Chapter Twenty Two:
Nightmare Realm
Since the attack at the museum, the woman had been monitoring the situation.
When the Heart of Enki was discovered and brought to the United States, she expected events to unfold in more or less the fashion they had. The Shah's desire to fulfil his family's destiny would ensure the Erran left bloodshed in their wake and though she considered intervening, she knew things had to play out until the final curtain on this affair was raised, and she could act.
What she had not counted on was the involvement of Chris Larabee and his relic hunters.
She was peripherally aware of the Seven during her surveillance of Travis's activities. The Professor in his day had been quite the relic hunter himself, and it was only natural he would employ similar men to do the same now that he was getting on in years. She respected him for that but still kept her eye on him nonetheless. When William Styles was killed, she had been in Europe, attending to matters almost as equally dire.
While the Shah was up to his intrigues to uncreate the world through the Tablet of Destiny, what was happening in Germany was proof entropy needed no ancient relic to take place.
Still, her failure to save William stung. She had never met him but was aware of his investigations once she began to make her own. He understood better than all of them, the danger the Erran posed and while she did not hold his beliefs in the supernatural, she understood what drove him. After he was killed, she knew it was time to make contact with Orin Travis at the party unveiling the Heart, but the intervention of Larabee and his men forced her withdrawal.
"They're going to be swamped," her companion said as he lowered the binoculars and turned to her. They were both staring at the scene from one of the hills surrounding Eridu, watching the rapidly diminishing number of Erran closing on Larabee's men, who were defending the ruined city.
"We hold firm," she spoke coolly. "If I know that bastard, he won't kill them. He'll need to use them as hostages to get his hands on the Tablet when Larabee appears."
"You think Larabee will find it?" He said to her, somewhat dubious at the thing even existing let alone being used for a trade.
"Without a doubt," she replied. "We'll wait for all the players to take the stage, then we'll act."
As the buffer of bullets between them narrowed and the bodies scattered across the desert continued to grow, Ezra Standish knew with utter certainty, they could not prevail. Their ammunition was fast dwindling and when the Erran did reach the city, they would be overwhelmed by numbers. Yet he refused to surrender even though it was unlikely they would be killed. The Erran still needed the Tablet and if anyone could navigate the traps set in place around it, it was Chris Larabee.
Ezra also knew Chris would smash the Tablet into a thousand pieces if he for one second suspected any of his men had been killed by the Erran. The man could be viciously vindictive and Ezra had more faith in that than all of Midas's dreams of gold. Glancing at Nathan from his vantage point, he could see his best friend reloading his rifle and unleashing another barrage of gunfire in the thickest part of the Erran riders.
No matter how good he was in a fight, Ezra knew Nathan was wincing with the discharge of every bullet. At the heart of him, Nathan was a healer who did not enjoy killing. The bodies being swept up by the desert wind, half submerged in the sand after the line of dynamite had detonated would prey upon him heavily. Ezra wished he could share the healer's compassion because when he saw the Erran break up at their approach, he knew instantly the strategy they were employing. A contingent of them would keep the four men busy, perfectly aware they had the numbers to provide a distraction, while the others would circle the base of the city and find an alternate path to ambush them.
"Ezra!" Buck shouted, voicing the thought as it crossed Ezra's mind. "They're splitting up, I'll bet you anything they're going to try and sneak up on us from behind."
"I will take that bet, Mr Wilmington," Ezra declared, continuing to shoot. "You and Mr Jackson ought to ensure they do not tip the odds too much in their favour. Josiah and I will remain here and maintain fire!"
"You heard him, Nathan! Let's get moving!" Buck hollered to the healer. Nathan
"All right, all right," Nathan grumbled, raising his head from where he was positioned to shoot. "Let's go pick up the trash before it piles up on our doorstep." The healer pushed himself off the gravelly ground and kept his head low even as bullets whizzed over him, striking the stone walls and every other surface in their immediate vicinity.
"Keep your heads down!" Ezra shouted as he watched the two men retreat to the rear, using the cover of crumbling walls, still standing doorways and statues that lost their shape long ago. The gambler spared no more than a second ensuring they got to the other side of the ruins safely, before facing front again.
"I fear it remains to you and I Josiah, to repel this horde!" He said to the mechanic and demolition expert who was still laying down a line of continuous fire to the enemy, but even Ezra could see the ammunition at Josiah's side was starting to get low.
"I don't know how much longer we can be repelling any horde!" Josiah returned, watching another Erran cultist tumble into the dirt.
There were three rows of riders and as they approached, Ezra noticed the Shah, the behemoth JD had revealed was called Krestos and the woman, whom he had faced off at the Professor's home was approaching from the rear, ensuring the others went first like cannon fodder. Clearly, they intended to reach the city, even if it meant sacrificing their own to see it done. Ezra was hardly surprised, it was always the way of fanatics to convince the gullible to die for a meaningless cause as if it were a call to glory.
