True to Daniel’s warnings, no less than a dozen Dead turn to greet the newcomers.
The forms facing them are less mutated than the one on the bridge, but that only makes things worse; whereas the creature on the bridge could have been mistaken as something that was never human, these monstrosities retain just enough human traits for their origin to be clear–and for the warping power of the waters of Death to be on full display.
One scuttles forth, misshapen to parody both a crab and a human head–everything below the neck has been replaced with a score of macabre finger-limbs supporting a head the size of a black bear. Another undulates around them in a predatory circle, its body wracked and extended, its centipede-like body barely kept out of the water by four undersized limbs. Another still walks backwards, its head bent over and lolling on its back, the eyes and mouth having traded places at some point and wrinkling into a hungry, rictus grin.
Daniel wastes no time, ringing both bells in a figure-8 rotation–low and paced, less finding a rhythm and more making sure that they sound off as much as they can. The approaching Dead hiss at the cacaphony, but the magic of the bells is slow to take hold.
Except for Audrey.
Unlike the lingering Dead, her limbs (especially her legs) obey the twin calls of the Walker and the Binder. Were she not strapped to Thryl’s back, she would be following some of the lesser dead in a circle around them, joining a cursed Ring-Around-The-Rosie. Though the Dead slowly break away, the most prominent horrors press forward, resisting the call as long as they can.
Focused on the stragglers, Daniel swears under his breath again, fighting the instinct to drop a bell in favor of a Glock.
As Daniel explains what he meant to Audrey and draws a brace of bells, Thryl draws back the hammers of the pistols that resemble Colt Peacemakers but are obviously not. She is able to appreciate his attempt at humour, even if Audrey does not.
The ghost child re-buries her head into Thryl’s neck and starts to whimper in fear of the yet to be revealed unknown. Thryl rests her head momentarily on Audrey’s, “You’re doing well Honey, we know it’s scary, but we won’t let them hurt you. Just you hold tight.” Looking back to Daniel she nods she’s ready.
Opening the gate proves to be very much anticlimactic, initially. The upward flowing waterfall simply splits down the middle revealing the large, flat, slow-moving waterway. The soul that passed through the gate with them starts to slowly spin in the slow current and Thryl would have found this strangely amusing if it weren’t for the mass of misshapen creatures baring down on them with ill intent.
The finger legged crab-like creature scurries towards them, it’s huge, mutated head swaying with each disjointed step. Seeing Daniel ready his bells, Thryl raises both pistols and unleashes a torrent of fire on the beast. Taking a moment to reload she looks at the effect of the bells on the mutated souls as they start to rotate about them like bizarre moons.
The deep toll of the bell known as The Binder forcibly draws their attention and directs their action. The More discordant, variable toll of The Walker makes them step to the will of The Binder. These steps making them look to have a disarticulated gait.
The stronger ones are still struggling to push through the magical compulsion. These ones were the oldest of the souls remaining in this the Sixth Precinct. The younger souls were less resistant but even those could be seen to be trying to struggle to break the magic and stop their slow, disjointed orbit about the trio.
From the corner of her vision, she sees the soul that had accompanied them through the gate sprinting about them rapidly, its legs almost comical as they were forced to obey the toll of the bells. Just then there is a jolting pain centred about the inner aspect of her elbow. The ghost child had been protected for a time by Thryl’s natural resistance to such things but now her limbs were flailing wildly about as she writhed about in the bindings that held her on Thryl’s back.
The chance kick to the inside of her elbow has caused her fingers unintentionally to lose her grip on the revolver, which drops into the water. Audrey’s continued writhing about in the restraints means that Thryl has to concentrate on holding her footing. She is only able to get the occasional shot off at one of the denizens of this precinct when it gets to close. Simultaneously she tries to shake the incapacitating pins and needles from her near useless hand. Further, she continues to try calming Audrey, even though she knows the child is responding as to be expected.
“Daniel–Daniel, help! I’ve dropped a pistol, and I can’t reload the other and Audrey is proving difficult–f^<king Khama!”
At that moment Audrey’s flailing causes Comet to fly over Daniel’s head to land in the water in front of them.
This stimulus is enough to partially break the hold of The Binder. Her The Walker induced flailing continues but to this is added a high-pitched, distorted scream.
“Cooooommmeeeett!!”
The scuttling head screeches in pain as Thryl’s rounds impact its eyes. It surges towards them on its finger-legs, a too-large mouth agape in a wordless roar of fury and hunger, though thankfully its newly blinded state sends it careening aside.
Daniel struggles to keep a steady rhythm with his bells, the strain driving an otherwise instinctive ‘Shut up, Astra’ from his mind. Despite their common foes, the bells still have a mind of their own and seem to fight back against their wielder; Daniel openly swears at Kibeth as it pulls Audrey under its influence, while Saraneth seems more interested in binding the Dead in place rather than have them circle around them. The opposing wills of what should have been INANIMATE F^<KING OBJECTS pulled at Daniel’s concentration like a pair of huskies who had each spotted a squirrel on the opposite side of the street.
