Friday, September 4, 2009

Berserker Part 61

“Open the gates!”, Marhault screamed to his men, his sharp eyes making out human figures amid the ash and smoke that obscured the fields. He had made a grevious error and prayed desperately that he was the only person to pay for it.

With bolstering cries the men ran to the gates, grunting and swearing as they removed the heavy logs bracing the gates shut. Finally managing to wrestle them aside, two more teams of men hauled desperately on thick ropes attached to the doors. Their muscles strained and veins bulged beneath their skin as they dug into the churned earth and pulled with all their combined might. With a horrible shrieking of unoiled hinges the gates ponderously swung wide open to reveal a rabble of smoke-stained men and women determinedly forcing jelly-like muscles to carry them through the flaming gauntlet.

While the leading members of the group gained entry to the walled haven, this was not so for all of them. Just as their goal was upon them and relief was in sight, the smoking hell behind them belched forth more horrors.

The remaining orcs and goblins streaked to the slow moving humans, the clothes on their backs smoking and angry red burns raised on their pebbly skin lent their flat slapping feat wings. Quickly catching up to the lagging members of the group the frenzied goblins swarmed over them and pulled yet more struggling victims to the ground where they were swiftly dispatched.

Seeing the travesty before him, Marhault screamed his men into line the wall. The
archers quickly nocked arrows and took aim, their eyes blurred by tears from the stinging smoke. Hearing the order to loose, they sent their darts winging forth to stick five of the enemy to the ground like pincushions, most of the shots going wide to miss the still vulnerable men and women. yet the fallen’s places were taken by more Goblins and orcs surging toward the open gate, no longer caring about the fleeing humans and only thinking of saving their own hides.

3 comments:

Ivy said...

Three weeks is a long time for you not to post... how are you doing?

~Crystal

John Albers said...

Has it really been that long? Time seems to be just flying by, and I'm still grounded. I'm doing alright, I suppose. Got a new kitten that's taking up a lot of my time. Still really tired most of the day; I'm going to see a doctor about it on Monday, if I can wake up on time. It's a first come first serve deal and the door's open at 7. I'm lucky to be conscious before noon!

I've gotten out of the habit of posting and will try to present some new material before long, though I'm coming up on the part of the story where I got stuck, so there's probably not many more posts for Berserker. Looking back at it I kinda like how quickly the story moves, but the narration style and prose is absolutely terrible.

Anyway, I've taken a break from editing my book because I'm still too close to it to be able to make any ojective decisions. In the meantime I've wrtten a few new short stories, gotten a lot more rejection letters, and finished the rough draft for the first of six stories which I'm trying to turn into a compilation for another book. Ancient Japan this time.

Oh, and I've gotta go back and work for Demand Studios to refill my bank account and am scared stiff of logging on and finding there's nothing available that I can write, or that they've changed their policies and guidelines once again to the degree that my work isn't of sufficient quality. There's also the nagging worry that they decide to cut their rates again.

Ivy said...

I'm glad to know you are ok, and so glad I don't have to make a living writing! Things are starting to slow down around here, and soon I will have more time to read. I am looking forward to that, even if it does mean snow.