Backtracking to where they had crossed paths with centaurs earlier was easy. Creeping down the road to follow their trail was harder. It wore on their nerves. They double checked every intersection and did their best to stick in the shadows next to buildings along the way.

After a few minutes of tense silence interspersed with whispered words they found their target. A flat grassy plot spotted with sparse trees that served as a local park. The park sat in a residential area and was bordered by a red brick church on the west end, opposite from them. In the center stood a small playground.

The park was a swarm of activity. Centaurs trotted about alone and in small groups. They were all armed to some degree, from sticks and bats to other makeshift weapons. Most of the centaurs were knotted up around the playground. A spectacle was unveiling itself before the group as they snuck around the park to the north side. There on the hill they broke into one of the houses and made their way upstairs to peek out the second floor window overlooking the park.

From above, the extent of the centaurs' efforts was made clear. They had tried to make the area livable by stretching tarps and sheets of various fabrics between the trees and from the playground equipment. They had created a ragtag shanty town for shelter.

Near the playground they had dug several fire pits and had a small collection of familiar looking silvery crates. Most of the crates looked small, much smaller than the one they had previously retrieved. Small enough to be comfortably carried with both hands. While the last was large, as wide and long as a ping pong table with solid walls supporting it to a similar height.

Doing a quick headcount revealed there to be somewhere between thirty and forty centaurs in the park. More and more of them were congregating near the playground while looking towards the church. Edwin and the others followed their gaze and were shocked with what they saw.

A large pen had been constructed up against the church. Cars had been pushed off the road into pseudo walls. Sections of chain link fencing were placed up against rubble and debris scavenged from damaged houses around the area. Inside the large pen were several dozen people. These captives looked subdued. They sat in silence with hung heads and worried posture.

Two large centaurs muscled into the pen. The prisoners shied away. Except for several people who were stirred and started shouting. The centaurs advanced on the nearest person. Their target was a middle aged woman who surged to her feet and started to shriek when she caught sight of their approach. Unable to make out her words, Edwin watched as she struggled violently in the centaurs grasp. A harsh smack to her head left her dazed. They then quickly frogmarched her out of the pen and moved towards the playground. The others in the pen settled down into a heavy silence.

The woman was dragged towards the congregation and pushed roughly on top of the largest silvery crate. She tried to roll off but a second blow had her seeing stars and prevented any further escape attempts. Edwin glanced over at Teresa, she was watching the proceedings with a disgruntled expression but there wasn’t any sign that she recognized the woman below. Edwin was relieved to find that it likely wasn’t one of her abducted family members then. None of the others seemed poised to jump to this woman’s rescue either.

“The hell’s going on?” Shaun whispered. No one answered as they watched a centaur walk out from where the tarp covering was thickest. It came out from a copse of trees, it had been in a blindspot. This centaur stood out among its fellows. Draped in a raggedy approximation of a red shawl, it came holding aloft a long gnarled branch with a large knot of wood on the head of the staff. A diadem of bone sat prominently on its brow. The edge of something small glinted in its offhand grip.

Excitement raced through the gathered centaurs. They stamped their hooves and tread in place. Their human faces took on manic castes as they champed their teeth and flared their nostrils. The staff bearing centaur let out a guttural series of grunts which silenced and stilled the crowd. With unexpected strength it stabbed the staff into the churned muddy grass around the silvery box turned table. It raised the glint in its hands high above the corpse and grasped the revealed knife by the hilt with both hands. The creature paused and the others around it stilled. A silence stole over the park as all eyes focused on the blade held aloft. Without further ceremony it brought the knife down and into the chest of the sprawled woman. For a moment she spasmed and flailed before her body fell limp.

Jubilant glee erupted from the centaur crowd as they hollered with abandon. Edwin flinched, the blood sacrifice had been so sudden that he was caught off guard by it. The centaurs shocked him out of his thoughts. Jason swore violently and turned around with anger written on his face. Zoey gasped and brought a hand to her mouth but was unable to take her eyes off the display. Shaun watched nonplussed while LJ stood up to go talk with Jason. Teresa glared, her fingers white against the windowsill.

