Jacob’s speech was not as cheesy as Soraya’s, but it was more persuasive. Dann shrugged at it, he did already said he was up to working together with the rest. Dann looked at Lucky, “Spell it how it you want, there’s not that much different way in spelling it.”
Dann’s preparation of an improvised weapon was an attempt to cobble a flamethrower together. He then put it on the backseat of the car he rode in and took a seat besides it.
Jacob had felt otherwise too distracted by his thoughts to pay enough attention to Dann's makeshift flamethrower. His mind was shifting sporadically from stressful thoughts of opiates and alcohol, to the detrimental effects of Ragnarok on his personal life. Would he ever see his mother again, would he ever get high again? As soon as he heard the popping hiss of whatever Dann poked a hole through, he flashed a quick glance to the backseat, however turned back to exit the car as they pulled up into the gas station. Once everyone was out of the car and gathered with the rest, he voiced his concern.
"Yeah, it's probably not a good idea to head along in a car filled with butane. Maybe Dann's contraption worked, I don't know..." He stated, his eyes widening just as Dann started to test his contraption.
The car that Soraya was in followed behind the new car driven by Lucky. When the first car pulled over at a gas station, Gavriil, Soraya, Eshna, and Jagred followed. Soraya saw Dann come out of the car with a strange device in his hands, and she squinted at it. Whatever it was supposed to do, she didn’t know, but it didn’t exactly look like it could accomplish anything. Before she even had a chance to ask, he decided to test it out. Fantastic plan.
Despite nearly getting blown to bits, luckily Soraya wasn’t close enough to be destroyed in the ensuing destruction. If anybody had gotten hurt she was pretty sure she might have wrapped her hands around Dann’s throat, but the best thing to do after destroying half a building was get the hell out of there before the cops showed up. If he does something stupid like that when we’re in the middle of a giants’ nest I’ll take care of him myself, I swear. But her anger faded and disappeared by the time they’d driven a few miles down the highway.
Jacob couldn't help but force up a weak chuckle concerning the situation. They'd just seen a car implode and probably ended up taking the gas station with it, and than they actually managed to steal a car. Smirking at Dann in the backseat, than to Lucky driving, he spoke up.
"At least no one got hurt. You still got your eyebrows, Dann?" He inquired with another chuckle.
“Yeahh, it should’ve worked,” Dann replied.
"Well it did work...in that it caused quite a spectacle. I'm surprised we managed to hightail it outta' there before the cops showed up. We're probably all over the local news right now." He continued with a wide grin, "so you're not exactly an expert in craftin' janky shit, where you from, Dann? Sweden? Denmark?" He asked.
“Denmark,” Dann said. “Frankly, if I have to craft with volatile stuff, I usually expect to blow something up soon after.”
"Hah!" Jacob laughed, "yeah, I grew up in Arizona, one state over." He said, pointing east. "Even in the winter, I'd bet money it's still 90 degrees out there. What about you, Lucky?" He casually turned his head toward the driver's seat.
“Me?” Lucky said, keeping his eyes on the road, “I’m just from Utah, Salt Lake City. Nice enough place. I mean, it was a terrible environment to raise a child. Look how I turned out. But hey, for how I turned out, it was wonderful. Was raised in the casinos, learnt how to play whatever games there were and steal money right below peoples’ noses, all the while staying legal.”
Lucky changed lanes, and continued, “Still a bit confused about that, with me being the son of Odin. I mean, seriously, the last time there was a trickster in that family, it didn’t go well. What the hell happened that made me follow the same route? Apart from just being raised that way.”
"Beats me..." Jacob mumbled. "I mean, at least you're aware of who Odin is. He's practically famous. Who was I, Freyrson? I've heard the name but I still have no idea what it represents..."
Lucky passed his smartphone to Jacob. “Have a look. Wouldn’t hurt, would it? While you’re at it, see if you can find any more on norse frost giants. Maybe it’ll list some myths or whatever of Thor beating one with some weakness. That could help a whole lot.”
Freyr wasn’t too hard to find information on. He did have his own Wikipedia article after all. As for particular weaknesses of Frost Giants, beyond all of the gods ganging up on them, Thor beating the shit out of them, or them being otherwise tricked by Loki, there’s not much information on defeating them. However, again and again mentions of just how powerful of illusionists Frost Giants are.
