“Oh, shut up, you loved it,” Krystalyn giggled, and Karrel brought his thumb and index finger together, as if to say, “just a little.”
Still holding Karrel in her arms, Krystalyn searched around the portal room. She turned her head back to Karrel. Her joyous demeanor had sunk to that of depression. It was confusing to see. Seconds ago, everything was fine. What could have gone wrong? Her mouth twitched slightly, as if she was trying to form words but could not. Finally, she brought forth the courage to ask the question that she was scared to get an answer to.
“Where’s Angel…?” she trembled.
Karrel’s eyes went wide. He scanned around the room. Jessica was standing over a recently passed out Johnny, as Prisca watched Puck immerse himself once again in his friend’s life-threatening injury.
Alice stood at the base of the portal’s ramp, staring at the unpowered device. Her eyes were locked on the hollow insides of the large structure, and she remained utterly motionless. She was holding her breath, desperately waiting for something to happen.
“H– He…” Karrel stuttered. “He was right behind me…”
Krystalyn’s eyes began to water, glistening with the pain of her realization. Her lips quivered, but she remained silent as Karrel continued his dumbfounded debriefing. He was getting louder with each passing word.
“He wasn’t more than a few feet behind,” Karrel explained. “He was in the portal! He had made it! I don’t understand! HE WAS RIGHT THERE!”
Krystalyn continued to listen, closing her eyes, sealing her lips, and shaking her head half-way between a no and a yes. She understood everything that Karrel was saying, but she did not want to believe it. She felt a tug on the back of her cloak. It was Alice.
She had overheard the conversation and was silently holding on the back of Krystalyn’s clothes. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she had yet to reveal any emotion, sticking to her usual blank demeanor. She remained silent as she stared into her sister’s eyes, before finally shifting to Karrel. “Where is he…?” she trembled.
Karrel did not know what to say. His friend had been so close behind him. Angel had made it into the portal; he had seen him with his own two eyes. Slowly, painfully, Karrel began to comprehend what had happened. The portal had closed. Angel did not make it out of the gateway, which meant only one thing: he was pushed back to the other side. He had left his friend on Infernum.
“I’m so sorry, Alice…” Karrel whispered.
Tears welled in Alice’s eyes before she finally broke. Dropping to her knees, and pulling her hands to her face, she began to weep. Krystalyn embraced her sister, rubbing her back and joining in with her own tears.
Karrel watched in horror as the inexplicably emotionless girl, and her tenacious sister, both cracked underneath the weight of their despair. Two girls, both demons, and Karrel wanted nothing more than to help clear them of their tears. The only problem was that there was nothing he could do.
“What’s going on!?” Prisca shouted, with Puck racing close behind her.
Karrel ignored the question, trying to stand himself up, but finding that his legs were no longer working. He turned to Puck. “We have to go back!” he shouted. “Angel’s still there!”
Puck’s eyes widened. “I thought he came back with you?”
Karrel had substituted anger for his pain. He began to shout even louder. “He didn’t make it all the way through! WE HAVE TO GO BACK!”
“You left him behind!” Puck eyes darkened as he yelled.
“He said he could make it– He threw me through the– HE WAS RIGHT BEHIND ME!”
“There were hundreds of demons surrounding the portal when we escaped!” Puck fumed. “We thought for sure we had lost you both! Now, you’re telling me you didn’t even bring Angel back with you!”
“PUCK!” a shout came from the other end of the room. It was Johnny. He had woken from his minor coma, and with the help of Jessica, was now limping his way towards the others.
“If the portal closes while you’re still within its transdimensional space,” Johnny explained, “its random as to which side you get spit out.” He turned toward his dismayed friend. “Karrel… it wasn’t your fault.”
“I don’t care whose fault it is!” Karrel snapped. “I want to go back!”