“Oh fuck,” Edwin found himself involuntarily saying as down below an unnatural jet of blood fountained into the air from the wound in the woman’s chest. It sprayed out across the centaurs who raised their arms to grab at the errant flow. The energy of the centaurs surged as they showered in the dead woman’s blood. Their hooves beat the ground aggressively as they formed a mosh pit and began to throw one another about in a frenzy.

The blood fountain was short lived, leaving the centaurs splattered and dripping. They reached out to one another and painted the splotches into one another. They rubbed the blood into their skin and hair. The macabre ritual continued as the centaur conducting it released her knife and tore her staff free from the ground. Raising it above her head with a sharp jab the centaur’s shaman gathered all the loose droplets and puddles of blood back to herself. An orange sized sphere of blood formed at the staff’s tip. The shaman lowered the staff and brought it to her face, where she greedily quaffed down the blood sphere.

Zoey turned away from the scene and fought a bout of dry heaving. Jason mustered up no further anger as everyone watched the scene end with wide eyes. The centaurs dispersed. It didn’t seem like another sacrifice was to be performed for the moment at least. Teresa turned to Edwin, a glint of madness in her eyes.

“No,” Edwin said as confidently as he could fake for the moment. “No way. Calm down.”

“We’re going to save them,” she hissed, her voice frigid. “My family isn’t going to go through that.”

“Look.” Edwin raised his hands placatingly. “I want to save everyone down there too, including your family. But, we need to think about this carefully, ok? There’s a lot of centaurs down there, and only a couple of us here, yeah?”

Teresa snarled and whipped her head back towards the window, she watched as the centaurs further postured in a way that showed they weren’t about to conduct another ritual. “Fine. Then what’s the plan?”

Edwin nodded his head and let some of the tension slip from his shoulders. He glanced around and saw everyone waiting to hear his plan. “Alright, so.” Edwin started in a rush before he stopped and took a deep breath. “My plan, what we’re going to do, is this. We need to split up,” Edwin decided and clasped his hands. He flicked his gaze between everyone and settled on Jason and LJ. “You guys.” He motioned to the pair of them. You’re going to sneak back to the dorms and get as many people as you can to come with you ok? Find Ava, tell her what’s going on and then bring everyone here so we can zerg this place.”

“The fuck?” LJ said with an angry disgruntled snarl. “Are you trying to get us killed?”

“No! No,” Edwin hastily said and put his hands up. “It’s just that Teresa here.” He motioned towards her. “Obviously won’t just leave her family behind. So the rest of us will wait here and if they try to do that.” Edwin motioned towards the park through the window. “To her mom or something, then we will be here to make a distraction long enough for you guys to hopefully get back in time, alright?”

“Man, this is bullshit!” LJ turned away and swiped his arm for emphasis. Jason reached out and grabbed LJ’s shoulder.

“We’ll do it,” Jason said while looking at LJ. He turned to meet Edwin’s gaze. “Anything else?”

“We don’t know if or when,” Edwin said and gestured towards the park. “They’ll do that again, so try to be quick. If you get a good amount of people, then just attack when you guys can get close enough, we’ll go bust the prisoners out before joining you. Otherwise, if you can’t get a lot of people, try and sneak back here to tell us and then we’ll have to figure something else out.”

Jason nodded and turned to leave. “Oh yeah,” Edwin called out before they could descend the stairs. “Get that laser gun from Ava or have her bring it or whatever. That thing would make this all really easy.”

“Yeah, you just wait and see,” LJ shot back over his shoulder before walking downstairs. “We’ll bring enough people alright.”

Edwin walked to the far side of the house and watched as Jason and LJ snuck out the backdoor and stole off down the backroad. He hoped they’d be back soon with a lot more people. Edwin returned to the others and found Teresa intently watching the park. Shaun was reclining nearby but perked up and focused on Edwin. Zoey likewise set down the water bottle she was using to rinse her mouth by the sink and regarded him.

“Alright guys,” Edwin said from the center of the room. “So here’s what we’re going to do if the worst happens and we have to try and save someone from Teresa’s family.”

Edwin described a haphazard plan where they would split up and take shots at the centaurs and try to lead them away, while Teresa would run in and try to free her family member, with her teleport she would have an escape option if the centaurs cornered her.

