*Pants
~Yes, she's running...again
Amidst the dense cedar forest, Deanna ran for her life. Her mouth was gagged and her breathing was shallow. She ran like today was the last...today might just be the last.
Troops of highly trained guards were crashing through the forest. The guardians suddenly turned away as if they've finished having their fun. That wasn't enough. They were now being chased by giant wolves from the trenches of hell.
Yeah, the ones that sent the guardians away and are killing everyone.
With a trail of dark energy, everything in their path, from the tree bark facing them to the leaves that grassed them by. Anything in their way was dead and anyone they caught would turn to a human-sized meat kebab.
'Mi no (I thought it was just a myth!)', Tanya spoke in Spanish to Deanna. "Los Cerrnunos" as Tanya called them, were the Otherside keepers too, just the opposite energy of the guardian beasts; The Qilins. Right now, to fix her errors, she needed to save everyone.
"It's not my fault they're here", Deanna replied
Most myths are real at the Otherside, though.
She needs to focus on performing the broadcast spell to tell the others as she runs for her life. Muttering things over and over, she kept using her magic. Oliver dragged her along but they couldn't maneuver both hell beasts, armed scientists and trained soldiers who were using the tamers to save their lives.
A manly scream resounded in the forest, two more, eight screams. Everyone felt the disaster that befell the forest.
They've encountered the monsters that imprisoned them, along with fury of the guardian beasts.
Deanna finally reached the others and said to them, "Guys! For those untouched, you aren't safe. Head to the Otherside! We've been discovered by the enemy. The compass will pull you towards the right place , that alone won't suffice.
I'll release the memory spell. Using magic will be an instinct for you but still, be careful. Everyone... please survive", gritting her teeth tightly.
The magic flickered and the light from the flags went off. Now, everyone was stuck on their own.
Their magic failed and their lighting compass was gone. They were deserted, having to use their training knowledge to make it to the Otherside border.
The Devil Dogs quickly crawled from the dark and finished their members off, spilling the warm human liquid all over the dark grass.
Deanna began to wail painfully, she failed. People were dying. Her people If only she remembered what she did to anger the Head guardian.
"Wait, it isn't my fault", she lamented inside her. Someone killed one guardian, evil disrupted the pure thoughts of the Op, yeah, she's calling them that now. She has exhausted her power. She can't even move her fingers.
Oliver had been a major help. Yanassa, Kayla and the others too. But right now, she's exhausted.
As soon as her thoughts stopped racking, she fell into an endless slumber.
Oliver called out to her repeatedly but it was no use. Still, they rushed to the forest
1:00 hour remaining
The paths of many groups reunited. They moved like a dungeon team with mates and tankers, fighters and support. People were working seamlessly together.
The Ordina group were bolting through when they saw another group's flag, "Over there! The Aria team!!", they rushed over to find only the flag bearer and a twin survived. They were merged into their team. Those who lost people were quickly pulled along by the others. Everyone worked tirelessly bonded to make it to the Otherside.
0:42 mins remaining
Deanna's eyes opened slowly, bloodshot. She looked over Oliver's shoulder. He carried her all through, not minding her weight.
"O - li -ver..." , she muttered. Oliver flinched, stopped and placed her stuff body on his jacket, placed on the floor
"Dee! You're awake!!", Yanassa broke down. Deanna looked round and all were looking at her. She looked a bit farther and saw a different weather on the other side of a thin wall. It was dark but one could tell it was almost dawn in spring. They've reached the Otherside. But they didn't cross, why?
She made our people behind the wall and saw them panicking, reminiscing, like people at a relief centre. Deanna suddenly realised that no one could cross out of the Otherside.
"They couldn't cross back when they got there", Oliver read her mind on cue.
"Guys...thanks", her hoarse voice as direct as ever. Oliver had officially failed to hold back his tears and cried in her laps. She was about to caress his head when a large boom was heard.
Deanna, rising to her feet, could feel the air thick with battle. The forest was smoked and the smaller animals were rushing to cross.
"A lot happened while I was out. It was certainly 2 things.
1, the facility is fighting the guardians, giving us escape time and
2, we're still in the crossfire, right?"she looked at Kayla, getting a solemn nod.