"Overall he looks like the god of prosperity...virility. Wowza..." As he read on, he squeezed two fingers between his eyes, closing them and sighing with a chuckle. "He was their phallic fertility god," he continued. "As far as everything else i'm reading, and what i've already read, there's not much on frost giants. The gods, our parents or whatever, really kicked their asses a few times. It says right here they're pretty powerful illusionists, so we should keep an eye out for any deceiving tricks."
Motioning Lucky's phone over to Dann, he inquired. "You want to check out more about your godparent?"
“Eh, I’ve heard that he’s some sort of god of skiing once,” Dann shrugged before moving to take the phone. “No harm done, I guess.”
“Huh, that’s pretty much it actually,” Dann said.
Upon driving, Gavriil seemed a lot more vocal in his complaints, being sure to honk at whatever irked him and yell rather vulgar and angry words in one of his three languages, seemingly at random. When the car finally moved out of the city and onto the road up to Bodie(Less things for the big man to scream at), he looked over his shoulder at the group that he’d gathered, before deciding to start the conversation. “Do any of you know much about this mythos we are a part of?”
Soraya had opted to sit in the passenger seat, mainly due to worry that she would get motion sickness if she were in the back. She hoped that the rest of the group didn’t have to learn about that little fact about her. She gazed out the windshield for the majority of her trip, occasionally glancing at her cell phone in her jean pocket. Though her parents had both been trying to text her, she was ignoring them. For now.
Gavriil’s words caught her somewhat by surprise, as she hadn’t expected him to talk for some reason. When no one else answered him after a very uncomfortable amount of time, Soraya felt obligated to. “Not very much. Maybe some high school stuff.” After a brief pause, she tried to sound a little less uninformed, hoping to bring up something she could contribute to. “Baldur, the god who came today, he said I was the daughter of … of Vidar?” Suddenly it occurred to her that she could look it up on her phone, and she felt fairly stupid for not having checked earlier. A lot had been going on. She pulled out her phone again and opened the browser, searching for the name by guessing its spelling. Soon she found the Wikipedia article she needed. She read aloud before she read it to herself. “A god among the Aesir associated with … with vengeance.” Soraya decided not to keep reading to the other passengers, instead keeping it to herself. She wasn’t exactly expecting that. Please somebody else say something.
For the majority of the car ride, Jagred kept to himself, occupied his mind with one of those crappy quizzes he had on his phone. He wasn’t completely anti-social or anything, mind, it was just that he didn’t enjoy small talk, instead preferred the calming silence. He glanced at the German bloke each time he swore too loud, his lips twitching with a smile. When Gavriil asked his question though, he turned back to his phone, which suddenly appeared to be very interesting. Soraya decided to answer first, mentioning about her apparent father, Vidar, in an awkward attempt to break the silence. Honestly, he didn’t understand why people liked to do this. It was like they couldn’t stand the silence or something.
However, since there was no harm in playing along, he decided to give his answer as well. –“ Mine’s Tyr. God of justice and heroic deeds. That sort of things. Don’t know much else. Well, and he also lost a hand to Fenrir when he put his hand into its mouth..”- He mumbled, fidgeting with his necklace. Hopefully, losing body parts didn’t run in the family.
It was a simple thing to listen to the people within earshot spout their heritage without lying. Almost no fun to be had. Vidar, the god of vengeance, something that suited the almost disturbing way that some carnivorous spirit flowed through Soraya. As for his toothy companion, Tyr, a god of justice. Again, suitable for the one that reeked of battle and danger. Gavriil snorted in time with the crack about the missing limbs, aiming to seem as helpful and trustworthy as he could in order to gather as much information as he could.
The large man filed away the knowledge that both of his companions provided as dirt to use another day, before carefully asking the question that he’d been sitting on since the god had spoke his true name back at the store. “Then do you know who Hel is? Something to do with ice, I expect.”
Without taking his eyes off the phone, Jagred simply shrugged –“Don’t know. Isn’t that what, the Norse equivalent of Hell? Not sure if there is ice down there though.”
With both cars parked and all of the group members gathered together in Bodie, they began to form a more substantial plan about their next steps. Soraya used the time to look around her and survey the scene. The trail of blood was certainly ominous, but so was the absence of life and the smoke being pumped into the air by a nearby chimney.
Soraya crouched next to the older tire tracks that were in the parking lot. “This is fairly recent, I think,” she announced to the group. She eyed the blood that was a few steps away.
