Skulltaker Pt. 2

(Rocco)

Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with this Lars, fella? He really is off his rocker… I grabbed Clarine’s leg and bandaged it before the bleeding got any worse. Luckily, from the looks of it, the tip of her toes she lost would be able to heal just fine. Then again, I’m no doctor so I couldn’t say that for sure. This is the guy we’re dealing with, huh?

I decided to speak up. “Lord Edwin, If I may, perhaps we should split up to cover more ground. We can’t let that son of a bitch lose us for good.”

Edwin seemed to be conflicted about the idea. “If we split up, our power does as well. We’ll become far more vulnerable to attacks if we’re on our own.”

I’m sure this was the best idea. “We’ll split into groups of two and each group will have their own Scavenger Lord to ensure the best odds in battle. I’ll go with Masir. Clarine knows Fence the best so those two are a no-brainer… That leaves you and your son.”

“... Alright, we’ll go with that. Rocco and Masir, you stay out here and make sure Lars doesn’t leave from any crevice of the building. Your hoverpacks should let you roam freely in the air and be able to catch him if need be. Clarine, Fence, you two come inside and observe the first bunch of floors on the lower half. There’s a good chance that he’s not quite mobile with his only option being to take the stairs if he wants to go from floor to floor. As for you and me, Bane. We’ll have to hover up to the roof and then leave our packs behind as we observe the top half of the floors. The best-case scenario is that we corner Lars and get the best of him that way. Everyone understood?!”

“Yes, sir!” We all shouted in unison.

Masir and I quickly put on our hoverpacks and went airborne. These packs each had about three hours of juice. That should be more than enough to deal with this pest. I worried about Edwin and the kid taking theirs off once they got to the roof but even in an idle state, the packs made a distinct humming noise and they were quite heavy. If sneaking up on Lars is our best plan, it’s what they had to do.

“Masir, you circle the building clockwise, I’ll go counter. This way we got our eyes as far as possible.”

“Yeah, sure thing, boss. If I see him, should I shoot or call for backup?”

“If you’re sensible, you’ll do both.”

“Yes, sir!”

(Fence)

Goddammit, I can’t believe my lord would fall for such an amateurish trap. She’s usually very calm and collected about these situations… She’s been on too much of an edge lately. I have to survive this no matter what and make it to my family… But I’ve spent so much of my time with her that she’s family as well! I won’t lose her here, no matter what!

We scoured the endless rooms for any sign of Lars. We’d go from door to door checking if there were any signs of disturbance, whether it was footprints, fresh stains of any sort, or even unsettled dust on the surface of a doorknob, every last detail counted.

“Fence, hurry your ass up, get in here, and look in all the drawers and cabinets and see if you can find anything useful!”

I hurried into the room and started with the kitchen which had the most amount of cabinets and drawers. Aside from dull cutlery and appliances, there was nothing to be found. What could possibly be stuck in a drawer here that would help us?!

Clarine seemed to be looking for something specific. I searched and searched to no avail. This all seemed like junk only useful in the peaceful life of the old world! I headed to their fridge and that’s when I saw it.

The frame was corroded and the paper had specks of unknown dust all over it but you could clearly make out a photograph of a family. They seemed so happy together. They were laying down on a blanket that was on a field of grass. The kids sat on their mom and dad’s backs and smiled gleefully as if they would never have a care in the world. There was a good chance these kids had to live through the conversion… or die from it. Protecting my family, huh?

“Haha, yes, Fence, that’s it!” Clarine cheered.

She gave me a pat on the shoulder.

“Huh, what? My lord, what did you find?”

“No, no, it’s what you found. With these, our victory is assured…

…

(Clarine)

It’s been about ten minutes and there doesn’t seem to be a sign from anyone at Lars’ location. Was he still in the building? I don’t doubt Rocco and Masir’s skills but two people in general couldn’t be enough to keep ample watch on the building’s perimeter. Shit, he might’ve slipped out.

No, there’s no point in thinking that. All that will do is lead me to let my guard down and make a stupid mistake like I just did with my toes. Staying vigilant and on alert as if he’s in the next room is of utmost importance, right now.

All these apartment rooms were battered and torn through. They didn’t just seem abandoned. It was as if multiple tornadoes tore through the place with all the gaping holes in the walls. Hell, that’s probably exactly what happened. The wood floors were scratched to hell and all the furniture or what was left of it looked like a bunch of death traps waiting to happen.

I remember hearing about an excess amount of trap houses when the conversion began. A large part of humanity didn’t seem to understand the desire to commute just to live. They thought it was wrong of us to pursue life. Instead, they gathered in crowds as a means of protest to society and our battle against nature. They chose to accept their Ragnarok in the best way they could, by getting absolutely smacked on all the drugs they could find before the inferno took their souls.

It’s hard to tell if this apartment building was one of those trap houses. Even in death, their way of life proved meaningful. Nobody with a desire to live would ever dare to touch a place like this and now we’re here fighting for our very lives.

Fence and I have the means to put down Lars ourselves. We just need to find him before it’s too late. If he encountered any of the other groups before us, it might be over for everyone.

The next room we searched already had its door open, which seemed to be a somewhat common occurrence out of the two floors we checked. However, this room felt off. The density of the dust was different. It felt the same as the halls that we’ve been in already. Surely, he couldn’t have been in here…

We’ve only searched the first couple of floors, there’s no way he’d still be here, but we had to check anyway…

“Fence, cover me, he may be inside this room…”

It took Fence no time to get in position ready to attack a threat coming from anywhere that wasn’t directly in front of me. He was a good scavenger. I could rely on him.

I inched towards these curtains that were rustling a bit too much for my liking. It seemed illogical as to why he would be there but something in my gut was screaming and my nerves were in overdrive. These curtains, something about them had Lars written all over it. They draped far lower than they needed and wrinkled awkwardly on the floor.

I drew my weapon as I approached mere feet away. My steps were as silent as could be. My other hand slowly began to reach for the curtain. This moment of truth could change everything…

Before I knew it, I could hardly breathe and every sound was muffled. I could make out Fence shouting my name but I didn’t have a visual on anything. The only thing I could make out were slight hues of the curtain colors. My breath was being suffocated and my body was forced to move. Oh, I see. Lars was hiding in the curtains and waited for me to get close enough before wrapping them all around me in an instant to completely subdue me, and have leverage over Fence so he could leave the room without risking any danger.

“Thanks for being a fucking idiot, Claire.” That was the last thing I heard before Lars threw my head against a wall only to make a swift escape up another flight of stairs…