Chapter 34

"Shit," Rose snarled, yanking her radio from her belt. "Got some coming in from the shopping center."

After a few seconds of silence, Rhett replied, "More sound will draw more of them. Try to keep quiet till they pass. I should have thought of that. The bomb was quite a loud one."

"It's good these damn things are idiots."

"Idiots with a taste for human blood."

"How goes the searching, did y'all find a building?"

"Clearing it right now."

"Good. Talk to you soon, Rhett."

Sounds to the dead seemed to be similar to gravitation. The more sound, the harder the pull. If the main herd managed to turn back around, It'd all get worse very quick.

Rose climbed down the ladder that led to the roof, nodding to Karthas as she dropped. "Inventory?"

"Enough guns to recall the horde, but we are struggling with food."

"Rations?"

"We need to institute them now. 2 meals per day."

"Agreed. We'll do that after lunch. We have more dead coming in from the northwest."

"Dammit." The scaled offworlder swore. She tended to do that more than her male counterpart. As the two spoke, Rose heard a bang on the front wall. Formerly made of glass, as a shopping center usually had, now stood a huge metal wall. The sons of Koryph were the ones to set that up, and though it creaked and moaned, it held firm. Even with that horde

"Everyone, please remain calm. Walkers from the west are passing through toward the explosions." She spoke loud enough for all to hear without shouting. They continued on their tasks, if any. Everyone outside of the complex had already been given the rundown. The dead would pass them by, don't draw more. Which was odd because gunshots began to sound outside.

"Rose, we have a situation." Rhett said over the radio she'd already drawn from her belt.

"Yeah we do. What the hell is going on?" Rose and Karthas climbed the ladder to the roof.

"Gunners from the northwest. Coming in droves." More gunshots sounded, and Rose could see some of the dead turn, rather than finish vacating the area. Shit. If the whole herd turned their way, they were seriously fucked.

"I couldn't fly far, but I can get us down," Karthas said, extending her scaled wings. Unfortunately, rather than glide, both girls ended up on the asphalt. The gunshot had hit Karthas square in the chest, and downed her. Rhett called something over the radio, but Rose didn't hear it. The sounds stopped when a boot kicked her in the face.

---

"We have defeated the enemy, without spilling our blood." Victor Cran shouted to his men. Liar. For all Rose knew, her offworld friend was slaughtered. She hadn't seen the Umbrir in the last hour since the Mythborn men stormed the building. "The last vestage of rebellion is gone. Together we will conquer and rebuild this planet." With that all the men raised a fist in the air and shouted.

She'd breifly seen an Umbrir in the mix, near Victor, but the creature had dark gray scales, not the pale color of Karthas.

---

"Fuck," Rhett said alloud. He watched the gunners, now clearly demigods, take Rose and Karthas inside the building. "Shit man. We need to get down there." Rhett said to Judah. He nodded, and the group ran down the stairs, and into the trucks. They started up just fine, so they raced down there.

Once the building was surrounded, Rhett walked down from the shopping mall. There were 14 surrounding the building, armed to the teeth, and a short distance from the building to obtain cover. The guards were once on the roof, but now laid in pools of their own blood, bar one who tried to jump off and land with his powers over wind. One of the snipers downed him, but Rhett put the man out of his misery then and there.

"Demiugods. Face me." He shouted, and would be heard through the front opening of the building.

A man exited, wearing a cloak, hood down. Victor. The others he'd known had described him accurately. "Victor."

"Well now. I see you have me surrounded. How many of your friends would you like beheaded to leave us be?" The man said smoothly.

"Preferably none of them."

"You idiots killed 8 of my men on that roof. And a 9th here." Victor gestured to the corpse Rhett had just put down.

"Why call us idiots? You shot one of us, and captured all of us."

Victor flashed a smile. "So I did, so I did. Regardless, you killed..."

Silence dawned over the group, a rumbling came from the distance. The highway rather than the shopping mall. 2 diesel trucks rolled onto the scene, crushing the corpses that got in the way. Victor had his men bring out several hostages while the teo trucks unloaded.

Thank the gods, Rhett grinned as Jack and the others spilled out of the trucks. "Good to see you in one piece."

"Likewise." Jack nodded, then watched Victor with fire in his eyes. "Me and mine killed a convoy of yours. A convoy."

"All the more reason to execute all of you." Victor said, the grinning gone from before. The prisoners he'd brought out were Karthas and Rose. "They seemed like the proper bargaining chip. They're yours."

The two sons of Arex holding onto them released Rose and Karthas to Rhett and Kal respectively. Karthas had a major wound in her stomach, which was patched up with generic human means. They didnt even let the sons of Aevala at her.

"Leave us. You have your little clique."

"I want Vekka." Kal said, stone cold in his delivery.

"Vekka left. He's letting his comrades know of this victory."

"Oh he's dead wrong." Rbett laughed. Shots rang out behind Victor and his men, and Rhett watched as demigod sons of Arex breached the facility. They were distracted, so Rhett and Jack respectively put a bullet in the heads of two of the men with Victor.

After that, all hell broke loose.

Jack's crew ran for the building, Victor attempted to stab Karthas, and Rhett picked off the men exiting the building. Kal drew a sword, swinging at the crazed mythborn leader, but Victor was faster. He drew a knife, and dissappeared, reappearing behind Kal. What on earth? Victor stuck the knife into Kal's back, and up. Rhett shot the man, but was forced to pick off more as they left Costco.

---

"40 of ours dead," Nova said with an odd solemnity. Not using her powers again, Raven thought.

"How many of them?" Jack asked, shaking his head.

"At least 200. We did well." Nova grinned.

"That still leaves so many." Raven sighed, When will we win? After all that they were left with two Umbrir near death, Cass was dead, Charlie, Ivy. So many.

"They won't stay gone forever. They're scattered and hurt. Bad." Jack said, "We won this."

"Victor's gone." Raven pointed out.

"And Vekka." Nova nodded, "But we can anticipate them."

Raven couldn't help but feel a lack of closure. After everything, Victor didn't pay for his crimes. A shout came from the front door of the warehouse. Nova, Raven, and Jack ran out, weapons drawn.

"Cran." Jack spat. "What are you doing back here."

"Well now, I just figured you thoguht you'd won. I still have 900 men. I could kill all of y-" A bullet cracked through the air. Raven slowly lowered her gun hand, and approached the newly created corpse. He wore several rings, One in particular caught her eye.

"You don't deserve the symbol of my father." The ring in question was one of adamant. She could tell instantly it held power. "What?" Raven asked, staring at her bretheren, who were staring themselves.

Jack pointed past her, so Raven tracked that direction. A very large group of demigods was approaching. The frontmost bore swords, most of the rest remained unarmed. They stopped a good 50 feet from the group.

"I, Callum, son of Vaelix, relinquish my blade, made from the death of 4 innocent demigods. Forgive me." He set the blade down, and took off to the north. The others dropped theirs, stripped their rings, though not all had them. And walked off.

A couple hundred weapons sat in a pile just feet from the group.

"Well. Guess thats that."