Gods and Monsters 1/3
This starts five years after the Doomstar Requiem. The Metalocalypse’s time has come, the fight against Selatcia (based on this scan), and the immediate aftermath.
Yes I know my weather timeline is all wrong (probably, who really knows for sure?), but let’s just blame it on Selatcia’s involvement. Somehow.
Embedded lyrics belong to Dethklok.
Disclaimer: I do not own them, and all that stuff.
Warnings: Character death
The blazing star it burns so bright.
The darkened power the dethly light.
Bring it on now this is our time.
We’re the new regime together we’ll fight.
There were worldwide reports of a flying monster of a man, and people died wherever he appeared. News footage, most of it shaky or blurry due to the filmer’s panic, showed a sight that only Dethklok had previously seen, way back at Roy Cornickelson’s funeral. Selatcia, in his giant flying fanged form, appearing seemingly at random.
Attempts to predict where he would go were futile, there was no pattern anyone could discern that made any sense at all.
The cause of death was usually attributed to lightning, but some seemed to spontaneously vomit out their own intestines. Or, it was said, even explode.
Was it a single being, or many? How could only one travel so far and so fast? The world was in a rising state of panic, unsure what the hell they were up against or how to possibly stop it.
Some even claimed it was actually God, but this was not a popular opinion.
Military forces were activated, alert and ready, and they had chances to take this thing (or one of these things?) down. It didn’t matter what they fired at it though, it seemed unaffected. One group in Spain even managed to get a solid hit with an anti-tank round, still nothing.
Whispers had begun among world leaders, about the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons. Everyone knew the heavy price that would come with that decision, but all other options were quickly being exhausted.
At the haus, Dethklok was actually following the news for a change. They knew who that was, they’d faced him before and had to run for their lives. They could go back into the water and wait for the world to end, but as much as they’d all tried to forget, they still remembered those cave paintings that priest dude had showed them. Nobody else knew about those, except Charles, and they hadn’t seen him in five years.
They were supposed to do... something?
Nathan was sitting on the couch, holding Ian who had fallen asleep in his lap with one small fist tangled in his hair. Skwisgaar sat beside them, the others were scattered around the room. The news was on, but they were all pretending they weren’t actually watching it, and just had forgotten to change the channel. Of course they were all watching it.
They knew this involved them, but they didn’t know what they were supposed to do! Nobody’d ever mentioned that part.
On the tv, they were showing footage shot by a victim whose phone had miraculously survived the killing bolt that ended it’s owner’s life. The reporter spoke some language none of them could understand, but they didn’t need to, the looped video, the closeup shot of long glowing fangs, there weren’t words for that anyway.
He’d tormented them for years, or at least tried to, and they didn’t even know why. They’s never known why.
“Guys, why are you watching this?” Abigail had entered the room, frowning at the tv. “Our security is excellent and there have been no sightings locally, we’re safe here.”
None of them bothered to meet her eyes. Mordhaus should be safe, yes, but them? No way, they were a critical part of this, no matter how much they all wished otherwise. They were watching and waiting, but they weren’t safe.
With a sigh (they’d been over this before), Abigail scooped up Ian, carefully working Nathan’s hair free. “I’m putting him in bed. Nathan, please don’t sit out here all night?” He’d done that before, the whole band had.
“Yeah.” It was more of a grunt. She didn’t know, and he couldn’t bear to tell her.
Skwisgaar reached over and patted his shoulder, understanding.
*****
Deep within the Church of the Black Klok, Charles Ofdensen had also been watching and waiting. The time to act was drawing near, the prophecy was almost upon them. He hoped Dethklok would be ready, but it didn’t matter if they weren’t, they would have to do this no matter what.
Now the waiting was almost over.
An army of monks stood by, ready for his orders.
Five years gone, but he still felt close to them. Five long years since they’d stood in this cave, planning Toki’s rescue. Five short years, now that the time was up.
So much had changed, but in a way nothing had.
He knew better than anyone what those ancient paintings meant. Ready or not, it was destined that Dethklok would prevail.
And he would die.
And the star will turn to blood on this prophet's night
And the Prophecy has warned us that one of us must die...
Before this is all over... one of us must die!
*****
A World Council was called, national leaders and any others of high ranking significance were asked to meet, to discuss how to stop this reign of terror. The attacks were coming daily now, and anyone could be next, there still seemed to be no pattern at all, none that could be found. The carnage was growing, no longer individual people but groups, buildings, sometimes larger areas.
Strike back, or wait for the world to be slowly scorched by this thing? Although in fighting, they would likely scorch it themselves.
Charles was there of course, he was still (on record at least) the CFO of Dethklok, who were currently ranked the world’s third largest economy. It felt strange to be back in a suit, after wearing nothing but robes for so long.
He noticed Crozier eyeing him, and was a bit surprised the man was still alive. People associating with Selatcia tended to meet a bad end, as a rule. He would probably have objections.
It was time to speak up. “I have a proposal.” Charles stood and waited for them to listen. “Dethklok can stop him. I know how that sounds, but I have information that guarantees their victory.”
“You will share this information,” The president of the Untied States declared. Other words leaders nodded in agreement, all focused on Ofdensen.
“It’s classified.”
There were murmurs of discontent at that answer.
“No one wins a nuclear war, you know this.” Charles eyed them critically. “Will you let them do this? We can still save this world, or what’s left of it.”
“You can’t possibly listen to him!” Crozier began, but was shushed with a curt hand motion form the President.
Charles addressed them all, “Hold off the nukes, let then do what they must.”
The President of the United States nodded, he at least was willing to take a chance on Dethklok.
The Prime Minister banged his hand on the table to get everyone’s attention. “How do we know that whatever they might do won’t be just as bad?”
“Actually, the fight would, ah, take place in a alternate dimension, where the Half Man is from. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.”
“Half Man? Alternate dimensions? How many are there?” asked some Asian official, Charles couldn’t read his place tag from this angle.
“Of him, only one. As for the other, I wouldn’t presume to know.”
There was again much murmuring, as everyone discussed this with whoever was closest.
Charles waited, knowing what they would decide, it had been destined ages ago. It could not be changed.
The President of the United States turned to him. “It is decided, Dethklok has three days to defeat this monster. After that point we will all strike.”
Charles nodded curtly. “Understood.”
*****
They’d seen Charles on the news, looking much the same as they remembered, he always looked the same. His reappearance meant that it was time, or nearly, so they were expecting him. They weren’t ready! They could never be ready for this.
Toki was the only one who hadn’t seen the paintings with his own eyes, who didn’t know the whole story. They’d told him about it, eventually, once he’d gotten out of the hospital ward, but that probably wasn’t the same as seeing those freaky old paintings with their own eyes.
It explained why he seemed less on edge than the rest of them though.
Charles arrived quickly, the next day, still wearing a suit. They were again focused on the tv, so didn’t notice him immediately. He took the opportunity to study them, looking for the changes of five years time.
Toki, stretched out on the floor, coloring with a dark haired little boy that Charles knew was Ian, though he hadn’t met him before. Murderface sitting beside them. Nathan, Skwisgaar, and Pickles on the couch. The didn’t look different, but they were. They felt it too, good, that would make this easier.
“Charles!” Abigail entered the room, spotting him first.
Craning their heads around in a comical manner, the rest jumped up and surrounded him like overeager puppies, exchanging pats and greetings.
Toki hugged him hard, “Welcomes home.”
The others hesitated, but then all hugged him as well, though not as hard or as throughly. He hugged them back, he’d missed them.
“Charles, this is a pleasant surprise, to what do we owe this visit?” Abigail stepped up to hug him as well.
“Good to see you, Abigail. You look well.” Charles glanced at Nathan, who just shook his head. She didn’t know, he had never told her. She didn’t know that they had to do. Maybe that was for the best? She wasn’t a part of this, she and her son were safe on the outside.
But she would have to know at least some things now.
But Nathan spoke first. “Abbie, take Ian and put him to bed. There’s this... thing we have to talk about. As a band.”
“Don’t exclude me, Nathan, you’ve been acting off for weeks now. I want to know what’s going on, I’m not leaving. I need to know.” She was very stubborn when she wanted to be.
“At least take Ian-“
“He’s too yong to understand.” And there was no more argument, from anyone.
Toki pulled her aside to explain. “Before they saves us, they goes to this place where Charles has beens all this times since, and they gots this really cools paintings of alls us in there, well nots you but us, and it’s comes true now.”
“What’s coming true?”
Toki shrugged, “Prophecies thing? I didn’t sees it, we was locks up, but I still feels it sames as they does. You remembers the lights?”
She had been in really bad shape when Dethklok found them. She did indeed remember... but had always excused it as a fever dream. The whole band, levitating and glowing, strong and powerful. Even Toki, who she knew no longer even had the strength to stand, tall and straight as the others.
That couldn’t have really happened, could it? The look in his eyes now said that it had.
Abigail nodded, and followed them.
They all moved to sit around the table, Charles taking his old position at the head. “As you probably know,” he began, “I was at that council. They only gave us three days to act, and I lost the first one traveling here. We need to go tomorrow.”
