Duality : Book 1 of Codex Elysium

Chapter 9 (edited)

Chapter 9

An explosion came from up the street, Alexia was kneeling next to the fallen woman. She looked up in the direction of the noise. There was a flash of green light followed by more explosions. The surrounding buildings shook and rattled from the force. Broken glass tinkled to the ground and loose masonry fell. A fourth explosion caused a whole shop front to cave in and collapse. Alexia screamed and threw herself across the body of the fallen woman. Coughing and choking on the dust Alexia got back into a kneeling position she looked down and saw the woman's eyes were open and looking intently at her.

"Hi! I'm Alexia."

"Uh, hi! I'm Cassie." She sits up and rubs her head, "what... what's going on?"

Another explosion rocks the street, both girls turned to look at the green flash. Cassie climbs slowly to her feet and looks around. Alexia is struck by just how beautiful the woman is, long wavy dark hair, deep brown eyes, nearly six feet tall and a nice tan. She had a body that would catch most men's eye, curving in all the right places, especially in the chest area. Cassie spots the crumpled remains of the Passus.  Frowning at them, she says,

"what happened? Those things were right on me... then they got hit by some water?"

Alexia grins, "oh! Yeah! That was me."

"You... what? Did you use a hose pipe or something?"

"No silly, it was magic."

Cassie frowned at the younger girl and replies, "there is no such thing as magic! That only exists in kid's stories or films!"

Flashes of lightning followed by the sounds of falling masonry come from the crossroads.  Cassie looks back at the young girl again.

"Tell you what, let's get out of the danger zone then we can chat and you can tell me how you really took out those guys."

"I told you it was magic!" said Alexia in a sulky tone.

A man's cry fills the air. Cassie grabs Alexia's hand and they start running in the opposite direction away from the battle. As the girls run down the street they survey the buildings. All are ruined and don't seem to be safe to enter. They come to a stop at an old jewellery store and look inside. The cases are all smashed and empty, dust and cobwebs cover everything. One look at the ceiling convinces the girls to move on.

"So how are you holding up kid?" Cassie asks.

"I am tired, hurt and starving."

"Rough day huh? Well mine hasn't been much better. This holiday was certainly not as advertised"

Cassie stood and scanned the surrounding shop fronts.  After spotting a faded supermarket sign she points at it and says, "you know what, I'm pretty starved too. Let's do some food shopping."

 ****

One by one the Passus rose and began shuffling towards the south road. Once there, they began forming a wall of body's right across the street. On one side of the street was an old crumbling bank and on the other was the ruined town hall. The way out was completely blocked. Janus rose to his feet and joined the massing crowd.

"What the hell are they doing?" Jason shouted.

  Eva was leaning heavily on his shoulder and looking very pale.

"Why that road? Why not the others?" Jason demanded. 

In a weak voice Eva replied, "home!"

"Home?" Jason looks at Eva. 

She took a deep shuddering breath and replied, "our home... stronghold... hallowed... ground." She takes another shuddering breath and stops talking.

"Hallowed ground?" Jason asks.

"Yes", replied Tiberius.

"Our stronghold is on hallowed ground said to be blessed by the old gods and those things cannot step foot on it."

Jason looked to the south road, it was completely blocked. The ground was clear of body parts, all the Passus were reformed and looked like they hadn't been injured at all. Janus stood there with his robe now more red than white.

"Hallowed ground?" mused Jason. "Well... it seems to me that we cannot fight our way through that!"

"Well that is stating the obvious but please go on", Tiberius snapped.

"Based on the form Janus is pretending to be, I guess the cathedral would be hallowed ground."

Jason looked towards the west road and saw it was clear of everything except rubble.  Eva spoke up in a strained voice,

"what's a cathedral?"

Jason stared at Eva. Was she making a joke? He looked over at Tiberius, the old man also had a look of confusion on his face.

"You've never heard of a cathedral? You're kidding, right?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"No... what is it?" Eva asked.

"That huge stone building where Christians go to worship their God!"

"You mean the temple?" Tiberius asked.

"What's a Christian?" Eva asked at the same time.

Jason looked back and forth between them. They were clearly not joking and had no idea what he was on about, he looked over at Janus and the Passus who stood watching and silent.

"Well it is a temple of sorts I guess." He pointed to the north west. "Look you can see it from here, it's right..."

Jason trailed off as he looked at where he was pointing.  All his life Jason had lived in this city and he knew every landmark. The cathedral dominated the skyline and could be seen from most points inside the city. The spire always rose higher than the surrounding buildings. The skyline was empty and the tower was missing. Maybe the tower had collapsed? Eva traded a knowing look with Tiberius.  The old druid sighed and said,

"it might work?"

Eva didn't have the strength to argue so she allowed herself to be guided by Jason towards the west road. The road was wide and paved with uneven cobble stones. Both sides of the street were lined with ruined shops. Trunks of long dead trees were dotted down the centre of the road. The route was slow going as the street was full of rubble and debris. The druids fled down the street as fast as they could which, considering their injuries was not very fast.  Janus and the Passus begin to pursue but their pace had been greatly slowed as well. Janus clutched at his wounded chest and staggered after the druids. A grim parade formed up and began shuffling down the street, with Tiberius in the lead, limping along with the dead cat in his arms.

Jason and Eva arm-in-arm follow behind while Janus in his blood-soaked robe led the army of the sad and the damned behind them. In his mind's eye Jason can clearly see the route, three quarters of the way down this street is a wide paved side road which leads to an open car park. Behind the car park is a wide, open, grassy area with some gravestones, then the cathedral rises behind. Weak and hurting the druids turn onto the side road, Jason has his head down and all his concentration is on his footing and supporting Eva. He looks up and the sight in front of him brings him to a complete halt. The sudden stop causes Eva to lose her balance and fall, dragging Jason to the ground with her. Tiberius hears the commotion and turns. He raises an eyebrow at the two of them in a heap.

"Well honestly! There is no time for that kind of behaviour, you both have a lot of healing to do before you start jumping on each other like that!" Tiberius shakes his head in disgust and turns away, muttering to the cat about kids and all they ever think about.