Adam Drake - Blackout

Every individual town person immediately whipped their heads around to lock onto us. The sight of a thousand angry stares unnerved me.

Then I said the only logical thing that came to mind at that very moment.

“Run!”

No one reacted the instant I yelled. Instead, everyone looked to each other to see who would run first.

“Let’s go guys, no heroics now,” I said. That seemed to get them walking backwards, weapons at the ready.

The horde of town folk continued to glare at us, but unmoving. The Demon King still pointed at us, his yellow eyes smoldering fiercely.

Then, with some unspoken command, the people suddenly shrieked and screamed at us. Eyes wild, hands now clawed at the air but they didn’t move.

“Come on, go!” Mudhoof shouted. He was trying to be the last to leave.

As we all began to head back to the main street, the Demon King shouted, “Die!”

Like a pent up wave of energy the town folk surged forward.

“Go! Go! Go!” I yelled.

Thorm was to my left and Feign was in front of me. Mudhoof was only a few steps behind, huge ax at the ready. His hooves clomped on the cobblestone as he ran to pick up the pace.

We’d barely made it a few buildings down from the square entrance when the crowd of people crashed into the street like a human wave. Frantic, angry and insane with whatever evil infected them, they scrambled over each other to get to us.

Feign lobbed rapid fire snowballs at them. The ones which struck the ground instantly created a large patch of ice on the cobblestone. People tumbled and fell onto the ice patch, but the ones behind simply clamored over their fallen comrades like they didn’t exist. When Feign hit a person, they became an icy statue which the others surged around.

I called up a full quiver of arrows, choosing simple ones which I could fire en masse. Running backwards, and shooting a bow wasn’t easy, but the thick cluster of people ensured I always hit someone. When they fell, they simply vanished under the ceaseless wave of feet.

“Where do we go?” Mudhoof called to me as if I had any idea. At that moment a crazed black-veined woman got within reach of him. He swung his ax, and the woman screamed and collapsed. There was very little blood because I had my blood-and-gore setting turned down to the minimum available.

“Back to the lake?” Thorm shouted over the screams. When someone got too close to him, he opted to pulse his protective shield which acted like an invisible wall for them to bounce off of.

“The old mine!” I said. “There is nowhere else I can think of. We don’t know of anywhere else!”

We continued to backpedal, barely keeping the pursuing crowd at bay. For a moment, something caught my eye, and I looked up. Perrin was looking down from a window in horror. Then he backed away out of sight.

There was nothing I could do for him, even if I was supposed to help him at all. Right now we were in pure survival mode.

“I hate getting zerged!” Mudhoof said, swinging his ax back and forth. Cleaved halves of crazy town folk tumbled away in his wake.

We reached the edge of the town at the point we first entered. A cheerful little bridge arched over a river here.

“Get to the other side, quick!” Thorm said.

Not needing encouragement we stopped attacking, turned and ran across the bridge.

As we got to the other side Feign said, “I’m going to try something.” The mage stopped and turned back to face the horde of people racing toward the bridge.

Our group stopped, tense and breathing heavily. “Why are we stopping, my love?” Phlixx said as he clutched at my shoulder. He looked more nervous than I was.

Feign raised his arms and called out a spell. Suddenly, a dark cloud formed above the bridge. “Stand back,” Feign warned.

As the first of the rabid people crossed the bridge, the dark cloud erupted with hail. But it did not produce ordinary hail stones. These were huge, the size of basket balls.

Gigantic hail stones bombarded the bridge and crushed everyone underneath it. But despite the obvious damage it did, the people still ran frantically into the storm and were crushed.

“It will only last a few moments!” Feign called out over the horrific noise the hail made.

Down the trail we fled, and into the forest.

As we ran, the noise behind us subsided.

“So, the mine? That’s where we’re going?” Thorm said.

Muttering with frustration I called up my quest log while maintaining my run.

’ You must escape to the Old Mine or perish .’

I barked a laugh and closed the screen. “Well, that’s helpful,” I said.

“This is crazy!” Mudhoof said. “Since when did quests go all nuts like this? Where’s a princess to save? A dragon to slay?”

“Legendary Quests change things up,” Feign said, his robes whipped around him as he ran. “I think what just happened reflects that.”

We reached the fork with the signs. Without even slowing we all turned onto the northern trail and kept running. Behind us, distant but closing fast, came the screams of our pursuers.

This trail took us through to the other side of the valley. The forest ended, and we emerged at the foot of the mountains. Sheer, steep rock walls towered above us. Ore carts sat on a short rail line which led to the foot of the mountain. A large entrance could be seen.

“The mine!” I said.

From behind, the shouts and screams of the insane crowd became much louder.

“They’ll be here any minute,” said Mudhoof. “Let’s get inside!”

We hurried down the rail line until we reached the mine entrance. I stopped and frowned.

A huge metal door sealed the way into the mine. It shimmered with a dull silver light.

Mudhoof and Thorm pushed at the door but it didn’t budge. The shimmering increased when they touched it.

“It’s magically held,” Feign said, looking worried. “And from what I can tell it is quite powerful.”

The terrifying yells undulated from the forest. I could now see figures approaching on the trail and from the surrounding trees. We were running out of time.

“Stand back!” Mudhoof said. He raised his uber ax and swung at the door. The metal shimmered with the impact but he didn’t even scratch it.

“Let me try this,” Feign said. He threw a snowball and when it struck the metal, the entire door became frozen. “Hit it again,” he said.

Mudhoof did. The ice on the door shattered away and the metal door showed a deep gash.

“That’s it,” I said. “Mudhoof and Feign, you two keep at it. Thorm and I will slow those freaks down to buy you time.”

They did not need encouragement as Feign threw another snowball and Mudhoof swung again.

I nodded to Thorm, “Let’s do this.” The Holy Knight nodded in return and we raced up along the rail line.

We halted several dozen paces up from the entrance. Mounds of rock and ore were piled up on either side. It formed a gully in which I hoped would keep us from being flanked and funnel the town folk toward us.

“I have to admit something,” said Thorm. The steel of his great broadsword glinted with sunlight.

“What’s that?” I said. A scattering of people broke from the trees and charged at us.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” he said, and smirked. His mustache arched comically with his mischievous smile.

I laughed, despite myself. “Yeah, me too.”

Behind us the reverberations boomed as the others continued to hammer at the door.

Suddenly, a pair of townspeople scrabbled over a pile of ore to our side and leapt at us.

Thankfully, Phlixx saw them first and shouted a warning.

I instantly switched the bow in my grip to my sword and swung, catching one of them across the chest. He collapsed. Thorm easily dispatched the other one.