The Living, The Dead, And Everything In Between

A Story by Trenom B.Lee

From a time where there are guards, evil monstrosities, taverns, castles. And cars, planes and bustling cities. This is going to be a gory, gut-busting, time-traveling adventure.

The Living, the Dead and Everything In Between

CHAPTER 1

To my teachers who taught me just about everything, I put in this book, besides the gore.

PART I

STARTED Jan 19, 720 AD

EXCALIBUR BAKER

Excalibur Baker murders?

That was the headline of the paper and just because I Excalibur Baker was at the scene makes me the head suspect, the murderer. But here let me tell you what really occurred, I was doing my normal run from my hut in the woods to the tavern in the castle walls for my milk and bread, then boom! A terrible explosion came from GunMans Workshop.

It was a catastrophe, and he was thrown out of the building like a rag-doll. And you know what? I was walking right in front of his deadly landing. I looked right into his eyes, there was a tear and then nothing. He was dead. There were gunpowder and oil all over him.

Sooner or later, right when I was about to start the hike back to my home when the guards came out of the barracks. It was Deja vu, he looked right into my eyes and I was covered in oil and gunpowder from the blast. He called two more guards and they came running out. They grabbed me by the arms. Give or take but they also beat the hell out of me. They threw me as hard as they could into a vault with one other person. This man, I think he is, he was old, like very old and I didn't mean to be rude but, "Excuse me, sir," I whispered, "how old are you?"

“What did you say?” the old man yelled.

I whispered, “How old are you?”

                  Nothing… it was like the man wasn’t listening to me. But I knew he could hear me, every time I said something, he would look over his shoulder and nod. I took a step closer to him and looked over his shoulder. It looked amazing, the sword he was drawing had a perfect edge. And it had engravings up and down the sides of the sword. It was written in ancient Greek though, so I couldn't read it very well, but I thought it said, ooukáνa.

                  “It’s rude to just stare over someone’s shoulder don’t you recognize?” the man reacted, “and it stands for sukana!”

 I was so scared I jumped up and tripped backward.

 "Why make a fool of yourself? Do you not know Greek to English?” he whispered as he turned his head around to look at me.

 "Sorry but I just think that is the most beautiful sword I have ever seen!” I exclaimed.

                  “Yes, and it’s our key out of here.” the old man whispered.

 Then it all unfolded. I did something I had never done before, but I was so eager to get out that I had to. I grabbed the guard and slammed his head as hard as I could on a metal pole, it made that sound that happens when the bell rings in the shops. Deafening. Right before he dropped to the ground as dead as a doorknob. I grabbed a slip of paper. On one side I wrote in Greek because I knew the guard would think that the other guard wrote it. It read, αυτός ο κρατούμενος έχει προγραμματιστεί να φύγει στα 10 τσιμπούρια <this inmate is scheduled to leave in 10 ticks>. Eventually, the guard came.

                       He asked, “Why is this guard knocked down?”

                        “He was drinking too much beer and fell," I replied looking aghast.

                       Without further ado, he unlocked the vault and I was off. As soon as the guard was looking the other way I ran toward the tunnel, fell over myself realizing it was a hole and clearly fell to my death!

                       Surprisingly I survived and fell right next to a table with a chest underneath and a sword on top. And there was a slip of paper, this little slip of paper. It was a little orangish-grey type color with wrinkles and the second I touched the letter it gave a mark of grease. So instead of touching the letter I just read it and it read, thank you for finding the sword for me, now I can retrieve it. And I’m not an old man you arrogant snot. My minions will come to retrieve it and you will find my true form. Take your prize, you will need it if you want to live back up there. �" Hergagorgan.

Damn, I was played, "Well guess what Hergy I'm not going to give the sword up so easily,"

I took the sword and suddenly it shrunk to fit my small hand. In the chest, there was a perfect armor made of silver and it had a fine cloth under armor with a hood and mask. And just as fast as I was filled with joy, I felt darkness faster. I turned around slowly and behind me, there were enough monsters to destroy the whole town. Their mouth glowing with yellow acid leaking out of it.

                       And it was over so quickly. They spit their acid at me, I flung my sword. This happened repeatedly until every… single… monstrosity… was… dead. Out of know where this dark energy overwhelmed me. I dropped to the ground. My head was pounding. And there he was. The Hergagorgan, I could still see the old man.

                       “Why are you doing this!” I screamed like a child.

 "because if they won't let us back up there then I will have to take it from them and this is also why I had to cause that explosion!” Hergagorgan yelled back.

                       “That’s why you’re doing this?” I replied softly, “because you want to live in the tavern?”

                       “yes, and if you’re going to stand in my way than I’m going to have to kill you,” he replied.

                       Then it happened, he extended his arm so long and so fast it went right through me. He lifted me off the floor and looked me right in the eyes. It was the man from the explosion! He threw me to the floor lifeless. I sat there, and everything blacked out.

 But wait if I'm telling you this story than how am I dead?

