They don't how long they'd been running, hours probably. It was if the tunnels were changing, trying to deceive them. When it seemed they were on a familiar path it would end abruptly or loop around back the way they came. They had paused at well hidden dead end to catch their breathe.
"North. What do we do now?" Bunny asked desperately.
The elder guardian looked at his friends. They were exhausted, injured, desolate and had fallen in numbers. The old spirit shook his head. "I don't know?"
Jack looked frightened and angry at the same time. "But what about Elsie?"
"I don't know."
"We have to save her, where did Morticia send her?"
"I don't know."
"Then what do we do now?"
"I DON'T KNOW JACK!" North shouted and regretted it the moment after as Jack took a frightened step back with a dejected look plastered on his face. "I'm sorry Jack." He said gently. "I don't like admitting it, but I'm afraid."
"Speaking of fear," Patrick piped up. "but where's Pitch?"
They looked around and realized that indeed Pitch was gone.
"Well isn't that great, while we were running for our lives he slunk away into the shadows and made his escape." Smith ranted angrily.
North shook his head. "We don't know that, we could have been separated in the tunnels."
Bunny face palmed. "Open your eyes North. It's just like he said, he took the first opportunity he found and took off."
"I don't believe that. Pitch had many opportunities to escape but he didn't. He 's committed to this cause just as much as us."
"Then where is he?" Smith asked in anger.
North remained silent, not wanting to say those dreaded words again.
"And poor Elsie." Tooth said. "She could be anywhere. Oh we just have to find her!"
"I think we need to worry about ourselves right now." Cupid panted.
Mother Nature nodded. "He's right. Before we can do anything for her we have to find our own way out." At that very moment the cacophonous sound of rattling bones echoed through the tunnels. "Come on. We've stayed here to long, they've caught our scent."
The group darted from their temporary sanctuary and made a mad dash. They darted left and right going through as many twists and turns trying to shake the sound that was always just out of sight behind them. They grew tired, their legs grew weak and their faces grew red with exhaustion. And then they heard it. The sound of rushing water coupled with the smell of swamp gas that none of them ever thought they'd miss. Just ahead of them was a bright light shining like the gates of Shangri La. They ran faster, their spirits raising as the sound of rushing water got closer. And then they were out. And then they were horrified.
An enormous chasm where three waterfalls of murky swamp water, dead plants and bits of claws, legs, heads and the organs of animals poured like thunder down the great cavern from the open hole above that portrayed the clear sky and the light of day. Bellow, the falls poured into a huge basin of resign, water and mud swirling and mixing forming a giant vat of sludge. From the vat grew seven giant bulbs on stalks, they almost resembled vielded stinkhorn mushrooms with a large translucent membrane that stretched like an umbrella from the bulb of the stalk down to the basin of sludge. Inside each structure were millions of things. Tiny things only about the size of softballs, all moving independently. Tiny grey green sacks with hanging tendrils that wriggled and writhed. They floated around in large circles, moving down to the basin, a tendril extending and slurping up it's fill of sludge before moving upwards, making room for others. The little things somehow reminded the group of a hive of bees, all buzzing around seemingly aimless, but never running into one and another or the ceiling membrane. They would come within an inch, then as if pulled by some invisible force, would turn on a dime in the opposite direction.
"I'm so glad you could all make it here on time."
They all looked up to see Morticia standing on a high platform on the other side of the chasm.
"I'd like to thank you all for joining me here. It's nice to have an audience to witness the birth of my new world order."
The group turned around and made to retreat but their path was blocked by necromorphs, so many that they clogged the very sight through the tunnel.
"Leaving so soon? Now don't be rude. It's not everyday that one gets to witness the end of their world."
They stared down back at the stalks.
"Do you like them? Their my most prized creation, they're whats going to bring in the new world. A world of death and decay. Allow me to demonstrate." She snapped her fingers.
A tall figure appeared at the top of the chasm holding something moving over it's head. Another of the humanoid monsters, holding a live and thrashing alligator. It threw the alligator with all it's might down the falls.
