Chapter 17 Breach

"Did you find it?"
"What am I supposed to find?" Ernest responded quietly to the muttering body.

He didn't get a response so he searched the wasteland for clues.  There were hardly any plants left after the Warwicks had multiplied.  Now it was full of their numbers with more coming from the canyons.  They were organized.  Pockets of resistance were crushed, leaving only a sea of blue flames to the West.  Then there was the wall of fog to the East.  The drone that came from deep within told of the multitude of predators that it hid.  Just as wide as the Warwick line the fog thickened with each wave of skeletons it consumed.  Sand, Ash and flashes of blue flame rolled forward at a steady rate.  It was like the thunder storms from before had come down to the ground in all their fury. 

Ernest could only think of one word to describe it, "Huge."  The word neatly wrapped how the scale of it all made him feel; insignificant.  It was easy to get lost or consumed in this conflict.  It was just as easy to be forgotten.  He was counting on that. 

"Where to go, where to go..." Ernest muttered as he looked for a way out. 

In the middle of the two forces was a long strip of high land, like a dock jutting out into the sea.  Dunes risen from the floods showed a dried imitation of the ocean's waves on either side.  The high land created a broken road of canyon boulders and sand dunes that snaked its way North to South for what looked like miles. 

The choice was clear.  Follow this path or dive into death.  One of fire.  The other of ash. 

Wait too long - get swept away by either side.  He didn't have long to decide.  The battle made the choice for him. 

Living waves crashed upon the high land.  Mass formations of Warwicks swung from the North-West like a hammer.  Ernest turned from the sight and headed South.  Even so he couldn't out run this.  Forced to hide Reader and himself amongst some canyon stones, he watched. 

Warwicks gave battle cries as they rushed into the fog of war, lighting the way like living torches.  Their bright blue light revealed the horrors within.  Massive predator insects pounced on anything that came too close.  Swarms of smaller insects drowned any Warwick unlucky enough to be separated from the greater formation.  The bright blue flashes of light weren't lightening, they were the flames of Warwick life being extinguished.  Their gritty remains fed the clouds with greater substance, each death increasing the ash storm's momentum.  Now and then parts of the swarm became exposed as violent gusts of wind sliced into the storm.  Whatever was revealed was quickly doused in fire or shot out of the sky.  The Warwicks would then surge into the fresh gap in an attempt to hold it before the fog shrouded them. 

Push and tug.  Neither side showed signs of abating.  With the fog growing in height, it wasn't long before it stretched over the high lands, blocking out the sun.  Now was the time to move.  With the cover of darkness, Ernest ran through the ghostly scene.  Sand clawed for his eyes.  Ash choked his lungs.  Heat and humidity pulled at his weary body.  All around the battle continued with ghostly lights of blue and green snuffing each other out. 

With Reader strapped on his back, Ernest had no plans on throwing himself into a fight if he could help it.  His plan was to try and find Ioan while avoiding the attention of either side.  If he could just stay in the shadows undetected...

The plan hit a snag.

A powerful blast of air knocked Ernest to the ground.  He fell.  Hands stretched out for purchase found rising stone on either side.  He kept falling.  The darkness made it feel a lot longer than it should have been.  When he hit ground  it was with his face.  Ernest wanted to just lay there, but he knew that even this trench wasn't safe.  He got up, pain sending messages from all over his body. 

One step.  Two.  Repeat.

One step.  Two.  Pick up the pace.

One step.  Two.  Something just fell down here.

Ernest glanced back.  It was a predator insect of some kind.  Blue flames still licked feebly at an injury on its side.  Glowing green fluid dripped from the wound.  It twitched.  That one functioning eye recognized where it was.  It recognized there was still food in front of it.  Ernest was already further down the path at a full sprint. 

It gave chase.