Dann cocked his head towards the bloodtrack. “What now then? Split up and look for info around the bloodtrack or go to the mines?”
Lucky shrugged, stepping out of the car into the cold. “I’m gonna go see where the blood tracks lead. You guys can go do something else. I’ll leave the keys in the ignition, just in case we have to hightail it out of here.”
“Doubt it, if we need to get away that would mean either the Giants are right on our tails or the whole mountain is crumbling down,” Dann said. “For the former, unless we have a good head start, we’re going into our own coffin, for the latter, I really doubt we can outrun a mountain to get to the cars.”
Lucky nodded. “Fair enough. But might as well be prepared, in case we do have to make a hasty exit. Hey, maybe it’ll be our luck that the mountain skipped leg day.”
Soraya stretched her legs and breathed in the crisp air that reminded her so much of home. “It may be dark in the mines. Torches could be handy. If I can find some wood I’ll try to make some.” She walked over to the blood trail in the snow, using two of her fingers to lift a small bit up to her face for closer inspection. She knew she had an unusually strong sense of smell compared to most people. She hoped it would serve her well. “This isn’t fresh blood.” That much she knew for sure. “Twenty-nine hours ago. Don’t ask. But it isn’t leading to that building. It’s leading from it.” To her, it looked like the trail of spattered blood was headed to the tire tracks, which meant the vehicle that was sitting here. But she was sure her kin could figure that out themselves. “There were several wounds, sharp punctures in the flesh. I think they were bullet wounds.” She looked up at Lucky. “Be careful, okay?”
Soraya was quick to see that all the run down buildings were made of ample, and easy enough to pry apart, wood. Also, Soraya was actually able to tell that the blood looked as if it had been from just the day prior. Less than that, in fact, somehow able to ascertain from her senses, primarily smell, almost exactly how long ago the blood was spilled, and even a bit about what type of wound it was that would make the blood like this. It took her a few sniffs before she could tell that the blood was spilled 29 hours ago, from several sharp puncture wounds. Probably bullet wounds. A lot of them.
"Right, good idea with crafting torches, Soraya. Go ahead and pry apart some wood from these shanty buildings around here and get to work. Gavriil, go with Lucky and provide some back up, no telling what could be behind all this blood. Eshna, i'd have you tag along with them just in case someone's hurt and needs medical attention." He paused, surveying the smoke stack up ahead, behind the barbed wired fences.
"Jagred, Dann, you’re with me." He motioned two fingers over to him, walking subtly towards the smoke stacks. "Lets see what we can find out about the area beyond those fences, try to stay out of sight and don't get too close. We don't need any unnecessary risks, just a few quick looks and we'll rush back over here."
“For a few quick looks, it’s better if just one of us go or all of us split up,” Dann said. “I find it easier to stay out of sight alone, and if I get found, easier to hide.”
Jagred surveyed the blood trail with a detached gaze, his new found weapon clutched in one hand. Blood splatters hardly seemed like good news at the moment, but then, very few things were. Even the village itself felt ominous, which was rather expected. After all, with the name that almost spelt like bodies, he didn’t expect to be dropped off at a crowded tourist attraction or whatever. Glancing up at Jacob as he gave the order, Jagred raised his eyebrow slightly. Right, who died and left this guy in charge? The speech was impressive, there was no denying that. However, it hardly guaranteed his spot as the leader of their little group. Still, since no one seemed to be against it and not that he wanted the position for himself, Jagred just gave a shrug and followed.
Before he left though, Soraya’s idea reminded him of something, and he quickly dug through the pockets of his jacket. As a creature of habit, he always carried a lighter with him, despite the fact that Jagred had given up smoking years ago. Fortunately for them, it was still here, sitting snugly in the front pocket of his shirt. He tossed it to Soraya with a flick of his wrist, along with a comment-“Should’ve brought some flashlights at the shop. I don’t like torches. The smoke made my eyes awfully teary.”- With that done, he turned back to Jacob, his lips curled up in one of those smiles of his, all white teeth and no humor- “Alright. Lead. I will follow.”
"Dann makes a point, i'll let the both of you decide which direction you want to take. I'll try to creep up straight ahead without getting to close, we'll regroup back here. Don't try to take on anything by yourself, if you get caught, you run back over here, and fast." He ordered, as he continued walking as slyly as he could straight ahead, attempting to make as little noise as possible whilst additionally trying to remain unseen.