"Okay - oh", Deanna swayed as she leaned by a tree. She was too weak to help or move, she'll turn into a burden. So, she sat back and gave orders.
"Make a new squad of those who aren't trapped at the Otherside, stay near but split to help those close to the wall. Each member of our group will lead a troop. Gathering many people. Keep everyone on radar",
Everyone looked conflicted but still agreed. Deanna was eventually left alone as people were rushing around. It wasn't long anymore before their magic wore off.
It took 10 mins but many people made it across the border wall slowly but surely.
0:21 mins remaining
Deanna felt a bit more stable and tried to reach out to one of the flag bearers, the broadcast spell on them. She was able to reach Corleen of the Viar squad but before she spoke, she was cut off. Corleen died.
Deanna tried not to change her expression. She expected this.
Everyone returned back, going round for a tally when Sumi approached the weakened Deanna
"Umm, Dee - can I call you Dee?", she gave a silence before she continued, "the Broadcast spell, can you teach me? I woke up with a spell type aura despite you giving me a Charmed role..."
"Why?"
She knew it'd be like instinct when they tasted magic. It was maddening
She only told them about the 2 types of tamers; Charmed and Spelled, everything being divided into different realms like attack, mental, defense, blah blah
but, she wants to learn command spells already. Something's up.
"I *coughs* asked why. Answer", she looked calm after seeing Deanna coughing up a black phlegm. It was probably a blood clot from over exerting herself.
Sumi was fearful but she proceeded to explain.
"Well, I think Kristen was up to something...", Deanna was distrustful, "Who's that?", she inquired honestly. "The last person on our squad. You added him to the group at the last minute. I know you might not -""Have the patience for old memories", she interjected, making the mood as thick as an end-of-the-year report meeting at a big company.
"I t-think he's doing something"
"Everyone else is too"
"No. Not good things. Recently, some of the groups we found would disappear before getting to the safe site. He's been off radar for too long. The walkies can't reach him. Even Claire, with the gift of clairvoyance, couldn't sense him. Someone from the team saw a glimpse of him, bathed in blood"
Deanna decided to check it out herself, she was starting the spell's chant but Sumi suddenly held her hands together. "Please, teach me"
Deanna sighed in resignation. She was glad there was just one traitor.
"Whatever you see, don't let your emotions go haywire"
She wrote it down and drew a 2-layer magic circle, which she gave her and told her to place her thumb through the paper's centre. Sumi followed the instructions, questionless. She had a paper cut, soiling the paper.
Sumi shut her eyes, praying it works. Like clockwork, the image of a dense forest hit her. In it she saw Kristen, in the middle of a massacre. Even the view had blood on it. It was a direct feeling of the scene. She saw a stain of yellow paint on the tree.
Sumi gasped as the air drew her back. She looked panicked. He was killing his kind. He killed people and he...smiled while doing so?! He looked docile but wow, he's a psycho. Something was off though, he was surrounded by the Cernunnos that killed everyone, he looked right at her before beckoning on the hell dogs. They fed on those he killed, leaving not much of a carcass. It was terrible.
Despite them being spirits, it seems that Kristen negotiated with them to spare himself. Sumi quickly gained composure and told the others.
After moving again, they are resting up in the trees. Deanna has now become the deadweight ammunition. She kills the hell dogs and stuns the traumatized tamers with her powers but Oliver carried her all the way. Maybe he felt guilty, they weren't talking.
00:13:00 minutes
They were moving through the darkened woods, all were weary, drained and depressed. No form of comedy could lift their spirits.
*Bzzt, bzzt
The walkie-talkie blared. Kayla reached it from her bag, not daring to stop.
"Bzzt, Update from wing 6NW, over"
"This is Kayla, over"
"3 groups low on ammo. Others out of rations too, over"
"Return to main, group, I repeat, return to main group"
"Copy, over and out"
...
Deanna was pushed over the edge, her hairs stood on end. She hopped off Oliver's back and tried to summon her aura but nothing, she tried again, she suddenly failed. Others too.
Many people started coming towards them, chased by hoards of hell dogs.
"Deanna! We've run out of ammo", someone shouted
"And food!"
"And the monsters are still chasing us!"
