Chapter 418: Old Wounds
Laz had no clue what happened with Tezcatlipoca after he bailed and he didn’t care. If the guy drew some fire away from him, that was the best he could hope for. Laz also knew that the god wouldn’t be able to escape easily and that his wounds would keep him from being too much of a menace right away.
And even if he was, it didn’t matter. Laz wasn’t some saint trying to save the human race, especially when they considered him the enemy. As long as Tezcatlipoca drew some attention, that just made Laz’s life easier.
As for the town he found himself in, Laz was flabbergasted. The town looked like a broken down old west theme park that was never fully built as most of the buildings were either half destroyed or a pile of wood rotting on the ground. Laz had left the vehicle off on the side of the road and let it roll down into a ravine. While it was a good vehicle, Laz knew it was being tracked so although the escape gave him a lead, with air support already catching up, it was only a matter of time until everyone else did too. Therefore he needed to find a way to lose the ride and disappear. So when he saw the sign for the old town, Laz figured he could go through the town and escape while leaving signs that he was still in town. If he was lucky, he could get a few hours head start while they searched the town to ensure he wasn’t there anymore.
At least, that was the plan. Little did he know that this old town really was an ’old’ town, long since abandoned after whatever had brought the people to live here had dried up or died off. What’s more, there wasn’t even proper buildings left anymore, just shacks, wooden and log houses and an old church, the only building left that looked in tact. It would probably take them all of an hour to search the place before deciding he had moved on.
’Fuck. Why can’t I stumble into Silent Hill when I’m looking for a ghost town,’ Laz thought to himself before wanting to slap himself. After all, he had been to one larger town that was once bustling but had died off even before he had left and that wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat itself.
’I still owe that guy some payback though...’
Laz hadn’t forgotten about Kat, even when he had lost his memory. She had been an image in his head despite not having a name to go with the face.
Laz ended up making his way to the church as he had hope to find something of use there. While the town was in ruins, there were plenty of tire tracks that seemed to go through the town, bigger ones like from some 4x4 truck or Jeep and smaller ones like from an ATV. There were even hoof prints at various spots here and there.
Due to all this, Laz figured he would visit the best looking building in town to see if there were any supplies there. Walking along the over grown street, Laz was surprised by the various mounds of shrubs and thick grass. Normally, after all this time, larger things would start to grow, such as trees. But despite that, the largest plant life Laz saw was mounds of grass that seemed... unnatural.
’What the fuck kind of plant life is this?’ Laz thought to himself before shaking his head. He didn’t have the need nor the time to actually figure out what was here. He just wanted to find if there was anything left before he took off. Maybe some adventures where here and he could help himself to one of their vehicles.
Not only that, but supplies where always needed. Laz had his pouch with him which contained various goods, products and clothing, but he hadn’t thought about replenishing it ever since he had lost his memory. He figured he would have more time at the Order’s base and could do so when he had the chance, one that never ended up coming since he was once again forced to run.
’I’m really getting tired of this shit too,’ Laz thought to himself for the countless time. While there were stretches in between, Laz always felt like he was running from one place to the next and never coming nearer to accomplishing anything.
He hadn’t found his parents.
He had no information about his grandpa.
He had never found Kennedy’s asshole of a step dad.
And he had never again heard of Kat’s killer.
Of all of those things, it was the last one that really haunted him the most. Perhaps he should be more worried about his grandpa Crowe, but he knew in his heart that the old man would rather die that to put Laz in danger. And besides, this was the old man’s choice. Laz might not have liked it, but he respected it.
As for Laz’s parents, they had been out of his life for years now and every year without contact just made him more and more indifferent. It might have been harsh to feel that way, but Laz had been on his own for long enough to not need to rely on parents. Therefore, although he still had some affection for them, they were adults who had also made their own choices.
Kennedy’s step dad was just a side note as even if he found the guy, it was going to be up to Kennedy to take revenge. And Laz was sure she was still looking for him and would probably have more luck anyway.
If anything, it was the Laz one that haunted Laz’s dreams still. While it was his one big failure in life, that wasn’t what fueled his anger over it. What enraged him was that he hadn’t even been able to offer her killer to her in the afterlife despite promising he would.
If anything, Laz felt like he was letting Kat down.
’To be fair, there hadn’t been any news of towns going missing or strange bug people walking around or large fucking praying mantis sightings. After that night, it was like he vanished. I mean, how does one go from killing an entire town to spending years doing nothing?’ Laz wasn’t a criminal psychologist.
