Chapter 37: Doctor strange

They had been killing people here. Our people. 

I had no idea what kind of use the hospital served for them. All I knew for a fact was that these corpses were people from earth. They were blessed. 

My grip around the weapons tightened. This was wrong, so very wrong. There was no rhyme or reason to the madness. Did the outsider brainwash them? What could be the reason for killing your own country men in a place where everything was already trying to kill you?

I’d been reluctant to kill these traitors, for nothing. They were nothing more than monsters in dire need of slaying. 

I picked up the pace, cushioning each step so as to not make any unnecessary noise. I needed to hear her approach if I wanted to have a chance. She greatly outclassed me when it came to physical attributes, that much was clear from our short scuffle.

Her scurrying steps sounded like an abnormally large rat running around, bare feet slapping against concrete. Maybe she thought not wearing shoes would make her more quiet, maybe she did it for her blessing. There were plenty of good reasons to not wear shoes. Except for the quiet one. If she did it to sneak better, then she’d made a huge mistake. As she began to sweat, her feet stuck to the floor, creating more noise than she would have with a soft pair of shoes.

She wasn’t in the same room as me, that was for sure, but she was never far, not with the plethora of open options lining the walls to my sides. She could pop out behind me at any time. That is, if she knew where I was. 

I glanced down at the bed closest to me, it had four wheels with a small brake attached to the ones pressed up against the wall. “Sorry,” I whispered, then undid the brakes. I placed it in the middle of the room. The bed was well-kept despite its age, the traitors must have taken good care of the place. Much better than anyone took care of the rest of the city. 

I activated burst and sent the bed rolling through the narrow path in the middle of the room. It stayed true to my aim, barrelling toward the wall with a terrifying speed. I could hear nothing but the small wheels hurriedly spinning, like the wheels of a shopping cart. It smashed into the wall with a clamour, tipping over and sending the corpse tumbling to the ground with a fleshy thud.

The woman’s skittering footsteps picked up the pace, hurrying toward the noise. 

She burst through the middle door with her back turned to me. 

I smirked, “Gotcha.” 

The bullet tore through the air in an instant. But so did the third man. 

I didn’t see much of him except the fact that he blocked the bullet with a massive arm, letting the flames eat him up without any resistance. His low pitched wail rolled through the hospital like a growl. 

Behind the fireball, a shadow flittered, rushing to the main corridor.

“No you don’t!” I growled and raced sidewards while reloading the wand. 

I met the woman’s crazed stare in the middle corridor. Her blonde hair had grown disheveled in our short scuffle from earlier, the hair that still remained that was. A large bald spot of reddened skin covered the side of her head, trailing all the way down to her cheek. 

Her grip around the axe handle tightened enough that her knuckles whitened as she nervously glanced to the hospital wing. She chewed on her lips, muttering, “Why did he have to make a mess… He won’t… He can’t…” 

I chambered the bullet, the wand clicking mechanically. 

She turned to me, using her free hand to pull at the remainder of her hair. Strands of it came loose by the roots, exposing agitated red spots on her scalp. “The doctor won’t like that. No he won’t,” she whispered, her eyes moving to something behind me. She flinched, and looked down as if in shame. 

I groaned, and activated the embroidery on my armour. 

He’s behind me, isn’t he? I thought with a sigh as the arms constricted around me. 

His punch hit me like a freight train, sending me barrelling toward the crazed woman. She flinched, and looked at with a wide smile blooming on her face, spreading her arms as if to welcome me with an embrace. 

The punch didn’t hurt as much as the force warranted, the armour really was worthy of its Foretold rank. 

Midair, I whipped the wand toward the woman and fired one handed. Her smile faded in the instant before she burst into flames—and her scream was cut short as my burst empowered flying kick hit her straight in the chest. 

Her ribs caved in under my foot, I could feel them crack and give way. All of that was great, dealing with her left me with one less problem. But it also came with its own set of difficulties; the largest one being that we were still hurtling through the air like a comet. And that I happened to be stuck in the very much burning tail of said comet. 

