Veridian Shores

Chapter 43 - Ending Epoch

It wasn't difficult to track the First. All they had to do was follow the slaughter.

Screams and alarms tore the air of Iron Hollow apart, and the even the sky seemed to buckle and bend under the horrendous forces being exerted beneath it. Capper felt bile burning his throat as he tried to block out the whirlpool of death and destruction.

It was easier said than done, however, when they found where the First had become violently acquainted with the unwitting population of Iron Hollow. An intersection of tram rail tracks had been the recipient of its attentions. One rail car had been flipped end over end and he could see the mangled limbs and blood smears that followed its smashed carcass. They spread out through the carnage, trying to make sense of it.

"It isn't feeding," Lilly said quietly, her hands trembling. "I don't understand. It's just killing everyone."

"It's not thinking any more," Arcil interjected, distaste sharp in his voice. "Whatever it used to be it spend so long locked in that cage that it's just acting on instinct now."

"Are there other clans nearby?" Capper asked, glancing at Gliss who moved on the left of the group with the surviving hunters.

Gliss stepped gingerly over a mangled corpse, wrinkling her nose at the brutality of the kill. "Two, but neither of them will have the kind of ordinance to even slow it down."

"Add them to your bodycount then," Brooke muttered grimly.

"Oh, shut your trap," Gliss snarled back. "You can make all the bitchy remarks you want if we survive this, princess."

"Quiet," Capper said firmly, his eyes still roving over the destruction. "Just keep moving. The sooner we catch up to it the sooner we can stop this."

His simple assessment of the situation seemed to be enough for the moment to keep the two vampires from trading further barbs. With the great-sword resting across one shoulder he trudged on, looking for any signs of life.

On they went, picking their way through the chaos, following the trail of destruction, closing in on the sirens, distant screams and gunfire. All along their route they didn't see a living thing – just corpses as the streets of Iron Hollow ran red. Any survivors had either fled or been evacuated by the city's human police force. Now he could feel the distant, reality-bending Aspect of the First drawing closer with every step. It was like the world was about to be sick.

They kept moving, with Gliss and her surviving hunters edging out in front to lead the way, their knowledge of the city guiding the ragtag band along the quickest route to conflict. Soon they came across a handful of places where the human security troops had tried to make a concerted effort to stop the First's advance. The result had been a blood bath. Capper looked at the wrecked barricades, smashed vehicles, shell casings and mutilated corpses, and shook his head, unable to really process that this had all been caused by one creature.

Everything about the barbaric swathe it was carving through the city was wrong. He felt no real sympathy for the humans in the conventional sense, but this just wasn't how vampires were supposed to act. They were a tiny, privileged fringe of the world, artfully skirting the edges of the huge, pulsating mass of the human race, taking what they needed and remaining a myth, a whisper in a darkened room.

Not anymore. The First had revealed its hideous face to the world, and Capper could only guess at the consequences that would reverberate from this day.

He didn't get the chance to dwell on it, however, as Gliss materialised from the gloom ahead of him, scampering shadow-like through the carnage and stopping in front of him, her expression grim, the barbed whip she'd chosen currently wrapped around her from shoulder to waist to keep her hands free as she scouted the way ahead.