Chapter 7(orphan)
The bus shook terribly as it sped down the dark road, barely keeping in a straight line. The metal roof plates were still peeled upward at horrifying angles from the hands of the flying Night Lords, and these mangled metal plates were causing terrible wind drag on the bus, completely hindering aerodynamics, threatening to push the bus sideways like giant metal sails.
The engine was making strained noises, struggling to push forward at speed through the howling winds that even now were driving hard rain in all their faces and threatening to flip the bus over completely. The floor of the bus now had a good inch of turbulently rippling water pooling on it, from the pelting rain that now flew unhindered through the gaping holes in the roof, and the ever growing weight of this water was straining the already overworked engine even more.
Dead bodies littered the floor of the bus, most conspicuously the colossal bulk of the headless dead Night Lord, as well as the bus seats that had been ripped from the floor and tossed aside by the monsters. The body of the Night Lord was doubtless adding enormous strain to the engine with its huge weight, but even all the boys and nuns lifting together had been unable to shift it more than a few inches, such was its enormous weight! How something so heavy could fly was a mystery to Franklin.
The nuns were all cowering underneath the remaining bus seats, for all the meagre protection this gave, and the surviving boys all crouched protectively over the nuns like perfectly disciplined human shields, gazing vigilantly at the sky for any sign of their terrible foes.
The trees in this part of the snaking winding road grew so tall and wild, so tangled overhead, that for a change the wind and rain was partially blunted, providing them with meagre shelter. The overhead vegetation grew thicker and thicker, and soon they could no longer see the sky, just the occasional flash of the lightning illuminating a dense ceiling of foliage above them.
Mother Superior slowed the straining bus, and parked on the side of the road.
"I doubt that even the winged terrors of hell can fly through this tangle to get at us. The engine is badly overheated, needs to cool down before it breaks," Mother Superior told the bus passengers.
Sister Superior Clementine gazed up at the impenetrably dense tangle of thick branches overhead, a slight frown on her face, and gave a reluctant nod of agreement.
Franklin and the other boys were silent as always, their silent discipline perfect, but the nuns erupted in loud sighs of relief.
"Oh thank the Emperor! Can we just stay here until the Sisters of the Painful Path send a strike force? The Order Militant can't have failed to notice that they have now lost contact with two checkpoints and the main garrison back at the orphanage. They will surely send forces to investigate before too much longer," Sister Mary suggested hopefully.
Sister Superior Clementine frowned and looked thoughtfully troubled, before then speaking grimly.
"The Order will send a strike force to investigate, that is true enough, but they are unlikely to do so for at least a few more hours. There is a raging thunder storm above us, creating radio disturbances that will help to mask the Night Lord jamming signal, at this point the Sisters will assume that the sudden lack of vox communication is a result of storm interference. The worst of the lightning is due to subside in a few more hours time, only then will they suspect the truth and investigate with force,"
"Well that's not too bad, a few hours is not too long in this safe place," Sister Mary reasoned.
"What makes you so sure that some of the Night Lords who may have been on foot haven't simply commandeered other vehicles from the orphanage depot?, They could be following behind their airborne brethren in a convoy. We cannot take the risk of staying still for too long," Sister Superior Clementine explained gently but seriously.
Some of the nuns started to panic.
"Keep strong in your faith! He will deliver us. Trust him as your flame to burn away the darkness." Sister Superior Clementine rebuked the panicking nuns harshly.
The nuns snapped back to their senses in the face of this rebuke, and regained their composure.
"For now we can go no further until this engine has time to cool down. After that we can continue," Mother Superior told Sister Superior Clementine.
"Then that is what we will do. Attend to the needs of the sacred machinery, then get us on our way," Sister Superior Clementine commanded.
Mother Superior nodded and opened the bus door. She stepped outside and lifted the bonnet of the idling bus, to help it cool all the faster. Rain was dripping down from the dense foliage above in fat drops, and little plumes of steam rose up from the exposed engine as the water pattered down on the overheated metal.
There was still no sign of the foes that hunted them. They were obviously up there somewhere, doubtless looking for them, but for now at least the vegetation was keeping them at bay.
The nuns organised the boys to do their best to drain the pooling water from the bus, sweeping it out the door with their feet. They then offloaded the dead bodies, placed them evenly spaced in a circle a respectful distance from the bus. This forest was infested with lethal hungry carnivores, if any came along then it was prudent to have a perimeter of fresh bodies as easy meals, to satisfy their hunger on the dead rather than the living.
