7.
Horace was charging forward at a reckless pace. He stumbled as roots ensnared his feet and branches clawed at his arms. Shaemus and his boys along with Jakob and his son were frantically hacking at the brush some fifteen feet behind him. Horace had been impatient with their pace all evening and finally forced his way past. Behind them all trudged Yuri. He watched as Horace cursed with every trip and misstep. He wasn't about to tell the maddened father to slow down.
"What are we doing here, Jakob?" croaked Shaemus in a strained whisper. "We're getting farther and farther away from the village with no clear direction to be found. No tracks, no traces. Nothing to go off of but those damnable thundercracks. And given just how many of those shots we've heard, I'm none too eager to meet whatever fella is making them. We're all gonna end up with metal in our skulls."
"You'll certainly end up with some in your skull if Horace hears you talking all contrary-like and such," snapped the old farmer in response. "A little one is missing. None of us are gonna rest comfy in bed 'til she's safe in her own. We'd be doing the same if it was one of your lads; and I hope to God you'd grant the same effort if it was my Jakob what was missing."
Jakob paused in his slashing a moment to throw his father a contemptuous look. "I wouldn't get lost, Da. I know better than to go wandering about in the dark."
"Knows better because I taught ye as such." said Jakob with a harumph. "And I don't see little Maria as the wandering sort. Quiet type, she is. Always been attached at the hip to her ma; especially when her father's about… No, I don't see her roaming away to pick daisies or the like."
"So if she didn't stray, and there's no trace of her, then what happened? Either she sank into the ground or flew off into the air. She the sort to take to flight then, Jakob?" said Shaemus as he rubbed his hands along his back and took heaving breaths between every few words. Jakobb thought to himself He'd keel over after one day working my field, the toad.
Yuri spoke up behind them. The suddenness of his voice caused the five to startle slightly. "There are things that have lived in these woods that squirm under the ground and snatch those walking above unsuspecting. I once saw a man plunge into the earth like it was water. Was goblins in their tunnels underneath that got him. Got to the hole just in time to see him clawing away as the earth caved down around him."
Colm spoke out despite the fearful silence of the others. "So he… what would be the word? I would say 'drowned' but that's for water. What do you call it if you drown in dirt?"
Yuri ignored him. "I've seen folk snatched away into the air as well. Harpies, vampires, gargoyles, griffons… There are far too many of the bastards that can fly. They love to root out the weakest and the smallest and carry them back to their lair; but not always. The last cow I ever laid eyes on was floating away into the horizon, carried by four very determined gargoyles and screaming worse than I ever heard come from a human."
"What's a cow?" asked Colm, squinting.
"You are, ye great fat git," replied his brother, Ethan.
Sheamus reached out both arms and slapped both on the backs of their heads.
"Our monster went and took the wrong children, I swear to Jesus."
Suddenly Horace spun around and marched back through the thorns and bramble he had already torn through. Shaemus took one look at the fury on his face and raised his hands in defense. He truly thought the man was going to shoot him then and there, so clear and radiating was his rage. Horace stopped inches before Shaemus and let the heavy barrel of the shotgun fall against his shoulder.
"Don't. Don't ever. Don't you goddamned DARE." He was controlled enough to not shout, but loud enough that the quivering leatherworker nearly toppled backwards. "If I ever hear you jest about such matters again I'll toss you to the first man-eater I see. I'd give every limb off my body to trade places with you. You lot can bicker and back-talk all you like, but I won't have you cracking wise about a pain you should be praying to never feel."
Shaemus swallowed and stood himself upright. His eyes wavered from Horace's to the shotgun currently bruising his collarbone. "You've my apology, Horace. I don't mean to make light of that which is hurting you so. Just a father lamenting the foolishness of his boys, ya know?"
"Save your lamenting for when you've actually lost something, Shaemus. And you may very well have cause before this night is…"
Yuri was suddenly beside them. Neither man had heard him move up. "Look ahead. There's someone coming out of the valley."
