lennie's side, leaving nothing but grizzly red and a few exposed ribs. Before fading off he had a few seconds to look at the two men who had attacked them, and could hear the one with the gun talk to him before dropping into blackness.
The words formed on the gun wielder's lips were simple, "don't stand in the way of Randall Faraday."
Ross had been looking through the few trashcans that were scattered about the city (each marked with KEEP GRIMDALE CLEAN –NMTC) in a desperate attempt to try and find anything not already picked over. His brother had suggested it, most likely because Ross didn't have a clue at looting but it kept him busy at least. Ross was following Pi'flyid Street when he heard the first gunshot and then after a few seconds the second one, causing him to stop.
Turning around Ross could see the man who had been following him without Ross even suspecting stop and look at the entrance to a back alley. Before he could even think about the man following him he could hear a third gunshot and watched as a mixture of red and gray was blown through the back of the man's head as a third gunshot echoed through the city. Starting to run Ross flew by a zombie who had been trying to find the source of the noise and actually managed to run pass it without it even noticing.
Running off the road he made his way to the fence that surrounded the graveyard and was able to quickly haul himself up and over onto the other side. Surprisingly fast he also managed to scramble through the man graves and to the small church which sat at the edge of the grounds, proclaimed boldly on a hill. Hopefully before the shooter could notice he slipped inside the church and locked the doors behind him.
Rushing down the aisle that ran up to the alter he also managed to slip into the backroom to where a small bedroom was before anyone could've noticed. Luckily the room was windowless and allowed him to finally relax; slumping against the wall to the right of the door he let exhaled finally realizing he had been holding his breath.
He wondered vaguely if anyone was more frightened than him at that moment.
There was.
Martin had been having a bad twenty minutes.
The four people he had come into the city with were dead; one hacked down by another vagabond, two taken down by the walking dead, and the lat falling victim to a collapsing building. The friend taken down by another man had gotten an ax through the head, and the other had been crushed by the collapse of the storage shed they had been in, and finally the last two were currently below him and looking up at him with the gleam of hunger in their eyes.
Chased up to a roof Martin looked down to see that a floor below him a good set of thirty walkers were swarming at his feet, all trying to grab him. Snapping rotten hands clawed at the air or pawed the very edge of the roof if they were tall enough; and then there were his two friends snapping their teeth at him. Trapped, Martin thought as he sat down on the tiled roof; he had heard the situation before; the dead would wait for days for someone to come down or until their victim died.
And I thought we were going to get in and out, Martin thought to himself when suddenly there was the sound of a small explosion from some other part of the city. The cries of the dead stopped as every head was jerked towards the noise which sounded awfully like a gunshot; it was followed by another within a few seconds. Martin glanced back down and could see that already half the crowd was moving toward the sound, the other half still getting themselves ready to move.
Oh fuck yes! Martin thought, almost jumping up to cheer as the entire group started to run down the street; leaving him alone on the roof top. A third explosions followed and feeling rather excited that he wasn't quite out yet Martin started to make his way down the roof. But then the tiles a foot away from him exploded casting shards or black shingles through the air and leaving a cut over Martin's hand. Embedded in the roof was an arrow.
"Well shit," he murmured and jumped away as a second arrow shot by, ripping the air apart an inch from his left ear. He was going to have to move fast.
Randall was leisurely walking down the street with Peter trailing behind him with a gleaming sword out, of course most of the walking dead simply rushed right past them. Peter had learned that Randall had a way to make himself a bit faded, get himself rather unnoticed if he wanted to be unnoticed; it was why he was such a great bandit. The gun they had found at "NMTC Station 8 of 8" was clutched in his hand and was firing at anything that moved.
"Where do you think they are?" Peter questioned, the city being full of people was making it quite a bit harder to try and find the three men Randall was so keen on catching.
For Randall however the last few days were all about catching up to those three, the old feeling of being pulled towards something was back again. Heating up in his gut was a strange magnetic force that made it seem so right to raise as much chaos as he could when he got to wherever it was pulling him to. With the vast amount of years Randall had had the feeling he had a good idea of where it was coming from but that didn't matter: getting to where this magnetic pull was the strongest was the only thing really on his mind.
"They're still here," Randall said as he shifted his gaze about the city, the feeling in his gut started to pulse and thrash as he looked towards an old windmill and then he smiled. "They're in there!" he announced as he pointed to the distant shape of the windmill, "let's go!"
Randall started to run dropping the gun in its holster and raising his hands ready to do another filthy job that he loved oh so much. One of the few dozen men in the city stepped in front of him with an iron sword raised over his head but Randall simply caught the tip of the sword and yanked it from the man's hand. Not even breaking his run Randal quickly snapped the blade and sent the broken hilt through the man's stomach.
The feeling inside him was thumping and thrashing sending rapid beating heat through his entire system. He knew what was telling him to do this by now; it was the only man he had ever listened to. And this man, even though he was much more than a man, was telling him that he had to kill two men named Michael and Ben.
_(=I=)_
"THE BLACK HAND HAS ARRIVED
ASSUMING PROTOCOL 4-8112
NEW COUNTER HAS BEEN DETERMINED
NEXT EVENT WILL OCCUR IN:
57 DAYS, 13 HOURS, 56 MINUTES, 17 SECONDS"
The man was running towards the elevator as fast as he could, looking up at the small panel above the elevator doors he could see that the small red needle was fixed on "4." Cursing under his breath that he had left the small black lever used to power the thing on the third floor he focused his mind on the two doors in front of him and after concentrating on the image watched as the flew open. Rushing inside he pressed the button marked as "2" and felt the elevator jolt and then start to ascend on the second floor.
For a brief second the "3" button glowed as the elevator rose up to the third floor where the man lived but then it was off to the second floor. As the elevator shuttered again it then opened letting a flood of white light enter the small metal box and wash over the man inside. He had never seen any purpose to this room up until that very moment and stepping inside immediately tried to understand what was in front of him.
The men who had built the place for him had explained that the room would be used to communicate with anyone he wished; he had seen it pointless since he could always use the powers he had- the ones he had been born with. As it turned out he really didn't need at first, doing all his communicating directly from his bedroom by concentrating on whomever he wanted to speak to. Now however he could already feel it, he knew there was something dark around him and even the small burst of energy he made to power the elevator was already too much.
When the timer had gone to zero he knew that the Black Hand had arrived and he knew the evil it brought with it, the same evil blocking his powers. And so now he stared at the large computer monitor in front of him and started to think who he would have to talk to. Sighing that he would have to use technology to talk to his people from now on he pressed the on button and watched as the screen in front of him turned on.
On the glass face in front of the man he could see a large map of a familiar world in front of him, a world which had been laid to ruin a very long time ago. Typing in a code he watched as the map zoomed in on a certain forest on the southwest corner of the continent. As it zoomed in he could see various markers appearing on the screen and for a few seconds read all of the small text boxes that appeared on the screen.