“Afdensen, I sure as feck hope you know how this werks, because I gat no clue. None of us do, and we’ve been thinkin’ hard”
“I do know,” he reassured them. “Now please get some sleep, or contact your families if you’re so inclined.”
*****
“Nathan, come to bed. I don’t understand any of this, what’s going on or what you’re supposed to do, but come to bed?” Abigail looked at him pleadingly.
“Yeah. Of course.” He followed her. “Let Ian sleep with us tonight? I just want both of you there.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“We should be, yeah.” He really had no idea, but he could pretend for her sake. They left the room.
“I don’ts wants to sleeps alone tonights!”
“Me neider, Toki.”
“Me three,” Pickles added. “Who’s gat the biggest bed, oh thet’s raight, I do. Yer welcome ta join me, salumber party here we cahm.” He tilted his head in invitation, but Murderface shook his head, declining. Pickles shrugged, and they all headed off together.
Murderface contemplated the couch, he didn’t feel like going to him room, didn’t want to be alone, but didn’t really want to join the others either. “Charlesh, do you have anywhere to schleep?”
“My room was kept for me, so yes. Would you like to sleep on my couch instead?” He still knew them all too well.
Murderface nodded sadly. “Schounds good.”
Pickles did call his mother, in a brief fit of sentimentality. She started right in on how good Seth was doing, not even giving him a chance to get two words in, causing him to promptly tell her to go fuck herself, and hang up. That was a waste of time.
Skwisgaar and Toki took that as a sign to not bother calling their own mothers at all. If this worked they’d be fine anyway, all of them. And if it didn’t...
Morning would come too soon.
*****
Dawn found them standing in an empty field, Dethklok, Charles, and a group of nine armored Klokateers. The copter had dropped them off and, then retreated back to Mordhaus as requested. These Gears carried bows instead of guns, but handled them with practiced ease.
This seemed like terrible odds, but Charles assured them that the necessary weapons and armor, as well as an army of monks of the Black Klok, were waiting on the other side.
The other side of what?
But somehow, deep inside, they knew. They waited in uncharacteristic silence.
The sun rose, and there was a sudden bright white flash, the world had changed.
The field was no longer empty. The monks, too many to easily count but a few dozen at least, were there. Some in the forefront held piles of armor, which they now silently offered to the band.
Time was short, they put it on as quickly as they could, the monks helping them get everything on properly and securely.
Charles had no armor, but he traded his suit for his flowing High Priest robes.
Another set of monks presented weapons, swords for Toki and Skwisgaar, a large battle ax for Murderface, twin daggers for Pickles, and a heavy spiked mace for Nathan.
Horses were led forward, the horses were for them. Brutal horses with spiked armor, standing and awaiting their riders. No one needed to ask which was meant for him, they just knew. This knowing was reassuring, maybe they could really do this after all.
Mounted, they took a moment to around them, and spotted Mordhaus flying in the distance. Either it existed in both dimensions or it had come with them, there was no way to know.
A volcano that hadn’t been there before was smoking ominously, but far enough away they could probably ignore it. There were oddly heavy patches of ground fog, some quite large.
The sun climbed higher, and as one, all the monks turned to face it and dropped their robes, standing completely naked. That was weird, but probably just some monk thing.
Charles kept his on.
There was a rumble and a giant beast unfolded from a particularly dense fog pocket. It was Mustakrakish! Well probably not him, since they’d killed and ate him, but a nearly identical and very angry looking lake troll.
Charles made a gestures and a group of monks ran to intercept it, another and the gears fell into formation and faced it as well. To the band, “Ignore that one, he’s just a distraction though he’d kill you all if he could. They’ll handle him! It’s Selatcia himself you must fight, and he’s coming fast, I can feel him.”
They could feel him too, now. Weapons held ready, horses prancing a little in impatience, they waited.
They watched the sky, but instead he rose from the fog, hovering just above the ground. Huge and armored, holding an impossibly long sword, and a strange darkness seemed to hover around his head.
Charles and the rest of the monks ran toward him. Dethklok would have to act on their own now, there was nothing more he could do for them, or tell them.
Selatcia rained blades upon his attackers, seemingly conjuring them from thin air. Monks dodged, some fell. More blades after blades followed.
“HALF MAN, YOUR TIME OS OVER!” Standing his ground, Charles shouted up at the looming figure.
“IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN,” the fanged mouth boomed in reply.
As if in response, the volcano erupted, spraying fire high into the air.
In a sudden movement, Selatcia lowered his sword and ran Charles through. The blade burned like strange fire, turning him to bones in seconds. The empty skeleton slid off and fell into the fog, gone.
Dethklok had been frozen, unsure what to do, but seeing Charles die broke that. With a wordless yell, Nathan urged his horse and ran to fight. Skwisgaar followed just behind him, and Pickles and Murderface rode together behind him. Toki’s horse had balked for a second, putting him last in line.
Fire from the volcano was flying impossibly far, like missiles. In the distance they saw one fireball hit Mordhaus, which largely exploded, then rained from the sky and from sight.
There was nothing they could do now but try to end this, to kill this thing in front of them.
Nathan, in the lead, struck first, his horse skillfully dodging the still falling blades. To his surprise his mace damaged the thing’s armor.
If they could hurt it then they could kill it, but it wouldn’t be easy. He bashed it again, hard enough to elicit a pained noise, then Skwisgaar was there to, driving his sword through the armor and into its leg, drawing the first blood.
The giant sword came down, seeking, but their horses danced and dodged.
Murderface and Pickles joined the fray. Pickles was forced to retreat from a particularly viscous sword swipe, but Murderface landed a brutal blow with his ax, chopping through the armor into one massive thigh.
Pickles darted back in, reaching high and jabbing his daggers into the lower abdomen. Not fatal, but surely painful.
Blood rained down on them all, as well as the still falling blades.
Toki darted through, stabbing with his own sword, while the others kept inflicting what damage they could.
It was too tall! They couldn’t reach high enough to deliver a killing blow, so they were forced to keep hacking at its legs, trying to bring it lower. Not a great plan when it was still floating, but the only plan they had.
Murderface and Skwisgaar’s horses were bleeding, they’d been cut by the falling blades. Not badly, but enough to slow them down some. And they were the ones who had managed to inflict the most damage so far, this wasn’t looking good.
Selatcia swiped again with his sword, changing directions at the last second and yanking it the other way. He caught Pickles’ horse across the chest and it dropped, instantly dead. Pickles rolled clear, but was now on foot and armed with only daggers.
Nathan ran for him, pulling him over his own horse and moving out of the immediate danger zone. As Pickles slid down, they turned in time to see Skwisgaar’s horse stumble hard, throwing him. The injured horse limped off, but was caught by falling blades and went down for good.
Skwisgaar stood his ground, sword raised. Murderface was trying to keep it distracted, but his own horse was tiring now.
Riding back to help, Nathan was joined by Toki. “Gets Skwisgaar, we gots to ends this now.”
How? But Toki looked determined, so he must have some sort of plan. They really didn’t have anything to lose at this point anyway, so Nathan just nodded.
He reached Skwisgaar and pulled him astride, racing back to join Pickles. Skwisgaar, looking behind them, made a shocked noise, causing Nathan to stop and spin his horse to see.
While the thing was focusing on Murderface, who was still valiantly attempting to amputate its legs, Toki had stood up on his saddle, balancing there as his horse closed in. This made him tall enough, hopefully, to strike a killing blow.
Murderface, seeming to understand the plan, waited until the last minute and then dodged around, turning the target but being careful not to get in Toki’s way.
The giant sword came up again, but too slow.
Toki aimed well, managing to slide his sword into the thing’s horrible heart before being gracelessly knocked from his horse by the force of the strike. He rolled out of the way as the giant fell to the earth, driving the sword the rest of the way through its body as it landed.
Dead, it was over, they’d beaten it. They’d won.
Toki’s horse came back to him and he remounted, riding with Murderface to join the others.
Since they’d lost two horses and Murderface’s was injured, Nathan pulled Pickles up behind him and Skwisgaar mounted behind Toki. They looked around them, now that they finally had the chance.
The troll was dead, the other forces had indeed handled it. Bodies littered the ground, unmoving. There seemed to be no survivors from either side, except for them.
The volcano was still erupting, reminding them of what they’s seen, and what it might mean.
“ABIGAIL! IAN!” Nathan suddenly turned his horse and raced toward when Mordhaus had last been seen, Pickles clinging tightly, the others followed close behind him. They raced across the strange landscape, fire still streaking the sky above them.
They topped a rise and they could see it, what was left of it, still burning and scattered. Just wreckage now.
“NOOOOOO!”
The light flashed again, and suddenly they were alone, horseless, armorless, and no longer bloody, but still seeing the same sight, though the land around it had changed. It had been true then, Mordhaus was the same in both worlds, and it was gone.
There were other fires, other places, smoke rising as far as they could see, and missiles still shot through the sky. It wasn’t over yet, not here. The air smelled of smoke. This wasn’t supposed to happen, this wasn’t right!
With a determined look, Nathan started toward the wreckage, but they all blocked his way. His angry snarl didn’t make them move.
“Nathan, there’s nothin’ left, there’s nothin’ we can do.”
