Death Smith - Book 1 - Chapter 7

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A red shower

Six and a half months ago.

August, 13 AR.

Inside Rift 1.

“All clear here!” Lance shouted as he stood back up. Surrounding him were his squad of three other survivors, each of them armed with an improvised shield and spear. They all had grown over the last two weeks and Lance had recovered to the point where he could contribute. The salve Daniel provided helped a lot.

Around them lay dead Hatchlings, a smaller breed of lizard-like monsters. Although weaker, they could still put up a fight and claw at you if you were not careful. Lance glanced at the slain Hatchlings, seeing their still forms at his feet. They reminded him of children. ‘I hate this doing this,’ Lance thought as he forced himself to look away from the smaller monsters. He knew he had to kill them, and he would, but it did not mean that he’d take pleasure in the act.

“All right, retrieve the shards and let’s head back,” Lance said, patting the Rift-hound’s head and playfully rubbing his ear before he led the group back to the entrance, making their way through the nest.

His companions were speaking among themselves as they reached the entrance.

“How many more nests do you think we need to clear out?”

“I reckon at least five more. I recall Dieter telling someone there were about a dozen left?”

“Nice!”

The Rift-hound had done most of the work, yet the survivors had turned into decent combatants during their time inside the Rift. Nearly every survivor now knew basic survival skills and tactics. The Rifters had trained them well on how to exploit weak spots or the value of a solid ambush.

“Can’t wait!”

Lance heard them say amongst one another. He could understand their eagerness to get out of here. A part of him shared that eagerness, but it also annoyed Lance. It was not that long ago that they had been the ones that were hunted.

‘When we left the hospital, we had over twenty survivors excluding the Rifters. Now we are down to a mere seventeen. Is this truly a win?’ He stopped his train of thought there before he considered how many people had died in the beginning back at the hospital. Just remembering those days was nearly enough for him to feel his body tremble again. Most of all, he remembered Rachel screaming.

Pushing those thoughts away, he took control of his squad, addressing them firmly. “Let’s try to keep quiet until we get back, all right?”

He glanced at his companions, seeing their expression change before they finally nodded. ‘No one likes to be criticized, but they know what is at stake here,’ Lance thought as they left the nest, climbing out using their makeshift rope ladder while the Rift-hound simply jumped and clawed his way upwards with ease.

‘Finally, out,’ He thought as he wiped off a bit of the grime and gore that had stuck to him after having slaughtered the hatchlings.

Lance and the others looked nothing like the people they had been before the Rift. Many of them were unshaven, were wearing worn-out clothing that was stitched together or held together by duct tape. Most of them wouldn’t even recognise themselves unless they took a long bath.

“Nearly there,” He whispered to the others as the Rift-hound returned, barking three times, and wagging his tail, eager to return to Dieter and Daniel.

From there, it only took a few minutes until they reached the camp, seeing the rock and mud walls that could serve as a defensive ring. The Rifters had stationed several survivors as sentries.

Waving to them, the squad entered the camp and quickly reported to Dieter what they had found and killed.

“Glad zo have you all back. Lance, how zid it go?” The tall German asked, inspecting the party that had returned.

“It was all right. Mostly hatchlings and two Lizardlings, yet our hero here took care of the latter,” Lance said as the Rift-hound barked at Lance, praising him and having his ears scratched. Beyond that little Hans appeared unbothered by anything else Lance and Dieter discussed. Afterwards, Lance handed the collected black-shards to Dieter.

“Good job. Get zome food and zome rest. Vere any of you injured?” Dieter asked, storing the Rift-shards with the others he had been collecting.

“Just some bruises, nothing more,” Lance replied calmly, not wanting to mention to Dieter how horrible it felt slaughtering all the Hatchlings.

A large hand found Lance’s shoulder and patted it gently as if Lance were a hound himself. Lance grinned afterwards when he walked away from Dieter, remembering what Daniel had said to him about Dieter frequently treating other people as if they were hounds.

He found a quiet spot to sit by himself as he grabbed a small circular bit of fruit that they had been harvesting here inside the Rift. It tasted horrible, but it was edible, and the human body could digest it without problems.

‘God, this makes me miss the old soup days,’ Lance thought as he leaned backwards, glancing at the large construct in the distance. It stood several stories high and appeared chiselled into several plateaus. It was not too different from one of those ancient Mayan temples back on Earth.

‘Just looking at it, I can feel that there is something wrong with that place,’ Lance thought, as if he could almost feel the Rift-energy coming off from that place. One did not need to be a Rifter to sense that something was wrong there. According to the Rifters, that place was where the Rift was at its strongest. It was the Rift-event, and it marked the location they would need to be at when they returned to Earth. The closer they would be to it, the less momentum their bodies would have when they exited the Rift.

