Another chapter. I told myself I was going to post this one as soon as I finished the one I was working on, but I was so caught up in writing that also began writing the next one.
Two reviews the moment I write this, I would like to see more.
Chapter 3: Second Arrival.
Warrick opened his eyes to see he was still lying in the crack. His arm sported a bruise from jumping into the crack, but otherwise he felt ok. He stood up and inspected the crack. Maybe that held any clue as to why he survived. Sure enough he saw that the walls were made out of some metal ore that he could not identify. He wasn't a master of metallurgy so that didn't bother him.
He walked outside into the light. His watch was broken so he turned to the sun. The sun hung in about the same position as it did when it all started, so not a lot of time had passed. The storm still hadn't picked up again. It seemed he was the only survivor because no one else was walking in the passage. Only his duty demanded it that he find some trace of the general. He remembered that Jack ran towards the outcrop. He turned in that direction and began walking.
Nothing stirred amongst the rocks but he still felt like he was being watched. Many times he thought he heard a thunder in the distance. But there was nothing in sight.
He almost fell down after stumbling over something lying in the sand. He picked it up and saw it was one of the rifles they used. He had thrown his away so he took it with him. He continued towards the outcrop in a faster pace.
When he reached the outcrop he saw no one. Maybe they jumped or climbed down. He dared take a look over the edge. Vertigo nearly seized him when he saw how deep it was and he nearly fell over the side. If the general is alive he is either up here, dead or otherwise, or down there, dead or otherwise. If he isn't up here he should be down there. He did not like that thought one bit because it meant he would have to climb down the cliff to verify the general's presence there. But as someone under his command he should take a look.
So he started to climb down. He forced his nerves down. "This, dad, is why I did not go to the flight academy, heights." He used the easiest way he could find, which allowed him to practically walk down, but he was still afraid of falling.
When he was down he looked up along the cliff and realised that he might have to climb back up when he did, or did not, find the general. He looked around to see anything that might hide a body or a place to rest. He checked all possible places but found nothing.
He began walking back to where he came down when he heard a slight thundering noise coming from the direction of the cliff. He stopped walking and looked at the cliff. He frowned when the noise got louder. The noise still got louder and he thought it sounded just like the anomaly. At that thought he turned and ran as hard as he could away from the cliff. He looked over his shoulder to see the anomaly bursting from the cliff wall and coming for him. He found it to much of a coincidence that he encountered it twice in in two different places.
So if it was some sort of life form it would be deterred by his bullets. He tried shooting it but when he saw it did nothing he loaded a grenade in the grenade launcher. He tried to aim as best as he could but the anomaly was already close. If the grenade did nothing he was dead for sure. He fired but the only thing that happened was the grenade getting sucked in, not even an explosion. At that point the knew he was going to die. He felt ready to whimper, but he refused, he had to keep a bit of his dignity, even if he was the only one present.
Jack hadn't slept the whole night, not wanting to return to that demon. He had told Nell he went for a walk where in fact he wanted to find a body of cold water, so he could splash some water in his face and shake tiredness away. He hadn't found any water jet but there had to be some if this was an oasis. In the few minutes he had spent searching he had already seen more animals than he had seen before. Mostly birds and small reptiles such as snakes and lizards but still.
He suddenly heard an ear piercing scream. He flinched from the sound. It wasn't quite human, but he knew how strange noises humans could make when in danger or pain. He ran towards the sound and heard it again, this time much closer. He burst through the last bush and nearly tumbled into a pool of water, only halting at the last moment. The scream split the air again and this time it sounded like Jack stood next to it. He looked around for the source. He found it lying on the ground. It lay on the shore of the lake.
He closed in to see it better and then saw it were two, one attached to the others leg. The larger one looked like a horse with the upper torso of a man. The smaller one looked like a turtle with a blue belly and large yellow outwards jutting scales, no doubt to protect itself from attackers. The turtle had bitten the upper part of the leg of the horseman. The leg was nearly snapped in two and blood flowed out like a river. The ground under the pair began to colour crimson and the blood flowed towards the water, creating a small growing patch of red in the water as well.
