Dire Symbols

by W A Rowland

  “I don’t know, just grab these and they’ll still be up the creek,” she said producing a black satchel and knocking the stones into the bag where he heard them knock together with a glassy sound. An alarm started to sound as soon as they had left the table and a clicking noise came from behind them of the broken door trying to lock.

  “Well, shit. I wonder what that does. We killed everyone on the way down,” Bast said.

  Thea and Liam looked at one another with fear stricken expressions.

  “We need to go. Now,” Thea said and started to run.

  A roar, twice as loud as the last time they’d heard it, filled the halls. Except this time, there wasn’t glass between them and the creature making it.

  BASTET, DAUGHTER OF RA

  “HOW THE HELL DID HE GET A WENDIGO?!” Bast screamed as they sprinted for the exit. Halls of corpses and slick floors passing them by as they ran as fast as their legs could carry them

  “Less talk. More run,” Thea huffed out as they rounded the corner to the main foyer.

  A livid bellow sounded from the pits of hell, which happened to be right behind them at that moment. Liam turned to see the massive beast slide on the bloody floor and slam into the wall of the hallway they’d just exited.

  “It’s here!” he screamed and scrambled towards the vault door, which was closed.

  “Oh God,” Liam blurted as something smashed into the wall behind him. He tried to push out a kinetic field, but nothing happened. He was shocked for a minute, why couldn’t he make a field? Where was Lily?

  “Must have locked down when the second alarm went off,” Thea said from the vault door.

  Bast growled and threw the bag of core stones at Liam’s feet.

  “Do not lose those,” she said sternly, her voice dropping in register as she turned from the lithe Egyptian goddess into the giant jaguar warrior he’d seen her fight Julian as. She made a gesture and the bladed mace appeared in her hand as she leapt at the hallway opening just as the Wendigo came into view. The mace came down, breaking spikes off of the creature’s forearms in an explosion of force. The beast howled in rage and lashed out at the giant fighter in front of it, but Bast caught the blows on her arm with minimal damage.

  Liam watched as the massive creatures exchanged lightning fast blows, Bast swinging the mace like it was made of PVC pipe, and the Wendigo spinning and swiping its claws like a Tasmanian Devil cartoon from a Lovecraftian nightmare. Bast was holding her own, but as soon as she landed a blow on the beasts hide, it would heal back a few second later. Bast, on the other hand, had sustained half a dozen bleeding wounds, and looked to be tiring fast.

  Liam looked at Thea, working ineffectively to open the vault door.

  They were going to die. The alarm was meant to kill everyone in the base and they were going to die.

  Then Liam stopped. Black may have not cared about his followers, but if that alarm went off while he was in the base and released the Wendigo, he was damn sure to have an escape route. Probably something that would be away from where his followers would run.

  “Thea, we need to get back to the torture rooms,” Liam yelled at her, drawing her frustrated response.

  “Liam, now is not the time to satisfy some fetish, we are about to die!” she screamed and punched the door, to no effect.

  “No, Black, he would have a way out. Where would he most likely be while here?” he said quickly, as Bast took a clawed swipe to her chest.

  “Go, now!” Bast bellowed and released a haymaker into the wendigo’s face with her mace, but taking a claw along the gut in the process. The Wendigo flew back into the wall, creating a crater as Bast fell to one knee, then shrunk back into her human form, the massive Mace falling to the floor beside them, larger than Bast in her current form.

  “Bast!” Liam said and ran towards her, catching her before she fell over. She was bleeding from cuts and punctures all over her body.

  “Go on. Get the stones away.” She gasped and passed out.

  “Forget that idea. You’re coming with us,” he said and started dragging her back towards the middle hallway Thea had already disappeared down.

  “Damnit, Bast. Why couldn’t you pass out as a cat?” Liam grumbled as he made it into the hallway. The Wendigo had rallied from its temporary stupor and was once again coming for them as it crawled from the hole it had made in the wall.

  “Lily!” Liam shouted.

  “Hmm?” Lily sounded like she’d just woken up from a nap. The multiple enhancement seemed to have drained her even more than he thought.

