Chương 129: 42 - THE FOURTH REDEEMER PT. 4

It was a Friday, just before noon. There was nothing special about that morning. Tyene Demue showed up to work on time, listened to the droning of coworkers, and tried not to kill herself from boredom. She was on the second floor listening to the most mundane presentation the integrations team had ever created. She made sure her face didn't hide her complete lack of interest by staring at her watch as it ticked away the minutes. And when the man said, "meeting adjourned," she was the first out the door.

"She barely does anything these days," they'd say behind her back.

"She's just a nepo hire. You shouldn't expect much." Tyene found a lone window to stare out of, looking into the heart of the city. She wondered if today could be the day when she just ran away. She could go to a place where no one would find her and disappear from the face of the earth. That would be better than here. There was a sudden flash outside the window. It seemed to catch her eye and no one else's. Something was falling from the sky.

"A comet?" Then it shattered into countless pieces, and one of them was heading straight for their building. It crashed into one of the upper floors, and the entire tower quaked and screamed. Everyone started running for their lives, realizing that a big chunk of the Corlander building had caught fire. But before anyone could get to the door to the stairs, the demons appeared. They came tunneling up from the ground like a bunch of sewer rats. Because they were a bunch of sewer rats.

Overgrown, bipedal rats with some strange smoke leaking from their bodies. Before the first person could even wonder what they were looking at, the rats had torn the heads off of three of Tyene's coworkers. Blood sprayed across the windows as one of the rats chewed on someone's skull like it was a jawbreaker. Even further chaos ensued as they started obliterating people one by one. Tyene took shelter underneath someone's desk, hoping their cubicle would shield her.

It was all a nightmare, something that she could only conceive of in a dream. But the smell… the fire, the suffocation. For some reason, it was all real. All she could do was hold her head and hope that she would somehow survive. The rats sniffed her out of the cubicle, one of them approaching her, hiding underneath the chaos.

"Please, don't. Get away from me!" Before it could even reach out its hand, a bullet blasted into the side of its head, knocking it over. Vienna ran over to Tyene, gun in hand.

"We have to go." Tyene didn't have any words or thoughts. Her instinct just told her to do what the woman said. To both their surprise, the rat creature lifted itself from the ground and let out a high-pitched squeal. It attacked Vienna when its strange humanoid arm stretched like it was made of dough. It suddenly grew to ten feet long and tried to wrap around her neck. Vienna fought it while the other shot for Tyene. It grabbed her by the throat until Vienna managed to shoot two more bullets into its chest.

Of course, that didn't kill it. So she stabbed its arm with a hidden combat knife, causing it to release both of them. Then she leaped onto its shoulders and thrusted the knife right into its eye. Even that didn't kill it. But it disoriented it enough for Vienna to grab Tyene and take off running. Tyene didn't feel in her right mind, watching everyone she worked with be slaughtered, but Vienna was calm and singularly focused, using their slaughter as cover for their escape.

While the elevators and stairwells were congested, Vienna used a small explosive to blow a hole in the floor right above the parking garage. She jumped through to what looked like a fifteen-foot fall. Tyene was sure if she jumped after her, she would break her ankles and become one of those helpless damsels in all the scary movies.

"I can't do it."

"You have to. I'll catch you." Vienna said.

"It's too high."

"Lady Tyene… this is what I'm here for. I will catch you." She heard the screams behind her, swallowed her fear, and jumped. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. They found Vienna's car in the garage and darted through the emergency entrance out onto the street. The chaos was everywhere. Vienna, in the driver's seat, made her way through the traffic. Cutting down alleys, making her own path through the demons and destruction.

Tyene in the backseat tried to call the police for all the good that was going to do.

"Where are we even going?" she asked once the call failed.

"A RazorWind escort helicopter will meet us at your home. Once we're on it, it'll fly us to the closest safe space." They got to her house well before the helicopter did, leading them to take shelter inside to wait for it. The place was a wreck. The falling comet had quaked it to its foundations, causing part of the roof to collapse and half the interior to fall off the walls. It looked like all the servants had run away. Except for one. Tyene screamed when she saw Maimy's corpse trapped under a fallen chandelier.

Vienna took one glance at the body, with no more concern on her face than if it had been a fallen tree.