Jacob had started shuffling in closer, as Dann and Jagred disappeared from sight. The smoky stench filled his nostrils as he crept up for a closer look, however he had tripped up on a rather large rock covered in snow. As he fell forward, he couldn't help but shout out an expletive. Or two.
"Shit! Fuck!" He shouted, definitely loud enough for anyone or anything nearby to have heard.
As he fell, the right part of his rib cage landed directly on another rock covered in a layer of snow. Additionally, he tried to catch his fall with both hands, managing to cut his left forearm on his sword sheathed through his belt upon impact. After loudly whispering more profanities, he was made aware that it probably wasn't a good idea to continue scouting after making such a commotion. While not immediately registering the pain from his bruised ribs, he clutched his stinging forearm and hurried back to the main group.
Dann’s sneaking around yielded with him finding a set of oversized footprints. They were old and if he wasn’t looking around for signs, he would’ve missed it. He guessed that the footprints had been around for a week or so. Most of the footprints showed the giants going from the mines with some smaller people, which could be the dwarven or human prisoners or something, that they were taken out did not imply a good imagery. There were some prints that headed into the mines, but they were too faint and led to Dann assuming that there could be several giants patrolling outside of the mine. Probably the cause of the bloodtrack earlier, although he didn’t see any giant footprints there.
He considered his next move as he looked at the fence surrounding the mines. It’s probably a good idea to find another entrance other than a possibly watched gate. Nodding to himself, Dann set out to trying to find a point where they can sneak in, either via a hole on the fence or making a hole on the fence. The latter would’ve been easier if they brought a cutter with them though. Without it, there’s Jacob’s sword.
The result wasn’t nice, Dann found some signs of holes in the fence, but the patchworks on them made the former-holes harder to be used to break in. There were also traces of much,much smaller footprints near those spots, although with how faint they were, he couldn’t even guess whether they were breaking in or breaking out. With nothing else to go on, Dann started to head back to the rest of the group, before remembering about the map he was given. Taking it out, Dann used the map to look over the layout of the mine and its surrounding. After memorizing it, he returned to the group.
The map revealed area, landscape and structures on the surface, to Dann, but little useful information that he hadn’t already gathered from scouting. The map offered no look into the layout of the mine itself, it was too large a scale for anything of that nature. Likewise, it didn’t show the layouts of other structures, nor anyone on it. Other than its updating, it appeared to be a simple map.
Jagred’s trip had been less than eventful, for better or worse. As directed, he went to take a look around the mine. It was conveniently surrounded by sturdy metal fences, too high to climb over and too thick to break through. Or was it? He hefted his axe, considering the thought for a few seconds then promptly discarded the idea. This wasn’t a very good time for noises, especially ones that were loud enough to alert the giants of their presence here. With that decided, Jagred continued with his mission, moving along the walls, footsteps muffled by fresh-fall snow. For the next while, he came across nothing of particular interest, except for, maybe, the lack of security around this area. Which was a good thing, he supposed.
However, just as he was thinking of going back, something caught his eyes. From afar, it looked almost like an odd-colored patch of fence, but as he got closer, Jagred realized he had found a gate. Upon closer inspection, he also found that the gate was locked from the inside, and after a few failed attempt to reach it, he gave up. There was no way he could get to that lock, and even if he did, he wouldn’t know what else to do. That seemed like his cue to go back then. Maybe someone else from their group would know more about breaking and entering.
Soraya nodded at Jacob, easily accepting his transformation into a sort of leader of the group. Unless he gave some sort of awful order, she didn’t mind following suggestions. She wasn’t the type to want to lead, anyway. She almost didn’t catch the lighter that had suddenly been thrown at her without warning. She thanked her reflexes that she had. Despite feeling annoyed for about half a second after, she gave Jagred a look that said he was right. She did agree. Flashlights wouldn’t have been a bad idea. At least they knew for next time - if there were a next time.
She went to the nearest building and, upon realizing that there was no quiet way of doing it, ripped a loose board from the wall. None of the boards here were loose enough that they’d fallen away from the structure completely, unfortunately for her. She winced at the cracking sound that echoed from where she stood. Just one or two boards were enough to make four simple torches. She wrapped the ends in the same light fabric they’d used for the Molotovs.
