Rotten To The Core

"Ghouls," Maria gasped. "Oh no."

"The room had to reek of sex. And blood," Laura added. "I ... I don't think we need to see this."

"Why? What are ghouls?" Goldbaum asked, her face a pale mask of shock. "Are they..."

Maria reached for the controls, cutting Donna's wail of agony short. "Undead monstrosities with a burning hunger for human flesh. They don't really care if their prey is alive or dead. And the stench of blood has the same effect on them as it does on piranhas."

"Leave the volume down and resume," Goldbaum said. "We need to examine this, if we want to or not."

"Aye, aye," Maria resumed the video.

The ghouls tore into Donna. In a fraction of the time it had taken three men to fuck her, the undead horrors had stripped her skeleton of anything even remotely edible, leaving bare bones behind.

Maria pressed fast forward again, skipping through the rest of the tape. Eventually, the batteries in the floodlight died, draping a blanket of inky blackness over the horrifying scene. At the 3:25 hours mark, the tape shut off.

Detective Goldbaum stood up and opened the window, letting fresh air into the room. "I just watched a horde of cannibalistic undead tear a young woman to ribbons," she calmly said. "That was no Hollywood stunt?"

"No," Laura said softly. "This is the reason why we have a murderous being running around draining certain people of their life energy. You've seen the corpses, Detective. Do they look like props to you?"

Goldbaum shook her head. "What am I supposed to do now? I can't book either of those assholes for manslaughter because they're dead. And what are we going to do about this vengeful spirit?"

"Standard procedure would be to investigate the place of her death," Laura explained. "I doubt we'll find much in the way of remains or clues by now but maybe our cleric can contact her and suss out if she can be put to rest, now that her targets are all dead."

"What if that doesn't work?"

"Then we'll have to kick her ass and take her down for good," Laura said, balling her fists. "You are okay with that, aren't you?"

"Absolutely. You have my blessing." Goldbaum stood up. "When do we go?"

"Hold up, hold up," Maria said. "Remember what Jenna and Doug said? The Asylum is most likely a nest for our local roach thrall problem."

Laura grinned, closing her hand around the hilt of her sword. "I'm pretty sure Detective Goldbaum-"

"Kelly. Please," the detective said.

"Okay. Kelly probably knows how to put a few ounces of lead downrange."

"Damn straight. Let's go clean up my town."

"Before we do that, we should report back to Jenna and the rest of the team. Things might get ugly real fast if we're not prepared," Maria said.

* * * *

Laura's warhammer connected with a sickening crunch, caving a roach thrall's face in. Claws scratched and jerked at her armor, trying to find a gap. Something managed to get past the coat of scales. Laura winced at the sharp stab near her shoulder and whirled around, using the weapon's long heft in a two-handed grip to push an over-eager roach thrall off her. The courtyard of the old Asylum was more like a landfill than anything else. It was unclear where piles of refuse ended and makeshift hovels began. She blocked another attack, countered with an overhead smash and shoulder-tackled another six-limbed horror.

"They seem much more coordinated than back at GobCo," she gasped into her headset. Nearby, Kelly's AR-15 barked. The detective only shot at those roach thralls who had lost their disguise -- which, thanks to an early Fireball spell launched by Maria -- meant pretty much most of the ones in the courtyard.

Jenna had transformed into a towering, seven-foot tall hybrid of woman and bear, picking up roach thralls like children's toys and tossing them about like rag dolls. Her claws did little actual damage against the hardened carapaces but the impact against the Asylum walls or each other left them stunned or broken.

"Guys, there are even more coming out," Maria said, a concerned note in her voice. The sorceress and Eric hung back, near the Asylum's utterly rusted-through gates.

"Told you," Laura grumbled. "Fuck zombie apocalypses. This is much, much worse." She blocked a thrall's attack with her forearm and responded with a vicious kick against its abdominal plating, followed by a wide cut with the hammer which drove her attacker and those beside him back.

Ichor fountained as Kelly landed a head shot, exploding one of the thrall's heads.

Laura followed up and shattered a thrall's knees before pulverizing its head. Claws clattered against her armor like hail.

"I think it's time we split up," Doug said. There was a loud, ringing sound as he used his shield like a battering ram, knocking two thralls off their feet. "Maria, clear us a path. Jenna, over here girl!" He tucked his head in and headed for the door, swatting roach thralls with his shield.