With enormous difficulty the boys managed to drag the dead Night Lord all the way down the aisle of the bus and down the steps of the doorway to lay on the ground outside the bus. The body had an enormous baroque bolt pistol that seemed to be magnetically stuck hard against it's outer thigh, rather than using a traditional holster. It also had 28 rounds of bolt pistol ammunition in various belt pouches, and an enormous chainsaw sword that was stuck in his hand in an unbreakable death grip.
The other boys tried unsuccessfully to pull the gun from the monster's leg, it wouldn't budge.
Franklin got a strange impulse and tried to see if he could pull it free.
The moment his hand closed around the grip the gun spontaneously released its magnetic grip on the leg and fell away unhindered!
The grip was far too big for his hand, and the weapon was too heavy for him to wield anyway, and it fell from his hand to the ground with a clatter. Franklin was not sure how he had done that, he had barely even gripped the grip before it just released itself like that.
Sister Superior Clementine had apparently been watching him from the bus and spoke.
"It is a genetic scanning grip handle, it recognised your genetic code, only a Sevenson can wield that weapon. Be careful with it, the recoil will rip your arms out of their sockets. It is a cursed weapon, the warp has tainted it. Put it in the bus so we can incinerate it in a furnace later, at least we can deprive our foe of this weapon."
"Yes Sister Superior," Franklin said with unquestioning submissive obedience, and strained to carry the heavy pistol into the bus. He put it on the floor at her feet in tribute, awaiting further orders. She merely kicked it out of the way and ignored the kneeling Franklin.
"Come over here and sit with me out of the way Franklin," Sister Mary commanded him when Sister Superior Clementine continued to ignore him.
Franklin obediently rose from his respectful kneeling and sat down next to Sister Mary as ordered.
Sister Mary's fingers found his closest ear and started stroking it lightly, the way she had always been fond of doing from time to time, deliberately tickling him. He didn't move or make a sound, but inside his mind he was frantically trying not to laugh.
His ear tickled terribly, it was maddening! His whole body was struggling not to move from the highly aggravating sensation! He might not be making a sound on the outside, but he was now laughing hard inside his head!
The light strokes continued to this highly sensitive spot, and he could only endure it with total obedience. His beloved nuns had the absolute right to do whatever they liked to him, and he would never dream of begrudging them this right. If they wanted him to do something, he did it, if they wanted to make him suffer, he suffered. He had no will or desire to do anything other than obey, no matter what they chose to do.
Franklin's mouth was smiling now, he couldn't keep the smile off his face! The tickling of his ear was getting more unbearable over time, and it was all he could do to simply stay still and not laugh! He needed his discipline to improve a lot more than this, he should be able to be tickled all day without even a single smile, he so clearly had a long way to go to reach perfect discipline!
Franklin silently thanked the Emperor for this test Sister Mary was giving him to improve his discipline. But he also was thankful for far more personal reasons, sinfully selfish as this might be.
Right at the moment he was the most afraid he had ever felt in his entire life, the terror for the safety of his nuns was ripping into his heart with terrible dread. He had so much information to process that it was threatening to overwhelm him. But when one of his nuns started tickling his ear, he no longer had room in his head for fear and burdens.
It was by its very nature maddeningly distracting, you just can't think about anything else when someone won't stop tickling you. Can't focus on fear, can't focus on dread, can't concentrate for even a second on doing anything other than making sure you don't move or laugh!
Once again the Emperor was showing his hand, providing those small mercies that his servants so badly needed just to keep on going. Sometimes something as simple as a nun who simply won't stop tickling your ear is just what you need, the small mercy that gets you through the darkest hours.
Sister Mary did not stop, and Franklin was glad that she wasn't stopping. All the fear was far away right now, he had no room in his laughter filled mind for fear. All the worries, all the nightmares, all the death, he simply couldn't maintain the concentration to think about it.
His entire mind was filled with one single overwhelming fact, that a nun was tickling his ear terribly and he must not move or laugh.
He just didn't have the room for anything else, it was his appointed small mercy.
***...
Franklin was still laughing hard inside his head a long time later, as Mother Superior finally closed the bonnet down over the now fully cooled bus engine. Sister Mary reluctantly left his ear alone as Mother Superior got back into the bus, and Sister Mary made Franklin join her under the seat as she got into position.
Franklin should be standing over her as a protective human shield, he WANTED to give his life to protect his cherished nuns from harm, but Sister Mary had commanded him, and he must simply obey. He felt like a coward hiding under a chair like this as other boys got to sacrifice their lives to protect the nuns.
Sister Mary clung to him tightly under the seat, her body heat spreading through his cold clammy skin to fill him with the most wonderful warmth, and Franklin found this deeply soothing.
Franklin heard the sounds of the engine change, and felt the bus start to move. He couldn't see a thing from down under this seat, he could only feel the motion of the bus and hear the sounds it made.
