Chapter 9: The Shores Of War

  “Morning, sir.”

  “Morning, boss.”

  Angela and Emma sat down on the other side of Erik’s table, each with their own tray filled with various breakfast foods. Angela had lots of beans, sausages, and bacon, while Emma had loaded up with bread, ham, cheese, and a side of orange and apple slices.

  “Please don’t call me that,” Erik said, putting a spoonful of cereal and milk in his mouth.

  “Sir or boss?” Angela asked jokingly.

  “Either. You know I’m not going to order you around, right?”

  “We figured as much,” Emma said. “That doesn’t mean we should just do as we want, though. Don’t worry, we’ll be ready to follow orders when you give them. Otherwise we’ll do what we can, when we can, and try our best to advise you as we go along,” Emma finished with something resembling a smile. Angela nodded in agreement.

  “What’s got you in such a good mood? Never seen you smile before. You’re not a morning person, are you?” Erik asked.

  Emma giggled, as if trying to prove a point. “I am, but that’s not it. I’m sorry about yesterday. It’s been a rough couple of months. You killing those things yesterday… It made me hopeful, I guess. Just don’t push it,” she finished, pointing her butter knife at Erik’s face with a smile.

  “Morning, girls. Mr Fried.” Mathisen sat down next to Erik.

  “Morning, General,” the three said in unison.

  Their talks continued into the morning hours. Regarding Erik’s use for Angela and Emma, he told them they would have to help with logistics and acquisitions, as well as support and intelligence if they could manage it.

  They two women agreed, but they also wanted to fight the beasts. Erik wouldn’t, or possibly couldn’t stop them, but neither could he promise he could protect them. Nor did they want him to. This was their job, or it had been, at least.

  The general offered her help for now by providing a chopper and pilot, at least to the UB, where she could pull some threads to get them further assistance from an air base close to his destination. When they made their way there, she had a message for them to deliver.

  Regarding his previous request back when they first met a day ago, General Mathisen also apologised for not being able to send anyone into enemy territory to pick up any remaining survivors.

  After the initial evacuation, nothing, and no one they had sent in to scout the area had returned, including planes, drones, and tanks. All they got were last transmissions of a rather confusing nature before the comms went down. Everything past Bridgefort was designated a no-go zone.

  “So you believe someone is behind this? A person? A Remnant?” Angela asked after breakfast. Her question revealed her own suspicions after Erik’s late-night story the night previous.

  “I believe so, yeah. There’s another one in Leicester I think can help, which is why I’ve been travelling that way.”

  “That’s the other person you mentioned yesterday, right? The one who’s special to you?” Angela asked.

  Erik had managed to tell the three of them about Afterlife without mentioning Jessie too much, seeing that her story wasn’t his to tell without her first agreeing to help. Ratting her out wasn’t something he intended to do.

  “How sure can you be that this other one isn’t the one behind this?” Emma asked.

  “We were both in Afterlife together until a few days ago. She wouldn’t be able to use powers like mine until… now, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, both me and her can kill these things. But we’re new at this, which is why we need help.”

  “And crystals or gemstones will help you get stronger?” Angela then asked.

  From her disbelieving tone, it sounded like he was telling her about alternative medicine. That wasn’t far off, he had to admit.

  “Yes, they’re supposed to. I haven’t stumbled upon any in the woods or on the road, obviously, so I can’t say for certain what will work and what won’t.”

  Later, the three of them stepped on board the helicopter after saying their goodbyes to the Bridgefort outfit and General Mathisen. As soon as they got out of the hurricane-force winds from the rotors, a masculine shout greeted them.

  “Hi there!”

  The man from the front of the helicopter had long, black, and curly hair, tied into a bun on the back of his head. He also had a thick beard, with two mirrors installed in front of his eyes and under his large headset. He pointed to another set of headsets and gestured that they should wear them.

  Angela, who had been the first one into the helicopter, had already grabbed one for herself and was in the midst of putting it on. She grabbed two more, handing them out to Erik and Emma.

  The brown-skinned man in the front gave a thumbs up and turned forwards, looking at his dashboard full of lights, buttons, and dials. As Erik fumbled to put the headset on, Angela looked on, which was a bit awkward. After Erik gave her a thumbs up, she placed her hand on his cheek.

  Suddenly a slight static could be heard from the device around his ears, but most notably was the white noise-like silence. Angela removed her hand and smiled.

  “Better?” she asked in a normal voice, which Erik could hear through the radio in the headset.