Gavriil hadn’t moved after Lucky, instead choosing to stare suspiciously at one of the very few buildings in Bodie proper. He could feel something there. Something like his companions. The next words were slow and measured as the Russian carefully leveled his rifle at the building. “There’s something there. Feels like… Earthy? Like us, but not exactly like any single one of us.” An icy silence followed as Gavriil took a step forward, steadying the sights upon the doorway. “Perhaps another demigod?”
“Well it’d certainly be no friendly one,” Eshna commented, tracing Gavriil’s eyesight to the doorway, “Either he, she, or it is more cautious than we are, or it’s hiding on purpose.” She seemed more keen on believing the latter, evident in her tone and the intensity of her stance.
After eavesdropping on the new arrivals as best he could for what was probably far more time than was strictly necessary, Angus was jolted from his complacent hiding spot in one of the buildings by some loud cursing. Those had been some of the first English words he learned as a young man, from an Irish schoolyard friend, and they brought a smile to his face. He hoisted a large green sack over his shoulder with his right hand and ducked out of the shadowed doorway he’d been hiding in, his left hand held up palm forward in a gesture of peace and goodwill. He was a very large man with a beard that hung down to his chest, and he was dressed in a set of warm clothes that had been liberated from the now-empty ranger station, as would be obvious to anyone who saw the insignia on the sleeve of his black jacket.
“I guess you all are here for the same reason I am.” Angus’s English was heavily tinged with an accent from his native German, but he spoke well enough to be understood. “Sons of gods, right? And daughters, I see. I’m Angus Hartmann.” He paused and let his empty hand drop to his side, feeling that his introduction was enough to make his lack of ill intent clear. “Or Angus Njordsson, according to some birds. This Njord guy was some kind of god of the seas and fish. I did some research while I was here waiting for…” Angus trailed off and looked over toward the parking lot and the trail of blood that the arriving party had obviously noticed.
“About that, uh, the blood. There was another man who came here with me, called himself Rat Eye, nickname of some kind I guess. Looked like a rat, so it fit. There was a ranger here. When we drove up the place looked empty, and when the ranger walked out…” Angus shrugged uncomfortably. “Rat Eye was a twitchy guy. Old lady in the shop gave him a gun. The ranger was dead before he could even get a word out. Then the idiot who shot him decided he had to hide the body, and I couldn’t talk sense into him, so I helped him put it in the car and he drove away yesterday. I haven’t seen him since then, thought it might be him coming back when I heard cars coming. He was stupid, but I hope nothing bad happened to him.”
Angus paused briefly once more, but then continued on without letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. He’d been cooped up alone for almost a day, hiding in fear from the Frost Giants that were supposed to be lurking here, and he couldn’t help but spill out words like water from a broken faucet. “I heard you guys talking about making torches. Lucky for us all, I did some scavenging while I was waiting.” Angus hefted the sack slung over his shoulder to indicate that his haul was contained within. “Three flashlights, a first aid kit that looks almost new, a map of the town and the mines, and some snacks.” He finally stopped speaking then, obviously rather pleased with himself as he looked from one new face to another with a genial smile.
Jacob had safely managed his way back to the group while still clenching his cut arm, and having heard their newfound companion's introduction, he felt it proper they introduce themselves as well.
"Pleasure to meet you, Angus. I'm Jacob...Freyrson, I suppose." He paused, suspiciously eyeing Angus whilst still trying to keep up a friendly demeanor, his wounded hand wrapped around the handle of his sword as he continued. "I honestly don't care if you killed the ranger here or not, what matters is that you're one of us...and hopefully you're not some frost giant...'illusion'." He placed up two fingers at the mention of illusion, and continued.
"I'll let the rest of the group say hi, that's up to them. Some of us aren't exactly talkers." He chuckled, cursing and sighing under his breath as a tad bit of blood dripped down his left forearm.
"No, it isn't bad. Nothing that can't be patched and bandaged in a few minutes. Those supplies should come in handy, it'll be a big help. When everyone's ready, lets form a plan." He smiled, looking over his group and awaiting their introductions, or lack thereof.
At the very least, Eshna could detect the man was a demigod, and while it was slightly reassuring, there was still quite a bit of distrust she felt in him. Rather than a greeting, she kept to herself, albeit offering a faint leer at Angus before approaching Jacob with her own medical trinkets. Wordlessly, she did what she did best, and bandaged his arm with a piece of cloth she had retained from the witch’s shop earlier. Mumbling under her breath, she quietly chastised Jacob.
