Chapter 3

As they flew above the city they saw what was left of it. It was a ruined city. All dark and no lights. Most of the buildings were destroyed. Some stood but barley. The bright lights shinned on and off again as they passed their way out of the city. Another bright light shinned on them from underneath. From above it looked like an encampment. There were several large tents outside of a large metal building. The entire area was surrounded by a large concrete wall with more and more bright lights shining in all directions. Around the edges of the wall you could see more of the little dark creatures as some tried to scale the wall but were utterly destroyed by the white hot lights. As they flew over the wall they received a lot of attention. People started to run out of their tents and the big building. As they got closer to the ground they noticed that their greeters were not in the best of moods. They seemed very hesitant as the bus landed. Some were armed with rifles and sharpen sticks.

Samantha stared at the people and turned around to face the others. Without saying a word they already knew what the others were thinking. Except for Nyssia. No one in their right mind could ever figure out what she was thinking, not even herself. She just stared blankly at the people through the window. And in an instant she got her smile again. In a flash she grabbed her bus cap and ran for the doors. As soon as she opened the doors they could hear the crowd loud and clear. Nyssia stepped forward before anyone could react. "People of Earth! I bring you great tidings!" Her speech was cut short as Io came from behind and grabbed her and tossed her back inside the bus. With a quick apology, Io turned back inside and slammed the bus doors shut. This was something none of them had planned on happening but weren't entirely surprised. The crowd didn't seemed pleased at all in fact some of them looked even more mad and confused than before. It was still night time and the lights had started to move towards the bus. Some of the soldiers had made their way through the crowd only to be blocked by a sea of confused people. When they finally got their way to the bus they started to push some of the people back away from the bus.

An official looking man stepped out of the crowd. He was wearing a military uniform with some stripes and fancy medals on it. He walked up to the bus and with a cane he tapped on the door. "Pardon me. If you would be so kindly to step out of the craft at once and form a single file line, we will not have any trouble. Does that sound like a reasonable course of action or do you have any issues with the said proposal?" There was a bit of silence from the bus. They really didn't know what to make of it.

"He sounds kind of pompous." Io commented. "He sounds like my father." Jane added. "I think he's an asshole." Ellipsis said. "I think I want to shoot him." Nyssia said as she pulled out her pistol. Immediately Io grabbed the gun from her. "No! Shooting is out of the question. Besides. We're out numbered."

"Is that really what's wrong with this picture? We are not going to shoot someone because we're out numbered? How about it's not the right thing to do?" Jane said as she placed her hand on her head. "I think we have to accept his proposal. No matter what. We don't have an advantage here. This situation is unfavorable." Samantha said as she stood up and looked at the angry crowd now being blocked off my solider and wooden structures. The man was still standing outside of the bus waiting for a response. Samantha walked over to the window and opened it slightly. "The terms and conditions seem reasonable. Do you promise us, that we will not be afflicted or injured in anyway shape or form?"

The man seemed a bit stunned at the response or maybe that it came from the window instead of the door. But he smiled politely and nod his head. And with that the doors to the bus opened up and they started to walk out. Samantha came out first with her hands clearly in the air, followed by Jane who did the same. Io came out but didn't bother with her hands in the air very much. At one point she thought she heard some rude comment from the crowd and casually displayed her middle finger. After Io came Nyssia who decided to jump the stairs of the bus and land in the mud. With a quick dust off she joined the others. Ellipsis was the last one to get off the bus. She was still wearing her sunglasses and with a grunt she tossed her cigarette on the ground and put it out with the tip of her boot and sluggishly walked over to the others who were not being padded down. The things that are left in their pockets were minor things. Some paper clips. A hairband. Unfortunately for the rest of the group when the guard reached Io he found a pair of brass knuckles in her pocket. To make the situation even more uneasy for their hosts, inside Nyssia's pockets they stumbled upon a few knives, a grenade. A box of matches. Some bottle caps. And a small handgun with ammo. These items raised a few red flags and they were escorted off to the large building in handcuffs. They didn't bother checking Ellipsis. They already had enough surprises for one day.

The crowd was left in astonishment as the new visitors were taken away in handcuffs to the large building. The bus was left guarded by a few men. It didn't matter because the attention of the crowd was turned away.