Ernest kept running.  He could hear the thing bounding off the walls to keep up.  Ernest couldn't afford to look back, but he did look up.  Sun had penetrated into the trench, filling the area up ahead with scorching lances of light.  He could see Warwicks and predator bugs struggling over that patch of high lands.  He could also see that their bodies were starting to fill in the trench.  He was going to get buried alive.  Legs pumping, Ernest kept running to stay ahead of the trench fill.  He could hear the bodies piling up behind him.  His whole world was shaking.  Bodies were filling the area up ahead.  He stomped through the dead and dying - then the passage became blocked up ahead. 

He jumped.

Ernest's shout was drowned out by the battle all around.  He broke the surface of the trench and hit the light, like a whale breaking the surface of the ocean; just drier.  In that brief moment of air time Ernest could see that the trench had an end.  That end looked like a bowl with steep walls of sand topped with unforgiving stone.  With the trench filled on his side there was only one exit.  Getting stuck in there would be bad.  There was no cover.  Too exposed.  It was too late to change his course.  He was going to land right in.

The sand rose up to welcome him.

It's hot embrace knocked Ernest senseless.  He got up in a daze, patting his back to make sure Reader was still there.  Deep in his bowl of sand he could hear the echoes of the conflict beyond bounce off the walls.  The sound was getting faint.  This stretch of high land was being abandoned.  And there.  Up ahead was the exit.  The tall walls of arching canyon stone promised respite from the hot sun with its shade. 

Ernest could feel the heat cooking him.  The sweat he had built up earlier was steaming off of him.  Shade would be nice.  It would be so nice.

There was shade.  A growing pool of it before his exit.  Compelled he looked up.

Ernest was staring at a rather massive specimen of hungry beetle making its landing.  Its oily carapace was covered in scorch marks.  Green spittle dripped from its mouth which was in a permanent grin. 

It was blocking his exit.  Quick calculations told him that since this beetle was far greater in size than even the first one he saw with Ioan, it would be foolish to fight alone.  He needed to get into that passage.

The two circled each other warily.

To Ernest it seemed the thing was thinking of how to slice apart this strange new food.

Strike.

Ernest dodged just in time. 

Snap.  Strike.  Strike.

Puffs of sand were all the beetle got for its trouble, but it seemed patient enough to continue this game.  Ernest was trying to get to a better position to escape.  The beetle seemed intent on preventing that from happening.  With that permanent smile, it struck at the fleshy morsel, preventing it from escaping yet again.

"I really don't have time for this," Ernest shouted at the thing in frustration. 
"Water."
"What?"

Distracted, he failed to dodge the scythe in time.  A red gouge left him dripping precious ruby fluids on the desert sand. 

The beetle clicked its mandibles in anticipation, raising its claws to give the killing blow.  This time the strike would be too fast for Ernest to dodge completely.  Not with Reader on his back.  The beetle was confused that its prey split in half, and was shocked that one half was charging it.  If the food wanted to go in its mouth then hungry beetle would help!

Ernest strained his muscles as he struggled to prevent the monstrous bug from devouring him whole.  His claws dug into the creature's mandibles.  Cracks formed spider-web patterns on the beetle's exoskeleton.  In frustration the bug tried to slash at him, but found it difficult as Ernest was pulling the thing to the ground.  Or at least he was trying to.  Gasps of pain from the struggling fleshy thing encouraged the beetle.  It could see the drops of tasty coming off the meat.  It was only a matter of time.  It didn't care that the other half of the food was now moving.

Not this one too.  | Ernest!
If I use them more will come.  | Ernest no, don't die!
I... I- | I got to do something! I can't just stand back and be useless! Get up body! Move!

With that black covered body Reader struggled forward on unsteady feet.  The skin's surface rippled like an angry sea.  Silver hand spun with its many intricate parts.  That familiar face half revealed behind a mask of ink, threw its arm back, a cloak of shadow parting from its form as if it was always there.  Projectiles burst out from the body, screaming on streams of smoke.  They struck the side of the beetle's head, cracking its carapace with thunderous explosions. 