Ezra took careful aim as he placed the Shah within the crosshairs of his rifle, thinking if he could put down the man, they might end this conflict prematurely. However, the chaos of riders surrounding the Shah ensured Ezra couldn't get a clean shot and the gambler suspected, that was the intention of the formation, to begin with. Perhaps if Vin were here, the sharpshooter might have been able to make the shot but Ezra wasn't the sniper Vin was. He was a crack shot with small arms and a demon with a blade, and as impressive as he was with the rifle, he was nowhere in Vin's league.
"Here they come!" Josiah shouted, giving Ezra the warning they were out of time. The gap between the enemy and the foundations of Eridu had closed and now the barbarians were at the gate. The slope leading up the mountains was gradual enough to allow the horses to progress all the way to the top of the city ruins. Even as Ezra discarded the rifle and reached for the Ceska machine gun he had armed for this very purpose, he could feel the thunder of hooves beneath him.
Josiah continued firing a little more but the would be preacher gave up the idea as well when he realised their attempt to avoid being overrun was futile. Like Ezra, he grabbed the Tommy gun Vin had left him and slipped a number of round magazine cartridges into his jacket. His eyes followed Ezra running across the terrain, seeking out a more defensible position and did the same.
"See you on the other side brother!" He shouted at Ezra who had taken refuge behind the partial rock wall Buck had used earlier. Josiah headed for one of the deep doorways leading into the underground levels of the city.
"Try and show a little optimism, will you Mr Sanchez!" Ezra hollered back. "I do not intend dying today!"
"We've got to go sometime!" Josiah grinned.
The first of the horses crested the top of the slope with Josiah unleashing a hail of bullets at the ground directly in front of them. The loud roar of sound, not to mention the dirt being sent into the air like projectiles startled the animals who promptly reared up on their hind legs in fright. At least four men were unseated or very near close to it since the abrupt halt of the animals was not merely limited to the ones frightened by the gunfire.
Once the Erran were unseated, the fight no longer became one where they could hold firm and defend their position. It was a brawl now, a brawl with guns and fists. Ezra who hated menial labour, darted from his refuge, shooting down the Erran on the ground just as the still seated riders returned fire. He knew the odds were against them but if they could keep moving, if they could provide a running target instead of a stationary one, then they might give Chris Larabee the time their leader needed to recover the Tablet and have something to bargain with.
He hoped.
They were fighting corpses.
Chris Larabee was trying to wrap his mind around the fact they were fighting people who were dead. Not only dead but had died two thousand years before the birth of Christ. Furthermore, unlike the creature played by Boris Karloff in that movie Vin made him sit through, these mummified corpses were neither slow or lumbering, they moved with speed, displaying the agility and skill of any living assailant.
After firing his gun at the creatures closing in on them and discovering the things were hard to kill, Chris decided he needed another weapon Bullets, being small projectiles had little effect on desiccated organs. Chris sighted one of their blades lying across the floor and immediately dove for it. Rolling across the dust-covered tiles, he picked up one of the khopeshes and raised the weapon just in time to ward off an axe.
Shoving back hard, he stood upright, knowing his disbelief had better take a back seat because this was happening and if he didn't think on his feet, he was going to get run through or worse. While the mummified guard staggered backward, another of them came at him, forcing Chris to take a swipe at it. The swing was wide but practised, with Chris aiming high. Since battling these monsters, Chris had come to the realisation the best way of ending them was either by decapitation or dismemberment. Only direct shots to the head would put them down otherwise.
With little or no hesitation, the blade sliced through grey, flaking skin that reminded him of burnt paper, just as the creature tried to stab him with a particularly nasty looking spear. It was screeching at him and Chris thought they sounded like the screams of magpies in the morning. The cut severed its head from its body, causing the skull to flip in mid-air before landing on the ground hard. The skull shattered like someone had dropped a bowl of flour from a great height.
"How is this possible? They're dead!" Alex demanded, her mind still unable to accept what she was seeing, even while she uttered a cry of fright when one of the things came at them. Flattened against the only free piece of wall, she saw Vin leaping backwards, keeping his guts from spilling across the floor when he narrowly avoided the deadly swipe of a blade.
"Uh Darlin'," Vin shouted back at her, some exasperation creeping into his voice. "Maybe you could just not stand there and try to get to the door?"
At that warning, Alex saw one of the mummified guards lunging at her and she ducked, causing it to slam against the wall behind her. Dropping to her hands and knees, Alex began crawling across the floor, just as Vin spun around and obliterated its skull with a well-placed shot. Terrified, she crawled towards the door and shouted back at him.
