Author's Note: Thanks to my beta: BluCrayonsRTasty. Please review and let me know what you think!
Chapter 64: Bombs
"So how are we planning on finding the Devil?" Mike asked as they walked around the town. "And what are we looking for?"
"A map," Piper answered. "I can scry for him."
"You can what?" Mike asked.
"Scry," Piper answered. "It's a way of finding someone or something you're looking for. I need a map and a crystal for it."
"And we didn't do that on the Titanic to look for him why?" Mike asked.
"Because the maps of the Titanic were diagrams," Piper answered walking to the rubble of a bookstore. "They wouldn't have worked. There should be a map in here."
"Yeah, that's not even a bookstore anymore," Mike said. "It's a pile of rubble and debris."
"But we can dig through it and find a book with a map or something," Piper said.
"Ok, but why don't you let me do it," Mike said. "I don't want something falling on you or you falling into something."
"Or I could just…" Piper started and lifted both her hands up slowly. In the middle of the rubble, a few rocks and books started to shake and move as one particular book lifted out of it and floated magically over to Pipers hands.
"Oh," Mike said forgetting that she could do that. "Right. That works too. What about a crystal?"
"I always wear a crystal around my neck as protection and to help center myself," Piper said pulling a crystal on a chain off her neck. She opened the book to a map of Germany and set it down on the ground before kneeling down.
"You think we're in Germany?" Mike asked.
"Well, Leo said those were British bomber planes overhead, so I'd say probably," Piper said. "Best place to start."
"How does this work?" Mike asked.
"Well, normally I need something of the person I'm scrying for, but I can just scry for evil in general," Piper said.
"Personal?" Mike asked as she held the chain holding the crystal over the map.
"Like blood or something," Piper said. "Sometimes I'll use an athame the demon particularly likes to use."
"A what?" Mike asked.
"Athame," Piper answered. "Like a knife, but more ceremonial in nature." Mike nodded as the crystal started to swing in a circle around the map. Piper was letting the crystal hover about an inch above the surface of the map and after only about a few seconds of swinging, the crystal seemed to pull down on her hand and the tip of it stuck to a spot on the map almost magnetically.
"Does that mean he's there?" Mike asked.
"It means there is a great source of evil here," Piper answered. "It could be him or it could be something else entirely. We have to go there and look."
"Where is it?" Mike asked.
"Looks like some place called Teufels Zeit on the border of France and Germany," Piper answered.
"Never heard of it," Mike said.
"Me neither," Piper said. "But it means Devil's time in German. Now we have to figure out where we are."
"I have an idea," Mike said. Some of these stores were bound to have some information about where they were; he just had to dig through the rubble to find out. He started digging through some of the rubble of a nearby house and found a piece of mail. It was slightly singed, but you could still make out the label on the envelope.
"What is is?" Piper asked waking up next to him.
"Well, this should be easy," Mike said showing her the envelope. "We're already here. We're in Teufels Zeit."
"But there's no one else here," Piper said confused. "I don't understand."
"Maybe he's just hiding," Mike said.
"No," Piper said. "He wouldn't. Not with how angry he was and not with how easily he can get help. There must be something here hiding him. All we can do though is just look." Before they could even begin looking, they heard a low rumble. It took Mike a moment to realize it was a vehicle and he and Piper quickly dashed behind a large piece of rubble to hide themselves. Piper and Mike peeked out just enough so that they could see the vehicle drive past them. It was followed by two other vehicles. The first one appeared to be a light tank, the middle appeared to be a armored vehicle transporting many men followed by another armored transport vehicle that was covered as though hiding what it was transporting. As the vehicles passed, Piper flicked her wrists quickly at them and they all froze.
"Come on," Piper said grabbing Mike's wrist and pulling him toward the caravan.
"What are you doing?" Mike asked wondering why she was heading toward the dangerous looking vehicles.
"We're going to hide in the back of that one," Piper said. "If we try and follow them on foot, we'll lose them way too easily. They must be headed somewhere. And I'm willing to bet anything it's to this great source of evil I just found. Or do you have a better idea?"
