Death Smith - Chapter 4

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Culinary horrors

Seven months ago.

August, 13 AR.

Inside Rift 1.

Both Lance and Thomas were a mess of minor cuts, bruises, and covered in blood and grime. The wounded and the fallen were all around them. More holes had appeared within the glass and the survivors fighting at various places, forcing fewer people to defend a single spot.

“We can’t hold it anymore!” The survivors on the left flank said as they began to buckle. The steel cabinet was slowly being pushed backwards. Everyone in the room knew what that meant. Each one of them only had seconds to live before a terrible fate awaited them.

-Clang-

The cabinet finally fell to the ground and a monster rushed in, attacking a doctor that tried to flee, clawing at its back in a frenzy. Another monster was already halfway through the hole when something suddenly forced it backwards with an unnatural speed. Soon, the sounds of fighting ensued, with large blood splatters covering most of the windows and their line of sight.

“What the hell is going on?” Thomas whispered, scared that even his voice might bring the monsters back. Something strange was going on, and the monsters that had once been hissing and screeching at them were now making different sounds, as if they were in a great deal of pain.

“I... uh... I don’t know,” Lance replied, being just as confused as Thomas was. Finally, he dared to peer over the edge of their makeshift barricade and through the hole, seeing two monsters on the floor, bleeding out or fully torn to pieces. “Perhaps another monster? A bigger one?”

“You have got to be kidding me. Just what we needed, more of them,” Thomas replies, his voice a bit more venomous because of his anxiety and overall fatigue that had worn him down to his core.

Thomas slowly pushed the barricade to the side so that he could see more clearly, seeing the same scene Lance had seen before. Although another corpse had joined the pile, this one with a dagger lodged in its eye socket.

“A dagger?” Thomas commented. Seconds later, the barricade was fully to the side as Thomas peered outwards. He could see a large Rift-hound, little Hans, biting into a monster, ripping him open as if it were as soft as a rabbit.

Another was being smashed apart by Dieter, who had a foot pressing against the monster’s back, pinning him to the ground while a large mace-like weapon was slowly smearing the contents of its head all over the floor.

“The Rifters! They are here!” Lance and Thomas screamed as one.

Soon a rallying cry came from the survivors, with their newfound courage temporarily giving them the energy to stand up and attack the remaining monster within their room.

The rest of the survivors all surrounded the monster that had been feasting on the corpse of the doctor as they beat it to the ground in a combined effort. Although a single human strike wasn’t enough to crack the tough scales of the monsters, the continued blunt force trauma was slowly building up.

“Die… die… die!” A sick group-like chant filled the air as all their fatigue, rage and fear came pouring out as they vented it all out on the monster.

* * * * *

Daniel pulled at the short sword as he kicked against the neck of the monster, feeling the sword slowly come loose as blood poured out. Blood, sweat, and dirt covered his body from his recent fight, not to mention several smaller bruises and cuts that adorned his body.

“Are you guys all right?” Daniel asked, seeing Dieter nod as he checked out the condition of his Rift-hound, who had charged at the group of monsters in berserker-like behaviour, tearing and biting at anything within reach.

Unlike a normal dog of his size, the Rift-hound was several times more powerful and durable, having experienced countless fights to further its growth. Whereas a normal human could not pierce the scales with a sharpened pipe, the Rift-hound could do it with relative ease, crushing and biting through the scales because of the immense strength it could produce within its jaw.

“Ve vil live, I zhink,” Dieter said as he patted the Rift-hound.

“Until the next dawn,” The pair said to one another before signalling to the other survivors that they had brought with them to come on out and stay with the Rift-hound.

“Stay with zhe group. Stay and keep guard,” Dieter said to the hound, scratching him behind the ears a few times before he grabbed his mace and pushed against the barricaded door, slowly pushing it open despite the many cabinets and benches that were placed there to prevent just that.

“Friendlies. Anyone alive in zhere?” Dieter asked, his voice easily reaching the survivors in the other room.

“Yes! Thank God! We are saved!” The survivors inside the room cried out. As Dieter and Daniel walked in, they noticed the state of the other survivors, seeing the many injured and the fallen. Some survivors wore makeshift slings for their arms or had their wounds bandaged. Hell, one guy even had scotch tape over a wound as a makeshift band-aid.

“You did well in surviving. We need to know how many of you are there. Can you move and carry things?” Daniel urged, looking each of them in the eyes and radiating a sort of calm command that people instinctively wanted to follow. It was almost infectious, the need to want to follow him. Thomas also felt the pull, despite having been a leader of sorts for the last few hours.

