Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves

by Richard M. Heredia

  “I guess so,” he muttered, not catching the import of Anthony’s last phrase.

  Not Hyun though. She tilted her head to the side. “Why would you guys be looking for us?”

  Anthony looked over to stare at Hyun. He seemed about to say something more when suddenly, Kimberly screamed at the top of lungs.

  They all ducked or spun around, attempting to find the threat. A few covered their heads, cowering in fear.

  Elena had crouched lower to the ground, certain the enemy had surrounded them on all sides. Now, they would descend upon them in vast numbers. This time, there would be no hope of escape. They would be prisoners once again.

  Then, her eyes caught sight of the end of Kimberly’s finger, pointing in the direction of the forest. She was peering toward the opposite side of the intersection, relative to their position. An instant later, she let out a sigh of relief.

  Pounding from the forest, through the snow blanketing the landscape, was Garfield - one of the Fist and a dear friend.

  Thank god, she thought.

  Then she saw his face was a mask of worry. His body strained with urgency she only seen course through him when the situation was dire. He was hurtling toward them.

  Her fear returned with a vengeance.

  Kimberly, Hyun and Derek made to run headlong, away from the giant cat, headless of exactly where they’d go.

  Anthony shouted.

  They all stopped in their tracks, still frightened out their minds. In morbid fascination, they stared as one. They were sure they gazed upon the harbinger of their deaths.

  The massive feline drew nearer with his long fangs exposed and sharp claws drawn.

  Something is wrong.

