War Wagon

by Al Shield

  WARWAGON

  To all my loving families. Demonic and human all.

  Also dedicated to my own War Wagon that’s tougher than a freeway retaining wall.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER ONE

  In reports filed much later it was said to be like looking so deeply and intently at the horrifying stuff of nightmares. Twisted nightmares that caused you to wake up screaming and gripping your sheets in absolute terror, forged into a towering pile of twisted inhuman flesh.

  The ferocious looking being known as Dar'kannag strained and flexed and pushed his layers of monstrous corded muscle as much as he could but the heavy solid chains barely moved. His sinuous arms bulged as he grunted with each effort but to no avail. They had wrapped him well with layer upon layer of thick cold steel chain with barely any of his deep purple skin below his shoulders being able to seen through the links. The many lengths of chain led off to wrap around pillars and through thick metal loops tethered to the floor, normally reserved for strapping crates and goods down. While they were pulled by man and machine and locked tight, he could still breath. He was still free to speak, growl menacingly and scream curses at those around him.

  He could smell sense the overwhelming sense of dire fear and barely contained terror surrounding him.

  The creatures said nothing as they trained their weapons on Dar’Kannag and although their faces were hidden behind glossy black reflective face shields, he could sense the ragged nerves from each as they pondered if the chains really were strong enough to keep him contained.

  They’d never dreamed they might have to contain something such as he.

  Even shackled and confined in a seated position on a strong crate his sheer size was incredibly intimidating. At over 8 feet tall with the face of nightmare, coal black orbs for eyes and talon like teeth the length of a grown man's finger, Dar'kannag was a truly horrifying sight up close - a growling thrashing living nightmare.

  They numbered over one hundred in the massively open room normally used for all personal meetings and parade drills. But even with the large area he found himself in, the combined funk of their fear to him was intoxicating. Equal parts confusion, doubt, terror and revulsion - a delicious perfume to his large nostrils.

  All around the nervous soldiers, mounted high on the walls were many spotlights, all pooled together to highlight the beast in the middle. Not even the tiniest shadow was allowed to survive under their combined scrutiny. It was like he was put on display, a museum piece to terrify the ages.

  He chuckled to himself, a low powerful rumble like a big car idle that unnerved them even more. Some gripped their weapons tighter while others took an automatic nervous half step backwards. Their nerves were already frade and he delighted in making them even more so. He might be a prisoner here for now but it was not without it's minor amusements.

  And hour flew by, then two and yet the guards barely moved from their positions. They checked and rechecked their weapons time and time again, safeties definitely off, fingers near the trigger itching and continually painting the chained monster with many dots of their laser sights. If there was a point to this waiting it was lost of Dar'kannag. They had an audience, why did they wait such?

  ‘I’m waiting...’ he rumbled.

  At last the double doors at the end of the room opened and in walked a man in similar uniform as the guards but with no mask. An older man, a head of grey and a faded scar over one eye but with the build of one half his years.

  He walked with purpose, focussed. Dar'kannag could not smell fear on this one. He smelt of confidence and steel, the aroma and fire and determination. This was certainly an interesting development.

  Without signal a chair was rushed over and the stranger sat down, close enough to be heard but still just out of reach if the chains gave way. Strangely he carried no weapon and gave off an air of curiosity as he looked the giant up and down.

  'What do we call you?' he finally spoke.

  'You dare speak to one such as me?' Dar'kannag boomed. His voice echoed through the room causing some of the men to twitch nervously.

  The man in the chair didn't react.

  'What do we call you?' he asked again, slower this time.

  'I am the mighty Dar'kannag, Lord of the 36th circle, slayer of the hordes of R'Tarn the worthless and master of the Blasted Lands challenges.’ He spay. ‘And do you little creature have a title?' he sneered the last part.

  'You may call me Omega.'

  The beast roared with laughter.

  'I may? I MAY??’ the arrogance of this creature was astounding. ‘Know this you pitiful worm, I do what I please and no little sack of meat will tell me otherwise. So from now on I will call you "Meat." Yes I think that is more than fitting. Now show gratitude to your master and thank me for your new title.'

  'You are not my master.'

  'THANK ME YOU PITIFUL WORM!'

  Omega said nothing, instead motioning to a nearby guard. The man stepped over and Omega withdrew a baton from the guards belt. He then stepped forward and smashed it across Dar'kannag's hissing face. He barely felt anything from the blow but he was now furious at the man's sheer audacity and roared like a wild animal.

  'YOU DARE??'

  'Do I have your attention now?'

  Dar'kannag roared, ranted and thrashed against the strong chains for minutes while the grey haired man calmly took his seat again and waited. He threatened and cursed his future spawn, the mudball planet he lived on and the world he held dear but the man showed no reaction whatsoever. When Dar'kannag ran out on insults, Omega continued.

  'Where are you from Dar'kannag?'

  'A place far more deserving of my kind than here.' he replied sullenly.

  Omega twirled the baton in his hand. The threat was purely for irritation but the monster continued.