The fire singed at the hair on my body and made my eyes dry up. My torso was well protected by the armour, but the rest of my body wasn’t as lucky. If it wasn’t for burst empowering me, I probably wouldn’t have made it out. 

We crashed into the wall with a loud crack, smoke trailed behind us, filling up the corridor completely. 

The woman was positively dead, no light shone in her eyes, neither mad nor sane. Her chest had been completely obliterated, a large piece of it was missing entirely. My boots were completely covered in her gore. I winced. I had slammed into the wall with my feet first, absorbing most of the impact. The very fact that they didn’t break was amazing, and I would have revelled in the fact if they didn’t hurt as if they had. I rolled to my back with a groan, taking in the view of the corridor upside down. 

Thundering footsteps rushed toward me. The figure of the man pushed through the thick tapestry of smoke and smouldering pieces of her body we left in our wake. I sucked in a breath of air and rolled through the closest door, just in time to avoid the doctor’s devastating tackle. 

What little remained of the woman’s chest shattered completely, sending pieces of her exploding in every direction, bathing the corridor in a thin layer of bloody mist.

The doctor turned to me, making me flinch as I crawled backwards to the wall.

“That’s not right…” I muttered. 

There were so many things off about him that I didn’t know where to start. He had multiple arms on one side, each cradling its own surgical tool, pliers, scalpels, a bedpan… On the other side, a multitude of limbs fused into one chimeric monstrosity of an arm. It bled on the floor from the stumps where fingers had been before he faced the brunt of my wand’s explosive ammo. The skin still smoked. 

He pierced me with his bespectacled eyes. No words had to be said, I knew from the look alone that there would be no talking to the man. He reminded me of the hag in a very unpleasant way. Only, she seemed more talkative. 

With a snort, he surged toward me, leaving cracks in the floor where his feet smashed down. 

I lunged to the side, just barely dodging his charge. He struck against the wall with enough force that his head peeked out to the street. 

I scrambled to my feet and rummaged through the satchel for another bullet. It was empty enough that I had to scrape my hand against the fabrics. 

Please don’t let it be empty!

My heart jumped to my throat as I finally felt the reassuring cold of a bullet brush against my fingertips. I chambered it with shaky hands and turned. The doctor squirmed to push himself loose. His hands pressed against the wall to pry his head free. 

I clicked the chamber shut and fired. The bullet tore through the air with a resounding boom, bursting into flames around his midsection. He screamed, the low thrum of his voice making the windows shake. I grinned, it was short lived. 

As the flames died down, it felt like cold water poured over me. He was practically fine. Even with his skin set ablaze, his body barely received any damage. 

“Shit,” I mumbled and rummaged my hand through the bag, my heart sinking when I didn’t find anything. 

I swallowed and cursed under my breath, turning me heel to run. This wasn’t a place I wanted to be. That much I was sure of. 

I tied a few tripwires in the doorway—one of them at neck level. 

It worked once already, might as well try again. 

The doctor roared and tore himself free of the concrete prison. His previously emotionless face burned with rage and a broken pair of glasses. I flinched as he stepped toward me. I glanced up, about one and a half metres above my head, the hole in the roof let in rays of light. I bent my knees and activated burst to jump. To my elaation, I more than reached the hole. 

Half my upper body shot through like a rocket. I clawed at the roof to stop myself from falling down again, just barely managing. The cold sheet metal was slippery, but with burst I managed to force shallow indentations into the roof, deep enough that I could pull myself up.

My arms strained, the jagged edge of the broken roof tore into my armour. “Come on!” I growled. 

His thick mass of hands wrapped around my leg like a constricting snake. I don’t know if it was me or Sera, but the armour activated just in time before he smacked me against the floor, knocking the wind out of my lungs. 