The ones he found the most important was a rather large red one marked: "GRIMDALE; NMTC STATION 1 OF 8" and five smaller markers very close to it. Three of the markers were clustered in a small clearing very close to the GRIMDALE marker and read: "MICHAEL, BENJAMIN, KURT" in bright white letters. Approaching the three markers were two in blood red text that gave the man a very disturbed feeling; these two read: "RANDALL, PETER."
Luckily the man had had a bit of foreknowledge that he would have to use it, he had set it a few months in the past on a very certain date. He had also already "focused" the machine on the spot where the markers MICHAEL, BENJAMIN, and KURT were and was about to tap on the KURT marker when he stopped himself. Deciding against it he then focused the machine on MICHAEL and watched as a view of Michael asleep in an old rustic tent.
"So it's not too late," the man muttered to himself as he rushed to another corner of the room where a chest and a very strange object sat. The strange object was a small platform of sorts with a number of pipes running from it and into the floor; on the face of the small raised platform were the name of the men who had built it: NMTC. Ignoring the strange machine for a few seconds the man went to the chest and quickly pulled out two objects after opening it: a small wooden box with the initials M.H. on it and a small silver key that went with it.
Placing the small wooden box on the platform first he quickly kneeled down and looked for the small panel that was on the thing's side. Eventually finding it the man could see that it consisted of three plates that read, in order: "X=0," "Y=0," and "Z=0"all of these were beside three separate dials. Groaning the man looked at the large glass screen he had been in front of and focused on it using all his might to get the coordinates of the man sleeping in the tent on screen.
Even doing as something as simple as that caused a small sliver of red pain to build up in his head…
Shaking the pain away the man turned to the dials in front of him and started to twist and turns the dials until the coordinates on the plates matched the ones on the screen. Searching up and down the strange device again the man eventually found what he was looking for; a small button marked with a single word: EXECUTE. Hitting it the man felt a sudden prickle of electricity in the air and started to back away as a slight humming sound came from the depths of the machine. From the platform came a ring of blue light that started to slowly drift up, eventually a whole series of thin blue rings started to fill the air.
The rising blue rings stopped when they were a good inch taller than the small wooden box the man had set on the platform and then the humming stopped. There was a strange almost sucking sound like air suddenly being ripped from a room as the blue rings rushed inwards, collapsing into a blue shell around the box. For a few seconds the wooden box was a buzzing chunk of blue light but then it started to fade away to show nothing but empty air.
Twisting back to look at the screen he watched the inside view of the tent for a few seconds and the sleeping form of the man named Michael. There a small burst of pale blue light and after a small hissing sound of air being released from a seal the wooden box marked with the initials M.H. Normally he wouldn't have to rely on a machine to do things such as this but his natural power was being suppressed; suppressed by the thing traveling with the Black Hand.
Sighing again the man made his way back to screen and started to punch in a code suddenly shifting view to what the man named Michael was dreaming of. Trying to pull the man's dream state to some kind of familiar environment the man found that he had pressed in an incorrect code and shouted out a curse as Michael's mind was sent back in time. Punching in another code to bring Michael to the future the man watched through Michael's perspective an entire chain of events he had witnessed himself many years ago.
He watched as…
Michael stood on the cliff and looked down into the valley below. At first the valley was empty and seemed to be empty for a rather long time. Suddenly he could see something move across the valley, something that appeared to be a small golden orb surrounded by a ring of metal that floated through. After a large space of time Michael then saw a city grow from the ground that was constantly visited by the strange golden orb that all the people in the city seemed very happy to see.
Suddenly Michael found his vision torn upwards and he watched as his vision was of the night sky that was dotted with a plethora of stars. As he watched the night sky he could see that one star seemed to be growing brighter than the others, a strange red star that was alone in a small dark section of the sky. Watching it Michal could then see that the red star was becoming brighter and brighter and actually seemed to be getting bigger; whatever it was it was heading towards him.
Unable to move Michael continued to watch the falling star as it entered the atmosphere and started to burn with a great fire that seemed to light up the sky. The falling star burned red in the sky and sent a shuttering screech through the air as it passed above him and sailing through the air, a horrid intruder in a peaceful world. As the terrible red star continued to sail through the dark sky and eventually started to near impact far into the north.
He watched as the red star finally came into contact with the land far north in a distant set of mountains and as the meteorite crashed Michael's vision went dark. Just for an instant in the darkness of his vision as he heard the far away crash of the meteorite Michael could see a strange symbol, a red flame that he had seen many times before. Looking up again he could see the falling star had knocked into a mountain and had sent a pillar of molten rock flying into the sky.
Down in the village Michael could see that the people far below him were in a state of panic with many people lost in a complete crowd of chaos. The entire land to be shaking sending a few buildings in the town crashing to the town as the dark sky became a dismal red as everything seemed to fall into bedlam. He could even see that the small golden globe that usually monitored the town was in a strange state of disrepair as it seemed to shake and falter. Suddenly it flew from the town and went into the north with a sudden burst of energy.
Feeling growing horror Michael stumbled backwards and watched as suddenly a mass of clouds started to come from the north and started to send down snow. Even though he was still falling Michael watched as snow covered the entire landscape in a matter of seconds with everything winterlocked when he crashed to the ground. Now in this strange frozen wasteland Michael got himself up and looked around again to see everything had changed.
In the valley was a very small town covered in snow with the small golden orb nowhere to be seen and in the distance was a horrid red light in the mountains. However Michael looked down and could see that there was something moving in the valley beneath him, a small machine slowly makings it way through the snow. The small vehicle that was moving towards the town had the lettersNMTCon the side.
Suddenly his view changed and Michael was looking down into the small valley and could see that people were leaving the small village below him. In the middle of this exodus came an entire hoard of the undead at least seventy strong that quickly covered the town. With only half of the original exodus able to leave the town and head into the cold Michael continued to watch the small town as it seemed years seemed to pass.
He watched as a few buildings fell and collapsed in the snow, quickly being forgotten after being covered in ice. The few buildings remaining slowly became dark and dirty, rotting silently in this frozen waste. As years past Michael watched as a few more buildings fell under the weight of snow with the few remaining falling into dilapidation. Turning away from the abandoned town Michael turned around to face away from the valley town and then found himself in darkness.
The man recoiled from what he had just seen on the screen and then placed himself in front of what appeared to be an intercom system placed in the control panel. There was a crackle of electricity and then the man started to speak into the microphone as fast as he could.
"Michael, I most apologize that I cannot speak to you directly right now but I am leaving you this message because you are in great peril. You must heed these words: what you are experiencing right now is not a simply dream you must act upon the things you see or hear in this place.