‘This man isn’t a survivor within a Rift, nor some prey shivering in a corner. This man is a predator,’ Lance thought, seeing him and Dieter take charge and slowly guide the people out of the room and towards the other survivors. Compared to Thomas’s group, the others looked rather clean and healthy. The Rifters had found many of them in the beginning, having kept them safe ever since. ‘Daniel is a completely different person,’ Lance thought, remembering a kind but wounded person sitting in a hospital bed. Right now, there stood an experienced fighter, clad in armour that was coated in blood.

The survivors in Daniel’s group quickly welcomed the newcomers. They helped treat their wounds, give food, water, and assisted.

“Small sips, small bites. You can eat all you want but take it smaller portions. You don’t want to puke it all out,” Daniel said as he handed out small candy bars, apples, and other edibles, no doubt looted during their journey through the hospital.

He stopped when Dieter returned from the room, holding a sack with some items that somehow disappeared in his hands the next second. Both then discussed among themselves for a few minutes before Dieter pointed at Thomas first and then to Lance, handing Daniel an empty air freshener can that had showed signs of being singed by flames recently.

“Lance... and Thomas, right?” Daniel asked, as he neared the two of them.

“Err... yes,” Lance said, still somewhat shocked at the fact that the Rifters had not only survived but had turned the tide so drastically. Although Lance had talked to Daniel at the end of his shift, it now felt like a lifetime ago.

Thomas, however, was quicker on the uptake and happy at the fact that he was being addressed. “Yeah.”

“I heard from the others that you led the survivors and bunkered down here. That isn’t a minor feat to achieve in these circumstances, Thomas. I want you to know that. Alright?” Daniel said, his eyes staying on the young redhead as he let the words truly sink in.

“Ve usually find far fewer people during a Rift,” Dieter pitched in, stating the brutality of it all as mere facts.

“Indeed. You guys weren’t lucky. You kept a level head and used tactics. Something we might need to use during this Rift.” Daniel said as he gave Thomas some praise before Daniel glanced at Lance’s hands and noticed the burn wounds and the slightly charred uniform. “Were these your ideas, or did you just perform them?”

“I… I mean,” Lance explained before Thomas interrupted him.

“It was Lance’s idea... A few hours ago, we also had a chemist amongst us before she got injured. The two of them mixed up corrosive liquids to keep them at bay and made impromptu flamethrowers. Fire and chemicals were practically the only things that kept those critters at a distance.” Thomas blurted out, the adrenaline still in his system making him slightly on edge.

“Well, the id-” Lance tried to say before Thomas cut him off once more.

“I mean, pipes and hammers barely seemed to tickle them. But the fire seemed to work rather well,” Thomas said, gushing out what had happened suddenly, as if he needed to clear his chest. At that point, Lance was quick to point out the heroic efforts of everyone in the group.

“Get some rest and food with the others. We will move out in a few minutes. Excellent job, you two,” Daniel said as he checked on the new arrivals. There were now twenty-two souls under the protection of two Rifters and a very loyal Rift-hound.

* * * * *

Any resentment or fear Thomas might have had for dogs seemed to have vanished in a single moment. The way Thomas treated the large Rift-hound was as if it had been his best friend all throughout childhood.

‘I can’t blame him. I mean, look at it,’ Lance thought, seeing the Rift-hound playfully chomp on a severed monster arm it had brought with him to play.

Beyond a scary amount of biting force, the true benefit of the Rift-hound was its ability to smell the monsters before they came close. Little Hans’s keen senses could track the monsters and make out how many there were. This allowed the Rifters to dodge larger groups and take out smaller ones.

The Rifters placed the survivors into groups, with the wounded ones in the middle and those still able to fight at the outside, wielding poles, makeshift spears, and other impromptu weaponry. The wounded that could still walk would carry backpacks with food, water, bandages, and other items to see them through.

“All right, like we discussed before. To close this Rift, one of three options needs to happen. Either we take down every monster here ourselves, go for the centre of the Rift and just take out the Guardian in a quick strike, or we hunker down and wait for other Rifters to come in and do it for us,” Daniel explained to the survivor, stating their options.

“Zhe latter is not likely. And zhe zecond is something only a group of Rifterz can pull off.”

“Indeed. It could be weeks or even months before they get here because of the different flow in time. So, the latter option isn’t a viable route,” Daniel explained to them before a torrent of uncertain voices flowed towards the Rifters.