The horseman let loose another scream, this one les loud then the others. Jack felt sorry for the horseman. But that emotion quickly died away when he saw a spear jutting from the turtle's side that was turned away from Jack. The horseman had provoked the turtle into doing this. Blood was streaming from the turtle's side as well.
The horseman let loose his last scream that ended in a gurgle. After the horseman had died the turtle let loose. Jack could now see the jaw that was almost buried in the leg a few seconds before. It held a number of teeth. Teeth designed to grip and tear flesh. The jaw looked powerful and had certainly proven that by nearly snapping the horseman's leg. The turtle took a few steps away from the carcass. Then it's four legs gave way and he sank to the ground.
Jack moved towards the carcass of the turtle. "what a waste." He looked at the water and noticed all kinds of fish swimming near the blood. He figured he shouldn't let anything go to waste and so threw both bodies in the water. Almost instantly the water around the two bodies was full of fish eager for a piece of meat. He felt something brush the back of his leg and when he turned around he nearly jumped out of his skin. Another turtle was sniffing his legs. It then turned away and slit into the water.
He walked back to where he burst from the foliage and dipped his cupped hands in the water and then splashed his face with it. He felt refreshed and not so tired anymore, but he also felt burdened about what he just saw. He had seen much worse than what he just witnessed but somehow this had a more lasting imprint in him. His mind briefly wandered a bit to those gruesome battlefields he had witnessed. He then pushed those memories deep down, not wanting to remember those times. "War makes old." He told himself. He then stood up and walked back in the direction of the cave.
He noticed he had taken a slightly different route then before but he didn't care he would find his way. He stopped walking when he saw something on the ground. He bent down to inspect it. It was dried blood. He looked around for anything that might have lain here but found nothing. He then looked up, to the trees. He frowned at what he saw. A body was hanging in the trees. It lay on multiple branches so lay horizontal. It was the woman who was with him when he jumped. She lay face down, her mouth still open in an endless scream of fear or pain. But no sound came. The eyes were wide open and had dried out.
The body was completely covered in blood. There was a huge piece missing from the side. The hole did not look like it had been made by any branch. It was more like something had entered through the front and then pulled back. He frowned again when he noticed that any intestines that had fallen out weren't lying around the ground. A hole such as that should have left more blood lying around, he thought. He had hoped that the woman still lived. He wondered in how far the demon influenced him besides that he didn't want to go to sleep. He continued to the cave.
By the time he got back to the cave he was hungry. So he asked Nell, "Do have some food, I'm hungry."
"No, but I could make some. I suppose you, as a large person, require a lot of food?" Nell replied.
"Yes, I do."
They ate together. Nell had a smaller meal, but Jack had a meal that most couldn't eat in a day. Jack brought up the subject of the horseman. Nell explained that they were called centaur. The centaur race was a wide spread race, their numbers consisted of clans. They were one of the major problems for one of the dominant races of the world: the orcs. "Some say that if all the clans would unite they could defeat the orcs, fortunately it doesn't seem like that will happen anytime soon.
After Nell had finished about the centaur Jack thought up a way to begin about demons. "So, if there beings like those centaur, are there beings called demons?" Nell nearly froze at the mention of demons and let out a his. Jack saw he hit a sensitive point. "I'm sorry, if you don't want to talk about it…" Nell composed himself once again but now looked at Jack like he suspected something.
"It's ok, they are just not the as friendly as other races." Jack held his tongue at the last moment, If he had said it Nell would either have thought him mad or he would know about the demon. "Their actually the most brutal and savage races in all of the worlds and what lies in between." Nell looked as if he was still deciding if he should tell about the demons. "Ok, what I am about to tell you most people don't know, and I'll bet most don't even want to know." Nell took a deep breath and then continued. "Demons are part of The Burning Legion. The Burning Legion consists of multiple species, if you can still call them species, there are spell casters, which are mostly the higher ranked officers, there are none magical demons who are still intelligent beings and there are the Fell hounds and Infernals, those are mostly without any intelligence beyond knowing how to move and fight.
Jack suspected that the one that was haunting him had to be a spell caster, so he steered the conversation in that direction. "What about those spell casters?" He said
"Like I said, they are mostly the more intelligent ones and are the officers or leaders. They are also the more brutal ones. They like to inflict pain on others. The Burning Legion invaded this world more then once. The first time was thousands of years ago. They were beaten then, but at an enormous cost. The last and second time was a few years ago, again they were beaten back but still a lot of demons remain in this world." Nell paused for a second to breath a bit.