“We need to find schelter fascht! I’m pretty schure thisch isch nuclear, at leascht schome of it.” It was hard to be sure with all the smoke, but he thought he’d spotted at least one mushroom cloud.
“Moiderface is rights, freaks out laters.”
Skwisgaar just placed both hands on Nathan’s chest and shook his head.
Nathan crumpled a bit, knowing he could force his way past them, but knowing they were right.
Pickles took charge, “There’s a old barn or sahmthin’ over there, let’s head fer it. Pritty open here, I don’t think any bombs are gonna land too close, no targits.”
It seemed as good a plan as any, or at least a plan, so they headed in that direction. They needed a place to rest, to process all that had gone on and was still going on. It was all happening so fast, too fast.
The barn was more of a shed, or somewhere in between, and not in good repair, but it had walls and a door that mostly closed, so it made a acceptable shelter. There was no animal smell, it seemed abandoned and out of recent use. The floor was plain dirt, but they didn’t care, they all sat down anyway.
For a while they sat in silence, all of them trying to come to terms with the whole thing. Trying to figure out what was going on, and why. Just trying to think.
Murderface, with his fascination with warfare, was the first to pull the pieces together. “Firscht schtrike.”
“Huh?” Nathan looked up, focusing. They all turned to Murderface.
“Thisch. The bombsch. They couldn’t wait one more day, they had to get the firscht schtrike. They knew he wasch here, schomehow.”
“BUT WE HAD IT! WE DID WHAT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO!” Had it all been for nothing?
“They says three days! Stupids shit fucks!”
“What Toki said, dood.” Sobriety didn’t agree with him, it was hard to think.
“They should have waited! Why didn’t they wait!”
Murderface shrugged, “Maybe schombody was going to drop a bomb on usch schooner or later anyway.”
“So lemme git this, what yer sayin’ is that sahmbody nuked us? Or everybody did?”
“No, a lot of thosche were outgoing. It’sch probably the whole world, and even if it’sch not, it won’t matter schoon.”
“Why ams dat, Murderface?”
“Nuclear fallout doeschn’t recognize national bordersch. And schpeaking of fallout, it’sch going to get cold schoon.”
*****
The next morning, all was quiet. The day was overcast and smoke could still be seen rising in the distance, but it seemed the war (or whatever it had been) was over, at least where they were. It seemed cooler already, but that might just have been a coincidence.
None of them were feeling very well, but with the battle, all the smoke, and everything they’d been though, that was no surprise. They might have puked, if they’d had anything in their stomachs.
They’d lost so much it was hard to process it, leaving them all a bit numb.
Nathan was still determined to go down to the remains of the Haus, so they gave in and agreed to the trek. It wasn’t like they had any other plan or anything.
Just a day ago they were on horseback, fighting for the fate of the world. It was hard to believe that had actually happened, even though they had been there. How could that have been real, and over so fast? Especially now, when they felt so ordinary and alone.
Silently, they walked.
It took a couple hours to reach the crash site, and that’s indeed what it was. What parts that remained were charred, and most of the debris unidentifiable. It was impossible to even determine which parts had been where, there just wasn’t enough left to tell.
There was also nothing left to bury, if they had been the burying kind. Nathan dropped to his knees.
There was no chance anyone had survived, but they had almost certainly died instantly, if that could be taken as any comfort.
“Dey hads de most metals Viking funerals ever,” Skwisgaar murmured quietly, and the others nodded in sad agreement. It still sucked, but if they had to die, at least they got that.
“We need to move, we need to find schome real schelter.” He put his hand on Nathan’s arm.
Nathan slapped it away. “I’m not leaving!” He wouldn’t even look at them.
Skwisgaar stepped up, “Nathan, dere’s not’ing dat can be does here. He ams right.”
Slowly, Nathan met his eyes. “He was only three, Skwisgaar. I swore I’d protect him!”
“You tries you’s best.” He held out a hand, “Comes on.”
Reluctantly, Nathan let himself be pulled up. How had it gone so wrong? This wasn’t what they’d been promised! Still not really looking at them all, he shrugged in defeat. “Fine. Somebody lead the way.”
Pickles chose to lead, or rather, he just started walking and they all followed. He thought he remembered seeing a road from where they started this morning, and roads had to lead to somewhere.
Toki moved to walk beside him, and Skwisgaar stayed by Nathan. Murderface, deep in thought, brought up the rear.
It took them another few hours to walk to the road, and they made the trip in silence.
The road was empty. It was just a two lane asphalt road, probably not heavily traveled in the first place.
They were all tired, thirsty, and hungry, but there was no help for that, so they picked a direction at random and kept walking.
The sky was still heavily overcast, but they could hear the occasional unseen plane passing nearby. That proved they weren’t the only people left. They sounded like jets, so the war, if it was a war, probably wasn’t over yet? They hadn’t seen or heard any more missiles though.
The road was turning hilly now, and walking uphill was an effort.
They topped yet another rise and saw the car on the shoulder, its door hanging open from when the driver had apparently abandoned it in a panic and fled.
The keys were in it! They piled in with sighs of relief, which didn’t last long when it refused to crank. The open door, the dome light, had drained the battery too low.
Toki, in the back seat, punched the seat back with a groan. Nathan didn’t look mad though...
“Hey Pickles, get up here. You know how to do this, right?”
“Sure thing!” Pickles took the driver’s seat.
“Come on you guys, get out and help! We’re getting this car started!”
Murderface climbed out with a knowing nod, but Toki and Skwisgaar were confused. The car was dead, right? How could they change that?
“De fucks ams we doesing?”
He’d asked Nathan, but Murderface answered, “Pusch schtarting the car. We’re lucky it’s not an automatic, thisch won’t work with thosche.”
“How’s you knows dis?”
He shrugged. “Everybody knowsch it.”
Well, apparently not everybody.
They lined up behind the car, hands on the trunk. “Ready, Pickles?”
“Yeah, go fer it!”
Following Nathan’s lead, they all pushed the car. It was near the top of the hill, so that made things a lot easier. This should work, but there was always the chance that the battery was too dead.
They had neared the bottom when there was a roar as the engine caught, and the car accelerated away from them. But then he stopped and waited.
Climbing back in, with Pickles still driving, they set off to find... anything that was left to find. Hopefully some food at least.
Nathan, in the front seat, just stared out the window.
Murderface settled against his door for a nap, if he could catch one.
A passing sign said there was a city, or at least a town, not too far ahead. What town, they didn’t know, someone had taken a shotgun to the sign at some point in the past, rendering the name unreadable.
*****
The city, when they came to it, was still smoking in places, and still on fire in the distance. At least one of the bombs had landed here. A bomb site meant there was a higher radiation risk, but they had always been somewhat immortal, or so it seemed at times, so maybe they’d be okay? They needed the things a city offered more than the feared possible radiation exposure. They were likely already exposed anyway.
They stopped at a department store near the outskirts, if a city this small could be said to have outskirts. Murderface had said it would get really cold, and he seemed to know more about this stuff than the rest of them, so they needed warmer clothes. Also spare clothes.
The store had been looted by someone (or multiple someones) already, but they had taken dumb shit like jewelry and electronics. The clothing was at least mostly untouched, and it wasn’t hard to find some jackets on a clearance rack. They pawed through them, looking for appropriate sizes. All except Toki, who only watched, until Skwisgaar threw one at him. “Puts on de damn jackets, Toki.”
Toki gave him a defiant look, but obeyed. He’d been mostly silent, but as long as he didn’t go catatonic he was probably fine. Or fine enough, anyway.
It was tempting to just stay in the store, but they had no weapons and more looters would surely come. Better to move on, find a more secure (or at least more private) location. Having no weapons sucked, but hopefully they’d find some somewhere else.
Dressed warmer now, and carrying spare clothing, they headed back to the car, which started right up this time.
“De car ams magicallies all better nows?”
“Driving makesch the alternator... You know, never mind, I’m not explaining thisch to you.”
Nathan was driving now, heading into the city. Pickles started running through radio stations, trying to get any real news. A lot of stations seemed to be off air entirely, but they found a few still trying to report, and their staticy panic confirmed that this was indeed a global disaster.
There were other cars now, mostly headed in the other direction, pointlessly fleeing the city. A lot of people too, though the majority seemed shell shocked and confused, just wandering around. And of course the troublemakers, running with stolen loot or breaking things just because they could.
So far, their car was pretty much ignored by everyone.
“Where’re we goin’, Chief?”
“Uh, I’m trying to find a house or close to stuff we can walk to. Just in case. With a fireplace, power’s out and nobody’s gonna come fix that shit.”
“Pfft, we has a car.”
“It’sch going to schnow, schooner or later. Thisch car doeschn’t have schnow tiresch, even if we can find more gasch we schtill won’t be able to drive it then.”
Skwisgaar frowned. “You means you can makes de car magicallies starts, but you can’ts be putting on differents tires?”
“Of coursche I can put on tiresch! Thisch ischn’t about me not being able to do it, we’re too far schouth! Even if it wasch the right scheason, none of thesche schtoresch probably even schtock them.”
“So maybe it won’ts snow?”
“We can hope, but we schouldn’t count on that. This is scherious schit.”