  “I need your help, Lily. I need fields. Lots of them,” he thought as the Wendigo charged at them.

  “Fields? Why do you nee— CHEESE AND CRACKERS THAT THING GOT OUT!” she screamed and suddenly several glowing fields appeared in front of Liam, throwing the Wendigo into the ceiling with enough force to crack the sheetrock. More fields appeared and the Wendigo was tossed around like a big white pinball, bouncing off of walls and ceilings and floors. Liam could swear he heard it yelp at least once.

  “Kill it! Kill it with fire!” Lily howled as she formed field after field, pummeling the beast into a small whimpering mound of flesh as it flew back and forth like a fleshy white version of the ball from pong, only moving much faster. Liam just watched the spectacle from where he had stopped pulling Bast’s limp body.

  “Lily, I think you got it,” Liam said as she continued to pound the thoroughly squished Wendigo into paste.

  “Definitely dead,” he said again.

  Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

  “Lily!” he yelled.

  “Hmm?” she said, finally letting it drop with a splat.

  “Are you done?”

  A field appeared and slid the whole mass against the wall with a wet squish. “Yup, done.”

  Liam rolled his eyes and continued tugging Bast towards the hallway with the cells on it.

  Thea came running back around the corner a second later and just stopped to stare at the scene. There in the hallway was a very squished Wendigo that had recently kicked Bast’s butt. Then there was Bast, unconscious, bleeding, and barely breathing. And then there was Liam, thoroughly unscathed, huffing and puffing trying to move Bast’s body.

  “What in the?” She looked shocked as she tried to process what could have possibly committed the amount of violence needed to turn the beast into a pile of ground-up blood and bone.

  “Don’t ask. Actually, don’t tell anyone either. Maybe, just forget this ever happened and help me pull?” Liam said.

  “Fat chance of that happening,” Thea said.

  “The forgetting or the pulling?” Liam asked.

  She just glared at him and grabbed Bast, lifting her bodily into a fireman’s carry.

  “Right,” Liam said and followed her out of the hallway.

  Inside the room where they’d found Jessica, Thea had uncovered a hidden control panel inset in the back wall with controls for a hidden door. The door opened to an emergency stair that led all the way back to the surface.

  They popped out of a service hatch on the other side of the compound from where the team had entered. Liam saw footprints in the mud leading off away from the base. He was confused by one set, which looked like some kind of weird animal that had a pad for one pair of legs, and a spike for the other. He was confused all the way until he looked up and saw the red stiletto heel sunk in the mud twenty yards away. So not a pad and a spike, just a really bad choice in footwear.

  “Guess we know where Algos and Anahita got off to.” He pointed out the shoe to Thea.

  “Damn, I really wanted to punch that bitch in the face. Next time,” she said and began jogging towards where Sarah and Jax were supposed to be set up.

  They got halfway back through the compound, confident that there weren’t any cultists left, when Hand showed up suddenly. He looked panicked.

  “Oh, guardian. We didn’t think y’all made it out. What happened?!” the big man said, looking over the three, his eyes resting o
n Bast.

  “Is she?” he asked the obvious question.

  “No, but we need to get to Steven fast or she may be,” Thea responded.

  Hand nodded and took Bast’s body from Thea and then zipped off towards the front of the compound, where they could just barely make out the group’s vehicles parked at the gate. Apparently, it was safe enough now that they could just drive up to the entrance.

  Liam and Thea made it to the group a few minutes later. Everyone appeared to be there except Cindy, who Liam assumed had warped back to the bunker to decompress from what was undoubtedly a stressful day. He’d talk to her when he got back; maybe see about doing a soul-to-soul chat again in her core. Those seemed to work better than talking on the physical plane. Not that he wasn’t growing to enjoy having the cute Latina around, at least, when she wasn’t yelling at something. He’d be interested to hear how her side of the adventure went.

  They entered the ring of people and vehicles to find Jessica and Bast on stretchers. Jessica was tied down on hers, and Liam could tell she’d been heavily sedated. Kat and Rich were nearby, staring at the body of their former co-worker.