Then continued. "The last time they were beaten back it required all of the dominant races of this world to unite. Something most did not like. For example: the orcs and humans have gone through two massive wars against each other. Something that creates grudges. So they were not at all happy to work together. I have, of course, read about the first major invasion, but not much remains from that era. What I do know is that the leader of the legion of that time: The Dark Titan Sargeras, was slain and that his body was locked away on the seafloor. The second time the new leader was slain as well, not much remains of him."
Nell looked relieved to have finally be able to tell someone about the Legion. Jack suddenly was even more certain he did not want to make this place a permanent home. "I suppose every race has a language of their own?"
"Yes they do, as I said before the humans mostly speak common. The orcs speak orcish, and so on."
Nell wanted to know more about Jack so he began on a new subject. "What did you do on your world?"
"I am a general." Jack said neutrally, he noticed Nell's look and then added, "seriously, I am a general."
That evening Jack did not sleep. The next morning Jack again went to splash some water in his face.
The cold water momentarily drove all the tiredness away. He sat down besides the lake and thought about a way to either go back to his timedimensionworld or how to settle in. He found the last to be unlikely because his and their cultures were to different. But also could not think of anyway to go back. He sat there contemplating his problem for a while until he forgotten just how long he had been sitting there.
He noticed just how long he had been sitting there when tiredness nearly overcame him again. He shook his head a couple of times and then looked to the sun. It was already at its highest point. He stood up and began to walk back. The tiredness slipped back in his mind faster and faster every time. But he was determined to not fall asleep. His eyelids began to feel like they weighed a ton and every time he blinked his sight went blurry.
Then, suddenly a explosion rocked the ground. Something had impacted a few dozen feet away. His tiredness evaporated like snow in the sun. He looked around and suddenly saw a human form appear out of thin air. He was still running when he appeared and when he hit the ground he ran a few more paces until he hit a tree head on. He staggered back a few steps and then collapsed to the ground.
Jack ran over to the fallen man and immediately saw it was Warrick. Jack was so surprised he did not know what to think of it. He inspected the body for injuries. Warrick's nose was broken because he hit the tree head first and he probably had a concusion, but he did not seem to have any other injuries. Jack figured it wouldn't be anything Nell couldn't fix. Jack picked up the body and started for the cave again. He wasn't to sure if he was supposed to be happy that Warrick was alive or angry that Warrick let himself to be caught by the anomaly after five days.
Nell was sitting by the entrance again and saw him come back with a package. "What is that, Jack?" He requested.
"His name is Warrick and I think you should take a look at his nose." Jack laid the body down on the ground in the cave. And Nell went inside to check.
Nell knelt down besides warrick and inspected the nose and then asked, "What happened to him?"
"He appeared out of thin air and then ran into a tree… nose first."
"Ok, I'll take care of him."
Nell tended to Warrick's nose and head. When he was done he came outside to see Jack sitting in his chair, dozing of. He tapped Jack on his shoulder and Jack's head jerked up. "Tired?" Nell asked with a bit of concern in his voice.
"A bit."
"You should sleep at night, if you don't this happens." He noticed Jack's surprised look. "Don't think you can fake sleep in my presence Jack. I haven't seen you sleep since you fell asleep in your chair the day you woke up in this world." He paused a moment, then continued. "Why don't you sleep?"
For some reason a part of Jack found it unnecessary to say the truth. But he thought that it might be the demon playing tricks on him. He decided to tell Nell. "You know when I asked you about the demons, it wasn't just because I wanted to know if they existed… but…"
"Why didn't you tell me then?" Nell said a bit anxious. Nell's normally calm and neutral visage showed miniscule signs of fear and anxiety .
Jack was a bit lost at that. "Uhm, I fully intended to when I asked about them but in the end I didn't."
"I see. I think that, somehow, a demon decided that it had better chances if it transferred it's spirit, or part of it's spirit, into you so it may survive. The demon was probably dead and thought you a good host for itself. It apparently couldn't take over your body immediately." He paused a few moments to think. "I don't know a lot of people who can stand up to an invading demon and his spells for long. This already proves you have great willpower."
