Valkyrie's Lament

Chapter 22

Things that shouldn't be

They arrived in front of a similar large gate that they had went into the past two games. No one was present except them. The large overbearing metallic gate with the number one painted in red. Crusty brown dirt were splattered all over the wall with even a large claw marks engraved deeply in the gate as if something was try to get out.

Silver wondered what had caused the indentation in the wall. She had seen quite a bit of monsters throughout her memories, but not something that viciously tore the gate as butter, especially something that could damage the gate and the walls. The thought of a powerful monster made her worried.

“That is quite a forbidding atmosphere.” Jasper was examining the wall with curiosity. “Whatever it is I don’t want to meet it, ever.”

“I agree.”

“Woah. Look who is here~” A girl voice cried out happily towards them.

Silver and Jasper turned around and noticed that two people that was walking over. One was a brown skin girl and the second was a young handsome man with messy hair. She remembered the two. “Brianna and Sam is it?”

“Yep.” Brianna gave her a thumbs up. Sam rolled his eyes at Brianna and did not reply. “I’m surprised that you guys are here. You all after the rewards too?”

“Yes.”

“I seen you battle with the Baphomet. You guys must be strong if you are taking on this request, but we’ll be getting the Ancient Lost Tablet.” Brianna proudly said with confidence with her hands on her hip.

Silver slightly smiled and didn’t refute her words. She wasn’t inclined to have a small squabble on who was going to get the tablet. It was a waste of her time.

“Woah, there are people actually here.” A young teen’s voice spoke out loud. Everyone turned around to see a five people walking over towards them. “I thought we were the only one’s who had the balls to try this mini-game out.”

“Hi there.” A older lady waves her hands towards them and smiled. “My name is Amy.” She was a lady with a homely smile that made anyone think of her as a kind motherly figure. Her simple gym clothes with loose pants made her look a bit big, but Silver could see that she had quite the curves for an older lady.

“I’m Jamison or just call me Jamie for short.” The young teen that spoke out loud was standing back with his hands behind his head. He was quite lean with muscles, making him look a bit like a thug.

“Your right Jamie, I won this bet. You owe me now three Angel Coins.” A young teen that look the same age as Jamie stood next to him. She was tall with sharp angular jaws, wearing a school uniform.

“Fine.” Jamie pulled out three Angel Coins and handed it to her. “Can’t believe you're robbing me so quickly.”

She winked at him and snatched the Angel coin away.

“Sophia.”Amy said sternly. “Didn’t I tell you to stop betting? You have a nasty habit of gambling and your parents got into debt because of that. Do you want to be like them?” Amy disappointedly looked at her, but Sophia shrugged her shoulder and didn’t seem to care.

“Sorry about my family. My name is Lawrence and the one next to me is Terry.” A elderly man with a mustache, wearing a green gym clothes, while he kept his back straight. His eyes were sharp and his mind were examining the group in front of him. A young boy stood behind the elderly man, peeking out from the side.

Terry was a small kid who look about the age of ten just like Jasper. He was wearing a simple elementary school outfit with shorts similar to Jasper’s outfit. Silver had to wonder if the Angel’s also mistaken Jasper because of his looks for him to have the same outfit as Terry.

“My name is Silver and this is Jasper. I’m guessing you all know each other.” Silver asked.

“Yes.” Amy stated cheerfully. “My husband is Lawrence. Jamison is my eldest son and my youngest son Terry. Sofia is Jamison’s friend.” She introduced them one-by-one.

“Ah, I see.” Silver was a bit surprised that a family was all together. It was quite an achievement for all of them to be still alive. “Are you sure you want to take on this mini-game? I mean this is quite a high level.”

“It is? We heard that it would give us a fairly large amount of Angel Coins. We thought this was a good idea for a family outing.”

“Family outing?” Silver was dumbstruck. She couldn’t help but feel that there was something strange about this woman and the way she thought.

“Damn. We’re not the only ones.” A disappointed voice called out loudly. Three young teenagers came forward all wearing the private high school uniforms.