  “Yeah, sorry. New to this,” he said before turning to Emma, who had also put the device on her head and turned it on. She gave a thumb up to the pilot.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you. Mr Fried, was it?” the pilot said, flipping a small lever or switch in the dash.

  “Call me Erik. Hope you don’t believe everything you hear,” Erik responded. The pilot then muttered something unrecognisable into the radio, then proceeded to lift the helicopter from the ground. After a short hover, they lifted higher, clearing all nearby obstacles.

  “What I believe is that this garrison had one hell of a party last night, all in your honour. That’s all I care about,” the pilot said as the helicopter started to move forwards.

  “Your name?” Erik asked.

  “Amir. We’ll be arriving in seven hours, give or take. I trust you’ll tell me if any of you start feeling ill?” he asked.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Of course,” the three said in response.

  “Good, good. AC only works in front, it can get hot back there,” Amir then said, casting a glance behind him to his three passengers before turning back ahead. “I’d love to see the blonde one button down a bit,” he said, as if there was nothing wrong in saying that on the radio.

  “Amir?” Erik said after a second or two of awkward silence later.

  “Yes sir?”

  “You should keep those things to yourself,” Erik warned and Amir looked panicked as he turned around to face him.

  Angela and Emma both looked at Erik with surprise in their eyes. Was he in the wrong here? People weren’t supposed to talk like that freely, normally.

  “You speak Arabic?” Emma asked.

  At that moment, Erik realised what had happened. He thought back and realised Amir had indeed said that last part in Arabic.

  “Sorry, sir. Just idle musings, I swear,” the pilot explained, his expressions showing that he meant it. He wouldn’t still have his job if he wasn’t professional most of the time, so Erik let it go.

  “Anyway,” Erik said, sitting back in his seat. “Are we there yet?”

  “We just left, sir…” Amir said.

  “Let me know if something interesting happens, then!” the man responded, closing his eyes to relax.

  After stumbling upon Bridgefort like he had, Erik couldn’t help but feel a little more hopeful, a little more… complacent. The world was no longer as dark and grim as it had been when he was resurrected several days ago. Or was he reincarnated? Reborn? It was part rejoining civilisation again and part the people he’d met there, two of which even signed up to help him save the world.

  Erik had felt lost those days when he had nothing left and every corner he turned, Hellbeasts could lie in wait for him. Coupled with his sudden grief after Afterlife had kept that part of him forcefully bottled up for months, it was more than he’d ever thought he could take.

  All that made him stumble forward was Jessie. Finding her was all he had to strive for. Now, it was still a major motivation, but seeing those soldiers risking their life in this war had woken something else in him. It wasn’t just a goal to reach, it was something to fight for. Erik hadn’t smiled sincerely in days until he met Angela, Emma and the general. Now, he even caught himself joking around, much like he used to before everything.

  A kick in his left leg woke him up a while later. Emma pointed toward the shut door and Erik got up from his seat, looking out the window of said door. A couple of Hellbeasts were swimming beneath them, fighting the gigantic ocean waves that attempted to push them this way and that. Erik sat back down after he couldn’t find any more than two of the beasts in the vicinity.

  “Where are they headed?” Erik asked.

  “Somewhere between the States and the Coalition. Antwerp or Rotterdam, most likely. We’re nearing the shores near Norwich, UB. You’ll want to pay attention,” Amir said, his voice a bit tense. “We’re entering the war zone in a few minutes.”

  Intrigued, Erik sat up front in the seat next to Amir, getting a good view from the front of the helicopter. As the shore grew visible, so did all the choppers, the barricades, and ground vehicles on and around the shore-side.

  A few Hellbeasts were blown away while attacking the barricades but were otherwise unharmed. Just when Erik’s helicopter flew above, a couple of dogs ran back to sea in a rain of gunfire and explosions. New beasts arrived on shore seconds later to wash away any hope of rest for the weary soldiers on the beach.

  “Why are they giving up?” Erik asked, having thought about that earlier at Bridgefort.

  “We don’t know,” Angela responded, looking out her own little window just as a British soldier got caught between a monster and a barricade. “They’ve done this from the get-go. If we can hold them for a little while, they retreat temporarily, only to try again later. That’s why Bridgefort wasn’t constantly besieged. It’s a bit worse by the sea as there are instead multiple groups making landfall at different times at different places.