They waited in tense awkward silence. Shaun fell asleep in his chair at some point while Teresa only seemed to wind herself tighter at her perch by the window. Edwin spent his time hoping Jason and LJ would be successful and worrying about what would happen if they were caught or couldn’t get enough people to help. Zoey spent her time quietly eating a snack, Edwin couldn’t glean what she might have been thinking about as she stared out at the park from the kitchen table.

Without a watch, Edwin could only guess how long they waited before the centaurs stirred in the park once more. They had mostly been docile, except for the few coming and going in small groups, and the few guarding the prison. After the ritual was over the shaman had dragged the corpse off out of sight of their window and hadn’t been seen since. When she once more appeared it boded ill as the centaurs got to their feet and began to gather towards the impromptu sacrificial altar once more. As a pair of brawny centaurs moved towards the prison Teresa hissed his name through clenched teeth.

A low rumble filled the air, a sound often ignored as the background noise of city life now filled the quiet air. The sound grew louder fast, vehicles were approaching the park quickly. The flicker of headlights could be seen in the brief gaps between buildings. Edwin aborted a movement to stop Teresa from doing something impulsive as the centaurs in the park trained their ears and turned their heads to stare off to the south, towards the dorms.

Three trucks raced into view. They roared down the residential road without concern, going dangerously fast. It was the uhaul trucks Ava had commandeered. They were a block off from reaching the park but the trucks turned sharply at the last intersection. They blazed onto the scene, swerving to avoid some wreckage on the road. Tires squealed as the drivers slammed the brakes and skidded to a stop on the edge of the park. They came to a stop midway down the park, halfway to the church from the side they had entered and quite close to the knot of gathered centaurs

The sliding doors on the back of the trucks were already open as a raucous cry rang forth from the trucks. People spilled out of the back carrying the cry. The doors on the cabs of the trucks were thrown open and six more figures jumped out to join the forming mob.

Edwin stared dumbstruck at the sudden arrival. The others were equally surprised. Teresa recovered after only a moment and wasted no further time. She was halfway down the stairs before Edwin shut his gaping mouth. Across the park Ava stepped out in front of the mob and hefted a long gray tube. She aimed it towards the centaurs and squeezed the trigger. A scintillating red beam lanced out and appeared on the blonde coated equine chest of a scrawny centaur in the blink of an eye. Smoke erupted as the hair ignited and burnt up. Intense heat built on the centaur as the laser concentrated its power in a circle the size of Edwin’s fist. The creature’s skin burnt to ash where the laser met it. The surrounding flesh started to bubble before sloughing off. Rivulets of skin ran like hot wax as the laser melted a huge portion of the centaur’s horse body in a moment. It died before it could comprehend the damage inflicted on it. Ava switched targets, lining up a second creature, no hesitation or disgust at what she had done to the first.

The roaring crowd of dorm residents were hushed to shocked silence as they bore witness to the brutal death inflicted in seconds. On the centaur’s side their wary anger at intruders turned to wild rage. The shaman snatched up her staff and started to wave it around while screaming wordlessly with a hoarse, and chilling wail. The scream sent goosebumps rippling across everyone in the park. Edwin felt the hairs on the back of his neck and arms stand on edge.

Ava vaporized holes into two more centaurs before the horde of them sprang fully into action. They charged, heedless of being cut down by her barrage as she switched to a fourth target. Behind the stampeding centaur herd, the shaman bent its human torso over and vomited. A torrent of dark red blood gushed forth. With a stream like a fire hose on full blast the centaur quickly expelled a huge volume of blood. A sharp gesture of its staff sent the floating gore streaking forward. The blood coalesced into an uneven mass that tried to interpose itself between Ava and her new target. The last having immolated mid stride.

There wasn’t a lot of ground to cover between the two groups. They had parked too close if they had wanted to really leverage Ava’s weapon. Edwin couldn’t guess what they had known before leaving the dorms but with how fast they had come onto the scene they wouldn’t have had time to make any real choice about where to stop. If they hadn’t pumped the brakes as soon as they reached the park then they would have flown by it and lost the element of surprise.

