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Chapter 39- Behind Enemy Lines
Part 1- Preparing For Battle
Liz, Alex, Bip, Calem, and Edgar stood lining up outside the wall leading deeper into the city. Liz took in a long deep breath as she prepared herself for what would happen on the other side. She felt something small and soft brush up against the side of her leg. She looked down to see Bip smiling a comforting smile back up at her.
“it’ll be ok… ok,” said Bip.
Liz returned Bip's smile.
“ I know… don’t worry I'm fine.”
General Barker and captain young stood atop the large wall looking down at the group below. General Barker turned his head to look further down the wall to a man standing by a large control board.
“Open the gate!” The General barreled out in a booming voice.
The man nodded his head before turning to the panel beside him. He reached out and pressed a small red button in the center of the board. A loud whirring sound began to emanate from in front of the group. The wall began to slowly pull apart revealing the city behind it. The whirring sound began to die down as the gap in the wall got wider before coming to a complete halt. The group was left in complete silence as they looked out into the silent and empty city. The general once again looked down at the group.
“You all have your missions, best of luck!” General Barker yelled.
Calem turned to Alex and Liz, a kind smile forming on his lips as he and Edgar walked off into the city.
“I think he’s talking to you… good luck,” Calem said still smiling.
“What the hell do you mean by that!” Alex grunted.
“Does he even realize how much of a dick he is,” Liz chimed in.
Liz took in a deep breath as she looked out of the gate. She began to walk off towards the city followed behind by Bip and Alex.
Part 2 – The Bridge
Liz, Bip, and Alex looked over the side of the bride at the brown river running beneath. On either side of the bridge was a long river bank running off into the horizon. The skyline of each side of the bridge was filled with tall buildings. The empty sound of wind filled the air where the sounds of cars and people should have been. Alex turned around to look further down the bridge. He looked down at a brown paper map in his hands for a brief moment before folding it back up and turning back to face the rest of the group.
“According to this it should be just over this bridge,” Alex said gesturing down the bridge.
Bip looked up to Alex and nodded in understanding. Alex looked up to Liz who continued to stare at the river bank.
“Liz?” Alex said to no reaction.
Alex followed Liz's eye line to the riverbank noticing the distant figure of one of the creatures standing alone.
“Huh… hey, that’s the first one we’ve seen. At least it's so far away.”
Liz clenched her fist tightly as she looked on at the creature.
“Just leave me alone…” Liz huffed under her breath.
“Huh… what was that?” Asked Alex.
Liz let out a long breath before turning to face Alex with a smile.
“I'm fine… we should probably get a move on shouldn’t we,” Liz said
“Yeah, you’re right,” Alex said as he turned to walk off down the bridge.
Liz went to follow Alex down the bridge before stopping and looking back to the creature. Her eyes seemed to zoom in on the figure. On the other side of the river stood what to Liz looked like the decaying corpse of the Anvil smiling menacingly back up to her. She glared daggers into the figure before closing her eyes, turning and following Alex off down the bridge.
Part 3- Checkpoint One A
Liz, Alex, and Bip continued to walk across the seemingly never-ending bridge. The checkpoint was now in sight, a series of large tents surrounded by two large wire fences blocking the bridge.
“It doesn’t seem to be in too bad of a condition, maybe this will be easy after all,” said Alex.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Liz said as the sounds of pained groans and uncoordinated shuffling began to fill the air.
As they drew closer the sounds continued to grow louder and louder to a near-deafening point, un-easing the group somewhat. As they reached the wire fence, they tried to look through however their view was blocked from the other side by one of the army tents inside.
“Well… guess we have to get inside,” Alex said, reaching his arm out to the fence to climb it.
“Stop!” Liz said sternly. “What the hell do you think you’re!”
Liz pointed to a small metal sign with a picture of a lightning bolt surrounded by a red circle. Alex retracted his hand away from the fence and turned to face Liz.
“So then how the hell are we gonna get in?” Alex said.
Liz raised her finger to her lips to silence Alex as she pointed to a large hole in the fence.
“Keep your voice down, do you want them to hear us?” Liz scolded Alex. “We can get through over there.”
Liz and Bip followed the fence line to the hole and ducted under it into the checkpoint followed behind by Alex. The group crept up to the side of the tent in complete silence. Liz felt her shoe stick to the ground as she came to a holt. She looked down to see a puddle of deep red blood pooled around the side of the tent. Alex let out a quite tone drawing Liz's attention to him. She sore Alex climbing up a ladder leading to the top of the tent gesturing for her to follow. Liz snuck her way over to the ladder and followed him up. She reached the top of the ladder to see Bip and Alex laying down on the far end of the tent looking down at the ground below. She shuffled on her stomach to the edge beside her companions. Her mouth widened in shock as she looked down the ground.
