Chapter 10: The Torch

I ain't afraid of the dark. And it's not like we're totally blind without the torches. I can still see Guy and Bressac, and I can just make out Blondie and the Hellion further back in the gloom. But there's no good reason our torches shoulda gone out like that, and that's what scares me.

"The fuck did you do?!" I yell at them.

"The fuck did you do?!" yells back the Hellion.

Before I can reply, we suddenly hear laughing, echoing out of the dark. A woman's laughter, I'd guess, but it's hard to tell cause the laughter sounds all wrong. Hollow, almost. Like it's comin' out of a well, or echoing in a big empty room. And somehow it's both a whisper and a shout at once. It's all around us, so as I can't tell whether it's one woman speaking or many.

"Do you like it?" comes the voice, or voices. "Do you like what you see?"

"Don't see shit," Guy shouts, unfazed. I grin, and Bressac laughs nervously. From the darkness I hear the Hellion laugh too, but without the nervousness.

"Yes," the voice sighs back. "But you will…"

There's a sudden hiss, and a squelch of mud. I hear Blondie cry out, then a whirring that must've been her throwing the knife and missing. I don't know what's going on, and I still got no idea what doused the torches, but there's no time to worry about that right now.

"Guy, get the flint!" I holler. "Light my torch back up! Quick!"

He doesn't say anything, but I hear him fumbling for it. All I can make out right now is sound. There's more hissing, and feet stompin' in the mud, and a thudding and moaning from somewhere in the dark. There's laughing, that awful laughter. And, right on cue…

"Kreeeee-YAWP."

The Hellion's hate-cry echoes through the air, and I hear something inhuman cry back as her voice hits them. There's a flash and a loud bang as Bressac fires blindly toward the sound, then I hear scraping and a stream of panicked cursing as he tries to reload in the dark.

"No light," comes the phantom voice again. "No air. No hope…"

"Guy!" I scream, frantic. "Hurry the fuck up!"

I see a spark as he struggles with the flint, then my torch flares back to life, and in the sudden brightness, I realize one of them's right there.

It lunges for me.

I'd've been done for if it weren't for Guy. Before I can even shout, he's drawn his pistol and pointblanked the thing, blowing a hole clean through its chest. I don't waste time, but slash in across the stomach before it can get its bearings, and belt it with the lit torch for good measure. It falls to its knees, and Guy finishes it off by smashing it with the butt of his gun. In the moment I have to look at the body before I have to get back to the fight, I finally get a chance to process what it is we just killed.

It used to be human. But now, the bloated body is overgrown with the yellow fungus blight that's rotted this swamp, and half the Weald with it. Growin' in shelves along the arms and spine. Fungal tumors all over the arms'n'legs. A clump of slimy caps comin' outta where the head used to be, and hands twisted into claws, with the skin drawn back from sharpened bones. Shoulda known it'd be these bastards. The groaning and hissing makes sense now.

What don't make sense, and I got no time to wonder at right now, is where the voice came from, or what it was put out our lights.

The torch ain't as bright as it was before, but I can still see a bunch of 'em coming outta the dark. They must've been hiding on the island; how the hell did we miss it? Aside from the one we just killed, there's another four I can make out, lurching forward from the darkness outside of the torch's light. One of them's already fighting the Hellion, and looks badly hurt – but she's driven it back so far the others can probably cut her off from Blondie if they're smart. And I'm willing to bet there's more coming up on us.

Guy wades right in with his scourge, lashing at two of them as they try to get around the Hellion. Smart move – fight like this, the five of us either work together or we're meat. We can get back to the standoff when we're done – besides, maybe we get lucky and the women'll get hurt enough we can just finish them off and search the bodies. I hear another crack as Bressac fires again, but I don't have time to see who he's trying to shoot at. I see one whose back is turned, and I run in.

The creature is fighting with Blondie. She's got her mining pick back out, but that ain't a proper weapon for a fight like this: fungal's driving her backwards. Even with no head and its back turned, though, the freak can still see enough to notice the light of the torch as I run in: it whirls to face me, narrowly batting aside my thrust with a swing of its claw. But that exposes its back to Blondie, and she swings the pick down and catches it in the right shoulder. I stamp down hard on its right foot, and as Blondie pulls her pick free, I push my knife in under the left armpit. It falls dying to the mud, and I quickly step back so Blondie can't deck me while I'm distracted. She does the same.

We look warily at one another for a moment. Fungal got in at least one good hit on her; Blondie's bleeding from a long slash along her ribs, and breathing shallowly. But she don't look hurt bad enough I could finish her off without putting myself in danger. Besides: right now, we need one another to stay alive – though I ain't showing her my back neither.

"Desperate times?" I suggest.

"Desperate times," she agrees after a moment, and we quickly look around for anyone else might be coming for us.

There are two more fungals being battered in by Guy and the Hellion, who look to have made a similar truce. There's another one lying dead at their feet, although I can see at least one more coming up on them from the shadows. Bressac's running over toward us, probably so we can give him some cover.

"Don't fuckin' shoot her," I holler at him. "She's –"

I'm interrupted by a sudden wave of gas that washes over Blondie and me. I breathe in before I can stop myself, and immediately regret it: I instantly start coughing and gagging, and my eyes burn like there's hot coals in 'em. It takes every bit of self-control I got not to try and bring my arm up to my face – with a torch in one hand and a naked blade in the other, I'd have burned or stabbed myself for sure.

We stagger around until we're free of the poison cloud, wheezing and retching. I hear Blondie puke, but I manage not to. I force my watering eyes open and look around, and manage to pick out Bressac come up close to us. Glad he's on our side – he was one of the fungals, we'd be done.

"The hell did that come from?!" I yell at him.

"Island!" he shouts back. "One of the mushroom men!"

There's another bang as he fires at whatever just gassed us. I sheathe my knife and use my free hand to wipe my eyes so I can see a bit better, then draw steel again as I take a quick glance. Like Bressac said, it's one of the fungals, though a different kind than the others: this one's standing on all fours with the joints bent the wrong way, and the stomach blown out and fulla slimy toadstools. As I watch, it scuttles backward, likely tryin' to get out of range of the torchlight.

"Blondie!" I call. "You got throwing knives! Use 'em!"

"I've run out!" she yells back, looking less confident now there's two of us and one of her.

"Fuck!"

"Just charge the bastard!" shouts Bressac. "Kill it before it gasses us again!"

"Right," I call back. "Ready, Blondie?"

She takes a sec to wipe the puke off her face, then nods.

"Let's do this."