Paracosm

Battle of the Bunker

Dextro

Dextro watches as Gealach lands on the beach. Their ship arrives soon after. Dextro follows Cormac off the ship.
  "You stay here," Cormac says.
"I thought the plan was for all of us to stay here," Dextro watches as he takes a horse from one of the ships, they'd brought horses in because of any trouble.
  "It'll look good if one of us rides with him, I need you stay back for Gealach.

Dextro shrugs "okay".
He isn't in the mood for arguing, he knows, like all of them, this isn't going to go smoothly so he doesn't want to waste his energy arguing over who does what.

Cormac has been gone for what feels like forever. Them some of the Fire Island people sit down around the docks, talking or dozing off every so often.

Gealach begins to grow uncomfortable, he looks up into the air, as if waiting for something.
"What is it boy?" Dextro looks up but can't see anything.
Gealach moves about, as if wanting to take off but knows he has been commanded otherwise. Dextro has grown to feel confident around the dragons, Dolag being pregnant has also made
Dextro feel as if he's bonded better with the dragons and they respect him more.

"Calm Gealach," Dextro says, but Gealach doesn't listen.
"Bí socair, Gealach," Dextro repeats telling him to be calm.

Gealach nudges him gently before putting his head to the sky again. Dextro tries to follow his gaze, he squints with the sun when he sees something black approaching them.

"Dragon!" One of the men shout.
It's too large to be Tine, it's black wings span bigger than anything Dextro could ever imagine. It blocks out the sun as it gets closer.

"Don't show fear," Dextro says to the other men.
All of them look at him as if he's stupid.
They duck, hide and some jump into the water.

The black beast lands with a thud in front of Dextro, she growls as she bears her long, pointed teeth before leaving out a shriek. This is the dragon Dolag spoke of. She reaches out her snout and he places his hand on her scales. Dextro suddenly gets a gut feeling everything isn't going to go as planned. As if this dragon finding them is a sign.

Magda

Magda watches as a horse approaches them.
"One of Dolag's men," Maon says from in front.
Magda feels the tension leave her body as he says it.

The man finally catches up, he introduces himself and they carry on. Magda can't help but feel as if something's going to happen. She knows Annalise's men are on high alert but they wouldn't be able to say for certain what's happening and by the time they relay the message to her and her army arrives the Bunker People will be on the Fire Island.

The Bunker People gather outside the bunker, Hayes is front and centre. Some have their hazmat suits on, others have their helmets off and the rest are dressed normally. Perhaps Hayes lied about the amount of hazmat suits were available to them, perhaps he told them people were surviving above ground without masks, as he's not wearing one himself. Magda isn't exactly sure she can trust him anymore.

"Magda!" A voice comes through the crowd, her mother appears.
Magda jumps from her horse and runs towards her mother, hugging her tightly.
"You're so dirty," her mother laughs as she rubs her hand down Magda's face "your hair's all knotted".
"There's no showers up here," Magda smiles.

"We've got to stay moving," Maon says "stay behind us".

  Magda rides behind with Maon's men. She watches the tree line carefully, they've gotten through half the journey without getting attacked but she still can't shake the feeling that something's not right.

Maon stops up ahead, Magda can feel her heart beginning to beat faster. He takes out his axe and turns his horse towards the tree line. One of the men beside Magda begins to blow into a large instrument, making the sound of an unsettling horn like an animal.

Suddenly horses begin to pour from the trees. Riders with long spears and shields shout "for the Queen". More foot soldiers follow them. Maon and his men charge at the soldiers.

Magda jumps down from her horse and grips her axe tightly. She can feel her hands shaking with nerves and she eyes the first soldier running towards her. She swings it and the axe jams into the man's chin. His dead eyes stare into her soul. She pulls out the axe as his blood sprays onto her face.

Within seconds they're swarmed by the soldiers. Sliabh's arrows begin to fall from above, soldiers fall all around Magda but it's not enough, there's too many soldiers.

Magda looks around for her mother as the Bunker People are slain one by one, why didn't Hayes give them weapons?

She spots her mother surrounded by the soldiers. She pushes and shoves her way through the slaughter, killing anyone who gets in her way. Her eyes don't leave her mother, she's so close yet so far. She can see the fear in her mother's face, the horror, the hopelessness, the stress.

Magda slices one of the soldier's heads clean off. The head rolls onto the ground and hits another soldier's foot, turning his attention away from her mother and onto her.

His sword clashes with Magda's axe. But the strength of Magda's axe causes his sword to fly out of his hand and onto the blood stained grass. He stares at Magda in fear, but she ignores and slams her axe into his head, causing it to split in half.

She pulls her sword out of his head and turns back to her mother. But she's too late. A soldier jams his sword through her body. Her body jolts and her eyes fall on Magda as her soul is taken.

"No!" Magda screams then loud shrieks and roars come from the sky. The entire sky lights up. Men's screams of pain fill the air as fire surrounds Magda.

"Get to the sides of the mountains!" Maon shouts.
The survivors run as fast as they can as the dragons fly over again, burning anything in sight. Magda looks up at the beasts, one as white as snow and the other as black as the night.

  Magda looks at the line of people taking shelter against the mountain. Of course Hayes is among the Bunker People, their numbers are still high but would've been higher if they'd something to protect themselves with. Maon and all of his men have survived. Cormac stands with Maon as they look up at the dragons.

If only the dragons had come sooner her mother would still be alive.
Magda looks at the burnt lane, the charred bodies. But it's quiet, it's over.

  Some of the horses survived. Maon has put the injured on the horses, everyone else is going to the dock by foot. Nobody speaks, the Bunker people are shaken and Maon's men are tense, gripping their weapons, watching everything.

Magda can see the dragons at the dock. The white one rumbles softly as they approach.
Dextro meets them "casualties?".
"Twenty," Hayes says.

  "We didn't hear anything, it wasn't until the dragons took off that we knew something was wrong," Dextro seems to ignore Hayes, which Magda finds odd, he won't even look at him.
"Nothing you could have done, brother," Maon puts his hand on Dextro's shoulder "Dolag's brothers saved the day, although I thought she had only two".
"This is Iolair," Dextro looks up at her "a wild dragon".
"I'm glad she's on our side," Maon smiles.

Magda watches as the Bunker People board the ships.
"We have all of them counted for," Dextro approaches her.
"All of them?" Magda can feel her eyes water "I came above ground as a group of four, now there's three of us, I saw a sword pierce my mother's body and watched as my people were killed in cold blood".
"Life above ground is cruel," he says.
"I didn't grieve for Fionn, because someone like Fionn wouldn't let themselves die," she looks at him, he doesn't say anything "but the rest weren't fighters, they weren't trained for this".

"We'll send a raven when we reach the Fire Island," Dextro turns away.
"I wish we were still below ground, taking those stupid classes to prepare us for above ground, we were so wrong," Magda laughs "we had no idea".
Dextro keeps walking.
"I don't want to think Fionn died," she says.
"He's still here," Dextro gets onto a ship.