Sorcha's Secret World, Part one.

Chapter 3, Siren song.

The song led me out of the sewers to the north, past the town. I hadn't really been in that direction yet. The song got stronger as I followed a forest path leading out of town. I realised it must have been nice here before the fog came, as I jogged between the autumn trees.

A little way out of town there was a camping ground with a few tents and caravans around an open fire. At first, I thought nothing of it, but as I got closer I realised two odd things: one was that the campers were still alive, and two that the trees around them had been marked with glowing wards, sophisticated magic far beyond my abilities at that point.

The Siren song seemingly continued past the campsite, but I figured that perhaps the people at the site might know something more about what happened on the island.

I could walk past the wards easily, perhaps they were meant solely to deter the undead. The people at the campsite looked as cold and as miserable as the other survivors I had met so far. A woman in a tie-dye shirt walked over and handed me a leaflet. "Welcome to the Morninglight," it said. You've got to be kidding me, they were recruiting in the middle of a zombie invasion! I looked around and saw a few middle-aged men, probably regretting their midlife crisis decision to join a cult instead of buying a Ferrari, and some younger men who were looking scared. They didn't look like they knew much of anything.

There was a young teenage girl as well, the same age as Jessie, I thought. Her short hair was dyed blonde, she wearing hotpants, a cut-off top two sizes too small and a lot of makeup. I felt sorry for her, she must have been freezing. I offered her a spare sweater that I had stuffed into my bag but she told me to fuck off. Fine then, be that way missy.

Their leader introduced himself as Che Garcia Hansson. He was middle-aged with long greasy hair and one of those hippy tunics. He looked stoned of his gourd and the smell of weed hung strongly around him. He was more than happy to talk to me.

"We were, you know, just passing through with our little band of merry fucking hippies when that shit rolled in from the sea like whipped cream on a blueberry pie. But it's not like the fog caught us by surprise. No, man, this is what we've been preparing for. The end of motherfucking days!

Luckily for us, Freddy Beaumont was here! Beaumont's got a direct line with Marquard, our leader, himself. Knows him personally. That's like knowing someone who knew Jesus, y'know? A red telephone to our motherfucking saviour!"

I wasn't going to get much useful information out of him it seemed, so I moved on and followed the Siren Song.

It led me into some maintenance tunnels underneath a bypass. The place was protected with tripwires. I set a few off by accident, but I don't think the electricity was working properly in the tunnel because lights kept flickering, and whatever was supposed to happen didn't happen. Which was probably a good thing.

I walked into a storage room that somebody was using as a hideout it seemed. There was a camping bed, and a makeshift desk with papers, books and a laptop. Stuck on the wall were notes, and maps of the island.

I was about to take a good look when I heard voices, so I quickly ducked behind some crates.

"..finally silenced and hidden in a safer place." a man's voice with a British accent drifted from the hallway.

"So where..." a girl's voice began to ask.

"Away from here, Cassandra," the man's voice sounded irritated, "I am not in a sharing mood. And the moaning isn't helping."

They walked into the room. Peeking around the corner of the crates I could only see their legs, but I daren't lean out any further. The woman's legs were clad in not much but a pair of red hot pants. I recognised them, it was the girl from the campsite. The man was wearing baggy black pants, brown boots and I could just see the fringes of a green hippy tunic.

"That's not what you said last night..." Cassandra chuckled.

If I hadn't been so scared to be found out I would have giggled. When the two of them walked into the room the air had become thick with magic, I could almost taste it. Whoever the man was, he was powerful.

"Oh baby, I thought we had something, something magic," the girl's voice mocked.

The man sighed and scoffed. "This is so very far beyond you little girl," he replied scathingly.

"Fuck off", she answered in return. "I am ready for more than this! Let me do what I'm good at!"

I was rooting for her if anything because the man was sounding incredibly belligerent.

"What, getting the boys to sign their lives over for a snog?" the man bit back. "You just keep spreading those long legs to recruit more foot soldiers!"

Charming sort of fellow, I thought to myself.

Cassandra seemed to think so too as she murmured sarcastically "Be still my beating heart..."

She walked around, disappearing from my view.

"Here's what I don't get, Beaumont. You have what you've been looking for. Your precious magic sword. You control the armies of the living dead. So the question is... why the sour face?"

Cassandra hesitated, then answered her own question.

" You are missing something! Oh, this is interesting... you can't use it, can you? I mean, the spirit is willing, but the flesh, oh the flesh is limp." she taunted.

"Watch it, little girl," Beaumont growled, "you have no idea what..."

I got my weapon out, it sounded to me like they were about to break out in a fight. In my haste, I scraped against a box. It was only the slightest of sounds, but Beaumont stopped talking. Had he heard me? I held my breath. After a few seconds of silence, he continued.

"Want to know what this is truly about, Cassie dear?" he snapped. "Change. Evolution. A new dawn. The world tree will shake, the sun will turn black and the gods themselves will fall!" as he spoke, his voice became stronger, more powerful. "We are rebooting the world!"

Yes, that sounded perfectly sane. Cults and sanity don't mix.

"Oh, it suits you, the evil sorcerer thing," Cassandra purred. "It's sexy!"

I prayed to any god that would listen that they weren't going to have sex while I was still right there in the room, eww.

But Beaumont ignored Cassandra. "The answer is in the archives somewhere. It has to be. They knew about it, the gateway to the black heart of the island." Beaumont muttered as if talking to himself. "I have the key, but where is the fucking lock?"

"Did you say 'lock'?" Cassandra asked.

"I've been around long enough to recognise the flavour of the day, Cassie. You're it."

I had no idea what he meant by that, but Cassandra seemed insulted because she said: "oh really, so that's it? That's how you repay me? You piece of shit!" and she stormed out of there.

"Useless bitch," Beaumont muttered and without giving her second thought went back to his musings.

"The Illuminati and their bloody labyrinths..." he muttered to himself.

I waited until he left. I thought it would be better not to reveal myself. I was almost certain I wouldn't be able to defeat him by myself, but perhaps if I followed him he's lead me to the sword instead.

He was too quick for me, perhaps I had waited too long, because he was gone when I left the tunnel. I checked the Morninglight campsite but neither Beaumont nor Cassie were there.

From the notes Beaumont had left behind he was looking for an entrance to ancient Illuminati archives underneath the island. He had even booked a flight at the airport on one of those touristy tour planes to get a better view.

I had little hope to find something at the airport that would give me a hint. After all, it must have been before the zombies came that he had taken that flight, but I had no other leads so I went anyway.