![[98 Epigraphs#015]] # Chapter 15 “God dammit,” Hunter growled, pulling on a shirt, rushing outside. Alaina followed, hair a mess. *Interrupted twice by other people’s mayhem.* “God’s above” They stood just outside the shattered glass front doors. Bullets that had been aimed at them now shot all around, trying to hit the winged blur that was Nova. She shot from car to car, twin ringblades tearing through both metal and people. Nova left a trail of gore around her, everywhere she moved. Within 3 minutes, it was all over. Nova stumbled back toward the doors, the human side of her face torn and bloodied, almost rotting. One van of the four had pulled away, but Hunter and Alaina commandeered of the charged electric trucks around the back of the Costco building. “Alaina to Violet.” Lainey said over the recently added radio in the truck. “Violet present, over.” Her voice came through the speakers, a little static followed, but it seemed to flow well. “Group status?” “Two dead, 5 injured, and 3 turned overnight in the med bay.” “Ten-four. Thank you. Hunter and I have nabbed an electric truck, we will be safely tailing and monitoring these guys.” The beautiful passenger in the truck said. “Sounds good. I will report it to the others. I installed a makeshift pager that connects to the radio. Contact us once every couple hours with that. Cant be decrypted by anyone listening on the line. Drive safe. Over and out.” Violet concluded. Later Hunter and Alaina sat together in a tinted out abandoned ford car. They’d hidden the truck a short ways away, just close enough to leave in an emergency. *How do they defend this place?* Hunter thought, there were lots of loading bays, entrances, ladders. It appeared indefensible, but they had fended off Corinne and Arden, two trained assassins for the DCIA. The undead prowled the access road surrounding the mall. Several were also in the vehicles nearby to the couple, rubbing their rotting faces on the windows, smearing blood and viscera. The sight always made Hunter’s stomach turn. *Why do i always gotta bring jerky.* They had other snacks and things, but mostly just what was in the truck. Various supplies, water, weapons. Nobody in the group wanted to talk about it, but they’d soon need to go looking for food. The preparations were great, but they hadn’t begun to stock the vehicles or anything else. They needed everything they had. Hunter had mentioned it before, but there were a bunch of private hunting preserves east of Athens. They’d lack the undead everywhere else would have, and a shit ton of deer. *Gotta bring that up when we get back.* After a short wait, the large bay door in front of the van opened. Alaina pulled two sets of binoculars from the glove box, and handed one to Hunter. A Hispanic man, maybe 45 years old left through the door. He wore a cowboy hat, boots and cargo jeans. He had a holster in his back waistband, and another appendix carried. They saw the man say something to the occupants, and after a minute or so, he twirled a finger in the air, and shot the driver point-blank. Lainey jumped a little, but they both watched as six or eight men left the building. They saw the men rip open the doors, drag people out, and execute them. Then they drove the van into the mall, and closed up the doors. “Gods above,” Lainey said, taking a sharp breath. Hunter too realized he hadn’t been breathing. “Well, they’re more dangerous than we thought.” Hunter said with a nervous laugh. “Much worse than we thought,” Lainey nodded. After another hour watching, to no avail, the couple resolved to return to home base. Hunter parked in front of the building, shattered glass crunching under the tires. He hopped out, opening Alaina’s door for her and helping her down. “You guys were quick,” Jack chuckled. Charlie now had her hair in small braids, almost like cornrows, and stood next to him. *Like a Viking princess.* Raven and Nova came out shortly after, Raven still as a cougar. “How many were there?” “Enough for the leader to slaughter all the ones in the van.” hunter said, his arm around Lainey, playing with her hair. “Wow.” Raven commented, sounding funny with her nonstandard face. “That mall could hold thousands, it has a lot of like 4 thousand spots, 100 store spaces, 4 of which are huge, and the cinemas all around. Not to mention the cafeteria, as well as the whole place being 2 stories.” “We circled the building and took fire all the way around,” Corinne said, Arden not far behind. They joined the rest of the group in front of the warehouse. A group of Koryph kids were beginning to work on building new reinforced doors to the place. “It doesn’t seem defendable, with its size, so either they are large in number, or good at looking such. I saw 20 or 30 inside the bay door, plus the leader and the guys who shot and killed the van guys.” Hunter raised an eyebrow. *Damn I didn’t catch that. Observant girl.* “So, based on what I am hearing, the indefensible fortress of a mall is a death maze.” Corinne said with a sigh. “Yeah.” Hunter said, matching her tone and sigh. “How the hell do we get in?” Corinne followed up. She’d been signing the conversation to Arden the whole time, Hunter hoped she could follow. *I wish we had a way for her to read this live.* “Lure them out?” Charlie said, but shook her head. “Infiltration?” Arden asked, *Great voice for being deaf.* “Gas them out?” Raven asked, the group fell silent, pondering. “That’s a good idea, though the amount of gas would have to be insane.” Jack replied. He was right, the cubic footage would be impossible to fill quickly. “Hoard.” Nova stated monotone. The entire group went silent. Hunter was the one who broke it. “Yeah, we are doing that. It’s the only sane choice.” He said, chewing a particularly tough piece of jerky. “Worked well last time,” Alaina added. “I agree.” Jack said. “We need to watch them and come up with a plan of action then.” Lainey said, heading inside. The rest of the group followed, and they began to load the truck. Pretty soon, Hunter and Alaina were on the road again, driving down the perimeter towards the mall. “I’m glad they made it three lanes.” Hunter said, arm around Lainey. “Makes for a faster trip… Hunter, rearview, now.” Alaina said, pulling a rifle from the back seat. She set the barrel on the seat between them, aiming down sights. She’d spotted a large diesel truck barreling down the highway after them. The next exit wasn’t for another couple miles, and it was the one toward the mall. *What did we do.