Zanatos sat up with
a start. He looked around the roof. The corpse of the monster he, Merc and Sara
had killed was there, immobile, dead. Zanatos got to his, let out a small cry of
pain as his weight came down on his damaged leg. It still leaked that weird
black liquid, and even a quick look revealed that the mark was still there and
very noticeable. Even a brief look around told him that the mark was everywhere.
It also told him his companions were gone. He had no way of knowing that right
at that moment they were walking towards the school. But he did remember
watching them go, even as the pain tore through him. He knew that it had been
pure pain that had knocked him out…it had cooked him down to his nerve
endings, made the dark world explode with light as he had passed out. It was
unholy, that pain…
A quick look around told him he was alone. "Oh, smeg…I'm going to have to
walk all the way to the bloody school, aren't I?" He began to move over to
the stairs. Several minutes later he was at the junction where a lot of his
problems had started, when he's been ambushed. The two grey things had gone,
and so had one knife, but the one that had got him was still there.
Zanatos kneeled down next to it. It looked like a simple kitchen knife, covered
in blood and some kind of white powder…could that be what had done all this to
him? Zanatos didn't know, and really didn't care. He was much more
interested in finding a cure than he was in what caused it. It didn't
particularly occur to him that the cause could reveal the cure, but he kept the
knife anyway. You never know.
He got back up, again wincing as his leg gave him problems. He continued
dragging himself to the exit. It was as he reached for the door that heard it.
Gunshots. Humans. The gun sounded like a high calibre pistol…a big colt or a
magnum maybe. Zanatos didn't know what exactly, but he knew they had nothing
like that in there armoury when he had been around…but that didn't rule out
that it could be Mercurius or Sara. Whoever it was almost had to be human
though…so he moved towards the sound. A second shot fired as he was in the
small office, or a nightmare version of it, where he had found a little info on
some kind of drug investigation. There was a sealed door at one end, or at least
it had been. Zanatos tried it, and it opened up this time.
Beyond was what looked like the chiefs office. A fat man was standing at a desk
in a police uniform. The desk was all that was left. In his hand was what looked
a big Magnum Desert Eagle…a weapon that was barely legal. Around him were what
at first looked dead cops, but when he looked closer the cops had some kind of
lump on there back…rather disgusting. The fat cop noticed the door was open
and raised his gun. "Who's there?"
Zanatos entered, one hand in the air, the other using the shotgun as a walking
stick. "Don't shoot bud, I'm alive and normal. Well, except my legs damn
near useless right now…my name is Zanatos Kell."
The cop looked at him. "Kell huh…well as long as your alive, and ya ain't
out for a chunk of my ass, I won't shoot ya. Names Sheriff Knight, like the
old English guys on horses."
Zanatos nodded. His eye had narrowed slightly at the mention of the name though.
"Fair enough Sheriff. I was just on my way out of this shit hole. Care to join
me?"
The Sheriff looked the ex-marine up and down. "Hell yeah. I already tried high
tailing it on out of here, but my ex-employees made that a mite difficult. An'
all the squad cars are bust. Can't get one of the hunks of shit to move. Then
all the sirens and crap start, and I end up here." He looked over his desk.
"Come on up, little lady. This man's a friend."
A young woman, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, came up from here she had
been hiding. She wore an old fashioned dress of blue, and had deep black hair.
She looked terrified. The only light was from the light on the sheriff's shirt
and Zanatos' own flashlight on the shotgun, and it gave the already freakish
room deep shadows around the pools of light.
The big man took a hobbling step forward. "Don't worry little lady, I'm
not gonna hurt you. Hey, just call me Zan OK? What's you name."
The terrified young woman moved forward slightly. "My names…Alessa."
Zanatos and the
Sheriff stood outside the office, comparing notes as it were. "I don't know
what happened," the big cop said, "I was asleep and then…boom! I wake up
and find the whole city is hell. I thought I must have died at first, but then I
found the girl…and I reckon she ain't done nuthin' that deserves damnin. I
took from where I found, fought all the way to here. Hoped to find some boys
alive. But they were all changed…so I took up a last stand, and by God I won
it!"
Zanatos looked thoughtful. "Me and Merc, my partner, were asleep just before
our car was stolen. I dunno about the woman we were with. What do you know about
the girl?"
Knight shrugged. "I found her wandering the town. I reckoned she
needed…help. That's my job, and I'm gonna do it til I can't no more."
The larger man nodded. "That's cool by me, Sheriff. But I want to hook up
with my partner. We were meant to head to the school, but we stopped here and
got fucked over. When we killed the thing on the roof they went back to the real
world, but something kept me here in Hell."
The fat man looked at him sharply. He grabbed the massive Zanatos by the collar.
"You tellin' me there might be a way back to the real world? The Light
World? You better not be shitting me boy."
With a shrug Zanatos disengaged the cops hands. "No shit. I saw them go.
They'll of moved on to the school, hoping to find a way here to get me out.
Well, I sure as hell hope so…me and Merc never been in this deep before
though." For the first time doubt entered Zanatos' mind. Merc wouldn't
leave him, surely? But would you leave Merc? Maybe, in this town, courage
isn't a factor anymore.
The cop looked at him warily. "We'll go to Greenwhich then. But you better
be tellin me the truth, or it will go badly for you."
Zanatos shrugged, and turned. But as he moved he could have sworn the man had
twitched.
