"You moron!" His friend declared annoyed. "Sorry, Sorry. I just couldn't resist." Din laughed, wiping his eyes with his free hand.
"Now hold on." He said, shifting his attention back to the wall and turning his hand in the hole it was inserted into. A low cricking sound was heard and Din pulled his hand out as part of the wall slid into the ground, revealing a huge dark room behind it.
”After you.” Din smiled as Toby gaped at what his friend discovered. They both carefully stepped closer to the door, afraid at the prospect of what was waiting for them inside the darkness.
“Ohh!” Toby covered his mouth and nose with his hands as they came closer to the opening.
“My god!” Din exhaled. “What is that?!”
“I don’t …I don’t know…” Toby coughed, pressing his hands tighter to his face, shielding it from the horrid smell that came from inside the stone structure.
The air inside was worm and moist, a foul smell of rotting eggs and a sweet sickening essence had made it almost impossible to breath, their vision got clouded by the dark dust that seemed to float from everywhere as their bodies covered in cold sweat.
Toby coughed again. “Where the fuck are we?” He demanded in a chocked voice, looking back at his friend.
”Wait…” Din narrowed his eyes as he scanned the space in front of them. “C’mon.”
He whispered to Toby as he pulled his friend inside, crouching down against the wall behind some huge barrels and looking up at the wood containers, attempting to read the warning labels that were plastered all over them.
”Oh my god…Din…Are you seeing this?” Toby whispered scanning the room with his eyes.
“Yeah…” Din choked. “Shit…What is that?” He asked astonished, glaring at the beings that walked around the stone like crypt.
The space in front of them was filed with figures, tall, dark narrow creatures all dressed in black and caped in dark hoods, covering their inhuman face.
Toby gulped, narrowing his eyes as he attempted to identify the creatures, his eyes traveled across the room that seemed to be illogically much larger on the inside until his sight finally rested on the wall that extended on the other side of the structure and his breath was cut short by the horror of what he saw there.
”Din! Din! Look!” Toby whispered screamed as he pointed at the direction of the glowing stone wall.
“What?” Din raised his eyes to follow Toby’s pointing finger. “What the…?” He asked, looking at the structure in front of him.
The stone wall was divided, as if someone had carved into it with a hammer, creating a net like monstrosity, the first thing that came to mind when you saw it was that you were looking at a huge bee hive. Each section was carved to perfection, containing a big, vibrating pulsing green almost transparent vein and slime covered egg. It was as big as a person, all the caverns had one, all, but one.
"Is that who I think it is?!"
Toby shuddered, pointing at a fairly remote section in the divided wall that seemed to contain the body of a young blond boy lying, unmoving behind a mass of silver like bars. "Oh shit…" Din whispered.
"That’s Jon's body!" Toby growled. "Do you know what that means?!" He looked over the barrels at the black hooded creatures. "We are right in the middle of their fucking base of operations! We need to get the fuck out of here!" Toby said, frightened as he already moved back to exit the way they came from.
"Wait!" Din grabbed him by the arm, pulling him back down. "We have to get Jon's body the hell out of here!"
Toby stared at him. "And how do you propose we do that?!" He looked at the figures.
"We have a room full of monsters between us! They are everywhere!"
"I know…"Din mumbled. “I know, but if we won’t get him out Casey will never forgive us for just leaving him to rot here, we have to do something! We have to try! This may be the only chance we will have for Casey and Morgan to get Jon back!"
Toby growled, it was obvious that he was not on board with said idea but he was not going to leave Din to fend for himself against the monsters, and speaking of the monsters…
"Oh god!" Toby breathed. "Oh holy shit…Fuck…What the hell is that thing?" Toby's eyes widened expediently.
"What the hell is what?" Din asked confused but Toby didn't respond, instead he just pointed at the figure that stood some thirty meters away from them, this one was as tall and dark as the others were but with one exception, it had no hood on.