  Steven was working on Bast, and Liam could see beads of sweat on his friend’s forehead from the concentration it took to knit her back together. He just hoped it wasn’t too late. Bast had lost a lot of blood. The face looked grim until Sarah looked up and saw Thea and Liam, immediately running over and hugging the bigger woman.

  “Watch the touching kid,” Thea grumbled as Sarah let go and hugged Liam next. Then she looked up and around.

  “Where’s Cindy?” Sarah asked confused.

  “Isn’t she with you?” Thea said.

  “No, you came and got her fifteen minutes ago. It was weird because we thought you were still inside with Liam, but you said you’d found a side entrance and that Bast needed Cindy inside,” Sarah said, a worried look coming over her expression.

  “Sarah, I’ve been inside with Liam and Bast this whole time fighting a Wendigo,” Thea said, sounding surprised. “Didn’t you have a read on me?”

  “No, when the vault door closed, we couldn’t sense anyone inside. And Jax had his obscuring field up, so I couldn’t… ohh God, who is Cindy with!” she said alarmed.

  Thea growled and punched the side of the SUV, denting the metal, then thinking for a moment, she looked at Liam.

  “Where’s the bag Bast gave you!” she yelled.

  Liam unfroze and pulled the black sack out of a pocket and held it out to her.

  Thea quickly grabbed it and pulled out one of the cores, then smashed it inside her hand.

  “Fucking glass!” she screamed, blood evident on her hand.

  Sarah was crying now. “Thea, what’s going on, where is Cindy?” she asked desperately.

  “We were set up. I don’t know how, but Black knew we were coming and set a trap. Bait and all,” she said, angrily. “And we brought the last core right to him,” she said, defeated.

  Liam looked at her incredulously. “What are you saying? Black’s got Cindy? So where are they going? We need to get her back!” he yelled, but Thea just looked down.

  “Bast was the only one who knew the location of the anchor chamber, remember? And even that was taken out of her brain,” Thea said angrily.

  The conversation was interrupted by Hand appearing.

  “You need to come over here,” he said sadly and led them over to where Steven was sitting back against the side of the van next to Bast’s stretcher.

  “I’m sorry that’s all I can do, the damage was too severe. She’s…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the words, but they all knew what came next.

  “Bast is dying,” Jax said with more emotion in his voice than Liam had ever heard before.

  “No, she can’t. I mean, she’s Bast. She can’t die,” Sarah said as Thea wrapped an arm around the small girl.

  Liam just stared dumbly ahead. It was all for nothing, the whole plan. Black had won. He had Cindy, he had the cores, and Bast, the only person with the knowledge of how to stop him, was dying a few feet away. If only Liam could talk to her one last time to get her to tell him—

  His train of thought crashed with a sudden realization.

  “Liam, no. Cindy had minutes and we almost lost her; Bast has seconds!” Lily said inside his head.

  “We only need seconds,” he said striding forward and taking hold of Bast’s hand.

  “Liam, what are you…?” Steven’s words cut off as Liam’s soul pushed into Bast, searching for her core and finding it. He appeared inside a well-furnished apartment, with sandstone walls and a large eye of Horus emblazoned on each. To one side was the connection to the astral plane, just as in Cindy’s core, and in front of it stood Bast, in full Egyptian regalia. Looking every inch the ancient Goddess of Protection. Next to her was a slight man with whom she was talking. It looked like they were saying goodbye.

  “Bast!” Liam yelled and ran towards her. Behind him, he heard footsteps and glanced back to see Lily who did not look happy with him. But he didn’t care. Bast had the information he needed. It had been taken from her physical brain, but her soul would know. She looked up surprised, along with her guide, to see anyone else there.

  “Liam? What the hell! I’m dying, you can’t be here!” Bast yelled.

  “They took Cindy, Bast; I need to know where the chamber is. Please,” he begged, making her stop short.

  “We only have minutes,” she said and nodded to her guide who looked excited about something.