He instinctively flinches as one of Thryl’s revolvers splashes near him, which does little to help his concentration. The Centipede (as he so cleverly named the elongated four-leg spindly-bodied horror) breaks out of its orbit around them. Though Daniel forces it back into the circle surrounding him, he isn’t able to save the recent Dead caught up in the budding whirlpool. Almost too fast for him to see, the Centipede snatches up the unfortunate soul and flails it about like a dog with a chewtoy.
The luckless soul’s wail echoes across the precinct. The perpetrator rejoins the dancing circle, its form bulkier and stronger than before, rejuvenated by the lingering taste of Life it so eagerly devoured.
As if that wasn’t enough, a stuffed rabbit sails overhead and lands in the waters. Though thankfully not sinking into oblivion as it would have in the 5th Precinct, the ongoing march pulls it into the Dead current and out of reach.
“Cooooommmeeeett!!”
Audrey’s already precarious grip gives out entirely at the loss of her rabbit. She slips off of Thryl’s back, quite literally hitting the ground running thanks to the Walker’s influence. The once-calm current pulls Comet further and further away from the group, and by the time Audrey catches her doll she is much, much too close to them. Even the ones still obediently following the bells’ tolling eye her hungrily, seemingly waiting for her to get close enough to strike.
The malformed Greater Dead have no need to wait.
Audrey has just enough time to look up and scream before the Crab and the Centipede are upon her. Both of them splash through the water faster than their warped forms should allow, preparing to feed on the one source of Life that can’t fight back. Had they charged from opposite sides, Daniel has no doubt that they would have each taken a half of her and worked things out once they got to the middle; as it was, they were running nearly in tandem, snarling and body-checking each other to try and get ahead.
Just as the rabbit sails over Daniel’s head Aathryl feels Audrey violently struggling against the Carabiner holding her in place. Her inhuman wail/screech almost deafening in Aathryl’s ear. Somehow possibly due to bad Khama, the possible corrosive effects of the unnatural waters or just the power exerted by the terrified ghost child … The carabiner snaps and Audrey falls from Aathryl’s back, the child scrambling away towards her rabbit. Audrey snatches back her rabbit from the circling undead still partially controlled by the bells. Looking up she screams again at the sight of a pair of Greater Undead barrelling towards her.
Aathryl was momentarily torn between trying to find her lost pistol (an artifact that was irreplaceable) and helping Audrey. The hesitation lasts only a millisecond or two when she too notices the greater undead charging towards the girl. She sprints as fast as she can to try and place herself between Audrey and the undead. Raising her remaining pistol, she fires a single shot before attempting to scoop up the girl.
Audrey still under the influence of the bell Daniel calls ‘The Walker’ had already started to run the circle with the other lesser undead, who were eyeing her hungrily. She still had enough self-control to try and remain out of reach of these creatures. As she turns her head to Daniel’s call her terrified screams continue adding to the cacophony of the undead screeches, bells and gunfire.
A round from Thryl hits the Centipede in one of it shoulders, sending it tumbling onto the Crab’s head-body and half-wrapping around it. Their feral nature fully displayed itself now as they began tearing into each other, their meal forgotten in the brawl.
Unfortunately, Audrey keeps running, and despite Daniel’s colorfully impossible description of the Walker’s parentage he struggles to think how to break its influence over her without doing so for everything else here. Maybe using it in tandem with the Binder was a mistake, but at least two of his predecessors in Aunt Karrin’s journal managed no problem… Would’ve been really nice if they’d f^<king explained how.
He hoped that was a problem for Future Daniel, because that would mean there was a Future Daniel.
“Kid–get back here, get back to us!” He hoped the Binder’s influence would at least be more helpful. Audrey’s run never stopped, but she did turn around and–
The Inverted Man slams into Daniel from behind, sending him tumbling into the water. The bells fly from his hands, but a more immediate problem presents itself in the form of a shockingly strong hand pushing his head under water. Daniel never fully appreciate the effects of the waters of Death beyond paler skin and soggy socks; fully submerged, he feels more than just heat leaving his body. He can feel the twisting influence in every cell of his body, slowly changing him like the beast holding him down. The Life inside of him pushed back, like the force of fusion pushing back against gravity in a star–but gravity always wins in the end, and Daniel knew he had nowhere near as much time.
Had he inhaled a lungful of water, his body’s panicked instincts would have doomed him. As it was, he had just enough air to know that he had seconds before the Inverted Man began feasting on him. The Dead thing’s grip is iron, and no amount of pushing or flailing can even budge him.
Wait.
Daniel feels something in the water–no, under the water, next to him. It should be impossible, there are no rocks or fissures in this prescient. His lungs scream for air, feeding his brain just enough oxygen to recognize the grip of a firearm. It doesn’t feel like one of his Glocks–Thryl’s lost pistol, then.
