Dispatches

[Living_Hellfire]

Tuesday, October 7, 16:41hrs Local Time, 2025

 

The shambling undead marched their way across the Western bridge towards The Ziggurat and into a storm of bullets fired by the Paragon City Corrections Department officers as they hunkered behind make-shift bunkers of boxes and broken furniture. For the first half-day helicopters had arrived bearing food, medical supplies and most crucially ammunition, but those sorties had stopped and all manner of reinforcements had dried up. The corrections officers were on their own, scraping the bottom of crates for the last few rounds they could find.

 

Their charges pressed their faces against the bars of their windows, literally captive to fate and to the fates of their captors turned guardians. The prisoners on the North, East and South sides of the structure envied those with a bird's eye view staring out the Western windows of the prison, while those staring out the Western side of the prison envied those who could not bear witness to the onslaught of rotting, moldering corpses slowly gaining ground towards the men and women in dirty, disheveled uniforms holding back the undead host.

 

Thunder rolled over Brickstown and a cry rose up from the officers manning the barricades as a small speck of burnt-orange flame scorched its way through the heavens towards The Zig. The Prisoners on the South side of the prison rushed to the barred windows and a roar rose up that washed over the prison from South to North as the convicts stared upwards into the afternoon sky, screaming their approval as The Legendary Living Hellfire made his entrance. Many if not most had feared an encounter with this being for their entire criminal careers, but now they could not have been more joyous at his arrival.

 

He banked left over The Ziggurat, over a sea of upturned faces and raised fists as the PCCD officers cheered his arrival and granted an Angel's Mercy to the abandoned undead, purifying them with flame and sending them to the hereafter before rising again into the Heavens and disappearing into the lightning.

 

********

Rory Evans scrambled up the staircase towards his bedroom and The Witch followed. On all fours he scarpered as fast as he could, the cackle in his ears competing with the creak of the stairs as the wretched creature followed in his wake. He had been home, alone while his parents had gone out to scavenge for food during the annual occult uprising. A routine affair at this point, but they had forgotten to lock the door behind them.

 

At ten years old Rory had only known life in a City of Heroes, where the impossible was probable and danger lurked around every corner. Where villains skulked and where life and death hung in the balance of every decision. But he had also heard tales of protectors and guardians who interceded when necessary, to shield the innocent. It was was with this thought in mind that he made the landing at the top of the stairs, right hand gripping the banister as he spun himself around to sprint down the hallway to his bedroom.

 

The Witch was hot on his heels, her coned, wide-brimmed hat shaking as she cackled from behind an overly long, wart-infested nose. Her teeth were needles, her hands were claws and her breath stank of rotted meat. The stench almost overcame the boy as he slammed his bedroom door behind him and scrambled under his bed, panting.

 

And then the odour of rotting meat disappeared, replaced instead by the rich, sweet scent of tobacco.

 

"S'alright, lad. Jes' stay there, everythin' will be jes' fine." Said a voice. Rory looked left from under the bed. Black leather loafers.

 

The Witch shredded the door with a final, gleeful laugh and stepped into the room and gasped.

 

"No."

 

Rory watched her right foot take a step back.

 

"Oh, aye." Said the voice, and The Witch ran, followed by the sharp clicks of hard soled shoes.


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Author's Note - I screwed up the formatting on this somehow and I can't figure it out. Very sorry for the underlining under the entire text.

Edited 10 hours ago by Living_Hellfire