“There were hundreds, Karrel,” Johnny mourned his own words. “Not spread out amongst a city. Not rampaging haphazardly. Hundreds of demons bearing down upon a single–”
“THIS IS ANGEL WE’RE TALKING ABOUT!” Karrel thundered. “He survived two female Executives at the same time! He brought down a fucking monstrosity by himself. Why are we even discussing whether or not he’s alive? We just need to go back for him!”
Silence filled the room. Karrel could hear himself breathing intensely, exhaling pure fury as Puck and Johnny continued to stare at him.
Seconds past before Johnny broke the silence. His words were dark and carried a heavy tone of dread. “By the time I make the calculations for the next trip, the portal will have been destroyed, and Angel will have had to flee from the encampment… We will have no way to find him. Even if he is still alive, it may take years before I can get the equipment needed to establish another base camp on Infernum…”
Karrel heard the words but all he could think of was how he had failed his friend.
“I’m sorry, Karrel,” Johnny stammered. “There’s nothing we can do.”
Epilogue
Karrel had almost forgotten what it felt like, not having to traverse a transdimensional highway when navigating between worlds. In and out of the portal within a fraction of a second; going from one place to another was so much easier when you stayed on Earth. A small group of demons had found their way into a small town, and Karrel and Kailey had managed to eliminate them before any of the civilians became dinner. It felt good to be saving lives again but walking through the portal bestowed a blended glass of emotions for Karrel.
They had not found Angel yet. The portal on Infernum had been eviscerated and the surrounding area razed to the point that Karrel doubted that there used to be an encampment in the first place. Weeks of searching had turned up little to no evidence, with a cigarette butt being the only shred of proof that Angel was ever there at all. He tried not to get discouraged. This was Angel they were talking about. However, the harder Karrel tried to maintain hope, the more it hurt when his searches failed.
Johnny had stated that, “If Angel had survived, he would have been smart enough to double back to the encampment’s position.” So, when weeks passed, and Angel never turned up, he finally called off the search. It hurt to hear, but even Puck and the girls thought that Johnny’s choice was correct. Karrel did not want to believe it, but he knew that protesting would not help the group’s depressed morale. Especially, the girls’.
They had been affected by Angel’s death just as hard as the boys, if not harder. Angel being vacant meant that Alice no longer had someone to feed from. With the memory of the day he and Krystalyn had met, Karrel shuddered to think of that happening to Alice. It had been weeks however, and Alice, strong as she was, had started to show signs of what her sisters called, “excessive hunger.” Who knows how many people she would tear through before finding another person capable of surviving her? It was a dangerous problem.
Johnny had begun making “preparations” for when Alice eventually snapped. He had not disclosed many details about it, but what he had revealed involved a lot of power being redistributed to a cooling unit. The girls understood the gist of the plan, causing their gloom to depress even further. They had just lost Angel, now they were going to lose their sister.
Karrel hated to see Krystalyn’s heart breaking before him, but there was nothing he could do. What do you say to someone when they’ve just lost a friend and are now waiting day by day to lose another? What are you supposed to say when the next friend they’re going to lose is their own flesh and blood sister? What do you say? He did his best to comfort her, but nothing he tried had any
uplifting effects. From the look of things, Johnny and Puck were not having any luck with Jessica and Prisca either.
Karrel decided it was best to focus on any of the small victories in the coming days, lest he be consumed by his despair. Saving the town with Kailey had been one such victory. Though the mission was a tiny task, it had put a lot of things into perspective.
It had been the first time Karrel had made a trip to the wastelanded surface of the Earth since taking on Aerozthcz. There was an immediately noticeable difference. He had expected his clothes to begin violently fluttering the second he stepped outside; it was something he had become acclimated to. However, the wind was still. The feeling was ominous, and had Kailey not woken him from his daze, he would have stood there for hours, embracing the gentle breeze that Earth had long forgotten. She was empathetic toward Karrel’s reaction, having returned to the surface only a day after the wind-demon fell.
