The legacy of the dark blood

Chapter 02

The ghost town

The entrance to the forest that led to Reich der Finsternis was rather difficult to imagine for the agents, who felt they were crossing into a parallel and unknown universe where nothing but darkness and an intimidating silence reigned, interrupted only by the few wildlife that lived there. It was hard to think that an autumn landscape could be so beautiful, but at the same time so terrifying. What they could witness around them, among tall and partially bare trees except for a few that formed an arch indicating the entrance route, dry leaves, fallen trunks covered with extensive webs of spider webs and some moss-covered rocks, reminded them of the stories that were usually read in Germanic mythology and its creatures; from witchcraft, lycanthropy, stories of goblins among other things.

As one advanced, one could see a few houses located among the trees, whose facade looked completely neglected and their windows covered with dust; the little presence of life in the area was enough to give one to think that these were abandoned for several generations. There was, however, something in particular that caught Max's attention, who had separated from the group for a few minutes to analyze something peculiar in a water well between the forest and the houses. Upon noticing the situation, Liz and Bernard ran to meet him, but their course was interrupted by the astonishment of the images they beheld once their leader pulled the rope to haul the bucket to the surface. It held a considerable amount of tainted water and human remains in a recent degree of decomposition.

"What the heck!" Liz exclaimed, covering her nose as Max inspected the remains pulled from the well and stepped back.

"They appear to be from a fairly fresh corpse, judging from the few traces of decomposition on them," inferred Bernard as he observed the blood and little flesh among the bones.

"Indeed," Max replied, "It seems that the material author was some kind of animal or something like that, if we analyze the way in which the flesh has been torn from the muscles.

"That's hard to believe," replied Liz, still not fully assimilating the situation, "the people who rented us the helicopter said that for years there haven't been any large numbers of predators in these woods, besides," she added, uncovering her nose, "to be honest, I can't imagine what beast would be capable of doing something like this.

"I don't know, but whatever it was," he said, throwing the remains on the ground and leaving the basket on the well, "We have to finish it off".

"And that's why you throw all that pile of shit on the ground, so that ALL the beasts in the forest can sniff it out and detect us," said Liz ironically, but Max just laughed and took his gun out of his pants.

"We don't know exactly which way to go," Max began as he loaded his gun, "But whatever did this represents a danger to our lives, that's why I recommend that you go with caution and come to me in case... you get into trouble.

"What do you intend to do?" Liz asked him without understanding what he was getting at.

"We are going to search the town for clues, somehow I feel that this will be the starting point to understand what is going on here and how to rescue our people.

"Wait, you know we could be in danger and yet you want us to split up?" Bernard asked without being able to hide the obvious feeling of overwhelm he had. Max did nothing but take advantage of the situation to discredit him.

"I still don't understand how you became an agent," Max reproached him, looking him firmly in the eyes in an intimidating way, "We should have specified before coming that this mission is not for fearful puppies like you.

"Cut it out, Max!" Liz scolded him in disgust.

"You leave him alone, sweetie" he answered with a mocking tone "Or doesn't he have the balls to defend himself, anyway, we'll split up to look for clues and we'll meet back here in a couple of hours" Max affirmed determinedly. Liz and Bernard had no choice but to follow his orders, even though they did not agree with the idea of splitting up in such a hostile environment. "I'll go east, Liz goes north and you...". He paused, pointing to Bernard, "If you have any testosterone, head west, you might run into a smurf at best.