Good thing I’m here. Seems like this sort of thing is infectious to all of you.
Despite being slightly suspicious of the lumberjack who had suddenly come lumbering out of the building that Gavriil had pointed out, Soraya did share her name with him. But only her first name. And that was the only word she spoke to him. Now, knowing that he had three flashlights for them all to use, she glanced down at the now-useless torches, and shrugged. She might as well hold on to them, anyway. Maybe they had use yet.
She wondered quietly to herself why this stranger was being so helpful and talkative after having met the group all of ten seconds ago. At Jacob’s mention of a Frost Giant illusion, she gave the air around the lumberjack - Angus, he said his name was - a sniff to see if she could pick up anything strange about him. Not much, but he didn’t exactly smell odd to her so she assumed he was safe. At least she knew his personal scent now. His beard smelled distinctly of a man’s shampoo.
Gavriil lowered the gun, still very suspicious of this man who claimed to be an ally. Was being a demigod all it took? He shook his head, attempting to clear it of the cloudy thoughts of how trusting his newfound brethren were. They were free agents, which meant that the ‘bad gods’ could just as easily convince a demigod to go along with their plans.
Dann looked at the new demigod warily. He had arrived around the time Angus mentioned about someone stupid and missed most of the earlier conversation. Giving a nod to him, Dann remained quiet as Jagred showed up, not mentioning his finding until he was sure this person was not the owner of the smaller footprint he found together with the larger footprint.
As Jagred returned to the group, he paused slightly when noticing a stranger among them. No one seemed to be openly hostile though, so he assumed the man wasn’t a threat. For now, at least. He didn’t bother with introduction yet, instead turning to Jacob and informed him of his new findings, of course, loud enough to everyone to hear. –“Found a gate over there. Locked, but no one was guarding it, so anyone here know how to pick one?”- Only then did he give the newcomer a few passing glances, trying to get a proper read on the man. He was a demigod like the rest of them, tall, broad-shouldered and bearded. However, unlike their group, he was here alone. Strange, that.-“Where are your group?”-Jagred asked, leaning on his axe-“ You do have one, right?”
“Oh, you must not have heard that part.” Angus pointed toward the blood trail in the parking lot. “There was a guy with me, but he killed the ranger and then drove off to hide the body. Haven’t seen him since. Nobody else was with us.” He scratched at his beard in silence for a couple seconds, then nodded to himself. “I can’t pick locks, but I could probably break this gate down if we need to get through it. Or maybe break the lock with my shield. Won’t be quiet, but it should do the job.”
Lucky finally came back to the group that had assembled. Brushing off a few bits of dirt, he nodded towards his own group, and stuck his hand out at Angus. “Good to meet you. Name’s Lucky. Alright, so I checked around the entire area, but I didn’t really see anything, apart from the mines themselves. I stayed a bit away from their entrance. Personal safety and all that.”
Lucky looked towards Jagred. “I heard something about a gate? I’ve been picking locks since I was a child. Come on, show me where it is, I should be able to get it open soon enough.”
"Easy there, Lucky..." Jacob intervened, nodding his head toward Eshna as she finished up with his wound.
"We still need to form a plan, and after the commotion I just made there's a chance they'll be patrolling the area. Now if we're all done with introductions..." Sighing, he continued as he looked towards Dann. "Let's all gather around Dann and his map and decide the best course of action, remember that Baldur wanted us to kill or capture any of these giants as well as obtain the relic. I realize not all of us are exactly fighters, so let us conjure up a plan together."
“If you did make a commotion and they’ve started patrolling, then we should find someplace not in the open while we discuss what we’re doing,” Dann commented...
Soon afterwards...
The plan was set, and the eight of them had split into two groups as they finished looking at the map. The entire band found a gate closest to some cover, and the ambush group consisting of Jacob, Angus, Jagred, and Gavriil began to set up for their attack. Angus’ shield had been whipped by frost, and with him crouching behind some rundown buildings as well made it hard to see him and his companions now.
Gavriil set up shop further away, as he heard the screams of anguish slowly die down, quiet, mute for but the briefest of moments, until a voice began to speak to him in Finish. He was quick to understand it, and then a small chorus joined the voice as he aimed his rifle from afar. The voices were quiet, but as silence, a white noise that offered no distraction.