"Oh, holy crap!" Din put his hand over his mouth. "Well…" He shrugged with disgust, a violent shiver going through him. ”We already knew that they weren't human…"
Din breathed out slowly, scanning the 'face' of the creature that they saw in front of them.
At first he wasn't quite sure how to describe this being but then it accrued to him that its features portrayed a disgusting mixture of human skin and bone structure stretched over a cockroach's front section in the worst possible way.
Its skin resembled a dry papyrus with the same color; in fact, Din was sure that that skin could crumble to dust with one touch. Its nose was no more than two narrow holes stretched from its mouth to his eye balls.
They had no lids above them and those eyes resembled fly eyes, big, black and slated topping a pair of sharpened black claws pointed down out of the place where his mouth should have been.
But probably the most terrifying part about that creature was his hands.
Skeletal dry skin covered half feelers with four long claw edged fingers that were picking out of his robes and went all the way down to the creatures supposedly covered knees.
"Christ…What do you think breaded to make these things?" Toby asked, astonished.
"I have no fucking idea." Din admitted. "A human cockroach orgy maybe?"
He asked half smiling and Toby pushed him, he was as grossed out as he could be without Din's stupid visual suggestions.
Toby had no idea how Din managed to keep a light mood about what they saw.
"God! You’re disquieting!" Toby declared.
"Hey you asked.” Din frowned.
"Well, I didn't really expect an answer! Remind me not to ask you anything ever again." Toby growled. "At any way, why don't you make yourself useful instead of putting this horror images in my head?"
"Like what?"
"Like look over there."
Din followed Toby's eyes to what appeared to be a small gathering of the cockroach like beings.
"They are building something!" Din declared, looking at the steel pipes and the metal gear some of them were carrying as he crawled away from his friend and a little closer to the barrels, looking at the pyramid shaped black green glowing machine that the monsters were assembling.
"Well, thank you for stating the obvious Sherlock but what is that?" Toby asked.
"I don't know…" Din narrowed his eyes for a better look. "Let’s get closer. I can't see from here." Din said, pushing his legs up and leaning over the wooden barrels more than he was supposed to.
"No! Din!"
Toby made an attempt to grasp him but it was already too late to stop the events that fallowed. With Toby hurrying to grab hold of his friend’s clothes and pull him backwards the barrel Din was leaning on just a few seconds before tipped all the way and crashed over the stone floor with a loud thud, spieling black gun powder seeds all over the floor in front of them.
"Din!" Toby breathed as almost immediately all buzzing noises had seized completely and all fly like eyes turned to stare at the two teens, half sprawled on the floor.
Toby held his breath, the monsters seemed to do the same, they just stood there, watching them, staring, they didn't seem nearly prepared to fight them, they just stood there, unmoving and Toby didn't like it, it had to mean something, something bad and horrible for them.
"Ehh…Toby…" Toby felt Din choke, hysterically pulling his shirt as his eyes were glued to somewhere above them. Toby slowly raised his eyes, smuggling the horrified cry as it forced its way out of him.
One of the creatures was standing just a few centimeters behind them, it's horrible face looking down at them as it raised its filler like claw hands, holding a large blood stained scythe and swinging it up with all intension to crash them with its blade.
"FUCK! RUN!"
Toby yelled to Din, jumping back from the creature and scrambling to his feet as Din did the same, both now attempting to get to the exit.
”Din! C'mon!" Toby screamed, passing right next to the loudly buzzing creature and just barely avoiding it's scythe as Din fallowed, both covering their sensitive human ears from the high pitched shrikes that filled the room all around them as they ran.
Din screamed, feeling as if his mind was on the verge of exploding, the shrieks got higher and higher as they percolated into his cortisones, and with a start Din realized that he was suddenly understanding a word in the horrible loud shrieking.
'INTRUDERS!' The creatures screamed as they all left the machine they were working on and advanced towards them, scythes drawn and eyes glowing with green fire, the screams of their disapproval threatening to crash the human boys' sensitive minds.
