The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon

by Matthew Burkey

  “What’s going on over there?” Cody pointed toward the large park to the north. They could see crowd had gathered. From this distance they could see several lit bonfires and what appeared to be a makeshift stage.

  Ethan and Ryan turned to look toward where Cody had indicated, both grabbing their goggles off their belts and looking in that direction.

  “People,” Ethan said. “Lots and lots of people. Is there some big party that I didn’t know about or something? Cause if there is then I need to find some new personal assistants.”

  “Concert, it looks like,” Ryan said. “And you knew about this, the band invited you yesterday.”

  “Oh,” Ethan said, lowering his goggles. “Wait, are you sure I was there? I wasn’t like asleep or anything was I?”

  “Nope, you were just doing your rude and usual thing by ignoring them,” Ryan answered.

  “Good to know, do you think that it will be a problem?”

  Both Cody and Ryan shrugged.

  “Not really, I mean you are always a bit of a wanker,” Cody said.

  “Not that you idiot,” Ethan growled. “The concert.”

  Cody shrugged and adjusted the quiver of specially designed arrows on his back as well as the arm guard on his right forearm.

  “That’s all you got for me?” Ethan asked. “Just shrugging?”

  “What did you want me to say?”

  Ethan didn’t answer him and instead went back to staring at the trucks and SUVs that were already parked on the street, though there didn’t appear to be anyone in them. By now they could hear the music from the park and even from this distance the band didn’t sound all that bad.

  “You know, I talked to that Gabriel kid earlier,” Cody offered.

  “Why?” Ethan asked.

  “I dunno,” Cody added. “Maybe I felt bad for him, and he did stand up to those guys for me, that has to count for something.”

  “You could have totally kicked their asses,” Ethan pointed out. “You were never in any danger.”

  “I know that,” Cody huffed. “But he didn’t, doesn’t make it any less heroic.”

  “No, makes him more stupid than anything.”

  “How do you figure that?” Ryan asked.

  “It was a tactically stupid decision,” Ethan responded. “He went into a situation without knowledge of the enemies strength and without that a backup plan.”

  “It's high school,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes. “And not everyone thinks in terms of battlefield maneuvers.”

  “I can’t think of a better place to think in terms of battlefield maneuvers.”

  “I talked to him on Facebook earlier,” Ryan added casually.

  “What? You too? What is with you guys?”

  “I felt bad for him,” Ryan said, with a shrug of his shoulders. “And it did take guts to stand up to David and his goons.”

  “We aren’t out to save everyone single person we come across,” Ethan huffed.

  “It was your idea after all,” Cody grumbled.

  “I was bored,” Ethan stated, he was not idly fiddling with the straps on his combat gloves. “Who is Sainte-Pierre supposed to be meeting again?”

  “Members of the New Aryan Nation,” Cody responded. “Think KKK on steroids, they’re plonkers, seriously bad blokes. So far they’ve managed to pull off a ton of things without getting caught.”

  Jean Saint-Pierre was a dealer in black market weapons and explosives. His glowing red eyes and near flawless skin after being alive for three hundred years or so marked him as something other than human.

  That wasn't damning in and of itself, but the real problem was that he sold weapons of every kind to pretty anyone that would pay for it. That included supernatural weaponry as well, which was what brought him to the Guardians' attention.

  “And why are we concerned again?” Ethan asked. “Other than the fact that Cody can’t speak freaking English.”

  Cody stuck his tongue out at Ethan this time.

  Ryan snorted in annoyance. “Do you ever read the briefing reports? You know those things we get at least twice a day sent to our inbox.”

  Unlike Ryan, Cody appeared to be entirely unfazed by Ethan’s lack of report reading.

  “Because we want to know why a slime bag like Saint-Pierre is meeting with a bunch more slime bags like the New Aryan Nation,” Cody explained. “Saint-Pierre is a capitalist; a murdering, ruthless, psychotic capitalist, but is still always after one thing.”

  “Money,” Ethan nodded.