"I must also tell you Michael that I also apologize for what you had just seen. That had happened only because of my own fault. The place you are in now is the future, the future that will happen if you fail your quest and so you must act on these words: You are being followed and you must wake up now and get the others to get to Grimdale as soon as possible.
"You have to act on this as soon as possible; I have made it so you will now that this is real. Remember you must succeed in your quest to save you and your friends. You must succeed to save us, to save all of us."
The man named Henry Gale pulled himself away from the microphone and looked up to the screen above him to see Michael was getting up. He watched as Michael hesitantly reached out for the small wooden box before Henry quickly punched in a new set of coordinates and speed up the time to the morning. He always need the coordinates to his comrade, the only other person in the entire world he would ever trust his life with, the person currently in Grimdale.
Closing the computer in on Grimdale he watched as a whole heap of markers appeared, each signifying a different person. One of them that were in the walls was marked ISAAC and a few others scattered about the city were a variety of names, but he was only focused on one which he quickly closed in on. This marker was marked with a hazy question mark and clicking on the marker to get a close up of the person in question produced nothing but a black screen.
Henry knew well enough who it was and quickly went over to the little machine in the corner of the room and quickly dropped the key on the surface of the small platform. Turning the dials on the side of the thing he watched and listened as a humming sound came from the depths of the machine and the pallid blue rings began to rise up around the key. Eventually covering the key the rings then fell inwards, consuming the key in a livid shell of blue light before fading entirely.
"Well it's in his hands now," Gale muttered to himself as he stepped away, heading back to the elevator he forced the thing to open and to slide up to the first floor. Stepping inside the thing immediately traveled upwards even though he hadn't pressed a button and after rumbling through the floors stopped on the first floor. It rumbled again as the metal doors slide aside and let in a strange light, an almost blue light that filled the air.
Walking from the elevator Henry Gale found himself in a small grove that was under a glass dome. In the center was a tree full of bright green leaves, around it was a constantly flowing river of water that flowed around the grove to all the other plants. Starting down a boardwalk that stretched all the way towards the tree he passed rows of reeds, flowers, and patches of blueberries until he was near the center of the dome.
Two branches stretched out over his vision but he could still see the top of the dome well enough, or rather what was above the glass top. Resting above him was blue ice which bleeds in slightly blue light to the grove from the sun overhead, but now he could see something else above the ice. On the surface far above his home Henry Gale could see moving shadows swarming to and fro far above him, the Black Hand had found him.
_(=I=)_
When Kurt and Ben had found the old windmill they had found it one of the strangest things they had seen. The building itself had two floors and had a stone column in the middle of each floor that seemed to lead down into some underground network which could be seen on the second floor. The column on the second floor stopped a few feet from the ground and revealed a mass of wires and cables which led even further upwards to some strange hulking machine.
After making sure the building was stable, they had heard the distant crash of some other building collapsing not long ago, they had then fortified it. Heaving a safe from the small storage area they stacked it and some kind of chest against the door, while they doubted any zombies would bother with them they had had a sneaking suspicion they weren't alone. However the various gangs that had drifted into the city would not bother them either but the barrier did end up saving their lives.
Michael was leaning against the stone barrier still watching the dark clouds boil and waver outside the window when he heard a loud thumping noise. Jolting up right he watched as a wild tongue of lightning darted out in front of the boiling black sea of clouds and almost fell over when the following clap of thunder followed. The room was almost pitch-black with the electrical lights long since dead and the storm outside blocking of any remaining sunlight Michael found as he started to look about in the dark. His companions came to view when another blue tongue of electrical fire erupted from the clouds.
"What was that?" Sam questioned desperately trying to sit up in bed which required him to pull his stiff leg into the proper position. Reaching for his crutches all four of them listened to another thundering crash from downstairs followed by the hollow clang of a safe smashing into the floor.
"You got be kidding me," Ben uttered to himself as thunder roared outside.
"Michael! Ben! Where are ya?" a voice sounded from outside their door as another crash sent a vibration shuttering through the building.
"It's Randall," Kurt said simply, "I'd suggest we run," he said and almost rather calmly took the chair he had been sitting on and easily hoisted it up. In the same fluid calmness he sent the thing through the window which is crashed through and spun down to hit a small awning along with a rainfall of glass.
"Shit," Michael cursed under his breath, "Sam can you…?"
"Maybe, I'm gonna need some help," he said looking rather guilty. Michael immediately went over to help Sam get up as a crash came from below along with the door starting to pry open. Ben, looking rather sorry that he was already out of the window slipped out on to the awning below and out of sight.
Kurt had stayed in his exact spot and was rooting through his own satchel pulling out a small black box, a heap of bandages, and a fistful of arrows. Stuffing the box and gauze into his pockets he slung his bow over his shoulder and went over to Sam who Michael had led to the window. "Here," he said to Sam and quickly helped him sling the satchel, "they're not after you and I'm going to try and stall them as long as I can. There's enough supplies to last a good week for you," he said it all with a rather blank expression on his face but a small fire of fear was already burning in his eyes.
"Kurt, you don't have to," Michael said as he helped Sam get his wounded leg out of the window, "me and Ben will-" he was cut off however by an ominous smashing sound of an old lock shattering.
"Go," Kurt almost order and shoved Michael near the window to join Sam who had managed to slither out of the window frame and onto the awning. Michael opened his mouth to say one last thing when suddenly there was a rocking jolt that went through the whole building as the door flew open. Quickly shoving Sam's cot in front of the door which led to the downstairs staircase Kurt stacked a few chests on top of it before going to the window.
Outside the now empty frame he could see the street below and could see Michael and Ben helping Sam sprint along as the door behind him started to shake. Watching them turn a corner Kurt himself leapt through the frame and onto the awning as the lock on the door behind him flew in three heavy pieces across the room. Waiting beside the window and out of sight Kurt listened to the cry of frustration come from inside the room.
"The window!" the voice of Randall's lackey shouted and in a flash Kurt watched as a rather lanky and tall man rushed from the window and onto the awning. Sliding the bow off his shoulder and pulling an arrow back all in the same motion Kurt sent one flint headed arrow flying outwards. The man he had recognized as Randall's apprentice turned in surprise only to have the flint head bury itself in between his two ribs.
"Rand-" the man named Peter gurgled just as Kurt sent another arrow straight through his leg, erupting from the other side with a short cloud of blood. With rain wetting the awning Peter easily lost his balance and started to slip just as the dark form named Randall came into the window. Remembering the distant and bright memory of Audrey Kurt focused faded eyes on Peter and sent one last arrow at Peter which caught him straight in the jugular.
"Damn you!" Randall snarled as he watched his apprentice gurgle out a steady flow of dark blood and fall face first onto the awning. Peter's final words were lost in a swarming puddle of blood and then he rolled down the slanted awning with heavy blood splattering on the old tile. All in the same few seconds the body that was once Peter tumbled from the awning and fell onto the street with a thick snap coming from its neck as the head hit the street at an odd angle.