Moving up to the young woman, Zanatos kneeled down in front of her. Even then he
was a little bigger than her. "OK darling, were going to move on out of here.
Were going to the school." He saw panic in her eyes. "Don't worry dear,
Zan's gonna protect you. Me and Miss Nancy here," He said, grinned and held
up his shotgun. The woman returned the smile, just. Deep shock, thought the
Ex-Marine. He'd seen it on the field. He stood up and gestured for her to step
outside. The three moved outside the police station. Although the air smelt
terrible, of blood and rot and rust, Zanatos inhaled deeply. It smelled of
Freedom too.
But once again Zanatos noticed a problem: the Sheriff had a leather jacket, but
Alessa was simply in that dress, and the rain had already soaked through that.
Shrugging off the big coat, he put it over he shoulders. She jumped. "Take it
easy kiddo. You need this more than I do. Just be careful…its gonna drag along
the floor some."
Alessa smiled slightly. "Thank you."
Zanatos grinned and winked. "Not a problem, lovely lady."
A noise made Zanatos spin. He caught a shadow at the top of his vision and
dragged Alessa down. A nightmare flapped over the top of them. The ex-marine
looked round at the retreating shape. The Sheriff fired two shots: but not at
the creature. Looking around Zanatos saw something terrible. A huge, ape like
creature, two gun shots in its chest was lopping forward. The cop took another
step back as it leaped and fired again. It fell dead at his feet.
Zanatos rose with a groan. More of them were coming and he could hear flapping
in the air. And something was moving towards them…big…nasty…evil…a sword
dragging, metal grinding on metal. The other creatures moved away, or the
shadowy forms he saw did. The Thing suddenly went of course and a huge blade
sliced the air, cutting one of the flying things in half. Everything else moved
away.
Looking behind him, over his shoulder, Zanatos saw they weren't blocking the
way to the school. Not yet. "Run! Now!"
Knight began to move, but Alessa didn't. The cop looked round, came back and
grabbed her. She screamed briefly. The Sheriff looked at Zan and with the girl
under one arm, nodded and saluted. Zanatos nodded and returned the salute. Then
the cop broke into a run, Alessa screaming at him to stop, that Zan couldn't
run.
Zanatos Kell turned round again. The figure loomed in front of him [Sin]. It had
a strange, Pyramid like helmet and a dirty bloodstained apron. It was destroying
some kind of creature Zanatos had never seen before. He smelled death in the
air.
The massive ex-marine raised the massive shotgun to his shoulder. "Who's the
daddy, mother fucker?" Then he pulled the trigger.
Knight heard the
roar of the shotgun as he ran. The young woman under one arm was barely
anything. Although over weight, Sheriff Knight was actually fairly fit. He was
very strong…but running was not his strong point. He was breathing heavily,
and could hear his own heart beating in his chest, almost in time with every
other shotgun blast. Then the blasts stopped.
He looked around, saw nothing there. So he put Alessa down. She immediately
moved away and he grabbed her. She turned round, her eyes wide with fear. "Zan
is still there! We have to go back!"
Knight slapped her. Hard. "He's dead. You're mine again. Come on, we have
to find his…friends."
Zanatos swore as the
gun went out. He was slowly moving back, firing as often as he could. His aim
was to slow them down enough for the others to get away. He fumbled several
shells, swearing. The monsters were drawing in closer. He was going as fasts as
he could, but that was easily slow enough for them to slowly maul him. The only
problem was the other thing was killing them as fast as he was, but they
didn't dare go near that thing. They were very interested in killing him.
Finally he finished loading the gun, locked it up, and fired at the first thing
that moved. Then he fired at anything else.
God only knows how long he fired. He didn't. All he could remember was firing,
reloading, and firing again. And always that thing, lurking, just at the edge.
Zanatos realised he was screaming at it even as he fired.
He looked around, desperate. A rotten sign hung over a door, but he could just
make out the words, 'Elementary'. Could he of blasted his way all the way to
the school? He checked his ammo. He only had enough for one more re-load. He did
the only thing he could and, dragging his damaged leg, which had almost
completely failed now, entered the school.
Slamming the door shut, he leaned against it, resting. He could feel his
friends, somewhere here. And he could feel the thing, the Pyramid Head,
outside…and inside. More than one? Maybe. He moved away again. He felt weak
and ill now. Sweat ran from him, and he could smell the wound on his leg. It was
killing him, but far faster than any infection could.
It was on the second floor he heard the voices. Knight and Alessa. He stopped
and listened.
Knight: "You have to do what I say now, Alessa. Do it or you ain't gonna
make it out of here alive."
Alessa: "No! You left Zan and now you want to do those…things to me!"
Knight: "It's the only way you gonna get out of here, darling."
There was a crash, a crunch of steel. Zanatos looked round, and saw Pyramid
Head. Knight came rushing out, and said, "You!" But did he see me, wonders
Zanatos.
The big man brought up his shotgun. "Get down!" The sheriff dropped. If he
was shocked to see the massive Zanatos still alive, he didn't show it. Both
barrels roared, but the thing barely shook. It continued forwards. Knight was
up, and he fired that magnum at it. It moved slightly. The it swung that huge
sword.
The flat of the blade slapped both men into the far wall, dazing them. The
behemoth charged forwards and smashed them into the wall with the flat of the
blade. Then through it. Both men plunged into the darkness, and Zanatos saw
Alessa's pale face framed in darkness as the monster turned to face her.
