The untold tales of The Dead Men

Night Of The Living Pandemic: Part 2

They sprang from the shadows and Ghastly hurled a fireball meant for Sanguine. The Texan disappeared and the fire sent another man flying.
"Dammit" Ghastly muttered.
Billy-Ray rose from the ground.
"Why hello my love, I've missed you." Sanguine grinned.
"You flatter me but-" Tanith stopped, she looked like she was about to throw up. "Dear lord, what is that smell!?"
The sent caught Ghastly of guard and he began to dry heave.

A smouldering body suddenly emerged from the shadows. It's limbs a pale milky-white were like patch work, blotched with rot or clotted blood. It rolled its head up, exposing the moulding flesh that clung to its skeleton. Chunks were missing from its face, like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. But it's eyes, it's eyes were the most harrowing of all. Glazed over and lifeless, they reflected that this thing was as dead on the inside as it was on the outside.
A low moan reared up from the pit of its stomach, it's eyes widened and flung open its arms.

"Tremble in fear, for your reckoning has arrived. It is I! The Zombie King!" The King declared.
"Kill it." Tanith said.
"Wait what?" The zombie king's face fell slack.
Ghastly launched two more fire balls at him. Vaurien yelped and tried to jump away but  the flame still caught his shoulder. He screeched and flailed his arms around, panicking like a headless chicken.

Tanith and Ghastly looked at each other, then to Sanguine who just sighed.  "Idiot, you're dead."

Scapegrace stopped in his tracks and flopped his arms to his side. He just looked at the flames engulfing his left arm and said nothing. "Ah ha! Your puny magic can not harm me! Maybe once but now, I'm immortal!" He jerked his arms up but the force was to much, his flaming arm was catapulted into the air and landed with a satisfying thump behind him.

There was silence.

Sanguine cleared his throat. "Your arm fell off."
"Tis but a scratch" Scapegrace affirmed, a defiant smile on his face.
They all ignored him and turned there attention back to one another. Scapegrace sagged and dragged himself over to his discarded arm.

"We know what your planning Sanguine." Tanith revealed. "Just give us the evil thing and know one has to get hurt."

"What evil thing? No evil things here. Just two guys hanging out." Sanguine turned to Scapegrace, who was trying to reattach his arm. "Ain't that right buddy."

"Yeah." He replied, his voice full of dismay. "No evil chemicals here."

Billy-Ray whirled back to Tanith. "See no evils here, of any kind." He clapped his hands together. "Right, well best get going, non evil things to do, you know how it is." Sanguine pulled Scapegrace to his side and the ground began to crack.

"I don't think so." Ghastly pulled out a handgun.

Billy-Ray raised his arms and a smirk spread across his face. "Hold on there Cowpoke, no need to do anything rash."
Tanith drew her sword and pointed the blade towards them. "Come quietly and I won't slice you in two."

"You wouldn't kill me." Ray's smirk was getting bigger. "You haven't got the guts."

With a sudden jolt of movement Tanith turned and charged. Sanguine disappeared before she could get close enough but left Scapegrace behind. He reappeared behind her seconds later and she whirled, the tip of her sword missing him by an inch. That's when Ghastly came charging. He was like a bull and sent a heavy hit right into Sanguine's face. He toppled but as he was falling the ground opened up and was swallowed before they knew what was happening.

There was a sudden voice in Scapegrace's ear, he went to scream but Sanguine wrapped a gloved hand around his mouth. "Take the gas to the targeted location, you know what to do." Sanguine slipped the canister into his pocket then disappeared and reappeared behind Ghastly, striking out his legs. Before Bespoke could turn he was gone. The wall burst open and half of Sanguine appeared. He started slashing at Tanith with a knife, which she dodged or parried. Low jumped onto the wall and the two began to duel. Sanguine was incredible. He disappeared, then reappeared, attacking with his knife, or the rubble. Tanith could barely keep up. Ghastly attacked from the ground, firing off precise shots, trying to predict where he would appear next.

They had all forgotten about the Zombie King.

Scapegrace turned and ran, it was more of a fast paste hobble really. He weaved through the warren that made up the market and burst out into Camden Town. It was late at night but there were still a small scattering of mortals out. Vaurien frantically scanned his environment, his heart pounding, if he had a heart that is. He hobbled across the road and slipped into an ally way. He passed through and the street opened up. He was surrounded by tall block buildings, each one a different colour with some wild or eccentric design on the front. Scapegrace froze, a small group of teenagers strolled past, laughing among themselves. He moved, sticking to the shadows until he came to a building surrounded by scaffolding. He pulled a key from his pocket, unlocked the door and slipped in.

He was standing in an empty room apart from a set of stairs that wound all the way up and around the walls. Scapegrace stood in the middle and looked up. There had to be at least 40 flights. "You've got to be kidding."

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Ghastly had Sanguine by his collar and slammed him against a wall. His glasses fell of and his eyeless sockets were exposed. "Where is he!" Bespoke snarled, his usual calm demeanour gone.
"Don't know what your talking about Cowpo-"
Ghastly slammed him again and moved in close, "If you call me Cowpoke one more time." Bespoke growled.
"Watch me Cowpo-"
"Both of you enough!" Tanith sheathed her sword and stormed over. "Sanguine do you have any idea what that weapon does."

Billy-Ray lulled his head towards her and smirked.
Annoyance stained Tanith's face. "That weapon will kill hundreds of thousands, mages and mortals alike."
"Do I look like I care little missy." He drawled.
Ghastly leaned in close "You'll care when I ram my fist so far up your arse, you'll -"
Tanith put a hand on Ghastly's shoulder "What my colleague means, if we don't kill you, your weapon will." Low moved so she was inches from his face. "I would personally like to see the look on your face as the virus eats away at you from the inside out."

Sanguine was silent after that.

He'd been apprehensive about the job from the beginning, which was rare. His rule was to always look out for Number One. He liked living. He was selfish when it came to that matter and the consequences of his actions where coming dangerously close to hindering his rule.
"Fine." Sanguine sighed, disappointed in himself for what he was about to do. "Il help you, but I want to make it clear that I'm doing this for myself and not to save the world. In fact, I would be genuinely delighted if you in particular where to suddenly die a horrible and painful death because of what I did." He made a point of looking at Ghastly.

Ghastly smiled "Love you to Billy."

"I hate you with every fibre of my being."