Sending an arrow at Randall who had lunged from the window like a bat Kurt watched in surprise as a blur came up to meet the flying arrow and in disbelief when Randall had caught it. Taking a few steps away he sent two more arrows at Randall, the first easily caught and the other missing all together. Randall's arm became a blur again as a long sleek knife came out and then became a glowing mess of blue as it reflected a strike of lightning.
Luckily the awning stretched around the whole of the windmill and as Kurt turned the corner he sent another arrow flying right towards Randall. The sleek tip of the knife however rushed forward in a tide of bright silver that caught the arrow midair and easily cleaved the wooden shaft in two. "I was going to spare you, but if you want to die…" Randall said with the sinister snarl on his lips turning into a bright and disturbed grin.
_(=I=)_
She had been the smartest it seemed. Star had entered the city and had immediately ducked into what may have been some kind of toll booth in some other world. Taking the dead body in the hazmat suit as a bad omen she immediately went for the wall and went inside the great stone thing on a whim. As it turned out she had found something even better then she was expecting the city could provide.
Whoever the man in the hazmat suit was he had been living inside the wall for what she guessed may had been a good three weeks with enough food to last another month. Taking out her large military pack she quickly dropped at least a dozen bags of small apples, seventeen sleeves of cookies, and a good five water bottles into it humming under her breath. From her small hideout in the wall she could hear the many other people who had been in the wood clamber in and the occasional shout and thump of someone getting speared with a sword.
After a while of walking about the wall she even heard the rumble of a building collapsing and then shortly after that a few distant gunshots. Inspecting a small pile of books she had found next to what seemed to be a makeshift bed Star found herself frozen as she turned towards the entrance. Gunshots? In her entire time spent running about this world she had only seen a gun once, and she had seen the bullet holes too.
Almost against her will she found herself remembering the day on top of the mountain- a friend lying in the snow which was turning red under them. She could remember seeing the bag marked with North Maine Trading Company: Standard Military Pack still clasped in a hand with two fingers blown off. Star finally could see the strange smile spreading on his face as he finally slipped away, letting the bag fall from his hand and tumble down the frozen slope…
Shaking herself from the vivid memory she started to inspect her way around the Wall again, looking up at a bright light coming in from around the corner. Going around the corner she could see a staircase leading up and out of the Wall to what she assumed was the pathway that was on the top of the wall. Running up to it she clambered up the steps and found herself in what seemed to be another small nest for the person who had lived in the Wall.
This one included a small chair placed next to a telescope pointed in the direction of the forest and at the pathway leading into the city. A few scrape of food were around the chair along with another water bottle that she quickly scooped up and dropped into her bag. Sighing she looked about the forest and, maybe just for the laughs, she leaned and looked into the telescope sweeping the glass eye about the forest.
Compelled for some reason she swung the far reaching glare of the glass eyes completely done he road and saw something rather strange. She knew that the road eventually fed into the swamplands west of the forest but now as she looked she could see there was something new in that direction. Rising up in the still air and mingling with the boiling storm clouds was a smear of smoke rising from what she guessed might've been twenty four large camp fires.
This time the shock hit her harder then hearing the distant boom of gunshots as she recognized immediately the large but not too distant glimmer of bonfires. There had been rumors moving about the forest on it and it seemed that Star was the first one to actually see it. Grimdale would be under assault in the next five hours, under siege by the warriors from the swamplands, the minions of the Red Arrow.
And, as most people near the swamplands knew, the Red Arrow meant death.
_(=I=)_
Kurt had been around the awning a good two times when he finally realized he was on his last two arrows, and he by then he also learned the sick truth. He knew that Randall could've rushed forward with his inhumane speed at any time but like most things he always liked to toy with things. And their playtime was soon to be over.
Stopping, Kurt sent his second to last arrow flying at Randall who again caught it by the shaft and snapped it into two bits in his fist. The smile on his face was getting bigger and the red gleam was storming madly in his eyes, it was a look Kurt recognized; it was the same look the man had had when he had killed Audrey. Feeling rage building up Kurt prepared to draw back his final arrow when he heard the ripping sound of an arrow flying through the air.
In surprise he looked up just in time to see Randall throwing the arrow head at Kurt and he watched in disbelief as the flint blade struck his bow. The flinthead snapped the wire and then buried itself into the actual bow and sent it flying out of Kurt's hand and onto the awning where it bounced once and then spiraled down to the ground. Biting his lip he could see that Randall had the sleek knife raised up towards the sky and Kurt did the last thing he could think of.
Raising the arrow over his head with the dull point aimed at Randall he started to fly forward with tears flowing from his eyes as he shouted what may had been a war cry. "For Audrey you bastard!" he cried and lunged forward.
_(=I=)_
The Man in Black had been watching the fight from the small house across the street from the windmill. Knowing what was to come he stood up from the chair and looked down at the silver key he had in his hand and then looked up at Randall. Soon enough, the Man in Black thought to himself, you'll get your gift soon enough.
Dropping the key in his pocket the Man in Black walked over to a bookshelf and went for an old record player which sat alone at the end of a shelf. Picking out one of the old record sleeves at random he yanked out the black record and placed it on the player. Letting the needle drop onto the black surface at random the Man in Black turned his attention to the fight outside the window as a song he almost expected started to play.
"Shed a tear 'cause I'm missing you,
I'm still alright to smile.
Girl, I think about you every day now.
Was a time when I wasn't sure,
But you set my mind as ease.
There's no doubt you're in my heart now,
Said: woman, take it slow,
It'll work itself out fine.
All we need is just a little…
Patience…"
_(=I=)_
Almost anticlimactically Kurt rushed forward ready to drive the flint head of the arrow into Randall who caught Kurt's hand in a flash of movement. Pressing down with harsh fingers Kurt felt his wrist crack and the arrow fly from his finger and watched it bounce from the awning. A leg rose up and hit Kurt in the stomach setting his vision into a spinning darkness occasionally filled with a flashing light.
"Audrey…," he managed as he started to fall backwards.
Randall, with laughter flowing from his teeth like a river, let go of Kurt and let him fall down to the awning. In a single fluid movement Randall let the knife glide down and make a bright red scratch across Kurt's neck. Slamming on the awning Kurt's eyes went blank as a few droplets of red blood started to flow from the scratch across his neck, washing down his neck in a pink flow as rain slammed down.
Giggling as Kurt became still on the awning Randall quickly cleaned off the blade on his shirt leaving a pink blotch before dropping off the awning. Landing next to the body of Peter whose head was bent at its odd angle from landing Randall tossed glance at the dead body and felt a twinge of pity. He thought that he would last a lot longer, the small well that was his pity quickly dried up and rolling his eyes he kicked the head, completely detaching the head and sending it rolling away as he rolled his eyes.