The centaurs were bearing down on the group who were still shaking themselves out of the shocking impact delivered by Ava. The blood interposed itself with the laser and flashed into an enormous dark cloud of steam which obscured the centaurs for a moment. Ava hesitated, uncertain what had happened, the shaman’s blood cloud had been hidden from her view. Her hesitation let the beasts cross too much ground and she turned and darted back into the crowd behind her.

The stricken residents were slow to try and form a defense as several among them called orders, often conflicting with one another as they scrambled. There was too much disorder and uncertainty among the residents and several of them broke away to try and flee back to the trucks when they caught sight of the centaurs bearing down on them. The centaurs slammed into the crowd within less than a minute of their arrival and turned the park into a slaughterhouse.

With the speed and bulk of an adult horse, the centaurs were their own cavalry. They battered and smashed apart the disorganized resistance. Residents were thrown by the impact, or smashed into the ground and trampled. The centaurs cut straight through the group, bludgeoning those to the sides with their improvised weaponry. Screams of terror mixed among the centaurs bellowing as they wheeled about and engaged the survivors in a wild close quarters melee. Ava’s laser lashed out once more, she was killing them quickly but not quick enough.

Some of the residents rose to the challenge and met the centaurs mettle to mettle. Most of them however scattered. As they turned tail a golden wave of light splashed out from a figure near the center of the fight. The golden light poured forth from Roy as he stood tall and roared. He brandished his spear above his head before using it to meet a charging centaur. A knot of residents formed near Roy, they fought harder as the golden light suffused them. Faltering residents found their waning courage reignited as they roared out in answer to Roy’s challenging cry. Roy’s skill expanded further afield and washed over the fleeing backs of several residents. They came to a halt, wavering as Roy’s skill bolstered them for a moment. The moment of steeled resolve led many of them to turn around and sally back to the fight.

The centaurs went wild, splitting up and running down the cowardly residents. The throng around Roy was growing thicker as he rallied the defense. Ava had made her way into the middle of them and was taking shots over their shoulders as the centaurs were pushed out from their formation.

At this point Edwin realized he was staring and rushed to his feet. Teresa was gone, Zoey was still staring out the window and Shaun was struggling to get to his feet. At that point Edwin recalled that Shaun was beyond hammered and probably useless for any sort of fighting. He ran over and helped the guy up. Useless or not, Edwin wasn’t going to leave him behind. Shaun burped and swayed on his feet. He nodded drunkenly before swaying over towards where he’d placed his weapon.

“We’re going, hurry up!” Edwin ordered before grabbing his stuff and jogging down the stairs.

The centaur shaman saw the gathering residents and switched from defense to offense. Her bloody payload came down like a hammer on several residents. The liquid slammed them into the ground snapping bone and cracking a skull. Pressed tightly between the screaming and shouting, as everyone around her jostled and tried to fight, Ava found herself shoving her way past several people before she could get line of sight to the shaman. The blood wielded by the creature reformed into a shield between it’s controller and her laser weapon however before she could incinerate the shaman.

At the prison Teresa worked unmolested to open the gate, as the guards had rushed over to join the fight. The prisoners were roused by the fighting, their lethargy burned off when presented with a chance of escape. They were clamoring to rush through the tight gateway. Edwin reached Teresa as she got it open and was nearly bowled over by the desperate people inside as they poured out.

Edwin staggered but righted himself and started to holler at the escapees. “Head south to the college dorms, we have a safe space there!” He repeated himself over and over to be heard over the chaos that had consumed the park.

Some listened to his words but for the most part the escapees scattered in every direction away from the fighting. The frantic crowd buffeted Edwin for a moment but he managed to stumble out of the way by pushing through with his shield. With the prisoners released to flee, Edwin scanned those who remained behind. Zoey and Shaun were there as well as a couple other people he didn’t know. Teresa was missing, presumably off with her family. Looking closer Edwin discovered the strangers were those too injured to move on their own. He swore and turned to check what was happening with the fight. The centaurs were harrying the group as they inched back towards the trucks. Ava was taking pot shots but the shaman kept blocking them. The stalemate couldn’t last forever but it gave Edwin a moment to do something about the injured.