"Vin Tanner, you may be a great kisser, but I REALLY HATE YOUR JOB!"
"You think I'm a great kisser?" Vin asked just as he jammed his gun into the face of another creature and pulled the trigger.
"VIN!" Chris who was close enough to hear barked angrily. "Focus!"
"Sorry," Vin apologised as the creature's head disintegrated, putting an end to its attack.
Alex uttered a horrified squeal when bits and pieces of mummy rained down on her, covering her skin and hair with scraps of ancient flesh and body parts. As she frantically brushed herself off, she became aware of Vin helping her to her feet, just as another mummy took advantage of her panic and tried to bring an axe down on her.
"Alex, head for the door!" He ordered, shoving her in that direction while he dealt with this latest attacker. Alex didn't argue and glanced over her shoulder at him before doing as he ordered.
Meanwhile, Mary had picked up a khopesh herself and found it was not all that different to a foil in fencing, although the blade was heavier and did not require as much finesse to use. Parrying when one of the living corpses came at her, she fended off the blow before dropping gracefully to her knees and slashing the thing in mid-thorax.
The cleaved corpse fell against the tiles in two large pieces and it was with revulsion, she saw what had not disintegrated with the hard landing, was still capable of movement. The legs attached to the thorax was staggering about like a Saturday night drunk, while the arms attached to the upper torso was still waving the blade about, trying to get to her.
Chris glanced at Mary finishing off the creature she was fighting and felt a surge of relief at her ability to defend herself. As the thought crossed his mind, he fired a shot at another mummy closing in on him, penetrating its bronzed helmet. Chris watched in horrified fascination as he saw its skull starting to disintegrate inside the ancient piece of headwear. There was little time for respite because even as he saw its face crumble away, something else was coming at him, something armed with a mace.
He ducked just as it swung, avoiding the blow which only succeeded in striking the mummy closing in on him from a different direction. The mace ripped apart the second creature's shoulder and detached its arm from the body. The limb landed on the ground and started crawling towards Chris. Chris threw a kick as if he were a kicker for the NFL, sending the arm flying into the air, far away from him.
Like his older comrades, JD was similarly astonished by what he was seeing but was more focused on removing his mentor from the chamber. Ducking as a corpse swung his blade at him, the young man kicked out his foot and connected with the creature's ankle, bringing it down with surprising speed. Once they made eye contact, he jammed a gun into its mouth and pulled the trigger, ignoring the chill that ran through him as it stared at him with those eyeless sockets. As its head exploded, JD stepped back quickly, since the thought of being suffocated by mummy dust was quite revolting.
Turning his attention to Orin, he saw the Professor had little difficulty defending himself. LIke Chris, Orin Travis was a former cavalryman and knew how to handle a blade. The older man was searching the room for his daughter and was both relieved and impressed when he saw her throw a flying kick at one of the creatures and forced it back against the wall from which it had emerged. He had no idea where she learned to fight like this but Orin was grateful she broke the mould of society's outdated ideas on how a woman ought to behave and learned.
At least now he knew when she was out chasing her stories she was capable of protecting herself.
Alex, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. She was still trying to navigate the battle taking place around her, with little experience in using her fists or participating in anything as brutal as combat. In that, she was definitely William's daughter, a healer. In their youth, it was William who always tried to come up with a different way of attacking a problem instead of using physical violence, unlike hot-headed Hank who loved a scrap.
"Alexandra!" Orin beckoned her towards him as she tried to cross the floor to reach the exit as Vin ordered. "Come to me!"
Wide-eyed, she nodded and ran across the tiles, avoiding the dismembered limbs still crawling about the place, trying to understand how this could be. She was a doctor and to her, a dead body was a dead body, it shouldn't be alive or have its hacked limbs crawling about the place like they were organisms of their own. She knew her scientific mind was attempting to analyse supernatural waters, and failing to do so. Still, there was no doubting the clear and present danger they were facing.
Sighing with relief when she reached her father's oldest friend, she was grateful to feel Orin taking her hand and towing her to the door. She glanced over her shoulder at Vin and saw him kicking away another corpse, using one hand to fire, while the other fended off another coming at him with a blade. Wanting to call out to him, the opportunity was lost when she felt herself being pulled through the doorway and prayed despite her words to him, Vin was able to take care of himself.
"Chris!" Mary shouted as she saw one of the creatures sneaking up on him from behind while he was wrestling with another.
Chris looked over his shoulder just in time to see Mary running to his rescue as she had done at the museum. She ducked just as the thing swung at her, skidding to the floor, and bringing down the creature with an efficiently delivered leg sweep. As it crashed against the tiles, she used her blade and promptly decapitated the corpse. Chris spared a brief second in observation before a stray thought crossed his mind.
That was pretty hot.
