Restless - Chapter 8

AN: 3/4

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We stepped into the building, Moll leading the way as she burned through the meat webbing all over the place. The lobby was extremely simple. There were no motifs or artistic reliefs along the walls like I’d seen in Slarin Republic architecture. Only a simple wooden building with a simple wooden teller’s booth.

 The villains looked way too complacent as we headed for the far side, though I couldn’t necessarily blame them. This would probably be the easiest bank heist of their careers.

The casual ease in which they cleaned out the Shiev suggested as much, at least… I shudder to think what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been there. I’d have been overwhelmed and slaughtered by the shambling corpses.

Clyde motioned for me to come forward as he stopped before a locked door leading back into the bank. “Come break this.”

“Right.” I shuffled forward and grabbed the handle. After the latest showing, I was much more willing to follow their commands. I wound myself up and stepped back before launching my shoulder into the door. With a sharp crack, the door flung open and I stumbled into a hallway.

We headed down the short hallway, arriving before a thick vault door. It looked extremely solid; the kind that would be hard to bust into without the right kinds of tools. Then again, I knew nothing about bank robbing. I wasn’t quite sure what the right kinds of tools even were to begin with.

As soon as Moll saw the vault door, she practically skipped to it. She immediately gathered up her flame, turning it into one narrow pinprick of light so bright it hurt to look at. The flame only intensified as she carefully angled it at the vault door. “I’ll be through in a couple minutes.”

“C’mon, Jasper. Lots go see if the tellers left any cash up there.” Clyde headed back the way we came.

I glanced over my shoulder one last at Moll before following the face-changing villain back into the bank. We spent a while checking various offices and rooms, looking for any speck of money. Clyde snatched up anything we found, storing it all in one of our duffles. 

By the time we were done looting, a thunderous clang came from below, followed by a gleeful shout. “We’re in!”

Clyde glanced at me calmly. Then, before either of us could say anything, he jumped over the second-floor balcony railing and raced for Moll and the vault. I followed after him, taking the stairs like a sane person.

As soon as I neared the vault, I could tell something was wrong. Moll knelt on the ground, staring into the vault from the doorway. “No, no, no-no no!”

”Darn it!” Clyde hollered as he stepped past her and entered the vault. 

I slid in, catching sight of what they saw. The back side of the vault had been smashed in, creating a hole big enough for someone to squeeze through. The vault itself was entirely smashed up, with every bit of loot snatched away.

Whoever did this must've used a giant weapon to get these kinds of impacts. A bladed one at that based on the clean cuts through metal. Maybe some kind of large sword or axe?

”Why?! This was supposed to be our way out!” Moll stood up, slamming her fist into the metal wall.

Clyde sighed, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he tipped his hat to cover his face. “Is the item gone?”

“‘Course it is. Why would they leave it? Darn it!” Moll sighed, staring at the emptied vault. "Think our client hired others?"

"Possibly."

I moved into the room, looking at the breach. It wasn’t nearly as smooth as Moll’s entrance. The metal walls were caved in and cut up. It looked as though someone extremely strong hit the wall till it caved in. I walked over, looking at the metal. 

Clyde asked. “What do we want to do? Can’t very well go back to the client empty-handed now.” 

“I know that- can we find the thieves- no, they’ll be long gone by now. No tellin’ how long ago this place was breached.” Moll’s voice dripped with frustration.

I looked over the metal again, my eyes catching on a few splotches of bright red reflecting slightly off of Moll’s light. Blood. It was dry, though not yet discolored. Looked as though someone cut themselves on the sharp metal. “Um- guys? There’s blood.”

Clyde cut off whatever he was about to say and moved up alongside me. He crouched down, running a finger over a splotch of dry blood. “Still wet... might've happened just before we left the sewers."

Moll’s face lit up with hope. “Might still be in the area.”

”Are we going to chase them?” I asked as I stared at the back alley on the other side of the caved-in wall. 

“Don’t have much of a choice. We need this money to move onto somewhere safer.” Moll sighed deeply, seeming to have an internal conflict. “Clyde?”

”Let’s go. We blew too much on bribes and equipment to get Jasper out. Unless we want to go back into town and pick up minimum wage jobs?” He phrased it as a question, but his tone made it clear where he stood on that particular sentiment.

Clyde led the way out of the bank's vault and out into an alley. One side was a dead end, so it was easy to find which way they went. At least, until we hit an open road. Tracking was about to become quite a bit more complicated. 

I didn’t even want to think about what’d happen if- when we met up with the other thieves. I froze up shooting at monsters, but people? I- I don’t have it in me to commit murder. Maybe I’d get lucky and we wouldn't even find the other group?

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as though luck was on my side. Clyde crouched down near a set of footprints in bloodied mud. “C’mon, this way.”

We moved on, stopping as the trail went cold once more… only for Moll to sniff out freshly spilled blood around the block. We stumbled across a rather recent scene of slaughter. It seemed whoever we chased ran afoul of a whole pack of Shiev. 

