Perised

Chapter 23

We enter the horrible, good old bunker again. Me, Mac, and Luna take a breath while Joe walks directly into his room. We hear some rambling noises and when he returns, he's brought a whole arsenal of weapons and gear hanging from his body as well as balaclavas. He throws one over to Luna plus a semi-automatic. As he pulls the balaclava over his head he says, 'Luna, we must return, there are important documents that the Dark Beings can't get a hold of what so fucking ever!' Luna gears up as she answers, 'got it!' Joe turns to Mac, commanding 'You, protect her at all cost, ok?' Mac answers, slightly annoyed 'Yes sir...' while I just stand here, confused. I try to make contact with Joe asking, 'You're just gonna leave me here?' Joe turns, he looks far gone, like he's concentrating, plotting, and thinking. With a stern look, he answers strictly, 'No questions, we're leaving.' He points at the small painting by his kitchen, and he disappears with Luna.

It's as if a storm has passed. After everything that's happened it's weird listening to complete silence. It's agonizing and the calm makes my thoughts louder... Thoughts that I would love to get rid of. Mac walks over to the table, searching for his cigarettes, while I try to turn off my rambling head. He breaks the silence by saying 'So, I guess it's only you and me now, Blondie.' Still stressed out, the result of my reaction to his sentence occur in slight anger. In spite, I answer, 'Don't fucking call me that' Mac raise his hands in surrender and say, 'Whoa, sorry, calm down there' I dump down into the couch and while rubbing my forehead with my fingertips and  explain 'Sorry, it's just that I'm stressed out, and I really don't like that name for reasons I won't tell you.' He dumps down besides me, fiddle with his cigarette pack, take one out and puts it in his mouth while he reaches the pack towards me, asking, 'Want one?' 'Nah, I'm good...' He shrugs 'your loss...'

****

Luna and Joe enter the museum through a painting of a dog. The museum is dark other than the left-over candles and bonfire in the main room. With their weapons ready for combat, Joe signals to Luna that he needs her cover him while he's going to check if anyone left in the building. With precise teamwork, they search the main hall, the bathrooms, the painting and bust exhibit while at the end they sneak into the main room. Joe stops making a calm halt to Luna and mutters 'It looks like they left.' He calmly studies the room, there's nothing out of the ordinary. He continues 'Lets grab our stuff and get out of here, quickly.' Luna nods and they both go to each of their ends to grab whatever they can. They rummage through everything they get over and fill both their pouches with classified information.

As Luna walks over to where Hannah hid earlier, a dark being turns the corner on her. In an instant she grabs her blue sword and slash off its head while yelling 'Joe, we've got company!' Joe is placed in the middle of the room and nine dark beings emerge from the shadows, surrounding him. With an exhale, he prepares his body for combat where his plan is to quickly draw two knives in one move. One of the dark beings takes a step towards him, crouch down to face Joe at his level and roars. Joe and the being stare at each other, measuring each other up. As the being prepares to strike, Joe acts quicker and makes the first move by stabbing it in its neck with an incredible speed. The being shrieks in agony while blood gush from its throat. Like a trigger, the other jumps simultaneously at Joe. With precision, Joe stabs them at their weak points; their ribs, necks, and joints. From a distance Luna shoots the beings with the gun she got from Joe earlier. As she fires, she moves closer towards the main fight. A being notices her and goes in for the kill, however, she's prepared her sword and as it jump attacks, she bends down on her knees and cuts off its feet while it's in the air. It falls to the ground, shrieking behind her with blood spluttering. Quickly, Luna turns and finish the fight by cutting off its head and continues to move towards Joe. Joe keeps stabbing and slashing through the beings as they attack him. He's suffered a few wounds but he keeps going. The beings jump, scratch, bite and claw at him. They're like a pack of frenzied cats, attacking wildly, uncontrolled and fast. Luna manages to cut her way through the group of beings and now she stands back to back with Joe. There are four beings left, two of them are badly wounded as the other ones suffer from scratches. The fight stopped for a moment, all of them are exhausted and while dust falls to the ground, everyone breathes heavily as they stare at each other in silence. One of the beings can't control its rage and adrenaline, so, it roars and sprints over to Joe and sinks its long, needle like teeth into the left side of his shoulder.