by Eddie Patin
"Remember to watch their return paths later! Let's see where they fly off to when they take people!"
"Okay!" Jason called back, making a mental note to also bring radios for communication on future missions. Radios, and a rifle sling for his AK. Jason frowned. He'd just been home. He should have grabbed a sling while he was there. He could visualize it, sitting in a box of holsters and other stuff. Hefting the rifle, Jason couldn't believe that he'd forgotten such a basic necessity. He'd been humping that heavy thing around all over in his hands without the ability to just sling it to his back or his chest.
"Also, don't shoot us over here!" Riley added. "I can see you, but I bet you can't see shet, huh? Can you see me?"
"No, I can't see you!" Jason shouted back. "We should be closer!"
He'd have to make sure not to shoot in their direction. They weren't directly east-west of each other, all on the south wall. That'd be stupid. Jason and Morgana were on the south wall close to one set of stairs on the west side of the gate. Riley and Gliath were on the eastern wall near the corner where it met the south, but not quite. Riley's big idea was to take two positions so that they could cover more area, but they had to avoid being lined up on the same wall. That way, if one group was attacked, the other would be able to fire upon the beasts without the defending party being in the line of fire.
It was a great plan but for the mist.
If they couldn't see each other, they wouldn't really be able to help each other, would they?
"Okay," Riley called back. "We're heading your way on the south wall. Don't shoot east!"
Jason opened his mouth to respond but stopped when a big, dark shape suddenly whooshed past him in the mist, heading into the village.
"Here they come!" Jason shouted.
He turned to look into town but only caught the waving tail and hazy shapes of the monster's wings before it disappeared deeper into New Bozeman.
"Look out!" Morgana cried. There was a burst of golden light. Jason was distracted for an instant by the gleaming sword in her right hand. Its brilliance cut through the fog and reminded Jason of the sun that had disappeared behind the horizon moments ago.
Then he looked south just in time to see a gargoyle flying fast at him, its stone mouth stretched open, revealing long stone-like teeth on a leering, evil face with glowing red eyes. It flared its wings—the claws of all four limbs stretched out—apparently intending to crash right into him!
Jason didn't have time to fire. He threw himself to one side, hoping that he could dodge far enough to avoid being snatched by the creature's outstretched claws...
The gargoyle missed him then stalled and landed on the wall where Jason had been standing, rising onto two feet with claws that clutched at the walkway's surface. With its wings stretched out to each side, the monster turned to face Jason, coiling up its long tail. It crouched to leap. Jason could have easily shot it center-mass, but Morgana was right behind it. If he somehow missed, he'd hit the girl.
Suddenly, Morgana's gleaming sword blade flashed from behind the beast. It recoiled with a silent scream as one of its wide wings was lopped off and tumbled to the courtyard below, shattering on the cobblestone. The monster lashed back at her reflexively—as quick as a snake—and Morgana parried the strike with the edge of her weapon. In the next instant, the gargoyle's left hand was flying away into the night, lopped off at the elbow.
"I can't shoot!" Jason cried. "Get down to the floor!"
With one less wing, the beast didn't block his view of Morgana with its body anymore, and Jason saw the girl hit the deck. He aimed at the thrashing creature's head and opened fire, one thunderous semi-auto shot after another. After his second round, the gargoyle's head exploded like a shattered rock.
Jason immediately felt stupid. He should have let Morgana finish it off. She was doing very well on her own. Now, her amazing blade was sitting on the walkway floor on her right—its light blazing in the darkness—and the girl had both hands pressed around her ears. He might have deafened her.
The headless monster slumped, toppled, and fell off of the wall to join the pieces of its severed wing in the courtyard below.
"Shit!" Morgana cried, peeking with one eye then jumping back to her feet, snatching up her sword.
"Sorry," Jason replied. "I should have just let you kill it."
Just then, there were several tremendous booms from Riley and Gliath's position. With Jason's nice, new eardrums totally unaffected by his rifle's blasts, he heard the faint but distinct click-click of the soldier's lever action cycling here and there. The gunfire must have been Riley's Marlin and Gliath's Versa Max.
