Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“The fuck is that?” Stealth looks around Order and sees me there, still lying in a tangle of silk with Obigor atop me. Under mutant gazes, Obigor satisfies his urge to shriek fairly swiftly and falls silent, licking his gray chops with satisfaction.
“This is Tessie. She is my mate and my pet,” Order explains.
“You’re fucking an old dog?”
Order groans. I know now that Stealth is a younger sibling. He has that crass, chaotic energy and everything is a joke to him. Order, meanwhile, is trying to get everything under control. He comes over to me and swiftly rends the silk that was keeping me under control. It’s a neat party trick the way it sticks to everything but him. The chemistry of it must be wild. Right now, I’m just glad to be free. There’s something about this new snakeman that is giving me the creeps.
“Hi,” I say. “I’m going to go up and get Obigor’s food. And also get back in the car. And also never come back down to this hole again.”
“No. You stay put,” Order snaps. “I will go get the animal’s food. You will stay here. You too, Stealth.”
Stealth really doesn’t seem like much of a name for this particular specimen. Order was well named. Justice the mothman was also well named. But Stealth? I think that was a concept that quickly went sideways.
“I don’t want to stay put. I want out of this hole.”
“Oh, you’re going to want to stay in the hole,” Stealth says. “Things have gotten bad out there.”
“Do you know where Justice and the others are?” Order asks the question while plucking web from his brother’s body.
“Justice and his human and their clutch are on their way here. We split up and took different routes.”
I don’t understand that entire sentence, but it doesn’t seem to surprise Order, so I guess that’s all fine. It’s been a very strange day. I was braced to find some kind of burned out massacre scene, but this almost weirder and more disturbing.
“The original compound has self-immolated,” Stealth says. “We were attacked and had to activate the destruction sequences. Over half a century of history and technology destroyed because someone talked out of school.”
“By who? Not the military or police. There’s not enough interest for that. No chatter on any of the radios,” I say.
“Worse,” Stealth says. “The Others have come.”
“Who the hell are the Others?”
“They’d call themselves the originals,” Order explains to me. “They’re the monsters who have stalked humanity from the beginning. They were not made in a laboratory as we were. They were conjured out of the horror of the human spirit.”
“So you mean…”
“Vampires and werewolves,” Order says.
At this point, I just want Obigor’s dog food, oh, and to get far the fuck away from here. I am planning my escape from this strangeness as quickly as possible. Any loyalty I felt to Order is quickly eroding in the face of explosions, monster battles, and now the revelation that vampires and werewolves are trying to kill a World War Two era set of cryptid monsters. This isn’t just weird, this is incredibly dangerous.
“How far out is Justice?” Order asks.
“About an hour, I think. We took different routes. don’t want to convoy. It’s night too. So we need to be careful.”
“Just as well you blew the roof off,” I mutter.
Stealth gives me a hard stare. I wonder if that intimidates most people. I do find myself having the odd urge to freeze in place, so perhaps it does work on me after all.
“If I can blow the roof off, it wasn’t that useful in the way of protection anyway. We need to weld it shut once Justice and his brood get here. I don’t think the Others have any idea where our backup locations are, but they’re hunting,” Stealth says.
“Alright, well, I’m going to…” I start.
“Stay,” Order snaps firmly. “I don’t want you going anywhere. This is dangerous. Sit down and wait. Your friend will be here soon enough.”
The problem with vaults is that they are single entry and egress. The problem with Order is that I cannot make a move. Those eight eyes allow him to pay attention to his periphery without looking directly at me.
Order and Stealth watch the hole in the roof, standing guard together. Obigor passes out on my lap, and I try to keep myself from making a run for it that I know will never work. It’s times like this I hate that my wounds have forever weakened me. I might not be able to escape the vault if I was fully physically able, but at least I’d have the chance.
I have to keep Sally in mind. She’s coming. She’ll help me, and I’ll help her. We’ll both get the absolute hell out of dodge. It’s going to be okay just as soon as Sally gets here.