’Not that this guy was a normal criminal either. But still, how does one go from whole sale slaughter to not making a peep in years? Maybe he is dead? Well fuck... I doubt it. His body was probably dead since before I met him so why would that stop him now?’
Laz’s thought’s carried him right up to the door of the old church. Pushing open the massive double doors, Laz walked inside to see the old style building was exactly what he thought it would be. One massive room, supported by pillars from the floor to the ceiling. Oddly enough, the stained glass on the large windows was still in good shape, without holes or any cracking from a cursory glance. As for old, abandoned churches go, this seemed like it was still being taken care of.
"Lit Candles.. OH MY GOD...." Laz noticed the candles before he noticed the man kneeling at the alter as though he was in prayer.
"Hey. I’m sorry. I didn’t think that anyone would still be at this old church," Laz said, trying to apologize without thinking about how he was interrupting.
Strangely, the man didn’t say anything to Laz who just stood there.
Feeling awkward, Laz looked around feeling that something was strange. And that’s when he saw what was bothering him. Above the alter, where normally a cross of one sort or another was displayed, was an inverted cross, dripping with something.
The cross gave Laz a funny feeling, but even more so, the sounds the old priest was making seemed to echo up from the floor where he knelt.
The words themselves sounded like gibberish, but with a strange sort of buzz to them, one that was both foreign and yet familiar at the same time.
Looking closer at the kneeling priest, Laz noticed the man’s back looked especially arched, leading to Laz’s thinking that the man must be old. If not that, then the man must be disabled to which Laz wondered just how the man kept the church up on his own. Spreading his senses out, he didn’t detect any other human life anywhere around them, although waves of energy in the air and vibrations from the ground showed Laz that pursuit was catching up quickly.
Laz had no time to think about the man anymore. Although he came for supplies, he wasn’t going to rob a priest, much less anyone else. Well, not without a damn good reason anyway. He did have a bottom line he refused to cross.
"I’ll get going and leave you to it, padre."
Laz took one last look at the upside down cross and the strange liquid on it before turning around.
"Many people think the cross in this orientation is a meaning for the occult or the devil. People believe it a perversion to the way it is normally displayed, but that is far from the truth you know." The old priest spoke with a rough, harsh buzz that was like nails on a chalk board. It hurt Laz’s ears just to listen, but the explosion going off in his head was even more of a distraction.
"Instead, this orientation comes from the Apostle Peter. When he was blamed for the fire that destroyed a large portion of Rome, he requested to be crucified upside down, feeling as though he was unworthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus."
"Is that so?" Laz said in a low growl.
"Truly. Isn’t it hysterical? When you worship a man, even dying the same way as him is a sin? So amusing. To think that even now, thousands of years later, people believe that the teachings and practices of their ancestors are a better guild to life than experiencing the world around them and making their own choices."
"Right." Laz’s response was short as he fought with the sound in his head, beginning to understand.
"So tell me boy, what do you believe in? It’s been so many years so... how have your beliefs changed, hmm?"
The priest stood up and up and up, coming to rest on legs that seemed to grow out from beneath him. Standing fully up, even with his massively hunched back, the priest was eight feet tall thanks to those segmented legs that should have stay on an insect and never have been seen on a human.
"Me? Oh. I don’t know. I think I’ve held fairly steady to what I believe in. For example, six years ago I promised I would kill you one day you dickless wonder. And strangely enough, I still promise to do that today, even if it kills me." The buzzing in Laz’s head stopped as his energy spread out while his blood grew hot. Taking on his Asura form with his golden eyes, grey skin with black tattoos and red tinted white hair, Laz held Sever ready at his side as he stared at the cause of his nightmares.
"You’re going to kill me? When you couldn’t even save your girlfriend back then? How naïve boy.... Oh? You brought friends?"
Lights hit the stained glass windows from all over as the sound of helicopters filled the air, shaking the wooden church.
"Heh. Don’t worry. They aren’t with me. But I’m sure they would love to meet you too," Laz said, calming his voice. He was mad... pissed... and enraged with seeing this bastard here. But he knew things would get dangerous if he went all out to kill this guy and let himself get targeted in the process.
For the kinds of revenge Laz wanted, it wasn’t something that could be done quickly.
"They aren’t? Well then, let’s give them a little something to keep them busy while I entertain you, my new guest.
With that, the priest clapped his hands twice and suddenly, a buzzing much louder than the helicopters began to shake the building.
As Laz watched on with his spiritual sense in silence, hundreds of man sized bugs began crawling out of the ground and heading strait for the assembled troops.
Now Laz knew that he was in way deeper trouble than he had first thought.