“Don’t worry. Don’t worry. They all going to die one-by-one inside anyway like the rest of the others.” The girl chuckled, looking at the group of people before them. She stuck up her head and snorted down at all of them.

“Who are you?” Jamison scowled at them with disdain. He crossed his arm in front of him as he glared.

“Sola is my name. This here is Ken and Natalie.” The tallest girl spoke out first. She was quite lanky. Even she had a slight overbite.

Ken was short and a bit stocky. Natalie had a beauty mark next to her lips reminding Silver of a famous old celebrity. Even her figure was a perfect hourglass figure that would rival Rose.

“Well hello there.” Amy stated cheerfully. “I’m glad to see that they are more people joining us today. My name is Amy, this is Jamie, my son Terry, my daughter Sofia, and my husband Lawrence.” The bubbly atmosphere was a bit too much for Silver.

“Kah! You serious? Are you guys on a family outing or something?” Natalie laughed out loud. “I mean this is a game of death, not some walk in the park.” She haughtily replied.

“Young lady, it’s rude to speak to someone.” Amy stated with displeasure, she placed her hand on her hips as she shook her head. “Haven’t you been taught to respect your elders?” She casted a disapproving gaze down at her.

“Hah!” Natalie scoffed. “This old hag thinks that respect grows on trees. You gotta earn it old hag.”

Amy gasped, covering her lips at what Kathy words. Then she straightened herself, and stood up straight as if Natlie’s words didn’t phase her. “Squabbling with an girl is unbefitting of me.”

Silver couldn’t help but feel stifled being with these two groups. She wanted to leave them all behind, but entering into the gate was not possible yet. So far, the gate to Area 1 hadn’t opened. The gate stood proudly with an overbearing presence to not let anything come out. The marks on the wall was an example that whatever was inside the gate was more for the protection of the people than the other way around.

With a sigh, Silver moved forward towards the gate and stood still. She had never set foot in this gate before, but only heard dangerous rumor about it. Some stated that this gate hold a secret more terrifying than any other gates in existence. While only a rare few had made it out of the gate with barely their life in tact. One of the top ten players, who had cleared this Gate, never once gave much information about the content inside the gate, but there was one thing that the gate held that she needed to get. A special stone called the Blood Tear, more special than the Ancient Stone Tablet itself. If her speculation was correct, the retrieval quest were a lot more harder than the subjugation requests.

With a familiar grinding sound, the large metal door started to creak open. The bickering group of people stopped, and turned towards the open gates. Hot wind blew towards Silver, hitting her in the face. A horrible stifling air of reeked out from the gate as the fog rolled in, making everybody hold in their breath.

Even Silver had to momentary gasp in a breath to not inhale the foul stench. It smelled like a mixtures of noxious smell of dead fish and garbage mixed together, making her feel queasy in the stomach. She didn’t know how long she could hold her breathe before she ran out, so she took short intake of air until she couldn’t anymore.

“Hack. Cough. Cough.” Natalie was on the ground clutching her stomach. She was throwing up from the horrible stench of smell. A couple of others were having a difficult time in keeping in there food in there stomach as well and threw up on the side. Just as quickly as the foul smelling air had come through it just as quickly it disappeared, allowing all of them breathe again.

“What’s that smell- blergh.” Ken threw up on the side still under the aftereffect of the smell.

“We’re supposed to go in there with that rank smell? I’m out.” Sola was stepping backward with a frown. “I’ll see you guys back at the Inn.” She left without even looking back.

“You serious? Did she just leave us?” Natalie was fuming. She was extremely disappointed in Sola’s attitude.

“Let her be, Natalie. We’ll deal with her later.” Ken stated with indifference. He wasn’t to thrill with her leaving them as well. “Let’s go.” He was the first to head towards the gate.

Amy clucked her tongue in disregard to Ken and Natalie, instead she was highly displeased at the three. “Let’s go. We don’t want them to get the upperhand.” Her group trudged forward, trying to pass Ken’s group.

Silver and Jasper walked towards the gate, ignoring the squabbling between the two. When everyone passed through the gate, the gate rumbled and closed leaving them inside.

