The Gallows

Chapter 2: Enter The Gallows

 James awoke to the premonition of chaos.

"We got Ghouls. Lot's of them," Addison said, peering out of the window.

Due to the ghastly aura of the ghouls, you could barely see what they actually looked like. In a horde as big as the one they just saw, it was a jumbled mess of creatures. They were all crawling up the support beams of the train, disgusting grunts coming from below.

"Holy shit," Jack said, readying his staff, "We sure as hell got company."

Jack took his knife out of its holster, and handed it to James.

"If things go south, you're gonna need this," James turned around, and looked at Addison, "I've got the thing just for you," James walked over to what looked like a briefcase, and unlatched it. Inside, there was what looked like a glove, with a skeletal system running through it.

"Hold out your hand," He said to Addison.

She held out her hand, nervousness faintly appearing on her face. The grunts of the ghouls were getting louder. Her latched the glove to her hand via the metal and leather straps, and the exoskeleton adjusted its metallic bones to fit her hand.

"It's called MAGK. It allows you to tap into the same energy MAGEs use in battle, but in a different form. It's pretty new, so you're the first non-MAGE to use this," Jack said, the metal skeleton's glass middle section now glowing yellow, "Just will what you want it to do, and it will create it."

The ghouls then reached the cars of the train, banging on the windows.

"It's time for everybody to try their new weapons," Addison said, looking at James.

The ghouls banged on the reinforced glass windows for just a short moment, then all at once, the banging stopped. The ghouls grew silent, staring at James.

"What are they doing, Jack!?" James asked, panicking at the sight of the ghouls.

"I- I don't know!," Jack said, turning in circles to get a look at all of the ghouls.

The ghouls suddenly began screaming, and the banging was so much more intense. The glass shattered and the ghouls began funneling into the room, Jack trying to force them away from the siblings. The ghouls fought harder and harder, James staff pulsating with purple light. He battled for what seemed like decades with the skill of a master. The ghouls continued coming, and Jack began to grow tired, his arms aching with pain. He bashed the ghouls with his staff over and over again, but the moment one died, two more crawled into the room. The ghoul's bodies were dissipating, leaving room for even more ghouls to enter the room. It was inevitable that the would be the victor in the fight.

The siblings did their best to aid the warrior, but to almost no avail. The yellow daggers that Addison threw at the ghouls couldn't kill fast enough, and James' dagger was almost useless against the horde. The dagger shot pulsing purple light, just like the staff, but it was in much smaller doses, and could rarely kill a ghoul.

Eventually, after relentlessly fighting the ghouls with all of his power, Jack succumbed into the horde, the siblings now alone. Jack threw the staff right at James as he was devoured into the horde. As James caught the pulsing staff, something new unlocked inside him.

His right hand began searing with fiery pain on contact with the staff. The purple electric energy ran up his arm, coursing through his blood. The staff was forever connected to him, an extension of his body.

The pain was unbearable for about 5 seconds, until he was forced to snap out of it by the oncoming horde. He readied the staff, and with all his might, he let out a massive blast of energy through the tip of the staff, tearing through the ghouls. He began mercilessly killing the ghouls as they came in, the wall that used to be the exit now completely torn off by the blast. He fought with extreme power, like nothing he had ever seen before. The ghouls, after a long fight, began to diminish in numbers.

The dwindling amount of ghouls still left in the battle all banded together to hopefully triumph against James, but to no avail. They were swiftly executed, all without the aid of Addison's unknowingly brutal powers. As the siblings calmed down, James collapsed into his chair. Addison sat next to him. They both stared at the seat in front of them for a while, completely in awe of what just happened.

Finally, Addison broke the silence.

"What the fuck just happened?" Addison said, still completely shocked by the brutal attack they had just suffered and returned.

"I honestly don't know," James said, just as dumbfounded, as he returned back to his average state of mind, still holding the deadly staff.

' After a little bit less than half an hour of the siblings waiting on the train, not completely sure what to do, they heard the sounds of helicopters approaching them. Their HoloBands weren't working, so they were wondering if anybody would even come without a distress call.

Surely enough, somebody did come, in the form of high-ranking MAGEs looking to save any survivors from the onslaught of the now nonexistent ghouls. Much to the surprise of Captain Morris, there were no ghouls to be found at the scene of the battle.

The helicopters landing, the sleek metallic vehicles glistening in the infinite sunset. The Gallows were completely separated from all forms of time or space. The sun was in a perpetual sunset, frozen on the beautiful hues of the sunset in a perpetual state of fantasy.

The Captain stepped out of his helicopter, his all white and grey armor plated with the strongest of materials. He stepped from the helicopter onto the roof of the train, where he noticed the siblings, who were still shocked and amazed and terrified of the previous events. He hopped down from the roof of the train and entered their car from the massive hole left by the blast of energy James had released. The Captain walked towards them and knelt down besides the two, who had barely even noticed that he was there.

"Hello, I am Captain Morris of regiment 233 of the Official MAGE Army Subsidiary. I'm here to help. Do you know what happened here when the Ghouls attacked?" The Captain said. The captain looked at Jame's arm, and noticed what he was holding.

"Holy shit."