Right Back Where We Started [Five]

Twenty

What would be your tactic in the zombie apocalypse?

No one passed up the chance to make it crystal clear just how drunk Five was last night.

Cheers and whistles greeted them as they walked into the lobby.

"Whoo! Go Five!"

"There he is!"

"Yeah!"

"That speech last night! Wow!" Diego said.

"Brought me to tears, you big softy." Lila added.

"I especially liked when you referred to us as a family bound by destiny and love." Viktor went on.

"Was it really that bad?" Five said, voice lowered as he spoke over his shoulder.

Emery just patted his angle as he pushed on to join everyone. "It was beautiful."

"Okay. Enough." Five said, voice deliberate. "It was the booze talking. In the light of day, you're all still deplorable."

"And your day's about to get worse." Reginald said, the rumble of the Kugelblitz outside grumbling to accentuate the old man's point. "The Norse has seven sleepers. The Blackfoot, seven stars. As a boy, I hear the legend of the seven bells. All these stories are the same. The village is under threat by flood, by fire, by a night that never ends. A shaman brings his disciples to a sacred cave. He tells them if they can ring the seven magic bells, the village will be saved, and all will be restored just as it was."

Silence was the only thing that greeted him. Emery was sure he had a thousand sarcastic remarks tucked in his mind but he had no clue how to use them because he hand the foggiest clue on what the hell Reginald was on about. It was Lila who broke the silence.

"Reggie. Can we get a little less Brothers Grimm and a little more 'what the hell does this have to do with us'?"

"There is a truth to these myths." Reginald said ambiguously. "None of you can deny what's going on around us. All of existence will be gone by the end of the day. But whoever or whatever wove together space and time, they left a way to put things back together if the universe ever faced total annihilation." Emery enhanced a weary glance with Five who was donning a look of contemplation. "There is a portal in the universe. I built this hotel around it, and on the other side... is the answer."

"And... we're supposed to, what? Just stroll in there, ring some bells, and fix this shit?" Luther ventured.

"Sarcasm aside, you are mostly right." Reginald admitted. "Except for the guardian."

"What kind of guardian?" Viktor asked.

"Kinda guardian that does this." Diego held up his severed fingers. "He had a sword."

"It is a force to be reckoned with." Reginald said.

"See? Yeah. This is where you lose me." Luther piped up.

"This is where he loses you?" Lila asked boredly. "I checked out at the sacred cave."

"Why would the buildings of this 'back door' need to have a guardian?" Viktor asked.

"Ah! To protect it from people who want to use it for nefarious means." Sloane said helpfully.

"That is correct, Sloane."

"So it's gonna take all of us to defeat the thing protecting the bells." Allison said.

"You're actually buying this crap?" Five said incredulously.

"How is a guardian and bells and crazier than time-traveling briefcases and assassins with cartoon masks?"

"Actually, she's got you there." Luther pointed out admittedly.