Pickles twisted around in his seat. “Hey Murderface, ya seem to know yer stuff. Don’t they make sahm kinda anti-radiation pills we could take?”
“Yesch and no.” He sighed, then continued, “There isch, but they only protect your thyroid and nothing elsche, and they work bescht on kidsch, and they don’t lascht very long. Even if we can find any, we’d need a lot, and we might be too old for them to even help. Beschidesch, if that’sch going to get usch, it’sch probably too late anyway.”
“There’s symptoms, raight, if thet’s gonna happen? Do you know ‘em?”
“I do. But better it’sch if I don’t tell you, or you’ll all schtart imagining them.”
Closer to the commercial part of town, the debris and bomb damage forced them to change directions, there would be nothing usable where a lot of buildings were still on fire.
Circling around, the came to a less damaged side of town, and a nearby residential area.
There seemed to be less people here, the proximity of the (local) ground zero and the multiple fires had probably driven them out. Good, as long as they left all their shit behind when they ran.
They passed several large houses that looked empty, but Nathan, thinking surprisingly rationally considering the circumstances, was looking for a single level smaller house.
The others were silent now, letting him lead them to wherever they were going.
There was a so much damage everywhere, was the whole world like this now?
Had something gone wrong, or had they been lied to? Was this what the prophecies had said they would bring? The end of the world?
They passed several corner stores but didn’t stop, apparently shelter came first.
Nathan turned into a neighborhood that was now somewhat isolated, fire had claimed a lot of the houses nearby but somehow spared this street. Wind direction or something, it didn’t matter why. The remaining fires seemed to be about out, so they shouldn’t spread further, and it was probably safer to be in an area without a lot of other people.
Near the end of the road was a brick one, and it looked empty and recently abandoned. It should do. With a grunt of approval Nathan pulled into the open garage.
They piled out, and went cautiously into the house. Just because it looked empty didn’t mean it really was, and times like these made people really trigger happy. A room by room search turned up no one though, so it was theirs.
The kitchen had food, mostly dry or canned stuff, and a few cases of bottled water and soft drinks. There was more in the powerless fridge, they’d just have to eat that all first. Good, they could wait for things to settle a bit before they had to go scavenging.
The backyard held a generous pile of firewood, and a medium sized storage shed that was empty except for some tools.
The house had three bedrooms, and there were five of them. Murderface, who had appointed himself the disaster expert, took charge again, “We need to drag all the mattresches out here and closche off all the roomsch, it’sch easchier to heat a schmaller area. Move thisch furniture back, we’ll make one big bed in front of the fireplace.”
The did, pushing couches against the walls, then dragging out the mattresses and shoving them together.
Pickles found a working radio, but there seemed nothing new to report so he turned it off, conserving the batteries.
Skwisgaar had found porn magazines under one of the mattresses. Of course he did.
*****
Nathan was standing on the porch when he noticed a guy two houses down fiddling with some sort of device. First person they’d seen in this neighborhood, though a few houses seemed occupied, maybe he had news? “HEY!”
The others, hearing him yell, came out to join him. The man was cautiously heading their way.
“Wow, Dethklok! I thought that was you the other day, but I wasn’t sure. You’re staying here?”
“Uh, yeah. Hey, is that some kind of radio or something? Does it work?”
“Satellite radio, and it’s currently useless because it seems all the satellites I can find are offline. So is cellular service, and I expect any and all remaining communication to fail soon.”
“Dood, jest at least tell us if ya, is tha war over? Who won?”
“It’s over, yes. And nobody, man, nobody won. You can’t win a nuclear war.” He seemed nervous, and with a small wave he turned and started back, “Well, see you around I guess.” He hadn’t even given his name, he was probably worried they’d steal his stuff.
Back inside, they finished off what had been in the fridge. They needed to start hunting for supplies soon, but they’d start with what was in this neighborhood. Maybe even find some guns?
Skipping that guy’s house, of course. Also the one near the end where candlelight had been seen in a window, and the other that looked like somebody closed it up to hide inside. The rest were empty, or at least they were pretty sure anyway. They’d still have to be careful.
In the morning, in teams. It was decided.
There were only fourteen houses on this street and two were partially destroyed, so excluding the ones they thought were occupied, that gave them three each. Skwisgaar and Toki, Nathan and Murderface, and Pickles had volunteered to search on his own.
That fridge food must have been partially spoiled, because none of them felt especially well this morning, but they needed to do this anyway.
It was colder than it had been, and although everything had stopped smoking, the sky was still dark. Smoke, clouds, did it even matter which it was?
*****
Nathan and Murderface went into their first house, the door wasn’t even locked. It looked liek someone had already picked it over, but they had to search anyway.
“Hey Murderface? I’ve been puking, I think everyone has too but we’re all trying to hide it. Is it the radiation?”
“It’sch juscht bad food, Nathan.” He was lying, and Nathan knew he was lying.
“Okay. Bad food. If you say so. Let’s find better food then.” Maybe it was best not to think about it.
The first house yielded nothing useful, except some blankets they didn’t need yet, might not need, and could always come back for. The went to the next one, which was locked. Locked was a good sign, Nathan kicked the door in.
They hesitated, just in case somebody was in there and tried to shoot them or whatever, but nothing happened so they went in. There was food! Further searching uncovered a small .32 handgun and even a couple partially empty bottles of booze, jackpot!
Bundling everything edible or drinkable in a sheet, Nathan carried it like a very metal Santa.
The third house was a bust, but Murderface found an aluminum baseball bat in a kid’s room and took that.
“We’re going to have to go further soon. To find stuff. If we live that long”
“Nobody’sch dying, Nathan.”
“We might be. I mean, it could happen. We’re getting sick already.”
“IT WASCH BAD FOOD!” They walked back to their house.
*****
Skwisgaar and Toki were in their first house, it had been unlocked. So far they hadn’t found much, just some OTC meds. Allergies were likely the least of their worries, but they bagged them anyway.
“I ams starting to wonders if you forgets how to talks.”
Toki just shrugged, he hadn’t spoken in days.
“Just says somet’ing so I knows you still cans?” This silence was a bit creepy.
Toki sighed, then finally spoke. “What’s the points? This is probably alls my faults anyways.”
“What ams you meaning by dat?”
But Toki didn’t reply, just walked out, and on to the next house, with Skwisgaar following.
This house was open too, and the pantry emptied, but checking the high cabinets revealed someone’s secret stash. It was all junk food, but that was their favorite kind.
In the garage, they found a five gallon gas can, about half full. They took that too. Murderface had said they couldn’t use the car for long, but while they could, it needed gas.
A bag of dog food was all else that came across, and they left it, not even wanting to consider needing to resort to eating that. At least not at this point.
They dumped their stuff on their porch as they passed, heading for the final house.
This one was locked. Toki kicked out a piece of glass and reached in and unlocked it, they entered.
Rounding a corner, they were faced with a very sick looking man lying on the couch. He had a shotgun, and it was pointed right at them. Occupied!
Hands up, they quickly backed out of the room and then ran. Well, they were done with their houses.
*****
Pickles was searching for drugs. And anything else they could use, of course, but he just really needed to escape reality for a while. He looked not only in the medicine cabinets, but in all the places people hid the good shit.
What kind of neighborhood was this, where they didn’t even have booze? Not even a warm beer to be found, and nothing stronger than TUMS, who the fuck even ate those things?
This house was a bust, aside from some boxed foods that they had no means of preparing, but he took anyway.
House number two had signs of teenagers, and he perked up. Kids were sneaky little shits.
And indeed, he found three joints in a tin under the mattress. He lit one immediately, with an immense sigh of relief, smoking as he continued his search. He felt better already.
In the parent’s room, he found a bottle with six Vicodin left in it, and pocketed that. Good house, best house. He liked this house.
But sadly, that seemed to be all there was to find.
At his final house, he found a couple gallons of distilled water in the garage. You could drink that, so he took them.
Inside, using a chair to search the upper shelves of the closets, he found a pretty nice .45 revolver and a box of bullets.
In the back of the bathroom cabinet, he found some Tylenol 3, it was a year expired but he grabbed it anyway. Free codeine, can’t complain too much about that.
Pickles headed back home.
That night they drank all the booze, it wasn’t enough to get anybody really drunk, but it still felt damn good, familiar.
Pickles even generously shared the Tylenol 3's, turns out it was still very effective. Most of them ended up puking, but it wasn’t possible to pinpoint a cause. Blame it on... anything but their own impending deaths.
Still, they slept better than they had any night since this shit all went down, sprawled across their giant mattress bed, warmed by fire.
*****
They saw their neighbor again, briefly. He didn’t look so good, and hurried back inside when he saw them. Yeah, definitely afraid of them.
If he was that sick, maybe he’d die and they could take whatever he had? But they weren’t going to kill him for it.
They weren’t nearly that desperate, yet.
Besides, there were three other occupied houses as well, and one of them had probably looted the empty ones they’d searched.
They could wait.
The sun had yet to come back out, even a little bit, they hadn’t seen it since the battle.
Dreary overcast days, some darker than others, were the new reality. Each seemed colder than the one that came before, even though it was supposed to be summer. Summer was broken now.