Startled the beetle jumped back, half its prey still dangling from its shattered mandibles.  Ernest took a confused glance back at Reader.  The black body lifted its dark hand which inflated like a balloon till it burst, revealing a long rod that belched flames and high speed projectiles.  Each thunderous shout of flame received an applause as its projectiles punched through the beetle's armor.  The beetle flinched with each hit.  Hunger gave to fear, it threw Ernest to the sands.  Taking flight, the beetle attempted to escape, but more screeching projectiles tailing smoke gave chase before blooming like miniature suns against its body.  Broken bits of bug rained on the battlefield below. 

Ernest clutched his sides as he walked over to Reader.  He tore his eyes from that familiar face and looked at the crouched over figure.  Whatever Reader did, it seemed to have taken a bit of effort since Reader was gasping for breath and using the strange rod as a crutch. 

"You alright Reader?"
"They're coming.  We... we have to find it."
"Can you run?"
"No."
"Can you stay on my back?"
"Yes."
"Then let's get out of here."

Ernest waited for Reader to get on.  They were now back to back.  Ernest wasn't sure, but he figured that Reader must be sticking to him somehow.  The weight caused his wound to start bleeding again.  Reader pushed Ernest's hand on the wound to keep the pressure.  After receiving a pat of reassurance, Ernest started moving up the gulley.  Sure enough the explosion had drawn attention.  Warwicks were moving on their location from the West and the two stood out like a will-o-wisps on the smoky horizon.  To the East the ash clouds were breaking up, showing hordes of insects destroying the last of the Warwicks around them, before continuing their movement forward. 

"I'll give you cover.  Just take us there."
"There?  Take us where?"

Ernest looked around and the only thing that he saw was a towering pillar of green rising out of the haze like a mirage.  It must be massive to look so large at this distance.  Somehow the pillar of green had stood against the onslaught of the two forces.  Surrounding it was a growing wall of Warwicks defending it from darting bugs trying to get through the anti-air fire. 

One hand on his wound, Ernest started his sprint over the top of the rubble covered dunes.  As he ran the two colossal forces closed the gap of no-man's land between them like tsunami waves.  Hordes of bugs armored like flying tanks droned in on his left; Rows of Warwick soldiers marched with their burned skeletal faces to his right.  Giants on both sides.  Hungry. Giants.  The first and fastest of their numbers raced to collide with each other.  Ernest hopped over a blurring beetle.  Ducked under the streams of fire from the right.  Bounded off the back of a beetle as it devoured some unfortunate below.  Whenever something got too close, a loud report from behind filled Ernest's ears, deafening him.  After a while it was something he felt more than heard against the labor of his breathing and the pain in his belly. 

A Warwick titan swatted several flying beetles, causing them to fall to the ground like meteors.  Ernest shielded his eyes with his free hand as the impacts sent clouds of ash and san into the air.  He continued running, trying to avoid the twitching hulks.  One of the fiery beetles exploded in a shower of green gristle, knocking him to the ground.  Reader's rod gave an angry string of reports before going silent.  Ernest tried getting up, but his vision was swimming.  He side stepped just in time to dodge a snarling bug, which collided with a Warwick intent on grabbing at him.  He could feel Reader fumbling for something, but he didn't know what.  All he knew is that if they got caught it was all over.

Another hungry bug came from the left and he clawed at it, ripping away its talons.  Dispatching the now scythe-less insect, he wielded his new weapons deftly, using the added reach to slice anything that got too close from either side.

"Reader.  I don't hear anything from that rod of yours."
"It's not a rod, it's a gun."

"A gun?"

"You know what a gun is right? Projectiles fly out of it at high speed."

"I know what a gun is.  I called it a rod, because... I don't know.  It could've been a wand or something."

"A wand? I suppose you could think of it like that.  Either way, I'm out of bullets for it.  I'm looking for something... Ah.  This will work."

Reader produced a round black ball with some string on its top. 

"I need a spark or-"

Ernest spun around to avoid another leaper.  One of his two liberated talons broke.  He only had one of the borrowed appendages left.  All the motion was causing his wound reopen.  It felt like thousands of little claws were cutting him.  His vision was blurring fast.  A Warwick swiped at Reader, but missed and instead the blue flames struck the string of the black ball.

