Sing Mourning Among the Debris

|I can walk,| Seih protested hazily as Ged half-supported, half-carried him into what looked like a storage room, light emanating from somewhere, illuminating blankets and boxes and supplies. |I’m not dying.|

|Amazing, considering you were fifteen minutes ago.|

He shook away the fuzz as Ged finally let him ease back onto his own feet. |I know it’s hard to believe, but—|

He froze as a low howl rose, the sound flaring until it seemed to shake the walls, echoing along the brightly-lit corridor, and clapped his hands over his ears, gritting his teeth. It seemed to dig into his skull, rolling end over end like black tar across his soul.

A Shadow.

Ged cursed quietly beside him, a sentiment he could agree with. Winds just pushed ahead without flinching, stained blades sliding from his ink-spattered wrists, and Seih took a deep breath, following him, a low, guttural clicking sending shivers up his spine.

|Here.| Ged pressed the dagger he’d dropped into his hands, edges sharpening as it connected with his soulbind crown.

|...Thank you.| His fingers tightened around it, eyes flicking back as they stepped over the lintel and immediately catching on a long, shadowy tail.

A massive creature pulsing with an unnatural Darkness hunched in the long room, by one of the beds. Bloodstained beds—their sheets torn, red seeping across the floor between glimpses of strewn bodies.

And one still living. A little girl, her hand pressed against a bloodied leg, her eyes wide and unfocused as they stared at the hunched predator, its twitching muscles coiled and frozen.

Its head snapped around as if sensing his stare, yellow eyes flaring and lips peeling back from its muzzle to reveal reddened fangs. It sprang as if possessed, claws slicing through the air, a living nightmare—

Winds leapt in a blur of his own, slamming into it and sending them both rolling to the side, cracking up into the wall, the girl frozen as it thrashed wildly, dangerously close. Without thinking, Seih surged forward just ahead of Ged to throw himself in front, the other aiming to scoop her off the ground, and sliced at its shoulder with his dagger to distract it from Winds as the Divination twisted back to his feet.

In an instant, it snapped on him, his vision narrowing around claws arcing for his head, blood pulsing in his ears. He ducked, snapping up and slicing savagely across its throat.

It stumbled back, and he clenched his teeth, slamming the blade up through its skull, up past the hilt, crunching deep and scraping across the floor—

He came back to himself crouching over its lifeless body—teeth bared and heart pounding—with a jolt, yanking his slick hands back. I— His fingers had locked around the grip, ragged pants shuddering through his chest.

“I think—” he twitched his gaze up in the sudden quiet “—I think it’s dead.”

“...Better cut off the head just to make sure.” Ged nudged him aside, and his feet stumbled back and away, letting Winds finish it with a quick cut.

A soft fuzz seemed to seep across it all, a strange, distant ringing in his ears as he stared down at the dissolving Shadow, fur-like fuzz wisping away in smoky tendrils. His fingers brushed at the improvised bandages wound around his side and over his shoulder, sticky black blood clinging stubbornly to his hands.

He felt cold.

|Seih.| Winds nudged him towards a corridor that likely lead to the surgery.

He shook his head. |We should focus on survivors. It barely hurts, and I’m clearly not dying. I’ll be fine.| Turning, he glanced at the shivering girl in Ged’s arms, the older man murmuring soothing nothings at her with a rough little bounce. |There have to be more.|

He couldn’t help his gaze twitching to the slaughter around them, a tremor running through his hands without his permission as the sharp scent of blood and death grabbed him by the throat. Clenching them into fists, he hissed out a quiet breath, moving past the Divination. |Do you sense anyone living?|

|Not within my range.|

He nodded, coming to a decision. |This is the main ward, and only a few of the beds were taken, so there wouldn’t be any in the other wings. The permanent residents’ section should be the only other populated place. They would have had only Divinations and the doctor....|

His eyes flicked involuntarily towards the Shadow, and he closed them, deliberately choosing to move on, leading the way towards the residence wing. |Can you contact any other Divinations?|

Winds’ irises flickered. |Two.|

Two out of dozens. He wondered if that hurt more for Winds as he walked into the quiet corridor, no spine-crawling sounds or splintered doors greeting him. |We’ll need help moving the residents.|

|As my master wishes.|

Had that... been a hint of sarcasm?

The Divination threw the first door open before he could question it, blades at the ready.

Only for a pair of eyes to blink at them, an old lady quavering in a chair in the corner, clutching a blanket. “Hello?”

“Hello, old mother.” He slipped past the Divination and offered her a friendly smile, Winds wordlessly disappearing to the sound of another door opening in the corridor. “I’m sorry to barge in, but we need to move you.”

“Move...?” She blinked at him. “Those horrible howls and that dark voice... something terrible is going on out there, isn’t it?”

Something horrible... that was one way to put it. Offering her his hand—and belatedly switching to the slightly less-bloodied one—he helped her out of the chair. “Yes. You could say that. Firemount’s fallen.”

She clucked her tongue,. “You should save the young ones, not an old’un like me, young man. My body’s breaking down— I never expected to reach the end of the year.”

An unexpected lump wedged itself in his throat, a gravelly husk edging his voice before he cleared it away, patting her wrinkled hand. “We’re taking everyone.”