Good enough.
His fingers close around the weapon, and he primes the hammer and angles it just above his head, blind-firing directly up. Even under the water the shot is deafening, and the weapon almost seems to resent him for using it (don’t ask how he knows that, you get a feel for these things working with semisentient bells), but it also seems to refuse to miss.
The Inverted Man roars in pain and swats the pistol out of his hand, but the motion frees him. Daniel rolls away as the Inverted Man lets go and frantically sits up. The Greater Dead glares murder at him, somehow even more threatening with one of its eyes freshly removed by a hollowpoint.
Daniel starts to reach for his Glocks as the thing advances on him, hoping he’s faster on the draw. A scream cuts through the air, drawing both their gazes towards the center.
With the bells’ influence broken, the circling dead slow to a shamble and turn their attention inwards. Audrey clings to Thryl’s leg, burying her face against her as she sobs.
The bells stop! And Aathryl looks to see Daniel in a mortal struggle with another greater undead, his head being held under water. She looks quickly between Audrey and Daniel; is there a way she can save both and who should she go for first? The problem is solved by the familiar crashing boom of the discharge of her missing pistol. Daniel is trying to stand and fire a second shot when the creature swats and the pistol flies from his hand. The pair face off when they are both distracted by yet another blood-curdling scream from Audery.
Daniel wasn’t ringing his bells … and was using or had used her missing pistol. The circling undead freed from the magical restrictions of the presumably dropped bells are closing in on her and Audrey. Audrey, also freed, had screamed as she scrambled over to Aathryl and was tightly latched onto the woman’s thigh.
They were surrounded.
Aathryl shouts out a heartfelt “F^<K!” and retrieves the shotgun hanging from its lanyard. She works the action to ensure a shell is loaded and then wields it one handed.
With her left hand she starts to perform intricate movements as she chants a series of discordant vocalisations. They start as a shout quietening to an unexpected whisper. What looked like her belt buckle started to pulse with a dull green glow. At the same time as the words become almost inaudible, a dull green fog begins to stream from her mouth coalescing into a ring about the pair, this then flows towards the charging undead.
From her right hand the shotgun spits twice in rapid succession. The first aimed at center mass of the closest undead so the recoil will have the second shot directed at the head.
Aathryl’s shotgun roared again and again. It’s only the woman’s inhuman strength that allows her to maintain some sort of control each time the firearm bucks.
The dull green ring that had coalesced about them had drifted outwards rapidly. It’s colour pulsating in an almost nauseous pattern about its circumference. Each time it touched one of the undead, the creature seemed to pause and wander aimlessly for a moment only to return to the hunt somewhat diminished.
She had to try something else. Her belt buckle flares again this time pulsing in a rapidly increasing tempo. This time the dull green-colored light rapidly expands as a sphere before silently ‘detonating’. The undead caught is this detonation are forced back a number of paces writhing in agony as their form is twisted by the alternate realities presented flow through them.
Even though Audrey was stuck to her thigh like a limpet, her undeadly screams were a continuous Wail. This added to the screams and screeches of hunger and pain coming from the undead surrounding them, and the repeated roar of her shotgun was deafening. You would have thought that this discordance of sound couldn’t have been penetrated by anything.
You would have thought wrong.
Daniel concurs with Thryl’s assessment. ‘F^<k’, indeed.
The main two bells he relied on for most fieldwork were missing, and even if he could find them in time (already a dodgy prospect) he clearly needed more practice to use both at once. The Binder might make a difference, but finding it would take too much time–he’d gotten lucky with Thryl’s pistol, counting on lightning striking twice like that was a fool’s errand.
Both his Glocks and his Mossberg were reloaded and ready to go, but everything here was already dead. Shooting to kill was a non-starter, and shooting to disable would take more rounds than he and Thryl could put out before being overwhelmed.
Worse, the Inverted Man turns its gaze back on him. Whether it had the facilities to want revenge for its missing eye or just saw easier prey, Daniel couldn’t tell, but the predatory hunger in its horrifically inverted maw was unmistakable.
The crowd pressed in around Thryl and Audrey with Romero-esque tenacity. Thryl’s shotgun roared in defiance, and each time it did something Dead roared back in pain, but there were so many…
Daniel’s hand opened one of the clasps on his bandolier, and his fingers closed around the copper handle, rusted green from disuse. His mind flashed back to the brief entry in Aunt Karrin’s journal describing it:
“Astareal–the Weeper. All who hear its mournful tone will be cast deep into Death.”
The cynical part of Daniel’s mind idly notes that they’re already here, and the advancing horde of Dead are a clear indication that there are in fact fates worse than death. Another part forces him to look at Thryl and Audrey, the two people he brought into this mess in the first place. Two lives his pig-headed idiocy brought to that fate.
“I’m sorry.”
His wrist flicks. For the first time since the bells came into his care–and the care of many, many others before him–Astareal rings.