Meanwhile more and more of the creatures were emerging from the wall and Chris had to wonder just how many of the things there were, as he fired point blank at another advancing corpse. It seemed with the number they been killing so far, there should be less, not more. Yet the things continued to advance as if the walls were porous and behind them, was an endless supply of corpses dedicated to wearing down trespassers. It was at this point, Chris realised it was futile to fight them all, and though it stung for an ex-soldier to admit it, Chris knew it was time to retreat.
"We're getting out of here!" He shouted. "Vin, we are leaving!"
"You ain't' getting no arguments from me!" The sharpshooter returned and threw a fist into the face of one of the approaching assailants. His stomach hollowed when his hand went through bone and teeth and was nearly stuck in the thing's mouth. Pulling back his fist in disgust, he searched the floor and was relieved to see Alex being dragged out of the room by Orin Travis while JD covered their backs.
"CHRIS!" Mary Travis uttered a fearful scream as a trio of dead bodies lunged at her. She dropped to the floor, trying to avoid them but one of the creatures managed to catch a handful of golden hair and yank back sharply. She uttered a cry of pain at the strands being torn savagely, even as her knees landed on the hard floor. Mary winced in pain but forced herself to crawl out from beneath them. Suddenly, she heard the deafening sound of gunfire as a hail of bullets whizzed overhead.
Mary was covered with bits of mummy dust and found herself reverting to type when she squealed in horror, only to feel a hand grip her shoulder and yank her to her feet. She was about to fight when she found herself against Chris, who was looking at her with concern. For a moment, the intensity of his emotions struck her and she felt the air rush out of the room as she stared into those icy coloured eyes and became lost in them. The man was such an enigma, a contradiction in every way and just as tantalising a mystery to her as the Tablet itself.
"Are you okay?" He asked quickly, unable to deny the cold fear he felt at hearing her cry out like that. Despite their continuous bickering and arguments, the truth was, she had gotten under his skin the same way Alexandra Styles had entered Vin Tanner's heart. However, while Vin was willing to show the lady he cared, Chris was nowhere ready to take the same step. Hell, he was still wearing his wedding ring. Nevertheless, hearing her vulnerability frightened him. It was to his surprise he suddenly realised, how much he valued her ability to take care of herself.
Though he'd have to be raked over coals before he admitted it to her or to anyone else for that matter.
"Yeah," she nodded as they both started out of the place, quickly outpacing the creatures Vin was keeping at bay with his guns.
They ran out of the room, fighting their way through the corpses, wondering how far they'd have to run to outdistanced these things to escape. Chris saw that JD, Alex and Orin had already left the chamber and hoped they did not go too far ahead. After fighting mummy guards and swarms of scorpions, he did not want to know what other supernatural creatures, this quest for the Tablet was likely to throw at them.
However, what confronted him when he, Mary and Vin crossed the threshold, halted them in their tracks immediately.
"What the hell?" Chris exclaimed, stunned.
Alex, Orin and JD turned to him, wearing similar expressions of astonishment and bafflement on their faces. It appeared they were just as flabbergasted by what they were seeing
"How can this be?" Mary mused, her blue-grey eyes sweeping across the place.
"We just came through the doorway and then we were here," Alex explained, her expression showing she was almost at the limits of how much improbable information she could process.
Here was a platform in the middle of a still ocean. Above them, there was a blue sky, devoid of birds, clouds or for that matter wind. The platform they were standing on was a square floating dock, with no signs of land in any direction.
"But we were inside," Mary stuttered. "We were in the middle of a desert!" The journalist took a step backwards as if retracing her steps would return them to where they had been. This was too much for her, even with mummified corpses coming to life and swarms of scorpions.
Suddenly, JD spoke up. "I don't think we've gone anywhere."
"What do you mean?" Chris stared at him.
"I don't think we've gone anywhere," JD repeated himself. "I think we're still in the city."
"JD, this doesn't look much like a city," Vin pointed out, aware he was stating the obvious but he was just as flummoxed as the others and wanted an explanation fast.
"Don't you see, it's the translation from the Akkadian texts," JD explained, understanding, at last, the context and how it related to their present situation. "I get it."
"I see what you mean," Orin nodded. "Only the worthy, those who have been touched by Enki, close in heart to his spirit may breach the mid realms between creation and entropy. And he who walks through this nightmare realm, with pearls of wisdom granted to the first man, may escape the stark horror of Tiamat's mad children to claim the Tablet of Destiny."
"The nightmare realm..." Chris realised. "You mean everything we've been seeing is an illusion? That we've been just seeing things and can pass through it if we believe that's all it is?"
It sounded too preposterous to be true and yet he had a feeling it was exactly as JD claimed.
"Well there's just one way to find out," JD said staring at the horizon and without another word, stepped off the dock.
