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Chapter 43- Back Into The Fray
Part 1- Back Into The Fray
Liz, Alex, Bip, Tom, Calem, and Edgar all stood around the doors leading back out onto the street. Emily and Brett stood behind them as Brett peered through the crack in the door scanning for any signs of the creatures. He closed the door fully and turned around to face the rest of the group.
“Looks like it’s clear,” Ryan said.
“Finally… we’ve lost half the day just waiting already,” Emily said in an exasperated tone.
Brett slyly stepped across to the parting group. Liz turned to look at Brett who now stood directly beside her.
“Hey… I got you guys this,” Brett whispered as he raised a rolled-up paper scroll. “ It’s a map of the area, figured it might help you get around a bit easier.”
Liz smiled at Brett as she took the map out of his hands.
“Thanks,” Liz whispered back.
Emily turned around to the rest of the group.
“Well guess this is it. Good luck on the rest of your journey,” Emily said as she gestured towards the door.
Ryan opened the door widely being sure to keep an eye out for any of the monsters. The group began to walk out of the building, feeling the cold early breeze against there skin. Brett waved merely at the group as they walked out onto the street.
“Bye good luck!” Brett yelled.
“Shhh… do you want to bring more of those creatures out,” Ryan scolded as he closed the door leaving the group by themselves?
Part 2- The Long Track Ahead
A brief silence came over the group as they waited for someone to speak up with what to do next. Liz unrolled the map that she had been given and scanned it intently.
“Looks like the Ora building is that way,” Liz said, raising to point further down the street.
“Let me have a look at that,” Tom replied as he reached out to take the map away from Liz.
Tom began to scan the map even more intently then Liz had.
“Looks like we’ve still got a pretty long track ahead of us. Come on let's get a move on, we’re burning daylight.”
Tom walked off down the street still looking down at the map followed behind by the rest of the group.
Part 3- An Unnerving Message
Calem’s broom slammed against the side of one of the creature's head sending blood and viscera shooting everywhere and causing its lifeless body to fly off towards the side. Liz stabbed her icicle down into the head of one of the creatures laying on the ground. She turned her head to look down the tight confined, more suburban street that the rest of the group walked down. Liz wiped the sweat forming across her brow away as she walked on after the rest of the group.
“How much further can this place possibly be,” Liz complained.
“At least there’s not too many of those things around,” Edgar muttered.
Tom continued to scan the map in his hands as he strolled down the street. He tilted his head up to look at the sky as the sun continued to drop.
“We’ve still got a way to go before we get there. We should probably find somewhere to hold out till morning,”
Calem leaned against a nearby broken down car and let out a long sigh.
“Thank god, I'm about ready for a rest,” Calem said.
Calem looked down to the ground as he heard a strange shifting noise at his feet. Without warning a hand came out from under the car and tightly grasped his ankle. Calem let out a long scream drawing the rest of the group's attention to him. Edgar looked over to see one of the creatures biting into Calem’s leg. In an instant, Edgar ran to his companion's side. He swiftly raised his leg before slamming it down into the creature's head, squishing it beneath his boot. Calem continued to scream as he fell. Edgar grabbed him before he hit the ground, cradling him in his arms.
“Calem!” Edgar shouted as Calem continued to breathe heavily and groan in pain.
“Arghh god that stings,” Calem groaned between clenched teeth.
Tom raised his finger to his lips and let out a sharp breath of air between his teeth, demanding the pair to silence.
“Keep it down you to, do you want to draw all those things out,” Tom ordered sternly as he walked towards the pair.
“What the hell are you talking about. Calem’s hurt, we need to get him some sort of medical attention or something. Don’t go telling me to be quiet.”
“He’ll be fine, we just need to get him inside. But if you go stirring up a horde then we’ll all be goners,” Tom continued to scold before raising his hand and pointing further down the street to a nearby building. “look we can spend the night there while we wait for Calem to heal.”
The rest of the group looked down the street to the building Tom pointed at. Without warning, a pair of creatures appeared from the nearby ally and began making their way towards the group. Another small group emerged from the opposite ally followed by an onslaught of creature pouring out of every nook and cranny of the street.
“Crap, we gotta get a move on now,” Alex panicked.
“Go, that building is the best bet,” Tom reiterated as he began to run towards the building.