With a hard smack the alligator landed in the sludge and sank. It reappeared a moment later under the clear membrane of one of the stalks, stunned though by the landing. One of the tiny things landed on the alligator's back, it's longest tendril stabbing suddenly into the reptile's spine. The gator roared in pain and thrashed, but could not shake the tiny thing off. Suddenly it was as if someone had kicked a wasp's nest. The entire flock of things began flying around rapidly, aggressively. More of the creatures began landing on the large lizard and injecting the thin needle hidden within their tendrils into the thick hide. The alligator began writhing and arching in unnatural angles, it's limbs twisting and bending, it's bones snapping and puncturing through it's skin. the tiny sacks of flesh began merging with the alligator's skin, sewing themselves into it and each other. Soon no part of the original animal was seen. What was left was a creature similar to the humanoid monsters made of the same disgusting rotting fleshy substance of bio mass.
Bunny couldn't help himself and became sick, he emptied what little his stomach contained over into the chasm.
"Do you like them then? I call them infectious forms, and when the eclipse is at it's peak I'll set them loose. They'll infect every creature in the swamp and they in turn will infect every living thing they come across. Soon everything everywhere will be dead and decaying. The day of black sun will mark the beginning of the end." She laughed a horrid evil laugh that was echoed through the hundreds of necromorph cries and bellows.
"Morticia?" Nature called out helplessly. "Why? We're your friends. Why all of this?"
"Why?" Morticia parroted back and tilted her head as if confused by the question. "Because I can, because it's fun." She looked up. "It's starting."
Looking up they saw the sun, at the very edge of the bright disk a line of darkness was making it's way slowly forward.
Meanwhile
Elsie stumbled forward one hand trying to protect her face from the snow and wind while the other was holding the wound in her side as she tried making her way through the ice storm, calling out Chirin's name. She tripped over her numbing leg and tumbled down the hill through the freezing snow. She came to a stop at the bottom and after a moment gazed up, in the distance she saw the dark form of Chirin lying still in the snow.
"Chirin!" She shouted and began crawling over to him, each and every movement causing burning pain to shoot through her abdomen. She called out again and Chirin raised his head.
He spotted her and attempted to stand, with a roar of pain his injured leg buckled beneath him and he toppled to the ground.
Elsie cried out again and finally made it over. The large gash in his leg was bleeding still but the edges had frozen over limiting the flow of blood. The fur around the wound, which was soaked in blood, had frozen solid, making the leg next to useless, while the rest of his dark coat was quickly being buried by the snow.
Chirin gave a small snort and laid his head in his master's lap, as if to almost laugh at their situation.
At the sight of her oldest and dearest friend in such a state she began sobbing, the hot tears quickly freezing to her face and eyelashes. She couldn't even form a small shelter to protect them, there were no shadows. She wasn't even sure if she had the strength to. She had been wandering through the valley of snow that carried the light of the bright sun for hours.
Elsie buried her face into her freezing fur. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. If it wasn't for me neither of us would be here." Chirin made a snuffling sound and tried to comfort her with a nuzzle. She moved to brush the snow and ice from his coat with her arm, and winced as the pain in her stomach increased. She cried out suddenly the pain becoming unbearable. Chirin nudged her harder, she turned over leaning against his rib cage. They snuggled close together trying desperately to keep the other warm.
As the sun rose higher the storm let up, all be it slightly. Elsie continued trying to keep the snow from collecting over them both and she tried not to notice how the pain in her abdomen had spreed to most of her chest, or if Chirin was in the same kind of pain. All she cared about at the moment was staying alive, as long as they could.
She didn't know when she had noticed the change in her vision, but when she had the blurry sight was accompanied with a floating light headedness and a numbness in her limbs and that she couldn't catch her breath and panted as if she'd ran a marathon. It was also when she noticed just how red the snow around them had gotten. She didn't know how much of it belonged to either of them, but from just how slushy the snow had gotten with blood she knew that they were both in the last few hours.
Now neither could stay warm, no matter how close they were, and Elsie began seeing things in the blowing wind. She saw Jingle heaving around a pair of slippers, then Jack and Tooth taking a leisurely walk through a spring garden, Lucy telling her everything was fine and was going to be okay, her birth parents and siblings standing and smiling, calling to her, telling her to follow them as the snow around her was burning in great flames.
Elsie inhaled sharply as her eyes snapped open with some difficulty do to the ice that had formed on them. Chirin was whinning and kicking her legs.
"Ch-Chir-Chirin?"
