The Realm Beyond Death
Don't worry I'm not dead just yet! It's been way too long, but here is the next chapter, forgive my lateness. Please review!
Fog descended in thick blankets across the courtyards of the 13th squad's barracks. Night's blackened clouds draped across the sky and obscured all that was not bathed in the light of lanterns and torches.
Twenty low ranked scouts stood to attention, awaiting the arrival of their field commander. All of them had been drafted from the other squads as a personal guard and assistants for the latest venture beyond the wall. Beyond the great stone walls the dead bayed for blood and howled like crazed animals. They scraped and clawed at the wall from morning until night until their fingers were left as mangled stumps. Dark blood soaked into the stone amidst powdered bone and sinewy scraps of tissue. The smell was revolting and when the wind blew in towards Sereitei the stench would carry over the wall and bring sickness and plague to those within.
As much as the general public wanted to stay away regular forays beyond the wall were necessary. Scouts had to monitor the populations and report back any new findings to Mayuri Kurotsuchi and his research bureau.
Rarely did Mayuri venture out of his laboratory on these expeditions but this time Mayuri was personally heading into the field. This time he had a most dangerous mission – he needed live test subjects.
All members of the group were nervous and rightfully so. The undead had cost a great number of their comrades, many of which were still on the other side of the wall moaning and wailing in their unholy hunger.
Mayuri approached his squadron and grinned from ear to ear, or at least where his ears used to be before he amputated them long ago out of idle boredom. The madman licked his marbled teeth and clapped his hands.
"Thank you all for coming ladies and gentlemen. I know this is an unfavourable and dangerous task but I must procure some live samples of the undead so that I may perform my trials upon them. If all goes well my cure may be ready within a few weeks. However I cannot release anything until I have performed the necessary trials and properly tested my vaccine. For this noble reason I need your help."
A few murmurs ran through the crowd but it did little to remove the unsettled atmosphere among the scouts. Mayuri was overly excited despite this, in fact their fear only made him more overjoyed about his expedition.
Terrified...Each and every one of them. This will be too easy!
"Alright, now move out to the ramparts. We must find a suitable location to land."
As instructed the group vanished in the blink of an eye. They stood expectantly upon the wall, many glancing down into the indecipherable sea of writhing bodies beneath them. At night they were more dangerous, seemingly driven on by the darkness. They became more lethargic in sunlight, unmotivated to hunt and simply stumbling about aimlessly. But under the cover of darkness some primal energy wells up within them and the undead become voracious predators.
A midnight snack is all they need...
The madman studied the swarm and found a clearing further down the wall several hundred metres away. He quietly instructed his team to follow, however he neglected to inform them of the ghouls encircling the clearing on all sides.
There is no need to frighten them any more than this. It shall work in my favour to keep them somewhat alert.
"We shall drop down there," he explained, pointing with a skeletal finger, "Stay in close formation as you land and be careful not to make sudden movements. Remain calm and stake out your prey. Remember that your weapons can only incapacitate them but I don't want to be handling mincemeat. I prefer my subjects to be ambulatory. Use binding spells if you can to keep them intact and only use force when absolutely necessary. And finally I require ten subjects so I want you all to pair up and so each pair will be responsible for one specimen. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!" The little toy soldiers said in unison. With that they leapt down into the clearing, into the danger zone.
The dead had paid no heed, uninterested in the invaders. They dead were downwind so that the scent of the living would not be carried down to them.
For a few more minutes...
Mayuri stood in the centre of the tight circular formation and chuckled under his breath. He watched the moon and waited for the sign. "Hold steady." he instructed. "Now, I want three pairs to seek out their subject and return here. The others shall remain on guard at all times and I will not send out any more teams until the first unit has returned. Now go."
Thankfully with all his scouts close-by Mayuri did not have to throw his voice. He was in a dangerous position here as well and to sabotage everything so close to fruition would be foolish. He would not leave here without his subjects.
The clouds rolling across the moon slowed their pace and came almost to a standstill.
The winds changed.
The clouds moved backward now retracing their path through the sky. The scent of fresh meat wafted over the undead at the rear flank of the swarm. Hundreds of heads turned on creaking joints and empty eyes lit up with fearsome determination.
Perfect.
Mayuri forced a look of concern and ordered his first team to hurry. The scouts did as told and captured three straggling ghouls far from the swarm. They returned to the fold and waited while the next three units were dispatched. Meanwhile the others became further disturbed by the main body of the undead now turning towards them.