"That means Kelly, Eric and I go for Donna?" Laura asked, ramming the head of her hammer into a bum's stomach. The impact sent him sprawling, his head bouncing off a camping cooler. When he came to his feet, the human skin slid off him, revealing another hissing monstrosity. Kelly aimed past Laura and put two bullets into it.

"Here's hoping us going for their nest will draw them away from you," Doug rumbled. There was a flash of neon colors and Maria appeared in the Asylum's front doors, clad in flickering armor plates seemingly made from neon light. She unleashed another fireball, scattering a dozen or so roach thralls. Hissing and slapping at small patches of flame on their carapaces, most of them came back to their feet.

Eric sprinted across the courtyard, head tucked in between his shoulders as he ran. His shotgun spat, unloading both barrels into a thrall's face. Uttering an ear-piercing wail, the creature slapped its claws against its mangled head.

"It just ate a full shotgun blast to the face and didn't die?" Eric sputtered. He reversed the grip on his weapon and slapped the shotgun's butt stock against the thrall's head. It collapsed.

Panting, Eric came to a stop near Laura. He flipped the barrels open and dropped the spent cases before replacing them with fresh ammo. "That's a whole lotta uglies we have to go through if we want to reach the foyer," he observed.

"We are going for your nest, shitheads!" came Doug's roaring voice from the foyer. Like iron filings drawn by a magnet, the roach thralls in the courtyard turned towards the entrance.

"Something definitely is controlling them," Laura said. "I've never seen roach thralls behave like this before."

"I've never seen anything like this before period," Kelly muttered, reloading her rifle. "Now what?"

"You wait until you have a clear path into the Asylum proper," Doug said. "Then you draw out Donna, deal with her and then get your cute asses down into that hole in the foyer and help us out. Damn, how deep does this thing go?"

There was a low, rumbling explosion from within the Asylum. The thralls in the courtyard uttered a singular, screeching wail and poured back into the dilapidated building.

"That's our cue," Laura said, pointing towards the entrance with her hammer. "Let's go before we're face-deep in roaches again."

Kelly, Eric and Laura sprinted across the devastated courtyard. Small fires still burned, giving the surroundings a rather hellish appearance in dusk's twilight. They had to weave around several dozen dead or dying roach thralls. The stench of decay and waste was eye-watering.

Laura stepped into the Asylum proper. She had seen the entrance hall only a few hours ago but the one she looked at now was almost unrecognizable. Where the reception desk had been in the video, now a huge hole gaped. She saw a handful of roach thralls vanish into it. The din of battle echoed up to them, interspersed by growls and roars.

The rest of the foyer was cluttered with refuse, neglected tents and hovels. Most of the rear wall had been torn down, allowing a gaze into the inner courtyard which didn't look much better than the landfill out front.

"It gets worse every time I'm here. Only last time there were just bums and addicts around." Kelly said, kicking a rotting folding chair out of her way.

"Rather, you only saw bums and addicts. There's a good chance there were already roach thralls among them," Laura corrected her. "How long ago was that?"

"Two years." Kelly used a door frame as cover and checked the way ahead. "Clear. A young girl had gone missing and we had to check."

"Did you find her?" Eric asked, trotting along in their wake.

"No." Kelly sounded even more disgruntled than usual. "Not even a shred of her clothing." She peeked into one of the rooms going off the corridor. It was crammed full with all manner of broken-down furniture.

"When we're done here, you should petition the captain to push for this place to be demolished," Laura suggested. "It's way too tempting as a nesting ground for all manner of monsters, human or otherwise."

"Noted." Kelly checked the next room. This one had been stripped of anything usable, leaving only naked concrete behind. Dark stains ran down the walls and converged on a drain in the middle of the floor.

The further they went from the entrance, the less waste and trash they found. Some of the corridor windows even remained intact. Kelly pushed open one of the few doors which had been left on their hinges. "I found it," she said quietly.

Laura joined her at the door. "This does look familiar," she said. "Cabinets, floodlights, bed... bones. They are still here?" She crossed herself. "That's not good."

"I wish you had shown the video to the rest of us during the briefing," Eric said.

"You didn't miss much," Kelly said. "Unless you're into awkward amateur gangbang porn." She stepped into the room and looked around. "Like freaking Swiss Cheese." The barrel of her gun pointed to the left. A cabinet had fallen forwards and a huge hole gaped in the wall.

"Does this lead to the same place as the hole out front?" Laura wondered.

