Starting Fires

Etrius's body was gone, Lloyd's body was gone, the orb was still empty, and the Evils were bound to wake up sometime soon. This was not going well.

The team sat in disappointed silence, waiting for what was next. Unfortunately, no one knew what to do next. Titan, Bullock, and Romanov sat about with no clue what was next.

"We're just wasting time, now," Titan stated. "We need to do something. Anything."

"Doctor Romanov," Bullock sighed, "did those books of yours tell anything else about the Castles?"

"Not really," the doc replied. "They just told the history of the places, a bestiary, and some vague warnings. There was nothing on what happened if the orb was used or bringing the dead back to life. For all we know, the freaks just up and grabbed Etrius and Lloyd for some munchies."

"Why are none of the other bodies touched, then?" Bullock pointed out.

Romanov could have spat out something sarcastic but felt it was inappropriate for the situation at hand.

I gazed over my shoulder as the three of them discussed our current dilemma before turning back to the people gathered around the fire. There were many looks of boredom and disappointment scattered about as whispered chats worked their way through the group.

"Well, no one knows what to do," Blackjack broke the silence around our fire. "Do we hightail it out of here or do we explore at our own peril?"

"Both of those sound ridiculously stupid," Stun groaned, using Brody's lap as a pillow.

"Well excuse me, princess," Blackjack shot back, "but those are our only options."

Stun pouted and turned to stare up at the ceiling.

"There's gotta be something we can do," I said, taking out my PPSh to clean it. "Williams and Mullins were talking about hearing a voice that wanted to be taken to our world. Maybe we might hear it. Maybe it might give some instructions."

"Isn't that the mind worm that almost turned Mullins into... one of those?" Haven asked, pointing to the bodies in the darkness.

I shrugged and turned back to my gun.

The silence ruled us again for a while as the night grew colder. I began to shiver a bit as I set my firearm with the rest of my equipment. Everybody else seemed to feel the chill in the air, and the circle grew tighter around the fire to glean any last bit of warmth from it.

"I'm cold," Haven proclaimed, edging closer to me until she was close enough to rest her head on my shoulder.

"Me too," Lucky mumbled, cuddling up on my other flank.

"You stud," Brody chuckled, curled up in a ball on his own.

"Oh, just because you get less action than a white crayon," I riposted, pulling out my sleeping roll.

Our jests were interrupted by a rumbling jolting through the tower. Everybody froze and looked up at the darkened ceiling as dust began to fall. Then the voice came, a slow, grating, dark, emerging from the unintelligible rumbling.

"More coal to stoke the flames of unending hunger?"

Guns were raised and panicked whispers bolted throughout the team. I didn't bother to raise my weapon; on some level, I knew it was useless.

"I will break you. Then, whoever is left shall take me to your world. You humans need me, but first, I need you. I wait for you at the bottom of the abyss."

"Who are you?" I called into the darkness above. "What do you want with us?"

"What I want, Headsman, is to be taken to your world. In your current state, none of you would bring me willingly, so I will have to push you to your limits and, for some, beyond. When you are broken, you will wish for nothing else but to bring me to your home to end your suffering."

"Come at us!" shouted Mason, a Pyromancer. "We can take a little suffering. We're the best of the best and we're here to kick your ass!"

"You fool! Do not tempt me or you shall find what it is you seek. I shall show you what I am capable of and what you can sink to. It takes no time for you mortals to fall from grace."

"Fuck you and fuck this Castle!" Mason spat back up into the darkness.

"Yeah, fuck you!" Tower, an Aeromancer agreed.

"So be it," the voice said in a resigned tone. The rumbling faded, leaving everyone in a stunned silence.

"Arse!" Titan grunted, looking over at Mason. "Never make a supernatural force angry."

"Bad shit's gonna happen," Bullock sighed.

No matter how shaken we all were, it had been a long, stressful day and sleep came easily. I remained huddled with Lucky and Haven as I drifted off, seeing the familiar figure of the Sentinel emerging from the burning lines.

***

"What just happened?" I asked the robed figure in my mind.

"I don't know," he replied. "This is not my domain, not my responsibility. Quite frankly, I don't care. All I could glean from that is that something bad is bound to happen."

"What do you make of the situation, then?" I went on, finding myself growing unnaturally accustomed to his presence in my head.

"That voice wants you to take him to Atlantis in some way, shape, or form," came the response. "However, he seems to figure that you people see him as a sinister puppet master for the Evils and would probably just take over Atlantis without a second thought, even if it's not actually his intention. So, to coerce you into doing as he says, he wants to break those who can take the suffering and kill those who can't."

I stood, pondering this for a moment.

***

My dream was quite rudely interrupted by a loud, bloodcurdling scream. I was pulled from inside my head into the rest of my body, clumsily rolling over, reaching for the Zippo lighter in my pile of equipment. Lighters flicked on and flashlights cut through the dark, searching for the source of the noise. The scream was cut short by a loud ripping noise and became a gurgling. A flashlight beam centered on the horrifying image, eliciting several shouts of surprise.