"And -"
"ENOUGH!!!", Deanna finally lost it. She needed to think of a solution but, everyone was in her head.
An inaudible mumble was heard from the monsters in the shadows. No one could understand, but Tanya. Her eyes glowed as her powers were literally a translator.
But Tanya failed to speak. "Tanya! Tanya!! Tanya!!!", Louise; her teammate tried shaking her, yet Tanya remained in a shocked trance.
Deanna suddenly broke into a cold sweat. Tanya's pupils began to dilate. She slowly came to be, in seethed anger. Within seconds, Tanya pounced on Deanna. Punches fell like rain, scratches as fast as the wind. Some of the Tamers tried to separate them. Deanna didn't fight back.
"Why?", Tanya cried out as they pulled her off. The confusion of others didn't stop her from continuing.
"If there was such a sacrifice, if you were going to sacrifice us, why the fuck didn't you tell us? You led us all to our demise!", she yelled in her exotic Italian accent.
They just said that only one person had the right to cross. You're using us as sacrificial lambs, right?", she scoffed. Everyone's disoriented state now held a flame of anger. So, they were not going to survive.
Deanna just sighed and rushed into the direction of the boundary wall. They were running out of time. Explaining is always exhausting.
"Stop right there!"Tanya started a chase. Others followed and soon it was a 2-way chase with Deanna as the goal.
Everyone was already tired but the anger was a new body fuel. They picked things and threw them at Deanna in fits of rage. It didn't reach her but the pain of rejection and disdain brought somewhat despair into her indifferent soul.
Deanna ran ahead quickly and stopped abruptly.
"It was supposed to be here!", she lamented, feeling around the vacant air. According to this distance, it should be there.
She miscalculated for the first time in a while, having drastic karma. Instead of rewriting the potion to work in advance, she didn't think of the 'what if' the facility's serum was a failure and not an awakening boost.
She looked back and with her boosted sight, she saw those that fell behind, blinking at their deaths. She took a back step and moved between the mob.
A timid boy stared at the slowly approaching hell dog, with struggling breaths. Like an angel of death, she grabbed the hand of the boy. A girl under the huge paw of another hell dog, the size of her head.
She grabbed the girl, another boy, and two more ladies. Soon she formed a baggage of people who she pulled along.
"Where did she go?", they stopped running
Oliver, was trying to calm the mob that stopped upfront. "Guys, please calm down. What if she didn't know?"
"That's not possible! She could have made a one person mistake but almost 500 people, no way"
"She knew!"
Many agreed to this logic and their fury reached new heights. The dark, foggy forest was now set alive with the anger of many. Deanna ran to the front of the crowd from a side dash.
"Yes, I made a fatal mistake but the potions I gave you should give you the ability to pass without the rites", she removed her left hand and made a huge bite to her wrist.
"Die!"
Out of anger, they picked up stone and sand and began throwing. Her hand swayed, spraying blood. She was chanting as her blood glowed a taunting red all over the forest floor. She had to taunt them.
A piercing screech boomed in their ears, and a timer showed above the flag bearer's head. Then, like judgement day call, the boundary wall showed itself behind her.
"If you want me to die so bad, then go with me"
She picked her stunned victims by the hand and started throwing them from their ribs, across the translucent wall. The timid boy screamed as he was thrown. He looked at the pearl walls and reached a finger out and felt the wall thicken under his touch. An electric spark burnt his skin in just one touch.
They were stuck on the other side.
The timer turned red and a voice came from it.
11 seconds
10...
Oliver made an effort to yell, "Everyone, run to the Otherside!"
Some stopped and some ran but the blood splatters blew up, and the forest became a landmine. Everyone ran.
Deanna wasn't done yet. She ran back to search the bodies for injured and alive victims, making multiple journeys and retrieving the tamers.
6...
All anger had faded at this point.
Everyone watched in disarray as Deanna helped people cross. Someone spitted on her as she carried the person in her underarm, his leg was cut off and was abandoned at the main camp. Yet, Deanna made sure he crossed. Someone who couldn't walk through felt the transparent wall thicken. Deanna sent a kick to her back and she fell through the wall.
Deanna was trying to right her wrong...at least till they cross.