"I'm flattered."
"But how do know that he is in there." Nell pointed his finger to Jack's head.
"He appears when I… when I sleep. I noticed that time when I fell asleep in my chair. I was right here standing outside my body. And then he appeared. He explained he was a demon and that he wanted to break me. I haven't slept since then."
"You shouldn't stay awake. Tiredness makes your mind weaker."
"Can't you take it out, or kill it?" Jack asked anxiously.
"I'm afraid I cant do that on my own. You should sleep. You will be able to deal with anything he throws at you better when you have had at least a bit of sleep. I will make sure you don't do anything stupid."
"Ok."
Jack fell asleep a few minutes later. He appeared just outside the cave. The demon was already there, sitting on a rock. He saw Nell sitting on his boulder again but this time watching Jack's sleeping form that was lying in his chair. "I wondered how it would take you to fall asleep. I thought you would wait a bit longer, but it seems you indeed have told this mage about me." The demon said while turning to Jack. "I have been going through your memories a bit. I hope you don't mind." The demon said darkly. "Interesting things in there. Shame that you want to forget them. For example: your wife." a enormous grin spread over the demon's face.
"ooh yes, your wife. Nice wedding, but a shame you got her killed on the way home in this thing you call a car. If you remember correctly you two were married for a full two hours." The demon summoned the image of Jack's wife besides him. "And that's only one of the things you have repressed over your short live. I must admit it is a colourful live indeed. I could never experience that many things in that timeframe." The demon smiled darkly at Jack.
"You bastard."
"Bastard? Your going to call me a lot worse than that, I assure you, you will. But don't think I'll be hurt by that. Ooh, wait a minute, what have I found here." The demon smiled some more and Jack took a few steps into the demons direction. The demon continued, "your baby brother died when he…"
Something within Jack snapped and he jumped the last few feet and grabbed hold of the demon's neck. He did not care about the flaming beard or about the fact that the demon was bigger and heavier. He lifted the demon from the ground and prying fingers tried to peal his fingers from the throat but failed. Jack barely felt the sharp nails dig into his flesh. The demon tried to speak but only a gurgle escaped the demon's mouth.
The demon looked into Jacks eyes and suddenly the environment changed from the jungle and cave to a smoking field. Jack still stood there like he was throttling the demon, but the demon was gone. The demon's deep bellowing voice suddenly filled his head, "Lets see if you remember this…" Jack was startled by this change of events. He looked around and saw vast flat area. The ground was uneven and covered with thick white smoke. To his right and left he could see barriers coming up but in front and behind him there was only a flat piece of land.
Some distance away he could see something jutting from the smoke. His head stuck out above the smoke. He walked over to whatever it was that was that stuck up from the smoke. He recoiled by what he saw. A bus, a bus filled with people, dead people, burned to a black crisp. Nothing he hadn't seen before but still. Nothing he hadn't seen before? A memory clicked into place. He had been here. He walked to the door that gave entrance to the bus. He saw it still had wheels, so it had to be some time ago. Hover-cars were a recent invention. He Walked through the open door and heard silent muttering, someone had survived.
He searched the chairs and found himself, sitting in one of the chairs. He saw he was much younger. Then it struck him when this was, the first alien attack on earth. This was the grand planetary highway, it went all around the world and it was important piece of infrastucture of the planet. His younger self was muttering incoherent words. He heard a loud whining noise outside. He walked outside and his younger self stayed in the door opening as to not dip into the smoke. They both saw an alien craft fly over. The wind created by the craft blew away the smoke and now Jack could see the ground was covered with bodies and burned out cars.
In the distance he could see more human forms rise from the smoke, other survivors. He remembered how everybody who was close to a window, or outside, had died in the burning beam the aliens had used. He knew he had survived by diving for cover instead of witnessing the actually beautiful view of the burning beam sweeping the highway.
Jack wondered what the demon had meant with his younger brother, his brother wasn't here when it happened. Maybe he just wanted to get out my hands, he thought.