"No, this one works well," Mike agreed seeing the reasoning behind it. He was nervous as Piper moved the flimsy fabric aside on the last vehicle to reveal a stash of weapons. But there was no one else there, so they could safely hide. At least until the vehicle stopped. Mike climbed in first and held out a hand to help Piper in the back to hide amongst the weapons.
"He tore his stitches," Davy muttered silently. Peter nodded and could feel the fear coming off his friend. He wanted to do something to help him relax, but at this point he figured that the only thing he could do was to fix it.
"Right," Peter said. "Davy, go get that sewing kit we found upstairs and some alcohol. There's probably some in the cupboard somewhere. The stronger the better."
"You're not gonna just sew him back up with needle and thread are you?" Davy asked.
"Of course I am," Peter said. "We kind of have to. Go, please." Davy didn't protest any further. He looked at Micky lying on the bed bleeding and set his jaw in resolve before leaving the room.
"Is this gonna hurt?" Micky asked with a chuckle.
"Of course, Micky," Peter said softly. "But I'll try to make this as painless as possible."
"It's ok, Pete," Micky said. "You do what you have to. I'm already in pain."
"I'm sorry, Micky," Peter said.
"It's not your fault, buddy," Micky whispered; he was starting to lose his strength. "It's no one's fault. It just happened. How's your head?"
"Better," Peter admitted. "Don't worry about me. I'll be ok." Davy came back in with the sewing kit and a bottle of whiskey he'd found in the same moment they heard more planes overhead. This time they braced themselves and Micky for the explosion, but it was a little farther away this time and only a few things fell over.
"I really wish I knew what they were bombing this city for," Davy said setting the stuff on the bed.
"They must be trying to draw someone out of hiding," Micky said.
"I found this belt," Davy said wrapping it up tightly as Peter started using the whiskey to disinfect the needle and thread. "You can bite down on this."
"Thanks," Micky said opening his mouth to let Davy put the belt in between his teeth. Davy then sat on the other side of Micky on the bed and gripped Micky's hand in both of his.
"Just squeeze my hand," Davy said as Peter poured a little of the whiskey over the wound itself. Micky hissed in pain and jerked a little.
"Micky, I know this is hard, but you have to try and hold still," Peter said knowing if Micky jerked like that while he was trying to sew him back together, it would make things worse.
"You can do it, Micky," Davy said and squeezed Micky's hand again. "Just breathe. Focus on holding still. Squeeze my hand. We're here for you."
"Are you ready?" Peter asked once he'd had the needle threaded and pulled up a chair. Micky took a few seconds to take a few deep breaths before nodding that he was ready. Peter tried to be as quick as possible, but this wasn't like sewing a piece of fabric. His mother had taught him how to mend things when he was little because they couldn't always afford new clothes, but skin was a lot different than a cotton shirt. And there was blood obscuring his view of the wound. Luckily, it was only a small little bit that he had to mend and it didn't take very long.
The entire time he was doing it, he felt like Micky wasn't breathing. When he finished, he looked up at Micky to see that Micky had a very pained look on his face; he'd been holding his breath because of the pain and trying not to move. His face was drenched in sweat and he was crying. Peter bit his lip, hating that it was his fault Micky was in so much pain but knowing it was what he had to do to help Micky.
"I'm done," Peter said. "You can breathe now, Micky." Micky let out a long shuddered breath, but didn't let go of Davy's hand. Peter worked to carefully re-wrap Micky's wound.
"If we could take the pain away, we would, Micky," Davy said.
"I know," Micky whispered weakly. "I just...I'm gonna sleep...I feel weak."
"I know," Peter said. "And go right ahead. Go back to sleep."
"You'll stay here?" Micky asked trying not to show any hint of fear.
