Page 1 of Apocalypse
Chapter One
It was a weary bunchthat finally rolled into the compound a few hours later.As they were dragging their tired bodies and bags inside, everyone in the house was waiting for them.
Cane and Orrin came through and simply gave them all tired half assed waves as they went down opposite halls.
Damon stared at the girls, Sheba and Ari.“Wow, Sheba you were injured?”
Nodding, she smiled.“It's not serious but it was bound to happen when you are facing a Red Ninja army.”
He shook his head.“Man, I saw a bit of it from Bastian’s phone feed, there were so many of them.”He nodded at Dante and Faith as they headed down the left hallway.“They are some duo.”
James nodded.“I felt like I was watching a Marvel Hero movie as she knocked all those riders off their Ninja bikes.”
“And Dante's a badass with a sword,” Ari said.
“Gruesome but effective,” James agreed.
“Yeah and the mess, man,” Damon said.“There were a lot of bodies.”
“Lucky for us though,” Ari said.“Viktor and the Nomads have the best damn cleanup team in the world.”
Bane came in and glared at James while ignoring their little catching up soiree as he handed off the huge Horsemen book to him.“I need you to read this and tell me what it says in working man’s terms.This is what the Four Horsemen are all about.We need to find the other three and take them out before they make their moves against this nation.”
James just gaped down at the huge volume he held in his hands and then back up to Bane’s face.“You’re kidding, right?”His eyes were round in his face.
“No, I’m not kidding.”Bane growled.“But don’t worry, I’ll let you have until tomorrow morning to find the answers we need to stop these bastards.”
“Gee thanks, big guy, but don’t hurt yourself there by being too generous.”James took it from him then staggered a little at the weight of the volume.“What the hell is this?War And Peace?”
Bane paused to stare at him.“Yeah as a matter of fact, it is.”
James rolled his eyes as he turned to go back to the table, where he sat down and opened the book.“Sweet Jesus, this is a nightmare,” he mumbled under his breath.
“You don’t even know the half of it, kid.”Bane growled under his breath.He looked at the others and said, “This job is going to take all of us to figure it out.We may have taken out Conquest but we only took off the first layer.We got the master of War, Hunger and Death to find and take out before they begin their retribution.And I have a feeling they know Conquest has been neutralized.”He ran his hands over the back of his head and said, “Our time to stop this shit is running out.”
Bastian snorted.“We aren’t even sure what this shit even is yet.”
“But we’ll find out.”James nodded.“And knowing everyone here, we will stop this from happening.”
“But first, we have to find the pricks behind this.”Rainey growled.
Bane nodded as he looked at Damon, Rainey, Lancelot and James.“Find them, I’m going to bed.It's been a week all in 24 hours.Also make sure we weren’t followed home.We faced a sea of red ninja’s not far from here and we don’t want to get caught like that again.Motherfuckers coming at us like that.”He turned and walked down the hall to his suite.
The group of them were staring at his tall, wide shouldered form as he stalked away.
“Well, I guess you got your orders.Hop to it.”With a clap of his hands, Bastian turned and headed down the hall to his rooms.
“Toodles!”Sheba and Ari did cute little waves as they too went down the hall.
James just shook his head.He looked over at Rainey, Lancelot and Damon.“It looks like we got an all-nighter.”He opened the large hardback book and began to read.
Damon, Rainey and Lancelot all sat down with James to search keywords from the text in the book on the net and the dark web.
~*~
When Bane got to hissuite, he quietly made his way to the nursery.He had to see her.That sweet face was something he would never get tired of.He opened the door and stepped in.A night light illuminated the room enough so that when he stopped at her crib, he could see her face.
Everytime he came home, she had grown just a tad bit more.Today, she looked like she did yesterday, thank God.He didn’t want to waste a minute of her growing up.Seeing her little cherub shaped face made him feel like his world had just righted itself.It all made sense suddenly.
