Chapter 37: Feeding The Hungry Rats
Leaving a trail of broken bodies under her wet toes Julia fought alone against a hulking battering ram monster. It swung with tree-like arms but was too slow to catch the slippery pilgrim. Dodging a heavy strike from it that knocked down group of rat men behind her Julia slid inside and lit up its thick torso with a series of hard shots that would have dropped an elephant. It thumped her whole body by swinging its other, ponderous arm across its chest and temporarily knocked her back.
Flicking its shoulders the creature unfurled two deadly bone spikes lodged where its hands should have been and punched both towards her. The pilgrim bent her knees and threw herself back onto the bodies below almost by reflex. She was looking up at the ceiling when the giant arms passed over a half of a second too late to skewer her. As it was the monster impaled a couple of its smaller cousins and Julia scrambled up as it struggled to shake them free. Rushing behind it she shoulder checked a tar spitter to the ground and stomped on its neck before attacking the battering ram's back. Unloading on its left leg she caused the already off balance monster to topple chest first onto the cave floor. Elbowing a mannequin's face in that came up on her Julia jumped onto the hapless battering ram.
Choosing an area that appeared to be along its spine she pounded the same spot over and over until the tissue and bones gave way to her merciless gloves. She'd smashed about four inches down into the ram's body when it stopped moving and before she could breath in relief a doll like creature slammed into her from behind and knocked her down. Tumbling with it onto the corpses nearby the pilgrim gripped onto its head and snapped it almost all of the way around before tossing it aside and getting up.
The ground shook and she turned to the overgrown pile of flesh in a box coming towards the melee. It looked to her like two people laying on a vertical bed that had all been melted together into one revolting mass. The rusty cube that contained it was carried along by a sea anemone-like foot and occasionally it dropped the building size framework on attackers to shake the cave. It's myriad of black tentacles lashed onto, constricted and killed ten at a time and Julia knew that it would have to be dealt with soon.
As confident as she was she simply didn't have the tools to take it down by herself. Looking around she was actually at the fore front of the battle and slightly into the mannequin's territory. It was high time to make a strategic withdrawal maneuver.
Falling back she retreated to friendly lines as the faceless ones continued their advance.
Even with a mass of bodies piling up neither side seemed to be running out of willing participants or blood thirst. However Chuck had noticed too that the behemoth was only beginning to dominate the field. The creature was devastating everything around it and he didn't know if he could defeat it before it changed the tide of the battle.
His last clip clicked empty and the tired killer rose to his feet. Spotting a couple of armored men in futuristic suits operating a two person minigun he tossed his rifle aside. Shambling towards them he watched as one fed the monstrous gun a constant stream of bullets and the other threw them downrange. Mannequins and battering rams alike fell under the withering onslaught and Chuck decided that this was his ticket.
The sound of the guns firing downed out everything else and Chuck put a hand on the shoulder of the loader when he reached them. The man's head whipped around and Chuck waved in peace. Pointing at the rampaging monstrosity he pointed back to himself and the row of grenades on his chest. Closing his fist he opened it as quickly as he could and the armored man nodded. Putting two fingers to his helmet the gunner stopped firing for a couple quick seconds as he turned back to regard Chuck. Waving him on with a power gloved hand the killer found the strength to jog in front of them.
The horde was coming directly at him over piles of their bullet ridden dead and a moment later the minigun started up again. The front ranks of the mannequins exploded before they could make it to him and Chuck climbed over the ruined bodies with the shrapnel in his chest stabbing him with every movement. The amount of lead in the air buzzing by would have been frightening at any other time but he did not waver. Soon there was little between him and tentacled creature but a line of Aztec spearmen launching obsidian tipped shafts at it.
Chuck was nearing the limits of his endurance and his vision was beginning to darken. The agony he had been dealing with began to lessen and he knew his time was almost up as he grew colder. Ripping the grenades from his chest he could not risk damaging the precious cargo strapped to his leg. He had to trust in the others to take up his task for him when he was no more.
Doggedly refusing to stop he was nearly up to the monster when a black tentacle as strong as a steel cable lassoed him by the waist. Lifting him into the air like a toy the appendage crushed his abdomen into paste but Chuck could hardly feel it. Ripping the cord on the grenade belt he threw it with the last of his strength at the center of the creature's hideous mass. The killer finally relaxed and closed his eyes as it waved him about in the air. His last thoughts were of Sandy Williams and how he could now forgive himself for what he had done.
When Victor made it to them the two shades were already locked in fierce combat. Sunderland wielded his frightful knife in sweeping, powerful cuts that would have shorn through solid metal. The Fater was a black whirlwind slipping the mighty blows of his enemy and opening holes whenever he spun into the other's shade range. The knight noticed though that Nothing was bleeding ink from several glancing hits while Sunderland took his wounds to almost no effect.
Bashing down a tar thrower Victor cut its throat out and stepped over it to get inside the circle of bodies the shades had formed. Though it was both blessed and cursed by the dead the knight did not want to test his armor against Sunderland's strength and he slid his shield down to the floor. Approaching the blonde man from behind with his sword out before him Victor advanced cautiously. Remembering the lessons he'd learned in the dojo about fighting a similarly armed opponent he took a breath before timing his attack.