The body of Tower lay limp on the ground with the skin of his throat torn off, exposing his damaged windpipe and esophagus, spraying blood all over. Hunched over him, with a wild look in his eyes and a hunk of flesh in his mouth was Mason. He dropped the meat in his mouth, let out a wild howl, and plunged his face into the open cavity in the Aeromancer's neck.

Everyone was up and moving, arming ourselves and moving up towards the crazed man and his prey. Titan worked his way through the crowd, a Colt M1911 pistol in his hands.

"Mason, stop what you're doing!" the Commander yelled, drawing ever closer to the poor bastard.

Mason looked up, his face covered in blood and gore, still chewing on God knows what before opening his mouth to let out a screaming hiss of defiance, letting the wad of half-chewed meat fall out of his mouth, falling to the floor with an unnatural splat.

"Beans to bollocks, man, I don't want to have to put you down," Titan went on, pulling back the slide to chamber a round.

The animal that was once Mason realized what was going on and stood up, tearing apart his red tunic, exposing his muscled chest, then smeared it with blood to show his dominance.

"By fuck, mate," Titan groaned, raising the pistol to eye level to aim down the sighs.

Mason added to the red on his torso by scratching his chest until he bled, spreading his own blood over Tower's and screaming to the ceiling right before he pounced.

Titan had a clear headshot and he took it, pulling the trigger and filling the chamber with the sharp bark of the .45. Mason flew through the air, blood spattering from the entry and exit wounds in his skull, and landed on the ground beside Titan, gurgling his last.

"Shite," Titan muttered, pacing about before looking upwards at the consuming darkness. "Bloody hell. Fuck it all. Fuck, fuck fuck, what the fuck do you want?"

The rumbling voice seemed to chuckle as it came back to us. "I want your help. I told you that."

"We'll take you to our bloody world!" Titan yelled. "No more of this. We'll meet you in the abyss and we can work it all out."

"You're sincerity is not absolute. You are shaken, jarred, not broken. I must bend you further."

Everyone settled down as the voice left us once again. One by one, the lights were extinguished. Two unlucky souls were left to remove the fresh bodies from our campground. They returned, sickened from their grisly task and lay down for more uneasy sleep.

***

My light sleep was once again punctured by a nearby moaning sound. I reached for my lighter again, looking about.

"Wass goin' on?" I muttered groggily, looking about.

Haven and Lucky sat up next to me, trying to place the sound against the location and the silhouette. Haven pointed over to about where Stunner was the last we saw of her.

"Stun's just masturbating," Haven stated nonchalantly, laying back down to sleep. Of all things, I was surprised how honestly forward she was.

I began to stutter, unsure of how to reply to that. I did make out her silhouette, though, and she did have her panties about her knees.

"It helps her get to sleep," Lucky explained, but the tone of her voice seemed to say that she didn't take that statement seriously.

"Or so she says," Haven added. "Once a pornstar, always a pornstar."

I felt that what Stun was doing was downright disrespectful, but decided not to say anything and instead lie down and complete the rest of whatever worthless sleep time I had left.

How do you reply to that, anyways?

***

I woke up to the divine smell of bacon frying in a pan. My nose lifted me out of bed and towards the food. When the sleep was all rubbed out of my eyes, and a plate of bacon was in my hands, I looked at the cook and nearly dropped my heavenly meal; it was Mason.

"Morning, Mage," he said, calmly, putting more bacon on the pan. "You're up early."

"What the fuck?" I hissed, stepping back from him.

"Something wrong?" he asked, leaning over to inhale the scent of what was in his pan.

"You're dead," I gulped. "Titan shot you."

"You must've been dreaming last night," Mason chuckled, scratching his forehead through his long, unkempt bangs. Some of his hair seemed a bit darker...

"No," I said, walking backwards. "Holy shit. Titan, wake the fuck up!"

Most of everyone bolted awake as I scrambled backwards to arm myself with anything I could grab.

I picked up my Desert Eagle, lying in my equipment pile as Mason slowly approached me, a curious look on his face.

"You're too smart for you're own good, Headsman," the young man said, brushing back his hair to reveal the bullet hole in his skull.

Flicking the safety off on my pistol, I raised it to his head to finish him off once and for all, but his hand met the barrel of my weapon, knocking it across the floor, then took hold of my wrist and pulled me in, grabbing my other arm so that he held me with my arms pinned against his chest and my hands on his cheeks.

"It just had to be you waking up first," Mason growled, his voice growing more primal. "Pity."

I looked at the leather bracer on my left wrist, suddenly remembering that I left my wristblade on flick command. So I struggled a bit so that my hand drew off to the side, letting the blade drive up, out of its sheath and burrow into the soft flesh beneath his jaw. I let him down slowly before turning around to clean off the blade, letting other members of the team take shots at Mason to make sure he was dead before he was disposed of by fire.

Titan sat alone, dangling the pair of dogtags from his hands, watching as the day started for the rest of us. Whatever dark power was in control here, it had no limits. It was true when the voice said that they were jarred but not broken. Hairline cracks were forming, though, and it could only take a few hours before all remaining traces of sanity were wiped from everyone's minds.