"No great loss," Randall muttered to himself as he started to follow the old pulling force. Looking down the street he watched a few huddled forms run by trailing heavy backpacks and lugging swords. And then just for a second a small smear of black beside one of the houses he passed.
Stopping for a few seconds Randall could feel a strange cold feeling making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Surprised of the strange feeling he looked back to where he saw the black smear but saw nothing but an empty alleyway. Shrugging he turned and followed the pulling force still unaware that he was being watched.
_(=I=)_
The thing that called itself Randall continued down the street. Watching Randall the Man in Black glared at him before feeling the tugging force himself. The scenery melted away as the Man in Black moved on too.
_(=I=)_
Martin was running down a back alley when he found the first crutch which stood up from a small crack in the street. Puzzling over it for a few seconds he then continued his flight down the street when he rounded a corner and smacked into someone and fell backwards. "Dammit," he muttered as he looked up at the man he had ran into, half expected to see a sword already on its downward arc but instead he saw someone joust as frightened as he was.
"Oh shit, shit, shit," the man muttered but then he saw Martin still on the ground and relaxed, 'sorry," he uttered as he got up.
"No problem," Martin muttered back as he got up, all he had to do was get out of the city before something else happened…
"The Red Arrow! The Red Arrow is coming! A voice shouted from the street and the both of them turned to see a woman with a bag swung over her shoulder running down the street. "They're coming! They're coming! The Red Arrow will be here in an hour!"
Martin looked up at the man beside him and seeing that he had no weapon pointed at what may have been a factory in a previous life. "I know we haven't really gotten to know each other but if we hide over there do you promise you won't rat me out if we're caught?" Martin said rather lamely.
"Better than trying to fight the Red Arrow," the man said and they started to quickly make their way to the factory which seemed to be some kind of food plant. Running across the street they spotted one woman ducking into an old apartment building, one man slipping down into a sewer, and a small group to the large capital building.
Going to the entrance of the factory the man Martin had bumped into turned to him and offered awkwardly, "my name is Ross by the way."
"I'm Martin," Martin offered back and then they pushed their way through the doors and into their place of hiding.
_(=I=)_
Michael and Ben turned Sam down an alley way as fast as they could and were quite surprise when Sam came to a sudden stop and then fell over. Since both of them had been holding onto Sam both Michael and Ben found themselves tumbling over onto the street themselves. "I'm sorry!" Sam said quickly as he painfully got himself up, "come on! Let's go!" he said again as the two pulled themselves up.
Michael twisted around to see that Sam's crutch had stuck in a crack in the road and was standing upright in the middle of the alley. Before he could even suggest trying to get it back Sam was already making his way down the alley with one crutch, "I don't want to slow you guys down," he said almost apologetically.
"Well let's go," Michael said as they hurried down the alley again as fast as they could. Suddenly Ben stopped them and pointed excitedly at the road that the alley flowed into.
"Look!" Ben said, "a sewer entrance!" Rushing out in front of them he reached for the small handgrips on either side of the thick metal plate and started to pull up. With his face turning a rather blotchy shade of red and cords standing out against his neck Ben rather surprisingly was able to get the heavy metal coin up. Placing it on the road beside the entrance in the ground Michael and Sam came over and looked down the newly opened shaft.
Michael could see that down the shaft were a level of dusty bricks and a rusty iron ladder that dropped to a dusty platform next to dark water. "Okay well Sam you can go first," Michael offered, "be careful," he added as Sam dropped his crutch down the shaft and started to climb down the rusty ladder. When Sam reached the bottom and regained his crutch Michael looked up to Ben, "okay go on," he said and motioned down.
Ben was about to protest but, realizing arguing would just waste time, he started to make his way down the rusty ladder and dropped to the bottom. Michael followed his example but also grabbed on to the cover, lugging it over until only a sliver of light came in from the entrance. Stepping down a rung Michael lifted the entire cover an inch above the ground and then let it drop into place as he started to quickly descend.
About five rungs down from the floor Michael paused when he heard the metal cover above him shake as someone stepped on it. The metal jolted a few more times and Michael stood absolutely still with one foot half an inch away from another rung as he stared up. For what felt like an eternity the metal above him continued to shake when the thing above him seemed to look around; and then it was gone.
Exhaling Michael quickly made his way down the ladder and joined Ben and Sam in the sewers. The platform the ladder ended on was actually part of a sidewalk like path that ran on either side of the actual sewer. Luckily Michael could tell that whatever waste the sewer had held had long been swept away as the water beside the platform was distilled and the entire complex seemed rather clean.
"A lot better then what I was expecting," Ben muttered under his breath.
"Well where do we go from here?" Sam questioned leaning on the crutch very much like a cane, "do you suppose we could find another sewer entrance near the gate?"
"I don't know," Michael said still in a very low voice, "we could probably walk around for a bit, perhaps after a while he'll think we just left the city and he'll 'chase' after us."
"Best we can hope for," Ben said and then he turned to Michael with a spreading disappointment on his face, "so Michael, do you think that was Randall?"
"Yes," Michael said realization hitting him as well, "I'm pretty sure, there's just this feeling around him…"
"At least Kurt bought us some time," Sam offered, "I know I haven't really been with you guys for long but he seemed like a great guy…"
"Well I guess our goal now is to just try and find the Black Hand," Ben said, "maybe it's somewhere down here; I didn't see anything I the actual town that seemed like it."
"Let's go then," Michael said and so they started down the sewer. The Black Hand much closer than they could ever imagine.
_(=I=)_
Star had made her way back into the Wall in search of some kind of hiding place. With a torch in one hand she founded a corner in the dark and found another small den made by the man who had lived there. Shining the light on the den she started to look for a place to put the torch when suddenly she found a small crack in the brick which seemed to be just big enough for the end of the torch. About to place the torch in it she then saw that there was something strange about the stone brick that the split ran down, there was a black "X" smeared on it.
With one hand she found that the crack was wide enough for her fingers to slip into and yanking the stone out she found that the entire thing easily slipped from the dusty wall. Behind it were a small cavity of mossy stone and also a strange rustic level protruding from a sheet of rusty metal. Curiously she very carefully reached out and placed a hand on the lever, almost concerned she had found some kind of trap she very slowly brought the lever down.
A great humming came from behind the metal plate and Star's small section of the wall started to shake as part of the dusty stones next to her started to leak dust. After a few seconds of quaking the wall then fell down into the floor with a rush of dry air and a billowing cloud of dust. In its place was a small stairwell which coughed up rather surprising electrical light, from her vantage point she could see that there was a chest and cot in one corner of the room.
Carefully making her way down the stairs she found that the room was empty with a single panel in the wall letting in bright yellow light. The chest also housed a couple days' worth of food as well along with a few water bottles and extra blankets for the cot. Next to the threshold that led into the room she also found a lever that closed the doorway at the top of the stairs.