  “Aye,” Cody responded, pointing at Ethan. “And since we know that Saint-Pierre can be counted on to provide a whole slew of conventional and supernatural weaponry they wanted us to check out their meeting, I’m guessing they are going to trade more than just da’s lager.”

  “The question is how the New Aryan Nation found our capitalist psychopath?”

  “More likely he found them. He probably didn’t tell them what he really was, either, or they would have never have agreed to the meeting, since they are righteously doing God’s will and all,” Cody shrugged.

  “Right,” Ryan snorted. “Cause that’s what God wants, now I just wanna go down there and hit them, thanks.”

  “Not in the mission profile,” Ethan reminded him.

  Now it was Ryan’s turn to given Ethan a rude gesture.

  “Hold on a sec, looks like we have company,” Cody said, pointing toward the street.

  A black SUV had pulled up and parked next to the gathered trucks. Behind the SUV came a moving van, although they suspected that there probably wasn’t furniture inside it. Sainte-Pierre stepped out from the vehicle, followed by his escorts. They weren’t human either. Their obsidian colored skin, glowing red eyes, and lack of any real identifying features marked them as Darklings.

  “That’s him alright,” Cody nodded. “Bollocks, looks like he has some Darklings with him too.”

  “I hate those guys,” Ryan muttered.

  “Oh, but they just love you,” Ethan cooed.

  “Buggers aren’t very smart,” Cody grunted. “It doesn’t look like they are packing anything besides melee weapons though.”

  “How many?” Ethan asked.

  “Just four, although is it just my imagination or is the back of that truck…moving?”

  Now everyone grabbed their goggles and focused on the back of the truck, which was now shaking like it contained something that really wanted out.

  “Uh oh, what do you suppose the idiot did this time?” Ryan asked, he was already checking his shotgun, which he affectingly called Reaper.

  “Dunno,” Ethan sighed. “Although maybe we’ll get lucky and whatever it is will eat everyone down there then we could go over to the concert.”

  “I thought you didn’t want to go to the concert?” Ryan asked.

  “That’s when I thought they were going to suck,” Ethan shrugged. “They are actually pretty good.”

  “Focus,” Cody snapped. “Damn, we should have brought Tony and Everett along for this too, this might be more then we can handle.”

  Ethan made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Please, we got this. As long as whatever is in those trucks stays put we don’t have anything to worry about.”

  Of course that was when all hell broke loose. There was a high pitched growl and then the sound of metal being ripped apart. The back of the moving van came apart with a large amount of force and crawling from it came four very large and very pissed off looking creatures.

  “You just had to say something, didn’t you,” Ryan snapped, glancing sideways at Ethan.

  Ethan recognized them instantly, about as tall as a horse and as long as small car, they looked very much like massive centipedes. They were blood red in color; the Guardians referred to them as Sintipedes; a nice little variation on what they looked like. Like the Darklings, they weren’t overly smart but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. They were strong, fast, and could inject a deadly venom into their victims.

  Cody react
ed instantly, dropping his goggles and pulling several arrows from his quiver. He stood up, sighted up his target and fired three in rapid succession. The first two slammed through the back of one of the monsters, causing it to roar in pain. The third landed dead center in the middle of his head, killing it instantly. The other three had already slithered on, heading toward the concert in the park.

  “Ok, that is so not good,” Ryan snapped, racing for the fire escape.

  The commotion of the Sintipedes escaping had sent the New Aryan Nation into a panic, most of them took off down the street in an attempt to get as far away from what was happening as possible. Jean Sainte-Pierre disappeared as well, although it appeared as if he sent the Darklings after the creatures, intent on not losing what was probably very expensive merchandise.

  “You see, this is why you should have listened to me,” Ethan grumbled, following Ryan down the fire escape. “One or two RPG’s and we wouldn’t have to worry about those things or the New Aryan Nation getting away.”

  “Now is not the time Ethan!” Cody snapped, hot on their heels.

