Chaos Lives in Everything - 39. Chapter 39

Roc City’s Police Department was a mess of panicked chattering, of people trying to do everything they could to prepare the city for the attack. It took Reynolds one phonecall to Mayor Ivanka to order all civilians off the street. Multiple helicopters hovered over the city, their search lights sweeping through the streets in search of the three tanker trucks.

Skold and Reynolds poured over a map of the city. The map was so large that the edges were hanging off the edge of the table. “My gut tells me that the trucks are going to start in the center of the city,” Skold said. “But there is no way to be sure.”

“Don’t worry, I have every man in my department up, bright eyed and bushy tailed.”

“Sergeant, you don’t understand. These things are very hard to kill. In the end decapitating them is the only way to kill them.”

Reynolds gestured to Skold, Dom, and Candestine. “That’s why I’m putting you three on the front lines.”

“Has the mayor been notified?” Skold asked.

“Yes. She’s been transported to a safe house and is under protection.”

“And what about your wife? Have you called her? Does she know what’s about to happen?”

Reynolds nodded. “Already got it taken care of. She’s at a girlfriend’s house. She’ll be safe. Considering the little time that we’ve had to get it done in I think that we have all of our bases covered.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Dom grumbled.

“Skold,” a voice said, making the four of them look up.

It was Maeglin. He stood in the middle of all of the hustle and bustle and looked around.

“Who the fuck is he?”Reynolds demanded

“It’s a long story,” Candestine groaned. She rolled her eyes.

Maeglin closed the distance between Skold and he in three strides. “Is what my sharp-tipped ears have heard true? Is there really going to be an attack on the city?”

Skold nodded. “Yes. Samhein is unleashing an army of his creations. We’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. Lives are at stake.”

Maeglin’s eyes widened, as if a revelation had just drifted into his head. “So you were telling me the truth. What is happening in this city is truly not your doing”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you,” Candestine said sharply. “But your only concern is following your king’s every order like a boy scout while we have been working our ass have to prevent this disaster.”

Skold couldn’t help but smirk at his sister. She always speaks her mind, he thought. Up until now I always thought that was a bad thing.

“Then I will fight alongside you,” Maeglin said. “And I will vouch for you at the trial.”

“You really don’t think he’s still going to this trial, do you?” Dominyc growled. He took an opposing step towards Maeglin. Even thought Maeglin was tall Dominyc still towered over him.

Skold stepped in between them. “We do not have time for this. We will discuss matter later.”

“Sir!” An officer came up beside Reynolds. He was young, probably a rookie, and he looked scared. Skold could literally smell the fear rolling off of him in waves. “The three trucks have been spotted! They’re headed for downtown and they’re coming from three different directions!”

“Calm yourself Strickland.” Reynolds clapped him on the shoulder. “Your eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of your head. Everything is going to be fine. When we get out there make sure you blow these beasts apart.”

“Yes sir!” The officer smiled and walked off to do something else.

“Alright everyone!” Reynolds roared. “Grab your gear and get out there! Let’s move!”

Minutes later Skold, Dominyc, Candestine, and Maeglin stood before three hundred or so men and women who had been called to do battle. It was sleeting hard and the wind was unforgiving. It was past three o’clock in the morning. Road blocks had been set up to stop any incoming traffic and civilians were being ushered off of the streets. A thousand red and blue lights painted the street, flashing from the top of cop cars. No one spoke, everyone waited silently. Occasionally Reynolds barked orders into a walkie talkie or into his cell phone. Yet despite the silence Skold could sense the fear, the fear of death, the fear that they would never see their homes and loved ones again. He wondered if this was what it had been like during the days when Paladin was alive and the human race had almost been completely wiped out by his plague.

For the life of him Skold could not remember. He could not remember what it had been like to lead the king’s army into battle, to feel the weight of everyone’s lives resting on his shoulders. He could not remember invading Paladin’s castle and cutting off his head, or the years he had spent with Bane as his apprentice, his lover. He remembered the day Maeglin and the remnants of his father’s troops returned, their banners appearing above the horizon. He remembered King Yaldon summoning him to the throne and telling him that he would take his father’s place; back then King Yaldon had been different. The plague had not blackened his skin, had not driven him mad, had not made him into a whithered, weak crone. He remembered how Maeglin had trained him, taught him what it meant to be commander. But the war, the fighting, the death, the victory...all of it was lost to him.