  “Stop! He’s with us. He’s on our side!” shouted Anthony. “Stop! There is no need to fear!”

  ~~~~~~~<<< ᴥ >>>~~~~~~~

  ~ 14 ~

  Terror

  Day Four, Sunday, 8:59 am…

  In a blink of an eye, Garfield was at Anthony’s side.

  Elena made her way closer, noticing Mikalah and Sophie were doing the same.

  “Kring-Hël something approaches. Hurry! Move! Everyone to cover!”

  Elena felt dread fall on her shoulders like a bucket of bricks, almost buckling her knees.

  “What is it?” asked Anthony in alarm, glancing about, but did not move.

  Garfield’s face clenched with angst. “I know not, but I sense a threat, Tony Boy. My hackles rise. We must be vigilant, like the Great Canine warned. I will not have us caught unawares like the last time.”

  Her brother nodded and spun to look at her and Mikalah. He never got the chance to speak.

  Just as Elena did not have the time to process what was said around her.

  In the next instant, Hyun screamed at the top of her lungs and began to scramble from her position near the far end of the Colorado pathway. She was flat out running toward the vestiges of Townsend.

  Overloaded with the rapid infusion of stimuli, Elena saw it, before her mind could grasp what she was seeing. It had the same bulk as a medium-sized dog. Yet, the moment she laid eyes upon it, she knew it was nothing like a dog.

  It had eight legs. They were long, spindle-like, covered with an alien sort of chitinous skin. It looked hard and reflected the sunlight as if polished to a high sheen. Yet, there were knobs and thorns across its' surface as well. Its’ body, segmented, had two distinct parts. The first much smaller than the second, which was bulbous and bloated looking. It did not have a head, only a face pushed into the smaller, frontal segment. Four eyes, two of which were small and beady, the other two large and bulging, had fixated upon Hyun’s fleeing back. Its’ mouth was a ragged, slash below its’ eyes. It unfolded. It did not open, revealing a large orifice, full with needle-like teeth and fangs. A pair of pedipalpian pincers grew at either side of its' maw.

  Still, this was not what had startled the little girl the most.

  This creature did not come running upon the ground or dropping from a tree. It flew. Right out of the forest it came, on a pair of seven-foot wings, leathery and flushed with large, dark veins, pulsating blood.

  It’s a spider, came the automatic thought. It’s a spider with wings like a bat. A huge flying spider!

  It was a spider whose scopula and claws at the end of its long legs were reaching for Hyun’s back.

  Elena could see it would take only a single beat of its’ great wings and it would be within reach of the teenage girl.

  “Get back!” yelled Anthony. “Jason, Mikalah – call your Gifts. Elena, at the ready!”

  Jason moved toward it with surprising speed, heeding her brother’s command. He was already beginning to “glow”. It was the same golden-emerald-like sheen Mikalah had described earlier.

  His Gift! Elena thought, her brain a riotous mass, firing too fast. Her thoughts were fleeting and uncontrollable, almost not her own.

  Wait! What did Tony say?

  Most of their group scattered in various directions away from the creature. There were yelling and screaming with horror and revulsion. It was like Hyun had the plague, left behind in the center of a widening circle, alone and unprotected.

  “Patas, to the fore! Leap and take this vile beast from the air!” thundered Garfield at the forest.

  Elena had not heard him, though. She glanced from Jason to the giant spider-bat, gauging distance. Immediately, it was plain. Jason would not reach the creature in time to save Hyun. It was coming down fast, with a steep rate of descent. She knew this thing was beyond his reach. He could not hit it as he had the squirrel-pig.

  Elena glanced around, in a frenzy to find Mikalah, hoping her sister was close enough to do something with her Gift.

  Wait! What did Tony say?

  Thoughts interrupted, she saw Sophie holding her little sister behind her. The older teens' arms formed a protective shield about her. She half-expected to see Mikalah struggling to get away.

  She was not.

  Her sister looked on with abject fear, her eyes dripping with remorse.

  Elena knew her sister had come to the same conclusion she had moments before.

  Mikalah knew she could not reach the creature. She might get there fast enough, but the thing would still be beyond her grasp. She could not leap that high!

  Elena looked for Jason once more, praying within the grip of his Gift he had somehow figured out what to do.

  It was a false hope.

  He did not have the time to figure anything out.

  Another spider-bat swooped down from the sky and struck him hard at the shoulder. He went sprawling onto the icy snow. He arrested his forward momentum, scrambling so he could regain his feet.

  Joaquin came up quick. He pulled on his friends’ upturned leg at the ankle, but had to dodge aside when the second spider-bat clawed at him on its’ return trip. All he succeeded in doing was drag Jason along with him rather than help him stand.

  Joaquin was frenzied.

  Garfield raced toward him, shot out of a canon.

  The second spider-bat was already angling its’ horrid body into a long, parabolic turn. It would be upon Joaquin and Jason within seconds.