Outside, softly, the threatened snow finally began to fall.
next
Yes I know my weather timeline is all wrong (probably, who really knows for sure?), but let’s just blame it on Selatcia’s involvement. Somehow.
Embedded lyrics belong to Dethklok.
Disclaimer: I do not own them, and all that stuff.
Warnings: Character death
The blazing star it burns so bright.
The darkened power the dethly light.
Bring it on now this is our time.
We’re the new regime together we’ll fight.
There were worldwide reports of a flying monster of a man, and people died wherever he appeared. News footage, most of it shaky or blurry due to the filmer’s panic, showed a sight that only Dethklok had previously seen, way back at Roy Cornickelson’s funeral. Selatcia, in his giant flying fanged form, appearing seemingly at random.
Attempts to predict where he would go were futile, there was no pattern anyone could discern that made any sense at all.
The cause of death was usually attributed to lightning, but some seemed to spontaneously vomit out their own intestines. Or, it was said, even explode.
Was it a single being, or many? How could only one travel so far and so fast? The world was in a rising state of panic, unsure what the hell they were up against or how to possibly stop it.
Some even claimed it was actually God, but this was not a popular opinion.
Military forces were activated, alert and ready, and they had chances to take this thing (or one of these things?) down. It didn’t matter what they fired at it though, it seemed unaffected. One group in Spain even managed to get a solid hit with an anti-tank round, still nothing.
Whispers had begun among world leaders, about the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons. Everyone knew the heavy price that would come with that decision, but all other options were quickly being exhausted.
At the haus, Dethklok was actually following the news for a change. They knew who that was, they’d faced him before and had to run for their lives. They could go back into the water and wait for the world to end, but as much as they’d all tried to forget, they still remembered those cave paintings that priest dude had showed them. Nobody else knew about those, except Charles, and they hadn’t seen him in five years.
They were supposed to do... something?
Nathan was sitting on the couch, holding Ian who had fallen asleep in his lap with one small fist tangled in his hair. Skwisgaar sat beside them, the others were scattered around the room. The news was on, but they were all pretending they weren’t actually watching it, and just had forgotten to change the channel. Of course they were all watching it.
They knew this involved them, but they didn’t know what they were supposed to do! Nobody’d ever mentioned that part.
On the tv, they were showing footage shot by a victim whose phone had miraculously survived the killing bolt that ended it’s owner’s life. The reporter spoke some language none of them could understand, but they didn’t need to, the looped video, the closeup shot of long glowing fangs, there weren’t words for that anyway.
He’d tormented them for years, or at least tried to, and they didn’t even know why. They’s never known why.
“Guys, why are you watching this?” Abigail had entered the room, frowning at the tv. “Our security is excellent and there have been no sightings locally, we’re safe here.”
None of them bothered to meet her eyes. Mordhaus should be safe, yes, but them? No way, they were a critical part of this, no matter how much they all wished otherwise. They were watching and waiting, but they weren’t safe.
With a sigh (they’d been over this before), Abigail scooped up Ian, carefully working Nathan’s hair free. “I’m putting him in bed. Nathan, please don’t sit out here all night?” He’d done that before, the whole band had.
“Yeah.” It was more of a grunt. She didn’t know, and he couldn’t bear to tell her.
Skwisgaar reached over and patted his shoulder, understanding.
*****
Deep within the Church of the Black Klok, Charles Ofdensen had also been watching and waiting. The time to act was drawing near, the prophecy was almost upon them. He hoped Dethklok would be ready, but it didn’t matter if they weren’t, they would have to do this no matter what.
Now the waiting was almost over.
An army of monks stood by, ready for his orders.
Five years gone, but he still felt close to them. Five long years since they’d stood in this cave, planning Toki’s rescue. Five short years, now that the time was up.
So much had changed, but in a way nothing had.
He knew better than anyone what those ancient paintings meant. Ready or not, it was destined that Dethklok would prevail.
And he would die.
And the star will turn to blood on this prophet's night
And the Prophecy has warned us that one of us must die...
Before this is all over... one of us must die!
*****
A World Council was called, national leaders and any others of high ranking significance were asked to meet, to discuss how to stop this reign of terror. The attacks were coming daily now, and anyone could be next, there still seemed to be no pattern at all, none that could be found. The carnage was growing, no longer individual people but groups, buildings, sometimes larger areas.
Strike back, or wait for the world to be slowly scorched by this thing? Although in fighting, they would likely scorch it themselves.
Charles was there of course, he was still (on record at least) the CFO of Dethklok, who were currently ranked the world’s third largest economy. It felt strange to be back in a suit, after wearing nothing but robes for so long.
He noticed Crozier eyeing him, and was a bit surprised the man was still alive. People associating with Selatcia tended to meet a bad end, as a rule. He would probably have objections.
It was time to speak up. “I have a proposal.” Charles stood and waited for them to listen. “Dethklok can stop him. I know how that sounds, but I have information that guarantees their victory.”
“You will share this information,” The president of the Untied States declared. Other words leaders nodded in agreement, all focused on Ofdensen.
“It’s classified.”
There were murmurs of discontent at that answer.
“No one wins a nuclear war, you know this.” Charles eyed them critically. “Will you let them do this? We can still save this world, or what’s left of it.”
“You can’t possibly listen to him!” Crozier began, but was shushed with a curt hand motion form the President.
Charles addressed them all, “Hold off the nukes, let then do what they must.”
The President of the United States nodded, he at least was willing to take a chance on Dethklok.
The Prime Minister banged his hand on the table to get everyone’s attention. “How do we know that whatever they might do won’t be just as bad?”
“Actually, the fight would, ah, take place in a alternate dimension, where the Half Man is from. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.”
“Half Man? Alternate dimensions? How many are there?” asked some Asian official, Charles couldn’t read his place tag from this angle.
“Of him, only one. As for the other, I wouldn’t presume to know.”
There was again much murmuring, as everyone discussed this with whoever was closest.
Charles waited, knowing what they would decide, it had been destined ages ago. It could not be changed.
The President of the United States turned to him. “It is decided, Dethklok has three days to defeat this monster. After that point we will all strike.”
Charles nodded curtly. “Understood.”
*****
They’d seen Charles on the news, looking much the same as they remembered, he always looked the same. His reappearance meant that it was time, or nearly, so they were expecting him. They weren’t ready! They could never be ready for this.
Toki was the only one who hadn’t seen the paintings with his own eyes, who didn’t know the whole story. They’d told him about it, eventually, once he’d gotten out of the hospital ward, but that probably wasn’t the same as seeing those freaky old paintings with their own eyes.
It explained why he seemed less on edge than the rest of them though.
Charles arrived quickly, the next day, still wearing a suit. They were again focused on the tv, so didn’t notice him immediately. He took the opportunity to study them, looking for the changes of five years time.
Toki, stretched out on the floor, coloring with a dark haired little boy that Charles knew was Ian, though he hadn’t met him before. Murderface sitting beside them. Nathan, Skwisgaar, and Pickles on the couch. The didn’t look different, but they were. They felt it too, good, that would make this easier.
“Charles!” Abigail entered the room, spotting him first.
Craning their heads around in a comical manner, the rest jumped up and surrounded him like overeager puppies, exchanging pats and greetings.
Toki hugged him hard, “Welcomes home.”
The others hesitated, but then all hugged him as well, though not as hard or as throughly. He hugged them back, he’d missed them.
“Charles, this is a pleasant surprise, to what do we owe this visit?” Abigail stepped up to hug him as well.
“Good to see you, Abigail. You look well.” Charles glanced at Nathan, who just shook his head. She didn’t know, he had never told her. She didn’t know that they had to do. Maybe that was for the best? She wasn’t a part of this, she and her son were safe on the outside.
But she would have to know at least some things now.
But Nathan spoke first. “Abbie, take Ian and put him to bed. There’s this... thing we have to talk about. As a band.”
“Don’t exclude me, Nathan, you’ve been acting off for weeks now. I want to know what’s going on, I’m not leaving. I need to know.” She was very stubborn when she wanted to be.
“At least take Ian-“
“He’s too yong to understand.” And there was no more argument, from anyone.
Toki pulled her aside to explain. “Before they saves us, they goes to this place where Charles has beens all this times since, and they gots this really cools paintings of alls us in there, well nots you but us, and it’s comes true now.”
“What’s coming true?”
Toki shrugged, “Prophecies thing? I didn’t sees it, we was locks up, but I still feels it sames as they does. You remembers the lights?”
She had been in really bad shape when Dethklok found them. She did indeed remember... but had always excused it as a fever dream. The whole band, levitating and glowing, strong and powerful. Even Toki, who she knew no longer even had the strength to stand, tall and straight as the others.
That couldn’t have really happened, could it? The look in his eyes now said that it had.
Abigail nodded, and followed them.
They all moved to sit around the table, Charles taking his old position at the head. “As you probably know,” he began, “I was at that council. They only gave us three days to act, and I lost the first one traveling here. We need to go tomorrow.”
“Afdensen, I sure as feck hope you know how this werks, because I gat no clue. None of us do, and we’ve been thinkin’ hard”
“I do know,” he reassured them. “Now please get some sleep, or contact your families if you’re so inclined.”