Going up once to replace the brick in the wall, this time with the black "X" facing away from the passage way she then closed the door behind her. Like most of the wanderers that had came into the city another hiding place was secured.
_(=I=)_
Sam had been the first to spot him. As Michael, Ben, and Sam made their way down a particularly long stretch of sewer Sam had pointed out the body lying on the intersection of two tracks of waterways. The body wasn't exactly dead they saw as they drew closer but the long cuts over the left eye told them that he wasn't doing so good, in fact the left eye was completely gone. "What the hell would do that?" Ben questioned as they drew nearer.
"Whatever did it," Michael said throwing a glance over his shoulder before finishing, "is down here with us."
"Don't…," the collapsed form said as it slowly managed to get up, "I don't have anything…" the man was able to sit up but it seemed standing was still far from possible. A large bruise had begun to form on his right temple and they could see a few drops of blood trailing from the red mess of what used to be his left eye.
"We're not gonna rob you," Michael called over to the man, "do you need a bandage of some kind?" he asked rather lamely as the man squinted his right eye at him.
"Holy hell why can't I see?" the man questioned as he gingerly brought a hand up to his face, "why can't I fucking see?"
"Just keep clam," Michael explained and slowly pulled a roll of gauze and bandages from his backpack, "we have bandages for you," he tried to sound reassuring but his own voice sounded flat to him. However the now cyclopean man had slinked back into a dazed state of sleep and seemed to be rather calm as a few more beads of red came down his cheek like twisted tears.
"My name is…," the man tried as Michael approached, "my name is…," his head dropped and his breathing became heavy.
As Michael started to dress the wound, from what Kurt had said it seemed like infection or heavy blood loss was very much dulled in this world, Ben spoke up. "What should we do with him?" he questioned, "I mean should we wait for him to get up? If it's just his eye he should be able to get around alright…"
"At least better than me," Sam sighed under his breath.
"But waiting for him to get up might be kind of dangerous," Ben admitted but then the still form Michael had bandaged suddenly sprang into motion.
"Ajax!" he shouted as if suddenly waking up from a bad dream, "my name is Ajax!" he then looked around him as best he could with his right eye. "My name is Ajax," he tried again much calmer. He brought his hands up to the sloppy bandages over his left eye and looked at Michael with a look of horror on his face. "My eye… is it? Is it… gone…?"
"I think so…," Michael admitted, "what happened?"
"Well I came down here because someone said the Red Arrow was coming," he paused and looked up at Michael, Ben, and Sam's indifferent faces with shock. "You guys are down here hiding from it too, right?"
"Well we've never really seen much of the Red Arrow, we've only heard about it," Ben said remembering the conversation Kurt had had with them.
"What do you mean you've never seen the Red Arrow?" Ajax questioned, "I mean they're usually always somewhere around the forest around Grimdale. Well if anything I came down here to hide when someone snuck up behind me, all I can really remember was that he was looking for someone. Or some people, I don't know."
Michael started to feel a cold weight tug at his gut and when he turned back to look at Ben he could see the same look spreading on his face. "You don't think…?" Michael questioned and returning his gaze to Ajax he could see that he was thinking about something.
"I think he said his name was Randall," Ajax said calmly.
They had been walking in silence for what seemed like hours, making their way deeper into the sewer system with Ajax bringing up the rear. It had been decided that he could accompany them if he wished and so he stayed behind them silently watching the sewer with his remaining eye, waiting for the man named Randall to leap out with the sleek hunting knife grasped in one hand. However their entire trip so far had been completely silent until Ben let out a low moan and grasped his forehead where a vein had begun to rapidly pulse.
"Ben?" Michael asked stopping in his tracks as Ben shook his head to rid himself of whatever pain was knotting in his head, twisting tighter and tighter. "Is it another headache?" Michael had come to understand that when Ben ever started to get a headache it usually meant a certain something was drawing near.
"Another headache? W-What does that mean?" Ajax questioned with a hand grasped on the old iron sword that he had found in the water.
"It's nothing," Ben murmured as he reluctantly dropped his hand away from his temple which was still throbbing with some rapid head beat.
"Are you sure…?" Michael let himself trail off as his eyes caught something standing at the far end of an intersecting sewer, a figure made of shadows. Michael's eyes darted to Ben and he saw that the tall man was looking at the figure down the hallway as well, the cutout of blackness continued to simply look at them.
"What are you looking at?" Sam questioned as he leaned on his one crutch, he followed their gaze down the sewer and saw nothing but an empty passage way with the track of distilled water. Ajax did the same and saw nothing but emptiness with only a small chill signifying anything on the back of his neck.
"So what is it we're looking at?" Ajax inquired, "is there something down there?"
Ben, who had gone back to gripping his head trying to massage away the pain building in his forehead, "can't you just fucking see it?! The fucking thing standing there!" he shouted. "There…air…air..er…er…," Ben's shout echoed away through the hallways of the dead when a new sound started to build up. It started faint but soon enough all four of them could hear the new, yet familiar for Michael and Ben, rose up in a massive choir.
"Back in black…"
"This is it, this is when…"
"The Black Hand! It's near!"
"Look… there they are, the new people…"
"Look, and only look…"
"Silence in the halls of the dead?"
"It's time, time for the Man in Black…"
"They're not alone!"
"-but they're never alone…"
"The Mephisto is drawing close…"
"-the Mephisto called Randall…"
As the whispers became louder, still hushed yet ringing in their ears like a choir Michael and Ben watched as he Man in Black was now much closer to them. The water remained undisturbed as if the Man in Black had not moved from his spot, they blinked and now he was on the platform with them. Ben let out a scream as harsh ringing filled his head and the pain thumping in his head became a thundering clashing deep in his head, falling over he passed out with blood trickling from his nose.
Michael blinked again to see the Man in Black was now almost on top of them, towering over Michael a black gloved hand was held out towards him. Just for a few seconds Michael could see in the darkness which was now closing in on his vision something in the gloved hand, glittering in the pale light that came from the occasional torch set on the wall. Tumbling to the ground Michael looked up a few seconds before passing out to see what the Man in Black was holding and saw what it was.
It was a small silver key.
_(=I=)_
Randall was racing down the halls of the sewer, flying like an unearthly predator with a smile splitting his face and the hunting knife a smear of silver behind him. He could fell the pulling sensation which was tugging him down each hall, pulling him about as if set on a track, pulling him closer and closer to the two men he was after. His heart was beating rapidly and blood was gushing in his ears sounding very much like a crimson ocean as he ran, twisting down a corner closer and closer to his target.