Jacob split from the ambush group for the first stage of the plan, using his sword to try to cut through the fence and make a hole for ease of picking it. Unfortunately, even his divinely sharp sword was not enough to cut through the metal on his own. Eshna, far his stronger, offered to take the sword, but found a sudden feeling of horror go through her very soul as she gripped its handle, dropping it immediately.
It was not meant for her to use, and she could feel that. Even offered, it wasn’t for her to touch. Jacob turned to Dann and Lucky, and it was their task now, as Jacob returned to his post in hiding. Before they could try to finagle a way at the lock, Soraya had already climbed to the top of the fence. Her feet were planted on it, and it was silent in its groaning, neither barb nor shift in the wind much of a bother to her.
Dann was the first she helped up and over the fence, letting his feet hit the snow as he then moved to investigate the mining facility closer. Lucky was next up and over, and he quickly moved to the lock. Eshna turned back towards where the ambush lay in wait, finding it hard to see them, and hoping that the frost giants would have similar troubles.
The mine was old, and in a horrid state of apparent disrepair at a casual glance, but Dann began to feel that some of this disrepair was actually false. When he tested it, he found himself right, the structure was in far better shape than it’d seem, and as the lights in the sky dimmed as but a solid moon-glow was all that remained outside, he found a side door into the structure. With his own map, and the map of the mines in mind, he felt a certainty that he could locate where anyone would be, and not walk into any sort of trap.
Lucky made short work of the lock, and the door swung open with a bit of a creek, as Eshna moved inside. They left the door open for when they’d be making their escape later. After making sure that there were no dangers outside of the structure, they began to try to lure them out. They made their loud noises, cries, shouts, and waited, listening, for anything.
A minute went by, and nothing. Another, and another, and yet still nothing. They banged things, and tried to make all the noise, running back a bit afterwards, but nothing came of it. A slight change in plan had to be made, they’d need to get closer to the mine itself, not just the structure, to lure them from. While Dann and Lucky worked on a lock, Soraya cast a look up at the moon, and saw something that Dann’s map had not revealed. There were some forms moving out in the open, in the great distance. She couldn’t quite make them out in the celestial mirror, but she didn’t quite have time to say anything. A pained scream, and a frenzied yell, both so distant, reverberating from underground to the surface. Temporarily letting what she saw slip her mind, Soraya joined the others at the door for a moment, to listen, to see if anyone was coming up.
Still nothing. So they finished getting inside the building, and moved on with their plan.
Within, there were small fires lit in piles of rubbish, and on torches on the wall, and old burst lamps as well. The floor was worn and scratched, and blood stained the floors and walls. A room full of lockers, all of them torn open, some missing their doors, and a few on the floor as well. One was imbedded in the ceiling, strangely. Lucky was the first to notice a limp and overly plump corpse. Bloated with rot, but frozen over hiding the smell. There had been quite the battle in here some time ago. Three days ago, Soraya could tell by the smells.
Dann moved from the lockers and supply rooms, and found that unlike marked on the map, there was no longer a door leading where he had wanted to go. The structure had collapsed a bit. Through the open roof above, he could climb up and over, though. Eshna volunteered to go first, being the sturdiest of them in case the wreckage was less stable than it looked. Right behind her, was Soraya, who took another look to the moon through the hole.
They were just on the other side of the pile.
Soraya reached to tap Eshna, and silently tell her, but Eshna twitched at the feeling, shifting suddenly causing a loud noise to escape from the pile that she was nearly on top of. That’s when it gave way, and she fell forward, alone, into the next room, the cafeteria. Her arms and torso were bruised from the impact, and her arms were scraped up something nasty. On her right shoulder, however, a larger scrap of metal had stuck itself, a metal bar from the ceiling that had gotten beneath her had pierced her, and Eshna was admirable in her ability to mute her cries of pain. Soraya managed to not slip and fall, moving down to Eshna, to help her in any way she could. Dann and Lucky were shortly behind her, when Soraya and Dann suddenly turned their attentions up. There was an elevator going up. Getting closer, lifting up from the mines.
Her companions tried to grip the bar stuck in her shoulder, and pulled. It began to move slowly, but Eshna grabbed it herself, and with them pulled it out in one swift and smooth pull. She groaned through clenched teeth, as she felt the open wound began to close itself. They needed a new, safer way to travel. Eshna, looking at the still sharp and dangerous rubbish pile, knew they needed to make a different way through the building.