"That'll do."

Reader tapped Ernest's shoulder causing him to spin drunkenly.  Tossing the black ball into the growing crowd, Reader scrunched up.

An explosion like that of the large bug - but deeper in sound - rocked everyone to the ground.  Those in the blast were obliterated.  Ernest really struggled to get up this time.  He wasn't prepared for that last blast and his gut burned.  There was a scuttling sound so he spun around; prepared to cover Reader with his body if he had to.  What he saw was a massive multi-segmented insect reminiscent of a centipede.  The thing's whip-like fangs lashed at bug and Warwick alike.  Spinning its massive bulk, a howl of glee could be heard beyond the ringing in Ernest's ears. 

On the centipede's back was Ioan. 

Tongue in the mount's brain, Ioan maneuvered his ride to protect the pair.  He helped Ernest get up and gave a questioning glance at what he assumed was Reader stuck on Ernest's back. 

"How did you find us Ioan?"
The vampire retracted his tongue briefly to answer.  The centipede immediately went to work attacking anything near it.
"I followed the explosions.  I didn't know you had rockets and bombs Ernest."
"They're not mine."
"Reader's?"
"Just get us out of here."

With a nod he stabbed his tongue back in and with a twist they were riding over the growing wall of battlefield corpses.  Up ahead was the heavily guarded pillar of green.  The going was getting easier as the battle lines were shifting.  Forces were gathering themselves for a push towards the pillar of green.  As they got closer they could tell that it wasn't just a few plants, but a massive tree still growing and spreading its roots.  Covered in spines and sprouting vines, the 'tree' was creating branches that casted immense shadows over the battlefield around it. 

Ernest wearily blinked at the sight wanting the assignment to be over.  His exhausted body and mind felt like he was missing something so obvious.  If all the desert is dying then how is that 'tree' still growing?  He grimaced as his wound ached again. He doubled over, the weight of Reader on his back making the experience even worse.  The cool carapace of the centipede was comforting against his face, but not the thing he wanted to pass-out on.

Ioan's face filled his vision.

"You alright Ernest?"
"No."
"Is that Reader on your back?"
"Yeah."
"What is up with Reader?  Like with the face."

Ernest struggled and needed Ioan's help to sit up.  Reader was unconscious - mumbling.  That face.

"I don't know Ioan."
"Why does it have to be your face?"
"You are upset that Reader is currently wearing half a face that looks like mine?"
"Yes. No. I mean I got a rather handsome face."
"Do you really want Reader to have your face Ioan?"
"No. That would be competition!"

Ernest gave an exuberated sigh.

Reader's mumbles got louder.  "The tree of life is the gate... it needs water..."
Then a constant repeat of 'Water'. 

"Do you have any water on you Ioan?"
"No."

A slow click started in the back of Ernest's tired mind.  Like a single drop breaking a dam.

"We need to find it..."
"Find what Ernest?"
"Water.  Ioan.  Water."
"I heard you."
"No, water.  The cave.  The first cave.  The watering hole.  When I think about it, the town is over there and that tree thing - it's where the watering hole is.  That is where the water is.  That's how its growing.  The water is there.  We've known that source all this time, but now we need to get to it."

Ioan gave the feverish Ernest a look of concern, but nodded in agreement. 

"It's a good thing we have this ride right?  Don't worry Ernest.  With this mount we should be there in a few minutes.  We just got to get through a few living fire walls and beat an invading horde of insect monstrosities and we'll be home free."

Ernest gave a weary nod. 

A sound like true thunder filled the air and shook the ground.  All eyes, even that of their centipede mount looked up to the heavens.  Ernest craned his neck wondering what could possibly be going on now.  Reader's body grew agitated, bubbles frothing over the inky surface.

"They're coming."

