Send Me

They arrived at the office with little trouble. The sky above rained down hard on them. It looked as if it would turn to a sickly green color. Cliff felt something off about the whole area. A chill crawled up his spine. Sable's too. Susan knew it wasn’t just them. At a time when the fabric between worlds was at its weakest, one could make quite a lot happen by pulling from the other side. Cliff checked his weapon to ensure the safety was off and a round was in the chamber. Sable held onto her staff and put on a brave face. This was it. No turning back.

“I’ll take point. You two try to find the book.” Susan told them.

“Rog’.” Cliff said.

Susan took out her Nokia and dialed it. “Yeah it’s me. We’re all set here. Cordon off the area. We’re going in.”

With that done, she put it into one of her baggy cargo pockets and press checked her MP5. The three moved in. They headed right up to the building and around to the side doors. Susan tested the handle. Locked. She made a motion to Cliff, who responded by kicking the door as hard as he could. It took a few tries until the door finally gave way. Susan moved in, leveling her sub machine gun as she glided in through the doorway.

Cliff followed suit with Sable right behind him. The three entered into a hallway with multiple rooms on each side. Cliff and Susan took turns pulling doors open and checking the inside. There wasn’t anyone here so far. Sable kept a lookout down the hall while they worked. By the time they got done with it, Susan was starting to get a bit impatient.

“You think they’re on any upper floors?” she asked.

Cliff merely shrugged. He had been here but he didn’t see much of the inside. The three of them headed on through the hall anyway. They continued like this until Susan was sure they had cleared the whole first floor. Where had the yakuza gone? If this wasn’t their main front, then what else could it be?

Susan pushed through out of the office and stared up at the sky. The sickly green color of the sky. Her eyes went demonic again and she saw the corrupted energy flowing up from a spot not too far from where they were. It was growing stronger by the second. She pointed out the direction and the three of them got moving immediately. There was no time to waste. With the three of them moving ahead, Cliff made sure to keep his eyes out on the surrounding area. There was hope that the yakuza weren’t expecting them yet, but hope was never a good plan.

The trio moved through the streets. Lights flickered and blinked. The air seemed electric. The closer they got, the more their hairs stood on end. At a point when they were just about to make it, Susan held them up. Fog had rolled in, and shadows crept among it. She moved ahead with her MP5 tucked under her armpit. Cliff crept up behind her, but when he noticed the sickly green glow coming from the shadow’s eyes, he froze. He grabbed Susan’s shoulder and yanked her back.

“What is it?” she asked a bit pointedly.

“Undead. I saw them when I was trying to escape.”

“Shit. They’re trying to start it no matter what. These ghouls are imperfect, but they can make a lot of them if they try. We gotta go.”

Without any further argument, Susan let loose with a few rounds of nine millimeter. The rounds were the same in Cliff’s Beretta, and worked wonders on the undead. The second they impacted, there was a sizzling sound. The green glow dispersed and the eyes faded. A ghoul collapsed onto the road in a heap. Susan saw more ahead.

“I’ll take them out. Don’t fire your weapons. If you have to dispatch them, use your blades. Let’s not give up the element of surprise just yet.”

Sable and Cliff nodded and retrieved their respective knives. Susan let the MP5 chatter off with muffled burst after burst as she drug the two through the fog and towards the ritual site. Bodies fell limp onto the pavement as she went from target to target. There was a sense of satisfaction as she emptied out her magazine into one and reloaded, before putting another one down. She didn’t count, but there were at least a dozen already dead. Cliff and Sable kept up with her, looking for any strays on the flanks.

One crawled up to Sable’s ankle, causing her to kick it in the head before stabbing it in the eye. She moved back over to Susan’s side as more undead cropped up. The fog was hiding them well. Susan stopped and tried to thin the herd, but there were a lot of them. A lot more than she was comfortable bringing the two through. She looked back.

“We need a better route. Cliff, take Sable and find a way around. I’ll try to hold them off here.”

“Right.”

Cliff ducked up against a building with Sable right behind him. She stifled a yell and jumped away as a ghoul burst out of a window, arms outstretched. Cliff whirled around and stuck his blade into the back of its head, ending it immediately. Sable breathed deeply and kicked its head in indignation. Cliff looked ahead, but Sable was already moving through the window. He looked back and saw her disappear through it.

“What are you doing?!” he asked in a harsh whisper.

“If they came from this way, it must lead back, right?”

Cliff couldn’t argue with that logic after giving it some thought. He signaled Susan over and the two followed Sable. The witch steadied her hand and gripped the silver knife firmly. They couldn’t let them know they were approaching when they were so close. Cliff held his bayonet close. Unlike a fighting knife, his M7 was only really good for thrusting and stabbing, as a bayonet should be used. Though he couldn’t mount it effectively onto the CAR-15, he could still use it on its own.