Inside the large building was several rooms. Some with prison cells housing creatures of a nightmarish nature while others seemed nice and well kept. In the front of the building the room looked more like a hanger. There were steel beams that shot up and over while the ground was also metal and damp. The group was lead to the center of the hanger and were told to stand side by side. A doctor and a few armed men entered from the door at the end.

"Hello. My name is Doctor Steiner and I will be performing a physical on all of you, just to make sure you are all clean and healthy individuals." Dr. Steiner said as he pulled out a medical clipboard and a pen. Everyone seemed a bit nervous about this sudden news, especially Ellipsis who hasn't had a heart beat in the past five thousand years. Nyssia however seemed eager and jolly. She was so energetic she leaped in the air and swung her arms, which were handcuffed behind her back, under her legs. This alerted everyone in the room but the tension eased up a bit when she spoke. "Oh! Oh! Me! Me! I want to go first!" She said as she waved her handcuffed hands in the air while jumping up and down.

Doctor Steiner paused for a moment and reflected. This obviously was something he did not expect but couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. "Ah," he said. "It is always a pleasure so see someone so excited about getting their physical. Tell me, is this your first one?" Nyssia paused and gave the doctor the thousand yard stare and then she blurted out, "Nope!" Everyone else though seemed a bit apprehensive. Doctor Steiner did a quick examination on Nyssia. She stuck her tongue out, he checked her pulse and quickly moved on. "Well you seem healthy. Maybe cut down on the sugar and you'll be better." "Well fuck that in pig's apple!" Nyssia said with a smile. Doctor Steiner did the same tests on the others and told them they were perfectly healthy and well fit. When he got to Ellipsis he made some quick notes and started his examination. He didn't seem to react in any differently than the others. He made a few more notes and walked away without saying anything. The others stared at Ellipsis, who was doing nothing more than glaring at the doctor as he walked over to the guards.

The back door slammed shut. The loud bang of the door smashing into the ground made everyone jump. The lights flickered off and changed to a bright red. More guards appeared with rifles armed at the group, more so on Ellipsis than the others. "Step away from the Umbralite!" shouted one of the guards.

"Umbra whosafa?" Nyssia said to herself. Suddenly a canister was arched overhead and in the middle of the group spraying gas everything. Samantha and Jane cried out in pain as the gas reached their faces. Io crouched down and started to cough. Nyssia dodged out of the way but was later caught in the gas cloud as she tried to run over and play with the canister. Ellipsis froze. The gas wasn't affecting her in anyway but everyone else around her was coughing and tearing up. She immediately found the canister and threw it back at the guards. This did nothing as they were prepared. In a fast motion, Ellipsis was tackled from behind and from the side. She was then tied up like a pig and dragged out of the room. The others were left behind as other guards came from another door and took them away as well.

By the time their eyes cleared up and they stopped coughing, they all found themselves sitting in a small room alone. There was a large mirror in front of them. They were sitting on a chair in front of a table. Their arms and feet were tied to the chair. A single light hung above the table. It wasn't much for lighting but it did a wonderful job lighting up the room. They spent some time alone in their individual rooms before a man in a white lab coat entered.

In the first room sat Samantha. As her vision slowly returned to her and upon realizing her situation she panicked. Twisting her wrists back and forth trying to break out. It wasn't long before she tried to hop with the chair but the chair didn't budge. The man then entered and sat down. Her heart was racing now as she slumped in her chair. Her glasses were removed and though her eyes no longer burned it was still a blurry scene. The man pulled out a clipboard and a pen. "Name?" was all he said. He said it in a very emotionless way without even looking at her. "Samantha Lorn."

"Age?"

"26."

"Height?"

"Uhh…not sure." The man grunt at her response.

"Have long have you been in contact with the Umbralite?" Samantha paused for a moment and squinted her eyebrows at the man. "The what?"

The man gave another grunt along with a sigh. He stopped his writing and finally looked up at Samantha. He looked very tired as if he hadn't had any sleep in some time. He looked at her with silence.

"The Umbralite. The undead person you were with. The one with the blue hair."

"Ellipsis?"

"Names are meaningless when it comes to the undead. They are trash only to be thrown out. Now have you been bitten or come in contact with their bodily fluids?"

"No." Her tone quickly turned cold and emotionless as his.

The man looked down again and stared to write some more.

"Now where are you from?"