  “Liam, this is Curiosity. My guide. And I’m assuming this is Potential?”

  Liam nodded, not surprised that she’d deduced Lily’s paradigm.

  “I don’t know the location. The demi who took the memory used a power to do it, which affected my soul’s memory as well, but I think I know a way we can still find out,” she said quickly walking to a wall.

  “What? How’s that?” Liam asked, distraught at the news.

  “You know how people say they see their lives flash before their eyes when they’re close to death?” she asked.

  “Yeah?” he responded.

  “That’s actually their brain processing the events of their life in astral time. Too fast for it to be read effectively, but here, we’re in-between. We may be able to—” Just then the walls lit up with dozens of images.

  The pyramids being constructed.

  Someone looking down from a throne as soldiers in pleated skirts marched in front of them.

  A child being born.

  Bast as a cat playing with Ra as an eagle.

  Fighting in a war.

  This was her life. Boiled down into memories, as each one came, it faded away into nothingness.

  Liam looked to Bast. “Does this mean…?”

  “Yes, that I’m dying. Now pay attention, we can’t miss it,” she said avidly watching the wall in front of her.

  A dog ran up to a young Bast.

  “I loved that dog,” she said, tears staining her cheeks as she smiled.

  Her mother scolded her for sneaking ou.t

  Her first kiss.

  Her first kill.

  For what seemed like an eternity, they watched her life flash by. Moment by moment. The entirety of her existence played upon the walls as her physical body faded.

  Liam saw the rise and fall of empires through Bast’s eyes. The coming of the Greeks, then the Romans, then the Crusades. The wars of Europe and the colonization of the Americas.

  Ra died.

  Julian was dumped into the ocean from a steam ship.

  Her lover was found murdered.

  She lost the baby.

  Should she jump from the bridge?

  Thea pulled her from the water; she hadn’t died.

  Pain.

  Death.

  Loss.

  Regret.

  Liam saw the tears flowing freely down her face as the long years of her life faded away. All of the pain and sorrow and all of the joy and love she’d lived. Gone now into
a black nothingness.

  And then it was there.

  Twelve demis stood outside of a cave that led into an Indian mound. Inside, a Graven had broken Ra’s seal and taken the power of the anchor for himself. They fought, some fell. He was killed, but the seal remained broken. Power. Such tempting power. A new seal. Seven remained. Lots are drawn. Five pull out knives and cut out their own cores. Bast seals the anchor with the cores of the five, her friends. A sixth is there. The memory is gone. The last is dead. Only Bast remains. The last of the original two hundred demigods. The first guardians are gone, the new guardians must arise.

  The map.

  Liam saw it then. The location on the map as it was erased from the databases. The place lost to time. He knew where it was.

  “There,” Bast said, her tears still flowing. “Now you know. Go, or risk dying with me,” she said and sat down on a plush sofa, still looking at the pictures on the wall.

  Cindy, so broken but so perfect. Her daughter would have been named Cindy.

  The bunker, her family, the only family she had left. She’d die for them.

  Horror, Julian killed them all.

  “Bast…” Liam said, as she watched the last of her life fade away.

  “I said, go,” she commanded sternly. Jumping to her feet, the ruler of ancient armies now, in her last moments, suddenly looked softer in the face. “Try to take care of my Cindy for me. She’s difficult, but she cares so much,” she said with a sob.

  “Ah hell,” Liam cursed, deciding on something. “Lily! Grab Curiosity!” he yelled and grabbed Bast’s hand. Making sure it was indeed her hand this time.

  “Liam? What are you doing?!” she yelled, tugging against him.

  “You’re not getting off that easily, Bastet, Daughter of Ra,” he said, and taking a giant chance, he threw Bast into the glowing silver channel just as Lily had done to him in Cindy’s core. He watched as she flowed down the stream of energy, which he could tell was quickly diminishing. He wasn’t sure if this would work, but it was worth a try. Better than just letting her die anyway. Lily was next to him with a frightened Curiosity in a bridal carry eyeballing her. He really was a small man.