There was another whoosh. A second gargoyle flew past them on the wall too quickly for Jason to react to.
"Damn it!"
Then another went by and Jason was already looking when he saw its wicked form settle into a drop in altitude on the inside of the wall. Its wings raised to pump again as it glided. Jason snapped up his AK, lined up the sights as quickly as he could, and fired off three rounds.
At least one round hit, because the beast listed to the side, knocked off course. It threw its wings out to adjust, and Jason shot it twice more, causing it to crash into the side of a house. The gargoyle fell into a thrashing heap amidst the rubble below. When it struggled to its feet and stretched out its wings to take flight again, Jason leaned his back against the battlement to steady himself then took three careful shots to its head.
The beast was maybe sixty feet away. It was an easy shot. The first round hit with a loud crack, and the second one burst the gargoyle's stone skull.
"Yes!" Jason exclaimed.
"Another one!" Morgana added, actually smiling.
There was more shooting from Riley and Gliath's position.
"How's it going?" Riley shouted from deep in the mist.
"Two down!" Jason shouted back.
"We've got three over—"
Jason stopped listening when he heard a man's growing scream drift his way through the night. He faced the village just in time to see a gargoyle flying at them with a villager struggling and howling, held tightly in the monster's arms. The gargoyle wasn't much bigger than the flailing man in its grip, but the beast carried him like he didn't weigh a thing, beating its wings furiously, heading straight for their position on the wall...
In an instant, the gargoyle was over and past Jason and Morgana, flying away to the south with its screaming passenger.
"Kill it!" Morgana cried. "Use your weapon! Kill it now!"
Jason leaned up on the battlement and took aim. The gargoyle bobbed around on the other side of his front sight and so did the struggling man. Jason aimed a little higher. Maybe if he just shot it in the head, there was less chance of hitting the guy.
"I'll try!"
He put his finger on the trigger, started to squeeze...
The gargoyle rose suddenly, all over the damned place in his sight picture.
"Hurry! Kill it!" Morgana shouted.
Jason released the trigger and took a breath.
"I can't!" he replied. "I'll hit the villager!" He stood and looked into Morgana's frantic, pleading face. The golden light of her sword was reflected in her frightened eyes. "Besides," Jason added. "If I hit it, the man would probably die from the fall."
"Damn it!" she snapped, watching the gargoyle disappear into the mist with its flailing human prisoner.
Jason quickly scanned around to see if any more gargoyles were coming in at them at that moment. He heard Riley and Gliath taking several shots nearby. Just at the edge of his vision, he saw some muzzle flash in the fog like bright green starbursts with his night vision.
Riley and Gliath were coming closer.
"Do you think it's taking him to the necromancer's tower?" Jason asked.
"Probably," Morgana replied, calming herself down. "I have no idea what they're still doing with people." She sighed, looking down at her gleaming blade with a frown.
"Have you ever seen the necromancer's tower?
"
"No."
Jason rested his AK up on his shoulder for a moment and pulled at the tiny compass on his backpack strap. He knew the answer already before he looked, but glancing down at the tiny instrument, he confirmed that the beast with the villager was headed directly south.
More sudden screams from within town made Jason drop the compass back to its strap and grab his rifle with both hands again. He peered into the streets choked with white mist.
God, this place is Hell, he thought.
Then Morgana suddenly ran down the stairs to the courtyard, her sword brilliant in her right fist and her dark hair flying out behind her.
"Uh—wait!" Jason cried. "Where are you going?! We've gotta stick together!"
There was a sudden crash on his left and Jason spun to look at a gargoyle landing right next to him. It faced him with curling claws and a malicious grin on its spooky stone face with long horns and a carved goatee. Jason aimed at the beast as adrenaline flooded his body with numbness and turned his guts to water. That creature would tear him limb from limb if he let it, just like they did with that villager last night.
"The Crossroads!" Morgana screamed as she ran across the square. "The rebels!"