"We aren't going anywhere, Micky," Peter said. "We'll stay here as long as you want us to." Davy, still holding tightly to Micky's hand, lay down next to Micky as Peter pulled the sheets back up over Micky to tuck him back in. Peter grabbed the old cloth that had been sitting there and went to get it wet so he could wipe Micky's face off a little. When he came back, Micky was passed out already and Davy was staring at Micky's chest as though afraid that it would suddenly stop its rising and falling pattern. Peter felt a little dizzy and wanted to sit down, but he wanted to make Micky comfortable first. He carefully wiped the sweat and tears away from Micky's face and just sat there for a minute in the chair. Finally comfortable knowing Micky was just sleeping and would be ok, he decided to curl up on the end of the bed and fall asleep himself.
Mike sat patiently amongst the cache of weapons waiting for the caravan to come to a rest. It didn't take long: maybe 20 minutes or so and they came to a stop. Piper carefully looked out from a hole in the canvas and held up a hand to keep Mike quiet. Mike was worried they would look back here and see them, but that didn't happen. He heard voices speaking in German and then heard a loud sound, almost like metal scraping against rock. Then the truck started moving again, but this time it seemed to be going down an incline.
"Do you know what's going on?" Mike whispered. "What they said?"
"My German's rusty, but it sounded like they were just asking for entry," Piper answered quietly. "Like we're going into some secret base or something. I think they said something about an important visit, but I'm not really sure."
"Did you recognize anyone in the truck ahead of us?" Mike whispered. "An important visit might mean some general or something is up there."
"No, but I didn't get a good look," Piper answered. "They were all pretty obscured. Did you?"
"Not particularly," Mike agreed. There really hadn't been a way Mike could have gotten a good look at any of them. He wasn't sure if he hoped the Devil was with them or not. If he was, Piper and Mike wouldn't have to keep looking for him, but if he wasn't, that might mean someone or something more dangerous was here. They continued on down the incline for a few minutes before flattening out again. They were underground and Mike was glad that Piper had thought to hide in here. Even if they had caught up with caravan, he doubted that they would have been able to get into the secret base. It was another 10 minutes before they finally came to a stop. There was a little more speaking in German that neither of them understood, but the voices came closer; they were going to unload the back of the van.
"Let the object of objection become but a dream as I cause the seen to be unseen," Piper quickly muttered then held her hand up to her mouth to tell Mike to be quiet. Several men took the canvas off and started unloading the weapons as though Mike and Piper weren't there. Once the truck was unloaded, the men went down a hallway and Piper climbed out to follow them.
"Why didn't they see us?" Mike asked following her.
"The spell," Piper answered. "Makes it so they don't know we're here. Makes it easier to follow them. We're essentially invisible."
"Oh," Mike said. "Cool. Now what? We just follow them to see what they're doing?"
"Pretty much," Piper said. "The amount of evil the crystal picked up on the map was intense. More than I've ever seen so we have to figure out why and see if it's got something to do with the Devil."
"And with all these German soldiers crawling around, we're supposed to do what if we find him?" Mike asked nervously noting just how many there were.
"I don't really know that part yet," Piper said. "But we'll figure that out when we get to that bridge."
"Deal," Mike said as he followed her to the hallway. The soldiers all walked into a room at the end of the hallway. The door closed behind them, so they couldn't really see what was going on in there, but they both listened closely through the wall. Not that it did them much good: everyone was speaking German.
"There might be a spell…" Piper started before they were knocked off their feet by a nearby explosion. It felt like it was coming from the surface; the city was still being bombed. Mike suddenly thought about Davy, Peter and Micky and was terrified that leaving them behind was a bad idea. If the force of the explosion was enough to knock Mike and Piper off their feet down here, what would that do to Micky, Peter and Davy. What if the house collapsed or caught fire? And he wouldn't be there to help them.
"Micky," Mike said forcing himself to his feet. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach about all this, but Piper reached out and stopped him.
"We have to do this," Piper said. "He's fine. I promise. I can feel it. We have to finish." Mike tought about arguing a little, but before he could say anything, they heard loud blood-curdling screams coming from the room.