Liz, Alex, and Bip quickly followed in Tom’s footsteps and began to make their way towards the building. Edgar lifted Calem and ran after the rest of the group. Liz took a lead of the group, slamming aside the creature that now blocked there a path to make way or the rest of her companions. She got to the door and reached out her hand to the handle, twisting it to no avail. The rest of the group caught up with Liz.
“It’s locked, let’s try a different building,” Liz said as she turned to face Tom.
“No need,” Tom replied as he reached out to a small metal keypad on the side of the door.
He quickly tapped in a few buttons on the keypad. Once he taped the last digit a quiet clicking sound came from the handle. Liz once again turned the handle, pushing it open to reveal a steep staircase behind it. Tom quickly ran into the building and up the staircase. Liz entered the building and held the door open as the rest of the group made their way through. She quickly slammed the door shut as the creatures grew closer. The sounds of the monsters scratching and bashing against the door in a vain attempt to get at the group. Liz turned her head just in time to see Tom opening a door to one of the rooms connected to the staircase. Liz and the rest of the group walked up and into the room. Inside was a small apartment with a kitchen connected to a lounge room and several doors leading off to other rooms. Tom looked erratically around the room lifting up and looking behind everything in the room. Edgar walked over the couch and gently placed Calem down on it.
“What the hell are you doing?” Liz asked.
Tom continued to frantically ran around the room ignoring Liz's question. Alex walked over to the kitchen counter and looked down at the picture sitting on it. He lifted the picture, his eyes widening slightly as he looked at it. Liz raised her hand to her chin as she began to think about what had just happened.
“Wait a second… how did you know the code to get into this place?”
Tom stopped looking around and stood completely still. He began to breathe heavily as he clenched his fists tightly.
“Liz… look at this,” Alex said as he walked over to Liz holding the picture up to her.
Liz took the picture out of his hands and looked down at it. Inside the intricately carved frame was a picture of Tom and a women with their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders and a young girl standing in front of them.
“This is your apartment?” Liz said.
Tom turned around to face the pair who stared back at him acquisitional.
“I needed to see if they were ok… I knew if they were still alive they would be held up here. Captain Barker told me it was a bad idea… but I didn’t listen to him,” admitted Tom.
“So this entire time you’ve been leading us in completely the wrong direction? How much time have we wasted on this side quest of yours,” Alex growled?
“Not completely in the wrong direction… just a slight detour.”
Edgar stood up from his friend who now laid completely still on the couch. He stomped over to Tom and stood to loom above him, malice filling his eyes. He cocked his fist back and in an instant sent it flying towards Tom. His fist made contact with Tom’s right arm sending him flying across the room and slamming into the wall.
“You bastard! If you hadn’t lead us here Calem wouldn’t have been hurt… if he dies ill rip your head off!”
Tom pulled himself up off the ground, cradling his throbbing side. He looked across to Edgar who continued to stare him down while taking heavy breaths.
“There’s a med-pack in the bathroom, as long as the wound doesn’t get infected he should be fine,” Tom said calmly.
Edgar clenched his fist tightly before storming off out of the room. The radio strapped to Tom’s belt began to let out a static sound. He quickly unclipped the radio and raised it to his mouth and pressed down the button.
“Hello is anyone there?”
The radio continued to let out static.
“Guess there’s still too much interferes,” Liz chimed in.
“Captain young… do you copy,” came The general's voice cutting through the static. “Crap… listen if you ca…. ear me headquarters ha…. Three Eleven…. Get bac…..”
The radio suddenly cut out leaving the group once again in silence.
“Three Eleven again... what could that mean?” Questioned Liz.
“I told you its broken code,” Tom said as he put the radio back and began to walk off, an ora of disappointment overcoming him. “I’m going to bed, there's a spare room next to the bathroom,” he continued as he walked out of the room.
Alex and Liz looked to each other, unsure of what to do. The pair walked off into the next room in complete silence, the uncertainty of what was to come weighing heavily on the pair.
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TO BE CONTINUED
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thanks you for reading Chapter 42 of Mage. If you like what you see please consider dropping a Kudos and maybe checking out the rest of my work. Also for any updates or if you just wanna see my cosplay adventure please consider follwing my tumblr here https://www.tumblr.com/blog/50funny and until next time have a good one.