The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege (23 page)

Bodies were sent flying on impact if they hadn’t been crushed. The air was filled with horrified screams as people instantly caught on fire. Added to those screams were the cries from spectators who couldn’t remove their eyes from the suffering people. Kari remembered screaming too, but she also remembered gasping and covering her mouth.

Everything seemed to be happening at an unreal high speed. The crowd simultaneously stood up and began moving away from the heat of the flames that were igniting the wooden bleachers. Kari was pushed and shoved from every direction by panicking people. Body masses slammed into her shoulders. She lost her balance and would have fallen and gotten trampled if it wasn’t for being held up by slamming against someone next to her. The crowd was so tight it was impossible to fully fall down.

Kari began to hyperventilate. She did not care for tight spaces in which she had little control to escape from. She preferred the open air of the outdoors. Claustrophobia made it hard to breathe, and she began to panic as much as the people on fire.

Kari watched people on the opposite side of the arena in a column of rows in the bowl of the stadium. A huge boulder was coming down on them. They were all looking up at it while pushing into the backs of the people in front of them. They managed to create a small clearing where the boulder was going to crash down, but it wasn’t large enough. The people closest to the clearing must have been pushing with all of their strength as the boulder got closer and when they realized they were directly in its path.

The crowd surged the opposite way from the eastern exit as a small group of minotaurs ran into the stadium. Luckily, Kari was heading to the only other exit; the western side of the arena. She was somewhat successful pushing and squeezing her way through people, headed down the wooden bleachers instead of to the side stair sets that paralleled each column like the majority of people were doing. She went to put her foot out on the seats below her when she received a slight accidental bump in the back from someone. She missed the step and fell hard into the wood. People began to step on her hands, knees, and feet as the screams from her section grew louder.

Everything got darker around her. A large boulder was casting its shadow as it came down on her column of rows. Kari felt someone grab her under both of her arms and lift her up like she weighed nothing. She didn’t even get to see or thank the man that helped to pick her up because she was in the air a second after she was back on her own two feet. The flaming boulder smashed into the wooden rows just as she was hopping down. The top half of the column of rows caved in, which jutted everything below it outwards.

Everyone, including Kari, who was in the first fifteen rows closest to the stadium floor, was spilled out onto it. Kari picked herself up, choking and coughing on the sand she had inhaled. She stopped and looked herself over while dusting herself off, just to make sure she was still all attached. Sometimes it took a couple seconds for pain to register with the body. She realized that other than a couple bruises she was sure to have the next morning, she was fine.

Kari surveyed the possible exits. She was almost at the western exit, but it was incredibly smoky. The exit was narrowed because it was partially blocked by a tall building that had toppled and crashed through the side of the oval arena. The eastern exit looked to be void of the minotaurs now, but she would have to run across the arena to get to that side. She wanted to get out as soon as possible in order to avoid the falling boulders. Kari continued in the same direction figuring it was her safest bet out of two unsafe choices. The exit had already become bottlenecked, with so many people rushing out of the narrow escape.

A bright orange moving light stole her attention. It was a person, on fire, trying to roll in the sand to extinguish the torturing flames. Kari quickly unclasped the pin that held her blue cloak together and threw it over the man. The fire died as soon as the oxygen was cut off, but nothing was moving underneath the cloak. The putrid smell of burned flesh filled Kari’s nostrils and made her gag. She was afraid to lift up her cloak, afraid of the grotesque sight she might see underneath; but she did.

It was worse than she possibly could have imagined. The man’s hair was singed, along with his arms and legs. His clothes had been mostly burned through. What skin she could see was charred black and covered in disgusting red and pink blisters. A woman came over and collapsed to her knees in the sand next to the burned victim. She laid her body across his and was sobbing uncontrollably. “My Husband! Errol!” She screamed his name over and over again in agony.

Kari tried to grab at the widow and encourage her to leave and get to safety, but the woman swatted her gesture away. There was nothing Kari could say or do to fix the lady’s broken heart.

Kari got up and pressed along with the funneling crowd out through the narrow exit, leaving the death filled arena behind her. She emerged out into the smoky air of the small plaza outside the arena. Abandoned carts with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, jewelry, and handmade products were scattered everywhere. Vendors always used the plazas nearby the stadium to sell their goods, especially when the stadium was in use, as it was today. A high amount of traffic guaranteed high sales.

The plaza also featured carved marble statues of Celestial champions from previous Warriors’ Jousting Tournaments. They lined the curved wall of the entrance heading into the arena. There had only been six Celestial champions in the forty-five year history of the Warriors’ Joust, but there were only four statues standing. A couple of them had been toppled over. One was broken by catapulted debris. The other was pushed over by a group of people onto a medium-sized black spider. The monster was about the length of Kari’s shoulder to fingers. It was flattened under the heavy stone statute as a splatter of its dark yellow blood spilled out onto the plaza floor from both of its sides.

Kari saw two more spiders in the plaza. One was the same color black and the other one was a creamy white. The white one’s focus was distracted while eating a half-alive Elf. Kari took her bow off her shoulder, drew an arrow from her quiver, and shot it into the monster’s back. It crumpled up in pain and died within a minute. The half-alive Elf, lying on the ground with intestines spilling out of his open stomach turned to Kari. She saw the pleading look in his eyes and knew exactly what he wanted.

She shot an arrow through his skull so that he wouldn’t have to endure excruciating pain in his final moments of life.

In less than a second, Kari had already notched another arrow and carefully shot it across the plaza, avoiding the running crowd, and into a black tarantula before it bit a child with its poisonous fangs. A couple other spiders that found their way into the plaza were being ganged up on and beaten to death by civilians with random objects. Broomsticks, chains, and canes can be just as deadly as a sword when they are swung in anger.