He was very close now, the two men he needed to catch were deep in the complex but he easily knew the route to take. Keep going down this hallway until he reached the second left turn, go down that hallway until the right turn, go around the corner and there they would be. Reaching the second left turn he bolted around the corner when the sudden magnet pull stopped, almost freezing into a cold blackness that filled him. All at once his beating blood silenced and his heart slowed as if the machinery compelling him forward had just been halted.
Stopping his eyes widened as he searched for the feeling again, the warm pull that had acted like a magnet for him; all of it was completely gone. He didn't know how but he felt the mad grin on his face drop into a scowl, barring teeth that were still the same bright white they had always been. The men he was hunting were gone, still in the city but very far away from where they had been a few seconds ago.
Screaming he punched the wall next to him, shattering three of the stone bricks and sending a jagged cobweb of cracks through the ancient masonry. A dark shadow fell over his face, turning it into something very far from his own face, turned it into a twisting mass of anger and hatred. The black broiling thing that was his face lurched forward as he made his way through the sewers, trying to find the way out.
In his wake the bottoms of the leather boots he wore left perfect black boot prints behind, seared into the ancient stone and still sending up smoke.
_(=I=)_
The house they woke in was rather impressive.
It might've been a manor of some sorts if it wasn't falling apart.
Michael might've paid more attention to the rundown manor, which had been the property of a Dr. Franq in a previous life, if his eyes hadn't caught what was in front of him. Under the pale light coming in from the window was the small wooden box Michael had been carrying for the past day with the carefully carved lid now thrown back on its hinges, open. Pulling himself up he crawled over to the open box, his legs felt surprisingly numb, he looked down at what was inside with confused eyes.
Reaching into the box he pulled out the thing inside and was about to open the thing when he heard a sound behind him, a loud coughing sound. Looking back Michael spotted the source of the coughing to be Ben who had a fan of drying blood under his nostrils, luckily Ben had stopped rubbing his temples. Sitting in the corner of the room Michael could see Sam as well who was also swimming from whatever black sleep he had been placed under.
"Where are we?" Ben questioned wiping blood from under his nose, "what happened?"
Having no answer the room was shrouded with silence before Sam suddenly questioned the two of them, "where's Ajax, did he not get taken with us?"
"I don't know," Michael mumbled as he took the glass thing from the box in his hands, "but he's probably better off than we are right now," he then showcased the thing in his hands. "And also, the box opened and this is what was inside," he presented it to them and was met with some confused glances.
"Alright then," Sam muttered.
A few weeks later when most of the fires in Grimdale had finally gone out there was a sudden drop in temperature in the small area under the gate into the city. A gust of wind suddenly came from the spot under the gate, or what was left of the collapsed mess, followed by a small score of whispers. Suddenly in the place of road between two chunks of the fallen gate there was a man lying spread eagle who was looking up in the gray sky with surprise.
With his remaining eye the man would gaze around his surroundings and the ruined city behind him as tried to remember the last thing he saw, he had been in a sewer of some sorts. Ajax cast the thought out of his mind and quickly got up moving especially fast when he saw a symbol and five words painted on the broken wall of Grimdale. As he started to move away from the city he occasionally looked back to see that someone had printed the symbol of an arrow inside a circle in red, under it was written: CLAIMED BY THE RED ARROW.
He started to walk down the deserted road as fast he could when he saw something strange hanging from a tree that sat near the road. From the lowest branch, hanging like a bizarre fruit, was a satchel back with the letters FLOB stitched on it which raised a memory. He had seen a man with that bag, a man named Sam who had been walking about with only one crutch… Ajax again casted it out of his mind and plucked the bag from the tree before moving down the road again.
Although he had no idea what had happened all he knew was that he had survived and he could probably live for another week or so. And so he moved on.
"What do you think it is?" Ben questioned as he looked at what Michael had in his hands. It was a rather large glass jar that was a neat rectangle which looked almost solid if not for the thing inside of it. The cavity of the jar was filled with, to the brim, with a violent red liquid that reached up to the cork screwed into the glass neck. On the front of the jar written on a stretch of masking tape was the strange words: Char-Axil Drinks.
"Well Kurt was searching for stuff like this, right?" Michael questioned even though he could remember Kurt only referring to them as Axil Drinks. If his memory also served him right the thing Kurt had had stocked up in his poor excuse of a home was a lighter shade of red then the stuff in this bottle. "Even though this looks… different…"
"Well it doesn't really matter, does it?" Sam questioned as he slowly stood up still using his remaining crutch as a cane, "we have no idea where we are, we might not even be in Grimdale anymore."
Almost as if to answer Sam from below came the sound of an explosion and then the sound of heavy footsteps rushing up to meet them. This time they all knew the same feeling of dread and terror had already fallen on the room; Randall had found them once again. Closer to them there was another explosion of a door flying off its hinges and the rushing footsteps came closer and closer to them.
"Should we use the window again?" Ben questioned uneasily looking ready to throw up.
_(=I=)_
For the final time the pulling force yanked him along, as if a train on a track Randall burned his way through the city to the old manor sprawled in the corner of the city. He knew this time they wouldn't escape, some strange force told him that this time it would either be them or him and Randall had never loss a fight in his life. A smile was spreading on his face as he reached the manor doors which fell in a cloud of splinters at his touch.
Breaking through another door he started to fly upstairs with the savage smile once again filling up his entire face, making it look ready to crack wide open and spill forth blackness. However what he found at the top of the stairs was rather unexpected, he found the man named Michael looking down at him.
"Get ready to run," Michael warned as he rushed to the door of the room and then out into the hall outside of it and to a staircase where the dark thing in the shape of a man was rising up from. Clasped in both hands was the heavy bottle filled with Char-Axil Drink, taking in a breath he flung himself forward towards Randall who was in the process of stopping his insane speed at the surprise. Something in Michael's mind told him this was what the box had been for, this very moment.
While airborne Michael had raised the heavy glass over his head and when he rushed down to meet Randall he let the thing swing forward. Out of pure luck the bottle came in contact with Randall's face as Michael sent both of them tumbling down the stairs which coughed up clouds of dust as they tumbled down to the first floor. The glass shattered and heavy shards flew forward, embedding themselves in Randall's cheek and his lips, and then the dark red liquid spilled from the broken bottle and that was when the thing called Randall screamed in pain.
For the first time in gods knew how long Randall could feel bright red pain spreading on his face as the liquid drenched the right side of his face. Where it touched there came a sudden veil of black smoke as skin was chewed through and left as mounds of black gunk; muscle was fried and bone was burned. Letting out a scream Randall could feel the red poison fly through the ragged hole that was his cheek and turn his tongue into a black mass of sponge.
Almost ironically he also felt his right eye dissolve in its socket, blinding him just like he did to the man in the sewer. As the redness continued to burn through his face Randall felt himself hit the floor with the crack of his own bones ringing in his ears. Blackness was starting to fill his vision and as the sizzling continued he looked up with his left eye at Michael who was stumbling away from him.