"Shit! Wait!" Jason cried, putting his front sight on the monster's rushing face. He fired several times, the fireballs erupted from his muzzle reflecting on the charging gargoyle's stone body with a strange, green glow in his right eye. Fear swirled through him like a storm. "Shit! Shit!"
The creature lunged for Jason with its right hand—stone fingers tipped with long, curving claws—as it slipped and stumbled on the way. Jason must have hit something, but nothing was exploding and the gargoyle was still coming at him!
He fired many times, aiming with as much dexterity as he could muster while he was utterly fried by fear. His thundering AK-47 belched fire and brass, speeding through the magazine. Half of the monster's face suddenly disappeared in a burst of dust. Sparks flew and the creature's left shoulder cracked all the way down to its stone belly, chunks of rock spilling away. Its right leg burst above the knee and it crashed to the walkway. Chunks split away from its wings.
Jason backed away, listening to himself scream in terror as his trigger finger flew and he pumped several shots into the thing's head. The gargoyle's skull cracked once, twice, then split apart down the middle. Its momentum brought it sliding forward, then the monster slipped off of the side of the walkway and fell down to the courtyard below.
"Holy fuck!" Jason cried. The smell of burned powder filled his nose then was swept away on the wind.
Jason had no idea how many shots he'd fired.
A cold jolt of adrenaline flew through him, then he looked down at the square and the main street bathed in mist...
She was gone.
"Morgana!" Jason shouted.
He rapidly swapped magazines with shaking hands. Looking at the spent mag, Jason saw that there were at least a few rounds left inside. He put it in his jacket pocket then racked the bolt, expelling an unfired cartridge down into the courtyard.
"Damn it!" he muttered, feeling like an idiot. He needed to practice more.
Right, he thought. Chamber wasn't empty.
"Are you okay, Jason?" Riley shouted from near him on the south wall. Loud gunfire erupted from the other two Reality Rifters. They were fighting. Jason turned and saw both Riley and Gliath barely in sight at the edge of the mist, their muzzle flashes lighting up his night vision.
The dark form of another gargoyle swooped down into the courtyard between Jason and his friends. It banked right to fly up the street, either after Morgana or somebody else.
Shit.
"Yeah!" Jason called back. "I'm good!" Then he ran down the stairs.
He had to catch up to Morgana. She was going to get herself killed! Jason couldn't see her in the fog anymore, but he knew exactly where she would be going.
"Where are you going?!" Riley shouted after him. "Jason!"
"Morgana ran that way!" he called back, sprinting across the square with his rifle. "I have to get her!"
"Stay together, Jason! Get back here!" Riley replied. "Shet!"
"Need to help her!" Jason called back, then he found himself running up the street with houses on either side of him. He leaped over the sprawled body of the gargoyle he'd shot down there. His boots clacked and skittered on the cobblestone road and his breathing became quicker and louder...
He could hear calling after him, fading as Jason ran up the street toward the Crossroads. Riley was shouting something about sticking to what mattered. Well, Morgana mattered to him. As Jason ran through the darkness, his boots smashing the cobblestone and scraping on bits of rock and debris, he started to feel more and more stupid for going after the girl. They were here to kill gargoyles. They had a plan. Why in the hell did Morgana have to go running off? Jason was stupid for splitting up.
Then he arrived.
Through the mist, the crosses appeared dark and dreadful on either side of the street. When Jason approached the intersection, he saw the rest of the crosses materialize one by one from the fog until he was surrounded by instruments of death. The dark shadow of the tall church loomed on one corner.
Jason saw the golden beacon of Morgana's sword and ran for it.
She was trying in vain to cut down a prisoner. The crosses were ten feet off of the ground, which meant that the prisoner's arm bindings were around seven feet off of the street. The young woman was having a hard time—even with the three-foot reach of the shining blade.