Everyone in the Survivor’s Guild had felt the same way. Apparently, those who were not stationed in hidden outposts made it a point to have their meals outside for a change. It was a global phenomenon within the guild, one that Kailey attested to partaking in herself. She mentioned that, because of this, morale in the Survivor’s Guild had never been higher. Everyone except for Dane, who according to Kailey had been muttering about how much paperwork this was all going to entail, had rebirthed their faith in the guild’s purpose. In fact, it was significant enough that she had been working overtime, pestering Karrel to take a seat of command within the organization.
Kailey claimed that if a Kerstabest were to reappear during this time of confidence, the Survivor’s Guild would see a massive resurgence in numbers and influence. She was convinced that it would be enough to start pressuring the UWP, at least on the political front. Karrel was unsure of that, but he had to admit he was thinking more and more about the idea of joining. They were already on good terms, and the Survivor’s Guild had a significant amount of manpower. Being able to leverage some of it, without having to waste Dane’s time with a requisition, could be useful. However, Karrel was still unsure of whether or not he was ready for something like that. He had declined Kailey once again, but the thought was lingering. That was for sure.
For now, he was sticking with the group. Karrel had made it his personal mission to find Angel. The others may believe him to be dead, but he knew in his very soul that he had survived. It would take some convincing, but maybe he could talk Johnny into letting him search the plains of Infernum during his down time. The portal took massive amounts of energy to run, but Karrel was willing to scavenge whatever Johnny would need to power the extra trips. His friend was worth it.
It had been Angel who introduced Karrel to the idea of a better life. It had been Angel who had extended a hand, pulling him from the dark, lonely abyss. Before belonging to this group, Karrel walked the wastelands of Earth in solitude, with nothing but the thought of surviving to the next day. Now, he had friends. Now, he had Krystalyn. Though he did not know it at the time, he had craved belonging to a family once again, and though he loved everyone like brothers and sisters, it had always been Angel who stood directly by his side. Karrel now had purpose. Angel was to thank for that, and he was going to make sure to return the favor.
•—•
Cracked and sundered, the land itself would forever hold the carnage that had been wrought. Darkness swirled in the air, expanding, plaguing the lands with its indifferent presence. The brownish-purple rock and stone of the surrounding hills was covered in the corpses of demonic entities. Alphas, zweichars… a variety of demons lay dead on the ground, their blood covering the greyscale stain of the terrain. The drowned landscape and twisting blackness encircled the never-ending hills, masking the fluorescent orange crevices in the surrounding area. It was all centered on one position.
With a sudden pause, the dark shadows began to coalesce in upon itself. It revolved around a singular point, as though the center of the bloody landscape was its rightful home, until every last drop of darkness had been sucked in. In that center, a humanoid-figure appeared, staring at the purples, reds, and greens of the sky. It was soaked with the colorful blood, dripping from how heavily it had been painted. But above all else, the figure was calm.
A singular voice filled the air. It spoke in a whisper, but was loud and powerful nonetheless.
“This is what happens when you allow me full control…” the whispers echoed across the lands. “We have barely scratched the surface… Allow me to give you a glimpse of true power…”
The figure brought its attention forward. There was no response. Step by step, it began to stride over the corpses, until finally the land beneath its feet was no longer smothered in demonic blood. The whispered words still hung in the air, until finally, the figure came to a pause. The decision had been made. It brought its gaze to the sky and smiled.
This story takes place in the 29A universe
Tales
From 29A
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About the Author
Graduating from San Jose State University with a degree in Applied Mathematics, Tyler Bunyard is the author of this book. Wait… Is he? Hold on, let me go check…
…
Well, the front cover has his name on it, so I’m going to assume that’s correct. *Whew* Thought I made a mistake there.
A lover of gaming and an avid storyteller, he is the creator of Aux Adventures, a series of short stories involving video-game related shenanigans, which lives on the site TalesFrom29A.com where he posts other short stories that take place within the 29A universe. When he is not writing, gaming, or perfecting his craft, he puts his life on the line and embarks on epic quests to save the world. Yep, that last one definitely isn’t a lie.
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