He found out her name was Ehna as the rest of them gathered, the sense of tension creeping at the back of his neck growing with the time it took to begin ushering them out of the hospital. A dozen people, none of them particularly fast, the minutes stretching out as they passed into the eerily quiet grounds.

His awareness of the noisy shuffles, laboured breathing, and click and creak of canes or wheelchairs only increased with the oppressive silence, silhouettes of trees and bushes forming shadows at the fringes—

A flicker of movement caught the corner of his eye.

He snapped around on instinct, seizing the dagger and slashing through claws swinging for his head. He caught only a glimpse of burning eyes as it crashed into him, sending them tumbling.

And fire surged in his chest, choking him, its snarl doubling in his ears as he lashed out, burning ink spraying across his skin.

He yanked himself away with a shove, slicing across the side of its neck and rolling into a crouch, spitting out bitter blood tainting his lips. Its growl vibrated in his veins as it stumbled up to snap at him, pushing him back towards the group, seeking to get past him.

No. He growled as he ducked back and pushed forward, his eyes flashing with a wild slash through its jaw, slamming into its skull.

It slumped, only for more howls to ring out, echoing through the side gardens, shivering the leaves on the trees. He staggered, clutching at his side, trying to shake out the pressure burning inside his skull.

Can’t— He huffed for breath, forcing himself up. Need to move. Need to get them to the cart.

“Go!” He held out his arms, pushing the huddling group to pick up the pace, wincing as Winds cut across the path of a springing Shadow and drove it back. “We’re close! Keep moving!”

A new urgency swept through them, weaker or older members supported by the more able-bodied and the two Divinations. Shadows snarled all around, yellow flashing between the widely-spaced trees of the side gardens, Winds and Ged holding them off.

But there were only two of them, and at least five snarling pairs of eyes.

Seih dashed forward too late, a Shadow leaping past Ged, jaws crunching around a vacant-eyed teenager. He clenched his teeth, his dagger thwacking through its eye as her ragged gasp rang in his ears. It let go, snarling, and he tore the blade free with a savage kick that managed to throw it back in time for Ged’s longer short-sword to find it.

He scooped the girl up, feeling her hands fist weakly in his tunic, the warmth of her blood pounding against his skin as they hurried their ragged way to the shadow of a set of carts on the outgoing rail. Should be empty, ready for a supply run. All they had to do was make it there.

Undergrowth tore at his ankles as the leading few reached the cart and pulled at the closed hatch. It didn’t move.

Locked. Dammit! He pushed forward. “Move away!”

They stepped aside, and he thrust the girl into the arms of a Divination, pulling his dagger out and shoving it through the crack in the doors, meeting resistance and hopefully slicing the latch. Grabbing the handle, he heaved.

Nothing.

A snarl rose behind them, and he clenched his teeth, throwing his full weight into it, a rumble gritting in the back of his throat at a slight give, a hitch, a crunch—

Something splintered, the door banging as it flew back and cracked off its mountings, the whole cart rocking.

What— what—

He turned in a blur of ice-cold disbelief, his shout cutting free as if from someone else’s throat, wide eyes staring at him. “Get in!”

The scramble rushed past him in what felt like a stuttering pair of heartbeats as he helped heave up the struggling, assisting them in, the broken door staring him in the face like blazing yellow eyes.

The whole thing jerked just as helping hands pulled Ehna up into its packed depths, and he leapt in, throwing his hand out for Ged, Winds spinning in like an acrobat, cutting down the Shadow that tried to leap after them. His heart pounding, Seih heaved the door screeching as shut as it could go without falling apart completely, leaving just a crack of trees and bush blurring into the stone of someone’s house.

As soon as he let go, stepping back, his legs wobbled beneath him and sent him gasping to his knees, sweat dripping off his chin. His hands shook, still able to feel the hatch breaking beneath them, a fire burning deep under his ribs.

Something— something is deeply wrong here.

“You okay there?” Ged gripped at his shoulder as Winds’ soft light lit the cart’s interior, dimmer than usual, but more than enough to see by. Just like he’d somehow been able to see easily in the moonless dark outside.

“I’m not sure.” He twisted shakily to thunk back against the door, breathing deeply and slowly, his hand drifting up to his side. In the spur of the moment, he tugged the drawstring of his tunic’s front loose enough to slip off the shoulder, pulling off the improvised bandages, vaguely aware of eyes drifting over and paying them no attention. A feeling had burrowed under his skin, one that made his fingers tremor slightly as the layers unstuck with a flash shooting through his nerves like a resonating needle.

Please Reyahn, I don’t want to be right.

As he peeled it back, though, he saw the thin thread of black stretching up to his collarbone first, snaking down to where long fangs had slid through his skin, growing and branching.

Until it reached a thick mass of lightly-pulsing black.

Bandage falling free of his shaking hand, he could see lines like veins stretching across his chest, curling up towards his shoulder and upper arm, almost engulfing his right side.

“Darkness ak-suruhk Void.”

An apt diagnosis. He closed his eyes, taking in a shuddering breath, and tried to push down the nausea twisting in his gut.

I was right.