When the trucks came they came from all three sides, just as the young rookie Strickland had said. Skold heard them long before he saw them, the sound of their engines cutting sharply through the night. They trundled through the streets and screeched to a halt before the road blocks. Their head lights were bright, blinding, slicing through the mixture of rain and snow.

“Hold your position!” Reynolds barked. “Do not open fire until I tell you to!”

Simultaneously all three truck engines died.

They waited.

Nothing happened.

Skold pointed at the truck and Reynolds nodded. With a Uzi in his hand, Skold slid over the road block and approached the truck. He pulled the door open. An elf sat inside and looked down at him.

“Where are your creatures?” Skold demanded.

The elf did not answer. He didn’t have to.

Skold turned as the hatch of the sewer just feet away lifted and shifted. An abomination leapt out of the sewer.

With a sickening jolt Skold realized that Samhein had tricked them. The trucks had just been a diversion from the original plan.

“They’re coming up from the sewers!”

He turned and shot the elf in the head as the abominations teemed out of the seweres, closing in from all sides.

The silence was split by the sound of gun fire. Men and women retreated, taking cover where ever they could find it. A dozen abominations leapt over the top of the truck and landed on the hood. Skold lashed at the one closest to him with a kick. He pinned it to the ground with his foot and emptied half a magazine into its head. He emptied the other half into another creature’s back. Dom finished it off with a blast of his shot gun.

Within seconds the street was filled with an army of abominations. Tendrils shot from their hands. They slashed at anything in their path with the sharp end of their tendrils. Skold could hear the sound of Candestine and Maeglin’s sword slashing through the air, Reynold’s unintelligable barking. But all of it was simply background noise. All that mattered was the matter in front of him.

He ducked as an abomination’s tendril shot towards his head. He flipped over and landed on the hood of the truck. He dropped to his knees and blew its head off. The muzzles of his Uzis flashed with white light, never missing a target. A helicopter soared overhead and fired a rocket at a large group of the monstrosities. In a magnifant explosion of fire mutated limb and black gore rained from the sky.

From where he stood on top of the truck, Skold had the perfect view. He could see in every direction. He threw three grenades into the crowd of abominations and opened fire. His hands were blurs of motion when he slid fresh magazines into his weapons. When he ran out of magazines for his Uzis he pulled out the two Colts. The explosion from the two grenades he’d thrown had helped in opening a small hole in the abomination’s advancement, opening Skold a few seconds. But there was simply too many of them. It was like watching an army of insects. The abominations were relentless, efficient killing machines.

When he saw the helicopter, it was almost too late. It spun out of the air falling straight for the truck. Abominations clung to the side of the helicopter; a couple were thrown from it and dropped to the ground. Skold leapt off the roof of the truck just as the helicopter crashed into the top of the truck.

Skold had not moved in enough time. The explosion caught him and threw him through the air. His back slammed into the windshield of a car. The back of his head hit the glass hard enough to shatter it.

For a moment he found himself floating, floating on a wave that was pulling him towards unconciousness. Part of him felt tempted to give into it, to let it take him. The battle could carry on without him. Before that could happen Dom grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet.

“You okay?” he boomed.

“I’m fine. I have a little bit of a headache.”

Dom laughed. “You’ve survived worse.”

Skold nodded in agreement.

“Skold!” Reynolds and several other officers were huddled behind cars. The abominations had them surrounded, trapped. They were doing everything they could to keep the abominations off of them but in seconds it was clear to see that they would be overrun.

“Ready to have some more fun?” Skold asked Dom.

“Of course.”

Together Skold and Dom made a path to Renyold’s group, blasting away any abomination that dared to get in their way. By this time Skold had ran out of ammo all together and was relying on his daggers. He discovered that there was something much more gratifying in using the daggers, slashing throats. His hands were as much a weapon as any gun.

“You’re getting bad old man,” Skold said to Reynolds. “I do not have time to keep saving you.”

Reynold’s back was pressed up against the side of a car. “What can I say? I’m too old for this shit. This is worse than the fucking troll.”

“Do you have anything with real fire power? I’m out.”

“There’s this.” Dom handed Skold a grenade launcher. “Put it to good use.”

Skold couldn’t help but grin. I can do that.