It was then that Soraya pointed out the reason she tapped Eshna at all. She was wrong, it wasn’t danger in this room, it was the remains of another battle. Men and women, of all shapes and sizes were strewn about the room. The battle was over, but much longer ago. The stench, now that the worry of their companion was lessened, hit their nostrils in force. Lucky, Dann, and Soraya found themselves retching their stomach, vomiting their last meals upon the ground. It was awful. Eshna, however, was able to keep herself a bit more contained, tugging them along as the noise of the elevator was getting louder and louder.
They quickly made their way out of the room, and into a hallway, with little idea of what was happening outside.
Gavriil had noticed the lights first. Police lights, and he knew what they were doing here as well. They had blown up a gas station, and there were few destinations along the road they traveled since then. They must have tried to contact the rangers here, and seeing that they didn’t respond because they were dead, sent someone out to investigate, or more. The sounds of their sirens flicked on. They must have seen the car, and the plates. Also the blood, that wouldn’t be a good sign either. More cops were going to be on their way.
Hopefully they would be distracted by the Frost Giants to deal with them? Or maybe even help them fight the Frost Giants too. If not, he may have some talking to do.
The battles that had raged inside of the mine had drastically altered some of its interior design. The map that Dann had memorized was of little use inside of the crushed walls and corpses on spikes that blocked some ways, and gaping holes that made new ones. Other doors, were locked or barred. Moving in and out of the maze, the elevator doors were passed a few times, until in passing they knew. They knew that the elevator was at the top. Turning, they saw the doors open, revealing an iron gate and bars, as very human looking persons crashed against the interior doors, trying to jam their arms between the bars at the group. Their time to try to find a way out was gone.
Jacob, Jagred, and Angus heard the sirens, and had mixed ideas on why they were here. Before they could aptly do anything, there was a large crashing and breaking noise from inside of the structure. Faster soon than that, was a gunshot.
“Holy shit! Frank… his head. Man down!”
Gavriil had pulled the trigger after lining up the shot. It wasn’t necessarily even his idea. It was a sudden gut reaction, he had to fire. Reloading nothingness into the gun, another shot was ready, and he lined up the sights.
Soraya deftly jumped over a charging thrall, only for her leg to be grabbed by another. Her body was but limp in his grasp as he tossed her to the side. Eshna had been wounded again, taking the first brunt of their charge that broke through the doors of the elevator, but she was still able to catch Soraya, preventing her from going through a wall.
Lucky and Dann were throwing anything they could toss at the thralls to distract them long enough to not lay a good solid hit on anyone, when Dann spotted, and alerted Lucky to a door that led outside, and to help. All they’d have to do is unlock, or bust it down.
Eshna threw Soraya into the floor above them, and she pulled a good landing despite some of the floor below her giving way. These thralls, they had been among the attending ranger staff, according to their uniforms, but their enslavement had obviously given them enhanced strength.
The elevator had begun to make its way back down into the mines. Someone else was using it, but it wasn’t clear who it was. Soraya, was able to, with the time she had alone, to throw down a lit molotov at Eshna. Eshna had previously pointed out her protection to the flames within the mining facility, and Soraya was willing to test it out.
The glass, sharp and shattering, offered a different challenge to Eshna than the flames. While the fire was cool and smooth to her sense, the glass was still painful to her, cutting her up more, and the sudden blinding light of flame engulfing her and a thrall caught her by surprised.
Outside, the facility ruptured as an exterior wall was knocked through by two burning forms. A thrall and Eshna came crashing to the snow and cold outside. She was able to throw the creature off herself, and back into the building, as flames began to spread with more molotovs, unlit, thrown to support the burning of the wood, metal, and concrete building.
There were two options for those in the ambush. Either they could charge in where they were needed, or fight cops. They took charging to the mines while Gavriil kept the police pinned down with his sniper fire. There had only been two cop cars, five officers in total, and two were already down. The other three had already put in a request for back up, and wished to escape, but couldn’t. They were afraid, moving from their cover meant popping up and out to a sniper bullet.
Lucky activated his troubles aura, and almost immediately the ceiling in front of him collapsed under flames, putting a block between him and the thralls. There had been at least five of them in ranger outfits, and that collapse had bought Dann and him some time to get out as well.
Soraya had just avoided the floor giving way to flames and collapse beneath her because of Lucky’s aura and her molotovs. She wasn’t in an opportune position, but she could hear that things were getting far worse outside and below. Things were really falling apart, literally and metaphorically.