*****
“Nathan, come to bed. I don’t understand any of this, what’s going on or what you’re supposed to do, but come to bed?” Abigail looked at him pleadingly.
“Yeah. Of course.” He followed her. “Let Ian sleep with us tonight? I just want both of you there.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“We should be, yeah.” He really had no idea, but he could pretend for her sake. They left the room.
“I don’ts wants to sleeps alone tonights!”
“Me neider, Toki.”
“Me three,” Pickles added. “Who’s gat the biggest bed, oh thet’s raight, I do. Yer welcome ta join me, salumber party here we cahm.” He tilted his head in invitation, but Murderface shook his head, declining. Pickles shrugged, and they all headed off together.
Murderface contemplated the couch, he didn’t feel like going to him room, didn’t want to be alone, but didn’t really want to join the others either. “Charlesh, do you have anywhere to schleep?”
“My room was kept for me, so yes. Would you like to sleep on my couch instead?” He still knew them all too well.
Murderface nodded sadly. “Schounds good.”
Pickles did call his mother, in a brief fit of sentimentality. She started right in on how good Seth was doing, not even giving him a chance to get two words in, causing him to promptly tell her to go fuck herself, and hang up. That was a waste of time.
Skwisgaar and Toki took that as a sign to not bother calling their own mothers at all. If this worked they’d be fine anyway, all of them. And if it didn’t...
Morning would come too soon.
*****
Dawn found them standing in an empty field, Dethklok, Charles, and a group of nine armored Klokateers. The copter had dropped them off and, then retreated back to Mordhaus as requested. These Gears carried bows instead of guns, but handled them with practiced ease.
This seemed like terrible odds, but Charles assured them that the necessary weapons and armor, as well as an army of monks of the Black Klok, were waiting on the other side.
The other side of what?
But somehow, deep inside, they knew. They waited in uncharacteristic silence.
The sun rose, and there was a sudden bright white flash, the world had changed.
The field was no longer empty. The monks, too many to easily count but a few dozen at least, were there. Some in the forefront held piles of armor, which they now silently offered to the band.
Time was short, they put it on as quickly as they could, the monks helping them get everything on properly and securely.
Charles had no armor, but he traded his suit for his flowing High Priest robes.
Another set of monks presented weapons, swords for Toki and Skwisgaar, a large battle ax for Murderface, twin daggers for Pickles, and a heavy spiked mace for Nathan.
Horses were led forward, the horses were for them. Brutal horses with spiked armor, standing and awaiting their riders. No one needed to ask which was meant for him, they just knew. This knowing was reassuring, maybe they could really do this after all.
Mounted, they took a moment to around them, and spotted Mordhaus flying in the distance. Either it existed in both dimensions or it had come with them, there was no way to know.
A volcano that hadn’t been there before was smoking ominously, but far enough away they could probably ignore it. There were oddly heavy patches of ground fog, some quite large.
The sun climbed higher, and as one, all the monks turned to face it and dropped their robes, standing completely naked. That was weird, but probably just some monk thing.
Charles kept his on.
There was a rumble and a giant beast unfolded from a particularly dense fog pocket. It was Mustakrakish! Well probably not him, since they’d killed and ate him, but a nearly identical and very angry looking lake troll.
Charles made a gestures and a group of monks ran to intercept it, another and the gears fell into formation and faced it as well. To the band, “Ignore that one, he’s just a distraction though he’d kill you all if he could. They’ll handle him! It’s Selatcia himself you must fight, and he’s coming fast, I can feel him.”
They could feel him too, now. Weapons held ready, horses prancing a little in impatience, they waited.
They watched the sky, but instead he rose from the fog, hovering just above the ground. Huge and armored, holding an impossibly long sword, and a strange darkness seemed to hover around his head.
Charles and the rest of the monks ran toward him. Dethklok would have to act on their own now, there was nothing more he could do for them, or tell them.
Selatcia rained blades upon his attackers, seemingly conjuring them from thin air. Monks dodged, some fell. More blades after blades followed.
“HALF MAN, YOUR TIME OS OVER!” Standing his ground, Charles shouted up at the looming figure.
“IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN,” the fanged mouth boomed in reply.
As if in response, the volcano erupted, spraying fire high into the air.
In a sudden movement, Selatcia lowered his sword and ran Charles through. The blade burned like strange fire, turning him to bones in seconds. The empty skeleton slid off and fell into the fog, gone.
Dethklok had been frozen, unsure what to do, but seeing Charles die broke that. With a wordless yell, Nathan urged his horse and ran to fight. Skwisgaar followed just behind him, and Pickles and Murderface rode together behind him. Toki’s horse had balked for a second, putting him last in line.
Fire from the volcano was flying impossibly far, like missiles. In the distance they saw one fireball hit Mordhaus, which largely exploded, then rained from the sky and from sight.
There was nothing they could do now but try to end this, to kill this thing in front of them.
Nathan, in the lead, struck first, his horse skillfully dodging the still falling blades. To his surprise his mace damaged the thing’s armor.
If they could hurt it then they could kill it, but it wouldn’t be easy. He bashed it again, hard enough to elicit a pained noise, then Skwisgaar was there to, driving his sword through the armor and into its leg, drawing the first blood.
The giant sword came down, seeking, but their horses danced and dodged.
Murderface and Pickles joined the fray. Pickles was forced to retreat from a particularly viscous sword swipe, but Murderface landed a brutal blow with his ax, chopping through the armor into one massive thigh.
Pickles darted back in, reaching high and jabbing his daggers into the lower abdomen. Not fatal, but surely painful.
Blood rained down on them all, as well as the still falling blades.
Toki darted through, stabbing with his own sword, while the others kept inflicting what damage they could.
It was too tall! They couldn’t reach high enough to deliver a killing blow, so they were forced to keep hacking at its legs, trying to bring it lower. Not a great plan when it was still floating, but the only plan they had.
Murderface and Skwisgaar’s horses were bleeding, they’d been cut by the falling blades. Not badly, but enough to slow them down some. And they were the ones who had managed to inflict the most damage so far, this wasn’t looking good.
Selatcia swiped again with his sword, changing directions at the last second and yanking it the other way. He caught Pickles’ horse across the chest and it dropped, instantly dead. Pickles rolled clear, but was now on foot and armed with only daggers.
Nathan ran for him, pulling him over his own horse and moving out of the immediate danger zone. As Pickles slid down, they turned in time to see Skwisgaar’s horse stumble hard, throwing him. The injured horse limped off, but was caught by falling blades and went down for good.
Skwisgaar stood his ground, sword raised. Murderface was trying to keep it distracted, but his own horse was tiring now.
Riding back to help, Nathan was joined by Toki. “Gets Skwisgaar, we gots to ends this now.”
How? But Toki looked determined, so he must have some sort of plan. They really didn’t have anything to lose at this point anyway, so Nathan just nodded.
He reached Skwisgaar and pulled him astride, racing back to join Pickles. Skwisgaar, looking behind them, made a shocked noise, causing Nathan to stop and spin his horse to see.
While the thing was focusing on Murderface, who was still valiantly attempting to amputate its legs, Toki had stood up on his saddle, balancing there as his horse closed in. This made him tall enough, hopefully, to strike a killing blow.
Murderface, seeming to understand the plan, waited until the last minute and then dodged around, turning the target but being careful not to get in Toki’s way.
The giant sword came up again, but too slow.
Toki aimed well, managing to slide his sword into the thing’s horrible heart before being gracelessly knocked from his horse by the force of the strike. He rolled out of the way as the giant fell to the earth, driving the sword the rest of the way through its body as it landed.
Dead, it was over, they’d beaten it. They’d won.
Toki’s horse came back to him and he remounted, riding with Murderface to join the others.
Since they’d lost two horses and Murderface’s was injured, Nathan pulled Pickles up behind him and Skwisgaar mounted behind Toki. They looked around them, now that they finally had the chance.
The troll was dead, the other forces had indeed handled it. Bodies littered the ground, unmoving. There seemed to be no survivors from either side, except for them.
The volcano was still erupting, reminding them of what they’s seen, and what it might mean.
“ABIGAIL! IAN!” Nathan suddenly turned his horse and raced toward when Mordhaus had last been seen, Pickles clinging tightly, the others followed close behind him. They raced across the strange landscape, fire still streaking the sky above them.
They topped a rise and they could see it, what was left of it, still burning and scattered. Just wreckage now.
“NOOOOOO!”
The light flashed again, and suddenly they were alone, horseless, armorless, and no longer bloody, but still seeing the same sight, though the land around it had changed. It had been true then, Mordhaus was the same in both worlds, and it was gone.
There were other fires, other places, smoke rising as far as they could see, and missiles still shot through the sky. It wasn’t over yet, not here. The air smelled of smoke. This wasn’t supposed to happen, this wasn’t right!
With a determined look, Nathan started toward the wreckage, but they all blocked his way. His angry snarl didn’t make them move.
“Nathan, there’s nothin’ left, there’s nothin’ we can do.”