"The nineteen hundreds." She said with a grin. The man immediately paused. With a tilt of his head he put his pen down, gathered his things, got up and left the room.

In the second room sat Jane who at this point stood perfectly still. Fear crept up her spine as the door opened up and a strange man in a lab coat walked in. He asked her a few basic question about her name, age, height but when it came to 'where are you from?' question her response was, "Well I don't know. We travelled through time as we were driving away from a bunch of angry brutes from a diner." It was at this point the man simple did not only stopped writing but gave a very heavy sigh. This was clearly not his day. He got up and left in one fast pace motion as if he had business elsewhere.

In the third room Io had already ripped one of the straps loose and got her hand through and was chewing at the other. The door opened up and gazed at her. She took one look at the man and said, "Fuck off you bald headed prick." He didn't bother with her and just shut the door and went on to the last door from which he could hear someone humming a tune.

Inside he saw a red headed girl. She was wearing a blue bus cap and was swinging back and forth humming a tune. "Hi there doc!" she said cheerfully. The man paused for a moment and decided to sit down and pull out his clip board and pen.

"Name?" he said.

"Which one?"

The man paused. He put his pen down and looked up at her. She had a creepy smile on her face that gave the man shivers down his spine though he didn't show it. "First name."

"Nyssia Tannin"

"That's two names."

"Yeah well that's your problem."

The man grunted once again and proceed to write. Nyssia started to hum her tune again and started to rock back and forth in her chair.

"Would you please stop that? I'm trying to write."

"Nope!" she said as she continued to hum her tune. The man stopped his writing and glared at Nyssia. He stared at her for some time until she noticed him. She glared back at him, leaned in and spat in his face. "Twenty points! Woohoo!" The man clutched his fists. He stood up and swatted his clipboard across the desk. He let out a loud scream that attracted the attention of the guards from the hallway who rushed in only to be pushed aside by the man in the white lab coat. This was clearly not his day. Nyssia went back to humming her tune and rocking back and forth in the chair.

It was some time before the first door opened again. This time a man in a suit with a nice red tie walked in and sat down. In his hands he had a folder. "Now Miss Lorn as you can see we have your craft in our custody." He said as he flipped through the folder reveling pictures of the bus. "We would just like to know where you come from." Samantha just glared at him, rolled her eyes and said, "I come from the year 1890. I escape in a time machine that I built. While ahead in the future I met Ellipsis, Io, Jane and Nyssia and we decided through a series of events to stick together and do a bit of traveling."

"Traveling…." The man said as he wrote on a piece of paper.

"Look I'm all for bureaucratic procedures and all but where is my friend?"

"Your friend is safe I can assure you that. She is just being contained for the moment."

"Contained?"

"Yes, in the event of an Umbralite entering into our encampment we must take all precautions to prevent the spread of infection." Samantha looked down and shifted her eyes back and forth. Only imagine the somewhere Ellipsis is hanging upside down in a dungeon.

"I'm going to be as forward with you as possible. My colleagues believe I am wasting my time with you. But the truth is we are in a rut of a situation. And you just happen to walk into. You can understand our situation."

Samantha didn't say anything.

"We have received a report that told us the portal to the Umbral Sphere is opening soon. The Shadow's Hand is on the verge of releasing the monsters inside and bringing back their queen. The age of Light is dwindling Samantha. We need to send a small group to retrieve an item for us."

"An item?"

"Yes. We are low on resources as it is. We need someone. We need you and your friends. To go retrieve the item and bring it back to us here."

"What is this item?"

"It is called the Umbral Eye. With it anyone born of light can see into shadow. It will make finding the gateway to the Umbral Sphere easier to find."

"Now tell me, why should we assist you? You kidnapped our friend and you're holding us prisoner?"

"Well it's either you help us or we kill your friend and detonate the explosives under your chair."

Samantha's eye grew wide with fright. She quickly looked down at the chair she was sitting in. Then back up at the man. "As you see. You have no choice in the matter" he gathered his things. "I will leave the folder with the information you will need in your care as you seem to be the most reasonable out of the rest of your friends." And with that he left. Samantha remained in the chair, frighten to move. This was clearly a dilemma. The bus was in their hands. Ellipsis is somewhere being tortured. And who knows what they've done with the rest of her friends.