  “And you also didn’t listen to me when I told you we should have brought Tony, Everett, and the girls…”

  “Shut up Ethan!” Both Ryan and Cody snapped at the same time.

  They all three hit the pavement at around the same time and took off running toward the park.

  At least it’s not freezing out here, Gabriel thought.

  He was surprised – well, no, he wasn’t – that Tim had been able to talk his parents into their little plan. As far as Gabriel and Sean’s parents knew they were staying at Tim’s, watching movies, playing video games, and hanging out. They wouldn’t have expected their sixteen and fourteen year old sons to be out at a concert in a park at 11pm.

  The stage was makeshift, just several large boards brought in and placed on cinderblocks. Two speakers were near the front of the stage with a large crowd gathered around. At the moment, Gabriel assumed that was where Tim and Sean were, although he had lost track of them shortly after they got there.

  Gabriel was sitting at a picnic table, idly fiddling with his cell phone. He keep thinking about the events of earlier that day. Actually he kept thinking about a person that was involved in the events of that day.

  Ethan.

  Ever since he had gotten home his thoughts kept drifting back to Ethan and what happened in the hallway. Sure, he had seen attractive guys before -his school was full of them. Looking around the park now, he could see several more but there was something about Ethan that made him different. Something that made him…more alluring than anyone else, which was stupid because despite Ethan’s steel gray eyes, incredibly hot body, and charming personality he could still act like a total pain in the rear on occasion.

  And until today, Gabriel was pretty sure that Ethan didn’t know he existed.

  Gabriel shook his head, trying to get the images and thoughts of Ethan out of his head. There was no way that Ethan was into guys and even if he was, he could have any guy in the school, why would he be interested in someone like Gabriel. Dwelling what you couldn’t have could drive you insane and Gabriel was pretty sure that it wasn’t even remotely healthy.

  “Lost in thought?”

  Gabriel looked up to find both Tim and Sean standing there.

  Gabriel just shrugged.

  “Aren’t you going to get and mingle around some?” Tim asked.

  “I’m fine right here.”

  “But you aren’t talking to anyone, you’re just sitting here,” Sean protested. “You do realize that, like, no one here cares that you are gay. Hell, I don’t think there are even any guys from your school here.”

  “Oh, there are,” Gabriel sighed. “Look, I really appreciate what you guys tried to do but let’s face it I’m just not party material.”

  Tim and Sean both looked like they were about to protest when a commotion behind them caused them all to turn around and look. Gabriel almost wished that he hadn’t, barreling through the crowd were three…well he didn’t really know what they were. Following close behind them came several men, well at least he thought they were men. They looked like they had Halloween contact lenses in and their faces were caked with make-up.

  “What the hell are those things!” Sean yelled.

  “Move it!”

  Before he knew it, Tim was yanking both himself and Sean clear of the rampaging creatures.

  One advantage that came from the Guardian’s ritual was the fact that they were all blessed with almost inhuman speed, evident in the way that they were able to surge down the fire escape and arrive at roughly the same time as the Sintipedes.

  “Where the hell are the Darklings?” Ryan asked.

  “Found them,” Cody pointed as Darklings started to fan out through the crowd.

  “Ryan, Darklings are yours,” Ethan ordered. “Cody, Sintipedes are ours.”

  Ryan nodded, pulled his shotgun from the holster on his back and took off into the already panicking crowd. Luckily the trio of Sintipedes had stopped as soon as they entered the park, probably confused by all the noise. That wouldn’t last long though; eventually they would realize that they were surrounded by a very delicious dinner menu.

  Cody grabbed an arrow from his back and launched into the center of the beasts, it sent out a gray cloud of smoke, causing them all to roar in annoyance and start thrashing about. Both he and Ethan charged forward into the smoke, hoping to catch them off guard. Their plan didn’t go entirely as expected as the creatures burst forth from the smoke and started to hone in on their targets.

  “Uh oh, they look mad about something,” Cody said. He skidded to a halt, pulled another arrow and let it fly.