“We need to find schelter fascht! I’m pretty schure thisch isch nuclear, at leascht schome of it.” It was hard to be sure with all the smoke, but he thought he’d spotted at least one mushroom cloud.
“Moiderface is rights, freaks out laters.”
Skwisgaar just placed both hands on Nathan’s chest and shook his head.
Nathan crumpled a bit, knowing he could force his way past them, but knowing they were right.
Pickles took charge, “There’s a old barn or sahmthin’ over there, let’s head fer it. Pritty open here, I don’t think any bombs are gonna land too close, no targits.”
It seemed as good a plan as any, or at least a plan, so they headed in that direction. They needed a place to rest, to process all that had gone on and was still going on. It was all happening so fast, too fast.
The barn was more of a shed, or somewhere in between, and not in good repair, but it had walls and a door that mostly closed, so it made a acceptable shelter. There was no animal smell, it seemed abandoned and out of recent use. The floor was plain dirt, but they didn’t care, they all sat down anyway.
For a while they sat in silence, all of them trying to come to terms with the whole thing. Trying to figure out what was going on, and why. Just trying to think.
Murderface, with his fascination with warfare, was the first to pull the pieces together. “Firscht schtrike.”
“Huh?” Nathan looked up, focusing. They all turned to Murderface.
“Thisch. The bombsch. They couldn’t wait one more day, they had to get the firscht schtrike. They knew he wasch here, schomehow.”
“BUT WE HAD IT! WE DID WHAT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO!” Had it all been for nothing?
“They says three days! Stupids shit fucks!”
“What Toki said, dood.” Sobriety didn’t agree with him, it was hard to think.
“They should have waited! Why didn’t they wait!”
Murderface shrugged, “Maybe schombody was going to drop a bomb on usch schooner or later anyway.”
“So lemme git this, what yer sayin’ is that sahmbody nuked us? Or everybody did?”
“No, a lot of thosche were outgoing. It’sch probably the whole world, and even if it’sch not, it won’t matter schoon.”
“Why ams dat, Murderface?”
“Nuclear fallout doeschn’t recognize national bordersch. And schpeaking of fallout, it’sch going to get cold schoon.”
*****
The next morning, all was quiet. The day was overcast and smoke could still be seen rising in the distance, but it seemed the war (or whatever it had been) was over, at least where they were. It seemed cooler already, but that might just have been a coincidence.
None of them were feeling very well, but with the battle, all the smoke, and everything they’d been though, that was no surprise. They might have puked, if they’d had anything in their stomachs.
They’d lost so much it was hard to process it, leaving them all a bit numb.
Nathan was still determined to go down to the remains of the Haus, so they gave in and agreed to the trek. It wasn’t like they had any other plan or anything.
Just a day ago they were on horseback, fighting for the fate of the world. It was hard to believe that had actually happened, even though they had been there. How could that have been real, and over so fast? Especially now, when they felt so ordinary and alone.
Silently, they walked.
It took a couple hours to reach the crash site, and that’s indeed what it was. What parts that remained were charred, and most of the debris unidentifiable. It was impossible to even determine which parts had been where, there just wasn’t enough left to tell.
There was also nothing left to bury, if they had been the burying kind. Nathan dropped to his knees.
There was no chance anyone had survived, but they had almost certainly died instantly, if that could be taken as any comfort.
“Dey hads de most metals Viking funerals ever,” Skwisgaar murmured quietly, and the others nodded in sad agreement. It still sucked, but if they had to die, at least they got that.
“We need to move, we need to find schome real schelter.” He put his hand on Nathan’s arm.
Nathan slapped it away. “I’m not leaving!” He wouldn’t even look at them.
Skwisgaar stepped up, “Nathan, dere’s not’ing dat can be does here. He ams right.”
Slowly, Nathan met his eyes. “He was only three, Skwisgaar. I swore I’d protect him!”
“You tries you’s best.” He held out a hand, “Comes on.”
Reluctantly, Nathan let himself be pulled up. How had it gone so wrong? This wasn’t what they’d been promised! Still not really looking at them all, he shrugged in defeat. “Fine. Somebody lead the way.”
Pickles chose to lead, or rather, he just started walking and they all followed. He thought he remembered seeing a road from where they started this morning, and roads had to lead to somewhere.
Toki moved to walk beside him, and Skwisgaar stayed by Nathan. Murderface, deep in thought, brought up the rear.
It took them another few hours to walk to the road, and they made the trip in silence.
The road was empty. It was just a two lane asphalt road, probably not heavily traveled in the first place.
They were all tired, thirsty, and hungry, but there was no help for that, so they picked a direction at random and kept walking.
The sky was still heavily overcast, but they could hear the occasional unseen plane passing nearby. That proved they weren’t the only people left. They sounded like jets, so the war, if it was a war, probably wasn’t over yet? They hadn’t seen or heard any more missiles though.
The road was turning hilly now, and walking uphill was an effort.
They topped yet another rise and saw the car on the shoulder, its door hanging open from when the driver had apparently abandoned it in a panic and fled.
The keys were in it! They piled in with sighs of relief, which didn’t last long when it refused to crank. The open door, the dome light, had drained the battery too low.
Toki, in the back seat, punched the seat back with a groan. Nathan didn’t look mad though...
“Hey Pickles, get up here. You know how to do this, right?”
“Sure thing!” Pickles took the driver’s seat.
“Come on you guys, get out and help! We’re getting this car started!”
Murderface climbed out with a knowing nod, but Toki and Skwisgaar were confused. The car was dead, right? How could they change that?
“De fucks ams we doesing?”
He’d asked Nathan, but Murderface answered, “Pusch schtarting the car. We’re lucky it’s not an automatic, thisch won’t work with thosche.”
“How’s you knows dis?”
He shrugged. “Everybody knowsch it.”
Well, apparently not everybody.
They lined up behind the car, hands on the trunk. “Ready, Pickles?”
“Yeah, go fer it!”
Following Nathan’s lead, they all pushed the car. It was near the top of the hill, so that made things a lot easier. This should work, but there was always the chance that the battery was too dead.
They had neared the bottom when there was a roar as the engine caught, and the car accelerated away from them. But then he stopped and waited.
Climbing back in, with Pickles still driving, they set off to find... anything that was left to find. Hopefully some food at least.
Nathan, in the front seat, just stared out the window.
Murderface settled against his door for a nap, if he could catch one.
A passing sign said there was a city, or at least a town, not too far ahead. What town, they didn’t know, someone had taken a shotgun to the sign at some point in the past, rendering the name unreadable.
*****
The city, when they came to it, was still smoking in places, and still on fire in the distance. At least one of the bombs had landed here. A bomb site meant there was a higher radiation risk, but they had always been somewhat immortal, or so it seemed at times, so maybe they’d be okay? They needed the things a city offered more than the feared possible radiation exposure. They were likely already exposed anyway.
They stopped at a department store near the outskirts, if a city this small could be said to have outskirts. Murderface had said it would get really cold, and he seemed to know more about this stuff than the rest of them, so they needed warmer clothes. Also spare clothes.
The store had been looted by someone (or multiple someones) already, but they had taken dumb shit like jewelry and electronics. The clothing was at least mostly untouched, and it wasn’t hard to find some jackets on a clearance rack. They pawed through them, looking for appropriate sizes. All except Toki, who only watched, until Skwisgaar threw one at him. “Puts on de damn jackets, Toki.”
Toki gave him a defiant look, but obeyed. He’d been mostly silent, but as long as he didn’t go catatonic he was probably fine. Or fine enough, anyway.
It was tempting to just stay in the store, but they had no weapons and more looters would surely come. Better to move on, find a more secure (or at least more private) location. Having no weapons sucked, but hopefully they’d find some somewhere else.
Dressed warmer now, and carrying spare clothing, they headed back to the car, which started right up this time.
“De car ams magicallies all better nows?”
“Driving makesch the alternator... You know, never mind, I’m not explaining thisch to you.”
Nathan was driving now, heading into the city. Pickles started running through radio stations, trying to get any real news. A lot of stations seemed to be off air entirely, but they found a few still trying to report, and their staticy panic confirmed that this was indeed a global disaster.
There were other cars now, mostly headed in the other direction, pointlessly fleeing the city. A lot of people too, though the majority seemed shell shocked and confused, just wandering around. And of course the troublemakers, running with stolen loot or breaking things just because they could.
So far, their car was pretty much ignored by everyone.
“Where’re we goin’, Chief?”
“Uh, I’m trying to find a house or close to stuff we can walk to. Just in case. With a fireplace, power’s out and nobody’s gonna come fix that shit.”
“Pfft, we has a car.”
“It’sch going to schnow, schooner or later. Thisch car doeschn’t have schnow tiresch, even if we can find more gasch we schtill won’t be able to drive it then.”
Skwisgaar frowned. “You means you can makes de car magicallies starts, but you can’ts be putting on differents tires?”
“Of coursche I can put on tiresch! Thisch ischn’t about me not being able to do it, we’re too far schouth! Even if it wasch the right scheason, none of thesche schtoresch probably even schtock them.”
“So maybe it won’ts snow?”
“We can hope, but we schouldn’t count on that. This is scherious schit.”