Clyde picked up a shell from the ground, rolling it between his thumb and finger. He brought it up to his nose. “Gunpowder smells recent. They just came through here.”

”Over there!” Moll pointed to an alleyway. “The webbing is cut.”

Just as we were about to make our move for the cut webbing, gunshots echoed from close by. A feral scream rose into the air as several shouts of alarm followed. The scream was so loud and overwhelming that it caused my head to ache in pain.

“Th-think it's them?” I asked.

“It might could be…” Clyde replied as he took a few steps forward. He paused, glancing back to Moll and the alley. “C’mon, dear. High chance the thieves are the ones fightin’.”

Moll sighed and turned to follow us to the firefight. “You always did love gamblin’.”

“Always bet on Clyde.” The man smirked. Or, at least, his eyes pulled back into an expression reminiscent of a smirk as the rest of his face hid under the bandana.

We moved down the streets, coming across what looked like a large town square centered around a fountain. A group of people stood all around the town square, fighting off a swarm of Shiev and protecting three people in particular.

Those three fought a massive abomination of a creature standing in the middle of a broken fountain. Water constantly surged up as if of its own free will, launching blast after blast of high pressure up into the abomination. The water followed the movements of a man off to the side.

Meanwhile, a man with a giant axe and a red aura surrounding his body cleaved repeatedly into the abomination. And lastly, a woman unloaded round after round into the creature with a large gun operated by a crank.

The creature they fought was something straight out of a nightmare. It had three heads, each twisted into grotesque expressions. A crying face constantly dripped fluid out of its eyes. Said fluid sizzled and burned as it dropped into the water below. A laughing face maniacally laughed, each grotesque ‘ha’ sending a bolt of pain through my head. A face twisted in anger seemed to control the rest of the body.

And what a body it had. Standing at least three times as tall as the axe-wielding man, it had four muscle-bound arms it used to attack. Thick plates of bone covered the creature as if plate armor, blocking the majority of the bullets coming from the crank gun. 

In two hands, it wielded what looked like a spire from the top of a church, swinging it like a massive mace. Its other two hands had massive claws dripping a pitch-black substance. The axe-wielder was very careful to dodge every attack that came from the claws.

”W-hat the hell is that?” I asked as I took a step back. Cold fear raced through every fiber of my being. I- I needed to get out of her. To flee- there was no fighting such an abomination-

Clyde pulled me back into an alley and mostly out of sight. Moll quickly followed as we observed the fight. ”That, my dear boy, would be a Gave Knight.”  

Grave Knight. Right, the monster they talked about earlier. The one they didn’t want to run into. Oh Great Lord! What are we supposed to do? What hellish abomination could put fear in a woman who could literally burn through metal with nothing but her hands?!

“What’s the plan?” Moll asked. “Only a matter of time before it rips this group to shreds.”

”Think they’re our thieves?” Clyde asked. Before he even got his answer, he continued. The axe-wielder matched the destruction back at the vault.“The item should be on one of three. No way they’d leave it to one of their entourage.”

“W-we should leave, right?” I spoke up, flinching back as the angry head spat out a thick glob of poison at the gunner. It hit her directly as she failed to dodge, instantly blackening half her body. She screamed in agony for a few moments before going entirely still.

Oh Great Lord!

Her screams drew some of the fighters' attention. Specifically, the ones fighting off the approaching mass of Shiev. In a mere moment, two of them were swarmed and ripped to shreds as the cost of their distraction. Bloodied screams rang out before being cut off with bloody squelches-

Oh Great Lord, give me strength. I bowed my head in abject terror. My limbs shook roughly, fighting against my control. There was no way I was getting out of this alive. That- that monstrous beast could easily put me in the ground, where I’d inevitably turn into one of these cursed Shiev. I’d die far, far from home. I wouldn’t even get a proper cremation!

Why was I even here? I wasn’t Herald material in the first place-

A hand clapped my shoulder, pulling me back from my spiraling thoughts. “You with us, son?” 

“Y-yeah.” I bit back the rising bile in my stomach as I tried to control my shaking limbs with limited success. “Yeah, I- I’m with you.” 

“Good. Good. Just listen to my voice and you’ll be fine, okay?” Clyde’s voice was like a solid anchor in the middle of a storm, strong and yet calm. He still had that twinkle in his eye even when faced with the scene before us.

I took a moment to breathe and blink back tears. “W-what do you n-need me to do?”

”Good lad. Moll and I will go help with the Grave Knight. Take the chance to run over and check the gunner for a small silver statue. If she has it, run back to this alley. If not… still, run back here, okay?”

”I’ll keep the horde off ya’ too, so just do your job. Got it?” Moll asked. As I looked up to her, I noticed she had changed quite a bit from moments ago. Gone was the joking aunt who’d been with me the entire journey. In her place stood a soldier forged by many battles. It gave me some hope I might get out of this.

Run… right. I was good at running. Just like courier work, right? I took several dizzying breaths as I tried to calm myself down. Just like back with the shades. Dodge the danger and get where I need to go. I closed my eyes, finding an inner strength. My job wasn’t even that hard. "Got it."