Of Heroes and Villains

Hide And Seek

It didn't take Sean long to find the basement where Ivan and the kid necromancer were hiding. By the time he'd gotten there, there was a significant lack of Destroyers on the streets. Figuring the others must've taken care of them, he pushed open the door to the house, then went in.

'Don said they're in the basement', he recalled, slowly walking across the hallway in search of a door that led downstairs.

One of the undead ran out of the kitchen and slashed at him with a knife, but the man was slow and weak, so Sean dispatched him with ease. The whole situation was a lot harder emotionally than it was physically. He could probably beat Ivan, and the zombies were clearly no threat. The kid himself probably wouldn't pose much danger, either.

But what would he do once he found him?

The kid was clearly on Omen's side of things, for one reason or another. If that reason were a form of mind control, Liu could probably remove it. What if it wasn't, though? Was he prepared to kill a kid?

'Many more kids will die if this one doesn't. It's simple logic.'

He started walking across the living room, having found no door in the hallway. Another zombie flung itself at him, but Sean ripped its head off and moved on, not letting its body make a sound as it hit the floor. The last thing he wanted to do was alert Ivan to his attack. The last time he'd failed at being stealthy could've cost them the battle. Had Omen had stronger guardians, it would've been over.

'What if Omen's just tricking the kid? Will I be able to convince him to turn on him?'

He found no door in the living room, either, so he moved on and went to the bedroom. A corpse was lying on the bed, unmoving, the woman clearly having had been poisoned. He looked under the bed to see if there was a trapdoor there. There wasn't.

When he got back up, the woman on the bed sprung to life, trying to claw at his face. Whatever method the necromancer was using, it was different from what he'd done to Val. These things were mindless, slow and weak. Sean broke her neck in one swift motion, then gently laid her back down and left the room.

'What if the kid doesn't come willingly? I'd be forced to kill him.'

He noticed a shed outside the house through the window, then went to check it out.

'Would I be able to?'

He opened the door to the shed, and immediately saw the trapdoor. Knowing there was only one place it could lead to, Sean pressed his ear to the ground and listened.

No one seemed to be down there. If they were, they were being cautious about it.

Opening the door, he quickly jumped down, not using the ladder, and reached an empty basement.

An empty basement leading into a tunnel.

'Must be Ivan's work. They noticed me.'

He carefully stepped inside, then ran for it. He figured the necromancer must've senses his zombies dropping, which was why they ran.

There didn't seem to be a labyrinth, which meant Ivan's control over the earth wasn't precise enough for him to do it from a distance.

'He's probably only able to form tunnels from the ground right in front of him.'

Then Sean ran across a wall, puzzling him. He was positive they weren't in the house, and there was no way he could've missed them in the basement. Realizing there was only other possibility, he punched the wall in front of him, shattering it and revealing the continuation of the tunnel.