"Agni will consume you," Randall cursed as the teeth on the right side of his face melted down to his blackened gums, and then he passed out.
_ (=I=)_
If one were to look at Grimdale from above they would see a mostly dark city with very little movement in its many streets with mostly the dead being the only pedestrians. However there was a bit of movement at the western gate as the few living people in the city were now fortifying the gate, joining together out of mutual fear. The source of this fear was further down the long strip of road that cut through the forest and led to the swamp lands in the west, to where the Red Arrow was.
Very close to Grimdale, if one was still high above the city, were the twinkling of bonfires that still burned brightly even with rain coming down. Not only that but there was also a large amount of movement as men departed from these campfires and started to walk down the road in lines. Military men done up in thick iron armor and each with a heavy sword or even rifle in hand, all of them heading towards Grimdale.
In other words: the Red Arrow had arrived.
However there was one thing in Grimdale that most people had missed, a very small change near the heart of the city. Near an old blacksmith shop was a small shed that had a small puddle of water next to it. Not much a puddle if one were to see it properly, almost a square cut in the ground that was filled with water. From this strange missing chunk in the ground came something rather unexpected, almost in response to all the noise going on in the city.
Somewhere deep under the strange "puddle" of water a light turned on…
_(=I=)_
"Michael!" Ben shouted in concern, when they had heard the screaming both of them had immediately ran to where their friend had departed from. Sam lagged behind with his leg still incased in bandages but they both managed to get out of the room they had woken in around the same time to see Michael rise up from the collapsed form of Randall. "Jesus! Is he dead?" Ben questioned as Michael climbed up the stairs.
"I think," Michael said, "I'm not sure what was in that bottle but it just… it just fucking burned him."
"Well I haven't known this fucker for long but it seems like you did the world a favor," Sam said leaning on the crutch almost looking like an old man.
"So what should we do now?" Michael asked looking hopefully at the two of them.
"Well I vote we get out of this damned city," Ben suggested, "you heard what that guy Ajax said; the Red Arrow is coming and that doesn't sound like something we should stay for."
"Sounds like a good idea," Sam added, "do you think we have enough time bef-"
Almost like a thundering NO to his question a massive shaking caused the whole city to quake as some kind of explosive went off not too far away.
_(=I=)_
At the Western Gate a broiling cloud of fire blew apart the gate as the Red Arrow clashed with the walls of the city. As the thundering aftermath echoed through the city the small light glowed brighter for a moment and then went out.
_(=I=)_
The three of them had made it out of the old manor when Bed felt the vein throbbing in his head, the crazy pulse already starting again. "Not this shit again," Ben muttered as he put a hand to his forehead, he looked to see Michael and Sam looking at him and almost without looking away he pointed to the street. "It's there," he said and this time when they followed his finger all three of them saw the tall black outline standing there.
They stared at the Man in Black.
The Man in Black stared back.
"What the fuck is this?" Sam asked voice wavering as the Man in Black raised a hand and started to motion to them. Raising a rustic tin, which immediately started to glow, the Man in Black started to turn away from them. Ben started to take a few steps forward and was almost pulled back by Michael but saw that Michael was already walking forward even though he seemed completely unaware of it.
Sam however was still standing still and started to call out to the two men who were almost being pulled forward by whatever thing had found them. "Guys!" he tried but neither of them turned to him, it seemed that their heads were fixed on the Man in Black who was still walking forward. "Hey!" he shouted as he started to walk forward when suddenly the world around him faded, whispers rushed forth and everything dropped into darkness.
If Michael or Ben had the will power to turn back they would've seen Sam fall forward and then disappear before he even hit the ground.
Michael was lost in a hazy unknowing. He could see himself walking forward after the thing he and Ben had called the Man in Black and couldn't do anything about it. There was nothing he could do but watch the tall thing shrouded in shadow, perhaps even as tall as Ben, walk forward with the lantern in one hand. Pulled through the streets he eventually found himself in front of what appeared to be an old blacksmith shop.
The Man in Black lowered the lantern and let it drop to the ground before walking pass the building and to a small shack beside it. When Michael and Ben caught up it stuck a hand inside its trench coat, removed it, and then placed its hand on the wall of the shed. Now slapped on the wall was a handprint of blood which seemed black in the storm that was starting to wind down above them, the Man in Black also took a finger and drew a bloody arrow pointing down.
Following the arrow Michael could see that it was pointing to a strange square cut into the ground which was full of water, and then he understood. It led to the Black Hand.
He finally sound himself able to look around and he looked about to see nothing but Ben and himself next to the shake; any sign of another man, dressed in black or otherwise, was gone. "W-what just happened?" Ben asked, his face pale and glowing in the dark night.
"Where's Sam?" Michael questioned back, "who was that? What was that?"
_(=I=)_
At the very back of Grimdale there was a well. Set near the great stone wall it had stood still for many years, the water distilling and dust collecting on the old masonry. However as the Red Arrow began its assault on Grimdale and Michael and Ben were dragged through Grimdale to whatever the Black Hand was something happened. In the still of the night the clam surface of the water started to move.
The usually still well water was now starting to shutter and ripple with bubbles rising up to the surface. From inside the well there came a faint light and then a darker shade growing under the water. The water completely split and rippled as the dark shade broke the surface of the water.
Dripping wet the shadowed figure that had come up from the well rested a soaking hand on the lip of the well and pulled itself up. Pushing itself over the side of the well and on the street it looked around still dripping water and started to run through the night. It had work to do.
_(=I=)_
Michael made his way to the square of water and kneeled down before it and was soon joined by Ben. "Is this it?" Ben questioned, "did we actually find the Black Hand?"
Michael continued to peer down into the strange puddle to see that it was actually rather deep, stretching down into complete darkness. "I don't really know," Michael admitted, he took a random stone that was next to the shake and carefully dropped it into the water. Both of them watched as it tumbled down into the dark water, eventually disappearing all together in the dark night below them.
"Well I guess we'll see," Michael said as the darkness below them seemed to draw them in even more. All he knew that something down there was waiting for them.
Waiting for the two of them and only them.
Waiting.
_(=I=)_
A/N: There you go guys! Season finale! I kind of wrote this pretty fast so it's not perfect but I hope you guys like it. This is by far the longest thing I've ever written, about 14,000 words. The season two opening won't be this long, probably around 6,00 words, so you only really have to look forward to this during a finale.
Season two will start up soon, and I think I'll throw in a summary as well before the opening is released. Some pretty big questions will be answered in season two and hopefully y'all will like the answers!
Surprisingly there isn't much to say right now, this is the finale like it or not. I think it was worth the wait but that's just the author speaking. I guess I'll see you guys when I get the summary up or maybe in season two, whatever come first ;)
Good for you if you actually read all of this, and I will see you guys next time! :D