  From somewhere to the right, she saw the forest erupt in a cascade of snow and ice. She thought for an instant another spider-bat had sprung forth. Then she saw the long tufted ears and the white, fur-covered body. She knew she watched Mr. Patas fly over the surface of the snow at an incredible pace. She felt her eyes widened when she saw his broad, nimble feet did not sink into the deep precipitation as they should have. Rather, the rabbit-man streaked across it as if he was lighter than a feather. He was a large, muscular “feather” with long claws and death in his luminous, pink eyes.

  “Hyun run!” howled Derek, yelling the obvious.

  She was already doing just that.

  Wait! What did Tony say? The notion struggled against the events transpiring about her.

  Then she heard the beat of wings. A massive gathering of air, whoomp! She heard a stran
gled, gurgle escape Hyun. Sheer fright had closed her throat, constricting the scream boiling within, thwarting its’ release.

  Elena turned in time to see three of the creatures eight legs gouge into Hyun’s back. She heard the girls’ designer jacket rip.

  Hyun let out a blood curdling yell of pain. No amount of constriction could have contained the agony she must have felt in that moment.

  “Hurry, Mr. Patas!” Elena heard herself scream. Her throat was raw by the force of it.

  Garfield’s great roar echoed across the landscape, followed by the roiling screech of the other spider-bat.

  Joaquin called out in fear.

  Jason bellowed: “Get out of the way!”

  Elena had not time to look.

  Another whoomp! from the fell insects’ wings sounded throughout the intersection.

  Elena gasped in horror when Hyun’s feet began to lift from the ground, an unexpected leap her mind and body had not coordinated. She tripped and fell.

  Only the inhuman strength of the spider-bat held her up. The tips of her toes made twin furrows upon the snowy trail. It was dragging her along with it! The creature garnered greater control as more of it legs clutched a hold of Hyun, each new clamp made her scream aloud. Out of pain or fear Elena could not discern.

  Time had run its’ course.

  In the next beat of Elena’s heart, Hyun lifted completely off the ground, dangling a few feet in the air.

  She screamed again – long, agonized.

  Elena could hear the some of the others cry out, infuriated, shrieking with rage. She saw Mr. Patas pounding over the ground, as fast as he could manage, trying to catch Hyun before she was out of reach.

  “Come here, you sonofabitch!’ It was Jason’s challenge to the other spider-bat.

  Maybe he was standing now, she thought in her mind.

  In her heart though, she knew there was no chance for Hyun. Mr. Patas would be too late.

  “NO!” Elena was not sure if she had said it out loud or had shouted it in her mind.

  “Elena!” called her brother.

  Yes, she had yelled it!

  “YES!” she cried out in exaltation.

  “Do it now!” commanded Anthony.

  Her Gift exploded within her. In a flash of warmth, she lost herself to it.

  Then the world blinked. It was like gigantic eyelids had closed over the orb that was the Melded World.

  What remained of the daylight seemed to diminish. A part of it coalesced, gathered, centered into a single point twenty feet above her tiny head. If left the day less brilliant than it had been before. It focused there at an amazing velocity. The incredible light formed there in an instant, blinding, harsh and painful.

  A split second of a split second later, it struck downward too fast for the eye to follow in two places at once. There came an incredible crash of thunder. It was a violent report that should have come from the sky, but had come from a place only few feet away. Unnatural lightning struck the ground in rapid succession, knocking her from her feet. For a moment, she was dazed.

  All around, her companions fell. They thudded or slid across the frozen, billowy forest floor from the power of the blast. Audible thumps and long scrapes, reached her ears where her vision failed her. Still, she hardly understood.

  From somewhere at the forests edge, she heard: “Hold here!” She knew it for one of the bear-dogs, but did not know which.

  Elena shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. She felt like she was in a washing machine and put on the spin cycle. Disorientation was her only experience.

  Close-by, she heard someone move and saw a figure rise to its feet. It was dainty, a female.

  Elena wiped at her face in hopes of seeing clearer.

  “Jesus Christ, did you see that?”

  Elena was not aware it was Kimberly who spoke, but was astute enough to hear the mix of awe and fear in her voice.

  The sound of the others regaining their feet came from all about.

  “I sure did,” answered Anthony in a matter of fact tone. “Elena, are you, ok?” he inquired, his voice changing with a brother's concern.

  Elena placed her hands underneath her and pushed herself off the ground. She ignored the pain in her shoulder, coming to sit on the balls of her feet, her knees still touching the earth. Her vision cleared finally. “Yeah, I’m fine. How about Hyun? Has anyone checked her?” She was already looking back toward the last place she had seen the teenage girl.