"Toby!" Toby heard Din scream helplessly behind him and as he turned in horror, nearly falling of his feet as he did so Toby was horrified to see Din being grabbed by one of the beings and lifted off the cold ground by the huge filler like hands that drove their claws into Din's shoulders, puncturing out of him, covered in blood.
Toby felt his stomach drop, his mind froze; he couldn't move, couldn't breathe as the cold hands of another gruesome creature suddenly came from behind him and attempted to grasp at his neck.
"TOBY! LOOKOUT!"
Din's scream brought Toby back to his senses.
Toby howled in anger and sharply turned around, lifting his leg higher then he thought he was capable of and kicked the creature right between it slatted fly eyes.
His leg got stuck for a moment in the creatures bone structure as the papyrus skin crumbled around his foot and Toby's leg got completely covered in the green sticky fluid that was the creature's blood, trickling down to the ground as he managed to extract his leg from the now dead being, barely getting away as it almost crumbled on top of him.
His guts turned, he was completely covered in the apocalypse's green white blood and it stung, bad, he could feel his shoe dissolving off his leg.
"AAHHH!" Toby screamed, attempting to kick the disgusting fluid off of himself.
It stung worst as it came in contact with his human skin, burning at his flesh, threatening to melt its way inside like it did to his sneaker.
Toby felt his eyes sting as if he was in a room filled with cut onions, he wanted to scream more, throw himself down on the floor and let the pain consume him but he couldn't do that, he knew that he had to get out of there alive.
"Din!" Toby yelled, barely holding himself up as he tried to locate his friend through the sea of the black hooded monsters.
"Run, Toby!" Din yelled in pain, his voice cracking as he tried to fight off the being that had its deadly hold on him. "Get out of here! Hurry!"
"Din!"
"Please! Get to the others!" Din begged, the creature bringing him down to the floor and dragging him away from the exit.
"Tell them about Jon!" Din managed to twist back, looking into Toby's eyes, ordering his friend with what seemed like his final breath. His blood freezing scream that followed almost knocked Toby over.
"I'm not leaving you!" Toby protested.
"Just go already!" Din shrieked out in forlorn, feeling the filler like claws digging deeper into his flesh, blinding his already damaged senses, he didn't know how his arms remained attached.
"I'll come back for you!" Toby promised his already unconscious friend as he saw the monsters lifting Din's body. He almost fell as he sprung back, avoiding yet another creature that attempted to stop him. Toby felt the sharp end of the apocalypse scythe driven into his back but then he felt the cool air of the outside world caries his face and he knew he was out of the crypt, running as fast as his legs allowed, running out to freedom.
"Fuck..." His vision clouded. "Don't pass out now!" He ordered himself as he kept running all the way up the stone steps of the mansion and into its front entrance; he kept his pace until he finally collapsed in the main hallway, out of breath and safe from the beings.
Toby knew that the creatures didn't follow him out of the stone structure, it was mid-day outside, they wouldn't risk being seen and besides, Toby thought in remorse, they already had their prisoner, a warning for the others and they probably thought that Toby was as good as dead anyway.
'They are probably right.' Toby thought to himself as he laid there, his ears ringing from the creatures' shrieks and Din's cries of agony as Toby let his mind go, promising in his last lucid thoughts that he will not rest until he rescues Din from those awful monsters and bring him back alive.
Chapter ten: Getting ready
"We should get back to the school and plan this whole thing out." Colin suggested as he and the Tepes siblings stood in the quiet hospital room, watching the machines resuscitate Morgan's silent body with the steady heart monitor beeping over his head.
"There is nothing to plan." Casey said, averting her eyes from the injured body, she much rather preferred to watch Morgan's vivid spirit that stood before her, at least like that he looked like the Morgan Casey knew all her life.
"We will just come back here tonight," Casey breathed out, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at the doorway.
