The Exile

Kearney's Problem

"Can you slow down?!" Kayden yelled through the backseat of an off-road Jeep the trio found abandoned back in the city.

"Don't tell me the Hell Walker is afraid of a little speed." Amy smirked as she applied more pressure to the accelerator.

"I'm not," Kayden looked at the passenger seat where a hunched over Kearney is releasing his fear all over the ground, "I can't say the same for your friend here."

"It's nothing," Kearney gasped as he found his way back to his seat, "I just came down with a bug."

The vehicle sped up through the hill toward Royal Cross, which seemed to be hours away still, but the trio kept pushing up hoping to get closer.

"Do you think we'll find any survivors?" Kearney looked over to Amy, but her eyes stayed fixed up the hills trying to avoid any rocks and trees that can make their journey more difficult.

"Let's hope that we actually get to the chapel in one piece first." Kayden joked. The question didn't require that kind of humor, but as usual for Kayden— anything was fair game.

"Do you have any sort of sympathetic bone in your body?" Amy scoffed, "Or is that another Hell Walker myth?"

"Ask the Elders," Kayden sunk to his seat, "Apparently, they know more about me than I do."

"I think I puked out my spleen." Kearney squeezed onto his abdomen with an exhausted look smeared across his face.

Amy merely looked over to Kearney and continued piloting the vehicle upward until they reached the school. She didn't want them to notice her actual mood— which was a frantic mess under her stable exterior. Part of her hoped for the school to be on in one piece, but from what they experienced; it seemed to be far-fetched.

"Can this piece of—" Kayden paused his words and looked out of the window. The noise left as quick as it appeared and that was enough to prepare him for what was to come. The Hell Walker drew out his pistols slowly from his holsters.

"What are you doing?!" Kearney turned to Kayden, who shushed him by tapping his pistol barrel to the Exorcist's lips.

Kayden rolled down his window and aimed into the trees. He stared out to the wilderness for a few minutes without making a sound and kept his focus out to whatever was bothering him.

"Amy," Kayden whispered with his gun still drawn outside, "I need you to speed this up, now!"

"What do you think—" Amy's words were cut off by a gunshot from Kayden's pistol.

A loud growl echoed through the trees. He hit something and it wasn't an animal. Soon, demons emerged from the hiding places to give chase. Their speed almost matched the moving Jeep, but their challenge was not getting killed by the Hell Walker and his blazing pistols.

Kearney tried to combat his motion sickness to help him with some cover fire of his own.

"You flew in a chopper," Kayden yelled over the gunshots, "How can you not handle a simple car ride?!"

"What's so simple about this car ride?!" Kearney yelled back.

A demon managed to reach to the driver side window. Although, it was short-lived due to Amy snapping its neck.

"Good point." Kayden looked at Kearney.

Kayden climbed out of the back window onto the roof of the car and drew out his sword.

"You better hang on Kayden!" Amy yelled from the driver seat.

"Then how am I supposed to kill these...things?" Kayden readied himself.

One demon launched toward the car. Before the creature could let out a shriek, Kayden's blade sliced through it like a knife through water. A smirk emerged from Kayden's lips. He was just getting warmed up.

He followed the momentum of the car with each strike and jump to maintain his footing. The rhythm of jumps helped him time his attacks against the demons.

"Keep it steady!" Kearney leaned out of the car and got himself on the hood of the car and began firing his gun at the oncoming hellions. His aiming wasn't as precise as Kayden's, so he had to put them down with two or three shots. Even then, that was before they hit a ditch up the hill. One bump made Kearney misfire and almost hit Kayden's ear, who stared at him with an intent of harm.

"Do that again." Kayden mouthed to Kearney while he pointed at him with his sword. Kayden was tackled unexpectedly by a cunning demon. Although surprising, Kayden quickly regained his footing on the roof of the Jeep and snapped its spine. The Hell Walker's eyes shifted by to Kearney.

Kearney simply nodded a no.

"I can see the wall!" Amy shouted through the driver side of the car.

"Great!" Kayden reached into the driver side window and grabbed Amy.

"What are you doing?!" Amy slapped his hands away.

"Making an entrance!" Kayden smiled as he reached for her again. A few of the surviving demons kept their distance from the Jeep, hoping to plan a new form of attack.