When Sunderland pulled back for a heavy swipe at Nothing the knight darted in. Jabbing twice and scooting back he'd barely gotten out of the way as the enemy ghost swung his knife in an impressive 360 degree twist that would have split Victor in two. Turning so that he could see both of them Sunderland did not look angry or even strained. From the other end of the circle Nothing saluted with his gleaming daggers and Victor joined him in going to work on their mutual enemy. The knight fenced as best he could with a blade not meant for it but never got to close to the shade's killing arc. For how heavy his rusty weapon was Sunderland didn't seem to tire from handling it like it were a thin branch.
Staying light on his toes he rarely scored hits on the green jacketed ghost but he did his part to relieve some of the pressure from the Fater. Hitting more often and deeper after minutes of fast paced combat Victor finally saw Sunderland bleed from their combined offensive. It was a good sign and a bad one at the same time. Just how much more damage could their adversary take before he slowed down, much less fell?
There were few sounds that pierced the cacophony of the battle but a series of explosions from behind him went off that hit Victor in the gut. Sunderland cried out and dropped to the side for a second but it was all the Fater needed. Leading in with a rising knee strike that would have decapitated a humanoid Nothing snapped the other shade's head back. Stepping on the blonde man's right hand and pinning his knife to the floor the black haired shade buried one of his knives in Sunderland's throat.
Daring to break away from the scene to glance behind him Victor saw a haze of smoke around the box creature. A series of ugly, ruptured gashes had been blasted into the left side of its wriggling bodies. Turning his attention back to the ghosts he saw Nothing prying something from Sunderland's left hand. Throwing it unceremoniously at Victor just before the other ghost recovered the Fater was hit with a punch that lifted him off the ground. Catching the small object the knight looked down to see a dull, well worn, gold wedding band.
Reaching a shaking hand up to his neck Sunderland yanked the dagger out and threw it to the floor. Bearing his teeth and the remaining dagger Nothing shouted, "Go!" over the din. Backing up Victor abandoned his sword to snatch up his shield with both hands and dive back into fray with the ring clutched tightly in his fist.
Sunderland made a move to follow but the Fater darted into his path and blocked the knight's exit. Grinning wide at the blonde man he waved his index finger back and forth and the other shade winced at the sight.
Julia felt the grenades go off as she was assisting a group of Hussites put down a squad of levitating bed monsters. She had to jump onto their feet to drag them down and beat them to death before their slimy limbs could attack. She was in the middle of pulverizing one of their midsections when the eruptions took her by surprise. Too short to see over the crowd she sprang up to hang on to the rusty frame of another floating bed creature and got a good view of the battlefield. It was even more chaotic than it felt and her eyes scanned quickly over a hundred acts of violence all occurring at once. Battering rams were knocking down waves of zombies, mannequins with blades for arms were engaging horseless cavalry men, cyborgs and gladiators teamed up to decimate the sea of enemies that didn't seem to have an end.
By chance she saw the green helmet of Victor Rosencrantz bobbing through the crowd some thirty feet to her left. Abandoning her posse she went back into the mob in a desperate bid to link up with him. It was a lot like being in a mosh pit only instead of errant elbows there were rusted butcher knives and gravity defying lumps of skin to worry about. She was getting worn down from the constant expenditure of energy but the end was nowhere in sight and they still had a job to do. If she was going to die in this insanity she was going to do with her fist in Sunderland's face for causing all of this.
Punching and shouldering her way forward she knocked a few mannequins down before getting tripped up on the many bodies below. The crowed pushed her along and Julia could not stop long enough to get her balance. Falling she tried to reverse her descent by grabbing onto something but landed on wet corpses. Two, three, six feet trampled on her to knock the wind out of the pilgrim. Gasping she pushed herself up with one arm as the other wildly searched for something to grip onto. Next to her a swordsman lopped the head off a tar spitter and she attempted to pull herself up by his belt. He noticed her and yanked her to her feet with one arm as he fought off the next enemy with the other.
She did not have time even for a quick thanks as a knife wielding mannequin rushed her. Hopping in with a power jab to stop it in its tracks she followed with a left hook to its body. It staggered long enough for her to finish it off with an overhand right and she knocked it down to resume her search for Victor. Breaking through the crowd to open ground she quickly realized why it not filled with combatants. The area around the cubed giant was a killing field and it was busy massacring friend and foe alike. There she spotted Victor brazenly charging into it's range. Holding up two of the whitish bone splinters he slid out of the way of two tentacles whipping themselves at him to reach the creature's rusted frame. Jumping forward with both spikes he impaled them on the bottom of its mass just under the rusted frame.
The hideous bodies that made up the bulk of the monster unhinged what could vaguely be called their jaws and tore its own grayish flesh apart to reveal apertures that resembled mouths.
It let loose a twin, unearthly, baritone scream that brought parts of the ceiling down and made Julia cover her ears with her sticky gloves.
Sunderland teetered and fell back on his rear with without provocation from Nothing. Relishing the moment the Fater collected his missing dagger from next to the blonde shade. Black droplets fell from his fingers onto the floor as he bent down and his enemy scrambled back to stand on shaky legs.
"What...what have you done to me..."
"Now we are come to the end, James Sunderland." Nothing almost sang. "Welcome back to mortality."