by K Hanson
I raised my left arm to block it, and the point stabbed into my forearm. A hot pulse of venom shot into my flesh. The pincers came closer, with the sucking maw of its jaws just behind them. I was out of ammo, and I’d lost my knife.
With no other option, I put the Necromancer’s gauntlet on and clenched my fist as I had seen him do. A wave of purple light blasted into the creature, and it reeled back, its exoskeleton smoldering.
With a whimper, it retreated and dug back into the ground.
The venom was making me feel woozy, but Amari helped me up. I leaned on her as we hurried the rest of the way to the portal.
The drums beat behind us, still getting closer.
Without a glance back, we dived into the black orb, into that sensation of flying and falling, before getting dumped back into Falls Park.
The courtyard was still around us, the gate smashed open. A couple of guards started at our sudden appearance.
“Wait, what?” one stammered. “You’re the lady who broke into our camp.”
They raised their guns toward us.
“Look, we don’t have time to talk,” I said. “Your boss is dead, and there isn’t any reason to hold us.” I showed him the two gauntlets I had stripped from the Necromancer. “You recognize these?”
“The Necromancer is dead? He wasn’t supposed to die.” He frowned. “Maybe he wasn’t the invincible person we thought he was. Did you kill him?”
He gave me an accusing stare.
“I did.” I met his eyes with a cold gaze that dared him to retaliate. “He captured my friend and didn’t give me much choice.”
Behind us, the drum sounds started coming through the portal.
“What is that?” he asked.
“What does it sound like? Something woke up, and they’re marching this way. I don’t know what it is, but unless you want to be the first people to greet them, I suggest you stop wasting time with us and get the hell away from this portal before they figure out they can come to our side.”
The guard scowled. “You think we can just let you go?”
“You will if you want any chance of fighting what’s about to come after us. I can warn people and get help. You just fall back and keep your people safe. I don’t want to fight you.”
After a moment of internal conflict, he dropped his gun from my face. “Fine, leave.”
Amari and I dashed out of the camp, leaving behind a bunch of bewildered guards. Over my shoulder, the guard tried to convince his buddies that they should leave the compound.
Furious arguments erupted, along with a few insults for letting us go. Still, it wasn’t our debate to fight. We needed to let people know what was happening, and get ready as much as we could
We ran out of the Falls Park area. Amari did her best to keep up with me, and I tempered my pace just a bit so that she could stay near me. At least Cathedral Hill wasn’t super far. We didn’t bother with stealth as we ran through the downtown area.
A few night stalkers seemed to take notice of us, but I didn’t care. We had somewhere to go and had no time to stop and fight. If they got close enough, we’d deal with them then.
We powered through the sprint up the hill toward the Cathedral.
Passing out of the boundary between the Void and the less oppressive Eternal Dusk on the outside felt like a dark veil was lifted from my eyes. I could see everything so much more brightly than before. I had been in the Void for far longer than I ever had before, and then the Wasteland for the first time ever. All together, it had been many hours, maybe even the better part of a day.
Even the slightly chilly air of the Dusk felt warm compared to the coldness of the Void. My spirits immediately lifted, which helped fuel the final part of our sprint toward the settlement.
We closed on the newly assembled gate, and I frantically waved toward the guards as we approached.
“Hey! Let us in!” I called. “We need to talk to you!”
The guards started, and a couple of them pointed guns in our direction as we closed the distance, but then the head guard waved them to stand down.
“Settle down, guys,” he said, “we know her. Let her the hell in.”
Someone pulled the gate aside, as they hadn’t hooked up the opening system to it yet.
We hurried through the gates, and the head guard came over to us.
“What the hell are you in such a hurry for?” He glanced at us. “What the hell is going on?”
“Something is coming from the Void.” I pointed down the hill. “I don’t know what, but get as many guards on the walls as you can.”
The head guard cocked his head, squinting at me as if he wasn’t quite sure if he should believe me.
“Look, you guys just got over a nasty attack,” I said, gesturing toward the wall. “Do you want to be caught off guard by something that could be even worse?”
He shook his head. “No, definitely not. I’ll get a double shift going.”
He hurried off, signaling a couple of other guards to head in all directions to rouse more members of their little militia.
Amari and I made our way to the cathedral and jogged up the steps.
Inside, most of the cots that had been set up for the wounded were now empty, though a few still had recovering people in them. A couple of family members sat next to them, speaking in low voices.
In a few spots, trinkets and mementos were left behind, including a little silver necklace and some paper that had been folded into the shape of flowers, maybe for wounded people who hadn’t made it.
We rushed into the medical station, where Rose and David hunched over some notes on her desk.
At the sound of the curtain rustling, they both turned around.
Rose’s eyes brightened, and then she pursed her lips at us but didn’t say anything.
David gave a broad smile right away, but it faltered a bit.
“You made it, though it seems like you’re a bit of a mess,” he said.
That was an understatement, as I was probably covered in goo from the creatures we’d killed, dust from the tower, and the burn marks from the gauntlet attacks. Not to mention the blood from our fight.
“So, is it done?” he asked.
“The Necromancer is dead and won’t be causing any problems anymore,” I began.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Rose said, her shoulders relaxing.
“Don’t get too relieved,” Amari said, standing beside me. “We’re in for something worse.”
“Worse?” David sat straighter. “What could be worse?”
“While we were on the other side of the portal,” I said, “something woke up. Drums, it sounded like. And whatever is with it, is marching toward the portal.”
David’s mouth hung open. “Wait, you were on the other side of the portal? Tell me everything. Was it as dark as the Void? What was the landscape like? Did you see any new creatures? What –”
“David,” I said, “we can talk about that later. But right now, we need to deal with what’s coming this way.”
“Yes, of course.” He gave a series of quick nods. “Is it some kind of army?”
I shrugged. “Beats me. But you need to set up that distress signal. Have it broadcast to every settlement in range that they need to brace themselves.”
“How are we going to fight back against this, Isabella?” Amari asked. “We’ve seen what’s across that portal. I don’t think we can win.”
She was probably right. We would likely be outmatched by anything that came from the other side. But I couldn’t let her think that.
“We’ll do it,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “We’ll work together and find a way to defeat them.”
As I thought through different ideas on what we could do, my heartbeat pulsed in my head. Then I realized it wasn’t my heartbeat.
The drums had crossed the portal.
The End
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
K Hanson lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he works as a software developer. In his spare time, when he isn’t writing, he enjoys reading, working out, playing video games, and spending time with his wonderful wife, Bobbi.
Along with the Isabella Espinoza series, K is the author of the Storm Raven pirate fantasy series, along with the Kayla Falk thriller series.