The Golden Shadow: Grisly Discoveries

Another side story, good one, though.

Blood hung stubbornly among the walls, staining the darkened gray of the bricks.  It infected the neat indents that lined each brick immaculately, crusted crimson reluctant to disappear.  The bodies that accompanied that blood were almost decomposed, as if they'd been sitting there for quite a long time.  The distinct stench of decay hung in the air as well, looming over the scene, making its edge that much more gruesome.  This was the scene of a massacre, and not one but fifty bodies littered the hallway.  Bodies split almost in half, limbs twisted the wrong way, making some of the corpses seem mangled and gnarled.

Tyler was crouched in front of a particular corpse that he recognized from many years ago, though the decomposition was slow, this one had aged rather quickly, leaving a few superfluous bones to sit showing under the dusty dim lighting.  The insignia of the Golden Legion covered what flesh there was left of the right arm and a frown slowly tugged at the corners of the General's mouth.

Something had been unleashed in this hallway, and whatever it was, it had been dwelling here uncontested for the longest time.  Truth be told, this actually scared Tyler, which was an uncomfortable turn in his stomach indeed.

There was another stench in the stale are other than decay, and it was one of a sweat and blood, melded together to form a symphony of senses and emotions.  The swirl of functions sickened the experienced soldier and he felt his stomach tighten and loosen, bringing bile to his mouth and causing him to turn and let it go.

Why am I getting riled up like this...it's as if I've never seen death before when my life is surrounded by it...  Wiping vomit from his chin, Tyler turned back to the corpse of his old friend and finally stood, looking around the hallway at the others.

No wonder it caught my fancy...I'm so surrounded by this so often it's just natural for me to be drawn to it.

His eyes came to rest on the door at the end of the bloodied hallway and his mouth quirked slightly.  He heard...whispers, sounding as though they were carried by the wind...but there was no wind.  This hallway was completely closed off to any kind of exits or entrances other than the doors on each end of it.  Most disconcerting.  There were no windows, no missing bricks, just death and decay.

Cautiously, Tyler's hand moved to the handle of his rifle and he pulled it from his shoulder to rest the butt stock against his shoulder, other hand on the barrel guard.  His breath flitted from his mouth and nose in white streams of nervous flow.

It was unsteady, and he could hear it.  Shaky at best.  His hands were steady however, as one foot landed in front of the other silently.  Such was his training that uncertainty required stealth and silence.  It wouldn't do him any good to go rushing into a door of unknown contents.

Maybe it would have been better for Isaac to come with me this time.  The one time I tell him and Stacey to stay, I end up a nervous wreck...

Finally, he reached the door and stopped with his hand only millimeters from the cold metallic knob.  Eyes closed he focused his feelings on this single moment.  He'd traveled through various halls of the same degree of grisly bloodshed already, this had to be the door to what had caused such gruesome hell.

Taking a deep breath his hand finally contacted the cold aluminum, twisting it.  The door creaked open, revealing a room of pitch black.

A groan escaped the General's lips and he almost turned around, then stopped himself yet again.  Stop it...you can do this, this can't be scarier than facing Kyle in his demonic form can it?  Nothing seems more horrific than that...yeah...I can do this.

He'd convinced himself and turned around to find himself face to face with a massive eye.  His body froze and his weapon fell out of his hands, clattering to the ground and accidentally discharging, the bullet ripping through his calf.

"Yie s**t!"  He fell backward as a domineeringly ear-piercing roar escaped the room in front of him.

Nuh-uh...no way, not doing it...Then again, if I don't, this damn thing's going to burst through that door and take me with it...

"Well...here goes nothing..."

His arm swooped back again, his fingers wrapping themselves around the dai-katana at his back.  The eye emerged again and the blade was slipping into the pupil, spraying blood all over the General covering him completely.  Another roar, this time an angry one.

Tyler stood with his mouth hanging open in shock.  "Gross..." he muttered and wiped blood from his eyes so he could open them.  Flicking the blood off his fingers caused a slimy wet sound to emit from the impact.

So much for showering before coming in here...now I'm gonna have to take another one.

Suddenly a wind picked up, going toward the room, not away from it.

"Oh...you've got to be---"  Before the sentence was finished, Tyler found himself being sucked into the room to hit the disgustingly slimy floor.  This caused him to slide to the other side of the room, katana still in hand.  When he hit the wall, it felt like flesh.  "That's not right..."

Torches flared up among the walls and he turned his head to look at why the wall was so fleshy only to let out a surprised cry to find it covered in corpses, the floor covered in a glossy carpet of blood and innards.

The General let out a nervous and amused laugh.  "Oh this is the best day of my life!" he cried sarcastically to the beat whose enormous claws was coming right for him.