"I'm going to grab some equipment," she said, making her way into one of the back rooms. Tyene shook her head, still thinking this was some horrible acid trip that she didn't know she was on. And then there was a banging at the door. Once. Twice. BANG! At the third bang, the door to the house flung open, and three men came flooding the room around her. Not recognizing them, she crawled backward.

"Who are you!?" The men looked crazed and angry.

"Where is Corlander!?" One of them spat.

"Are you stupid!? Why would I—""We know he lives here. Where is he?" They had weapons; no guns, but baseball bats and a crowbar. It seemed they'd shown up here to beat the man to death less than a couple of hours after the world went to shit, treating this as their own personal purge night.

"He isn't here." Tyene recognized them. Former Corlander employees, fired for taking the rap in a cover-up scandal. Just a few of the many whose lives were ruined by that man.

"Wait, that's her. That's his daughter," one of them said.

"Fuck," another shouted as if whatever plan they had already gone wrong.

"Fine. She'll have to be a consolation prize. We're not getting out of here empty-handed."

"Are you three out of your minds!? Get out of my house, you fucking maniacs!" she found herself shouting. One of them was staring at him with empty, solacious eyes. But with the sound of her voice also came the sound of Vienna's compact rifle. Its roar exploded the man's head, spewing his blood all over Tyene's business suit. The others shouted and started running until they both took bullets in the back and fell over dead. Vienna aimed around the room, checking if there was anyone else.

Then she slung the rifle around her back on its sling, carrying a large duffel bag on her arm.

"Are you hurt?"

"They were just… people. You didn't have to—""Ma'am." Vienna caught her vacant eyes.

"The helicopter's almost here." Over all the commotion, Tyene didn't even hear the wafting of helicopter blades landing in the field next to the house. Vienna offered her a hand to help her to her feet. Tyene didn't take it. Still, they made their way out to the helicopter where a RazorWind soldier was its pilot. It didn't take long for them to get back off the ground. He was in a hurry because the noise of the helicopter had attracted a bunch of beasts that were lurking just outside of the property.

Vienna laid down suppressing fire as Tyene desperately covered her ears to keep her eardrums from bursting out of her head. The demons were crazed, throwing their bodies on the line to get to them, jumping on any part of the helicopter they could before Vienna's rifle blasted them off. They were able to get safely to the sky, though, out of the reach of all those things. It was the first respite Tyene had felt in hours. She breathed heavily.

"Can you please tell me what the hell is happening here!?" she screamed at the pilot.

"Don't look at me. I have no idea. I've just been instructed to grab you and take you to where your stepfather is."

"Is there not anywhere else we can go?" It was a stupid question, she knew.

"I have my orders, ma'am."

"Your safety is the only concern, Lady Tyene," Vienna said. Tyene scoffed.

"Don't call me that." At that moment, she felt repulsed by Vienna. Both of them were covered in blood, and despite having just killed three people, she was too cold, not reacting as if any of this was even strange. A robot. A drone. And she was taking her right to their employer, where they'd probably have to hole up in some bunker with him, with no means of ever escaping.

"Fine. It's better than dying, I guess." They didn't get too far. A giant bird demon cawed somehow louder than the whirring of the helicopter blades. And it was darting right towards them like a full-blown kamikaze. There was a shine around its body, like a transparent force field. The pilot couldn't steer them out of the way in time, and the bird barreled right into the side of the cockpit, throwing the helicopter into a frenzy. The pilot was able to recover from spinning out, but they were losing altitude fast.

Without thinking, without saying a word. Vienna strapped a parachute to her back, opened the door, and pulled Tyene out into the open air above a thousand-foot drop. Despite her quirming, Vienna managed to slip a strap under both of Tyene's arms to tie them together. She pulled the parachute for them to have a graceful fall right into the middle of the woods. Behind them, the helicopter went down into a fiery crash. They landed in a small opening in the trees that Vienna directed them to.

It took Tyene all of ten minutes to catch her breath again. But when she saw where they were, it was nothing but trees.

"We can't stay here, ma'am. It's likely that more of those creatures are around. We need to find the closest shelter as soon as possible," the bodyguard said flatly. They were out in the middle of nowhere, now with no transportation and an unknown amount of wilderness around them.

"Great," Tyene said.

"This is just great."