Meanwhile, in a few doors down from Samantha, Nyssia was rocking back and forth and humming her little tune. With every rock the chair swayed back and forth even more. Suddenly her tune cut short as she fell on her back. There was a cracking sound. Nyssia rolled over to discover she was free from the chair. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small flashing light. She turned the chair over and found a small explosive under it. Her eye lit up with joy as she moved closer to the bomb. In a few short seconds she removed the small bomb from the chair. It wasn't the most sophisticated type of bomb. It was a simple C4 explosive with some wires. Nyssia had that grin on her face again. She glared at the window and at the door. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

In a few short moments, with her mind racing, she grabbed the broken chair and threw it at the window. The window shattered into a thousand tiny shards. They glitter in the light as they fell to the ground. Nyssia hopped through the broken mirror only to discover that the room on the other side was empty. There was only a desk, a chair and a half eaten sandwich. Nyssia walked over and started to eat the sandwich while rummaging through the desk. Nothing of interest was found. She was getting bored pretty fast. Outside the door was a hallway with guards walking back and forth. For some reason they didn't hear the window shatter. Nyssia walked out of the door and into the hallway. There was a row of doors and her interest peeked. She decided to open the first door only to find Io chewing at the straps that tied her down. Io suddenly stopped in amazement.

"How…did you get out?" Io said with astonishment. Nyssia didn't say anything but held up a large glass shard and walked over to Io.

Io froze in fear. The shard shinned in the light. Io could see her face in it. Nyssia walked over to Io, still wearing that grin. With a few slashes Io was free from the chair. Io was stunned. "You little bitch! You scared the crap out of me!" Io said in angry as Nyssia smiled back at her with a childish smile. A small giggle came from her as Io pushed her out of the way and walked out of the door. Nyssia then eyed Io's chair and decided to take a look and found another small explosive. "Now you have a friend. Let's see if we can find you more friends to play with." She said as she pocketed the C4 charge.

Skipping down the hallway a guard laid knocked out on the ground. Nyssia smiled once more and took the guards sidearm along with a few magazines of ammunition. In return she planted one of the C4 charges underneath the guard's body armor. With a skip in her step and a jaunty tune seeping through her lips she danced to the next room where Io was releasing Jane from her chair. She seemed a bit relieved and unaware of the current situation regarding the explosive under her chair. After leaving they finally met up with Samantha in the last room who made a poor attempted at chewing through the straps that held her down.

"No, no, no. Come on Fido. You got to grip it with your teeth and pull with one good yank. Not struggle with it like some kind of mutt." Io said as she watch Samantha struggle with the strap. "I could use a little help here." she said as she spat out the leather strap. Io gave a slight chuckle as she walked over and undid the straps.

"Alright here is the situation we are in." Samantha said as she opened the folder. "We have to find a small item, a stone, a crystal or something and bring it back to these people."

"A fetch quest? What is this some kind of lame videogame?" Io said with a grunt.

"Look they have Ellipsis held somewhere in this facility. If we do this they say they will release her unharmed."

"I don't know. Blu can sure take a few hits."

"That's certainly rude of you don't you think?" Jane spoke up.

"I'm not being rude. Just, why can't we just go and get her. I mean if she's here then we can certainly find her and rescue her. It's not like we haven't done anything like this before."

"Yes but we don't have an armory or a bus with a few explosives." Samantha said.

"Two creates actually." Nyssia commented as she took out the handgun she had stolen and started doing tricks with it.

"We're not getting out of this easily huh." Io said with a heavy sigh.

"It appears we have no other alternative then certain death." Jane said as she started to skim through the folder. The information in the folder went into great detail about the Umbral Eye.

The Umbral Eye is a small pink stone created by several sorcerers who wished to see inside the Umbral Sphere. Upon its creation it took several long days of meditation along with blood from a creature born in the Umbral Sphere. With it the wearing of the Eye could see into the darkness of the Umbral Sphere and see what is inside. Better yet, the Umbral Eye could be used to combat against creatures from the Umbral Sphere that have found their way into our plain of existence.

"Great….More rocks for us to collect." Io said in a sarcastic tone.

In that moment it suddenly occur to the majority of them at that very table where their own 'rock' was. Nyssia on the other hand was still doing tricks with her new 'toy' and loving every moment of it.

"Fuck…." Io whispered under her breath.