“No, not yet,” Troy said. “You need to go to your group. They need you. Nobody travels alone; you have twenty in your group, assign each person a partner and demand that they stay together. That goes for messengers too. None of us can overtake a scourge alone. Don’t try.”
“Yes sir,” Scott glanced at the entrance once more. The number of people making their way into the stands was increasing.
“How many do you see?” Troy asked.
Scott squinted as he counted. “Fans? More than thirty right now, but it is still a little early.”
Troy crossed his arms. “And Scourge?”
Scott looked around, his brow creased. “None so far. Do you think they won’t show up?”
“Look closer at the people, Scott.” Troy pointed to a man and a woman walking hand in hand. As they turned the corner from the sidewalk, moving up the walkway to the stadium, it appeared they had changed clothes. They wore brightly colored team memorabilia on the front, and shadowy darkness behind.
“Oh god, they are riding the living people into the stadium,” Scott said.
“Yeah, and there are plenty of them. Look, all the people waiting in line have company already.”
“Should we send a group to the parking area to stop them?” Scott asked.
Troy shook his head. “Think about how many of them there must be. We can't stop them. Besides, our job is to keep them in the stadium, not out of it.” He covered his eyes from the sun as he focused on the growing crowd.
No storm was in the forecast, yet the clear blue sky exploded with echoing peals of thunder.
“Quickly, everyone through. Today we will take back Earth for humanity!” Councilwoman Weslyn raised her arm above her head, leading the charge. Behind her, the guides marched forward. Row after row of ageless ones descended unseen stairs, five at a time. They held their heads high, though uncertainty was etched on many of their faces as they descended into the existence they had been taught would mean their certain destruction. Their silent footsteps were not noticed by the living, who glanced up from the line outside the stadium expecting to see a storm forming above them.
“Sir, something is happening!” Scott tapped on Troy’s shoulder as he watched the commotion forming within the crowd.
“I see. You can’t blame them though, I mean look at all the Scourge!” said Troy.
“No, look!” Scott pointed toward the portal opening in the sky.
Troy finally glanced away from the carnage unfolding among the living. His jaw dropped open. “This changes everything!”
“What about the other groups?”
“All of you are to stay hidden. There is no way to know how the guides will respond to us.”
“Yes sir,” grumbled Scott. His fists remained clenched as he watched the Scourge entities attacking the unsuspecting human beings. For Troy’s group, these attacks were reminiscing of what had taken their own chances at humanity from them. Seeing the scourge creatures in the act of attacking was a rude reminder of what was taken from them.
“I have to go to them and let them know that we're here to help,” said Troy.
“And what if they destroy you?” Scott asked.
“Terra couldn’t, so maybe they can’t either,” he said.
“That's a big maybe,” Scott said.
“Yeah, but I have to try.” Troy didn’t waste any more time. He left his followers and crossed the parking lot as fast as the matter would allow, making a beeline toward the area where the guides would eventually land.
Far above Troy, Weslyn stepped aside to address her fellow guides. “When you reach the ground spread out. We need to encircle the stadium.”
“They will resist us Madam Chairwoman.” the guide closest to her said.
“Of course, they will. As I understand it from borrowed memories, we must show the Scourge entity its original purpose. Then they will either be destroyed at the realization, or they will be proven to be a salvageable soul.”
Another guide marching behind her called out: “There are so many of them. How can we have been so blind?”
“We see the problem now, so all hope is not lost!” Weslyn said. “Halle? Where is Halle?”
A soft voice from a few rows back answered: “I’m here.” Halle waved her hand to show her place.
“We will be on the ground in a few hundred feet; do you have your portal?”
“I do,” she held up the canvas for Weslyn to see as the rows of guides marched around them.
“Use it, go find the others. Do not slow down for any soul, living or displaced. We need all of our earthbound guides here. Today we join the battle for humanity. Together we have a chance to undo some damage we've allowed to happen.
“I’ll find him, err them,” Halle said.
“I know you will!” Weslyn laughed.
“Look, there's a man waving at us. He’s yelling something.”
“Ah, our first Scourge challenger!”
“No, wait. I think he may be one of the ones who was helping Terra.”
“I’ll find out!” Weslyn turned and passed through the marching guides in a blur, reaching Troy in less than a second. She grabbed the huge man by both shoulders, looking up into his face, but seeing only his innermost thoughts and feelings.
“Ma’am, I was trying to tell you. My people are not Scourge. We're here to help!”
“What's this about a formula?” She demanded. Troy was still not accustomed to having someone respond to his thoughts and scowled at her for a moment.
“Azalea, she's a medium who is working with Korin to trap them, to end them.”
“And we are immune?”
“No, I mean I can’t be sure, but she didn’t think the formula would care about your allegiance.”
“Hold the guard!” she called out. “Pass the word, none of you is to go into that stadium, unless I give the word. There is a chemical there that may be dangerous to us all!”