  'I am from the Realm of the Damned.'

  'Where is this realm of the damned?'

  'Where is has always been!'

  Omega stood up calmly.

  'Your persistence is getting tiresome Meat.'

  Another glancing blow with the baton across the face. More yelled threats of vile tortures Dar'kannag would enact on Omega's offspring as soon as he got free followed. Once again Omega just waited the ranting out.

  'Where is this realm of the damned?' he asked again.

  'I do not know' Dar'kannag roared.

  'How do you not know?'

  'I do not know where is it from here!'

  Omega nodded.

  'How did you come to be here?'

  Now that was a question Dar'kannag knew the answer to. He mulled it over in his mind for a moment before deciding that if he shared it, this creature might be able to fill in the rest of the puzzle of where they were and hopefully, how to get back..

  'Hmmm, you live for now. Settle in then little Meat, for it is quite the tale.'

  ‘SOUL CHAMBER 4 IS OPERATING at 67% efficiency...soul chamber 5 is climbing to extreme levels...there are now 23 venom imps attached to the hull...’ Unit M c
ontinued to broadcast the status report in his metallic drone but Dar'kannag ignored him, swerving the wagon dangerously in an attempt to dislodge the imps he could see on the bonnet. One of them couldn’t keep a hold and its black furry body was thrown up over the windscreen shield and went tumbling up over the vehicle. Then came the sound of more things hitting the hull.

  ‘There are now 26 venom imps attached to the hull...’

  ‘More?’

  The sound of group chittering and sharp bone claws scratching against metal could barely be heard over animal like roar of the engine but something had to be done soon before one finally clawed and chewed their way in. They may have been creatures of very little intelligence but they were also very tenacious.

  ‘I’ve got this!’ K’Dian announced as he punched at the buttons on a control panel from his position in the back. Electricity suddenly danced over the body of the wagon and shocked away all but one of the imps who had too great a hold in one of the panels and was now trapped, ultimately getting shocked and roasted to a crisp. He laughed at the sight of the burnt out husk that still held on.

  ‘There are now no venom imps attached to the hull...’ Unit M droned.

  ‘Excellent!’ roared Dar'kannag ‘Only twenty three more laps an we w-’

  He was interrupted by the sounds of an alarm and Unit M’s eyes now flashing bright red in his rear view mirror.

  ‘Warning, competitor #13 Den’Marouth in close promiximity. Range 200 metres and closing.’

  Through his mirror Dar'kannag could just make out the black dust cloud that came sweeping around the last mountain corner. It must have been Den’Marouth who had launched the group of venom imps from long range causing them to waste time getting rid of them before they tunneled through the outer shell and made a mess of the infernal engine. Now he was catching up and Dar'kannag was already pushing the Warwagon as hard as he possibly could. If one of the soul chambers burnt out now then it’d take too long to slot another one in and they’d be in great danger of losing the race.

  Victory was status. Victory was pride. In his world, victory was all.

  Nex retrieved her long rifle from it’s roof holster and cracked open the barrel. The twisted bleached bone coloured weapon made a sound like a groan when it opened.

  ‘Unit, will bone shells get through Den’Marouth’s window?’ she asked.

  ‘Accessing....negative. Unit predicts less than 1% chance of causing more than slight gouging.’ He beeped.

  “Alternative suggestions?’ K’Dian asked.

  ‘Accessing...no options found.’

  She reached into her bag and withdrew some shells. Dar'kannag noticed them glowing out of the corner of his eye.

  ‘Skull Beast poison?’

  ‘Blood from the Tangled Wood worm. Gets into everything, takes forever to remove. One of K’Dian’s inventions.’

  K’Dian beamed at the mention of his name. While he wasn’t a great wagon driver like his father yet, there wasn’t anything that he couldn’t build given the time and inclination. His mother’s twisted bone rifle, Unit M, he’d even tweaked the infernal engine so that burnt out souls would drop right out of the bay once fully spent and therefore greatly reducing the risk of the empty chamber affecting the others. He’d only perfected the worm shells a couple of days ago and was thrilled that they had found a use already.

  Nex unbuckled her harness, twisted in her seat and put her feet on Dar'kannag’s legs. With one hand on the steering wheel he used the other to hold her milky white feet firm while K’Dian flicked the switch for the window. Once fully opened she poked the rifle out, then leaned out supporting her back on the window frame.

  Normally a shot like this would have been impossible for anyone in the realm. The distance, the cloud, the noise, the constant and chaotic vibration and swaying of the wagon racing at terrifying speeds, the position and pressure on her back.

  But Nex was a former hunter from the treacherous cliffs of the Screaming City. These were minor inconveniences at best and easily ignored. From a race that were trained to kill before they could crawl, she breathed in, drowned out her surroundings and solely focussed on the shot.

