Necrofairies

Part 9 - Race to Epak

Neen tapped away on Kio's tablet while Heliodor, Sliver and Vassal sat nearby in the reading space patiently. Kio was on the other side of the service desk working away at a computer terminal.

"That's the best I can do in regards to a decent signal. It took some doing, but I was able to hook into a nearby microwave tower that still seems to be operational. Our receiver on the roof is not strong enough to pick up anything beyond the city limits."

"Thanks, it looks fine," replied Neen as she started to surf the internet looking for social websites that were still operating. She scoured entry after entry from scared and frightened people who were trying to communicate with loved ones or just trying to get messages of help out to the world.

One by one she shouted out the times and locations of every piece of information she came across and Heliodor marked it down onto a huge map of the continent that he had laid out on a nearby reading table.

After several hours of painstaking searching and reading the signal dropped out without warning and no matter how hard Kio tried it remained dead.

"It's no use. The tower is offline."

"Damn it!" cursed Neen.

"It's ok Neen, I think we have enough data," replied Heliodor pointing at the map. "If we follow the outbreak and the timeline it looks like he is heading northwest across the country in pretty much a straight line."

"But where too next?" asked Sliver.

"Here," said Vassal jabbing a stubby finger at the map. "Gorgak. It was the orcish capital before the wars."

"I have never heard of Gorgak." said Sliver.

"You have never heard of it because the only humans, fairies or elves that ever set foot within its walls were those dragged there as livestock. The city was hated and despised by all of the other races and was razed to the ground after the great war. Even speaking the name was forbidden and so it was slowly erased from history."

"Why do you think he wants to go there specifically?" asked Heliodor.

"He will go there because it is where the biggest collection of mass graves are. The city of Evara was built almost on top of Gorgak so the graves are probably under its outskirts."

"What are we waiting for then, let's go," insisted Sliver.

"Wait," interrupted Neen as she studied the map more. "Look at the distances between each outbreak. There are two other gravesites in between, one at Epak and the other in Vasak. We need to try and stop Gravlok before he makes it to the city. Epak is his next stop. I say we make our stand there."

Heliodor nodded in agreement as did Vassal. All three of them turned to Sliver.

"The sooner we find this son of a hobgoblin the sooner I can cut his throat from ear to ear!" he said with a delight in his voice that was macabre, even to Neen.

~*~

Neen let herself float back to the ground, she landed unsteadily at first, but the firmness of the pavement under her feet gave her an anchor and the disorienting sensation of the teleportation quickly subsided. Heliodor fell into a crumpled heap to her left and lay gasping for air. Vassal rushed over to him and offered him water from a bottle he pulled from his satchel.

Sliver dropped down just behind her and moved quickly so they were back to back and able to cover all directions at once. It was strangely sensual to have their sensitive wings touching when her adrenaline was already pumping.

"Um, Sliver...I think we are too late," she said as she pulled out her enchanted pistol and leapt back into the air.

"I know," said Sliver following suit and drawing Tathra at the same time. "This place looks like it was vacated in a real hurry."