Pickles twisted around in his seat. “Hey Murderface, ya seem to know yer stuff. Don’t they make sahm kinda anti-radiation pills we could take?”
“Yesch and no.” He sighed, then continued, “There isch, but they only protect your thyroid and nothing elsche, and they work bescht on kidsch, and they don’t lascht very long. Even if we can find any, we’d need a lot, and we might be too old for them to even help. Beschidesch, if that’sch going to get usch, it’sch probably too late anyway.”
“There’s symptoms, raight, if thet’s gonna happen? Do you know ‘em?”
“I do. But better it’sch if I don’t tell you, or you’ll all schtart imagining them.”
Closer to the commercial part of town, the debris and bomb damage forced them to change directions, there would be nothing usable where a lot of buildings were still on fire.
Circling around, the came to a less damaged side of town, and a nearby residential area.
There seemed to be less people here, the proximity of the (local) ground zero and the multiple fires had probably driven them out. Good, as long as they left all their shit behind when they ran.
They passed several large houses that looked empty, but Nathan, thinking surprisingly rationally considering the circumstances, was looking for a single level smaller house.
The others were silent now, letting him lead them to wherever they were going.
There was a so much damage everywhere, was the whole world like this now?
Had something gone wrong, or had they been lied to? Was this what the prophecies had said they would bring? The end of the world?
They passed several corner stores but didn’t stop, apparently shelter came first.
Nathan turned into a neighborhood that was now somewhat isolated, fire had claimed a lot of the houses nearby but somehow spared this street. Wind direction or something, it didn’t matter why. The remaining fires seemed to be about out, so they shouldn’t spread further, and it was probably safer to be in an area without a lot of other people.
Near the end of the road was a brick one, and it looked empty and recently abandoned. It should do. With a grunt of approval Nathan pulled into the open garage.
They piled out, and went cautiously into the house. Just because it looked empty didn’t mean it really was, and times like these made people really trigger happy. A room by room search turned up no one though, so it was theirs.
The kitchen had food, mostly dry or canned stuff, and a few cases of bottled water and soft drinks. There was more in the powerless fridge, they’d just have to eat that all first. Good, they could wait for things to settle a bit before they had to go scavenging.
The backyard held a generous pile of firewood, and a medium sized storage shed that was empty except for some tools.
The house had three bedrooms, and there were five of them. Murderface, who had appointed himself the disaster expert, took charge again, “We need to drag all the mattresches out here and closche off all the roomsch, it’sch easchier to heat a schmaller area. Move thisch furniture back, we’ll make one big bed in front of the fireplace.”
The did, pushing couches against the walls, then dragging out the mattresses and shoving them together.
Pickles found a working radio, but there seemed nothing new to report so he turned it off, conserving the batteries.
Skwisgaar had found porn magazines under one of the mattresses. Of course he did.
*****
Nathan was standing on the porch when he noticed a guy two houses down fiddling with some sort of device. First person they’d seen in this neighborhood, though a few houses seemed occupied, maybe he had news? “HEY!”
The others, hearing him yell, came out to join him. The man was cautiously heading their way.
“Wow, Dethklok! I thought that was you the other day, but I wasn’t sure. You’re staying here?”
“Uh, yeah. Hey, is that some kind of radio or something? Does it work?”
“Satellite radio, and it’s currently useless because it seems all the satellites I can find are offline. So is cellular service, and I expect any and all remaining communication to fail soon.”
“Dood, jest at least tell us if ya, is tha war over? Who won?”
“It’s over, yes. And nobody, man, nobody won. You can’t win a nuclear war.” He seemed nervous, and with a small wave he turned and started back, “Well, see you around I guess.” He hadn’t even given his name, he was probably worried they’d steal his stuff.
Back inside, they finished off what had been in the fridge. They needed to start hunting for supplies soon, but they’d start with what was in this neighborhood. Maybe even find some guns?
Skipping that guy’s house, of course. Also the one near the end where candlelight had been seen in a window, and the other that looked like somebody closed it up to hide inside. The rest were empty, or at least they were pretty sure anyway. They’d still have to be careful.
In the morning, in teams. It was decided.
There were only fourteen houses on this street and two were partially destroyed, so excluding the ones they thought were occupied, that gave them three each. Skwisgaar and Toki, Nathan and Murderface, and Pickles had volunteered to search on his own.
That fridge food must have been partially spoiled, because none of them felt especially well this morning, but they needed to do this anyway.
It was colder than it had been, and although everything had stopped smoking, the sky was still dark. Smoke, clouds, did it even matter which it was?
*****
Nathan and Murderface went into their first house, the door wasn’t even locked. It looked liek someone had already picked it over, but they had to search anyway.
“Hey Murderface? I’ve been puking, I think everyone has too but we’re all trying to hide it. Is it the radiation?”
“It’sch juscht bad food, Nathan.” He was lying, and Nathan knew he was lying.
“Okay. Bad food. If you say so. Let’s find better food then.” Maybe it was best not to think about it.
The first house yielded nothing useful, except some blankets they didn’t need yet, might not need, and could always come back for. The went to the next one, which was locked. Locked was a good sign, Nathan kicked the door in.
They hesitated, just in case somebody was in there and tried to shoot them or whatever, but nothing happened so they went in. There was food! Further searching uncovered a small .32 handgun and even a couple partially empty bottles of booze, jackpot!
Bundling everything edible or drinkable in a sheet, Nathan carried it like a very metal Santa.
The third house was a bust, but Murderface found an aluminum baseball bat in a kid’s room and took that.
“We’re going to have to go further soon. To find stuff. If we live that long”
“Nobody’sch dying, Nathan.”
“We might be. I mean, it could happen. We’re getting sick already.”
“IT WASCH BAD FOOD!” They walked back to their house.
*****
Skwisgaar and Toki were in their first house, it had been unlocked. So far they hadn’t found much, just some OTC meds. Allergies were likely the least of their worries, but they bagged them anyway.
“I ams starting to wonders if you forgets how to talks.”
Toki just shrugged, he hadn’t spoken in days.
“Just says somet’ing so I knows you still cans?” This silence was a bit creepy.
Toki sighed, then finally spoke. “What’s the points? This is probably alls my faults anyways.”
“What ams you meaning by dat?”
But Toki didn’t reply, just walked out, and on to the next house, with Skwisgaar following.
This house was open too, and the pantry emptied, but checking the high cabinets revealed someone’s secret stash. It was all junk food, but that was their favorite kind.
In the garage, they found a five gallon gas can, about half full. They took that too. Murderface had said they couldn’t use the car for long, but while they could, it needed gas.
A bag of dog food was all else that came across, and they left it, not even wanting to consider needing to resort to eating that. At least not at this point.
They dumped their stuff on their porch as they passed, heading for the final house.
This one was locked. Toki kicked out a piece of glass and reached in and unlocked it, they entered.
Rounding a corner, they were faced with a very sick looking man lying on the couch. He had a shotgun, and it was pointed right at them. Occupied!
Hands up, they quickly backed out of the room and then ran. Well, they were done with their houses.
*****
Pickles was searching for drugs. And anything else they could use, of course, but he just really needed to escape reality for a while. He looked not only in the medicine cabinets, but in all the places people hid the good shit.
What kind of neighborhood was this, where they didn’t even have booze? Not even a warm beer to be found, and nothing stronger than TUMS, who the fuck even ate those things?
This house was a bust, aside from some boxed foods that they had no means of preparing, but he took anyway.
House number two had signs of teenagers, and he perked up. Kids were sneaky little shits.
And indeed, he found three joints in a tin under the mattress. He lit one immediately, with an immense sigh of relief, smoking as he continued his search. He felt better already.
In the parent’s room, he found a bottle with six Vicodin left in it, and pocketed that. Good house, best house. He liked this house.
But sadly, that seemed to be all there was to find.
At his final house, he found a couple gallons of distilled water in the garage. You could drink that, so he took them.
Inside, using a chair to search the upper shelves of the closets, he found a pretty nice .45 revolver and a box of bullets.
In the back of the bathroom cabinet, he found some Tylenol 3, it was a year expired but he grabbed it anyway. Free codeine, can’t complain too much about that.
Pickles headed back home.
That night they drank all the booze, it wasn’t enough to get anybody really drunk, but it still felt damn good, familiar.
Pickles even generously shared the Tylenol 3's, turns out it was still very effective. Most of them ended up puking, but it wasn’t possible to pinpoint a cause. Blame it on... anything but their own impending deaths.
Still, they slept better than they had any night since this shit all went down, sprawled across their giant mattress bed, warmed by fire.
*****
They saw their neighbor again, briefly. He didn’t look so good, and hurried back inside when he saw them. Yeah, definitely afraid of them.
If he was that sick, maybe he’d die and they could take whatever he had? But they weren’t going to kill him for it.
They weren’t nearly that desperate, yet.
Besides, there were three other occupied houses as well, and one of them had probably looted the empty ones they’d searched.
They could wait.
The sun had yet to come back out, even a little bit, they hadn’t seen it since the battle.
Dreary overcast days, some darker than others, were the new reality. Each seemed colder than the one that came before, even though it was supposed to be summer. Summer was broken now.
Outside, softly, the threatened snow finally began to fall.
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