He motioned with his head. There was a voice on the wind, calling to her. She listened and heard it again but closer.
"H-he-here!" She tried calling out, the wind swallowed her words.
Chirin attempted to roar but he was to weak to make much of noise.
The voice came again, but fainter.
Elsie mustered all her strength and shouted. "Here!"
She wheezed, her lungs desperate to reclaim the air she had given but could not catch her breath and gasped desperately for what little oxygen there was in the thin air. The effort to shout had exhausted her completely and her vision became exceptionally blurry. But from what she could tell a tall dark figure was approaching fast from the distance. Chirin gave her a good kick trying to keep her conscious.
The figure was kneeling by her side now. It took her a moment to recognize the face through her disorientation. "Pitch." She spoke weakly barely above a whisper. He looked worried, no more than worried frightened.
Pitch was kneeling at Elsie's side, examining them both. Chirin was shivering, iced over and bleeding a little, but he was awake and alert, moving his head around. He had a case of hypothermia and minor blood loss but he wasn't doing to bad considering the circumstances. Elsie was his real concern, she was so pale, her lips and hands were blue. What worried him even more was that she wasn't shivering, she was just lying there in the frozen over bloodied snow. He would've thought she was dead if she hadn't called out moments before.
"Elsie, don't worry I'm going to get you out of here."
Her eyes were unfocused, she'd lost far to much blood.
"Elsie I'm going to take a look at your wound okay?"
She didn't seem to understand what he said, but after a moment nodded.
Pitch gingerly lifted the hem of her shirt up just enough to examine her wound. It was like a cold hand suddenly gripped his heart. The skin around the entry wound was pure white, streaked with dried and frozen blood. But the black tainted veins making their way through her skin and body in all directions was by far the worst. Morticia's scythe had been poisoned. And now that poison had spread through most of Elsie's torso, worsening her already dire condition. He looked to Chirin, he had been cut by the same blade but wasn't nearly as ill. No the cut was made in his leg which he seemed to be keeping still, so the poison hadn't traveled to far in him, where as Elsie had been hit close to her vital organs. He re-covered the wound. She looked almost asleep now.
"Elsie." He shook her gently and she came too. He had to get her out of here. He could carry her back to the shadowed overhang he'd emerged from and get her to safety. He made to pick her up but she weakly attempted to push him away.
"Wait...Pitch...Save Chirin first."
Pitch looked at the ram who snorted in protest. Chirin couldn't walk with his leg injured so badly and there was no way he could carry him.
"Please Pitch...I can't leave him again...He won't come back this time."
Pitch was torn between wanting desperately to save her or doing what very well could be her last wish. He didn't have an antidote for the poison, he didn't even know what kind of poison it was. Even if he did get her out of the cold what were actual chances of surviving. But Chirin was strong and his wounds weren't as bad, he might survive. His thoughts were interrupted by a sound, or the lack there of. There was no gasping or wheezing for breathe. The puffs of white air from Elsie had ceased. She'd stopped breathing.
"NO NO NO ELSIE!" He shook her gently then with more force.
Chirin whinnied and kicked her legs. No reaction.
A wave of shadow suddenly caught Pitch's attention in the distance, he looked up.
The moon was beginning it's eclipse of the sun.
"Tzar I don't know what to do, help her!"
The moon remained silent and continued it's trek.
"For gods sake help her! You have to do something!"
The moon offered nothing.
"You have to do something! Your the one who dragged her into this! This is your fault now help her!"
The moon was halfway across the sun.
Pitch glared hatefully at his brother. "Fine you've always turned your back on others, why should today be any different. But I won't let her die." He turned back to Elsie and checked for a pulse. Nothing from her wrist, but on her neck he felt a faint thumping. He had seen the medics back in the war administer first aid CPR and mimicked what he remembered.
After the twelfth try and fail he glared upwards with loathing, and shook his head in disgust. "Why must you take everything, why can't you leave me with something, one simple thing? No you take and you take until there's nothing left, nothing but darkness."
The shadows now covered everything as the moon now fully eclipsed the sun. The edged of the bright disk suddenly brightened, there was a resounding sonic boom followed by a bright flash that momentarily blinded Pitch. When his vision cleared he was shocked. He kneeled alone by an empty crater of half melted red snow.