Thick fog cleared up as paved road opened up before them. Tall skyscrapers filled both sides of the streets as destruction laid rampant on the city floor. Cars littered all around the road as if they were just abandoned. It reminded Silver of an apocalyptic scene, and all that were left alive was them. Not a single bird or bugs sung their usual songs, only their pitter-patter of their feet walking could be heard as it bounced off the buildings. It was too quiet, putting everyone on edge.

Certain buildings had gaping hole as if something large had taken a bitten out of its wall as wind howled through the tight and open spaces.

Silver thought for a moment, she was in a large city, but when she passed through a gap between the buildings not to far away from them she saw a large metallic walls that boxed the city; even though, the ceiling gave off an illusion that they were outside.

Off in the distance was a large skylight building that completely seem out of place, compared to the other skyscrapers.

Something about the building, Silver felt an ominous feeling that screamed at her senses to run away. She had to reel in her rampant emotions and control her body. It wasn’t easy to fight against such a terrifying feeling.

Whatever was in the building was where the Ancient Lost Tablet were. And she couldn't afford to run away.

“Do you sense that?” Jasper whispered towards her. His teeth was chattering and his face was pale.

“Yes.” Silver nodded her head slowly, looking around she noticed that the others didn’t seem to noticed the over oppressive energy.

“I don’t know about you, but I have a bad feeling about this. I want to get out of here now.”

“You aren’t the only one.”

They continued to walk towards the oppressive building. Silver searched for any strange movements, but so far not a single monster or creature came crawling out in the attempt to kill them.

“what’s going on? It looks like an apocalypse just happened.” Natalie spoke out with concern. She was close to Ken where she had her arms wrapped around his.

“Gaaaarablababl.” A strange sound of a mixture of gurgling and hacking was heard. Erratic footsteps shuffled forward as the sound echoed loudly.

Before them were thousands of  zombies filled with worms streamed out from the building. Some had mangled bodies, others had arms or legs missing, and quite a bit of the look feral with bubbles streaming out of their mouth. They hobbled over towards the group with hunger in their eyes.

“What the hell is going on?!” Natalie shrieked. She ran away from the oncoming zombies.

Silver gritted her teeth. Creatures of the undead, what was worse that she knew that they did not have a single crystal in their body, making this mini-game ten times more difficult. She pulled out her sword, ready to fight.

With a single swing of her sword, she hacked through their body. The zombie’s top half of the body shifted and slide off with a thud. “Don’t worry about the crystals.” Silver quickly replied. They were slowly being surrounded by the zombies on all sides, making it difficult to escape.

Jasper was fending off a couple of zombies that came to close. His fist burst through their head, leaving behind a gaping hole. “What? Why?”

“They don’t have a single one.” Silver bite her lips with annoyance at the large group of zombies that were coming towards them in droves.

“Gahhhh!” Natalie screamed as she was swallowed up by the zombies. Her body being torn apart and eaten alive. “Ken! Help me!”

Ken shuddered with fear and he ran away from her. He tripped, a zombie reached over, grabbing his legs. “Get off! Get off! Get off of me!” His shrills echoed with such force, that it drew in more zombies.

“Silver, if we stay here any longer we’re all going to get killed!” Jasper was trying to cut through a path, but every time he killed one another took its place.

“I’m working on it!” Silver swung her sword, she ran up next to Jasper to help with creating a path. Swarms after swarms fell to both their punches and slashes, dwindling the crowds of the zombies thinner and thinner.

“You guys are good.” Brianna skipped over with a whistle. Twin blades that look like tonto were twirling in her hand, hitting the zombies as if they were nothing. “I thought Sam and I were the only ones.” Her blade cut through a zombie head.

“Less talking, more killing!” Jasper knocked over a zombie that moved behind Silver. Even though the zombies were slow, they were many.

“We need to get towards one of those buildings!” Silver saw an opening on the side, she cleared a path and the rest followed behind her. She knew that staying outside were suicide and what was worse was that they wouldn't get any crystals to replenish their strength. The chance of them growing in this place were very slim. She knew that they could fall behind in getting stronger, but on the upside the reward for surviving was high, balancing out the lost of crystals gained in this mini-game.