"Do not worry; we have time left to get out of here before the swarm reaches us. Even at night their locomotion is painfully slow, walking pace at best. We are at a safe distance and shall be gone before they get too close. But do not delay. I only say we will make it under the assumption that you work quickly." Mayuri grinned menacingly, relishing in the draining colour in his squadron's faces. Fear and doubt consumed them and all eyes turned to the oncoming horde while the second wave of scouts returned.
The third unit fanned out and claimed their subjects.
That was nine ghoulish creatures ready for extraction. Only one more necessary.
Mayuri looked to the last pair, a young woman with pigtails and a man with slick brown hair. They each nodded to one another before setting out towards a small cluster of animated corpses. Just as they neared their target Mayuri's grin grew unnaturally wide but only for the briefest moment before shifting into a mortified frown.
"Wait!" He roared across the plain, garnering the attention of every undead creature beyond the wall.
The two young scouts spun on their heels in a panic, staring at their mentor. They forgot entirely about the encroaching undead, even as their shadows fell upon them. Only when death's cold hand clamped down on their frames did they cry out in fear and attempt to fight back, but it was already too late.
The girl squealed like a slaughtered pig as her throat was torn open by mangled jaws. Blood gushed down over her breasts which were torn apart by clawed hands. She collapsed in a heap as the dead converged on her and her partner who managed to strike down three or four of the ghouls before he was overwhelmed.
The sudden deaths of their companions shook the others to the core and all of them watched on in absent-minded terror as the bloodbath ensued. In their distracted states their own captives, who were given plenty of time to recuperate were more than able to slaughter them.
Mayuri hastily opened a senkaimon and ordered his troops retreat. As they struggled towards the light Mayuri gracefully decimated the nine 'subjects' and pushed his scout units through the gate. The first victims were long gone, stripped to their bones by now and no longer salvageable. The others however were still useful.
"How many wounded?" he demanded, receiving a groaned or cry from all eighteen troops. The madman let loose a frustrated groan, "Damn! How could this have happened? Do not worry I shall bring you all to the fourth squad immediately. We can surely save you all!"
The fools all bought his tirade. Of course there was no way to save them now. The infection had already spread deep within their veins and would be rapidly shutting down their organs and bodily systems. Their flesh would discolour and rot and their brains will stop sending any impulses. Within an hour they would all be clinically dead.
Within a few more hours they would rise.
But these fools, delusional from blood loss, pain and fear disregarded all their extensive presentations. All their lessons on quarantine and handling of the infected. All of it was forgotten for in their hour of need desperation held precedence. Even if they remembered their lessons somewhere in the back of their minds they all kept quiet, eager to stay alive rather than be disposed of like some feral animal. Of course there was no way fourth squad could treat them and even if there was they would not lay a hand on these pitiful creatures.
How desperate they are to cling onto their little lives...Adorable little insects scrambling towards the light even when they know it is out of reach. So very funny!
The end of the senkaimon led into a wide open space. A row of cages lined up against both walls, ten on each side. Mayuri stepped out before his wounded scouts could stagger past him and pressed a black button against the wall. Each cage's door opened in unison.
"Please step in here," Mayuri spoke sympathetically, as if the very words hurt him, "I'm so terribly sorry but precautions dictate you be held in these cells until we have administered your treatments."
In their delirious panicked states the fools all crawled into their holding cells and waited as the doors slammed shut. Slim hopes of rescue and attention kept a vague spark of life amongst them and so they looked around, anticipating floods of medics to rush in and treat their wounds.
Instead they could only watch on as Mayuri turned off the lights and walked away. His laughter echoed throughout the chamber long after he had gone.
In the darkness they threw themselves at their prisons, screaming and cursing and crying and pleading.
"Help us!"
"Where are you going?"
"Save us!"
"Get us out of here!"
Some tried to calm the others, optimistically foreseeing their captain rushing off to find the fourth squad and getting help. They soothed the troubled minds with projections of dreams that would be left unresolved. Tensions only rose once again and the cacophony resumed more violently than before.
Every last burst of energy expended, wounds opened wider, new wounds added. Bodies lying broken and mangled in the melee. Their struggle was over.
In the darkness they sobbed, overhearing the strangled cries of those who choked on their own blood and bile. Others vomited all over themselves, the fetid pools spreading into the neighbouring cage only to arouse whimpers and soft yelps from the others. Some tried to make the pain go away faster, bashing their heads against the bars. The loud rattling thuds would become less frequent, then stop while only the chorus of mourning played on through the night.
By the time the first light of day broke over the land all was quiet in the chamber.
But as the sun rose, so too did the corpses.