In the sky was a massive shadowy figure.  Its feathered wing span so wide that it cast all the land beneath into darkness.  The sun's rays split, refusing to touch the creature's form directly.  Shifting in the heavens, the three could make out its shape better.  Mile long in body from nose to feathered tail, its lower half had talons crouched underneath like a bird of prey.  Less creature and more monster, they could see its head was like a feathered covered canine.  Its eight red eyes scanned the earth below, searching for prey.  In its wake swarmed smaller versions of the monster. 

But all eyes were not on the swarm, but on the largest for it had a curious pair of riders; dressed in silks of red and gold with silver chains linking them together. 

"They're coming."
"We got that Reader.  Ioan get this thing moving."
"They're coming.  The sky-eaters."
The flying monster gave a reptilian screech. 
"Ioan!"
"It won't respond!"
A burning hand burst up through the centipede's skull.  Ioan snatched at the flailing limb and snuffed out the meddling Warwick.  Their ride was dead.

The flock of monsters began their dive.  Any bug in the sky not fast enough was snatched.  Devoured.  Down below, the earth became a heaving sea of movement.  Nothing wanted to be out in the open.  Only the Warwick wall and their titans continued to fight. 

A panicking beetle crashed nearby.  Out of its wits, it struggled to roll over.  Ioan shouted that he'd go get their new ride, while Ernest tried pulling the unmoving Reader away from the dead one. 

Along the way the strange voice coming out of Reader spoke what sounded like a prayer, "If you're not really here.  Then I don't want to be either.  I want to be next to you.  My love.  If you are still with me, answer.  Even if my time is shortened for this moment, take my breath..."

The bubbles and streamers of inky cloak writhed and frothed to the beat of what must be labored breathing.  Deep within that ink, something was being drawn out by that silver hand.  Between bursting bubbles came a stream of colorful images and moving scenes of someone else, someone with others.  A face that reminded Ernest so much of himself, surrounded with people he's never seen.  Faces that faded as the colorful vapors dispersed. 

Ioan brought their new ride.  Ernest and Reader were hosted up as Reader's body continued to shift. 

Reader's voice intensified as the feverish words continued to spill out between bursting bubbles of ink,  "All I see is the black of your robes when we touched.  And the gold of your eyes against the dark sky.  My love.  Georgiana Joan.  Awaken from my breath."
 
"Let's fly Ioan."
"U-gut-it Ernest!"

On gossamer wings they made their ride to the pillar of green.  Beetles and sky-eaters dashed through the skies in high speed pursuit.  In the distance a titan was falling to a swarm of the feathered monsters.  They made the blue fire their own, blasting targets they chased.  In the distance the beating of the largest sky-eater's wings reverberated through their chests.  They were spotted, the sky-eater changed its course.  Its riders, the Twins, in pursuit. 

"My-My the morsel does fly~ It gives me tears to think how fast you've taken to this frame.  A growth that will be short! We'll be joined before you reach that fort!"

The Female Twin gave off her wah-ha-ha laugh behind that fan, as the sky-eater rushed to meet them. 

Ioan urged the beetle to a faster flight.  Ernest stared back, which made the Female Twin excited at the thought of eye contact.  But when she noticed that Ernest was looking at the sky-eater - not her - she grew furious behind that insane smile.  The Male Twin wrapped his arms around his sister and drove his melting ink limbs into the sky-eater.  The feathers grew jagged and its belly began to bulge.  Out came a forest of tendrils. With a roar the monster picked up the pace.

Ernest, perhaps resigned to the situation, turned his eyes away from the horrific sight coming down upon them.  His eyes were now on the green pillar alone.  The scream of the sky-eater was hollow to his damaged ears.  The growing shadow surrounding them was only an accent to his blurring vision. 

Reader's body swelled as the muttering came to crescendo.  Out of the bursting bubble came forth a gargoyle-like figure with all the curves of a woman and the look of cut onyx clad in shaped ivory armor.  She rode a skeletal horse on empty air.  A black crown held down her long hair that ran on as ribbons which connected her to the bubbling host.  Gold flames for eyes glared at the sky-eater above, she lifted a clawed hand sending out wave after wave of bleached skeletal bones from her body.  She sprayed her target with these spears of bone, shredding its feathered surface.