Kelly turned on an illuminator mounted to the underbarrel rail of her rifle and checked the opening. "This goes down one level. The cellars presumably."

"They hopefully didn't build this on top of some ancient cemetary," Laura muttered.

"No. Black Lake Cemetery is much closer to town. And as far as I know, we didn't have trouble with grave robbers. At least not since I've been on the force. Do you want to check it out?"

"Doug, how are you doing down there?" Laura asked into her headset.

"Just peachy," Doug roared. "I had to pluck an especially ugly bastard off Jenna's back. If you could wrap up that Donna business and help us out, I'd be very- ugh!" The connection stuttered and died.

"Doug? Doug! Shit." Laura looked at Eric. "Time for your big moment. You know what to do?"

"Sure, sure." Eric said, pulling a piece of chalk from a pouch. He knelt down and hastily scribbled sigils onto the floor around the bed then connected them with a thick line, forming an impromptu summoning circle. He then carefully crossed the line to the outside and produced a piece of paper. "I always thought spell scrolls were actual scrolls, not simple hardcopies printed on enchanted paper," he said. "Okay... one 'Speak With the Dead' coming up."

He unfolded the paper and read off a string of Latin-sounding words. One after another, the sigils on the ground lit up. The serene glow enveloped the bones on the hospital bed.

Laura felt a strange tingle crawl down her spine. A moment later, she noticed a presence in the room which hadn't been there before. Donna's ghost hovered above the bed, still wearing her lacy blouse, miniskirt and a horribly devastated visage. Her nose was missing, as were her ears. Gone was most of her luxurious blonde mane, only some blood-soaked strands remained. One arm was fully stripped, leaving only bones behind while the rest of her body featured ghastly bite marks.

"Donna Wilson," Eric said. "We have come to lay you to rest. The men who-."

"Who the fuck are you?" the ghost snarled. Her voice was filled with a pained wheeze. A flap of spectral skin on her throat opened and closed in time to a semblance of breathing.

"Eric Deveraux," the cleric said. "Like I said, all your potential victims have died already. There's no one left for you to kill."

"Are you stupid?" she snapped. "No one left? Last time I checked, no one in the town of Greenbury didn't care if I lived or died." She looked down at the bones on the bed. "No one in that fucking hellhole even bothered to bury my bones! And I am supposed to rest in peace after Jacob Sullivan denied me what little revenge I could dish out?" Her form became much more substantial with every hate-fuelled word she spat. "Oh no, my vengeance is far from done. I will only stop once Greenbury is a smoking ruin where only ghouls and roach thralls roam!"

She looked from Eric to Kelly to Laura. "Who are you people? How can you talk to me?"

"Order of Martinius," Laura simply said.

"GPD," Kelly added. "God, this feels weird!"

Donna broke into a braying laugh. "What, you're here to arrest me?"

"We were hoping to settle this matter peacefully," Laura said. "So, how about it?"

"Fuck peace," Donna growled. The bones on the bed rattled precariously, then began to float. They arranged themselves into a skeletal shape around the spirit. "I have schemed and planned for forty years and I won't let you fuck up my revenge."

"Girl, you're sitting in a summoning circle," Eric said calmly. "You're doing nothin'."

There was a blinding flash of light and a hysterical howl. The bone-wearing Donna ghost tumbled away from the edge of the circle, cursing wildly.

"What do we do now?" Kelly asked, raising her gun. "I think I heard something move down there."

"My servants are coming," Donna growled. "Let's see how you like being eaten alive."

"Uh thanks but no thanks," Eric muttered, coming to his feet. "I've already had the pleasure." He touched his face. "I'm really sorry for you. Unleashing a plague of trash monsters on Greenbury won't give you peace."

"But it will give me satisfaction, to know that all those ignorant, little people will suffer the same fate I did!" Donna howled.

"I tried," Eric said to Laura. "Now what?"

Kelly fired into the tunnel. "Ghouls first, Donna later."

Eric chanted something, his right arm blazing bright. "Laura, your sword," he commanded.

Laura drew her weapon and held it his way. Eric touched the blade. A silvery light sprang into existence around it.

"Thank you," Laura said, joining Kelly near the hole in the wall. The detective shot as fast as her rifle would allow but it wasn't enough. A gray-skinned creature, bald and armed with wicked claws and crooked, yellow fangs, dashed past her. Laura was ready for it though, landing a vicious two-handed cut. Her blade cleaved through the monster from the right shoulder to the left hip.