I saw stars, but I was alive—for now. To my side the threads I left as tripwires had been torn apart. They dangled, gently swaying a breeze of wind rustled through the building.

He pressed me into the floor with his entire weight, his disproportionately small face coming close to mine. His skin was silky smooth like a doll’s. 

No matter how I struggled I couldn’t push him off. I stabbed with Silent scream, feeling the embroidery activate time and time again as it dug deep into him, but he didn’t make a sound. Not even as my face became painted in his blood. 

He snorted, tired of my resistance and pinned my arms to the ground with ease, he still had arms to spare. 

“Get off!” I wheezed.

He grunted and stood up, lifting me by the arms. 

I activated burst, trying to rip my arms free until the recoil of overusing magic pressed down on me like an anvil. There was no way out of his vice-like grip. I gritted my teeth, readying myself for what was to come, when runes swirled to life behind him. 

Threshold reached. 

My vision glazed over, I blinked manically until I regained my wits. I wasn’t in the doctor’s grip anymore. I was in a room of complete darkness. The only figure apart from mine was Sera’s. Her white skin made for a stark contrast in the darkness. 

“What’s going on?!” I demanded and jogged to her. 

“I don’t know,” she said, anxiously looking around. There was nothing here, nothing but darkness. Not even runes swirled around in the veil like I’d grown used to. In fact; there was no veil. 

Her figure blurred invitingly, I reached my hand forward. “What are you doing?!” she asked, offended. 

I tried to pull back, but my hand didn’t listen. It continued toward her as if pulled in by a magnet. Above, a pale blue thread unfurled, coming at a stop at chest level. It coiled around us, pulling us closer to each other, binding us together. The fiery light in her eyes faltered, and sent a wisp of red soaring to mine. Her lips trembled, eyes widening. 

Fear. 

“Stop!” she demanded. 

But I wasn’t doing anything. I too struggled to free myself, only to feel her warm breath waft against my face as we pressed into each other. 

The wisp of red brushed against my face. “Shit,” I growled. My eyes felt as if on fire. It hurt so bad I wanted to scratch them out. 

I blinked in a craze, hoping it would help alleviate the pain. With each blink, Sera’s figure faded, the surrounding room regained its colour. Soon, the emotionless face of the doctor welcomed me again. 

To my despair, the veil that I’d grown so used to seeing dissipated into nothing before my very eyes. Then, to my elation, it rebuilt itself anew, deep crimson strings intermixed with the blue to create a violet weave. 

The blue strings occupied space, the red surrounded beings. And the doctor, he had an awful lot of them, so did my charred hand. It looked like the same material the runes were formed out of. 

As my eyes brushed past them, I instinctively knew what they were. 

Thread of the old weave

Description: A thread made out of primordial weave. The thread is primitive and volatile, created with unfiltered chaos. The weave of olde is the very cornerstone on which the veil was built. 

Updating… 

… Though the primordial may be fickle, it is impressionable. Only those loved by the magick of olde may bend the threads to their liking without facing the consequences. The threads can store effects, if they are stable enough.

Embroidery: Rune crafting

Stored effects: None. 

I struggled to breathe. There was a lot to unpack, but now was a very bad time to do so. In a desperate gamble I flicked my wrist to pull at a deep crimson thread that connected me to the doctor. 

Immediately I could feel how the weight of overexertion settled. It felt like something was trying to tear me apart from the inside. 

Red hot blood poured out of my eyes, nose, and ears. Then, everything went white, not from the overexertion. That feeling came from the inside. 

This… this definitely came from the outside. 

My shoulder jerked back as if kicked by a mule, the doctor’s grip loosened. 

I was overcome by the familiar sensation of hurtling through the corridor once more, then came the impact as I smashed into the wall; without skin stitching aiding me. 

I groaned and tried to move, but my body didn’t listen. My vision burned white and hot as a high pitched ring drowned out all sounds of the world. 

All I could hope for, as my consciousness rapidly faded, was that the doctor fared the same as I.