This all leads to now with me laying on the ground thinking I was dead, but then I found this pure energy inside of me. It was great energy, like the energy that a windmill creates. I snapped to my senses and climbed to my feet at the speed of light. There was nothing, no monsters and no sign of the Hergagorgan. It was pitch black. The only light coming from my armor and sword.

                       One look at all the bloody gore that was on my suit made me faint. I had a dream, it was a weird one because it looked so real. And soon enough I found that it was. I awoke to the loud thunder of a storm. A big demon looking monster, not like any I’ve ever seen. Hey, that's what I ought to name this one, a �"αίμονας (demon).

                       Still being pulled by the �"αίμονας I stayed as quiet as I could hoping it wouldn’t know I awoke. Eventually, it threw me onto a stack of bodies. There was a sign written in blood, Eating Stack, and remember to wash your bloody hands. At the top of the stack, there was a book.

                       I opened the book, on the first page it read, Cookbook 101: Wizards Edition.

                       “Seriously out of all of the books in the fricking universe it gave me a cookbook?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

                       “Where is my cookbook!” I heard scream back, in a voice that sounded familiar.

                       It was Hergagorgan. And I didn’t want any business with him or I’d probably die… again. I picked up the book did a front flip off the tower of bodies and got into a fear sprint.

                       I heard another scream, “Ugh, I know you took my book, Baker if I didn't kill you the first time I’ll make sure I get the job done this time.”

                       That monster is literally insane, definition: foolish, silly, stupid, impractical and senseless. Like its insane that he is running and almost knocking down every tree in sight. Like its insane that he stepped on my house and just kept going. As I was running I started to realize that eventually, I would hit a dead end. So, I stood still and waited for the right moment because I knew that he would be right there. I took out my sword and got ready to do the most dangerous thing I’ve done in my life. He ran straight for me, almost growing to thirty feet tall.

 "I am going to stomp on you fool!"

 We started running toward each other, when I got close enough to him, I tried slicing his foot. He growled and dropped to the ground. Success!

                       “Why did you do that idiot, give me back that book!" Hergy moaned.

                       “it’s just a book!” I yelled up at him, “you don’t really need a cookbook?”

                       And as he shrunk back to normal size, I walked up to him. He got up so I slapped his face so hard there was a red mark. He moaned loudly as he got up with a hand on his hurting face.

        “You will pay for that!” he squealed

                  Right before I responded another giant creature picked me up and threw me face down into the grassy mud. I flipped my hurting body to get a look at the creature when it wasn’t one at all. It looked as if it was an eight-foot man but with two heads and twelve fingers. He came back over for another attack picking me up by the neck. Kicking back and forth I knew I had to stop and relax or else I would be choked to death, so I did. I slowly tried to get to my back pocket hoping this giant wouldn’t notice. Luckily enough it didn’t, I took out my knife, stabbing the man in the stomach.

Blood poured out the man's tan body. He started grunting and his hands relaxed as he fell to the ground. I dropped to my knees. I looked up to see Hergy come walk up to me. He smacked my cheek. It barely hurt because of my armor but still stung. He kicked me over onto my back.

                  “That’s what you get fool!” He yelled, “Don’t ever try to defy me, peasant!"

               I spat blood from my mouth and said, “But I got the book, don’t I? this useless book.” As I held the book in my hand he grabbed my knife from the big man’s dead body.

                  “What are you doing?” I asked.

 "Cutting off your hand," Hergy grunted.

                  And he didn’t lie either he cut my whole hand off my body and my blood sprayed across his face. It was disgusting too, but it was blood so that's kind of normal for blood.

“Yaaaooooowwwch!” I screamed

It burned. It’s as if it was still there on my arm because I could feel the pain. With my bleeding arm and remaining hand, I got up of the ground. I ran away but not before spraying him with my access blood of course! Duh!

PART II

I’ve been thinking, why didn’t I just walk over to the trader and get my milk and bread and go home. Really the reason why this all started is because of me. I’m the one who decided to listen to the old man. I’m the one who found the sword and the letter that magically appeared when I looked at the table. I’m the one who decided to walk right toward the gun shop. I’m the one on the forest floor getting beat like a ragdoll. Don’t ask, I was running, tripped and now getting beat by one of Hergy’s giants. Not to mention I was weak because of my hand. You know the one that got cut off.

After the giant got bored of me and I was on another mad dash for survival. As I was sprinting I saw a portal in the middle of a ravine looking up. It was blue, so I know I was safe. If you don’t mind me explaining but here are the colors of portals along with their meaning, blue (Home), silver (Different kingdom (random)), black (King's palace (Current kingdom)), white (Hell), red (Plague dungeon(self-explanatory)). Yup, it was crazy.

I ran back to a tree and got into position. 1… 2… 3… GO! I ran as fast as I could and jumped falling into the depths of the blue portal. Then I realized… my home just got stomped on a few hours ago.