The trio moved in through the window. Susan took up the rear to make sure that any ghouls following would be dealt with. Sable held her staff out and looked around. She could feel the corrupted energy in the air. It was growing stronger, so she pushed through her fear to chase it. She tried to silence that tiny little voice in her head telling her to run. To flee and go home. It couldn’t be an option anymore. She had to keep going. She tried not to think about all the weight of the world on their shoulders. Compartmentalize. Focus on what’s in front of you.

What was in front of her was the interior of a shop. It was rather small and seemed to be selling candy. She didn’t stick around to marvel at the choices. She stepped on ahead. A hand reached around a corner and grabbed her wrist. She yelped and quickly stabbed it. The silver contacted the flesh with a sizzling sound. The hand didn’t yield, so she stepped back. A ghoul came around the corner, to which she promptly stabbed its arm until it let go, and then stabbed it through its eye. As it went limp, she kicked it aside.

“Whoa. Nice going.” Cliff said.

“I just want to get through this and have it be over.” Sable said back, her body shaking from an excess of adrenaline.

“Let me go first.” Cliff replied gently.

Sable stepped aside and allowed Cliff to pass. She followed in step behind him and looked to the sides as they moved through the rest of the shop. No more ghouls were there to make their attempt. Sable looked behind her and watched Susan fire away with her MP5 out the broken window. She couldn’t see how many undead were out there, but she did see Susan change out her magazine. It must’ve been enough to keep her busy.

Cliff moved ahead and found the backdoor. He gently pushed it open to the side and listened. There was chanting coming from somewhere close. He looked to Sable and nodded at her to come over. She approached with lightfooted steps.

“You hear that?” he asked her.

“Yeah.”

“What’s he saying?”

“I don’t know, it’s too muffled.”

“Let’s hurry.”

“What about Susan?”

“She’s a big girl. She’ll catch up when she’s done.”

Sable didn’t protest. Cliff leaned his head out of the doorway and noticed a green glow coming from ahead. He also noticed a fair few undead in the backlot. He slung his rifle off his shoulder and propped it up against the outside wall. Sable walked out and he motioned for her to do the same with her staff.

Cliff and Sable stood side by side. The undead encroached at an alarming rate. Cliff didn’t wait and stepped forward. He grabbed one of the ghouls by the shoulder as it tried to reach out for him. He plunged his bayonet into its neck and then leveraged it to rip it out the other way. Then he pushed it aside and went after the next one. Sable stepped up to follow suit and went with wide slashes. This way, then that way. She drew her blade across the rotten flesh of the walking corpses, burning their flesh with each strike. She worked the knife with one hand and used the other to keep the undead from getting a hold of her. The way she moved betrayed any novice. She made her slashes and disabled her opponent’s arm movements by cutting up into the armpit before going for the throat or the head.

Cliff manipulated the ghouls by making sure he was in control of their momentum. Just like combatives in the military, everything he did was to line up the next attack for a quick dispatching of the ghoul. He couldn’t afford to get locked into a drawn-out fight. He reached out, yanked it forward, and met it with the bayonet. The silver did its work, though he wasn’t crazy about having to use the bayonet so extensively already.

Thankfully, it seemed they had thinned the group out. The threat was down to a meager two ghouls left, who were still trying to reach for them. Sable kicked one in the leg, blowing its knee out before she went in for the kill into the heart. Cliff spun his target around until it was facing away from him, and then put his blade into the base of its skull. They both dropped to the ground at the same moment. Cliff rolled her shoulder and then went back to grab his rifle. Coming back, he tossed Sable's staff to her.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” he asked her.

“Oh, that?” Sable asked, gesturing to the dozen ghouls they had taken out.

“Yeah. That.” Cliff affirmed.

“Mom left when I was sixteen, but she made sure that I could at least defend myself somewhat. She taught me a few things when I was growing up. Helped keep the bad boys from grabbing me in school, even if it did also just keep the other boys away too.”

“I see…let’s get moving.”

“They should be right on the other side of the building next to us. I can feel it.”

“Alright, I’ll take point. Let’s not give ourselves away before we’re ready.”

Sable nodded and fell in behind Cliff. The priest checked his rifle quickly and moved ahead. Sable was close behind him. As they moved out into the alley and rounded the corner, he could feel it too. The intense energy from a corrupt source. It made him want to vomit. He prayed inwardly for strength and kept alert. Whatever happened next, it would decide the fate of the world as they knew it.