  The sound was stripped away suddenly leaving only the echo of her breathing. Time and space around her slowed down dramatically and her body moved in time with the rumbling vehicle. It felt like a slow dance as her muscles instinctively flexed and hardened with each movement and bounce. Her eyes narrowed, her incredible vision sharpened and the billowing dust cloud no longer blocked out the sight of Den’Marouth’s vehicle as she saw through the screen. She could almost make out the details of his snarling face as she lined up her sights and pulled the trigger until the rifle clicked empty.

  The shells screamed through the hot air, through the dust and splattered right across the safety glass of Den’Marouth’s vehicle. Layers of thick luminous blood flowed over the battered glass making visibility impossible.

  Nox could almost hear the great roar of frustration as he slammed on the brakes before he ploughed into something unseen. It would take his crew quite a while to get that gunk off the window or even smash the stained barrier out of the way, time he too couldn’t afford at this time of the race.

  The occupants of Dar'kannag’s wagon laughed in unison. With the other competitors well and truly behind, they were certain to finish first. Dar'kannag eased up on the throttle just a little to ease up the chance of soul burnout.

  ‘Excellent work my love.’ He patted her leg as she restored her rifle to the holster. ‘And you child, I am impressed by your ingenuity’ he spoke over his shoulder.

  K’Dian beamed once more. The respect of a father was a tough task to earn, especially with his but he had well and truly proved himself in this moment. In the deep dark pits of his eye sockets something glowed. He hadn’t felt this proud of himself for quite some time.

  The only sound for the next few minutes was the rumbling of the engine and the protest of the beast skin tires as Dar'kannag gleefully maneuvered the wagon around the track as they worked through the last laps. This was only his third year of racing but he’d already developed quite a reputation as a fierce competitor. While it was practically encouraged for all racers to use the most sneaky tactics as possible save for all out murder which would revoke your right to race, the devious team of Dar'kannag, Nex and K’Dian worked as a clever combination each race to achieve victory and those watching through scrying windows and viewer crystals would cheer their inventiveness and risk taking along the way.

  Even the soulless Unit M, currently plugged into the vehicle as a diagnostic tool and track radar had saved them with his timely warnings time and time again. His flesh whittled away more so with each of K’Dian’s tinkering after each race, there was barely any of his original form left save for the odd muscle sewn into the machinery and half his decayed face locked in a frozen stare. Without his early warnings, they would have lost a lot more of their races than they had won so far. And now they were about to add another impressive vict-

  His eyes suddenly flashed bright red again.

  ‘Warning, close proximity to sss-’ he stopped mid sentence.

  ‘Proximity to what?’ ‘K’dian urged.

  ‘Proximity to sss....proximity to sss...error, unit is being blocked by an unknown source. Proximity to sss...’

  Thinking quickly, K’Dian grabbed his tuning tool and smashed it across Unit M’s throat speaker. It crackled and spoke again.

  ‘Proximity to sorcery. Alert, proximity to sorcery!’

  ‘Where?’ Nex said alarmed ‘I don’t see anyth-’

  ‘There!’ Dar’Kannag roared as he suddenly spotted the flat length of black metal partly obscured by the dirt on the track ahead. He hammered the brakes as quickly as he could and the wagon lurched as it locked up, de-accelerating violently but he wasn’t quick enough. At the speed they were moving the now locked up front wheels still churned through the dirt and onto the pressure plate. As soon as they connected a small black hole opened
ahead of them, starting with the size of a small fist and rapidly doubling in size with every second. In moments it was bigger than the wagon and before anyone had a chance to react, the wagon plowed through the darkness of the portal and into whatever waited on the other side.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘You were in a race.’ Omega continued. It wasn’t a question.

  ‘And I was winning too!’ Dar’Kannag grinned exposing rows of massive and lethally sharp looking teeth ‘And I would have added it to my tally of victories had we not hit the trigger for the portal.’

  ‘Who would have put the portal there?’

  ‘Take your pick Meat, anyone who deemed it necessary for me to fail. They are many in number.’

  ‘And this is allowed in the racing you do?’

  Dar’Kannag’s laughter boomed around the room once again.

  ‘Everything save practically walking over and spearing your opponents through their skulls is allowed when racing. The strong win, the weak are left to pick up the pieces. If their limbs are still working that is.’

  ‘Would there be repercussions for the one who set the trap? After all, they’ve eliminated an entire team out of the series.’

  Dar’Kannag stopped and thought about that for a moment.

  ‘Perhaps. But they would have to find out who set the trap first. Unless they find the sorcerer who was paid handsomely to build it, they’ll struggle to find someone willing to admit their part in this.’

  Omega turned his head slightly and put a finger to his ear. After a few moments he nodded and turned his head.

  ‘The one who set the portal, how would they know of this world?’

  Dar’Kannag’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘I see you have taken an order little Meat. Tell me, who commands you?’

  ‘That is irrelevant. How did they know of this world?’

  ‘TELL ME!’

  ‘No. How do they know of here?’

  Dar’Kannag hissed at the man.

  ‘I will find out little creature...then I will make you sorry for not answering me.’