"Oh great...now it wants to eat me..."  Dodging  nimbly to the right he ended up in a kneeling position, only to flip over a low tail swipe and bring a slash right toward the furry serpent of an appendage.  Managing to sever a segment of the tail, he grabbed onto something attached to the wall, completely forgetting what was actually there.  He now hung several feet off the ground and turned again to look at his secure handhold only to find it to be a severed leg.

"Ew...wah!"  He let go of it in disgust only to fall and land on his rear end on the bloodied ground.  "Ouch...this is not my day...Um...s**t..."  The claw came again, this time too quickly for him to move out of the way and it caught him, slamming him against a bare segment of wall.

Tyler's eyes widened as he felt several of his bones break.  Eyes bulging he let out a loud scream of utter pain and watched the beasts jaws come closer to his face.  I hope his breath's not as bad as his bite...And I've been avoiding the use of magic so far.

Rolling his eyes several rays of light burst from his body, severing the beast's hold on him as the claw exploded in a shower of crimson, covering the warrior even more.  "God...how many times are you going to bleed on me?" he commented, that same light healing his bones.  While the beast was blinded with a claw over its eyes he walked over and picked up his dai-katana, strolling over to the beast's leg and severing it in a flash of steel.

Another roar, this one agonizing, and the beast toppled over, landing on top of him.

GOD DAMN IT!  STOP DOING THAT! he thought maliciously feeling even more bones break.  This time only a healing light engulfed him and he pushed the enormous body off of him effortlessly.  Standing he stared down at the squirming monstrosity bringing an end to its suffering by sliding his blade through its jugular and bringing it out to the left, severing the skull and brain.

"Stop bitching!"

Another wave of pain as a blade pierced his back and burst out his front.  Oops...gave myself away...  His face was a snarling grimace now as he felt the familiar sensation of a tongue on his neck.  Only one person would lick blood off his body and that was...

"So nice to see you gain, Tyler..."

Shaking his head, Tyler grabbed the blade that was protruding out his stomach and yanked it further forward, bringing his attacker's body against his.  "Hi, Jennifer...how's your day?"  A painful grunt as she removed the blade finally.  Blood stained his shirt and he hacked up more of it, another healing light lightly covering his body.

Now I've expended too much energy...can't heal anymore...damn it...  He felt Jennifer's foot contact the back of his head and he went sliding forward, face in the bloody ground.  "This day keeps getting better and better..." came his muffled voice.

"I'm sure it does..." Jennifer stated grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling his head back, crimson dripping off her glade while she licked it clean.  "I thought your guard was better than that."

"It is, but my recovery of advantages is much better..."  His head came back further, slamming into her nose and knocking her off of him.  Before she'd even hit the ground, he was up and spinning her around by the ankle.

"Just say when..." he said to her.  "Hurry up before I get too dizzy to chuck you across the room."  When she said nothing he let go and watched her fly head first into the wall.  The sound of bones crunching against brick made him wince and he saw more blood being added to the already crusted over wall.

"Ew...that's just f*****g gross..."

Shaking his head, Tyler picked up his blade and was about to walk away when something else contacted his back, knocking him into the wall next.  But he hit even harder than Jennifer had and his nose gave an audible crack, blood streaming down his mouth and chin.  "WHAT NOW!?" He cried and turned around to see Kyle standing there.  "Figured you were behind this..."

"Don't worry, you won't be fighting me to the death today..."

"What's that supposed---"  Kyle already had him by the hair and his head back against the wall.  Tyler felt his skull crack and his eyes went wide with stunned pain.

"It means that you'll be too broken to even move!"  This time a fist contacted his right cheek so hard that he felt the bone there give way as well and blood shot from his mouth as he toppled over.  With no time to rest, he was launched across the room again to hit the floor where it wasn't wet and skid across that area.  This skin was scraped from his front side as he attempted to recover.

The recovery didn't go so well as Kyle steel-toed foot broke three of his ribs and sent him into the wall where his spine suffered some pain as well.

Now paralyzed, Tyler only stared at Kyle through burst blood vessel filled eyes, crimson leaking from the back of his head, nose, mouth and front.

Kyle looked down upon the broken General and shook his head.  "Til next time, Pyromaniac."

Tyler closed his eyes and let out a small breath, still unable to move.  He heard Kyle's steps retreating away from the room and heard more entering at a dead run.  The familiar sound of Isaac slipping and falling with an exaggerated grunt made him want to laugh despite his pain.

"Tyler..."

"It's okay..." Tyler whispered to Stacey as she spoke.  "I'll be fine..."

Author's Note

Um... reviews? Plox?