“Oh my god…” Liz exclaimed in shock.
The area was packed full with half-rotten corpses shambling clumsily about. The walls were dented and chipped from the impacts of hundreds of bullets. Strewn across the ground were many empty bullet casing surrounding the heavily armored dead guards. The pained groans and sounds of aimless shuffling filled the air overpowering all other sounds.
“There’s so many,” exclaimed Liz.
“Looks like that’s where they're getting in,” Bip said, pointing with his tail toward the corner of the fence.
Liz and Alex turned to look where Bip was pointing. The poll propping up the fence had been knocked over leaving a large gap.
“How the hell are we gonna put that back up with all those things down there?” Questioned Liz.
“Ok, here’s the plan,” said Alex as he shuffled back from the edge followed by Liz and Bip.
“You cause a distraction in the opposite corner while me and Bip go down there and fix it. Sounds like a plan?”
Liz looked down and relented for a moment, clenching her fist tightly. She looked back up to Alex, dawning a fake vail of confidence as she nodded.
Part 4- The Plan
Liz stood on the top of one of the military tents opposite of Alex and Bip. Liz nodded to Alex who returned a similar acknowledgment. She let out a long deep breath before standing up and moving to the edge of the tent.
“Hey, all you… thing!” Liz yelled, raising her hands above her head and waving them about.
The majority of the monsters stopped their aimless wandering and turned to look at Liz with a lifeless stare. They began to shuffle there way towards the tent.
“Yeah, that’s right… come and get me!” Lix continued as she began to wave her hands and jump about.
More of the creatures began to take notice until they were all making their way towards Liz. The creatures surrounded the tent, reaching up in a vain attempt to grab her. They pushed against the walls of the tent, shaking it around. Liz was sent off-balance, stumbling forward before catching her self and regaining her footinh.
“Wow crap… gotta be careful.”
Liz looked down at the decaying creature bellow, staring back at her with milky white eyes. Their jaws unhinged as they hungrily tried to reach Liz. Liz looked back up away from the creatures.
“Don’t look down… Got it.”
Alex Gave Liz a thumbs up as he stood up and jumped off the top of the tent. He squatted down as he landed to cause as little noise as possible. Alex made his way towards the broken fence as swiftly and quietly as he could as Bip floated after him. He reached the fallen over fence pole and grabbed it with both hands. He gave it a hearty pull, straining every muscle in his body to no avail.
“Crap that’s heavy,” Alex puffed.
“Here let me help,” Bip said as he reached the pole.
Bip stretched out his tail, wrapping it around the pole tightly. With all his might he flew up into the air as Alex began to lift once again. Liz watched as the pole was slowly lifted off the ground towards its intended position.
“Wow… they're doing it. this might not be so hard after…” Liz's words were cut off by the sound of a distant explosion followed by something small slamming into the ground by Alex.
Liz looked on closely at where the object had landed with confusion. Alex and Bip continued with their work, oblivious to what had just happened next to them. Once again a loud explosion came from further into the city. Moments later a loud tinny sound echoed throughout the camp as another object ricocheted off the pole. Many of the creatures turned to the source of the sound and began slowly shambling towards the pair. Alex looked up to the dent now etched into the pole.
“What the hell?”
Liz turned to look deeper into the city. From one of the tall building Liz sore a small glint of light. As soon as she noticed yet another explosion sounded from the building. Liz's mouth widened, taking in a sharp breath as she realized what was happening.
“We’re being shot at!?” Liz explained.
Suddenly one of the bullets came flying past her leg, piercing the tent. Liz panicked as the bullet passed her, quickly jumping to the side to avoid it. She landed on the corner of the tent. Her body began to fall backward. Liz flailed her arms around, attempting to steady herself. She came to stand still, letting out a sigh of relief before hearing yet another explosion from the city. A bullet pierced the tent mere millimeters from Liz’s feet, sending vibrations through the tent once again knocking Liz off balance. She fell back towards the creatures grasping up towards her. As she fell she quickly kicked off the corner of the tent with all her might sending her flying over the creatures bellow. She landed on the ground behind the creatures with a loud thud. She slowly pulled her pained body off the ground.
“Ahh, god that hurt,” Liz said as she rubbed her aching back.
Her eyes filled with horror as she looked up to see the creatures, slowly turning around and beginning to stumble their way towards her. Time seemed to slow down as her brain raced to try and convince her body to move to no avail.
“Well well well look what we have here,” came a familiar voice from behind Liz.
She felt two large calas hand place themselves firmly down on her shoulders. She turned her head to see the Anvil smiling menacingly back at her.
“You can't seriously be the one that killed me can you?”
Liz continued to stand completely motionless as the Anvil walked out in front of her. He stood next to one of the creatures, inspecting it closely before turning to look at Liz with an
evil grin.