Horace turned around and Shaemus peeked over his shoulder. They were now very close to the Valley of the Undead; much closer than any man there was comfortable with. The sounds of the gunfire however were coming from the other side of that treacherous valley, so they had little option but to approach. They hadn't seen any biters as of yet, and were all hopeful the herd had migrated far enough away to be avoided. That hope died as they looked ahead.
A lone shape was lumbering through the treeline roughly two hundred feet downhill from them. The moonlight cast upon the valley beyond lit the thing from behind and obscured all details of its visage from the party. It walked with a shambling gait, and its head was hanging loosely forward, swaying side to side with each step. It moved at an agonized pace, and would take a while yet to reach them. Yuri stepped ahead to get a better look, and the others all clustered behind Horace and the fire he carried.
Yuri crouched down and began to creep towards the slowly pacing figure. The others also lowered themselves, though Shaemus and his boys hadn't the capacity to move as low as the rest. As they crept along, Yuri unsheathed the long knife he kept strapped to his boot.
"It still has its clothes. Could mean it's not a biter, or that it's fresh. Raul and his men went missing last winter, so it could be one of them." He let his attention drift for a moment from the figure to the treeline it emerged through. He saw no trace of any others following it. "You all wait here." He moved ahead with a speed and silence that was almost otherworldly for a man of his age. None of the others felt compelled to follow him. A lone biter would prove no threat to a man like Yuri. They all sat in silence watching the shambling figure move inch by inch closer to them, and occasionally one of them would spot a blur of shadow as the old hunter dashed between spots of cover. Finally they saw him emerge, covered in moonlight, from a bush behind the thing. He approached it rapidly with his knife bared for the attack, but then stopped, dead in his tracks, and quickly tucked the knife into his belt. Jakob let out a gasp as they watched the hunter suddenly spring up and take the figure in his arms. He gently lowered it to the ground and began to frantically wave for the others to approach.
They all scrambled forward down the slope towards the two. Yuri was on his knees, cradling the head of the man lying before him. The man was drenched in fresh, glistening blood. Horace was struck with terrible recognition as he drew closer.
Three parties had departed from their home to search for Lucia. One was led by Horace. One was led by the carpenter, Albert. And the last was led by Isaac, chief farmer of the village. It was Isaac that now lay before them, and Isaac alone. He had left with three men and two boys. One of his arms had been mangled and broken to the extent that it hung off him like tattered cloth. His other hand was firmly pressed against his neck, with Yuri's hand supporting it. A chunk of his neck and lower jaw was missing, and blood leaked around and between the strained fingers covering the wound. Shaemus and Jakob held their boys back, to spare them from the horrid sight; but nothing spared them from the wretched sound of his gurgling choked breathing.
Horace knelt and began to dig in his pack for something to bandage the wound, but Yuri stopped him with a grasp on his arm. The hunter shook his head discreetly and Horace ceased his efforts. He leaned down towards Issac and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Isaac, brother, what happened? Where are the others?"
The man clenched his teeth and took in a great, gagging breath. Tears sprang from his eyes and cut through the blood smeared across his face. "F-found Luciiiia," he wheezed. Horace had to stop himself from grabbing the man and shaking him. He only squeezed slightly upon his shoulder.
"S-She was j-j-j-just sitting there… in the v-valley. S-still as a stone. We came up and- " He rolled over and spat up thick chunks of blood and bile. Horace put his hand under his cheek and turned his head back to face him. This man was going to die, there was no denying that; but Horace would be damned if the man would die with secrets. "What happened? Where is she, Isaac? Where are the others?"
"T-there was a woman… sitting with her. Pale as death, she was… We thought she was h-h-human until…" He lurched his head upwards so that he was looking directly at Yuri. He took his hand off of his throat so that he may grab onto Yuri by the arm. The bleeding didn't change; his hand hadn't been doing much good anyway. "Until we saw the stitches on h-h-her… Stitches! It was her, Yuri! It was her!"