  The arrow struck one in the side, causing it to let out a roar or pain and then turn around and launch itself at Cody. Cody dove to the side, pulling another arrow free and firing again, this time narrowly missing striking it in the head. He rolled to the side, barely avoiding the massive jaws full of razor sharp teeth as they came down toward him.

  Ethan drew his swords, both of them made from blessed metal. They glowed a silver/blue color, which was fairly bright given the contrast of the night around him. He leapt toward another one of the Sintipedes, hoping to stop it before it consumed a rather scared looking teenager. He was only partially successful and knocked it sideways before it could strike at the frightened girl.

  “Go!” Ethan yelled, getting back to his feet.

  She took the hint and ran off.

  “Come on smiley,” Ethan coaxed, watching as the Sintipede reared back up again. “Dinner is right here.”

  Ethan side stepped as the creature struck out, sliding his blade along the edge of its head. The wound spurted black blood and the Sintipede roared in pain, it shifted its massive body around, trying to swat Ethan with his tail. Ethan jumped over it and landed in a crouch before having to back flip away as the creature stuck out again.

  Ryan seemed to have the easy job, although he would have preferred engaging the Sintipedes, only because he knew they would offer a challenge. Instead he was working his way through fleeing crowd, looking for Darklings. He was surprised that they weren’t actively searching out the creatures that had gotten loose.

  Of course they weren’t the brightest of creatures; strong and fast, but not bright. They were still dangerous though He had been taught early on in training not to underestimate them.

  Ryan spun around, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. He fired on instinct, blasting the Darkling that had jumped toward him backwards to bounce off a tree. At first glance it seemed like the Darkling had jumped backwards. One look at the ragged hole in his chest told a different story, however. Now they were concentrating their attack on him. He blasted another one that was attempting to flank him and then holstered the shotgun as they moved in closer; he didn’t want to run the risk of hitting the still fleeing partiers.

  Two of the Darklings produced weapons, curved wicked looking blades that were coated in a deadly
poison. If the wound didn’t outright kill you the powerful toxin coated on the blade would finish the trick in mere minutes. Ryan wasn’t concerned; in fact it sort of made him smile a little wider.

  “Come on guys,” Ryan smiled. “How many times have we done this now?”

  He ducked under a blow and then hit the Darkling with a snap kick that sent it flying backwards. He blocked another attack, grabbed the arm that had thrown the punch and hurled it into one of the nearby speakers, causing an explosion of sparks.

  Ryan’s mouth turned into a grin as he withdrew two daggers from their holsters on his belt.

  The first one charged and was sent reeling back as Ryan lashed out with a kick that connected with the Darklings side. He could both hear and feel the ribs break under the pressure, driving jagged shards of bone deep into the Darkling’s lungs and heart. It fell to the ground, unmoving. He turned his attention to the next Darkling that leapt toward him blocking, several jabs before breaking its arm and then slicing it across the throat with one his daggers, sending black blood cascading down the front of its shirt.

  Now that just left the two with actual weapons. Both of them stayed back, watching the damage unfold around them. They both charged in fast, using their supernatural speed to their advantage. Ryan spun around both of them, avoiding even a glancing blow. That trick might not work twice, as dumb as they could be about some things, they were pretty perceptive when it came to actually close quarters fighting.

  “Good god you’re ugly up close,” Ethan snapped, rolling sideways to avoid another strike by the Sintipede. The creature’s head slammed into the dirt before it snorted and annoyance reared back up, looking for its target again.

  As big as they were, they were pretty agile, which was the reason that Ethan was having such a hard time landing a killing blow. The creature dove at him again and this time Ethan sent it rearing back with a powerful roundhouse kick. That only dissuaded it for a second before it went back on the attack. Ethan dodged another strike and surged forward, blocking several blows with his swords as Sintipede lashed out him. He turned to see the third one smashed through one of the many bonfires that had been set up around the area, charging right at him. A glance to his right told him that Cody was still engaged in his own fight and probably wouldn't be able to render any sort of aid.