“Let me guess… I was a bad guy, I deserved to die. But these… well, they were people, innocent people, they don’t deserve to die do they,” Taunted the Anvil.
Liz looked over the shambling crowd. The creatures seemed to morph and shift, the decay began to dissipate making the creature look more human. The Anvil strutted his way back across to Liz, walking around behind her. He firmly placed one of his hands on each of her shoulders.
“Look at you. Are you really a mage, you don’t deserve that title, you’re just some little girl… a wannabe who can't cut it when push comes to shove.”
Alex turned his head to see Liz standing motionless a the creatures drew closer and closer.
“Liz, what the hell are you doing!” Yelled Alex.
Liz continued to look at the creatures as her mind race.
“Maybe he’s right, I’m not a real mage, I can't even kill these monsters,”
The creature leading the group reached out its hand towards Liz. Out of nowhere, Bip flew over to the creature. He wrapped his tail around its neck tightly, holding it back from reaching Liz. His tail began to glow blue and crackle as it began to pulse with electricity. The creature began to spasm and shake before going limp. Bip removed his tail from around the creature causing it to drop down to the ground.
“Liz, you gotta snap out of this,” pleaded Bip.
Liz continued to stand still as moments from her past raced through her mind.
“you want me to tell you the truth! You were a disappointment as a daughter,” Liz mum's words echoed in her head.
"I've always been a disappointment ."
“If we ever have to fight again… I won’t hesitate to kill you,” Es voice rung in her ears.
"I've always been weak."
“Are you really a mage, you don’t deserve that title, you’re just some little girl.”
“I should have just given up before I started. Everyone’s been trying to tell me this was a bad idea since the beginning. No ones believed in me… that should have been a sign.” Liz thought to herself.
One of the creatures reached out towards Bip. He quickly flew up dodging out of the way of the creatures.
“ Maybe it would be better… if I just…”
“Cause we're family you know.” Liz's eyes widened as Bip’s words rung through her mind “And you’re part of our family now too.”
Liz turned her head to see Alex being grabbed on his right arm by one of the creatures. He tried in-vainly to try and shake it off as he continued to hold up the pole. Liz quickly sprung into action sprinting across to Alex. As she ran she reached out her hand to the side, forming a long sharp shaft of ice in her hand. She plunged the shaft through the monster's head, piercing all the way through to the other side coated in a dark red goo. The monsters grasp loosened around Alex as the ice melted sending it falling limply to the ground. Alex looked to Liz with an insincere smile.
“Looks like you finally got your head in the game. What the hell took you so long.”
“Don’t worry about it, I'm all better now,” Liz said smiling back.
Bip came flying over to the pair, quickly wrapping his tail around the pole taking some of the weight from Alex. Yet another bullet came zooming inches away from the group digging into the ground.
“Who would be shooting at us? I thought that every one this far into the city was meant to be dead?” Alex questioned.
“We can figure that out later, for now, we should stay focused,” Liz replied.
Liz turned to face the fence. She raised her arms slowly causing a large wall of thick dark blue ice to form on the opposite side of the fence. She continued to drag her hands up higher causing the ice wall to tower over the group.
“That should keep our friend from annoying us for a while,” Liz said as she turned to face the still approaching horde. “Now to deal with them.”
Liz held out both her hands beside her forming a long sharp shaft of ice in each. She began to step towards the horde, an air of confidence emanating off of her.
“Liz… you sure you’re ok?” Asked Bip.
“I’m fine… you two just focus on getting that poll back in place,” replied Liz.
Bip nodded in reply as he watched Liz walk towards the horde. Alex pushed up with all his might as Bip pulled with his tail. As the pair lifted the pole, the air was filled with the sound of the intense battle going on just behind them. the pole reached a vertical position, suddenly dropping down and slotting itself into a hole in the ground holding it in tightly. As the pole slotted into place the sounds behind the pair stopped. Alex and Bip turned around, their mouths widening in shock at what they sore. Liz stood in the middle of the camp, bodies were strewn all around, dismembered and torn apart. The two bloodied shafts of ice in Liz hands melted leaving a puddle of watery blood beside her. Alex and Bip strolled over to Liz.
“Wow Liz… you really did a number on these things. I didn’t think you had it in you,” said Alex.
“Yeah… me neither,” Liz chuckled in reply.
Bip looked over the pile of bodies, and ominous feeling coming over him. He looked up to the still smiling Liz, his eye filling with concern.
“Haven't heard from our friend in a while, guess they gave up. Come on… we should get back to the checkpoint before it gets dark,” Liz said as she turned to walk out of the camp.
Alex and Bip looked to each other for a moment before following, Leaving the camp in unsettling silence.