“But... there are too many!”

“We might die!”

“Perhaps the other Rifters will arrive in a few days?”

“Exactly! Shouldn’t we wait at least a few more days?”

A single growl from the Rift-hound was enough to quiet the group, allowing Daniel to continue with calmness as if he had not been interrupted, simply pausing for effect.

“I understand your fears, doubts, and confusion. Honestly, I do. I have been where you are now, perhaps even more confused and scared, but you need to let us help you here. We barely have enough provisions to last us a week. We could stretch it out somewhat, yet that would drain our strength,” He commented, letting that sink in. They had rationed what they could, yet the backpacks and makeshift knapsacks were hardly full at this point.

“The monsters aren’t the major threat here. Dehydration, malnutrition, infections, and injuries because of the terrain and the environment. These things can be far more lethal than anything else. So, we need to press on and take out the monsters while we still have strength in our veins. Dieter can take the brunt of the fighting with his companion,” Daniel said before the Rift-hound let out a joyful bark. It clearly enjoyed the term companion more than pet or dog, once again displaying the Hound’s unnatural intelligence and the ability to understand a human language.

“But I am running on fumes here. I am one-handed now, and my infection will get worse and worse over time. I will get slower and be less able to protect you. After a while, it will be just Dieter instead of the two of us. It would mean that more of you will die when he is not fast enough on his own, or that there is more risk of an ambush when he needs to eat or sleep. So, like it or not, we decide for all of us. We are taking the fight to them. You can either follow or stay here. It should be safer now that we have wiped out most of the monsters here,” Daniel said, dropping one harsh reality after another into the unprepared group. The Rifters had shattered any resistance to the plan because of the straightforward explanation. Now the option was leaving or falling in line.

“No, you can’t leave us. I’ll go.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“I can do it.”

“I’ll fight.”

Slowly, one by one, the survivors all agreed to the terms of the Rifters. After all, what choice did they have? Thomas also agreed loudly, stating that it was their best chance of survival. Lance simply nodded a similar acceptance while thinking it over internally. ‘The way he phrased it makes it seem like he had to make this call before. He might not like it, but he is thinking long term here. I guess that means making brutal choices like this,’ Lance thought, his mind wondering what things Daniel and Dieter had endured throughout their careers as Rifters.

“You lead, I will follow,” Lance said finally, nodding to Daniel to show his commitment before he and Thomas joined the others and took up a position at the rear, protecting the injured as best as they could.

“Wonderful speech,” Dieter commented to Daniel with an amused expression.

“I know.”

“Most of zhem are probably still going zo die.”

“I know.”

“Probably you and me as vell.”

“I know.”

“The Hound not zo much. He is lucky.”

“That he is. And the prettiest one between the two of you,” Daniel said before Dieter burst out chuckling. Afterwards, Dieter went over to pet his companion, explaining in German what his role would be and what he was expecting of him. The Rift-hound simply observed, barked once and then went on about his business, taking up the position that Dieter had suggested.

Afterwards, the group slowly left the hospital after making another last sweep of the place and taking out the last of the monsters that had still been roaming this place. Now armed as best as they could instructed by the Rifters and supported by them, the fights suddenly became a lot easier. A dozen spears or poles pinned monsters down, only to be smashed apart one by one by the Rifters or the Rift-hound.

It wasn’t until they finally left the hospital that they truly realized they were not on Earth anymore.

As far as they could see, a marshy environment covered the entire area, with tall trees, strange and exotic plants, and weird noises that were made by wildlife that they had never seen before.

“How... just how is this possible?”

“What is up with those lines?”

One by one, the survivors shared their thoughts on the matter, seeing the remnants of the hospital half lodged in muddy soil at a weird angle. Parts of it had collapsed and turned into a ruin of sorts, while other parts still resembled a part of the former hospital, only to end suddenly as if something had cut it out and transported it here.

“We have got to look at the bright side,” Thomas said, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulders and flashing a witty grin.

“Bright side?”

“Yeah. The Rift swallowed up the cafeteria as well. Even if we don’t close this Rift. At least we will have spared humanity the culinary horrors that fate had forced us to endure there.”

In front of the ruins of the hospital, surrounded by hostile monsters and foreign lands, there was joy, as the two men chuckled, finally ending up laughing to the point where their sides were hurting. And at that point, in that moment, not even Dieter could scare the men into keeping quiet.

Or at least for a minute.

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Author: Osirium

Copyright: 2021 OsiriumWrites

Released: 2021