An ominous roar filled as the alien craft flew away. But the alien craft wasn't making the noise. From the opposite direction one of the last human military aircraft on earth came flying towards the alien. It looked like an big helicopter without rotors and wings to hold rockets. Six rockets disconnected from the human craft and shot towards the alien. The rockets hit the back of the alien and six enormous blue explosions filled the sky. Jack had to shield his from the light. The alien ship's engines were hit and it could no longer remain in the air. It crashed down about half a mile from the highway.
Some of the survivors, who were now near the bus, let loose cheers. But their cheers were short-lived as more whining engine noises filled the air, this time louder indicating larger ships. The humans onboard the ship noticed it to and began descending towards the survivors so they could get of the ship. The ship landed and personnel and soldiers immediately began disembarking. Both Jacks could see that the human ship had already seen some action, It was covered in burn marks and some parts of the wings were missing.
The commanding officer immediately began giving orders. Telling the men they would have to leave the highway and take all the survivors with them. All of the survivors, two dozen or so, began streaming towards the soldiers including the young Jack. Jack suddenly heard something behind him. "Isn't that nice, the soldiers are coming to the rescue while they need to be rescued themselves." The deep bellowing voice of the demon came. Jack whirled around to see the demon standing in the doorway. He reached out towards the demons throat but the demon teleported a few feet. "No, you wont get me another time, Jack."
"What do you want!" Jack asked kowing what the answer would probably be.
"Your body of course. And I would like to break."
"This is how you want to break me!" Jack said waving at the carnage of burned cars and bodies.
The demon looked around, frowned a bit then said. "You don't mind the amount of dead humans that are lying around here?"
"I have seen much worse than t…" He cut himself of, cursing himself for saying that.
"Much worse, huh." With that the demon disappeared.
The survivors and soldiers began moving of. Jack wanted to wake up again but had no idea how so he followed them. They first moved to the edge of the highway which was made up of a wall. They travelled along the wall until the found a ramp leading down, all the while picking up other survivors. No body said anything, except the officers, who were discussing how they should proceed. Jack walked with them for a few hours, he did not know how long exactly.
Suddenly The environment began to change again. He was back in his chair and this time he was not a ghost, he was awake. He saw Nell staring at him. "he is finally awake." Nell said.
"Finally? It wasn't more than a few hours." He replied.
"A few hours? Man, you were out for a day." a new voice came from behind him. He recognised it, it was Warrick's voice.
"Warrick!" Jack shouted surprised and almost jumping from his chair. He whirled around to look at the youthful face of Warrick. Warrick seemed perfectly fine and not very worried with the fact that they might be stranded in this time/dimension for ever.
Warrick's curiosity for the, to them, new world made itself known. "Yeah it's me, thanks by the way for carrying me out of the bush. Nell here has told me that you have been walking in the vicinity of the cave a few time. Can you show me the environment, so I wont get lost if I do it myself."
"Yes, of course but not now. I need to talk to Nell for a minute." He said a bit worried. Worried about Warrick being happy to be here, and worried about himself not being able to wake up on his own when he wants to. He felt rested even if he was awake and walking in his 'dream'. "Nell can I talk to in private for a minute." They walked of, leaving Warrick behind whose eyes were beginning to glitter at the prospect of exploring an unknown world.
Once they were sure Warrick couldn't hear them Nell started, "I haven't told him about your 'condition'." Nell said reassuring Jack a bit.
"Thanks." Jack said grateful. "Have you told him about your powers and about the demons in general?"
"I have." Nell's eyes turned from side to side as if he was thinking, then rested back on Jack again. "How do you feel.?" Nell asked a bit of concern in his voice.
"Rested, but when I wanted to wake up again I couldn't. Why?"
"The demon did that, but I eventually managed to break the spell." Nell produced something from within his robes and gave it to Jack. It was a golden medallion with runes etched into it. "Here take this. Next time you fall asleep and can't wake again use it by taking it into both hands and thinking of waking up again. It should help… I have enchanted it so the demon cannot see it or take into his hands. You will have to keep it with you when you fall asleep or else you can't use it." Nell eyed the medallion as if reluctant to let go of it.
Jack pocketed the medallion and said, "thanks," and walked back to Warrick. To listen to the enthusiastic babble. Nell stayed behind for a few moments, then said to himself, "He is strong of both will and body… but is he strong enough."
Do tell me what you think of it.