Chapter 10

If Hollywood has made a dozen movies about Ants in Tunnels, it’s made a hundred about Skeletons in a Graveyard. We checked our packs and our inventory. Jude bought another healing potion after borrowing DeMarcus’s ‘Beads of Barter’ necklace (which he mangled when he asked for it, calling it his ‘Bread and Butter’ necklace ... I bet we all call it that from now on... )

We descended the giant staircase together and linked up to enter the Graveyard. Appearing in a chain, we spread out a bit and drew our weapons. There was an imposingly thick swirling mist slowly moving all behind us like a wall. In front of us was a heavy iron gate and the Graveyard beyond. In the distance I could see one lone skeleton stop and turn its head towards us.

The next thing I recall is waking up as Jimmy slapped me roughly “Goddamnit! Get your Ass UP!” He screamed. The sound of combat was behind him, clanging of metal on metal, the odd clacking of the Skeletons as they moved and snapped their jaws. I smelled piss again. I bet it was mine.

I stood, “Crouch behind the shield, hold it tightly and do NOT look! Give me your staff!” Jimmy screamed again. I did as I was told. My brain too fried to even offer any resistance.

I heard the sounds of fighting intensify for a minute before stopping. Janet came into view. “Leslie, I need you to stand. Get up.”

I stood, holding the shield like it was a lifeline.

“Look, there are no Skeletons moving anywhere near us, but we need to move, and we need you not to pass out again. Take some calming deep breaths then lower the shield and look about.” She said in a nice even tone. I bet she used it a lot when Sam was having a temper tantrum.

I looked about. Bones were strewn all over the place, but they weren’t moving. I looked at my filthy clothes. I’d been dragged here, and the gate was far behind me. I started hyperventilating, I couldn’t seem to get air in, or it was getting in but the lungs didn’t seem to work, just like they didn’t work on that walking bone rack. The world started to swim. Jimmy stepped into my line of sight. “Here...” there was a bag in his hand. I’d seen people breathing in and out of a paper bag in the movies so I tried it. It was comforting to just be doing something. Having seen it work in the movies, I had real confidence it would work with here and now. My breaths started to even out and lengthen. Ha! Maybe I should use the Ant Dong on my breathing! (a sign of just how weird my thinking was).

We shuffled back toward the gate, and I got calmer with each step.

“I feel it too,” Janet said “but we have to overcome it, you need to stand and defend yourself, if nothing else ... think of Ashley, Seneca! They need you out of here and with them. You just can’t faint or cower!” She had been raising her voice as she spoke, and was near yelling at the end.

What did I tell my patients? Focus on the small stuff. Breathe in for two, breathe out for two ... repeat ... over and over. Now take a single step in the right direction, now take another. Good. Keep moving.

The group turned, some signal I didn’t notice, couldn’t notice. Too busy breathing. Sounds of battle, bumped from something, someone, running into the shield. Breathe, breathe, breathe.

When the feet moved around me, I moved. When they stopped, I stopped. There was shouting, grunting, the sounds of steel on steel, and then...

There was a single clean Red rose. It was in a ceramic vase, next to a headstone. I loved flowers, that would look so good on my table at home, just the right colours. To get to it, I’d need to step, left foot, right foot, left foot. I stopped, set the shield down and touched it. The flower and vase disappeared into my inventory ... My inventory? My weapon! Where was my staff? Why did I have a shield?

Ever woken up slowly? You are experiencing both the dream and your reality at the same time ... it was much like that. I turned, the group was fighting. 8 skeletal fighters against the other 5 of my team, they were spread out in a line preventing the enemy from getting me.

My team, they were without me. I’d deal with whatever this was later. First job: help my friends, help my team.

I called out my staff and stone, launching it toward the head and neck of one of two skeletons who were facing Jimmy. They were horrible. Snapping yellowed jaws with perfectly white teeth. I could hear the slight grinding of the bones moving against each other, each movement like nails on the chalkboard.

My stone hit the spine of my target, severing it and causing the entire structure of the monster to fall apart. Jimmy glanced over and gave me a thumbs up as he recalled his shield. He had been using the broken remains of his spear in one hand, and a brass mace in the other. Loading up my sling, I went back to work.

The last of the bony monsters was just a pile of white sticks. I’d been throwing stones, and had knocked down two, while damaging one more making it simple work for Jude to wrestle it to the ground, and hold it while Tarl smashed it to pieces with the butt of his crossbow.