He became very aware of the sounds all around him, in the absence of sights. He could hear the wind above the trees, hear the rain on the leaves up above the canopy, the steady rumble of the engine, and the sounds of the thunder.
The lightning was gradually starting to ease now, the flashes and rumbles less frequent. The wind and rain had clearly not let up, but the lightning at least was starting to slowly die away.
This was a very good thing. The moment the lightning abated, the Night Lord jamming signal would become clearly obvious to the Chamber Militant. Help would find them, they just had to keep going till then.
The bus was speeding along for a while, when suddenly Mother Superior slammed on the brakes! She was honking the bus horn loudly!
The bus skidded terribly and came to a near halt before continuing more slowly. The horn was honking again.
"Damnable hajsnips! Get off the road you stupid critters!" Mother Superior was shouting, as she continued to honk the horn.
Franklin felt deep relief, it was just local wildlife!
Mother Superior continued honking and shouting, and Franklin heard the distinctive loud yapping and yipping of what sounded like an entire small heard of local hajsnips.
"Stop head butting the bus you stupid critter!" Mother Superior's voice shouted as a loud thumping sound sounded off the front of the very slow moving bus.
Franklin heard more yapping and more thumping, and Mother Superior was honking the horn again.
There was a loud thump of hooves on metal, and Franklin saw hooves clip clopping down the aisle inside the bus. One of the hajsnips had jumped onto the now open topped bus!
"Get out you stupid critter! Go on get!" Mother Superior shouted at the hajsnip in the bus.
There was a deafening bang of a bolter firing a single shot, and the small horse-sized local herbivore flopped down dead on the floor, a gaping hole in it's torso. Sister Superior Clementine's armoured feet walked over to it, she had apparently just shot it.
"That's right you critters! Run away from the bang!" Mother Superior could be heard shouting.
The bus picked up speed once again, no longer slowed down by pesky wildlife blocking the road, and Franklin looked at the dead hajsnip in interest.
He had seen them before from a distance, they were often seen grazing on the other side of the perimeter razor wire fence around the orphanage, but he had never seen one up close like this before.
It was a brown furry creature, about the size of a small horse. It had six enormous black eyes, barbed hoofs that were used for digging burrows, and a fearsome set of 4 razor sharp horns. As long as you stayed far away from their calves and burrows they were harmless enough, they were just a nuisance on roads sometimes.
The bus journeyed on without incident for a while, before slowing down once again. Mother Superior was once again honking and shouting about hajsnips.
"This herd has always been a nuisance. They have a cluster of burrows all around the stream down at the bottom of this valley, our supply vehicles are always hitting them. I have been petitioning the Canoness to give me permission to drop a bunch of poison baits around here to cull them, she keeps referring me to talk to other people about it." Sister Superior Clementine said with surprising candour, apparently speaking to Mother Superior.
"By the Emperor, why are they all up and about like this in the middle of the night! That road ahead looks like the hajsnips are having a parade ground formation! Get out of the road you yipping yapping critters!" Mother Superior shouted crossly.
The bus slowed to a near crawl, and the sounds of yapping and yipping could be heard all around. The bus horn was honking nonstop, but the bus slowed to a complete stop.
Loud thumps and the clip clop of hooves could then be heard all over the roof and bonnet, hajsnips were excellent jumpers.
"By the Emperor on his Golden Throne, get off the bus you stupid animals!" Mother Superior shouted.
Thumps then sounded inside the bus itself as more hajsnips found their way inside from the roof. Franklin saw more hooves clip clopping on the floor.
"This is absolutely ridiculous!" Sister Mary exclaimed.
"Try to shoo them out alive, their bodies are too heavy in the bus to just keep shooting them. Nobody make any sudden moves or touch them, those horns can gut a gene stealer! Open the door very slowly and try to very softly shoo them outside." Sister Superior Clementine commanded in a deliberately calm and quiet voice.
From what little that Franklin could tell from his limited vantage point, the hajsnips onboard were simply getting confused by the efforts to shoo them, and ending up pressing against windows. They were clearly not very intelligent creatures, and didn't seem to understand that they couldn't simply move through armoured glass as though it were air.
The nuns were very quickly getting irritated, especially Mother Superior, and only the boys were being completely calm about this situation.
This is hopeless! Can you please fire your gun to disperse them Sister Superior?", asked Mother Superior in a thoroughly frustrated and irritated voice.
"If I fire my weapon now, these 5 hajsnips in the bus will panic and might start goring people with their horns. I would very much like to avoid this if possible," Sister Superior Clementine explained patiently.
Further discussion was then cut short by the sounds of gunshots and horn honking from somewhere further behind them on the road!