Jason also saw the body of a dismembered gargoyle in the intersection. Its segments were splashed with red blood. The beast was killed at the base of a cross where a dead man was tied up—obviously dead because he had been torn in half at the waist. Though the poor man's arms were still tied to the crossbeam, he hung limp with his belly and sides ragged and bloody, his gastrointestinal tract hanging from his abdominal cavity and unraveling all the way down to the street. With his night vision, Jason quickly identified the lower half of the man near the fallen gargoyle.
Morgana must have run up on the monster torturing the prisoner, then cut it to pieces.
Man, her sword was like a lightsaber or something!
"Morgana!" Jason exclaimed.
She spun to face his approach with wide, fearful eyes and her gleaming blade held in front of her.
Her alarm melted. "Oh—Jason!" she replied with a smile. "I'm trying to—"
They were interrupted by the windy sound of a gargoyle flaring to land in the street near them. Its wings spread wide and slowed its descent enough to let the monster touch down nimbly on its feet, which still made a hearty sound on the cobblestone. Those things must be heavy.
"I'll try to cover you!" Jason shouted, putting his front sight on the monster. "Do what you've gotta do, then we need to get back to the wall!"
"Okay!"
Jason hardly heard her response as he fired on the beast. It moved with great speed, running at him on all fours like a jungle cat made of grey rock. Its tail whipped around behind it and it tucked its wings in against its back as it prepared to spring. Then it was immediately struck in the face and shoulders with a few 7.62x39mm rounds. Chunks of the gargoyle's stony jaw, cheek, and one arm flecked off to the ground. The monster opened its mouth as if to hiss or snarl, but made no sound other than the grinding thumps of its steps on the street.
Resetting the rifle's stock in his shoulder, Jason quickly released his breath, blinked, then squeezed the trigger a few more times. His AK-47 spit fire—blinding bright-green flares in his right eye—then he split the gargoyle's head open starting at one fierce, glowing eye.
It collapsed in a stony heap.
Jesus, Riley's gonna to be pissed, Jason thought. He'd run off to help the girl instead of sticking together. Running away after Morgana like that had screwed everything up. They were separated. What a bonehead move!
Despite the thunderous gunfire, Morgana had somehow steeled herself to concentrate better
with Jason's help, and was reaching up and cutting through the leather strips with the tip of her gleaming sword. She had freed one arm of one of those big, bearded twins, and was working on the other.
Jason quickly scanned around them and changed mags again even though he wasn't empty. He put the mostly-full magazine in a pocket and shouldered his rifle again, looking up at the church.
It was her choice, of course, Jason thought. She was the one who'd run off. But he couldn't just let her run away and get killed by herself, could he?!
Damn it...
There was sudden gunfire from down the street and Jason turned to watch, catching a glimpse of muzzle flash in the mist. The shadowy forms of Riley and Gliath were between him and the gate, firing upon a gargoyle next to them in the road. The Krulax was in his warrior form again, tall and feline at the edge of Jason's vision.
Riley and Gliath killed the beast. It slumped forward into the street, then the two of them continued running for the Crossroads.
Jason opened his mouth to shout out to them, but was suddenly shocked and jolted beyond belief when he felt something heavy crash into him from behind. He heard the sweep of wind, and the breath was knocked out of him as his rifle was thrown from his hands. It clattered down onto the street. There were hard, dense claws squeezing around Jason's shoulders, digging into his skin and ribs. Jason grimaced in pain as a gargoyle's hands grabbed his arms with the unyielding strength of a vice-grip.
Then—by the time Jason realized what had happened—he felt his stomach lurch, then, there was nothing under his feet.
Jason felt the wind in his ears and heard Morgana's scream quickly fading away below him as he was pulled up into the air...
Chapter 21
Flying...
Oh God—he was flying up into the air.
Jason watched his feet dangle in the misty air. His rifle—abandoned on the ground—flew away from him as he was carried upwards at great speed. The cobblestone street shrank beneath him. He saw Morgana's face looking up at him in terror from where she was cutting down a prisoner, lit up by the shining, golden light of her sword. She became smaller and smaller as Jason suddenly saw the rooftops of the buildings around the intersection, which were full of holes...