  Hyun was a heap upon the ground, farther away than she had been seconds before. Beyond her was a smoking, crisped hunk of flesh, spewing wispy tendrils of hot mist up into the swirl of the wind. The Asian girl was moving, slow, as if she were testing specific parts of her body to see if they still functioned.

  “I’ll go and see,” replied her brother, walking from her. He intercepted Jason who had already been heading toward the injured teen.

  Joaquin was nudging a similar burnt pile of flesh with the tip of his shoe. It too smoked and hissed, charred to a cinder within a millisecond. The contrast between its’ ultra-high temperature and the growing chill of the day was making it crack and pop in hideous fashion.

  Elena had slain both spider-bats at the same time. With sunlight she was tenfold more powerful than she had been in the cave earlier that morning.

  She raised herself the rest of the way to her feet and made after her brother. Her eyes focused on the sight of the nearest smoldering chunk of meat, blackened and twisted. She shied away from the smell, covering her nose with her hand. She rubbed at her aching shoulder with the other and walked the last few steps toward their wounded friend.

  “Did you see that?” exclaimed Derek. He rushed across Elena’s path and up to the charred husk of the grotesque spider-thing, oblivious to the smell.

  “What the shit was that thing?” demanded Kimberly from behind, rooted in place afraid to move. Her hands balled into fists at either side.

  “They are Vürmm,” replied Joaquin. He had left the remains of the other spider-bat and was scurrying toward Hyun. He passed within a few feet of Kimberly, stride-for-stride with Elena.

  “They’re what?” inquired the girl, distrusted.

  “Vürmm,” answered Joaquin over his shoulder. “Things that come from the other world Anthony was trying to explain to you guys earlier.” He slowed his pace a bit, shoulders perpendicular to Kimberly.

  Her interest peeked. She was no longer rooted in place and began to follow as they continued toward Hyun.

  “It behaves for the most part like a spider, though it spins no web of any sort. It pounces upon its prey from above and carries them off, injecting flesh-eating venom into the victim as it goes along. It’ll puncture them over and over, until it reaches its’ roost. Then, it’ll devour the liquefying flesh of its’ catch as it feels the need.”

  He stopped when he came beside Hyun, his face changing. “It didn’t sting you, did it?” he asked, a troubled look overtaking him.

  “N-no, I don’t think so. How would I know?” responded the injured teen as she lay on her side, unmoving.

  Joaquin froze for a moment.

  Ah, the creepy Gift-thing again, recognized Elena.

  He said: “You would feel a terrible burning sensation throughout your body. The puncture wound would seem like it was on fire, and then -. Well, nothing, within a few minutes the entire area would feel numb,” he answered when he was able focus his mind.

  Hyun breathed in deep draughts for a few seconds. “No, I don’t feel any of that.”

  “Good! Can you sit up?” Elena heard Joaquin ask as he squatted down next to Hyun, holding out his left hand for her to grasp. His right hand rested on her arm just below the shoulder, ready to assist if she chose to rise from the ground.

  Hyun had rolled over from her side and was now lying flat on her back, looking up at the ever darkening sky, her face veiled in obvious pain. “I think I can, but it still hurts to move,” clarified the girl. Her hands were at her sides, her eyes n
ot moving much as she frowned through the discomfort wracking her body.

  “Ok, just take your time. Let us know when you’re ready,” consoled Joaquin, clasping his hands before him. He did not stand.

  “God damn, where in the hell did that lightning come from?” wondered Derek, standing behind them all in awe as he struck the burnt mound of flesh again and again with the toe of his boot.

  Ah, Derek, don’t do that!

  There were a few nervous giggles from their original group.

  “You’re not gonna believe it,” chimed Louis. He came up beside Derek, his fleshy jowls still made red with fear, though it seemed ebb with each passing moment. His nose wrinkled with loathing.

  “Believe what?” queried Derek, swinging around to face the chubby boy.

  “Later,” said Anthony with mild authority, but loud enough to silence the chatter. “Hyun, you just take your time, ok.”

  “Yeah, no sense in rushing you if all it’s going to do is cause you more pain. It could lead to more damage,” added Jason, standing next to his crouching friend, glancing over at Anthony and Elena. He raised his eyebrows and took an expansive breath, looking straight at her. “You guys will come to find that Elena can do a lot more than call lightning from the sky.” He gazed at Anthony, his eyebrows bobbing up and down.

  She blushed.

  Joaquin applied a degree of explanation from his lowered stance. “The Illuminai can call many forms of light, and mold them to her will upon demand.” He paused to look into her eyes. “Elena, I bet there are things you can do that none of us could even dream of. Just think about how many different forms of light exist in the universe and the many different ways you could manipulate them. The possibilities are countless. After what we saw in the cave and out here today, your Gift could be... well, limitless.”

  Elena could see it was his Gift that telling him this. The truth of it rang in her gut, but still…