Harsh demonic voices snarled:
"CURSE THESE CREATURES! DO NOT WASTE MY AMMUNITION ON YOUR WORTHLESS LIVES!"
"CURSE THIS DELAY! OUR PREY WILL ESCAPE!"
"MOVE! WORTHLESS LIVESTOCK!"
The nuns immediately started to panic, the Night Lords had indeed commandeered vehicles and were close enough behind them to hear their voices!
Only the herd was slowing them down!
Mother Superior seemingly lost her nerve and slammed her foot down!
The bus seemingly plowed into an endless mass of hajsnips.
The bus bounced and bucked as it alternately either ran hajsnips over or rolled them over the bonnet!
Hajsnips were rolling up the roof and tumbling into the bus like waterfalls through the huge holes in the roof!
Hoofs and dismayed hajsnips were everywhere inside the bus now!
Demonic howls of triumph could be heard from behind!
The Night Lords had heard the bus accelerating into the mass of hajsnips!
The hajsnips stuck in the bus were going berserk! They were stampeding around inside the confined space!
Dead children started dropping to the floor, necks and torsos ripped open by hajsnip horns!
The bus jumped and bucked crazily! It was bouncing off run over hajsnips in a continuous motion now!
The bus was jumping around so crazily that it was almost flipping over!
The hajsnips inside were yapping in a berserk frenzy, butting heads into the windows desperately to escape this terrifying moving confined space!
Sister Superior Clementine was opening fire on the hajsnips in the bus, those threatening Mother Superior, filling the floor with their dead weight!
The engine was making terrible straining noises now!
A lot of hajsnips were still alive in the bus, and were yapping in stupid terror as they tried to head butt through bulletproof glass.
The bus suddenly stopped bouncing on hajsnips, finally clear of the herd.
The engine made appalling noises as it struggled to speed away with so much weight onboard!
They crested a hill, and the engine relaxed as Mother Superior coasted down the downhill slope.
The huge weight in the bus was making them pick up speed, FAST!
Franklin couldn't see a thing, Sister Mary was clinging to him for dear life, screaming in terror.
This bizarre ensemble of passengers were carried on by their momentum up a gentler hill slope, the engine made struggling noises to work with this momentum to get them to the top.
The bus plunged down another long winding slope, only just staying upright on the corners!
Faster and faster this mobile barnyard careened downhill, Franklin could see only the bus floor and the undersides of panicky hajsnips!
Without warning Franklin heard the alert hymn of a listening gargoyle! They were approaching checkpoint number 3!
Triumphant demonic laughter filled the sky!
"FRANKLIN!" The voice of the flying giant echoed from somewhere in the sky!
Huge objects thumped down on what was left of the roof of the bus! The flying Night Lords were upon them!
"FRANKLIN I... WHAT THE CUNTING FUCK IS THIS ZOO!"
"It's hajsnips! What the fuck is this!"
"FRANKLIN! WHERE ARE YOU! DOES MY BROTHER STILL LIVE?!"
"FRANKLIN!"
The bus was still hurtling along as this entire happenstance was going on on top of it.
"WHERE IS MY BABY BROTHER?! FRANKLIN!" The giant was howling with a surprising amount of emotion.
Franklin could only guess at what in the Golden Throne was going on up there!
The flying giant voice kept bellowing Franklin's name, apparently unsure if he was still alive, and the bus suddenly got steadily lighter.
The air filled with the yipping screams of live hajsnips being lifted out from inside the bus and being hurled onto the fast moving road. It was a terrible sound.
The bus felt steadily lighter by the second as the Night Lords hurled hajsnips out of the bus in their search for Franklin underneath.
"YOU ARE ALIVE!" The giant roared in delight as he ripped out the seat Franklin was hiding under!
"YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY BABY!" Sister Mary shrieked hysterically at the giant.
"HE BELONGS WITH HIS FAMILY! GIVE HIM TO ME!" The giant demanded.
"WE ARE HIS FAMILY NOW! GO BACK TO HELL YOU MONSTER!" Sister Mary screamed.
The giant pulled out a bolt pistol and aimed it at Sister Mary!
Franklin hurled himself on top of her as a human shield, he would DIE to protect her!
The monster roared in frustration and held his fire!
Suddenly the monster erupted in a fusillade of gunfire yet again! The bus had reached the 3rd checkpoint!
The monster roared in frustrated rage and took off to attack the Sisters of Battle at the checkpoint!
The bus was then hurtling through the gatehouse of the 3rd checkpoint and off again into the darkness!
The bus was barely even functional anymore, but against all odds the Emperor had delivered them yet again!
With small mercies the Emperor's servants can defy hell itself.
Glory be his name!
With small mercies, they might actually survive this nightmare...
***...
