Judgement (The Twelve) (33 page)

He offered it to the woman, who threw her sticks aside and greedily took it from his fingers.

“Tea!” she wailed. The woman and the house vanished in a swirling cloud of blood red dust.

“She tempts you to enter. The house was her belly. She was just ….something you don’t want to know about. I offered her real tea instead of us. She accepted the trade off.”

The others had no idea what Judgement was saying or how he even knew what he was saying.

Judgement held up a hand, “This is the hard part
w
e are next to the Warehouse
,
but in order to reach the portal we have to step off the road.”

Heartless groaned, “I thought you bloody well said we’d be lost if we stepped off the road.”

“No I said I wouldn’t be able to find you. This is different but there is an even bigger problem.”

Anvil
was the one to ask, “What is it… son?”

Judgment slowly looked sideways at his father, “We will be attacked by several creatures of that I am sure but I will be powerless to help you. I need all my strength to find and open the portal.”

Bulls Eye was dribbling blood now, he drew one of his guns, “So we fight.”

Judgement sighed, “Do not let go of each other, fight as one person but do not let go.”

Priest crossed himself, “I’m ready.”

Rage’s voice rumbled angrily, “Fed up with this place.” He shifted speed to one arm, cradling him like a baby. Speed held out an arm and was holding fast to Patch. Rage made a fist and his giant knuckles cracked ominously. “Now I’m ready.”

Huntress already had one injured hand, so she was forced to hold onto Heartless, “I’ll be your eyes, you do the fighting.”

Priest was holding onto Slash who held a throwing knife in his one hand. Hot Cross held onto his sleeve with one hand, the other held a ball of electrical energy, “I’m ready.”

Anvil
held onto Hot Cross with his weapon held high besides him. Judgement held onto his fathers arm, “Be ready.
Sense
your enem
ies approach
for you will not see them.”

He
stepped off the road
and the others followed
, only to be
instantly swallowed by the choking clotting red mist.
The path to the Portal only took
but
eight
een
steps
.
It was the longest eighteen steps of their lives. Each thought they had seen it all, what with being re-born and fighting the Shades for over hundreds if not thousands of years. Yet what they experienced in the blood red mist changed them all. Terror on an un-imaginable scale assailed them. Shapes so profoundly
misshapen
screamed at them. Claws and fangs tore at there. Cunningly crafted words threatened to drive them mad, yet still they moved forward.

They thought they heard something scream out a curse concerning Anvils weapon and the words Thunder God! But the words ended in a blood curdling scream of pain.

When
at last the Portal was reached, they
heard Judgement order them to close their eyes and take one
five
step
s
into the dark. For three seconds they fe
ll forwards into the freezing cold air.
W
ith a pop they entered the wet and windy street outside the entrance to the
re
warehouse and relaxed.
Anvil
started to order them all inside when he stopped, mouth hanging open in surprise. Each and every one of them had
hair as white as snow
.
In fact, the
same colour as Chris
and
Huntress whose hair was already white.

She laughed, “I like it!”

Chapter Eleven

S
peed, Rage, Priest and Bulls Eye where all badly injured. Chris went to work helping them first. 
Anvil
helped, dealing with Huntresses broken hand and other cuts obtained in the red mist.
Bulls Eye
found to his surprise, that he had a broken arm and a fractured eye socket.
The
battering Coffee had given him
had taken more out of him than he thought. Anvil
told him to
lie
down and Chris would be with him in a minute.

Chris at the moment was helping Rage, whose massive build made him an ideal target for those that lived in the mist. His
mighty
chest and shoulders where slashed to pulp. How he was still conscious let alone standing was a mystery.

Speed
l
ay on one settee, weak but with a fast healing wound, “Rage old mate, you took one hell of a battering. You okay pal?”

Chris was busy
healing cut after cut on
Rages chest
and back.

Rage looked across to Speeds prone body, “
Bloody poison from Claws slowed me down.
First time for everything. I tried to get in a dozen blows and missed every time, damn mist! Don’t know what attacked me but there w
ere
at least three of them.”

Chris didn’t look up from what he was doing in fact he was winging it. Judgement was doing all the work and he had no idea as usual what was going on, “I saw terrible things in the mist. They were very clear to me. I’m amazed you didn’t see anything.”

Heartless choked and spat out a glob of blood, “
The m
ist was too thick. I felt the bastards at the last moment. I think I got one or two judging from the screams I heard.
Damn place turned our hair white!
”

Bulls Eye
grunted in pain
, “Think I pegged one,
smashed its head in with my old rifle but I dropped it, pity that but never mind. I
got mashed by several other
things that came out of nowhere but I’ll live
How’s the wrist?” He asked Huntress.

She was still gripping the injured hand close to her chest,” Hurts like hell but the others need seeing to first.”

Anvil
gently took her injured hand in his, “I’ll be the judge of that. Hum three broken fingers and a broken wrist.”

Chris asked how she was.

“
I’ll be at least an hour with Huntress, if she ever wants to use her hand again.”

Huntress raised an eyebrow, “Hey boss, take all the time you need!”

Heartless choked and spat out more blood, then with a sigh, slid down the wall to a sitting position, “Bastard hurt me more than I thought.” And with that he keeled over onto his side.

Chris looked frantically over towards him then back at Rages wounds, he was drawn on what to do.

Rage made up his mind for him and pushed Chris away from him, “Go see to Heartless. He’s not as hard as he makes out.”

Chris thanked Rage and skidded to a stop on his knees next to an unconscious Heartless,
eyes closed he concentrated on what he’d find within,
“Lung full with blood, drowning in it.”

Slash
limped over to help Chris,
”Some bloody great unicorned snake caught him in his old wound. I managed to slice off the bastards head.”

Judgement
pulled open Heartlesses jacket and shirt, revealing
a nasty black and purple bruise on the left side of Heartlesses chest, “Broken ribs punc
t
ured the left lung
. And it’s collapsed.”

Without hesitation Judgement
plac
ed
both hands over Heartlesses chest, he closed his eyes in deep concentration. Seconds later his fingers started to glow white with light.
Slash
watched in amazement as
his
fingers
seemed to
slowly s
i
nk in
to Heartlesses chest
.

Huntress looked on as Anvil started to heal her injury,
“Always wanted to ask. How come you can heal a
s well as Priest
?”

Anvil
smiled, “
I used to be a blacksmith. Made things with my hands, fixed broken parts and made new ones. Suppose the skills
apply to people as well.”

Priest was in fact already helping Bulls Eye to heal.
Bull
s E
ye
had been listening to Anvil,
“Didn’t know you where a blacksmith.”

Anvil
looked baffled, “What did you think the apron and hammer where for?”

Bull Eye
joked
, “Thought you’d been some sort of
Free Mason
.
”

Anvil
said nothing
just shook his head
as Priest
placed both hands on either side of
Bulls Eyes
head, “
Just
shut up
will you
t
his may hurt, got to get the bones lined up first.”

“No…ouch!” Bulls Eye replied as
Priest
started to knit together the fractured eye socket.

“I’ll let C
h
ris finish you o
f
f
, after the broken sockets lined up.
Now hold still.”