The guides murmured their understanding, passing the message back through the ranks that now extended from beyond the clouds down to the ground. The councilwoman stepped onto the Earth’s soil for the first time in her ancient existence. She paused, bent down and touched the grass that grew in tufts around her ankle. “Fascinating place…”
A groan rising from the crowd interrupted her thought.
“The scourge has spotted us. They're coming this way!” called a thin brunette guide in the fourth row from the ground.
Halle stepped onto the ground beside the Weslyn makeshift portal clutched to her chest.
“Show me Terra, young one.” Halle nodded. She touched the worn canvas and Terra’s face appeared.
“It looks as though she is inside the stadium, let’s hope she has a plan, Weslyn said "Go on don’t slow down for any reason. If what you say is true, they have learned well how to deal with the likes of these creatures. We may need their help before all of this is over.”
“I’m on my way,” Halle said. She glanced at the approaching horde of Scourge, disembodied and hideously mangled from what was once a human form. Her eyes widened with fear, but she didn’t hesitate. She rushed toward Christopher and the others at a pace slightly faster than the speed of sound.
~~~~~~~~
Halle traveled as fast as she could go, holding the makeshift portal in front of herself like a kick-board, she could track Christopher and the other guides. She found them after crossing two state lines. Their hunt had led them far as they followed the cries and pain of their own charges, in turn, finding more and more infested communities.
"Halle?" Christopher stood over a pinned scourge. At first, he appeared surprised, but as Halle closed the space between them, a sincere smile spread across his face.
Halle reached Christopher. He scooped her up in a warm embrace. "I can't say I expected to see you here, but I can't begin to say how happy I am to see your face!" He spoke into her ear as he held her.
"I am glad to see you too, I... I wondered if I would see you again," Halle admitt
ed.
"I told you I would return if I could. But Halle, there is so much to do here, so much pain and waste. You shouldn't have come. This is no place for you. It will only be a place of misery if we can't change things soon."
"I know, but I had to come. We all did. Terra sent me a message that she needed help, and I took it to the council. Weslyn was concerned when I told her about the message, and a bit of an army was formed. It turns out that Terra is taking on a stadium of Scourge, and Azalea is going to use the sprinklers to drench the whole stadium in her formula. It will be awful. We will need all the help we can get to try to put any of that back together."
"Halle needs us to join the new army of guides," Christopher announced, letting Halle slip back down so her feet touched the ground.
"Army? That's what it will take!" George said.
"I'm glad they sent more guides. I had no idea things were this bad," Constance said.
"What are we waiting for?" Amity reached down and ended the scourge at Christopher's feet.
"Let's go," Constance said.
Chapter 43
The energy in the stadium was charged. The game was hyped as the game of the century. A decade's old rivalry made this bowl game one for the record books. Tickets were never an easy thing to come by. This game had escalated the pursuit to an epic quest leaving few tickets adrift in cyberspace available to the highest bidder.
The anticipation of the gridiron action excited the crowd to a fever pitch. The noise was deafening as the loudspeaker fed the crowd's anticipation of the game. The strange rumbling sound from above them blended with the noise of the stadium.
“Do you see them?” Brendan asked.
“There are too many people here. We're looking for a needle in a haystack.” Terra said.
“We know they’re here,” Brendan said. He dodged a vending cart as it rushed up the incline towards the upper parts of the stadium.
The crowd erupted in applause as the team ran onto the field. As the sound of elation reverberated through the stadium, the pitch began to change. Mixed in with the tribal jeers of ravenous fans were screams of fear and pain. The fan cam scanned the stands revealing a menagerie of trouble. Some fans struggle and clawed at their own bodies, as though they were under attack. Others appeared slumped in their seats, unconscious. As the camera panned, the fans who had not yet found themselves under attack began to panic as they tried to understand what was happening in the surrounding stadium. The pitch of the panic caught the attention of the teams as they entered the field. As the coached urged them back to the locker room several players collapsed to the turf, flailing as they tried to throw off the Scourge that attacked with no regard to the protective gear.
“We’re too late,” Terra gasped as she looked upon the chaos-filled stadium through the entrance to the bottom row of box seats.
At that moment, a woman came screaming past Terra with two Scourge creatures dragging along clawing and tearing in an attempt to subdue her.
“Should we?” Elise gestures toward the woman.
Terra nodded. It was time to make their presence known to Orthos. The three guides advanced on the creatures. Their existence was over within moments.
The woman turned to Terra and Brendan. Tears streamed down her face adding a glistening sheen to the claw marks the Scourge left behind. “What’s happening?”
“It's complicated,” Brendan said. “You really need to get out of here.
“Head for the door and don’t stop for anyone,” Terra said. She pointed down the corridor toward the entrance.
The woman nodded, but then her eyes widened. “But I left my date!”
“You have to run. You're in danger!” Terra shouted.
The woman nodded once and ran down the passageway toward the entrance.
“Elise, you should go with her,” Brendan said
“I can help more if I stay with you both,” Elise said. She put her hands on her hips.
Terra shook her head. “Brendan is right, If Azalea really is here with her formula, then we have no way to know what it will do to a guide. We only know that those in a living body are protected.