The Female Twin's eyes were wide in anger.  The Male Twin urged the creature into action.

The sky-eater belched a stream of blue flames, incinerating the front of the attack.  But like a fountain it didn't end, forcing the sky-eater to turn aside.  The stream of bones became a gigantic arm.  The mounted corpse rider had the ivory surface mimic her own movement.  Like the titans below it struck at the sky-eater like so much of a nuisance. 

Instead of being knocked out of the sky, the mutated thing clung on to the skeletal arm.  Its tendrils began to invade, allowing the thing to crawl its way towards the beetle riders below.  Ioan, tempted to know what all the commotion was about, tried to turn for a glance, but Ernest grabbed his head and forced it around.  Ioan signed in discontent.

Using the arm as a platform the sky-eater attempted to leap the rest of the distance, but a stream of rockets from Reader's bubbling form knocked the monster back in a shower of feathers.  Disintegrating the arm, the corpse rider made a violent gesture, now it was from her wings that blackened shapes emerged; creating a flock of carrion eaters enough to cover their escape.  Not to be outdone, the sky-eater disgorged its own brood from its belly, spewing fire as it made its talons ready to tear apart its prey. The sky-eater riders would have to suffer another insult courtesy of Reader.  Bits and bobs of their porcelain faces blew off as Reader produced a pair of pistols which Reader used with fervor. 

Despite such difficulties the distance was closed, and the sky-eater struck and smote.  The corpse rider vanished with a swipe of the talons, turned into bloody black mush.  Ioan heard a heart wrenching scream that sounded like it came from Reader.  A large gluttonous bite took the wings from the beetle's bum.  A falling spiral would thus be their doom.  The rocks below awaited their catch.  That was when Ernest decided to act.

Ensuring that Reader was still attached, he yanked Ioan back and moved as the beetle's body spun.  His claws found the hole that the sky-eater made.  He then forced all three into the beetle's gut-filled shell.  They heard a crash, then another. Their green hued vision of the world was interrupted with blue flames, flowery canopy and then stopped. 

Ioan dug them out of the beetle's corpse.  Nearby was the cave entrance.  Lucky! One glance was all Ioan needed to know that the others weren't going to move.  He proceeded to drag the pair, on one side was Ernest, the other Reader.  Both were leaking fluids leaving a stain on the trail.  Blood and ink.  It didn't look good.  The flow was diminishing. 

In the distance, the sky-eater was repulsed by the Warwick flames.  Through the cacophony was a female voice pouting about the end of the game.

Ernest came to and was content to continue being dragged.  He glanced at the unconscious Reader who was now covered in a lot less ink.  The gauntlet lock continued to whirl and move with its intricate pieces.  Ernest couldn't help to think that the symbol in the center resembled an eye; winking. 

The water in the cave had dropped in depth.  Now there were halls of sandstone and roots which lead deeper into the earth. Ioan commented half-heartedly on the piles of yellowed bones they found as their only companions.  Ernest couldn't tell if the vampire was upset that things were winding down, or that weren't being offered a drink that hasn't been soaking in a tea of bones.  It was getting hard to think about anything.  They stopped.  Ioan turned Ernest around so that he could see.  A pile of yellow bones wrapped around the base of a black arch surrounded by a pool of water. 

There it was.  The black gate.  The exit they had been searching for.

The gauntlet seemed to move on its own, dragging the unresponsive limb of Reader along.  It reached for a something that shined amongst the piled bones.  When they touched, the gate swallowed them whole. 

And then spat them out into the hallway in a spew of ink.

Finally. 

They were out of the sandbox.

The three travelers enjoyed a good fit of coughing.  Except for Ioan who was busy slicking back his mohawk.

"Oh for goodness sake, I come to and I'm covered in this stuff again?"
"Reader? You alright?"
"Yeah, my head just hurts a little bit Ernest.  What did I miss?"

Ernest and Ioan gave each other a look.

"I don't know Reader," said Ioan with a frown, "I didn't get to see any of it."