  “All attempts at marking them have failed, as even paint gets washed off in the sea. We don’t even know if the same beasts attack the same place several times or if they alter their course, but we think they keep going for the same target. GPS tags on the ones attacking Bridgefort have determined the same ones attacking multiple times, but the data set is rather small.”

  Erik considered this in silence for the next while. In less than an hour, they would reach the airbase outside Leicester. The helicopter passed by several smaller towns and farms where people seemed to live just like normal despite the relative closeness to the war-torn shore. Like the world wasn’t at war against monsters. It warmed Erik’s chest.

  The feeling only lasted a mere second before his heart turned cold and hard.

  “Drop me off there,” Erik said, his voice as cold as his eyes as he pointed at a Hellbeast that had somehow got through the barricades by the shore and got inland.

  “Yes sir!” Amir said, turning the helicopter to alter its course.

  “You two head to the airbase and deliver Mathisen’s message. Meet me at the address I gave you later tonight.”

  The two women nodded, but didn’t confirm his order by vocal response. Already he was giving them orders, something he had said he wouldn’t do. They didn’t seem to mind, and they had even said they would follow his orders if he gave them.

  Erik opened the door, letting a rushing storm of air inside the helicopter. He removed his headset, picked up his Bag of Stuff, the official name for the stolen bag filled with various unusual items, and dropped to the ground.

  Angela shut the door behind him and kept looking out the window until Erik couldn’t be seen anymore. She and Emma smiled at each other knowingly before they signalled the pilot to keep going.

  Erik landed on a narrow straight of asphalt. Quickly approaching him was a yellow car, the headlights blinking rapidly. Erik moved to the shoulder of the road and the car rushed past him, the people inside waving in fear at him, signalling danger.

  A few seconds behind the car came the beast in a gallop and the people trying to escape the monster had no intention of stopping to rescue Erik, as they were long gone already. The beast, now more interested in Erik than the yellow car, didn’t prove any smarter than the rest of its ilk, as it rammed straight into his invisible wall.

  Its face got smashed in and Erik threw a handful of screws at his victim. Just like that, the match was over. He grabbed hold of his knife, forced his magic through it, and slit the convulsing monster’s throat with it.

  As he removed the knife from its neck, the metal that was its blade had visibly corroded and was almost liquefied at certain points, most notably its previously sharp edge. Erik ran more magic through it with a disappointed look on his face. In just another second or two it was broken beyond repair.

  The Remnant sighed and tossed the handle away. His magic wasn’t much into recyclability, it seemed. He broke everything he used his magic on. The knife was understandable, as Erik spent a good deal of effort forcing the magic into the material. That was unlike the other stuff he used, where his magic and the object seemed made for each other and united in perfect harmony.

  Still, that didn’t mean the items survived the massive influx of magic. The screws that made his tesla bomb all melted, his frisbees shattered after two uses and the yellow bouncy ball that he used on the defence of Bridgefort turned to acid sludge, meaning it wasn’t reusable at all.

  The sticks shattered, and the pebbles turned to dust. Erik was elated that the frisbees endured their first… spell? They weren’t as easy to find as regular rocks or screws were.

  Erik looked around and found no one nearby. It seemed it was just that one beast that got past the shoreline. There weren’t any people around to observe his deeds either, luckily. But how would he hide the monster corpse? He deeply wished for a looting ability that turned the looted corpse into rainbow smoke or something, but he had no such thing, nor anything to dig a grave with.

  If anyone discovered the corpse of a Hellbeast out here, there would be no chance to continue in secret. The world would never stop until they found what killed it and Mathisen could only help so much. The entire trip here was, at least for General Mathisen, just to deliver a message to the air base, hoping they would follow her lead to help Erik with nothing but their own careers on the line. And the world, but few people cared more about the world than themselves.

  While it wasn’t really defection, it was more than possible they could be convicted of that in court. To prevent Mathisen’s career from bombing if anyone ever found out, Erik had to give results. It was still too early, though. He had to grow stronger first. When he was ready to fight back for real, he would make himself known if they needed him to, but right now, everyone needed him to lie low.

  He pushed the massive dog-like being out of the road and into the brush on the side of the road. He covered the corpse with branches, straw and whatever else he could find, but when he was done, there was only one way to describe what was in front of him; a suspicious mound.

  It was perfectly noticeable and obviously man-made, but if he was lucky, no one would even bother with it. Hopefully, everyone using this road would travel by car, which could make it a bit more difficult to notice, Erik hoped. He grabbed his bag and went on his way, heading toward Leicester. He was so close to her, now.