Horace looked up to Yuri's face and was shocked at what he found there. Sweat was forming on his brow and his eyes were darting left to right in a clear panic. The fearless old hunter was absolutely terrified.
"She had a w-wolf-beast with her; biggest I've ever see-" He was cut off by another bout of agonized coughing. "Th-they tore into us. It… was… massacre… killed my boy w-with.. her bare hands…"
His eyes had shut, and his head was sinking into the ground a final time. Horace wasn't finished with him yet though. He grabbed Isaac by the shoulders and lurched him upwards, pulling his face close to his own. "And Lucia? What happened to Lucia?!"
Isaac hadn't the strength to open his eyes. He hung limply in Horace's shaking grasp and managed to expel a few final words, barely louder than an escaping breath. "Sh-she never left the woman's side. She was laughing… laughing… while they murdered us all…"
And with that he was gone. Horace released the corpse and collapsed backwards onto the dirt. Jakob and Shaemus and their boys looked back and forth from Horace to Yuri, waiting for one of them to speak up and make sense of the situation. Both men sat in wide-eyed silence, completely frozen in their own personal hells.
Horace has to push the thought of his daughter momentarily from his mind. If he gave any credence or reflection to what Isaac had told him of his little girl his mind would shatter then and there. He reached up and wiped the cold sweat off his brow and struggled to his feet. His legs were jelly and he had to hold out the fire to maintain his balance. Yuri remained on his knees, his eyes fixated on the hole in Isaac's neck.
"What did he mean, Yuri?" Horace struggled to keep his voice down. He wanted to scream at the entire world. "Who is this woman? Why did he look at you when he spoke of her? Who is this woman that has my daughter?!" He never dared point the fire towards Yuri, but he waved it around in the air between them to achieve a similar effect.
The hunter slapped his hands on his knees and pushed himself onto his feet with deliberate effort. As he rose, he turned his body around to face the valley ahead, and to avoid the gaze of the other men.
"Only five of us left now that were born outside the village; and only three of them that actually saw the fighting at the end of things. Jonah, Isaac here, and myself. We were there, ye boys. We were there at Cryptkeeper Cove when the final armies of men were pushed into the sea, surrounded by all the unholy legions of hell. I still remember the skies. Blood red they were, torn open by the beasts beyond the stars. We fought in the shadows of those shapeless Eld-rich things that came down from the holes in the sky. All our tanks and planes and guns were brushed aside like leaves on an autumn day."
He turned back now to face them, and for the very first time in his life Yuri actually looked his age. He was quivering and the color had completely drained from his wrinkled face.
"I was a boy. I lost every single person I'd ever held dear that day. I barely remember their faces now. But I remember the hordes that bore down upon us. There were creatures made of pure shadow. Mountains that moved on great legs of stone. Beasts that were gnashing maws of slime, teeth and slithering tails. Creatures that were so beyond the realm of what should be that other children hiding alongside me clawed out their own eyes after catching a glimpse. And who was leading that charge? Who held command and dominion over all the monsters too foul to even describe? It was a woman."
Without meaning to, both Jakob and Shaemus had placed their hands upon the shoulders of their respective boys. And they were gripping tight.
"She wore a great white cloak, drenched damn near full through with blood. It billowed behind her in flowing waves careening through the air. It looked like the very fires of hell were following her every step. White streaks flowed through her ebony hair just as the legions of spirits that washed over the ground at her beck and call. Her bare arms and the exposed skin of her neck were covered in loops of stitches; like barbed wire embedded in her flesh. She carried no weapon. Hundreds of lives she herself claimed that day, and she did it all with her own hands.
He stepped forward and grabbed the shotgun Horace had in his trembling hands. There was no effort to take the weapon, only to emphasize it.
"If Isaac was right, and that thing in female shape is here, don't bother using your gun on it. Rather, thank God that it carries two shots: One for your daughter, and one for yourself."