Jun 19, 2020

FREDRICH BAKER

Ah, the sweet, sweet goodness of summer, no work (for another two months anyway), no hot musty air and cranky machinery, just home. I’m turning thirty tomorrow; it’s going to be great. Well not that I’m older that’s not so good, but cake always tasted great! I’m walking down the street right now going home but the strangest thing is happening. It seemed as if a man is falling out of some type of blue portal; he was wearing fine silver armor with silk clothes underneath like a knight. I have seen some weird stuff in PORTAL 2 but don't you think that a knight falling out of a portal in the middle of Brooklyn is awfully strange?

Out of all the people on the street, he came up to me and said,

“Excuse me?”

"yes?" I responded. "What?"

"What's the date?"

Who asks what's the date to a person? They could just go on their phones. But I still told him anyway.

“Do you have a home?” he asked next.

I said, “pretty sure yeah. Why? If you want mister, you can come over and I will make you a cup of coffee.”

“coffee?”

“yeah coffee, you know what that is?”

“I do not.”

"well, I insist you come to my… uh… home."

"Thank you" he replied thankfully.

That was the last thing he said for a while. I was walking home with him in front and I noticed a particular book in the back of his pocket. I just tried to ignore it for now, but later this man needed some questioning.

At last, we got to my house after a long walk from this man’s drop site, I had told him that in the morning he would be explaining all of this to me. He had responded with the all enthusiastic “ok”. Really after all this, I'm just hopeful that he talks English. My family heritage did come from Greece, but I don’t know very much of its language.

Once we woke up I put some coffee on the pot. Ah coffee my favorite drink, it’s nice and smooth and it sure does help with sore throats all right, it is much, much better than tea! Eventually, he also woke up, so I started a conversation.

“First question, what’s your name?” I asked

“Excalibur," he burped

"Um ok that an awfully old name," I muttered quietly

"Second question, why the hell do you have a cookbook?"

He responded with, "It's not, that's just what the cover says."

"Strange."

"Don't ask me! I'm not the one who titled it, all I know is that it’s very important to someone bad and I was in my time trying to stop it, but I jumped through a blue portal that was supposed to take me home but made me come here and at first, I was drawn to your location. I was arrested back in my time and then I fell down a cave and found this armor and some clothing along with a sword. Anyway, after that, this demon-like creature took me and threw me on a stack of dead bodies and I found this book which then the bad guy wanted, I thought it was stupid because at first, I thought it was also a cookbook like you. I think I was sent here because you may be someone I’m related too, and the universe wanted me to get you and train you because the fate of the earth and maybe the universe could be at stake here! Did I mention that I had to kill a lot of people and I mean a lot!”

“I think you had too much coffee” I replied before fainting.

I awoke to the sound of my face being slapped.

“Ow!” I yelled, “what was that for!”

"Sorry but you've been nocked out for about an hour," Excalibur responded

“I’ve got to come up with a different name for you!” I yelled, “I’m sorry but it just to long!”

“Fred?” He asked casually.

“No,” I said swiftly, “that’s my name!”

“Sam?”

“Sure, that sounds alright," I responded.

"Great."

4 Hours Later

We had left the house to go on a walk so Sam could explain more of this fate of the universe stuff, then it hit me, I wrote a book 3 years ago about the universe. After I thought about it a little more and started to think. Since Sam isn't from this time wouldn't he eventually faze out or maybe even die? So, I know a little bit about it. I’ve concluded that he is my ancestor, and this was all supposed to happen, and it is part of the scheme of things.

“Sam!” I yelled

“I’m right here!” he responded, “you don’t have to yell”

It was getting dark, so I asked him, are we there yet? Of course, he said no but that didn't stop me. I just realized that his hand was back on but with a bunch of staples.

“Jesus dude why so many staples?” I asked

"How else was it supposed to stay on?" Sam responded. “How many you think I was going to use? Four?”

"Don't you think maybe 10 was enough you got like 40!” I yelped.

“What in god’s name?" he responded. "Why are you yelling!”

“Why are YOU yelling!” I responded, “I think that if I’m supposed to fight people or whatever I need a suit, right?”

He replied, “You’re quick to change the subject!”

The conversation ended at that and that. We continued walking to our unsaid destination. Minutes later we had arrived. I looked up at the name of the place that must certainly be a store.

“Why are we at a costume store?” I questioned

“Why do you think?” Sam responded with a snooty attitude, “we have to wear something that we can get dirty in. Plus, this was your idea”

Just what I need a snooty black dude in a Halloween store. The store clerk looked at us as we walked in, asking if we needed any help.

"No, leave us alone…”

“hey!” I whispered. “You can’t just talk to people like that here, that’s how you raise suspicion!”

“Oh, ok I got it, taking out the target,” Sam whispered back,

“ok, thank yo… wait? What!” I said looking at him.

Before I knew it, the store clerk was on the ground gasping for air. I rushed over to him kneeling on the ground.

“Are you ok? I’ll call the ambulance!”

“Oh no, no you get what you need and then call the ambulance,” the store clerk muttered, “happens all the time!”

I got up from the ground, looking at Sam angrily, before realizing that stuff like this happened all the time where he was from. It took a while but we eventually got what we were looking for. Something nice and black to hide our faces and blend in with the night. As Sam and I were talking, we stepped around the corner to see the store clerk, dark, smug and covered in blood.