“Just two more days until we launch our attack,” he said aloud as he tried to imagine how high it must be at the top. The remaining monsters would be there, close to where the Rift energy was at its strongest.

He glanced to the edge of the camp and noticed Daniel, Thomas and several other survivors return, all of them bloody and looking disheartened.

‘Don’t tell me we lost another survivor?’ Lance thought as he began making his way over to Thomas to hear about what had happened.

* * * * *

A few days later, Lance rubbed his hands as he looked at the stone structure before him, knowing that today was the day that they would clear it. That or die trying.

Grabbing his phone, he slid his fingers over the small cracks in the screen. The battery had long since run out. It looked silly, but touching it calmed him sometimes. It reminded him that there were people on the other end of the Rift that were waiting for him to return.

‘Soon,’ He thought, switching off his phone and placing it back in his backpack when he noticed Thomas walking over to him, looking just as grim as Lance was feeling.

“You ready?” Thomas asked, although not expecting a reasonable answer.

Shrugging his shoulders, Lance answered with little energy. “No. But no sane person would be, right?”

“Got to love that optimism of yours, Lance,” Thomas said as he patted his friend on the shoulder.

“Sod off and go kill stuff, Thomas,” Lance said with a grin before they checked their weapon and shields one last time before joining up with the other survivors.

There were sixteen survivors in the group, with three of them that were too injured to fight. Lance and Thomas had suggested that they stay behind while the others cleared out the top, yet the Rifters had refused. Daniel had explained that it would mean their deaths the second they cleared the Rift. Not because of any monsters, but because of how Rift-Event closed.

‘I am still unsure what they meant by that, but we need to trust them,’ Lance thought as he gripped his dented, battered, and worn-out steel spear. It had seen quite some damage and would not last for much longer. Still, if they were lucky, it would only be one more fight until they all went home.

“All right, listen up,” Daniel said as he joined up with the survivors, eying them one by one and giving them encouraging stares.

“Today we take the fight to these monsters and use their blood to paint that ugly piece of rock they call home. We will not rush in, nor lose our heads. We did not clear out the nests, hunt roaming parties for weeks, only to mess up now, right?” He asked of his brothers and sisters in arms as he walked sideways, clenching his fist, and showing the survivors the determination of his words.

“Hell no!”

“Let’s see how they like it!”

The survivors said proudly, with Thomas even screaming to vent off some adrenaline.

Nodding proudly, Daniel pointed at the stone structure in the distance. “Just focus on what we have been doing until now. Keep them at bay and let us Rifters do the damage dealing.”

Lance felt his nerves calm down. No doubt it was because of the pull of Daniel’s leadership. Lance had followed them until now and was still alive because of the Rifters. Daniel continued as he captured their hearts for the task at hand.

“If the formation breaks, you split up into smaller groups. Keep holding the smaller monsters back. Pepper them with rocks and other objects. Make them bleed and hurt for every step they take while we stay calm and collected,” he said finally. The speech ended after that, with people given the chance to vent and express their feelings before they steeled themselves for what was to come. Thomas was amongst the loudest during all of this.

Lance mostly kept to himself. Both excitement and fear swirled around in his heart and painted his thoughts. ‘We don’t know what we might face there. Even Dieter and the Rift-hound weren’t able to scout out the exact numbers of enemies there,’ Lance thought as he looked around, seeing all the other survivors. Many of them bore fresh or older wounds. The scars and the fatigue had marked their bodies in a way that would forever linger. Even Daniel looked exhausted, with his fever eating up his remaining strength.

‘He is no doubt in pain and discomfort. Still, we need to cling to him. Please, Daniel, just hold on a while longer,’ Lance thought as Daniel and Dieter began leading the way towards the stone construct, with Lance hoping that he might live to see the end of the day.

* * * * *

“Hold… Now!” Thomas shouted. As practised, the shield-wall suddenly split into two, allowing the monsters to pour in. This allowed the survivors to funnel them near the edge of the steep ridge.

“Reform!” Thomas instructed as the shield wall turned into a half-moon formation. Spears and javelins started poking and prodding against the enemy until they pushed them off one by one. Lizardlings fell several stories downward, shattering on the stone floor on the level below.

“All right, two minutes. Catch your breath before we go up again,” Thomas said, panting. So far, they had cleared several levels of the rocky construct. Each plateau that they cleared meant another step closer to home. They still had a long way to go, and even Thomas was feeling it as he shared his thoughts with Lance.

“God, there is no end to them,” Thomas admitted.

