Mature Content Warning: Graphic violence, foul language

Author's Note: So, this happened.

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Chapter 23.1: Dark Revelations (Tenuous title, may change)

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The darkness of night holds many grave secrets. Some of those secrets are best left dead and buried. Sometimes, the past that gave rise to those secrets should have been buried with it.

In the quiet darkness of a white Camry, a man in a black ski-mask spoke confidently into a low-end cell phone. “Yeah, looks like they all finally went to sleep.”

“Do it. Do it, loud” was the curt reply of the man on the other end of the conversation.

“Right.” The man in the mask said before he casually ended the call. He reached down and flashed his break lights, the signal to begin the night’s work. Two men slipped out of the Camry and headed toward the center of the street.

Two other vehicles signaled back with their head lights. From the plain red Ford S10 pick-up Truck, one man hopped out of the passenger’s side. The driver, much like the man on the phone, remained in his seat. From the yellow garishly painted van, four men hopped out of the side door, also leaving only the driver behind. Each of these men wore both heavy anti-ballistic body armor and gas masks.

The black clad men adjusted the gas masks that they wore one final time, then jogged over to the wall and took up various positions. One among them moved forward and began working the lock at the gate, only to discover that it was not even locked. He nearly laughed at the simplicity and naivety of the idiots who lived here.

Another man moved forward and each of them took up one side of the gate. They lifted and pushed forward gently to reduce the amount of noise that it might make. Soon, it would not matter, but they needed to be in place first.

Three of the men jogged forward through the gate and took up new positions. They knelt down and leveled their weapons at three separate locations. Each of the well-trained men wielded a military issue M4 Carbine, but that was not as important as what was attached to it. The black clad men had been order to do it loud. There were few man-portable weapons that did things louder than the M203 grenade launcher attached to the bottom.

The men fired simultaneously. Two of them sent gas grenades streaming through easily targeted windows. One went into the bedroom; the other went into the living room. The third grenade, however, was explosive in nature. The front door was blown apart with a loud *boom!*.

“Go, go, go!” screamed the leader of the assault team. The men wielding grenade launchers reloaded and waited in case the police arrived before the rest of the team completed the mission they were hired to complete.

Sleepy, drunken, confused, and doused with CS gas, the people inside were easy to handle. When the four men barged through the shattered entrance two immediately went toward the couch. Shara, hacking and wheezing due to the chemical attack, managed to pop her head up just in time to take a shotgun blast to the face. Her body fell back dramatically as blood and bits of flesh splattered everywhere.

Ashton did not fare any better. While the other two men attempted to get into the bedroom of the man and the other girl, the fox-tailed girl took three rifle rounds to the chest.

“Fuck!” snarled one of the men as they tried to enter the bedroom.

“What is it?” called the team leader.

“Damn door’s locked and blocked! Have to break it down.”

“Do it! We have eighteen minutes left!” snapped the man.

Weapon’s fire roared outside and the team leader whipped his head around toward it. Screams of pain and panic erupted.

One loud shriek of, “What the hell is this thin-arrrghkt?” caught his attention.

“Shit, goddamit! It just won’t die.” shrieked another man amid the rapid staccato of automatic weapon’s fire.

“Christ Jesus!” roared another man.

The sound of a car engine revving echoed through the area followed by a blood curdling scream of agony and a loud crashing sound. There would be no escape.

“Shit!” screamed the team leader. He gestured for the other guys to stop worrying with the door. “Let’s go!”

The four man assault squad raced toward the door, but did not immediately go outside. The weapon’s fire had already died down and an eerie calm was the only thing that greeted them.

“Hey...” said one of the men.

“What! We need to watch the door.” snapped the team leader.

“Yeah, but... What’s with this weird fog?” asked the man.

“Fuck! It’s that thing they warned us about!” called out the team leader as the darkness enveloped them.

Agonizing terror wracked their minds for a time. They fired their weapons erratically in the uncompromising darkness, and it was possible that they would have suffered the same fate as their compatriots. However, things don’t always go as planned for anyone. This was true of hard men who murder for money, and it was true for dark lords of justice.

The team leader suddenly flared with a bright white light, divine in its radiant intensity. The terrifying darkness screamed in an agony of its own for a brief instance before it was annihilated. It was destroyed so thoroughly that it was as though it had never existed.

“Got the bastard! Looks like the intel was right.” said the team leader.

“You know, this was easier than I though-urghk!” the man started to say, before he looked down to see a kitchen knife embedded in his chest through the ceramic plates of his body armor.

The other men did not have enough time to react to save themselves as several more knives flew forward in rapid succession. If there was one thing that Sonja knew, it was how to wield a blade.

She ran around the area and made certain that all of the attackers were dead before she accepted what had happened. She could not find any trace of Scott, but she found the ruined bodies of Shara and Ashton quickly.

Sonja fought back the tears that threatened to form. Instead she took a deep breath then closed their eyes for them. She could not remain here, not now. She was not sure where to go, however. She knew nothing of the religions of this world. Where was the closest holy place?

Did it really matter? If Scott did revive then he could summon her to him. If he did not... She did not want to think about that.

She stripped the bodies of the men, took their weapons and armor, and shoved them into bags. She then ran out to where the three dead men were strewn about near the vehicles they had used to come here. “The yellow one seems big enough...”

Sonja was not sure how to drive the thing, but it could hold enough items and equipment. They would need those if they revived. She would need them if they did not. Tears and regret could come later. Right now there were things to do.

“The car is making that noise... Does that mean it is ready to travel?” She looked at the running van for a moment then opened the door. She had never driven before, but it would be the quickest way to escape with the things they needed.

Sonja climbed into the driver’s seat then began to experiment. She pressed the little foot pedal things and the van jerked forward. It took her a moment but she realized that one of them made it move and the other made her slam against the wheel that she would use to steer.

It was a short and jerky ride to the front gate. Several minutes passed as she loaded the bodies of her friends along with as much food and loot as she could find. She had no idea why these men had attacked them, but she did know that they could not remain here. The tactics they used were not those of a common bandit. Despite her lack of overall knowledge of this world even she could tell that much.

The naked Valkyrie took off down the street while occasionally causing the van to jerk and stutter. She nearly ran off the road several times, and knocked over a stop sign on the way, but she did manage to turn off the main road and head out of town before the local police department arrived with their usual timing.

She wiped away an errant tear, haphazardly covering her cheek with the blood of one of her fallen enemies. Someone was going to pay for this.