In Blackest Night

[Shang Tsung]

Someone was dead already…

Someone was dead already and they had only walked about a mile down the highway. Now, they were sprinting down the road, because the skies were alive with screeching, dark shapes. Somewhere to his left, Shang heard a man scream and heard a splash of what sounded like water smack the road. The sorcerer didn’t dare to look back—his eyes remained focused on the building growing on the horizon. “Up ahead!” He screamed as they reached the end of the bridge.

Argento was a few paces ahead of them, despite the heavy plate armor that covered his body. The paladin veered to their left as they approached the front side of the building. They crossed a graveyard on the other side of the street as they looped around to the walkway. The town jutted up in front of them, but Shang ignored the buildings as the retinue made a beeline for the front doors to the enormous structure.

Thirty seconds later, they were corralled inside the lobby with the doors slammed shut behind them. For close to a minute, none of them spoke as they struggled to catch their breath and process what had just happened over the last ten minutes. It was finally Argento who broke the silence in the dimly illuminated lobby.

“Who is missing?” He asked, his voice soft and somber, as if he was afraid someone or something else may hear him.

“We lost Father Basil and the one mage from the northern Camelot,” a voice replied. Shang looked over and noted that the speaker was another priest—this one a man of only thirty-some years. With the two losses, the retinue was down to sixteen members, and to make matters worse, they had abandoned their equipment and supply wagons just a few hundred yards after they entered the fog. Once that realization set in, he expected that the group’s moral would waver, and that would be when Argento’s skills as a leader would truly have to come forward.

“Does anyone know where we are at?” A woman asked from the other side of the room. Shang’s eyes found her, and he quickly took note of her appearance. She wore the usual chain mail that one would expect with a warrior, but she also carried a wand that was half-concealed beneath her sash. What was her name again? Ruby?

“That much should be obvious,” Atelos grunted as he lifted a hand to point at a landmark on the far wall. Shang followed the Spartan’s finger to a large map mounted onto the wall beneath an equally massive placard that stated ‘Cedar Grove Sanitarium.’ “What’s a sanitarium?” The Spartan asked, his eyes falling squarely on Shang, who he knew was more acquainted with the modern amenities that didn’t exist in ancient Sparta.

“They’re places where they used to house people with serious illnesses who might be a detriment to society,” the sorcerer replied. “Infectious diseases, mental sickness…”

“Where did you say you were from, Shang?” Argento asked as he walked over to examine the layout of the old facility they had run to for shelter.

“You mean ‘when’, don’t you? The twentieth century,” the sorcerer shot back as he tried to commit the first floor map to memory. In lieu of killing someone who worked here, memorization would be the best way not to get lost in what seemed to be a labyrinth of short hallways, tiny rooms, and dank passages.

“I didn’t know,” Argento muttered matter-of-factly as he ran his finger along the layer of plastic that protected the large picture. “You prefer the more old-fashioned attire?”

“Yes,” Shang shot back as he glanced around the octagonal lobby. To the left and right, little hallways contained three doors each, and across from the entrance to the building, another small corridor held three more possible paths out of their current room. “What’s our next move?”

“We split up… We’ll have two teams scour this building for supplies, and another team will attempt to retrieve one or both of the wagons from the other side of the bridge.”

The remark elicited some murmurings from the group, but no one spoke against the paladin’s plan. Shang himself preferred smaller company, but he imagined that some of the people in the retinue were struggling to hide the stripe of yellow that ran down the length of their spine. What did they have to be afraid of? Birds? For all they knew, the dead mage suffered from a brain hemorrhage or a related condition, and the stress finally put an end to him.

“I will personally lead the attempt to retrieve the supplies,” Argento said as he turned to face the others. “Sir McCauley, Lady Gemma, Sylvester, and Jeff… you four will accompany me.” The paladin spun back to face Atelos and Shang. “These two are battle-tested primes, and they will head up the scouting and scouring operation in this building. Each of you can pick from the remaining members of our party. With the Sun on our side, we will rendezvous here in one hour.”

“Is it wise to split us up like this, Sir?” The question came from the other woman in the group—the battlemage Ruby. “Surely we’d be better served to make a combined push back toward the bridge to secure the supplies.”

Argento shook his head. “We can’t lose valuable time. For all we know, this building may also hold some sort of clue to what we seek in this city. We cannot risk leaving any stone unturned as we delve deeper into the secrets of this accursed place.”

Ruby nodded, although Shang could tell by her expression that she still didn’t agree with the course of action.

“Now then… let us execute our plan.” With that, the four people Argento had mentioned before obediently fell in line behind the paladin, who drew his heavy mace and made his way back toward the door.

Shang glanced toward Atelos and smirked. When he spoke, it was at a volume so only the Spartan could hear him. “I’ll take the woman in armor and the mage in the black robes. You can have whoever else you want, and I’ll be fine with the remainder. I’ll go to the left and you head to the right?”

The Spartan nodded his head as he turned to the remaining members of their group and began to figure out who he wanted to guard his back and flanks.