“Do you really know that? All we know for sure is what Korin wrote in her letter,” said Elise.
“I think we can’t afford to risk it.” Brendan’s glance at his partner revealed the new gleam of tears welling in his eyes. He blinked to clear them as he looked away.
Elise chewed her lip for a moment as the defiance faded from her expression. “Alright, I’ll go. But as soon as you find those ladies and things are clear, you let me know, and I’ll come back in. There are too many Scourge for you two to take on alone.”
“You have my word,” Terra promised. “I hoped Halle would have been able to reach Christopher and the others and have them meet us here.”
Elise touched Brendan’s shoulder. Their eyes met. They both nodded, and then Elise shot down the walkway back toward the entrance at a pace that was a blur to the human eyes of Terra and Brendan.
Terra rushed toward the field. She could feel the energy of the Scourge creatures. The crackle of energy surrounded the stadium. Its intensity almost dominated the crowds’ screams.
“Which way do you think Azalea went?” Brendan asked. His long strides half levitating with his crutches out-paced Terra, who forced herself to jog along.
“There’s no way to know for sure. Let’s go all the way down to the field and make our presence known,” said Terra.
Brendan looked over at Terra with surprise. He broke stride for a moment. “We’ll lose the element of surprise,” he said.
“We may as well show our cards. Orthos lured us here; he will expect me to show up. I think Korin knows I will come as well, otherwise, she wouldn’t have bothered to warn me.” As she spoke, Terra charged through the archway and onto the field. She panted slightly. Her hand dropped to her still-healing side.
“So how will we find them?” Brendan’s voice had risen slightly as he took in the panoramic view of a full-out Scourge attack.
Terra pointed to the jumbo screens and the end of the field. “Game on,” she said. She did not hesitate any further. The bigger the commotion, the better, she thought to herself. She and Brendan grabbed the closest Scourge; a pair of disfigured shadows who long since lost any semblance of the human form. They ripped them from the football player where they had been perched as they squabbled over who would take over the player’s life. Terra and Brendan connected with the consciousness of the corrupted beings. As they searched for the last remnant of humanity, it became clear that the brackish energy was no match for their will. The pair of shadows crumbled to nothing in within moments.
“That won't get enough attention. We need to pick a fight that will get us noticed by the cameras,” Terra called out. She spotted a group of Scourge creatures that were attacking the rest of the football teams where they thrashed against the invisible attackers near the twenty-yard line.
One of the players came running towards Terra. She noticed that he was dressed in the bland neutral tones of the immortal palate rather than his team uniform. His eyes were wide in terror.
“Help them! Help me!” he shouted. “They killed me; I don’t know what's happening!”
Terra made a beeline for the melee.
Brendan paused as he limped toward the team, allowing the football player to meet him partway. “You’re not dead, just displaced. It’s game time, only this time we're playing for keeps. We have to go back. You gather your teammates who are like you: I see a few already, work together to hold off the Scourge creatures. Terra and I will pick them off as quickly as possible and see if we can’t win back your bodies.”
“How can we fight that?” He asked, cringing at the spectacle before him.
“Just pretend you are sacking the quarterback or taking down a defender. They can’t do too much damage to you in the state you're in now. Play for keeps. What did you say your name was?”
“Don Jasper.”
“Al
right Don, Get your teammates and let's turn this thing around!”
The two ran toward the skirmish. Don outpaced Brendan’s limping gate.
As Brendan caught up to Terra already holding a Scourge at arm’s length. Her fingers curled around its throat and her eyes glared at it without seeing. Brendan knew that she was already delving through the thing’s innermost secrets to end it permanently. Another entity leaped onto Terra from behind her. It sank its sharpened teeth into her arm in an attempt to sever the connection to the other Scourge. A bloody smear appeared through her blouse. Brendan ripped the creature from Terra and began the process of eliminating it. He turned so his back was to Terra’s, dragging the creature with him as he struggled to hold it in place to connect with its inner purpose. Three other creatures reared up from the players they were attacking and then charged toward the pair.
The remnant of the Scourge she held fell from between Terra’s fingers as the first of the three creatures reached her.
Chapter 44
Terra’s muscles and her injuries ached as the Scourge struggled against her.
“It’s working, Terra!” Brendan called out as he noticed their images displayed on the jumbotron screen.
“Mmm-hmm,” Terra managed to acknowledge as she tried to connect to the thoughts of a struggling Scourge while two others clawed at her trying to release their fellow. The impact was audible as three football players tackled the scourge beings. They were playing the game of the century. The victors would win their bodies, yet none of that appeared on the oversized screen. Instead, the image showed a bedraggled and bleeding Terra and Brendan struggling against something unseen, while surrounded by inanimate bodies of athletes, and some that thrashed on the ground as though they were being stung by a swarm of invisible bees.
~~~~~~~~
“The formula is ready, but can we risk it? There are so many people here who are innocent.” Korin held a huge wrench in her hands. The old tool left rust streaks on her fingers. Her aging muscles ached from the physical labor as she tried to open the lines to the sprinkler system.
Anointed Page 21