Kari notched another arrow even though no target was in sight. Expecting the unexpected never hurt anyone, and today was already a day full of surprises. Kari would not die on account of being unprepared.

She looked to the sky and saw something airborne that had also caught the attention of others. It wasn’t a large boulder, but rather a collection of smaller objects that had been catapulted over the walls. Whatever they were crashed onto the stone floor and exploded like red paint with a horrific splattering sound.

Kari had a feeling she knew what had been launched from outside the inner wall. Looking closer, she realized in disgust that she had guessed correctly. Someone else in the plaza observed the catapulted ammunition being used by the monsters and yelled out what it was at the same time Kari did.

“Those are bodies!” The appendages of people were littered everywhere. Most of the people appeared to have been killed before they were launched. Based on the cheap clothing, the parts looked to belong to the farmers and field workers who worked in the miles and miles of farmlands between the outer and inner wall all around the city.

A little boy was crying as he kneeled over his dead mother, trying to shake her back to life. Kari saw white foam in the mother’s mouth and what looked like a spider bite on her arm. The boy looked up at all the people frantically running past. One man stopped and picked him up into his arms. The kid started kicking and screaming as he was carried away from his unmoving mother.

That man just saved that boy’s life.

Kari realized the child was too young to understand death and probably would have stayed by his mother until the monsters came through and killed him too. It wouldn’t have been a quick kill either. Monsters enjoyed torturing people who could not defend themselves. Whatever the age, gender, or race was, it did not matter. Monsters would fill their prey with fear and pain before they violently killed them.

Kari noticed the boy was looking at her through tear drenched eyes as the man put him over his shoulder and carried the boy to safety. She mouthed the words, “It will be okay,” as she nodded to the child. The man’s selfless action of taking care of the boy reminded her of one of the greatest things about the people of Celestial: whenever you were in trouble, you could always count on the fact that someone would go out of their way to help you. Sometimes you might not even know who the person was.

Every week after Kari’s father had left and her mother was in her eternal state of depression, someone left a basket of fruit and a case of milk on their doorstep once a week. Kari had always wanted to find out who that person was, but she never did. The anonymous donor was a hero to her.

In Celestial, people treated others as they wanted to be treated. Preparing meals for the sick, giving them some of their gold, and spending time with elderly to hear their stories was what the people of Celestial did. It was a city of good deeds. Celestial was like a brotherhood, just like the warriors were known to be. Everyone stuck up for one another and everyone loved each other. Being a part of the brotherhood was like an unbreakable bond.

The city wasn’t perfect of course, nothing was. For every eight or nine people, there might be one person who wasn’t a role model citizen, but even gruff people like that contributed in their own way. They may not have liked intimacy with people like everyone else, but they were the ones who hated monsters more than anything. If a monster was hurting a citizen of Celestial, they would be the ones brave enough to protect the person.

Kari shuffled through the loosening crowd, when a spider jumped at her from behind one of the large wooden vendor carts. She instinctively fell backwards to the stone plaza floor while pulling back the bowstring, releasing her notched arrow into the hairy gray and black spider’s six-eyed face before her butt even hit the ground. Kari got up, loaded another arrow, and pressed on. She left the plaza and started to take the quickest route of roads that would lead to her apartment.

Down the road, about fifty meters from where she was, Kari saw a dog run out of a side alley with two of her litter wide-eyed and trailing behind her. An average litter usually consisted of six to eight puppies. Kari didn’t want to think what had happened to the missing ones. The mother navigated aimlessly, lost in the confusion of the surrounding noise. It didn’t matter where she ran, no place was safe.

A medium-sized boulder crashed through a nearby building. The poor dog was hit by one of the tumbling stones. Kari watched as it lay injured in the street, motionless, as her puppies nudged their mother with wet noses. Her breathing was shallow and her heavy eyelids blinked less and less until they didn’t open anymore. The puppies looked at their mother’s stomach, expecting to see it rise in inhalation of another breath, but it never did. One of the puppies lay down and curled up on the ground in between the mother’s arms and legs. The other was not convinced she was gone and trotted around to her face. He lightly head-butted her muzzle, but there was still no movement. He, too, realized she was dead and snuggled up under her chin.

Didn’t I just see the same thing happen with the little boy in disbelief at the death of his spider-bitten mother?
How many innocent people have been killed? How many children have lost their parents? How many parents have lost their children? That is even worse. Parents should never have to watch their child die before them and in violent pain nonetheless. No one is exempt from monster attacks, person or animal alike.

Monsters are on a mission. A mission to breach the city, gain control, and keep control. They will kill every living, breathing, moving thing in the city, down to the last insect if that is what it takes for them to succeed in their goal.

Kari made a promise to herself that she would not become a victim like so many of the people (and animals) she had seen die today.

It would turn out that her promise would be upheld. She would be one of the few lucky ones to keep her life on this tragic day. But it wouldn’t be easy. As if the past hour of Kari’s day wasn’t bad enough, things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Chapter 20

Kari’s small apartment was not far from where she watched the dog die and the puppies mourn. She lived above the restaurant where she worked. The owner of the building was a friend of the family. He was a second cousin to her mother and aunt. He knew of Kari’s rough life experience and allowed her to stay in the empty apartment for a generous rent.

Kari figured she would be safe at home. She would lock and bar the doors while she hoped and prayed the warriors could hold off the monster attack. She had to slightly change her path, since parts of a broken building blocked the street in front of her. At least she was close to home and knew this area well. Many people who had been visiting had no idea where to go. They were lost in a foreign city. Civilians were stopping and giving the visitors quick directions or leading them back to their own houses for shelter.