"I'm out, cover me," Kelly barked, dodging away from the hole. Eric fired both barrels of his gun into the opening but the undead tide didn't relent. More and more ghouls poured into the room.

Kelly rammed a new mag into her rifle, felling two ghouls. Laura intercepted those heading straight for Eric, giving the young cleric time to reload his shotgun. She beheaded one, impaled one through its chest and hacked off a third one's leg, finishing it off with a stab through its neck. After taking down another one, its wounds igniting like miniature stars, the others hesitated.

"What are you doing? Kill them, kill them, kill them!" Donna shrieked behind them. The ghouls rallied and resumed their attack with renewed fervor.

Laura dodged two ghouls who tried to gouge her unprotected eyes out. A series of small shocks crackled over her back. She looked down. Her foot was inside the summoning circle, a smeared chalk trace ending under it.

"Crap," she hissed.

A moment later, skeletal hands grabbed her head from behind. "Now you die," Donna hissed, the stench of death accompanying her words. Laura reversed the grip on her sword and stabbed backwards. Her enchanted blade tore into the half-materialized ghost, causing her to howl in agony. The skeletal hands poking for her eyes vanished. Laura pushed the bed. It creaked against the wall on rusted casters but Donna had stumbled out of the way.

Eric's shotgun roared twice. "I think they got Kelly," he yelled. "She's not moving!"

"Shitshitshit!" Laura hissed, trying to keep both the ghouls and Donna in view.

Laughing hysterically, the ghost floated away, halfway disappearing in the far wall. Its skeleton rattled against the cabinets.

Eric stood there, frozen in place. A ghoul, grinning maniacally, tore both its claws over his chest, opening eight fiercely bleeding cuts. As if awakening from a bad dream, Eric slapped his bicep and yelled a single word. An explosion of holy radiance rippled outwards. The half dozen ghouls clustering around them hissed and recoiled.

"Be gone!" Eric roared, waving his gun. "The power of the loa compels you!"

Donna roared with laughter. "What are you trying to accomplish? They are mine. Mine! And no puny cleric-"

To her amazement, the ghouls, hissing and spitting, slowly retreated back into the hole.

"Those parlor tricks won't work on me," Donna hissed. She launched herself at Laura. "And now you die." Her skeletal hands aimed for Laura's face. She managed to block one, the other tore into her cheek, tearing it open from her eye to her jaw.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Laura thrust and cut her sword into the half-formed monstrosity before her, breaking bones and dispersing spectral matter.

Donna retreated, her wounds streaming silvery contrails. "Do you really think your feeble sword can destroy me?" she whispered.

"I can at least try," Laura snarled. There was an ugly, cool draft coming in through her cheek. She didn't raise her hand to touch it, dreading what she might find there. Hot blood trickled into the neck of her armor. She charged, landing a solid hit before Donna could even raise her arms.

Eric muttered another spell behind her. There was the sound of a gun falling to the floor from numb fingers.

Donna feinted left and darted right, heading straight for Eric's unprotected back. Laura was there, swatting her aside with a well-timed cut. One of Donna's skeletal arms sailed across the room and clattered against a cabinet.

"Do you think that hurt me?" Donna snarled.

"Probably not but it will affect your cohesion sooner or later," Laura growled. She spat out a gob of blood. "You might be incorporeal to an extent but you're not invincible." She attacked again, going for Donna's bony rib cage. The ghost drifted away from her, through the open door and out into the corridor. Laura followed, taking every chance to land a quick blow.

"Such a scary monster, attacking feeble old men and trying to backstab helpless clerics. You're even running away from me," Laura jeered. "Are you afraid, little Donna?"

"Just you wait... my ghouls or my thralls will tear you limb from limb," Donna spat.

"But I don't want to wait. Come and get it, like the little slut you were," Laura growled. "You loved being fucked by the boys, all at once, didn't you?"

"Shut your fucking trap, you skank," Donna roared, all thoughts of fleeing forgotten. "I only did it for the money."

"Uh-huh, right. I've seen the video, sweetie. You were a moaning, cock-craving slut and you loved every single moment of it. Who was your favourite, huh? The jock, the queer or the quiet one?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Donna howled, swooping in. Laura was ready. The remaining bone hand went for her throat but she didn't even defend against it. Instead, she put all her might into a two-handed cut at head height, tearing Donna's skull from the spine. The whole ghost erupted in blinding silver flames.