“There has to be, Thomas. We just need to believe that there is an end,” Lance responded as he turned his gaze upwards, seeing Dieter and Daniel back-to-back, hacking, and slashing at the monsters that assaulted them from every angle.

Each time Dieter moved, it was as if a bull was charging, with his massive figure hammering into the monsters. Dieter was caving in skull after skull. Each time a monster tried to sneak up on him, it would find the Rift-hound suddenly attacking the monster and tearing it to shreds.

Whereas Dieter was raw strength and violence, Daniel was faster, using his sword to make quick thrusts, hitting weak points, and piercing even the scales of the Lizardlings and Lizardmen. Their proficiency at killing these types of monsters throughout the Rift had improved and both Rifters now knew what weak points to go for. Lance was in awe at the orchestra of brutality between the two Rifters, yet Thomas kept his mind focused on the task at hand.

“Two minutes are up!” Thomas barked, reforming the group in a tight formation. As one, they walked upwards again, slowly climbing the stone staircase. Nearing the enemies, the group suddenly used their shields and spears by bashing them into one another, creating a loud drumming sound.

-Dhum-

-Dhum-

-Dhum-

The wall moved forwards as one. Unified, the survivors held their spears at the ready as they threw the occasional rock at the monsters that were fighting the Rifters. “Like we practised. Roar!” Thomas commanded the survivors.

The survivors shouted, roaring at the top of their lungs as they increased the speed at which they moved upwards, startling some Lizardlings. Daniel noticed the sudden change in the strategy of the survivors from the corner of his eyes.

“Have they gone mad? Did you tell them to do that?” Daniel asked as he spun on his heels and severed two heads belonging to Lizardlings in one movement before ramming his back into Dieter’s.

“Ja? It looks zhreatening, no?”

“Correction, you are the mad one,” Daniel said with a grin as they rushed forward again, sword and mace killing monster after monster. When the survivors arrived to help pin down the rest of them, the speed of the slaughter quickly increased.

The survivors could only handle a few Lizardlings by themselves. Still, the intimidation effect of a shield wall roaring as it charged you was quite effective. The slight pause, the lingering fear, all of it made it easier for the Rifters to do what they did best: slaughtering monsters by the dozen.

A few minutes later, and all but one monster lay slain at this level. The remaining Lizardling was missing its legs and bleeding out. One survivor grinned as he followed the Lizardling up the stairs in its desperate attempt to crawl upwards, to escape.

Thomas spotted the man as he followed the wounded monster. “Seriously, Jacob. Get back in formation,” Thomas said as he shook his head towards the man. He could understand why Jacob wanted to vent his pent-up frustration, yet it still wasn’t safe on the higher levels. Lance joined Thomas as he watched Jacob use a spear to poke at the wounded monster.

“One victory and we all turn into idiots, right?” Lance asked Thomas as he checked his gear one last time.

“Who said anything about turning into idiots, Lance? I figured we were that from the start,” Thomas replied to Lance as he leaned on his steel pipe and steadied himself, feeling his muscles burn from fatigue and soreness. He then led Lance back to Dieter and Daniel to go over the strategy for clearing out the next rock plateau.

In the background, they could hear an injured Lizardling hissing, no doubt further bullied by Jacob. Daniel simply ignored it as he wiped away the blood from his sword and greeted Thomas and Lance.

“How many people did we lose?” Daniel asked Thomas, his voice strained from the constant fighting.

“Two more. One fell, and a Lizardling hit Lucy in her neck. We tried to help, but it was too late.” Thomas said, trying to keep his emotions suppressed and his mind focused on the task ahead.

“Dammit. Still, this could have gone way worse. For no-” Daniel and Thomas stopped talking when a soul-wrenching scream came from the plateau above them.

Both the survivors and the Rifters watched as a large red scaled monster appeared. It dwarfed even the Lizardmen with ease as it stepped forwards. In one of its hands, it was holding Jacob in front of it. Several Lizardmen and a dozen Lizardlings accompanied the large red monster.

It hissed as if amused, as it slowly lifted Jacob above him and pulled on Jacob’s upper and lower body. The monster pulled until Jacob multiplied in a fountain of blood and gore. A red tide flowed freely into the monster’s gaping mouth. Afterwards, it threw Jacob’s remains to the side, letting the smaller monster feast upon the scraps.

“What the hell is that?!”

“We can’t fight that!”

The survivors said, as panic spread like wildfire.

Daniel and Dieter barely had time to give instructions before the monsters suddenly descended upon them in a torrent of glittering scales and unending violence.

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Author: Osirium

Copyright: 2021 OsiriumWrites

Released: 2021