Janet approached, stuck her javelin into the soft earth and gave me a huge hug. It struck me, this was the second time I’d hugged someone in the portals, the first was to reassure them, this one was to reassure me.

“I’m back” I managed to get out between tears. “I’m not good, but I’m back and I can handle this now ... I just don’t know what happened...” I couldn’t feel her hand rubbing my back through the armour but the pressure was comforting.

“We have to move...” she said.

“Ok, I’m ready.” I replied softly.

I was.

Whatever this place was, it was also a test. Maybe the people who built the portals were testing us to see if we were weak enough to invade, strong enough to be an ally, or even flexible enough to become either one of those things. I’d come through it, one way or the other.

Jimmy called us back together. “Injury?” He asked.

“Cut on arm...” from DeMarcus

“Tired out throwing shoulder...” said Janet

“And I’ve got an injury on my head” said Jamie and he stood there bleeding. “How many of the bad guys was that now?” He asked to the team in general. I had no idea, having lost my head for some time.

“37” said Tarl... “the sheet outside said 40-45 was normal for a first run of level 1. We got maybe two more groups and the boss”

I was floored, “just how long was I out!?” I asked.

“5 engagements altogether, but you came around in the middle of the last one? Thank god...” Jude piped in. “Are you back for good? ‘cause we had a hell of a time protecting you and fighting effectively. Even if you can just hold your own, it’ll help a lot!” He said.

I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed, I’d put them in a tough spot. With injuries like we had, it was basically guaranteed that we were stopping at level 1. That meant a smaller payout for all the players on the team. “I’ll do better than just ‘holding my own’ “ I said. “You’ve got another fighter back in action”. I tried to say it with some determination.

Fake it ‘till you make it.

We patched up our walking wounded and made our way off to the last area of the graveyard that the team hadn’t visited yet. Jude and Tarl had been apparently designated ‘guards’ again and mostly kept an eye on the rest of the place while Janet, Jamie and DeMarcus smashed the skeletons. Janet was using her Javelins at a distance, in the normal thrown manner then switching when the mob closed to melee distance to a staff-fighter mode. She recommended I do the same. DeMarcus was in his element. None of the skeletons had shields, and their rusty swords or maces bounced easily off of his shield while his hatchet seemed to cleave their bones with impunity. Jimmy had broken his short spear early, and picked up my staff for a while (giving me his shield in the process). When he found a brass ball-mace on a skeleton he vanquished, he dropped my staff and went with that instead; claiming it worked better than my staff had (for him). Equipped with his new mace and now reunited with his shield, he had high hopes moving forward for a swift victory.

I’d been warned that the skeletons would climb out of the ground and they were pretty fast about it. The reality of it was another matter. I’d dug through the soil in my garden many times before, and nothing comes out of loose soil as fast as these things came out. There were two near me and as I was swinging for the first, the second was already out to its hips. Jude and Tarl stepped off and readied their arms, able to help out if things went sideways. I could feel that at least part of everyone’s attention was on me.

I connected with my first target, a bit low since I was still underestimating just how fast they could crawl out of the soil. My swing from the side bounced off its collar bone and hit his neck, decapitating the thing, and halting its movement. My second opponent was ‘up and swinging for the fences’ by this point. I managed an easy block, then on his second huge slash I deflected his blow to the side, coming around with the back of my staff to it’s head and crushing the skull. The sword in its bony fingers clattered as it hit the overgrown cobblestone path we were on. They were faster than Zombies, but not as strong. Large slashes that were telegraphed way in advance were all they seemed to do, I never saw one try a lunge or a jab even once. What had I been so afraid of? (Their teeth clacking was certainly annoying but it didn’t appear to be threatening to bite, or communicating in any way). I looted the skeletons and moved on, few silver richer and a lot more confident.

Jamie walked over. “How’d she do?” He asked over my shoulder. I hadn’t noticed Tarl standing so close.

“Fine, better than that even! I’d say she’s over whatever had her all frozen-up. Two skellies down in about 5 seconds, caught the first one still halfway outta the soil. Second one got two swipes in, and she had it down with a single smash to the head”. He was bordering on fan-boy here, I was both embarrassed at his praise, and a little pissed that Jimmy had appointed a babysitter for me.

“I’m good, thanks for assigning a babysitter...” I said, a little snarky.

Jimmy had his hands up, “mea culpa ... I figured we were best served that way. Tarl was still on overwatch, just with a bit more focus on you ... two birds, one stone...” he said defensively.

I immediately felt bad, I’d put them in this position. Before I could say anything, DeMarcus piped up.