* Lainey shot, but missed the driver, Hunter felt a rear tire go flat as bullets sounded from behind. A cry went up from Alaina, blood spattering on the dash and front glass shattering. Another truck was flying the opposite direction, right toward him. Hunter spotted a residential neighborhood, the type made up of townhomes, not far from the loop. He took the truck off the highway, down an eighth of a mile slope. He found a gap between two townhomes, but as he started to turn, he felt the front right tire give out, and he hit a hole in the slope. His truck bounced, and he was unable to correct the trajectory. The front of the truck barreled into the upper floor of a town home, just outside the gap he was aiming for. Glass, brick and wood made way for the steel of his front push bars, and the front end of the truck came to rest on the dining table of the dining room. “Alaina?” He asked. The girl was slumped over, and since he got no reply he exited his side and went around to hers. He felt her pulse, she was breathing, but she was losing blood. Hunter couldn’t hear any sounds from outside, so he carefully pulled Alaina from the wreckage to the floor a short ways away, and used his shirt as a makeshift bandage. *Gods above, if she doesn’t survive.* She’d been shot in her shoulder, not the worst wound in the world, but still enough to be concerned about. After a couple minutes, he heard the rumble of several diesel engines outside, and saw the door break open. ---- Charlie watched the sons of Koryph put together a new set of metal doors in the front of the warehouse, as well as boarding up all the other non-vital entrances. Her sister was still a cougar, able-bodied, but a cat. Jack was seeing off Rhett and Rose as they went east, with Cass Mason of Athira, to scout out hunting properties to harvest deer from. Hunter had given him the idea, but Charlie didn’t see how it was a good time for that. *We just got attacked by some freaks from a mall.* “Haven’t heard from Hunter or Alaina in a while,” Raven commented, taking a break from cleaningher shoulder wound. She always chose solid black in her pelt, whenever possible. The time she’d accidentally turned into a pink fish as a kid was something Charlie enjoyed teasing about. “Yeah,” Charlie said, “It’s beginning to concern me. It’s been over 2 hours. It’s almost dinner.” *In fact, Haven’t heard from them since they left.* She walked over to Jack, Rose and Rhett had left by now. “Dukes, we haven’t heard from Rhett or Alaina once.” “Oh, we didn’t get a message of their arrival?” He asked, touching one of her new braids. She’d decided to change it up, since now it would be easier to put up. Wouldn’t be in her way so much. “Nothing.” Charlie repeated. Jack’s brow furrowed. “If we don’t hear back in half an hour, we need to do something.” He said, letting go of her hair. “I need to check up on Koryph’s status on the spikeblades. Join me?” He didn’t need to ask Charlie twice. Raven followed also, padding silently behind her twin. It was Jack’s eighteenth birthday, but he hadn’t said a word about it. Charlie knew from years past it was a touchy subject. He was the only living child of Syla, so his childhood in camp Mythborn was rather lonely. She usually tried to cheer him up. The members of Aevala had quickly removed the few dead and wounded that they’d recieved after the battle. They left the attackers to rot, after the members of Thanon ended the few remaining souls. Nova was nowhere to be seen, same with Corinne and Arden. “Mr. And Mrs. Dukes. Good to see you both.” Wade Dawson began. *We aren’t married.* “Most of the house are working on the doors, but I assume you want to see what we have done with the spikeblades?” “Absolutely.” Jack said, rolling his eyes to Charlie. “Alright, so in our experiments, spike blades are about twenty-five percent less powerful than ringblades, but the drawbacks are just as strong.” Wade explained. “Weird. Since they are imbedded in the body, are you constantly using the power?” Raven said. *Right good question.* “No, you can basically turn the power on and off, weilding the blade without constantly using power, unlike a aringblade. Of course, there’s also unpowered ring blades.” Wade said, gesturing to the one on Charlie’s finger. “So there are all sorts of options.” “How painful is it?” Charlie asked. “Not painful with a member of Aevala, without one it is quite painful, but better now that we’ve been working on them longer.” “I’ll grab one.” Raven said, padding away silently. She returned moments later with Jacob Woods, of Aevala. He’d been the leader since the fall, but Charlie wasn’t well acquainted. He was a busy man in this day and age. “Hey y’all.” Jacob greeted, “Inserting metal into your bodies for fun I hear.” Wade chuckled, “Actually, we are working on spikeblades. Want one?” “No, thanks, I’d need some quality vodka to counter the pain.” Jack volunteered, picking a small spike with a ram’s head embedded on it. *Arex.* Raven also selected a spikeblade of Thanon. Charlie herself abstained. *Two incredibly painful drawbacks is enough for one girl.* The spikes went in with minimal effort, they were long and sharp, the end not inserted was rounded, but down almost to a point. The entire thing was cylindrical, which contributed to the ease. Neither Raven nor Jack used the powers newly granted to them. *Clever.* If they didn’t hear from Hunter or Alaina soon, they may just need every edge against their new enemy.