Silver ran into the nearest glass door that opened automatically. Jasper, Brianna, and Sam closely followed behind them. Amy’s family staggered to keep up.

“Ah!” Terry stumbled forward and fell onto the pavement. “Mommy!” He cried out in horror. Amy froze on the spot unable to save her child. She was the first to past through the glass door.

“Terry!” Sofia called out in panic. She ran over and pulled him up into his arms, carrying him through the open path that was closing before their eyes.

“Sofia!” Jamie was motioning her quickly through the open door. When they both pass through Jamie and Lawrence quickly put up a broken wooden leg of a chair in-between the door, locking them all inside.

With a slam the Zombies rattled the glass door, their ugly decayed face smoosh against the door. Their teeth and bony cheek open and closed, leaving behind small traces of flesh. All of a sudden, the Zombies froze as if they were all frozen in time.

Brianna started. “What in the world is going on? Why did they all freeze up like that?”

“Better not stick around to find out.” Jasper opened up the door to the emergency stairway. Silver and Jasper entered, leaving everyone behind.

“Hey, wait up!” Brianna called over, she ran up the stairs.

Sam clicked his tongue. He rolled his eyes and followed. The rest of the family followed as well not wanting to be left behind.

Silver made her way towards the top of the building and opened up the door, leading to the outside. She walked over towards the edge and look down. Out before her were thousands upon thousands of zombies frozen in place, unmoving as if time had stopped itself. Sitting down on the edge, she watched for any unusual movements.

“Why do you think they just stopped like that?” Jasper came up from behind. He too took a seat, staring down into the crowd.

“I’m not sure yet.” Silver’s eye darted, looking for an answer.

All of sudden the frozen zombies started to move once again. The zombies that weren’t near the building were lazily moving around, while the zombies that were below them were all congregated towards the door.

“Their moving again?” Jasper was confused.

“Hey. Hey.” Brianna came over with a cheerful attitude. “I’m really impressed that you two are strong. Not like those dead weight in the back.” She pointed towards Amy family.

“Sometimes those dead weight will save you when you least expect it.” Jasper frowned and turn towards her. “Why are you following us?”

“Why not?” Brianna came over and sat next to Silver. “Wouldn’t it be smarter to stick around people who can fight and survive? I can already tell that you guys mean business.”

“Leave them alone Brianna.” Sam called out with an annoyed attitude. “We can move through this place a lot faster with the two of us.”

Brianna sighed and shook her head. “Come on Sam. You know better than I that the level for this mini-game is ten times more difficult than what we been getting our hands on. I mean yea we breezed through them, but that doesn’t mean so on this one.”

“You don’t get it do you.” Sam let out a strained breathe. “We’re trapped in this building and our destination is that large building over there.” He pointed towards the last ominous building. It was surrounded by thousands upon thousands of zombies. “You think with those dead beats behind us we’ll penetrate inside? We leave now and infiltrate in smaller numbers, than we will survive for sure.”

“True, but teaming up with these two will increase our chance in getting inside. You really think you're confident in fighting off thousands of zombies over there if we get caught up with them? I don’t think so.” Brianna crossed her arm and she gave him a disgruntled look.

“Fine, do whatever you want. I’m leaving.” Sam turned around to leave her behind.

“Hey! Sam! Come on!” Brianna got up and ran towards him. She pulled on his arms to stop him from advancing.

Silver was not paying much attention to their little quarrel. “Strange.” She rubbed her fingers on the stone wall unconsciously. She strained to see what was causing them to suddenly change from active to inactive every minute.

“Did you notice something?” Jasper asked.

“Yes, I think so. Give me a couple more minutes and I might be able to give you an answer.” She watched diligently, quietly observing the strange patterns of the zombies below her. Every couple of minutes, she noticed the zombies would change from active to inactive. As she look off into the distance, she noticed that each group of zombies were active and inactive at different intervals.

Silver eyes became wide as she finally noticed what was happening before her. “I got it!” She snapped her fingers. “I know why their acting sporadic!” Her voice spoke out with delight, catching everyone’s attention.

“That is?” Jasper and the rest turned towards her waiting for an answer.