"Stun the guard if we have to, don't ask me how, I'm not sure." She added quickly as Colin opened his mouth in astonishment.
"Take Morgan's body," Casey continued. "And then…"
"And then we will jump from the window using our cool spider webs and race into the bat Mobil to ride together into the sunset with a big explosion for the dramatic effect at our backs." Morgan smirked, raising his arms to visually describe the huge explosion.
Casey frowned, sticking her tongue out at her brother.
"Well, no, we will much rather use our cool teleporter to beam us through time and space." Casey growled and Morgan laughed at her.
"That can be arranged." He promised.
"Yes, if you want to howl two bodies out of here instead of just the one." Jon shook his head.
“Well, you’re the one that wanted adventure.” Jon looked at his brother who grimaced back at him.
“Yes, so this is me, dreading, on an adventure.”
"Well anyway…"Casey prolonged the word to get everybody's attention.
"I really think that we should go back to the school now. Wait for darkness."
"Yes." Morgan agreed. "We do have a lot to do before we go kidnap me."
Morgan said as he continued laughing, what had come out of his mouth was an absolutely ridiculous and totally true.
"Are we taking the cab again?" Casey asked Colin as the gang finally piled out of Morgan's bedroom.
"I'm coming with you." Morgan declared before Colin could answer.
"Huh?" Casey looked at him surprised. "Why?"
"Well," Morgan looked at Jon who was currently smiling at him. "No offence, but I did not like the ride earlier."
Jon nodded. "Yes, I figured as much, I rather not do it either if I don't have too."
Casey smiled. "Then we are all taking the cub.” She chirped happily, finally, she was not feeling left out.
"Casey!" Casey heard her mother call her name as she exited Morgan's room with Colin and her brothers close behind her. Her mother called her name again and this time Greg also joined her please for Casey's attention but Casey completely ignored their presence, forcefully pulling Colin in the opposite direction from them and taking the stairs instead of the elevator just to avoid the possibility of having to walk next to them.
"Casey." Casey felt her brothers come to walk beside her. She could feel her parents' eyes burning into her. They of course didn't see Morgan or Jon walking with Casey and Colin but her mother d
id noticed that Casey was slightly leaned to the side as if someone was with her, walking beside her, supporting her.
Her parents never knew that Morgan had laid his arm around Casey's trembling shoulder, and that Jon was holding her hand from the other side to keep Casey calm as they left the hospital building to go back to their summer school to plan that night’s dreadful events.
"Are you ok?" Morgan asked as they stood outside, waiting for the taxi.
"I will be better when this is over. When I really have both of my brothers back."
Casey said, squeezing Jon's hand and looking at the road, eager to leave the synthesized death house.
About half an hour later Colin Casey and her brothers were dropped off on the school grounds. The cub slowly rode up the hill to let them out just outside the entrance of the huge doorways of the mansion.
Casey got out of the cub, stretched and looked around the once crowded gardens, the place was now disserted as it had been for the last couple of days.
Colin had paid the cub driver and him and Casey’s brothers joined her at the bottom of the steps that lead to the doorway, looking around as well.
“It looks so different without all the kids…” Morgan whispered and Casey nodded.
She remembered that after Morgan was found almost dead in the lobby and rumors were spread that the police was looking for an attempted murder suspect, most of the worried parents had pulled their kids out of the summer school and back to their private teachers because they were afraid that whoever got Morgan will get their precious kids too.
That was probably a not so farfetched theory with the monsters around.
It was mid-day, it was hot outside and those who had no choice but to stay were mostly asleep or down in the cool cafeteria.
No one was walking in the gardens or in the main hallway so as the little gang pushed the huge wooden doors open they were the first to spot the limb body sprawled across the floor.
"Look! It’s Toby!"
Colin’s scream echoed through the lobby as he was the first to see and get to his unconscious friend.
“Toby?” He fell to his knees and turned his friend over on his back to look down at his damaged body and his sweat stricken face.
Winds Of The Apocalypse Page 14