“I’d say we did that well. 100% survival rate, pushed through the level, got our teammate back ... Man! ... if this was a test of us as a team, I’d say we passed!” He was smiling and looking mostly at Janet. “Of course, that’s the point right? Nobody gets hurt (much), we all have an adventure and get rich ... right?” He continued.

Jimmy looked at his new mace, “Yeah, that’s right. We’re here for the loot...”

I guess that a mace ... is almost as good as a sword.

From this vantage point, the big mausoleum in the center of the graveyard seemed to be made of white granite. An image of a tall warrior with sword was carved in high relief, large enough that we could make it out from here.

“Ok, the notes say that we’ll have one last group of 5-8 skeletons just as we approach, then the big boss will come striding right out of that doorway. Looks like we have the swordsman. The others reported that, or a spearman and considering that we have short weapons for the frontliners, the swordsman is a bit better for us. Battle plan remains the same: Tarl and Jude, you’re on guard until the last of the lesser skeletons is down, then fire at will. The big guy will have some sort or armour, and a helm if the notes are correct. Head and neck are primary targets, spine of its exposed, take an arm at the elbow, or hand at the wrist if that’s all you have available. Any questions?”

There were a couple of small things to clarify, and we all took in some water and snacks as we cleared them up. “Are you OK Leslie?” asked Jimmy. He’d obviously been reading my posture and body language.

“I’ve just got a bad feeling about this, like something ain’t right...” I replied.

All eyes were on me as everyone stopped what they were doing. “ ... ain’t right ... as in like this morning? Or as in like last week?” Demarcus asked, referring to the end of last week’s portal run.

“Look, I know I froze earlier, and I know that makes my credibility about this thin...” I held up my thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “ ... but it’s like last week ... that image on the wall there is setting me off ... sorry.” They looked at the side of the mausoleum where it showed the same armoured fighter, this time with a big spear and two hunting dogs.

“Ungh ... I hate dogs” Janet shuddered.

“Those ain’t ‘dogs’ ... them’s BoreHounds ... Bloody awful things...” Jimmy added.

“Look, if he’s got two of those, then you two (pointing to our crossbowmen) hold your fire until we see what they do. If they try to flank us, you each take one of the ladies and go hunting while we keep the big guy at bay. You ladies are protecting the men while they are reloading. Everyone clear?”

We were.

I stretched and limbered up. I was certain that this was going to go sideways quickly. We hadn’t moved 5 meters as a group when four skeletons climbed out of the ground. These had light helms and small bucklers in their off-hand. They were far enough away that I didn’t get to any of them before they were all standing. It was going to be a real fight.

I blocked his first slash, then went for the reversal with the butt-end of my staff. My opponent caught it on their buckler (mostly) and slashed up on a backswing. “They got some new moves!” I shouted to the others. I stepped back to disengage and caught the back of another skeleton facing off against Janet. I had a chance at a sneak attack against its neck and dropped it, getting my shaft back just barely in time to block another slash from my own opponent. The skeletons never wore-down so dragging out any engagement just served to tire and weaken the living. I was blocking and looking for an opening when Janet returned the favor and smashed my opponent’s neck from the back.

“He’s up and he’s got two dogs!” Jude called out. I looked up to see the Boss stride out of the Mausoleum with the bony hounds at his sides. The skeletal ‘shield-men’ were all down, and the ‘frontliners’ glanced back to check how we were. I took the right side as usual, and feeling a bit aggressive, I chucked my stone at the armoured figure, hitting him in the chest at about 40 yards. I hadn’t expected to do any damage but I wanted to confirm his armour. It was good. I could also see that he had a really good helmet, and a high metal collar on his neck. I recalled the stone and sent a round at the hound on my side. I managed a glancing hit on its rear leg, and that might have disabled a regular dog, but this skeletal one just shrugged it off and walked on at its masters heels. I kept up the barrage until the monster swordsman raised his hands. That must have been the signal the hounds were waiting for, as they shot off to the sides of us, trying to flank us as Jimmy predicted. I peeled off to the right with my guard and threw another stone. This one hit its jaw, breaking one side. It was dangling and still attached but no less of a threat. An injury like that would be fatal to any normal dog, but this one didn’t even seem to notice. I managed another shot that may have cracked something, but didn’t even slow it down. Within a second it was on me. Dogs normally go for the ankle or arm, and in this the skeletal hound was the same. I had a hard time dodging its repeated ‘half-jaw’ snaps at me.