Nightmare Crusade

Chapter 14 - On the Edge of Death

The squeaking of a wooden axle echoes through the silent village. A man in a macabre-looking plague mask and trench coat breathes heavily as he pushes the wheelbarrow. Another doctor walks beside it, grasping a long stick. Flies circle above the pile of corpses as they are wheeled down the cobble street.

A scraggly man holding the body of a small girl emerges from one of the homes. The two doctors stop their forward motion and watch him as he approaches. The man starts to weep as the doctor with the stick walks over and begins prodding around her body. He pries open the eyelids and observes yellow lesions in and around the eyes. He takes the girl from the distraught villager and tosses her onto the cart with the others as the man collapses to the ground, sobbing.

The wheelbarrow is pushed out of the village heading towards Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Fog obscures the hills and the stench of rotting decay compliments the unpleasant site of dozens of other doctors dumping bodies into mass graves.

Meanwhile, King Morgan lays on his soon-to-be death bed, surrounded by friends, family, and doctors. Halford approaches his bedside. Before his father can speak, he reaches for the bucket next to his bed and vomits a repulsive, yellow liquid into it.

"Don't speak," Halford tells him, "You need all your strength to fight this."

Morgan can barely keep his eyes open. His skin is deathly pale and his breathing is very labored.

Far to the east of the castle, Alissa stands silently in the farm house basement, staring at a map with red markings scrawled all over it. She stares at it in deep contemplation before sighing and turning away. She grabs a wide-brimmed hat off its hanger and strolls out of the house. Feelings of failure fade from her mind as she joins Selvira, who is waiting patiently in the garden with a basket in her jaws. Alissa smiles and begins plucking the veggies off the ground and placing them into the basket.

Despite the inevitable frost, the heat had one final act before allowing the icy grip of winter to encroach upon the land.

Alissa wipes the sweat from her forehead and looks over at the opening in the fence that surrounds the farm. There stands Jack, gripping his sword, which is stabbed into the ground, stroking his newly-grown beard. A big gust of wind blows by, but he stubbornly stares straight ahead.

"Jack!" Alissa calls to him, "We could use some help over here, if you want to take a break from doing... that."

Without turning to face her, Jack replies, "About an hour ago, I heard a twig snapping in the woods. Could be anything. A mouse, a bird, a giant Bobgrizzly... Or a necro-cultist."

Smirking, Alissa rolls her eyes. She continues harvesting the crops and says to Selvira, "He's been paranoid ever since we got here. That was, what, two seasons ago? Obviously, we shouldn't let our guards down, but overreacting to every little noise isn't going to help us any."

Jack shrugs and withdraws his sword. "I guess you're right," he says. But as he turns to leave, he hears another sound coming from the forest. He immediately spins around and whips his blade back out. The noise had also caught the attention of Selvira and Alissa. The three of them watch as two figures wearing bird-beaked masks step out of the trees, one a man and the other a woman. The man is holding a map.

Jack steps out from between the fences. "Who are you and why have you come here?" Jack demands, pointing the sword at them.

The two masked characters look up at the bearded man.

"Hi," the woman says. Her voice is soothing, in stark contrast to her macabre appearance. "We're doctors from Greyhope and we're on our way back from Nelvernia. Sadly, we've become lost in this massive forest. Do you think you could help us?"