Chapter 2

Bustling sounds filled his ears and the scent of delicious food surrounded Andy as Jackie finished her meal at the newly renovated airport’s food court with the rest of his martial arts class at Du Pol Martial Arts School. Now that the tournament was finished, they had returned home to the beautiful city of Boise, Idaho a few days before Thanksgiving so that they can eat with their families.

“Feels good to be back, doesn’t it, boys?” their teacher Robert Martin asked their group.

“Yes, sir!” they all replied.

“You all have the rest of the week off, but I expect you guys to be back on Monday ready to go,” he said.

“Yes, sir!” they replied again. As they walked past the large crowd to exit the building, Andy noticed something that caught his eye. A man seemed to appear out of the shadows in the balcony above the food court. He was on the skinny side, but you could tell he was fit. The clothes that he wore seemed to be odd. He had no shirt on, but he had black pants, black gloves on his hands, and black metallic boots. On his back, he had a long black cape and had a sort of rod sticking out behind his head. Andy realized in an instant that it was the hilt for a sword.

He stopped his teacher as he pointed in the direction of the man Andy asked “Hey Mr. Martin, do you see that guy up on the balcony? Doesn’t that thing on his back look like a sword?”

His teacher looked up in the direction that Andy was pointing and said, “Yes, it does. It’s probably fake, but we are in an airport. Even if it’s fake, he would’ve gotten arrested as soon as a security guard saw him.”

As Andy was about to reply a pitch-black circle appeared behind the man and someone in a black-hooded robe stepped through it and walked in front of the swordsman and looked back at him. The swordsman looked over at the hooded man and nodded. The hooded man then turned to the food court, raised his hands, and shouted, “Attention people of this airport! My name is Clint Foster, and I have an exciting opportunity for you all!”

Everyone in the food court turned to look in the direction of the voice.

He continued, “Thank you! Now the news is that some of you can come and join Lord Pyesis’ army! However, as this is a lengthy process and our space is limited, I’m going to need some help picking through you.” He paused to see the look of confusion on the crowds’ faces and shouted, “Lord of darkness. I request that you bring forth the army of the demons to wreak havoc upon the world by Rite of Darkness!” as he said it, his hands started to glow, and the floor opened up. The crowd remained unmoved and dumb stricken as human-like creatures rose from the crevice. There were at least fifteen of them. All the monsters had dark blue skin, deep red eyes, and long sharp teeth. Some had a crudely made black crossbow while others carried a black boar spear with a curved blade at the end. The rest lugged what looked like a large hastily made curved sword.

“Phantom Company you have but one mission. Slaughter them all!” Clint said calmly.

The entire area was sent into a panic as the monsters roared at them and walked forwards.

Everybody was running in different directions trying to get away from the dangerous monsters. A group of security guards arrived with their handguns drawn and formed a line in between the crowd and the monsters. They raised their guns up and fired. A few monsters were hit, but they only seemed to stumble a little and continued to move forward.

Realizing that their weapons were ineffective, they fled with the crowd occasionally turning back and wildly firing at the monsters. The monsters picked up their pace and began to catch up with the group of people.

As Andy guided his and Jackie’s way through the maze of hallways trying to find a safe exit, he could see the monsters striking down anyone within reach. Soon the security guards were being overtaken and slain as well. He rounded a corner when he spotted a windowless room — realizing that he could hide in there. He rushed into it and ushered more of the crowd in to join him. After a few seconds, he closed the door, and with the help of the crowd barricaded the door. He looked back at who had made it in and took note that Mr. Martin and three others of his class hand made it in with him. Along with them were five women, two children, a pair of teenage girls and four men, one of them a security guard.

“What the hell was that?” A big bearded man asked.

“I have no idea.” Andy replied, “But right now, we need to stay quiet and wait it out a little.”

The group agreed, and they sat down and rested and kept silent; the only sound that could be heard was the screaming and roaring from outside the room. Andy was holding a shaking and crying Jackie in his arms, “I’m scared, Andy.” She said in a quiet voice.

“It’ll be okay. I promise I’ll get you out of here.” He replied and lightly kissed her forehead.

The screaming lasted for another fifteen minutes, and then everything went deathly silent.

Still, the group stayed hidden and quiet, hoping for someone to come rescue them.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

That was the first thing they heard after ten minutes of silence. It came from outside the door. Soon the entire air was filled with the sound of gunfire.

“BREAK-BREAK! THIS IS STEVEN HALL. I’M THE HEAD OF AIRPORT SECURITY!!” came from the security guards’ radio.

“This is Chris Wallace. Go ahead.” The guard said.

“We have killed a few of these bastards and are currently mounting a counter-offensive against the group of attackers in the food court! We need back up! Over!” Hall said

“Roger! I’m on my way. Out!” The guard replied

Andy and the men stood up and said that they would come too. Chris said, “I wouldn’t mind having more help, and I’m sure Hall wouldn’t mind. But you don’t have any weapons. Nobody would blame you if you stayed.”

Everyone who had previously stood sat back down except for Andy and his teacher Mr. Martin.

Jackie was vigorously pulling Andy’s sleeves trying to get him to sit back down too. “Please, Andy, don’t go!” She cried, “I need you here. I need you with me.”

Andy turned to her and knelt. “I promised you that I would get you out of here. As far as I can tell, this is the best way to ensure that happens.”

He moved her long brown hair behind her ear and cradled her face with his hand. He leaned forward and kissed her soft lips. When he pulled back and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, and I’ll come back, and we can enjoy a nice Thanksgiving together. I love you.”

He stood back up and turned to the guys that were in his martial arts class, “Hey Charles and Andrew, promise me that if anything happens that you’ll protect her.”

“You’ve got it Andy, good luck out there,” they said.

He looked back over as Mr. Martin said, “I might not have any weapons, but I’m a martial arts teacher and if I can get hold of one of their swords I can really help.”

Andy then said, “And I’m a student under him, and I specialize in swordplay so I too can be of help if I get one of their swords.”

Chris nodded and said, “All right let’s get moving.”

They pushed down the barricade and rushed outside towards the food court. As they came up to it, they slowed down and saw the aftermath of a battle. There were bodies of people dressed in regular clothes, and people wearing body armor littering the ground. Twelve of the monsters were standing around a group of people no more than ten feet away from them. Clint and the hooded swordsman from before stood in the middle of the court and were talking. Chris rose his arm and carefully aimed his gun at a monster and fired two rounds into its head, killing it. He quickly changed the direction of his gun and shot another one twice killing it as well.